Duplighost

"Curses! I thought we were doing a great job of confusing you! I'll be back!"

- Duplighost

Duplighosts are ghost-like creatures that can take on the appearance, voice and abilities of other people. They appear primarily as enemies in Paper Mario, with only a notable one appearing in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. To attack, Duplighosts can either fly into Mario, or turn into his current partner; in this guise, the Duplighost gains that partner's attacks and physical properties, e.g. a Duplighost turned into Watt will damage Mario or his party members if they make contact with certain moves. However, the duplicated attacks are weaker than those of the actual partner.

The name "Duplighost" is a portmanteau of the words "duplicate" and "ghost".

Paper Mario
In Paper Mario, Duplighosts appear most often during Chapter 7, in the Crystal Palace. They imitate other objects and characters in order to confuse Mario, often using the mirrors in the palace.

On the path to the Crystal Palace, one Duplighost pretends to be Kooper; Mario must hammer the impostor, then defeat the Duplighost in battle. In the Crystal Palace, four Duplighosts appear and pretend to be Bombette when Mario uses her to destroy one of the walls. The fakes can be distinguished by the way they speak, such as using more hearts or more exclamation points. Hitting the impostors with Mario's hammer will expose them, with all four running off once they are revealed; if the real Bombette is hammered, Mario must fight the four Duplighosts. Another instance occurs within the Crystal Palace when four Duplighosts attempt to impersonate Kooper, but instead disguise themselves as Luigi, Goompa, Koopa Koot, and Kolorado. As before, Mario can drive off the obvious fakes by hammering them, and if the player opts to hit Kooper instead, the four Duplighosts must be battled.

Another Duplighost appears later on in Bowser's Castle, trying to trick Mario into believing it is Princess Peach. Mario can break the Duplighost's disguise by hammering the fake princess repeatedly, leading to a battle where he must defeat four of them.

A blue Duplighost named Lee is one of the students at the Toad Town Dojo, and can be fought as an optional boss to obtain the Second-Degree Card.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has only one Duplighost, Doopliss, who stays in the Creepy Steeple. Many of the Twilighters refer to him as a demon, since they have never seen him in person. Doopliss appears as an enemy of Mario several times throughout the game, starting with the events of Chapter 4.

Doopliss causes the members of Twilight Town to become pigs whenever the bell tolls, and demonstrates the special ability to steal another character's body while copying them. Doopliss attempts to steal Mario's identity, even succeeding for a little while, until he is exposed with the help of the real Mario and Vivian. Doopliss later becomes a member of the Shadow Sirens, replacing Vivian. In battle, he has the same powers and abilities as regular Duplighosts, using the same swooping attack and transforming into Mario's partners to use their attacks.

Profiles and statistics

 * If a Duplighost disguises as Goombario, it can use Tattle, which is shown below.
 * "It's Mario, silly! He's here to save Princess Peach, who was captured by Bowser. Remember? He fights until the bitter end, no matter what enemies attack."

Tattle of Duplighost disguised as Peach

 * "It looks like Princess Peach, but something just doesn't seem right... I mean, I've never met the Princess, but I thought she was more...sweet. Hey, Mario, is she really Princess Peach?"

Paper Mario Official Nintendo Player's Guide

 * The weird thing about Duplighost is that you can be battling one and not even know. It possesses an ability to look and fight like anyone or anything it wants—including your own party members.

Trivia

 * Electrical sparks are not seen coming from the Duplighost mirror version of Watt, but when the mirror is underneath her, it does.
 * In the Japanese version, they talk in various Japanese dialects after getting defeated.
 * In Paper Mario: Color Splash, concept art for the Rock Paper Wizard shows a design similar to a Duplighost.