How Powerful is Bowser?

 

Before we start:

For what is being considered canon to the Mario series, see my previous blog. This includes my reasoning for considering what I am for this, including Paper Mario, Mario + Rabbids, and the Super Mario Adventures comic. I will also be using any official guides, manuals, websites, or any other official source, and while the original Japanese will have the most priority, I will be including any official translations as long as they do not deviate too far from the original source and are used as supplemental material.

In terms of what will be listed as arsenal, Bowser has had access to several powerful artifacts, and these will be viewed on a case-by-case basis. In general, I won't be listing anything that isn't reasonable for Bowser to still be in possession of, which includes several one-off macguffins such as the Star Rod, the Dream Stone, Music Keys, the Vibe Scepter, the Royal Sticker, or the Pure Hearts. Anything else realistic is fair game. You could technically argue that these "non-standard equipment" could still be accessed in a fight due to some of Bowser's abilities that I will talk about later, but I am still not going to include them. Maybe I will make another blog sometime later talking specifically about these items, as they are actually interesting to talk about, but that isn't in the current plans.

Background

Born as one of the seven Star Children and raised by his caretaker Kamek, Lord Bowser, king of the Koopa Kingdom, was made to be a villain. Even at a young age he was capturing babies and terrorizing Yoshis. However, every villainous plot he attempted, he was always foiled by a red cap-wearing baby named Mario. Throughout his life, every time Bowser would try something, Mario was there to stop him. Bowser eventually set his sights on the Mushroom Kingdom and its princess, Peach. After transforming every Mushroom Kingdom citizen into bricks, stones, and plants, he would kidnap Princess Peach, as she was the only one capable of undoing this magic. Of course, like always, Mario stood up to stop him, dropping him into lava and saving the Mushroom Kingdom.

But Bowser would not give up. He continued to terrorize the Mushroom Kingdom through any means possible, typically by kidnapping Princess Peach. While his exact reasoning differs every time, as sometimes he wants to prevent her from using magic, sometimes he wants to marry her to take over, and sometimes he just wants to give his son a mother figure, but he always finds a way to do it. His motives aren't always Peach-related either. He's tried to create his own theme park or even a galaxy-sized empire at the center of the universe, and after teaming up with Antasma to take over the world, he would betray him and keep the Dream Stone they stole for himself.

However, Bowser is not pure evil. He does care about his minions and ultimately will do what is best for his kingdom, even if it means teaming up with his archenemies to defeat a greater evil. He also can put aside his differences with Mario to get together for some classic go-karting, sports, or parties, provided he gets to invite some of his minions of course. Even still though, Bowser remains a constant thorn in the Mario brothers' sides, and if you are a Toad then you best beware, because Bowser is coming.

Experience and Skill

Bowser has been fighting Mario ever since he was a baby, even from when Mario was a newborn infant. As Mario is 24 or 25 years old, this means Bowser has been fighting for that long from childhood into adulthood. Even as a baby he was able to fight alongside his time-traveling adult counterpart, showing him to be surprisingly skillful even back then. Throughout his history he's continuously shown to be a match for Mario, even besting him in combat a couple of times.

Matching Mario is no small feat, considering he's able to fight many bosses while under the effects of a Daredevil Comet, which weakens him so much that he dies from a single hit. Mario was even able to go through the ridiculously difficult Grandmaster Galaxy twice, one of which was when he was weakened by the Daredevil comet. Mario has also traversed through many other ultra-difficult levels, like Special 8-Crown, Champion's Road, Darker Side, and the Impossible Pack.

Bowser has also shown to be able to match other powerful characters like Rosalina, who, while not a fighter, has been alive for hundreds of years. Bowser has also matched Jinx, an incredibly powerful and skillful martial arts expert, similar to The Master which Mario was able to match. He was even able to get the jump on the seven Star Spirits, who have protected the Star Rod since the beginning of time.

Bowser is also surprisingly very intelligent. He has boasted about having an IQ of 9,800, which is both absurd and impossible, while revealing that he created sentient beings in his lab. He's created multiple Bowser mechs, a space station, and a bubble machine that created exact duplicated of other characters. He was also able to play the dummy the whole time working with Antasma, only to betray him at the very end, and Antasma is known as very cunning and calculating. He's also shown to have quite the knowledge on magical artifacts and weapons, as shown with his experience using Power Stars, Grand Stars, the Dream Stone, the Star Rod, and the Royal Stickers. He's even harnessed the power of a Grand Star to power his Dark Matter Reactor, which generated Dark Matter that could destroy anything that touched it.

All in all, Bowser is very experienced against a wide variety of extremely skillful foes. He has been fighting for his entire life and although he may seem like a dumb brute at some times, he is actually incredibly intelligent, resourceful, and creative.

Equipment

Bowser Shell

Bowser's shell is an immensely durable covering that stays on Bowser at all times. He can duck down to protect himself from attacks, or pull all of himself into the shell to use as an attack. When in the shell he can spin fast enough to use as a battering ram. By spinning in his shell, Bowser is able to reflect projectiles thrown his way, and while in his shell he can perform a ground pound-like move called a Body Slam. Bowser is also able to curl himself into a ball somehow so that the shell is on all sides, and he can use this to climb walls. His shell is far more durable than the rest of his body, and he has shown to be unaffected by attacks that would normally damage him. His shell has also shown the ability to shoot out spikes as long range attacks, and he can shoot many of these out at once that somewhat home in on an enemy.

Bowser also has Bowser Shells as weapons he can wield and throw. These are very large and can bounce up to 15 times before breaking. They also seem to have a small homing ability. He also has shown the ability to conjure flaming Bowser Shells mid-battle, which have their spikes going all around in a ball.

Super Mario RPG Shells

In Super Mario RPG, Bowser gains access to several shells that he can swap out for his original shell that increase his defense and magical defense. They are the Happy Shell, the Courage Shell, the Fire Shell, and the Heal Shell. Despite their names, they all share the same effects of increasing defense, with the Heal Shell increasing it the most out of any of them.

Bowser's Inside Story Shells

In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser has access to many more shells that he can swap out for his original shell to give him certain buffs. These will be gotten from the 3DS remake, as in the original all of them just buff defense and that's it. 

• Armored Shell: Increases Bowser’s defense by 80 points, and doubles his defense when he is badly hurt.
• Blazing Shell: Increases health by 20 and defense by 90, and it burns the enemy when they touch it.
• Command Shell: Increases BP by 10 and defense by 120, and it increases the power of a random Brawl Attack, and reduces the BP used.
• Divine Shell: Increases BP by 30 and defense by 200, and it automatically recovers health and BP throughout the battle.
• Dream Shell: Increases health by 40 and defense by 180, and increases the strength of Bowser’s punches (likely extends to all physical attacks).
• Gilt Shell: Increases power by 45 and defense by 160, and it will heal Bowser of any status effects after one turn (likely would mean a few seconds). The status effects in this game that Bowser can be affected by are Defense-down, Dizzy, Fury, Power-down, Speed-down, and Sick.
• Golden Shell: Increases defense by 8, doesn’t do much but looks really cool.
• Ironclad Shell: Increases defense by 300 and increases the strength of Bowser’s critical and lucky hits.
• Judge Shell: Increases defense by 70 and turns Bowser’s fury into power.
• King Shell: Increases defense by 260 and increases Bowser’s HORN (Basically his luck).
• Lightweight Shell: Increases defense by 60 and increases speed by a small amount.
• Rampage Shell: Increases power by 10 and defense by 100, and enrages Bowser immediately, activating FURY (will be covered later).
• Rock Shell: Increases BP by 10 and defense by 95, and completely blocks all status effects.
• Royal Shell: Increases defense by 8, the default Shell at the beginning of the game with nothing special.
• Safety Shell: Increases defense by 50 and reduces all damage dealt to Bowser.
• Special Shell: Increases defense by 30 and completely blocks Bowser from being dizzy.
• Stamina Shell: Increases health by 70 and defense by 90, and increases health under normal circumstances and defense when badly hurt.
• Wicked Shell: Increases power by 30 and defense by 230, and enrages Bowser immediately, activating FURY.

Hammers

Bowser has used several hammers in many of his fights. He can throw these hammers in an arch, and has thrown many all at once. He also has shown to be able to enlarge these hammers after throwing them. Bowser also has several melee hammers that he has used to reflect projectiles thrown at him, launch people over the horizon, or squish people while he was giant. 

Spike Balls

Bowser has frequently used spike balls as part of his castle defense (or in a giant pinball machine), though he has also used them in combat too. He can seemingly produce an unlimited number of them, and can throw multiple at once.

Barrels

Taking inspiration from Mario's first villain, Bowser is able to summon giant barrels to throw at enemies.

Castle Rock

A ball of bricks that appears to be made out of the castles at the end of 2D Mario levels. These can be summoned straight to Bowser to be thrown.

Wedding Hats

Bowser has a wedding hat that has boxing gloves equipped on it. He can throw it as an attack and it will come back to him. He can also create purple duplicates of his hat that can be thrown as obstacles as well.

Kick Bombs

Bombs that Bowser appears to store in the Koopa Chase. They are shaped like soccer balls/footballs and can be kicked around to explode them. They also can be activated immediately should Bowser so choose. Gigantic versions are later summoned by Fury Bowser.

Flaming Boomerangs

Bowser can create flaming boomerangs to throw. These fly in a circle before going off in another direction.

Koopa Shells

Bowser has several Koopa Shells that he can throw out at enemies to attack them from a distance.

Power-ups

Bowser has used a couple of Mario's power-ups in battle before. They are as follows:

• Super Bell: Similar to Mario's Cat Mario form, when Bowser uses the Super Bell he transforms into Meowser, a cat version of himself. This form will be elaborated on more later.
• Double Cherry: While not shown on screen, Bowser was implied to use the same Double Cherry that Mario uses. He can use these multiple times to keep multiplying, and they are able to act independently from each other. Also, unlike Mario's clones in gameplay, Bowser's have shown to not be destroyed immediately upon taking damage, as he was hit with the same POW Block several times.

Additionally, it is shown that Bowser has several Super Leaves he gives out to his minions, though he is never shown using one on himself. 

Bowser's Inside Story items

In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser has access to many items that can benefit him in several different ways. 

• Drumsticks: Drumsticks are items that Bowser can eat in order to heal. They come in three varieties, Hot Drumsticks, Fiery Drumsticks, and TNT Drumsticks, all increasing varying amounts of health with Hot Drumsticks increasing the least and TNT Drumsticks increasing the most.
• Syrup Jars/Cheeses: Syrup Jars and Cheeses are items that Bowser can eat in order to refill his SP/BP (They're the same stat. Syrup Jars in the original, Cheeses in the remake). They come in three varieties each, with Syrup Jars/Cheese recovering a little amount, Supersyrup Jars/Super Cheese recovering a moderate amount, Ultrasyrup Jars/Ultra Cheese recovering a large amount, and Max Syrup Jars/Miracle Cheese recovering all of it. However, this is all likely just game mechanics, as SP/BP's only use is to limit Bowser's Brawl Attacks (See later).
• Star Candy/Cheesy Drumstick: These are items Bowser can eat to completely recover all of his health and SP/BP at once. The Star Candy will also heal Bowser of any of the status conditions from this game.
• Refreshing Herb: Bowser can eat one of these to completely heal from all status conditions.
• Boo Biscuit: A Boo-shaped biscuit Bowser can eat to turn temporarily invisible and intangible. This allows him to scout out an enemy's attacks, though he cannot attack while the effect is active.
• Retry Clock: Should Bowser die in battle, a Retry Clock is used automatically, rewinding time back to the beginning of the fight, and bringing all characters back to the states they were in at the beginning of the fight. Theoretically, this should let the user retain all memories of the events before the Retry Clock, though this is never specified. Throughout the game Bowser can gather a total of 19 Retry Clocks.

Bands

Armbands that Bowser wears that give him different buffs and abilities. Unlike the Shells, all of the Bands share the same functions in the original and remake.

• Block Band: Increases Bowser’s defense by 20%.
• Breath Band: Recovers some of Bowser’s health and increases his power after a successful Vacuum.
• Counter Band: Recovers some of Bowser’s BP after he successfully counterattacks.
• Fury Band: Increases Bowser’s power by 20% when he’s under the FURY status effect.
• Gourmet Band: Cures all of Bowser’s status effects after he eats a drumstick.
• Hunter Band: Increases Bowser’s strength by 10% when he kills an opponent, for a max of up to a 30% increase.
• Iron Fist Band: Increases the strength of Bowser’s punches by 20%, likely extends to all other physical attacks.
• KO Band: Lets Bowser occasionally defeat an enemy with a single punch attack, likely extends to all other physical attacks.
• Lucky Band: Doubles the chance that Bowser gets a lucky hit.
• Minion Band/Minion Band SP: Automatically regenerates some BP every turn.
• Power Band: Increases Bowser’s power by 9 points and by 10%.
• Power Band +: Increases Bowser’s power by 19 points and by 20%.
• Shocking Band: Increases the power of Bowser’s encountering attack. Basically, should Bowser be able to get the jump on an opponent, the strength of his surprise attack is increased.
• Stamina Band: Increases Bowser’s strength by 15% when he eats a drumstick.
• Vampire Band: Recovers 8% of Bowser’s health when he uses a punch attack, likely extends to all other physical attacks.

Fangs

Fangs that Bowser wears that give him different buffs and abilities. Like with bands, they have the same function in the original and the remake.

• Block Fangs: Increases Bowser’s defense by 20%.
• Bone Fangs: Increases Bowser’s defense by 30% after he eats a drumstick.
• Brawl Fangs: Randomly increases the power of Bowser’s Brawl Attacks and reduces the BP used.
• Breath Fangs: Allows Bowser to be able to vacuum a random bean from the opponent occasionally.
• Burning Fangs: Doubles the chance of inflicting a burn on the opponent when using Bowser’s fire attacks.
• Double-edged Fangs: Increases Bowser’s strength, but inflicts damage onto Bowser should he not receive an EXCELLENT rating.
• Flashy Fangs: No special effect, but they sell for really good.
• Fury Fangs: Makes Bowser irritable, making it 50% more likely to activate FURY.
• Gaudy Fangs: Cuts Bowser’s health in half, but increases all of his other stats (BP, Power, Defense, Speed, and Horn) for four turns.
• Intruder Fangs: Allows Bowser to take 2 actions in one turn, so it likely boosts his combat speed or something like that.
• Power Fangs/Power Fangs X: Increases Bowser’s power by 10%/20%.
• Red-Hot Fangs/Red-Hot Fangs DX: Increases the power of Bowser’s fire attacks.
• Special Fangs/Special Fangs X: Increases Bowser’s BP by 20%/40%.

Rings

Rings that Bowser wears that give him different buffs and abilities. Most of them are the same in the original and the remake, so for the ones that are different I will split them up.

• Block Ring: Increases Bowser’s defense by 30%.
• Cheap Ring: Reduces the amount of BP needed to perform a random Brawl Attack by 30%, and it changes every turn.
• Counter Ring/Counter Ring DX: Increases the power of Bowser’s counterattacks.
• Drumstick Ring (original): Occasionally automatically makes Bowser eat a drumstick before he makes a move.
• Drumstick Ring (remake): Automatically feeds Bowser a drumstick when he gets low on health.
• Economy Ring: The BP required for Bowser to use a Brawl Attack is cut in half.
• Excellent Ring: Restores 10% of Bowser’s BP when he gets an Excellent rating on an attack.
• Fast Cash Ring: Doubles the amount of coins received from Bowser defeating small enemies in the field.
• Fill-Up Ring: Restores 4 BP every turn.
• Glutton Ring: Allows Bowser to eat 2 drumsticks at the same time.
• Greedy Ring: Makes all enemies drop rare items when they are defeated by Bowser.
• Hard Ring: Increases Bowser’s defense by 20%.
• Heroic Ring: Increases the power of Bowser’s Brawl Attacks by 30%, but doubles the BP price of the attacks.
• Lucky Ring/Lucky Ring DX: Increases the power of Bowser’s critical and lucky attacks.
• Peace Ring: Restores 15 health each turn. 
• Restore Ring: Restores 10 health and 3 BP each turn.
• Safety Ring (original): Increases Bowser’s health by 20%.
• Safety Ring (remake): Increases Bowser’s health by 40 points, and reduces damage dealt to Bowser.
• Treasure Ring: Doubles the chance an enemy will drop an item.

Beans

Beans are items that Bowser can eat to boost various stats. They each increase a different stat by 1 point, so not very much, but Bowser can carry a lot at a time. He does have a limited amount of them, so I will be listing how many he is able to collect at a time. There are a different amount in the original and the remake, so I will be listing both.

• Heart Beans: Beans that increase Bowser’s health. There are 127 in the original and 38 in the remake.
• Special Beans: Beans that increase Bowser’s BP. There are 70 in the original and 31 in the remake.
• Power Beans: Beans that increase Bowser’s power. There are 54 in the original and 19 in the remake.
• Defense Beans: Beans that increase Bowser’s defense. There are 13 in the remake.
• Speed Beans: Beans that increase Bowser’s speed. There are 23 in the remake.
• Flex Beans: Beans that increase Bowser’s horn (his luck). There are 20 in the remake.

Super Mario RPG Items

In Super Mario RPG, Bowser has access to several items that can benefit him in a variety of ways.

