Overlook Mountain is the real deal — this is where you’ll cut the first of the streamers blocking your path to Peach’s Castle in Paper Mario: The Origami King. The red streamer is at the top of Overlook Tower, but reaching it won’t be easy. There are tough new enemies and challenges waiting on the way to the tower.
For this walkthrough, you’ll also need to find all four Shell Stones. The Shell Stones are the keys you’ll need to unlock the Vellumental Temple back on Picnic Road. There are four shells, and they’re hidden in semi-optional areas all over Overlook Moutain. I’ll list where to find them all below.
Paper Mario: The Origami King – Table Of Contents:
Red Streamer Region: Pt. 1: Finding The Soul Seed | Whispering Woods | Pt. 2: Reaching Peach’s Castle | Toad Toad | Pt. 3: Saving Luigi | Graffiti Underground | Pt. 4: Tons Of Hidden Toads | Picnic Road | Pt. 5: All 4 Shell Stone Locations | Overlook Mountain | Pt. 6: Fighting the First Boss | Earth Vellumental Temple | Pt. 7: Cutting The Red Streamer | Overlook Tower
Blue Streamer Region: Pt. 8: Reach The Water Shrine | Autumn Mountain | Pt. 9: Save Bobby & Unlock The Shrine | Chestnut Valley | Pt. 10: Defeat The Guardian | Water Vellumental Shrine | Pt. 11: Save The Staff & Get The Bone | Shogun Studios | Pt. 12: Save Luigi & Get The Master Key | Ninja Attraction | Pt. 13: Cutting The Blue Streamer | Big Sho’ Theater
Yellow Streamer Region: Pt. 14: Saving Olivia | The Princess Peach | Pt. 15: Unlocking The Fire Cave | Scorching Sandpaper Desert | Pt. 16: All 4 Tower Jewels | Fire Vellumental Cave | Pt. 17: Cutting The Yellow Streamer | Temple of Shrooms
Purple Streamer Region: Pt. 18: How To Find Diamond Island | The Great Sea | Pt. 19: All 3 Sacred Orbs | Diamond Island | Pt. 20: Cutting The Purple Streamer | Sea Tower
Green Streamer Region: Pt. 21: Visit All 5 Hot Springs | Shangri-Spa | Pt. 22: Cutting The Green Streamer | Bowser’s Castle
Peach’s Castle: Pt. 23: Defeat Ollie | Final Dungeon
Overlook Mountain Walkthrough
Welcome to Overlook Mountain! Overlook Tower is where you’ll need to reach to unwrap the red streamer to Peach’s Castle. That’s the first of five! You’ll also want to visit Toad Town or hit all the Special Blocks so you get Iron Boots. They’re required here!
- Collectible Treasure: Lush Shrubbery – Just to the left as you enter Overlook Mountain. You’ll have to fight through two Folded Shy Guys, so be prepared with a mushroom if you’re low on HP.
Follow the path to the right. I hope you got those Iron Boots, because you’ll need them to defeat the new Spiny enemies.
- How To Beat Spiny: Use Iron Boots and line them up in rows of 1×4. If you try jumping normally, you’ll take damage! Outside of battle, use the hammer when they try to attack you to avoid damage. If you hit them with a hammer, they’ll flip on their backs at the start of a fight, allowing you to use normal Boots to jump attack them without taking damage.
Use confetti past the Spiny at the little gazebo — if you fix it, there’s a bench here you can use to fully heal.
- Hidden Toad: Up the path from the bench, you’ll find a small outdoor area with lots of jumping grasshoppers. Those grass-hoppers are actually hidden toads, so chase them down and crush ’em with your hammer.
In the little area full of grasshoppers, you’ll encounter another new enemy type. The Paragoombas!
- How To Beat Paragoombas: These goombas can appear from anywhere, and they can fly! That means you need to (usually) line them up in 1×4 blocks and use your boots.
