List of Paper Mario: The Origami King glitches

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This is a list of glitches in Paper Mario: The Origami King.

Note: All names are conjectural unless otherwise specified.

Visual

Note: These glitches have no secondary affects on gameplay unless stated otherwise.

Bob-omb animation glitch

With correct timing, if the player swings their hammer at Bob-omb and rescues a Toad, Bob-omb's sprite when hit by the hammer remains the same until Mario enters a battle. Cutscenes do not fix this glitch.

Disappearing Sea Captain Toad

If the player reloads a save where Mario approaches the Sea Tower from the dock, either by starting a file there or dying and reloading, Sea Captain Toad will have vanished. Leaving and returning to this room will cause him to reappear.

Disappearing T. Ode

While at The Princess Peach, if Mario enters a room and then returns to the Sea Captain Toad's ship, Captain T. Ode will have vanished.

Invisible Mario glitch

There are some situations where the game purposefully makes Mario invisible for better cinematic shots, including during some boss introductions. By dying to said bosses the player gains the option to skip such introductions, and if these sequences get skipped while Mario is invisible, his state will not be reset. This results in an invisible Mario on the field, with the hammer also being invisible but still affecting the environment.

Invisible Olivia glitch

When Mario goes up the stairs outside the Earth Vellumental Temple after collecting the MAX UP Heart, Olivia comments on the Folded Soldier Goombas and tells Mario that he can defeat them with a First Strike. If Mario buys a fortune and gets the coin outcome before walking up the stairs, Olivia's dialogue appears without her. Enemies on-screen continue to move in place, while Toads move around freely.

Mega Paper Macho Pokey victory glitch

Upon defeating the Mega Paper Macho Pokey in the Battle Lab, it is possible for Mario to be standing sideways, facing upwards, during his victory animation. This has no adverse effects and the game progresses as normal.

Physics

Note: These glitches affect the way Mario and/or his party members interact with the world.

Floating partner glitch

If the player swings their hammer at their partner and jumps away, waits for the partner to attempt to follow, then open the item menu to cancel the partner's jump, the partner's gravity will be disabled. Warping will simply change the height they float at. This behavior can be cancelled if the partner jumps or walks down certain slopes. It is also possible to perform this glitch on a partner not immediately behind the player, but it requires having the partner in front of them to jump away from them rather than Mario.

The cause of this glitch was not fully understood until being reverse engineered a year later.

Partner duplication and smuggling

Bobby

If the player manages to pull off the Autumn Mountain skip, they can duplicate Bob-omb. They need to continue to the point where Bob-omb is knocked into Chestnut Valley, at which point they need to backtrack to the empty river, which activates the cutscene where Bob-omb interacts with the boulder blocking the path. After this cutscene is over, they will have a glitched clone of him, and they can have both Bob-ombs in the party if they jump down to Chestnut Valley without activating the Paper Macho Goomba cutscene. When using this glitch, it is possible to bring the cloned Bob-omb into the Water Vellumental Shrine, though if the player enters the fight against the Water Vellumental with him, he vanishes from the party afterwards.

Professor Toad

With the use of clones it is possible to duplicate Professor Toad inside the entrance of the Fire Vellumental Cave, thanks to a trigger near the doorway to the next room (far trigger) and a trigger close to the entrance (near trigger). First the player must jump onto the rock in the bottom-left corner of the screen, high enough that the partner in front can warp and land on it. Then that partner must be hammered while Professor Toad is attempting to run towards said partner, causing the professor to run in place. From here the player can hit the far trigger and leave the cave, resulting in him being cloned.

Alternatively there is a universal method that works without any other partners in the party, using the Floating Partner Glitch and the same rock. Once Professor Toad is floating, activate the far trigger and wait for him to run to his waiting spot, hit the near trigger so he runs back to Mario, then activate the waiting spot trigger again and leave the cave.

Faceless Toad

These Toads are briefly met and aided in the Temple of Shrooms. They cannot be duplicated, but they can be brought out of the area using partner clones. Simply bring at least one partner and its clone to the temple, recruit the faceless Toad(s) and leave so that they sit at the exit. Then enter and quickly exit the Temple of Shrooms again. This bypasses a check for the faceless Toads to stay behind.

Feelin' Fungi

These toads are briefly met and aided on Club Island. They cannot be duplicated, but they can be brought out of the area using knockback. By luring a hammer bro and positioning Mario near a trigger wall, Mario can be knocked through that trigger, bypassing the restrictions for the Feelin' Fungi.

