Paint
- This article is about the substance found in the Paper Mario series. For the item in Mario's Time Machine, see Paint (Mario's Time Machine). For the framed objects found in various Super Mario games, see Painting.
| Paint | |
|---|---|
| |
| First appearance | Paper Mario: Sticker Star (2012) |
| Latest appearance | Paper Mario: The Origami King (2020) |
- “Paint adds beauty and life to the world!”
- —Huey, Paper Mario: Color Splash
Paint is a colorful substance which acts as the source of life and energy in Paper Mario: Color Splash. It is mainly produced in the Prisma Fountain by the Big Paint Stars, bringing color to all of Prism Island. Mario must harness paint to restore colorless areas, similar to his use of Confetti to repair Not-Bottomless Holes in Paper Mario: The Origami King.
History
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Paint appears in Paper Mario: Sticker Star, carried in buckets by Paint Guys. It has a yellow and orange color resembling Goop. If the Paint Guy successfully attacks Mario, paint spills out of the bucket and obscures the screen, including the health bars of Mario and the enemies.
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Mario first sees the effects of paint being drained when Princess Peach and Toad visit his house with the blank Toadmaster General. Upon investigating Port Prisma, the town is seen faded with many colorless spots, causing affected objects to become unreactive and for characters to be drained of life or memory. Once Huey is awakened, he serves as Mario's paint supply and transforms his hammer into the Paint Hammer so that Mario can repaint the island. Notably Mario cannot splash paint from his hammer without Huey, as seen in Mustard Café.
Huey's capacity is indicated with a paint meter, featuring three columns for each primary color of red, blue, and yellow. Secondary colors are used by combining these paint reserves (e.g. green paint requires both blue and yellow paint). The meters can be filled by blobs of paint acquired from environmental objects, dropped from defeated enemies, wrung out from squeezing Things, or simply found on the ground, and paint capacity can be increased by collecting Hammer Scraps. Paint blobs vary in size and color, shimmering every 1.5 seconds. Using a 1-Up Mushroom card in battle or drinking either Prisma Juice or Mustard Juice will fully restore Mario's paint, whilst stepping into the rainbow paint of Prisma Fountain restores both Mario's paint and HP.
Paint, when handled haphazardly, can also pollute and corrupt through the formation of Black paint. This toxic substance formed when Bowser mixed the paint of Prism Fountain, possessing and transforming him into Black Bowser with plans to coat the world with mass-produced Black paint bombs. When found on the ground it deals 30 damage on contact, similar to Splotchy goop. Black Lava Bubbles can form from puddles of the paint while fighting Black Bowser.
In battles, paint increases the strength of Battle Cards, similar to using Flower Points for stronger attacks. Each card requires specific amounts and colors of paint to be used at full strength, but an unfinished or even uncolored card still has minimal effect in battle. Paint also indicates the amount of HP each enemy has left, where more damage results in the enemy being further drained of color starting at their feet. This replaces the typical health-bar indicator used in previous Paper Mario entries. Roy Koopa uses paint stolen from Mario in his battle to inflict status effects:
| Color | Effect |
|---|---|
| Red | Inflicts Rage for one turn; Mario is enraged, while the music and gameplay speed up. |
| Orange | Inflicts Self-conscious for one turn; Mario can only use fully-painted cards in this state. |
| Yellow | Inflicts Rhythm for one turn; Mario begins to dance, and cannot play blue cards. |
| Green | Inflicts Unmotivated for one turn; Mario has little energy, and the music and gameplay slow down. |
| Blue | Inflicts Blue for one turn. Mario sits sadly and can only paint his Battle Cards with blue. |
| Purple | Inflicts Poison for one turn; Mario will take 10 damage for every Battle Card used. |
| Black | Heavily obscures the area/screen, causing all of Mario's attacks to miss. Can be removed using the Washing Machine. |
The Big Paint Stars reveal that paint has the power to communicate thoughts and memories between individuals telepathically, as demonstrated when Mario and Huey are shown the events that resulted in Port Prisma's attack. Paint is also consumed when pressing 
to Flip, a technique used inside the Green Energy Plant monitor to navigate the Super Mario Bros. 3-inspired locations with a 3D, isometric view. Additionally, the map used to navigate between areas of the island is initially devoid of color. As Mini Paint Stars are collected, more areas are filled in with paint both to indicate that new levels are accessible and serve as a visual aide towards the progress of repainting Prisma Island.
Paper Mario: The Origami King
While paint does not appear physically in Paper Mario: The Origami King, characters can still be drained of color. This is seen when Bowser Jr., along with a nearby Shy Guy and Spike, soak for too long in the Spring of Jungle Mist at Shangri-Spa, and Olivia warns Mario to exit the water for this reason if he attempts to reenter the hot spring. Bowser Jr.'s colors are restored after soaking into the Spring of Rainbows, which looks and behaves similarly to the Prisma Fountain.
Paint sources
- See also: Paper Mario: Color Splash bestiary
In addition to being found on the ground and dropped from enemies, Prism Island contains paint in many objects which can be struck, wrung out, or otherwise interacted with to collect specific colors. Repeatedly striking an object may continue to drop paint, though at a reduced amount or size. Other objects may stay squished for a moment and are thus unable to produce more paint until their shape restores. Note that prior to wringing out Huey, these objects instead drop coins when struck. These details have been outlined below:
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1 - A fall rock near the Spinning-Door gives yellow paint instead of the usual red paint.
2 - Crates in the Snifit Undersand Hideout give orange paint instead of the usual yellow paint.
3 - Drawers in Port Prisma give orange paint instead of the usual yellow paint.
4 - Absent from the European/Australian versions.
Gallery
Artworks
Mario splashing paint out of his Paint Hammer.
A Paint Guy holding a bucket of red paint.
A Paint Guy holding a bucket of blue paint.
The purple Big Paint Star
A yellow Mini Paint Star
Sprites and models
A restored map of Prism Island
Red paint
Orange paint
Yellow paint
Green paint
Blue paint
Purple paint
Rainbow paint
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Screenshots
The giant coin in Mondo Woods being painted by the yellow Big Paint Star.
The Prisma Fountain being refilled.
A Rainbow Road formed from the Big Paint Stars' paint.
Bowser mixes the paint in Prisma Fountain.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ペンキ[?] penki |
paint | |
| Dutch | verf[?] | paint | |
| French | peinture[?] | paint | |
| German | Farbe[?] | Color | |
| Italian | colore[?] | color | |
| Portuguese | tinta[?] | paint | |
| Russian | краска[?] kraska |
paint | |
| Spanish | pintura[?] | paint |