Duel-Ready Johnny

Duel-Ready Johnny is a much harder postgame version of the second phase of the earlier Johnny fight- a solo showdown with Mario, no party members included! Upon defeating him in single combat, you'll receive the Extra-Shiny Stone, the key item you need to fight the final postgame boss.

Johnny is still in the Pirate Base of the Sunken Ship. Don't worry about stocking up on items as you won't be able to use them anyway! When you face Johnny, you’ll do so only as Mario, with two team members simply granting buffs that you can see in the menu screen.

The game will give you one last chance before the battle starts to equip Mario with whatever he needs, and which party member’s buffs that you want. We recommend Geno and Bowser for the Attack and Defense buffs, and the Lazy Shell, Work Pants, and Jinx Belt. You could also equip something like the Hero Shirt from Croco in Bowser’s Keep to give Mario much higher defense, but we like the boost to attack that the Work Pants provide.

Once the battle starts, items are locked off, so all you have are your physical attacks and specials to whittle down his 2000 HP, although he is susceptible to Fear, Poison, and Mute if you want to use various items to inflict those statuses. We mostly stuck with physical attacks as you want to finish this fight quickly, and most of your success in this fight will hinge on simply defending Johnny’s various attacks. Let’s run through his list of abilities:

Physical Attack - Johnny brings his spear straight back and forward, tap A right before the spear gets to you.

Skewer - A slightly delayed spear thrust to throw off the timing with his physical attack. The spear tip will spin right before the attack lands, so look out for the move name to not get it confused!

Diamond Saw - An attack you’ve seen before. Razer snowflakes will circle around back and hit from behind. They stay off screen for quite a while, so delay your A tap just a bit to shield yourself.

Fire Saber - This one is tricky. The third sound pulse you hear happens right before the attack lands, so use that as your cue to defend.

Vigor Up and Get Tough - These last two are stat boosts, no need to defend!

After taking Johnny down, you get the Extra-Shiny Stone, which has no immediate purpose, but if you remember what the Shiny Stone did, you should have a pretty good idea where we’re going soon…