Main characters: The Mario Brothers | Allies (The Princesses) | The Koopa Kingdom (Bowser — Bowser Jr. — The Koopalings — Other High-Ranking Subordinates — Bosses) | Assorted Nasties
RPG characters: Super Mario RPG | Paper Mario (64 — The Thousand-Year Door — Super — Sticker Star — Color Splash — The Origami King) | Mario & Luigi (Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser)
Spinoff series: Yoshi's Island | Luigi's Mansion | Mario Golf | Mario Tennis | Super Mario Maker | Donkey Kong series (Kongs) | Wario series (Wario and Waluigi)
Crossovers: Punch-Out!! | Super Smash Bros. | Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games | Skylanders | Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle | Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Other media: The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach! | Super Mario Bros. (DiC) | Super Mario Bros. (1993) | The Super Mario Bros. Movie
The character page for Luigi's Mansion. Main characters Mario, Luigi, E. Gadd, Toad, and Princess Peach can be found here, here, and here.
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Boos
King Boo
King Boo
Main series
Luigi's Mansion series
"If you hear me laughing, that means you're doomed!"
Debut: Luigi's Mansion
Voiced by: Toru Asakawa (2001-present)
The sadistic king of the Boos, the main antagonist of the Luigi's Mansion series, and the Arch-Enemy of Luigi himself. Initially nothing more than a standard King Mook seeking to defeat the Mario Bros., King Boo was eventually captured and sealed within a painting by Luigi. Upon breaking out years later, King Boo became obsessed with getting revenge on the green plumber for his past humiliation, and now spends his time concocting elaborate, destructive schemes to torture Luigi and Take Over the World.
His depiction in the Luigi's Mansion games has become one of the most recognizable examples of The Ghost King (even providing the page image) and is noted as being one of the darkest and most serious villains in the Super Mario Bros. franchise. His appearances in the main series, however, present him as just another generic enemy who may or may not even be the same character as the King Boo that Luigi regularly faces off with.
- Advancing Boss of Doom:
- During the final fight in Dark Moon, in between fight phases, King Boo will chase Luigi through an obstacle course in an attempt to flatten him. Also serves as a Shout-Out to Indiana Jones.
- On a similar note, Luigi's Mansion 3 has a sequence where he chases Luigi down a hallway.
- He also chases the player character(s) in Super Mario Bros. Wonder and sings opera while doing it.
- Affably Evil: In the first game and the first game only, he treats his minions well and is downright friendly when interacting with Luigi. This completely goes out the window by the time of the second and third games, where any kindness he displays is completely fake.
- All Your Powers Combined: In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, he and his partner Petey Pirahna have no special items of their own, instead having access to every single one that already exist in the game.
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: In all Luigi's Mansion games, he's fought in a floating arena with color effects; the one in Luigi's Mansion is the same as the other bosses from the game, but fiery orange instead of blue/purple.
- Ambiguous Situation: Given the differences in character design, motives, and especially personality, it's unclear if the King Boo in main Super Mario games is meant to be the same as the King Boo in the Luigi's Mansion. At the very least, they do share the same voice.
- Amplifier Artifact: His crown appears to serve as this in each successive game. Starting in Dark Moon and continuing on through.
- And I Must Scream: Has been on both ends of this trope. Trapped Mario in a painting during Luigi's Mansion, gets sealed in a painting himself at the end of the game, and plans to return the favor to Luigi and his friends in Dark Moon and 3. In the remake of Super Mario 64, he also manages to trap Luigi in a mirror.
- Apocalypse How: Attempts either a Class X-4 or Z, opening a Paranormal Portal to flood the world with ghosts, which risks the destroying the universe as well, and comes really, really close to pulling it off.
- Arch-Enemy: Ever since Luigi pulled the old sucker machine on him and his plans, he's developed a locked-on hatred for the man in green. It gets to the point where King Boo genuinely doesn't care if he wins or not, just so long as Luigi loses.
- Ax-Crazy: Based on his appearance and actions in Dark Moon, it's safe to say that his defeat in the first game unhinged him a bit. As 3 seems to show, his defeat in the second game cost him the rest of his sanity.
- Badass Boast: Gives a terrifying one to Luigi when they finally meet face to face in Dark Moon.King Boo: Now who do we have here? Why, if it isn't my old pal Luigi! Or is it Baby Luigi? I can't tell the difference. Hey, remember that time when you trapped me in a painting for all eternity? Good times. But guess what? I got out! And now I'm painting the town red! Yes, it was I who broke the Dark Moon! This power-enhancing jeweled crown of mine made it easy. And now that all the ghosts of Evershade Valley are under my control... it's time to take my rightful place as the supreme ruler of your world! You, that annoying scientist, and all your friends will look great hanging from the wall of my throne room! Aaaaaahahaha!
- Bad Boss: In stark contrast to the first game, by Dark Moon he not only mind controls and experiments on the Evershade Valley ghosts, but also puts his own Boos in harm's way and dismisses them as useless. In 3 he doesn’t treat Hellen Gravely or her hotel staff with any respect (despite Hellen saving him from his prison) and treats them more like tools to getting Revenge on Luigi.
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- Not lasting victories, mind you, but by Luigi's Mansion 3, he has managed to successfully imprison Mario no less than 3 times, and Luigi at least once. He also managed to capture Peach and several Toads as well, but given their track records, this is a much less impressive feat.note
- Luigi's Mansion 3 has a potential example on the Game Over screen: Ever wonder how Luigi and E. Gadd would look as paintings?
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: In Luigi's Mansion, he can actually suck you up like your own vacuum. This is also how he drags you into the fight when you confront him in his lair.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Much like the Boos, he gives off this vibe.
- Best Served Cold: In Dark Moon, he plans to turn Luigi and his friends into paintings. He only mentions Luigi, Mario, the Toads, and Gadd as targets. Whether he has plans to do this to anyone else is... uncertain. He states that he's also after all of their friends, though he doesn't specify which. If you get a Game Over in the third game, he proudly shows off his collection of paintings: Peach, E. Gadd, Mario, and Luigi included.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Don't be fooled by his simple appearance and snarkiness, he's much more dangerous than he looks.
- Big Bad: In all three Luigi's Mansion games; he's the ghost Luigi needs to defeat.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Has one with Hellen Gravely in Luigi's Mansion 3 where they can both be considered the main antagonists since Hellen is on equal footing with King Boo.
- Blow You Away: Utilizes this on Luigi if he tries to enter the Secret Altar prematurely in Luigi's Mansion.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Some background scenes suggest that King Boo is capable of ambushing Luigi several times over the course of Dark Moon, but deliberately passes up the opportunities in favor of just being a vaguely unsettling presence, suggesting that this whole thing is sadistic "fun" to him. Averted in the third game, where he tries to capture Luigi at the beginning of the game.
- Brains and Brawn: The brains to Petey Piranha's brawn. While both are classed as Power type characters in the Mario Baseball series, King Boo's batting stat is not as high as Petey Piranha's, and he has a slightly weaker throwing arm compared to Petey.
- The Bus Came Back: After being left out of the base game's roster, King Boo reappears in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
- The Caligula: From Dark Moon onwards, he doesn't remotely care about his own minions, willingly puts them in harm's way, tortures them, and is very, very insane.
- Cardboard Prison: That painting he was trapped in at the end of Luigi's Mansion? He broke himself out. This was before he found his new crown. Luigi's Mansion 3 subverts this in that Hellen Gravely busted the King out of his new prison.
- The Chessmaster: Masterminded the plot to bring all the ghosts in Evershade Valley under his control in Dark Moon. Especially evident in the opening of E-3, where it makes it plain that he knew the whole time you were spying on him and was spying right back at you.
- Co-Dragons: With Goomboss and Chief Chilly in Super Mario 64 DS, as Bowser has them guard Mario, Luigi, and Wario.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: In Dark Moon, he subjects the ghosts of Evershade Valley to horrific, painful experiments and seeks to trap Luigi in a painting for all eternity.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Bowser in the mainline series. Bowser is an evil tyrant with an enormous ego and hatred for Mario, but his devotion to his minions, deep love and care for his son, and his genuine love for Peach balance out his villainy and prevent him from becoming irredeemable. King Boo however, deems his minions as useless fodder, doesn't care even for his closest partner Hellen Gravely, and is so bent on vengeance he has no problem trying to destroy the universe in an attempt to kill Luigi: a truly monstrous nemesis driven not by power, but spite.
- Cool Crown: His crown in the Luigi's Mansion games is not only fancy looking, it isn't just there for show.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: In the Luigi's Mansion games.
- Cuteness Proximity: His reaction to the Mini Boos in Mario Super Sluggers.
- Deadpan Snarker:"Seriously, though, who would actually believe that mansions get given away in contests?! Talk about stupid! What do they feed you Mario brothers anyway... gullible soup?"
- Death Glare: By the time Luigi's Mansion 3 rolls around, King Boo starts replacing his iconic Slasher Smile for this look, emphasizing not only how serious he is about defeating Luigi this time, but how utterly scary he can be when he's truly pissed off.
- Decomposite Character: His Luigi's Mansion design is labeled as a separate character in Mario Kart Tour which may explain why he acts looks and acts so differently in those games compared to all the other games.
- Depending on the Writer: He's a Knight of Cerebus Big Bad in the Luigi's Mansion series, but a garden-variety King Mook in every other Mario spinoff. This even extends towards his appearance, with King Boo having a much more distinct and sinister design in the Luigi's Mansion games.
- Didn't Think This Through: In his Paper Jam boss, he orders out the Boo holding Paper Mario to use the latter as a hostage. If the bros attack King Boo, he will attack Paper Mario. But nothing’s stopping them from just attacking the boo holding Paper Mario and King Boo doesn’t either harm anyone of them despite warning them to not attack the Boo minion.
- Dirty Coward: In Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, he captures and uses Paper Mario as a hostage during his fight, threatening to hurt him if attacked and following through if he or the minion holding Paper Mario isn't defeated.
- Disproportionate Retribution: His revenge plot in Dark Moon in general counts, as his wrath extends to those who had nothing to do with his imprisonment, such as the Toads he captures. But his prominent act is after Luigi defeats Big Boo. He rips open a Paranormal Portal to unleash an army of ghosts and conquer the universe in retaliation. Forget disproportionate, that's just overkill. Portraiting the entire Last Resort in an attempt to trap only Luigi during the final battle is also disproportionate, though King Boo is (rightfully) frustrated by Hellen Gravely and the hotel staff's failings to capture Luigi.
- Distinctive Appearances: In the Luigi's Mansion series, he stands out among Boos due to his purple eyes, blue tongue, and his crown, obviously.
- Dramatic Irony: Despite Dark Moon not making a flick of effort to hide that King Boo is the Big Bad, Luigi and E. Gadd don't find out until the beginning of E-3.
- Driven to Madness: His repetitive losses against Luigi has driven him to the point where he will do anything to end Luigi, and to top it off he starts frowning in the third game.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the first Luigi's Mansion, like the rest of the Boos in the game, King Boo was translucent and lacked the teeth between his outer fangs. The sequels made him and the Boos opaque and four-toothed, and the fake copies he creates in his boss fight in 3 reference this by having only the outer fangs. King Boo's crown in the first game also had a red gem rather than a purple one like in the later games, and he was depicted far smaller than he would be in the sequels.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The standard characterization for King Boo is that of a loyal subject of Bowser and a high-ranking member of his army, being a prankster or Dirty Coward at most beyond that. His characterization in his debut was as an independent villain with his own forces that at least had connections to Bowser and wanted revenge on the brothers for his race's past defeats. The only other games to follow up on this are the sequels to the original Luigi's Mansion, which develops his original self into a new take on the character.
- Evil Genius: He's among the smartest and most calculating villains in the franchise, able to pull together elaborate schemes and string people along in his plans with terrifying skill.
- Evil Laugh: Has a distinct giggle from most Boos and he laughs constantly. It almost borders on Laughing Mad.
- Evil Overlord: He's the ruler of the Boos and a crazed tyrant who seeks to Take Over the World.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Has a far raspier voice than the other boos with his giggle sounding less playfully mischievous and more outright malevolent.
- Evil Sorcerer: He can whip up a mansion in no time at all.
- Fangs Are Evil: His fangs are as menacing as his face.
- A Father to His Men: One of the few redeemable traits he has is that he genuinely cares for his fellow Boos, even going so far as to stage a rescue for Boolossus when he was captured by E. Gadd prior to Luigi's Mansion. By the time the sequels come around, King Boo has flat-out abandoned this trope entirely, as he never mentions his Boos and puts them in harm's way on at least one occasion in Dark Moon, and he flat-out dismisses his minions as useless in 3.
- Faux Affably Evil: As his interactions with Luigi in Dark Moon and 3 shows, he'll talk to you like your best friend when it's painfully obvious that he despises you with every fiber of his being... until he gets mad enough to drop the act.
- Feed It a Bomb: How to make him vulnerable during his bossfight in 3, by tossing a bomb he throws at Luigi back into his mouth. Complete with a Beat where King Boo realizes what just happened, before spewing flames from his mouth upon the bomb's detonation.
- Final Boss: Of all three Luigi's Mansion games; in the first one, he's got Mario in the very last room in the mansion that Luigi can physically enter. You need 40 captured Boos and the key from Vincent Van Gore to get into this room. In the second, he intercepts Luigi after the last Possessor is defeated and brings him to his own dimension. In the third, he lures Luigi and Mario to the roof with Peach's portrait, and nearly traps all three, E. Gadd, and the Toads in a single portrait, with Luigi only being saved by Polterpup knocking him away.
- Flight: The fact that this gives him an unfair advantage in the spin-offs is lampshaded in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, where he is once again a boss, and does not actually use any skis in the skiing race against him.
- For the Evulz: While King Boo does have a plan, some of the things he does are purely for sadistic kicks.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
- In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, he gives a rather terrifying in-universe example that also works for the players. When you examine the security image before E-3, he turns around within the static image and gives a terrifying Evil Laugh before making the shot fade to static.
- In Luigi's Mansion 3, if you get a Game Over, King Boo admires his gallery of paintings before turning to the camera, implying that he wants to add you to that collection. The pre-final battle cutscene has him getting up close and personal with a frightening scowl etched on his face.
- Game-Over Man: He appears in the game over sequence for Luigi's Mansion 3, taking a second to admire his new paintings before turning to the camera.
- Ghastly Ghost: He's much scarier looking and more psychotic than the average Boo, or even most of the other boss ghosts.
- The Ghost King: Being the King of the Boos, he easily qualifies. He even provides the trope image... and by "trope image", we mean the Luigi's Mansion version of him.
- Giggling Villain: He cackles constantly, especially when scaring Luigi.
- Glacier Waif: In every Mario Kart game where he is a playable character (except Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, which has him as a featherweight), King Boo is on the heavyweight category simply because he is too large for other vehicles. This is downplayed in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where he is in the Cruiser class, the lightest end of the heavyweight category.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes in Luigi's Mansion 3 now have a purple glow. This is important to the final battle; after he clones himself, only the real King Boo will retain the glowing eyes.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Despite his deep hatred of Luigi, he has no issues challenging him to a friendly race in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart Wii, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. In Double Dash!!, you can team up King Boo with Luigi.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Being imprisoned in a painting at the end of Luigi’s Mansion results in him becoming Ax-Crazy and hell bent at Revenge at any cost. Being reimprisoned at the end of Dark Moon costs him most of what’s left of his sanity come 3.
- Hidden Depths: If his Wonder effect in the Super Mario Bros. Wonder level "Light-Switch Mansion" is anything to go by, he can sing like an opera baritone.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Luigi has to hit him with his own summoned spike balls in Luigi's Mansion, and the light cast by his own flames can hurt him if they light nearby candles in Super Princess Peach. In Dark Moon, Luigi must trick him into being hit by his own spiked balls again to vacuum him. In Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi has to fling the bombs he throws back into his mouth.
- Horrifying the Horror: King Boo is perhaps the most malevolent and unhinged villain in the mainline Mario universe. He's also terrified of Wario.
- An Ice Person: When you blow off his Bowser suit's head to reveal King Boo, it starts floating and firing ice balls that can freeze you, something originally intended for Bowser himself in Super Mario 64.
- Inconsistent Dub: In Super Mario 64 DS, he is misnamed "Big Boo", even though there is an existing Big Boo boss in the game. This was corrected in Mario Kart DS, which used only bosses from Super Mario 64 DS in its Mission Mode.
- It's All About Me: While in the first Luigi's Mansion he was motivated by wanting to get revenge on the Mario Bros for the trouble they caused his Boos, after his first defeat and subsequent Sanity Slippage he only cares about himself and his getting his revenge on Luigi and E. Gadd. His value of anything and anyone else is determined by how much they help him accomplish said goal.
- It's Personal: When King Boo and Luigi finally meet face-to-face in Dark Moon, it's quite clear that despite his composure, he really wants Luigi dead. This combines with some Terms of Endangerment to create some really creepy dialogue.King Boo: Hey, if isn't my old pal Luigi. Or is it Baby Luigi? I can't tell the difference. Hey, remember that time when you trapped me in a painting for all eternity? Good times.
- In 3, he comes after Luigi personally at the start of the game and openly declares no mercy on Luigi and just Luigi during the final confrontation, even with Mario and Peach right there.
