Dry bones

Dry Bowser (leader)

**Dry bones** (カロン *Karon)* is the prince of the Dark Kingdom. He is a bony, skeletal, dried out, undead, Koopa Troopa. Dry Bones first appeared in *Super Mario Bros. 3* where he, like their kindred, walked on four legs. In later games, Dry Bones and their living counterparts would start to walk on two legs, starting with *Super Mario World* for the SNES.

Like most of the enemies in the *Mario series*, Dry Bones's appearances grew dramatically over time. Its current appearance was in *Mario Super Sluggers*.

## General information

### Abilities

Dry Bones can be capable of rebuilding his body after being hurt. This outstanding process takes place only a few seconds after being stomped on. The player can defeat Dry Bones for good, but it takes magic, bombs, an ice flower or Penguin suit, shell collision, or a possession of a star to do so. You can also break him and knock a body part off to a lower ledge or lava, but the remains won't stay permanently. While in the mainstream series, Dry Bones is immune to Fireballs, Dry Bones are also very susceptible to fire-based attacks as shown by how in *Paper Mario*, fire attacks are super-effective against them..

### Physical description and traits

Dry Bones is one of Dry bones species, the Koopa Troopas with gray skin, dark gray shells, black eyes, yellow pupils, and pale blue shoes and gloves. A Dry Bones' shell is similarly designed to that of a Koopa Troopa's, but it is the aforementioned gray, and features black patterns in between each shell segment. Dry Bones never maintains a consistent appearance, due to receiving changes between games and media, which range from minor changes such as increased or decreased vibrancy in colors, to major alterations such as having longer or shorter limbs, and appearing as a bipedal or quadrupedal creature. In *Super Mario Bros. 3* and the DIC Entertainment *Mario*cartoons, Dry Bones appears as a quadruped, due to standing on all fours, and never standing upright. The DIC *Mario* cartoons give Dry Bones hollow eyes, shorter limbs, and longer necks. Additionally, the *Super Mario Bros.* style in *Super Mario Maker* uses a heavily modified Koopa Troopa sprite, with the lone differences being gray skin, black eyes, and blue pupils.

*Super Mario World* is the first game to give Dry Bones an upright stance, which would be used in a multitude of subsequent installments. However, Dry Bones' *Super Mario World* design comes with exclusive elements not present in other games, such as white pupils, a small set of teeth, and physically larger stature than the Koopa Troopas. Later games resize Dry Bones so they are the same height and shape as a Koopa Troopa. *Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga* once again depicts Dry Bones as a quadrupedal species; in *Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions*, the Dry Bones in Beanbean Kingdom retain their quadrupedal stature, though their Mushroom Kingdom relatives present in the *Minion's Quest: The Search For Bowser* side story are shown in an upright posture, thus suggesting that Dry Bones differ depending on the region. Both *Super Mario Galaxy* games depict Dry Bones as bipedal creatures who stand and move in hunched postures, a feature that is reused in *Super Mario 3D Land* and for Parabones in *Super Mario 3D World* and *Super Mario Odyssey*. In the *Super Smash Bros.* series, Dry Bones' trophy has a more realistic appearance than its species' main depiction. In *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*, Dry Bones' trophy has a more monotone appearance, as well as a darker color scheme and a detailed shell. In *Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U*, its trophy has a more vibrant and cartoonish appearance, as well as much less detailing.

In the first three *Paper Mario* games, Dry Bones use their *Super Mario World* design, but with three tufts of hair, a feature that is only present in their *Super Mario World* artwork. Starting from *Paper Mario: Sticker Star*, Dry Bones use their design from the *New Super Mario Bros.* series. Additionally, *Paper Mario: Color Splash* gives Dry Bones a pronounced paper outline.

### Speech

Unlike the other Dry bones species, in the NES and SNES *Mario* games, Dry Bones have voice acting or in-game text, both due to technical limitations and Nintendo's habit of having silent characters, but in Hello yoshi franchise can speak like other magical creatures. *Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars* is the notable exception, which gives them a Dry bones quote. Starting from the early 2000s, Dry Bones received voice acting, though it comprised of clustered bone "grunts" and "yells" provided by Nintendo sound manager and composer Toru Asakawa, who also does King Boo's voice. In contemporary games, Dry Bones receives in-game text so players can understand what they're saying, while some games uses "rattle" and "clickety-clack" sounds as speech with the translation in parentheses. *Super Mario Party* notably has Dry Bones' speech translated; however, unlike other games which do this, Dry Bones pauses some of its sentences with "..."s. As an earlier instance, *Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door* had Dark Bones pause its sentences; however, Dark Bones spoke intelligibly, as opposed to having its speech translated in parenthesis.

### Powers and abilities

Due to being undead, Dry bones species, Dry Bones are naturally immune to lava and all forms of fire. However, this trait is somewhat inconsistent. In the *New Super Mario Bros.* games, Dry Bones is unharmed by lava, but if his head is submerged in lava, it takes longer for Dry Bones to reassemble himself; in *New Super Mario Bros. U*, Dry Bones is completely immune to lava. In the *Mario* RPGs, Dry Bones take extra or fatal damage from fire or explosions.

Dry Bones can't be defeated permanently, since it will always reattach its head to its body in a matter of seconds. This results in Dry Bones' defensive qualities in most *Mario* sports games, due to its small size and excellent survivability, while sacrificing a lot of power and offense. In the *Mario & Luigi* games, defense is Dry Bones' best stat, though *Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars* and the *Paper Mario*games take this trait further, with the former game giving Dry Bones infinite health, and the latter games having them respawn a few minutes after a battle. Sometimes, Dry Bones is also portrayed as a technique character. Dry Bones generally attack their foes by throwing bones at them, a trait that first appeared in *Super Mario World*. *Mario Strikers Charged* gives Dry Bones bizarre abilities such as teleportation and electrokinesis, which are used in his deke and Skill Shot respectively. *Puzzles and Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition* gives Dry Bones associations with fire and darkness.

2D Dry Bones