Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - How to Get the Golden Mario Costume (Gold Medal Badge)

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2024)

By Joshua Short

Published Jun 6, 2024

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2024)

Of the many new additions to the Switch remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, one of the more interesting ones comes once players have completed the main story of the game.

In the original version on the Nintendo GameCube, players that went out of their way to find and collect everything the game had to offer were rewarded with nothing more than bragging rights to friends. However, this time around, players can receive a special badge they can use to change Mario's appearance to a victorious metallic gold.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Chapter Tier List

The adventure found in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is split up into chapters and each one has unique challenges to overcome and have fun with.

Where to Find the Gold Medal Badge in TTYD

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Gold Medal Badge

In order for players to receive the illustrious Gold Medal badge in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, they must first completely fill all three major collections in the game: Badges, Recipes, and the Tattle Log.

Badge Trophy

To earn the Badge Trophy, players will need to collect at least one of every badge in the game. Although there are no true missable badges in the game, Mario is unable to return to some areas (such as those in Chapter 7) until after clearing the main story.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Dazzle All Out of Badges

A complete collection also includes the badges held by Dazzle in Rogueport Sewers, meaning that collecting a majority of the game's hidden Star Pieces is required to earn this trophy. For any pieces that players may be missing, they can visit Merluvlee in the house adjacent to Dazzle to locate them for the cost of a few coins.

Cooking Trophy

To earn the Cooking Trophy, players will need to have held each of Zess T.'s possible dishes at some point in the game. Whether they had Zess T. whip up the recipe herself or received it as a reward, as long as they have had the item in their inventory, it will be recorded in their Recipes in the Journal tab.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Zess T. Cooks Up the Hottest Dog

Players will need to have solved Zess. T's prior listing with the Trouble Center and retrieved the legendary cookbook. With it, she'll be able to cook recipes for Mario using two ingredients, including a new recipe unique to the remake, the Hottest Dog. Players may want to expand their inventory space to carry more ingredients at one time to make the process go by more quickly.

Tattle Trophy

To earn the Tattle Trophy, players will need to use Goombella's Tattle ability to record information on every enemy in the game, including every boss and enemy variation. An easy method for determining whether a Tattle Log entry has been recorded is to check if an enemy's health bar appears in battle. So long as Mario is not wearing the Peekaboo badge, health bars will only appear for enemies that have been logged.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Professor Frankly's Lab with Tattle Entry in Bin

This trophy is only possible to receive after beating the game, as all phases of the game's final boss have entries in the Tattle Log to collect. If players forget to use Tattle on a one-time boss such as this or any other missable enemy, they can always visit Professor Frankly's lab to retrieve a replacement entry.

Gold Medal Badge

Once Mario has obtained every entry in each of these collections, he will receive an email congratulating him on his success. Included with the email, players will find a special trophy to commemorate their achievement, another new addition to this version of the game. With all three trophies in hand, Mario will soon receive a final email in a special gold envelope. It mentions a special shiny reward waiting for players in the main square of Rogueport.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Gold Medal in Rogueport

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Gold Medal Mario in Rogueport

When players return to the square, they will find the badge sitting on the gallows in the middle of town. When equipped for 0 BP, Mario will gain a metallic gold overlay that provides no advantage but the occasional shine and sparkle. The badge can be equipped alongside the other cosmetic costume badges and although there are visible differences, they are incredibly subtle.