Chapter 8 - The Thousand-Year Door Walkthrough

The time has come for the Thousand-Year Door to open and for Mario to save the world from the final plan of Grodus and his ilk. Enter the Palace of Shadows, save Princess Peach, and save the world! Fight for the future, Mario/Luigi/Great Gonzales!

This page acts as a comprehensive walkthrough of the final chapter, Chapter 8, within Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

Walk through the first room and onto a big stairway. Walk to the back of the screen when first entering the stairway to find a stopwatch. Along the steps Mario will be attacked by Swoopulas which steal HP and add to their own. In the next area, hit the question mark box to find a shooting star.

At the bottom of the steps there are gold bullet bobs being shot out of gold cannon. Keep jumping on the bullets until Mario reaches the cannon. This is an excellent battle to use the shooting star he has just acquired, it will significantly damage all enemies, especially the bobs which will continuously spawn.

The stairs lead to a hallway with spikes that rise out of the floor when Mario approaches them. Take each step with caution and the spikes will reveal themselves slowly. The next hallway features rotating and moving rows of flames. Navigate the first set either by running past them with Yoshi (this takes some expert timing) or by jumping over them. The second set has high and low flame columns. Mario can jump over the lower ones and then either roll or use Vivian to duck under the high ones.

In the following room there is a blue pile of bones, speak to it and an army of dry bones will appear and try to force Mario from the room. Hit them with the hammer to clear a path towards the blue one, who will be running away.

Once Mario reaches him, an inescapable battle ensues. Focus the powerful attacks on the blue dry bones as he will resurrect his cohorts. Area attacks are good for disabling the other enemies for a time. You may want to put Mario in the back for this fight seeing as when all 5 enemies are attacking, they deal out a large amount of damage.

Grab the key, and enter the next area. There will be a question mark box with an ultra shroom and gold bobs being fired. Navigate the bullets and head down the steps to face a second round of cannon at the bottom.

The next area has three question mark boxes containing a P-Up D-Down P badge and a Jammin' Jelly. The next room has four doors on two levels. Always travel through the door with the lit torch in front of it, or Mario will be dumped into the room before the looping hall. After going through a number of torch lit doorways, Mario finally walks into the underground city. In the center of this courtyard there are two chain chomps blocking the bridges.

Use art attack to quickly disperse of them, as their high defense and immunity to fire will protect them from most other assaults. In the center of the are there is a heart box and a save point. On the left and right sides, use Bobbery to blow up the stone chain chomps to reveal warp pipes leading to the background. Hit these switches to reveal paper boat panels. Before using these, travel to the right and through three halls until Mario meets up with Gloomtail.

Fighting Gloomtail

• HP: 80 Attack: 8 Defense: 2

This enemy will bite, stomp, and breathe poison at Mario. When Gloomtail powers up, have Vivian on the team to pull Mario into the shadows and into safety. He has 80 HP, so the battle will last for awhile, but perform stylish moves for extra star power and Mario will do just fine.

After Gloomtail is defeated, he coughs up a Star Key. Use Bobbery against the wall to the right of his head, to open up a secret area leading to an ultra shroom and jamming jelly. Return to the castle and use the paper boat panel to sail to the door.

A Room of Riddles and Keys

Here, you'll find a spiral staircase and a series of doors. Ascend towards the top of the stairs and place the Star Piece in the star-shaped slot, which will allow you to enter the eight doors you've passed. Each door contains a riddle/puzzle and a key you'll need to bring back up to the top floor and enter them in the raised columns.

On the first two floors of the palace there are four doors. On the first floor, enter the one on the right in the foreground and use Flurrie's breeze in the center of the room to find a chest with a key.

In the door behind this one, Mario can walk through the wall on the right side to find a switch. Collect this key as well.

In the room on the left side towards the foreground, hit the block on the left three times, and the block on the right twice.

In the room on the left side in the background, destroy the stone block that Mario can reach and then continue to the second floor, he cannot yet get the key in this room.

2nd Floor

In the room in the foreground on the right, hide in the shadows with Vivian to reveal a box and the key.

In the background on the right, use Bobbery to blast through the wall and get the key.

In the room on the left in the foreground you must defeat the bones in the order of their difficulty from easiest to most difficult. This is easy, because they are in order on the ground from left to right.

In the room on the left in the background, destroy the stone blocks that Mario can reach and return to the first floor. Return to the first floor. Go to the room in the background on the left side and destroy the remaining stone block, hit the switch and grab the key. Return to the 2nd floor. Go to the room in the background on the left side, destroy the remaining stone block, hit the switch and grab the key.

On the top floor, place the keys in the columns with key holes will rise from the ground. Place the keys from the rooms below into each pedestal and a stairway will rise in the room to the right of the castle. Exit the castle and walk towards the door on the right and the Shadow Sirens and "Professor Frankly" will greet Mario.

Desperate Shadows

Mario must battle the three villains once again. Doopliss has 40 HP, Marilyn has 40, and Beldam has 30. Marilyn, the great big large one, can do the most damage with her lightning strike and charged attacks. Beat her into the ground first.

If Mario has enough star power to perform an Art Attack, this will take a significant amount of HP from the whole team. Near the end of the battle, Doopliss will mimic Mario which makes him more powerful, but easier to dodge. Once on of the team members fall, work on the other two with Mario's powerful hammer attacks.?

After the battle, go through the door on the right in front of the castle and walk down the steps. Mario will be met by a few Dark Wizzerds (in the remake, these are not there). At the right side of the area, use Flurrie to blow away a section of the wall, enter the doorway and climb up the ramp.

