6th Star Piece - Nimbus Land and Barrel Volcano Walkthrough

In the Sixth Chapter of Mario’s new adventure in Super Mario RPG Remake, we’ll be heading to the skies via Bean Valley to reach Nimbus Land, and explore the Nimbus Castle to depose a treacherous tyrant, and venture into Barrel Volcano to fight a dragon and an elite fighting force of the Smithy Gang to claim the sixth Star Piece.

• Jump To:
• Bean Valley
• Bean Valley Boss
• Beanstalk
• Nimbus Land
• Nimbus Castle
• Nimbus Castle First Boss
• Nimbus Castle Final Boss
• Barrel Volcano
• Barrel Volcano Boss
• Smithy Gang Boss

After visiting Monstro Town and speaking Monstermama, you'll finally have a heading to seek out the sixth Star Piece, up in the clouds above Land's End. With the help of a Paratroopa squadron, you can now access a new area!

Head back to the Land's End Desert (either by using your map to fast travel back and take the long way, or pay the Shaman in the Belome Temple 100 Coins, and you can find the passage to the north in the last area with the sand whirlpools leading down to the temple.

In this area, the Paratroopas have now gathered, and Sergeant Flutter will task you to climb up the cliff wall using the koopa shells as platforms. Note that many of the shells will move slightly, so make sure your next jump lines up before taking it.

Once you reach the top, you'll find that you can return here later to try and beat record times for ascending the cliff - get a good score, and you'll be awarded a Troopa Medal!

Bean Valley

In Bean Valley, you'll run into a lot of familiar enemies that were also in Land's End, like the poisonous Stingers, Fink Flowers, and Octovaders that can deal poison, mute, sleep, or even transmute your allies into mushrooms.

The first area will feature two warp pipes that take you to different places. The left one leads literally nowhere, so take the pipe on the right.

Take the warp pipe north of the hidden treasure chest, and you'll arrive at the exit to this first area, but be sure to find a warp pipe to the south and take that one first.

This path leads to a Treasure Chest with a Flower.

Taking the north path to reach the second main area in Bean Valley, you'll arrive at an interesting sight: five warp pipes have small little piranha plants (called Chewys) in them, and a flying Beezo will wander around to water each of them in turn, growing them to full size.

In order to explore each of the five warp pipes, you'll need to wait for the plant to get watered, and then defeat the Chewy, and then hop into the pipe. The Chewy enemies will likely be joined by confused Geckits or artichoke-like Kriffids that can be a pain to deal with, so consider using Mallow's Snowy ability to clear the room quickly.

Each of the warp pipes leads to a different underground area that have a few points of interest worth noting:

In the southwestern pipe, you'll find a Treasure Chest that has a slot machine inside. Match at least 2 to get a prize!

In the far west pipe, you'll find another Treasure Chest that has a slot machine inside.

While you're in the eastern warp pipe, be sure to look behind an alcove under the stairs for a Frog Coin, take the springboard on the upper level to find a Treasure Chest with another Frog Coin, but beware of the first Treasure Chest in the underground area that hides a mimic, the Pleaseno.

Like other mimics, this one is very strong, is only weak to Jump attacks, and has a lot of powerful attacks like a fear-inducing scream or point blank explosions. It can also summon enemies, but instead of having to fight off Microgoombas, you'll intead have to contend with a Jinnie.

The Jinnie also has a lot of health and can summon devestating attacks like group-wide boulder attacks, aurora flashes that damage and put you to sleep, and water blasts. Be sure to have Peach as a dedicated healer to group heal constantly (Don't use Mallow since they are immune to lightning)!

Be aware that the Pleaseno can also appear if you get one of every type in the slot machine treasure chests!

Before entering the northern warp pipe, there's a bit of a detour to make first. Save at the Save Point above, then return to Booster's Tower. Look about halfway up the tower to find Knife Guy at the top of a set of stairs, who will challenge you to pick which hand the yellow ball he juggles lands in. You'll need to win 15 rounds, and any rounds you lose get counted against your overall total. As a tip, watch for the ball crossing over to the right - if you see it pass right before her stops, there's a good chance the ball is son the right side. If you don't see it passing right before he stops, it's still to the left.