• Able Juice: A juice that heals Bowser or one of his allies of all negative status effects. These include inflicted with fear, transmuted into a mushroom or scarecrow, poisoned, mute, and sleep.
• Bad Mushroom: A mushroom that deals damage and poisons an enemy.
• Bracer: A drink that increases the defense of Bowser or one of his allies by 50%.
• Crystalline: A drink that increases the defense of Bowser and all of his allies by 50%.
• Earlier Times: An item Bowser can use to completely restart a battle from the beginning, with everything returned to the status it was at the beginning.
• Froggie Drink: A drink that heals Bowser and all of his allies a little bit.
• Elixir/Megalixir: Drinks that heals Bowser and all of his allies by quite a bit, with Megalixir healing more.
• Energizer: A drink that increases the strength of Bowser or one of his allies by 50%.
• Fire Bomb: An item that deals fire damage as an area of effect attack, hitting all enemies. If an opponent has their attack boosted, this attack deals more damage.
• Flower Tab/Flower Jar/Flower Box: Items that increase Bowser's Flower Points by various amounts, which let him use Special Moves.
• Freshen Up: A drink that heals Bowser and all of his allies of their negative status effects.
• Fright Bomb: An item that summons a Boo in order to deal damage and possibly inflict Fear onto the opponent. If an opponent has their attack boosted, this deals more damage.
• Goodie Bag: Increases the amount of coins Bowser receives at the end of a battle.
• Honey Syrup/Maple Syrup/Royal Syrup: Syrups that recover Bowser's Flower Points by various amounts.
• Ice Bomb: An item that deals ice damage as an area of effect attack, hitting all enemies. If an opponent has their attack boosted, this attack deals more damage.
• Kerokero Cola: A drink that fully restores Bowser's and all of his allies' health and Flower Points.
• Lamb's Lure: An item that summons a sheep in order to turn an opponent into a sheep and run away.
• Mushroom/Mid Mushroom/Max Mushroom: Mushrooms that heal Bowser or one of his allies by various amounts.
• Muku Cookie: An item that heals Bowser and all of his allies of their negative status effects as well as healing them all for 69 HP (this is not a joke)
• Pick Me Up: A drink that revives one of Bowser's fallen allies.
• Power Blast: A drink that raises the strength of Bowser and all of his allies by 50%.
• Pure Water: Water that can deal damage to the undead. In Japanese it is called "Holy Water" (RIP Ganon).
• Red Essence: A drink that makes Bowser invincible for a short time. In game it lasts 3 turns, though occasionally can last up to 5 turns.
• Rock Candy: An item that summons a shining star storm that deals large damage as an area of effect attack. If an opponent has their attack boosted, this attack deals more damage.
• See Ya: An item that allows Bowser to run away from the battle, though it doesn't work all of the time (kinda useless in a fight to the death).
• Sheep Attack: An item that summons a group of sheep that turn all enemies in the battle into sheep that run away.
• Sleepy Bomb: An item that Bowser can use to instantly make all enemies fall asleep.
• Star Egg: An item similar to the Rock Candy, though half as strong. Unlike most items, this one will not be consumed upon using it, allowing it to be used as many times as Bowser wants.
• Yoshi-Ade: A drink that increases the strength and defense of Bowser or one of his allies by 50%.
• Yoshi Candy: Candy that can heal Bowser or one of his allies.
• Yoshi Cookie: A cookie that summons Yoshi into the battle, who will then eat an opponent and turn them into an item before running away. If this fails, Yoshi will instead give Bowser a Yoshi Candy.

Super Mario RPG Accessories and Armor

Bowser has several accessories and pieces of armor he is able to wear that give him various bonuses.

• Amulet: An item that increases the wearer's attack, magical attack, defense, and magical defense, as well as halving elemental damage done (including Fire, Ice, Lightning, and "Jump"), at the cost of decreasing speed slightly. Apparently it also has a bad smell.
• Antidote Pin: A pin that slightly increases the wearer's defense and magical defense, as well as preventing them from being poisoned.
• Fearless Pin: A pin that increases the wearer's defense and magical defense, as well as preventing them from being inflicted with Fear.
• Feather: An item that slightly increases the wearer's defense and magical defense, and drastically increases their speed.
• Ghost Medal: A medal that raises the wearer's defense by 50% while they're attacking.
• Jinx Belt: A belt that drastically increases the wearer's attack and defense, increases speed by a good amount, and prevents them from being inflicted with Instant Death.
• Quartz Charm: A charm that lets the wearer deal 50% more damage and take 50% less damage, as well as preventing Instant Death.
• Rare Scarf: A scarf that raises the wearer's defense and magical defense by a good amount.
• Safety Badge: A badge that slightly increases the wearer's defense and magical defense, as well as preventing them from being inflicted by any negative status effect.
• Safety Ring: A ring that slightly increases the wearer's defense, magical defense, and speed, as well as preventing them from being inflicted by negative status effects and Instant Death.
• Scrooge Ring: A ring that cuts the Flower Points required to use a special move in half.
• Signal Ring: A ring that increases the wearer's speed. It also plays a sound whenever a hidden chest is nearby.
• Troopa Pin: A pin that drastically increases the wearer's speed, and lets them deal 50% more damage on all of their attacks.
• Trueform Pin: A pin that slightly increases the wearer's defense and magical defense, as well as preventing them from being affected by transmutation.
• Wakeup Pin: A pin that slightly increases the wearer's defense and magical defense, as well as preventing them from being inflicted by Mute and Sleep.
• Zoom Shoes: Shoes that increase the wearer's speed by a good amount, and slightly increase their defense and magical defense.
• Work Pants: Pants that increase the wearer's attack, magical attack, defense, magical defense, and speed by a good amount.
• Lazy Shell: A shell that decreases the wearer's attack, magical attack, and speed drastically, but increase their defense and magical defense exponentially, as well as preventing every negative status effect and becoming immune to elemental attacks.
• Super Suit: A suit that drastically increases the wearer's attack, magical attack, defense, magical defense, and speed, as well as preventing every negative status effect and becoming immune to elemental attacks.

Super Mario RPG Weapons

In Super Mario RPG, Bowser also has several unique weapons that he can use.

• Chomp Shell: The empty shell of a Chomp that Bowser can swing as a flail before throwing it at an enemy.
• Chomp: A Chain Chomp Bowser can use as a weapon by throwing it at an enemy, and it will bite them several times.
• Hurly Gloves: Bowser can wear these gloves to pick up Mario and throw him at an enemy. If Mario is not there (such as in a 1-on-1 battle), Bowser will throw a Mario doll instead.
• Spiked Link: A stronger version of the Chomp Shell that has spikes protruding out of it.
• Drill Claw: Gloves that Bowser can wear to increase the strength of his claw attacks.

Pixls

During the events of Super Paper Mario, Bowser gains several allies in the form of Pixls, small pixie-like characters that give various different abilities or assist in different ways. These include 11 of the 12 original Pixls created by an Ancient magician thousands of years ago. They acted as their technology up until the Pixl Queen led the uprising against the Ancients, which was stopped by one of the twelve sacrificing themselves to take the Pixl Queen down. After this, the remaining eleven were scattered across worlds in different dimensions, stripped of most of their power. Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser would eventually bring these Pixls together along with a new Pixl, Tippi.

While Pixls are separate characters, they remain with the player even after the story and are given no indication that they would leave, so I believe it is fair to give them to Bowser here. The only exception is Tippi, who leaves at the end of the game to be with Blumiere and turn back into a human. She is eventually replaced with the robotic Pixl Tiptron, who possesses all of the abilities of Tippi.

• Tiptron: A 1:1 robotic copy of Tippi. She can make invisible things visible and reveal information about an opponent through her tattle ability. As an exact copy of Tippi, she should possess all of her abilities, which would include being able to transport her and other characters into other dimensions.
• Thoreau: A hand-shaped Pixl that gives the wielder an extendable reach by throwing him, letting them grab and throw opponents from a distance.
• Boomer: A bomb Pixl that has an appetite for demolition. He can transform into a bomb and explode.
• Slim: A Pixl shaped like an inverted triangle that can turn the wielder "sideways", making them infinitely thin and allowing enemies to pass right through them if they are standing still.
• Thudley: A weight-shaped Pixl that grants an increased power to the wielder's Ground Pound, making it deal double the damage it would normally.
• Carrie: A Pixl that can turn into a floating platform for the wielder to ride in the air on.
• Fleep: A Pixl that can "flip" the background, allowing the user to close spatial rifts, make enemies confused, and nullify projectiles.
• Cudge: A hammer-shaped Pixl that can manifest a hammer into the wielder's hands.
• Dottie: A Pixl that can shrink the wielder so small that enemies no longer notice them, and they are able to shrink other characters too.
• Barry: A spiky Pixl that can create a spiky barrier around the wielder, doing damage to anyone near and reflecting any projectiles.
• Dashell: A Pixl that gives the wielder a great boost in speed temporarily.
• Piccolo: A Pixl shaped like a music note that can play music to cure any of the status effects caused by Cursyas, which include:
• Statistics Reduction: The Cursya will make someone move slower.
• Dimensional BFR: The Back Cursya will send someone back to Flipside.
• Power Nullification: The Tech Cursya will disable someone's ability.
• Gravity Manipulation: The Heavy Cursya will make someone much heavier than they were.
• Confusion/Disorientation: The Reversya Cursya will reverse someone's controls.

Super Paper Mario items

In Super Paper Mario, Bowser has access to several items that can benefit him in a variety of ways.

Attack Items

• Bone-In Cut: A legendary cut of meat that doubles the user's attack power for ten seconds.
• Dyllis Dynamite: Dynamite that hits every enemy near to the user five times, dealing damage each time.
• Egg Bomb: Similar to the Dyllis Dynamite, but only hits enemies one time.
• Electro Pop: A lollipop that electrifies the user, causing any opponent to touch them to get electrocuted.
• Fire Burst: An item that targets all enemies near the user and engulfs them in flames.
• Fruit Parfait: An item that deals damage to all enemies nearby and freezes them.
• Ghost Shroom: Summons a Ghost Shroom that will follow the user and automatically attack any enemy near it.
• Hot Sauce: Sauce whose effect is identical to the Bone-In Cut.
• Ice Storm: Targets all enemies near the user and pelts them with frigid shards of ice. 
• Megaton Dinner: A meal that shakes the ground, dealing damage to all enemies touching a surface.
• Meteor Meal: Identical to the Shooting Star below, except it always does the maximum amount of damage.
• Mighty Tonic: A tonic that doubles the user's attack power for any time between 25 to 40 seconds.
• POW Block: Causes all enemies touching a surface to take damage. 
• Shell Shock: An 8-bit Koopa shell that the user pulls out and kicks forward.
• Shooting Star: The user summons a large amount of stars onto their opponent that do increasingly more damage the more stars that hit.
• Snow Bunny: Freezes all enemies on screen.
• Snow Cone: Identical in function to the Snow Bunny.
• Spicy Dinner: Doubles the user's attack power for 30 seconds.
• Spicy Pasta Dish: Doubles the user's attack power for 30 seconds.
• Spit Roast: Doubles the user's attack power for 15 seconds.
• Thunder Rage: Summons a bunch of lightning from the sky to strike enemies.
• Volcano Shroom: Doubles the user's attack power for 20 seconds.
• Volt Shroom: Electrifies the user, causing any opponent to touch the user to be electrocuted and paralyzed.

Defense Items

• Block Block: Creates a glass-like block around the user, making them invincible between 15 to 20 seconds.
• Block Meal: Makes the user invincible for 20 seconds.
• Courage Shell: Reduces the damage the user takes in half for 25 to 40 seconds.
• Koopasta Dish: Reduces the damage the user takes in half for 30 seconds.
• Koopa Dumpling: Has the same effect as the Koopasta Dish.
• Koopa Pilaf: Has the same effect as the Koopasta Dish.
• Koopa Tea: Reduces the damage the user takes in half for 20 seconds.
• Turtley Leaf: Reduces the damage the user takes in half for 10 seconds.

Attack and Defensive Items

• Love Noodle Dish: Doubles the user's attack and cuts any damage they take in half, as well as paralyzing anyone who touches them, for 20 seconds.
• Lovely Chocolate: The same effects as the Love Noodle Dish, but shocks anyone touching the user instead of paralyzing.

Recovery Items

To avoid being extremely repetitive, a majority of recovery items have the same effect of restoring some amount of health and curing the user of poison. They will not be listed individually and instead can be found here.

• Life Shroom: Automatically revives the user for a low amount of health when they die. Can also be used at any time to heal and cure poison.
• Long-Last Shake: Slowly regenerates the user's health over time.

Miscellaneous Items

• Catch Card: A card that can be used on an enemy in order to capture their soul, displaying information about them once captured. In gameplay this is also shown to capture their physical body as well. Owning a Catch Card of an enemy increases the damage done to other versions of that enemy, and these can stack with more and more Catch Cards owned. However, they have a chance to fail.
• Catch Card SP: A stronger version of the Catch Card that almost never fails to work.
• HP Plus: Permanently increases the user's maximum health.
• Mega Star: Will transform the user into a large 8-bit version of themselves which is invincible to most attacks.
• Mystery Box: Will randomly gift the user a useful item, though no item is exclusive to this.
• Pal Pill: Will create 8 miniature 8-bit copies of the user that follow them around and copy their movements.
• Power Plus: Can be used to permanently increase the user's attack power slightly.
• Sleepy Sheep: Summons a large amount of sheep that just looking at one will put any enemy asleep.
• Slow Flower: Causes time to slow down, including for the user.
• Speed Flower: Causes time to speed up, including for the user.
• Stop Watch: Stops time around the user.
• Weird Extract: A green liquid that has the same effect as the Sleepy Sheep.

Bowzooka

The Bowzooka is Bowser's choice of weapon in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. It is a long-range weapon that shoots a projectile which creates an explosion when it hits. This can be upgraded in the game to increase its damage, range, and explosion power. This weapon also has several cosmetic costumes that don't affect it's power at all.

Sparks

Sparks, originally known as Rabbid Lumas by Beep-0, are fusions of Rabbids and Lumas that have a variety of interesting powers. Bowser teams up with them and can use their powers in combat. Each Spark has two abilities, a power that can be activated and has a small cooldown after using, and a passive bonus that doesn't need to be activated. While each Spark has their own power, the bonuses are often shared between multiple Sparks, so in order to not be repetitive, I will list out all of the bonus abilities after explaining the Sparks. 

Despite being separate characters, they do remain with Bowser the entire game, including after the final boss, and can be switched out easily, meaning they should be able to be used by Bowser in a fight. I will not be listing any of the Sparks that do not grant Bowser any abilities. 

• Starburst: A yellow Spark with the power Turbocharge, which increases the power of all allies in the near vicinity by 160%. It also has the bonus Physical Protector.
• Reflector: A blue Spark holding a mirror with the power Reflect, which reflects 60% of all damage dealt to the user back to the opponent. It also has the bonus Attack Master.
• Pyrostar: A red Spark with the power Burn Attack, which infuses the user's weapon attacks with fire and makes them deal 160% damage as well as burning the opponent. It also has the bonus Burn Protector.
• Exosphere: A black Spark with several shields and the power Fortify, which makes all allies within the range to take 55% less damage from attacks for a little bit. It also has the bonus Athlete.
• Aquanox: A blue Spark with the power Splash Attack, which infuses the user's weapon attacks with water and makes them deal 155% damage as well as bouncing them away. It also has the bonus Splash Protector.
• Toxiquake: A green Spark with the power Shockwave Ooze, which creates a shockwave around the user that deals damage and poisons all enemies hit by it. It also has the bonus Ooze Protector.
• Electrodash: A yellow Spark with the power Shock Dash, which infuses the user's physical attacks with electricity, shocking the opponent as well as dealing twice as much damage as normal. It also has the bonus Shock Protector.
• Aquadash: A blue Spark with the power Splash Dash, which infuses the user's physical attacks with water, splashing the opponent back as well as dealing twice as much damage as normal. It also has the bonus Splash Protector.
• Screech: A white Spark with the power Whoopsgottago, which repels all enemies in close proximity to the user to move farther away. It also has the bonus Critical Buddy.
• Cryobolide: A blue Spark with the power Frostbite Attack, which infuses the user's weapon attacks with ice and makes them deal 165% damage as well as freezing the opponent. It also has the bonus Frostbite Protector.
• Ethering: A light-blue Spark with the power Unseen, which makes the user invisible, though they are not intangible. It also has the bonus Athlete.
• Electroid: A yellow Spark with the power Shock Attack, which infuses the user's weapon attacks with electricity and makes them deal 160% damage as well as shocking the opponent. It also has the bonus Shock Protector.
• Pyrogeddon: A red spark with the power Skyrain Burn, which summons a large amount of flaming meteors that burn opponents when they hit. It also has the bonus Burn Protector.
• Zephystar: A purple Spark with the power Gust Attack, which infuses the user's weapon attacks with wind and makes them deal 165% damage as well as pushing the opponent. It also has the bonus Gust Protector. 
• Regenesis: A magenta Spark with a balloon with the power Regen, which heals the user progressively over the course of a fight. It also has the bonus Healing Booster.
• Vampdash: A purple Spark with the power Vamp Dash, which infuses the user;s physical attacks with Lifesteal, which heals the user every time they hit the opponent, as well as dealing 180% more damage than normal. It also has the bonus Athlete.
• Glitter: A shiny Spark with the power Gather 'Round, which attracts all nearby enemies and forces them to uncontrollably move towards the user. It also has the bonus Attack Master.
• Zephyrquake: A purple Spark with the power Shockwave Gust, which creates a shockwave around the user that deals damage and pushes all enemies hit by it. It also has the bonus Gust Protector.
• Electrogeddon: A yellow Spark with the power Skyrain Shock, which summons a large amount of electric meteors that shock opponents when they hit. It also has the bonus Shock Protector.
• Vampastra: A purple Spark with the power Vamp Attack, which infuses the user's weapon attacks with Lifesteal, healing the user for every attack and dealing 160% more damage than normal. It also has the bonus Critical Buddy.
• Zephyrdash: A purple Spark with the power Gust Dash, which infuses the user's physical attacks with wind, pushing the opponent back as well as dealing twice as much damage as normal. It also has the bonus Gust Protector.
• Wildclaw Master: A blue Spark with the power Summon Wildclaw, which summons a Wildclaw ally, a large tiger-like Rabbid with a very large arm. It also has the bonus Physical Protector.
• Aquaquake: A cyan Spark with the power Shockwave Splash, which creates a watery shockwave around the user that deals damage and bounces all enemies hit by it. It also has the bonus Splash Protector.
• Pulser: A cream-colored Spark with the power Revive, which can revive an ally at 70% of their maximum health. It also has the bonus Healing Amplifier.
• Oozer Master: A white Spark with the power Summon Oozer, which summons a Oozer ally, a Rabbid that shoots out poisonous projectiles that can also disable opponent's moves. It also has the bonus Attack Master.
• Toxicomet: A green Spark with the power Ooze Attack, which infuses the user's weapon attacks with poison and makes them deal 160% damage as well as poisoning the opponent. It also has the bonus Ooze Protector.
• Cryogeddon: A cyan Spark with the power Skyrain Frostbite, which summons a large amount of ice meteors that freeze opponents when they hit. It also has the bonus Frostbite Protector.
• Gargantu-Fan: A white Spark with the power Kong Cameo, which summons Rabbid Kong briefly to create a large shockwave that bounces all enemies back. It also has the bonus Healing Booster.
• Scoper Master: A grey Spark with the power Summon Scoper, which summons a Scoper ally that can fire two projectiles at a long range. It also has the bonus Critical Buddy.
• Squashette Master: A cyan Spark with the power Summon Squashette, which summons a Squashette ally, a Rabbid carrying a Thwomp on its back which can jump and cause a shockwave after landing, pushing all opponents back. It also has the bonus Healing Amplifier.
• Berserk: A red Spark with the power Frenzy, which increases the strength and defense of the user by 8% for every opponent in close range. It also has the bonus Healing Booster.
• Vampgeddon: A purple Spark with the power Skyrain Lifesteal, which summons a large amount of life-draining meteors that inflict Lifesteal on opponents when they hit, causing 40% of the damage dealt to heal the user. It also has the bonus Healing Amplifier.
• Electroquake: A yellow Spark with the power Shockwave Shock, which creates an electric shockwave around the user that deals damage and shocks all enemies hit by it. It also has the bonus Shock Protector.
• Cryodash: A cyan Spark with the power Frostbite Dash, which infuses the user's physical attacks with ice, freezing the opponent as well as dealing twice as much damage as normal. It also has the bonus Frostbite Protector.
• Mayhem: An orange Spark with the power Mayhem, which hypnotizes a random enemy in the range, with a 35% chance to hypnotize up to three enemies at once. It also has the bonus Athlete.

