Boss Battle Guide: How to Beat Rubber Band

This is a walkthrough for beating Rubber Band, one of the bosses in Paper Mario: The Origami King for the Nintendo Switch. This guide will cover boss strategy, the best weapons to use, as well as other tips and tricks for beating Rubber Band.

Rubber Band Walkthrough

Rubber Band Strategy

The battle will start off with Rubber Band casting out bumpers over the board, which are shaped like arrows. These will move you a space in whatever direction they're pointing. Your main objective is to set up a path that will allow you to activate the Magic Circles and land on one up close to the boss. If you land on a Magic Cirlce in one of the two innermost circles, this attack will deal a ton of damage to Rubber Band, so go for this whenever possible.

The basic strategy does not really change throughout the battle, however, there will be less arrows for moving inward at your disposal, so using the bumper bands set on the board to move toward the center will be essential. Using these bands also has the bonus effect of allowing Rubber Band to recover less HP when it uses Pullback.

As you continue to damage it, Rubber Band will lose more and more of its bands. Right before it runs out of HP, its form will change, and it will become a single Rubber Band. Still, you will want to move toward a Magic Circle, then grab it with the 1000-Fold Arms to finish it off. When you try to grab it, it will wiggle left and right to dodge your arms, and even damage you. You cannot grab it while it is moving, but it will stop for a brief moment and lean forward, either to its left or right. Grab it when it does this to deal the final blow.

Rubber Band Tips and Strategy

Bumper Bands

Rubber Band will throw these out randomly at the start of turns, which will slightly take away from its total HP. Using them to move around the board is the key to this battle.

They are in an arrow-like shape, and landing on one will send you one space forward in whatever direction they're pointing. However, unlike arrow panels, they do not change the direction Mario walks. This means that if Mario is walking clockwise and steps on one of these pointed at Rubber Band, Mario will move forward one ring but continue going clockwise.

After Mario's turn ends, Rubber Band will use Pullback to take these all back and restore some HP. This means that if you are able to walk over many of these and use them up, Rubber Band will be able to recover less HP at the end of the turn!

Rubber Bind

In the enemy turn, Rubber Band will use this attack where it fires rubber bands at you. It is extremely vital that you properly block each of these, as getting hit by an unblocked one will bind Mario and make it impossible for him to block subsequent attacks or move in the next turn.

If this happens, when the Enemy turn starts up again, Rubber Band will use a move called Trapped Snapback, where it swoops at you with its arm. Although you cannot block, you can press A to jump over it and avoid taking any damage.

Spending Coins

You can spend coins for numerous effects. By pressing +, you can add more time to the clock, giving a little bit more leeway when figuring out the correct path for the ring puzzle.

Pressing Y to have Toads cheer also has a very useful effect in this battle. If you spend enough coins, you will be able to recover some health, and in addition, Mario's path along the ring becomes visible. This will make it much easier to solve the puzzle and end up in the correct spot. Note however that this will only last during the current turn.

Rubber Band Video Walkthrough

Best Weapons Against Rubber Band

Only Use the 1000-Fold Arms

While you can use attacks from the Attack Panels, Rubber Band will usually recover this HP when it uses Quick Draw (unless you were able to deactivate all of the bumper bands). Therefore, it is in your best interest to instead use the 1000-Fold Arms to deal more damage. When doing this, there are two things to keep in mind:

1. You will need to make sure to activate the Magic Circles via the ON panels first.
2. The attack deals more damage if you are closer to the boss. Try and attack from the innermost ring, or the next closest one. Attacks from the two most outermost rings will deal almost no damage.

Paper Mario Origami King Boss Guides

Boss Fight Guide & List of All Bosses

Red Streamer Zone Bosses

Earth Vellumental

Colored Pencils

Blue Streamer Zone Bosses

Water Vellumental

Rubber Band

Yellow Streamer Zone Bosses

Gooper Blooper	Giant Pokey
Fire Vellumental	Hole Punch

Purple Streamer Zone Bosses

Ice Vellumental

Tape

Green Streamer Zone Bosses

Sumo Bros	Handaconda
Buzzy Beetle	Scissors

Finale

Stapler

King Olly