Mario & Luigi: Brothership - Bowser Boss Guide

You knew it was coming. After being completely absent for most of Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Bowser and his minions arrive just in time to throw a wrench in Zokket's evil plan.

The good news is that Bowser has a stockpile of Ampberries that can be used to cure Glohm and save Concordia. The bad news is that the Koopa King isn't good at sharing. Once you find your way into his base on Wayaway Island, it's time to give Bowser the business. This will be the most difficult battle in Brothership so far, so you better be prepared for a brutal fight.

Bowser's Moveset

This is a long boss fight that requires you to survive for a long time, so you can't rely on your POW stat alone.

To beat Bowser you'll need to learn his attack patterns and avoid as much incoming damage as possible. Here are all of his attacks and how to dodge them.

Double Brother Face-Off

Bowser will square up to each brother one at a time and do one of three attacks:

Attack How To Counter Bowser will jump in the air and ground pound, stunning Mario or Luigi. Once stunned, Bowser will rush forward and swipe the stunned brother with his claws. You can avoid this attack by jumping right before he pounds on the ground. Bowser's left eye will flash and then he will dash forward and do a tail whip. You can avoid this attack by jumping when he pulls his right arm back, after his eye flashes but before he dashes in. Bowser will breathe fire. If he hits Mario or Luigi with this attack it may give them the burning status effect. You can dodge this attack by jumping right when he opens his mouth to unleash the fire. Attack	How To Counter
Bowser will jump in the air and ground pound, stunning Mario or Luigi. Once stunned, Bowser will rush forward and swipe the stunned brother with his claws.	You can avoid this attack by jumping right before he pounds on the ground.
Bowser's left eye will flash and then he will dash forward and do a tail whip.	You can avoid this attack by jumping when he pulls his right arm back, after his eye flashes but before he dashes in.
Bowser will breathe fire. If he hits Mario or Luigi with this attack it may give them the burning status effect.	You can dodge this attack by jumping right when he opens his mouth to unleash the fire.

Minion Rush

Bowser summons a group of koopas, paratroopas, goomba, bob-ombs, spinies that rush at Mario and Luigi. You'll need to jump over them to avoid taking damage.

You can jump on koopas, paratroopas, and goombas to send them flying back at Bowser, dealing damage to him. Spinies and bob-ombs must be jumped over, however.

After the minion rush, a number of minions will join Bowser's side of the battle. They'll take turns and do their normal attacks until you either defeat them or defeat Bowser, ending the battle.

Super Punch

Bowser charges up his right fist and dashes forward to hit one of the bros. with a super punch. If this attack hit Mario or Luigi they will take damage and be removed from the fight for a few turns.

If the other brother takes lethal damage while the brother is gone, the fight will end in a game over.

You can jump over Bowser to avoid this or counterattack by jumping on him. The timing is extremely tight, so try to jump as soon as he begins to dash forward.

Shell Spin

When Bowser dives into his shell and begins to spin, he will initiate an attack with several phases.

First, he will send a series of shells at Mario and Luigi from the right side of the screen. You can protect yourself from damage by hitting a shell with a hammer just before they run into Mario or Luigi.

After a few shells, Bowser himself will try to hit either Mario or Luigi. If you manage to deflect him with your hammer he will immediately try to spin into the other brother. You'll have to knock his shell away again, which will cause him to spin off-screen. Sometimes he will bounce back and forth between each brother several times as you continuously knock him away with your hammer.

If you're struggling to dodge some of Bowser's attacks, giving Mario and Luigi Boo Biscuits can help you avoid taking damage while you learn the timing.

The perspective will then shift to behind Mario and Luigi and a row of spiky shells will appear before them. As Bowsers spins back and forth across the screen, he will send the shell spinning towards the bros. three at a time.

The middle shell in each row is the only one you need to deflect with your hammer. In other words, the second shell can hit Luigi and the fifth shell can hit Mario. You'll need to deflect these shells several times, then deflect Bowser as he comes rushing at one of the brothers.

If you're successful in deflecting Bowser he will land on his back unable to attack for a few turns and take critical damage from your next attack.

The Big Flame

Bowser will charge up his flame breath. While he does, Shy Guys will run in with big black balls and try to throw them at Mario and Luigi. You can either jump over these balls or jump on them, which will cause you to stand on the balls, making it easier to dodge Bowser's flames.

The more balls you stack the easier it is to dodge this attack.

Once the Shy Guys are finished, Bowser will unleash flames in a moving arc from right to left, first targeting Mario and then Luigi. You need to jump over this to avoid damage. If this attack hits, the target may become burned.

At 50 percent health, Bowser will become enraged and take on a glowing red aura. At this point, he moves a little faster and his attacks do more damage, but he does not get any new attacks at this point.

