This article is about the penultimate boss inMario & Luigi: Partners in Time. For her younger twin sister, seePrincess Shroob.

Elder Princess Shroob
In-game artwork of the elder Princess Shroob's battle with Princess Peach
Species	Shroob
First appearance	Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (2005)
Latest appearance	Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (cameo) (2018)

“FOOLISH MUSHROOM HEADS... YOU MAY HAVE BESTED ME, BUTSHROOBS WILL LIVE ON... ONE DAY, THE SHROOBS WILL DANCE ON THE BURIED REMAINS OF THIS PATHETICKINGDOM...”

—Elder Princess Shroob,Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

Theelder Princess Shroob,^[1] alternatively capitalized as theElder Princess Shroob^[2] and typically referred to simply asPrincess Shroob in-game, is the overarching antagonist and the penultimateboss ofMario & Luigi: Partners in Time. She is the leader of theShroobs (her younger twin sister,Princess Shroob, is the second-in-command), an alien race that invaded theMushroom Kingdom whenMario andLuigi were babies. WhenPrincess Peach,Toadiko andToadbert time-traveled toPeach's Castle of the past usingProf. E. Gadd's time machine, they encountered the Shroobs, who had just begun their invasion. The elder Princess Shroob then attempted to attack Peach. However, Peach used the power source of the time machine, theCobalt Star, to trap the elder Princess Shroob inside. Peach then shattered the star into pieces; however, the younger Princess Shroob was still able to capture Peach and trap her inShroob Castle.

History[edit]

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time[edit]

The elder Princess Shroob trapped inside the Cobalt Star.

The elder Princess Shroob as the "spirit" of the Cobalt Star

Throughout the game,Mario,Luigi,Baby Mario andBaby Luigi collect the various pieces of theCobalt Star, not knowing that the elder Princess Shroob is actually trapped inside. When the brothers get to the top ofStar Hill, the "spirit of the Cobalt Star" - actually the elder Princess Shroob in a disguise - appears and speaks to the brothers. It seemed that only Baby Luigi knew its true identity, since he was crying when "the spirit of the Cobalt Star" appeared. Various other characters such asKylie Koopa andToadbert hinted the fact that she was hiding inside the Cobalt Star, even as early as when the Mario Bros were inYoob's Belly. Professor E. Gadd even correctly guesses that there was a link between the Cobalt Star (unaware that the elder Princess Shroob was actually trapped inside it) and theShroobs when he saw one of the Cobalt Star shards agitating theJunior Shrooboid when it floated near the Shrooboid's tube.

Finally, at the end of the game, afterPrincess Shroob is defeated, it is revealed thatPrincess Peach kept the center shard of the Cobalt Star. Peach tells the Mario Bros. that she cannot allow them to repair the Cobalt Star, but before she can explain why,Baby Bowser appears and steals the last shard, combining it with the five that the heroes had already collected; the Shroob Princess, now enraged over the recent death of her younger sister, turns Baby Bowser into aShroob mushroom and resumes her original form as Peach explains to the Mario Bros. what had really happened when she had first traveled back in time. Upon resuming her original form, the elder Princess Shroob promises to kill the Bros. as revenge for her sister's death and then activates the platform they were standing on, engaging them in battle high aboveShroob Castle. Notably, she speaks most of her dialogue in plain English, making her the only Shroob in the game to speak anything other than the Shroob language.

The Bros. manage to defeat the elder Princess Shroob and she becomes a Shroob mushroom, although not before gloating that even with her defeat, the Shroobs will ultimately destroy theMushroom Kingdom regardless. Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi take her mushroom to the present-dayPeach's Castle for it to be analyzed byProfessor E. Gadd. However, when they get there, they findBowser lying unconscious on the floor. Suddenly, the Shroob mushroom comes to life and inserts itself inside Bowser's mouth, fusing with him to createShrowser and reviving the elder Princess Shroob as a ghost. The possessed Bowser regains consciousness and attacks the heroes under the command of the Shroob Princess. Despite being unable to attack Shrowser directly, the heroes dodge his fireballs which turn around and hit the elder Princess Shroob's ghost, eventually defeating her and by extension Shrowser, eliminating the Shroob threat for good. The characters, after bidding farewell, then return to their own timelines.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story /Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey[edit]

The elder Princess Shroob's and her sister's cameos in the game's remake

The elder Princess Shroob was one of many Shroobs seen frozen in the cold room ofBowser's Castle during Mario and Luigi's fight with theShroobs inMario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. She appears in full view in the background of the battle, as do many other types of Shroobs; outside the battle, the elder Princess Shroob can still be barely seen, mostly cut off by the top of the screen, while there are fewer of the other Shroobs. The room is overall much smaller than in the battle.

