Star Power

Not to be confused with Countdown Timer.

Star Power, or Star Energy as it is called in Paper Mario, often shortened to SP and SE respectively, is a special form of energy featured in the first two installments of the Paper Mario series. In both games, Star Power is used to fuel Special Moves, a set of unique combat techniques that require Mario to use a special power taught by an entity like a Star Spirit or a Crystal Star.

Breaking from the tradition of the series, Star Power no longer appears from Super Paper Mario onwards. The lack of Star Power in the subsequent games disables some of the features known from its predecessors, namely the possibility to perform Special Moves.

History[edit]

Paper Mario[edit]

Star Energy in Paper Mario

In Paper Mario, Mario receives the ability to gather Star Energy and perform Special Moves after he rescues Eldstar from the Koopa Bros. With each Star Spirit rescued, Mario will gain an additional unit of Star Energy as well as unlock new Special Moves to perform in battle. Mario's amount of Star Energy is represented by differently-colored bars at the top of the screen, which can be broken down into eights.

⅛ of the bar is restored during battle after each enemy turn. Mario can use the Focus action to refill half a bar, or even more if a Deep Focus badge is equipped. Mario's partners have the ability to use Focus if the Group Focus badge is equipped.

Star Energy can be recovered by:

• Sleeping in a bed at an Toad House
• Leveling up
• Completing a chapter

Special Moves[edit]

Special Move		Star Energy	Description	Requirement
	Refresh	1	Restores 5 HP and FP to Mario.	Eldstar
	Lullaby	1	Affects to put all enemies to sleep. The base status duration of this move is four turns.	Mamar
	Star Storm	2	Deals 7 points of star-element damage to each enemy, piercing Defense Power.	Skolar
	Chill Out	2	Decreases the Attack Power of all enemies by 3 points.	Muskular
	Smooch	3	Restores 20 HP to Mario.	Misstar
	Time Out	2	Attempts to immobilize all enemies. The base status duration of this move is five turns.	Klevar
	Up & Away	2	Has a chance to instantly defeat any non-boss enemy in battle. Every eligible target's susceptibility is 95%.	Kalmar
	Star Beam	0	A technique that nullifies Bowser's invincibility bestowed upon him by the Star Rod, as well as positive status effects on enemies. However has no effect on Bowser in their final encounter.	Learned in Star Haven
	Peach Beam	0	Has the same capabilities as Star Beam, however it affects Bowser on their final encounter.	Final battle only

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[edit]

Star Power in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the stat is known as Star Power. It is unlocked at the end of the prologue when Mario holds up the Magical Map in front of the Thousand-Year Door. With each Crystal Star obtained, Mario's Star Power increases and new Special Moves are unlocked. The Star Power gauge is composed of up to 8 dots, each representing one full unit of Star Power which can be further broken down to hundredths.

Star Power is accumulated from performing Hammer or Jump attacks, or from partners using their own attacks. Succeeding at action commands and performing Stylish moves will increase the rate of Star Power gained. Mario and his partner can also use the Appeal or Super Appeal actions to gain a boost in Star Power, provided there is at least 1 active, awake and non-incapacitated audience member.

Star Power can be recovered by:

• Sleeping in a bed at an inn, or in the champion's bed at the Glitz Pit.
• Leveling up
• Completing a chapter
• Consuming Trial Stew will fully replenish SP and triple SP gain for several turns, in addition to lowering Mario and his partner's HP to 1 and FP to 0.
• Getting a Star or Shine Sprite Bingo! result

Special Moves[edit]

All special moves that deal damage are piercing attacks, and bypass the Dodgy and Invisible status conditions.

Special Move		Star Power	Description	Action Command	Requirement
	Sweet Treat	1	Cures all negative status conditions. Mario shoots stars to capture Hearts and Flowers falling from the ceiling that can restores up to 8 FP, and 7 HP to both Mario and his partner. If Mario's partner is knocked out, the partner's hearts won't appear and Mario can instead restore up to 14 HP.	Repeatedly press to the left to shoot stars at Hearts and Flowers. Shooting a Poison Mushroom will briefly prevent Mario from shooting stars.	Magical Map
	Earth Tremor	2	Deals up to 6 damage to all enemies. The action commands must be succeeded 2 times to strike aerial enemies, and 4 times to hit enemies on the ceiling.	Press in time with the buttons appearing on the gauge bar.	Diamond Star
	Clock Out	2	Produces a huge bomb that is passed between Mario's side, the audience, and the enemy's side. When the bomb explodes it Immobilizes the targets. Succeeding at action commands will increase the size of the bomb, and the duration of the status condition.	Press the button (either , , , or ) that appears over the side the bomb should be passed to. The buttons will periodically change to different ones.	Emerald Star
	Power Lift	3	A grid of panels appear, with red arrows, blue arrows, and Poison Mushrooms periodically appearing and disappearing. Bars representing Attack and Defense can be increased by shooting the arrows. Shooting Poison Mushrooms will slow down Mario's rate of fire. Mario and his partner will gain +1 Attack Up or Defense Up for every bar that is filled, up to a maximum of +5 for each stat.	Use to aim the crosshairs, and to shoot at a panel.	Gold Star
	Art Attack	4	Summons a small cursor which allows the player can draw on the screen. Drawing a complete circle around an enemy will deal up to 3 points of damage per circle.	Use to move the cursor.	Ruby Star
	Sweet Feast	5	Cures all negative status conditions. Mario shoots stars to capture Hearts and Flowers falling from the ceiling that can restores up to 24 FP, and 24 HP to both Mario and his partner. If Mario's partner is knocked out, the partner's hearts won't appear and Mario can instead restore up to 48 HP. Shooting a Poison Mushroom will briefly prevent Mario from shooting stars.	Hold to the left to shoot stars at Hearts and Flowers.	Sapphire Star
	Showstopper	2	Five sequences of action commands appear, in which buttons must be pressed in the order they appear. Each completed sequence increases the chance of the moves success. When successful, enemies will be instantly defeated depending on their susceptibility to the One-hit Knockout (OHKO) condition.	Press , , , or in the order of the sequence presented.	Garnet Star
	Supernova	6	A gauge appears that can be filled by pressing the button. Each time a sequence is completed, stars will crisscross the screen. Once time runs out, enemies will receive damage based on the number of sequences completed, up to a maximum of 15 damage to each enemy.	Rapidly press to fill the gauge.	Crystal Star

