Fold up and roll out
Paper Mario: The Origami King maintains the recent “action-adventure” style of the series, but there are still a few tips to keep in mind that will help you get rolling quicker.
Here are a few easy adjustments you can make in the early game!
Hit trees for tons of confetti
Although you’ll explore a host of biomes in Paper Mario: The Origami King, many of them will have good old fashioned logs to smack.
If you’re ever running low on confetti to fill in the world, bash a tree: they often have more confetti to go around than you can carry. It’s smart to fully stock up and keep your bag full when you can.
Rest on benches: they aren’t just scenery
Benches might look innocuous but they’re the key to keeping your health topped up without resorting to spending money on HP-restoring mushroom items — so save those for combat use.
Instead, similar to filling up your confetti bag as much as possible, rest at every bench you see when you’re not at full health just in case. You never know when a tough fight is around the corner.
Go back through areas to get a new perspective
Paper Mario: The Origami King, as Paper Mario games tend to do, provides multiple perspectives in which to view the predominately flat game world.
Because of this approach, you’ll probably miss a ton of secrets if you don’t backtrack through areas after completing them. Since Origami King is an open world game, it’s even easier to just waltz through places you’ve been before.
You can turn motion controls off
If you really aren’t digging the motion control system for the 1,000-Fold Arms mechanic that’s used to solve many of the game’s puzzles, you can head into the options menu and turn motion controls off.
You can pretty much do this as soon as you have control of Mario and gain the ability in the intro sequence.
Take note of where enemies start in a fight and move them back
A huge part of the combat system is moving enemies into straight lines to jump on them with your boots or arranging them in a 2×2 grid so you can hit them with your hammer.
Pay attention to how enemies are arranged at the start of a battle, as their initial pattern could clue you in on what the best moves are to align them correctly. As a tip, like-minded enemies of the same types generally go together in one of the two aforementioned formations.
Buy the Toad Bell early
Very early into The Origami King, you’ll come across a shop located right outside of the first mini-dungeon. The NPC there will sell you your first pieces of equipment, one of which is the Toad Bell. This bell will audibly chime and show up on-screen when you’re near a hidden Toad.
Although it’s debatable how effective the “more health/time” items are based on your combat prowess, locating more Toads can grant you access to new shops and nominal amounts of coins as a reward. Make sure you beef up your ability to find them early so you aren’t leaving them behind!
Hold the Y button in combat to pay Toads
Low on health in the middle of combat, or completely stumped as to how to line everyone up?
Press and hold the Y button to call the Toads for help. You can “pledge” up to 999 coins per use (a round of combat), which nets you random effects like free ring rotations, free health power-ups, extra damage, or any combination thereof.
Toads are especially effective in boss battles, as they highlight the path that Mario will take when walking along the rings during those special encounters.