Now to list and explain the various bonuses.

• Physical Protector: Reduces physical damage taken by 35%.
• Burn Protector: Reduces critical hits damage by 40% while preventing the user from being burned.
• Splash Protector: Reduces critical hits damage by 40% while preventing the user from being splashed backwards.
• Ooze Protector: Reduces critical hits damage by 40% while preventing the user from being poisoned.
• Shock Protector: Reduces critical hits damage by 40% while preventing the user from being electrocuted.
• Frostbite Protector: Reduces critical hits damage by 40% while preventing the user from being frozen.
• Gust Protector: Reduces critical hits damage by 40% while preventing the user from being pushed by wind.
• Attack Master: Increases the damage on all weapon-based attacks by 30%.
• Athlete: Increases the damage from a dash by 35%.
• Critical Buddy: Increases the chance of getting a critical hit by 30%.
• Healing Booster: Increases the user's maximum health by 35%.
• Healing Amplifier: Increases any healing performed to the user by 30%.

Sparks of Hope items

Bowser has access to several items in Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, which can benefit him in a variety of ways. With this list I will not include any items that explicitly only affect things that are gameplay mechanics.

• Cleansing Elixir: Cleanses the user of all negative effects in the game, including all Super Effects, Oozer's disable, and Midnite and Cursa's weaken.
• Cooldown Clock: Instantly refreshes all cooldowns on weapons and Spark powers.
• Immunity Charm: Makes the user immune to any Super Effects in the game, though will not remove an already-existing effect.
• POW Block: Can be thrown at enemies to create a shockwave that damages all grounded nearby enemies.
• Healing Items: Bowser has various healing items that heal for varying amounts. The Super Mushroom heals for 30% of the user's health, the Super Mushroom Bag heals for 50%, the Super Mushroom Chest heals for 70%, and the Super Mushroom Chest DX heals 100%.

Armor

A suit of armor that Bowser wears during the final boss fight in Yoshi's Safari. It is invincible except for the arms, which each can shoot out green energy balls. It also has a cannon in the stomach of the armor, which also shoots large green energy balls. However, shooting the arms will cause them to break, and shooting the middle cannon causes the armor break apart.

Minimizer

A staff used by Bowser to shrink the cast of Mario Party DS down to minuscule size. However, the effects can be worn off if the staff is broken, as shown when Donkey Kong broke the Minimizer and brought everyone shrunk back to normal size. The Minimizer was broken at the end of the game, so it is debatable if it should be given to him in a fight.

Baby Bowser weapons

Bowser has several weapons that he has only used when he was a baby. While he has never used these as an adult, there's nothing innate about them that would suggest that he couldn't, so they will be included here.

• Yarn Balls: Large balls of yarn that Bowser could seemingly create and throw at enemies.
• Stars: Bowser has several stars that he can throw in the air for them to rain down on his enemies.
• Ultra Hands: Bowser has two Ultra Hands that he can use to attack from a great distance away.

Power Stars

One of the most powerful weapons in the Mario universe. Bowser has used Power Stars multiple times throughout the series, and even wielded the Jumbo Star, which is much larger and more powerful than a normal Power Star. Power Stars can be thrown as attacks and create explosions, as well as using a vast array of abilities. 

• Statistics Amplification: A passive ability gained from simply wielding a Power Star. They cause the wielder to gain power from them, increasing their strength. A single star allowed Mario to throw Metal Bowser into space, despite the fact that without the star Mario couldn't make Metal Bowser budge. Double Time Comets and Fast Foe Comets increase the speed of enemies and obstacles.
• Flight: They grant the user the ability to fly vast distances through space, and Rosalina even says that they have the power to cross the universe. The Jumbo Star gave Mario the power of flight after he collected it.
• Healing: By gaining a Power Star the user can heal up to full health.
• Energy Manipulation: They are stated to be retrieving energy and returning it to the castle.
• Fusionism: Multiple Power Stars are able to fuse together to become a larger and likely more powerful Power Star.
• Water Manipulation: Stars were able to dissipate whirlpools by sitting on them.
• Light Generation: Power Stars obviously glow, and can create a rainbow trail behind them.
• Telekinesis: A Power Star was able to move large pieces of this landmass around.
• Life Manipulation: Stated by Toad to be returning life to the castle. Daredevil Comets sap Mario of almost all of his strength, reducing him to one health and preventing any ways of healing himself.
• Size Manipulation: When Wiggler possessed a Power Star, he grew to sizes much larger than normal, and proceeded to shrink back to size when he lost the star.
• Mind/Empathic Manipulation and Purification (Type 2): Wiggler is much angrier after obtaining a Star, as he states that everything has been going wrong for him since he got it, and after losing it he states that he feels much better. A Power Star was able to stop the war between the Black Bob-ombs and Red Bob-ombs. Power Stars are stated to increase Mario's courage as he obtains more. Bowser also stated that he sees peace returning to worlds as a result of all the Power Stars being collected.
• Pocket Reality Manipulation and Portal Creation: Bowser used the Power Stars to create the alternate dimensions of the Painting Worlds. These worlds are described as "another world" in contrast to Mario's world, and were theorized to envelop all of reality.
• Dimensional Travel: Power Stars allow the user to travel from the Painting Worlds back to the real world. 
• Sealing Negation: Power Stars are used to negate the magical sealing Bowser has placed on the doors.
• Magic: Power Stars are stated to have magic.
• Causality Manipulation: Power Stars can revert a world back to a previous state, even being shown to do that instantly.
• Black Hole Creation: Power Stars have been shown to be black holes.
• Existence Erasure: Power Stars are composed of several Mini Stars, which can erase physical bodies from existence.
• Reality Warping: A Power Star transformed this planetoid into Starship Mario. On another occasion a Power Star created several lit candles out of nothing instantly. Prankster Comets make a galaxy go crazy, transforming them into a wildly different place, with shown effects being adding enemies or obstacles, changing entire planets, or removing large sections of the level.
• Resurrection: A Daredevil Comet revived Kamella for the second mission.
• Duplication/Power Mimicry: Cosmic Comets and Clone Comets create duplicates of Mario and Luigi that follow their every move, even being able to replicate certain power-ups.
• Likely Death Manipulation: Speedy Comets create a timer that, when it runs out, causes Mario or Luigi to die through unknown means.

Grand Stars

Bowser has used Grand Stars as a source of power several times and has even eaten one and used it in combat against Mario. Grand Stars have a wide variety of abilities that they grant to the user.

• Portal Creation and Space-Time Manipulation: Grand Stars can create portals to travel across space and time.
• Size Manipulation: Upon eating a Grand Star, Bowser grew even larger than he already was.
• Enhanced Gravity Manipulation: Though Bowser already has this ability, with a Grand Star he has shown off even more, being able to change the pull of gravity, using this on himself in order to fly around, and create a black hole simply by roaring.
• Dark Matter Manipulation and Existence Erasure: A Grand Star was able to generate large amounts of Dark Matter, which is capable of destroying the space that objects occupy and can completely disintegrate Mario.

Bubble Clone Machine

Keep in mind there is no official name for this. In Mario Party: Island Tour, Bowser made a machine that creates multiple bubble clones of other characters. It can create copies of the current character facing it or other characters. It was even able to make a perfect copy of Bowser, as it was revealed after fighting him that it was a clone the whole time. However, it was destroyed at the end of the game.

Megamorph Belt

A belt that Bowser uses to transform into Blockhead Bowser, a Bowser that is a bunch of blocks. Apparently this was Bowser's even-more-secret-weapon after the Minimizer was destroyed, meaning he considers this a greater power than that.

Vehicles

Koopa Clown Car

The Koopa Clown Car is Bowser's flying vehicle of choice. He regularly uses this in combat against the Mario Bros and can slam into the opponents to hurt them. He appears to be able to summon it directly to him with a snap. The Clown Car is able to fly through space and fast enough to reach the sun very quickly. The only major downside is that it has a limited amount of fuel to use. It is equipped with many various items and weapons, including the following:

• Mechakoopas that Bowser can throw out
• A large stash of Bob-ombs to throw
• Big Steelies, basically large steel balls the same size as the Clown Car that can be dropped out
• Spiky balls that drop from the mouth
• Spiky bombs that drop from the mouth
• Twin bullet blasters on each side of it, these can be directly summoned to the Clown Car
• A laser cannon from the mouth
• A flamethrower from the mouth
• A large blast of light that will transform whatever's caught in it to stone
• A built-in microphone that can shoot out blasts which turn whatever they hit into stone, including the words being spoken. This was powerful enough that it took Mario a week to turn back to normal even with proper care

Koopa Chase

A car that Bowser uses in Super Mario 3D World. He has a stash of Kick Bombs stored in here which he can throw out for them to explode. It was eventually destroyed and replaced with the upgraded Koopa Chase Lv2, which was also destroyed.

Airships

Bowser has a large amount of Airships that he regularly uses for travel or during invasions. These are typically equipped with cannons which can shoot cannonballs or flaming rocks akin to meteors. They also have anchors which are strong enough that a group of four was able to lift a piece of land with a castle on it into space. Certain ones even have skewers or a giant mechanical hand that can smash through the ground and throw characters across the Mushroom Kingdom. These Airships are fast enough to match the speed of Rosalina's Comet Observatory as it's flying to the center of the universe.

Tank

While Bowser usually equips his minions with tanks during invasions, he also has been shown using a tank himself in Mario Party 10. This tank shoots large spiky balls out of the main turret which roll along the ground, with the four corner turrets acting as flamethrowers. It has spikes surrounding it, so even touching it will deal damage. However, it was destroyed after getting blasted by four smaller tanks.

Koopa Cruiser

The Koopa Cruiser is Bowser's personal airship. He mainly uses it for travel rather than combat, though it does have an extendable arm that he can use to grab people on the ground with.

Karts

Bowser has several karts throughout the Mario Kart series that are implied to be owned by him, so they will be included here.

• Koopa King: From Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, it has good speed and weight and poor acceleration. It reappears in Mario Kart Tour.
• Tyrant: From Mario Kart DS, it has good speed and weight, average drift, and poor acceleration and handling.
• Standard BW: From Mario Kart DS, it has good speed and drift, average weight, and poor acceleration and handling.
• Hurricane: From Mario Kart DS, it has good speed and drift, average weight, and poor acceleration and handling.

Bowser Mech

This has no official name. It starts as a shell-shaped ship (say that five times fast) that can fly through space and fire the spikes on its back like missiles. However, it can also transform into a Bowser mech piloted from within. In this form it can shoot blue energy blasts, possibly fireballs, from its mouth, as well as large spiky balls from the cannon on its back. It can also shoot it's hands out as projectiles, though these appear to be a one-time use. The mech can also fire laser blasts from its eyes. While the mech is destroyed, it comes back later two more times, implying Bowser is able to make one easily or have them on hand.

Bowser's Galaxy Generator

This is the largest weapon/vehicle that Bowser has ever wielded. An absolutely massive ship shaped like Bowser's head and eclipsing entire galaxies (though that may just be due to the world map), Bowser made this to create his empire in the center of the universe, "an empire that is more ME sized" according to him. The Galaxy Generator grows larger in size with everything it consumes, and it is strong enough to consume Power Stars and overpower Rosalina's Comet Observatory. It is also surrounded by a supermassive black hole behind it at all times.

Abilities

Fire Manipulation

Bowser's most famous ability is easily his pyrokinesis. He can of course breath fire, but is also able to form a ring of fire around himself and create fiery shockwaves by jumping. He can set his tail on fire and swing it to create a wave of fire, imbue his hands with fire to make his claw attack stronger, and he has set a basketball on fire with just a touch. He is able to create a stream of fire behind him when he jumps, and he can still use his fire powers while he is within his shell as well. His fire has shown hot enough to burn large trees in seconds and even works underwater, and is also able to inflict the Burn status effect onto enemies, where they will take continuous damage over time. Bowser's fire can also deal piercing damage, which ignores traditional defense, giving it durability negation.

The most common form Bowser's fire manipulation takes is his Fire Breath. He can aim this wherever he aims his head, and by aiming it towards the ground he can set the ground on fire. He is also able to charge it up so that the flames last longer and hit harder, and they spread more the further away from Bowser they get. He can move around while breathing fire, and he is able to start and stop quickly so it shouldn't leave him open to attacks if he misses. While breathing fire Bowser can form a ring of fire around himself, or choose to propel himself backwards with it, and breathing fire has actually shown to speed Bowser up if he's on the ground. He has also shown that he can breathe a beam of fire from his mouth. The range on his fire breath is so massive that he can melt all the ice covering an entire golf course with one stream. Even if he fails to breathe fire, the smoke from his mouth is still strong enough to deal damage.

Bowser has the ability to shoot Fireballs from his mouth as well, and it appears to be an involuntary reaction to being hit on the head. He can shoot them out in a straight line, and have them fly at different heights or have them travel along the ground. He can shoot out multiple at once, three at the exact same time, or fire a lot into the air and have them come down later, and he can also shoot out a literal wave of fire. Once his fireballs hit the ground they can stay burning, create puddles of lava, bounce off of the ground, split into three fireballs or waves of fireballs, turn into walls of fire, create an explosion, or erupt in a pillar of flame. Bowser also has blue fireballs that can home in on an opponent, green fireballs that are faster than normal, and purple fireballs that are faster, larger, and can go through objects. He also has what appears to be magma balls.

Bowser has also fired meteors from his mouth and can summon them from the sky by roaring. It is shown that this meteor control is a power he has had even as a baby. He was also able to create and control fiery rings, even from a far distance away, and has been able to raise and control the magma that is in his castle.

Bowser also has several items that attack with fire, such as the Fire Burst or the Fire Bomb.

Acrobatics and Signature Attacks

Bowser, despite his large stature, is quite athletic and acrobatic. He's regularly able to jump several stories into the air, and can use this to his advantage by slamming onto the ground. He's even been able to replicate Yoshi's flutter jump for himself. Also, thanks to his prominent appearances in the Mario sports titles, he has shown himself to be extremely athletic, capable of competing in basketball, tennis, baseball, hockey, volleyball, golf, soccer, dodgeball, and horse racing. 

Bowser also has a lot of signature moves where he uses his body for an attack, showing off his athletic and combat capabilities. These include the following:

• Punch: One of his standard go-to melee attacks is a normal punch, though he can charge it up for more power.
• Sliding Haymaker: A variation of the punch that moves Bowser forward faster than he can walk. Anyone hit by this will be sent upwards.
• Bowser Bomb: A move where Bowser jumps into the air before falling onto the ground with a ground pound attack. These can send damaging shockwaves along the ground or raise pillars of lava around him. While the name "Bowser Bomb" originates from Smash, Bowser's move has been called that in the Mario series since then. 
• Body Slam: Similar to Bowser Bomb, except Bowser performs this move while tucked inside his shell.
• Charge: Bowser ducks his head down and charges forward. This move goes a long distance but does leave him open as it appears he is unable to stop it easily, though he can turn it slightly.
• Claw Swipe: Bowser's other standard go-to melee attack is a swipe with his claws. He's shown to be able to extend his claws out for a longer range.
• Tail Swipe: Bowser can swing his tail around for a large defensive attack, and he can set his tail on fire for this move as well.
• Shoulder Bash: Bowser takes a page out of Wario's book and copies his shoulder bash attack.
• Spin: Bowser can copy Mario's spin attack, imbuing the attack with some unknown magic as well.

Brawl Attacks

Bowser has several moves called Brawl Attacks where he summons a large amount of his troops to attack for him. They each take variable amounts of BP, or Brawl Points, to use, though there is no in-universe reason that there needs to be a cooldown so it is most likely game mechanics.

• Goomba Storm: Bowser summons a swarm of Goombas to attack the enemy. As they're coming in Bowser can set them on fire to shoot them into the air for them to come down later. This is also capable of burning the opponent.
• Shy Guy Squad: Bowser summons a group of Shy Guys who bring out a large rope to use as a slingshot. Bowser rolls into a ball and the Shy Guys launch him at the enemy.
• Koopa Corps: Bowser summons a crowd of Koopa Troopas who tuck into their shells and spin at the opponent. Bowser also tucks into his shell and bounces the Koopa shells back at the opponent several times.
• Bob-omb Blitz: Bowser summons a gang of Bob-ombs that all group together next to Bowser. He can order them around to move into position so that they hit the opponents when they charge forward. This can also confuse the opponent and make them dizzy.
• Magikoopa Mob: Bowser summons a party of Magikoopas that get together in various formations. Bowser can charge magic up and send it to the Magikoopas for them to use, and this can also cause the opponent to burn.
• Broggy Bonker: Bowser summons Broggy the Brock dog and starts scrubbing the dirt off of him to clean him. Broggy will charge towards the enemy and attack several times, and if Bowser cleans Broggy well enough several Blitties will charge with an attack. This can also make the opponent dizzy.

