Paper Mario Dark Star Edition: Covert Guy Fight with CantWin File Code, Triple Curse (9x)

Covert Guy, I find you guilty of always going invisible after taking damage. For your transgressions, I sentence you to a brutal execution!

CantWin is a File Code in Dark Star Edition that sets you to level 27, gives you all 128 badges, and the 5 unlockable stones immediately (all but Greed, Badge, and Rainbow). However, in return, it forces all encounters to be at least 4.5x difficulty, the equivalent of Super + Mega Curse. Equipping Curse badges does NOT stack with this multiplier, but if you equip Ultra + Mega Curse or all 3 Curses, you will do a fight on that respective difficulty instead of the innate 4.5x difficulty that CantWin forces.

Covert Guy has 50 Base HP, scaling up to 450 on 9x, and has 2 Defense. His Hammer has a Base Attack value of 9 (81), and his Slingshot has a base Attack value of 12 (99). The Hammer inflicts Sleep and takes away a random battle command if you fail to block, and the Slingshot inflicts Shrink if you fail to block. Covert Guy will attack only once with the Slingshot, and he'll attack twice with the Hammer. He takes +1 Damage from Electric moves, but I won't be taking advantage of this weakness this time around. Finally, upon taking damage, Covert Guy will go invisible for 2 turns; and if you dodge his attack while he's visible, he'll counter by going invisible for the next turn.

I didn't mention this against Spike + Lakilulu because it was irrelevant in those fights, but Flower Fields does have an environmental effect. The Poison Fog deals 3 damage every round, but it will never bring Mario to 0 HP.

So obviously, you only want to be getting hit by the Slingshot here since that'll only hit once. However, new item conjuration makes its grand return after the shenanigans of the Friendly Mushroom. In this case, we have that in the form of Dark Shroom Cakes.

How did I get so many of these in only Chapter 6? To answer, we must once again travel back to Chapter 1. The Dizzy Attack badge got us a Bomb Fruit to use in Chapter 4. However, in Koopa Bros Fortress, you can get the Smash Charge badge. This badge becomes a Dark Shroom when added to your inventory, which you can then check in to keep on standby. And as I found out with these field badges that go into your item inventory, you can actually use these badges to duplicate items! There are enough field badges up to this point that you can get all the Dark Shrooms you could possibly need. Keep them through at least the mid point of Chapter 4 and you have Dark Shroom Cakes very early!

Now this does beg the question of why I haven't used them up until now. And that reason is the lack of access to Yoshi Biscuits. There's only 1 available through Chapter 5 (through getting a Golden Melon from a hidden block), and they don't become renewable until Chapter 6. But once you're in Chapter 6, you're golden. And to go on record, I am allowing myself to reset post-fights to redo them to get these items back. I allowed the same thing in my Standard Curse run, so it only makes sense to allow it again. I'm emphasizing this to make it clear that I'm truly in this to win it! And for the really observant, yes this also means that I have access to immortal builds now. These excel against fights where you're only taking 1 instance of damage per turn, which includes Covert Guy.

So, the badge build for Covert Guy. My attacking options are Truth Stomp and Ultra Jump Charge. The former will let me hit Covert Guy through invisibility, and the latter gives instant setup to ensure the former hits as hard as possible. Quick Change allows partner swapping without turn loss. Perfect Stand and Dark Shield, combined with Lakilester's Cloud Nine, ensure I only take 22 damage per turn. The combination of Crazy Heart and Mega HP Drain ensure that I can always recover 22 HP every turn (thanks to the Dark Shroom Cakes). Power Rush makes up for Mega HP Drain's Attack loss. Weather Shield protects Mario from the Poison Fog environment, and Feeling Fine protects Mario from status. What's the use of Stellar Nova in this build? Its use is ensuring Dark Shield stays active. The principle of this is similar to Stellar Shield + Dark Shield without needing to spend turns on using Star Power abilities. Stellar Nova is better in this case though thanks to it only costing 2 BP to use instead of 3. We have enough Star Power bars that even 1 full bar of it is not enough to prevent Dark Shield from benefitting us. And Stellar Nova can remove those bars without it costing us any turns.

10 Yoshi Biscuits and 10 Dark Shroom Cakes is my item build. Double Dip ensures that I can use 1 of each every time item use is necessary.

Lakilester and Goombario are the only partners needed. The former only uses Cloud Nine to ensure I only take 22 damage against the Slingshot, and the latter is the partner damage deal thanks to his newly gained Megabonk.