Leveled-Up Punchinello

Leveled-Up Punchinello is a powered-up postgame version of the same boss you fought before. After defeating him, you'll get Bowser's strongest weapon, the Wonder Chomp.

Head to Moleville again and re-enter the Mole Mines to rematch Punchinello. Once inside the Mines, keep following the arrow, going left at the first fork you come to. At the next fork with no signs, go left again. After going through the big hole in the wall, stay ground level and run along the mine cart tracks.?

You’ll get pushed back to the beginning of the tracks by a Shy Guy, but you’ll get a frog coin in the process. Now that the tracks are blocked, go up a level and continue on that way. Continue on the only path you can, and you’ll eventually run into Punchinello, who boasts about a new shield he now possesses.

This new version of Punchinello only has 1200 HP, but no weaknesses, and really high defense. Also, the Bob-ombs he drops are really hard to kill before exploding, and will probably instant kill anyone in your party if you don’t hit the really small defense window. Seems impossible, right? Thankfully, there’s a trick, but he can still be really tough.

He’ll keep dropping Bob-ombs, and they’re the only things that can do real damage to him. The bombs facing toward him will explode on him when they activate, but the ones facing towards you can be turned around towards Punchinello, although it doesn’t happen every time.

Attack all the bombs facing you to try and turn them away, but make sure you don’t attack the bombs already facing Punchinello, as they may turn back towards you. This means you should avoid special attacks that target all enemies unless all the bombs are currently facing you.?

Fortunately, the perfectly timed normal attacks that hit all enemies don’t seem to be able to turn enemies you’re not directly targeting, so don’t worry that you’ll spin a Bob-omb that’s already facing Punchinello. Once you hit him with the equivalent of 15 Bob-ombs worth of damage, he’ll go down, and you’ll get Bowser’s new Wonder Chomp weapon as a reward.