Kersti
| Kersti | |
|---|---|
 Artwork from Paper Mario: Sticker Star | |
| Species | Sticker fairy |
| First appearance | Paper Mario: Sticker Star (2012) |
| Latest appearance | Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (trophy cameo) (2014) |
- “As [the Royal Stickers'] caretaker, it's my duty to find all of them, or else I can't return to the Sticker Star!”
- —Kersti, Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Kersti is a sticker fairy who appears in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. She is a silver crown with dark blue eyes and a light blue jewel on each side of her. Kersti comes from the Sticker Star, and came to Decalburg within the Sticker Comet for the Mushroom Kingdom's annual Sticker Fest. She is the caretaker of the six Royal Stickers, powerful wish granting items that are the source of the Sticker Comet's fabled powers. When Bowser breaks the Sticker Comet and scatters the Royal Stickers, Kersti enlists Mario to help recover the stickers. She is Mario's main companion for the game, giving him the album to store stickers, the ability to paperize to solve various puzzles in the field, and access to the Battle Spinner so that he can use multiple stickers in one turn.
History[edit]
Paper Mario series[edit]
Paper Mario: Sticker Star[edit]
This section is a stub. Please consider expanding it to include any missing information. Specifics: include more level-specific details
After Bowser's rampage through the Sticker Fest grounds and Decalburg following the opening cutscene, Kersti winds up stuck to a sign depicting Princess Peach. Once Mario unfolds himself, Kersti calls Mario over to her. Once Mario is at the sign, Kersti further asks him to peel her off the sign. The player is unable to leave the center of the Sticker Fest grounds until they peel Kersti off. If they try to, Kersti will point out that Mario is going the wrong way and Mario will move back toward the center of the grounds. After freeing Kersti, she thanks Mario then immediately accuses him of having touched the Sticker Comet and caused the ruckus. She calms down after Mario pledges to help her find the Royal Stickers, and she joins him on the adventure. Before they set off, Kersti introduces herself, explains her role in the Sticker Fest, and communicates the importance of the Royal Stickers. Included in this explanation is a note that she cannot return to the Sticker Star without the Royal Stickers.
Kersti stays offscreen for normal gameplay, popping out from Mario in order to say things or show Mario something then ducking back again. She can do this on the field and in battle. Throughout the game, there are many events and objects she appears for. She explains some of the obstacles they encounter and contributes to conversations with many other characters. She can appear in any of the three portions of gameplay: the world map, the field, and in battles. Just before the two leave Decalburg for the first time, she allows Mario to chat with her at any point in the field by pressing 
. Kersti pops out whenever Mario collects a Comet Piece or a Royal Sticker, happily floating about for these sequences. She stops Mario if he would leave an area with a Royal Sticker that they can collect, pushing him back toward it.
When Mario first collects a sticker in Decalburg, Kersti gives him an album for properly storing them. When a trio of Goombas attack Mario just as he tries to leave Decalburg, she detects their sticker power and tells Mario to fight back with their stickers. If Mario does not have that many stickers, Kersti gives him some of her stickers before Mario takes his turn. The stickers she gives are enough to make it impossible to run out of stickers during this battle; Jump stickers deal enough damage to defeat a Goomba even without using their Action Command and Kersti gives the player four Jump stickers. When Mario obtains the Wooden Bridge that Bowser Jr. tore out of Warm Fuzzy Plains, she tells Mario how to use her abilities to Paperize and restore the bridge. When Mario obtains his first thing in either the Warm Fuzzy Plains or Bouquet Gardens, Kersti notes she has never seen such odd objects but tells Mario she can fit it in the album. When the player approaches the first Comet Piece in the game, the one at the end of Warm Fuzzy Plains, Kersti realizes and explains that the connection between the Sticker Comet and the Royal Stickers means that collecting the Comet Pieces will lead them to the Royal Stickers. When five Goombas attack Mario at the end of Bouquet Gardens, she tells Mario how to use the Battle Spinner to make defeating enemies in general faster.
There are two courses in the game where an event separates Kersti from Mario, Rustle Burrow and Rumble Volcano. While falling down a hole and bouncing off webs in Rustle Burrow, she bounces out of Mario's reach before being kidnapped by Scuttlebugs when they land. After entering the volcano of Rumble Volcano, she is eaten by Petey Piranha. While the two are separated, the player cannot paperize, use the Battle Spinner, or talk to Kersti. The first restriction forms part of the routing in Rustle Burrow, due to a mandatory use of paperization involving the Burrow Door. To rescue Kersti in Rustle Burrow, Mario has to free Kersti from the web she is stuck in, which he can only reach after defeating the Big Scuttlebug. To rescue Kersti in Rumble Volcano, Mario has to reach the end of the course, then get far enough along in the Petey Piranha battle for him to spit her out. Both courses are structured such that the only way for Mario to leave them is to complete the course, and he cannot complete the course without having rescued Kersti. Because normal saving is tied to entering the world map, both courses lack Save Blocks, and the player cannot leave a course by pressing the 
button unless they have completed the course at least once, there is no method to save the game without Kersti. These events only happen the first time Mario enters each course.
