Bonetail is a boss from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. She cannot speak properly, possibly due to her fading memory. Her appearance is similar to what Gloomtail would become if he was suddenly skeletonized.
Biography[]
Bonetail is found in the Pit of 100 Trials who used to belong to the Shadow Queen, as a pet. The creature was too powerful that she supposedly put her at the very bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials and Bonetail became a mere skeleton following years of being in the Pit of 100 Trials without anything to eat, any of her actions outside of the Pit of 100 Trials, if any, are unknown. Bonetail is the older sister of Gloomtail and Hooktail. She is also known to be the strongest enemy in the game, as her tattle log describes him.
Battle[]
When Mario and co. successfully reach the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials, they find Bonetail who roars, starting the battle. She has various breath attacks that she uses to attack Mario and co. her blue breath freezes them, her white breath makes them sleepy, green can confuse Mario and co. and finally the purple one can shrink them. When his HP is low, Bonetail can recover her HP by 20 and may stomp on Mario and co. to injure them. Along with that, Bonetail may also chomp them to use as an attack (an un-superguardable attack).
When Mario manages to avoid from fainting along with his allies and defeat her, Bonetail becomes defeated and releases a chest containing the Return Postage badge which makes enemies take half the damage they do to Mario and co.
Strategy[]
Mario after using Fire Drive (a very powerful and useful attack) against Bonetail.
Bonetail can be very difficult to fight due to the condition Mario may be in from battling the rest of the enemies of the Pit of 100 Trials. First off, Mario should keep a partner that has many HP and the ability to heal oneself without using items. Flurrie is the best choice for this fight (unless Bonetail charges up for her Megabreath attack in which Vivian should be swapped out for her to use her Veil technique). Having the Piercing Blow badge equipped may help as well and having the Feeling Fine badge may help as well. Mario will most likely have more HP at this point so if a partner is feeling weak, then the Quick Change badge should be equipped so that Mario can swap out another partner without wasting his turn. Star Power should be used with Sweet Feast and pulling off Stylish Moves will help as well.
What an Enormous Dragon![]
Dragon Slaying Battle[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Bonetail's role as an optional opponent that is actually stronger than the Final Boss is a recurring feature of Mario RPGs, as well as RPGs in general. The other bonus battles are against Culex in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, The Master (in his final form) in the original Paper Mario, Shadoo in Super Paper Mario, Bowser X in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, Bowser Jr. in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, and Dry Bowser in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.
- If the player goes to the 100th bottom floor after defeating Bonetail for the first time, there will be nothing there but the empty chest that held the Return Postage and the pipe leading back to the surface, and a creepy music track will play.
- Out of the three dragons in the game, Bonetail is the only one of them that doesn't speak as she only makes roaring and howling noises.
- Along with her two siblings, Bonetail possesses one of the only two attacks that cannot be blocked with a superguard (nor a regular guard either); his Chomp attack.
- Presumably due to translation errors, Bonetail is sometimes called a female, mainly in French, German, and Italian. In the remake, Bonetail is female in the English version as with the rest of the versions.
- Despite being implied to not always been a skeleton, according to Grifty, her name was always Bonetail even before being left in the Pit of 100 Trials.
