The Great Tree

The Great Tree
First appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Greater location	Boggly Woods
Ruler	Puni elder
Inhabitants	Punies, Piders, and Jabbies

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The Great Tree is a giant tree in the game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Its interior serves as the third main location in the game. It is located in Boggly Woods and is the home of the Puni tribe. When Mario first arrives here, the entrance is sealed by a strange, metal door, which prompts him to take Punio to see Flurrie; the door is a result of the X-Nauts residing in the tree. There is actually a secret entrance to the Great Tree's interior. Mario must use Flurrie to blow away the "paper" that covers this entrance, which Punio proceeds to enter, prompting him to open the sealed door that Mario can walk through. However, the secret entrance is anything but secret as it is labeled "Secret Entrance" and is surrounded by flashing lights. The Emerald Star is located within the tree since 1,000 years ago after the Shadow Queen was imprisoned the Goomba hero gave the Crystal Star to the Punies to keep safe. As such, Lord Crump and his X-Naut troops invaded the place to find it, even if that meant teaming up with the Jabbies (the rivals of the Punies), and additionally, imprisoning the Punies. Punio enlisted the help of Mario, Goombella, Koops, and Flurrie to liberate the Punies, take down the Jabbies, retrieve the Emerald Star, and drive the X-Nauts out of the Tree. Mario also obtained the Super Boots while he and his friends were here. After Mario and his friends find the Emerald Star, Crump steals it and activates a five-minute (300-second) time bomb. With the system active, Crump makes his way to the entrance, but his escape is cut off by the Puni elder; with her help, Mario, Goombella, Koops, Flurrie and the other Punies are able to catch up with him, demanding that he surrenders the Crystal Star and leave the tree forever. However, instead of surrendering, Crump is forced to deactivate the time bomb and activate his robot, Magnus von Grapple, and attack Mario and company. After defeating the robot, Crump and the X-Nauts are driven out of the tree and Mario is given the Emerald Star as a reward. A shop is also found here.

The in-game map description reads, "A very large tree where the reclusive Punies live."

Enemies

• Jabbi (Mario does not fight them in battle; the Punies do.)
• Pale Piranha
• Pider
• Magnus von Grapple (Chapter 2)
• X-Naut (Chapter 2)
• Yux (Chapter 2)
• Mini-Yux (Chapter 2)

Inhabitants

The tree is inhabited almost exclusively by Punis, Jabbis, and Piders, though it is temporarily invaded by the enemies listed above.

• Punio
• Puni elder
• Petuni
• Puniper
• Jabble
• Pungent
• Pungry
• Punderton (presumably)
• Lord Crump (Chapter 2)
• Battle Master

Formations

Main article: List of enemy formations in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door § The Great Tree

Items

Item	Icon	Found In
Blue Key		In the second room below the entrance, to the right of the twisty path, it's inside the chest on the ground.
Charge		In the second room below the entrance, to the right of the twisty path, it's on the left pillar in the underground.
Damage Dodge P		In the second room below the entrance, it's in an invisible block above the brick by the twisty path.
Dizzy Dial		In the water-draining room deep in the tree, it's to the back of the stairs in the upper room.
Emerald Star		Stolen by Lord Crump and picked up by Mario after Lord Crump is defeated.
FP Plus		In the outside area, it's in the waterfall to the right of the tree.
Mushroom		In the room before the Crystal Star room, it's in the left bush.
		In the storeroom in the highest place, it's given by Jabble when talked to after Chapter 2.
Mystic Egg		Given by Petuni by playing the Stump Petuni game with her. Available after Chapter 2.
Power Punch		In the second room above the entrance area, it's in the southeast bush on the ground.
Puni Orb		Given by the Puni elder in Chapter 2.
Red Key		In the storeroom in the highest place, it's dropped by the X-Naut guard.
Shine Sprite		In the room to the right of the entrance, it's to the right of the bubble pond.
		In the first room below the entrance, it's above the big stone in the lower-left of the room. Accessible with the airplane panels.
		In the second room below the entrance, to the right of the twisty path, it's on the back pillar in the underground.
		In the water-draining room deep in the tree, it's above a lily in the lower-room.
Shrink Stomp		In the water-draining room deep in the tree, it's inside a chest box in front of the stairs in the upper room.
Star Piece		In the first room above the entrance area, it's under a panel near the pipe to the up.
		In the third room above the entrance area, it's under a panel in the blue cell.
		In the second room below the entrance, it's in the northwest bush below the twisty path.
		In the second room below the entrance, to the left of the twisty path, it's behind the entrance pipe of the lower area.
		In the second room below the entrance, to the left of the twisty path, it's behind the pipe in the area below the trap.
		In the shortcut room from the tree bottom to the twisty path area, it's in the southwest bush.
Super Boots		In the second room below the entrance, to the right of the twisty path, it's in a chest in a north cave.
Thunder Rage		In the bubble room to the right of the entrance, it's in the rightmost bush on the ground.
Ultra Mushroom		In the storeroom in the highest place, it's inside the left chest. (The right chest is opened by Ms. Mowz.)

