List of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam glitches

This is a list of glitches in the game Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.

Out of Bounds
Out of bounds glitches are some of the most common ones in the game, and occur when the player manages to get the trio outside of the normally explorable game world. Once this is done, they can walk through waters, across water, air or lava and skip a significant amount of cutscenes and boss battles, depending on where it occurs.

Out of Bounds in Twinsy Tropics
Near the Lakitu Info Centre in Twinsy Tropics, there's a piece of coastline just south of a bridge near the right of the area. If the party stands on the very edge of the land near the beach and uses the Trio Grab, and then starts walking along the edge, they'll start shaking rapidly before falling off onto the water nearby.

At this point, if they head towards the bridge to the right while not in Trio Grab form, they'll be warped onto it and can exit right. However, if they're not in Trio Grab form, the game will freeze when they try and walk under the bridge, with the only option being to make Mario jump onto the bridge and get stuck even more. At this point, the player will have to reset to the Home Menu to exit the game.

Additionally can also walk off the bottom of the screen (if they do this on their first visit to Twinsy Tropics) and have the game freeze on a blue screen.

This can also be done in a mission (like Tropical Toad Hunt), which wil lead to a major glitch called 'Toad Storage'.

Toad Storage
If the trio manages to 'escape' a mission area without exiting the mission, they end up in a state known by the speedrun community as 'Toad Storage'. In this form, they're considered to still be in a mission despite being in a different area, which has a bunch of strange side effects.

For one thing, the save button is now replaced by an Exit Mission bunch, like in a mission. This acts like a teleport to the Lakitu Info Centre where they started the original mission, and ends the glitch.

However, Mario and co's status cannot permanently change if they exit a mission. As a result of this, pressing the button will cause them to lose any items, gear, Bros Attacks, coins or unlockables found during their time with Toad Storage active. However, unlike in a mission, these items don't respawn once you exit, so anything picked up in this status will be permanently gone until the save file is deleted. So someone using the glitch shouldn't try and learn anything like Trio Grab, Drill or Plane, nor grab any rare gear, since it'll be deleted forever if they exit the mission.

Trying to start a new mission or mini game will freeze the game on a black screen. However, arcade games and the Battle Ring work fine.

Dying in a Boss Battle or mandatory fight activates the Instant Battle Glitch (see further down the page) where the game considers them to have won the boss fight regardless.

Dying in a normal battle resets the fight with the party at 1 HP each.

Exiting a battle after dying causes the whole area to become invisible, with the exception of blocks, enemies and pipes.

Activating important events or cutscenes has... mixed effects. In some cases, nothing much happens, the event is counted as cleared like normal. In certain other cases, various landscape objects (like the Neo Bowser Castle bridge or the gate leading to the Mount Brrr elevator) become intangible, and allow the player to walk, fly or fall through them. In yet more cases (like the boss rush before Bowser and co), going back to the area will cause the game to crash and reset back to the Home Menu.

Warp pipes, elevators, shops and enemy fights still work, though the latter will cause the above mentioned beneficial glitches if the player loses.

Playing an arcade game, auto saving the game and restarting will cause certain objects (like the Twinsy Tropics fence) to be permanently be saved to the map. This can create normally impassible barriers for the trio, which can never be removed at a later point.

Beating the final boss resets the game to the Lakitu Centre after the ending, with Mario and co stuck off screen. Contrary to earlier articles and videos, they can actually escape this point by trying to centre the viewport and moving until Mario and co fall back down into the Lakitu Centre. However, it will cause the platform leading to Bowser to despawn if they go back to Neo Bowser Castle, crashing the game.

Toad Storage is possible in these missions:


 * Tropical Paper Toad Hunt
 * Fly Guy Flyby
 * Paper Toad Freeze-Out

Paper Boat Skip
By going right from the Lakitu Info Centre, the player can find some rocks near a section of beach and ledge. By walking into these carefully with the Trio Grab, and then pressing Y and moving the circle pad around, they can get Mario and co through the obstacle and onto the ocean nearby. This lets them avoid having to use Trio Drill or Trio Plane to get past the nearby paper terrain, and can be used with another out of bounds glitch in the Doop Doop Dunes beach area to avoid having to use the boat altogether.

Gloomy Woods Early
By running and leaping at the rocks near the Paper Mario only area next to the Gloomy Woods entrance, it's possible to force Mario and co through the wall and into the forest much earlier than otherwise.

However, this leads to a few extra issues...


