Buoy Base Galaxy

"This here's a floating fortress. We call it Buoy Base. But nobody's using it now, so we're just here for upkeep."

- Gearmo

The Buoy Base Galaxy is a galaxy that appears in Super Mario Galaxy. The galaxy contains a large fortress floating atop a large, spherical pool of water. Mario has to climb this fortress in order to get the main Power Star in this galaxy.

Buoy Base
The Buoy Base is the main part of the Buoy Base Galaxy that consists of a large pool of water and an area above it which contains many obstacles, including Topmen, Thwomps, and Amps. The main objective of this part of the planet is to collect five blue Star Chips to form a Pull Star leading to the Poké Ball Planet. Submerged in the large pool of water at the bottom of the planet are multiple Bill Blasters and Torpedo Teds. A secret caged Warp Pipe in the pool of water leads to the underside of the planet, where more Bill Blasters and a cage containing a Green Star can be found.

The Poké Ball Planet is a giant sphere filled with water above the Buoy Base. It has a screw on it that Mario must Star Spin to open the planet and retrieve a power star inside of it and also two pulse-wave generating machines, one of which is actually the screw. It is remarkably small in comparison to the Buoy Base, and is remarkably easier as well. It looks like a giant Poké Ball.

The Floating Fortress
In The Floating Fortress, the objective is to scale the fortress and retrieve the Power Star, located on the Poké Ball Planet high above the fortress. First, Mario must dive in the water under the fortress and swim in front of a Torpedo Ted launcher. When a Torpedo Ted comes out, Mario must get its attention and lure it into the caged underwater weight. The Torpedo Ted will destroy the weight, allowing the fortress to float up and revealing a path so that Mario can climb to the top of the fortress. Mario must Wall Jump up the path and get to the area with the Thwomps. Then, Mario must walk around the area, avoiding the Thwomps and arriving at an area with Topmen and Water Shooters. Mario must spin a valve, which disables the Water Shooters and reveals a green Topman. Mario must jump on top of this Topman to spring up to the next platform.

Mario must then proceed to collect the five blue Star Chips. Four of these are scattered around the area with the moving platforms, and one is on top of a Thwomp in the previous area. After all five of the Star Chips have been collected, Mario must use the moving platforms to climb to the top of the fortress, where a Pull Star appears. Mario can take this Pull Star to the Poké Ball Planet. On this planet, Mario has to get on top of the bolt-like Sentry Beam and spin to dislodge the gold screw from it. This causes the planet to open up halfway, revealing a Power Star submerged in water in its center. Mario can now dive in to retrieve the Power Star.


 * Enemies
 * Goombas
 * Torpedo Teds
 * Octoombas
 * Bloopers
 * Thwomps
 * Amps
 * Topmen
 * Goombeetles
 * Tsukidashi-kun
 * Urchins
 * Water Shooters
 * Sentry Beams


 * Planets Visited
 * Buoy Base
 * Poké Ball Planet

The Secret of Buoy Base
This time, when Mario dives into the surrounding pool of water, he must seek out a caged green pipe, and open it by luring the Torpedo Teds into it. The pipe takes Mario to the outside of the planet, where Mario must lure Bullet Bills into a cage that contains the Green Power Star. Falling off the platforms underneath the planet results in Mario ending up back in Buoy Base's water pool.


 * Enemies
 * Torpedo Teds
 * Octoombas
 * Bloopers
 * Bullet Bills
 * Urchins
 * Amps


 * Planets Visited
 * Buoy Base

Trivia

 * It is one of the two ? Block galaxies to have only two stars, the other being the Gateway Galaxy.
 * The second mission in the Space Storm Galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2 appears to be partially based on the first mission in the Buoy Base Galaxy, even utilizing the same background music and a similar-looking tower, which features many of the same obstacles and enemies, such as Thwomps and Amps, and has an overall similar appearance (excluding of course the wide portion towards the bottom of the tower on the Topman Tower Planet).
 * After the Buoy Base is raised up out of the water, many Sling Stars will appear near the back of the first ring. A few Gearmos can be found in between them.
 * If Mario falls into the water after he has used the hidden Warp Pipe in the The Secret of Buoy Base secret mission, gravity will prevent him from retracing his steps, and he will have to use the Warp Pipe to get back again.