King Boo: Luigi! What are you doing over there?! UGH! That's it! I'm sick to double death of you! You want to fight me? FINE! Let's go, Luigi! This is the end for you, once and for all! HERE I COME! - Jerkass: Whenever he talks to Luigi, he always throws thinly-veiled insults at the man and he will happily drag along anyone not associated with his vengeance toward Luigi to the grave for his own amusement. From Dark Moon onwards, he's also a Bad Boss to his lackeys, considering them useless and expendable compared to his grand schemes.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Becomes apparent in Dark Moon and gets worse in Luigi's Mansion 3. The first loss lead him to be fixated on beating Luigi to the point that all of his redeemable traits ended up suppressed. After the second loss they vanish completely, being replaced with an absolute obsession with brutal revenge, making him a pure malignant ghost and one of the evilest villains in the Mario Bros. universe.
- Kick the Dog:
- In Dark Moon, he begins torturing his ghostly minions for the sake of experiments, showing that he has devolved into a Bad Boss after the first game. Additionally, he attempts to destroy the universe in a petty attempt to spite Luigi.
- In Luigi's Mansion 3, he calls Hellen Gravely and all of his Boos "worthless" and expresses no concern for their defeats.
- King Mook: Of the Boos, obviously. The same physics for sucking up Boos applies to King Boo through all the Luigi's Mansion games (except for the Boo Radar in the first game, which for some reason does nothing when you're in his presence). Yes, even the third game, where Boos have to be defeated by slamming them into the ground.
- Knight of Cerebus: Becomes this in Dark Moon. His Laughably Evil tendencies are greatly toned down, his wit is far sharper while his snarkiness is more restrained, and he becomes downright terrifying with more destructive ambitions.
- Large and in Charge: Played with. On his own he's much larger than almost all other Boos, particularly in the sequels, but even larger conglomerations of Boos such as Boolossus still follow him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In every Luigi's Mansion game, he traps Mario in a painting and attempts to do the same to Luigi. At the end of every Luigi's Mansion game, he ends up trapped in a similar manner, either within another painting or trapped in E. Gadd's containment units. For an added bit of irony, at the end of the third game, he winds up stuck right next to his Loony Fan that he previously derided as "useless", much to his annoyance.
- Laughably Evil: In the first Luigi's Mansion, where he has a very dry wit and his plans are somewhat comedic. This is downplayed in the sequels when he becomes a Knight of Cerebus, but his childish insults towards Luigi in the second game and frustration with Hellen Graveley in the third still provide some laughs.
- Load-Bearing Boss: The titular mansion in the first game disappears altogether when King Boo is captured.
- Mad Scientist: Dark Moon sees him beginning to perform sadistic experiments on other ghosts to make them more powerful.
- Manipulative Bastard: Turns all benevolent ghosts that he encounters evil, often through mind control, including the horned Possessors of Evershade Valley and most of the staff at the Last Resort.
- Mask of Sanity: He acts calm and collected all of the time, and he probably actually is in the original Luigi's Mansion, but the facade becomes noticeable after his first defeat; it's shown in Dark Moon that underneath his calm, yet frightening appearance is an insane, unfettered monster. By the end he's steadily breaking down, which becomes especially apparent in his boss fight, in which the background and music start becoming fast-paced and erratic. After his second defeat his Sanity Slippage gets even worse, with him putting up appearances for the most part at the start of 3, but then dropping it entirely by the game's end when attempting to take everyone else down with him just to ensure Luigi loses. That and judging by the constant scowling and glaring at the camera by the end of 3 whatever sanity he had or was faking is long gone.
- Master of Illusion: A rare case of this trope overlapping with Reality Warper. The final level in Dark Moon is called King Boo's Illusion, a pocket dimension he created that he has total control over. He can produce items, furniture, even entire buildings composed of his willpower, but without his support or that of his pack of Boos they disappear.
- Meaningful Background Event: He appears all throughout Dark Moon, carrying out his plans in the literal backgrounds of the levels. Unfortunately, Luigi and E. Gadd are so busy cleaning up his messes that they fail to notice him until it's too late.
- Monster Suit: Uses a biological-looking one modeled after Bowser in the final battle in Luigi's Mansion.
- Motive Decay: In the first game, his primary goal was to ensure the freedom of his fellow Boos by freeing Boollossus and capturing Mario and Luigi to prevent them from attacking his subjects. From Dark Moon onward, however, any and all care for his subjects has completely evaporated, and all he cares about anymore is taking revenge on Luigi.
- Never My Fault: He despises Luigi for trapping him in a portrait in the first Luigi's Mansion, ignoring the fact that Luigi only trapped him in self-defense when King Boo was holding his brother hostage and trying to kill him.
- Nightmare Face: At least in the Luigi's Mansion games. It's quite an accomplishment to make something as adorable as a Boo scary. He gets even more unnerving when he's scowling.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis:
- Adopts this attitude in Dark Moon after his defeat in the first game, and man does it make him look terrifying. However, he still engages in some Bond Villain Stupidity by remaining content with just stalking and watching Luigi for most of the game.
- It definitely carries on to Luigi's Mansion 3, and is actually developed even further. One of the first scenes of the game shows he's actively trying to shove Luigi into a portrait rather than toying around with him like in Dark Moon, even chasing the Poltergust-less Luigi down a hallway — there's no Bond Villain Stupidity going on this time — and the Game Over sequence has him succeed in doing so.
- Odd Friendship: With Petey Piranha in most of the sports games as King Boo is a cunning sadist, and Petey is a dumb brute. According to Mario Super Sluggers, he's also friends with King K Rool.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Towards the end of Dark Moon, he attempts to tear apart the entire universe just to spite Luigi for messing up his plans.
- Overly-Long Tongue: One of his attacks in 3 is extending his tongue to swipe at Luigi, and it's long enough to stretch from one end of the stage to the other.
- Paint the Town Red: Says this is word-for-word when describing his plan for the Mushroom Kingdom at the end of Dark Moon.
- Perpetual Smiler: In the first two games, King Boo has a massive Slasher Smile plastered on his face at all times. This is averted in the third game, where he now sports an additional Death Glare with a frown.
- Phantom-Zone Picture: He initially seeks to trap Mario and Luigi in paintings to protect his Boos. In the sequels, he continues to pursue this goal, albeit solely for revenge after Luigi gave him a taste of his own medicine.
- Playing with Fire:
- His Bowser suit in Luigi's Mansion can breathe fire; getting hit has the same effect as a bomb ghost.
- He attacks Peach with homing blue flames in Super Princess Peach.
- In 3, one of his attacks has his crown shoot fireballs.
- Promoted to Playable: Played With: King Boo has usually been playable in Mario Kart games, but usually using his spinoff appearance. Mario Kart Tour is the first game to feature his distinct Luigi's Mansion design as a potential racer, alongside his usual design.
- Psycho Electro: It's no coincidence that Dark Moon is the game in which King Boo both uses electricity and has completely lost it.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the leader of the Boos simply because he's bigger and stronger than the others. He managed to escape from E. Gadd's painting, on his own. When he returns in Dark Moon, he manages to destroy the dark moon and take over... seconds after showing up there. He also fights Luigi one-on-one as the Final Boss this time, instead of fighting in a giant Bowser suit.
- Reality Warper: He is capable of using dark magic to create trippy illusions and screw with (or outright destroy) the fabric of reality.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In some appearances.
- Remember the New Guy?: In Luigi's Mansion, he tries to take revenge on the Mario Bros. for a number of past defeats. This was his first appearance in the series, though he retroactively appears in Super Mario 64 DS as another Big Boo. He also doesn't mention personal defeats in Luigi's Mansion, just the number of times the Bros. have beaten up on Boos.
- Revenge: The whole plot of Dark Moon and 3 is his revenge against Luigi and his friends for his defeat in Luigi's Mansion.
- Revenge Before Reason: Arguably his Fatal Flaw. King Boo is so bent on getting revenge on Luigi that his plans often backfire because of it, whether due to him toying with Luigi too much or throwing Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrums that would render his victories pointless.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His boss battles at the end of the second and third games are this, as he completely forgoes his usual trickery in favor of just flat-out trying to kill Luigi in fits of rage.
- Sanity Slippage: His debut appearance portrayed him as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wanted to protect his fellow Boos. His appearance in the sequel, however, shows his defeat has turned him into an unfettered, sadistic, no-nonsense, completely revenge-obsessed sociopath who will do whatever it takes in his mad quest for revenge. His return in the third game makes this even worse, as he seems to have devolved further to the point of becoming an outwardly sinister lunatic who immediately starts menacing Luigi with a painting and chasing him through a hallway in a fit of rage.
- Self-Duplication: In his second phase in 3, he makes a copy of himself, and in the third makes two. Needless to say, they are used to increase the volume of King Boo's attacks.
- Shock and Awe: His crown in Dark Moon and 3 can fire purple lightning bolts.
- Slasher Smile: His default expression, the moments where it slips only make it more intimidating as well. The teeth help.
- The Sociopath: In his debut, he showed care for his fellow Boos and worked to protect them. In the sequel, however? He's perfectly willing to eliminate anyone and anything in his path for revenge, and despite having to know by the final battle with him that Luigi's captured at least some Boos (and likely having known beforehand), he never mentions them and only talks about how he will make Luigi and Gadd pay dearly. 3 plays with this, but ultimately it's played straight in that he does care that Luigi sucked up several ghosts when going through the hotel, but only because he hates the fact that Luigi managed to progress and foiled his plans in the process rather than because he actually cared about the ghosts' safety and in the same scene, he dismisses Hellen Gravely and all of the other ghost staff as "useless" for failing to capture Luigi. It becomes even more abundantly clear as Hellen is shown to be a huge fan-girl of King Boo, clearly admires him a lot, and even was the one who freed him from his portrait yet he still pays absolutely zero attention to her and shows no affection or care towards her whatsoever.
- Sorcerous Overlord: Rules the first game's mansion where Mario is held prisoner. He also has his own pack of Boos under his direct command, though their numbers vary.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: He does this twice.
- In Dark Moon he tears open a portal to the paranormal dimension, which risks destroying the fabric of the universe, in a desperate attempt to kill Luigi, consequences towards himself be damned.
- In 3 he doesn't try anything quite as extravagant but in the final battle he tries to capture the entire Last Resort, which would include himself, in a giant painting in order to finally catch Luigi.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: In the first game, when he throws spiked balls, you have to suck them up and fire them back at his suit's face when you can reach it to force King Boo out so you can suck him up. He hasn't learned from this in the second and third games.
- Take Over the World: In Dark Moon, King Boo claims that this is his goal, but it's made very clear that he's more interested in revenge against Luigi. Ruling the world or collapsing the fabric of the universe would just be a fun side effect.
- Taking You with Me: In Luigi's Mansion 3, King Boo attempts this in the final phase of his boss fight by enlarging the portrait that Mario and co. are trapped in enough to seal the entire hotel, just to get Luigi. King Boo is still in the portrait's collision course, meaning that he doesn't care if he's trapped inside if Luigi is trapped in it too.
- Terms of Endangerment: Gives quite a few to Luigi in Dark Moon. Anyone who is not a Boo whom he addresses in a friendly manner should be taken as this.
- Took a Level in Badass: In Luigi's Mansion, his power was directly proportionate to the number of Boos in the vicinity. When Luigi captured them all, it weakened him to the point where he had to use a life-like puppet of Bowser to fight. His crown in Dark Moon, however, negates this handicap, allowing him to fight Luigi one-on-one with his own power and giving him new abilities such as calling down lightning strikes, summoning spiked balls, creating illusions, etc. "Fight you like a true Boo" indeed. Taken further in the third game, where he attacks with his extended tongue, fireballs and duplicates, and can conjure up portrait frames that immediately trap their target; even enhancing the size of one in an attempt to trap the entire hotel in a painting.
- This also extends to King Boo's schemes, which get more intricate and more thought-out in each game. In the first Luigi's Mansion, he created a mansion and lured Mario inside, and used his own Boos and E. Gadd's recently-freed portrait ghosts to keep Luigi distracted. In the second game, King Boo kidnaps Mario in secret, and operates behind the scenes so that Luigi and E. Gadd don't suspect he was the one behind everything until the very end. In the third game, King Boo lures everybody (including Peach and the Toads) to a hotel so that he can kidnap them all in their sleep, immediately goes after Luigi before he can find anything to defend himself with, and subsequently locks him inside so that he can never truly escape. He also goes out of the way to capture E. Gadd before anyone else so that he can't assist Luigi straight away.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He was no saint in his debut appearance, but he still cared about his fellow Boos, with him beginning the entire plot by rescuing Boolossus from E. Gadd's gallery and trying to capture Mario and Luigi as payback for all of the Boos they attacked during their adventures. Come Dark Moon, he doesn't display any concerns about his fellow Boos or anything else, only caring about getting revenge on Luigi for his previous defeat. He keeps this up with his newly aquired minions in 3 going even further to the point of deeming them all worthless for their failures.
- Tranquil Fury: His interaction with Luigi in Dark Moon is a perfect example. Despite his pleasant demeanor to Luigi, you can tell he's seething with rage on the inside. He mostly drops the "tranquil" part in the third game, openly making threats and taking swipes with furious anger.
- Unexplained Recovery: It took two console-generations worth of games to answer how he managed to escape from the painting at the end of Luigi's Mansion.
- The Unfettered: Dark Moon shows that King Boo has no limits to his insane desire for revenge. He'll sacrifice anyone and anything. His Boos, other ghosts, even the fabric of the universe itself! Nothing is beneath him as long as Luigi and E. Gadd suffer. In the final battle of 3 he tries to imprison the entire Last Resort (himself included) in a painting just to catch Luigi.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Hellen Gravely frees him and shows him nothing but Undying Loyalty (with a pinch of obsession). King Boo not only shows her little respect, seeing her as a tool at best, but dismisses her as useless for her failures to catch Luigi after Hellen is defeated.
- Unstoppable Rage: His ever-present grin finally drops in Luigi's Mansion 3, chasing down Luigi with a look of sheer anger on his face and knocking down anything in his way. In the final battle, all his patience with Luigi is lost and he opts to just kill him.
- Viler New Villain: Unlike Bowser, a fairly goofy villain whose crimes usually don't get much worse than the usual princess-kidnapping and world domination, King Boo is a dead serious threat who seeks to trap Mario and Luigi in a Fate Worse than Death and is willing to completely destroy the universe out of spite.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: As of Dark Moon, he definitely falls into this category. He was pefectly willing to shatter the Dark Moon and break the minds of innocent ghosts and later having his Boos experiment on them to make them stronger and more vicious, effectively making them all unwitting pawns in his mad scheme. When Luigi defeats Big Boo, he rips open a Paranormal Portal to unleash an army of ghosts, which may also endanger their home dimension, which puts him practically on par with Dimentio in terms of evil.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- In Dark Moon, E. Gadd states that King Boo "flipped out" after Big Boo's defeat and opened a Paranormal Portal to unleash an army of ghosts as a desperate act to slow Luigi down. King Boo's breakdown is further exacerbated after Luigi defeats the Tough Possessor and makes off with the final piece of the Dark Moon. King Boo then intercepts the Pixelator and pulls him back into his illusion. The breakdown continues as the fight wears on, the music and the illusion becoming more erratic and unstable as he nears defeat.
- In Luigi's Mansion 3, King Boo becomes increasingly angered with both the failures of the Last Resort staff and Luigi's progress through the hotel. When King Boo confronts Luigi and the recently-freed Mario and Peach on the hotel roof, he's constantly scowling, threatening Luigi and co. while getting up close with the camera, declares he's done with showing Luigi mercy, then follows up by shredding the Lab and trapping E. Gadd and the Toads in a single painting with a deranged smile. When Polterpup saves Luigi from becoming a portrait with Mario and Peach, and King Boo realises it, he turns to Luigi, giving him the Death Glare to end all others. When Luigi starts getting the upper hand, King Boo uses his powers to enlarge the portrait and tries to use it on the entire Last Resort. This includes the hotel's remaining staff, Luigi, and King Boo himself.King Boo: UGH! That's it! I'm sick to double death of you! You want to fight me? Fine! Let's go, Luigi! This is the end for you, once and for all! Here I come!
- Visible Invisibility: His reflection can be seen in the mirror in the background in Super Mario 64 DS.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the first game, he seemed to genuinely care for the other Boos. In the sequel, however, once he has been personally humiliated by losing to Luigi, he drops this entirely and just becomes a purely spiteful and sociopathic monster from that point onwards.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Completely disappears from the plot of Dark Moon after the Final Battle. Luigi collects his crown, but it doesn't count for money. Luigi's Mansion 3 would reveal that he was once again imprisoned in a painting after his previous defeat.
- Worth It: His overall mindset when it comes to defeating Luigi. It doesn't matter if there's no universe left to rule or if he himself is obliterated in the process; as long as Luigi goes down with him, it's a victory in his book.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: His plan to fight Luigi by imitating Bowser was good on paper since Bowser is so strong. But while Luigi is scared of Bowser, he's had years of experience defeating him and destroys the fake. King Boo clearly learns from this, because in the next 2 games, he decides to fight Luigi using his own skills and powers.
- You Don't Look Like You:
- In the first Luigi's Mansion game, he looks distinct from other Boos, with gleaming purple (originally red) eyes, Creepy Shadowed Undereyes, a blue tongue, and a fancy red-diamond crown, while later Luigi's Mansion games make him much larger and give him a purple tongue and crown. In other games, he just looks like a larger Boo and has a more traditional-looking crown. It wasn't until Mario Kart Tour that his Luigi's Mansion appearance was used in a non-Luigi's Mansion game. Dark Moon initially seemed to reconcile this by having King Boo explain that his jeweled crown enhances his powers… only for the ending of Luigi's Mansion 3 to show that King Boo still looks exactly the same without his crown, leaving the entire situation unresolved.
