7 beginner tips before starting Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year-Door

Paper Mario: The Millennial Door has been remade for the Nintendo Switch, and while there are a few changes, it’s largely the same game, with a beautiful new coat of paint.

If you’re new to the world of Mario RPGs or maybe you remember playing the original game 20 years ago (yeesh!), we’ve got a handful of tips that will be useful for getting started with the remake.

Below we provide a few tips to ensure you can get started easily Paper Mario: The Millennial Door.

Don’t forget to pick up enemy drops

After defeating an enemy, you do not automatically collect the enemy’s items. Instead, the items will simply explode on the floor where the enemy was. Make sure you actually pick up the coins and items before leaving for your next battle.

Investigate everything

Since the game is made of paper, this means that most of the decor and surroundings are flat. Maybe there’s a star piece or insignia behind those paper-thin barrels or that bush in the foreground. You also have to smash every bush with your hammer to find items, coins and other useful things.

Don’t dwell too much on seemingly secret paths

Do you see a dog-eared paper covering something, but you can’t get it? Or maybe you see a huge crack in the wall, but your hammer isn’t strong enough to smash it? Don’t dwell on this and come back later. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock more party members and more abilities that take care of these things easily, so don’t bother grabbing that loose piece of paper now.

Take advantage of letting your partner go first

Although you can control which enemy Mario and his friends jump on, some attacks (such as Mario’s hammer or Koops’ grenade) can only attack the first monster on the left. That said, you’ll want to strategize who gets to attack first when you’re against different enemies. Maybe Koops can kill the first enemy with his grenade, but he won’t be able to reach the second enemy, who flies and thus avoids his grenade. In cases like this you want to do a little switcheroo.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Please note the number of items

You can only hold a few items at a time, and if you try to pick up an extra item, you’ll have to drop or use one of your items to get it. Merchants allow you to deposit extra items into storage, so be sure to drop off any extra mushrooms or inn cards that are cluttering your inventory.

Pay attention to that dialogue – or don’t and listen to Goombella

If you find yourself falling asleep and using the A button during one of Professor Frankly’s spiels, don’t worry. Goombella gives tips on who to talk to or where to go when you press ZL.

Although Professor Frankly will usually help you achieve the following areas, sometimes our impatience gets the better of us. It happens.

Try everything everywhere

If you’re stuck in a dungeon in what seems to be a dead end, give it a try everything. Use Flurrie’s wind on everything, try to push objects around and hammer everything in the room. Some things, like the aforementioned peeling paper walls and huge X’s on the floor, are more obvious hints as to what to do next, but not everything is as simple as it seems.

For more Paper Mario: The Millennial Door guides, see how to get Mrs. Mowz, learn all the answers to the Thwomp quiz, and watch the Great Boggly Tree walkthrough. You can also see where to find all the Star Pieces and all the Shine Sprites.