Vacuum

After eating a Vacuum Block, Bowser gained the ability to suck. Specifically, he can suck in a ton of air, inhaling anything caught in his path. He can inhale specific body parts from enemies to pull them apart, or inhale them altogether to shrink them down to cellular size and keep them inside Bowser's body, severely limiting their ability to attack him. Within Bowser's body, his individual cells are alive, and even memory versions of Mario and Luigi, allowing Bowser to indirectly fight an opponent that is inside of him. With the vacuum ability, he has shown to be able to inhale the entire Dream Stone after it was shattered, and can even inhale specific moves from an opponent's toolkit, preventing them from using that move. After inhaling an opponent, he can choose to chew on them instead, healing himself in the process.

Shockwave Creation

Bowser regularly creates shockwaves by slamming onto the ground. These can occasionally be infused with fire, and should someone get him by one, they can be stunned for a few seconds. He also has the ability to send several directional shockwaves by charging his hand with magic before hitting the ground.

Black Magic

Koopas are famous for their black magic, and Bowser is one of the most skilled magic users in the Mario franchise. In fact, it is stated that the only one who could counter Bowser's magic is Princess Peach. Contrary to popular misconception, Bowser is willing to use his magic in combat, as he has done so many times. His range with his magic is immense as he can warp entire realities and has even reached characters who weren't in the same dimension as him. He has several applications for his wide variety of magic, including the following.

• Sealing: Bowser was able to magically trap the Yoshis in their own eggs, as well as trap Toads within the walls of Peach's Castle and Princess Peach in a painting.
• Bowser's seal on the top Big Star Door required 50 Power Stars to get past, and the seal on Peach was implied to require 70 Stars (80 in the DS version) plus the Jumbo Star in order to fully negate it. This means that Bowser's strongest seals are at least layered by 50 layers, and likely up to 81 layers. 
• Fusionism: Bowser can magically fuse many Bowser Dice Blocks into a Super Bowser Dice Block.
• Telepathy: Bowser could telepathically communicate with Mario despite being in a separate dimension
• Divination: Bowser could use his magic in combination with a crystal ball in order to see the future.
• Energy Manipulation: Bowser was able to create balls of dark energy he could throw out. Also, unrelated to his black magical abilities, he can create a hockey stick out of energy and can launch balls of energy as attacks
• Earth Manipulation: With the move Crusher, Bowser can summon a large earth spire out of the ground. Bowser is also able to summon cosmic matter to surround himself with a boulder.
• Poison Manipulation: With the move Poison Gas, Bowser summons a Mokura that poisons the opponent. Unrelated to his magical abilities, his fangs and claws are naturally poisonous as well.
• Empathic Manipulation: Bowser was going to trap all of the fun of the Party Islands in weird bubbles.
• Dream Manipulation: Bowser was going to corrupt all of the dreams in the Dream Depot and replace them with his own through unknown means.
• Illusion Creation: Bowser has created a fake painting of Peach that turned into a painting of himself, and created many illusionary copies of his hat that could still be used as physical attacks.
• Weather Manipulation: Bowser has shown the ability to create large storms with his magic and creating sandstorms that can be used against opponents too. Bowser was also implied to be responsible for the storm at the beginning of Super Mario 3D Land.
• Reality Warping: Bowser has warped space in order to create an infinite staircase. Even as a baby, he could warp reality enough to turn Yoshi's Island into a picture book.
• Creation: Bowser can use his magic to create objects out of nothing. Mid-battle he has created several weapons and he has even conjured an entire island with his magic.
• Body Puppetry: Bowser has a curse called Bowser's Curse, which limits the target's movement or forces them to go in the opposite direction they want to.

Transmutation

One of Bowser's most common uses of black magic is his transmutation. In his first appearance ever, he transformed all of the Toads into stones, bricks, and horsehair plants. He has turned a Koopa Troopa into a frog, turned all of the Egglings into apples, and planned on turning the residents of the Painting Worlds into monsters. Similarly, it is implied that Bowser turned some of the Toads into Hidden Blocks in Super Mario Bros, meaning he can make things invisible as well.

Teleportation

Bowser has been shown to use teleportation several times. He has teleported short distances in the middle of a fight and long distances to get away from a fight. He has also shown the ability to summon other people to his location through teleportation. He has also employed the use of portals he creates during fights as well, with them he has summoned Thwomps to his side to aid him or he can use portals to send other characters away with BFR.

Telekinesis

Bowser has showcased possessing telekinetic powers on multiple occasions. He has controlled hammers and could grab and throw meteors without touching them, and he can move a volleyball in much the same way. His telekinesis appears to be strong enough to lift Peach's Castle into the sky and keep it there for the entire game (it is unlikely that he is using the Star Rod to lift it, as after he drops it the castle remains in the sky). Bowser was also stated to have pulled the Comet Observatory's Power Stars to him, and he did a similar thing to the three Giga Bells, forming a barrier around them as well. This barrier can also be used as a method of telekinesis as well, as he trapped Peach in a forcefield and could control her that way. 

Gravity Manipulation

Bowser has shown the ability to manipulate gravity on several occasions, likely linked to his black magic. He has used this to make himself and Mario gravitate towards a separate planet than the one they were standing on, and this is a consistent ability that remains through both Super Mario Galaxy games. 

Electricity Manipulation

Bowser can create and manipulate lightning and electricity, likely as another aspect to his black magic. He summoned a large ball of electricity over Peach's Castle and he can call lightning down from the sky even when he's far away.

Summoning

As the leader of a vast Koopa army, Bowser of course has the ability to summon several of his minions directly to him in battle. These can be from a variety of sources, but his most common is from his portals that he creates. These should reasonably not qualify as "outside help" and instead are available to him to use in a battle at any time. His summoning can ensure that even in a one-on-one fight, Bowser still has an army to back him up.

Bowser's army, while not as powerful as Bowser himself, are still ridiculously impressive. They are consistently shown to harm and keep up with characters like Mario and Bowser himself, implying that while they are weaker, the gap isn't too large. Minions also share several abilities throughout them all:

• Non-Physical Interaction: Every minion is capable of harming Boos, who are naturally intangible and incorporeal in nature according to Professor E. Gadd.
• Self-Perception Manipulation and Afterimage Creation: Many minions of Bowser's are capable of using Zone Speed, which allows someone to move faster than normal by increasing their focus to the max. This also creates afterimages.
• Underwater Breathing and Self-Sustenance (Type 1): Every minion is capable of surviving underwater for long periods of time as well as the vacuum of space.
• Toon Force and Elasticity: Nearly every member of Bowser's army can instantly recover from being crushed flat.
• Shapeshifting: With Tanooki Leaves, members of Bowser's army have shown to disguise themselves as Bowser. A similar thing occurs in several other games, though without a Tanooki Leaf.
• Vehicle Mastery: Most of Bowser's army have been playable in the Mario Kart series.

Additionally, all minions have some amount of Minion Spirit, and if their spirit is high enough they are able to resist mind control as well as gift other minions this spirit so that they may resist it as well.

Summons List

Goombas

The underlings of Bowser's army, Goombas can be summoned directly to Bowser through his Goomba Storm Brawl Attack. Their primary tactic is to charge forward and run into enemies, though they are also able to jump onto their opponent, bite them, or shoot thorns out to attack from a distance, which have the potential to poison the target. Despite not having hands, they are still somehow able to hold objects. Certain Goombas are also able to grow wings and fly as Paragoombas, and can drop Micro-Goombas while flying. They also have shown to utilize weapons like the Kuribo's Shoe, which allows them to jump higher than they would otherwise, and Spike Helmets, which protects them from being jumped on themselves. Other variants of the Goomba have also shown to be able to charge up to increase their strength, summon sandstorms, or create an earthquake to stun opponents. 

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Goombas are able to start battles with certain items or badges equipped, and are able to use them in battle as well. The list of items that can be used by Goombas and their variants are as follows:

• Dried Shroom: An item that only heals 1 HP when consumed.
• Fire Flower: A Goomba plants the Fire Flower in front of them and it shoots a stream of fire.
• Sleepy Sheep: This summons a large amount of sheep that make any enemy that sees it immediately fall asleep.
• Close Call: A badge that makes attacks towards the wielder have a 33% chance to miss.
• Dizzy Dial: An item that has a high chance of making all enemies dizzy and disoriented.
• POW Block: A block that does damage to any and all enemies within range.
• Power Punch: A drink that gives the user a strength increase.
• Boo's Sheet: A sheet that makes the user invisible.
• Ice Storm: When used, will summon a cold storm that damages all enemies and potentially freezes them, and is especially effective against fire enemies.
• Life Shroom: A mushroom that automatically revives the wielder when they die.
• Repel Cape: A cape that raises the wielder's evasion, making attacks against them more likely to miss.
• Ruin Powder: A powder that causes all enemies to be confused when used.
• Last Stand: Causes the wielder to receive only half the damage when their health is low.
• Last Stand P: The same thing as Last Stand, but affects the wielder's allies instead.
• HP Plus: Increases the wielder's maximum health by 5 HP.
• HP Plus P: The same as HP Plus, but affects the wielder's allies instead.
• Super Shroom: Heals the user for 10 HP when consumed.
• Volt Shroom: Electrifies the user, dealing damage to anyone who touches them.
• HP Drain: When used, this item deals damage to an opponent while healing the user the same amount.

Koopa Troopas

Koopa Troopas are basic foot soldiers in Bowser's army that can be summoned to him with the Koopa Corps Brawl Attack. Their tough shell protects them from most attacks and they can tuck themselves into them to spin around, and if they spin fast enough they can increase their power as well. While in their shell they are able to control themselves as well as jump. They also can use their or other shells as weapons to throw. Like Goombas, Koopa Troopas can also grow wings to fly as Paratroopas, and as Paratroopas they can dive bomb to attack. They have also been known to wear armor. Koopa Troopas, and their several variants, possess a wide variety of abilities.

• Water Manipulation: Koopa Troopas can control and manipulate water to strengthen their attacks, and can create a trail of water behind them when they dash.
• Air Manipulation: Koopas have shown several times that by spinning fast enough, they can create miniature tornados.
• Limited Matter Manipulation: Koopas are somehow able to make a non-bouncy object like a golf ball extremely bouncy.
• Summoning: Koopa Troopas have been known to summon other Koopa Troopas to them.
• Energy Manipulation: Koopa Troopas can imbue their strikes with energy or shoot out energy as projectiles.
• Possession: Koopa Troopas have shown that they can possess inanimate objects as one did to this ball.
• Status Effect Inducement: Dark Koopas can make an opponent dizzy by attacking them.

Koopa Troopas are also capable of entering battle with an item or badge, so here are all of the items that Koopas and their variants can wield:

• Courage Shell: Gives the user courage which increases their defense.
• Mushroom: An item that heals the user when consumed.
• POW Block: A block that does damage to any and all enemies within range.
• Sleepy Sheep: This summons a large amount of sheep that make any enemy that sees it immediately fall asleep.
• Happy Heart: A badge that automatically heals the user during battle.
• Dizzy Dial: An item that has a high chance of making all enemies dizzy and disoriented.
• Earth Quake: An item that causes the ground to shake, dealing damage to all grounded enemies.
• Super Shroom: Heals the user for 10 HP when consumed.
• Volt Shroom: Electrifies the user, dealing damage to anyone who touches them.
• Mr. Softener: A worm that softens enemies, reducing their defense.
• Fire Flower: A Koopa plants the Fire Flower in front of them and it shoots a stream of fire.
• HP Plus P: The same as HP Plus, but affects the wielder's allies instead.
• Repel Cape: A cape that raises the wielder's evasion, making attacks against them more likely to miss.
• Thunder Rage: Summons lightning that strikes all enemies when used.
• Close Call: A badge that makes attacks towards the wielder have a 33% chance to miss.
• Close Call P: The same as Close Call, but affects the wielder's allies instead.
• Shooting Star: An item that summons a bunch of shooting stars on enemies when used.
• Boo's Sheet: A sheet that makes the user invisible.

Shy Guys

Shy Guys are members of Bowser's army that can be summoned to him with his Shy Guy Squad Brawl Attack. They are very adept at using many different weapons and items, such as spears and shields, fiery jump-ropes, swords, ninja swords, hammers, bazookas, juggling missiles, large maces, slingshots, vegetables, bombs, giant bombs, shurikens, throwing knives, mines, pickaxes, portable cannons, flaming urns, paper clips, chunks of coal, paint buckets, crochet hooks, snowballs, and sombreros, and they have shown to be able to pull these weapons out of hammerspace. They also have several pieces of armor that they can wear, such as spike helmets, acorn helmets, shields, and dinosaur skulls.

They also have a wide variety of masks that they can swap out, which can fire cannonballs, ice, snowballs, or ringed lasers, as well as have straws. They have many methods to fly, including wings, propellors, propellor backpacks, balloons, leaves, magic carpets, parasols, miniature rockets, or a flying ambulance, and they also have parachutes they can use to float down with. Shy Guys have also piloted planes, airships, and pirate ships into battle too, and have ridden other vehicles such as unicycles, rollers, pogo sticks, stilts, autobombs (a Shy Guy's favorite), ice skates, snowboards, or submarines.

• Energy Manipulation: Shy Guys can summon a ball of energy to attack with, and can shoot out energy as projectiles (Shy Guy is playable in this minigame, but unfortunately I was unable to find footage of it).
• Healing: Medi Guys can heal themselves, and Accordion Guys and Sombrero Guys can heal themselves or others by playing their instrument.
• Statistics Amplification: Sombrero Guys can increase their allies strength by 2.5x by playing their instrument.
• Possession: Like Koopas, Shy Guys can possess inanimate objects as one did to this ball.
• Shapeshifting: Through unknown means, a Shy Guy was able to disguise itself as Yoshi. 
• Status Effect Inducement: Groove Guys can make opponents dizzy by spinning.
• Summoning: Shy Guys have shown the ability to summon other Shy Guys to them. Shy Guys can also summon other enemies like Goombas and Bullet Bills.
• Electricity Manipulation: Shy Guys can create electricity to infuse their attacks with. Snifits can use the electric move Static E!, and Apprentices can use the electric move Bolt.
• Transmutation: Shy Guys can turn their weapons into other weapons. Sling Shy's can turn opponents into scarecrows with the move S'crow Bell, and can turn opponents into mushrooms with the move Spore Chimes.
• Sound Manipulation: Shy Guys and Sling Guys can use Doom Reverb which prevents an enemy from talking and casting magic. 
• Fire Manipulation: Shy Guys can spit fire. Shyster can cast the spell Drain which is fire-based.
• Air Manipulation: Fly Guys can create tornadoes by spinning fast enough.
• Ice Manipulation: Aside from masks that can shoot ice or snowballs, Snifits are able to cast the spell Blizzard.
• Sleep Inducement: Springers can use the move Somnus Waltz which causes the target to go to sleep. Shy Guys can use Lulla-Bye which accomplishes the same thing.
• Immersion: A Fly Guy was able to hide inside of a painting.
• Flight: Outside of additional equipment, Pharaoh Guys can levitate, and Snifaro can as well.
• Surface Scaling: Shy Guys remained upside down on a conveyor belt.
• Limited Invulnerability: Gold and Silver Shy Guys are immune to most weaker attacks.
• Power Nullification: Spy Guys can prevent an opponent from using a specific attack after attacking them. Snifits, Spookums, and Apprentices are able to use Gunk Ball which prevents the target from using special moves.
• Weapon Creation: Spy Rangers can summon a bunch of bombs on top of the opponent, and Shypers can create a bunch of swords in the air.
• Resurrection: Pharaoh Guys can resurrect after being defeated, though will be permanently defeated by fire attacks.
• Splashing Paint: Paint Guys have paint buckets and can splash paint to give a variety of effects.
• Empathic Manipulation: Splashing paint on an opponent can forcefully change their emotion.
• Broadway Force: Orange paint can force a target to dance.
• Poison Manipulation: Purple paint can inflict poison onto an opponent.
• Regeneration: Splashing paint can bring back someone's organs and even their soul.
• Paint Removal: Slurp Guys have straws that can suck out and remove an enemy's paint.
• Life Manipulation: Paint is life, and removing paint removes someone's life energy.
• Mind Manipulation and Memory Manipulation: Paint makes up the mind, and removing it can cause someone to lose their memories.
• Spatial Manipulation: Paint makes up all empty space, and removing it makes space as if it were solid.
• Soul Manipulation: Paint makes up souls, so removing paint would logically remove someone's soul.
• Purification: Maraca Guys can play maracas to cure their allies of any status effect, which in the game include clipped, dizzy, crumpled, soggy, sleep, blinded, and poisoned.
• Crystal Manipulation: Spookums are able to use the move Crystal which creates several crystals to drop on the opponent.

Bob-ombs

Bob-ombs are sentient bombs that can be summoned to Bowser via his Bob-omb Blitz Brawl Attack. They will mainly attack by charging at the opponent and exploding, which typically destroys the Bob-omb though some have shown that they can survive this. The size of these explosions can vary from a small burst to engulfing an entire tennis stadium. Bob-ombs have also shown that they can increase their attack or defense, and certain ones also have propellors that allow them to fly or parachutes that let them float. Their explosions have also shown to cause the opponent to be dizzy.

Bob-ombs are also capable of entering battle with an item or badge, so here are all of the items that Bob-ombs and their variants can wield:

• Super Shroom: Heals the user for 10 HP when consumed.
• Repel Cape: A cape that raises the wielder's evasion, making attacks against them more likely to miss.
• Stopwatch: An item that will stop all enemies' movement, freezing them in time.
• Ice Storm: When used, will summon a cold storm that damages all enemies and potentially freezes them, and is especially effective against fire enemies.

Magikoopas

Magikoopas are the magical wizard troops of Bowser's army that can be summoned to him via his Magikoopa Mob Brawl Attack. These troops always carry around a wand that they use to perform magical attacks, and despite brooms being the signature for Kamek, regular Magikoopas have been known to ride flying brooms quite a bit. Magikoopas possess a wide variety of magical abilities.