- They’re so tough, I recommend using the Iron Boots to make sure they are defeated. Jumping on a Paragoomba will also remove its wings. Paragoombas can be hammered too — so you may have to line them up in 2×2 blocks for a perfect line-up.
- Hidden Toad: Defeat the hidden Paragoomba near the main road, behind a bush, to reveal this hidden toad.
Green Shell Stone: Up ahead, look for a shady customer at a table surrounded by Koopa Troopas. This is the Green Shell Stone — one of the four missing shells you need for the Vellumental Door! It costs 10,000 coins. So start saving up if you haven’t started already. This is optional, so you can just move on and come back later.
Past the Green Shell Stone vendor, you’ll find Warp Pipe 1. This leads back to the Toad Town museum hub, which you can use to access areas all over the paper kingdom. This is a handy way to return back to Toad Town and visit all the new shops.
- Hidden Toad: Right behind Warp Pipe 1, there’s a rock. Smash it with your hammer to reveal a hidden toad.
At the bridge behind Warp Pipe 1, you’ll have to deal with a Giant Goomba! Lure him to charge, then run away and off the bridge. When he slowly walks back, smack off his weak spot with your hammer, then you can defeat him like normal!
There’s a Save Block ahead, don’t miss it! There’s also something important behind the Save Block…
Yellow Shell Stone: Found behind the save block. In this grassy area, one of the grass patches moves… hit it with your hammer and defeat the Goombas to generate a 1,000-Fold Arms marker. Use it to pull down the wall and reveal this stone. It doesn’t cost you anything this time.
- Hidden Toad: There are five hidden toads on the ledge to the right of the save block! Go down there and pull all of them free.
- Collectible Treasure: Sap Sister – Found on the path near the five buried hidden toads, to the right of the Save Block. Take the path down, then follow a hidden path on the left — it leads to this treasure, blocked by a hole you’ll need to fill in with confetti.
Blue Shell Stone: Go to the pier down the path from the Save Block to discover a fishing rod. Use it to pull in the big fat Cheep-Cheep in the center of the water — reel it in and defeat it to gain the blue shell stone.
At the wooden stakes, be prepared to run away when a Thwomp crashes down! Run all the way back and a Super Star will appear at the top of a nearby tree. Shake the tree with your hammer, then grab it and blast through the wall of Thwomps! While you’re powered up, you can defeat three Spiny enemies on the right.
- Hidden Toad: To the left of the wooden stakes, there’s a small dead-end path that leads to a folded toad.
Continue up the path until you reach a tram station that’s wrapped in red streamer. There’s nothing you can do here, just continue toward the tower! On the path ahead, you’ll get ambushed by three Spiny. Use your hammer to weaken them before the fight!
Quest: Unlock Overlook Tower
At the top of the peak, you’ll find it’s impossible to reach the Overlook Tower. It’s been raised up! To reach it, you’ll need to unlock the power of the Earth Vellumental. To do that, we need all four shells.
If you’ve been following this guide, we’ve got 3/4 shell stones. Go down toward the Overlook Sports park — the last one is bound to be nearby.
- Hidden Toad: Defeat the two Folded Shy Guys using a toad as a soccer ball!
Red Shell Stone: The final stone is located in the lower area of the Overlook Sports Park. There are three Giant Shy Guys using it like a soccer ball. Knock one down with your hammer, then chase the ball — move Mario so the Shy Guy tries to pass to a knocked-out Giant Shy Guy. Then you’ll be able to grab it no problem.
With all four Shell Stones, return to the green pipe in the Sports Park for a quick trip back to Picnic Road.
- Hidden Toad: Three Hidden Toads are freed if you smash all three Giant Shy Guy in the Sports Park.
- Treasure Collectible: Paper Macho Shy Guy – The treasure is on a small cliff accessed in the Overlook Sports Park, where the three giant Shy Guys spawn.
Return to Picnic Road and input all four shells into the Earth Vellumental door to unlock the temple.
