Mario and Luigi Paper Jam is a nice turn-based RPG that anyone can pick up. You’ll traverse the many lands of the Mushroom Kingdom, fighting enemies along the way and solving puzzles.
It’s your standard RPG fare but what makes Paper Jam great are its Boss Battles.
These are some of the hardest Boss Battles on the 3DS and you’ll find yourself retrying over and over again. There’s a reason why the game gives you a chance to retry on EASY mode, it’s just that difficult if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Luckily, we have compiled a guide to defeating each boss in Paper Jam and just a disclaimer even with this guide you will lose at least once. It’s just bound to happen, you just need to use that first time to scout out what exactly you’re getting yourself into.
And for your own reference, there are two sections for each boss: the first will be the normal turn-based attacks they’ll use and the other is a small cutscene type of mini game that. You’ll see what we mean.
So let’s dive right in starting with the first Boss you’ll face in Mario and Luigi Paper Jam.
PETEY PIRANHA
The classic Mario enemy is back and is looking to stop you and your brothers from moving closer to finding Bower and Paper Bowser.
Petey’s turn-based attacks are a spin attack that you can easily avoid by jumping. Petey will also charge at Paper Mario, but with his ability to float you can easily avoid it by jumping and you can even hurt Petey by jumping on his head. This will cause Petey to fall on his back, allowing for an attack can do extra damage.
However, when this happens a Goomba will appear to help out. You’ll need to take this Goomba out too or it will start attacking.
Mini Game:
When Petey gets up, he’ll charge at all of the brothers with Paper Mario turning into a paper airplane while Mario and Luigi run on either side of the screen. Tilting the circle pad will guide the plane above Luigi or Mario and tap the A (Mario) or B (Luigi) buttons to jump and hold the button to have them grab onto the plane. However, the longer you hold on the lower the plane gets.
Petey will shoot mud balls at Mario or Luigi, it’s up to you to guide the plane above the brother who is about to be attacked and then you time your jump and hold the plane for as long as you need.
Once you avoid the mud balls, Petey will fall and you can stomp on him with Paper Mario with a well-timed jump.
The battle will shift back to turn-based until Petey is defeated.
PAPERCRAFT GOOMBA
A big part of Paper Jam are the Papercraft battles you’ll have periodically throughout the game. With each new area, you’ll have to find Paper Toads to help Toadette build a new Papercraft.
The first Papercraft you’ll face is the Papercraft Goomba and this is the easiest one in the game.
During these Papercraft battles, these are the buttons to keep in mind: The circle pad for moving and directing, B to perform a dash attack. You should only use this when your enemy is about to charge or if you get behind them. If you charge the enemy otherwise, you’ll lose a portion of your health.
The A button is used to launch your Papercraft when the enemy is down. Aim correctly, or you’ll leave yourself open for a counterattack.
So in regards to the Papercraft Goomba, just time your charges and hit it twice. After two strikes, the Papercraft should fall over letting you stomp it. Repeat the process until it is defeated.
POKEY AND PAPER POKEY
DISCLAIMER: This is the most annoying boss battle you’ll encounter in Paper Jam. There’s a trick to winning and you’ll need to follow it or else you’ll be battling for a long time.
This is the first time you’ll be facing more than one boss at a time. The Paper Pokey will turn itself into a wheel to hit one of the brothers. Hold your button down to get your hammer ready and with precise timing, knock the Paper Pokey back. After the first hit, it will return right after so don’t let your guard down and knock it back again. The number of attacks will increase later on so watch out.
Normal Pokey will lie down and try to roll the brothers like a rolling pin. Just jump to avoid in this order: B (Luigi), Y (Paper Mario), A (Mario) and then A (Mario), Y (Paper Mario), and then B (Luigi) and then back to B, Y, A.
There are a few ways to defeat the Pokeys. The first is to get rid of the Normal Pokey first so you’ll only have to deal with Paper Pokey who seems way more durable.
