Confused
Confused is a status ailment found in the game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, indicated with an orange spiral found above the victim. A confused character, whether it be Mario, his partner, or an enemy, has approximately a 50% chance each turn to do something random and unexpected instead of what the player or the enemy's AI told it to do. One can tell a character is about to do something unusual if there is an extra-long pause before it acts. Possible results include:
- Mario or his partner may attack each other with a basic attack which is not Action Commanded (such as a jump, hammer, or no-FP move), which the player can try to block.
- Mario or his partner may use the Defend, Appeal, or Run Away actions.
- Mario's partner may switch to a random partner. (It is unconfirmed whether Mario can do this.)
- Enemies may attack each other, or use healing moves or items on Mario and/or his partner. If an enemy is alone and attempts to attack an ally in confusion, it simply does nothing.
Vivian's Infatuate attack, and the Ruin Powder item can confuse all enemies, but many if not all bosses and minibosses resist or are immune to it. Random stage effects such as falling bugs can also confuse combatants. The Head Rattle Badge can confuse grounded foes if the Action Command is successful for 3 turns (more Head Rattles prolong the confusion by 2 more turns, but it costs more FP in return).
While confusion can be debilitating to either side of a battle, players should be cautious about which enemies they are confusing, as enemies such as Lava Bubbles will heal each other if they attack each other.