- His appearance in Super Mario Sunshine looks nothing like either of his appearances in other games, having massive blue pupils that take up his entire eye sockets and a comically large mouth with an even comically larger tongue sticking out (with some drool for extra measure). A guide book released over a decade later would confirm that the King Boo in Sunshine is a different character altogether.
- You Have Failed Me: By Luigi's Mansion 3, it becomes clear that his patience is wearing thin, as he gets increasingly dissatisfied with the efforts of Hellen Gravely's staff.
- Your Size May Vary: In some games, including the first Luigi's Mansion, he is the same size as a normal Boo, but in others, he's larger. In Dark Moon, he's an outright Sizeshifter, and in Luigi's Mansion 3, he's practically the same size as his minion Boolossus, who appears as the boss in the ScareScraper.
Boolossus
Boolossus
That scaredy-cat Luigi has made it this far... Oh, we're so frightened! I guess it's our turn, then... All right, Boos, let's assume our real form... But first, how about giving him a little scare!
The Jumbo Ghost. The third boss ghost to fight and the sixteenth Portrait Ghost fight. In Japanese, Boolossus is the Big Boo fought in the Treacherous Mansion of Dark Moon, and Boolossus returns as the rooftop boss of the ScareScraper in 3.
- Asteroids Monster: It's a massive Boo made up of 15 smaller Boos and he is defeated by dispatching the composite Boos until he has none left to re-form with.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: The unicorn statues, which are used to split him so you can freeze and suck up the individual Boos.
- Composite Character: In the English version of the games, where Boolossus was not the Big Boo in Dark Moon, his appearance in 3 has elements of both, being identified as Boolossus from the first game but having the burrowing attack that the Big Boo used in Dark Moon.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Similar to King Boo, though it's purplish rather than black.
- The Dragon: To King Boo. Its capture is what leads King Boo to release the Portrait Ghosts. In 3, Boolossus' battle is built mostly like King Boo's as well, showing them to have very similar powers.
- King Mook: Boolossus is just a really, really big Boo.
- Punny Name: Like every Boo in the mansion, this one being a portmanteau of "Boo" and "colossus."
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: He's a Boo with yellow eyes.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: In 3, Boolossus spits out bombs that will pop him into his composite Boos when shot back into his mouth, giving the opponent Luigis their one opening to attack him.
- Time-Limit Boss: In 3, which is a consequence of being fought in the ScareScraper. Given that the fight is structured around multiple players being able to dispatch him much quicker since his small Boos give a narrow window to be sucked up, the time limit is a pretty generous 10 minutes to account for smaller teams.
- You Don't Look Like You: The Big Boo fought in Dark Moon is actually said to be Boolossus in the Japanese version of the game. However, it noticeably lacks Boolossus's undershadowed, glowing eyes. It has them back as the boss of the ScareScraper in 3, though.
Boo Minions
- Adorable Evil Minions: Especially in Dark Moon and 3, given that the Boos have adorable voices. Doesn't stop them from carrying out mischievous deeds though.
- Attack the Mouth: In Dark Moon and 3, Luigi has to vacuum up their tongues first before properly dealing damage to them.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Luigi has to collect most, if not all, of the Boos in order to decrease King Boo's power enough to stand a chance against him. You need 5 to get the Toad in the first floor washroom, who has the key to Clairvoya's room, to let you in, you need 20 to banish the "mysterious power of the Boos" that guards the door to the Area 3 boss room, the third floor balcony, and 40 total to reach the door to the final boss; getting all 50 awards Luigi with a Gold Diamond, the most valuable treasure in the game.
- Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball: Pulling on their tongues and releasing in Dark Moon will make them ricochet all over the room.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: They're explicitly said to be different from other ghosts. They show this mechanically by being much more resistant to the Poltergust than normal ghosts, requiring more unique methods to be defeated and captured.
- Punny Name: Roughly every Boo has a word or name with "Boo" in it. One's even named after Luigi (Booigi).
Ghosts of the Mansion
The ghosts in Luigi's Mansion.
Regular Ghosts
In General
- Art Initiates Life: All of the non-animal ghosts are paintings brought to life by Vincent Van Gore. Capturing him stops them from appearing in the remaining dark hallways.
- The Hyena: They all maniacally laugh in specific ways, usually just after successfully landing a hit on Luigi.
- Jump Scare: Most of them make their entry by suddenly appearing behind Luigi and roaring at him.
- Money Spider: There are certain types of ghosts that drop large amounts of cash (the Speedy Blue Spirits and Golden Mice).
- Not Always Evil: While these ghosts don't turn friendly at the end of the game unlike the ghosts in the sequels, E. Gadd does send a friendly Speedy Spirit to sample the new Starbeans blends in their cameo in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Some behave exactly like ghost versions of animals (bats, mice), whereas others are monsters of various shapes that came from Van Gore's paintings.
- Perpetual Smiler: Most of them have big smiling faces that don't change even as they're being sucked up.
- Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: All of them tend to have bright yellow eyes and love nothing more than causing misfortune for Luigi.
Gold Ghosts
Gold Ghosts
- Fragile Speedster: Speedy Spirits are extremely quick to escape, but are still stuck with 10 HP and they are too cowardly to retaliate.
- The Goomba: They're the most basic form of ghost, and pretty easy to catch, as they only have 10 HP.
- Metal Slime: Speedy Spirits drop a lot of cash when they get vacuumed up. They're always hiding in furniture in dark rooms though and won't appear if the lights are already on.
- Playing with Fire: Temper Terrors. Their flames can be snuffed out with water, which will continue to damage them if you keep spraying them.
Purple Punchers
Purple Punchers
- Glass Cannon: They are quicker than the Gold Ghosts and deal a decent amount of damage, but they only have 20 HP and are vulnerable after they miss an attack.
- An Ice Person: Flashes have to have their icy hearts thawed before they can be stunned, and take damage from fire.
Blue Twirlers
Blue Twirlers
- The Brute: They're huge, they use brutish force, and have a lot of health.
- Making a Splash: Blue Blazes' watery hearts have to be frozen first. Ice will continue to lower their health if you keep blasting them.
- Mighty Glacier: They don't move quickly, but their Shockwave Stomps cover a large area and deal a lot of damage to Luigi. They also have 30 HP, making them take longer to catch, and flashing them only freezes them instead of making them disappear.
- Shockwave Stomp: They put their oversized fists to good use, slamming the floor to create shockwaves.
Grabbing Ghosts
Grabbing Ghosts
- Hell Is That Noise: Unlike the cackling ghosts above, these ones make high-pitched grunts
when coming to or grabbing you. - Mirror Monster: The blue variations in the Mirror Room are only visible in the room's main gimmick. The purple ones in the Projection Room are worse, as you can only see their shadow on the projector.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Their blue and purple variations are the only Mooks who can actually make themselves invisible, forcing you to have a sharp ear and precise controls to catch them.
- Personal Space Invader: As implied by their names. They need to be shaken off if they manage to grab a hold of you. The first ones you meet in the downstairs bathroom are white and only restrain you (they're only a danger if other ghosts are in the room with them), but the red ones drain hitpoints and money when they latch on. There are also invisible ones in the mirror room and projection room which are like the red grabbers.
- Weak, but Skilled: They are slow are don't do much damage, but they always attack in groups, meaning that they can quickly decrease Luigi's health bar wear and tear.
Ghost Guys
Ghost Guys
- The Faceless: Even moreso than the usual Shy Guys, lacking eyeholes. That said you have to remove their masks to render them vulnerable to the flashlight, though it only reveals a pair of glowing eyes under the hood indicating that they may literally be faceless.
- Kill It with Fire: If you don't want to bother taking their masks off and then capturing them the regular way, you can blast them with fire until they melt away. Aside from the Flashes, they are the only ghosts in the game with this vulnerability.
Mr. Bones
Mr. Bones
- Dem Bones: Skeletal ghosts found in the Boneyard, Graveyard, and Telephone Room (second trip in after the lights come back on). The ones in the yards are mandatory fights (to be able to capture Spooky, the ghost dog, so you can enter the Graveyard, and then to be able to fight the second boss ghost, Bogmire).
Garbage Can Ghosts
Garbage Can Ghosts
- Banana Peel: They weaponize these, tossing them out to trip up Luigi. It's their only attack and it only does a weak five points of damage, but it can break Luigi's hold when he's wrangling a ghost. When they show up alongside other ghosts... watch your feet!
- Green and Mean: Their skin is a dark green tone and they love to send Luigi tumbling.
- Shout-Out: Their design and habit of eating, on top of their green color and yellow eyes, make them look a lot like Slimer. They're also vaguely Kong-like and love bananas.
- Stone Wall: These fellows have the highest health out of all the normal enemies, beating out the 30 health points of the Blue Twirlers with a whopping 40, and are quick to escape whenever flashed. However, they have a more supportive than offensive role, mainly contributing by throwing banana peels on the ground so Luigi slips on them while catching their friends.
Ceiling Surprises
Ceiling Surprises
- Glass Cannon: The Purple Bombers deal a lot of damage with their bombs, but they are extremely easy to catch as they have 0 HP.
- Peek-a-Bogeyman: The white Ceiling Surprises as their name implies exist solely to Jump Scare Luigi. Averted with the Purple Bombers who actually try to hurt Luigi with their bombs.
- Troll: The white Ceiling Surprise ghosts do nothing but scare Luigi and laugh about it.
Bowling Ghosts
Bowling Ghosts
- Improbable Weapon User: Bowling balls that they apparently pull out of their mouths and then toss at Luigi, making them similar to Spikes from Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Too Dumb to Live: As they're programmed to appear in specific areas of corridors, they can appear in Luigi's flashlight, making them catchable before they have a chance to attack.
Waiters
Waiters
- Harmless Enemy: The only ghosts that never try to antagonize Luigi, at worst bumping into him as they try to deliver food to Mr. Luggs.
- Pet the Dog: As explained below, you can fight Mr. Luggs before catching them, letting them a chance to escape their cruel master.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If you completely suck up the food on Mr. Luggs' plate without sucking them up first, they flee in terror to escape his wrath.
- Unique Enemy: Only two of them appear in the entire game and only in the Dining Room.
Small Ghosts
Small Ghosts
Tiny ghost creatures that are easily popped into Luigi's vaccuum: Mice, which scurry across floors and walls; Bats, which swoop down from the ceiling; Flying Fish, which constantly dart around the air; Sparks, which self-destruct when sucked up or left alone; Shining Ghosts, which Luigi must fire at the moon in the Observatory; and Elemental Ghosts, which start appearing after specific elemental medals are acquired and can be sucked up to grant the Poltergust 3000 elemental abilities.
- Metal Slime: The Gold Mice which drop a lot of cash if successfully caught. They only appear in dark areas, with half of them spawning from examining wedges of cheese.
Portrait Ghosts
Boss ghosts captured in portraits in Luigi's Mansion. In General
- Early-Bird Cameo: You can find paintings of Neville, Lydia, Mr. Whirlinda, Nana, and Vincent Van Gore when they were alive in the first room you unlock in the mansion. It's even possible they are the ghosts who taunt you in that room when you return with the Poltergust.
- Jerkass: You'd feel a lot worse about sucking up a bunch of ghosts who are mostly minding their own business if they weren't so unpleasant and even downright sadistic. Madame Clairvoya is the only one to avert this.
- Red Baron: They all have some sort of title describing who and what they are.
- Reluctant Monster: Downplayed. None of the human-born ghosts attack you when you first encounter them aside from Neville, and even then, it's ambiguous if he's directing the books or they're attacking on their own. The rest only start attacking once you anger them in some fashion, be that as petty as being accused of cheating at hide and seek to sending them into a nervous breakdown over a phobia, or physically attacking them first. That being said, their thoughts indicate they're all varying degrees of Asshole Victim, outside of Madame Clairvoya.
Neville
Neville
Room: Study
Ho ho ho ho... Go ahead, try to find me. I can see you, but you cannot see me, ho ho ho ho...
Neville spends his afterlife reading all the books he missed while living.
The Bookish Father. The first Portrait Ghost fight.
- Bookworm: Found in the library. According to his bio he's reading all the books he missed while alive.
- Irony: His comments on how Luigi can't see him are exposed to the reader while examining his heart — as in, while Luigi can see him.
- Throw the Book at Them: His only mode of attack when fought, unless you sucked them up already.
- Warm-Up Boss: Being the first of the portrait ghosts, he serves as a way to teach the player the basics of taking on portrait ghosts, since he has an easy to deal with attack, a simple method of exposing the heart, and an easy to manage pull when vacuuming him up.
Lydia
Lydia
Room: Master Bedroom
Isn't my hair just gorgeous? Of course, I do spend a lot of time on it.
She's stashed her secret savings away to prepare for her long afterlife.
The Mirror Gazing Mother. The second Portrait Ghost fight.
- Monster Is a Mommy: A variant — after defeating Lydia, the player is treated to a cutscene with Chauncey crying from the next room, which is also the boss room of Area 1 (the cutscene doesn't play if you use Lydia's mirror to warp back to the foyer).
- Narcissist: Aside from the usual ghostly lack of empathy towards the living, she's so wrapped up in herself that she traded an eternity of sitting in a portrait for an eternity of sitting in front of a mirror brushing her hair. The wind from outside disturbing her hair is the only way to distract her and make her vulnerable.
- Vanity Is Feminine: Female, and spends the entirety of her afterlife looking in a mirror.
Chauncey
Chauncey
Room: Nursery
Horsey... rocky... horsey...
He cries loudly and never sleeps through the night, but since he was born a ghost, this seems natural.
The Spoiled Baby. The first boss ghost fight and third Portrait Ghost fight.
- Enfant Terrible: A baby ghost who asks Luigi to play when he shakes his rocking horse (even going so far as to lock Luigi in his nursery). This involves throwing things at him and trying to belly-flop onto him.
- Goo-Goo-Godlike: This baby ghost is the first boss fight.
- Reality Warper: Shrinks Luigi down to an incredibly tiny size and transports him to a bizarre plane of reality located on his crib for the boss fight.
- Spoiled Brat: As implied by his naming. He throws reality warping temper tantrums if his demands aren't met.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: One of his attacks involves tossing giant balls at Luigi in an attempt to crush him. Luigi can then use the one ball that remains to hit him (which is also how you get into the boss fight when you wake Chauncey). This does not discourage Chauncey from using the attack.
- Undead Child: According to his bio, he was never alive to begin with, being born to Neville and Lydia many years after they'd already died. It's implied that this is why he's so powerful compared to most other portrait ghosts.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Chauncey is the first real test of Luigi's ghost-catching skills.
The Floating Whirlindas
The Floating Whirlindas
Room: Ball Room
Let's show him how we dance...
Once the local waltz champions, they can no longer compete since their feet don't touch the floor.
The Dancing Couple. The fourth Portrait Ghost fight.
- The Dead Can Dance: Although, as their feet don't touch the ground it's largely just spinning in a circle.
- Ghostly Glide: Only notable in that this is the reason why they’re no longer allowed to compete in dancing competitions.
- Happily Married: They share a heart.
Shivers
Shivers
Room: Butler's Room
Ah, the beautiful Melody will not even give me the time of day...
He wanders the house, endlessly searching for his master's will. He hopes he's included in it!
The Wandering Butler. The fifth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Dirty Old Man: He's 72 and has a crush on the 26-year-old Melody. Downplayed as he isn't shown to be perverted to her, and tries to court her nobly.
- Hopeless Suitor: Outside of the obvious age difference, he's a butler while she seems to be from some kind of intellectual bourgeoisie.
- Weaksauce Weakness: He's terrified of fire so much that he runs at the mere sight of it. Lighting the candlestick in his hand terrifies him and drives him to his room, where you can capture him.
Melody Pianissima
Melody Pianissima
Room: Conservatory
My name is Melody. People call me the spectral beauty of the ivory keys!
Despite playing moving melodies, she has a surly disposition. Oddly enough, she loves video games.
The Beautiful Pianist. The sixth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Affably Evil: Downplayed. She's got a nasty temper and her two heart quotes portray her as arrogant in her skill and dismissive of Luigi based solely on his physical appearance. Still, she warms up to him quickly when she realizes he has some skill in music and is rather polite towards him so long as he doesn't push her Berserk Button.
- The Beautiful Elite: Played with. A master pianist renowned for her beauty and skill and garbed in elegant clothes, but harboring both an obsession with video games and a foul temper.
- Berserk Button: She's a massive fan of games, and if you can't recognize which game tunes she's playing on her piano, she throws a tantrum, banging on the keys with her fists. She'll then promptly disappear, and you'll have to leave the room, come back in, and replay the instruments to talk to her again.
- Elegant Classical Musician: She's called the Beautiful Pianist for a reason.
- Gamer Chick: The melodies she plays are from various Mario games.
- Meaningful Name: Melody refers to the main line of music in a composition, and Pianissima is a reference to pianissimo (to play softly). That last name is also an Ironic Name, since Mme. Pianissima is prone to banging loudly on the piano keys.
- Mini-Boss: The first to appear in the game (and surprisingly the only one with a unique Battle Theme Music). After you answer her question, she will throw music sheets in a last-ditch attempt to defeat Luigi. She becomes an easy target afterwards, though.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Pulls one of these off if Luigi correctly recognizes what game the music she's playing comes from.
- Paper Master: Attacks with music sheets. Suck them up to get a crack at her.
- Worthy Opponent: She's impressed if Luigi recognizes the song she plays and decides that she doesn't have to hold back her "musical genius" against him.
Mr. Luggs
Mr. Luggs
Room: Dining Room
No one can see me in this darkness! No one no one no one noooooooooo-one!
