Gloomy Woods

Gloomy Woods is a forest area found in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. It is located south of Mount Brrr and north of Sunbeam Plains, and is split into an east and a west side with different enemies, obstacles and themes.

History

First Visit

Mario and Luigi first come to Gloomy Woods in an attempt to reach Mount Brrr, where Princess Peach is being held in Bowser's Villa. In this visit, they enter the east side of the woods, which are a standard woodland home to a town, various jungle dwelling enemies and Wiggler.

However, their progress through the woods is soon blocked by Paper Kamek, who drops paper landscape objects all over the area. The Wiggler they met earlier can remove these, but only after eating a certain amount of fruits in order to get the required energy.

Continuing through the woods after a couple of rounds of gathering fruit and having Wiggler destroy obstacles, the bros encounter a special Bowser gate, which is electrified to prevent passage to the next room. They have to find Bomb Fruits in the area to destroy the gate with, deactivating the power source and opening up the path to the next part of the forest.

Later still, the bros encounter Kamek himself, who challenges them to a boss battle of sorts. This battle takes place entirely on the field, with the three characters having to defeat Kamek by throwing Bomb Fruits at him with the Trio Grab ability.

Further on, they encounter Roy, who also challenges them to a mini boss battle. This time, they pick up the bombs brought in by Fly Guys and chuck them back at Roy, eventually doing enough damage to drive him away.

Reaching the end of the forest, the bros encounter Wiggler arguing with Kamek about the state the forest has been left in. Wiggler soon gets brainwashed by Kamek, and attacks the bros in a boss battle. The effect of this battle seemingly kills him, though it soon turns out that Wiggler has actually just become a Flutter, who then takes them up to Mount Brrr.

Second Visit

Later in the adventure, after defeating Bowser Jr and seeing Bowser's Castle become Neo Bowser Castle, they return to Gloomy Woods in an attempt to reach Mount Brrr again. However, the usual entrance to the forest is blocked by paper landscape objects, so they enter via the west entrance, accessible by some clouds above Sunbeam Plains.

This side of the forest however turns out to be haunted, and the party end up separated by the Boos living there. As a result of this, Luigi has to travel alone through the forest, dodging Boos and ghostly copies of Mario on his way to save the other two.

Eventually, after dodging ghosts and solving various puzzles, Luigi finds Mario, trapped upside down in a tree next to a group of Boos. Freeing his brother from the ghosts, the two then work together to find Paper Mario among the Boos and other enemies in the woods.

After doing this for a bit, and coming across a suspicious empty area with a healing block, the duo find Paper Mario seemingly safe and sound. However, it turns out this version of Paper Mario is actually King Boo in disguise leading to a boss battle.

In this battle, it turns out that King Boo has captured the real Paper Mario and is holding him hostage with one of his Paper Boo minions. After the battle is over, the real Paper Mario rejoined the party, and they make their way to the east side of the woods and Mount Brrr.

Enemies

East Side

• Ninjis
• Paper Ninjis
• Shiny Paper Ninjis
• Fire Piranha Plants
• Paper Spear Guys
• Shiny Paper Spear Guys
• Fly Guys (Lakitu missions only)
• Wiggler (boss)
• Paper Kamek (boss)

West Side

• Paper Boos
• Shiny Paper Boos
• Monty Moles
• King Boo (boss)