But the most common way is to share the wealth and attack both Pokey at the same time. The trick with this battle is that one Pokey can’t be worse than the other. There are five segment to both Pokey and if one is down to two and the other has all five, the Pokey will regenerate to have the same number as the other. You can imagine how annoying that can get, the way we did it was to knock one segment off and then focus on the other Pokey to get that segment gone.
Also, if both Pokey are still around they will tag-team attack having the Paper Pokey turn into a bat while the normal Pokey launches each segment at one of the brothers. You can use this to your advantage and deflect it back at the Paper Pokey to deal extra damage. The number of attacks is based on the number of segments the normal Pokey has.
Mini Game:
Like the Petey Piranha battle, Paper Mario will transform into a plane to help the brothers avoid the Pokey’s charges. It’s like a train where the greater number of segments the Pokey has, the longer you’ll need to hold onto the plane to avoid the attacks.
This is time-consuming, but it’s better than having your progress go to waste.
Keep repeating the avoidance techniques till they are both defeated.
PAPERCRAFT KAMEK
Like the Papercraft Goomba battle, you’ll want to charge at the Kamek to weaken it before stomping it out. However, Kamek will use its magic to teleport and launch magic attacks.
In the first part of the battle, Kamek will launch a magic barrier that you can’t dash at. It will get larger after time so you’ll have to back off when he launches it but one it retracts, you can use the A button to jump over it and smash the Kamek.
After a few of these hits, Kamek will begin launching magic attacks. These are much harder to simply run away, instead you’ll want to time it so you can launch your papercraft over the attack and hit Kamek.
When it’s low on health, Kamek will begin to teleport away from you so there’s a lot of chasing going on but keep up the pressure until you see an opening.
ROY AND WENDY
Now we’re getting into the meat of the boss battles in Paper Jam. We finally face off against two of Bowser’s kids, Roy and Wendy.
Wendy will throw her giant rings at you. You can easily hop through them with the right brother, one ring will have you jump through it, the other will have you hop twice to get in and out of the ring.
Roy, using his strength will chuck boulders at a particular brother. Hold your hammer down and deflect it, you and Roy will go back and forth so keep it up and hit it back using precise timing. This will get faster as the battle continues.The boulder will hit Wendy and she will be upset at Roy and attack him, this is the best way to damage both Kooplings. But be sure to hit the boulders, they do massive damage.
Later on, Roy will even use a wand to launch a giant magic sphere at the brothers. Use your hammers to knock it back.
Mini Game
Roy appears with an even bigger boulder with Wendy in tow. Paper Mario is a plane again but Wendy is there to blast you out of the sky using her fire breath. Be careful, one hit from the fire and Paper Mario is out of this battle and you’ll have no way to avoid Roy’s attacks.
If Paper Mario is still around, you can have Mario and Luigi grab on to avoid the rolling boulder. However, a trick is to have Wendy follow Paper Mario into the path of the boulder so she is hit by Roy’s attack. This will eliminate her from this part of the fight so Paper Mario can fly easy for the rest of it.
PAPER PETEY PIRANHA
The Paper version of Petey actually has Paper Mario’s copy ability so this battle will be a long one.
Just like other paper enemies, you’ll need to damage Paper Petey to get the copies off of him. When you do, the copies will be sprawled on the floor around Paper Petey and you can still attack them when they incapacitated.
Paper Petey will charge at a brother, which you defend with your hammer. However, as the match goes on, the sneaky Petey Piranha will try and change up his strategy and even slow down just before he reaches you to get you to swing your hammer before you hit him.
Petey will split into two and surround the three brothers and slam down sending a shockwave. This is rather easy as you can just jump to get out of the way in this order A-> B -> Y but then the Piranha behind you will send out a shockwave you just reverse to dodge it, Y-> B - > A. Later in the battle, this shock wave will come at you much faster and from either the front or back so be prepared. This second shock wave, if you dodge it, will hurt Petey so it’s a great way to rack up the damage.
