Mario will level up in a fairly traditional manner in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but the process to increase the rank of the characters who join him as partners is a bit more involved. It can also be easy to forget how to improve them, given it is tossed in as a tutorial aside early in your time at Rogueport.
How do I level up Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door partners?
There are two stages when it comes to getting to level up the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door partners, with Super Rank being available immediately and Ultra Rank needing to be unlocked later in the game. But right at the very start, you need to keep in touch with Merlon to improve your allies.
Merlon lives right next door to Professor Frankly on the east side of town. His house has a Shine Sprite sign above its door, to make it even more visible. Now, Shine Sprites tend to be very visible in boxes you need to jump to hit around the world. You need to pay three Shrine Sprites to get a Super Rank upgrade that increases the attack of someone by one and teaches them one new special skill.
Here are some screenshots I took showing what Merlon’s house looks like from the outside and inside, to ensure you find him.
Once you’ve completed Chapter 5 and before Chapter 6, you can unlock Ultra Rank. After you return to Hooktail’s Castle with Admiral Bobbery, you can get the Up Arrow for Merlon to unlock Ultra Rank as an option for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door partners already at Super Rank. Once again, you need three Shine Sprites to go from Super to Ultra. Once that is done, the character’s strength goes up by one again and you get an additional ability for them.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is available for the Nintendo Switch. It originally appeared on the GameCube.
