- no partner characters
- don't earn experience points
- navigate the new land via an overworld map are some of the major changes.
- story starts with the Mushroom Kingdom holding the annual Sticker Fest
- this is to celebrate the arrival of the Sticker Comet
- Bowser breaks the comet into pieces, gets powered-up from the comet and kidnaps Peach
- Mario tries to stop Bowser but is knock out
- when Mario wakes up, he meets Kersti
- Kersti is a flying sentient crown that is the caretaker of the Royal Stickers
- these are the source of the magic behind the Sticker Comet
- Kersti acts as your guide and helps you out with useful info
- the entire town gets rolled up into a giant tube
- Mario has to find and recruit over a couple of dozen Toads to help unravel the city
- Decalburg is one of the main hubs
- talk to towns folk, buy or sell items at the shops, and more
- more town actions open up as you progress
- similar length to past Paper Mario games
- main goal for each level is finding pieces of the destroyed Sticker Comet
- big emphasis on backtracking and exploration
- may not be able to access one path right away until you find whatever you need in a later level
- levels that haven't been fully explored until later will be marked
- some levels you come across will feature pieces of the environment missing
- find the missing item in sticker form and return to that spot to repair the environment
- enter Paperization mode with the Y button
- this is the mode that lets you repair the environment
- stickers are all around you, ready to be collected
- you can hold two pages worth of stickers at first
- get more album pages as you progress
- stickers include jump, hammer, Koopa shell, POW block, spiked defense helmet, fire flower, ice flower and more
- find higher tier stickers as you go
- Example: basic jump causes five damage, the next level jump will cause ten, the next level even more, and so on
- different level of stickers will also change how many timed hits you can perform
- the first level of a sticker allowing you to do only extra damage
- higher tiers allowing you to do multiple strike
- timed damage blocking as well
- attack an enemy with a jump or hammer strike in the normal world before entering the battle phase
- get coins for fighting, completing levels, finishing a match with one move for a perfect bonus, and in the world too.
- one sticker attack per turn
- change that with the Battle Spinner
- this is a match-three slot machine game that you can pull up after spending three coins
- Battle Spinner can net you two or three attacks for one turn duration instead of the one
- bribe the machine with 15 coins to merge the first two rollers so that you get at least two attack slots automatically
- for another 30 coins you can make the slot machine slow down the spinning
- use the Battle Spinner with each turn
- price goes up with each use in each specific battle
- second time you use it will cost you 30 coins to merge the first two rollers, and 50 coins to slow it down
- gain HP by finding HP+ hearts in the world or by helping Toads in need of assistance
- 'Things' are non-papered real world items that you will find in the worl
- these items can be used in the environment, but you can also convert them into stickers that provide you with a powerful attack
- they end up taking up four slots on your album page
- bosses will have weaknesses to a specific Thing
- revisit a level and reacquire a Thing (and stickers) that are placed in the world
- buy them at shops in towns