Accessing the Fire Vellumental Cave
Once Olivia has learned the My Hearts a-Burnin song in Shroom Citys hotel suite, its time for the performance! You need to go to the circle of bird statues in Scorching Sandpaper Desert. Hammer the wings of the statues to turn them. Every bird needs to be facing the center of the area. Once all the birds are aligned correctly, a stage with a microphone will rise out of the sand. Walk up to the mic and have Oliva perform My Hearts a-Burnin to cause the Fire Vellumental Caves entrance to emerge beneath the desert sands.
The battle against the Fire Vellumental itself is full of hazards, and its very easy to get hurt multiple times. If you havent bought the silver versions of the battle accessories, consider buying them before entering the cave. Silver Time Plus can be bought in the Toad Town Accessories Shop. Silver Guard Plus and Silver Heart Plus can be bought from the Snifit at the Shroom City Accessories Shop.
Inside the Fire Vellumental Cave
The origami soldiers that dwell in the cave are not much of a challenge. The real danger is all of the hazards that will try to impede your progress. Youll need to use your platforming skills to navigate safely through the cave.
First Challenge – Sequential Platforms
Jump onto the first platform in the room to activate the challenge. You need to jump onto the highlighted platforms only – and in the sequential order in which they were revealed. Skipping platforms or stepping on incorrect ones will earn you 15 damage and make you restart from the beginning. Once youve successfully made it across all of the platforms and reached the other side, fix Not-Bottomless Hole#1 on the left, hit the Save Block, and go through the doorway.
Youll enter a small corridor with an origami Parakoopa Troopa. You can defeat it without battling by waiting for it to fly toward you and jumping on its shell. Fix Not-Bottomless Holes#2 &3 on the left side. Break the vases to refill your confetti and exit the room from the right.
Second Challenge Frying Shy Guys
Youll need to defeat all the paper macho Shy Guys in this room to unlock the doors. Theyll go down with one swing of your hammer – however, theyre carrying buckets of flaming oil on their heads and will throw them at you when spotted! When thrown, the buckets leave a trail of flaming oil on the floor. It lasts for a few seconds. The Shy Guys will then go back in to get more flaming buckets of oil.
If you hit a Shy Guy with your Hammer while theyre carrying a flaming bucket, theyll drop the bucket and be engulfed in flames. This works for you because the Shy Guy burns up and turns to ash. What doesnt work SO well is that while theyre burning up, theyll run sporadically around the room. Your best strategy here is to keep moving and use their fire to your advantage. You can bait a Shy Guy to throw a bucket at you, causing them to leave a trail of burning oil for other Shy Guys to walk through. Its also important to remember that they can only throw the bucket in the direction theyre facing. Defeat all the Shy Guys and advance to the next room.
Third Challenge Flaming Hurdles
This challenge has you jumping over flames as you maneuver through narrow paths. Touching a flame takes out 25HP! Keep an eye on your health and use healing items if needed. Theres also a bench at the half-way mark that you can use to fully heal. Some of the flaming obstacles move, while others are still and activate periodically. Youll need to stay cool and work on your timing to get through. This area has various groups of hidden blocks! Youll want to be sure to hit every block in each group to get 100% Completion.
After making it across the first curve, fix Not-Bottomless Hole#4 at the dead end. From there, take the narrow path toward the foreground – theres a flame that blocks most of this path. Its stationary and turns on and off periodically. Wait for it to shut off and then run across and continue to the right.
The next narrow stretch has you running toward the foreground. Theres a statue to the back that moves right-to-left shooting flames. You wont be able to jump to avoid it. Wait for it to make a pass, then go. There are hidden blocks on the left side of the passage that lead to the bag of coins. Hit all four Hidden ?-Blocks to reach it. These blocks also give you enough room to dodge the statue as it passes. Wait for it to pass and then immediately get out of there. Then, use the bench to heal – the flames dont reach you here. Be sure to come back to the bench if you need to heal later.
From the bench, go up the steps. The narrow path splits – one way going right, the other going toward the foreground. Go right first to reach the ?-Block containing an Ice Flower at the end of the curve. Return to the narrow path and continue going toward the foreground.
When you get to the foreground, theres a ?-Block (Flashy Iron Boots) floating beyond the platform on your left. Walk to the edge of the platform, face the ?-Block, and use your hammer to reveal a wide Hidden ?-Block. Keep hammering to reveal the whole row. The final ones are not wide like the rest, so theres actually two Hidden ?-Blocks there.
Fix Not-Bottomless Hole#5; then, jump over to hit the ?-Block (Shiny Mushroom) and continue heading right. As you go to the right, youll need to jump over three consecutive hurdles of flames. Once safely on the other side fix Not-Bottomless Holes#6 &7 on the two walls. Enter the next room and fix Not-Bottomless Hole#8 on the wall. Break the vases to refill your confetti, and then use the Save Block.
