Paper Mario Dark Star Edition: The Dark Collective with CantWin File Code, Triple Curse (9x)

9 months later and we still don't got time for your Fragments! CantWin is a File Code in Dark Star Edition that sets you to level 27, gives you all 128 badges, and the 5 unlockable stones immediately (all but Greed, Badge, and Rainbow). However, in return, it forces all encounters to be at least 4.5x difficulty, the equivalent of Super + Mega Curse. Equipping Curse badges does NOT stack with this multiplier, but if you equip Ultra + Mega Curse or all 3 Curses, you will do a fight on that respective difficulty instead of the innate 4.5x difficulty that CantWin forces. When doing the Temple Bosses in the 'intended' order (Dark Rush order), the Dark Collective is the 3rd fight among them. The Dark Collective has 120 Base HP, 5 Base Attack, and 0 Base Defense. 9x difficulty scales its HP and Attack up to 1080 and 45 respectively. The Collective also gets +1 Attack after every round. As this boost maxes out at +20, this means the maximum attack stat that the Collective will reach is 65. Also, as an Aerial enemy, it takes +1 Damage from Throw moves. Its gimmick is that each time it takes damage, the Collective spawns 1 Dark Fragment (it only spawns 1 regardless of how much damage is dealt). Those Fragments have 1 Base HP (9) and 0 Defense, and they spawn Invisible. They also share the same attack stat and attack boosts that the Collective has when spawned. If a Fragment attacks, it will then restore the Collective's HP by 4 (which does not scale up). The attack of both the Collective and its Fragments also pierce invisibility, so there's no dodging it. In essence, we need to be able to damage the Collective and KO the Fragments that spawn within the same turn. Here's the catch: the Collective is [generally] low enough towards the ground that it can be hit by Hammer attacks. Because of that, we can make it so that the Collective is no longer able to spawn Fragments as long as we don't ever jump on the Collective itself. It's for this reason that this fight can be executed on 9x, even if you don't have Dark Shield. Of course, because this is a CantWin file, we're not going to be ignoring the damage reduction of that badge here. Because the Collective has a maximum stat of 65, we can use the Fractional Damage reductions in conjunction with 2 Defense to bring the damage all the way down to 14. Thanks to that precision, we can now take advantage of Mega Rush in this fight simply by bringing our maximum HP down to 15. The nature of the Temple of Darkness gives us an opportunity that hasn't really been truly available since the Prologue and Chapter 1, though it's much more potent here since we have the Ultra Hammer. The unique opportunity afforded here is that I can run all the Dark badges together in a single build, and consistently have all their positive effects with none of their downsides. Dark Saver for the consistent -1 Move Cost, Dark Power for the consistent +1 Attack, Dark Shield for consistent damage reduction. Even Dark Smash can be used as the attacking move, and that will steadily deal increasing damage as the fight progresses. Auto Dodge + 1 Damage Dodge gives me the consistent 2 Defense to effectively bring the Collective's maximum Attack down to 63, which is how the fractional reductions (Perfect Stand, Dark Shield, and Cloud Nine) reduce the incoming damage down to 14. Power Rush and Danger Saver work early on before Collective's attack reaches its maximum, but then Mega Rush and Mega Saver work later on. Flower Power also effectively stays permanently active since an Immortal Build was going to be the best way to handle this fight. 10 Yoshi Biscuits and 10 Ultra Shroom Cakes are all you need to get through this fight when you have all badges to work with. You can absolutely get away with not using Double Dip here since both items are capable of restoring 15 HP together (with the cake regen lasting 6 turns thanks to the Biscuits). I simply used Double Dip most times just to save time in this fight. You only need 2 partners here; Lakilester uses Cloud Nine and ensures that stays active. Buzzatrice is the damage dealer since her Power Beam is the only partner attack that pierces Invisibility. It also deals the highest and most consistent damage among partner attacks once the Collective has accrued enough Attack buffs. It's worth noting that you must not start attacking the Collective until its attack has accrued 3 buffs. Because the Fragments have 9 HP on this difficulty, Buzzatrice is not able to OHKO them with Power Beam until then.