Friday, July 25, 2014

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door -- Pit of 100 Trials

Before I met Professor Frankly at the Thousand-Year Door, I decided to complete an extra challenge: the Pit of 100 Trials. It's a series of battles numbering just under 90, but there are 100 floors to go through. Each time is a little different. The first 40 or 50 floors seem like a warm-up: the enemies are ones you've faced before and you'll only get 1 Star Point from the battle. Don't bother equipping the First Strike badge, as it doesn't work here. If things are looking bleak, leave the pit and regroup. Save your game, so you can keep the experience and badges that you can get ever 10 floors (except floor 100) and from some of the enemies. You'll also want to bring a good stash of items, such as Maple Supers and Thunder Rages, but keep some space in your inventory to steal items from enemies and get some from the audience. Every 10 floors, you'll find a large chest with a badge. You may also find a salesman here. His list of items will never change, and you can buy as many items as you can afford/ carry. The farther you go into the dungeon, the more expensive the items get, to the point they border on usurious.

At the start of my successful run, my stats were as follows: Level 24, 35 HP (with badges), 30 FP (with badges), 51 BP. I had the following badges equipped: Multibounce, Power Bounce, Fire Drive,  HP Plus x2, FP Plus, Power Plus,  Damage Dodge, Close Call, Pretty Lucky (stolen from an enemy), Lucky Start, Happy Heart, Happy Flower, Pity Flower, Spike Shield, Zap Tap, and Power Plus P. I also had 3 Power Punches in my inventory.

Here are some strategies and tips: Get the First Strike as much as possible. Use as few items, FP, and Star Power as possible in the early battles. If you need to heal early on in the pit, use Star Power, such as Sweet Treat and Sweet Feast, as Star Power is easy to recover. Later on, you'll have to manage all of these very well to survive. There are also Punies on the floors called Movers. Pay them some coins and they can move you either 2 or 5 floors below, or to the exit. Use them wisely, but check the floor you're on first so you don't skip chests on the floors that are multiples of 10. Bring some Life Shrooms and keep your partners healed, so they won't use them up. Equip the Lucky Badges and the Zap Tap badge when you get them. The Zap Tap badge prevents enemies like Swoopers, Fuzzies, and Bandits from stealing stuff and leaching HP or FP. When you level up, you should increase your BP to accommodate your new badges. Refresh Merlee's spell to help you out.

