"Who comes to my palace!?" — Crystal King, Paper Mario
The Crystal King is the ruler of the Ice Palace and boss fight in Paper Mario, he is the main boss of chapter 7, the eighth chapter boss, is the second boss of that Chapter and overall the thirteenth/third-to-last boss of the game.
History[]
Paper Mario[]
Not much is known about the Crystal King. Apparently he was hired by Bowser and is the holder of the final Star Spirit. After he is defeated, he explodes into little stars and releases the last Star Spirit. The Crystal King is the last chapter boss in Paper Mario before Bowser himself.
Appearance[]
He is a transparent being, with only eyes and clothes visible; his clothes being a furry blue coat with a white undershirt and a crown of ice inlaid with red gems.
In battle[]
The Crystal King is immune to ice attacks and shrinking, is weak to Kooper's Fire Shell (but not the Fire Flower), and begins the battle with three Crystal Bits.
Attacks[]
- Summon Crystal Bits: The Crystal King summons three Crystal Bits.
- Spit Crystal Bits: The Crystal King inhales all present Crystal Bits, then spits them, one at a time, at Mario, dealing 4 damage each time.
- Ice Beam: The Crystal King fires a ice beam from his mouth, freezing Mario for two turns if it isn't blocked and dealing 6 damage.
- Duplicates: The Crystal King creates two illusions of himself. The real one is determined randomly. Attacking the duplicates will make them vanish, but dealing damage or inflicting a status condition on the real one will remove both. Sometimes he will float into the air when doing this, making him immune to ground-based attacks, though removing the illusions by either method will make him drop again. Starts using this at low health.
- Heal: The Crystal King heals 20 HP. He can only use this twice and only uses this when his HP is below 38, and his chances of doing this increase the lower his HP is.
- Blizzard: While the illusions are active, they will always blow cold wind at Mario, dealing 8 damage.
Behavior[]
The Crystal King has three phases, which change when he takes enough damage, and specific conditions are met. Even if he heals above the HP thresholds, he will not backtrack to a previous phase.
During the first phase, he will always use Spit Crystal Bits whenever there are any Crystal Bits present. If there aren't, he will use Summon Crystal Bits. However, he can't use Summon Crystal Bits twice in a row, instead using Ice Beam if the Crystal Bits are defeated the round they are summoned. When the Crystal King's HP is below 36, and he would use Summon Crystal Bits, he will use Ice Beam. The second time this happens, phase 2 begins if his HP is between 21 and 36 inclusive, and phase 3 begins if his HP is below 21.
During the second phase, he will create Duplicates, while staying on the ground. Whenever he has Duplicates available, he will use Blizzard. Much like Summon Crystal Bits, Duplicates cannot be used twice in a row, with Ice Beam being used instead if the clones are all defeated the round they are summoned. If the Crystal King's HP drops below 21, phase 3 will begin, which is very similar to phase 2, but the Crystal King will float up when using Duplicates.
Tips[]
Using Parakarry, Bombette or Sushie are helpful, but Watt is the best partner to use, Watt totally ignores Crystal King's defense points and the Crystal King is weak to being paralyzed. Due to Crystal King's multiple targets, multi-hit moves are important.
The most annoying thing about the Crystal King is the fact that he can heal 20 HP; this healing can be prevented by using Watt to paralyze him. Players should also make sure to destroy the crystals, as it will limit the Crystal King's attacks, forcing him to summon them again.
Charging and using D-Down Pound or D-Down Jump are highly effective. Again, Chill Out is useful as players can reduce damage from Crystal King and his Crystal Bits altogether. Bow is also good to switch out too, but only for Outta Sight defense. When Crystal King creates his illusions, using Star Storm and other multi-target attacks can hit all of them at once, revealing the real one. Parakarry is effective against Crystal King's Illusions since his Shell Shot can pass through the illusions to hit the real one if angled properly.
Tattle[]
"This is the Crystal King. He is one of Bowser's main guys. I don't know how he managed to take over this palace, but...
Max HP:70 , Attack Power 6, Defense Power 2. He'll attack you by summoning and launching Crystal Bits. The power of each attack is 4. The number of times he attacks equals the number of Crystal Bits he's deployed. He'll also try to freeze you whenever he can. When his HP is low he may try to divide and conquer. The power of this attack is 8. You can only hurt him by attacking his real body. If you don't know which one is the main body you should attack all of them. Pretty brilliant, eh?"
Trivia[]
- The Crystal King is the only boss in Paper Mario to use the Freeze Status.
- The Crystal King is the first and only Chapter Boss in Paper Mario (aside from Bowser) to not be a larger and/or stronger version of a regular enemy.