 * They cannot use Trio Grab, so they're now stuck in the first two areas of Gloomy Woods. At this point, the only way to continue with the story is to delete and restart the save file.
 * They can buy Battle Cards, despite not having a set. This will give them a set regardless.
 * After talking to the Wiggler, the game thinks they're on the road to Mount Brrr, and updates the quest status to reflect this.

They can also walk into the Paper Mario only area of Sunbeam Plains, at which point they'll be trapped. Saving here (or in Gloomy Woods without Trio Grab) will make the save file unusable.

Berries and Yoshi Race Skip
In Gloomy Woods, in the left of the first area where the berries and trees are, the trio can stand on the edge of a tree stump and use Trio Grab to walk on the bottomless pit next to it. By heading north to the next area, they can skip collecting the berries or racing Yoshi.

Mount Brrr Tunnel Skip
Prior to the paper terrain appearing to the left of the Toad Village on Mount Brrr, the player can make Mario and co use the Trio Drill to dig in the area to the south west of the Lakitu Info Centre. They'll get nearer the wall than usual by doing this correctly, at which point jumping out the ground and using the Trio Grab in the right location will let them walk through the nearby fence and into the sky beyond. This can act as a shortcut to either the pipe behind the Lakitu Info Centre or the tunnel leading to the upper part of the summit.

It can also be done in certain missions, like Paper Toad Freeze-Out, at which point the side effects mentioned in the Twinsy Tropics Out of Bounds glitch will apply here as well.

Pokey Boss Skip
In the far top left corner of the area with the bridge and Pokey bosses, there's a ledge with an unusual rock formation to the right. By moving Mario into the rocks and changing between holding up left and up right on the Circle Pad, the player can force the party into the rocks and out through the wall behind. At this point, they can walk off screen past the Pokeys to avoid having to battle them or cross the nearby bridge.

Mount Brr Shortcut
In the uppermost area of Mount Brrr, there's a cloud with a Biddybud and bridges to the north and right. By using the Trio Drill here and charging at the edge of the rightmost bridge, the party will be launched into the air and end up digging through the sky above. If they go left or down, they'll land on the wooden bridge while underground, letting them dig inside the bridge. By going right and up however, they can walk across the air to the other clouds, potentially skipping part of the area.

Mount Brrr Out of Bounds
By walking into the seam next to the platforms leading to the tunnel from the village to the summit in Trio Grab form, Mario and co can walk through the wall and out across the void. This lets them enter the tunnel early (for the Fast Forward Storage glitch) and walk all over the surrounding mountainside and sky without limitations.

Reach Mount Brr Summit Without Plane Ability
By using Trio Drill on the vertical dirt walls in the passage leading to the summit, then dropping down near the wall, you can clip inside it. At this point, using Trio Grab will let the trio teleport to the higher edge, or even just some point high in the air. They can use this to exit the tunnel without using the plane ability.

Wendy and Roy Skip
In the first room of the Twinsy Tropics Dungeon, move to the upper right of the torch nearest the pipe. Then, make your way along the edge until Mario clips inside, before using Trio Grab to bring the rest of the party in. You can then walk north off the ledge into the water, and then warp to the ground next to the exit pipe, skipping the battle with Roy and Wendy Koopa.

Out of Bounds in Twinsy Tropics Dungeon (v2)
In the room with a gap, and a folded up bridge (between two corridors of jail cells), walk into the corner and use Trio Grab. If you do it right, Mario and co will walk off the edge and can skip to the door on the opposite side, or maybe just wander around out of bounds. This can let you avoid getting Battle Cards from the Goomba in the dungeon, and skips two cutscenes.

If the player does this glitch too early, they will have no way of learning Trio Grab or exiting the dungeon. This will necessitate restarting the save file.

Gloomy Woods and Mount Brrr Skip
First, walk to the rock near the restore block in Sunbeam Plains, near the left most entrance of Gloomy Woods. Walk up right and up left til you clip into it, then use Trio Grab to go inside and out of bounds. This lets you enter the left most part of Gloomy Woods early.

Now inside the area, go up and carefully move around the log in a way similar to the linked video. You'll eventually end up inside the log, partially out of bounds. Follow it round, and you end up without any characters but Luigi. Keep going til you reach the Toad Village, then play a mini game to get the trio back.

Deserted Dungeon
In the Twinsy Tropics Dungeon, use the out of bounds glitch in the final room in the 'Get the Medallion' mission and then exit through the path to the 'Bowser door'. If you do, you'll find that not only is the area now completely deserted (no enemies, no coins, no blocks, no nothing), but at least one platform is completely invisible (but still solid), the map shows you as being off the screen and the exit pipe doesn't work at all.

