Elder Shrooboid

The Elder Shrooboid is a boss that appears in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. It is found the Star Shrine, and must be fought to obtain the fifth Cobalt Star shard. The Elder Shrooboid is a red Shroob similar to the Junior Shrooboid with yellow spots and spikes on top of its head, and is the strongest of all the Shrooboids; its spikes make it immune to any jump-based attacks and attack items.

Prior to the encounter, the Elder Shrooboid captured Toadbert and Kylie Koopa, stealing the Toad's Cobalt Star shard. When the Mario Bros. arrive at the top of the shrine, Toadbert makes an attempt to reveal the truth of the Cobalt Star and the Elder Princess Shroob trapped inside by having Mario rub off the dirt on his strange sketch that he had made awhile beforehand, revealing two Princesses. He and Kylie Koopa are then turned into purple Shroob Mushrooms by the Elder Shrooboid. Hoping to gather all the shards and awaken its leader, the Elder Shrooboid attacks the Mario Bros.

Battle
The Elder Shrooboid's first attack involves trapping Mario and Luigi in crystals, similar to Shroids, and then grabbing a ball and chain. The Bros. must jump to break their crystal prisons as the Elder Shrooboid spins the ball and chain towards them. The spinning causes the Shrooboid to become dizzy, making him drop the ball and fall over; it then gets up again, screams in a rage, and angrily knocks the ball at either of the Mario Bros., while lunging head first into the other brother. Both must be dodged by jumping, and failing to break out of the crystal makes these attacks unavoidable. The metallic ball will either have an "M" (for Mario) or an "L" (for Luigi) marked on it, depicting its target.

The Elder Shrooboid can also perform a spin attack similar to the Junior Shrooboid, which the baby Mario Bros. must counter with their hammers; the Elder Shrooboid will continue trying to spin into the Bros. pairs repeatedly, requiring multiple counter hits. The Elder Shrooboid can also throw fireballs much like Blazing Shroobs, and may shoot two fireballs at once; these can be dodging with well-timed jumps.

The Elder Shrooboid may create a Spiked Ball to throw towards the Mario Bros.; the ball circles around them, moving faster with each orbit, until it closes in on one of the Bros. to strike. The ball can be deflected with the hammer, and may poison their target in addition to damaging them if it hits. Deflecting successfully sends the spiked weapon flying off into the air, causing the Elder Shrooboid to gasp and falls over from shock; in this state, it is vulnerable to jump attacks, and any attack deals more damage than usual due to its defense being lowered in the process.

After the bros take off 1750 of his HP, the Elder Shrooboid starts to shrink into nothingness. Surprisingly, the Elder Shrooboid instantly grows to humongous proportions. When in this state, the Elder Shrooboid has the same attacks as before, but the attacks are faster, more powerful, and giant-sized to fit his new body. Additionally, after becoming gigantic, the Elder Shrooboid releases a Shroob UFO from its mouth. This UFO holds a sign with the number four on it, indicating to the Mario Bros. that they only have four turns left to defeat the Elder Shrooboid. If they can't defeat the monster in four more turns, the Shroob UFO fires a massive energy blast that KOs all four of them just like in the battle with the Shroobs, but instead of ending the battle after the timer goes off, it's a standard game over. The Mario Bros. can deflect the Elder Shrooboid's spiked balls at the Shroob UFO, resetting the counter back to four turns. When Baby Mario deflects a spiked ball, the weapon flies above the Elder Shrooboid, but if Baby Luigi deflects the ball, the spiked weapon flies above the Mario Bros. Since the Shroob UFO changes positions in the air during the battle, only one of the Baby Bros. can deflect the weapon to reset the counter. If the UFO is above the Elder Shrooboid, Baby Mario must deflect the spiked ball. If above the four Mario Bros., Baby Luigi has to deflect the spiked ball.

As with most Shroob enemies, Elder Shrooboid receives critical damage from Ice Flower. This could also be due to the fact that it is a fire type boss, showed by it's ability to use fire type attacks.

In the Japanese version, the spiked ball always goes up, even if Baby Mario deflects the attack. As such, the Shroob UFO will stay above the Mario Bros. making it much easier to hit in the Japanese version.

After a long battle, the four Mario Bros. defeat the Elder Shrooboid and recover the fifth Cobalt Star shard. Although both their friends are transformed into Shroob Mushrooms, the Bros. have to continue their fight against the Shroobs. With the fifth star shard, the Bros. can gain access to Shroob Castle. Leaving the Shroob Mushroom forms of Toadbert and Kylie Koopa behind, the four Mario Bros. must return to Peach's Castle in the future to prepare for their final campaign which is to enter Shroob Castle itself.

Trivia

 * Elder Shrooboid's coloration and age compared to the Junior Shrooboid are analogous to Mario is to Luigi.

Großer Shrooboid Shrooboide Rosso