In addition, there is a shop covered by a piece of paper to the lower-left of the twisty path. Having Flurrie blow it away will allow Mario access to the shop.

Hidden ? Block

Main article: List of hidden blocks in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Item	Description	Image	Image (block revealed)
1 Coin	In the area with the narrow passageways with Piders, is a red ? Block. Mario must use Koops to hit the hidden ? Block directly underneath the block.

Area Tattles

• The base of the Great Tree! It sure is big up close... I mean... Wowser. Seriously. It must have watched over the Boggly Woods for over 1,000 years. That's insane^GCN/unbelievable^Switch...
• It's like another world inside this tree, huh?!? And check out these statues! They must've been left by the ancestors of the Punies. I wonder how many years the Punies have lived in this place, anyway... These are the kind of questions archaeologists have to ask, y'know.
• This is an interesting pedestal, Mario. When the Punies stand on the panel, the machine counts them and responds. The ancient Punies must've been really sophisticated... This is totally fascinating!
• We're inside the Great Tree. Looks like lots of tufts of vegetation around here. Stuff could be hidden in those things, so let's make sure to check each one, OK?
• There's a red cell and a blue cell here. Crump must've made 'em to hold the Punies. With gaps like those between the bars, I think we could get through, though...
• Looks like Crump left behind lots of the equipment he used to search this tree. Ms. Mowz was here before, but I think she took the next train to Floozyville^GCN/Flirtsville^Switch.
• We can just jump this gap easily, but I think the Punies will totally plummet down there. If you gather them into a group and blow on them, they should all fall over the edge... But then they'll come back up in bubbles! And then you can blow them across! As for that door on the left, if you use that panel, it'll unlock it, I'm pretty sure.^GCN/Bubbles keep floating up from the water at the bottom... Weird. That door on the left is interesting too. If we turn that nearby panel's light green, it should let us enter!^Switch
• The Punies are totally afraid of these Piders. When a Pider drops, the Punies completely lose it and bolt in every direction. You're gonna have to defeat any Piders near the path you wanna lead the Punies along.
• We're inside the Great Tree. This area has a totally wacked-out topography. Y'know, I think Punio said something about a hidden shop somewhere in this area... If you need any items, we should try to find it, huh?
• This is a shop run by a Puni named Pungent. I wonder if there are any rare items...
• Hey, there's water running through the inside of the Great Tree! You don't think... Could this be how the tree carries nutrients from root to limb? Y'know, nature is just about the coolest thing ever.
• This area seems to have been laid out for a special reason, don't you think? There must be something super-important hidden here.
• This must be the most wide-open space inside the Great Tree, huh? The tree looks big from out there, but I lose all sense of dimension in here.... I could totally get lost in here for like, days...
• I wonder if the inside of the tree was always like this... I mean, do you think it was, or do you think someone MADE it this way? Hmmm... It's a mystery...
• The structure of this tree is pretty complicated. Looks like we're only gonna move on with the help of the Punies, huh? We're going to seriously need to use our thinking caps as we go forward.
• This is a big treasure chest... The Punies must've left it... What could it be, you think? Well... Only one way to find out, am I right?
• We're inside the Great Tree. Grasses and other plants grow in here. Isn't that cool? You think the Great Tree is like a...host organism? Biology is just SO cool...
• This area makes me feel like I'm exploring a watery swamp even though we're in a tree... Water! I bet we need Koops! ...Um... Or maybe that doesn't make any sense at all...
• We've come down pretty far. The air is a bit colder here, don'tcha think? The technology used here is pretty insane, too. I wish I had more time to inspect it.
• This must be the lowest chamber. Saying it's solemn here is an understatement. Under these statues' glares... I feel like the Punies' ancestors are watching us...
• This door was made by Crump and his cronies. It doesn't match the decor at all. As for the door, if you use the panel there, it should unlock the whole thing^GCN/It doesn't match the decor of this tree at all. We should be able to pass through it when the lamp over the door is green. Use the controls on that side panel!^Switch

Trivia

• In the room where the player has to hammer the switches to gain access to the Super Boots room, in the Japanese version the 4 statues all have Punis on them before hitting the switches, but in the international versions the 4 statues have the following (left to right) on them before hitting the switches: Puni, Star, Moon, Sun.
  • Additionally, on page 39 of the Official Nintendo Player's Guide, the 4 statues all have Punis on them just like in the Japanese version.
• In the Japanese version, when unlocking the blue cage in the Great Tree, the game checks for and removes the Strange Sack from the player's inventory if the player has it (which will permanently prevent it from being obtained again as there is only one in the game). Additionally, if the player has more than 10 items in their inventory when they lose the Strange Sack, they can get the normally unused Debug Badge to appear in their inventory. This does not happen in the international versions.

Gallery

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  The Great Tree

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  Red Key

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  Mario encounters an X-Naut inside the Great Tree.

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  Magnus von Grapple

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Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	大樹[?] Taiju	Big Tree
Dutch	De grote boom[?]	The great tree
French	Le Grand Arbre[?]	The Great Tree
Italian	Grande Quercia[?]	Great Oak
Spanish	Gran Árbol[?]	Great Tree