Complete 15 correct guesses against all the wrong guesses, and he'll give you the Bright Card, which Knife Guy says lets you into his brother's casino.

That casino just happens to be in the northern warp pipe in Bean Valley! Once you drop down, you'll find some Geckits and a Chomp Chomp enemy near the top left.

Defeat it, then jump up in the far corner to the left of where the enemy was to uncover a floating yellow platform.

Take it up and head left to find a path to Grate Guy's Casino. With the Bright Card you'll be allowed entry inside to play three different games of chance:

• The Toad on the left has a slot machine game like the ones you played in some of the other warp pipes. For these you'll have to match all 3, but getting 3 Mushrooms will earn you a Mid Mushroom, 3 Flowers nets a Honey Syrup, and 3 Stars gains you an Energizer.

• The Toad on the right used to run a blackjack game in the SNES version, but gambling is a risky business, so instead you can play a memory game to match the locations of three characters. Get them all right, and you'll earn a Party Cleanse.

• Talk to Grate Guy himself for a bit to play a very underwhelming game of Look the Other Way where you... look in the other direction. A bit silly, but if you happen to beat him 100 times, he'll give you the Star Egg as a reward to use in battle to deal 100 damage to all enemies on screen.

With all the warp pipes explored, make sure you save before heading up the path to the north. Up here, you'll find the flying Beezo watering a Piranha Plant, but this is no ordinary plant.

Boss Battle - Megasmilax

• Recommended Level: 17
• Recommended Party: Mario, Mallow, Peach
• Recommended Accessories: Trueform Pin (Mario), Safety Badge (Peach), Wake-Up Pin (Mallow)

When this fight begins, you'll only be fighting a single Smilax plant which doesn't have much health nor much for attacks beyond some fireballs, so stick to regular timed attacks for now.

When it goes down, the flying Shy Guy will pass by and water it, bringing up two Smilax to fight this time. When they fall, three will be risen for the next round. They'll start pestering you with fireballs, chomps, and Pollen Naps to try and put your team to sleep.

Once the three Smilax have been defeated, Megasmilax will appear along with two regular Smilax. This is your cue to have Mallow use all your FP on his Snowy ability to deal mega damage to the whole group, and hopefully take out the two extra enemies quickly so you can focus all of your other regular timed attacks on the main boss.

Megasmilax will often try using a Petal Shower or Scarecrow Dust to turn your party into mushrooms and scarecrows, which may be nice for an extra heal, but they can't do much else until cleansed. With the Trueform Pin and Safety Badge, at least two of your characters can avoid the brunt of this (even as a scarecrow, Mallow can still use his Snowy attack).

Press the attack once the two extra enemies go down and heal up when any Flame Walls break your defenses, and keep using Cleansing Juice or timing Peach's heals to revert anyone under the effect of status changes so you can keep fighting until the boss goes down.

Important Note: When the battle concludes, the buzzing Shy Guy will take off to the north, leaving a small note behind that holds a Seed you should really collect!

Take the warp pipe that the Megasmilax was in, and you'll end up in a small area with a brick block. Jump into it from below to summon a massive vine, taking you up and away to the Beanstalk area.

Beanstalk

This short area leading to the skies above is filled with large corkscrew-like beanstalks that you can climb, but can be a bit tricky to manage due to how the controls work when climbing. You can give yourself a refresher by reading the note next to the first vine going up.

Several patrolling Birdies can be found in this area, and are also often flanked by extremely large Big Troopas. Wait for the Birdies to fly close and hold their spears back to block at just the right time, but you'll likely want to prioritize the big damage coming from the Big Troopas.

Luckily the big guys take an extra turn to prepare their attack, and warn you of what's to come. When they launch forward, they'll make 2 short bounces before going high to splat on you for a lot of damage, so block right on their big downward fall. Mario's Super Jump can be extremely useful for taking them out quickly!