Fourth Challenge Frying More Shy Guys
These behave the same as the previous ones until there are only five of them left. At this point, theyll form a flaming Shy Guy wall and charge at you. Move toward the foreground or background to cause them to have to pivot to aim at you. This allows you to walk around them and hit them. Defeat them all to unlock the doors.
Final Challenge
The final room is very big. In the first section, follow the path as it curves around. Hit the ?-Block on the left platform. It may be hard to see with all the fire and flames, but theres an origami Parakoopa Troop flying around that block. Fix Not-Bottomless Hole#9 and Not-Bottomless Hole#10 (thats the last one!) in front of the origami Fire Bros. After fixing the final Not-Bottomless Hole, the origami Fire Bro. on the right will jump down to challenge you. Defeat it in battle and continue up the path.
Where the path drops and curves to the right, jump to the rocky platform on the left. Follow that path to reach the left origami Fire Bro. standing on the chest. Hit it with your hammer to score an extra hit before the battle. Defeat it and open the chest to gain the one and only Collectible Treasure No.71 Fire Flower.
Take the path to reach the back wall with all the bird statues. Once you start running to the right, youll need to continue running, because the bird statues will start falling forward as you walk past them. Be vigilant ahead of you too youll need to jump over the gaps in the blocks youre running across. Make it to the next room, and hammer the vases near the entrance to heal.
Fire Vellumental Boss Battle
The battle against the Fire Vellumental itself is full of hazards, and its very easy to get hurt multiple times. If you havent bought the silver versions of the battle accessories, consider buying them before entering the cave. Silver Time Plus can be bought in the Toad Town Accessories Shop. Silver Guard Plus and Silver Heart Plus can be bought from the Snifit at the Shroom City Accessories Shop.
This Phoenix shoots its flaming feathers onto the battlefield. You actually want this to happen because, much like the battle against Rubber Band, as the Phoenix loses its feathers, it weakens. Unlike the battle with Rubber Band, however, touching these flaming feathers hurts Mario. As the battle progresses, there will be more feathers on the ground and more chances for them to be in your path. The feathers do not block your paths or deactivate icons. They simply cause damage if Mario walks on their space. Once a feather burns Mario, itll burn out until the Fire Vellumental recharges itself. Chances are youll have to walk through some of them and take the pain to do your actions. Keep track of your health, and heal yourself by using healing items, hearts, or call Toads for help.
The only attacks you should use are attacks with your iron-type Boots. Use the Flashy Iron Boots you recently found! Do your best to get blue + icons to give you multiple actions. Mario can jump on the Fire Vellumental about 3-4 times per attack. Each jump makes it lose feathers. Try to aim your attacks from the front or behind the Vellumental while it’s flying. Sideways attacks tend to be less effective, as it can bat Mario away with its wings. Though jumping attacks cause it to lose feathers, the feathers the Fire Vellumental discards at the end of each round actually weakens it more. The problem is this means there will be a bunch of flaming feathers on the ground to hurt you.
You can extinguish the feathers and weaken the Fire Vellumental by using the Water Vellumental. This dowses all the feathers on the battlefield, allowing you to walk through them unscathed. The dowsing effect lasts for two turns. There are no Water Vellumental Magic Circles on the battlefield until you open a chest. Opening a chest reveals two WV Magic Circles, and theyll remain until used. Keep in mind that you still have to use an ON icon to activate them. Once youve used a WV Magic Circle, theyll all disappear and youll need to open another chest to reveal them again. The Fire Vellumental will also fall to the ground when hit by the Water Vellumental. This makes it susceptible to attacks from your Hammer!
- Use your iron-type Boots to attack and cause the Fire Vellumental to lose feathers.
- Open chest to reveal Water Vellumental Magic Circles.
- Allow Fire Vellumental to discard its feathers for a couple of rounds.
- Use Water Vellumental.
- Attack with iron-type Boots or Hammer while the boss is down.
- Repeat (and heal when necessary)
Keep up that strategy until the Fire Vellumental is down to about 25% of its health! Once its health is low, you can finish it off in one turn with the 1000-Fold Arms! You can only use the 1,000-Fold Arms during the two turns where the Fire Vellumentals flames have been extinguished by the Water Vellumental. Use the 1,000-Fold Arms to pound the Fire Vellumental multiple times, and then finish it off by plucking the feathers off its head. After defeating the Fire Vellumental, Olivia will be able to light the fires needed to activate the remaining Toad Toad Towers throughout the desert. Click here to continue with the next part of the walkthrough.
Video Guide