Midway through the final battle of the game, against Bowser's second form in Bowser's Sky Castle, Kersti determines that he too strong to overcome with conventional stickers because the only force strong enough to beat the power granted by his Royal Sticker is power that is also from the Sticker Star. Since Kersti's power qualifies, Kersti takes Mario's album and puts herself into it, commanding him to use her as a sticker to gain her power and defeat Bowser. As with all stickers, Kersti disappears after being used. As she is spent, Kersti talks to Mario for a final time. In that discussion, she thanks Mario for following her plan, apologizes for being as forceful as she was when telling Mario he had to help her at the start of the game, and notes the two had fun together on the quest. After the battle, Mario makes an undescribed wish on the collected Royal Stickers. When the game cuts back, the entire cast is in attendance at a new Sticker Fest, including the Sticker Comet. Further, the wish brought Kersti back to life off screen. Bowser tries to touch the Sticker Comet again, but Kersti admonishes him before he gets the chance. While grateful for Mario's wish restoring her, Kersti thinks she should switch careers if Bowser keeps trying to touch the Sticker Comet.
Paper Mario: The Origami King[edit]
Although Kersti does not appear in Paper Mario: The Origami King, she is mentioned in one of the easy statements in the Trial of Wisdom: "The name of the origami companion traveling with Mario is Kersti."
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS[edit]
Kersti appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS as a trophy. The trophy is named "Paper Kersti" despite how Kersti has not appeared in any media that does not use the visual style of the Paper Mario series.
General information[edit]
Personality[edit]
Kersti is kind and refined, always willing to help and seeing value in her appearance and status. She even idly wonders how much she would sell for at a shop, and assumes she would be valued very highly. She dislikes getting messed up and further stickers and things related to them like the Sticker Comet being messed up. She treats all stickers, not just the crucial Royal Stickers, with a great deal of respect. Kersti is extremely knowledgeable about all sticker related subjects, as well as related topics like the Sticker Star and paperization. She is initially unfamiliar with things and thing stickers, and is somewhat distrustful of the Sling-a-Thing operation that creates the latter, but she learns to appreciate the unique capabilities of thing stickers. She gets angry easily and judges people quickly. Kersti especially hates Kamek, in part due to his ability to turn battle and thing stickers into sandals.
Powers and abilities[edit]
Kersti can float in the air, and is strong enough to lift Mario up or push him around. She and Mario can paperize can be used by pressing the 
button in the field, stopping time and turning the surrounding area into a piece of paper. Battle and thing tickers can be stuck to the paper in specific locations, and doing so has a variety of effects based on where the sticker is placed and what kind of sticker it is. Scraps can be placed in purple void areas to restore them. Further, certain objects can be torn out of the picture, removing them from the course and turning them into scraps. The Battle Spinner is a slot machine style mechanic that can be used once per turn by pressing the 
button and spending coins. If Mario matches two or three of the pictures on the three reels, he gains the ability to use that many stickers on that turn. Matching three of the same icon grants a bonus effect based on the icon. Not matching any icons means Mario can only use one sticker for that turn. If Mario had the ability to use two or three stickers on a turn, on the next turn he can use one fewer sticker. The current number of stickers Mario can use during a given turn is replaced by the result of using the Battle Spinner, not added to.
Mario can talk to Kersti by pressing the button in the field. Kersti talks about what is on her mind, which is usually something about the course or neutral area they are currently in, something about the specific section or room they are in, or a recent event. After this, the player usually but not always has the option to ask Kersti for advice. Her advice can direct the player to the next objective of the game or hint at the solution to a puzzle. She is especially good at noting if the solution to a problem requires paperization. These abilities resemble the tattles of characters from older games of the Paper Mario series, namely Goombario, Goombella, and Tippi, but Kersti cannot be directed to talk about specific objects, characters, or enemies like they can. Aside from Kersti's vast knowledge of almost everything related to stickers, excluding things and thing stickers, Kersti can translate Ancient Stickerish text in books of The Enigmansion.
During the battle against Bowser's second form, Kersti puts herself in the album as a battle sticker in a bid to have Mario use her to help defeat Bowser. When she is used, the screen darkens as she speaks to Mario one final time. As the player advances past the text boxes, Kersti gradually peels off the sticker zone three times as regular stickers that hit multiple times do for each of their hits. Once the conversation is complete, she falls out of the sticker zone as a used up sticker does and vanishes. The game cuts away with the flash normally used for thing stickers, and when the playfield is visible again the remainder of Mario's turn and all of Bowser's turn are skipped. Any stickers that Mario set to use later in the turn are lost. Before Mario's turn starts again, Mario jumps onto the screen as though the battle were starting. Parts of his body sparkle from Kersti's shine, and this shine negates the defense Bowser has due to the gold Royal Sticker. That defense reduced the damage of all hits of all attacks to one. Further, before Mario gets the chance to select stickers, a special Battle Spinner starts for no coin cost where all the icons are Kersti with various expressions. This use of the Battle Spinner invariably results in the player getting three Kerstis of the same expression, and a jingle unique to this event replaces the normal Battle Spinner jingle for getting three matching icons. Regardless of exact expression, the result of the spin heals 20 HP and allows Mario to use five stickers for every turn. Mario cannot use the Battle Spinner again while under Kersti's effect. All of Kersti's effects wear off after the battle.