As you climb up the first vine, get to the very top to jump on the center, then turn and jump towards the yellow vine with 3 Coins.

You can then jump to the blue vine and pivot around to the far side, where you'll find a Frog Coin above a floating platform.

In the second area of the Beanstalk, grab the treasure chest with the Flower, and start climbing up the red vine to find a Frog Coin at its top. Jump to the blue vine next and continue your ascent to the top of the blue vine, where you'll find two paths up:

The green vine has 3 Coins, but jump back to the other side once you claim them to reach the yellow vine that has 2 Coins and a Frog Coin, and then head up.

The third area can be a bit tricky, as it requires knowing where to jump from vine to vine. Start by climbing up blue and then red vine to get 2 Coins, where you'll see a small yellow vine and a long green vine far to the left. It may look like you can jump from the yellow vine, but ignore it and keep climbing the red vine to find a floating platform going up to a Frog Coin.

Now, to reach the green vine, jump to the yellow vine, but jump straight up from the top of the vine instead of to the left, and you'll reveal a hidden floating yellow platform. Climb back up the red vine so that you can reach it, and use its leverage to safely reach the green vine taking you all the way up.

You're reward for making it up the last of the vines is a platform that holds two Treasure Chests, one with a Frog Coin, and the other with a Defense Scarf!

To continue, jump into the second hole in the clouds to find another platform with two Treasure Chests that both contain Flowers, and keep falling down the next hole.

Finally, you'll reach an area where two Nimbus guards forbid you from entering a hot spring, but point you to a springboard sending you upward. The spring to the right will send you back to the world map, and the spring on the left will send you straight to Nimbus Land.

Nimbus Land

Arriving in a literal cloud kingdom, you'll find residents gathered in front of a castle where an interim ruler named Valentina is parading around a giant bird as the missing Prince Mallow... wait, don't we know a Mallow?

The new turn of events is apparently lost on our party member, so for the moment you can look around the town to check out its various homes, like the Item Shop located just to the left of where you arrive:

There's a lot of good upgrades here, so be sure to sell your old gear if you need to get some extra funds, and get the Mega Glove and Fluffy Shirt for Mario, the Sticky Glove and Fluffy Pants for Mallow, the Hand Cannon and Fluffy Cape for Geno, and the War Fan and Fluffy Dress for Peach.

Off to the left of the town past the Item Shop, you can find an Inn to stop by and use the Save Point. As an added bonus, you can also use the Dream Cushion for 30 extra Coins. Doing so will give Mario a random dream, which can sometimes result in you getting an item!

The path to the northwest leads to an empty area where some sort of Cloud Bus should be parked, but its absent for now. Instead look for the home to the right of of the path to this area, and you'll find a sculptor's home filled with gold statues of Valentina, as well as a statue of Mallow himself!

Once the sculptor realizes the true heir as returned, you'll need a way to get inside the castle and find Mallow's parents. A plan will be formed to smuggle Mario and the team inside by posing them as more statues for Valentina's collection, and you'll be able to access the the castle this way when you're all stocked up on supplies and ready to go.

Nimbus Castle

Upon entering the castle in your disguise, the sculptor Garro will present you to Valentina, and after successfully pitching her on the idea of a mustachoid statue, she'll have her giant bird Dodo come whisk you away to a gallery room -- but not before taking a few pecks at some statues.

When Dodo leaves the room, hop down and be sure to use the Save Point in the next room before trying to leave, as the giant bird isn't done with you yet.

After trying to leave, you'll hear him coming back, prompting another game similar to how you had to hide from Booster behind the curtains.

Prepare yourself in time with the beat of the music, and when Dodo comes over to peck at you, jump at the last moment to dodge his attack. He'll do a double take, and then continue back the other way. On his second pass, be ready for him to sprint back to you for another peck.

Keep this up, and the next time he pecks at you, he'll leave the room, but you can see him sprint out of bounds to try and surprise you from the opposite side - you'll still need to wait for the last moment to jump over his peck!

