Cleft

Cleft
A Cleft from Super Paper Mario
First appearance	Paper Mario (2000)
Latest appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) (2024)
Variants Bald Cleft Dark Cleft Hyper Cleft Iron Cleft Moon Cleft

Clefts are animate rock enemies resembling spiked skulls that appear in the Paper Mario series. Their name comes from the word "cleft", which can alternately refer to a crack in a rock or an indentation of the chin, both of which are characteristics of the Clefts. Clefts have a large amount of variant types, all of which are very strong and sturdy and are capable of disguising themselves as ordinary rocks, though they are also easily flipped over with an explosion or the Quake Hammer, rendering them helpless. They pursue and attack Mario by charging into him, are immune to fire, and, aside from a few variants, have spiked heads preventing him from jumping on them without sustaining injury.

Design

Clefts are light brown animate rocks with a top adorned with white spikes, black eyes with googly, yellow irises, an underbite with a pair of protruding square teeth and a cleft chin, and a pair of brown shoes.

History

Paper Mario

In Paper Mario, Clefts are found at Mt. Rugged. They are initially disguised as grey rocks on the overworld, but upon detecting Mario, they reveal themselves and charge at him. If the Cleft manages to successfully charge into Mario, they will get the First Strike.

In battle, Clefts have a notably high defense, which will require the use of strong-enough attacks, special attacks that ignore defense, or flipping them over in order to defeat them, especially when the player first encounters them. Notably, Goombario's tattle suggests running away if the player finds them too difficult to defeat.

Hyper Clefts, which bear green palettes, are found at Gusty Gulch, and are additionally capable of charging their attacks to boost their power.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door along with its Switch remake, Clefts are found at the Boggly Woods, and in fitting with its aesthetic, are monochrome. Earth Tremor does not flip them, but if executed well enough, it can defeat them in one stroke. Additionally, if three questions of the 65th Trivia Quiz-Off are answered incorrectly, the player will have to battle against four Clefts at the gate to the Shhwonk Fortress. The original active coloration of Cleft makes a cameo on a poster in Glitzville, though due to the placement of buildings it is very difficult to see in-game.

Hyper Clefts also reprise their role, and several new variants of Clefts are introduced. These are the spikeless Bald Cleft and Hyper Bald Cleft, which are safe to jump on but still have high defense; the large and nigh-invulnerable Iron Cleft, which can only be defeated with Yoshi's Gulp; and the moon-dwelling Moon Cleft, which uses a brighter version of the original coloration for Cleft in Paper Mario and is said to simply be an ordinary Cleft on the moon, despite also being stronger.

Super Paper Mario

Catch Card

Clefts appear in Super Paper Mario in Chapter 5-1, near Downtown of Crag, and in room 71 of the Flipside Pit of 100 Trials. However, the Western localizations mistakenly refer to them as Moon Clefts, despite them not being found on the moon or in any cosmic locations. Their attack pattern remains the same: they charge at Mario and his allies as soon as they get close enough. They still have the same weakness, as Boomer can flip them over. They will occasionally drop a Cake Mix when they are defeated. A shadowy version, called Dark Cleft, appears in the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials.

Statistics

Paper Mario

Paper Mario enemy
Cleft
		Max HP	2	Attack	2	Defense	2 (standing), 0 (flipped)
		Role	Common	Type	Ground, Top Spiky (standing), Ground (flipped)	Level	10
		Strong	Fire	Weak	None	Moves	Spike Charge (2), Struggle, Stand Up
		Sleep?	40%, -1	Dizzy?	50%, -1	Shock?	50%, 0
		Shrink?	75%, 0	Stop?	90%, 0	Fright?	40%
		Air Lift?	40%	Hurricane?	40%	Coins	2 + 1-3
		Items	None	Run	12	Location(s)	Mt. Rugged
Tattle	This is a Cleft. Clefts are pretty strong, so you'd better be careful. Max HP: 2, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 2 Their specialty is pretending to be rocks, so watch your step on the mountain. You'll get hurt if you jump on the spikes on their heads. You know, there's courage in running away sometimes...

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Cleft
	Max HP	2	Attack	2	Defense	2
	Location(s)	Shhwonk Fortress, Boggly Woods, Pit of 100 Trials (Levels 12, 17)	Role	Boss, common	Level	12
	Sleep?	50%	Dizzy?	50%	Confuse?	50%
	Tiny?	70%	Stop?	100%	Soft?	100%
	Burn?	0%	Freeze?	70%	Fright?	50%
	Gale Force?	70%	KO?	95%	Moves	Cleft Charge (2)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	1 - 3	Items	Mushroom, Thunder Bolt, Earth Quake, Mini Mr. Mini, Dizzy Dial
Tattle Log #: 79	Log	A spiky, rock-headed jerk that's impervious to fire attacks and has a solid body.
	Tattle	That's a Cleft. A rock-head jerk with spikes on his noggin. What a rocker! Max HP is 2, Attack is 2, and Defense is 2. That hard head is a major pain. Fire doesn't hurt it, but other types of items are pretty effective, usually. If nothing seems to work on it, you can always just run.

Super Paper Mario

Super Paper Mario enemy
Moon Cleft
	Max HP	5	Role	Common	Location(s)	Downtown of Crag (5-1), Flipside Pit of 100 Trials (Room 71)
	Attack	2	Card type	Common
	Defense	4	Items	Cake Mix	Card location(s)	Card Shop; Catch Card/SP; Chapter 5-1: Found in a small 3D-accessible alcove below the canyon to the right of the first block puzzle.
	Score	500
	Card description	It's an evil mineral that looks just like a rock. That is, until it's too late!
List of Catch Cards     106      107      108	Tattle	That's a Moon Cleft, a rock-hard monster that's covered in spikes... Max HP is 5, Attack is 2, Defense is 2[sic]. Flames won't scorch this foe... It might look like a stone at first, but it will move when you get up close... Set off an explosion near it to flip it over. Then it'll be vulnerable to attack...

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	シンエモン[?] Shin'emon	Male name in Japan
Chinese	岩石怪[?] Yánshí Guài	Rock Monster
French (NOA)	Focett[?]	From fossette ("dimple")
French (NOE)	Cleft[?]	-
	Cleftlunair (Super Paper Mario)[?]	Lunar Cleft
German	Kirk[?]	Male name
	Mond-Kirk (Super Paper Mario)[?]	Moon Cleft
Italian	Teschiolito[?]	From teschio ("skull") and the Ancient Greek word lithos ("stone")
	Teschiolito lunare (Super Paper Mario)[?]	Lunar Cleft
Korean	가시돌턱[?] Gasi Dolteok	Spike Bald Jaw
Spanish	Cleft[?]	-
	Cleft Lunar (Super Paper Mario)[?]	Lunar Cleft