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How to unlock the true 100% ending - Paper Mario: The Origami King

Are you looking for the true 100 percent ending to Paper Mario: The Origami King? It's worth hunting down if you're a completionist, but you're going to have to earn this one. Shacknews is here with all of the requirements.

Ozzie Mejia

July 27, 2020 11:40 PM

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Paper Mario: The Origami King is a fully realized RPG story, one that takes players on an emotional ride for the duration of its 25-30 hours. Without giving out any spoilers, the ending is definitely worth the time invested. However, it's not the full ending. There's a more complete version of the ending, one that makes the Origami King experience feel more satisfying. But you're going to have to earn it. Bow howdy, are you going to have to earn it. Shacknews is here to help give you the parameters of how to get the true 100% ending while also offering up some tips and advice.

How to unlock the true 100% ending - Paper Mario: The Origami King

In order to unlock the true 100% ending, players will have to get absolutely everything before defeating King Olly. And "absolutely everything" means "absolutely everything." We're going to explain exactly what that means.

1. You must repair all Not-Bottomless Holes

If you're exploring the world of Paper Mario: The Origami King, you'll notice holes all throughout the world, munched by King Olly's army of Paper Machos. The first step towards unlocking the true ending is filling up all of the Not-Bottomless Holes in every single world. This will involve walking around and exploring every nook and cranny, filling any holes with confetti. You can open the map on the pause menu in order to see a percentage of how much of the Not-Bottomless Holes you've filled.

If you're running low on confetti, make sure and hit trees, flowers, or defeat Folded Soldiers. Your max confetti supply will increase as you destroy more of King Olly's streamers.

2. Find all of the lost Toads

The second step towards unlocking the true ending involves saving all of the lost Toads. This will prove to be one of the tougher tasks, because not only will you need to explore nearly every inch of every world, but you'll also have to tinker with various set pieces. You'll have to hit flowers with your Hammer, jump into out-of-reach areas, and generally mess with anything that looks weird. Some Toad locations are obvious, because you'll see spotted patterns where there shouldn't be any. Other Toads are much more well-hidden.

You do have something that can help you, however. The shop in Picnic Road will have an accessory called the Toad Alert. Equip this whenever you want to search for Toads. The Toad Alert bell will go off whenever you're near a Toad. However, it won't point you in its specific direction. For that, you'll want the Toad Radar, which you can find at the Picnic Road Sensor Lab. The Toad Radar will go off whenever you're getting warmer. Your controller's Rumble feature will get stronger, too. Use the Toad Radar to your advantage, but make sure to charge it up at the Sensor Lab every now and then.

Like the Not-Bottomless Holes, you can open up your pause menu to check your percentage of found Toads in each area. If an area is at 100%, move on.

3. Find all of the Collectible treasures

This is another tough task. Collectible treasures are everywhere. You'll find them in chests around hidden grottos, you'll find them in hidden blocks, and you'll earn them by completing certain tasks. Some Collectible treasures are much harder to get than others, so we're going to point to a couple of particularly difficult ones. If you're going for the full 100% run, make sure to focus on these specific Collectibles. If you can complete these tough-as-nails tasks, the rest of the Collectible hunt should be cake.

• The House of Tricky Ninjas in Shogun Studios can trip you up, because you'll have to find all 25 of the hidden Ninja Toads. Fortunately, we wrote a guide on this!
• Before leaving Shogun Studios, make sure to ring the big Lookout Tower bell 100 times. It can be easy to hit it 30 times and call it quits, but keep going!
• Collectible treasures are all over the Great Sea! Talk to as many Toads as possible, because they'll point you in the right direction.
• In trying to find the final hot spring in Shangri-Spa, you'll run into the Shy Guys Finish Last game show. To keep the story going, you'll only need to collect 100 points. To get the Collectible treasure, you'll need to complete the Sudden Death round. Make sure you're paying attention to the song numbers throughout the game! The Sudden Death round will quiz you on a missing lyric. If you guess right, you'll get the Spring of Rainbows Collectible treasure. If you guess wrong, it's an instant Game Over and you'll have to play the game all over again. And believe it or not, this is not the hardest task involving the Shy Guy game show. We'll come back to this shortly.