If you jump too often and too soon, or let him peck you three times, you'll be pulled into a battle with Dodo. Even though it looks like a boss fight, he's pretty weak at this stage and won't last more than a few turns, and only gives a tiny amount of XP.

However, if you can evade all his pecks, and he leaves the area, you can return to the Save Point to find a Feather, an accessory that's a vast improvement over the Zoom Shoes!

Once you leave the room, you'll find yourself in a 4-way corridor where two Birdy enemies will ruin your disguise (but aren't bright enough to notice). Because of this, you can consider any other room you walk into to be a hostile environment.

There are a lot of paths to take here, but we'll check off each area in time. For now, take the northeastern door to a hall with several Sling Shys and Pinwheel enemies. The new Shy Guys have their Scarecrow Bells and Elegy attacks, but other than that there isn't anything too worrisome to challenge you yet.

At this point Bowser's weapon can probably take out most foes with a single timed hit, so just focus on taking out support enemies like Orbisons that can heal or use other status effects.

Past the hall with the Shys and Pinwheels, you'll end up in a small room with a Birdy statue and Treasure Chest that holds a Mushroom. Be warned, interacting with the statue will pit you against a horde of the enemies, but a single Mecha Koopa ability from Bowser is usually all it takes to take them all out in a single hit.

Head to the next room, and take note as its an important area. A long hallway has three sets of doors, the middle of which is guarded by a Big Troopa. Other enemies roam all over the place, including hostile Shamans that can use a variety of elemental attacks and the Diamond Saw move from the Marrymore cake boss.

Ignore the Big Troopa for the moment, and check the very top northern corner of the hall for a Treasure Chest with a Flower.

Take the first door below the Big Troopa to find a short room with Shamans and Birdy statues that come alive, and duck around them if you can.

The room beyond will lead to a dead end room with a higher platform above you can't reach yet, but at least you can jump up to the Treasure Chest here and get a Flower. You may also run into a Bluebird here, which are more powerful versions of the Birdy enemies who use Crystal attacks alongside their spears.

Back in the hallway with the three doors and Big Troopa, enter the door above the middle past the Big Troopa to the right of the treasure chest, and head through another short room.

In the next hall, you'll find a corridor leading to stairs down to where a Jawful sits (or sleeps) blocking the path to the next room. Jawfuls usually start the fight fast asleep, giving you time to defeat other enemies that come with them before jolting them awake with a direct attack.

Once you've claimed both hidden treasures, move into the room the Jawful was guarding to find the castle's true staff locked up. Speak to them to get some info on Valentina, a mysterious egg that's in the castle somewhere, and use the Save Point. Be sure to also talk to the resident in blue to get a Flower Jar, and to the guy in the left corner to gain a Master Key!

This key will finally let you unlock the door the Big Troopa was guarding in that big hallway with the three doors, but there's one last area to explore first.

Return to the hallway and run straight past the Big Troopa to the next hallway in the top northwest corner.

This will put you above an area with a lower room that leads back to the entrance hall and 4-way corridor you started out in. Clear the room of enemies, then jump down to the lower path and get the Treasure Chest with a Flower inside.

Work your way back to the entrance hall, and then take the straight path through the 4-way corridor and back to the hall with the guarded locked door. You can finally beat up the Big Troopa guarding it and use your Master Key to unlock the door behind him.

This leads to the large egg that the staff mentioned earlier, which is being watered by that same flying Shy Guy named Beezo you met earlier. When he flees, you can talk to the egg, and agree to play to be drawn into a battle!

Boss Battle - Birdo

• Recommended Level: 18
• Recommended Party: Mario, Bowser, Peach
• Recommended Accessories: Defense Scarf, Ghost Medal

This fight has a few interesting mechanics, one of which a staff member may have hinted at earlier in the room they were all locked up in. To begin you will only be facing "Shelly" but the egg shell has no attacks, so you can simply used timed regular attacks to break the shell.

Doing so will release Birdo, who will welcome you with a barrage of egg attacks.