He prefers the all-you-can-eat buffets to three meals a day. He ate himself to death but still wasn't satisfied.
The Glutton. The seventh Portrait Ghost fight (and the first optional one).
- Bad Boss: To the two waiter ghosts who rush around in a panic trying to refill his plate as you vacuum it up. If you empty the plate without getting rid of them, they'll flee in utter terror to escape his wrath.
- Berserk Button: Taking his food away is cause for spitting fireballs at Luigi.
- Beyond the Impossible: He gets tired out even though he's a ghost without bodily fatigue toxins and as such should have infinite stamina.
- Big Eater: So much so that he died from overeating and still wasn't satisfied.
- Breath Weapon: Anyone who takes his food away has to deal with him breathing his heartburn on them in balls of fire.
- Death by Gluttony: The bio doesn't specify whether it was his girth that killed him or the copious amounts of food he ate, but "ate himself to death" likely qualifies.
- Fat Bastard: He's not only a nasty glutton, but also ill-mannered. Removing his food from the table will upset him and start the fight between him and Luigi.
- Mini-Boss: Notably one of the most relentless in the game. He will spit up to fifteen fireballs at Luigi, including cooldown periods in-between, before meeting fatigue (which is when Luigi can start capturing him).
- Playing with Fire: Once you take his food away, he will start heaving fireballs towards you. Dodge them until he tires, then you get your shot at him.
- Shout-Out:
- In the European Spanish version of the game, he's named Don Ramón.
- His post-capture profile description references the character Mr. Creosote from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, a very obese man who literally eats himself to death. His hairstyle is also similar.
- Skippable Boss: You can just walk right past him and head for the kitchen, unless you want the best rank, the pearls Mr. Luggs drops, the Boo in his room (you cannot prompt a Boo out of hiding in a room unless the lights are on), the treasure he guards, including a Silver Diamond, and one of the two Golden Diamonds in the game (by way of catching said Boo; you need all 50 in the house to get that diamond).
- Villainous Glutton: Repulsively fat, unkempt, and having absolutely horrible table manners. Tries to kill Luigi if his meal is taken away.
- Villainous Breakdown: He roars in a furious rage after Luigi sucks up his food and attacks the poor man for it.
Spooky
Spooky
Room: Boneyard
Woof woof woof!
This creepy canine will sink its chops into any seemingly edible thing in sight.
The Hungry Guard Dog. The eighth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Angry Guard Dog: Bites Luigi's rump if he gets too close, and barks loudly and constantly within a certain range, which eventually wakes a skeleton that needs to be captured first for Luigi to catch Spooky.
- Big Eater: Implied by his moniker and bio.
- Meaningful Name: Being, of course, a ghost, his name is quite appropriate.
Bogmire
Bogmire
Room: Graveyard
A product of the mansion's fear and despair, he's not sure who to fear or what to despair these days.
The Cemetery Shadow. The second boss ghost fight and the ninth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Blob Monster: His form gives him the appearance of being perpetually dripping.
- Bored with Insanity: Bogmire's bio suggests that despite being the product of the mansion's negative thoughts, he's since lost sight of what it is he has to be afraid of currently.
- Casting a Shadow: Literally; he uses shadows of himself as his attack, and you have to turn them back on him.
- Eldritch Abomination: Much more monstrous in appearance than the other portrait ghosts, this is no doubt because rather than being a spirit of the deceased, he is instead a spectre born from the fear and despair made by the mansion itself.
- Flawless Victory: In the Hidden Mansion, you have to catch Bogmire without bumping into one of his shadows even once to get a Gold frame (the shadows do 10 hearts worth of damage, which is doubled in the Hidden Mansion; you need 90 hearts left after the fight).
- Flunky Boss: An interesting variant, as the flunkies are all replications of itself, which are also your weapons against him.
- Knight of Cerebus: Unlike any ghost in the game, his description is the only comical aspect about him.
- Living Shadow: Appears out of the shadow cast by a lightning strike. Its duplications in the boss fight are also these.
- Made of Evil: The product of the mansion's fear and despair.
- Teleport Spam: In the PAL and 3DS Hidden Mansions, he only remains on screen for three seconds after making a clone, making it far harder to stun him.
- The Speechless: He is the only Portrait Ghost who isn't capable of speech, though he does make some grunts of panic when being sucked up by the Poltergust. The player isn't even able to check his heart for clues.
Biff Atlas
Biff Atlas
Room: Rec Room
Look at this buffness! I'm huge! How'd you like to be my punching bag, weakling?
This kind body builder loves muscles and lilies. Why lilies? They symbolize purity.
The Body Builder. The tenth Portrait Ghost fight (and optional).
- Berserk Button: Getting hit by his punching bag, which gets him on your tail (the bag can also hurt YOU if you let the rebound hit you).
- Jerk Jock: He calls Luigi a "weakling" and says he'd like to use him as a punching bag. Oddly enough, the game guide describes him as a "kind bodybuilder."
- Meaningful Name: "Biff" is either a pun on "buff" or the slang term "to hit", which is appropriate since Biff is one of three ghosts in the house (Sir Weston and the house's final boss are the others) that can do 20 hearts (one-fifth of Luigi's health) worth of damage if he decks the plumber. Atlas is the name of the Titan from Greek Mythology who holds the world/sky on his shoulders, and is also a reference to famed bodybuilder Charles Atlas.
- Muscles Are Meaningful: He's one of three ghosts that can take off a fifth of your health if he punches you; the other two are Sir Weston and his icicles and the final boss's body. He also has to be hit three times by the punching bag before he gets stunned and can be sucked up.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: A parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger in appearance, vocal mannerisms, and strength.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Likes lilies because they represent purity.
- Skippable Boss: You can simply walk past him without any repercussions, minus a lower rank, a bunch of additional treasure, and the Rec Room's resident Boo.
- Top-Heavy Guy: His pectorals are so enormous, it can be assumed that even if he did have legs, they wouldn't offset how huge his chest is.
- Unskilled, but Strong: When he gets pissed at you, the way he attacks is by just floating at you, and flailing his arms in circles. He's also a mountain of muscle that can knock out a fifth of your health in one hit.
Miss Petunia
Miss Petunia
Room: 2F Bathroom
Ahh...a piping hot shower!
The Miss Ghost runner-up from six years ago, she hasn't had much modeling work lately.
The Bathing Beauty. The eleventh Portrait Ghost fight.
- Bathing Beauty: Her bio states that she used to be one of these. Nowadays not so much, although she retains her love of bathing.
- Fan Disservice: Before you pull away the curtain, you see a beautiful and thin woman bathing. Open the curtain, and you get an incredibly fat woman in a bikini with a pig face.
- I Was Quite a Looker: She was the "Miss Ghost" runner-up six years before the events of Luigi's Mansion. Since then, she has let herself loose. In addition, her Sexy Silhouette is possibly how she looked then.
- Making a Splash: If you don't spray her with ice as soon as possible, she will shoot scalding bath water at you, which takes 5 hearts and amusingly drenches Luigi, who ultimately shrugs off the hot water as if it was nothing.
- Non-Nude Bathing: Obviously, given that it's a game for all ages, she's wearing a bathing suit.
- Sexy Silhouette: When the shower curtain is closed, her silhouette looks like a pretty, thin woman.
Nana
Nana
Room: Nana's Room
Hey, it's a funny man. Should I play with him?
She's still knitting the scarf she never finished in life. It now stretches to 871 feet.
The Scarf-Knitting Granny. The twelfth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Eye Beams: One of her methods of attack.
- Granny Classic: Played with. A largely demure lady who knits constantly, but also likes to play pranks in her spare time.
- The Prankster: One of the books in her room talks about a prank she pulled on Miss Petunia by pouring ice into her bathtub, giving you a clue on how to expose Petunia's heart.
- When Elders Attack: Being a ghost, she attacks Luigi. The effectiveness depends on the player. Miss with one of her yarn balls, and she laughs and vanishes, forcing you to re-enter the room; she is not optional since she has the key to Henry and Orville's room, and they have one of the items that Clairvoya needs to get you the key to the third floor.
Slim Bankshot
Slim Bankshot
Room: Billiards Room
You want some of this?
Slim's a legend in the world of competitive pool. Too bad he's never played a living soul.
The Lonely Poolshark. The thirteenth Portrait Ghost fight (and an optional one).
- Bad Guys Play Pool: Found in the billiard room getting ready to make a shot.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Occasionally, Slim will hit himself when a billiard ball he strikes bounces off a wall and hits him. Even so, it is preferable to vacuum the balls and shoot them at him, as this happens rarely.
- Lean and Mean: One of the thinnest ghosts in the mansion.
- Meaningful Name: He is indeed quite slim. A bankshot is also a pool term for hitting the cue ball against the railing before knocking a ball into a pocket, and somewhat of a hint to using the pool balls against him.
- Shout-Out: Possibly named for the Jim Croce song "You Don't Mess Around With Jim", a song wherein a man named Willie McCoy (nicknamed 'Slim') sets out to get his money back from a pool hall hustler.
- Skippable Boss: Beating him isn't necessary to win the game. The room after him has one of Mario's items, and that's the room you need to deal with. Unless you're playing the 3DS Hidden Mansion, where he has Mario's Shoe instead of Henry and Orville.
Henry and Orville
Henry and Orville
Room: The Twins' Room
Hey... Why don't you play hide and seek with us?
The twins like to play hide and seek, but since they both hide, the game never seems to end.
The Twin Brothers. The fourteenth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Coordinated Clothes: The same outfit with some minor colouration changes.
- Creepy Twins: The pair goes from inviting you to playing hide and seek to trying to kill you with their toys.
- Dual Boss: Luigi has to fight them together, but the performance against Orville determines the ranking; he drops the pearls.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Referencing Henry Ford and Orville Wright. Henry attacks you in a car, and Orville a plane, the two famous vehicles owed largely to those people.
- Skippable Boss: The 3DS Hidden Mansion swaps their chest with Slim Bankshot's, meaning the Twins do not have to be fought. You still have to come into their room for another item, but you can get it without fighting the two.
- Sore Loser: They attack Luigi if he beats them at hide-and-seek, and you need to beat them to proceed with the game; their room has one of Mario's possessions that needs to be taken to Clairvoya so you can get the key to the third floor of the mansion.
- Undead Child: Both of them are dead.
Madame Clairvoya
Madame Clairvoya
Room: Fortune-Teller's Room
Destiny chooses our paths...
Her close connection to the spirit world lets her see nearly 49 days into the future.
The Freaky Fortune Teller. The fifteenth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Fortune Teller: She gives Luigi information on Mario's whereabouts if you bring her objects that he owns (possibly using Psychometry). Once she runs out of power, she insists you capture her, locking you in her room; she's the easiest Portrait Ghost to capture in the game.
- Friendly Ghost: She's unfailingly cordial and an outright ally to Luigi, helping him find out more about Mario's plight using the latter's dropped belongings. Once finished with this role, she allows Luigi to vacuum her up with the Poltergust... though she does still struggle even if she doesn't attack.
- Large Ham: Tends to get incredibly dramatic and loud at times.
- Punny Name: A pun on clairvoyant. She's a fortune teller who uses objects to sense where the owners of them are.
- Spooky Séance: Played with. In this case, the medium is the first spirit contacted.
- Token Good Teammate: The only ghost that isn't evil or self-absorbed, she's willing to help Luigi get his brother back and allows herself to be sucked up after she uses up her power, which nets Luigi the key to the Safari Room, the first room on the third floor and the last room before the Area 3 boss. According to her dialogue right before Luigi sucks her up, she likes being a painting, considering it a peaceful retirement.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Almost. She surrenders and has a pull of zero, but it's still possible to get hit with a Poison Mushroom like it is with all the Portrait Ghosts.
Uncle Grimmly
Uncle Grimmly
Room: Wardrobe Room
Nobody will find me because I'm old, cranky and, by gum, people are afraid of me!
Adrift in the darkness, he tends to keep to himself, which suits the rest of the family just fine.
Hermit of the Darkness. The seventeenth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Dark Is Evil: The hermit of the darkness only appears once the blackout starts. You have to catch him before you can restore the electricity; the breakers are locked at this point and he's holding the key.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: It's implied he's related to the family on the first floor, yet they barely acknowledge him according to his bio.
- I'm Not Afraid of You: He spends his time making what he considers to be scary faces ...but it's not working, as even Luigi isn't afraid of him. As a matter of fact, this is what exposes him, and he's one of the weakest Portrait Ghosts in the house.
- No Social Skills: He keeps to himself mostly. He doesn't even show until the start of Area 4, and he's in the fourth room you entered in the game (the Wardrobe).
- Punny Name: Grimmly.
- Shout-Out: He bears a slight resemblance to Uncle Fester.
The Clockwork Soldiers
The Clockwork Soldiers
Room: Clockwork Room
Heyyyyy, stooooppp lookkkinnnggg at meeee!
They once belonged to a tightly-wound toy collector, but now they march on their own without any winding.
The Toy Platoon. The eighteenth Portrait Ghost fight.
- Family-Friendly Firearms: They bear cork gun rifles.
- Fog Feet: The only aversions out of all the portrait ghosts.
- Living Toys: They all march on their own without any winding. How life-size toys became ghosts is left thoroughly unclear.
- Shrinking Violet: The pink one doesn't like being looked at.
- Wind-Up Key: The soldiers have these in their backs, which need to be removed to defeat them.
- Wolfpack Boss: Luigi must fight all three of them at once, though he can suck them up one at a time; it's advised to leave the blue soldier (the one guarding the middle house in the room, which has the elevator to the roof) for last, as he holds the pearls and Luigi's performance against him will determine the painting he receives at the end of the game.
Sue Pea
Sue Pea
Room: Guest Room
...Do not try to wake me... ...GOOOO AAWAAAAYYY!!!
What was meant to be a short nap seems to have turned into eternal rest for sweet Sue Pea.
The Dozing Girl. The nineteenth Portrait Ghost fight (also optional).
- Cute Ghost Girl: She's among the youngest Portrait Ghosts along with Chauncey and Henry & Orville, and also one of the more endearing ones as she's only ever seen sleeping.
- Deep Sleep: Spends her afterlife in an eternal slumber. Her bio states she died this way.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: She becomes extremely aggravated when you wake her up.
- Lost in Translation: Her name is based on the Japanese onomatopoeia for sleeping, suu-pii, but holds no meaning in English apart from potentially being a vague hint at her weakness.
- Optional Boss: Unlike the other optional Portrait Ghosts, Sue Pea is the most out-of-the-way Portrait Ghost in the game. Encountering her requires you to access a hidden room late in the game, which contains the key to another optional room before the Guest Room, where she sleeps.
- Passed in Their Sleep: According to her bio, she died in her sleep from what was supposed to be a quick nap.
- Potty Failure: The way to exposing her heart is to convince her she's done this while sleeping. Her dolls will start floating your way when you play this, however.
Jarvis
Jarvis
Room: Ceramics Studio
Whadda ya think o' me jar collection, then? Pretty amazing, don't you say?
He loves his antique jars so much that he now lives in one. He can hardly contain himself!
The Jar Collector. The twentieth Portrait Ghost fight (also optional).
- Chest Monster: He hides in jars and you need to freeze him.
- Flawless Victory: He pops out of the jars seven times, and you have to freeze him all seven times; if you fail, he chuckles and kicks you into the hallway outside his room and the armory you need to clean up; he also forces you out if you refuse to play at all.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Jarvis lacks the humanoid appearance of most of the portrait ghosts, instead appearing as a puffy, cloudlike ghost with no limbs. Unlike other non-humanoid ghosts (Spooky is a dog, Bogmire is an Eldritch Abomination born of the mansion's fear and despair, Boolossus and King Boo are exceptionally powerful boos), it's never really explained why he looks the way he does.
- Punny Name: Jarvis.
- Skippable Boss: You don't even need to enter Jarvis's studio to reach the end of the game. The room prior to him does have the key to the rest of the basement, which you do need to acquire.
- Sore Loser: He attacks when Luigi wins his "whack-a-mole" style game, and this is when you can suck him up.
Sir Weston
Sir Weston
Room: Cold Storage
Darn, I love the cold, I mean, I just plain love it!
This strange fellow's icy abode may be the reason he hasn't warmed up to being a ghost.
The Chilly Climber. The twenty-first Portrait Ghost fight.
- An Ice Person: Hates warmth so much he resides in the cold storage room where he's frozen in a huge mass of ice. Once angered, he'll start launching waves of ice stalagmites at Luigi and dropping icicles on him. You need to melt him out of the ice to get him.
- Berserk Button: He gets very angry if Luigi ignites the wooden logs adjacent to him.
- Mini-Boss: The last one to appear in the game (Van Gore leans closer to being a Climax Boss, due to him being the creator of the mook ghosts and the only non-Area ghost to guard one of the mansion's elite keys), and one of the most difficult to capture as well (especially if you try to get the golden portrait for it). It's required to face him as he guards the key leading to the final Portrait Ghost before King Boo (Vincent Van Gore).
- Stalactite Spite: Drops icicles during his fight to try and kill Luigi. This makes him one of three enemies in the mansion that has the potential of giving you 20 hearts of damage (the other two are Biff Atlas in the first floor gym and the final boss of the game).
Vincent Van Gore
Vincent Van Gore
Room: Artist's Studio
Eet eez you, no? You interfere with my afterlife's work!
Despite failing to sell a single painting in 30 years, this stubborn man refuses to let his art die.
The Starving Artist. The twenty-second and final non-boss Portrait Ghost fight.
- Art Initiates Life: All the mook ghosts stem from his paintings. His defeat stops them from spawning in dark hallways.
