Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: How To Defeat The Final Boss

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s final boss is a rather challenging one. Waiting for you at the very end of Chapter 8, you'll want to make sure you’re adequately prepared because if you happen to lose, you have to try the entire fight over again.

In this guide, we’ll be helping you make final preparations for the battle, as well as giving you tips on how to defeat the final boss of The Thousand-Year Door.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Final Boss Guide

Preparing for the final boss

Once you make it to the area shown above, heal up and then save at the Save Block. Before you enter the game’s final area, make sure you’ve got plenty of healing items plus a couple of Life Shrooms to keep you held over. There’s also an Ultra Shroom and a Jammin’ Jelly in treasure chests right before the room where the final boss lies.

If you’ve got BP to spare, make sure to use defensive Badges – we’d recommend any combination of Defense Plus, Close Call, Close Call P, Mega Rush, Power Rush, Pretty Lucky, Lucky Day, Last Stand, and Last Stand P. For the rest of your available BP, you can use things like HP Plus and Badges that grant Mario new attacks.

When you’ve got your final Badge setup all decided, use the Save Block and then head through the door to take on the game’s final boss. Get ready for a long fight!

And before you even get into the fight, don't forget not to accept the boss' offer!

How to beat the final boss - Shadow Queen

This fight is split into two phases, but the second phase is much longer and makes up the majority of the fight. Don't be lured into a false sense of security!

Shadow Queen - Phase 1

When the battle begins, use the strongest attacks you’ve got. The Shadow Queen’s attacks hit hard, especially after she boosts her Attack and Defense – so we’d recommend using Power Lift to match her boosts and reduce the damage you take early on in the fight. You'll need all of the healing you can get later on.

After the Shadow Queen takes enough damage, she’ll conclude that she needs to return to her original form to unleash her true power. This moves the battle along to phase two.

Shadow Queen - Phase 2

In this form, the Shadow Queen is completely immune to damage. Despite this, you’ll still need to attack her a few times to advance her dialogue. Soon enough, a cutscene will play out and the Crystal Stars will gather power. When the fight resumes, you’ll be able to damage her again – and this is where things get tough.

The Shadow Queen can attack up to three times per turn, and she often summons two giant hands to attack with. Take out these hands as quickly as possible with multi-target moves, and they’ll eventually be resurrected as Dead Hands. You’ll want to take these out too, as their attacks deal lots of damage and can easily pick you off if you’re weakened.

When both of the hands are gone, focus your attacks on the Shadow Queen herself until they regenerate. It’s very easy to accidentally lose upwards of 10 HP in a single turn, so you might want to use another Power Lift to keep your Defense up. Every so often, the Shadow Queen will charge up power – when this happens, use a Boo Cloak or Vivian’s Veil to avoid taking damage. This means you’ll generally want Vivian as your active partner – especially since she can target both of the hands with Fiery Jinx.

If the only healing items you have are Super Shrooms, then it’s entirely possible that the Shadow Queen will deal more damage than you can heal. In this case, it might be a good idea to use Sweet Feast and restore as much health as you can. Rotate both Sweet Feast and Power Lift as your Special Moves, continue using Veil to avoid the super move, and continue laying on the damage as best you can. It’s a tough fight that tests how well you can balance healing and attacking, but you’ll make it through before too long.

Once the Shadow Queen goes down, congratulations – you’ve beaten Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door! All that’s left to do now is watch the ending and credits and look at some of our other guides for the game, of course. There’s a great deal of side content available, so it’s still possible to squeeze a few more hours out of this game.

If I lose against the final boss, can I skip the cutscenes?

The Shadow Queen is a very difficult fight, so if you're not prepared, there's a good chance you'll end up losing to her.

On the GameCube version, if you've saved before entering the room, then you just need to head back in and try the fight again. However, you'll have to sit through multiple long cutscenes — including the cutscene that plays during the phase change.

On the Switch, if you lose, then don't worry! You'll have the option to retry the fight immediately, plus you can skip the cutscenes too — all of them! Hooray!

For more hints, tips, and guides, check out our full Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door guide.