• Magic: Obviously, all of Magikoopa's abilities are magic-based and they regularly shoot out various generic spells, like an energy blast or a collection of colorful shapes.
• Durability Negation: Magikoopa's blasts can deal piercing damage, which ignores traditional defense and deals a set amount of damage.
• Telekinesis: Magikoopas can use their wands to grab things out of their range.
• Teleportation: Magikoopas regularly teleport in battle.
• Fire Manipulation: One of their spells involves them shooting a fireball, and they can create a moving ring of fire.
• Creation/Summoning: Magikoopas can create several different enemies, including Mini Goombas, Bullet Bills, and Shy Guys.
• Transmutation: Their magic blasts can turn blocks into different objects or enemies.
• Healing: Magikoopas are able to heal themselves or their allies.
• Statistics Amplification: Magikoopas can raise the defense or attack of themselves or their allies.
• Illusion Creation: Magikoopas can create illusionary copies of themselves.
• Electricity Manipulation: Magikoopas can electrify one of their allies.
• Invisibility: They can make themselves or their allies invisible.
• Flight: Regularly hovers in combat.
• Resistance to Fire Manipulation, Electricity Manipulation, Ice Manipulation, Air Manipulation, Poison Manipulation, and Water Manipulation: Magikoopas are immune to all negative status effects in Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, which includes Burn, Shock, Frostbite, Gust, Ooze, and Splash.

Magikoopas are also capable of entering battle with an item or badge, so here are all of the items that Magikoopas and their variants can wield:

• Shooting Star: An item that summons a bunch of shooting stars on enemies when used.
• Stopwatch: An item that will stop all enemies' movement, freezing them in time.
• Super Shroom: Heals the user for 10 HP when consumed.
• Power Punch: A drink that gives the user a strength increase.

Boos

Boos are the ghostly undead troops in Bowser's army that Bowser can summon with his move Terrorize. Their existence is described by E. Gadd as being incorporeal, yet visible, their very existence defying the laws of nature. It is implied that they come from an extradimensional source, and "killing" them sends them back there, which is consistent with other games claiming that the afterlife is a higher plane of reality. Boos possess a wide variety of various powers and abilities.

• Regeneration (Low-Godly) and Immortality (Types 3 and 7): Boos do not "die" in the traditional sense, instead being sent to an extradimensional plane when they are defeated, and it is implied that they can come back anytime.
• Invisibility: Boos can turn themselves invisible and other objects and characters invisible. It is stated that they flick in and out of the visible realm, confusing opponents.
• Intangibility: Boos are naturally intangible and incorporeal, and can go further intangible in order to avoid attacks from characters that can hit intangible beings. They are also able to turn other things or characters intangible.
• Teleportation: Boos have shown to be able to teleport themselves and others.
• Possession: Boos have shown at multiple times to possess objects or characters.
• Sound Manipulation and Fear Inducement: Boos can use the move Scream, an unblockable attack that inflicts the target with fear, which cuts their attack and defense in half.
• Status Effect Inducement: By scaring their target, Boos can make an opponent dizzy,  confused, or paralyzed.
• Supernatural Willpower and Life Manipulation: Can bring a wilted flower back to life with their willpower.
• Electricity Manipulation: Boos can use the moves Lightning Orb and Bolt, both of which are electricity-based.
• Summoning: Boos have shown many times to be able to summon more Boos to them.
• Duplication: Boos can duplicate themselves into copies.
• Illusion Creation: Boos can create illusions to disguise themselves as other things.
• Energy Manipulation: Boos can shoot out energy blasts as projectiles (Boo is able to play the minigame, but I was unable to find footage of it).
• Durability Negation: Boo attacks can deal piercing damage, which ignores defense.
• Fusionism: Boos can fuse together to become larger and more powerful.
• Power Nullification: Boos can steal Command Blocks, which prevent Mario and Luigi from using certain moves.
• Empowerment: Boos get stronger when in company with other Boos.
• Stealing: Boos can easily steal objects from opponents, even if they are in hammerspace.
• Weapon Creation: Boos can create bombs from the sky.
• Fire Manipulation: Boos can create walls of fire.

Boos are also capable of entering battle with an item or badge, so here are all of the items that Boos and their variants can wield:

• Dizzy Dial: An item that has a high chance of making all enemies dizzy and disoriented.
• Fire Flower: A Boo plants the Fire Flower in front of them and it shoots a stream of fire.
• Mini Mr. Mini: An item that shrinks all enemies, reducing their strength.
• Slow Shroom: A mushroom that heals the user slowly over a period of time.
• Lucky Start: Will let the user start with a random positive effect, including recovering health, becoming electrified, or raising evasion.
• Power Punch: A drink that gives the user a strength increase.
• Thunder Rage: Summons lightning that strikes all enemies when used.

Mechakoopas

Mechakoopas are robotic Koopas in Bowser's army that can be summoned to him, and he also carries several in his Koopa Clown Car. They typically attack by charging into an opponent, though they can also breathe fire, both in a stream and fireballs. Variants of the Mechakoopa have also shown to shoot homing missiles or laser beams. Bowser is also able to summon a large Mechakoopa with his move Bowser Crush, or several Rabbid Mechakoopas which home in on targets and explode.

Bullet Bills

Living missiles that Bowser can create with his Killer Ball technique or by shooting them out of his Koopa Clown Car. Despite seeming like machines, Bullet Bills are actually intelligent and living. Regular Bullet Bills have shown the ability to home in on opponents and explode, with the ability to survive their own explosions as well, and certain variants can also bounce off of surfaces or catch on fire. Some even carry Super Scopes, which they can use to fire smaller Bullet Bills.

Thwomps

Thwomps are large stone creatures that can be summoned directly to Bowser via his portals. They typically have spikes surrounding them on their sides, though there have been some with blunt spikes or even no spikes and just a blue cube. They are most known for hovering in the air and slamming down whenever someone comes near, though they can also slam sideways, move in a diagonal, or move forwards as normal. 

Whomps

Whomps are living walls that Bowser can directly summon via his magic. Their standard attack tactic is to walk towards an opponent, slamming onto the ground whenever they are close to them. They have also been known to attack by swinging their hands. Their back is really weak, and any sufficiently strong attack to their back will likely destroy them. 

Chain Chomps

Chain Chomps are dog-like enemies that can be directly summoned to Bowser via his magic. Despite their animal-like behavior, Chain Chomps are actually intelligent. While they are typically tied down to one spot, they don't have to be and they typically overpower anyone in their way. Chain Chomps are also capable of entering battle with an item, so here are the two possible items that they can use.

• Power Punch: A drink that gives the user a strength increase.
• Defend Plus: Raises the user's defense slightly.

Spikes

Spikes are short green enemies that Bowser can summon directly with his magic. They are most known for spitting up and throwing spiky balls, which they can produce a seemingly unlimited amount of. They are also able to spit and throw spiked rollers, and can transform something into a roller by eating it. Given his playable appearance in Mario Party 10, Spikes can also spin fast enough to create a tornado around them. Other variants of the Spike can also spit and throw spiky rocks and snowballs.

Wigglers

Wigglers are large caterpillar minions that Bowser can directly summon with his magic. They are most known for their temper, as while they are normally peaceful and happy creatures, they can get incredibly angry when provoked. They are made up of several segments and each of these segments is perfectly able to move and survive on its own. They have several interesting powers and abilities.

• Rage Power: When angry, Wiggler will turn red, becoming faster and stronger than before, and will continue to get stronger the angrier it gets.
• Shockwave Creation: Wigglers can stomp the ground to create shockwaves.
• Transformation and Flight: Wigglers can grow wings and transform into a Flutter easily, and they are also able to turn their feet into hands and vice versa.
• Organic Manipulation: Wigglers can create seeds in their mouths and spit them in rapid succession. They are also able to create fruit out of thin air.
• Plant Manipulation: With a watering can, they are able to instantly create turnips and Plant Guys.
• Energy Manipulation: Wiggler can shoot out energy blasts as projectiles (Wiggler is playable in this minigame but I was unable to find footage)
• Resistance to Poison Manipulation: A Wiggler had a segment covered in poison with seemingly no ill effects.

Lakitus

Lakitus are Koopas that ride on flying clouds that Bowser can summon directly with his magic. Lakitus can create their own clouds if they lose them, and they will attempt to charge into an opponent with their cloud. They typically fly from above and throw Spinies down, though they can also throw rocks, spike balls, watermelons, Spikeys, and Piranha Pods that hatch into Piranha Plants. Variants of the Lakitu can also summon electricity with their cloud. They can also seemingly teleport. Additionally, Lakitus can enter holding an item or badge, so here are the possible items that a Lakitu can enter with.

• Super Shroom: Heals the user for 10 HP when consumed.
• Volt Shroom: Electrifies the user, dealing damage to anyone who touches them.
• Thunder Rage: Summons lightning that strikes all enemies when used.
• Shooting Star: An item that summons a bunch of shooting stars on enemies when used.

Dry Bones

Dry Bones are undead skeletal Koopa Troopas that Bowser can summon directly via his magic. They are best known for their ability to pull themselves back together after falling apart, and can pick out and throw their bones as attacks. They have access to their unique item the Magic Orb, which can turn them invisible and intangible. They also have a variety of powers and abilities.

• Immortality (Types 2, 3, and 7) and Regeneration (High-Mid): Dry Bones are already undead, and thus seemingly cannot die. They will always pull themselves back together if broken apart. In Super Mario RPG it has infinite health and cannot be taken out by physical means.
• Body Control and Telekinesis: Dry Bones can pull themselves apart willingly and move around as a pile of bones before reassembling in a different spot.
• Teleportation: Dry Bones can, somehow, teleport short distances.
• Flight: As Parabones, they can use their wings and fly around.
• Summoning: Dry Bones can create more Dry Bones out of bones lying around.
• Petrification: A Dry Bones turned Donkey Kong to stone.
• Transformation: Dry Bones can turn themselves into a large bone and throw themselves as an attack.
• Electricity Manipulation: Dry Bones are able to infuse attacks with electricity.
• Resistance to Fire Manipulation and Extreme Heat: Can easily withstand Mario's fireballs, and can remain submerged in lava unharmed.

Dry Bones are also capable of entering battle with an item or badge, so here are all of the items that Dry Bones and their variants can wield:

• Fire Flower: A Dry Bones plants the Fire Flower in front of them and it shoots a stream of fire.
• Mushroom: An item that heals the user when consumed.
• Spite Pouch: Causes all enemies who attack the user to take half of the damage in return.
• Super Shroom: Heals the user for 10 HP when consumed.

Cheep Cheep

Cheep Cheeps are fish enemies that Bowser can directly summon with his magic. Despite being fish, they can survive perfectly fine on land, and are even able to fly with their wings. They are able to create spikes on their backs and can poison opponents that touch them. They are also able to swim in several harsh environments unaffected, like poison, icy water, and lava.

Blooper

Bloopers are squid enemies that Bowser can directly summon with his magic. Like Cheep Cheeps, they can survive fine out of water and can even fly. They are most known for spraying ink to blind opponents and being the third worst Mario Kart, only ahead of Thunder Cloud and Coin (this is objective truth and I will not be swayed otherwise). They are also able to create water out of nothing, throw Urchins as attacks, and burrowing through the ground. One Blooper in particular says that he was thrown into lava and survived.

King Bob-omb

King Bob-omb, also known as Big Bob-omb, is the king of the Bob-ombs that Bowser can directly summon with his magic. Despite his size, he is very agile, being able to leap very high into the air. He has the trademark Bob-omb ability of blowing himself up, and like regular Bob-ombs he can survive himself blowing up. He also always has a stash of Bob-ombs on him that he can throw out, as well as regular bombs he can throw or a large red bomb to kick. He also has a helicopter resembling the Koopa Clown Car that he can fly around in. He is also able to summon cannons that can launch him or others away.

King Boo

King Boo is the king of the Boos that Bowser can directly summon with his magic. If there was any doubt that King Boo is a minion of Bowser's, he is directly called as such by Bowser himself, and his Mario Super Sluggers trading card states that he's been haunting Luigi since he set foot in the mansion, confirming that the King Boo from the Mario series is the same one from the Luigi's Mansion series. The one from Super Mario Sunshine is a different character however, as they were created by paint and have a different Japanese name.

King Boo has a special crown that he uses, which can shoot out energy blasts and create portals. He also regularly uses his tongue in combat, stretching it out and slapping the ground with it. 

King Boo possesses a large amount of powers and abilities. He should have access to any ability that regular Boos possess, but to not be repetitive, I will only list the powers that King Boo has directly shown, though there might be some overlap.

• Immortality (Types 3 and 7): Was able to still talk after being "killed" and stated that it is impossible to kill a ghost.
• Intangibility: Boos are naturally intangible, and King Boo can go beyond that, becoming intangible to beings that hit him normally.
• Invisibility: King Boo can turn invisible.
• Technology Manipulation: Was able to reach into the Pixelator and grab Luigi as he was being teleported.
• Duplication: King Boo can split himself into two, three, or up to five identical copies.
• Shapeshifting: King Boo has shapeshifted to appear like Paper Mario, Peach, and Bowser.
• Teleportation: King Boo has teleported several times, often leaving behind a blue light or a small cloud of mist.
• Fire Manipulation and Homing Attack: King Boo can create fireballs, including homing ones, and his crown can create fireballs too.
• Telekinesis: Can use his crown to move around objects and people.
• Power Bestowal: He can create Spirit Orbs, forcing anything they attach to to turn invisible and intangible.
• Energy Manipulation: Can create a large ball of energy which then explodes.
• Regeneration (Low-Godly): Can regenerate from just his crown, and should have the same regeneration as regular Boos.
• Possession: Took control of a Bowser costume and allowed it to breathe fire.
• Forcefield Creation: Created a barrier around an arena that prevented Luigi from moving past it.
• Weather Manipulation: Can create an entire storm in seconds.
• Electricity Manipulation: With his crown, can summon bolts of lightning from the sky and can shoot electricity blasts.
• Portal Creation and Dimensional Travel: Created a portal to the Paranormal Dimension.
• Darkness Manipulation: Caused a room to become so dark that Luigi's flashlight did nothing.
• Sand Manipulation: King Boo has used his lightning to create sand.
• Size Manipulation: Can change his own size and is able to increase the size of other objects, growing a painting to encompass an entire mansion.
• Summoning: Has shown on multiple occasions to be able to summon Boos.
• Sealing: Regularly seals others in paintings.
• Pocket Reality Manipulation: Created a pocket dimension to fight Luigi in.
• BFR: King Boo can forcibly suck opponents into another dimension, or teleport them away to an unknown location.
• Weapon Creation: Is able to summon a ton of bombs at once.
• Creation: Created the mansion Luigi was exploring, and can create paintings to seal with.
• Air Manipulation: With his inhale.
• Rage Power: Becomes stronger as he gets angry.
• Shockwave Creation: Can create shockwaves by pounding the ground.
• Afterimage Creation: Is able to create afterimages by moving.
• Reality Warping: Is able to easily warp the entire mansion to his liking.
• Mind Manipulation and Corruption: His gem is able to passively control the minds of all of the ghosts nearby.
• Resistance to Sealing: Even at 0 HP, was still able to escape the Poltergust 5000.

Larry Koopa

Larry Koopa is the youngest of the Koopalings and one of four that Bowser can summon directly via his portals. Apparently, he's the only Koopaling to not be named after a musician, instead being named Larry just because he "looks like a Larry". Larry, like all koopas, can tuck himself into his shell and spin around in it, though this can leave him dizzy, and he also has a wand that shoots magic projectiles or fireballs, which can bounce. He also can spin around like a top and attack with that. He can produce large ball projectiles that can be thrown, and he has a large sun-shaped submarine he can pilot, though notably it doesn't seem capable of actually attacking. He also has his own airship. Larry has a wide array of powers and abilities.

• Fire Manipulation: He can spit fireballs, and his wand can create fireballs as well. 
• Flight: He appears to fly away after being defeated.
• Attack Reflection: He can use his tennis racket to deflect his own fireballs back at the opponent.
• Size Manipulation: All of the Koopalings were able to make a spell that grew Bowser massive.
• Poison Manipulation and Status Effect Inducement: Jumping on Larry will cause the opponent to get poisoned or burned.
• Transmutation: Turned the king of Grass Land into a dog or a cobrat.
• Water Manipulation: Is likely responsible for the water geysers seen in his boss fight.
• Rage Power: Gets stronger when he gets angry.
• Smoke Manipulation: Redirects the smoke from the train engine to hit Mario.
• Possible Regeneration (Mid-High): Likely survived after being exploded into nothing visible, though it could just be a visual effect.
• Resistance to Fire Manipulation and Extreme Heat: Survives being submerged in lava.

Wendy O. Koopa

Wendy O. Koopa is the only female Koopaling and one of the four that Bowser can directly summon with his portals. She is named after Wendy O. Williams, the lead singer of the punk band Plasmatics. She can tuck herself in her shell to spin around, and has a magic wand she can use to shoot projectiles. She has a shell shield to protect her and has a stash of bombs to throw, and she wears ice skates for mobility. She also has her own airship.

Her signature attacks are her rings. Sometimes referred to as candy rings, they are rings that can be thrown out and manipulated in a variety of ways. She can throw multiple out at a time and they will bounce off of walls, or she can conjure them up and send them out individually. Her rings can also be shrunken around the target, and this can cause them to lock the target and prevent them from moving.

Wendy also has a variety of different abilities.

• Fire Manipulation: She can spit multiple fireballs at once.
• Flight: She appears to fly away after being defeated.
• Duplication: She can duplicate herself into multiple clones. She is also able to disguise enemies like Goombas as clones of herself.
• Transmutation: Turned the king of Water Land into a kappa or a Dino Rhino.
• Size Manipulation: All of the Koopalings were able to make a spell that grew Bowser massive.
• Status Effect Inducement: Her Captain Command, Mystery Box, will randomly give either a beneficial status effect to her team or a negative one to the opposing team.
• Possible Regeneration (Mid-High): Likely survived after being exploded into nothing visible, though it could just be a visual effect.

Roy Koopa

Roy Koopa is one of the seven Koopalings and one of four that Bowser can directly summon with his portals. He is named after the rock and roll musician Roy Orbison, which is where he gets his signature magenta sunglasses as well. He can tuck into his shell and spin around, and has a wand that he can shoot magic blasts or fireballs with, or conjure a giant energy blast that makes an explosion. He carries around a Bullet Bill Blaster that shoots Bullet Bills, though it can also be loaded with paint to splash the target with. He also has a giant ball with his emblem on it, a giant boulder he can pick up and throw, and a hot air balloon with two arms and six cannons. He also has his own airship. He has a variety of powers and abilities.