Over the course of the game, you'll find the shop in Breezy Tunnel which will sell you the Treasure Alert. Equip this whenever you go on a hunt for Collectibles. And make sure to check your map, because it'll let you know the percentage of Collectibles in a given area that you've found.

4. Find all of the Hidden Blocks

The world is also filled with Hidden Blocks and you'll need to find all of them in order to get the full ending. Hidden Blocks can be fairly easy to find. If you see a block-shaped shadow in the world, there's often a Hidden Block there. Make sure to jump or use your Hammer on the area to uncover it.

You're going to need some tools to help you find the trickier ones. The shop in Shroom City will sell you the Hidden Block Alert accessory. Equip this and the Hidden Block Alert bell will ring whenever you're close to a Hidden Block. It won't tell you exactly where it is, though. Fortunately, the Sensor Lab will eventually give you an accessory called the Hidden Block Unhider. Operating similar to the Toad Radar, the Hidden Block Unhider will indicate the precise location of a Hidden Block by going off, while also triggering your controller's Rumble feature.

Use your pause menu to keep track of how many Hidden Blocks you've found in a given area.

5. Find all MAX Hearts

You're going to want to track down the MAX Hearts anyway, because they'll not only increase your HP, but they'll also increase your strength level if you collect enough of them. They're not always easy to find, but you'll have a helper who's willing to give you a hand with any you might have missed.

If you've saved the Love Toad over the course of your journey, he'll be hanging out on the eastern side of Toad Town. He'll give you the exact number of MAX Hearts that you're missing and also give you handy clues on where to find them.

6. Collect all 15 Trophies

This is brutal! The front desk of the Musee Champignon in Toad Town will reward you with 15 Trophies for completing special tasks. Some of these are easy enough, others require a time investment, and others are mind-numbingly difficult.

The museum will have a full list of each Trophy and its requirements. Here are the specific Trophies you're going to want to focus on, because these are the tough ones.

• You'll have to go down the Eddy River and survive the harrowing rapids. Surviving is a tall order in itself. However, you'll receive the Coin Captain Trophy if you can collect all of the coins during the river run. This can be very difficult, so accustom yourself to the controls, use your reflexes, and get every coin that comes along.
• There are fishing spots throughout the game, but the Fish Finder Trophy will require an intense time investment. You must catch both the Legendary Cheep Cheep and the Legendary Blooper to claim this Trophy.
• Was Shy Guys Finish Last fun the first time? Well, you'll have to go back a second time. And for this round, you must complete all 12 of the categories. If you miss even one, you'll have to start all over.
• One of the many islands in the Great Sea is called Scuffle Island and it contains every variety of Paper Macho in the game. Survive this fight and you'll get the Ring Champion Trophy.

If you can get these Trophies, the rest of them should be easy by comparison.

7. Unlock all Art Gallery and Sound Gallery pieces

Filling out the Musee Champignon is the last component to getting the true ending. There are rooms inside the museum containing unlockable art and Sound Gallery samples. You'll be earning points with the Toads you've rescued and that's what you'll use to unlock each Art Gallery piece. Meanwhile, the Sound Gallery samples will be unlocked by progressing through the story naturally and also by filling in the Not-Bottomless Holes. You won't be doing anything particularly extra to complete this requirement, so consider it a reprieve from the hard work you've put in.

If you've completed all of these requirements, all that remains is to defeat King Olly one more time. Progress to the end of the game, defeat the evil King, and enjoy the true ending. It'll look a lot like the old ending, but you'll notice a little something special tacked on at the end. I won't give it away here, because if you've put this kind of work into getting this ending, you most certainly deserve not to have it spoiled. We'll have more on Paper Mario: The Origami King in the days ahead, so follow Shacknews for more.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?