Cleft

Template:Species-infobox Clefts are animate rock enemies that appear in the Paper Mario series. Their name comes from the word "cleft", which can alternately refer to a crack in a rock or an indentation of the chin, both of which are characteristics of the Clefts. In the first Paper Mario game, Clefts are brown with red shoes, but in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, they are gray with black shoes, while the original coloration is seen in Moon Clefts instead, albeit much brighter.

Clefts inhabit Mt. Rugged in Paper Mario, and Boggly Woods in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, though their many sub-species can be found in a variety of other areas as well. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, if three questions of the 65th Super Fun Quirk Quiz are answered incorrectly, the player will have to face four Clefts. Although regular Clefts do not appear in Super Paper Mario, Moon Clefts do, as well as Bald Clefts and the new Dark Clefts.

They are mostly seen disguising themselves as normal rocks, but they will ram into Mario, if he comes too close, triggering a battle with a First Strike, if they manage to hit him. All species of Clefts have high defense and high attack, and will attack by ramming Mario in battle, just like in the overworld. They also have spikes, which hinder Mario in jumping on them, although a derived species of them called Bald Cleft doesn't have this advantage. If Mario flips them over with an explosion or a Quake Hammer, their defenseless undersides are exposed to attack. Earth Tremor does not flip them, but if executed well enough, it can defeat them automatically.

Their related species include the aforementioned Bald Cleft, which lacks spikes, the Moon Cleft, which is more powerful and inhabits The Moon, and the Dark Cleft, a shadowy version that resides in the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials. Other species include the Hyper Cleft, a Cleft that can charge itself up, increasing its attack power, the Hyper Bald Cleft, which is a cross between a Bald Cleft and a Hyper Cleft, and lastly the Iron Clefts, which are large Clefts made of impenetrable metal, and can only be defeated with Yoshi's Gulp.

Profiles and statistics

Paper Mario enemy
Cleft
		Max HP	2	Attack	2	Defense	2 (standing), 0 (flipped)
		Role	Common	Type	Ground, Top Spiky (standing), Ground (flipped)	Level	10
		Strong	Fire	Weak	None	Moves	Spike Charge (2), Struggle, Stand Up
		Sleep?	40%, -1	Dizzy?	50%, -1	Shock?	50%, 0
		Shrink?	75%, 0	Stop?	90%, 0	Fright?	40%
		Air Lift?	40%	Hurricane?	40%	Coins	2 + 1-3
		Items	None	Run	12	Location(s)	Mt. Rugged
Tattle	This is a Cleft. Clefts are pretty strong, so you'd better be careful. Max HP: 2, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 2 Their specialty is pretending to be rocks, so watch your step on the mountain. You'll get hurt if you jump on the spikes on their heads. You know, there's courage in running away sometimes...

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Cleft
	Max HP	2	Attack	2	Defense	2
	Location(s)	Petal Meadows, Boggly Woods, Pit of 100 Trials (Levels 12, 17)	Role	Boss, common	Level	12
	Sleep?	50%	Dizzy?	50%	Confuse?	50%
	Tiny?	70%	Stop?	100%	Soft?	100%
	Burn?	0%	Freeze?	70%	Fright?	50%
	Gale Force?	70%	KO?	95%	Moves	Cleft Charge (2)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	1 - 3	Items	Mushroom, Thunder Bolt, Earth Quake, Mini Mr. Mini, Dizzy Dial
Tattle Log #: 79	Log	A spiky, rock-headed jerk that's impervious to fire attacks and has a solid body.
	Tattle	That's a Cleft. A rock-head jerk with spikes on his noggin. What a rocker! Max HP is 2, Attack is 2, and Defense is 2. That hard head is a major pain. Fire doesn't hurt it, but other types of items are pretty effective, usually. If nothing seems to work on it, you can always just run.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	シンエモン Shin'emon	Male name in Japan
Chinese	岩石怪 Yánshí Guài	Rock Monster
German	Kirk	-
Italian	Teschiolito	From "teschio" (skull), and the ancient greek "lithos" (stone)
Portuguese	Cleft	-