The best way to go about this battle is to damage the standing Paper Petey until all of the copies and original Petey are lying on the floor. And then you can start attacking them all at once or focus on one that is moving (the real Paper Petey) until he is defeated.
But after a while, the copies that are on the floor will return to Petey and be healed so be prepared for a long drawn out battle.
Mini Game:
Like normal Petey, Paper Petey will chase after the brothers and you’ll have to use Paper Mario’s plane form to get away. Paper Petey will launch his copies at either Mario or Luigi (or both) in a particular pattern. Pay attention to how they are launched, they can alternate between the two.
If one copy is thrown, you can easily avoid it with a well-timed jump. But if there are multiple copies thrown at once, you’ll need the plane to hover over them. This is all about timing.
Here’s a small walkthrough from the good folks at NintenU .
WIGGLER
Poor Wiggler, the caterpillar that was helping you when you arrived in the forest has been put under a spell by Kamek to make him attack you.
Wiggler has a few attacks to watch out for. The first is his stomp that sends out a shock wave. This shock wave can be dodged by simply jumping over it. He will immediately aim at either Mario or Luigi with a single shot pod that you can jump over. Wiggler will then aim at Paper Mario with a few pod shots that Paper Mario can easily float over.
Paper Kamek will also join in on the attacks and launch magical shots at the brothers. They come in three colors (one for each brother) and you can deflect it back at Wiggler. If you hit Wiggler enough with the deflection, he will hit Kamek and deal damage.
Once Wiggler is defeated, you just need to fight Paper Kamek who will continue to shoot his magic spells that you can deflect.
Mini Game:
Paper Mario transforms into a boomerang and you’ll have to direct your aim using the circle pad to aim the boomerang at a boulder that Roy is riding. You’ll need to continually switch between B (Luigi) and A (Mario) to destroy the boulder. The boulder is moving though so don’t just button mash, if you miss the boulder it will take longer to get back into the brothers’ hands.
PAPERCRAFT BOWSER JR.
Another Papercraft battle appears as the Bowser Jrs are your next opponent. However, this is a lot different from past Papercraft battles as Bowser Jr. is actually running away from you for the most part. The stage is separated by a crack in the floor that you'll need to dash to get over. Toy enemies will also appear to impede your path to Bowser Jr.
The mechanics are still the same, you dash into Bowser Jr. once he's about to charge at you or if you can hit him from behind. Once he's off his platform, you'll need to launch your Peach Papercraft at it. This time, however, you'll float above it and with a well-timed push of the A button, you'll squash the Papercraft.
After a few of these stomp attacks, Bowser Jr. will actually cover up the ice spikes on the field so you won't have to dash across them anymore. Instead, he'll now throw green shells at you. Avoid those and get close enough for. One of the toy enemies will launch a spiked ball at you, which you can dash to reflect it back at Bowser Jr. This will make him Dizzy and you can stomp it.
The third part of this battle will have Bowser Jr. run away again but drop bombs behind him. You'll have to dash at the bombs and try and hit Bowser Jr. with it. Bowser Jr. will also try and launch a missile from his butt, this has a timer, and you can dash at him to stop it and damage Bowser Jr. Stomp on Bowser Jr., repeat until he's defeated.
CHARGIN' CHUCK
The football player koopas that took the Princesses away are back and attack as a team. The first attack they do is they surround the three brothers on both sides and randomly try and sandwich a brother. Avoid this by jumping and if you successfully avoid this, their helmets will pop off. This will make them more susceptible to attacks especially hammer attacks.
Like past boss battles, you'll need to get rid of the crew quickly because they will continually call more and more Koopas.
Mini Game:
Paper Mario turns into a plane and you'll have to grab on to it with Luigi or Mario to avoid attacks. The Chucks will bowl a line of footballs so you'll need to grab the plane till they go away.
The other attack is a line of Chucks will bowl a line of footballs, you'll need to choose one brother to use the plane on and the other to just jump and avoid.
Another attack is the Chucks actually toss footballs in the air so don't jump.
