Cleft
A Cleft fromSuper Paper Mario
First appearance	Paper Mario (2000)
Latest appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) (2024)
Variants Bald Cleft Dark Cleft Hyper Cleft Iron Cleft Moon Cleft

Clefts are animate rock enemies resembling spiked skulls that appear in thePaper Mario series. Their name comes from the word "cleft", which can alternately refer to a crack in a rock or an indentation of the chin, both of which are characteristics of the Clefts. Clefts have a large amount of variant types, all of which are very strong and sturdy and are capable of disguising themselves as ordinary rocks, though they are also easily flipped over with an explosion or theQuake Hammer, rendering them helpless. They pursue and attackMario by charging into him, are immune to fire, and, aside from a few variants, have spiked heads preventing him fromjumping on them without sustaining injury.

Design[edit]

Clefts are light brown animate rocks with a top adorned with white spikes, black eyes with googly, yellow irises, an underbite with a pair of protruding square teeth and a cleft chin, and a pair of brown shoes.

History[edit]

Paper Mario[edit]

InPaper Mario, Clefts are found atMt. Rugged. They are initially disguised as grey rocks on the overworld, but upon detecting Mario, they reveal themselves and charge at him. If the Cleft manages to successfully charge into Mario, they will get theFirst Strike.

In battle, Clefts have a notably high defense, which will require the use of strong-enough attacks, special attacks that ignore defense, or flipping them over in order to defeat them, especially when the player first encounters them. Notably,Goombario'stattle suggests running away if the player finds them too difficult to defeat.

Hyper Clefts, which bear green palettes, are found atGusty Gulch, and are additionally capable ofcharging their attacks to boost their power.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[edit]

Full texture of the signage showing the brown Cleft (second from the left under Mario)

InPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door along with itsSwitch remake, Clefts are found at theBoggly Woods, and in fitting with its aesthetic, are monochrome.Earth Tremor does not flip them, but if executed well enough, it can defeat them in one stroke. Additionally, if three questions of the65th Trivia Quiz-Off are answered incorrectly, the player will have to battle against four Clefts at the gate to theShhwonk Fortress. The original active coloration of Cleft makes a cameo on a poster inGlitzville, though due to the placement of buildings it is very difficult to see in-game.

Hyper Clefts also reprise their role, and several new variants of Clefts are introduced. These are the spikelessBald Cleft andHyper Bald Cleft, which are safe to jump on but still have high defense; the large and nigh-invulnerableIron Cleft, which can only be defeated withYoshi'sGulp; and themoon-dwellingMoon Cleft, which uses a brighter version of the original coloration for Cleft inPaper Mario and is said to simply be an ordinary Cleft on the moon, despite also being stronger.

Super Paper Mario[edit]

Catch Card

Clefts appear inSuper Paper Mario in Chapter 5-1, nearDowntown of Crag, and in room 71 of theFlipside Pit of 100 Trials, in their colors from the firstPaper Mario. However, the Western localizations mistakenly refer to them asMoon Clefts, despite them not being found on the moon or in any cosmic locations. Their attack pattern remains the same: they charge at Mario and his allies as soon as they get close enough. They still have the same weakness, asBoomer can flip them over. They will occasionally drop aCake Mix when they are defeated. A shadowy version, calledDark Cleft, appears in theFlopside Pit of 100 Trials.

Statistics[edit]

Paper Mario[edit]

Paper Mario enemy
Cleft
		Max HP	2	Attack	2	Defense	2 (standing), 0 (flipped)
		Role	Common	Type	Ground, Top Spiky (standing), Ground (flipped)	Level	10
		Strong	Fire	Weak	None	Moves	Spike Charge (2), Struggle, Stand Up
		Sleep?	40%, -1	Dizzy?	50%, -1	Shock?	50%, 0
		Shrink?	75%, 0	Stop?	90%, 0	Fright?	40%
		Air Lift?	40%	Hurricane?	40%	Coins	2 + 1-3
		Items	None	Run	12	Location(s)	Mt. Rugged
Tattle	This is a Cleft. Clefts are pretty strong, so you'd better be careful. Max HP: 2, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 2 Their specialty is pretending to be rocks, so watch your step on the mountain. You'll get hurt if you jump on the spikes on their heads. You know, there's courage in running away sometimes...

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[edit]

GameCube[edit]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Cleft
	Max HP	2	Attack	2	Defense	2
	Location(s)	Shhwonk Fortress,Boggly Woods,Pit of 100 Trials (Levels 12, 17)	Role	Boss, common	Level	12
	Sleep?	50%	Dizzy?	50%	Confuse?	50%
	Tiny?	70%	Stop?	100%	Soft?	100%
	Burn?	0%	Freeze?	70%	Fright?	50%
	Gale Force?	70%	KO?	95%	Moves	Cleft Charge (2)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	1 - 3	Items	Mushroom,Thunder Bolt,Earth Quake,Mini Mr. Mini,Dizzy Dial
Tattle Log #: 79	Log	A spiky, rock-headed jerk that's impervious to fire attacks and has a solid body.
	Tattle	That's a Cleft. A rock-head jerk with spikes on his noggin. What a rocker! Max HP is 2, Attack is 2, and Defense is 2. That hard head is a major pain. Fire doesn't hurt it, but other types of items are pretty effective, usually. If nothing seems to work on it, you can always just run.

Nintendo Switch[edit]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Cleft
	Max HP	2	Attack	2	Defense	2
	Location(s)	Shhwonk Fortress,Boggly Woods,Pit of 100 Trials (Levels 12, 17)	Role	Common	Level	12
	Sleep?	50%	Dizzy?	50%	Confuse?	50%
	Tiny?	70%	Stop?	100%	Soft?	100%
	Burn?	0%	Freeze?	70%	Fright?	50%
	Gale Force?	70%	KO?	95%	Moves	Cleft Charge (2)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	1 - 3	Items	Mushroom,Thunder Bolt,Earth Quake,Mini Mr. Mini,Dizzy Dial
Tattle Log #: 82	Log	A spiky, rock-headed jerk that's impervious to fire attacks and has a solid body.
	Tattle	That's a Cleft. A rock-head jerk with spikes on his noggin. What a rocker! Max HP is 2, Attack is 2, and Defense is 2. That hard head is a major pain. Fire doesn't hurt it, but other types of items are pretty effective, usually. If nothing seems to work on it, you can always just run.

Super Paper Mario[edit]

Super Paper Mario enemy
Moon Cleft
	Max HP	5	Role	Common	Location(s)	Downtown of Crag (5-1),Flipside Pit of 100 Trials (Room 71)
	Attack	2	Card type	Common
	Defense	4	Items	Cake Mix	Card location(s)	Card Shop; Catch Card/SP; Chapter 5-1: Found in a small 3D-accessible alcove below the canyon to the right of the first block puzzle.
	Score	500
	Card description	It's an evil mineral that looks just like a rock. That is, until it's too late!
List of Catch Cards     106      107      108	Tattle	That's a Moon Cleft, a rock-hard monster that's covered in spikes... Max HP is 5, Attack is 2, Defense is 2[sic]. Flames won't scorch this foe... It might look like a stone at first, but it will move when you get up close... Set off an explosion near it to flip it over. Then it'll be vulnerable to attack...

Gallery[edit]

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  Paper Mario

Names in other languages[edit]

• Animate objects
• Paper Mario enemies
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemies
• Super Paper Mario enemies

• Articles with unsourced foreign names