- The Dragon: As the source of all the non-Boo ghost Mooks, as well as being the one who guards the key to his room, Van Gore is heavily implied to be this to King Boo.
- Flunky Boss: Would rather send his minions at you than fight himself. Might be because he's a pushover when you get past them.
- French Jerk: He wears stereotypical French clothes and speaks in some French dialogue, and he's not a nice guy.
- Gratuitous French: Despite being based on Vincent Van Gogh, who was Dutch, Van Gore talks with a French accent and sprinkles in French words into his dialogue.
- Mook Maker: All of the non-portrait, non-Boo ghosts in the game are the products of his paintings. Once you remove them from the picture, he becomes one of the easiest Portrait Ghosts in the game to capture.
- Punny Name: Specifically a pun on "Vincent Van Gogh".
- Starving Artist: As revealed by his boss subtitle.
- This Cannot Be!: Has this reaction when Luigi tells him that with almost all of his artistic creations having all been sucked up, he's only actually created a single lasting piece of art.
- Villainous Breakdown: He freaks out so much from the realization that he has only one remaining piece of art to his name that it makes him vulnerable to being sucked up himself.
Evershade Valley Ghosts
The ghosts that appear in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
Regular Ghosts
Polterpup
Polterpup
A ghostly dog who just wants someone to play with. Sadly, his antics end up causing trouble for Luigi throughout the game.
Following Dark Moon, he is adopted by Luigi, and acts as his Canine Companion throughout 3.
- Accidental Hero: Amusingly, in 3, he appears completely oblivious to anything weird going on, but manages to help Luigi anyway.
- Ascended Extra: Goes from a recurring nuisance in Dark Moon, to practically the deuteragonist in 3.
- All There in the Manual: In the FAQ section of 3, Professor E. Gadd says he's researching what breed of dog Polterpup is and suggests that he could possibly be a 'silver retriever'.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: For an "ordinary" ghost dog who enjoys nothing more than chewing on stuff, playing and receiving attention from Luigi, he shows intelligence on par with a human. Not only does he know his way around different locations instantly and when the plumber is in need of his help, he also understands how Luigi's devices work, where he needs to lead him next by opening the occasional path for him and the solutions for some puzzles and bosses.
- Auto-Revive: It's technically the gold-bone that acts as the auto-revive item, but if you get dropped to 0 HP while holding one, it summons the doggy to bring Luigi back to his senses. So the Polterpup is the one that revives Luigi.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Most likely the reason why he followed Luigi all the way down from Evershade Valley to his house, so he can live with him. Apparently, not being hostile, giving him at least some attention (even if he ends up in the poltergust afterwards) and showing forgiveness was enough for him to view Luigi as his new master and best friend.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- On B2, he saves Luigi from drowning by acting as a life raft when Clem floods the basement, to which Luigi rewards him with a big hug.
- Performs a Diving Save on Luigi during the finale when King Boo springs a trap that otherwise would've trapped him in a painting. Amusingly, this was actually unintentional, Polterpup just wanted some affection.
- Finally, when the hotel collapses after King Boo is defeated, Polterpup catches Luigi before he hits the ground.
- Big Friendly Dog: Very affectionate and helpful after Dark Moon, and, as of 3, has visibly grown to the point where he is already taller than Luigi when standing on his hind legs (Which have gained additional joints as well).
- Canine Companion: Becomes one after his Heel–Face Turn, where Luigi adopts him and brings him home.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Seems to have become this by Luigi's Mansion 3, being called "Polterpup" as a name by Luigi, rather than it being used to mean his species title. In Dark Moon, he was the Polterpup as a description, but it's his name now. Of course, in world with a Yoshi named Yoshi and a Toad named Toad, among others, Polterpup is no stranger to this practice.
- Easily Forgiven: After the grief he gives Luigi three times over, the green plumber is quick to forgive his antics. Granted, the Dark Moon being disabled for the duration of the story was likely the main reason for his mischievousness, and even then, he's just a puppy, so it's hard to stay mad.
- Exposition Fairy: Very briefly in 3 as he is the one to give you the tutorial for the controls of the new Poltergust, since E. Gadd is not around yet. The text boxes could be taken as what Luigi assumes his miming means, as, being a dog, he is a Heroic Mime during the rest of the game, leading you places with barks and body language alone.
- Female Feline, Male Mutt: The male mutt to Polterkitty's female feline in 3.
- Fluorescent Footprints: Leaves footprints visible by the Dark-Light Device, and marks where he jumped through walls or doors. This is used to track him down during Dark Moon and can be used to see where he's been in 3.
- Ghostly Animals: He's a cute ghostly dog.
- Happily Adopted: At the end of the second game, Luigi takes Polterpup home with him as a pet. By the third, he's going along on vacations with the rest of the gang, and gets to share a bed with Luigi.
- Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: With Polterkitty again.
- Heroic Mime: Being a dog, he doesn't speak beyond cheerful barks. He sill guides Luigi around the hotel during multiple sections of the third game, using body language and the occasional tackle to get his point across.
- Hint System: In 3, should you be stuck on a particular boss fight or puzzle for too long, Polterpup may appear and nudge you in the right direction.
- Informed Attribute: His in-game bio in 3 claims that he '[...] is always by his (Luigi's) side.' That is only true during the playable intro: after that, he disappears, only showing up in the occasional cutscene and rare scripted sequence where he helps him out and then vanishes again.
- Non-Human Sidekick: He returns in Luigi's Mansion 3 as a non-playable ally to Luigi and is notably the one ghost that Luigi isn't terrified of, though that's not to say he doesn't pop up and startle Luigi a good number of times.
- Obliviously Evil: Unlike the other Evershade Valley ghosts, the loss of the Dark Moon hasn't made him hostile, but it's implied he's such a nuisance due to its effects, seeing as he seems remorseful after the Moon is restored.
- Overly-Long Tongue: While still short in comparison to those from Yoshi and King Boo of course, it's nevertheless quite long and seems to get even longer whenever he's licking someone.
- Power Floats: Capable of doing this like all other ghosts, but only seems to use it when he is attacked (Dark Moon) or helping Luigi (3).
- Prophet Eyes: Played with. Like the rest of the Evershade Valley ghosts, Polterpup initially lacks pupils due to the Dark Moon being broken (or when he's asleep), but they appear once the moon is reconstructed at the end of the game. Yet in the third game, he's back to this trope with no explanation.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Especially in 3, which really plays up his cuteness by having Luigi give him tummy rubs and pets at various points in the story.
- Skewed Priorities: Your master and his friends are about to be trapped in a painting by King Boo? This is clearly the right time to chase a bat! Granted, he does save Luigi since he happened to be in his way, but still.
- Spanner in the Works: In 3, Luigi barely escapes King Boo, who attacked him while he doesn't have the Poltergust. It's Polterpup who helps Luigi find the device that will allow him to fight back.
- Before the final boss fight in Luigi's Mansion 3, King Boo attempts to trap Luigi in a painting alongside Mario and Peach. Luigi is only saved thanks to Polterpup tackling him out of the way at the last second.
- Stomach of Holding: In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, he can eat crucial objects like keys despite some of them being larger than him and keep them in his tummy with no issues. Luigi needs to chase after him and vacuum him up to retrieve them.
- Team Pet: In Luigi's Mansion 3, it seems to have become one for the Mario Bros clan (though its interactions with them are still largely limited to only Luigi), being allowed to accompany them on their vacation and even serves as Luigi's Non-Human Sidekick during the adventure. Mario scolds him during the opening scenes when he steals some cake the red plumber was about to chow down on.
Greenies
Greenies
- Composite Character: They serve the role of both Gold Ghosts and Purple Punchers from the first game by being the most basic enemies, but also being more capable than the Gold Ghosts with no other ghost type that corresponds to the Puncher's "basic, but trickier" role. Here, the basic ghost is trickier, so there's only one type.
- The Goomba: The most commonly encountered enemies in the game and technically the weakest, though they're actually uniquely resourceful about arming and defending themselves.
- Green and Mean: Green is in the name, and Greenies are the most common enemy.
- Improbable Weapon User: The weapons they use consist of rolling pins, watermelons, hockey sticks...
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Greenies may sometimes have glasses or pans that protect them from being stunned by Luigi's flashlight. You'll have to vacuum them to get rid of them.
- Meaningful Name: They're called Greenies because... they're green.
- Metal Slime: They have a golden version that's rare and fast, but once you catch it, you receive a ton of money.
- Weak, but Skilled: They only have 10 HP, but a number of Greenies will have found ways to protect themselves from Luigi's flashlight.
Slammers
Slammers
- Gentle Giant: When not under King Boo's mind control.
- Mighty Glacier: Slammers are slow and sluggish, but have strong attacks and have 30 HP.
- Shockwave Clap: This is their main (and only) attack they use.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Blue Twirlers from the first game, being the hard-hitting brutish ghosts of the game.
Hiders
Hiders
- Dirty Coward: They like to hide inside furniture and throw objects while Luigi's fighting other ghosts; finding them causes them to freak out and flee to another spot.
- Fragile Speedster: Hiders are fast and quick, but only have 15 HP.
- Lean and Mean: They're thin and menacing (when under King Boo's mind control, that is).
Sneakers
Sneakers
- Combat Pragmatist: Sneakers can go behind Luigi and push him over, and can pop out at unexpected locations.
- Jump Scare: They serve this purpose in-universe, sneaking up behind Luigi and startling him enough to break his pull during a ghost capture.
- Space Master: The ScareScraper-only "Terrible Teleporter" bosses, who are similar, can spawn portals to warp you elsewhere.
Gobbers
Gobbers
- Big Eater: As their name implies, they're often gorging on food.
- Collision Damage: Be careful not to get too close to them; they'll simply knock you away with their huge stomachs.
- Fat Bastard: They're basically spherical, and are so large that they have to jump around to move. When not under King Boo's control, they're much nicer.
- Giant Mook: They're bigger than any of the other ghosts and have 100 HP.
- Ground Pound: They only do this in the ScareScraper mode, surprisingly enough.
- Idle Animation: If not attacked for a few seconds, they may pull out a random item & eat it, which may be followed by them farting. This actually makes them easier to attack.
- Mook Maker: Their boss version in ScareScraper, called the Creeper Launcher, can spit out purple goo, which form into small Creeper ghosts.
- Shmuck Bait: They will spit goo at you while you're vacuuming them. You would think that by jumping, you would avoid getting hit. But jumping causes Luigi to get pulled towards them, and Gobbers knock you away when you get too close.
- Stationary Boss: They don't move around very much, and tend to stay in one place.
- Stone Wall: Gobbers hardly ever move, and their attacks aren't very strong. However, they have 100 HP, their goo can cause Luigi to slip into other hazards, and their only melee attack pushes him away.
- Super Spit: Gobbers' main method of attack is spitting goo at Luigi. It damages you if it falls on top of him, or it can fall on the floor, which you can slip on.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They serve as successors to Garbage Can Ghosts, being large and slobby enemies with a lot of health and the ability to create tripping hazards.
Creepers
Creepers
- Asteroids Monster: If you step in one and break out, the large Creeper splits into two smaller, weaker ones (though these have the ability to pursue you).
- Cuddle Bug: Their Vault bio describes them under the Dark Moon's effects as this.
- No-Sell: They have infinite HP, so the regular Poltergust methods won't work. Instead, they need a charged pull to rip their gooey pseudopods off the floor.
- Perpetual Smiler: They always have a goofy grin on their faces.
- Personal Space Invader: If you try walking over them while they're in their "puddle form", they will imprison Luigi in their bodies.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Ceiling Surprises and Purple Bombers, being ghosts who can hide and catch the player off-guard and who are trickier because they have no health to drain (the original ghosts had to be caught in time, while these ones require a charge to defeat them).
Boss Ghosts
The Three Sisters
The Three Sisters
- Berserk Button: Do not try to stun a Sister who is still looking into her mirror. You will be attacked by her siblings.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: Sister Herlinda is the big one, Sister Belinda is the thin one, and Sister Lucinda is the short one.
- Blush Sticker: Sister Lucinda has these.
- Improbable Weapon User: They all use large hand mirrors to batter poor Luigi, fighting similarly to Greenies wielding shovels.
- Mini-Boss: They replace the Poltergeists in this role during Luigi's stay in the Haunted Towers. Defeating them is required to proceed in the mission of escorting the rescued Toad to E. Gadd's headquarters in the mansion's third chapter. They are upgraded to the Boss Ghosts of the second area of Luigi's Mansion Arcade.
- Vanity Is Feminine: The only explicitly female ghosts in the game, and they gaze into mirrors. Oddly, this actually protects them from being stunned— it's only when they look away from themselves that they become vulnerable.
- The Weird Sisters: A trio of ghostly women.
Poltergeists
Poltergeists
- Mind over Matter: They're able to lift books and other objects with the powers of telekinesis.
- Mini-Boss: They're fought at key points over the course of the game and, outside of the main bosses, are the most difficult to defeat strategy-wise. In Luigi's Mansion Arcade, one of them serves as the Boss Ghost of the first area - and is the only Poltergeist you face in that game.
- My Brain Is Big: They have disproportionately large heads, but the brains visible inside them don't really fill up the space.
Possessors
A group of five ghosts capable of possessing another object or being and controlling them. They guard five of the Dark Moon shards and are major bosses in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. In General
- Adapted Out: Completely absent from the arcade adaptation of Dark Moon despite originally being the ones personally guarding the Dark Moon shards.
- Body Horror: When you try to suck them up, they'll shed their "skin" mouth-first to escape, but can only do it two times.
- Bullfight Boss: When forced to fight on their own, their only means of offense is a charging attack that renders them vulnerable though they each have their own spin on it.
- Demonic Possession: They fight like this, possessing things in order to fight against Luigi.
- Fun with Acronyms: The first letters of their descriptors spell out GHOST.
- Underground Monkey: Though varying in tactics, they're all physically identical to one another save for the number of horns on their heads.
Grouchy Possessor
Grouchy Possessor
Mansion: Gloomy Manor
The one-horned Possessor that takes control of a massive spider in the basement, having its children spread webs all around the Manor.- Gentle Giant: He's larger than the Slammers and is shown to be pretty friendly with the Toads once the Dark Moon is restored.
- Giant Spider: Possesses a spider queen, apparently doubling it in size. It returns to normal size once freed of the Possessor but is still rather massive for a spider.
Harsh Possessor
Harsh Possessor
Mansion: Haunted Towers
The two-horned Possessor that lurks in the tree house of the Tower, which is sealed away by a pinwheel gate and great wood door. It fights by possessing a staircase.- Eating the Enemy: Attempts this on Luigi while possessing the staircase.
- Playing with Fire: The staircase is set ablaze when possessed and will start shooting out fireballs in its second phase that set the wooden floor aflame.
Overset Possessor
Overset Possessor
Mansion: Old Clockworks
The three-horned Possessor that hides within the Clockworks's clock tower, hidden behind a clockwork gate. It fights by controlling a clock and sending groups of enemies at you while spinning its hands as a hazard.- Flunky Boss: Most of the fight is spent battling various enemies for 12 waves, one for each number on the clock. After every fourth wave, the possessor will fight you itself while still manipulating the clock hands to function as a hazard.
- Time-Limit Boss: Every wave of enemies has to be defeated before the minute hand makes a full clockwise rotation or else the wave will reset. The minute hand can be turned back using the vacuum to pull the minute hand counterclockwise.
Shrewd Possessor
Shrewd Possessor
Mansion: Secret Mine
The four-horned Possessor that lurks in the in the Secret Mine's Workshop where he is first seen trying to harass a Fuzzball by throwing bombs at it. When Luigi manages to reach it, it possesses the frozen ground to become an ice monster in an attempt to escape with the Dark Moon piece, causing Luigi to chase it down the pit.- Adaptation Name Change: The British version of the game calls him the "Scornful Possessor".
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Tries to escape through an icy tunnel with the Dark Moon piece, forcing Luigi to give chase using a conveniently placed bomb-launching sled.
- Teleport Spam: Once forced out of the ice, it incorporates this into its ramming attack with the use of portals.
Tough Possessor
Tough Possessor
The five-horned Possessor and last guardian of the Dark Moon shards. It lurks within the Paranormal Dimension that can only be accessed by using the portal within the Treacherous Mansion. It fights by splitting itself up and possessing multiple suits of armor at once, before taking possession of a massive suit.- Animated Armor: Possesses multiple suits of armor with various weapons. In the last phase it possesses one giant suit of armor.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: He is faced in King Boo's dimension when a fight with the king himself is expected.
- Interface Spoiler: Even though he acts as an unexpected Bait-and-Switch Boss, the Possessors page in the Ghost Container has a fifth slot, indicating a fifth Possessor ghost exists.
- Me's a Crowd: Splits itself up to possess multiple suits of armor at once before possessing one giant suit of armor.
- Pre-Final Boss: After Luigi obtains his Dark Moon piece, E. Gadd tries to bring him back to the Bunker, but King Boo sucks him back in, then the final battle commences.
- Shock and Awe: Outside of the suits of armor, his charging attack sends out trails of electricity.
Last Resort Ghosts
The ghosts that appear in Luigi's Mansion 3.Regular Ghosts
In General
- Brainwashed and Crazy: After King Boo is defeated, it's revealed that the ghosts were under the control of his crown jewel once it disappears. Afterwards, the ghosts go back to their normal selves and stop being hostile to Luigi and co.
- Friendly Ghost: After King Boo's crown jewel is destroyed following the collapse of the Last Resort, the ghosts are freed from his control and stop being hostile to Luigi and co. They even agree to E. Gadd's offer to build a new hotel for them so they have a place to live.
