Hooktail is a giant red dragon who appears in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and its 2024 Remake on the Nintendo Switch, she is the main boss of Chapter 1 and is the first boss of the game.
Summary[]
Hooktail is a large red colored dragon that once terrorized Petalburg. She ate all of its residents who came to her castle to slay her, like Kolorado's Father, Old Man Skoo, and Koops' dad. Mario and Goombella first encounter the dragon in Petal Meadows, where they could see her shadow pass over the area as Hooktail flies to her castle. When Mario, Goombella, and Koops came to her castle to obtain the first Crystal Star, the Diamond Star, they were given a clue on how to defeat Hooktail once they found the dead body of Kolorado's father-- Hooktail cannot stand chirping sounds, especially ones that start with cr- and end with -icket(f- and end with -rog in the 2024 Remake). The reason for this weakness is because she got food poisoning from eating a Cricket. Some believe that it is a reference to the Toad of the Four Heroes, who is described as having a "strange voice". He defeated Hooktail long ago; his voice may have sounded like a cricket.
During the fight, it seems Hooktail is defeated, but before Mario and his team can finish her off, she tries to trick Mario and his team by saying that she will do nice things, such as given out 1,000 coins, given out a "Really Ultra Rare Badge" and even (albeit in a very gross moment) get Mario to smell her feet, all three are false and should Mario accept, Hooktail will use her Chomp Attack on Mario and get a free hit, after that she will gobble and swallow some of the audience members(namely Toads) to replenish 10 of her HP. Once Mario defeats her completely, Koops' dad will burst out of her mouth, since he's lived in her stomach.
Later on in the game, its revealed that Hooktail has two older brothers(siblings in the 2024 Remake), one is named Bonetail, who lives in the Pit of 100 Trials, and the other of which is Gloomtail, who lives in the Palace of Shadows along with the Shadow Queen. Additionally, in the original Gamecube version, it was not revealed that Hooktail was female until the fight with Gloomtail. Koops's dad even said that "he" gobbled him up, which is part of the reason it is implied that Hooktail was male until fighting Gloomtail. Gloomtail attempted to defeat Mario and his friends for slaying his sister. There is some of the game's recurrent humor in this scene, as Gloomtail mentions Hooktail not writing to him. Hooktail resides in Hooktail Castle, while Gloomtail was in a chamber in the Palace of Shadow, and her (presumably oldest) strongest brother(sister in the 2024 Remake) Bonetail was on the bottom floor of the Pit of 100 Trials.
According to Grifty in Rogueport, the three siblings were once the pets of the Shadow Queen.
Later on in the game, when Mario and company revisit Hooktail's lair, they find no trace of Hooktail. Goombella wonders briefly where Hooktail disappeared to, but ends up deciding Hooktail's absence is a good thing.
Attacks[]
In battle, Hooktail has two attacks. Her first attack is to stomp on Mario or his partner. which can deal approximately 5 hitpoints of damage. Her second and most powerful attack is breathing fire on both Mario and his partner for around 5 HP.
Tips/Tricks[]
Original 2004 Nintendo GameCube Version[]
At first glance, the fight against Hooktail may seem rather tough despite being the very first boss of the game, not only due to her high attack power which can potentially defeat Mario and/or his partner in two to three hits, but her defense also being one, meaning that Mario and/or partner will do less damage to her. Hooktail, however, has a very large weakness that is explained by Kolorado's father, that being the FX R Badge, which can be found in a nearby room after Mario unlocks the new Paper Mode ability. If used against Hooktail, not only will her defense go down, but her attack power will also go down to the point that it will not do any damage if the Player blocks. Players should make certain they equip the badge before the battle.
2024 Nintendo Switch Version[]
In the remake version, the battle with Hooktail is largely the same, tho there are some difference. Hooktail appears to attack more faster then her GameCube Counter-Part, making it difficult to avoid her attacks. Additionally, her weakness has been change, now being weak to the Badge that makes a Frog Noise.
Trivia[]
- There will always be eight Toads seated in the lower right seats in the audience, as a foreshadowing that Hooktail will eat them.
- Hooktail is the only one in the Hooktail Family to not live underground.
- Hooktail is also the only boss in the Hooktail family to not have her tail be shown after she flops on her back when defeated.
- In the Spanish localization, Hooktail is depicted as a male.
- In the Japanese version, Hooktail's weakness is frogs and not crickets like in the international versions. However, in the US Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door demo included in the Demo Disc Version 18 for the GameCube, Hooktail is weak to frogs like in the Japanese version, this was change to have Hooktail's weakness is frogs and not crickets in the 2024 Nintendo Switch Remake.
- If the Player re-visits Hooktail's castle after the cutscene of defeating her, Hooktail is nowhere to be seen.
- Because of this, it is possible that Hooktail might have survived after the battle against Mario and Co. and left the castle.
- The same also applies to Gloomtail and Bonetail when Mario revisits their areas after they are defeated.
- Because of this, it is possible that Hooktail might have survived after the battle against Mario and Co. and left the castle.
- During the second phase of the battle, if Mario or Goombella jumps on Hooktail's head, she will throw up Toads, and up to six Toads will be thrown up.
- The FX R Badge isn't actually required to beat Hooktail, but it makes the fight much harder.
- In the files for the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack in Minecraft: Wii U Edition, there is an image of Hooktail as the Ender Dragon. The concept for Hooktail as the Ender Dragon was scrapped before release, where the Gobblegut is depicted as the Ender Dragon instead.