Badge Compendium - Guide for Paper Mario
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Paper Mario Badge Compendium An In-Depth Guide for the Graphical RPG for the Nintendo 64 Created by Teirlap Carooe TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- I. Introduction II. What's a Badge? III. Badge List A. Jump Attack Badges B. Hammer Attack Badges C. Enhancement Badges IV. Special Thanks V. Version History VI. Copyright and Contact Info I. INTRODUCTION --------------- Hail all. I am Teirlap Carooe, the writer, editor-in-chief, producer, public relations chief and playtester of this, the 'Paper Mario Badge Compendium'. I recently started playing Paper Mario, and amazed at the lack of coverage on the wide array of 'Badges' available in the game, I decided to pen my first FAQ/Guide specifically on the subject of Badges. This guide is being written as I work my way through the game for the first time, so please excuse its incompleteness. Hopefully in a few versions, this compendium will be as complete as any other FAQ/Guide available for viewing on GameFAQs. But that's enough out of me; let's get to the goods... er... badges. Whatever... CURRENT GAME STATUS: Halfway through Chapter Four, just gave Tayce T. a Cookbook. BADGE COUNT: 34/? II. WHAT'S A BADGE? ------------------- In 'Paper Mario', a lot of Mario's power is derived from 'Badges', which are items that can be 'worn' to give Mario special attacks, powers, or other such bonuses. Each badge has a BP (Badge Point) Rating, which generally rates its power. Mario only starts with the ability to wear three BPs worth of badges, but players can increase that capability as they level him up. I strongly recommend reading your instruction manual to get the FULL story on badges. No one ever reads those things anymore anyhow. And someone did take time out from his or her day to write that for you, you know... III. BADGE LIST --------------- I'll be using a standard 'Badge Catologue' format throughout this guide. Goes a little something like this: BADGE NAME Description: I'll put down the in-game description. Badge Points: This'll show how many Badge Points are required to wear the badge. Where To Find: I'll put short directions on how to acquire the badge. Comments: Here I'll put down my own personal comments/observations. OK, let's press on: IIIA. JUMP ATTACK BADGES ------------------------ These badges give Mario special Jump attacks during battles. POWER JUMP Description: Lets you do a Power Jump. Uses 2 FP. Mario stomps on a single enemy using a lot of attack power. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Upon making your way back to Goomba Village, Goompa will give you this badge as a reward. Comments: Not bad, actually really good at the very beginning, but it will probably eventually slide into disuse as you gain levels. MULTIBOUNCE Description: Lets you do a Multibounce. Uses 2 FP. Jumps on all enemies in a row if action command is timed right. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Buy at Rowf's Badge Shop for 75 Coins. Comments: I really enjoyed this badge... for several minutes. Very weak if your jumping attack power is weak, or even (gasp!) mediocre. However, it DOES hit all enemies, so this badge evens out at about average. Give it a try for yourself. JUMP CHARGE Description: Lets you charge up Jump power. Uses 1 FP. When charged, Mario's Jump power goes up by 2. Lets you charge unlimited times, but power fades after attack. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Buy at Rowf's Badge Shop for 50 coins. Comments: Pretty useless. The charge only lasts for one shot, and you have to expend a turn you COULD be using attacking your enemies to charge up. Better off using some other Jump/Hammer special attack. SLEEP STOMP Description: Lets you do a Sleep Stomp. Uses 2 FP. If it works the enemy Mario jumps on falls asleep for a bit. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Buy from Rowf's Badge Shop for 75 Coins. Comments: Does normal Jump damage and has about a 33-50% chance of putting the enemy to sleep for anywhere from 1 to 3 turns. Not bad at all, but you probably won't need it too much for regular fights. I used it in my fight against the MASTER Master (the third incarnation of the guy; a really TOUGH bastard). D-DOWN JUMP Description: Lets you do a D-Down Jump. Uses 2 FP. Disables an enemy's defense power and causes some damage. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: On a table in Tubba Blubba's Castle. Bomb a wall upstairs hidden behind a sleeping guard, and then Spin Jump through the upper right 'broken floor'. From there, use Parakarry to fly over to the badge. Comments: About the same as the D-Down Pound, only works as a Jump attack. Would actually of been crappy to have at Mt. Rugged, as that enemy that I used it against was 'spiked' (jump attacks do not work). Not a bad badge, however, if you fight a lot of enemies with some sort of Defense Power. POWER BOUNCE Description: Lets you do a Power Bounce. Uses 3 FP. Jumps on one enemy continuously until you miss an action command. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: Search the Koopa Bros. Fortress to find this badge. Comments: Regardless of the fact that I cannot remember where I got the damned thing, I really love this badge. If you're any good at the Action Command, you can easily get a lot of bounces out of one attack (my current record is 15). Great for bosses, or even regular enemies with a lot of HP. An all around good badge, made even better when you upgrade your jump attack power IIIB. HAMMER ATTACK BADGES -------------------------- These badges bestow Mario with special Hammer moves during battles. POWER SMASH Description: Lets you do a Power Smash. Uses 2 FP. Hammers an enemy using lots of attack power. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: After acquiring the Super Hammer, explore the west side of the Toad Town Tunnels to find this badge. Comments: Not bad at all. Since you're hammer's already upgraded by the time you snag this badge, the extra attack power is great. I use this badge very often, myself, and still get a smile on my face after smashing my enemies for 7 Damage in one swift blow. SMASH CHARGE Description: Lets you charge up your hammer. Uses 1 FP. When charged, Mario's Hammer power goes up by 2. Lets you charge unlimited times, but power fades after attack. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Cannot remember exactly, but I believe that it was somewhere in the Koopa Bros. Fortress. Comments: See 'Jump Charge'. A bit too weak for my liking. SPIN SMASH Description: Lets you do a Spin Smash. Uses 2 FP. If Mario hits an enemy, it smashes into the ones behind it. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Buy at Rowf's Badge Shop for 75 Coins. Comments: Eck… Smashes the first enemy for around normal damage, but causes him to spin through ALL enemies for about a point of damage. I think you'd be better off using Quake Hammer or maybe even Multibounce. QUAKE HAMMER Description: Lets you do a Quake Hammer. Uses 2 FP. Slightly damages all enemies on the ground or ceiling. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: I believe it was on Mt. Rugged. I probably should of written this stuff down... Comments: This badge saved my life in the Dry Dry Desert. It hits basically everyone on screen for decent damage, for a respectable amount of FP, too. Unfortunately, it eventually suffers from the Multibounce effect, in that eventually gets that it has stopped doing enough damage to be worth a spot on your... uh... well, wherever Mario's got all those Badges on. HAMMER THROW Description: Lets you do a Hammer Throw. Uses 2 FP. Hits one enemy with the Hammer, no matter where the enemy is. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: A screen or so west of Toad Town is a tree you can smack with your hammer. Hitting aforementioned tree will cause a spring to fall down near you. Jumping on it springs you to a nearby roof, where the treasure chest containing the badge lies. Yet another reason to hit most everything you find (i.e. trees) with your hammer. Comments: Mmph. I really don't like this badge at all... First off, anyone with patience can wait a turn or two to get at the enemies in the back row. Secondly, this specific hammer attack does the same damage as Mario's normal 'free' hammer strike.. at a cost of 2 FP! Plus, the badge takes TWO FP to equip! So, in other words, uh... This badge is awful, unless I am missing some godly magical trait of some sort. D-DOWN POUND Description: Lets you do a D-Down Pound. Uses 2 FP. Disables an enemy's defense power and injures it. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: Buy from Rowf's Badge Shop for 100 Coins. Comments: I kind of have a soft spot for this one. It only does normal hammer damage, which is basically, uh... crap for 2 FP, but if you are fighting against something that has a defense rating higher than 2, this attack will bypass it completely! Ha! This was my favorite attack climbing Mt. Rugged, and it saved me many a time. IIIC. ENHANCEMENT BADGES ------------------------ These badges empower Mario with various assorted abilities/bonuses on and off the battlefield. DOUBLE DIP Description: During battle, lets you use two items during one turn. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Buy at Rowf's Badge Shop for 100 Coins. Comments: Have yet to use it, but in theory, it's great. Very nice Badge Point requirement AND the ability to throw back two Spaghettis or otherwise in one round? I'm sold… Except it costs a couple FP. But one can get around that, I suppose. GROUP FOCUS Description: Lets Mario's party members use the Focus command, as well. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: Buy at Rowf's Badge Shop for 100 Coins. Comments: Haven't had the chance to use it, myself. In theory, could be interesting paired with the Deep Focus badge. QUICK CHANGE Description: During battle, lets you change your party members… and still use the new member without losing a turn. Badge Points: 4 Where To Find: The fortuneteller in Toad Town will mention something about seeing something good happening to someone running around a red palm in Dry Dry Outpost. If you go there and run a few laps around the red palm, someone will say for you to stop because you're making him dizzy. He'll also let slip that he heard if you Spin Jump three times in a house with a spinning roof, you'll get something good. If you go back to the Toad Town fortuneteller's place and Spin Jump three times, lo and behold, this badge'll appear. Comments: I live for this badge. COMPLETELY removes that problem of having the wrong partner 'in' for the job when you get into an important battle (and we've all experienced that, I would bet money on it). If you can afford the four Badge Points, I strongly recommend this badge. DODGE MASTER Description: Makes the action command work more frequently. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: Buy at Rowf's Badge Shop for 100 Coins. Comments: Again, the description sounds great, but I have yet to put it to good use yet, so I would not be able to confirm whether or not it is worth using. DEEP FOCUS Description: When using Focus, charges more energy than usual. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Princess Peach can snag this and drop it into the 'special chest' during the break after Chapter 2. Afterwards, Mario can pick it up at the fortuneteller's house near Shooting Star Summit. Comments: Haven't used it enough to tell if the charge bonus is worth the Badge Points... HP PLUS Description: Increases maximum HP by 5. Badge Points: 3 Where To Find: Right after getting Kooper to join, use his shell throw ability to grab this badge from a stump on the way back to the Koopa Village. Comments: Wear it. Religiously. The HP will help. I guarantee it. FP PLUS Description: Increases maximum FP by 5. Badge Points: 3 Where To Find: After clearing out Koopa Bros. Fortress, use Bombette to take out the cracked wall just outside the castle walls. Go down the pipe to find the badge on a cliff high above the level. Comments: See above. Wonderful badge. Wear it as much as possible. POWER PLUS Description: Increases Mario's Jump and Hammer attack powers by 1. Badge Points: 6 Where To Find: Buy from Merlow for a whopping 25 Star Pieces. Comments: Another great 'Plus' badge. Anything that boosts attack power is cool with me, however, the only disadvantage of this badge is its high BP cost. It's your decision whether or not to use it. DEFEND PLUS Description: Decreases the damage Mario takes by 1. Badge Points: 6 Where To Find: Inside the Shy Guy's Toy Box, there is an easy to find chest. Inside is this badge. Comments: Anything that raises statistics is cool with me, remember? If you can handle the Badge Point hit, wear this like you would your favorite shirt. CLOSE CALL Description: When Mario's in danger, enemies sometimes fail to attack. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: ...No idea. I remember it was near the start of the game, though. Comments: Pretty useful at the very beginning when you have little to no maximum HP. This badge will cause enemies to occasionally miss an attack (signified by a large LUCKY appearing near where the enemy was attempting to disembowel you) when you are in the 'Danger' health status. 'Danger' is classified as 5 HP or less, so at the beginning of the game when you will be in this area most of the time, this badge can save your ass somewhat often. However, later when you have a lot of health to spare, this badge will see a lot less use. I did notice, however, that when I DID have it on, and when I WAS in the 'Danger Zone', it went off quite often (at least 33-50% of the time). ICE POWER Description: Increases attack power against fire enemies by 2. Mario won't take damage when he jumps on a fire enemy. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: Another easy to find chest resides in the Shy Guy's Toy Box. Inside is… heh, that's right, this badge. Comments: I have met… one fire enemy in my brief time playing this game. This badge would have been GREAT against him, however (note my sarcasm…). SPIKE SHIELD Description: Lets Mario jump on a spiked enemy without taking damage. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: I believe it was in the Dry Dry Ruins... Not certain, though. Comments: Wouldn't be bad, but since you get your hammer improved first, your jump will see a brief period where it will see some disuse. However, once you get ahold of the Super Boots, this badge might be worth a second look. Plus, my signature attack right now, the Power Bounce, does NOT work on 'spiked' enemies, so this badge could become one of my favorites very soon. RUNAWAY PAY Description: Lets Mario earn Star Points even if he escapes from battle. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: There's a small triangle of three palm trees somewhere in the Dry Dry Desert. Jump up right in the middle of them and this badge will reveal itself from a hidden question mark box. Comments: Haven't used it... And even if I did, I don't run enough to make it worthwhile. I suppose it might be worth wearing if you find yourself hauling ass from battles somewhat often. REFUND Description: Refunds some coins if you use an item in battle. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: In the Koopa Bros. Fortress, there is a room in which a door leads out to a patio containing a Save Block AND a trap door which will spit you down into a jail cell. In the bottom right corner of this room is a wall Bombette can take out. Doing so will reveal a door outside to a path leading to a chest containing the badge. Comments: Mmm. Haven't tried it. But then again, money isn't really a problem for me to get a hold of… I SPY Description: A sound and icon alert you to a nearby hidden panel. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Rowf will give you this badge after you return his Calculator, which is stolen from him in Chapter Four by Shy Guys and can be recovered early inside the Toy Box. Comments: Indispensable when off looking for hidden Star Points (to buy more badges, no doubt). Totally useless when off fighting enemies. You make the call. SPEEDY SPIN Description: Increases the distance Mario can Spin Dash. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Buy at Rowf's Badge Shop for… uh… some unknown amount of coins… Comments: Eck. Was the Spin Dash very useful in the first place? I think not... DIZZY ATTACK Description: Delivers a blow that makes an enemy dizzy an unable to move. Badge Points: 2 Where To Find: Not totally sure, but I believe it was in a question mark box on the way to Koopa Village from Toad Town (Pleasant Path). Comments: From what I have been told, this badge will cause an enemy to be dizzied for one turn at the beginning of battle IF you Spin Attack into them at the start of the battle. I ended up testing it and... Eck. It only dizzies the FRONT enemy, leaving the other one/two/three/seven awake and rearing to rip your pancreas out and stuff it down your throat. In other words, at the beginning of the game, this badge is somewhat useful, but as you face greater numbers of more powerful baddies, this badge will suddenly turn mediocre. I'd spend the two Badge Points elsewhere. SPIN ATTACK Description: Lets Mario destroy a weaker enemy with a spinning move. Badge Points: 3 Where To Find: In the Dry Dry Desert, head two screens south and then one screen east. There should be a tornado there (and I BELIEVE the area has blue cacti growing around). Head into the tornado, and it should whoosh you right next to the badge. Comments: This is a nifty one. I wouldn't recommend wearing it into any sort of important or semi-tough battle, but... It is very helpful when travelling along paths that are heavily populated by weak enemies (read: enemies who no longer give you Star Points) that you really don't have the patience to be fighting. Simply spin into them and they disappear; no Star Points for you, of course, but you usually receive a coin, or a Heart or something. Very handy for those long trips on foot in easy territory. FIRST ATTACK Description: Lets Mario destroy a weaker enemy with a First Strike. Badge Points: 1 Where To Find: Buy at Rowf's Badge Shop for 100 coins. Comments: About the same as the Spin Attack Badge, only its slightly harder to pull off a First Attack, AND this badge requires two less Badge Points. My opinion? If you are on weaker enemy turf, this is the badge to go for. ATTACK FX A Description: Changes the sound effects when Mario's attacking. Badge Points: 0 Where To Find: Buy from Merlow for 1 Star Point. Comments: Changes the sound effect that Mario makes when he jumps or bashes things with his hammer. Fun, and takes no badge points. No reason why you should not be wearing one of these. ATTACK FX B Description: Changes the sound effects when Mario's attacking. Badge Points: 0 Where To Find: Outside of Koopa Village, there are three bricks you can smash with your hammer. If you picture them as a triangle, smash the bottom left point first, then the bottom right point, and then the top point. A red question mark box'll appear with the badge within. Comments: Same as the other Attack FX badges. If you like the sound, wear it. If not, don't. No penalty either way. ATTACK FX D Description: Changes the sound effects when Mario's attacking. Badge Points: 0 Where To Find: Found in a small side quest involving the singer/songwriter at Club 64 and a composer from Dry Dry Outpost... I'll let you figure out the fun details. Comments: Same as the Attack FX A badge, only the sound is different. Again, why NOT have one of these on? Oh, right, you could quite possibly like the original sounds better, in which case, don't wear an Attack FX badge. More power to you. IV. SPECIAL THANKS ------------------ This version I ACTUALLY have people to thank for sending me great info… So, those people are: Me, Teirlap Carooe (for all the information in the first version and odds and ends from then on) styles' (for info on the locations of the Sleep Stomp, the Spike Shield AND the D-Down Pound Badges) Colin Cogle (for info on the Sleep Stomp and the Spike Shield Badges) Greg Jolin (for refreshing my memory as to the whereabouts of the Hammer Throw Badge) Table495 and MagicCody (for the location of the Speedy Spin Badge) Tyler Raymond (for info on what the Dizzy Attack Badge does AND the location of the Spin Attack Badge) Brad Genz (for also painfully reminding me that the Dizzy Attack Badge DOES have a use…) Tom Giordano (for various info, including information regarding a badge unknown to me called 'Refund'…) V. VERSION HISTORY ------------------ Version 1.0 (February 12, 2001) Initial Version. Very, very bare bones. Version 1.1 (February 13, 2001) Added the locations of the Spike Shield, Sleep Stomp, D-Down Pound, Hammer Throw, Speedy Spin and Spin Attack Badges. Added on to the Comments section of the Dizzy Attack Badge. Added a bit of ramble in the Contact Info section. Added a Current Game Status line in the Introduction. Version 1.2 (February 14, 2001) [Happy Valentine's Day] Added eleven new badge entries. Altered a few descriptions/locations/comments, etc. with some new information I have found through playing. Added a Badge Counter showing how many badges are showcased in the Compendium. Changed all references to 'Murvee' to his/her proper name, 'Merlow'. Heh. VI. COPYRIGHT AND CONTACT INFO ------------------------------ You can contact me via e-mail at [email protected]… All I can say is… wow. One day after my Guide was posted, I received a lot of positive feedback. Thanks all. Anyhow, a few things I'd like to say regarding e-mailing me: 1) I am writing this guide as I go through the game, so the badges on here will only be early ones at first. I like to actually get in possession of a badge before I post it up here, so if you would like to tell me the location of a badge you have found that is not on my guide, please: a) tell me the badge name and its location and b) make sure that I am far enough in the game already to find said badge (I will put something up here on the guide saying how much of the game I have completed). Many thanks. 2) I also like receiving comments about mistakes I make, such as in Badge Point requirements or perhaps something I said incorrectly in my comments section. Send those kinds of comments along as well. 3) I wouldn't mind sooner or later putting up various other people's comments on various badges, so if you have a SHORT 'comment' you have for one of the badges on the FAQ… I cannot guarantee it will be put in the guide, but hey, at least you voiced your opinion. 4) Positive comments are great. Negative comments… not as great. Heh. 5) If you don't receive an e-mail back, my deepest apologies. I really only have time to answer one or two e-mails a day (yesterday I got 17), so if I don't reply, do not be offended. If you see something go up in the guide about you in the Special Thanks section, you'll know that I noticed you. Oh, and if I DID e-mail you back, but it said something about a 'Mario Party Badge Compendium' in the subject, well… Oops. Not my fault… The titles are so damned alike looking. Right. That about does it. This FAQ/Guide is copyright 2001, Teirlap Patience Carooe, otherwise known as Rob Fuller.