- Mooks: The regular enemies in Luigi's Mansion 3, just like Vincent Van Gore's paintings in the first installment and the Evershade Valley ghosts in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
- Oh, Crap!: While they have this when getting sucked up, a bigger case of this is the ending, when the ghosts are freed from King Boo's control before seeing that their home, the Last Resort Hotel, is destroyed, leaving them saddened at their apparent homelessness.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: For the Mooks of the series in general. The ghosts in the first game were living art created by Vincent Van Gore, and aside from their ever-present smiles didn't emote too much, while the ghosts of Evershade Valley were driven mad from King Boo's interference in Dark Moon. These ghosts, however, constantly show that they take delight in trying to scare, harm, and bully poor Luigi, and they're all in their right mind the whole time. But as it turns out, they weren't in their right mind as King Boo was controlling them with his crown jewel. Once King Boo is defeated, his crown jewel disappears, freeing the ghosts from his control.
Goobs
Goobs
- Elite Mook: Come in a number of more tricky variants, having glasses, shields, or hats that need to be removed before they can be sucked up. Some have to be vacuumed off, while others require multiple suction shots to knock off their headgear or a burst and quick timing with the flashlight while their headgear is blasted above their head.
- The Goomba: The most basic variety of ghost.
- Metal Slime: The Gem and Golden Goobs drop a ton of money if you can manage to suck them up. Gem Goobs will only drop the gems they guard, but they are treasure. They both also have different types of exceptional durability. Golden Goobs have 250 health (as much as the first half dozen bosses of the game), while Gem Goobs don't lose health just by being tethered and have to be slammed to hurt them.
- Mini Mook: There are smaller versions of them called Mini Goobs, which can be sucked up more easily, but they show up in packs.
- Oh, Crap!: If Luigi slams a ghost close to them, they cower in fear. Unfortunately for them, while cowering, they stay in place, making it easier for Luigi to get them.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Greenies from Dark Moon. The Gem and Golden versions even had the same panicked "swimming for dear life" animation that Gold Greenies did.
- Villains Out Shopping: Can often be seen performing odd jobs or just idling or goofing off around the hotel. In some instances, they're so absorbed in what they're doing that Luigi can walk on by without incident.
Hammers
Hammers
- Dumb Muscle: As is to be expected.
- Mini Mook: Like Goobs, they also have a mini-version of them called Mini Hammers.
- Shockwave Stomp: They often slam themselves into the ground, creating small shockwaves.
- Smash Mook: Their tactics consist of smashing and/or charging at Luigi.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Slammers from Dark Moon. Not only do their names sound similar, they look and sound nearly identical, only being more squarish with two tails. However, they differ in that they have exceptionally high health (250 as opposed to Slammers' 30), and their two tails allow Luigi and Gooigi to team up on them.
Oozers
Oozers
- Edible Ammunition: They throw many things, but food is very common with them.
- Lean and Mean: They're very skinny ghosts and make things difficult for Luigi.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Hiders from Dark Moon. They're both long and thin, and both hide and throw stuff at Luigi. They're both primarily drawn out by finding the thing they're hiding with and interacting with it, too. The only real difference is the amount of health they have - 100 for Oozers and a mere 15 for Hiders. Their habit of leaving tripping hazards is similar to Dark Moon's Gobbers as well, and more specifically similar to the first game's Garbage Can Ghosts, as their hazards are banana peels.
Slinkers
Slinkers
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Sneakers from Dark Moon. They look similar and have an identical method of catching Luigi by surprise. They can also grab Luigi and hold on like the Grabbing Ghosts in the first game.
Trappers
Trappers
- Overly-Long Tongue: Even more so than the other ghosts, as it has two of them which they use to catch and attack Luigi.
- Spare Body Parts: Have two tongues, which means both Luigi and Gooigi have to slam them.
- Stationary Enemy: They are only encountered guarding doors and can't move from their spot.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Trappers have similarities to Creepers, being anchored ghosts that can catch Luigi and requiring a strong attack to defeat them because they have no HP. Their general undetectability is also reminiscent of Ceiling Surprises or Purple Bombers from the first game, whom Creepers are derived from.
Rare Ghosts
In General
Ghosts found exclusively in the ScareScraper. They appear in groups and all pack quite a bit of health, so players will have to work together to effectively take them down.
- Bandit Mook: The Slinker-only Thieving class will steal a player Luigi's Poltergust if it grabs him, dropping it off somewhere else in the ballroom to waste the player's time and leave them vulnerable.
- Instakill Mook: The Lethal class of rare ghosts will faint a player Luigi with one attack.
- Mad Bomber: The Bomb class of ghost throws bombs and drops them all around them when slammed.
- Mini-Boss: Appear on the fifth floor of the 10 floor mode and act as one of these.
- Mook Maker: Diffusing ghosts belch swarms of mini ghosts from their mouths before disappearing and popping up to do it again.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Medic class has only a Goob variant and is glowing green, bringing the Goobs' predecessor species of Greenies to mind.
- The Electric class has only an Oozer variant, which, with its glowing light blue tone and analogous species, evokes Hiders from Dark Moon.
- Regenerating Health: An enemy case with the Regen class of ghosts, which must be defeated faster than they can heal.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- The Warp class of rare ghosts, which lets the ghost teleport a player to another room, has only a Slinker variant, making the species come across as a substitute for the Sneaker-based Terrible Teleporter class of boss ghosts in Dark Moon.
- The Hammer variant of Diffusing ghost comes across as a substitute for Dark Moon's Beetle Whisperers, with the latter being based on Slammers and both ghosts being able to summon swarms of tiny annoyances.
- Underground Monkey: All of them are variants of regular enemies, albeit with modified behavior and other gimmicks (such as dropping bombs upon being slammed or regenerating health).
Boss Ghosts
In General
- Amazing Technicolor Population: They come in a variety of "skintones".
- Ambiguously Evil: Hellen aside, it's unknown if they are actual villains, innocent ghosts under King Boo's influence or just employees following Hellen's orders.
- Ambiguous Situation: Unlike with the Portrait Ghosts of the first game, it's unclear whether the boss ghosts were once living humans or if they're the kind of ghosts who were always ghosts.
- Arc Villain: Each one acts as the main adversary of their floor. Some of them (such as Dr. Potter, Clem, and the magician sisters) have a constant presence throughout the floor, causing trouble at various points up until their boss fight.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Outside of Hellen Gravely, they all look and act goofy, but she hired them for a good reason.
- Speaking Simlish: They all make sounds that sometimes can be vaguely interpreted as words (like Hellen calling for Luigi or the magician triplets' magic words), but are otherwise mostly nonsense. This applies to even the ones that DO have text dialogue (Hellen, Steward and Morty).
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Except for Hellen and Polterkitty, none of them appear in the game's ending.
Hellen Gravely
Hellen Gravely
Floor: Master Suites
- Bad Boss: She sends her entire staff to their capture in attempt to defeat Luigi just to impress her crush and blames them for being too incompetent to achieve her goal. Cutscenes show that her staff are terrified of earning her wrath.
- Beehive Hairdo: How she styles her hair. It falls down and becomes messy when angered.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: The purpose of her Evil Plan might be solely to earn King Boo's approval, but in the end, the hotel and its staff are still hers to command while King Boo watches from the sidelines for most of the game.
- Butterface: When she gets angry, her face takes on its true hag-like appearance, but her supermodel figure stays the same.
- Cleavage Window: Surprisingly, since it's in a Mario game. It's subtle, but it's there, and she has a reasonable bust size to boot (at least with her makeup on). Between that and her name, she's probably the most E10+ character in the metaseries.
- Cute Ghost Girl: Subverted. Normally, Hellen is probably one of the most beautiful ghosts you'll find in the Mushroom Kingdom but that's because she wears makeup. Without that she jumps straight to the opposite end and looks more like the ghost of a Haggard witch.
- "Darkness von Gothick" Name: Hellen Gravely.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She genuinely loves Polterkitty. In her pre-fight monologue, she loses control remembering that Luigi caught Polterkitty before this. The ending has her sharing her containment dome with her precious pet.
- Fangirl: Hellen is a huge King Boo admirer, being primarily motivated by his opinion on her. Everything in her personal quarters is designed after his image, from paintings to furniture.
- Ghostly Glide: Hellen wears a floor-length dress and glides smoothly around the hotel.
- Glamour: Hellen is actually not so pretty and graceful without her makeup.
- Graceful Loser: Surprisingly, Hellen herself is this when Luigi manages to finally defeat her; as soon as she stops resisting, she takes a moment to freshen up her hair and makeup right before she's sucked into the Poltergust G-00.
- Improbable Weapon User: She attacks and defends herself with a hand mirror. A bit unimpressive by itself, but combined with her security system, it works well enough.
- It's All About Me: Even though she places herself below King Boo and has no intention to betray or use him, Hellen is demonstrably quite vain herself, with expensive attire, frequent makeup application, and decorations in her floor-sized suite that depict her ruling as a pharaoh alongside King Boo (possibly explaining why the Tomb Suites are in the hotel as well — she might see Egypt as an ideal of wealth and power).
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Luigi finally defeats her, she knows she can't stop Luigi any longer and takes a moment to freshen up her hair and makeup right before she's sucked into the Poltergust G-00.
- Laser Hallway: Her Master Suite is filled with lethal security lasers and her Boss Room is no exception. Most of her boss fight involves either dodging lasers or deactivating laser barriers to make it easier to vacuum her up.
- Loony Fan: While already a huge Fangirl of King Boo, it reaches disturbing heights once Luigi gets to the Master Suite. The entire floor is basically a Stalker Shrine to King Boo, filled with paintings of her and the King together and shelves upon shelves of trophies in the King's likeness. Even the gems for the floor are shaped like him.
- Mad Love: Hellen is deeply infatuated with King Boo and does everything to impress him. King Boo clearly doesn't care about her efforts, valuing only the immediate results of her plan.
- Makeup Is Evil: And she applies it constantly to hide her true, hag-like face.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Luigi probably should've hightailed out of the building the moment Hellen Gravely introduced herself.
- Pet the Dog: She appears to genuinely care for Polterkitty, maybe even more than she does King Boo. Recounting how Luigi "catnapped her sweetie" is what ultimately sets off her Villainous Breakdown, and the two of them are shown to share a capsule when you view them in the gallery.
- Pre-Final Boss: Hellen is faced right before King Boo, who is the final boss just like in the first two games.
- Punny Name: In many languages, at that.
- Her Japanese name is パウダネス・コナー (paudanesu konā), which comes from "powder" and "粉" (kona, "powder"). Both allude to her frequent makeup use.
- Her Chinese name "贾素妍" sounds similar to "假素颜", which means Fake Nature Face.
- In the Latin American Spanish version, her name is "Ceres Panteau", which comes from "espanto" (fright).
- In Dutch, she's "Cassie Weyle" (from kassiewijle, "dead").
- Purple Is Powerful: She's purple and the boss of the hotel's ghosts, who she refers to as her staff. At 600 HP, she currently has more HP than any other boss in the entire LM series.
- Puzzle Boss: Her primary weapon is not her hand mirror or ghostly powers... it's her high-tech security system, turning the boss fight into more of a management challenge as you try to maneuver Gooigi around the workings to shut off all the laser barriers while keeping Luigi out of harm's way.
- Rage Against the Reflection: The vanity in her bedroom has a broken mirror, and it's strongly implied by her frequent makeup use that she lashed out at the mirror in anger at her true appearance.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her real face sports these.
- Rich Bitch: She owns a luxury hotel, dresses in fine clothing, lives in the swankiest suite on top of the hotel, and is a very angry woman who lured Luigi and co. to her hotel with the intent to give them over to King Boo so he would give her recognition.
- Sinister Shades: Wears a pair during her introduction. The obvious intent is to hide her ghostly eyes.
- Smug Snake: She's quick to brag about her planning ability, believing that she could easily gift Luigi to King Boo on a silver platter. She's flabbergasted when a scaredy-cat like Luigi systematically dismantles her scheme and makes it all the way up to the top floor to confront her.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After her plan to capture Luigi backfires spectacularly, resulting in her staff being captured, her hotel ransacked and destroyed, and her idol dismissing her as useless, she ends up sharing a space with her beloved Polterkitty in the Gallery, and the ending shows King Boo bottled up in the slot right next to hers, much to her delight.
- Ugly All Along: She initially looks like a pretty and glamourous ghost woman. During her boss fight, however, she turns out to have an ugly hag-like face without her frequently-applied makeup.
- Unskilled, but Strong: She has a massive HP pool and is physically strong enough to crush large furniture with one blow, but her fighting style consists solely of using her mirror like a club. She uses her advanced security system to make up for her lack of combat skill.
- Villainous Breakdown: Happens to her slowly, as Luigi rescues more people and King Boo becomes increasingly displeased with her (in)competence. It all pays off when she finally comes face to face with Luigi on the final floor.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: What ultimately causes her plan to fall apart. She thought that Luigi would bravely attempt to face King Boo when he first encountered him, not realizing that Luigi's first instinct would be to run away.
- Your Makeup Is Running: Hellen frequently reapplies makeup, especially when her literal ugly side is showing.
Steward
Steward
Floor: Basement
- Cowardly Lion: Is constantly nervous and is very clearly frightened during the fight but stands his ground. When he runs low on suitcases he'll even hide behind the concrete pillar in the background for a moment.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's only known as "Steward", which likely refers to his profession instead of an actual name.
- Glass Cannon: He's among one of the easiest boss ghosts encountered and his attack pattern is easy to figure out and avoid, but getting hit by one of those hefty suitcases he chucks at you will take off nearly half your health.
- Hammerspace: The luggage he tosses respawns off screen so that he doesn't run out of things to fight with. That being said he can still run low on them and will hide when it happens.
- Improvised Weapon: The only reason he hurls luggage at Luigi is because he didn't really have much else around. That said, they deal a great deal of damage and even protect him from Luigi's Strobulb flashes. Too bad he tires himself out every time he tosses one.
- Warm-Up Boss: Steward has the most basic battle tactic of any Boss Ghost. He attacks, you dodge, he takes a short break, you flash his light on him. He's even easier and faster if you realize you can Burst the luggage out of his hands.
Chambrea
Chambrea
Floor: RIP Suites
A housekeeper ghost who is fought on the fifth floor, the RIP Suites. She takes an interest in E. Gadd's briefcase and attempts to escape from Luigi after swallowing it up.
- Beehive Hairdo: Sports one.
- Balloon Belly: After swallowing E. Gadd's briefcase. She even uses her gut to attack and block Luigi!
- Cowardly Boss: If Luigi damages her enough, she will just retreat to another suite.
- Creepy Housekeeper: By virtue of being a ghost.
- Dinner Deformation: Swallowing the briefcase gives her a transparent, rectangular Balloon Belly.
- Discard and Draw: With E. Gadd's briefcase in her stomach, she becomes immune to the Poltergust's suction, but this also makes her vulnerable to the Suction Shot (and, subsequently, the Slam) since the briefcase is wide enough to provide a surface for Luigi to shoot plungers at.
- Early-Bird Cameo: You can catch a glimpse of her in the Mezzanine when Luigi is entering the hotel.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After getting repeatedly slammed twice, she switches from panicking to trying to engage Luigi in a fight.
- Meaningful Name: Her name is based on the French word for "room", chambre, or the more antiquated term "chambermaid".
- Ninja Maid: Downplayed. She's not that much of a fighter since her one attack is a weak tackle, but must be pursued across half of the floor during her fight.
- Stomach of Holding: She can keep a solid object within her body by just swallowing it. The only disadvantage is that it makes phasing through walls harder, although that's still possible somehow.
Kruller
Kruller
Floor: Hotel Shops
A portly security guard ghost who is fought on the third floor, the Hotel Shops. He loses a key that allows Luigi to explore his floor, and then battles Gooigi with a water pistol he happened to have confiscated in his office.
- Acrofatic: Basically the opposite of this. It's clear that he can't really pull off those cool-looking Unnecessary Combat Rolls gracefully due to his girth getting in the way.
- Cowardly Lion: He's probably as much of a scaredy-cat as Luigi is, but becomes more confident with the right tools.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Referenced. He's overweight and named after the cruller, a type of doughnut pastry. Kruller himself is just a security guard, but his actions and body language do seem to suggest that he likes to pretend he's something more.
- Fat Comic Relief: Very much so; he's a girthy ghost who's portrayed as bumbling and goofy.
- Harmless Villain: Due to the way his battle is set up, he has no way of defeating or even damaging Luigi. The most he can do is delay his progress in defeating him by hitting Gooigi with water.
- Laughably Evil: A stand-out example in a game filled with rather goofy foes. He's cowardly, bumbling and is constantly trying to act like he's in some sort of 70s cop movie, performing clumsy combat rolls throughout the fight.
- Large Ham: Think Paul Blart, but as a ghost.
- Police Are Useless: He's only briefly seen patrolling the Hotel Shops before retreating into the security office once Luigi arrives. He remains there even as Luigi breaks into and ransacks the four shops in order to get to him.
- Silly Spook: In a game full of Silly Spooks, Kruller is a stand-out example. His bumbling, cowardly personality makes him hard to take seriously.
- Sinister Shades: Wears a pair of aviator sunglasses that provide him protection from the Strobulb, so those have to be removed first before you can flash him. He will lose them permanently after being weakened enough, using a pair of star-shaped shades first, and then Groucho glasses as a permanent replacement once those are broken.
- Water Guns and Balloons: His weapon is a water pistol he happens to find in a nearby cardboard box. It would be rather useless against Luigi, but since only Gooigi (who melts upon contact with water) can access the combat zone, it ends up being an effective weapon.
