Version 1.0 - (9-3-01)

Super Mario RPG: Lazy Shell FAQ written by Semioldguy (Email:
[email protected])

Console: Super NES

Game Title: Super Mario RPG

No current revision updates for this FAQ


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. ACQUIRING THE LAZY SHELLS

3. STRATEGIES TO USE WITH THE LAZY SHELL

4. CONCLUSION

5. DISCLAIMER



1. INTRODUCTION - Super Mario RPG is one of the best and most popular Super
Nintendo games of all time! Two of the best items in this game are the Lazy
Shell armor and weapon. This is a side quest and is also probably the most
rewarding. If you are reading this FAQ you are probably wondering one of
three things. 1) Where and how do I get these items I've been seeking to
obtain, 2) What advice do you possibly have to get the most out of these
items, or 3) How it is possible to write an entire FAQ on just the Lazy Shell
weapon and armor?


2. ACQUIRING THE LAZY SHELLS - First off you need to obtain the two Lazy
Shells if you haven't already. The quest is first started when talking to the
mouse that lives in Monstro Town. This is the same mouse that you should have
encountered several times in the Land's End. He will tell you about a
gardener that lives in Rose Town. If you go to Rose Town there is now an open
path at the far side of the town that leads to the gardener's home. If you
talk to him he will tell you that he has been searching his whole life for
the legendary seed and fertilizer to plant in a giant pot.

At this point all you can do is continue on with you main quest to defeat
Smithy and go through Bean Valley. At the end of Bean Valley there is a
piranha plant named Smilax guarding the entrance to Nimbus Land. His heads
will multiply and regenerate several times until there is a very large head
named Mega Smilax. These are the last three heads you will have to deal with.
Overall Smilax should have around 1300 hit points and shouldn't be too
difficult to defeat. After defeating him the Shyguy mentions something about
warning Valentina in Nimbus Land and slowly floats off the screen. As he is
leaving it appears as if he drops a note. Go over to it and press the A
Button. It will say that you have found a seed. This is the seed that you
will need to give to the gardener, don't get rid of it!! You may choose to
give it to the gardener now or hold on to it and continue through Nimbus
Land.

After going to Nimbus Land you will have to beat Valentina and Dodo before
you can get the fertilizer. After doing this you then should be able to get
the fertilizer. Around the middle of the bottom right side of Nimbus Land
Mario will wander off onto an invisible path (My sister found this out just
by accident her second time though the game and didn't even know what to do
with it until I told her). At the end of this invisible path there will be
the same Shyguy that was fertilizing Smilax. Talk to him and he should Hand
over the legendary fertilizer.

Now you should have both the legendary seed and fertilizer. Return to Rose
Town to visit the gardener there. When he notices that you have these items
he will talk really fast (I can't quite remember what he says, its something
about that he has been looking his whole life for them) and asks if he can
have them. You must give him the items or you cannot get the Lazy Shells. He
will immediately plant the seed in his giant pot and fertilize it. He also
mentions that he has no clue what is going to grow from it. It turns out to
be a giant beanstalk (not a big surprise there). Conveniently enough this pot
was placed under his chimney which contained no fireplace. You should
obviously climb the beanstalk and when you approach the top you will be in
the clouds with two visible item boxes. One will contain the Lazy Shell
weapon, for Mario; and the other contains the Lazy Shell armor, which can be
used by anyone in your party. Both of these items are powerful and have good
stats.

Lazy Shell Weapon: Equip to Mario only. Add 90 points to his attack and is
his strongest weapon in the game. There is no other weapon better than this,
the frying pan for the Princess is the only other weapon then is even equal
to the Lazy Shell's power. The Lazy Shell appears as a gigantic red shell. To
score a timed hit with the Lazy Shell press the A Button right when Mario
kicks the shell at the enemy, this is the same for all three of the shells
that he uses.

Lazy Shell Armor: This is one of the most powerful items in the game!
Equipped to anyone it will increase their defensive and magical defensive
statistics by a whopping 127 points! However, it decreases speed, attack and
magical attack by 50 points each. This loss is well worth it and there are
ways to work around its disadvantages, which will be explained in the rest of
this FAQ.


3. STRATEGIES TO USE WITH THE LAZY SHELL - Using the Lazy Shell armor to your
best advantage can be difficult. It took me many different tries of
combinations and battles to see how the Lazy Shell worked best for my group.
I came up with two decent strategies to equip the Lazy Shell as well as
several items that can help cancel out the negative effects of it.

