Pit of 100 Trials

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, in a room next to the titular door, is a room that leads to the Pit of 100 Trials. As the name sort of implies, there are 100 Trials (or rather, 101 Trials in the remake) contained in an area of 100 floors. Once Mario enters the Pit, he cannot leave or else he has to start all over again from Floor 1. This unforgiving gauntlet is a true survival challenge, with Mario only able to use the items, healing or otherwise, he brings into the Pit with him.

This guide has tips and strategies for you to make it all the way through the harrowing Pit of 100 Trials, as well as the sort of enemies and rewards you can expect way down in the hole.

Though you technically have access to the Pit of 100 Trials partway through the Prologue, you likely won’t get to it until just after Chapter 1. Even so, we strongly recommend not taking the challenge to go deep into the Pit until after Chapter 5, when you are higher leveled and have access to all recruitable Partners. You’ll also probably want to make it down to at least Floor 50 once before you start a real descent, as you’ll get the item that increases your storage to 20.

Jump to:

How to Find the Pit of 100 Trials (and How it Works)
Recommended Badges and Items for Pit of 100 Trials
- Badges
- Items
Rewards
Bosses

How to Find the Pit of 100 Trials (and How it Works)

The Pit is just to the left of the Thousand-Year Door itself. You can access it as soon as you are “cursed” with the power to become a paper airplane during the Prologue. If entering from the right side, you can jump on a spring to reach the paper plane tile, then fly all the way to the left. The room this leads to is the Pit of Trials.

On this top floor of the Pit, there are several signs warning you of the things to come, including that you cannot leave the Pit or else you’ll start over at Floor 1. There are warp pipes leading back to the surface every 10 Floors should you wish to leave at any point. You’ll also get a reward every 10 Floors.

Every few floors, randomly, you might get a chance to find a digger who can tunnel you down several floors if you have enough coins to pay them. This can allow you to skip some floors and enemies.

The enemies for every floor will get progressively stronger. There are no recovery or save squares at any point in the Pit.

The enemies you’ll find on every floor are never the same every time. Every 10 floors, there are a certain roster of enemies that are available to face and you can face any combination of them the lower you go (the further down, the more enemies you’ll have). Most of them are enemies you can face during the story, but around Floor 70 or so, you start to face Pit exclusive enemies that are superstrong versions of enemies you’ve found before.

Recommended Badges and Items for Pit of 100 Trials

Depending on how much BP you have, you might not be able to equip all these Badges at once, however, these are definitely the best ones to consider taking into the Pit. This also isn’t a definitive list, as any Badge or build can be viable in the appropriate circumstance, but these give you the best chance at anything that comes your way.

Badges

All or Nothing - if you fancy yourself good at action commands, it adds extra oomph to all of Mario’s attacks. Not accessible until the Shadow Palace, however
Feeling Fine and Feeling Fine P - especially in the second half of the Pit, status effects will turn the tide of battle, so get rid of them entirely with these.
Fire Drive - causes burn, hits multiple enemies, and ignores defense. Reward for getting to Floor 20 of the Pit.
Flower Saver and Flower Saver P - your “mana” as it were to cast skills becomes a premium, especially with no healing squares available.
Flower/Heart Finder - If you find yourself low on items, this is an excellent way to recover as you go
Power Plus and Power Plus P - Quickest way to raise attack stats, though it costs a hefty 6 BP to equip
P-Up, D-Down and P-Up, D-Down P - Stacking multiples of these Badges atop one another was one of the go-to strategies in the original GameCube TTYD and remains viable in the remake, though they’re more expensive to make up for this.
Quick Change - You’ll find yourself swapping strategies and partners quite frequently, so the freedom to not lose a turn and swap partners is invaluable.
Spike Shield - Eliminates the hazard of jumping on spiked foes and is essential to Multibounce and Jumpman builds.
Super Appeal and Super Appeal P - You’ll find that your best way to heal up in the Pit is to Floor up. Your Star Powers will also save you plenty of times against tough enemies. This is a great way to get both easier.
Zap Tap - Prevents enemies from touching you, bandits from stealing from you, and allows Mario to hit other electrified foes. Reward at Floor 30 of the Pit.

Items

Similar to the above Badges, any item can be useful in certain circumstances, but these are the most recommended, especially given limited bag space. Some of these items can be found much easier by cooking with Zess T. For more information on that, take a look at our All Zess T. Recipes and Effects page.

Boo’s Sheet - makes you invisible for two turns
Jammin’ Jelly - heals 50 FP
Jelly Candy - heals 64 FP
Jelly Ultra - Heals 50 HP and 50 FP
Life Mushroom - revives fallen ally and restores 10 HP or heals 10 HP when used normally
Power Punch - Increases attack for two turns
Shooting Star - Does 6 damage to all enemies, regardless of defense
Stopwatch - Freezes enemies for three turns
Thunder Rage - Deals 5 damage to all enemies, regardless of defense
Ultra Mushroom - Heals 50 HP
Volt Mushroom - Gives target “electrified” status for five turns
Zess Deluxe - Heals 40 HP and 40 FP (and easy to make)
Zess Dynamite - Deals 7 Damage to all enemies, regardless of defense

Rewards

Every 10 floors you clear in the Pit, you’ll be offered a treasure chest containing a reward. All of these are incredibly useful Badges, with the exception of the Strange Sack and some bonus items on the final floor. You can accept this reward and return to the surface, or you can choose to keep going - you do not have to keep going in order to accept the reward.

Floor	Reward	Effect
10	Sleepy Stomp	If done correctly, can put enemies to sleep
20	Fire Drive	On successful action command, hits all ground enemies, also burns them
30	Zap Tap	Makes Mario electrified and damages enemies with contact moves
40	Pity Flower	A chance to restore 1 FP in battle
50	Strange Sack	Special item that increases items you can carry to 20, up from 15 in the remake and double the 10 of the original
60	Double Dip	Allows Mario to use up to two items in one turn
70	Double Dip P	Allows a partner to use up to two items in one turn
80	Bump Attack	Instantly kills enemies that would otherwise only drop 1 Star Point in the overworld. Does not work in Pit of 100 Trials.
90	Lucky Day	Great chance to evade enemy attacks
100 (after defeating Bonetail)	Return Postage	Makes direct-attackers take 1/2 the damage they do
100 (after defeating Tap to Reveal)	Tap to Reveal	No effect; really only stands as a trophy for defeating Tap to Reveal
100 (after defeating Tap to Revealmore than once)	Tap to Reveal	Restores 25 HP and 25 FP

Bosses

Once you brave the trials of the entire Pit of 100 Trials, the 100th floor presents itself with a superboss, Bonetail, eldest sibling of Hooktail and Gloomtail. Her stats are as follows:

HP: 200
Attack: 8
Defense: 2

Once you defeat Bonetail and brave the 100 Trials again in the 2024 remake, you can fight a super bonus superboss, Tap to Reveal. This also only activates if Tap to Reveal Their stats are as follows:

HP: 108
Attack: 10
Defense:

Completed Pit of 100 Trials