Secret

Secrets, or Red Numbers, are collectibles that appear in Super Mario 64 and its remake, Super Mario 64 DS. They are invisible items that generally produce a Power Star once five of them are collected. They either can be in five spots that Mario, Yoshi, Luigi, or Wario would not think to look or are hidden in secretive places such as in Wet-Dry World, or they can be overlaid with coins, giving the impression that they are special coins that the player must collect to get a Power Star, such as on the Bob-omb Battlefield and in Shifting Sand Land.

In Super Mario 64, when the first secret is found, a slow version of the "Star collected" sound is heard. It gets faster with each successive secret, until the final secret makes the sound outright. In Super Mario 64 DS, all five secrets make the first secret's sound.

Generally, secrets function much like the Silver Stars; once all five of them are found, a Power Star appears. However, there are other differences; if Mario (or whoever else is carrying a Silver Star) is injured for whatever reason, one of the collected Silver Stars is knocked out of his grasp, whereas the secrets collected stay with Mario. Secrets also cannot be located on the map by any means.

Secrets can be found in the following missions:
 * Mario Wings to the Sky
 * Pyramid Puzzle (Super Mario 64 only; it is a Silver Star mission in Super Mario 64 DS)
 * Through the Jet Stream (Dire, Dire Docks)
 * The Manta Ray's Reward
 * 5 Secrets in the Shallows & Sky
 * 5 Secrets of the Mountain (exclusive to Super Mario 64 DS)
 * Five Itty Bitty Secrets (exclusive to Super Mario 64)