The much-anticipated remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is here, and much like the Gamecube original, the game is bursting with puzzles, secrets, and some quirky mechanics that new players may find slightly perplexing. Don’t worry though, we’re here to cut The Thousand-Year Door’s more confusing aspects down to size.
As you begin Chapter 7 of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, you’ll be presented with one of the more elaborate bits of backtracking in the game, as you need to find two bob-ombs, Goldbob and General White, in order to activate a cannon and, well… I won’t ruin it until after the spoiler tag. This is one of the more puzzling sections of the game, but don’t worry, we have you covered…
Note: The following guide contains minor Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door SPOILERS.
Following Chapter 6, Professor Frankly will inform you that the final Crystal Star is located… on the moon. In order to that, you’ll need to get to Fahr Outpost and use a cannon there to blast yourself to the moon. Well, okay then.
First things first, you’ll need to get the Ultra Hammer, which is located in that conspicuous large treasure chest that has been sitting in Rogueport’s main square since the beginning of the game. Use your recently-acquired Spring Jump to knock it down.
Now, slide through the grating in the west side of Rogueport, then flutter jump over the gap to the area with the door that leads to Twilight Town. Use your new hammer to break the gray block and head through the hole left behind and go down the pipe. You’re now in the snowy area around Fahr Outpost.
Make your way to Fahr Outpost, and talk to the mayor of the town (he’s the green-ish guy with the mustache). He’ll only talk to you about the cannon if you have Bobbery as your companion. According to him, they can’t operate the cannon without Goldbob and General White.
Goldbob is easy enough to find – he’s the fancy bob-omb who was traveling with his family on the Excess Express. He’s now hanging out in Poshley Heights. In order to get Goldbob’s permission to the use the cannon you’ll have to promise to give him all the money you have. He’ll make you confirm this many times, but don’t worry – in the end he still gives your money back to you.
Finding General White is a trickier prospect – you basically have to follow his trail through most of the regions you’ve visited so far, talking to the correct NPC in each in order to get a clue about where to go next. You can’t skip any of this – you have to go to each place and talk to the right NPC to proceed through the chain. Use the warp room beneath Rogueport to make this relatively painless.
First, head to Petalburg and talk to either the old mayor or the koopa at the village entrance.
Next, head to Keelhaul Key and talk to the bit pirate bob-omb, Pa-Patch.
Next, it’s off to Glitzville where you have to talk to the bartender.
Next, head to Boggly Woods and talk to the first puni you see as you enter the Great Tree.
Finally, it’s off to Twilight Town, where you should talk to the mayor or the guy near the item shop pictured above.
And yes, after all that, it turns out General White is in Fahr Outpost after all. Return there, talk to the mayor and you’ll see the General pop out of his house on the far east side of the town.
Head into his house, and you’ll find the General sleeping. Interact with him, and you can jump on him a couple times, but he won’t wake up. So, what do you do? Turns out this is one of those Paper Mario “the trick is that there is no trick” situations. You just have to jump on him repeatedly – when the game asks if you want to try to wake him up again, chose yes. Do it around 10 times, and he’ll finally wake up.
And there you have it! You’ve got both Goldbob and the General on your side! Talk to the mayor again, then head to the west side of Fahr Outpost to activate your one-way ticket to the moon.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is available now on Nintendo Switch. You can check out all of Wccftech’s Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door guides here.