• Fire Manipulation: He can breathe fireballs and produce fireballs with his wand.
• Flight: He appears to fly off after being defeated.
• Transmutation: He transformed the king of Sky Land into a duck or an albatoss.
• Tunneling and Teleportation: He can tunnel underground and pop up anywhere else, even if it's not connected to the ground.
• Summoning: Roy can summon a large Banzai Bill into battle and ride on it.
• Surface Scaling: Roy can effortlessly climb on walls and ceilings.
• Attack Reflection: By spinning in his shell he can reflect projectiles.
• Paralysis Inducement: With a ground pound can stun all opponents that are on the ground.
• Size Manipulation: All of the Koopalings were able to make a spell that grew Bowser massive.
• Shockwave Creation: Can create shockwaves with a ground pound.
• Splashing Paint: Roy's Bullet Bill Blaster can be loaded with different paint that can splash onto the opponent.
• Empathic Manipulation: Splashing paint on an opponent can forcefully change their emotion.
• Broadway Force: Orange paint can force a target to dance.
• Poison Manipulation: Purple paint can inflict poison onto an opponent.
• Regeneration: Splashing paint can bring back someone's organs and even their soul.
• Possible Regeneration (Mid-High): Likely survived after being exploded into nothing visible, though it could just be a visual effect.

Ludwig von Koopa

Ludwig von Koopa is the oldest of the Koopalings and one of four that Bowser can directly summon via his portals. He is named after the famous composer Ludwig van Beethoven. He can tuck into his shell and spin around, and has a wand that shoots magic projectiles or fireballs, up to four at once, and can make one massive magic ball. Ludwig also has a large robot brontosaurus that he rides in, piloting from the head and can shoot from there. When destroyed, it turns into a flying head with arms that can be shot out as attacks. He has several Battle Cards which have a variety of effects, being able to increase his and his ally's strength and speed, dealing damage to the opponent without contact, making it so taking damage heals himself or his ally, shrinking all of his opponents, and completely nullify damage to him and his allies twice. He is also able to flutter jump to stay in the air, and can spin like a top. He also has his own airship, as well as a warship he calls the Super Ludship and a submarine called the Super Ludsub. 

Ludwig has a variety of powers and abilities.

• Fire Manipulation: Ludwig is able to breathe fireballs and can shoot fireballs from his wand.
• Flight: He appears to fly off after being defeated.
• Homing Attack: His magic is able to home in on an opponent.
• Levitation: Ludwig can levitate in the air effortlessly.
• Duplication: Ludwig can duplicate himself into multiple clones.
• Social Influencing: With Negotiate, can convince an enemy force to join his side.
• Attack Negation: With Stop and Drop, can prevent someone from attacking.
• Size Manipulation: All of the Koopalings were able to make a spell that grew Bowser massive.
• Transmutation: Transformed the king of Pipe Land into a Piranha Plant or Yoshi.
• Shapeshifting/Disguising: Was able to successfully disguise himself as Beef.
• Statistics Amplification, Size Manipulation, Damage Nullification, and Healing: Via Battle Cards.
• Absorption/Resistance to Water Manipulation: With Water Balm, can absorb water damage.
• Possible Regeneration (Mid-High): Likely survived after being exploded into nothing visible, though it could just be a visual effect.

Time Travel

Bowser has occasionally showcased the ability to move through time. Most notably, in Yoshi's New Island he appears from the future suddenly, warping through space and time. In that battle, he also appears to make a portal in the sky linking the past and future together, which he retreats into after being defeated. Bowser also travels to the past in Yoshi's Island DS with Kamek, though the exact method is unknown.

Forcefield Creation

Bowser has shown many times to be able to create shields and forcefields around objects. He can create one for himself by holding his arms in front of him, and he is able to create forcefields around characters or objects in order to seal them off, like what he does with Peach or the Giga Bells.

Flight

One of Bowser's rarely used powers is his ability to fly. This is given no real explanation, he just flies away from the castle in Super Mario 3D Land. He has also shown the ability to hover as seen in Super Princess Peach, though this could possibly be due to the Vibe Scepter. He's also generally shown flying around through space.

Immortality

Bowser has a degree of immortality that has been touched on several times in the Mario series. He is implied to be able to live for over 10,000 years as that's how long his reign would last. In terms of resilience, Bowser can live and perfectly function even when reduced down to his skeleton, once getting turned into a skeleton and only being mildly annoyed, and he was able to survive after being reduced to a small star-shaped thing. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, it is shown that he has infinite lives (lives are indeed canon to the Mario verse), meaning that should Bowser die, he would still be able to come back.

Regeneration

Bowser possesses a surprisingly potent healing factor. As Dry Bowser he is able to fall apart and immediately come back together much like a Dry Bones, and has even pulled his own head off and thrown it as an attack. However even without his skeletal form, his regeneration is still quite potent. He has recovered from being cut up into multiple pieces of paper, and could pull himself back together after a warp pipe pulled him apart. Offscreen he has managed to regenerate a new body after being reduced to a star-shaped thing, and even come back from being completely blown up by a firework. His regeneration should likely get up to Mid-High.

Plot Manipulation

Bowser has shown a degree of plot manipulation, as seen in Paper Mario. As the narrator is telling the story of the Star Rod, it is revealed that Bowser had changed the plot of the story, literally taping Kammy Koopa to the plot. This allows Bowser to sneak in to steal the Star Rod from the Star Spirits. It is specifically stated by the Star Spirits that this was not supposed to happen in the story being told, and Bowser was changing the story. Thus he has a form of plot manipulation.

Miscellaneous

Note: I am not going to mention all of the abilities Bowser gains from his equipment, so if an ability is not mentioned here it was mentioned there.

• Surface Scaling: With his claws, Bowser can climb towers, and do the same from curling up in a ball and rolling up a wall. Enhanced when transformed as Meowser.
• Underwater Breathing and Self Sustenance (Type 1): Bowser can survive perfectly fine for long periods of time underwater and in space.
• Hammerspace: Is able to hold a large amount of items at once without them being seen.
• Self-Perception Manipulation and Afterimage Creation: With Zone Speed, Bowser's perception slows to a crawl as he heightens his focus to the extreme, moving much faster than normal. This also creates afterimages.
• Non-Physical Interaction: His attacks are able to harm Boos, which are described by E. Gadd as incorporeal and have been shown to be naturally intangible. His attacks can also affect and destroy Elder Princess Shroob's soul.
• Toon Force and Elasticity: Like most Mario characters, he regularly gets completely squished and recovers instantly.
• Attack Reflection: Can spin in his shell to deflect attacks, and can deflect his own fireballs.
• Power Nullification: Should have the same powers as Bowser X, who can suck away the ability to use specific moves from Mario and Luigi.
• Immersion: Was able to damage a screen from the other side of a video call. Was able to do something similar in the Mario Adventures comic.
• Size Manipulation: Can shrink his opponents small enough to go inside his stomach, and can grow himself to massive sizes. Can also change the sizes of other objects.
• Durability Negation: His Fire Breath does piercing damage, ignoring traditional defense.
• Extrasensory Perception: Was able to sense when Mario entered Peach's Castle despite being in another dimension, and could sense his target's location in his tower and watch their battles with his minions.
• Fourth Wall Awareness and Interaction: Was able to see the color of the game's text, interrupted the ending to Yoshi's New Island and pulled back the screen, and did something similar in Super Mario 3D World.
• Statistics Amplification: Is able to increase his strength and that of his minions.
• Rage Power: Via Fury.
• Life-Force Absorption: Can heal himself by chewing on an opponent.

Resistances

• Extreme Heat: Regularly walks through lava and is completely fine. Was sent into the surface of a star and resurfaced later, and likely still survived later after the star went supernova. Casually sat in a bowl of hot water, which was hot enough to burn Mario on contact.
• Fire Manipulation: Has set his own tail on fire and was fine, was unharmed by his own fireballs hitting him, and can easily endure being set on fire by a Flaming Tender.
• Electricity Manipulation: Can easily withstand lightning strikes and being shocked with electricity.
• Darkness Manipulation, Air Manipulation, and Sealing: Could walk through and withstand Dark Bowser's vortex, which was a massive tornado made of dark energy that trapped every citizen hit by it in a bubble.
• Soul Manipulation and Sealing: Is unaffected by Catch Cards, which trap someone's soul and seal away their body as well.
• Transmutation: Can withstand getting hit with Gold Mario's fireballs which turn things into coins. Can remain fighting while turned into a scarecrow.
• Mind Manipulation and Possession: Remained in control of himself while using Lucien's power even after Lucien has reached its full power. Was unable to be possessed by Elder Princess Shroob.
• Existence Erasure: Withstood being in the Sammer Kingdom as it was being erased by the incomplete Void. 
• Possible Fate Manipulation: The Dark Prognostics was a book that told the events of all worlds from start to end, always being correct in its predictions and it is stated that no one can avert it. The Light Prognostics was created as a counter to the Dark Prognostics, and it was stated that whichever Luigi chose, light or dark, that book would come true. Luigi chose dark, and despite this, Dimentio was still prevented, the prophecy was averted, and it was stated that the Heroes of Light could choose their own fate.

Forms

Giant Bowser

Bowser has the ability to grow to gargantuan sizes through various means. Sometimes it's through the use of his minions like Kamek or the Koopalings, and occasionally it is from a magical artifact like a Grand Star or a potion. Most of the time however, it is from his own natural ability to grow large, often in response to a life-or-death scenario and has even put himself in these scenarios to purposely grow large. However it doesn't appear that this is needed, as he can just grow large whenever he wants to, likely through magic. He can even stack his magical growing even further as shown in Mario Party 9, where after growing large, he then proceeds to get even larger after that.

Giant Bowser does not have any unique abilities, but instead expands upon the already great strength of Bowser. There was one example in Bowser's Fury where Giant Bowser had the abilities of Fury Bowser, but that seemed to be a specific form instead of his regular Giant form.

Dry Bowser

Dry Bowser is Bowser's skeletal form, though interestingly isn't actually Bowser's skeleton. Bowser usually reaches this form via falling into lava, burning all his skin and flesh off leaving just his skeleton, though he has also achieved this form by ingesting too much Skeletone Formula:D. However, to get back to his normal form from Dry Bowser he did require assistance from Bowser Jr. 

In terms of abilities, Dry Bowser keeps a majority of his base abilities, while gaining potent regeneration and body control in accordance to his new skeletal body. He can throw his head off and still control it when disconnected, and take out his own bones to throw as projectiles. Dry Bowser also uses blue fire far more often than regular Bowser does.

Meowser

Meowser is the form Bowser takes after obtaining a Cat Bell, making him the Bowser equivalent to Cat Mario. Meowser has all the same abilities as Cat Mario, being able to climb up walls much faster than he can normally and having a claw swipe attack. He also appears to be much more agile in this form.

Fury

Not to be confused with Fury Bowser, Fury is the form Bowser takes after taking too much damage in battle. In this state, Bowser will flash red, and all damage dealt by him and to him will be doubled, making him twice as strong but also half as durable. This state can be cured with various items if Bowser wishes to.

Metal Bowser

Bowser is able to turn his entire body metal, becoming Metal Bowser. In this form he is stated to be 10 times heavier than his normal form. However, it appears that he can be forced back into base with enough force, such as being thrown into space and falling back.

Blockhead Bowser

A form Bowser takes after using the Megamorph Belt, Blockhead Bowser is a collection of blocks that can be moved in a variety of ways. He is able to telekinetically control each of the blocks and shape them into different forms, such as a top, a square box to crush opponents, and a snake form. All of these contain a golden Bowser block which breathes fire, and that is the only place where Blockhead Bowser can take damage. Blockhead Bowser is deceptively powerful, as it was able to stand up to and fight Mario when he had four Power Stars amping him up. 

Fury Bowser

Fury Bowser is the form Bowser takes in Bowser's Fury. A massive kaiju even larger than Giant Bowser, this form is physically Bowser's strongest transformation ever, as while Mario could somewhat stand up to most other Bowser forms, including Dreamy Bowser, against Fury Bowser he was so powerless he needed help from the Giga Bell, which are explicitly shown to weaken Fury Bowser as well. 

Bowser was transformed into Fury Bowser by Bowser Jr.'s paint, and is the paint taking over and controlling Bowser, making this form fairly uncontrollable. In this form he is able to create fireballs that rain from the sky and can shoot out a massive amount of spikes from his back, which he is able to control after they are launched. He can also breathe out large boulders as attacks. Fury Bowser also has several unique powers and abilities.

• Passive Weather Manipulation, Mind Manipulation, and Corruption (Type 2): Simply waking up causes a massive storm to be created and corrupts all surrounding creatures like the the Lake Lapcat cats, making them hostile. It is indicated that this effect was affecting the entire Cat World.
• Passive Platform Creation: Fury Bowser's appearance causes several platforms to appear that will disappear upon Fury Bowser going back to sleep.
• Reactive Evolution, Accelerated Development, and Resistance to Purification (Type 2): Despite originally being affected by the purifying light of the lighthouses, he later grew strong enough to where it wouldn't affect him and the Giga Bell was needed. After being cleansed by the Giga Bells he retained his Fury abilities, and grew strong enough so that three Giga Bells were needed to defeat him.
• From this it is clear that Fury Bowser has at least 2 layers of Purification resistance from the lighthouses and Giga Bells.

Fury Bowser also has the ability to create Black Ooze from simply walking around, which also grants several abilities.

• Portal Creation and BFR: Sent Mario to the location of Bowser's Fury, which is a separate world as indicated by the different sun in the sky.
• Sealing: Using the Black Ooze, Bowser was able to seal away entire islands that then rise up after it is removed.
• Durability Negation/Invulnerability Negation: Black Ooze is able to harm Mario even when he has a Super Star, which has many statements of being invincible.
• Adhesive Manipulation: Slows down Giga Mario and lessens his jumping ability.
• Fury Shadows: The Black Ooze has the ability to create Fury Shadows, which have their own abilities.
• Resurrection and Immortality (Types 4 and 8): Fury Shadows will remain as long as the Black Ooze exists and can keep returning after being defeated.
• Power Mimicry and Shapeshifting: Can shapeshift into other beings, copying their movements and abilities.

Feats

Overall

• Fought the Mario Bros. ever since he was a child
• Stolen Princess Peach more times than even he can count
• Has successfully ruled the Koopa Kingdom for quite some time
• Became a great dad to his son Bowser Jr.
• Created a universe-wide army and reset the universe
• Terrorized the Dream Depot
• Stole the Star Rod out from under the noses of the Star Spirits
• Teamed up with Mario multiple times to protect his kingdom
• Used the Pure Hearts to save the multiverse from Dimentio
• Defeated Smithy, Culex, Count Bleck, Fawful, and his Dark Star clone Dark Bowser
• Fought Junior on equal footing for more than two weeks, winning exactly half of the battles
• Became the president of Nintendo of America

Strength

• One of the seven Star Children, which are stated to have extraordinary power, enough to take over the universe
• Casually destroys bricks with his Bowser Bombs
• Slashes through stone walls
• Pulls a small island to shore at fast speeds
• Catches and throws a massive cannonball into the distance
• Helped in the destruction of the Axem Rangers' ship, which is the size of a volcano
• Shook a mountain by jumping
• Fought alongside Mallow, who can create storms that cover entire towns simply by crying
• Fought Dark Bowser, a clone of him made from his DNA
• Dark Bowser created a storm that covered the entire Mushroom Kingdom (12.39 gigatons)
• Bowser was also able to overpower the Dark Star, which was stated to plunge the world into darkness. Chakron even describes this as a cosmic pickle.
• Is superior to his minions even when they are amped by Power Stars and Grand Stars
• Power Stars could move pieces of a continent-sized land around
• Power Stars could absorb all the stars in the sky (7.62 Foe)
• Power Stars are mature Lumas, who can become entire galaxies
• Bowser was able to use Power Stars to create the painting worlds, which are directly compared to "the real world" and said to envelop all of reality. Tick Tock Clock is stated to be bottomless and Shifting Sand Land is stated to contain infinite underworlds
• A single Grand Star could power Bowser's Galaxy Reactor, which was going to create a galaxy, and it malfunctioning directly caused a blast that threatened the fabric of the universe
• As Giant Bowser, could punch a castle around the planet (265.54–796.37 teratons of TNT)
• Alongside Koopa Kid, Bowser was going to destroy all of the Dream Worlds one-by-one, which were directly called universes and infinite in size by Eldstar, threatening the Dream Depot in the process
• Was implied to be a threat to the universe in Super Mario Galaxy
• As Giant Bowser, directly fought Giant Dreamy Luigi
• Giant Dreamy Luigi previously fought the Zeekeeper, with the Zeekeeper complimenting his power and stating that he gives him no mercy. The Zeekeeper could destroy a barrier powered by the Dream Stone
• Giant Dreamy Luigi also fought Robo-Drilldigger, which is the Dream Stone's spirit
• With his telekinesis, could lift islands out of lava and raised Peach's Castle into the sky (8.54–48.44 megatons of TNT)
• Regularly fights against Mario and Luigi and is consistently portrayed as physically superior to them
• Mario and Luigi could lift and punt Larry's castle (2.791 megatons of TNT)
• Mario and Luigi have fought:
• Cackletta, who created eight small black holes (548.96–711.03 ronnatons of TNT)
• Chakron, who absorbs the waves of the universe and uses the power of the universe to "do anything"
• Mouser, who destroys dreams with his bombs
• Dreamy Bowser, who is empowered by the Dream Stone (more explanation later)
• Mario himself fought:
• Tatanga, who created a thick black cloud over Sarasaland when he arrived (98.96 gigatons of TNT)
• Hole Punch, who trapped the sun in a disco ball
• King Olly, who could fold the fabric of reality
• Mario is able to spin Giant Dreamy Luigi fast enough to harm the Zeekeeper
• Mario is the reason this move does damage, as the more Mario spins, the more damage it does to the Zeekeeper
• Mario can destroy Nightmare Chunks that Prince Dreambert was unable to destroy, and Prince Dreambert is able to overpower and corner Antasma when he was using the Dark Stone, the counterpart to the Dream Stone
• Fought Mimi, who overpowered Merlee, a descendant of the Ancients. The Tribe of the Ancients created Flipside, a dimension between dimensions
• Bowser also fought Wracktail, who was considered a big enough threat to the Ancients that they locked him in the Pit of 100 Trials
• Fought Count Bleck, who destroyed his home universe with the Dark Prognostics and survived this
• Should scale to Antasma through Mario
• Antasma can turn an entire dream into a nightmare and manipulate an entire dream
• Antasma could eat multiple dream worlds at once
• Antasma shattered the Dark Stone
• Is comparable if not superior to Kamek
• Kamek created a storm that was going to flood the planet (2.446 exatons of TNT)
• Kamek created a spell that could harm Giant Dreamy Luigi, and then survived that same spell getting reflected back onto him
• Fought Culex, who is the master of space and time and, in the Japanese version, has power that rules over creation
• Should generally scale to the other Star Children and has fought them several times
• Yoshi sent Raphael the Raven into space hard enough to create a star
• Donkey Kong is stronger than Diddy Kong, who could hurt Wizpig, with Wizpig being able to survive an explosion visible from space (453 gigatons of TNT)
• Donkey Kong punched the moon out of orbit (123.32 exatons of TNT–322.05 ronnatons of TNT)
• Wario overpowered the Black Jewel, who warped Wario's basement into an entirely separate parallel dimension
• Princess Peach, along with Starlow, destroyed the Dream Stone
• Fought Cursa, who overpowered Rosalina in a weaker state
• Rosalina watches over and protects the universe, and survived a blast that created a massive black hole and threatened the fabric of the universe

