Dark Bones

This article is about the enemy from the Paper Mario series. For the playable character in Mario Super Sluggers, see Dry Bones § Mario Baseball series.

Not to be confused with Dark Dull Bones.

Dark Bones
Artwork from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
First appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Latest appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) (2024)
Variant of	Dry Bones

“Let those who would disturb her sleep fall into the depths of endless darkness...”

—Dark Bones, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Dark Bones are enemies in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and its Nintendo Switch remake. They are the most powerful type of Dry Bones. Instead of being pale gray with red shoes, they are indigo with purple shoes. Dark Bones are only found in the Palace of Shadow, where they are seen twice, once in a corridor and yet again in Palace of Shadow Tower.

The first Dark Bones' pre-battle speech seems to indicate that it has been ordered to keep the Shadow Queen from awakening. Once Mario interacts with the inanimate Dark Bones pile, a horde of Dry Bones fills the room and Mario must use his hammer to drive them off and reach the Dark Bones. During the battle, the Dark Bones fights alongside four Dry Bones. In the remake, a different arrangement of the Event Battle 2 theme plays in this battle.

The second Dark Bones appears in a room with a Dull Bones, a Red Bones, and a Dry Bones. To obtain the room's Palace Key, Mario must defeat each enemy from weakest to strongest, with the Dark Bones being the strongest.

In battle, Dark Bones behave like regular Dry Bones, having the same moves and stats except much higher HP. After being defeated in both areas they appear in, they cannot be fought again.

In the Super Mario Mash-up in Minecraft, the Wither Skeletons resemble Dark Bones.

Profiles and statistics

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

GameCube

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Dark Bones
	Max HP	20	Attack	5	Defense	2
	Location(s)	Palace of Shadow	Role	Boss, common	Level	34
	Sleep?	0%	Dizzy?	20%	Confuse?	20%
	Tiny?	80%	Stop?	65%	Soft?	80%
	Burn?	100%	Freeze?	60%	Fright?	0%
	Gale Force?	60%	KO?	85%	Moves	Bone Throw (5), Multibone (3x3), Shake (N/A), Get Up (+20HP), Build (Summons Dry Bones)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	6	Items	Fire Flower (drop only), Palace Key (drop only)
Tattle Log #: 23	Log	It's the baddest of the Bones bunch, so its HP is really high. When its HP get down to 0, it might rise again.
	Tattle	That's a Dark Bones. It's the baddest of the Bones gang. Max HP is 20, Attack is 5 and Defense is 0. When its HP goes down to 0, it collapses into a pile, but it'll eventually rise again. Fire and explosions will put a permanent end to it getting back up, though. Its HP is high so it's hard to take it down. Like any other Bones, it sometimes builds friends if it feels outnumbered. It's a tough enemy. You better take it and its buddies out all at once.

Nintendo Switch

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Dark Bones
	Max HP	20	Attack	5	Defense	2
	Location(s)	Palace of Shadow	Role	Mini-Boss	Level	34
	Sleep?	0%	Dizzy?	20%	Confuse?	20%
	Tiny?	80%	Stop?	65%	Soft?	80%
	Burn?	100%	Freeze?	60%	Fright?	0%
	Gale Force?	60%	KO?	85%	Moves	Bone Throw (5), Multibone (3x3), Shake (N/A), Get Up (+20HP), Build (Summons Dry Bones)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	6	Items	Fire Flower (drop only), Palace Key (drop only)
Tattle Log #: 24	Log	It's the baddest of the Bones bunch, so its HP is really high. When its HP get down to 0, it might rise again.
	Tattle	That's a Dark Bones. It's the baddest of the Bones gang. Max HP is 20, Attack is 5 and Defense is 0. When its HP goes down to 0, it collapses into a pile, but it'll eventually rise again. Fire and explosions will put a permanent end to it getting back up though. Its HP is high, so it's hard to take it down. Like any other Bones, it sometimes builds friends if it feels outnumbered. It's a tough enemy. You better take it and its buddies out all at once.

Field Tattle

Outside of battle, Goombella can use Tattle on Dark Bones only in Palace of Shadow before Mario examines it.

• "Those are some weird-colored bones. Very suspicious! ...But I feel like I've seen something like them before. I guess we're not gonna get much farther without checking them out, are we?"

Gallery

• 

  The Tattle Log image for Dark Bones in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

• 

  A Dark Bones in the Super Mario Mash-up

Related

• Dry Bones
• Red Bones
• Dull Bones

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ブラックカロン[?] Burakku Karon	Black Dry Bones, may allude to the Japanese name of Red Bones
Chinese (simplified)	黑色碎碎龟[?] Hēisè Suì Suì Guī	Black Dry Bones
Chinese (traditional)	黑色碎碎龜[?] Hēisè Suì Suì Guī	Black Dry Bones
Dutch	Dark Bones[?]	-
French	Skelangoisse[?]	Portmanteau of squelette ("skeleton") and angoisse ("dread")
German	Geistertrocken[?]	Portmanteau of geister ("ghosts") and Knochentrocken ("Dry Bones")
Italian	Tartosso nero[?]	Black Dry Bones
Korean	블랙와르르[?] Beullaek Wareureu	Black Dry Bones
Spanish	Koopa Esq. Negro	Black Skeleton Koopa; "esq." is the abbreviated form of esqueleto ("skeleton"). Koopa Esqueleto is Dull Bones' Spanish name.