They can hit pretty hard, so having defensive accessories helps, and try to block when the third egg is about to hit. Other than that, you should keep focusing on using timed attacks with everyone, while Peach heals as needed.

Once Birdo mentions that "now it's my turn. Get it while it's hot!" She'll start shooting out singular egg attacks at you. At this point, you should have Bowser and Peach press B to select Defend, and try to get the timing down if the singular eggs are shot at Mario to block them. If the egg is shot at a character who is in Defense mode, or you block at the attack with a timed press, the egg will bounce off them and land next to Birdo. The egg, called "Eggbert" only has 10 HP, but if attacked, will explode and detonate for 80 damage to Birdo!

All you need to do at this point is to keep defending and blocking, while having Mario punch any Eggberts that land next to Birdo, and eventually she'll pull back into her shell, and the battle will be over.

Birdo will toss you Castle Key 2, which unlocks the far door and allows you to leave this area and proceed further into the castle.

In the room past the Pinwheel and Jawful, you'll find a hall with a locked door that states that King Nimbus is resting. When Beezo passes by to find Valentina, follow him out the other door, where you'll need to take out another Big Troopa guarding a door.

Inside, you'll find Valentina and her Dodo minion as Beezo comes to warn them about you. Once they spot Mario, they'll flee out the back door, so go give chase!

Use the Save Point in the next room and head into the hall beyond while dodging Bluebirds. Halfway through the second hall, you can spot a Treasure Chest high up, so jump straight up from below the chest to reveal a hidden floating platform to use to open up a Super Star!

Immediately bowl through the remaining Bluebirds in your way and make a beeline for the next room. The Super Star has an extremely short lifespan, but if you're quick, you can mow down Dodo in the next room as he slowly walks down. This can save you a lot of time instead of having to do a drawn out fight against Dodo when you're going to fight him again soon anyways.

Head down the hall past where Dodo was walking to reach... a long drop! You'll land back at the entrance to the hot spring, so use the springboard to bounce back up to Nimbus Land, and you'll catch up to Valentina outside the Nimbus Castle.

Boss Battle - Valentina

• Recommended Level: 19
• Recommended Party: Mario, Bowser, Peach
• Recommended Accessories: Trueform Pin (Mario), Ghost Medal (Bowser), Safety Badge (Peach)

Right when the battle begins, Valentina will sick Dodo to drag out whoever the middle character in your party is, and fight them one on one.

Ideally, this should be Bowser, as he has very strong attacks, and good defense bolstered by the Ghost Medal. Dodo is also susceptible to both Fear and Poison if you'd like to debuff the guy before you lay into him.

After using your status effects on him, just have Bowser focus on timed regular attacks with his heavy hitting Chomp, and Dodo will retreat, and Bowser will make his way back to the other fight.

You'll then come back to take control of Mario and Peach vs. Valentina. She has no weaknesses to speak of, so you can either just use Super Jumps with timed hits to rack up damage, or save your FP for having Peach heal as needed.

Valentina has a Light Bubble attack much like Belome, as well as Megasmilax's Petal Show to put your team to sleep or turn them into Mushroom, but with the Safety Badge Peach can be clear to cure effects, and you can also give Mario an accessory to negate certain effects or just rely on curing status effects as they come.

She can also deal a regular slap attack, plus a few other moves like the Crystal attack, Pain Spout and Water Blast against the whole party.

After taking a good bit of damage, Dodo and Bowser should return to the right, but by this point you can ignore Dodo entirely and just have Mario and Bowser focus on timed regular attacks, and use the Starry Shell Spike against the enemy team when your Gauge Meter is at 100.

With enough damage dealt, Valentina will order Dodo to lift her up into the sky, and the duo will flee Nimbus Land and end the fight.

They'll drop a key as they leave, and you can let Mallow rush in and use it to rescue his parents. Once the waterworks are over, you can head in to get introduced to them. You'll finally learn where the 6th Star Piece is - fallen into the nearby Barrel Volcano!

After the scene ends, you can talk to the King and Queen, and then head back down the hall to find the room they were locked up in.

