As players make their way through the chapters ofPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, they’ll collect manyShine Sprites to rank up their partners. Even while costing 3 Shine Sprites per upgrade, players may find themselves still holding a few after everyone in their party has made it to Super Rank.
Luckily, following Chapter 5, Merlon has a way for players to put those Shine Sprites to use and strengthen their party even further. However, players will need to decipher his message from the stars and embark on a small quest to gain the portentous sign Merlon foresaw.
Merlon’s Quest to Hooktail Castle in TTYD
After Mario and friends return triumphantly from Keelhaul Key in Chapter 6 ofPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, they’ll make their way to the titular Thousand-Year Door to locate the next star on their map. They’ll return to Professor Frankly’s lab and get their marching orders and set off on the next leg of their journey.
As the party steps outside, they’ll get flagged down by Merlon from the neighboring house. He excitedly shares with Mario that he’s seen a sign in the stars that promises great things for him and his allies. Through his mysterious yet direct instructions, players will learn that a clue to this power lies within Hooktail Castle,the dragon’s lair from Chapter 1.
Players should navigate through Rogueport Sewers to Petal Meadows to quickly reach the castle. Though Mario canfast travel via the pipe room, the original route may prove more efficient than running from Petalburg. The area players are looking for is at the furthest end of the castle. As told by Merlon’s star charts, Mario should pass through the room with the reversible stairs, through the cell bars into the room with the black chest, and all the way to the far end of the spike room. There, players will find a wall that Bobbery can destroy and a lone blue switch waiting inside.
Activating the switch will drop a chest from the ceiling containing an Up Arrow. Though it’s unclear to Mario what it means, players should return to Merlon with the object in hand.
Showing the Up Arrow to Merlon will slowly jog his memory and he’ll launch himself into his attic. After a short while, he’ll return with the Ultra Stone that he bought from a flea market. With this new orb,Merlon now has the power to upgrade your partners to Ultra Rank, given that they’ve already advanced to Super Rank.
Upgrade Partners Again in TTYD
With the newfound power of the Ultra Stone, players can return to Merlon anytime with Shine Sprites in tow toupgrade their partners to their fullest potential. There are exactly enough Shine Sprites in the game to ensure that all partners can eventually reach Ultra Rank. With the advanced rank, each partner will also learn the most powerful moves in their arsenal:
As with Super Rank, Mario’s partners will also receive a boost to their attack power and HP. Depending on players' progression, some partners might even outpace Mario’s stats and players will need toquickly earn Star Points to level upand catch up.
