Can You Fight Bonetail Before Hooktail in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door?

In the original Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, one of the most challenging runs a player can do is to fight against the optional superboss Bonetail before fighting the mandatory Chapter 1 boss Hooktail. So, can you still do it in the remake?

How to Reach Bonetail Before Hooktail in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

As the name suggests, fighting Bonetail before Hooktail technically shouldn’t be possible. Bonetail is a boss that’s harder than the final boss that you find at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials, which contains almost every enemy type that you encounter in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. However, it is possible, and all you need is Paper Mode. 

Once you’ve acquired Paper Mode in Hooktail’s Castle, leave the castle and return to Rougeport. Make your way back to the Thousand-Year Door and use Paper Mode to slip between the bars on the right platform you entered from. By using the spring, you’ll bounce up an Airplane panel, allowing you to fly over to the opposite panel where the entrance to the Pit of 100 Trials is. From there, it’s a slow and brutal descent down to fighting Bonetail. 

Related: How to Get to Twilight Town in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

How to Prepare for Bonetail

The limitations of this run are going to become very evident very quickly. You’ll only be able to enter the Pit with two partners – Goombella and Koops. Even then, only one of them can be upgraded to Super level, given that there are only four Shine Sprites you would have encountered up to this point. You’ll also only have a few badges and not too many great healing items. There are some ways you can cheat the system to prepare yourself, but it will take a bit of grinding to do so. 

First, you’ll want to outfit yourself with some good items and cash in case you encounter a merchant in the Pit who will sell you absurdly priced items. To get some cash quickly, buy a bunch of Stray Sheep items in Rougeport, then sell them at the merchant in Petalburg. You’ll earn an extra two coins for the trade, which will slowly but surely build up to give you a ton of coins. Not only that, but each successful trade will get you shop points that will reward you with valuable items like an Ultra Shroom and Jammin Jelly, which can heal you for 50 HP and FP, respectively, as well as net you a Life Shroom. You should only be able to acquire two Life Shrooms naturally at this point in the game – one through saving enough shop points and another found in Hooktail Castle.

As far as badges go, you’ll have to collect Star Pieces to trade them for some decent badges. There are 15 Star Pieces you can collect before you fight Hooktail, which you can trade with the merchant Dazzle in Rougeport Sewers. To find him, once you enter the Sewers from Professor Frankly’s house, head left, and you’ll find the merchant you can trade with. Out of all of the badges available to trade, getting the Heart Finder and Item Hog would be best for the long haul since they’ll reward you with extra hearts and items that could be invaluable deeper in the Pit. 

Other than that preparation, it will really come down to luck, a lot of careful strategizing, and multiple attempts since it’s very likely you’ll die a handful of times trying to conquer the Pit. You’ll level up naturally and somewhat quickly, so deciding what you should prioritize is up to you, but investing in more HP and BP will help against certain enemies. Bonetail before Hooktail is one of the hardest challenges you can do in any Mario game, but thankfully, players can still attempt it in the recent remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is available now.