- Zero-Effort Boss: It is impossible to be killed by him since only Gooigi can face him. Even if Gooigi is hit with a water blast, he can just respawn endlessly and walk back into the fight while Luigi is safe to watch from a distance.
Chef Soulfflé
Chef Soulfflé
Floor: Mezzanine
A messy French chef ghost who is fought on the second floor, the Mezzanine. He engages Luigi after the latter causes him to drop the food he was cooking.
- Berserk Button: You don't want to mess with his cooking.
- Chef of Iron: He shows Luigi the business end of his frying pan for making him drop the fish he was cooking.
- Expy: Of Chef Sargossa from the Wii and PS2 version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, as well as Chef DeForrest from the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 versions of the game. Both are squat, portly, have exaggerated chef hats, and very similarly shaped messy mustaches.
- French Accordion: He is based on a generic French chef and is battle music is dominated by accordions.
- French Cuisine Is Haughty: His name is based on a French dish and he makes stereotypical "hohn hohn" sounds, and is a chef with a very poor temper.
- Frying Pan of Doom: His main weapon. Also serves as his method of defense against Luigi's flashlight.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: If you run out of melons in the kitchen, the fish he uses as projectiles against Luigi can in turn be used as projectiles against him, stunning him and giving Luigi an opening.
- Lost Food Grievance: He flies into a rage when Luigi's arrival distracts him from the fish he's cooking, causing it to slide onto the floor.
- Punny Name: A pun on the word "Soufflé". The addition of "soul" to it also makes it sound like "Soul Flay".
- Shamu Fu: If the frying pan attack doesn't work, he can toss fish at Luigi too.
- Twitchy Eye: He does one after dropping his fish, and subsequently attacks Luigi to start the fight.
Amadeus Wolfgeist
Amadeus Wolfgeist
Floor: Great Stage
A pianist ghost who is fought on the fourth floor, the Great Stage. He guards the Red Toad's portrait, and possesses a grand piano in order to keep it from Luigi.
- Chairman of the Brawl: Spends the first phase of his battle magically throwing the audience chairs at Luigi.
- Creepily Long Arms: When outside his piano, he's able to extend his arms to attack Luigi.
- Creepy Long Fingers: They certainly help his playing.
- Flunky Boss: The second phase of his fight involves tutu-wearing Goobs entering the stage and attacking Luigi with ballet moves.
- Graceful Loser: Once Amadeus realizes he's been defeated, he takes a bow before he gets sucked into the Poltergust.
- Instrument of Murder: He becomes one by possessing his piano and attacking through it.
- Madness Makeover: Once sufficiently angered, his neat, straight hair unravels into a mess and he makes some deranged facial expressions during his last phase.
- Musical Assassin: His music can make chairs levitate and summon enemies, plus he actually attacks with flaming music notes later on.
- Narcissist: If the huge, flattering picture of himself in his room is any indication, his name in the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean versions is "Narushesuben", derived from a portmanteu of the words "narcissist" and "thesbian/Beethoven".
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: His name is a rather obvious play on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, while his appearance and demeanor are more like a pastiche of Ludwig van Beethoven.
- Piano Drop: Attempts to pull this on Luigi throughout the third phase of his boss fight.
- Recurring Element: The 3rd pianist ghost boss fight in the series after the library Poltergeists in Dark Moon and Melody Pianissima in the first game.
- Shockwave Stomp: His piano monster phase will perform this after a series of regular ground stomps, and Luigi must use the Burst move to jump over it.
- Shows Damage: Not Amadeus himself, but his piano; it gradually gets more and more beaten up the further along the third phase of the fight goes, right up until the third smash, which completely destroys the piano.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: Provides Luigi with a generous amount of bombs that can be launched back into his piano, including ones with delayed fuses that give him time to make a shot.
- Villainous Breakdown: Introduced as calm, serene and confident, only showing mild annoyance at Luigi's presence and smirking when he scares him off the stage with his aggressive piano playing. Once Luigi captures his ballet-dancing ghosts, he completely loses his temper and spends most of the third phase in an Unstoppable Rage.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Wolfgeist presents the first real fight of the game since no ghost before him has a complex attack pattern or multiple phases like he does.
- Unique Enemy: The ballet-dancing Goobs are exclusive to his fight, and in fact can't be found anywhere else outside of it and the occasional revisit to his stage.
King MacFrights
King MacFrights
Floor: Castle MacFrights
A medieval Scottish (or rather this world's equivalent) king ghost fought on the sixth floor, Castle MacFrights. He challenges Luigi to a duel for the button to the seventh floor.
- Animated Armor: Possesses a suit of armor for his fight against Luigi. It must be destroyed before he can be captured.
- Annoying Arrows: By raising his lance up to the air to make the tip shine, he can signal to some of his goons to unveil some launchers hidden in the arena wall, which will soon shoot these at Luigi.
- Authority in Name Only: Implied with how his castle is just a floor in a hotel and the audience during his boss fight consists of a bunch of cardboard cutouts with pre-recorded applause and booing.
- Bullfight Boss: He charges at you in a joust while wearing the armor, and must be stunned and slammed around.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Once his armor is destroyed, he equips a sword...which, given the pitiful Spin Attack he uses like this, is very clearly not a weapon he's good with.
- Dash Attack: He mainly rides around the arena in a circle on his armored horse, bowling over Luigi if he happens to be in the way. On occasion though, he will stop to try and rush at the plumber with his lance. This presents an opportunity to counter his rush with a flash to stun him.
- Headless Horseman: During his boss fight, he rides a horse, and he has a tendency to hide in his armor, giving him the appearance of not having a head.
- I Shall Taunt You: The moment he meets Luigi, the first thing he does is wave his button around, as if to say to Luigi "You want it? Come and get it!"
- Jousting Lance: The king's preferred weapon of choice.
- Lean and Mean: Surprisingly, he subverts Adipose Rex.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: He can only be stunned when he peeks over his shield during the first phase, or when he drops it during the second.
- Malevolent Mugshot: His floor has many, many, many statues and busts built in his image.
- Shout-Out: His name, status as a king, and the fact that he's Scottish point to him being a reference to Macbeth.
- Violent Glaswegian: Or, well, whatever the equivalent of Scotland in the Mushroom Kingdom is, but he's definitely got the violent part down when he takes on Luigi in a duel for the button.
Dr. Potter
Dr. Potter
Floor: Garden Suites
An old botanist ghost fought on the seventh floor, the Garden Suites. One of his plants ends up eating the eighth elevator button, so he makes it grow gigantic to keep it away from Luigi's reach.
- The Beastmaster: He fights using a potted Man-Eating Plant.
- Bullfight Boss: This forms the basics of how to deal with his carnivorous plants. The plant will charge and bite at you, so it has to be tricked into biting into one of the growths in the arena. Its jaws will get stuck on the growth, making it possible to cut through its stem with the saw you're provided for the fight.
- Defiant to the End: What does he do before getting fully captured? Throws his elevator button onto an unreachable leaf as a final "screw you" to Luigi. Fortunately, he drops his watering can and you can grow a ladder up to the button.
- Evil Old Folks: He's noticeably older than the other Boss Ghosts, but he's no less of a threat.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Sports a pair of round glasses, and is clearly malicious.
- Green and Mean: He's a green ghost, and he's a huge jerk to Luigi, to put it lightly.
- Green Thumb: Whatever's in that watering can he carries around lets him do this.
- Jerkass: He messes with Luigi a lot more than most of the other boss ghosts do.
- Man-Eating Plant: Uses one to fight, and will grow a new one for each round, replacing the ones you cut down.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He's definitely not your ordinary botanist, what with the giant pineapples and killer carnivorous plants.
- Punny Name: A botanist named Dr. Potter. His name may also be a nod to his Harry Potter-esque glasses.
Morty
Morty
Floor: Paranormal Productions
"I didn't notice until now, but your face... You have some nice features! And your build... Not bad. Not bad at all! I see all the makings of a star!"
A film director ghost found on the eighth floor, Paranormal Productions. After finding his lost megaphone, he sets Luigi up to fight a Goob in a Kaiju costume for one of his films.- Bait-and-Switch: When his megaphone is returned, he makes as though he's about to recognize Luigi from all the wanted posters of him on display. Instead, he just concludes that Luigi has the makings of a movie star and invites him to appear in one of his films.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Vincent Van Gore. Both are artistically inclined ghosts with a fixation on their respective arts. However, Van Gore is a painter, implied to be The Dragon to King Boo in the first game, the source of all of Mook ghosts, and is a required boss to defeat. Morty is a filmmaker who is mostly optional to catch (though you can catch him later after he finishes his film), and is the Token Good Teammate of all of the Boss Ghosts in his debut game.
- Finger Framing: He does this when realizing Luigi is the person he needs for his film.
- Friendly Ghost: He's the only ghost who doesn't antagonize Luigi, and in fact pays him some rather flattering comments after the plumber brings back his megaphone.
- Gag Nose: His admittedly large nose is the basis of his Japanese and Korean name, "Joe Nose".
- Large Ham: He acts as if he's one of the actors on set.
- Notzilla: A Goob is dressed as one of these in his film, and acts as the "proper" boss fight instead of Morty.
- Permanently Missable Content:
- The projector in the editing room. There is a Golden Goob inside there and if you give Morty his megaphone before catching it, you're out of luck as Morty would later use the projection to edit his film (and no, it doesn't matter if you suck Morty up before or after the Polterkitty quest as you still can't access the golden ghost).
- This also applies to Morty's film after the boss fight in the movie if you don't let him finish rendering his film after catching Polterkitty.
- Punny Name: His name is a pun on mortis, the Latin word for death. Quite fitting for a ghost.
- Rambunctious Italian: His voice clips have a slight Italian slant to them, and he quickly shows himself to be a very passionate and emotional individual. In fact, the first time we see him, he's sobbing over the loss of his megaphone.
- Skippable Boss: There's nothing forcing you to capture him once he hands over the ninth elevator button. You’ll just miss out on the achievement you earn by doing so and his canister in the Gallery will remain vacant.
- Token Good Teammate: He's more concerned with making movies than doing anything to fight or hinder Luigi, even hiring him as an actor in his latest film and handing over his elevator button freely once production wraps.
- The Unfought: Downplayed. Despite being classified as a Boss Ghost, you never get to fight him directly, although he does provide a Boss Battle anyway by having Luigi confront a Notzilla so the player doesn't feel cheated out. If you try to capture him later, he will offer no resistance besides clinging to a table.
- The Voiceless: Averted. He's notably one of only two boss ghosts to have actual dialogue, the other being Hellen Gravely herself.
- Writer's Block: He's so distraught over the loss of his megaphone that he can't bring himself to make another movie.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After the Kaiju fight, Morty will be busy in the editing room giving his film the finishing touches. If you decide to capture him before he finishes, the film never gets completed. You can downplay this trope after facing Polterkitty, which gives him time to finish it, or avert it completely by never capturing him at all.
- Zero-Effort Boss: If you decide to capture him, he has so little health (just 25 HP, exactly 1/4 of what a basic Mook has) that he doesn't have time to put up any significant resistance. In fact, he'll likely get vacuumed up normally before you have a chance to slam him.
Ug
Ug
Floor: Unnatural History Museum
A caveman ghost fought on the ninth floor, the Unnatural History Museum. Entrusted with the portrait of Blue Toad, he possesses a T-Rex skeleton and gobbles it up to keep it from Luigi.
- All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: Definitely gives off this vibe with his physical appearance and use of a bone club.
- Attack Its Weak Point: His first and second phases involve hitting the glowing orb (implied to be Ug himself) in the T-Rex's ribcage.
- Attack the Mouth: In order to get at the above-mentioned weak spot, Luigi must vacuum up a fossilized egg dropped from one of two overhanging Pterodactyl exhibits, then launch it into the skeleton's mouth when Ug makes it open up to roar (or simply have Gooigi wander in front of him to trigger a bite attack). Doing so will make him briefly struggle with whatever he has in his mouth and allow Luigi to blast him with the spare egg.
- Background Boss: Until he breaks free of the pole, that is.
- Bad with the Bone: His third phase involves him swinging around a T-Rex bone like a club. He also uses it to block Luigi's Strobulb flashes.
- Big Eater: Eats the Toad painting while he possesses the T-Rex. It's not until after he's sucked in does the painting come out, meaning it was literally inside him the whole time during the fight.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: Possessing something as large as a T-Rex skeleton to finish off Luigi is actually pretty intelligent on Ug's part... it just so happens to be in a place littered with other exhibits that provide a lot of spare ammo once destroyed. Though Ug does wise up in the first phase by smashing apart one of the Pterodactyls to leave Luigi without a spare egg to blast him with, he doesn't account for Gooigi being just as effective a distraction.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: While not a pushover, Ug himself has a considerably simpler attack pattern and weakness than the T-Rex skeleton he was possessing.
- Dem Bones: The first two stages of his fight has him possessing a Tyrannosaurus skeleton, and you need to bust up its rib cage to defeat it.
- Expy: Being fights in history museums with T-Rex skeletons animated by paranormal activity, the first phase of Ug's boss fright is very similar to the battle with the Black Slime T-Rex from the Wii and PS2 version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
- Genius Bruiser: Ironically shows shades of this, attacking Luigi by possessing the Tyrannosaurus skeleton.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Boss-Arena Idiocy aside, the bone club Ug uses also works against him in two ways.
- While Ug uses the club for his shockwave attack, it does get stuck, leaving him open.
- The second is what ultimately ends the fight. Ug's head gets stuck, meaning Luigi can't properly contain him. Cue the club that flew out of Ug's hand bonking him in the head, and the problem is quickly rectified.
- Irony: Cavemen tend to be depicted as simple-minded brutes, but Ug's actually a Genius Bruiser who changes his tactics as the boss fight goes on.
- Just Eat Him: He eats Blue Toad's painting as the T-Rex skeleton right before the fight.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: In T-Rex form, Ug can unleash sound waves when he focuses some of his roars in order to attack Luigi from a distance.
- Shockwave Stomp: Slams the ground with his bone club using both hands. It's dangerous but it leaves him vulnerable if Luigi avoids it using his Burst move.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: He spends most of the fight possessing the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex and this fossilized tyrant lizard is a true fright in the museum with its roars, stomps and bites. He even gives you a nightmarish preview for Luigi by always changing the position of the T. rex skeleton every time lightning strikes. You don't even see what Ug himself looks like until the last phase.
Clem
Clem
Floor: Boilerworks
A lazy redneck mechanic ghost who is fought on the second level of the basement, the Boilerworks. He attempts to flood the area to keep Luigi away, ultimately engaging him in battle in the hotel's main water tank.
- Adaptive Ability: In a sense. If you get smart and have Gooigi stand on the outer rim of Clem's arena to speed up the fight, Clem will start hurling mines at Gooigi as well.
- Bald of Evil: Flashing a light on him will reveal that he hides a bald spot under his cap.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While he's quite lazy and doesn't seem all that bright, he proves quite resourceful when it comes to dealing with Luigi, and his boss fight is one of the more challenging ones.
- Deep South: He has a stereotypical hillbilly look and name, with his level and scenes being accompanied by banjo music.
- Hayseed Name: "Clem", which is almost unheard of outside of the South.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: It's possible to use his mines against him by letting them blow while he's sufficiently close to the blast radius. This is a bit cumbersome though, so you're better off just letting him miss his own melee attacks as that leads to the same outcome anyway. Occasionally, while he's spinning around while stunned, he might get too close to one and prolong the stun period.
- Jerkass: He's one of the Boss Ghosts that likes messing with Luigi the most.
- Lazy Bum: He's Really Fond of Sleeping, has a very messy room, and he fights while floating around in an inner tube (as if he can't be bothered to get up and move himself).
- Paper Fan of Doom: Aside from his mines, he mostly fights using a large paper fan that effectively blocks Luigi's Strobulb flashes.
- The Pig-Pen: Clem's room in the Boilerworks is filled with junk, and it takes almost a full minute to fully vacuum the stream of detritus under his bed.
- Really Fond of Sleeping: Luigi walks in on him taking a nap twice. Heck, he does it in his battle if he gets bored enough, and naps in a pool floatie in his containment jar in the Gallery.
- Sea Mine: Spikey mines litter the waterways of B2 and he'll even toss them out during his boss fight. There are some on the sides of his arena as well.
- Waterfront Boss Battle: His fight takes place in a pool of water and involves Clem and Luigi floating around in inner tubes, with Luigi having to avoid the Spikes of Doom around the edges of the pool and the naval mines Clem tosses.
Serpci
Serpci
Floor: Tomb Suites
A pharaoh ghost who haunts the tenth floor, the Tomb Suites. After waking up from her sarcophagus, she sends Luigi through a trapdoor and forces him through a series of traps and puzzles before facing him in the Great Sandy Hall.
- Animal Motifs: Everything about her references snakes in some way, be it her design, movements, floor, powers and even name.
- Dishing Out Dirt: During her boss fight, she uses sand to defend herself and attack Luigi.
- Giant Hands of Doom: Forms giant sandy hands to punch or smash Luigi.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: An Egyptian queen who will stop at nothing to destroy Luigi.
- Graceful Loser: Upon running out of health, she just folds her arms as if she's going back into her sarcophagus.
- Nepharious Pharaoh: Sends Luigi to die in a sand pit at the bottom of her pyramid.
- Regenerating Shield, Static Health: She can continuously regenerate a sand mound to protect herself, even multiple times in one phase, but like every ghost, her health never comes back.
- Sand Blaster: Her primary method of fighting.