Bomb Derby Skip
In Gloomy Woods, if you carefully walk towards the bottom right of the bridge in the room where you normally learn the Bomb Derby attack, the party will go out of bounds. Go round the area (off screen), and you can skip the scene with Nabbit that lets you learn Bomb Derby.

You can also land on the tiny island with a Bomb Fruit, at which point there's no escape without resetting the game. If the party uses Trio Drill, they can dig on the island, but then cannot exit the ground afterwards. If the game is saved as this point... the file is now functionally useless.

Out of Bounds in North Gloomy Woods
In the north part of Gloomy Woods, near Flutter and the warp pipe, there are some rocks to the right of the screen. By carefully moving Mario towards the right corner of the left most one, repeatedly hitting up and moving around carefully, Mario can be clipped inside the rock. From this point, two things can happen:


 * If the game is in the middle of the Fly Guy Flyby mission, or the player doesn't have Trio Grab, they can move around until Luigi gets clipped inside the rock. At this point, they'll temporarily get seperated from Paper Mario, and (if done correctly) can walk round to the loading zone on the right.  This can be used to get Toad Storage in Fly Guy Flyby.
 * If they do have Trio Grab, they can just use it to get everyone out of bounds.

This glitch can let them enter a small area far earlier than they're supposed to, as well as escape a mission in progress.

Out of Bounds in Gloomy Woods (plane and boxes area)
Elsewhere in Gloomy Woods, there's an area with a paper plane section (with moving spike trap), as well as a stack of cardboard boxes with a ? block on top.

By going into Trio Grab here, then going to a certain corner and alternating between left and up, the party can get out of bounds while in Trio Drill form. They can then come out of the ground as normal and walk around to various other areas.

This bug is used to reach Flutter and Mount Brrr after using the Fly Guy Flyby glitch, since the trio can't use Trio Plane with this version of Toad Storage active.

Gloomy Woods Village Out of Bounds
Enter the village from the bottom while the papercraft objects are there using the Gloomy Woods Early glitch. Now, if the trio walks into right corner of the papercraft platform blocking the entrance (ideally while in Trio Grab form), they'll go through it and are now able to get out of bounds.

Out of Bounds in Doop Doop Dunes/Nabbit Skip
In the second area of Doop Doop Dunes (the room with a Lakitu Centre on top of a high cliff and a path leading to Mount Brrr), there's a small area with a fence and a path leading right that the group has to follow. If they carefully line up near the left wall in this area, then go up and left, they can go through the wall and out of bounds, skipping the entire Nabbit chase sequence and the first Spiny battle.

Again, this is much easier to do with Trio Grab if the player doesn't want to use it for speedrun purposes.

Fast Forward Storage
By exiting the Mount Brrr tunnel and activating the 'not enough Toads' cutscene from the wrong side, then quickly going back into the tunnel, it's possible to 'store' the fast forward effect from cutscenes. This lets you activate a few more glitches...

Trio Plane Fast Forward
By using Trio Plane in this state, the party can fly much faster and higher than otherwise, opening the way to otherwise inaccessible areas.

Trio Drill Fast Forward
By using Trio Drill while facing down near the bottom of a dirt wall, Mario and co blast through the floor and are able to go anywhere they like in the area (including above and below the screen).

Petey Piranha Skip
In Sunbeam Plains, in the area with a Lakitu Info Centre across the lake to the right, there are some flowers near the top exit path. By lining up Mario & Luigi correctly near them, and moving around in a certain way, the duo can clip through the wall and walk round to the entrance of the Lakitu Centre, long before getting Paper Mario as a party member. This will then give them Paper Mario, as well as let them skip Trio Racquet and Petey Piranha, as well as the cutscene where Paper Mario joins the party.

Paper Petey Piranha Skip
If you used the Paper Boat skip mentioned above, Paper Petey Piranha will never spawn outside Gloomy Woods. However, he will appear in the Boss Battle Ring regardless of this, since the game expects you to have beaten him before the arcade is accessible.

Chargin' Chuck Brigade Skip
Use the out of bounds in Twinsy Tropics glitch to exit a Toad mission in Twinsy Tropics (from a Lakitu Centre outside the area), and you can skip the battle with the Chargin' Chuck Brigade. They also appear in the Boss Battle Ring regardless.

Skip ANY Boss Battle
Use an out of bounds glitch to escape a Toad mission (like the ones in Twinsy Tropics and Mount Brrr), then fight a boss (or required enemy battle). Die, then click to go back to the title screen. The game now thinks you've won the battle and moves on with the story.

