How to beat the Ice Vellumental boss in Paper Mario: The Origami King

Over the course of Paper Mario: The Origami King, Mario and Oliva must fight several Vellumental creatures in order to gain new powers associated with their respective elements. You'll have to beat each one in a boss fight before gaining their elemental powers, and one of the more difficult Vellumentals that Mario goes head-to-head with is the Ice Vellumental. Here's how to beat the frigid creature.

Battles in Paper Mario: The Origami King utilize a unique ring system that has players turning and shifting rings in order to maximize damage. While regular boss fights will have you lining up enemies, boss fights like the Ice Vellumental function a bit differently. In these battles, you'll have to navigate Mario to specific spots in order to deal damage with Vellumentals and his 1000-Fold Arms attack.

These are the steps you should follow to beat the Ice Vellumental boss in Paper Mario: The Origami King.

Step 1: Melt its frozen barrier

When you first enter the fight with the Ice Vellumental, it will surround itself with a barrier of ice. If you try to normally attack it like this, you won't do much damage. You'll need to melt the barrier with the Flame Vellumental. To do this, you must first open a treasure chest on the board in order to summon an On/Off switch that Mario can walk over to activate the Vellumental panels.

Shift and turn the spaces in a way that will cause Mario to run into the treasure chest, open it, and toss the On/Off switch on the board. It's unlikely that you'll have set yourself up in a way to also press it this turn, though you can still turn and attack the panel in front of you to deal 1 or 2 damage to the Ice Vallumental.

On your next turn, set up the board in a way that gets Mario to pass over both the On/Off switch panel and the Fire Vellumental space on the same turn. Once you do this, the Fire Vellumental will attack the Ice Vellumental and leave it vulnerable.

Step 2: Whittle it down with attacks while dodging frozen spaces

Now it's time to actually start dealing damage to the Ice Vellumental while blocking at the right time to lessen the damage from its powerful attacks like Bowler Bear. After you use the 1000-Fold Arms attack, the Ice Vellumental will hit you with attacks like Cold Claw that actually leave spaces on the board frozen and cover other action spaces covered with blocks of ice.

Those blocks can be broken by shifting the affected space to the other side of the board. These can be tricky to get past, but you'll just have to keep creating the right combination of spaces to attack the Ice Vellumental with the 1000-Fold Arms when it is exposed and melt its frozen barrier with the Fire Vellumental if it restores that barrier.

While there are preferred solutions, Paper Mario: The Origami King does give the player the autonomy to turn and slide each ring on the board as they wish. As long as you follow these steps and keep going for attacks with 1000-Fold Arms and prioritizing Fire Vellumental spaces, you should be able to take down the Ice Vellumental, acquire its powers, and continue on your two-dimensional adventure.

Paper Mario: The Origami King is available now for Nintendo Switch.