The process is slightly more involved for smuggling the members that are not Joy because a second trigger is placed where the tall grass ends once another member is hammered. Get knocked through the grassy trigger, then inch back into the grass just enough to lure another the hammer bro and then bypass the second trigger wall.

Kamek

Kamek, similar to Professor Toad, has a set of triggers that are used to have him leave and rejoin the party during the windy section of the path to the Spring of Rainbows. However, attempting to use the same duplication methods fails, instead deleting Kamek from the party and the area entirely. Attempting to load the Spring of Rainbows after falling from Shy Guys Finish Last results in a crash and bricks the save file. Returning to the main area of Shangri-Spa will respawn Kamek.

Professor Toad in the floor

In front of any tower in Scorching Sandpaper Desert, the player can get Professor Toad stuck in the ground by having him dig in front of the structure, moving back slightly and then speaking to Olivia.

Teeter storage

By opening either the item menu Y or pause menu PLUS as Mario is about to teeter at a ledge, the game gives him both states. If the player keeps holding toward the ledge until closing the menu, Mario enters an unintended state of interaction. Prompts will not appear, menus and Olivia cannot be used, npcs do not react to being hammered, items are not collected, combat cannot be entered, etc. However events with triggers, loading zones, benches, and Not-Bottomless Holes will end the glitched state.

Out of bounds

Autumn Mountain skip

At the tram station in Autumn Mountain, the player can clip between a wooden pole and the steps and jump out at a certain angle to land out of bounds on the other side of the fence behind the station. If the player walks around the corner, whilst staying close to the wall to avoid the loading zone for the secret coin area, they can access the long grass field, skipping a small portion of the area.

Leaving Bowser in Bowser's Castle

After destroying the Green Streamer, Bowser insists that the player "Get me down already!". Instead, head right where the spike shaped like a traffic cone sits, and do running jumps angled downward in midair. If done properly, Mario will be pushed forward by the geometry, bypassing the trigger zones that keep Mario near the throne.

Leaving Luigi in Toad Town

By jumping on a specific portion of the lip of the "outer crust" in Peach's Courtyard, it is possible to jump over the short wall and walk around the flower beds in the background of the courtyard to skip saving Luigi in Toad Town. This does not affect future encounters with Luigi.

Paper Macho Gooper Blooper boss skip

After attempting to unlock the yellow lockbox, the Paper Macho Gooper Blooper will be waiting at the front of the ship, while a trigger blocks access to the stairs leading to Sea Captain Toad's ship. By cloning partners and exiting out a portside door, Mario will walk out farther than intended to make room for said partners causing him to fall out of bounds and respawn near Sea Captain Toad. Despite not defeating Gooper Blooper, a flag has already been set that allows Bob-omb to use the contents of the lockbox in Sweetpaper Valley, skipping the boss fight.

There is also a more indepth tutorial with details on setting up Bobby clones for the trick.

Princess skip in Shogun Studios

With either a precisely timed/placed jump or a mushroom to avoid using the prompt on top of the food bowl, it is possible to jump over the fence of Princess' encloser. From there if the player positions Mario correctly, hammering the folded toad will cause Mario to be pushed along by said toad, bypassing the trigger for Princess to scare him away.

This skips the fetch quest in Shogun Studios normally required to feed Princess the chain chomp and gain access to the Ninja Attraction.

Red house roof clip

Mario, on top of another house after crossing a hedge

By jumping at the right angle between a wall and a crate in Toad Town, the player is able to climb onto the roof of a house in the center of town. From there, they can wander along the tops of the nearby hedges, as well as make their way onto other rooftops in the area.

Sea Tower floor 2 skip

By lining up on the fourth step in the stairs leading up the Ice Vellumental statue, then jumping into the spot where the wall and the stairs meet and drifting back towards the stairs, Mario will be clipped into the ground. From here, Mario can narrowly jump from the edge of the icy terrain up to the area with a Shiny Ice Flower. Jumping forward into the "teeth" will clip Mario through to the other side, bypassing the icicles and completely skipping the puzzles intended on the 2nd floor of the Sea Tower.

Battles

Arrow Storage

During the Earth Vellumental boss fight, Olivia will reset the rings if the player fails to complete the puzzle on their second turn. The game fails to reset Mario's walking direction, basically storing the last arrow he used. This can be used to hit the tail one turn early.