Crash Game in Gloomy Woods
If you use a glitch to skip the King Boo section of Gloomy Woods, then try and hit the L or M block that makes platforms appear in the room before his boss battle, the game will crash on the spot with no music. At which point, the 3DS will shut down the game and say an error is occurred, before trying to restart it.

At this point, it might crash yet again. The player will need to forcefully exit the game via the Home menu at this point.

Item Shop Crash
If Paper Mario enters the item shop in the Sunbeam Plains Toad mission without Mario and Luigi being with him, the game will crash and reset to the Home Menu. Like before, the game will crash after it tries to restart itself, at which point the player needs to forcefully exit the game via the Home menu button.

King Bob-omb Crash
If Mario and co use glitches to reach the elevator leading to King Bob-omb on Mount Brrr (without opening the door in front of it), then the game will crash immediately after entering the summit area. It'll then reset to the Home Menu, like the other crash glitches.

Shy Guy Crash
If Paper Mario is on his own, and fights one or more normal Shy Guys (without paper versions being present in the battle), then the game will crash the second they try and start their rock throwing attacks. If at least one Paper Shy Guy is present, then they'll never try and use this attack, presumably to prevent said glitch from occurring.

Mount Brrr Crash
If you skip the first visit to Mount Brrr, then using Trio Drill on the final rock wall in the tutorial area will immediately crash the game to the Home Menu. If you use Trio Drill on the other side of the wall, the trio will go right through it like it's not even there.

Ice Crash
When Paper Mario is on his own, trying to walk on a patch of slippery ice will immediately crash the game to the Home Menu. This will likely also happen if Luigi is on his own, since the game only has animations for the full party sliding across the ice.

Lakitu Info Centre Crash
Skipping missions in an area can knock the list out of order when the player tries to replay them in the Lakitu Info Centre. If this is done, and then a Hard mode version of a mission is selected while the mission is occupying the wrong slot in the menu, then the game will crash. This is likely because the game thinks you're playing the mission in the original slot, and looks for a non existent hard mode version to overwrite.

Japanese Text in English Game
If you exit Twinsy Tropics without the boat, then enter a Lakitu Info Centre, you can play the Toad missions from Twinsy Tropics. Beating these displays a message (in Japanese) that there are no more Paper Toads in the current area, regardless of what region the game is set to.

Messed up Luigi Graphics
If the player accesses the Luigi only part of Gloomy Woods with Mario and Paper Mario via glitches, then watches the Starlow cutscene, they get the 'ability' to enter new areas in Trio Grab form (they usually have to be out of Trio Grab form while doing this). This leads to some... interesting glitches.


 * If they go left into the first Luigi only area, the Trio Grab graphics get messed up, with a random mixture of Mario and Paper Mario just hanging in the air above Luigi's head.
 * Exiting Gloomy Woods in Trio Grab form, then getting out of said form will turn Luigi into another Mario. Who is constantly moving his hands around and sliding like he's juggling an invisible object.
 * Entering a Toad House and then exiting Trio Grab form... turns Luigi into a green Toad. Who can jump and move like normal.

Please note however that if you do this and get out of Trio Grab in the wrong spot, the game is prone to crashing. It can also softlock, if you start a cutscene in this form.

Messed up Info Centre Missions
If you skip the Twinsy Tropics Paper Boat (see above), then a random assortment of missions from different areas become accessible in any Lakitu Info Centre, with the one on Mount Brrr before the Papercraft Bowser Jr battle having missions from Doop Doop Dunes and Twinsy Tropics instead of the correct area.

They will still count towards the amount of Toads needed to fight the Papercraft bosses though.

Battle Doesn't End
It's possible that after defeating an enemy, the battle won't end and any reward boxes won't open. The only way to exit this is to reset the game.

Nabbit Battle Doesn't End
A similar thing can also happen with the Nabbit battle, with the party stuck facing the Paper Boos summoned by him with no turns ever passing. Again, you have to reset the game to exit the battle or mission.

King Boo Freeze
In the boomerang section in the fight with King Boo, the game sometimes freezes with music playing. You have to reset the game to exit this state.

Stuck Nabbit
In the final Nabbit mission, Nabbit can sometimes be pushed outside of the area boundary, leaving him standing on air next to the torches. The mission is hence unwinnable, requiring the player to exit the mission and try again.

Invisible World
If you exit a battle after escaping from a mission, the world around you afterwards will be totally invisible, with the exception of enemies and blocks. Entering another battle or leaving the area fixes this.

