Prologue Pit

Prologue Pit is a challenge run in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. In this run, the player completes the Pit of 100 Trials before defeating Blooper and clearing the prologue, without leaving the pit after entering for the first time. In order to access the Pit during the prologue without codes, the Paper Mode Storage or Super Jump glitch is required. However, most players use a levitate code, which is considered legitimate as long as codes are not used during the pit run. Other glitches such as Hazard Respawn Glitch (HRG) and Ultra Hammer Early (UHE) may or may not be used, to varying degrees of standardization. For example, HRG typically is used while UHE is not.

No Optional Restrictions	With No HRG Restriction
Difficulty: Sapphire Execution Rating: 6 Strategy Rating: 6.2	Difficulty: Sapphire Execution Rating: 6.2 Strategy Rating: 6.2

Rules:

Primary

• Complete the Pit of 100 Trials during the Prologue, before entering the pipe to Petal Meadows.

Optional

• Do not leave the Pit of 100 Trials partway. The run must be attempted in one go.
• Do not use certain glitches such as Ultra Hammer Early.
• Do not farm Shop Points.

Completions:

Player	Didn't Leave Partway	No HRG	Challenge Completion Link
Adobe Apps	✓
Amazydayzee3621	✓
Astronotter	✓		Link
BeaverThingify	✓
Bringle	✓		Link
Dark Koopatrol	✓
Dawn	✓		Link
Dude45	✓		Link
Dyla	✓
Fatguy703	✓		Link
GamerFourFun	✓		Link
Gibstack	✓		Link
JaeyDoesYT	✓	✓	Link
Justyce	✓
Kappy	✓	✓	Link
Koop	✓		Link
KyleTheHobo	✓
Melmoth	✓		Link
Miccat87	✓
NeonHenchman	✓
Olmi	✓
Pneuma	✓		Link
Skawo	✓		Link
Snowy340	✓
Talksick	✓
ThatOneSpyGuy	✓		Link
Tyler222	✓		Link
vALANrant	✓		Link
Vickieladdie	✓		Link
yumenochi	✓		Link

Tips & Tricks:

• If you're using HRG, you can access Rogueport's west side to farm Shop Points by infinitely buying and selling Dried Shrooms. This is very slow but provides very powerful items otherwise inaccessible in the prologue and is ultimately profitable due to the Gold Bars you receive. If you're using practice codes for the levitate command, it's also considered legitimate to simulate this process by using Add to Inventory codes, due to how tedious it is. It is not allowed to add items not on the Shop Point reward list, however.
• With no glitches, 6 Star Pieces are available in the Prologue. If only HRG is used, 4 more Star Pieces become available. Paper Mode Storage can be used to access the town beneath Central Rogueport, adding 2 more. You can also use Super Jump to grab the Star Piece on Bobbery's roof in East Rogueport and the star piece in the background of the West Rogueport Sewers. One more Star Piece can be obtained behind the stairs in the pit's entrance. This brings the total number of obtainable Star Pieces up to 15. DO NOT buy Quick Change from Dazzle, as it is 100% useless with only one partner. In general, the usefulness of Dazzle badges is limited here, but Item Hog and Pretty Lucky are solid choices.
• It is possible to upgrade Goombella in the Prologue by using a Super Jump off a small piece of rubble (or a levitate code) beneath Rougeport's west side to access a Shine Sprite that normally requires Yoshi. The other two Shine Sprites available are in the Thousand-Year Door room near the Pit entrance, and in one of the shortcut pipe rooms that HRG lets you get through. Multibonk can be extremely useful for this run, as is 10 additional HP and 1 ATK for Goombella, considering that Mega Rush P is unavailable in the Prologue.
• Levitate codes may NOT be used to access any areas of Rogueport or the sewers that would not be accessible with a Super Jump or other console-native glitch. Make sure you know what is allowed. If you want to play it safe (or an extra challenge), only use it to access the Pit itself.
• BP is less valuable in Prologue Pit than Pre-Hooktail Pit, largely due to the irrelevance of Quick Change. A typical run may only need 15 or 18 BP, rather than the 24-27 typically seen in a PHP. However, you will end up around the same level (22-23) even if you enter at level 1. This means your HP and/or FP will likely be higher.
• The best badges will mostly be ones you find in the Pit. Fire Drive is arguably what singlehandedly makes this run functional. Lucky Day paired with two Pretty Lucky badges can be a massive game-changer after floor 90, and badges like Sleepy Stomp and Zap Tap are about as useful as in a Pre-Hooktail Pit. Otherwise, Piercing Blow is recommended for high-defense, fire-immune enemies, and Power Jump for flying ones. Fire Drive is so important, though, that it's probably easier to beat Prologue Pit with only it than it would be without it; never take it off.
• It may often be advantageous to allow Goombella to remain dead on the later floors of the Pit, especially if you didn't upgrade her. This is because having a dead partner out makes Sweet Treat twice as potent at healing Mario, and you'll be using Sweet Treat all the time. This is especially important against Bonetail, where Goombella is completely useless even when upgraded.
• Since Mario will have high HP by the end of the run, Life Shrooms are probably not an ideal item to bring into a Prologue Pit; Ultra Shrooms are far superior.

Related Challenges

• 10 HP Prologue Pit
• Pre-Hooktail Pit