Star Power calculation[edit]

The formula for Star Power gain when attacking is calculated as follows:

${\displaystyle SPU\%\lfloor ({\sqrt {AudienceValue}}\times ActionCommandValue\times HealthStatus\times BingoStatus)\rfloor }$^[1]

where:

• ${\displaystyle \mathrm {SPU\%} }$ is 1/100 of a Star Power unit
• ${\displaystyle \mathrm {AudienceValue} }$ is the combined value of individual audience members. Each type of audience member has their own value, and sleeping audience members always have a value of 0. The audience values in the remake are significantly increased from the original game.^[2]

Audience values
Type	Value (GCN)	Value (Switch)
Dull Bones	0	2
Boo	1	5
Bulky Bob-omb		2
Crazee Dayzee		4
Goomba		2
Hammer Bro		4
Koopa Troopa		5
Luigi		4
Piranha Plant		2
Puni		5
Shy Guy		4
X-Naut		2
Toad	3	7

• ${\displaystyle \mathrm {ActionCommandValue} }$ is determined by the success level of Action Command executed. The Simplifier badge will decrease this value by 1, while the Unsimplifier badge will increase it by 1.
  • Performing a Stylish move will further modify this value using the following formula: ${\displaystyle (\mathrm {ActionCommandValue} +x)\times 2}$

The value for ${\displaystyle x}$ is 1 for all moves in international versions of the game, but in the original Japanese release, some moves provide a different value. Fire Drive, Quake Hammer, Multibonk, Power Shell, Lip Lock, Mini-Egg, Veil, Infatuate and Bob-ombast have a value of 2, and Tornado Jump, Shell Slam, and Tease have a value of 3.

• Although certain moves have more than one opportunity for a Stylish move to be executed, only a single execution will affect this calculation. Successive Stylish moves will only affect audience gain. However, in the original Japanese release of the game, Tornado Jump, Quake Hammer, Hammer Throw, Multibonk, Shell Toss, Power Shell, and Shell Slam require all possible opportunities to be executed to be considered a successfully performed Stylish move.^[3]

• ${\displaystyle \mathrm {HealthStatus} }$ is a value determined by whether Mario or his partner are healthy, in Danger, or in Peril. Values are lower in the remake than the original game.^[2]
  • If a partner is knocked out, they are treated as being in Peril for the purposes of this calculation.
  • If Mario's max HP has been reduced to 5 by Chet Rippo, the game will not consider Mario to be in Danger for the purposes of this calculation.

Health status values (GCN)
Character and status		Partner
		Healthy	Danger	Peril
Mario	Healthy	1.0	1.5	2.0
	Danger	2.0	3.0	4.0
	Peril	3.0	4.5	6.0

Health status values (Switch)
Character and status		Partner
		Healthy	Danger	Peril
Mario	Healthy	1.000	1.250	1.400
	Danger	1.400	1.750	1.960
	Peril	1.700	2.125	2.380

• ${\displaystyle \mathrm {BingoStatus} }$ is a value normally at 1, but will change when getting a successful Bingo! depending on the result. Values in the remake are lower than those in the original game.^[2]

Bingo! status values
Bingo! result	Value (GCN)	Value (Switch)	Duration
	1	1	No change
	2	1.4	4 turns
	3	1.7	6 turns

The formula for Star Power gain when using Appeal or Super Appeal is much simpler and is calculated as follows:

${\displaystyle 25\times (\#SuperAppeals(P)+1)+(\#ActiveAudience)/4SPU\%}$^[1]

where:

• ${\displaystyle \mathrm {SPU\%} }$ is 1/100 of a Star Power unit
• ${\displaystyle \mathrm {\#SuperAppeals} }$ is the count of Super Appeal or Super Appeal P badges equipped to Mario or his partner, respectively
• ${\displaystyle \mathrm {\#ActiveAudience} }$ is the count of active, awake audience members

Names in other languages[edit]

References[edit]