[Oblivion437]

There are two lazy shells. One is an armor, the other a weapon. Both boast being the best of their types, while sacrificing the abilities of the other (the weapon reducing defensive power significantly, the armor reducing attacking power significantly) but together, they give Mario near-invincibility (a few attacks, like the tank-headed Smithy's Golden Shell of doom, which blows you apart from yourself can still kill you) against pretty much anything.

To get them you need a seed and fertilizer, and you take them to Rose town, bearing Northeast therein, until you find the subsection with only one house. Inside is the gardener, and he uses them to plant a vine in a massive plant. The vine can then be climbed up to a place up in the clouds where you obtain both. Be sure to obtain both, I'm not sure (it's been a while since I've played) but if you don't get them both in the single trip up there, you'll never be able to go back up again (I think the vine goes away) and you'll lose your chance at either the best armor or best weapon in the game.

For fighting Smithy, I suggest you use Princess Toadstool, a through-the-roofed Mario, and either Geno or Mallow, depending on your tastes. Geno is a better attacker physically, so you can always get the best of his talents, but Mallow has better spells, so if you keep up with the FP, he's invaluable. However, those same FP need to be reserved for Toadstool's (incredibly powerful) healing spells.

If you have a full 99, and store 9 Royal Syrups, you'll have a total of 990 FP on hand...

You'll need both Lazy shells (ideally both on Mario) to last against Culex (the guy in Monstro) and beat him. One character will essentially be able to stand up to his attacks indefinitely with those weapons, while dishing out some incredible firepower.

EDIT: Some spelling fixes

Also, I've never needed more than 300 FP to kill anything, even if I was going magic-heavy, so you might want to save those slots (say, six of them) for more fireworks, as that will improve the ending of the game.

[ 08-25-2004, 11:30 AM: Message edited by: Oblivion437 ]