Then use Yoshi to reach the raised door. In the next area there is a red switch on the right that triggers a timed platform that comes out of the wall. In order to reach this platform in time, hold Koops shell attack in front of the switch and climb the steps with Mario.

On the other side of the steps there is a question mark box with a cape inside and a doorway. On the other side of the door, walk up the steps to the left and enter an area with two arrow boxes. Hit the green box on the right but not the yellow one on the left. Walk back to the right and use Yoshi to cross the next gap.

Further to the right, fall down the pit and hit the blue switch with Mario's hammer. Hop on the block as it rises. Go to the right again, and hold Koops in spin mode in front of the small red arrow block. Drop down onto the large red block and release Koops and walk off to the right in the middle of the ascent. Use Yoshi to cross the gap and head through the door.

In the next area, use Mario's spring jump to reach the pipes overhead and climb across the gap. Walk through the door against the back wall to enter the next puzzling room. First, walk to the left of this room to find a chest containing a shooting star. Then, walk up the steps and throw Bobbery down to hit the red switch and bring out the platform. In the area to the left, beat the chain and notice the order of the bright stars in the background.

Walk to the left and Mario will come upon a locked door and a save point. Save the game and walk to the right, where there is a large wooden wheel. Jump to the platform on the bottom, middle of the wheel and then use Yoshi to reach the key. Return to the locked door and head on through. Grab the life shroom and roll into a tube to climb the steps. At the top of the next area, hit the boxes in the same order that the stars were lit up which is from left to right: lit, off, lit, lit, off, lit, off.

Return to the wooden wheel which is now spinning. Ride the wheel to the top where there is a box with a life shroom, then cross to the right. In the next area, use Flurrie's breath on the large block to reveal that its made of stone. Use Mario's spinning hammer to destroy it, then his butt stomp to fall through the wooden panel underneath it. In the room below, jump on top of the question mark box and jump up to find a point swap. Then walk out of the door.

The next room has a very skinny path that Mario must follow to another door and an airplane square. Fly to the first doorway, or fly to the life shroom and then return to the first doorway. In the next area, Mario should hit the red box, then hop on Yoshi for extra speed and run up the stairs to cross the gap and get the palace key. Return to the airplane panel by dropping to the bottom and using the spring on the left side and this time fly all the way across the room to a locked door. On the other side of the door there is a save point and a heart box. Be sure to use both.

Lord Grodus (and Bowser)

• HP: 50 Attack: 7 Defense: 1

The X's surrounding Grodus will boost his defense by one each. Do not let Grodus have more than 2 X's surrounding him at any given time. They will form a shield, and it will be difficult to lower his HP. Use Bobbery's area explosion attack, or earth tremor to deal damage to the whole group of enemies. Once you establish a pattern of keeping Grodus' shield down, slowly chip away at his health with hammer attacks.

When his HP is drained, Grodus will threaten Mario with suffocating the princess and then zap him with lightning. Just before Mario does battle with him again, Bowser drops through the ceiling onto Grodus' head. The King attacks Mario along with Kammy Koopa. Kammy will boost Bowser's strength and health while casting harmful effects spells on Mario. Take her out first, and the battle will be go much more smoothly. Bowser's attacks are somewhat powerful, but as long as Mario has an ultra mushroom handy to boost his HP when the going gets tough, he should be fine.

After Bowser and Kammy are knocked out, Grodus escapes through the back wall with Peach. Enter the hole, to find a stairwell with a heart box, a save point, an ultra shroom, and a jamming jelly.

At the bottom of the steps there is a doorway to the true treasure protected by the Thousand-Year Door. Grodus summons the Shadow Queen from the crypt and she uses princess peach as a vessel for her evil spirit. If you enter the room and lose against the boss inside or reload for any reason, a pipe will appear here to take you back to the entrance of the palace if you need to go back and buy items or level up. We highly recommend going to buy ultra mushrooms and some FP recovery. You're in for a marathon.

Facing Down the Shadow Queen

• HP: 150 Attack: 7 Defense: 0

The Shadow Queen uses many different powerful attacks. At first, the queen simply looks like an evil Princess Peach, but after taking 75 HP damage, she switches to a more deadly form. Once she switches forms, she becomes invincible and you need to survive for three turns for the story to progress. You must also be attacking these three turns and not just defending.

Some techniques to rely on are to use Vivian to pull Mario out of the way when the queen charges up, and to use good multi enemy attacks to get rid of the queen's evil hands and do damage to her at the same time. Do not let Mario fall below 14 HP if he doesn't have life shrooms because some of her attacks will take away just that much damage. When the battle becomes impossible, the Crystal Stars will appear and summon the energy of Mario's friends all over the island.

Mario's stats are completely replenished and the battle begins anew. Continue to use powerful hammer attacks, and Sweet Feast when Mario runs low on HP. Eventually the Shadow Queen falls to Mario and his friends and the day is saved. Congratulations! You have conquered Rogueport and vanquished the Shadow Queen.

Princess Peach is unharmed and the happy couple is reunited. The Professor also runs in after the battle with a treasure chest, it looks like Mario will finally learn the secret of the treasure Peach originally searched for! Or not. Mario and the princess sail back home after saying goodbye to all of their new friends and the adventure comes to a close.

Sit through the credits and press A at the screen showing Rogueport from a distance. Mario and Luigi are back home when Mario receives an e-mail from Goobella. All of his teammates are doing well back in Rogueport.

Mario can now return to Rogueport with all of his friends to continue collecting items and exploring the island. Talk to the professor to learn that the chest behind the Thousand Year Door contained a dried mushroom!