It is possible to defeat Bowser's second form without using Kersti, through using stickers that hit multiple times and succeeding at their Action Commands consistently. The narrative does not recognize the player winning the battle in this way and is still written as though Kersti was used up. Kersti is not removed from the album after the battle and can be tossed like any other battle or thing sticker. Bowser's Sky Castle is structured such that the only way to leave the course after starting the battle against Bowser is by reaching the end of the game. The player cannot run from either of Bowser's battles or escape those battles by using a Secret Door, the player cannot backtrack to the entrance of Bowser's Sky Castle from the course's final room because the game does not scroll backward out of that room. Further, the game's ending does not save the state of the player's album. All of these factors prevent the player using Kersti in any other battle, using Kersti as a sticker in paperization, selling Kersti at any shop, and placing Kersti in the Sticker Museum.
Through hacking, Kersti can be obtained as a battle sticker outside of the battle against Bowser. She sells for 15 coins, and can be used in other battles. However, while using Kersti in any battle that is not against Bowser's second form does have her perform her speech, the game softlocks after the fade to white and before Mario's turn gets to start. The text for the conversation does not load correctly in any course other than Bowser's Sky Castle, with a black ellipses appearing in each text box of the conversation instead. Since the conversation darkens the screen, this text is hard to see. The sequence continues until the fade to white. If the player is fighting Bowser's second form, and the player uses Kersti before the cutscene where Kersti puts herself in the album, the cutscene ends the effect allowing Mario to use five stickers on each turn. This means Mario can only use one sticker for that turn unless he uses the Battle Spinner to gain the ability to use two or three stickers. [1] Kersti still cannot be placed in the Sticker Museum due to the how the museum lacks a frame for her.
Profiles[edit]
Paper Mario: Sticker Star[edit]
- Sticker description: "Sacrifices herself to give Mario all her power, leaving everything to him."
- North American website bio: "As the feisty and tough-talking ambassador to the Royal Stickers, Kersti tags along with Mario to help him recover her divine brethren."
- "SHE ONCE SAID: "UGH! That snide, little, broom riding, thick-ugly-glasses-wearing hipster!""
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS[edit]
| Trophy Paper Kersti | ||
| ||
| Category: Series Related | ||
| How to unlock: Random | ||
| A sticker fairy who went to the Mushroom Kingdom on the Sticker Comet, she is very strong willed. Though she appears paper thin, her heart runs deep, and she shows herself to be a loyal companion on Mario's quest to help the Mushroom Kingdom by recovering the Royal Stickers. (American English) | ||
| Kersti came from the Sticker Star to help grant everyone's wishes. Mario got the sharp end of her tongue to begin with, but she quickly proves herself to be an indispensable ally on their quest to find the Royal Stickers. She may be made of paper, but she clearly has a heart of gold. (British English) | ||
Gallery[edit]
Concept key artwork for Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Model from Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Screenshot of Kersti's introduction splash
Kersti as a battle sticker
Naming[edit]
"Kersti" is both a phonetic respelling of the given name "Kirsty" (a Scottish diminutive of "Christine") and a partial anagram of "sticker".
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ルーシー[?] Rūshī |
Pun on the given name "Lucy" and an anagram of「シール」(shīru, "seal") | |
| Chinese (simplified) | 智贴贴[?] Zhì Tiētiē |
From「智慧」(zhìhuì, "wisdom") and "paper sticker" | |
| Chinese (traditional) | 紙貼貼[?] Zhǐ Tiētiē |
Literally means "paper sticker" | |
| French | Collette[?] | Pun on the given name "Colette", coller ("to stick") and the diminutive feminine suffix -ette | |
| German | Kersti[?] | - | |
| Italian | Corinne[?] | A female name derived from corona ("crown") | |
| Korean | 커스티[?] Keoseuti |
From the English name | |
| Spanish | Tina[?] | Pun on the given name "Tina" and a clipping of pegatina ("sticker") |
Notes[edit]
- Right before Kersti puts herself into the album during the battle against Bowser's second form in Bowser's Sky Castle, she says "I'm going into the album now, and... if you sell me at a shop, I'll never forgive you!" Due to various restrictions in the game involving Bowser's Sky Castle, as elaborated in this article's powers and abilities section, selling Kersti at a shop is impossible in normal gameplay.
References[edit]
- ^ Sayora (31 Dec 2017). How much does KERSTI sell for? - Paper Mario: Sticker Star - Hacking. YouTube. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
