The Pit of 100 Trials is a long and dangerous dungeon found in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, as there are enemies that get stronger when Mario progresses through the floors such as the powerful Amazee Dayzee. Bonetail awaits at the bottom of this dungeon in the TTYD. This area, however, does not appear in Paper Mario. The Pit of 100 Trials reappears in Super Paper Mario.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
The Thousand Year Door's pit is a very difficult one. The first thirty or so floors aren't difficult but can be tiresome for Mario and co. The first encounter is always a Gloomba. Every ten floors, a new item is given to Mario in a chest. Inside of the chest are powerful badges such as Bump Attack, Lucky Day, and Zap Tap. Also the Strange Sack is found at Level 50, allowing Mario to hold twenty items at once. At these ten Floor checkpoints, a shopkeeper can often be seen. At almost any floor in the Pit, a mysterious Puni who could guide Mario into the Pit's beginning or further down at the cost of some coins.
It is a challenge for Mario and co. to complete the Pit of 100 Trials. Not only does Mario have to have powerful healing items, Mario must also acquire upgrades to his party and deadly badges. Levels 1 through 10 are fairly easy and have basic enemies from Chapter 1 and new enemies like the Gloomba. Levels 11 through 20 have plenty of foes from Chapter 2 and feature the new Para Gloomba, while levels 21 through 30 house enemies seen in Chapter 3 and the powerful Spiky Gloomba. The next ten levels are similar as they also have enemies from chapter 4 and five as well a new enemy; which is the Dark Koopa. Chapter 5 and 6's enemies return with the new Dark Paratroopa on levels 51 through 60. Levels 61 through 70 feature new powerful enemies never seen before like the Badge Bandit as well as some powerful miniboss-like characters seen earlier in the game. Levels 71 through 80 have their own original characters now too. These take strategy to defeat but with smarts they aren't that hard. Levels 81 through 90 feature Poison Puffs, Arantulas and others and are all quite difficult. The final ten levels are the most difficult featuring the past 10 level's enemies as well as the new Swoopula and Elite Wizzerd. Occasionally in the last few rounds, an Amazee Dayzee could appear.
At the very bottom of the pit one the hundredth bottom floor lies Bonetail, the strongest and hardest boss in the game with 200 HP and 8 Attack. He uses many different breathe attacks as well as various physical attacks. Bonetail falls when his HP drops to 0 but occasionally, like his family, eat the audience to absorb their life energy. The Return Postage badge is given after completion.
Super Paper Mario
Flipside
Mario fighting Wracktail in the Flipside Pit of 100 Trails in Super Paper Mario.
The Pit of 100 Trials reappears in Super Paper Mario. Like its predecessor, it consists of a hundred floors with increasingly stronger enemies that Mario has to defeat before moving on. Unlike the pit from the previous game, this pit does not require Mario to defeat every enemy in the room, only enough so that the player find a special door key hidden randomly with one of the enemies. There are two separate pits in Super Paper Mario: One being located in Flipside and the other in the same location in Flopside. They are both found on the lowest level of their respective cities.
The Pit of 100 Trials in this game has a larger emphasis on platforming than the previous pit. The player has to navigate a series of platforms in a large rectangular room, fighting enemies and locating keys. Every ten floors, a rest floor can be found where a large chest the is waiting in the center. The chest contains a Catch Card of one of the many pixels that followed Mario around throughout his quest. Occasionally, a Flipside salesmen appears on the break floor and offers to sell Mario various useful items. The look of the pit is based on the old Game & Watch Gallery games. At the bottom of the Flipside Pit of 100 Trials is Wracktail, a powerful dragon boss very similar to Fracktail, the first boss of the game.
Flopside
The Flopside Pit of 100 Trials is a challenge of 100 rooms in Super Paper Mario. The Flopside Pit of 100 Trials was designed by Merlight to test the powers of the power of the enemies who guard them. This Pit of 100 Trials is an optional area in Flopside that tests Mario's abilities if he chooses to go into it. The Pit is made up of room after room, each filled with one or more enemies. These enemies are dark versions of enemies fought in the game, although there are dark versions of enemies not found in Super Paper Mario as well. The room is filled with enemies, floors, one door where you came from and a locked door to the next room. One of the enemies chosen at random drops the key when defeated. You need to find this enemy, get the key and open the door before five minutes have passed. However, there is no way to tell what enemy has the key, and so the Heroes of Light has to defeat enemies until the key appears.
