Summary
ThePaper Marioseries is Nintendo’s answer to the question: can a Mario game be a comedy? The answer is a resounding yes. The games are known for their unique turn-based battle style, hilarious story dialogue, and curious paper mechanics. But Mariodoesn’t go on these adventures alone. With each chapter of the game, he meets a new friend with special abilities who joins him to create a comedy duo.
The Thousand-Year Door is the second game in the series, and it is no different. Nine characters join Mario’s crew throughout the story. To have the best experience while playing, you will need to choose which party member is by Mario’s side for each part of the game.
Updated on July 13, 2025, by Kyle Chamaillard:With The Thousand-Year Door’s recent arrival on the Nintendo Switch, we decided to revisit this article to include helpful tables and more information about each partner in the game.
Attacks
Ms. Mowz is a Lady Thief and the only optional party member in the entire game. If you want to recruit Ms. Mowz to your team, you will need to wait for the “Elusive Badge” quest to appear at the Trouble Center and complete it to convince her that you’re worthy enough to accompany her.
If she joins the group, she has the Sniff ability, where she’ll tell you if you’re nearby coins, star pieces, or badges. You won’t know what it is until you find it, but it can be very useful if you want to collect everything. In battle, she can steal items from enemies. She can also attack enemies repeatedly with Love Slap and heal some of Mario’s HP with a kiss.
Flurrie is a grandiose wind spirit. She controls the winds to blow in whatever direction you please, which is required to complete chapter two, and can help reveal secret walls throughout the rest of the game. With more health than most partners in Thousand-Year Door, Flurrie is a great bet if you want to take someone into battle who can hit hard and receive heavy amounts of damage.
The best thing about Flurrie is her battle abilities. She can Body Slam any enemy in front of you, no matter how far away, so long as they don’t have spikes on them. If you’re low on health and don’t want to deal with so many enemies, she can use Gale Force to literally blow the enemies away.
Goombella is an aspiring archaeologist and the first party member to join Mario on his adventure permanently. Her Tattle ability can be used in battle or outside of it. During a fight, the ability can reveal an enemy’s HP and stats; outside, she will either give you a hint about a puzzle or share her opinions about where you are or a character close to you.
Goombella is a great character at the beginning for aerial attacks with her Headbonk technique, but as you level up and gain better items, she becomes less useful. Once youobtain the Peekaboo badge, Tattle becomes less vital, but she’s still a great partner to have against airborne enemies or anything with high HP.
Koops begins the adventure self-consciously but finds his words and bravery along the way. He will always want to make sure Mario is okay, too. He is a reliable partner for almost any situation The Thousand-Year Door throws at you, but he is practically useless against enemies in the air.
This shy Koopa Troopa uses powerful shell attacks on ground-based enemies. No enemy spikes hurt him due to his defense stats, and he can attack multiple enemies at once from the start. You can also use his shell attacks to activate switches or pick up far-away items outside of battle. Once this ability has been activated, you can also hold him there for a timed strike.
Admiral Bobbery is a seasoned sailor Bob-omb who swears he won’t sail ever again after a traumatic and personal loss. That is, until persuaded by Mario to helm a ship when Flavio fails to provide a navigator.
Admiral Bobbery provides one of the best tools in any game: bombs. He can explode cracks in the walls of dungeons and cities to reveal secret places. In battle, he explodes your enemies. He also has a nifty ability called Bomb Squad, which can deal long-range damage on a timer if you aim well enough.
Vivian has herown special story conflict to resolve before she even joins the party, and you will get to watch it unfold over several chapters. She learns over time to respect herself and returns that respect tenfold as a party member.
Vivian has the ability to pull Mario into an underground pocket shadow dimension. It’s helpful outside of battle for avoiding enemies and snooping around, and it’s helpful in battle by protecting Mario from any charged-up superpowers enemies may possess. Her other attacks deal fire damage, which can be good or bad depending on the enemy you’re facing.
This baby Yoshi is ready to fight whoever Mario wants, no question asked, and he can cause serious damage with his moves. His signature Gulp attack allows him to swallow an enemy and spit it out at another enemy, dealing four points of damage at his lowest level. He can also Ground Pound any enemy and, at higher levels, summon a stampede of Yoshi.
Ride on his back to get a speed boost and float past large platform gaps. There are also eight color variations that you may get depending on how much time has passed between discovering his egg and when he finally hatches. And you get to name him yourself, which makes the bond between you and this partner feel a bit more special than the rest.