Speed

• Dodges meteors from the Behemoth
• Hit Mario from the Mushroom Kingdom to the Cap Kingdom (Mach 290.57)
• Punched a massive castle around the Earth (0.029c)
• Reacts to beams of light from White Mage
• Crawled his way out of a black hole
• Can accurately control himself while turned into a bolt of electricity
• Far faster than Paratroopas, who can fly from ground level to clouds in seconds (Mach 1.166)
• Flew into the center of a star in seconds
• Jumped onto a space station that was flying past multiple stars in the background (565.56 million c)
• His meteors were able to tag Starship Mario
• Regularly fights Mario and Luigi
• Mario is stated to run faster than light
• Mario and Luigi can pilot Starship Mario as it crosses a galaxy supercluster (76.7 trillion–27.61 quadrillion c)
• The worlds in Super Mario Galaxy 2 are called universes in Japanese (815.4 trillion–293.4 quadrillion c)
• Mario and Luigi can react to Launch Stars launching them to galaxies far away (1.13–820.51 trillion c)
• Launch Stars can even launch them to the Trial Galaxies at the edge of the universe (407.61 trillion–293.48 quadrillion c)
• Luigi can dodge lightning from King Boo's crown
• King Boo's crown created the Paranormal Dimension, which greatly resembles the dimension where the Scarescraper takes place. The Scarescraper is endless and will go on for infinity (possibly infinite)
• Seemingly flew from Earth to the center of the universe in a few seconds (564.41 quadrillion–6.77 quintillion c)
• Should scale to the rest of the Star Children
• Wario kept up with the Shake King, who crossed the Shake Dimension very fast (Mach 225.6147)
• Wario should be comparable to his WarioWare employees
• Ashley can fly to the moon (0.3c)
• Orbulon regularly pilots a ship that flies out of a black hole and past many stars in the background
• Dribble and Spitz work as intergalactic taxi drivers and can drive to the edge of the universe, dodging lasers that move faster than their car (52.372 quadrillion–1.95 quintillion c)
• Donkey Kong rode an animal past multiple stars in the background (48.24 million c)
• Donkey Kong piloted a barrel cannon that caught up to King K. Rool's interplanetary spaceship
• Donkey Kong is comparable to Diddy Kong, who flew into space in seconds
• Diddy Kong also raced alongside Wizpig's rocket, which flew to an unknown planet (1533.5c)
• Yoshi hit Raphael the Raven into space far enough to create a star (19.14 million c)
• Comparable to Kamek, who blasted Mario from Earth to the Gateway Galaxy
• Scales to Lord Crump, who returned from being blasted far into space relatively quickly
• Can scale to characters capable of outrunning or running alongside the Koopa Clown Car
• The Clown Car flew from Earth to the sun in a short time (8.32c)
• The Clown Car could keep up with Mini Stars as they flew across the universe
• Scales to Rosalina, and fought Cursa who overpowered Rosalina
• Rosalina kicked a soccer ball to another planet and back (52.04–382.17c, possibly 44.6 million c)
• Rosalina successfully piloted her Comet Observatory to the center of the universe, and could react while piloting (132.09 quadrillion–1.59 quintillion c)
• Bowser's airships could fly alongside the Comet Observatory making this trip, further backing up this scaling
• Fought Dreamy Luigi
• Dreamy Luigi could jump into space in a few seconds, and jumped into a constellation
• Can scale to the Millennium Star, which flew from the center of the universe to Earth (16.97 trillion–73.32 quadrillion c, possibly 203 trillion–880 quadrillion c)
• Along with Mario, Luigi, and Peach, traveled through the entirety of the Overthere Stair, which consisted of traveling through never-ending layers of clouds (likely infinite)
• While it does sound like a hyperbole, other dimensions in the game are stated to be infinite and endless as well, making this consistent
• Superior to his minions while they are amped by Power Stars
• A Power Star absorbed all stars in the sky in a second
• Power Stars are stated to have the power to cross the universe
• Power Stars are mature Lumas, who can cross galactic distances in seconds (40.03 trillion c)
• Lumas flew from across the universe to the center in a short time
• Mario can use Power Stars to fly back from the edge of the universe to Earth (407.61 trillion–293.48 quadrillion c, possibly 489.1428 quadrillion c)
• Prankster Comets flew across all the worlds in just a few seconds (3.21 quadrillion–9.93 quintillion c, likely 23.47885 quintillion c)
• Was stated by Misstar that at the rate he was going, he was going to destroy all dreams one-by-one, of which there are an infinite amount (infinite, see below)

Additionally, there are several statements of the dimensions from Super Paper Mario are infinite in size, specifically from reliable sources like Tippi and narration. Given their status as parallel dimensions, it is likely that the main universe is infinite as well, making every "edge of the universe" feat require infinite speed too. The Painting Worlds from Super Mario 64, which are also compared to the main reality as mentioned in the Strength section, have a few statements implying infinite space as well, further backing this up.

Durability

• Withstands walking in lava all the time
• Survived his castle falling on him, twice
• Gets crushed by a giant Plessie
• Got smacked over the horizon by Daisy
• Withstands a castle-sized explosion
• Is at the epicenter of this massive explosion in a tennis stadium
• Survives his castle exploding, leaving nothing else behind
• Survives meteors (888.987 tons of TNT)
• Has survived black holes on multiple occasions
• Falls into his artificial sun and is seen moments later
• Tanks a punch from Donkey Kong
• As Giant Bowser, survived a massive black hole that was sucking up several planets (277.5 quettatons of TNT)
• Survived an explosion from a Power Star and withstood an assault of 29 Power Stars at once
• Should be comparable, if not outright superior to Mario and Luigi
• Mario survived an explosion that sent him to the moon (6.61 megatons of TNT)
• Mario and Luigi could survive a castle exploding in their face
• Mario and Luigi could survive falling into a galaxy-sized black hole
• Luigi can tank hits from King Boo's crown
• King Boo's crown created the Paranormal Dimension, which greatly resembles the dimension where the Scarescraper takes place. The Scarescraper is endless and will go on for infinity
• King Boo's crown destroyed the Dark Moon, which was able to distort their dimension
• King Boo is far superior to regular ghosts, whose power is so great that it could collapse their dimension in three minutes
• Mario survived a direct hit from the Zeekeeper
• Seemingly survives the end of Super Mario Galaxy (y'know, with the blast that threatened the fabric of the universe), as it's stated that he escaped his fate, his fate clearly being death
• It is unlikely that he actually escaped and avoided being hit by the attack, as it was a universe-wide black hole that sucked in everything, and he began at the epicenter, which would mean it is unlikely that he had any way to escape
• It is also unlikely that Rosalina shielded or protected him from the blast, as it is stated that she only protected Mario and Peach, and in Super Mario Galaxy she clearly shows distaste for Bowser, due to him stealing all the Power Stars from the Comet Observatory, so it is unlikely that she would protect him
• Survives being in the Sammer Kingdom as it is being erased by the incomplete Void, with the Sammer Kingdom being it's own parallel dimension
• Should be comparable to Wario
• Wario could tank attacks from the Genie, who created a planetoid
• Wario survived being at the epicenter of the Shake King's explosion which parted a massive amount of clouds (41 zettatons of TNT)
• Wario withstood the parallel dimension of the Black Jewel collapsing without any apparent harm
• Survived the point-blank destruction of the Dream Stone
• Survived, although knocked out by, an assault by the Megabug, and should scale to characters who can survive attacks from MegaDragonBowser
• Megabug is the personification of the SupaMerge, which could destroy the world. According to the developers of the game, "world" in this context means universe
• His shell is durable enough to not be fazed by attacks that would harm Bowser himself

Weaknesses

While not a complete idiot, Bowser has had plenty of moments of less than stellar planning skills. Of course most of that comes with being a platformer boss, but deciding to fight on a bridge over lava that you designed while the button to drop the bridge is right behind you isn't a great showing (and he's done this too many times to count). He's essentially the Doctor Doom of the Mario series, with access to an insane amount of power at his fingertips, yet still manages to lose to the same guy over and over again. Finally, games like Super Mario Galaxy have shown that knocking Bowser on his back leaves him pretty helpless for a second or two, allowing any smart opponent to take advantage of this opening.

Questions and Answers

Are Dreams actually universe-sized?

There are three games in the Mario series that have a focus on dreams, those being Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario Party 5, and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, and despite different names or how information is conveyed, the portrayal of how dreams work is relatively consistent across these titles. So how big are dreams?

To start off, Super Mario Bros. 2 shows that dreams have a night sky filled with stars, and that is also shown in Dream Team with there being stars and even constellations to be seen. Future Dream is also shown to have stars in the background. At a minimum, this indicates that dreams are much larger than just what we see of them in-game. 

Subcon, the dream that we explore in Super Mario Bros. 2, is directly stated to be a universe. The "peace to the universe" is clearly referring to Subcon, because that is what Wart is terrorizing. For supporting evidence, Subcon is referred to in the manual as a world, and in that same manual the natives of Subcon call Mario's universe "the real world", likely indicating that they are of comparable size. This is also the case with Dream Team, as Prince Dreambert, who knows a lot about dreams and serves as your guide in the game, consistently refers to dreams as "Dream Worlds", as well as referring to Mario's as "the real world", showing again that they are likely comparable in size.

I am aware "world" has many different meanings, especially in Mario, but it is unlikely that Prince Dreambert is referencing anything less than a universe, as the dreams are consistently shown with starry backgrounds behind them. It should be noted also that "world" has been used to label entire universes before in Mario, so there is precedent for this outside of dreams.

Mario Party 5 gives us the most blatant evidence for dreams being universes. Future Dream is referred to as a universe by the manual, Misstar, and Eldstar, those latter two being members of the Star Spirits that watch over the Dream Depot, indicating that they would likely know more than anyone else. The manual in particular states that from Future Dream you can see "the wonders of the universe". If we look at the Japanese version, Eldstar directly calls Future Dream infinite in size. 

But how do we know that all dreams are the same size? Well there's a few things. When Prince Dreambert is talking about dreams, he always uses the phrase "Dream World", indicating that every dream we see in that game would be universe-sized, and it would make little sense that the dreams seen in other games would be any smaller, as nothing indicates that. BS Super Mario USA, the official Japanese-exclusive sequel to Super Mario Bros. 2, states that there are as many Subcons as people sleeping. This would indicate that Subcon is just another term used for Dream Worlds, and given it's already established that Subcon is a universe, it doesn't make sense for the other ones not to be.

It's entirely possible that Dream Worlds could potentially be even larger, as during the Zeekeeper's boss fight, he flies through different dimensions while still remaining in Luigi's dream. However, as a baseline, every Dream being an entirely separate universe is consistent throughout the franchise. And yes, they are separate from each other. BS Super Mario USA portrays the Subcons as separate dimensions that need to be traveled to by using the real world, and in Dream Team, in order for Kamek to get to another dream, he needs to go through the real world first, indicating that they are in separate dimensional spaces.

How many Dreams are there?

An important part of finding the strength of the Dream Stone would be figuring out how many dreams there are. While there is no explicit number given, it can be inferred based off of several features of the Mario franchise.

As mentioned before, BS Super Mario USA states that there are as many Subcons, aka Dream Worlds, as there are people sleeping. This is corroborated with Mario Party 5, where many new dreams arrive at the dream world every day, and Dream Team, where it is shown onscreen that every time someone falls asleep, a new dream world is created. At minimum, this means there are as many dream worlds as people in the Mario universe, with it likely being far higher. So how many people are there? Well as mentioned in the Speed section, the Mario universe is likely infinite in size, though that does not automatically mean there are infinite beings inhabiting it. However, the alien Tippi says that drives his thoughts through endless space, states that the infinite universe is filled with dreams. This would imply that there are infinite dreams, though this isn't the end of it.

Paper Mario Color Splash provides a lot of evidence in favor of this as well. Paint is shown to be a sentient concept, with it having a mind of its own and being able to fall asleep, meaning it should be contributing to the number of dreams as well. This is important as Paint is shown to make up everything, both matter as well as empty space. Now I'm not saying that every drop of paint can dream, but every object that has paint should be capable of dreaming, consistent with the alien statement. Paint is also stated to bring life to the world, and without paint things cannot be alive. This means that the universe doesn't need infinite beings, or even infinite objects, as the infinite empty space would also contain paint, and thus should be able to contribute to the amount of dream worlds.

It should be noted that Paint is shown to work the exact same way in alternate, parallel dimensions, so dimensions like Outer Space and the Painting Worlds should be able to contribute to dreams all the same.

It is also shown that characters currently in a dream world can fall asleep and create new dream worlds on top of that. Dream Worlds naturally have many characters and creatures native to them, as well as having a day/night cycle and being stated to be infinite in size. This should mean that, like the real world, Dreams are perfectly capable of creating more dreams on top of them.

Now I am aware this sounds like me taking specific things from several different games and combining them in a way that was never intended, and that is a fair assumption. However, all of the concepts I have brought up are important to their game, and even though they likely were never meant to overlap with stuff from other games, that doesn't mean that they don't exist outside the scope of that game. Within the Mario universe, all of these things are fact, we just only focus on one idea at a time because that's how these are designed. I am not adding anything that wasn't there already, I am simply drawing a logical conclusion based on all the evidence from the games.

• Dimensions being infinite in size is important to Super Paper Mario
• Dream Worlds being plentiful is important to Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
• Paint being literally everywhere is important to Paper Mario Color Splash

And it just so happens that they line up with each other well, with statements from Super Paper Mario and Mario Party 5 just adding more consistency to this line of reasoning.

In summary, there is plenty of evidence to believe that the number of Dreams is infinite.

How does this affect the Dream Stone?

The Dream Stone is a collection of the power of Dreams, with the Dark Stone being the dark counterpart to that, being a collection of the power of Nightmares. This should allow the Dream Stone to scale to the full power of dreams, at minimum the ones it is shown absorbing onscreen, but likely far more. I have seen people say that the Dream Stone only contains the power of dreams on P'illo Island, but nothing in the game would suggest that, and given that other games have showcased that Dream worlds can be created by everyone, not just residents of P'illo Island, there's no reason to limit the scope of the Dream Stone like that.

Even if it was limited like that however, it likely would still get to an infinite amount of dreams, since as I've shown, dreams should regularly exist inside of dreams, causing a chain reaction of more and more dream worlds being created. The game also implies that a single dream can have multiple dimensions, so there's that too.

Isn't Dreamy Bowser an outlier?

Mario and Luigi beating Dreamy Bowser is commonly deemed an outlier by most versus communities, but it isn't really as outlandish as it seems. There are plenty of examples in Dream Team that allow characters to scale to the Dream Stone, as you've no doubt seen in the feats section. These include:

• Mario and Luigi directly fighting Dreamy Bowser, being able to harm him and survive his attacks
• Dreamy Bowser is stated to have absorbed all of the power from the Dream Stone
• Bowser, as Giant Bowser, is able to evenly fight against Giant Dreamy Luigi
• Giant Dreamy Luigi had previously fought Robo-Drilldigger, which is the Dream Stone's spirit
• Giant Dreamy Luigi had also fought the Zeekeeper, who shattered a barrier powered by it
• Kamek is able to make a spell that can harm Giant Dreamy Luigi, and can survive that same spell being sent back at him
• Mario survives a direct hit from the Zeekeeper
• Mario is the reason the Drill Stomp move does damage, as the more Mario spins, the more damage it does. This move is capable of damaging the Zeekeeper
• Peach and Starlow are able to destroy the Dream Stone with their magic, and Bowser can survive this destruction point-blank
• Mario can destroy Nightmare Chunks that Prince Dreambert is unable to destroy, and Prince Dreambert can overpower Antasma in the past when he had the Dark Stone
• Antasma destroyed the Dark Stone

As you can see, there are at least 8 examples in the game that portray characters on par with the Dream Stone and comparable objects/characters. In my opinion, this is far too much to just be considered an outlier.

Now a follow-up question I am expecting is "if all of these characters have multiversal power, then how come they don't show it in any other game?" Which is an understandable concern, but one I feel isn't exclusive to the Mario series. The simplest answer to this question is range, that no character outside of the Dream Stone could match the range of the entire multiverse, and that is why we never see a character mess with that. 

Also, the Mario series is more comparable to a cartoon series like Popeye rather than other video game franchises, and Shigeru Miyamoto makes this comparison very clear, comparing the cast to a troupe of actors similar to Popeye. This isn't to say that there isn't any consistency in the Mario franchise, but that the series should be treated similar to how cartoon characters are treated. Obviously this is going to differ based on the opinions of whomever's reading this, but generally speaking, cartoon characters are given the benefit of the doubt most of the time and aren't expected to show off their peak strength all the time. Seeing as how Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is very consistent with portraying characters as comparable to the Dream Stone, and the rest of the series still has plenty of galaxy-universe level feats, it isn't really a huge stretch for characters to reach that multiversal level.

Why would Bowser in base scale to Dreamy Bowser?

