Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – How to Beat the Shadow Queen

As the main story of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door nears its close in Chapter 8, Mario and friends enter the Thousand-Year Door and traverse the Palace of Shadow to stop the 1000-year-old demon from being unleashed. However, players soon find out that they have been set up and Grodus is successful in releasing the Shadow Queen.

She proceeds to possess Princess Peach and give Mario one of the toughest battles in the game. If players are not prepared or properly leveled up for the fight, they may be quickly overwhelmed by the Shadow Queen’s power.

Phase 1: How to Fight the Shadow Queen in TTYD

After overcoming back-to-back boss fights with Grodus and Bowser, players will continue deeper into the palace where they can heal, save, and pick up a few support items for the nearing final battle of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. They will be treated to some cinematic dialogue before Mario is asked by the newly-reformed Shadow Queen to surrender and join her. While players are free to agree to this, the Shadow Queen will then cast the world in shadow, resulting in a game over. Instead, players can decline and begin the first phase of the battle.

The Shadow Queen boasts an impressive 150 HP and a terrifying attack power of 7. Luckily, in this phase, she has no defense, so players should aim to inflict as much damage as they can. The Ultra-Rank moves of Mario’s partners are excellent at chunking away the boss’s health. Players will need to be careful, however, as the Shadow Queen can significantly boost both her attack and defense in the same turn.

Increasing Mario’s attack and defense with several of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door‘s badges before the battle is strongly recommended. It should be noted that badges like Return Postage and Zap Tap won’t work in this fight, so it’s safe to unequip them and free up some BP for other options. Players may also want to rely on defense-piercing attacks such as Piercing Blow or Koop’s Shell Slam when the Shadow Queen boosts her stats. Stronger items like Thunder Rage or Shooting Star can also be used to pierce her boosted defense.

Phase 2: How to Damage the Shadow Queen in TTYD

After players deal enough damage to the Shadow Queen (roughly half her health), she will comment on Mario’s strength and go on to reveal her true form. It is at this point that players should quickly shift from offense to defense.

Although the updated entry in the Tattle Log shows a new defense of 1, the Shadow Queen has become impervious to all damage in this new form; even the strongest Special Attacks, like Supernova, will not leave a scratch on her. Players should keep their Star Power topped off with frequent stylish moves and focus on saving it for moves like Sweet Feast and Power Lift to survive.

During this second phase of the fight, the Shadow Queen will attack with single lightning strikes and with each of her hands to drain health from Mario or his partners. Powerful Paper Mario TTYD healing items and recipes should be kept on hand to help ensure survival during the queen’s onslaught. Even though they cannot cause damage, players should still perform attacks on the Shadow Queen and her hands when they can to progress to the next phase.

After surviving several rounds, she will send shadows into the audience to drain the life force of everyone there and restore herself to full health. Players will be taken out of battle and be asked to join the Shadow Queen once again. By turning her down again, she will become angry, but the Crystal Stars will leave Mario to intervene with the shadow that has fallen on the world.

After some cinematics, the power of the Crystal Stars and the friends Mario has made along his journey weaken the Shadow Queen enough for Peach’s spirit to break through. With the last of her strength, she heals the party to full strength and the final phase of the fight will begin.

Phase 3: How to Defeat the Shadow Queen in TTYD

After being weakened by the Crystal Stars, the Shadow Queen can now take damage and players should unleash as much of it as possible. Again, items and attacks that pierce defense work well against this form. Mario can destroy her hands each time they appear and will alternate between the two large hands and a miasma of small hands on the ground.

Although the previous phase left Mario with a near-empty audience, a guaranteed Shine Sprite Bingo will occur after three attacks. Players should take full advantage of the situation by using as much Star Power and FP as they like in those first couple of moves.

During this final phase of the fight, the Shadow Queen will keep the same attacks as before with a few additions. When the crowd of small hands attacks, they can quickly charge forward or pull Mario and the party into the shadows to hit them multiple times. However, the attacks of the smaller hands will not siphon health as the large ones do. She is also able to use a status-inflicting breath attack or further boost her attack power by 7 in preparation for her brutal Dark Wave attack.

Every so often, the Shadow Queen will prepare a wave attack that does enormous damage to the party. This Dark Wave takes a turn to charge up (the +7 charge to attack), and with a +3 attack boost from an earlier round, it can be upgraded to the Shadow Wave to inflict even more damage. On the turn following the charge, players should immediately switch to Vivian and use her Shadow Veil to avoid the attack unless they are confident they can tank 14 damage and 17 damage, respectively.

After several rounds of combat, players will overcome the evil Shadow Queen and be rewarded with a 200 Coin Clear Bonus. Mario will have saved the day once again and the game’s closing cinematics will begin.

Recommended Badges for the Shadow Queen in TTYD

Though each player’s playstyle will vary, some badges can be critically useful in succeeding against the Shadow Queen. Firstly, because all but one of the Shadow Queen’s attacks pierce defense (Hand Slap), it’s highly recommended that players optimize BP usage by unequipping all any badges that boost defense, such as Defense Plus or P-Down, D-Up. This also applies to badges like Spike Shield and Ice Power that serve no function in this particular battle.

• Quick Change
• Piercing Blow
• Power Jump
• Power Plus / Power Plus P
• Feeling Fine / Feeling Fine P
• Flower Saver / Flower Saver P
• Lucky Day
• Lucky Start

Depending on which stats players have chosen to level up, these badges can serve as a starting point for players’ loadouts. Quick Change is incredibly powerful in all situations, but especially in the final phase of this fight. Players can continue to efficiently inflict damage and swap to Vivian without interruption before the Shadow Queen’s wave attacks. Other recommendations are included to maximize damage while carefully managing FP usage.