Item not consumed in 1st phase of Tape battle

During the battle with Tape, the 1st phase ends with a unique fakeout animation. If the player uses an item to end the 1st phase, the game is not queued to remove the item, thus whatever item was used is not consumed. This glitch also applies to the durability check for weapons.

King Olly soft-lock

In the second phase of the final battle with King Olly, it is possible for the Thwomp to get stuck in mid-air just above Mario. This prevents him from using the 1,000-Fold Arms or dying, and hence requires the player to reset the game to move on.

Missing Origami Character in the museum

If an ally finishes a battle with an enemy that only appears in a scripted battle like a Black Shy Guy, that enemy will not appear in the Musée Champignon in the Origami Character section, thus not counting towards 100% game completion.

Wave battle glitch

If a wave battle is supposed to start, but only one enemy is alive and another is in their death animation, it still initiates a wave battle and consider both enemies alive.

Wave phase glitch

Even though there are supposed to be three waves in the final batch of enemies battle in Origami Castle, only two are initiated, despite the second wave saying, "Next wave."

Crashes and corruptions

5 and 6 partners

Attempting to recruit a 6th partner into Mario's party will crash the game. Recruiting a 5th partner will work, however any attempt by the game to save will also crash.

Fishing in Shogun Studios with the wrong partner

It is possible to bring partners out of their restricted areas through various means. If the player have such partners in their party but do not have Bob-omb, attempting to quit the fishing minigame in Shogun Studios will result in a crash.

Temple of Shrooms file corruption

Warning! Performing this action may corrupt your game's save file.

If the player brings 4 partners into the Temple of Shrooms and recruits a faceless Toad, that save file is permanently corrupted. Opening the menu, starting Mario's turn in normal battles, and other actions will crash the game, regardless of how the party changes after the glitch is started.

Patched glitches

Due to patches, these glitches are impossible to perform.

Battle Lab score glitch

In the Battle Lab, the score sometimes was not properly updated if the player completed 33 or more rings in the Speed Rings mini-game.

Ladder Softlock

Using a ladder from specific angles, Mario cannot move after jumping off. He can use Olivia to turn himself and escape by climbing down the ladder, but if he instead climbs to the top of the ladder again, the player will enter a softlock.

MAX UP Heart coffin skip

In the Temple of Shrooms, it was possible to collect the MAX UP Heart in the coffin room by hitting it with the hammer while the coffin is closed. If the player did this, the Love Toad would not count the upgrade has having been collected and would continue to get the player to find it.

This glitch has since been fixed in version 1.0.1. The MAX UP Heart cannot be collected without opening the coffin anymore, and any players who have collected it now find that the Love Toad considers it to have been collected.

Missing Black Shy Guy glitch

If the player let Professor Toad defeat the Black Shy Guy enemy in the Temple of Shrooms, the enemy would not be registered to the museum as defeated and they would be unable to face it again to register it. This glitch was fixed in version 1.0.1 by adding another Black Shy Guy to Scorching Sandpaper West after Hole Punch is defeated, which can be battled as many times as the player likes.

Rubber Band freeze

In the battle with Rubber Band, it was possible to freeze the game.

Snif City Royal Hotel glitch

Warning! Performing this action may corrupt your game's save file.

If the player turned off the water in the Snif City Royal Hotel, then does not free the Toad that the nearby Snifit was surfing on, they would be unable to free it when they return later in the story. This made it impossible to get 100% completion for Shroom City and locked the player out of the secret ending.

Stuck pillar

Warning! Performing this action may corrupt your game's save file.

In the Sea Tower, there is a moving pillar in the Earth Vellumental room that the player has to pull Olly Tape off of. However, in some instances, the pillar does not move after they do this, potentially rendering the save file unwinnable.

Sumo Bro softlock

During the second phase of the Boss Sumo Bro rematch in the Battle Lab, defeating the Boss Sumo Bro with a POW Block without defeating the two Sumo Bros beforehand causes the game to soft-lock.

Undefeatable Ninjis

In the Ninja Attraction in Shogun Studios, some Ninjis were impossible to defeat, making the area unwinnable.

VIP pass glitch

Warning! Performing this action may corrupt your game's save file.

In Shangri-Spa, after obtaining the Spring of Rainbows - VIP, if the player left the path to the Spring of Rainbows after entering, the Spring of Rainbows - VIP would disappear from the menu. If the player then spoke to the Toad at the reception, they would not have the stamp card and there was no way to get another one. Saving after this point would brick the save file. This glitch has since been patched and any players affected by the glitch would be able to progress normally.