The staff have moved back into this room, and if you speak to the man against the back wall who gave you the Master Key, he'll now give you a Flower Jar!

As you exit Nimbus Castle, there's still a few important things to do here now that things are back to the way they should be.

Head to the southeast corner of the town and enter a small house east of the castle. Inside you'll find none other than Croco ransacking the place, who will quickly flee the area, but not before accidentally dropping an item. If you're playing the original SNES version, you'll finally get the Signal Ring, but if you're playing the new Super Mario RPG Remake and already got that at the start of the game, you'll get the Echo Signal Ring instead, which will beep to help pinpoint the exact location of hidden treasures!

As you exit the home in the southeast of Nimbus Land, you have an opportunity to get the most powerful weapon and armor in the game! Head directly south from the doorway Croco exited, and walk down and to the right between two lower cloud tufts that compose the border of where you can walk.

If done correctly, you'll actually be able to walk out onto the sky in a straight line down and right, and bump into the Beezo, the Shy Guy Gardener. Busted, he'll trade you some special Fertilizer if you let him go.

Now that you have both Seed and Fertilizer, it's time to find someone who will make use of them. Open up your map and return to Rose Town outside the Forest Maze, and look for a new path out of town to the Northeast.

This leads to a lone home that wasn't accessible before, and inside you'll find an eccentric gardener looking for the ultimate Seed and Fertilizer. Hand them over (and survive his crazy ramblings) and he'll water the new plant, which will erupt into a giant beanstalk that crashes out of the house.

Leave the home and you can find a stack of crates to jump on and reach the beanstalk, and take it up to a high cloud platform.

Here you'll find two Treasure Chests that hold the Lazy Shell weapon for Mario, and the Lazy Shell armor that anyone can use to drastically increase their defense at the expense of lowered attack stats!

When you're ready to move onward, return to Nimbus Land and exit the town to drop back down the hole in the cloud platforms to the two guards, who now recognize Mallow as royalty, allowing you access to the Hot Springs.

The springs have rejuvenating qualities, and give you a full heal when you jump inside. The real goal however is located just beyond to the southeast - an exit that will literally drop you into the heart of Barrel Volcano!

Barrel Volcano

As you exit the springboard cave in the Barrel Volcano, you'll find a trail of platforms across the magma, with another path going up the ledges where a few Magmus enemies wander. These foes are similar to the ones found in the Mole Mines, and are highly armored against physical attacks, but like most enemies in the Volcano, will fall quickly to Mallow's Snowy ability.

Before you take any other route, be sure to hop across the small rocky platforms going southeast across the lava, and you'll arrive at a small island with two Treasure Chests holding two Flowers. Be ready for Laval Babbles to ambush you on the return.

Back at the cave entrance, hop up the ledges behind the cave to enter a new area.

Here you'll find upgraded versions of the Dry Bones, who still have 0 HP and will fall to any ability (but it's better to use Pure Waters to quickly end the fight). They can also be joined by Chained Kongs who are fairly durable, throwing rocks and fire attacks, but are very weak to ice.

Outside the narrow tunnel, you can find another Treasure Chest with a Flower, and a path leading up to the right to another Treasure Chest with 100 Coins.

As soon as you reach the next lava-filled corridor, hit the nearby Treasure Chest to grab a Super Star, and quickly weave through the path taking out any Magmus you come across.

You'll want to move quickly into the next cave, as the high platform above you can jump up has an enormous Stompillar enemy covered in Urspike, letting you crash through them to defeat them before your star power runs out.

Head up the next cave stairway and either demolish the Vormer or avoid them if your star power runs out, and leave out the other side.

In the next area, there are several Lava Babbles jumping out of the magma outside a narrow path that rings the area. You can spot a Frog Coin up by a large rock in the lava, and since you can't actually die falling in, jump towards it, and you'll be flung back to the start.

When you reach the next area, jump across the platforms among the magma and dodge Lava Babbles as you do to reach the far side. You'll spot a Frog Coin high above the exit, but since you get flung back to where you entered if you fall in lava, head through the passageway first, them come back out before jumping into the lava. You'll be shot in the air towards the tunnel opening, grabbing the Frog Coin in the process.