- Seductive Mummy: Close enough to a mummy to count. She blows a sandy kiss at Luigi, but solely to unnerve him before their fight.
- Shielded Core Boss: Hides inside a large moving sand mound in the likeness of her head, forcing Luigi to get up close and suck the sand away to reveal her.
- Shockwave Stomp: Her sand mound can leap into the air to perform one of these.
- Snakes Are Sinister: She has a very prominent snake motif, and she's certainly evil.
- Walk Like an Egyptian: This is how she attempts to escape from Luigi when being sucked in.
Nikki, Lindsey & Ginny
Nikki, Lindsey & Ginny
Floor: Twisted Suites
A trio of young magician ghosts fought on the eleventh floor, the Twisted Suites. They use their powers to prank and pester Luigi as he pursues them all across the floor.
- The Bully: In contrast to most of the other boss ghosts, the three of them go beyond protecting their elevator button and take every opportunity to harass Luigi in even the pettiest ways.
- Coordinated Clothes: The three of them all wear the same magician outfit. You can only tell who's who through their hairstyles.
- Cute Ghost Girl: With a bit of Cute Witch.
- Death Dealer: They launch giant playing cards as projectiles in their battle.
- The Dividual: They dress the same, fight alongside each other, and are never seen without each other.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Whenever Luigi sucks one up, the other sisters will visibly be very angry.
- Expy: Being a group of multiple young ghosts and a trio, they're reminiscent of Henry and Orville from the first game and the Three Sisters from the second.
- Fun with Acronyms: The first letters of their names spell NLG (a reference to Next Level Games, who developed the game).
- Identical Twin ID Tag: They only differ in hairstyle, but it's never made clear which is which. One sister has a ponytail, one has long pigtails, and one has bangs and short pigtails.
- Kids Are Cruel: Are the ghosts of little girls and are no less antagonistic to Luigi.
- Magicians Are Wizards: Despite being mere stage magicians, they have the ability to manipulate gravity and switch around where the rooms are in a building.
- Meaningful Name: Their initials reference the game's developers, Next Level Games. Their Italian names are all references to magic - Magia ("magic"), Amalia (from "ammaliare", "spellbinding") & Divina ("divine").
- No Name Given: A strange case. Their names are given, but it's never specified which of the three is Nikki, Lindsey, or Ginny.
- Shell Game: Their boss battle has them hiding in their hats as they slink around the arena; after toppling them all with a Burst, you have a chance to pick one and see what's inside. For each sister you capture, one of the hats next round will release a bomb in her place, requiring you to watch carefully as they move around to pinpoint the remaining ones.
- Squishy Wizard: Each of the sisters has just 100 HP, enabling Luigi to vacuum/slam each of them down to 0 in a single go.
- Stage Magician: Their whole shtick.
- Trickster Twins: Triplets, rather. They don't really pose a danger to Luigi until their actual battle, preferring to annoy him with their magic instead.
- Wolfpack Boss: You fight all three of them together, although you can only attack and capture them one at a time.
Captain Fishook
Captain Fishook
Floor: Spectral Catch
A shark pirate ghost fought on the twelfth floor, the Spectral Catch. He possesses his ship to fight Luigi for the 13th elevator button, as well as the portrait of Yellow Toad.
- Cool Boat: He becomes the Cool Boat during his boss battle by possessing his own ship.
- Eyepatch of Power: He uses it to guard himself from the Strobulb. It also conceals the elevator button he has hidden in his eye socket.
- Feed It a Bomb: That's how you get him to stop possessing the ship.
- Flying Seafood Special: Like any ghost, he moves around by floating, but since he's a shark, he appears to "swim" through air.
- Ghostly Animals: He's a ghostly shark.
- Hook Hand: His right fin is one of these. It's also his main weapon.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Ghost Pirate Shark!!
- One-Winged Angel: After losing enough health, he goes from possessing the floor of his ship to possessing the entire ship.
- Shark Fin of Doom: The introductory cutscene before his fight has him approaching the pirate ship with only his fin above the water.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: His undoing is a result of the Oozers throwing explosive barrels down for you to feed to him, as well as his ill-advised strategy of slamming his hook into the deck as an attack, which leaves him open to the Strobulb as he struggles to pull free.
- Tailfin Walking: Downplayed. At one point, Fishhook stands up on his tailfin, but otherwise moves around by floating like any ghost.
- Threatening Shark: A menacing character from the get-go, with little silliness surrounding him.
- Token Non-Human: He's the only non-human ghost on staff at the Last Resort.
- Treasure Chest Cavity: As mentioned above, the 13th floor button is inside his left eye socket!
Johnny Deepend
Johnny Deepend
Floor: Fitness Center
A macho swimmer ghost fought on the thirteenth floor, the Fitness Center. He fights Luigi from the water of the hotel's swimming pool.
- Boisterous Weakling: For as cocky and macho as he acts, he's one of the weakest enemies in the entire game. He only has two moves that can actually deal damage, he's almost completely defenseless once the pool is drained and to hammer the point home, he has less health than a Goob. It's pretty telling, considering how late in the game he's fought.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: After you drain the pool and trap him, the most Johnny can do is slam the ground whenever Luigi tries to suck up his goggles. It might not have much range and it's blatantly telegraphed, but it will hurt.
- Goggles Do Something Unusual: His swimming goggles can actually protect him from the Strobulb. Removing them during his first phase is impossible since Johnny can simply dive away from the Poltergust. In his second phase, however, he will be too helpless to do anything about it.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The balls he throws at Luigi can be launched back at him to stun him and allowing Gooigi a chance to drain the pool water.
- I Know Madden Kombat: Johnny primarily fights by launching volleyballs at Luigi, in a tactic that E. Gadd describes as "dodgeball" (although it's clearly based on water polo).
- Jerk Jock: He is a muscle buff who loves taunting and showing off.
- Kill It with Water: Johnny is at least smart enough to figure out Gooigi's weakness from the get-go, considering he almost always just squirts water at him, requiring Luigi to stun him so Gooigi has enough time to turn the drain valve.
- Making a Splash: He's able to squirt water at Luigi/Gooigi. A mere annoyance to the former, but really troublesome to the latter.
- Paper Tiger: Despite his muscular build, he actually has the lowest HP of any Boss Ghost, save for Morty.
- Puzzle Boss: Johnny is invincible as long as he's in his natural element, so his battle is a matter of taking him away from his pool (or, more accurately, taking his pool away from him).
- Stationary Boss: After you drain Johnny's pool, he will get stuck in the drain at the bottom, unable to escape. He can still defend himself with ground pounds, but capturing him is a trivial effort by that point.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Dude's built like a truck, and hits like one, too. Too bad it doesn't take long to capture him.
- Waterfront Boss Battle: Of the "hero is above water, boss is in water" variety. He spends the entire fight submerged in the pool.
DJ Phantasmagloria
DJ Phantasmagloria
Floor: Dance Hall
A funky, afro-wearing DJ ghost fought on the fourteenth floor, the Dance Hall. She plays for a group of breakdancing Goobs who hold the fifteenth elevator button.
- Dance Battler: Her Goobs attack by breakdancing.
- The Dead Can Dance: Her entire schtick. She's a ghostly DJ who summons dancing Goobs in her boss battle.
- Deadly Disc: Once she takes to the dance floor, she fights entirely with large vinyl records with which she may swing at Luigi as part of a Spin Attack or toss at him, either rolling them at him or merely have them spin in place like a coin to damage Luigi should he accidentally run into them.
- Disco Dan: Her floor's aesthetic takes a lot of inspiration from disco imagery. She also performs the "Staying Alive" Dance Pose a few times. Her Goob crew is more inspired by old-school hip-hop and electro, as is the stage music.
- Dragon Their Feet: As Luigi tries to leave the dance hall, her crew of Goobs cut him off at the elevator to try and avenge her capture.
- Eyes Out of Sight: Exploited. Her afro is big enough to cover her eyes, granting her protection from Luigi's Strobulb.
- Flunky Boss: If you count her breakdancing Goob crew.
- Graceful Loser: As she's being sucked into the Poltergust, she does a few last dance moves.
- Instrument of Murder: Employs vinyl records as projectiles and melee weapons.
- In the Hood: Her Goobs wear hoodies, protecting them from Luigi's Strobulb.
- Loud of War: Her speakers can release soundwaves that will knock Luigi away, but this is otherwise a harmless annoyance, serving only to reset the first phase of her battle.
- Shell Game: Actually employed twice. The first time, a Goob will hide the button inside their hood, and the player will need to pay attention to the one Goob that's not dancing correctly. Once that one gets found out, they will toss the button to another Goob and the whole crew will start spinning/bouncing around, requiring the player to follow and then Burst the button receiver before Phantasmagloria resets the song.
- Spectacular Spinning: Fitting the imagery of records on a turntable, DJ Phantasmagloria's attacks mostly involve her rapidly twirling around the arena.
- Unique Enemy: Much like Wolfgeist's ballet dancers, her breakdancers are exclusive to her fight. You can find a few Goobs with the same breakdancing attire as you approach the elevator afterward, but they do not exhibit the same behavior as Phantasmagloria's ones, instead fighting like regular Goobs.
- Visual Pun: Disco's dead, baby.
- The dancer ghosts incorporate dabbing in their routine. The Dab is dead as well.
Other Ghosts
Polterkitty
Polterkitty
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Wears a pearl necklace for a collar.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: A purple ghost cat. Of course, all of the ghosts come in different colors so it isn't too weird.
- Artificial Stupidity: When in her combat form, she actually disregards Gooigi completely and won't retreat if Gooigi is looking at her, making flashing her with Gooigi's strobulb quite a bit easier compared to trying to nab her with Luigi alone. Just face Luigi away and have Gooigi ready to hit her with the flash.
- Bakeneko and Nekomata: It's a multi-tailed ghost cat that can transform into a beast to attack. It's also accompanied by a Japanese-sounding Leitmotif and Background Music Override. Rather than two tails like it's normally depicted, Polterkitty has three. Since the split into multiple tails is said to happen when a nekomata gains power as it ages, having three suggests that it's exceedingly ancient.
- Cats Are Mean: In contrast to the excitable and affectionate Polterpup, Polterkitty is snobbish and aggressive.
- Cowardly Boss: Polterkitty is always on the run, only transforming and attacking after being cornered. Even then, it won't do anything but hiss from outside your reach unless Luigi's standing with his back turned, at which point it will attempt a sneak attack. The player can only counterattack at the very last second, otherwise it will just run away and wait for another opportunity to maul Luigi from behind.
- Evil Counterpart: To Polterpup, as it is Hellen's mean pet to Luigi's helpful one.
- Failed a Spot Check: When creeping up on Luigi, she won't notice Gooigi unless he flashes her before she begins to pounce. This allows Gooigi to creep up on her.
- Female Feline, Male Mutt: The female feline to Polterpup's male mutt.
- Ghostly Animals: She's a ghostly cat.
- Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: With Polterpup again.
- Mini-Boss: It's fought in six individual battles after it snatches and eats two of Luigi's elevator buttons over the course of the game.
- Multiple-Tailed Beast: Polterkitty has several tails that keep it from being sucked up- instead, Luigi tears off one of the tails. In the last encounter, he's able to grab the final tail and finally pull it into the vacuum.
- Panthera Awesome: She can transform into a panther-like form when fighting.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Though often seen resting on Hellen's lap while the latter watches Luigi, she sets off to make Luigi's life difficult a few times on her own.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The first time Luigi sucks up all of its tails, the Polterkitty hurls up the elevator button it swallowed earlier and retreats.
- Swallow the Key: It catches and gobbles up two of the Last Resort elevator buttons to prevent Luigi from making progress, forcing him to take a detour and fight the feline fiend to force it to give up the buttons.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Her eyelashes and the necklace she wears.
Other Characters
Gooigi
Gooigi
A Blob Monster clone of Luigi who debuts in the Nintendo 3DS remake of the first game. Professor E. Gadd created him during the events of Dark Moon and sent him back in time to his past self for testing. In the remake, he simply serves as the second player in the Co-op mode, but in Luigi's Mansion 3 he takes center stage with Luigi, being integral to puzzles and boss fights in addition to serving as player 2 in local co-op.
- All There in the Manual: Much of the backstory about Gooigi's creation is found online in Professor E. Gadd's Research Journal. Such details include why Gooigi is shaped as he is, how he can capture ghosts and why it's just as well Gooigi is weak to water.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's never really made clear whether he's a separate entity from Luigi, or if Luigi controls him. He has his own personality (i.e., none) and can act alongside Luigi in co-op. However, in single-player, Luigi goes into a trance when the player controls Gooigi and vice versa (which one cutscene even lampshades), Luigi seems to always know what Gooigi is doing despite no communication, and E. Gadd talks about him like he's a tool rather than a person, especially in the tutorial. That said, in another cutscene, he's seen waving at Luigi before getting into some slapstick shenanigans, and stays behind with E. Gadd at the end of the game. He seems to have developed the ability to act on his own, but it's never directly addressed.
- Ascended Extra: In Luigi's Mansion 3. While still used in multiplayer, he's also incorporated into the singleplayer mode, and using him is required to solve some puzzles and defeat some bosses, including King Boo.
- The Bait: In order to hit Ug's T. rex skeleton host the second time, you have to deploy Gooigi as a snack for the dino, shooting its ribs with a fossilized egg while it tries to chomp down. Gooigi is also excellent bait for Slinkers, as they'll shift to trying to grab him rather than Luigi when Gooigi is out, making them sitting ducks for Luigi as they constrict Gooigi's shoulders. Using Gooigi as bait is also useful for taking down Chest Monster ghosts that would otherwise swallow Luigi whole. The dynamic is inverted if you use him during the Polterkitty fights; it's much easier to stun it by using Luigi as bait and attack as Gooigi, whom the cat ignores.
- Blob Monster: He's composed of green goo, and can liquefy and reform at will. If he loses his hit pointsnote , he can respawn later without need of a Gold Bone.
- The Comically Serious: While he shares Luigi's happy reactions to acquiring items, and some of his animations, Gooigi is completely unresponsive to almost all stimuli. Ghost taps him, boss ghost gets mad, elevator button bounces off his head? He just stands there as still and emotionless as a statue, which annoys and confuses the ghosts. Granted, he is a blob of goo.
- Compact Infiltrator: Gooigi is able to slip through cages and reach areas that normal Luigi cannot. This includes certain vents on the ground, which Gooigi can slide through in order to solve certain puzzles.
- Death Is Cheap: In 3, each time he dies, his goo will eventually return to the Poltergust, allowing him to be reformed and summoned again with no penalty.
- Elemental Powers: In Luigi's Mansion Gooigi can also use the three elements in the game once their corresponsing medallions have been collected. How he can shoot fire or water without running into his weaknesses is anyone's guess.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: He's used like a radar to find the hidden Boos, something in composition resonates with Boos making him wiggle around like jelly when near one.
- Featureless Protagonist: Is talked about as if he's not sentient, and he doesn't react to things like jumpscares from Slinkers (though he can be grabbed). Fair enough, since he seems to just be a Luigi-shaped mass of psycho-reactive slimenote . However, he is key to solving several puzzles and can visit places Luigi isn't able to by squeezing through grates or spikes. While his multiplayer aspect was heavily advertised prior to release, he's essential in single player as well.
- Footprints of Muck: More watery than mucky but he leaves them behind in 3 due to his gooey nature.
- Holler Button: In 3, Gooigi can also call out for Mario just like Luigi, and call out to teammates in the ScareScraper.
- The Lancer: Luigi's sidekick throughout 3. He even gets to be on the box art!
- Logical Weakness: Gooigi's gelatinous body lets him easily pass through bars or grates, but it also means he's incapable of climbing ropes and ladders or standing on terrain like scaffolding without falling straight through.
- Nerves of Steel: He doesn't get scared like Luigi due to just being a blob of goo, which confuses a ghost who tries to spook him in a cutscene.
- Not So Above It All: In 3, on The Dance Hall level during the battle against the dancer Goobs, while Gooigi doesn't move his feet to the beat like Luigi does, even he can't resist snapping his fingers to the music.
- Not So Stoic: During the ending, he does show some emotion when the hotel collapses with him and Luigi still on it by waving at him before the two plummet, though it comes off more as Dissonant Serenity given the circumstances (he slams against the concrete, since Polterpup could only catch Luigi, of course with Gooigi being made of goo he's perfectly fine). After all the chaos and destruction, Gooigi's only response is to give Luigi a thumbs up. Additionally, during the ending cutscene, he waves goodbye to Luigi and co. after some hesitation, implying he may have developed sentience over the course of the story.
- Our Clones Are Different: Debuting in the Nintendo 3DS remake of the original game and later taking centre stage in Luigi's Mansion 3, Gooigi is an emotionless Blob Monster clone of Luigi, made from a gelatinous green goo that can liquefy and reform at will, which grants him Regenerating Health, although he is weak to water. It is revealed in the online Professor E. Gadd's Research Journal that in order for Gooigi to retain a human shape, E. Gadd used Luigi's biological data that the Pixelator captured which caused the previously formless and nameless goo to permanently take on Luigi's form, hence his name.
- Passing the Torch: Was specifically created by E Gadd for this purpose, as he needed a permanent assistant for his increasingly dangerous paranormal research due to his age. He's hoping to send Gooigi on field missions in the future.
- Regenerating Health: Unlike Luigi, Gooigi regains health after a short while if he takes no damage.
- Weaksauce Weakness: He'll completely melt if he gets wet, and unfortunately, water is a pretty common substance, especially on the Boilerworks level of 3, which is almost entirely flooded and also a level where Gooigi is vital to get through.
