How to pick the Yoshi color in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

One of your party members in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a Yoshi kid, a spunky little guy who sports polka dot pants and funky hair. Your Yoshi can actually be one of many colors, and the color is dependent on specific timing.

If you want a certain Yoshi color, you’ll need to plan accordingly. Below we explain how the Yoshi color timers work and how to get a specific color of Yoshi in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

How Yoshi color works in Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door

Which color Yoshi you get depends on how long it spends in the egg after getting it.

Once you get the egg from the hot dog stand in front of the Glitz Pit, an invisible timer will start. Depending on how long you take to hatch the egg, which happens after the first Iron Adonis Twins fight, the Yoshi inside will be a different color. The timer stops after Jolene gives you the prize money and leaves.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via the Super Mario Wiki

The colors and their hatch times are as follows:

• Green: 0-6 minutes
• Red: 6-9 minutes
• Blue: 9-12 minutes
• Orange: 12-15 minutes
• Pink: 15-18 minutes
• Black: 18-19 minutes
• White: 19-20 minutes

After 20 minutes, the timer will loop around again, rotating through the same colors in the same order.

Yoshi color has no effect on stats or anything other than appearance.

How to get the exact Yoshi color you want in Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door

To try to get a specific color, you should do the following:

1. Get the egg and play through the game normally.
2. Before you fight the Iron Adonis Twins, save your game.
3. Play through the fight (running away immediately) and continue the game as normal.
4. See what color Yoshi you get, but don’t save if you didn’t get the color you wanted.
5. Restart your game and wait out as much time as you need to get the color you want, based on what color you initially got. For example, if you got a green Yoshi the first time, but you want a Pink Yoshi, try waiting around 10 minutes before you start the match.

Of course, there is some trial and error here, as the timeframes are pretty big for the first few colors in the cycle, so you will likely have to try multiple times.

Once you get the Yoshi you want, make sure to save your game.

For more Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door guides, see how to get Ms. Mowz and check out Great Boggly Tree walkthrough. You can also see where to find all Star Pieces and all Shine Sprites.