LUDWIG AND LARRY
First off, Ludwig and Larry will be using Battle Cards like you do. Everytime they hit you, their Dark Star Points will increase.
The first attack they do is a shell attack. They'll retreat into their spiked shells and spin in a circle so you don't know which brother is being aimed for. Jump to avoid them but be careful, Paper Mario will be attacked from behind so jump to avoid that attack.
The next attack they do is a magic wand attack. Ludwig will shoot a magic blast at Mario or Luigi but this is really fast so you need precise timing to reflect it back at them. Larry will shoot a magic blast at Paper Mario, which is much slower so just jump to avoid but Larry will then charge at Paper Mario so jump again and flutter in the air till he leaves. You can also land on his head to deal damage.
Mini Game:
Ludwig and Larry bring in some Shy Guys to hold a giant bomb that will chase you. Paper Mario turns into the boomerang and you'll need to chuck it at the Shy Guys while switching between Luigi and Mario. Hit all of the Shy Guys to drop the bomb on Larry and Ludwig. But be careful, if you miss your mark with the boomerang it'll take longer to return.
Here's a fun walkthrough from SullyPwnz,
PAPERCRAFT KING BOO
This battle has Papercraft Drybones that will try and attack you. The Papercraft King Boo will actually launch itself to try and stomp on your Papercraft. Once it's launched, go and move around to try and avoid it. Once avoided, you can launch yourself and deal damage.
King Boo will also try and charge at you, and like past Papercraft battles you can disrupt it with your own charge attack. Knock it down and use your stomp.
After some hits, more Papercraft Boos will appear to try and disrupt your attacks and confuse you. Just attack the one with the crown and you'll be fine. It'll go and launch itself and you can avoid and counterattack. Repeat till defeated.
BOWSER JR. AND PAPER BOWSER JR.
The first attack the duo do is charge the brothers in their clown flyers. Paper Jr. will attack Mario or Luigi and you can stop it with a well-timed hammer attack. If you are successful, you can continually hit Paper Jr. who is flat on the floor. Jr. is actually charging towards Paper Mario and you'll have to jump to avoid it.
The Jrs will challenge you to a Paper Plane contest. You'll have to throw Paper Mario and see who goes the farthest, toss Paper Mario with A and then when the plane is about to hit the ground, tap Y to get it back up. NOTE: Wait till the last possible second to press Y, this will give you the maximum height.
If you fail to win, you all will be hit.
The next part is when Shy Guy come from behind and place barrels over all three brothers. This is so you don't know who is who (this is especially difficult discerning Luigi from Mario). You'll run away as the juniors chase after you with fire attacks. You'll need to jump to avoid them.
If you succeed in avoiding them, the barrels will hit the juniors.
The Juniors will also use items to heal each other and even revive one another, so be aware of that.
Mini Game:
The Juniors toss a giant metal ball at the brothers. Paper Mario transforms into a trampoline, press Y to bounce items off of Paper Mario.
The ball will continually fall and it's your job to keep the ball from hitting the ground. Bounce the ball in the air while moving Mario and Luigi using the circle pad. Keep the ball in the air until it reaches Bowser Jr.
KING BOO
Paper Mario is not present at the beginning of the battle so you'll be going it with just Mario and Luigi.
The first attack from King Boo is a projectile that you can avoid by jumping but then he'll suck them back and try and hit you from behind. Jump again to avoid them.
Boo will bring Paper Mario as a hostage so that you won't attack him or the paper boo that appears. Attack the paper boo to get Paper Mario back on your side.
King Boo will then spin and make copies of himself. He'll slowly charge a brother but then disappear, this is purely guess work but you'll have to hit an invisible Boo using your hamme (good luck).
Mini Game
Paper Mario is a boomerang again and a ring of Paper boos appear to block your attack as King Boo charges up an attack. Knock out as many Paper Boos as possible and just when King Boo opens its mouth to attack, launch the boomerang at him to close his mouth and he explodes.