InMario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, the elder Princess Shroob once again appears frozen in the cold room as a cameo, this time more clearly visible. The youngerPrincess Shroob can now be seen frozen next to her.

Battle[edit]

The battle against the elder Princess Shroob is split into two phases.

First phase[edit]

Kyankyan, the Shroob Chain Chomp

The elder Princess Shroob is much stronger than her sister, and commands a fleet ofShroob saucers. There can be up to six Shroob saucers present during the fight.

Her attacks depend on how many saucers are present:

• With one saucer:
  • She can order a saucer to bring her aVim-like drink recovers 120 of herHP (80 in non-American versions) then throwing it away while also flicking off the saucer.
  • She summons a Shroob-likeChain Chomp namedKyankyan to chase after the saucer while the former unintentionally attacksMario orLuigi, who must jump over her to avoid damage while not jumping on the saucer above them. This attack ends after a certain amount of time, but it can end early if a bro jumps on Kyankyan.
• With two saucers, she can ride on top of the saucers and fire large energy blasts at the Bros. from the top screen with her left and right claws respectively (the right claw for Mario and the left claw for Luigi); the Shroob Princess then fires larger orbs at the Bros. from the background, forcing them to jump if she isn't lined up with the top of her throne before she is blown from the saucers who are struggling from her weight as she lands on the platform, causing a shock-wave that must be jumped over.
• With three saucers, she can summon a meteorite held by the saucers, with which she attempts to crush the Bros to deal heavy damage; the targeted bro must whack her with the hammer enough times to make her drop it. The saucers are destroyed regardless if the meteorite was countered or not.

Every time more Shroob saucers are summoned,Princess Peach throws a star to the Bros., with which they can knock saucers out of the sky and prevent the elder Princess Shroob from using some of her attacks. The Bros. can also earn Bros. Items (such asRed Shells andSmash Eggs) from the fallen saucers. Occasionally, she might throw aSuper Mushroom to one brother.

The elder Princess's only move that is always available is a headlong football tackle towards one of the brothers, which must be hammered twice before she relents, though the first hammer strike does not damage her. If she pauses for a longer while before the tackle, she will stall right before she hits the targeted brother, possibly tricking them into swinging their hammer too early. In all non-American versions of the game, every time the player attacks the elder Princess Shroob, an exclamation mark appears above her, and she uses this attack against the Bro. who attacked her previously.

Once the elder Princess Shroob loses half of her health, any remaining Shroob saucers leave the battle as she activates her crown and morphs into her final form, causing Princess Peach to collapse in fear. The Bros. must defeat this monstrous form to put an end to the Shroob invasion.

Second phase[edit]

A screenshot of the Mario Bros. fighting the Elder Princess Shroob's second form.

In this second form, the elder Princess Shroob turns into a giant octopus-like monster. She has seven parts that must be attacked separately: four arm tentacles, a group of leg tentacles, a crown, and her head. While the crown is activated, the head receives only 1 damage from all attacks. To defeat her, the Bros. must destroy the legs to reach the crown, and then deactivate the crown to make the head vulnerable. The tentacles, legs, and crown reactivate 3 turns after they are destroyed.

Each body part has different attacks usually going in the order of head, tentacles, then feet. The head has two attacks; one is to summon up to sixShroob saucers, and then launch a energy ball that hits all of them in a random order, causing them to either catch fire or short-circuit. After a few seconds, they will fall one at a time in the order they were hit. The saucers that are on fire will land onMario, and the electrified ones will land onLuigi, referencing the brothers' respectiveFirebrand andThunderhand abilities inMario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. This attack is repelled by hammering the saucers at the elder Princess's head. For the second attack, she launches a giant purple energy ball to the top screen, and proceeds to launch smaller red and green blasts into it in random order. The giant ball will then land on the bro corresponding to whichever color blasts the ball absorbed more of. That bro must hammer the ball, after which it will then land on the other bro who must hit it with their hammer.