This is the one I used the most often and proves to work very well against
bosses. I equipped Princess Toadstool with the Lazy Shell armor, the Frying
Pan and either used the Quartz charm you get from Culex, the Troopa Pin from
Land's End or the Feather from Dodo. This helps regain some of the lost
attack power and/or speed as well as keeping a high defense. When I had these
equipped Toadstool took one or zero damage most of the time, even without the
use of timed blocks. My basic strategy was to fight as long as I could
against a boss and when he was almost dead I would then use the Princess'
ability to revive the other two and finish the enemy off. You don't have to
revive the other two, but it will finish the enemy off much faster. This
works especially well with Culex because eventually he and the element stones
will run out of Flower Points and can't attack any longer. This made fighting
much easier for me and it is nearly impossible to kill Toadstool in one hit.
The exception is the instant death attacks, which Quartz Charm will prevent.

The other useful combo was to equip Mario with both of the Lazy Shells and
the attack scarf (or other previously mentioned item). You can then take
advantage of the Princess' Group Hug and she can be used to heal Mario. When
I used this battle plan it seemed slightly less effective. It is probably
because it relies on two characters instead of one. It also seemed to have
used more mushrooms because Toadstool would sometimes die off quickly, and I
could have use that space for more useful items.

Whichever way you prefer they both tend to work very well and are successful
in battle. If you feel that you have developed a strategy as good as these
two send it to me and I will update my FAQ with your in formation if I decide
that it is better in some way. Here is a list of item that you may want to
try and equip to help negate the some of the bad effects of the Lazy Shell
Armor.
Code:
               Speed      Attack     Defense    M.Attack   M.Defense

Attack Scarf   +30        +30        +30        +30        +30
(Mario only)
     w/ Lazy
       Shell   -20        -20        +157       -20        +157


Feather        +50        +0         +0         +5         +5
     w/ Lazy
       Shell   +0         -50        +127       -45        +132


Troopa Pin     +15        increase   increase   +0         +0
     w/ Lazy
       Shell   -35        N/A        N/A        -50        +127


Quartz Charm              stats not presentable
     w/ Lazy
       Shell              stats not presentable
The Attack Scarf -- If you have it is only used on Mario. It raises each of
his stats by 30 points. This would only apply if you were using my second
plan, but Mario should have it equipped anyway. You get the Attack Scarf in
Monstro Town from the K-9 after completing 30 consecutive Mario Super Jumps;
which is a very difficult task.

The Feather -- This item would only be used if you either had nothing better
or you didn't want to lose any of your speed from the Lazy Shell. This item
cancels out the lost speed from the Lazy Shell and adds 5 to magic attacks
and defense. You get this item from Dodo if you are able to avoid him in the
statue room at Nimbus Land. This is truly a good item, especially without the
Lazy Shell on slower characters.

Troopa Pin -- This is another hard item to get. It adds 15 points to speed,
which doesn't really help that much, and gives an increase on attack and
defense during battle. How much they are increased I am not exactly sure, but
it's decent (I've noticed a difference with it equipped). You get this item
in Land's End by climbing the Flying Koopa Troopas in 12 seconds or less (I
believe). This is another good item to have even without the Lazy Shell
Armor, but is probably the weakest listed here. A substitution for this item
would also be the Jinx Belt but for me it didn't work as well and only adds
12 to speed.

Quartz Charm -- This item takes awhile to figure it out and I am still not
sure if I've got it straight. It seemed to increase my attack and magical
attack a bit and on characters without the Lazy Shell Armor it also added to
their defense and magic defense. It can also protect from instant death
attacks. This item is retrieved from defeating Culex in Monstro Town. You
need the Shiny Stone to open his door and he is harder to beat than Smithy
is, in my opinion. Don't bother attacking the element crystals because if you
kill Culex they will die too. Culex gives you the Quartz Charm and an amazing
244 experience points! That's a lot. Culex is definitely a boss you want to
fight after you are strong enough to defeat him.

4. CONCLUSION - I hoped this FAQ helped you out in some way. If you have any
questions, comments, concerns, or contributions please send them to my e-mail
address at <[email protected]>. Be sure to put 'Lazy Shell FAQ' as the
subject in your e-mail or it will be ignored or deleted. If I feel that your
contribution would make a significant difference on this FAQ I will update it
with proper recognition to the person that provided it.

5. DISCLAIMER - Myself, Kyle Dunne <[email protected]>, wrote this FAQ. This
FAQ is Copyright (c) 2001 Kyle Dunne (myself). This FAQ may not be used for any
promotional or profitable purposes. Only unchanged in its entirely, including
this disclaimer, may this FAQ be posted on a website or homepage and you must
first notify me (that means before doing it).