Bonetail
| The Thousand-Year Door enemy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bonetail | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Location(s) | Pit of 100 Trials (Level 100) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Max HP | 200 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attack | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Moves | Dangerous Breath (8, Piercing; sleep (white), confusion (green), shrunk (purple), frozen (blue)), Recover (20 HP, max twice), Stomp (8), Chomp (8) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Items | Return Postage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coins | N/A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Log | The oldest brother of Hooktail. He's just bones now. He's incredibly tough... Maybe even the toughest? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Tattle Log #: 101 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- “AROOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
- —Bonetail, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Bonetail is a large, skeletal dragon in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door residing at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials. She is the older sister of Gloomtail and Hooktail. Unlike her still-living siblings, she is an undead dragon, having died of unknown reasons. She was once a pet of the Shadow Queen, but it is never stated why or how Bonetail came to reside at the bottom of the Pit. According to Grifty, Bonetail, along with her two siblings, went around the world terrorizing people some time before the Shadow Queen was imprisoned behind The Thousand-Year Door. Bonetail is depicted as male in the original English localization, but female in every other version, including the English version of the Nintendo Switch remake.
After Mario and his teammates reach the bottom floor of the Pit of 100 Trials, Bonetail roars, making it questionable if she can talk as she never demonstrates that ability. Bonetail's many breaths cause a variety of status ailments in addition to dealing damage. Her blue breath can freeze Mario, green breath can cause confusion, purple can turn Mario or his partner tiny, and white can inflict sleep. All of her fire breath attacks can be avoided with Shell Shield or simply guarding. If Mario defeats Bonetail, she coughs up a chest containing the Return Postage badge.
Bonetail is much stronger than her younger siblings, Hooktail and Gloomtail, and even more than the Shadow Queen. She is the strongest boss in the game, but only offers one star point after defeat; Bonetail can restore 20 HP when having lower HP, and has the most HP out of any enemy. Additionally, Bonetail has the same default attack and defense stats as Gloomtail, with other buffs added throughout the fight. However, Bonetail does not have all of Gloomtail's attacks, like his earthquake attack or Megabreath.
Once defeated, Bonetail cannot be refought and will be absent if Mario returns to the bottom of the Pit. In the Nintendo Switch remake, Whacka will become the new final boss of the Pit if he is driven out of Keelhaul Key and the Shadow Queen has been defeated.
At the beginning of the fight, Mario's partner makes a comment regarding Bonetail:
- Goombella: "Wow! What a freak!"
- Koops: "Yikes! What a grump!"
- Flurrie: "Mercy! Such anger!"
- Yoshi Kid (GameCube version): "Whoa! What a psycho!"
- Yoshi Kid (Nintendo Switch version): "Whoa! What a monster!"
- Vivian: "Wow! What a grouch!"
- Admiral Bobbery: "Rather a crabby sort, eh?"
- Ms. Mowz: "My! What a crab!"
Gallery
Mario encounters Bonetail
The battle with Bonetail
Bonetail defeated
Bonetail in the remake
Bonetail's unused early head design
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
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| Japanese | ゾンババ[?] Zonbaba |
Portmanteau of「ゾンビ」(zonbi, "zombie") and「ゴンババ」(Gonbaba, "Hooktail") or「ブンババ」(Bunbaba, "Gloomtail") | |
| Chinese (traditional) | 屍骨巴巴[?] | ? | |
| French | Occicroc[?] | Portmanteau of occire ("slay") and croc ("fang") | |
| German | Lohviata[?] | Portmanteau of Lohe ("blaze") and possibly the English word "bloviate"; also likely a pun on "Loviatar" | |
| Italian | Ossandra[?] | Pormanteau of osso ("bone") and the female name "Cassandra" | |
| Spanish | Zombaba[?] | From the Japanese name "Zonbaba", but with an "m" before the "b" because, in Spanish orthography, "n" should not come before "b" |
Trivia
- As a defeatable, standalone boss by default with no minions to summon, and along with Whacka in the remake, Bonetail is the only boss Mario cannot defeat with a single jump (performed by a failed action Jump command) or hammer blow strengthened by Power Rush badges.
- Among these two, Bonetail is the only boss Mario cannot defeat alone in one turn without FP-based attacks, such as the Power Bounce badge by performing three jumps in one move.
- In the original Gamecube release, Bonetail was named as a male in the Tattle for it.
