Sink to the depths and find Super Mario RPG’s fifth star within a run-down ship filled with marine and undead enemies! As you navigate the level, you’ll find are various notes throughout the ship that serve as hints to navigate the sunken ship…and a password you’ll need to take down the mini boss. But let’s start from the beginning:

Once you enter the Sunken Ship, you will see two doors. The door to the right is a save room. Once you save your progress, head to the door to the left where you will find Greapers floating around.

Common enemies include Zeostars, Greapers, Reachers, Dry Bones, Alley Rats, Whuhoh, Crusty, Mr. Kippers, Bloopers, and Enigmax. Note that most undead enemies drop Pure Water which can defeat undead enemies in one hit! These drop liberally in this level, so don’t hesitate to use it. Because of relatively consistent weaknesses with fire, lightning, poison, and fear, I favored Mario, Mallow, and Bowser.

Sunken Ship enemy information:

• Zeostar: fire, lightning, fear, poison, sleep, mute
• Greaper: lightning, fear, poison, sleep, mute
• Reacher: lightning, fear, poison, sleep, mute
• Straw Head: lightning, fear, poison, sleep, mute
• Whuhoh: fear, poison, sleep, mute
• Mr. Kippers: fire, lightning, fear, poison, sleep, mute
• Crusty: fire, lightning, fear, poison, sleep, mute
• Bloopers: fire, lightning, fear, poison, sleep, mute
• Bandana Red/Blue: fire, lightning, fear, poison, sleep, mute

Make your way across the room and through the door. You’ll enter yet another room with a note and only one other door at the other end. More enemies haunt this room, including Dry Bones. Once you harvest the experience points you need, progress to the next area.

Here, you move downstairs, battling Alley Rats until you reach the bottom floor. The next room has two floors and a total of six puzzle rooms. First, let’s tackle the ones on the current floor:

Room 1 (with one J block beside it): The flying Koopa follows your ever move above. You also notice a cannon ball atop a pillar of blocks with a switch nearby. You must lead the Koopa to knock the ball in the direction of the switch. An item and hint will drop with each switch you hit in these puzzle rooms.

Room 2 (with two J blocks beside it): You must hit three J blocks to align the springs so that a cannon ball would bounce on each one until it hits the switch. It may take a few tries, but it’s a quick curve to learn.

Room 3 (with three J blocks beside it): This is a “3D” maze that can be infuriating. Not that it’s hard, but rather, you are solving a 3D puzzle from a singular vantage point. Go through the opening and head straight until you can’t move anymore. Then, move right until you can’t move anymore. Then jump. Then face toward the entrance and jump twice. Then move left.

You should be able to see yourself on the second floor! Wrap around the front of the second floor until you are about the disappear at the far-right corner. You will feel like you dropped a little. Move in a reverse “C” direction while jumping and you will eventually make it to the top! Hit that switch! each switch drops the expedition team’s memo.

Now, leave the room and proceed to the lower floor. Hit the question chest for some coins. Remember, Dry Bones resurrects. The Sunken-Ship Shaman is also here if you want to buy or sell something. When you advance past the door, you realize you are on the lower levels where you solved three puzzles.

The door closest to you has a puzzle where you follow the floating coins. Don’t collect all of them immediately. Let the lead coin drop one behind it and follow it around the room.

The next puzzle room contains four floating J boxes. You need to hit the lowest box, then quickly move under the shadow of the next highest box and jump when the cannon ball is just above. Basically, you are jumping to hit the cannon ball to activate the following box.

The last puzzle room contains two switches. You may notice a slightly off-colored barrel atop a heap of barrels to the right. Hop on top and knock it over! You can roll it until it sits atop one switch. Then, stand on the other! Hit save and continue to the next room.

This room has several blocks where you must spell out the six-letter password. If you haven’t been following the hints, it is “pearls”. Once you enter the password, a tentacle pops out of the pipe and beckons you.

Mini-Boss: King Calamari and the Tentacles

You must fight King Calamari’s tentacles for two rounds (three tentacles a piece). They are weak against fire, poison, and fear. They have a weak slap attack, but occasionally they will toss a character up for a round and leave them with a fear status. Once your beat two groups of tentacles, then you reach King Calamari himself and two additional tentacles. Keep at the fight, and don’t hesitate to lean on Mario’s fireball or Super Fireball.

After defeating King Calamari, you are now on the other side of the Treasure Hold. There are two doors in the next room and one Dry Bones. Hop up the barrels and go through the upper door. The lower door is if you are knocked off the upper platform by bullets.

Cross the upper platform while avoiding the bullets. When you exit, you wrap around down the stairs then through that door.

In this room, you’ll find a massive group of J blocks you can run behind (and run into an enemy). You cannot jump to the other side of the room where Dry Bones is patrolling, so cross the door…and there you will find a mirror version of you.

Position yourself in front of your copy. When you select talk, you are ambushed by enemies in disguise! Dispose of them and make your way to the other side. Now that you are on the other side, you can exit.

The following room has a wall of blocks you can walk behind and tackle some Dry Bones. Eventually, make your way down the stairs where there is a save point and several question chests. The farther chest harbors a Whuhoh inside.

The next room has water with a door at the bottom with several Frog coins and Mr. Kippers swimming around. Skip past this for now since there is no whirlpool and continue to the next room. And there you have a whirlpool! You can return to the previous room to collect the Frog coins, but when you’re done, move forward to the underwater door in the whirlpool room.

Continue to descend the depths, past sleeping Zeostars and a Mr. Kipper. The square room is filled with barrels and Bloopers. An entrance is hidden behind the left cluster of barrels. That room holds a chest with a Safety Ring. Jumping over the barrels on the right will take you to the surface. Head onto the next room.

Surprise! Four Bandana Reds (aka. pirate sharks) confront you about the star; however, they are relatively easy to take down. After defeating them, they skedaddle to warn the others. Get your question chest item and follow the Bandana Reds upstairs (and enjoy the silly cut scene).

Upstairs, you engage in yet another battle against the Bandana Reds. After showing them who’s boss, they will open the final door to Johnny and “his” star.

Boss: Jonathan Jones and Bandana Blue

After a brief conversation (or monologue), you battle Johnny and four Bandana Blues. Johnny’s weaknesses are fear, poison, and mute. It is tempting to whale on the boss and his minions with all your specials, but I recommend conserving some MPs for phase two.

After dealing enough damage, Johnny asks for a one vs one battle with Mario. Note: you can’t utilize the gauge move here. This battle isn’t terribly hard, just keep timing your button presses when Johnny attacks and keep at it!

When Johhny succumbs to defeat, he surrenders the fifth star. Congratulations!

What did you think of this level? Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.

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