Dull Bones

Dull Bones
Artwork of a Dull Bones for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
First appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Latest appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) (2024)
Latest portrayal	Toru Asakawa (2024-present)
Variant of	Dry Bones
Variants Dark Dull Bones Red Bones
Notable members Korvallis The Dead Bones

“We're gonna take the skin off YOUR bones!”

—The Dead Bones, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Dull Bones are a chartreuse variant of Dry Bones first seen in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

History

Paper Mario series

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

The Dull Bones army

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door along with its Switch remake, Dull Bones are weaker than a Dry Bones and appear commonly in Hooktail Castle, appearing among many identical lifeless piles. They attack by throwing bones at Mario and his partners. Despite having very low HP, their defense power makes them slightly harder to defeat. Still, they are easily taken out by simply using the Hammer. Using a POW Block or Koops's Power Shell is also very efficient, especially when there are many Dull Bones in battle. Unlike Dry Bones, they cannot reassemble once they are down. However, Dull Bones can construct other Dull Bones to help in the battle. A stronger variant, the Red Bones, appears as a mini-boss and summons an enormous horde of Dull Bones to repel Mario, though these are not fought in the typical way and instead must be pushed through. Three of them later appear in the Glitz Pit called The Dead Bones. One is also seen at the Palace of Shadow Tower, a sub-dungeon of the Palace of Shadow, as the weakest Dry Bones-esque enemy, which must be defeated first. Dull Bones also appear in the first ten floors of the Pit of 100 Trials. They are also potential members of the Audience, where they have the gimmick of only providing Star Power when appealing.

In the remake, Dull Bones in the audience use modern Dry Bones talking sounds, although the voice clips for dialogue do not. A large horde of Dull Bones also appears alongside some Koopa Paratroopas in the remake's ending credits. Shortly after appearing onstage, they are scared off by Hooktail.

Super Paper Mario

Dull Bones also appear in Super Paper Mario, where they are now stronger than Dry Bones and can be found in The Underwhere, Castle Bleck, and in the Flipside Pit of 100 Trials. Unlike Dry Bones, Dull Bones can throw bones to attack. They are weak against Bowser's Fire Breath and Boomer's explosion attack. A shadowy version called the Dark Dull Bones appears in the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials.

Nintendo Monopoly

Several Dull Bones make a cameo appearance in the Nintendo Monopoly board game.

Unused appearances

Super Mario Strikers

Unused Dull Bones model from Super Mario Strikers

In the game files for Super Mario Strikers, there is an unused model of a Dull Bones medic, which would have marked the enemy's first 3D appearance.

Statistics

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

GameCube

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Dull Bones
	Max HP	1	Attack	2	Defense	1
	Location(s)	Hooktail Castle, Glitz Pit, Palace of Shadow, Pit of 100 Trials (Levels 1, 4-6, 9)	Role	Support, common	Level	9
	Sleep?	0%	Dizzy?	50%	Confuse?	50%
	Tiny?	100%	Stop?	95%	Soft?	95%
	Burn?	100%	Freeze?	90%	Fright?	10%
	Gale Force?	90%	KO?	50%	Moves	Bone Throw (2), Build (summons Dull Bones)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	1	Items	Dried Shroom (drop only), Fire Flower, Fright Mask (drop only), Mushroom, POW Block (drop only)
Tattle Log #: 20	Log	A Koopa Troopa that became a skeleton. It throws bones to attack and builds buddies to help it fight.
	Tattle	That's a Dull Bones. Sort of a skeleton thing. It was a Koopa Troopa...once. Max HP is 1, Attack is 2, and Defense is 1. These creeps throw bones to attack. Oh, and they build reinforcements, too! Attacks that can strike multiple Dull Bones at once are the most effective.

Nintendo Switch

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Dull Bones
	Max HP	1	Attack	2	Defense	1
	Location(s)	Hooktail Castle, Glitz Pit, Palace of Shadow, Pit of 100 Trials (Levels 1, 4-6, 9)	Role	common	Level	9
	Sleep?	0%	Dizzy?	50%	Confuse?	50%
	Tiny?	100%	Stop?	95%	Soft?	95%
	Burn?	100%	Freeze?	90%	Fright?	10%
	Gale Force?	90%	KO?	50%	Moves	Bone Throw (2), Build (summons Dull Bones)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	1	Items	Dried Mushroom (drop only), Fire Flower, Fright Mask (drop only), Mushroom, POW Block (drop only)
Tattle Log #: 21	Log	A Koopa Troopa that became a skeleton. It throws bones to attack and builds buddies to help it fight.
	Tattle	That's a Dull Bones. Sort of a skeleton thing. It was a Koopa Troopa...once. Max HP is 1, Attack is 2, and Defense is 1. These creeps throw bones to attack. Oh, and they build reinforcements too! Attacks that can strike multiple Dull Bones at once are the most effective.

Super Paper Mario

Super Paper Mario enemy
Dull Bones
	Max HP	15	Role	Common	Location(s)	Underwhere Road (7-2), Castle Bleck Entry (8-1), Flipside Pit of 100 Trials (Room 62)
	Attack	4	Card type	Common
	Defense	0	Items		Card location(s)	Card Shop; Catch Card/SP
	Score	800
	Card description	This undead Koopa walks around with a blank stare. It's not too psyched out about being dead. It mostly throws bones out of sheer spite.
List of Catch Cards     26      27      28	Tattle	This is a Dull Bones. It's a lifeless Koopa that enjoys throwing bones... Max HP is 15 and Attack is 4. No matter how many times you stomp it, it will keep getting back up... I have heard that they are not too fond of fire, though...

Gallery

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  Catch Card

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ホネノコ[?] Honenoko	Portmanteau of「骨」(hone, "bone") and「ノコノコ」(Nokonoko, "Koopa Troopa")
Chinese (simplified)	骨头慢慢龟[?] Gǔtou Mànmàn Guī	Bone Koopa Troopa
Chinese (traditional)	骨頭慢慢龜[?] Gǔtou Mànmàn Guī	Bone Koopa Troopa
Dutch	Dull Bones[?]	-
French (NOA)	Skelémoussé[?]	From Skelex ("Dry Bones") and émoussé ("blunt")
French (NOE)	Koopa Skelet[?]	From "Koopa" and squelette ("skeleton")
German	Knochen-Koopa[?]	Bone Koopa
Italian	Kooposso[?]	Portmanteau of "Koopa" and osso ("bone")
Korean	좀비와르르[?] Jombi Wareureu	Zombie Dry Bones
Spanish	Koopa Esqueleto[?]	Sketeton Koopa