Summary
BECAUSE OF THIS
We ranked all of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s friends based on how useful they were in the game.
Each character has a great story, but our ranking is based on who is best at fighting and exploring in general.
From Goombella to Flurrie, we looked at their attacks, buffs, and skills to find the best TTYD companion!
The cute characters in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are one of the game’s best parts. Like the last game in the series, a big part of the fun is getting to know these characters and seeing them grow as they travel with Mario. This is something that the series has greatly missed since then.
There is no way to rank Mario’s friends based on their characters, because they are all great. That being said, utility is a different story. It’s not as easy to choose a partner when you’re up against stronger enemies, and some are better than others.
What’s Good?
Spoofs and headbutts will only get you so far.
No matter how entertaining Goombella is, she quickly loses to the other people in the party. Her Headbonk attack is useful at the start of the game, but as the game goes on and foes get stronger, it stops working as well. This would be different if, say, her hat kept her safe from fire or spikes, but it doesn’t. Her Multibonk special move loses power with each hit, which makes her pretty useless against a lot of different types of enemies.
It’s helpful that Tattle shows enemy health bars and hints at their weaknesses, but it can’t make up for her lack of fighting skills.
Really, why doesn’t that helmet keep her safe? What’s the point of Tattle if they don’t give away field secrets? It feels like a chance that was lost.
Oh no!
Nothing and Ground Game Else: Koops is only good at one thing: bowling over enemies on the ground. This is his main move. It only does a single hit to low- to moderately-defended enemies, but it does low to high damage to multiple enemies. His special move, Shell Slam, is great because it doesn’t care about defense, but again, it can only hit enemies that are on the ground.
It’s also only useful sometimes to use Koops’ field skill. In the beginning, players will mostly use it to solve switch tasks and get a few first strikes. But as more characters join Mario’s party, it quickly becomes useless.
Because it can get past defenses, Shell Slam can be very powerful in the lower levels of the Pit of 100 Trials. I definitely suggest it for builds that want to gain more power.
Flourie
Best for Getting Rid of Pests
Flurrie can hit hard, but because she is slow in general, she isn’t always the best choice. She can hit one enemy on the roof at a time, though. With the defense-piercing Lip Lock, she can also be used against stronger enemies. That slow single-targeting, on the other hand, makes her less useful against bigger groups or even just one spiked or fire-type enemy.
Her Gale Force is great for finishing fights early if you don’t mind losing XP, but if you do, it’s usually better to switch to a different party member. Also, her field ability isn’t very good because enemies heal too fast.
When you think about it, Flurrie doesn’t make a lot of sense. There are spikes in her body, and she floats like she’s made of air. She is also very heavy. How does that work at all?
Ms. Mowz: Everyone needs a good thief.
Flurrie and Ms. Mowz are about the same level when it comes to fights. She can only hit one enemy at a time, but her Love Slap attack doesn’t care about security, so it can hurt most of the people she hits. Tease, which makes a lot of enemies dizzy, can also be useful sometimes, but Kiss Thief is her real star move.
When Kiss Thief steals an enemy’s badge or item, Mario can get a lot of things and even coins if he wants to. People who want to buy all of Dazzle’s badges will also find Ms. Mowz’s ability to find star bits very useful.
The Pit of 100 Trials is full of enemies that carry items and badges, so Ms. Mowz is an important part of any build that focuses on items.
Yoshi
He’s rude, but he’ll get you where you need to go quickly.
Yoshi is a bit of a mess. For enemies with more than zero defense, his main attack, Ground Pound, and special move, Stampede, don’t do anything. But Gulp is one of the best moves in the game. Two enemies can be hit at once, and it does a lot of damage even through defenses and spikes.
Yoshi really shines when he’s not fighting, though, because he can quickly carry Mario around and even over gaps. This makes him almost necessary during the game’s many returning sections. If only his main move were a little better, he’d be by far the best friend in the game!
For every minute that goes by between getting his egg and it hatching, Yoshi’s color changes. The numbers 0 through 6 are green, 6 through 9 are red, 9 through 11 are blue, 11 through 15 are orange, 15 through 18 are pink, 18 through 19 are black, and 19 through 20 are white. Once every twenty minutes, the cycle starts all over again. If you miss the color window you want, you can try again.
The Admiral Bobbery
An explosive that walks can really do a lot of damage, it turns out.
At first, Admiral Bobbery has the same problem as Koops: he can only hit enemies on the ground. He makes up for it, though, with his Bomb move, which does a lot of damage by default. Bobbery is usually the best way to get rid of an enemy. But when he gets Bob-ombast, he turns into something really bad.
Not only can he hit all enemies on screen with Bob-ombast for a lot of damage, but he can also ground everything so Mario can easily attack again. His Bomb move is also a great first strike in the field, as long as you know when to use it.
Bobbery can’t get past defenses like Flurrie can, but his weapons do a lot of damage and can hit anything, so that’s usually not a problem. Put on some partner-buffing badges if you want to see him work!
Coming in clutch all the time, Vivian!
The character Vivian should almost never be put on the bench for too long. Her Shade Fist does some damage and leaves most foes with a burn effect that doesn’t go away. Her Fiery Jinx special attack burns all foes on screen and hits even harder. It gets past defenses and has the same effect.
As if that wasn’t enough, she can use Veil to give up a turn and protect herself and Mario from damage for the next round of enemy attacks. This is great for fighting big bad guys or strikes that charge. Outside of fight, she doesn’t do much, but maybe she doesn’t need to.
There are several times when Vivian’s Veil ability is pretty much necessary to beat a boss, including the last one. From a story point of view, she might also be the best of Mario’s friends.