Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door features several characters you’ll come across, many of whom can join your party and help you along your journey. Each character has their own unique skill and offers something different.
Here’s every partner and their abilities in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
Goombella
Goombella is the first party member Mario meets. Despite her sharp tongue, she has an encyclopedic knowledge of the world and several characters. This knowledge also helps in combat through her Tattle ability, which provides information on an enemy, including their strengths and weaknesses. She also offers offensive moves via her Bonk and Multibonk attacks that damage either one or multiple enemies. Finally, her Rally Wink helps Mario gain an extra turn in battle, making her an immensely important ally.
Koops
Koops joins Mario in Chapter One after arriving in Petal Meadows to help defeat Hooktail. Afterwards, he sticks around and offers help with his many combat moves. This includes his Shell Toss ability, which affects spiked enemies and enemies on fire without taking damage and Shell Shield, which gives Mario a shield that blocks all attacks (for a limited time). There’s also Power Shell, which damages all grounded enemies, and Shell Slam, a stronger attack that also deals damage to multiple enemies. Koops offers both offense and defense to your party, making him a key factor for victory in battles.
Madame Flurrie
You meet Madame Flurrie right after Koops in Chapter Two, once you help get her necklace back. Afterward, she’ll join your crew to help you traverse locations and find items with her wind ability. She’ll also help out in combat with her many versatile moves. This includes her Gale Force attack, which uses wind to blow enemies away. As the name suggests, Body Slam lets her body slam non-spiked enemies; Dodgy Fog, evokes a fog to increase Mario’s evasion against attacks; and Lip Lock drains an enemy’s HP to add to her own. While Furrie isn’t the strongest combatant, she still has useful skills that can help in any battle.
Yoshi
This highly beloved and recognizable character returns in The Thousand-Year Door. What makes him different here is you can customize him through his various colors based on how long he takes to hatch after encountering his egg.
Furthermore, Yoshi helps traverse levels through the Overworld, as Mario can jump on him to move across long gaps and platforms. In combat, he also has strong attacks such as Ground Pound, where he jumps on enemies multiple times, and Gulp, where he eats an enemy and spits it at another one. With Mini-Egg, Yoshi throws eggs at enemies, damaging them in the process, with a chance to shrink them and decrease their Attack Power. Finally, his ultimate move, Stampede, summons a large number of Yoshis to swarm all enemies. Overall, the character is one of the most useful party members in the story.
Vivian
You’ll meet Vivian in Chapter Four. She provides both defensive and offensive attacks. Like many partners, she also helps Mario in the Overworld by hiding him in her shadow to protect him from enemies or to spy on enemies by listening to their conversations. In battle, Vivian uses Shade Fist, an attack that burns enemies. Veil is another move that puts her and Mario into their shadows to avoid enemy attacks, especially heavy boss attacks. Fiery Jinx burns all enemies over time, and Infatuate charms her enemies to confuse them. Vivian is perhaps the most versatile party member due to her wide range of attacks.
Admiral Bobbery
Admiral Bobbery is the most offensive attacker you can add to your party. You’ll meet him in Chapter Five and he’ll help explode walls to uncover hidden paths. What the Admiral lacks with defensive moves, he makes up for with amazing offense. These include his standard Bomb attack, where he walks up to an enemy and explodes, damaging only the enemy.
With Bomb Squad, he throws several mini Bobberys at enemies and damages them where they land. Hold Fast puts him in a defensive position where he reverses whatever damage dealt to him to the opponent instead. Finally, with Bob-ombast, his ultimate, Bobbery releases a gigantic explosion that deals devastating damage to all enemies.
Admiral Bobbery is the most powerful partner, making him a critical ally.
Ms. Mowz
Ms. Mowz is the only optional partner who can only be recruited after Chapter Four. While she isn’t the best fighter, she’s very useful in finding hidden items with her sniff ability. Her nose will always twitch whenever there’s an item or something of interest in the area.
In fights, Ms. Mowz slaps a single target with her Love Slap attack, heals Mario with her Smooch ability, inflicts dizziness with her Tease ability, and finally, she has a chance to steal items from one enemy with her Kiss Thief ability.
So, while not the best combatant, Ms. Mowz is still very useful.
