Battle Card (Paper Mario: Color Splash)

"Whatever...We've got cards, we've got paint...YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO, MARIO!"

- Huey

Battle Cards are important elements in Paper Mario: Color Splash. They succeed Stickers from the game's predecessor and serve as Mario's main method of attacking. As such, there are a wide variety of cards that appear in the game, and can be found in blocks, or purchased from Prisma Cardware.

Variations
There are three different kinds of battle cards:


 * Basic - These cards are meant for attacking enemies, healing and defending Mario, and refilling the paint hammer.
 * Enemy - These cards summon enemies that attack for Mario and take hits for him.
 * Thing - These are obtained by finding things in the world and squeezing them into cards. They can then be used to deal big damage to enemies, solve a puzzle outside of battle, and weaken the Koopaling bosses with specific thing cards.

Basic Cards
There are 60 Basic Cards in the game pertaining to four categories: Worn-Out Basic Cards have a striped background with fine colored stripes on a white background, Normal Basic Cards have a checkered background with colored squares on a white background, Big Basic Cards have a checkered background with bigger colored squares on a background of a lighter color, Mega or Huge Basic Cards have a striped radial background in which a striped colored slice is alternated with a striped slice of a lighter color, the stripes themselves alternating a stripe of a lighter color with a stripe of a more saturated color. There are also cards that allow to obtain the same effect up to five times, depending on the number of items in the card.

Enemy Cards
There are seventy Enemy Cards in the game, and most of them are occasionally dropped by enemies. The Kamek and Koopaling Cards can be obtained by beating the Rock Paper Wizard in Super Roshambo, and the Black Bowser's Castle Card is obtained after Mario defeats Bowser. When Mario uses an Enemy Card, the enemy that is pictured on the card is summoned. The summoned enemy attacks the enemies that are in battle with Mario, and it also takes hits for Mario. The enemy continues to help Mario until it is defeated or the battle is won. Only one enemy can be summoned at a time, and summoning another causes the first one to run away. If an Enemy Card is used against a boss, the enemy runs away, and Enemy Cards like Morton cause a normal enemy to run.

Thing Cards
"Objects that are 3D are called Things. A Thing Card is what you get when you squeeze a Thing. When you use them, crazy things can happen."

- Huey

Only one of each Thing Card can be carried at a time. However Replica Cards, which are less powerful versions of Thing Cards, can have multiple copies in a deck. A Replica Card has an effect similar to the Thing Cards they are replicating with the exception of a transparent "REPLICA" watermark added in front of the animation and the card, as well as doing less damage. During the battles against the Koopalings, if a Replica of the mandatory Thing Cards is used, the Koopaling will nullify its effect, forcing the player to use the actual mandatory Thing Cards instead. Replica Cards cannot be used outside of battle as well.

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