The rooms in the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials have different images, too. The Flopside Pit of 100 Trials contains images of the final four Pure Hearts and the Flipside Pit of 100 Trials contains images of the first four Pure Hearts. Floors 1-25 of the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials have a picture of the cyan Pure Heart. Floors 26-50 of the Pit of 100 Trials have a picture of the blue Pure Heart. Floors 51-75 show the purple Pure Heart. Floors 76-99 show the white Pure Heart. Room 100 is a complete white void, similar to the World Of Nothing, the place that was created when The Void destroyed the fifth level.
There are no places to heal in the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials, except for healing items that you dropped or that enemies dropped. If you die in the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials, you cannot start over from where you were. Also, the only way to escape is to use the Warp Pipes found on each tenth floor. If you escape the Pit of 100 Trials or die, you have to start from the beginning. The enemies get stronger as you go deeper into the Pit, and so the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials is difficult to pass, even more so than the Flipside Pit of 100 Trials.
There are 100 rooms, but each room divisible by 10 has no enemies. Those rooms contain a treasure chest with a catch card of one of Mario’s partners from Paper Mario, except for the 10th room and the 100th room. At room 10, the Heroes of Light receive a catch card of Dashell. At room 100, the Heroes of Light see Shadoo.
Rooms 001-010
- Room 001-contains Dark Goombas
- Room 002-contains Dark Koopas and Dark Goombas.
- Room 003-contains Dark Goombas, Dark Paragoombas and Dark Tech Cursyas.
- Room 004-contains Dark Paragoombas.
- Room 005-contains Dark Koopas and Dark Spiked Goombas.
- Room 006-contains Dark Cherbils and Dark Squiglets.
- Room 007-contains Dark Squiglets and Dark Spinys.
- Room 008-contains Dark Cursyas, Dark Goombas and Dark Spinys.
- Room 009-contains Dark Koopas and Dark Spike Tops.
- Room 010-contains the Catch Card of Dashell.
Rooms 011-020
- Room 011-contains Dark Fuzzys and Dark Squiglets.
- Room 012-contains Dark Stone Buzzys.
- Room 013-contains Dark Clefts, Dark Paratroopas and Dark Heavy Cursyas,
- Room 014-contains Dark Clefts and Dark Paragoombas.
- Room 015-contains Dark Spanias and Dark Goombas.
- Room 016-contains Dark Dull Bones, Dark Spinys and Dark Tech Cursyas.
- Room 017-contains Dark Stone Buzzys and Dark Spike Tops.
- Room 018-contains Dark Fuzzys and Dark Spiked Goombas.
- Room 019-contains Dark Goombas and Dark Dull Bones.
- Room 20-contains the Catch Card of Goombario.
Rooms 021-030
- Room 021-contains Dark Pokeys, Dark Fuzzys and Dark Reversya Cursyas.
- Room 022-contains Dark Spanias.
- Room 023-contains Dark Longators and Dark Fuzzys.
- Room 024-contains Dark Pokeys, Dark Dull Bones and Dark Paragoombas.
- Room 025-contains Dark Clefts and Dark Ruff Puffs.
- Room 026-contains Dark Dark Boos.
- Room 027-contains Dark Ruff Puffs, Dark Heavy Cursyas and Dark Squiglets
- Room 028-contains Dark Spanias and Dark Stone Buzzys.
- Room 029-contains Dark Goombas and Dark Dark Boos.
- Room 030-contains the Catch Card of Kooper.
Rooms 031-040
- Room 031-contains Dark Shlurps and Dark Ruff Puffs.
- Room 032-contains Dark Squiglets and Dark Sproing-Oings.
- Room 033-contains Dark Choppas and Dark Pokeys.
- Room 034-contains Dark Boomboxers.
- Room 035-contains Dark Growmebas, Dark Reversya Cursyas and Dark Squiglets.
- Room 036-contains Dark Cursyas and Dark Boomboxers.
- Room 037-contains Dark Growmegas.
- Room 038-contains Dark Cherbils.
- Room 039-contains Dark Dark Boos and Dark Megabites.
- Room 040-contains the Catch Card of Bombette.
Rooms 041-050
- Room 041-contains Dark Strikers.
- Room 042-contains Dark Cursyas, Dark Heavy Cursyas and Dark Shlurps.
- Room 043-contains Dark Boomboxers and Dark Choppas.
