Paper Mario Master Quest 1.5 - Master 4 (Luigi's Challenge)

Here we tackle the true final fight with The Master in Paper Mario MQ Luigi's Challenge. :) Sorry about the empty last couple of minutes. I forgot to stop recording at first. Also sorry for the save-state abuse; I'm not great at guarding. But I wanted to attempt and share this anyway since this (in LC mode) was considered the only unwinnable fight in MQ version 1.5 (the current version)! I'm also planning to redo this with improved strategy that won't require Merlee to appear except in the first turn. The main change to make there is to swap out my jump charge for all-or-nothing, since the latter is objectively better here (both give me 12 extra damage total in the second phase, but all-or-nothing would help me more in the first phase and wouldn't require 2 charges). Alternatively, there may be potential in replacing jump charge with a defend plus, as you would then have no need for water block and could thus get in some more electro dashes. I should mention that Luigi's Challenge is a mode where you can't level up; you're at 10 hp and 5 fp. But you can equip 16 badges of your choice. This is really good for most of the game, but against the hardest bosses, it becomes REALLY hard to stay alive. 30 is the most hp you can have (and then you only have 12 badges left...) You may think it's odd that I put a damage dodge over a defend plus. The idea is that the master's attacks do 7 9 7 9 and 12 12. With defend plus, damage dodge x 2, and water block, I can drop that to 2 4 2 4 with guarding (which lets you peril-loop once with comfy cloud) or 2 4 2 7 (taking 15 by missing one guard can let you get in peril since the other attack does 7 + 7 = 14; of course then you drop from 30 to 1). Quick change is crucial. Goombario hits hard, Watt does free damage and charges Mario, Lakilester heals, and Sushie provides defense. Stalling with healing and defense is so crucial. I believe all the Master's attacks hit through invisibility. He also has 4 defense and is immune to statuses, so I think the other 4 partners have nothing to contribute (unless you want to use Bomb for specifically 2 or 3 damage at some point). D-down jump is definitely the best way to damage him. The master has 4 defense, which means d-down jump does more damage than dual smash by 1 (normally, dual smash does 5 5 and d-down jump does 2 2, but now they do 1 1 and 2 2). And obviously I don't have the fp for mega smash. The master opens with a finisher that you can't tank in LC mode. You have to burn a life shroom. Do not bring more, as they're inefficient and the only time they'd be useful would be in the last phase of the fight, where he swipes them. So other than a life shroom, I brought 6 heals, 2 hustle drinks (you arguably should instead do 7 heals and 1 hustle drink, but you need one for doing big damage when he's at 150). And a stone cap is the only way I can survive his finisher a second time near the end of the fight. You MUST get him near the end before you use the stone cap, because he'll lower your defense TWICE by TWO as punishment. You basically can't fight him after that. But you can get off one last peril jump. :) Here's how you dance around the finisher. After you use your life shroom, his ai is on 0, so he'll do the 4-hit combo. then he goes to 1 and does the 2 kicks. Then at 2 he does 4-hit and at 3 he does 2-hit and it repeats. So after he does his attack on 1, he'll attack 3 more times before it's time to attack on 1 again. When at or below 125, he does the finisher. So I set this up in a way that he did his move at 1 in his ai so that he would be set at 2 after I hit him. That means he'll hit me three times before I have to use a stone cap. I got him to 150 hp because he rests for a turn after you get him under 200, 150, and 100 hp. If you send him from 150 to under 100, that means he rests twice in a row, which means (if you use jump charge) you should have your jump charged and goombario charged. Also, hustle before you deliver your strike. I got really lucky and Merlee appeared on this turn. If she hadn't, I would've been 6 hp short of beating him. It turns out that you can store Merlee in such a way that she appears on this turn. If that's the only turn she appears, you'll do 6 less damage than I did here since she gave me 6 extra at the start of the fight (that was planned), which would've resulted in doing perfect damage! So this strategy works exactly as it is here if you just store Merlee for the big hustled attack. I plan to publish a revised version of this strategy that doesn't rely on storing her to appear on that big attack. I hope it won't be too long before I can provide a better version of this fight, but I hope you enjoy. :) Big thanks to the developers for making this absolutely insane fight and for the cool guys in the Star Haven Discord server who shared ideas and tolerated my rants. If you have questions about this fight, find me in the Star Haven server under the name Brettio Spaghettio ^^