The boss rematches are the toughest challenges Super Mario RPG has to offer, so we’ve put together a detailed guide on each one to help you take each one down – plus their locations.
The game actually adds a good amount of content on top of the original. These come in the form of boss rematches, which you can’t access until after you defeat the final boss. There are spoilers ahead, including the identity of the super-secret boss, so take care before you continue. With all that out of the way, let’s get right into our Super Mario RPG boss rematch guide.
How to activate the boss rematches
After you clear the game and save your progress, Mario will wake up in his house and receive a voucher from Toad. Take this voucher to the Marrymore Inn for a free stay. During the night, Geno will notice a shooting star that lands in Star Hill. Head over and check the area to find a bunch of pink stars that weren’t there before. From here, you’ll need to head to Tadpole Pond to speak with the Frog Sage. He’ll direct you to Belome Temple, where you’ll come across your very first boss rematch,
Belome boss rematch
Starting off our Super Mario RPG boss rematch guide is Belome, who’s gotten a whole lot tougher. For this boss, you’ll want to stick with Mario, Peach, and Geno on your team. Mario’s your attacker, Peach is your tank and healer, and Geno can boost up allies or just opt to attack. Belome has a ton of HP, so keep smacking him with attacks from Mario’s Lazy Shell along with the occasional attack from Geno. Geno is most efficient when casting Geno Boost on allies, however, so keep that in mind.
Belome can eat one of your party members and create a clone. When a clone is active, Belome himself becomes immune to damage until the clone is destroyed. That means you’ll need to focus on taking out the clone before continuing to attack Belome. As mentioned earlier, he’s a real damage sponge, but as long as you keep attacking with Mario and keep healing with Peach, you’ll outlive him and win the battle. You’ll receive a new weapon for Mallow afterwards. This is actually the best weapon available for him in the whole game.
Head back to the Frog Sage and he’ll tell you about the next rematch. Be warned, though – the difficulty is about to amp up.
Punchinello boss rematch
Not going to sugar-coat it: the Punchinello rematch is pretty tough. In fact, this’ll be the toughest challenge you’ve faced in the game up until this point. Once again, we recommend Mario, Peach, and Geno here. We also recommend that you’re max level for this fight; check out our level-up guide for more information. The best place to level up is against Machine Made Speardovich enemies in the final area of Weapon World before the factory.
The gimmick of this fight is that you cannot hurt Punchinello directly – he takes almost no damage from anything. Instead, you have to time action commands just right on the Bob-ombs he summons to flip them around. When they’re flipped, they’ll run into him and deal infinitely more damage than your attacks could. You’ll only flip a Bob-omb if the action command you input causes the shock wave that hurts other enemies in the battle. Mario’s Lazy Shell is probably the easiest weapon to nail the timing on. In the meantime, you can have Peach heal up the team.
If a Bob-omb manages to hit you and you don’t block it, you’ll almost certainly die in a single hit. Bring plenty of Pick Me Ups and make sure your FP is maximized so Peach can most efficiently heal and revive the rest of the team. When you’ve dealt enough damage to Punchinello a giant bomb will drop on him and you’ll receive the Wonder Chomp, Bowser’s best weapon.
Booster rematch
Next up, you’ll need to head back to the top of Booster Tower for a rematch. This time around, we’d recommend Mario, Peach, and Mallow. In this match, Booster spends turns concentrating so he can build a powerful engine. If he successfully builds this train, it will wipe out your entire party in one hit. Fortunately, you can attack Booster himself to break his concentration and reset the timer. From there, you can use Mallow’s Snowy move to attack all of the Snifsters (they’re weak to ice). Generally, you’ll want to hit Booster once with any attack and then use Snowy to attack the Snifsters. After a few turns of this, they’ll die, leaving Booster all on his own.
It’s much easier from here on out. Just use your strongest moves against Booster to take him out as quickly as possible. You’ll continuously break his concentration, so feel free to pile on a bunch of physical moves to save FP. When he finally goes down, he’ll admit defeat and give you Geno’s ultimate weapon. Nice!
