Big yarn ball (item)
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| Big yarn ball | |||
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| First appearance | Yoshi's Woolly World (2015) | ||
| Latest appearance | Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World (2017) | ||
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Big yarn balls are items in Yoshi's Woolly World and Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World. Where yarn balls replace replace Yoshi eggs from most platform games of the Yoshi franchise, big yarn balls replace Yellow Eggs and Red Eggs as rarer and more valuable versions of yarn balls. Unlike those items, the advantages of a big yarn ball are twofold. They are easier to collect items with and hit targets with due to their size. A big yarn ball can hit more than one object or enemy in a single attack. Like yarn balls, the color of a big yarn ball varies.
When a big yarn ball is thrown or spat at a object or enemy a yarn ball has an interaction with and despawns, a big yarn ball instead has that interaction and shrinks to a size between a big yarn ball and a yarn ball. If a yarn ball in this inbetween state is used in the same way, it shrinks again into a normal yarn ball. Yarn Baskets and bead jars are special exceptions. A big yarn ball that hits one of these objects dissipates in the same way a normal yarn ball does. Additionally, a big yarn ball dissipates after colliding with terrain for the third time. Whether or not a big yarn ball or yarn ball between big and normal bounces off the enemy or object it is interacting with or not varies. In most cases a big yarn ball will pass through what it hits. For enemies that can be tied up by yarn balls and can be defeated, such as Piranha Plants and Ukiki, the yarn ball hits them and bounces off. Burrberts cannot be defeated, big yarn balls pass through them while tying them up. Enemies are not terrain, so in the former case the yarn ball is essentially granted an additional bounce. Big yarn balls do not bounce off wireframes of objects but do bounce off the object if the result happens to be solid. (Platforms knitted from frames are semisolid, so big yarn balls pass through the bottom but bounce off the top.) If a big yarn ball is skimming across the water, then like yarn balls it loses the ability to bounce off of walls and dissipates on contact with them.
Big yarn balls are rarer than normal yarn balls. There are only three ways to have big yarn balls in normal gameplay, and the last is just a variation on the middle one. Yarn Baskets sometimes create a big yarn balls instead of a yarn ball. The color is randomized based on the course the Yarn Basket is in. When Yoshi eats terrain using a bow, he is forced to create a big yarn ball and have it follow him immediately. The color is based on what is eaten. The non-black giant yarn balls in the battle against Mega Baby Bowser have bows allowing Yoshi to eat them. These giant yarn balls create three big yarn balls of the same color, which are again forced to follow Yoshi. This last role mirrors how Giant Eggs are used to defeat Big Baby Bowser in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
The "Make all yarn balls big!" Power Badge can be equipped to make big yarn balls more accessible. With it, every time Yoshi creates a yarn ball, it is instead a big yarn ball. This enables Yoshi to spit big yarn balls, as otherwise given the above paragraph a big yarn ball can never be in Yoshi's mouth. If Yoshi touches a loose yarn ball, it turns into a big yarn ball as it starts following them. Note that this also applies to big yarn balls that have shrunken to the inbetween state or to a normal yarn ball after hitting things, essentially replenishing the big yarn ball. When a Yarn Basket is hit, it generates a number of big yarn balls equal to the difference between the number of objects following Yoshi and the maximum number of objects that can follow Yoshi. In Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, the red yarn balls Yoshi can throw when in Mellow Mode and using the Poochy Pups without having a Poochy Pup available to throw also become big yarn balls. Yarn balls following Yoshi when the badge is equipped are unaffected, but can be converted into big yarn balls by throwing them then making them loose with Yoshi's tongue. The Power Badge cannot be used while fighting Mega Baby Bowser, as every yarn ball that Yoshi can have following them during that battle is a big yarn ball to begin with. In Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, the red normal sized yarn balls in Mellow Mode are just as effective as big yarn balls so the effect of the "Make all yarn balls big!" Power Badge is mostly but not entirely redundant. The Power Badge still cannot be used, because the cutscene preceding that battle removes Power Badges that cannot be used during the battle.
