One Subtle Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Change Ruined Its Best Challenge

Summary People can retry battles in Pit of 100 Trials, losing the challenge's original difficulty.

One person has even beaten the challenge without defeating the game's first boss.

Debates are being had on the change, with some liking the changes and others missing the challenge.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door features several upgrades via the Nintendo Switch version that was recently released, and while most of them have been positively received, one has become a bit divisive. Specifically, it has to deal with an optional challenge that people can attempt to conquer underneath the town of Rogueport.

The challenge in question is the Pit of 100 Trials. In the lore, the pit was created by the game’s ending boss, the Shadow Queen. She created it as a way to get rid of people whom she didn’t like. To ensure they didn’t return, the Shadow Queen filled it with monsters of all types. For people who take on this challenge in the Nintendo GameCube version of Paper Mario: TTYD, the biggest trial was trying to take on all 100 levels in one shot. However, the Switch version takes away that difficulty via one simple change.

How The Pit Of 100 Trials Has Changed

If You Fail, You Can Just Try Again

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As noted by many people who have attempted the Pit of 100 Trials in the Switch version, including Reddit user Flippingthrow, if the person dies during a battle in the pit, they can simply retry the battle on that floor. Previously, the GameCube version was much more challenging, as every death would send Mario and his allies back to the beginning of the challenge. The Switch version negates part of the challenge by removing that hurdle. The only thing it keeps challenge-wise is that those who willingly leave the pit must start over.

At its core, the Pit of 100 Trials is meant to challenge people by making them face monsters of various types from all across the game. There are even special monsters that only reside within this pit, such as the final boss, Bonetail. Those who attempted the pit in its original form had to build up both Mario and his companions to handle all the threats within. That included getting certain items and badges so Mario and his companions would have numerous options to take on threats and heal.

Another of the key challenges within the Pit of 100 Trials is that people could only rest after clearing a set of 10 floors. Furthermore, they could buy items from the character Charlieton, with the catch being that the items would be incredibly expensive and would increase in price the further down the pit they went. Strategy was a critical element in the pit, yet people can now blaze through it should they desire because of this reversal in the pit’s mechanics. That’s not to say there isn’t any challenge, but it is severely lessened.

You can also use a Mover character to skip floors for a price.

Beating The Pit Of 100 Trials Is Easy Now

You Don't Even Need To Deafeat The Game's First Boss to Conquer The Pit

Proof of this can be found via the run through the pit made by LordFarquad1312 on GameFAQs. He noted that he was able to beat all 100 levels before beating Hooktail in the first chapter. According to him, this was supposed to be impossible, yet he did it. To prove he did this, he included a YouTube video showing off the end of his run against Bonetail in his post. While Mario’s health is at 50, and his FP at 30, Gombella’s health is at 10, and his Special Meter is at one.

Partner characters can only be powered up via Shine Sprites, indicating that LordFarquad didn’t even find the three within the opening areas to power up Goombella. Not that he needed it since he won while she was incapacitated in the final fight with Bonetail. Just as important, the Star Powers, which can only be obtained after collecting the Crystal Stars, provide Mario with both special attacks and the potential to take out enemies depending on the move, such as by dealing up to six damage to all enemies via Earth Tremor.

The fact that this person was able to beat the Pit of 100 Trials in the Switch version of Paper Mario: TTYD in such a way clearly shows that as long as someone leveled up Mario just enough and had the proper badges and items, a person can clear it before you beat the game’s first boss. That’s a small hurdle to clear, especially compared to the GameCube version, where a single death restarted the entire trial.

Related Every Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Partner, Ranked Worst To Best There are seven recruitable partners in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, each with different abilities. Here’s how they compare to one another.

Debating The Validity Of The Change

The Retry Feature Makes The Pit Much Easier To Complete

Whether this change is a good one is heavily debated, with mixed reactions to the change. On the one hand, the pit is easier, and the retry feature allows people to finally complete the Pit of 100 Trials without sinking numerous hours into it due to having to start over multiple times. However, the new update may also lack the challenge of the previous version, with some users saying they would ignore the feature and still attempt to do it in one shot.

Despite these changes, much of what the original Pit of 100 Trials had is intact. For example, you still get badges for clearing certain floors and can earn coins and EXP by beating enemies. A change to the Switch version is that you can get more coins via the completion bonus that is found in the game’s main boss fights. Also, a new foe appears if you attempt to beat the pit more than once after beating the game’s campaign. That new boss is a Whacka, not unlike how the Glitz Pit has a Prince Mush Boss fight added in.

In the end, the reason the Pit of 100 Trials is easier in the Switch version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door might tie into the game’s numerous new features. Nintendo made several quality-of-life improvements to help the game shine above its original version. It’s possible they felt the original pit was too hard, so they added the retry feature to make it more welcoming and invite new people playing the title to give it a shot.

Source: Flippingthrow/Reddit, LordFarquad1312/GameFAQs, laxur1312/YouTube