Party member

A Party member, also referred to as party or playable cast, are the characters that can be controlled by the player. The EarthBound series has various different playable characters with each installment having a new set of playable characters. Most characters are young kids or teenagers, although in Mother 3 adults are playable as well.
==EarthBound Beginnings==
===Main characters===
EarthBound Beginnings has four main characters that are playable in the game. At the beginning of the game, the player must assign names to each character, with a limit of seven letters for the name. If another character or enemy in the game uses that name, the player cannot use that name for the character (e.g. the name "Maria" can't be used). The official, canon names for the characters are listed below.
Ninten	Lloyd	Ana	Teddy
 	 	 	
===Equipment===
Each character has a unique set of weapons to equip to raise their Offense. Ninten's primary weapons are baseball bat, Lloyd's primary weapons are guns, Ana uses frying pans, and Teddy uses knives and swords. Additionally, slingshots and the boomerang are universal weapons that any character can equip. Defense raising equips are also universal.
===Age===
Excluding Teddy, the ages of the cast are found in Encyclopedia MOTHER:
*Ninten: 12
*Lloyd: 11
*Ana: 12
===Additional character===
Pippi
Pippi is a 7-year-old girl who temporarily joins Ninten at the beginning of the game. Unlike other temporary party members, she is interestingly the only temporary party member who can be controlled by the player. Another interesting fact is that her stats are identical to Teddy's, though this is not usually relevant during gameplay, since Teddy joins at level 18, while Pippi joins at level 1.
===Notes===
Only 3 characters can be in the party at a time. Normally Teddy replaces Lloyd once the player reaches Ellay, and then Lloyd replaces him on Mt. Itoi. Lloyd is the only party member required to beat the game, while Teddy and Ana are optional. Pippi must be returned in order to obtain the Zoo Key required to progress through the game, thus she cannot legitimately be a permanent party member.
Teddy has the potential to be permanently removed from the party, and the events in the plot related to him can be skipped entirely. Unlike Pippi, though, Teddy can be brought to the end of the game and has unique equipment only he can use.
Ana and Lloyd can also both be absent from or leave the party depending on the order the player's choices, such as using the Onyx Hook before the Fallin' Love dance scene on Mt. Itoi when Ninten is temporarily the lone party member, which allows the player to complete the game with Ninten alone. However, nothing ever prevents the player from allowing either to join the party again, unlike Teddy.
Using sequence breaks there are different configurations for the party the player can have at the end of the game:
*Ninten, Lloyd, Ana
*Ninten, Ana, Teddy
*Ninten, Lloyd
*Ninten, Ana
*Ninten
==EarthBound==
===Main characters===
As with EarthBound Beginnings there are four main characters. Like in EarthBound Beginnings, the player must name each character at the start of the game; however, the character limit has been reduced to five. Selecting the "Don't care" key will assign a set of default names depending on the character. Unlike in EarthBound Beginnings, all four characters can be used at once:
Ness	Paula	Jeff	Poo
 	 	 	
Ness, Paula, and Jeff respectively have very similar character designs to Ninten, Ana, and Lloyd from EarthBound Beginnings. Shigesato Itoi confirmed that he intentionally designed them to be similar to allow players to decide whether they're the same or different.
===Equipment===
The equipment for the cast is relatively similar to the characters in EarthBound Beginnings: Ness uses baseball bats, Paula uses frying pans, Jeff uses guns, and Poo uses swords.
===Age===
Unlike in EarthBound Beginnings, the characters' ages were left vague by Shigesato Itoi.
 
*The EarthBound Player's Guide and official UK website claim Ness is 13, however when asked about his age Shigesato Itoi said he never had an official age, and instead compared him to his daughter who was in 4th or 5th garde at the time, implying Ness might actually be younger than what the player's guide and UK website claims. Additionally most sources in Japan state Ness is 12 years old.
*The UK website says Paula is 11 years old.
*Jeff is the same age as Ness so he could be 13 years old or younger.
*Poo is left vague, with the player's guide saying he is "a little older than Ness".
==Mother 3==
===Main characters===
There are four main characters and all are playable in the party starting Chapter 5 and onwards. Prior to this there are different playable characters depending on the chapter. At the beginning of the game the player names Lucas and his family (now with an eight characters limit) as opposed to all of the main characters, instead the other main characters will be named when they're met. As with EarthBound, the "Don't care" option assigns a set of default names to the characters.
Lucas	Kumatora	Duster	Boney
 	 	 	
Lucas is first playable in the prologue, Kumatora is first playable in Chapter 2, and Duster and Boney are first playable in Chapter 1.
===Temporary playable characters===
Before Chapter 4 each chapter has a different playable character assigned to the role of the chapter:
Flint	Salsa	Claus
 	 	
Flint is the main character in Chapter 1, where he is searching for his wife Hinawa who was killed by a Mecha Drago. Later his older son Claus goes to the mountains to get revenge on the Drago who killed Hinawa, and Flint goes off to search for him, but Claus was nowhere to be found.
Salsa is a monkey who is playable in Chapter 3, where he was captured by the Pigmask Army and is forced to work for Fassad in order to save his girlfriend.
Claus is Lucas's older twin brother who is briefly playable in the prologue. He helps Lucas defeat a Mole Cricket who challenges Lucas for a battle.
==Game data==
===Stat comparison===
====In EarthBound Beginnings====
			
			
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Pippi
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===PSI learnset===
====In EarthBound Beginnings====
	
	
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====In EarthBound====
		
		
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====In Mother 3====
	
	
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==See also==
List of party members in the EarthBound series
Category: Characters