The tentacles have two attacks; one is to stab the Bros. with her tentacle claws, being telegraphed by a sparkle. This is avoided by jumping depending on which tentacle sparkled, and can happen 2 to 4 times a turn. The upper two claws can also be used as a fake-out attack, hitting slightly above the Bros. The second attack has both right and left tentacles slither towards the Bros. at the same time to grab and throw them at the ground, and they must both use their hammers at the correct time to counter them. For the legs, the elder Princess Shroob uses them to back up and spit 2 to 5 poison gas clouds at the Bros. that must be jumped over. Her legs also have a passive attack at the end of every turn, in which her legs sweep across the floor in a circular motion. The Bros. must jump at the same time over and over until the spinning stops. She can do this attack with just two tentacles, or three later on in the fight. Her last and rarest attack used by the head after half her HP is depleted requires the legs to be activated. Similar to the head's first attack, she summons six saucers, but she backs up and summons atime hole as well. When all of the saucers are hit, they will be sucked into the time hole and disappear. On a later turn with the legs activated, the time hole will reappear and spit out the saucers in the order they were hit on the earlier turn.

General information[edit]

Physical description[edit]

The elder Princess Shroob resembles her sister, as she is a humanoid Shroob wearing a magenta dress, a silver crown with a black gem in the center, and green earrings (although she has no visible ears). However, she is much bigger and has a muscular body and pointy teeth.

In her second form, the elder Princess Shroob becomes even larger and the gem on her crown is orange instead of black. Her arms have been replaced with four tentacles, and her dress becomes tattered, especially at the bottom, revealing her legs, which consist of many tentacles.

Personality[edit]

The elder Princess Shroob appears too briefly for her personality to be shown in-depth, but her short appearance does give some basic traits of theShroob monarch. The elder Princess Shroob seems to have cared a lot forher sister and swears her life into avenging Princess Shroob's death; indeed, the elder Princess Shroob never makes any mention of her own ambitions for power in-game. However, she still seems to have had many of the bad traitsSuper Mario villains tend to show. She seems to be deceptive and manipulative, as shown by her convincing the Bros. to repair theCobalt Star under the guise of it being a "Star Sprite": she also does not appear to be particularly appreciative and is highly condescending, as she then responds to this favor by promising to bring death to the Bros and insults them repeatedly in the process, referring to them as "foolish mushroom heads." In addition, in spite of the confidence she shows in the Shroobs' abilities during her final speech, she does not show any concern at all for them during her boss battle.

Whenever aShroob saucer performs a task for her, it usually involves the saucers getting mistreated in some form, such as one getting knocked away after the princess drinks a glass ofVim that it brought to her or getting two saucers destroyed by riding on them as she attacks the brothers with energy balls; during her second phase, she is even more destructive, shooting down her own saucers so that they hit the Mario Bros. Nonetheless, she has confidence in the success in the invasion of the Shroobs, as evidenced by her last words to the Mario Bros. where she stated that, even with her defeat, the Shroobs will ultimately be victorious over theMushroom Kingdom, though she is proven wrong afterwards when the Shroobs' weakness to baby tears is discovered.

Statistics[edit]

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy
Princess Shroob (elder, 1)
	HP	3500 (1800)	POW	130 (210)	Defense	130 (150)
	Experience	0	Coins	0	Speed	62 (100)
	Location(s)	Shroob Castle	Role	Boss	Item drop	None – 0% None – 0%
	Level	30 (31)	Battled by	Everyone
Notice:Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release).

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy
Princess Shroob (elder, 2)
	HP	3000 (2000)	POW	140 (230)	Defense	140
	Experience	0	Coins	0	Speed	64 (70)
	Location(s)	Shroob Castle	Role	Boss	Item drop	None – 0% None – 0%
	Level	31	Battled by	Everyone
Notice:Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release).

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy
Crown
	HP	200	POW	140 (0)	Defense	140
	Experience	0	Coins	0	Speed	64 (50)
	Location(s)	Shroob Castle	Role	Support	Item drop	None – 0% None – 0%
	Level	31	Battled by	Everyone
Notice:Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release).

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy
Tentacle
	HP	200 (350)	POW	140 (200)	Defense	140 (126)
	Experience	0	Coins	0	Speed	64 (70)
	Location(s)	Shroob Castle	Role	Support	Item drop	None – 0% None – 0%
	Level	31	Battled by	Everyone
Notice:Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release).