Bundt rematch
Next up for our Super Mario RPG boss rematch guide is a trip to Marrymore. Head back to the wedding hall for a rematch with Bundt, the giant wedding cake. Basically, you need to hit the cake with physical attacks to prevent the chefs from lighting all its candles. Bring Mario, Peach, and Geno, and use Peach’s Sleepy Time spell to put the chefs to sleep. This way, you’ll be able to attack the cake without having to worry about them re-lighting the candles. Bundt itself is still weak to jumps, so use some of Mario’s Super Jump attacks to deal easy damage. Then use Geno Boost to increase Mario’s attack and defense power. Both of the chefs are invincible, so make sure not to target them by accident. You’ll waste a turn if you do. Through it all, though, remember that Mario’s jump attacks won’t burn the candles out. Use physical attacks for those.
Keep dealing damage and you’ll defeat Bundt. In exchange, you receive the Enduring Brooch, an accessory that prevents a party member from going down once per battle. You can opt to use this on Peach just in case a future boss eats through her defenses, or a more offensive party member like Mario or Geno to keep them alive for a little while longer. Your choice.
Johnny rematch
Your next rematch is against Johnny in the Sunken Ship. And you’re not allowed to bring any allies or items — this battle is Mario only. Right away you’ll be prompted to select two allies for support effects during the rematch. Geno increases attack and speed, Bowser increases defense, Mallow increases magic attack, and Peach increases magic defense. Johnny mostly uses physical moves, so pick Geno and Bowser. We’d recommend the Lazy Shell weapon, the Lazy Shell armor, and the Attack Scarf for Mario’s equipment here. The setup is half the battle.
Hopefully your block timing is good, because you’ll need to do a whole bunch of it during the battle. With the Lazy Shell equipped and max level, you’ll be taking almost no damage at all. In exchange for winning, you’ll receive the Extra-Shiny Stone, which unlocks an even tougher rematch that we’ll cover in just a bit.
Jinx rematch
Next, it’s back to Monstro Town. Go to the dojo to initiate a rematch with Jinx, who wants to see your strongest Triple Moves. He’ll reset your gauge to zero, and it’s your job to properly time action commands to fill the gauge all the way back up. Unfortunately, he’s no slouch — his Bombs Away move does serious damage, and will likely one-shot most of your party members. A great idea here is Red Essence, if you have any. It makes a party member completely invincible for three turns, which can lighten the threat of a one-shot if you’re not certain on your blocking skills.
Otherwise, continue using physical attacks and blocking with good timing to fill up the meter. Use an offensive Triple Move, switching out your party if necessary, to end the battle. You’ll receive a Teamwork Band in exchange, which makes your teamwork gauge faster to fill up.
Culex rematch
It’s finally time for the very end of our Super Mario RPG boss rematch guide — and your final opponent is an even stronger version of Culex. He’s now three-dimensional and stronger than ever. Stock up on healing items and make sure your party members have the best possible equipment. For this battle, we recommend Mario, Peach, and Geno as always. Peach is an absolute must because you’ll be healing up a lot. When you’re ready for the challenge, head back to Monstro Town and go to Culex’s door to initiate the rematch. Prepare for the toughest battle the game has to offer.
At the beginning of the match, Culex will cast a spell that knocks all three party members down to 1 HP. It’s already time to heal. Worse still is that all four of Culex’s crystals get an attack every turn, and he can choose to lock one of your buttons to prevent you from taking certain actions. Every 5 turns, Culex will reduce your party members’ HP down to one. Make sure they’re fully healed, and use Mario, Peach, and Geno’s Triple Move to create a protective shield if they aren’t. The crystals each have a lot of health, but you need to destroy them one by one so that Culex can take less actions per turn. When one does get destroyed, it grants a buff to the other active entities on the field.
Croaka Cola works really well in a pinch, as it can fully recover your party after they’ve each been reduced to 1 HP. It also fully restores FP, which is a huge help in a pinch. When all four crystals go down, you’ll need to be smart about balancing your attacks and heals the whole way through. Red Essence is another item that works great here, as it makes a party member immune to Culex’s telegraphed one-hit kill attacks. Overall, Culex is a huge damage sponge and will take quite some time to take down. Still, keep at it and make sure you’re healed up and you should be good to go. When Culex is done for, he’ll give you a Crystal Shard as a reward. That means you’ve made it through all the Super Mario RPG boss rematch battles – great work!
Which of these rematches did you find most difficult? Have any of them stumped you? Feel free to tell us all about it down below. In the meantime, Super Mario RPG is available now for Switch. Visit the official site here.