KING BOB-OMB
First off, you have four minutes to defeat this boss. Be fast with your decisions.
First attack is he launches little bob-ombs, which you can just jump to avoid. He will then walk up to a brother and you need to him with your hammer. He'll jump back and then kick a big bomb at a brother, you need to reflect it back and you'll have a tennis match of sorts as he goes to one brother at a time. Once all three brothers hit it back, you'll knock the big bomb back at the king.
If you are succesful with this attack, you'll gain one minute to your timer.
KAMEK AND PAPER KAMEK
These guys are back and their first attack is they create a magic line that they try and trip your team up. Just jump to avoid them, Mario, Luigi then Paper Mario and vice versa when they come back.
The Kameks then go in the middle of the three brothers and use their combined wand attack to spin trying to hit the brothers. Just jump out of the way when it's the brothers turn.
The Kameks also have an attack that creates portals in front of each brother and then one of the Kameks will go through and try and surprise you. Just avoid with a well-timed jump.
Kamek will take away your Trio and Bro attacks but you'll eventually get them back when they summon Dry Bones to help.
Mini Game:
Paper Kamek copies itself and creates a wall between you and normal Kamek who is charging up a magic attack.
Paper Mario becomes a boomerang and you need to try and hit the normal Kamek. Hit enough of the Paper Kameks to get a clear shot, and then start wailing at the normal Kamek until he drops the magic attack and hits himself and the Paper Kamek.
KOOPALINGS
First battle is with Roy and Wendy and their first attack is both go inside their shells and Roy hits Wendy into the brothers. Use your hammer to knock her back.
Wendy uses her ring attacks from your first battle and Roy chucks the giant rock at you again.
The same Mini Game from your first battle is back.
Ludgwig and Larry are the second battle. This goes the same as the first time you battled.
The only new aspect of this battle are against the last three Koopalings.
First off, they disable your battle cards. And then Lemmy runs away and comes back with a giant ball. You need to use Paper Mario as a boomerang and hit Lemmy off the giant ball before he hits you with the ball or the bob-ombs he throws. You should actually hit him when he's holding the bob-omb so he can drop it on himself.
Iggy is next and he summons a Chain Chomp. Use Paper Mario as a plane to rescue Mario or Luigi from its attacks.
Morton comes in and throws the Chain Chomp at you, use Paper Mario as a trampoline and it's the same as the battle against the Bowser Jrs. Completing this stuns all three Koopalings and you need to go all out and hit them while they are vulnerable.
It should be noted that the Koopalings can use items on each other. So be quick in defeating them.
Repeat the process as needed until the final three are defeated.
BOWSER AND PAPER BOWSER
Here's the final battle.
The Bowsers will shoot a line of fire that you can jump over from Mario to Paper Mario. They will then spout a giant flame that you need to block.
They will then chuck a bunch of spiked balls at you. A lot will fall but only a few will actually try and hit you. Use a well-timed hammer attack to reflect it back for major damage.
The normal Bowser will hide in its shell from time to time to take less damage.
After some damaga, the Paper Bowser will transform into armor for the normal Bowser creating this sick looking thing.
If you use a Trio Attack on this Bowser he will counter with one of his own. The first attack will have him spout fire which you can avoid by floating above it. He will then jump and send out a shock wave that you can avoid by jumping.
Don't use the Trio attacks until the armor is off of Bowser.
This armored bowser will then try and attack Mario and Luigi by crushing them. You'll need to time it out but jump to avoid the attacks by alternating between the two brothers. His final attack is a giant fire attack to Paper Mario, which you can float above to avoid.
After this, Bowser launches three giant energy attacks that you can reflect with a well-timed hammer. This will destroy the armor and now you can use the Trio attacks.
He will occasionally summon paper minions so you'll have to deal with those too.
Repeat the process until he is defeated. It's a long battle so be prepared for the long haul.
If you want to see all of the Boss Battles in one video, in a sort of speed run, check this video out by GreenKokiri54.