Dreamy Bowser actually has no statement in the game that he is superior to base Bowser in strength. Dreambert and Starlow fail to restrain him, but Dreambert is already shown to not be on the same level as Mario earlier, and Starlow has next to no showings of his physical power, only showing off impressive feats with his magic. It makes sense that Dreamy Bowser wouldn't be any more powerful than his base form, as the point of gaining the Dream Stone was for its wishing powers. It is stated several times in the game that the Dream Stone grants wishes, and Bowser and Antasma used it to create Neo Bowser Castle. He wanted it for its wish potential, not its raw power. This explains the "inconsistency" people have with this scaling, since if Bowser scales to Mario and Luigi and they scale to Dreamy Bowser, why would Bowser scale to an amped version of himself? The answer is simple, he wasn't actually amped, at least not to a degree where scaling them is out of the question.

This is not the first time in the Mario series that a supposed "amped" version of Bowser was still defeated by base-level characters. Some examples include MegaDragonBowser, Shiny RoboBowser, Black Paint Bowser, Bowcien, and Grand Star Bowser. Even Giant Bowser, a much larger version of Bowser who logically should probably be stronger, has been defeated multiple times. Yoshi is able to throw eggs hard enough to defeat him, and characters can take attacks from the Junior Clown Car that are identical to the ones that defeated Giant Bowser. 

In short, it is unlikely that Dreamy Bowser is far above base Bowser in any meaningful way. The power it granted to him was clearly wish-centered, and if he is superior, it isn't to a degree where base Bowser wouldn't be comparable. Bowser can scale to Dreamy Bowser, as weird as it may sound.

Wasn't the Dream Stone weakened in Dream Team?

Not really? At least, there's nothing explicitly that states if the Dream Stone was weakened. The only indication we have is that, after Bowser and Antasma steal the Dream Stone, they take it to the top of Mount Pajamaja and use Dreambeats to make the entirety of Pi'illo Island fall asleep and collect Dream Orbs from each person, powering the Dream Stone. This then allows Antasma to wish for Neo Bowser Castle, as well as everything else that the Dream Stone is used for throughout the game.

Basically, even if it was weakened at the beginning, it gets charged by the dreams of everyone on Pi'illo Island in the middle, and there's no real reason that it shouldn't be continuing to charge throughout the game. There's also nothing in the game that the Dream Stone takes its power from just the dreams of Pi'illo Island, and given there is no reason for Pi'illo Island's dreams to be any different from everyone else's, it should probably be constantly getting energy from the rest of the dreams as well. The number I gave earlier for the amount of dreams wasn't the number of all dreams ever created, it was just the ones that could be created at any given time, meaning it should still be applicable to the Dream Stone.

While it is possible that, during the course of the game, only Pi'illo Island's dreams were contributing to the power of the Dream Stone, the fact that dreams are stated to be infinite in size, as well as dreams existing inside dreams, means that the amount of dreams powering the Dream Stone should still reach what I was proposing earlier. 

Additionally, this is only for the course of this game. The feats that happened before the events of the game, such as Dreambert overpowering Antasma with the Dark Stone and Antasma shattering the Dark Stone, should still be fine to use as well.

Isn't Power Stars creating the Painting Worlds a translation error?

So a common argument I see brought up against this feat is that Bowser using the Power Stars to create the Painting Worlds is a mistranslation because the original Japanese says something different, but from what I can tell this is not necessarily the case. I found two separate posts on Reddit asking for translations, and just to be sure I also asked r/translator, and all of them came back with roughly the same wording. Some variation of the lines "Bowser is creating a land of monsters/kingdom of monsters/monster world by using the Power Stars". This lines up very well with what is said in the English version, which is "Bowser is using the Power Stars to create his own world in the paintings and walls". Now I am aware that there are multiple meanings to the word "create", and it could easily mean that Bowser is simply taking over the worlds instead. However, the only translation that matches that is "kingdom of monsters", while "land of monsters" and "monster world" both work as both a kingdom and an actual world. We can also use the English version as supporting material, since it isn't actually that far off from the original. This indicates, in my opinion at least, that while the original could be interpreted in two separate ways, the clarification of the English version seems to support Bowser actually creating the worlds rather than simply taking them over.

In summary, it isn't really a mistranslation and more of just a translation that lines up with what we already know.

Can Power Stars dispel magic/reality warping?

So the idea of this comes from Super Mario 64/Super Mario 64 DS, where Bowser creates an infinite staircase with his reality warping, and this will not go away unless the player gets 70 Stars (80 in the remake). This has led to the myth that Power Stars can dispel reality warping, or even magic in general. However this is not the case.

There is a very simple answer to this. In the DS remake, you are only allowed to play the final level as Mario. If you try to enter as Luigi, Yoshi, or Wario, Bowser will state that despite the number of Stars that you have, he refuses to call you his rival and will not let you challenge him, keeping the infinite staircase the way it is. This is a pretty blatant counter to the claim. Bowser is letting the infinite staircase spell drop willingly because he wants to challenge Mario, not because Mario is forcing the spell down through Power Stars. Thus, it is wrong to say that Power Stars can dispel reality warping because the actual game says otherwise.

Isn't the moon that Donkey Kong punches really small?

I'm not going to go too in depth on this one, as it's a pretty insignificant feat in the long run and I do plan on making a short blog talking about it in the future, but for now I will give this:

The moon in the Donkey Kong Country Returns cutscene has a noticeably very inconsistent size between shots, even without comparing it to the real life moon. DK Island doesn't actually have an official size either, making any attempt to compare the two almost entirely speculation. The model used for DK Island in that cutscene is the same one from the World Map, which is important as things are obviously not made to scale there, like the massive ship near the bottom, which clearly isn't actually meant to be that size. Finally, the moon has consistent appeared in other games, like Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and Super Mario Odyssey, much more closely resembling our real life moon, making it much more likely that the moon isn't actually that small, it is just shrunken in the cutscene for the sake of clarity.

Doesn't the Comet Observatory only travel to the center of the galaxy?

In the Japanese version of Super Mario Galaxy, it is actually stated that Bowser is at the center of the galaxy, and the final level is titled "Fate of the Galaxy" instead of the English's "Fate of the Universe". However, I believe in this scenario specifically, the English version makes sense to use.

The reason Mario goes from level to level collecting Power Stars is because he needs to power up the Comet Observatory in order to send him to where Bowser is. This should mean that where Bowser is is farther away than any other level in the game, as if it wasn't, Mario would just be able to take a Launch Star to get there. There isn't really any reason he shouldn't be able to, and the same Launch Star can be used to get to different galaxies, so they aren't on a set path or anything like that. This is important as Mario spends the whole game traveling to different galaxies. I know people are going to argue that the galaxies are just really small but like, we never see the full scope of them, only a tiny fraction of the galaxy. It is shown that real world galaxies do exist in Mario, so the galaxies that Mario travels to should be no different. Thus, it makes no sense for Bowser to be at the center of the galaxy, when Mario has gone far beyond that over the course of the game.

For consistency's sake, the Trial Galaxies are stated to be at the edge of the universe, so wherever Bowser is must be at least as far as that.

Why are you using the Prima Guide for Super Mario Galaxy? Doesn't that contradict the game?

So in the Prima Guide for Super Mario Galaxy, it states that Bowser's plan is to restart the universe and make another one, which is not his plan in the game. However, one contradiction does not automatically mean the entire source is unusable, it should just be taken where it lines up with the original source, the game. The line that I have been taking from the Prima Guide, "the blast that threatens the very fabric of the universe", while not being present in the original game, does not contradict anything we know about it. In fact, it lines up pretty well with the presentation of the blast in the game, as it appears that everything was being affected and Rosalina implies the universe is being reset. These examples are not equivalent to each other, one part is directly contradicting the game, while the other lines up well and expands upon it.

I am using the Prima Guide as supplemental material, basically meaning that it is able to clarify or expand upon something in the primary source material as long as it doesn't contradict the games. While yes, there is a contradiction with one part of it, that doesn't necessarily mean the entire material is unusable. Keep in mind, the Prima Guide has the Nintendo Seal of Approval and was made when Nintendo entered a partnership with Prima, so it should be usable as supplemental material.

Why are you compositing Bowser?

I am not, I am only using the canonical version of Bowser and supported material. The Mario games reference each other all the time, as I have showed in my previous blog about Mario canon (check it out if you haven't for a more in-depth explanation). I excluded any part of the Mario series that I felt deviated too far and was not consistent with the games' portrayal, such as the Mario movies, TV shows, or manga. Just because the series has so many different games included here doesn't mean I'm compositing, as the series' has referenced the other series many, many times.

Do Bowser's minions really scale to the main cast?

Obviously the meme argument of "Mario dies to a Goomba so he isn't that strong" is based around game mechanics, but there are actually several points in the series that give evidence for Bowser's minions scaling to characters like Bowser and Mario.

The most blatant example of this is the story Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser. In this story a Goomba, who isn't especially notable, is able to defeat bosses that could give Mario and Luigi trouble earlier, such as Popple, Birdo, Fawful, and the seven Koopalings. In the sequel, regular enemies are even shown to be able to harm Bowser himself. These enemies aren't noted to be any different than the average enemy, so there's nothing that would really imply that other enemies should be any less powerful.

Also in Superstar Saga are the Goombas in the tutorial of the game. These later go on to be the rivals Private Goomp and Captain Goomba (the Goomba playable in Minion Quest). This is important as it is shown that Goombas survive encounters with Mario and Luigi, and can survive being stomped on no problem.

There are several regular enemies that are considered bosses in the series despite not being amped in any way. These are typically in Mario Party games, where King Bob-omb and King Boo are also bosses, just to give you an idea of these bosses. In Mario Party 9, Lakitu, Whomp, Dry Bones, Cheep Cheep, Blooper, Spike, and Chain Chomp are bosses, and in Mario Party 10, Mega versions of Goomba, Cheep Chomp, Sledge Bro, Blooper, Monty Mole, and Mechakoopa are bosses as well. Despite being Mega versions, Minion Quest has shown that regular enemies can hurt their larger counterparts, so the same should still apply here.

There is one enemy that I would like to give a spotlight to here, and that is Wiggler. Wigglers are commonly given the role of basic enemy, such as Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Super Mario RPG. However, they are also commonly portrayed as bosses that serve as direct threats to Mario or Bowser, such as Bowser's Inside Story, Superstar Saga, Dream Team, Super Princess Peach, and Mario Party 9. The number of times Wiggler has been a regular enemy is nearly the same as the times they have been a boss, and outside of a game like Super Mario 64 when he had a Power Star, there hasn't really been an in-universe explanation for this discrepancy, so the most reasonable conclusion is that the regular enemies aren't too far below bosses.

Speaking of Mario Party, the series is notable for having regular enemies as playable characters that are able to keep up with main characters, even in minigames that require the characters to physically contend with each other. Now people could potentially argue that the characters are holding back (though of course this has never been officially stated), but the fact that characters seem consistently competitive about becoming the superstar, as well as often having a story requiring the player stop Bowser from causing ruin, means that the characters are unlikely to be holding back. Boo has consistently appeared as a playable character, with Dry Bones joining him in Mario Party 7. 8 features Blooper and Hammer Bro, 9 has Koopa Troopa and Shy Guy, and 10 has Spike as playable characters. Super Mario Party not only features nearly every enemy that appeared previously, but also has Monty Mole and Goomba as well. These basic enemies are a consistent part of the series and are usually portrayed at the same level as the other characters.

Finally, Mario Party also has many events where playable characters are harmed by regular enemies. This isn't referring to minigames where regular enemies appear as threats, but instead the events on a board where enemies appear. These shouldn't just be game mechanics, as they are scripted events where enemies are intended to harm the characters. Piranha Plants appear as threats in DK's Treetop Temple and Peach's Birthday Cake, Chain Chomps appear in Snowflake Lake, Pyramid Park, and Kamek's Tantalizing Tower, Shy Guy appears in DK's Treetop Temple, and Blooper appears in Megafruit Paradise.

In summary, Bowser's minions have consistently showcased strength and speed comparable to Bowser himself. Of course they are still weaker, as Bowser was still able to overpower several of them at once with a lot of effort, but they should still downscale from being able to harm characters on his level.

Summary

Stats

• Attack Potency: At least Universe level (Has many consistent universe-level feats and scaling, like destroying dreams in Mario Party 5, being stated to be a threat to the universe in Super Mario Galaxy, harming Rosalina who can survive the universe being destroyed, is comparable to Power Stars and Grand Stars, and has fought Culex), likely Multiverse level to Multiverse level+ (Consistently scales to the Dream Stone, which contains the energy of countless/infinite dream worlds. Fought evenly with Giant Dreamy Luigi, who could fight Robo-Drilldigger, the Dream Stone's spirit), higher as Fury Bowser (Is so strong he can't be harmed by Mario's base form at all and needed to be weakened severely in order to be defeated)
• Durability: At least Universe level (Survives the destruction of the Sammer Kingdom and likely survived a universe-threatening blast. Withstood an assault from Megabug. Is more durable than Luigi who can take hits from King Boo's crown), likely Multiverse level to Multiverse level+ (Should scale to or above his AP, withstood the point-blank destruction of the Dream Stone. Comparable to Kamek who survived his own blast coming back at him, and could take hits from Giant Dreamy Luigi who overpowered the Zeekeeper), higher in his shell (His shell can effortlessly take hits that would harm him normally), much higher as Fury Bowser
• Speed: At least MFTL+ (Likely 23.48 quintillion c. Comparable to Mario who can react out of a Launch Star. Can react to Rosalina and should be comparable to his own airships, which can fly just as fast as the Comet Observatory. Scales to those who can keep up with his Koopa Clown Car. Scales to Power Stars which can cross an entire universe in less than a second), possibly Infinite (The Mario universe is consistently stated to be infinitely large by reliable sources. Was going to destroy every dream in the Dream Depot one-by-one, of which there are likely an infinite amount of. Traveled the entirety of the Overthere Stair, which is stated to be never-ending. Scales to Luigi, who dodged attacks from King Boo's crown, which possibly created an infinitely large realm)

Advantages:

• Has a surprising amount of skill and intelligence
• Has been fighting since he was a child
• His fire breath is very versatile and can likely negate durability
• Has a large amount of powers and will use them in character
• Can summon a large amount of his army directly to him
• Could theoretically just turn his entire army invisible or into copies of him
• A very wide arsenal that gives him a ton of versatility
• Retry Clocks, regeneration, and immortality makes him ridiculously difficult to kill
• Unironically one of the best dads in gaming
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Super Mario RPG remake look so good you guys holy crap I'm so excited I can't wait
• 2023 Movie

Disadvantages:

• Has been outsmarted many, many times
• Isn't really known for using the best option in every scenario
• Can be briefly incapacitated by flipping him on his back
• Isn't exactly subtle with a lot of his plans
• Up B out of shield
• 1993 Movie 
• So long Gay Bowser :(

Possible Opponents

I thought I would give my thoughts on some of Bowser's possible opponents for a versus show.

Dr. Eggman

This is my personal preferred for Bowser. There are quite a bit of connections, like creating a duplicate doppelgänger of their archenemy (Shadow Mario and Metal Sonic), both pilot robotic replicas of themselves, both have sought out powerful gems for their plans, and both of their main vehicles look similar. The main appeal of this matchup is the spectacle. These are two of the largest villains in video game history, and both have a ton of material to pull from for a fight.

If this gets done with an animation, it almost has to be an army fight. While both of these characters can and will fight on their own, a big part of the appeal is both of their armies fighting against each other. You could frame the fight as Eggman invading the Koopa Kingdom, which would be a realistic reason for both of them to have their armies. Finally, in terms of music potential, both of these series are known for their phenomenal music, especially Sonic, so there is a lot you can do with it.

Overall I think this is one of the few Mario vs Sonic matchups that works really well, and instead of being forced by the rivalry it uses it to its fullest advantage.

Ganondorf

I believe Bowser vs Ganondorf to actually be a solid matchup for Bowser. A really interesting part of this is the clashing of all the different magic both of them have, with physical interactions taking a backseat to their interesting powers. Unlike Eggman, Ganondorf would likely work better as a one-on-one fight, with maybe them summoning various minions throughout the fight to give them a time to shine also. A funny gag could be both of them struggling to kill each other due to both of their immortalities, before one of them finds out a way to overcome it, similar to Death Battle's Goku Black vs Reverse-Flash. Overall, while it doesn't have the greatest thematics it more than makes up for them in terms of interesting fight dynamic and animation potential.

It's a shame Death Battle didn't take advantage of any of that

King Dedede

Now I don't hate this, but this one is pretty meh. The main problem with it is the main theme "the main villains from Mario and Kirby", isn't exactly true. King Dedede hasn't really been a villain for Kirby for a while and serves more of an antihero role nowadays, which doesn't really fit Bowser. Bowser has teamed up with Mario from time to time, but he always returns to his villainous ways. The animation potential isn't the best either. They can't exactly take advantage of their armies in the fight due to Bowser's simply being much more varied than Dedede, and while there are ways to make it interesting, overall it just doesn't click for me. There are fun moments you can make in the fight, like Dedede sucking up a fireball and sending it back to Bowser, who then sends it back and they juggle a fireball for a bit, I just don't think there is enough to make this too interesting. Combined with the lackluster connections and thematics makes this not too interesting of a fight for me.

King K. Rool

Boring same-series matchup that still manages to be a stomp (which is a massive detriment for same-series fights due to the only appeal being who would win if they actually fought). Bowser just kinda has every advantage outside of stats which are comparable due to them scaling to the same characters. I don't like this one.

Lord Hater

One of the only non-video game matchup for Bowser that I actually kinda like. I'm not too familiar with Wander over Yonder, but Lord Hater seems like nearly the same character as Bowser personality and role-wise. It seems like it could be a really cool fight between them, though again I'm not too familiar with what Lord Hater can do. They seem to match perfectly in terms of scale for the fight, powers, and personality, and I will definitely call this my favorite alt for Bowser.

Any other matchups for Bowser are ones I don't really care about or don't feel like talking about, and most of them just kinda bore me, like Bowser vs Thanos or Puyo Puyo Satan.

So glad I finally finished this blog, it has taken me several months of work to get done (mostly due to having classes in the middle of that so this took a backseat). I really hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, and look forward to more blogs in the future over non-Mario characters (though it might take a while, I'd like to take a break on these). See y'all next time!