Sea Tower



"A tower standing in the Great Sea. That's...the Sea Tower. Obviously."

- Captain T. Ode

The Sea Tower is a tall tower standing in the Great Sea in Paper Mario: The Origami King. It is charted in territory B1 on the Sea Chart and requires three Orbs to enter the tower. The Sea Tower contains elements of all the previous Vellumental areas: the Earth Vellumental Temple, Water Vellumental Shrine, Fire Vellumental Cave, and Ice Vellumental Mountain. Tape is battled atop the Sea Tower as the guardian of the purple streamer.

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Mario must have gathered the Courage Orb, Wisdom Orb, and Power Orb from having cleared the three trials on Diamond Island in order open the door to the Sea Tower; when interacting with the door, Mario has to place all three orbs in, and he can then enter the tower. The Warp Pipe serving as a shortcut between the Sea Tower and Musée Champignon in Toad Town is located outside the tower.

The first floor of the Sea Tower is styled after the Earth Vellumental and Water Vellumental. First, Mario has to jump across multiple expanding and retracting pillars. He comes across two idols resembling the Water Vellumental. A blue Sidestepper steals the Red Gem from the left statue and runs into a passageway. Following the Sidestepper leads Mario to an Earth Vellumental Temple area, with rising and falling pillars. Midway through the area, he must hammer two pillars out of the wall and jump on top of a protruding statue. Pulling some tape off of a pillar and filling in a Not-Bottomless Hole leads Mario through a doorway to the Water Vellumental Temple room. The Sidestepper runs between the front and back ends of the room, entering cracks in the wall that allow it to easily escape Mario. To trap the Sidestepper, Mario has to hammer the walls to lower Vellumental heads and cover the cracks, then catch the Sidestepper and recover the Red Gem. Once he puts it in the statue's eye, he can go up the stairs and onto the second floor.

On the way up the tower, Mario and Olivia observe Toads taped to the tower walls. After going up a moving platform, Mario arrives at an area dedicated to the Fire Vellumental and Ice Vellumental, with idols of them facing each other. A button on the back of the Fire Vellumental statue causes it to spit out a weak flame. To apply more force and melt the Ice Vellumental's ice teeth, Mario has to navigate to a Magic Circle and knock down a metal ball. Some stairs located south of the Fire Vellumental statue lead to an icy area, where Mario has to complete an ice-sliding puzzle like the ones in the Ice Vellumental Mountain. When the ice block slides to the right, Mario can hammer through the wall and enter a Fire Vellumental Cave room. To get to the other end, he has to jump across a group of tiles, repeating a sequence in reverse. This takes him to the Magic Circle, and after using the 1,000-Fold Arms, the path to the next floor is cleared.

Even more Toads are taped onto the tower walls as Mario climbs higher. Upon reaching the top of the tower where he finds a spool for the purple streamer, Tape appears on a central platform and challenges Mario. Once Tape is defeated, the strips of tape that restrained the Toads to the tower walls disappear, freeing them. Also, a Magic Circle appears on the platform, allowing Mario to use the 1,000-Fold Arms to destroy the purple streamer's spool. With the streamer cleared, Mario can access the four Vellumental idols nearby. In addition, on the platform where the Magic Circle used to be is a riddle: "Let four fold into one and point you toward paradise." Mario must use each Vellumental's ability in front of its idol counterpart and hit a red button on the idol to make it rotate toward the platform. When all four idols are facing the platform, each fires a beam from its mouth; the beams merge over the platform and create a beacon of light that shoots up into the sky. Mario and Olivia then use the beacon that warps them both up to Shangri-Spa, starting their quest to destroy the green streamer next.

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 * Collectible Treasure No. 100: "A giant tower that has loomed over the Great Sea since the dawn of time. Legends say it leads to Shangri-Spa."