Star Power

Not to be confused with Countdown Timer.

Star Power, or Star Energy as it was originally called in Paper Mario, often shortened to SP and SE respectively, is a special form of energy featured in the first two installments of the Paper Mario series. In both games, Star Power is used to fuel Special Moves, a set of unique combat techniques that require Mario to use a special power taught by an entity like a Star Spirit or a Crystal Star.

Breaking from the tradition of the series, Star Power no longer appears in the third installment of the series, Super Paper Mario, nor the following games. The lack of Star Power in the subsequent games disables some of the features known from its predecessors, namely the possibility to perform Special Moves.

Appearances

Paper Mario

Star Energy in Paper Mario

In Paper Mario, Mario receives the ability to gather Star Energy and perform Special Moves after he rescues Eldstar from the Koopa Bros. After that, one unit of Star Power is added to Mario's disposal for every Star Spirit he rescues. Along with each Star Spirit, Mario also learns new Special Moves which consume 1 to 3 SP when used. Mario's amount of Star Energy is represented by colorful bars at the top of the screen. An eight of the bar gets refilled after every enemy turn in battle. Additionally, the Focus Command will refill half a bar upon use, or even more if Deep Focus(es) are equipped.

Special Moves

Name	SP used	Star Spirit required	Description
Refresh	1	Eldstar	Restores 5 Heart Points and Flower Points to Mario.
Lullaby	1	Mamar	Affects to put all enemies to sleep. The base status duration of this move is four turns.
Star Storm	2	Skolar	Deals 7 points of star-element damage to each enemy, piercing Defense Power.
Chill Out	2	Muskular	Decreases the Attack Power of all enemies by 3 points.
Smooch	3	Misstar	Restores 20 HP to Mario.
Time Out	2	Klevar	Attempts to immobilize all enemies. The base status duration of this move is five turns.
Up and Away	2	Kalmar	Has a chance to instantly defeat any non-boss enemy in battle. Every eligible target's susceptibility is 95%.
Star Beam	0	All seven Star Spirits	A technique that nullifies Bowser's invincibility bestowed upon him by the Star Rod, as well as positive status effects on enemies. However has no effect on Bowser in their final encounter.
Peach Beam	0	All seven Star Spirits, plus Twink	Has the same capabilities as Star Beam, however it affects Bowser on their final encounter.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Star Power in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the stat is renamed as Star Power, and accessed by Mario after the prologue by holding aloft the Magical Map in front of the Thousand-Year Door. Like in the previous game, Mario's Star Power will increase with every Crystal Star he obtains, and he will also learn new Special Moves. Unlike before, the Star Power gauge is now composed of up to 8 dots, each representing one unit of Star Power.

In this game, Star Power is still gained automatically at the beginning of a turn, but it is now tied directly to the audience, and many options are available for both Mario and his partners to excite the audience and gain more SP. The most dedicated method is the new ability to Appeal to the audience, which serves a similar function to the previous game's Focus action in taking a turn to charge SP. Successfully executed Action Commands also attract SP from the audience, but of particular note are the newly introduced Stylish moves, normally hidden Action Commands which allow the playable characters to perform stunts during moves that drive the crowd wild, making them a great source of SP. SP recovery can be augmented greatly by wearing certain Badges; the rate of regeneration from attacks is also boosted when Mario or his partner is in Danger or Peril, or after a Trial Stew has been used.

Due to being tied to the audience, the amount of SP that can be gained at a given time by these methods is affected by the size and composition of the audience — as a result of this, events that take away audience members (such as the attacks of certain bosses, or the behavior of certain members of the audience) impede the party's ability to build SP, while gaining a larger audience size (with stage upgrades as Mario's star rank increases with his level) will allow SP to build quicker.

There are a few methods of gaining Star Power which are not tied to the audience: SP will always be fully recovered in-battle by successfully getting either three Stars or Shine Sprites (the latter of which also fully restores HP and Flower Points on top of gaining a full audience) in the Bingo! wheel. Eating a Trial Stew also fully restores SP in addition to giving a boosted recovery rate, albeit at the cost of lowering the party's HP to 1 and FP to 0. Outside of battle, SP can also be restored fully by staying at an inn.

Special Moves

Name	SP used	Item required	Description
Sweet Treat	1	Magical Map	Restores up to 8 FP, 7 HP to Mario and his partner, and cures their negative status ailments. If Mario's partner is KO'd, it lets Mario restore up to 14 HP instead.
Earth Tremor	2	Diamond Star	Deals up to 6 damage to all enemies. Needs to fill at least two bars to hit flying enemies, and four bars to hit ceiling enemies.
Clock Out	2	Emerald Star	Produces a huge time bomb that immobilizes its targets and affects either Mario's team, the enemy group, or the audience. Effectiveness depends on the enemy's susceptibility and Action Command success.
Power Lift	3	Gold Star	Increases Attack and Defense Power of Mario and his current partner.
Art Attack	4	Ruby Star	Summons a small cursor which the player can circle around the enemies. Each complete circle before the time limit is up causes up to 3 points of damage to the enclosed enemies.
Sweet Feast	5	Sapphire Star	Restores up to 24 FP, 24 HP to Mario and his partner, and cures their negative status ailments. If Mario's partner is KO'd, it lets Mario restore up to 48 HP instead.
Showstopper	2	Garnet Star	Has a chance to instantly defeat all enemies in battle depending on the enemies' susceptibility and Action Command success.
Supernova	6	Crystal Star	Deals up to 15 points of damage to all enemies on the battlefield.

All Star Powers ignore evasion and invisibility checks. Furthermore, they pierce defense except for special defense such as the Iron Clefts'.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	スターパワー[?] Sutā pawā	Star Power
Chinese	星之能量 Xīng zhī Néngliàng	Star Power
German	Sternenergie[?]	Star Energy
Spanish (NOE)	Energía Estrella (Paper Mario) Poder Estelar (The Thousand-Year Door)[?]	Star Energy Star Power