The next room is full of Vormer wandering around, and a few floating block platforms you can hop across to bypass them. The trick is that these donut-shaped blocks won't stay up forever, so you'll need to be quick and decisive. Jump up the first two blocks to reach a Frog Coin at the top, then jump back to safe land on the other side, and move left to find a third donut block with another Frog Coin on it.

The room beyond is rumbling and full of Urspike enemies that are immune to Jump attacks, but not ice. Further ahead, you can find the source of the rumbling is a Stumpet enemy on the ledge above creating Magmus enemies as it rumbles.

Heading below the Stumpet into the next area, you can find a Treasure Chest with a Flower on the way up to the high platform with a Save Point to use, and a Treasure Chest behind it with a Frog Coin.

Now you can head back into the previous room to confront the Stumpet. It will summon Magmus enemies alongside it, and begin to rumble on its first turn as it gets furious. Prioritize Mallow's Snowy attack to quickly eliminate the group, or you'll get hit by its powerful Backfire attack to send flaming Magmus at you.

Make your way past more Urspikes and Vormer in the next narrow passageway, and take the left exit to find another passage with stairs up to a high platform. Another one of the Stormpillars blocks the exit with more Urspikes. The Stormpillar is a very tough and powerful enemy that is actually composed of two parts - its face and body.

Destroying the face first will cause the body to explode with a Migrane attack that can easily down a party member in one hit, so try destroying the slightly more durable body first, and the head will just disappear!

Clear out any last Urspikes in the way to head out the exit, where one more Stumpet will be waiting for you. Take the right path that it was blocking and move through the room beyond to find a very strange looking Toad who looks like he was inspired by Guy Fieri.

Make sure to grab the 100 Coins from the Treasure Chest next to him before you talk. Cinder Toad, as he's called, will invite you inside to rest and shop at his humble abode, where he'll sell items at the left counter, a bed to rest on in the middle, and a armor shop on the right:

Like with the Nimbus Land shop, almost everything you'll find here is a good upgrade, so get the the Fire Shirt for Mario, Fire Pants for Mallow, Fire Cape for Geno, Fire Dress for Peach -- and the Fire Shell should finally be a distinct upgrade from the Work Pants for Bowser!

Be sure to take a look at the cool Nintendo ships in the far right corner, than exit the Cinder Toad's home and use the Save Point outside.

In the next area, there's a long path of floating donut blocks above the lava that Lava Babbles are also jumping around, which will require a bit of timing to safely cross while not getting drawn into battles.

Once you reach the other side, you'll find a large room where the Dragon of the volcano sleeps, and will awaken to fight you!

Boss Battle - Czar Dragon

• Recommended Level: 20
• Recommended Party: Mario, Mallow, Peach
• Recommended Accessories: Any

Mallow is a big key to this fight, so keeping him alive should be a priority. Because of this, it's not a bad idea to have Peach as the dedicated healer (with the Lazy Shell Armor so she won't be damaged much), unless you think you don't need one.

The Czar Dragon has more than a few attacks, like the unlockable Water Blast or Flame Wall, plus a lunging bite attack you'll need to block as his head slams downward after raising up.

Let Mario focus on using his Lazy Shell with timed regular attacks, while Mallow uses his Snowy Ability. After a bit of damage, the Dragon will summon a group of fire orbs called Helio, which only have 10 health a piece, but can explode at you with great force.

As long as you keep Mallow on Snowy duty, they'll be obliterated before they can do much else.

With enough damage dealt, the Czar Dragon will fall into the magma depths, but will soon be reborn as the Zombone. His new form sports new attacks, like Boulders that can target the whole group, or a Scream ability to inflict Fear on Mario, which you should dispel or give him a Fearless Pin before the fight.

His new form also has new weaknesses, so pivot away from Snowy and have Mallow use Shocker instead, while Mario continues to use regular timed attacks, or Super Jumps if you have the FP to spare.