- Room 044-contains Dark Reversya Cursyas, Dark Sproing-Oings and Dark Tech Cursyas.
- Room 045-contains Dark Shlurps.
- Room 046-contains Dark Goombas and Dark Hammer Bros..
- Room 047-contains Dark Boomerang Bros. and Dark Paragoombas.
- Room 048-contains Dark Fire Bros. and Dark Spiked Goombas.
- Room 049-contains Dark Magikoopas, Dark Squiglets and Dark Strikers.
- Room 050-contains the Catch Card of Parakarry.
Rooms 051-060
- Room 051-contains a Dark Muth.
- Room 052-contains Dark Chomps.
- Room 053-contains Dark Clubbas.
- Room 054-contains Dark Squiglets.
- Room 055-contains Dark Spanias and Dark Squiglets.
- Room 056-contains Dark Boomerang Bros., Dark Tech Cursyas and Dark Squiglets.
- Room 057-contains Dark Tileoids.
- Room 058-contains Dark Cursyas and Dark Hammer Bros.
- Room 059-contains Dark Magikoopas and Dark Strikers.
- Room 060-contains the Catch Card of Bow.
Rooms 061-070
- Room 061-contains Dark Chomps and Dark Magikoopas.
- Room 062-contains Dark Eeligons, Dark Magikoopas and Dark Pigarithms.
- Room 063-contains Dark Heavy Cursyas, Dark Magikoopas and Dark Tileoids.
- Room 064-contains Dark Ninjoes.
- Room 065-contains Dark Chomps and Dark Fire Bros.
- Room 066-contains Dark Hammer Bros.
- Room 067-contains Dark Clubbas and Dark Tech Cursyas.
- Room 068-contains Dark Clubbas and Dark Koopatrols.
- Room 069-contains Dark Cherbils and Dark Megabites.
- Room 070-contains the Catch Card of Watt.
Rooms 071-080
- Room 071-contains Dark Jawbuses.
- Room 072-contains Dark Koopas and Dark Koopatrols.
- Room 073-contains Dark Barribads.
- Room 074-contains Dark Choppas and Dark Eeligons.
- Room 075-contains Dark Dayzees and Dark Pigrithms.
- Room 076-contains Dark Koopatrols.
- Room 077-contains Dark Ninjoes and Dark Tileoids.
- Room 078-contains Dark Ninjoes and Dark Skellobits.
- Room 079-contains Dark Skellobits and Dark Spiky Skellobits.
- Room 080-contains the Catch Card of Sushie.
Rooms 081-090
- Room 081-contains Dark Cursyas and Dark Spiky Skellobits.
- Room 082-contains Dark Cherbils and Dark Magikoopas.
- Room 083-contains Dark Skellobits and Dark Spiky Skellobits.
- Room 084-contains Dark Jawbuses.
- Room 085-contains Dark Magiblots.
- Room 086-contains Dark Koopatrols and Dark Reversya Cursyas.
- Room 087-contains Dark Squiglets and Dark Strikers.
- Room 088-contains Dark Longators.
- Room 089-contains Dark Tileoids.
- Room 090-contains the Catch Card of Lakilester.
Rooms 091-099
- Room 091-contains all kinds of Dark Cursyas.
- Room 092-contains Dark Magikoopas and Dark Squiglets.
- Room 093-contains all kinds of Dark bros.
- Room 094-contains Dark Cherbils, Dark Dayzees and Dark Magiblots.
- Room 095-contains Dark Headbonk Goombas.
- Room 096-contains Dark Jawbuses and Dark Megabites.
- Room 097-contains Dark Skellotibts and Dark Spiky Skellobits.
- Room 098-contains Dark Muths.
- Room 099-contains Dark Koopatrols and all kinds of Dark bros.
Room 100
The boss in the hundredth room is Shadoo, arguably the hardest boss in the game. The first time the Heroes of Light reach the bottom of the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials, you do not even see Shadoo. Shadoo says that she will fight you if you go through a second time. The heroes are forced to leave. Once Mario and Co. enter the pit a second time, they get a chance to fight Shadoo at the bottom.
After Shadoo is defeated, eight chests will appear. These chests have a catch card of each of the four heroes and their dark selves. These cards will double the attack of all four main characters and let Mario stay in the third dimension without losing life. A Warp Pipe appears and the heroes can leave with their prizes.
Trivia
- A Pit of 100 Trials appeared in the Nintendo produced Wii and GameCube game The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