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time enemy
Foot
	HP	400 (500)	POW	140 (190)	Defense	140
	Experience	0	Coins	0	Speed	64 (50)
	Location(s)	Shroob Castle	Role	Support	Item drop	None – 0% None – 0%
	Level	31	Battled by	Everyone
Notice:Stats in parentheses are from the Japanese and European versions (if they differ from the original American release).

Gallery[edit]

• 

  The elder Princess Shroob

• 

  The elder Princess Shroob

• 

  The elder Princess Shroob's final form

• 

  Shrowser with the elder Princess Shroob's ghost

• 

  Shrowser with the elder Princess Shroob's ghost

• 

  The elder Princess Shroob turned into aShroob mushroom

• 

  Toadbert's drawing of the elder Princess Shroob

• 

  Toadbert's drawing cleaned, revealing the youngerPrincess Shroob

• 

  The battle with Shrowser

• 

  Credits scene of the elder Princess Shroob about to fight the Mario Bros.

• 

  The elder Princess Shroob inSuper Mario-kun

• 

  The Elder Princess Shroob inSuper Mario-kun

• 

  Shrowser inSuper Mario-kun

• 

  Shrowser inSuper Mario-kun

• 

  Shrowser inSuper Mario-kun

• 

  Shrowser inSuper Mario-kun

Quotes[edit]

As the "spirit of the Cobalt Star"

• "I am the Star Sprite that lives within the Cobalt Star...I have taped the sacred power of the Hill so that I might speak with you...I think you may have already figured this out, but I hold power to defeat the Shroobs..."
• "However,Princess Shroob also knew this truth. She broke while battling Princess Peach... Mario, Luigi... young babies... You are the last remaining hope to save this kingdom. But please, you must hurry... My pieces must all be brought together once more..."
• "If you collect two of the three shards that still remain... You'll be able to pierce the Shroob barrier the guardsPrincess Peach's castle... And then, when you collect the last shard... You will become heroes of thisland... Now hurry! Collect my remaining shards"
• "I believe there is one shard sleeping within the Star Shrine ahead...For now, this is all the aid I may offer you... We will speak again, of that I am sure..."
• "Ahead... ahead... Something ahead... A strong power beckons... Hurry... Hurry..."
• "Thank you all for everything you've done. Now we must part."
• "All of you, please continue looking forPrincess Peach."
• "In the meanwhile, I will try to ascertain the whereabouts ofPrincess Shroob."

In her true form

• "I LAUGH AT YOU. MUSHROOM HEADS. PATHETIC THINGS."
• "YOU GATHERED THECOBALT STAR SHARDS WITHOUT EVER GUESSING THE TRUTH! NOW I AM FREE! AND THAT HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE COBALT STAR IS NO MORE!"
• "I FEAR NOTHING NOW! DO YOU HEAR ME? NOTHING!"
• "I WILL GIVE YOU A SPECIAL REWARD FOR SETTING ME FREE. YOU WILL LOVE IT."
• "AND MYSISTER... MY DEAR, SWEET, BEAUTIFUL SISTER... I WILL AVENGE HER!"
• "FOOLISH MUSHROOM HEADS... YOU MAY HAVE BESTED ME, BUT SHROOBS WILL LIVE ON... ONE DAY, THE SHROOBS WILL DANCE ON THE BURIED REMAINS OF THIS PATHETIC KINGDOM..."

Names in other languages[edit]

Elder Princess Shroob[edit]

Crown[edit]

Tentacle[edit]

Foot[edit]

Notes[edit]

• In the North American version ofMario & Luigi: Partners in Time, the elder Princess Shroob's crown is given an attack rating, although the crown never actually attacks, as its purpose is to simply protect the princess from damage.^[9] In other versions, this has been corrected, as the crown has a Power rating of 0.
• During her attack where she strikes down her saucers, it is possible for the player to counterattack her attack until her HP reaches zero, and then get killed by the remaining saucers. If this happens, then she does not get defeated, and the player gets aGame Over.
• In the North American version, the ominous background music plays before the battle against the elder Princess Shroob begins. In other versions, the music plays when the elder Princess Shroob appears.
• When the elder Princess Shroob becomes aShroob mushroom, the key item acquisition fanfare plays when Baby Luigi takes it in non-American versions.

References[edit]

• Shroobs
• Princesses
• Final bosses
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time bosses
• Super Mario-kun characters

• Articles with sections to be rewritten
• Articles with unsourced foreign names