Tape
Appears in	Paper Mario: The Origami King (2020)

“HEY! I'm not tacky! I'm STICKY! DAT'S IT! Ya want a piece of me? Well, you're gonna get it!”

—Tape,Paper Mario: The Origami King

Tape's Collectible Treasure in theMusée Champignon.

Tape,The Shifty Sticker, is a member of theLegion of Stationery who guards the end of the purplestreamer and is the boss of theSea Tower inPaper Mario: The Origami King. It is a roll of pressure-sensitive adhesive tape with its labels sportingKing Olly's insignia. In its first phase, it sits in a purple dispenser which also sports King Olly's insignia, which acts as armor in the first phase of its fight. In its second phase, Tape loses the dispenser, but attaches the dispenser blade to itself, and a strand of the tape itself curls into the shape of a pompadour, fitting the Legion member's personality.

Tape speaks with a stereotypical Italian-American Brooklyn accent, often slurring its speech with words like "goil" for girl and "hoits" for hurts. Out of all the members in the Legion of Stationery,Olivia appears to express the most dislike for Tape, describing it as a "no-good, cheating gangster". Tape uses its tape to stick manyToads to the walls of the Sea Tower.

After being defeated by Mario, Tape unconvincingly claims to have turned over a new leaf, dramatically asks King Olly to avenge it, then indifferently replies with "fuhgeddaboudit" before exploding, which removes the tape sticking the Toads to the walls of the Sea Tower.

Tape resembles theTape Thing fromPaper Mario: Sticker Star, though with a purple dispenser rather than a blue one.

Battle[edit]

“Heh heh heh. I got a feelin' dis is gonna be a fun one. C'mon,youtwo! Throw your best attacks at me. We'll see what sticks!”

—Tape,Paper Mario: The Origami King

Any special icons thatMario uses are sent to a specialchest, which initially contains the ON panel, two Attack icons,1,000-Fold ArmsMagic Circle, anextra turn icon, adouble-damage icon, andFire Vellumental Magic Circle spaces. One Attack icon must always be available.

Additionally, Tape is always immune to jumps as it can use Sticky Snag to grab Mario with its adhesive tape and throw him away, dealing 7 damage before anyGuard Plusmodifiers (despite not showing the currently equipped Guard Plus).

Tape begins the battle sitting in its dispenser, using it for its attacks. Dispenser Smack and Dispenser Slam deals 40-45 damage if Mario is standing at the front of Tape on the closest ring, and 30-35 damage if he is standing on the second-closest ring. If he is standing at the back of Tape, the moves deals 30-35 damage on the closest ring and 20-25 on the second-closest. If Mario is in the outer rings, Tape uses Sticky Whip, which deals 27-32 damage on the second-farthest ring and 13-17 on the farthest. Mario needs to destroy the Tape's case by using thehammer ability or the 1,000-Fold Arms to hit the case, and must hit and destroy it from all angles. The Fire Vellumental can be used to lightly damage the whole case.

After the case is completely destroyed, Mario gets a fake victory animation as the Tape vanishes (unless the case is destroyed with the Fire Vellumental).^[1][2] It then falls back down to the arena and summons its dispenser blade, while taunting Mario and Olivia for destroying its case.

Tape with its dispenser blade

In its second phase, Tape's HP is correspondent to its current amount of tape, similar toRubber Band and the Fire Vellumental. However, it is not a hard limit, as normal hammer attacks do not appear to destroy any tape and deal minimal damage capped to 3.Fire Flowers andIce Flowers will also miss Tape entirely.

Prior to lining up the rings, Tape uses Roll Out to cover the arena with tape; generally, two patterns of three pieces of tape (for six pieces total) are used if there was previously no tape on the board, and three pieces are used if there was already tape on the board. Later on, specific patterns involving up to 12 pieces of tape as the Roll Out of an empty board may be used. If enough tape is on the board and depending on how they are placed on the board, it can also recall the sticky tape to heal its HP. This typically occurs after Roll Out been used several times in a row without using the Fire Vellumental. This tape alters the actions Mario can take in shuffling the arena as the two spaces bonded by the same piece of tape must be moved as one, which causes some rings and rows to be moved together. The tape is also unable to slide to the point where it moves to the other side of the board. The Fire Vellumental's ability, however, can be used to burn through the sticky tape, permanently damaging Tape's health.

When Tape attacks, if Mario is close, it uses Sticky Drill, rapidly attacking Mario seven times for 8-10 damage on the closest ring and 7-9 on the second-closest. If Mario is farther away, it uses Sticky Spin, attacking Mario even faster for 6-8 damage on the second-farthest ring and 5-7 on the farthest.

When Mario reaches the appropriate Magic Circle, he can also use a 1,000-Fold Arms attack to flip Tape onto its dispenser blade, and then use a rush attack by pulling out as much tape as he can, heavily damaging it in the process.

After Tape is reduced to 1/5 health, it maycharge up an attack while spinning rapidly, making it infeasible to grab and use the 1,000-Fold Arms attack, and also rendering it immune to hammer strikes. If it is not countered with the Fire Vellumental, it will use Sticky Drill or Sticky Spin twice, with one hit of each dealing 15-20 damage.

Statistics[edit]

Paper Mario: The Origami King enemy
Tape (1)
	HP			180			Moves	Location(s)
	Type			Grounded, Counters Jumps			Dispenser Smack (front: base 40 on closest ring and 30 on second closest, range 5; back: base 30 on closest ring and 20 on second closest, range 5), Dispenser Slam (front: base 40 on closest ring and 30 on second closest, range 5; back: base 30 on closest ring and 20 on second closest, range 5), Sticky Snag (7), Sticky Whip (base 27 on closest ring, 13 on second closest; range 5 on closest, 4 on second closest)	Sea Tower
	Role			Boss
	Item drops			None
							A captain of the Legion of Stationery shock troops. Proud of its purple dispenser. Watch out—it fights dirty!

Paper Mario: The Origami King enemy
Tape (2)
	HP			180			Moves	Location(s)
	Type			Grounded, Counters Jumps			Roll Out, Sticky Drill (base 8 on closest ring, 7 on second closest, range 2; hits 6 times), Sticky Spin (base 6 on second farthest ring, 5 on farthest, range 2; hits 6 times)	Sea Tower
	Role			Boss
	Item drops			None
							A captain of the Legion of Stationery shock troops. Proud of its purple dispenser. Watch out—it fights dirty!

Gallery[edit]

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  Tape's debut before the fight

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  Mario uses the 1,000-Fold Arms on the dispenser

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  Tape binds the battle rings together

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  Mario unravels the Tape

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  TheLegion of Stationery on theOrigami Craftsman's workbench

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Names in other languages[edit]

Tape[edit]

The Shifty Sticker[edit]

References[edit]

• Animate objects
• Paper Mario: The Origami King bosses

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