Dark Mechawful

Dark Mechawful
First appearance	Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (2009)
Latest appearance	Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (2018)
Variant of	Mechawful
Variants Dark Mechawful.5

Dark Mechawful is an enemy in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story that is a blue, robotic Fawful most likely invented by Fawful himself. They can be encountered in Peach's Castle. They are similar to normal Mechawfuls in appearance, but are blue instead of green, have a wheel rather than legs, and are only encountered by Bowser.

In battle, Dark Mechawfuls attack Bowser by reeling its arm back and starting a short countdown of 4 or 5 seconds. When the number hits zero, the Dark Mechawful will attempt to dash forward and punch Bowser. This can be avoided by hitting the button right before the countdown hits zero to punch the robot and counterattack it as it lunges forward to hit Bowser. It will also attack by shooting a giant, purple laser at Bowser while gradually approaching to hit him with its hands. The player must hit to make Bowser duck, avoiding the laser, and will then have to make Bowser punch the robot with before it smashes him.

After depleting the body of its health, the head of the Dark Mechawful will fly to the top screen. Unlike Mechawfuls, the head will never be destroyed with the body altogether, no matter how much damage is incurred in a single attack. If there are no other surviving enemies in the battle, all Dark Mechawful heads will fly away and the player will win the battle. If another enemy is in battle, it will remain at the top screen where Bowser can inhale it. It is thus impossible to fully defeat every single Dark Mechawful head in a battle consisting only of Dark Mechawfuls, for at least one will always escape as soon as Bowser has nothing left to fight on the bottom screen. If Bowser does not inhale the head, it might summon another body, turning it into the Dark Mechawful.5. This body will have an iron grey cloak that makes it even more similar to the real Dark Fawful and boost its power, defense, and attack speed. Its most notable difference is that its timer will now go haywire when it hits the 2 second mark, making its attacks much more frustrating to counter and giving full incentive for Bowser to inhale the head before it gets that chance.

In Bowser's body, the head has two attacks. One attack involves the head flying over a Mario Bro. and trying to fall on top of him, exactly like what the normal Mechawfuls do; the Bros. need to counter this with their hammers. A second attack begins with the Dark Mechawful tracing the ground with a harmless red laser in varying patterns: this will soon be followed by a damaging array of stars that the Bros. must jump over. The stars follow the same pattern as the red laser, necessitating memorization of the laser's positions or good reflexes to avoid the attack.

Bowser can use the Vacuum Block to inhale a Blitty from a Dark Mechawful.

Mario and Luigi cannot fight Dark Mechawfuls but only their normal counterpart; however, with cheats enabled and fighting them in the original game, their punch dash attack works normally and can be counterattacked, but if they perform their purple laser attack, it puts the Dark Mechawfuls in an unstable state where the game thinks their heads are out of their body and they perform the attack that only Mario and Luigi can encounter. The red laser zigzags into different positions three times and shoots out stars very slowly one by one, then the game proceeds to be softlocked after the attack is finished.

Statistics

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story enemy
Dark Mechawful
	HP	280 (420)	POW	282 (705)	DEF	146 (219)	SPEED	30 (45)
	Coins	80 (120)	Level	31	Fire	Half	Burn?	Immune
	Role	Common	Battled by	Bowser	Location(s)	Peach's Castle	Dizzy?	Normal
	Stat down?	Normal	KO?	Normal	Experience	800	Item drop	Star Candy - 4.75% Power Fangs X - 0.25%
Notice: The second set of numbers next to the enemy's HP, POW, DEF, SPEED and Coins are stat increases from the Challenge Medal accessory; a 50% increase for HP, DEF, SPEED and Coins earned, and a 150% increase for POW.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story enemy
Dark Mechawful (head)
	HP	200 (300)	POW	105 (263)	DEF	102 (153)	SPEED	32 (48)
	Coins	40 (60)	Level	27	Fire	Half	Burn?	Immune
	Role	Common	Battled by	Mario and Luigi	Location(s)	Peach's Castle	Dizzy?	Normal
	Stat down?	Normal	KO?	Normal	Experience	200	Item drop	Max Nut - 9.5% A-OK Wear - 0.5%
Notice: The second set of numbers next to the enemy's HP, POW, DEF, SPEED and Coins are stat increases from the Challenge Medal accessory; a 50% increase for HP, DEF, SPEED and Coins earned, and a 150% increase for POW.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey enemy
Dark Mechawful
	HP	280	POW	320	DEF	230	SPEED	30	Experience	800
	Fire	Weak	Jump	Normal	Hammer	Normal	Battled by	Bowser	Coins	100
	Burn	Immune	Dizzy	1x	Stat down	1x	Speed down	1x	Item drop	TNT Drumstick - 25% Miracle Cheese - 15%
Level           28	Location(s)	Peach's Castle

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey enemy
Dark Mechawful (head)
	HP	180	POW	129	DEF	102	SPEED	32	Experience	200
	Fire	Weak	Jump	Normal	Hammer	Normal	Battled by	Mario & Luigi	Coins	60
	Burn	Immune	Dizzy	1x	Stat down	1x	Speed down	1x	Item drop	Ultra Nut - 40% A-OK Wear - 10%
Level           27	Location(s)	Peach's Castle

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ダークメカコビッツ[?] Dāku Mekakobittsu	Dark Mechawful
German	Finster-Krankomat[?]	Dark Mechawful
Italian	Marchinghigno Oscuro[?]	Dark Mechawful
Spanish (NOA)	Mecawful Oscuro[?]	Dark Mechawful
Spanish (NOE)	Mecánovitz Oscuro[?]	Dark Mechawful

Trivia

• Dark Mechawfuls share multiple similarities to the final enemies of the game:
  • The punching attack is similar to that used by Dark Bowser.
  • The laser attack the Dark Mechawful uses on Bowser is similar to the lasers used by both the Dark Star and the Dark Star Core.
  • The head looks very similar to one of Fawful's forms after he is defeated by Bowser.