I will list the battles I experienced so you can get an idea of what kind of enemies to expect. Your battles may differ.
1. Gloomba and Dull Bones
2. 3 Spinia, 2 Spania
3. 3 Spania
4. Dull Bones and Gloomba
5. 5 Fuzzies
6. Gloomba and Spania
7. 3 Spinia, 2 Spania
8. 2 Spania, 2 Fuzzies
9. Dull Bones and 2 Spinia
10. Chest with the Sleepy Stomp badge
11. Paraglooomba and 2 Piders
12. 4 Clefts
13. 2 Pokeys, 2 Piders
14. 2 Dark Puffs, Pokey
15. 4 Piders
16. Paragloomba, 2 Pokeys
17. 4 Clefts
18. 2 Pokeys, 2 Piders
19. 3 Dark Puffs
20. Chest with the Fire Drive badge
21. 2 Spiky Gloombas, with 7HP and 4 attack, and 2 Boos
22. Bandit and Spiky Gloomba
23. Lakitu and Spiky Gloomba
24. 4 Bob-ombs
25. 2 Boos, Spiky Gloomba
26. 2 Spiky Gloombas, 2 Boos
27. Bandit and Spiky Gloomba
28. 2 Lakitu, 2 Bob-ombs
29. 2 Bob-ombs, Spiky Gloomba
30. Chest with the Zap Tap badge
31. Dark Koopa, 2 Parabuzzies, with 8 HP, 4 attack, 2 defense. Flip them to drop their defense to zero.
32. Mover and a switch to the next floor
33. Parabuzzy and Flower Fuzzy
34. 2 Shady Koopas, Dark Koopa
35. 2 Flower Fuzzies, Dark Koopa
36. 2 Flower Fuzzies, Dark Koopa
37. 2 Hyper Clefts, Parabuzzy
38. Parabuzzy and Flower Fuzzy
39. 2 Shady Koopas, Dark Koopa
40. Chest with the Pity Flower badge
41. 4 Dark Paratroopas, with 8 HP, 4 attack, and 2 defense. Flip them over to drop their defense to zero.
42. Bulky Bob-omb, Poison Pokey, with 8 HP and 4 attack, and Spiky Parabuzzy, with 5 HP, 3 attack and 4 defense. Flip them over to reduce their defense to zero.
43. 2 Lava Bubbles, Dark Paratroopa
44. Poison Pokey and Dark Paratrooopa
45. 2 Spiky Parabuzzies, 2 Lava Bubbles
46. 2 Dark Paratroopas, 2 Spiky Parabuzzy
47. Bulky Bob-omb, Poison Pokey, Spiky Parabuzzy
48. 2 Lava Bubbles, Dark Paratroopa
49. 2 Poison Pokeys, 2 Spiky Parabuzzies
50. Chest with the Strange Sack, which allows you to carry 20 items
51. 3 Badge Bandits, with 12 HP and 5 attack. They can steal badges from you and runaway. If that happens, you can reengage them to get your badge back. The Zap Tap badge prevents this
52. Ice Puff, with 9 HP and 4 attack. They can charge up for their ice breath attack, which can freeze both Mario and his ally. Do not attack them directly when they're charging their attack. They are weak to fire.
53. A Mover and a switch
54. 3 Red Chomps
55. 4 Moon Clefts, with 6 HP, 5 attack, and 5 defense. Flip them with an explosion to drop their defense to zero.
56. 3 Badge Bandits
57. 4 Dark Boos
58. Red Chomp and 2 Ice Puffs
59. 3 Ice Puffs
60. Chest with the Double Dip badge
61. 3 Dark Lakitu, with 13 HP and 5 attack. Defeat them first, before they fill the stage with Sky Blue Spinies. They can also hold onto a Sky Blue Spiny egg, making them like a spiky enemy until they throw the egg or they are hit. Sky Blue Spinies have 6 HP, 6 attack, and 4 defense. They can roll up into a ball to become impervious to damage and store energy. Both Dark Lakitu and Sky Blue Spinies can charge their attacks.
62. Dry Bones, with 8 HP, 5 attack, and 2 defense. They can throw multiple bones and rise again if their HP drops to zero, unless they are defeated with fire or explosions. 2 Frost Piranhas with 10 HP and 5 attack. They have freeze breath, but are weak to fire.
63. 2 Dark Wizzerds,with  10 HP, 5 attack, and 2 defense. They use magic to attack and alter Mario's and their conditions. When only one is left, it will multiply. 1 Dark Craw
64. 4 Frost Piranhas
65. 3 Dark Craws
66. Dark Wizzerd and Dark Lakitu
67. Dry Bones and Dark Craw. I leveled up and increased BP.
68. Dark Wizzerd and 2 Dry Bones
69. Frost Piranha and Dark Craw
70. Chest with Double Dip P badge
71. 3 Wizzerds, with 10 HP, 6 attack, and 3 defense. They can heal themselves and others, as well as attack like Dark Wizzerds
72. 3 Dark Koopatrols
73. Phantom Ember, with 10 HP and 5 attack. They can cause burns. Swoopula, with 9 HP and 4 attack. They can drain HP. Chain Chomp with 7 HP, 6 attack, and 5 defense. Ice and fire attacks don't work, but they can be frozen. Dark Koopatrol
74. Mover
75. Chain Chomp and 2 Dark Koopatrols
76. 3 Wizzerds
77. Dark Koopatrol and 2 Chain Chomps. I leveled up and increased BP, then added the Defense Plus and Close Call P badges.
78. 5 Phantom Embers
79. 3 Dark Koopatrols
80. Chest with the Bump Attack badge
81. Spunia, Piranha Plant, with 15 HP and 9 attack, and Dark Bristle, with 8 HP, 8 attack, and 4 defense. Flip over with an explosion to reduce defense to zero.
82. 2 Dark Bristles, Spunia
83. 2 Arantula, with 16 HP and 7 attack, and Dark Bristle
84. 4 Piranha Plants
85. 5 Spunia
86. 2 Spunia, 2 Arantula
87. Mover
88. 2 Arantula and Dark Bristle
89. 4 Piranha Plants
90. Chest with the Lucky Day badge
91. 5 Elite Wizzerds, with 12 HP, 8 attack, and 5 defense. I leveled up and increased BP.
92. 4 Poison Puffs, with 15 HP and 8 attack. They have a poison gas attack they have to charge up, but don't hit them directly while they're charging.
93. 2 Bob-ulks, with 10 HP, 4 attack, and 2 defense
94. Elite Wizzerd, Swampire, with 20 HP and 6 attack. They drain HP. 2 Amazy Dayzees, with 20 HP, 20 attack, and 1 defense. They will run away at any time, but will give lots of Star Points if defeated. Bobbery's Bob-ombast and Supernova work well. I got 100 SP from this fight and leveled up, then increased BP. You want to see many Amazy Dayzees, as the many Star Points will make you level up and fully heal you.
95. 5 Elite Wizzerds
96. 2 Poison Puffs, Swampire, Amazy Dayzee for 62 Star Points. I leveled up and increased BP.
97. 3 Bob-ulks
98. Elite Wizzerd, Swampire, and 2 Amazy Dayzees for 100 Star Points again. I increased BP when I leveled up. I also ranked up to Superstar Rank, and got a bigger stage for the next battle.
99. 5 Elite Wizzerds. After the battle, heal and adjust your badges. I added Lucky Day, FP Plus, another Damage Dodge, Defend Plus, and Close Call P. You'll need to do this on floor 99.

100. Mario drops down into a large cavern. A dragon howls and the battle starts. This is Bonetail, the oldest brother of Hooktail, so old, it's just bones. It has 200 HP, 8 attack, and 2 defense. It can bite and stomp and its breaths cause a variety of effects, such as freezing, confusion, sleep, shrinking, and poison. It can reanimate. Because it has so much health, I saved the Power Punches for this battle. You may be able to do Supernova early on in the battle, but after a while, you'll be refilling your meter to use Sweet Feast. When Bonetail gets to around 100 HP, it will start healing 20 HP at a time. Mario should do most of the attacking, out in front. Equip as many Lucky badges as you can to increase the chances that Mario dodges the attack. Mario's ally should heal and use items. A good choice is an Ultra Rank Flurrie. Use Lip Lock to attack Bonetail and heal herself. Keep Mario and his ally healed, and with a decent amount of FP. Also try to have some Life Shrooms available at this stage in the dungeon. This is one of the hardest fights, so it may take a few tries. I defeated Bonetail on my second try. You'll get one Star Point at the end of the battle (two if Merlee's spell doubles it). Bonetail wails and flips over, like its sister. It spits up a large chest with the Return Postage badge. This badge inflicts half the damage dealt to the attacker if it attacks directly. The pipe will take you to the entrance to the pit. Congratulations on making it. Heal and save.

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