Keep piling on the damage while Peach keeps the team topped off on health, and the second form of this dragon will collapse, finally ending the fight.

When you reach the next room, you can find the sixth Star Piece, and grab it... or not!?

A strange weapon-wielding enemy will snatch it from you, joined by a fighting force known as the Axem Rangers!

When they take off, give chase to keep following them as they try and keep the Star Piece. You'll have to do a bit of platforming and jumping across several rooms, but they'll always be one step ahead of you.

Finally, you can reach a springboard to take you to the top of the Barrel Volcano, where the Axem Rangers are trying to make a getaway on their flying axe ship known as the Blade. Don't let them escape!

Boss Battle - Axem Rangers

• Recommended Level: 20
• Recommended Party: Mario, Mallow/Bowser, Peach
• Recommended Accessories: Any

This fight seems incredibly daunting, and getting hit by some many attacks can make it look unfair, but if you focus evening out the odds, you can level the playing field and have an easier time surviving. For this reason it's a good idea to have Mallow as he can quickly pivot between most targets to hit them where it hurts, but you can also consider using Bowser to hit large portions of their team with either Fear or Poison to weaken and whittle them down over time.

Each member of the team attacks differently, so it can be tough to get a handle on their attacks. Axem Red and Black attack very fast (black can also toss bombs high to shake things up), while Axem Yellow will make a show by jumping up, and then spinning his axe around before actually hitting you (or can trick you with a very quick dashing body slam). Meanwhile Pink will be healing and Green will be using debuffs like Elegy to try and mute you.

If you'd rather focus on them one at a time (which we recommend), start with Axem Pink, who is the group healer and needs to be removed first. Have Mario take her out with a Super Fireball or two, while Peach focuses on healing and Mallow assists with either role.

When the Pink Ranger goes down, target Axem Green next to stop his debuffs and unblockable group attacks by using Snowy, and its group damage should also weaken the rest of the group, especially Axem Red who is also weak to ice attacks. Mario can follow up at this point with regular timed attacks from his Lazy Shell.

With Axem Green down, take out Axem Black next with some well-timed Shocker attacks to electrocute him, while having Mario be ready to follow up with Super Jumps on Axem Yellow afterward.

This will leave just Axem Red in the fight, and against the might of the Lazy Shell and Snowy, even his high health won't matter when he's all alone. He can still use Vigor up to increase his attacks, so Peach should always be topping off your crew with Group Hugs and Therapy!

When all the Axem Rangers are defeated, they'll power up the robotic head of the ship, The Blade, to power up its Breaker Beam. The beam from this guy hits extremely hard, which is why you should be keeping the group topped off, as it can easily deal 100 damage to characters who don't have much in the way of defense.

The good news is The Blade needs a turn to power up between blasts, so you'll want to hit it with everything you've got, using your Triple Attack if its ready, having Mallow unleash his Shocker ability with Mario sticks with regular timed hits from the Lazy Shell, and Peach either heals or replenishes FP so you're not caught off guard.

Deal enough damage to the head, and it too will power down, forcing the ship to crash, as your team gets away with the sixth Star Piece intact!

After the fight, you can return to Nimbus Land and go back to see the King and Queen. They'll be happy to hear you've found the Star Piece, but that still leaves one last piece to be found. The last place you haven't looked in all the lands is right back where you started - Bowser's Keep.

Luckily, the Nimbus King has a plan for this, restoring the Royal Bus to the north of town to be used to fly down and cross the chasm to reach what was previously unreachable.

Before you leave, head pack the throne room and down the corridor where you found the Super Star to chase down Dodo, and you'll now found a Treasure Chest here instead with a Flower.

Now is a good time to return to Moleville, as the Treasure-hunting Toad now sells both a Feather if you got caught by Dodo, as well as what he calls a Metal Plate, which is actually a Frying Pan weapon for Peach!

The final encounter is soon approaching, so be sure to stock up on health and FP items, buy anything accessories you missed, and prepare to assault Bowser's Keep for the seventh Star Piece!