Repeating Battle
If you lose a battle with a normal enemy after ecaping a Toad mission, you'll loop back to the start of the battle, with the bros at 1 HP each. This will continue til you either flee or defeat all the enemies.

Play as Solo Luigi
If you use the Gloomy Woods and Mount Brrr skip mentioned above, and don't reunite with Mario and Paper Mario by heading to the Lakitu Centre, you can run around and play the game as Luigi on his own. In this state, he can buy items, battle enemies and use the arcade, but cannot access warp pipes or use Trio moves on the overworld.

Play as Paper Mario
By moving down and left into the wall in the Sunbeam Plains Paper Mario only area at the right angle, you can clip into the wall and take Paper Mario out of bounds. If he walks back to the main map, he'll then be able to wander off his own.

In this state, he can fight enemies, use/collect items, buy stuff and access various areas via warp pipes, but cannot get through cutscenes or use Trio abilities.

Please note however that certain parts of the game world cannot be entered or escaped by Paper Mario on his own. As a result if this, the player should not save the game while in one of these areas, since it will make the game unwinnable.

Paper Mario Wrong Warp
If Paper Mario returns to the hole in the fence and tries to exit again, the party will warp to the last place the player saved the game. However, in this state they can walk through walls and obstacles until they enter a pipe, begin a cutscene or send Paper Mario into a crack in the wall.

In this state, if the trio uses their plane form, they'll rise up into the air and are able to stand on nothing. Doing so above can mess up the game, since the trio cannot ever come back down afterwards. If they use Trio Hammer, then Paper Mario can get stuck in the air behind Mario and Luigi, which will prevent them from doing any more trio abilities until they leave the area.

If the game is saved in this form, the effect will continue when the file is reloaded.

The glitch can be cancelled by returning to the hole in the fence and sending Paper Mario back through it again.

Trapped Behind the Counter
If Paper Mario is on his own and opens the Lakitu Centre missions list, then exits in any way, Mario and Luigi will reappear with him. However, Mario will be trapped behind the counter, and trying to get him out will cause the screen to shake violently.

The glitch can be fixed by using Trio Plane.

Non Functional Door
The door to the enemy gauntlet, Koopaling battles and final boss in Neo Bowser Castle does not work if Paper Mario is on his own. The warp doesn't exist, and an invisible wall is in its place.

Toad Corral Wall
The exit the Paper Toads are trying to leave through in the Sunbeam Plains mission has an invisible wall over it, which can be seen if Mario and co try and use it themselves (they'll just start walking in place).

Staring at the Pipe
If you skip Bowser's Castle via a glitch, and then return to the outside area before the pipe leading there in Twinsy Tropics, Mario and co will briefly stand still and stare at the green pipe in the middle of the area, despite it not having a crystal barrier around it.

After a second or two, the game continues as normal.

Invisible Barrier Smash
Activating the laser statues in Twinsy Tropics while the barrier is gone will cause them to start firing at empty space. If all three are hit, then the air above the pipe will shatter into pieces, like if there was an invisible barrier there.

This glitch is entirely visual and doesn't affect the game in any other way.

Wrong Camera Angle in Mount Brrr
If you read the sign near the 'Mystery of Mount Brrr' sidequest as Paper on his own, then the camera will pan away until Paper Mario is off screen, and stay like that til he enters a door or passageway. Presumably, it's trying to move to Mario's location, and gets screwed up because Mario and Luigi aren't in the area.

Wrong Trio Attack Order
If the player uses glitches to avoid playing Lakitu missions in Sunbeam Plains, Doop Doop Dunes, Twinsy Tropics or Mount Brrr, then coming back later will let them complete these missions in any order they like.

And it's completing all the missions in any one area/part of the game that gets them a Trio Attack, not the amount of Toads rescued in general.

So if they come back and say, beat all the initial Toad missions in Mount Brrr, they'll get Trio Shuriken without having Trio Kite or Whirligig. This can let them get only the Trio Attacks they want rather than the full set of them.

However, they should not complete the last three or so missions without completing the earlier ones. Why? Because doing so will give them Trio Meteor... and then cause the Lakitu Centre to think they've saved all the Paper Toads. Unfortunately, this also means that any missions they haven't played/beaten, and any Trio Attacks they haven't gotten are now lost forever, since they have no way to unlock new missions after getting Trio Meteor.

It also stops them getting 100% completion (since the counter is based on the actual number of Toads saved), and makes getting to the Mount Brrr summit more difficult (since Starlow doesn't think they've saved all the Toads and hence doesn't let them enter the tunnel).