Paper Mario: The Origami King’s boss fights introduce a twist on the game’s spinning ring-based combat. In every fight against a Boss or a Vellumental, like this fight against the Fire Vellumental in Scorching Sandpaper Desert, you’ll have to chart a path for Mario from the outside ring in and land on an attack action.
Every boss fight in Paper Mario: The Origami King has rules that you’ll learn over the course of your turns. Not knowing them means you’ll waste turns and open yourself to more damage.
In this Paper Mario: The Origami King guide, we’ll let you know the rules to the Fire Vellumental fight in Scorching Sandpaper Desert so you don’t have to learn them the hard way, and then we’ll give you step-by-step guides to defeating it.
Fire Vellumental boss fight strategy
You’re going to take a lot of damage during this fight. There’s no way around it. Your task is to manage and minimize the damage you take while trying to keep the fight short.
Throughout this fight (starting in the second round), the Fire Vellumental will throw out flaming Molten Feathers. These feathers sit on a tile and move with that tile. They don’t block you, but they will damage you for 10 points when you touch them. They also reduce the Fire Vellumental’s health with every one it throws out.
Those Molten Feathers also persist between rounds as more feathers get added. That makes the arena very crowded by about the third or fourth round.
Since it’s flying, you can’t hit the Fire Vellumental with your hammer. Use your best Iron Boots instead.
A Water Vellumental Magic Circle attack will extinguish all the Molten Feathers and the Fire Vellumental, and knock the Fire Vellumental to the ground. It’ll stay down for two rounds, and won’t add any more Molten Feathers.
Your 1,000-Fold Arms attack won’t work while the Fire Vellumental is on fire, so you’ll need to land a Water Vellumental Magic Circle attack first.
If you try to finish it off with a 1,000-Fold Arms attack before its health is below a quarter, it won’t be defeated and it’ll regain all of its health. At that point, you’ll have to start over.
The tiles, items, and arrows in this fight are random, so it’s never going to be the same fight twice. However, the sequence is the same:
- Three rounds of Iron Boot attacks (preferably with an extra attack thrown in).
- One Water Vellumental Magic Circle attack.
- Finish it off with a 1,000-Fold Arm attack once its health is down to about 20 to 25%.
You’ll also need to mix in Magic Circle ON switches, picking up healing hearts, and visiting treasure chests to add Water Vellumental Magic Circles. It seems like a lot, but you can spread that out across all of your turns.
Fire Vellumental boss fight step-by-step
Knowing what to do and managing to do it are sometimes two different things in Paper Mario: The Origami King. Below, we’ll go step-by-step through this fight. Unlike the previous boss fights, this one doesn’t have a set pattern. The tiles, arrows, and items will change every fight and every round. Instead of spin-by-spin directions, we’ll give you goals for each turn.
Turn 1
- There are no Molten Feathers yet, so you can make your path as long as you need for this round.
- Try to hit either an ON switch or a treasure chest.
- Try to pick up a blue, extra attack tile.
- Finish on an attack tile, and choose your best Iron Boots for both attacks.
- You’ll get hit with a Fireball.
Turn 2
- This time, you’ll have to deal with a few Molten Feathers. You’re going to end up hitting some eventually, so just try to keep the damage you take to a minimum.
- Try to hit an ON switch or a treasure chest — whichever one you didn’t get in the first turn.
- Try to pick up an extra attack.
- Finish on an attack tile, and choose your best Iron Boots for both attacks.
- You’ll get hit with another Fireball.
Turn 3
- We’re going to do one more round of boot attacks to make sure the Fire Vellumental’s health is low enough.
- Make sure you’ve hit a treasure chest to add Water Vellumental Magic Circles by this point. And make sure those Magic Circles are activated with an ON switch.
- Pick up a heart if you can, but don’t make it your top priority unless you really need it.
- You’ll get hit with yet another Fireball.
Turn 4
- Your main goal this turn is to hit a Water Vellumental Magic Circle attack.
- You’ll probably need to pick up a(t least one) heart this turn.
- The Fire Vellumental will hit you with a Mild Wing attack.
Turn 5
- It’s time to finish the finish the fight with a 1,000-Fold Arms Magic Circle attack.
- Since you used a Magic Circle last turn, you’ll need to hit another ON switch.
- The Molten Feathers will be extinguished, so you’re free to move around the arena this time. Feel free to pick up some health, but make sure you land that 1,000-Fold Arms at the end.