Paper Mario: The Origami King - Save The Staff, Get The Bone & Find The Castle Key

Welcome to Shogun Studios, the best amusement park in Paper Mario: The Origami King! This Japanese-themed funfair is full of mind-bending puzzles and tricky quests — you’ll need to find a whole bunch of items, and save the staff hidden in a disguised room. This is a surprisingly complicated location full of characters that need your help.

Before going inside the park, you’ll need to buy yourself a ticket. I highly recommend grabbing the more expensive Royalty Pass. With the pass, you’ll be able to play mini-games for free and open treasure chests all around the park. And you’ll get unlimited visits, so if you need to leave to restock on shiny weapons, you won’t have to pay for another pass.

There are two major challenges in this area — how to find the Staff Room, and how to get past a very angry Chain Chomp.

Paper Mario: The Origami King – Table Of Contents:

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

Shogun Studios Walkthrough

Welcome to Shogun Studios! And by the looks of it, you’ll find the streamer at the top of the tall shogun castle inside the theme part. Before going inside, you’ll need to decide on whether you want a Commoner Pass or a Royalty Pass — I recommend the Royalty Pass, even if it is a little more expensive at 9,800 coins.

At the entrance, you’ll also find Warp Pipe 2, a Save Block, and a hidden toad!

Hidden Toad: Easy! Smack the red heart near Warp Pipe 2. This special toad hangs out near the red brick building in Toad Town. He’ll give you a love assessment.

Go through the main gate, and you’ll find the studios completely abandoned. What the heck is going on?!

Collectible Treasure: Downriver Tour Boat – Located in the left building from the entrance to Shogun Studios. This chest will only open if you have a Royalty Pass.

Deeper inside, a Goomba will lead Mario down a secret alley. Don’t miss the bonus block with a Tail weapon inside! The rest of the staff are captured and being kept in the castle. The streets are patrolled by origami soldiers, so be prepared for battle as you head down the main street toward the main castle.

How To Beat Snifits: Snifits are a new enemy you’ll encounter on the streets of Shogun Studios. They’re tougher than Shy Guys, so use your Shiny weapons to defeat them.

Naturally, the front gates of the castle are closed-up. There’s a keyhole, so that means there must be a key somewhere.

Quest: Find The Key To The Castle

We need to find that key! But the place is loaded with hidden toads. Let’s go hunting.

Hidden Toad: Attached to the sign at the bridge leading to the main castle, hammer the flat toad face.
Hidden Toad: In the small ninja training courtyard, use your hammer on the glowing lantern to make a 1,000-Fold Arms circle appear. Use it to smash the mismatched lantern in the building.
Hidden Toad: Outside the ninja dojo to the right of the main castle, there’s an origami firefly. Hammer it!
Hidden Toad: And there’s another one further to the right of the ninja dojo door.

Hidden Toad: Look on the left down the main road. There’s a toad stuffed in a corner near a flag. Pull him out to discover the Shogun Studios Accessory Shop!
Hidden Toad: Inside the second house on the left from the entrance, there’s an origami toad in the top-left corner of the small room.
Hidden Toad: Fix the door to this room, down the left road from the main thoroughfare. Jump up to this origami flower.
Hidden Toad: There are three hidden toads in the room next door — the second house on the first left down the thoroughfare. Defeat the Shy Guy and smack the shelf to reveal three toads.

Hidden Toad: At the last building on this road, there’s a seemingly empty room with four floormats. Hit the back-left mat!
Hidden Toad: In the photo studio, hit the hanging pic on the left wall.
Hidden Toad: In the alley behind the photo studio, in the first room, there’s a toad stuck in the corner, in the front-right. There’s a treasure chest here too!

Collectible Treasure: Water Vellumental’s Wheel – In the same room as the previous toad, there’s a special Royalty Pass treasure chest. Present your pass to claim a prize.

Hidden Toad: This guy is on top of the photo studio! Climb onto the rooftops using the cart in the photo studio alley, then hit the sign on the roof of the studio.

How To Get The Castle Key: To find the key, we need to find the Staff Room. One Staff Member is being held in the Lookout Tower along the right edge of the park — go to the Photo Studio and up the alley to climb onto the rooftops, and take the ledge all the way down to the tower. Drop down to save the staff member.

The toad will reveal that the staff room is located on the east side of the park in a tricky location. That can mean only one place — straight to the right of the main castle! Go past the small courtyard, and look for a suspicious wall of green paper. On the right corner, there’s a hidden door you can use.

Collectible Treasure: Relaxing Bench – Located to the left of the staff room door, under the tree.

Hidden Toad: On the left of the staff room, on the counter.
Hidden Toad: Another hidden toad is stuck in the staff room trashcan.
Hidden Toad: And yet another is stuck in the paper mache goomba’s mouth, also in the staff room.
Hidden Toad: The last toad is in the left locker. You need him! He’s the guy that runs the Shuriken Dojo.

In the Staff Room, you’ll discover that the park key is missing. But, you’ll gain something useful — a Goomba mask! Free the hidden toad in the Staff Room on the right, and interact with the Goomba Mask to take it. You can also take the Donkey Kong mask and Samus mask!

So, what do we do with the masks? Nothing yet. For now, check the maps and go down to the Petting Zoo to access the House of Tricky Ninjas. But that Chain Chomp just won’t let you through. To get by, you need to feed the Chain Chomp some food!

Hidden Toad: Attached to one of the two lanterns, just above the Petting Zoo.
Hidden Toad: Smack the dog barking at the Chain Chomp in the Petting Zoo to free another Hidden Toad.

Collectible Treasure: Chestnuts – Enter the tea house in the petting zoo to find this chest in the back.

Hidden Toad: In the tea shop, hit the askew floormat on the left with your hammer to reveal a toad.
Hidden Toad: Stuck in the sign to the Shuriken Dojo.

How To Get Past The Chain Chomp: To distract the barking Chain Chomp, you’ll need to get a bone! Go to the building with three doors north of the Petting Zoo and enter the left-most door. Go to the backyard where two enemies are tossing a bone! Talk to them, and they’ll trade the bone for something else. But what?

Let’s go back to the tea shop in the Petting Zoo and talking to the Shy Guy. He’ll give you his [Sipping Straw]! Take the straw up to the courtyard to the right of the castle entrance. There’s a pond in the courtyard with a little ninja guy. Talk to him and give him the [Straw] to gain the [Shuriken]!

Now, travel to the Shuriken Dojo. With your set of [Shuriken] you can play the mini-game and collect the [Autographed Baseball]! If you haven’t already, wake up the Shuriken Dojo manager — he’s asleep in the Staff Room. Find him in the left locker.

Back at the Shuriken Dojo, hand over your [Set of Shuriken] and unlock the mini-game. Complete Normal Mode to earn the [Baseball] and be on your way. With the Royalty Pass, all rounds are totally free. To play, just hit the launchers with hammers. Score 21 points on Normal to win!

The tricky part is, you need to score exactly 21 points. If you go over, hit the negative point targets.

Collectible Treasure: Paper Macho Koopa Troopa – Earned for earning 80+ points in the Shuriken Dojo Expert Mode.

Take your new [Baseball] to the Dry Bones north of the Petting Zoo and trade them for a [Bone]. Now you can place that bone in the Chain Chomp’s food bowl to keep it busy.

Max UP Heart +20: For giving the bone to the Chain Chomp, you’ll earn a huge HP boost!

Finally, we can now enter a new sub-area. The Ninja Attraction — a.k.a. the House of Tricky Ninjas! Luigi is somewhere in this place, and so is the master key to the Shogun Studios park.