How To Defeat Bowser

Bowser summons a lot of minions to fight by his side during this battle. It's not uncommon for him to have up to eight goombas, koopas, and paratroopas helping him. For this reason, it may seem like the best strategy is to focus on Bros. Attacks that can spread damage around to everyone, but you actually want to focus on single-target damage only. There are a few reasons for this.

First off, the fight ends when Bowser is defeated, so damaging and defeating the minions doesn't get you any closer to the win condition, and it doesn't matter if they're still alive when Bowser is defeated.

Bowser's attacks are by far the most dangerous and difficult to dodge, so you need to focus on taking him down in as few turns as possible. The longer the fight goes, the more likely it is you'll make mistakes and lose.

The minions have attacks that are very easy to avoid, and in fact, keeping them alive can be beneficial. For example, if there are two koopas on the field one of them will kick the other at the brothers. If you counterattack by kicking the shell back over and over you can do lots of damage to Bowser.

On your turn, you should almost always be using Bros. Attacks that deal high, single-target damage. Mario's Red Shell attack will do great damage to Bowser for a low BP cost, so use this if he has minions protecting him.

If Bowser is alone or there's just one other minion, both Bomb Derby and Clockout Blow can deal more damage than Red Shell. Pick the one you can consistently do Excellent. For me, that's Clockout Blow.

If Luigi is attacking Bowser, he should be using his Jump Helmet attack. This attack has higher single-target damage than any of his other Bros. Attacks, even if Bowser is alone. Landing Excellent Jump Helmets is the quickest way to whittle down Bowser's health.

The Best Battle Plugs For Beating Bowser

Plug	Description
Temperature Guard	Prevents The effects of Burn and Ice.
Easy-Peasy Counters	Holding the button makes counters easier.
Damage Shield	Reduces Damage received from enemies by 20%.
Surefooted Guard	Prevents the effects of Trip and Dizzy.
Auto Mushroom	When your HP becomes low, will automatically use a Mushroom.
Auto 1-Up	When one of the brothers is KO'd automatically use a 1-UP Mushroom.
Deluxe Auto	The Auto series of Battle Plugs will automatically select the most efficient recovery item for your current state.
Charge Bank	When another equipped plug would lose charges, this plug's charges decrease instead.
Performance Bonus	Restores 50% of BP used on a Bros. Attack that earns an EXCELLENT rating.

Choosing the right Battle Plug and combining your plugs together effectively is the most important part of this boss fight. You shouldn't be using any jump or hammer attacks here, so you can ignore almost all of the damage-type plugs and focus on the defensive ones.

One of the best plug combos for any prolonged battle is the Auto Mushroom and Deluxe Auto combo. This will allow you to automatically heal the damage your characters have taken at the start of each turn, effectively giving you two turns at a time.

Losing turns to use items prolongs the fight and gives Bowser's more chances to break through your defenses, so the more often you're attacking the better, and these auto series plugs help you do that.

Unfortunately, Auto Mushroom only has five charges so it will run out quickly, but Charge Bank can give both Auto Mushroom and Deluxe Auto a couple of extra charges. Once you run out of Auto Mushroom charges you can swap to Auto 1-Up. When combined with Deluxe Auto, any KO'd brother will automatically eat a 1-UP DX and revive with full health at the start of your turn.

If you take a lot of damage you'll eventually run out of these auto-series plugs though. For the second half of the fight, once Bowser is enraged, Damage Shield and Easy-Peasy Counters become the two most important plugs for helping you reduce and avoid incoming damage.

With any extra slots you have available you can use Temperature Guard to prevent Bowser's fire from burning you, Surefooted Guard to prevent his spinning shell attacks from making you dizzy, and Performance Bonus to ensure you have enough BP available to attack every turn.

The Best Gloves and Accessories For Beating Bowser

Gear	Description
Quick-Charge Brooch	Increases the speed your Battle Plugs recover by x2.
Connie Mittens	When HP is at 25% or lower, damage received decreases by 50%.
Delicious Bangle	When an item is used on you in battle, increases its restorative value by 50%.
IDLE Scarf	Increases max HP by 20% and DEF by 10% but decreases STACHE by 20%.
Luck Charm DX	Increases your chance of getting a LUCKY by 2 times.

The best gloves and accessories for this battle are also some of the best all-around items too, so you may already have some of these equipped. Survivability is important, so things like Connie Mittens and IDLE Scarf can help you tank more damage from Bowser.

Quick-Charge Brooch may not pay off during the fight, but you'll be glad to have your key items back online quickly once Bowser is defeated, considering there's another brutal boss fight right around the corner...

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