Trunkle

Trunkle is a giant rock monster appearing as a boss in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions. It bears a small tree with a berry on its head, and it inhabits Teehee Valley, and can be found right at the passage connecting Teehee Valley to Little Fungitown. While Mario and Luigi are escorting Princess Peach to Little Fungitown, Trunkle attacks the princess, and Mario and Luigi engage in battle with it.

If the brothers follow the path to Little Fungitown before Princess Peach comes to the Beanbean Kingdom, Trunkle can be seen blocking the path, but is sleeping and cannot be woken. It cannot be seen sleeping in the remake, since the Super Hammers needed to access Teehee Valley cannot be received until after Peach arrives.

Battle
In battle, Trunkle has the ability to throw boulders at the brothers, which have to be countered with Hammer strikes. Trunkle will use its right arm to target Mario and left arm to target Luigi if the boulders simply roll straight. If the boulders also spin sideways while rolling, then they will target the opposite brother. Trunkle also has the ability to vacuum objects into its mouth that will pass the brothers along the way; these include Gritty Goombas, poisonous mushrooms, and standard mushrooms. Any of these objects can be dodged by jumping, though touching the normal Mushrooms will added them to their inventory in the original game, which is the only instance where this was possible; the remake causes them to heal the Bros. on contact instead. After finishing this attack, Trunkle will heal approximately 10 HP.

When Trunkle's HP is reduced by half, it splits into four "Mini-Trunkles". One of them will have the berry in its mouth, and Mario and Luigi have to keep an eye on that one while all four shuffle around. The Mini-Trunkle holding the berry will have it in its mouth if attacked. A Mini-Trunkle can attack by simply rolling into one of the brothers, or burrowing underground and popping up in front of him, attempting to strike him afterwards. The former attack can be countered by jumping, whereas the latter can be countered by hammering. When the other Mini-Trunkles are attacked, they will simply crumble, although the one with the berry will continue to lose HP until it is finally defeated; if its HP isn't depleted enough, the Mini-Trunkles will merge into Trunkle again, restoring its HP.

Alternatively, if Mario and Luigi attack Trunkle's "tree" on top of its head, they can defeat it by destorying the berry prematurely. Although its "tree" has much lower HP, it also has much higher defense and is extremely resistant to jump attacks, only taking significant damage from regular Chopper Bros. and Knockback Bros. attacks. Defeating it in this way keeps Trunkle from using most of his other attacks, since it only checks for the main body's HP, and also circumvents the splitting phase of the fight.

Trivia

 * Trunkle is the only boss in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga that moves the screen during its battle.
 * An additional screen is loaded every battle, suggesting that there was going to be more bosses or even enemies who would use the same mechanic before the release of the game's remake.

Geröllinger Pietro