Super Mario 64 Bob-omb Battlefield Guide: All 7 Stars

Every Super Mario 64 player has finished Bob-omb Battlefield. It is the only unsealed painting in the castle at the start of the game, and the beginner guide already covers why: the game gates you on Power Stars, not skill, and this course is where you get your first ones. What that guide does not do is map the course itself — which star you select changes what is actually loaded, and the Super Mario Wiki's own course page is precise about it in a way nothing else on the site has covered.

Here is every star in order for both games, the mechanic behind the course's three versions, the full 146-coin breakdown, and the cannon network that connects all of it.

The first painting, and what the door actually requires

Bob-omb Battlefield is the first course in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS, entered through the painting in the west wing of the ground floor of the Mushroom Castle. Per the Super Mario Wiki, the door into that room does not require any Power Stars to open — it is the one painting available before you have collected anything.

The course is a mountain, and it is built as two loops around one climb. The Super Mario Wiki's layout description splits it into a southern territory, where you start next to two Bob-omb Buddies and a cannon, and a northern territory across a teetering bridge, where the mountain itself begins. A gate blocks a shortcut between the two on your first pass; it opens once you throw the Purple Switch on the far side. From the base of the mountain, a spiral stone path — patrolled by two or three rolling iron balls, depending on the mission — climbs to the summit, and a warp point partway up lets you skip a chunk of the spiral once you know it is there.

Every star, in order, N64 and DS

The N64 original has seven stars: six named missions plus the unnamed 100-coin star, which Nintendo's own Super Mario 64 Player's Guide names "Treasure in the Sky." Super Mario 64 DS keeps five of the six, cuts one outright, and adds two new missions in its place — a rematch among them — renumbering everything around the swap. The mission pages on the Super Mario Wiki number each entry explicitly, and the two orders genuinely diverge in the middle.

Two things fall out of that table. "Shoot to the Island in the Sky" does not exist in the DS remake at all — its slot is replaced by "5 Silver Stars!" and a rematch with King Bob-omb, both DS-exclusive. And "Find the 8 Red Coins" moves from fourth to sixth, swapping places with "Mario Wings to the Sky," which is why a DS walkthrough and an N64 walkthrough disagree about what comes after the footrace.

The course has three versions, and selecting a star picks one

This is the part nothing else on the site has covered, and it is the single most useful thing to know before you start collecting: Bob-omb Battlefield is not one static level. Ukikipedia documents three distinct versions of the course, and which one loads depends on which star you select from the mission menu before entering.

The practical read: if you are farming coins or hunting the shell-riding blue coins covered below, do not select Star 1 or Star 2 — the objects you need only spawn in Version 3. And Ukikipedia's caveat on the mechanic matters for a 120-star run specifically: if any blue (uncollected) stars are still showing in the menu, the last version you can actually select is the one tied to the first remaining blue star, not any star past it. The same rule governs Lethal Lava Land's two-version split, and it is worth knowing generally — star selection in this game is not cosmetic.

The cannon network

Bob-omb Battlefield's Statistics carry six cannons total, more than any other course in the game, and four of them form the actual route to the floating island: the starting cannon in the south (unlocked once you talk to the Bob-omb Buddy after your first mission), a second cannon in the field north of the teetering bridge, a third on the mountain itself aimed directly at the floating island, and a fourth sitting on the island aimed at the ring of coins used for "Mario Wings to the Sky." The Bob-omb Buddy's own in-game line about "Shoot to the Island in the Sky" names that specific four-cannon chain.

The Wing Cap, covered below, reaches the same floating island without needing to aim a cannon — but before that cap is unlocked, the cannon chain is the only route out there at all.

King Bob-omb and Koopa the Quick, without refighting the boss guide

The boss guide already covers the King Bob-omb fight in full — the behind-only grab, the three throws, and the ledge trap where throwing him off the mountain instead of onto it calls it cheating and resets the match. That advice stands here unchanged; this guide is not repeating it.

What belongs in a course guide instead: the footrace that follows is gated on the first star being done. Koopa the Quick only appears once King Bob-omb is defeated, and per the Super Mario Wiki, he will not race you at all until then. The rules of the race itself are stricter than the platforming rest of the course allows — the cannons are off-limits. Koopa accuses you of scamming him if you fire a cannon mid-race, and the race is voided. The one legal shortcut is the same warp point used elsewhere on the mountain: stepping into the alcove partway up where the iron balls emerge teleports you to a second alcove near the summit, and that route is explicitly allowed. Lose, and Koopa will not rematch you until you restart the mission from the menu.

The Chain Chomp gate is a ground-pound puzzle, not a fight

"Behind Chain Chomp's Gate" looks like a boss encounter, but per the Super Mario Wiki, the N64 solution is a puzzle, not a fight: ground-pound the post the Chain Chomp is chained to, three times. That frees the Chain Chomp, which then breaks the bars itself on its way out. The Chomp itself can still hit you while you work on the post — Ukikipedia's object data lists its contact damage at three wedges, matching the "heavy contact" tier the health guide documents (five without a cap).

Super Mario 64 DS opens this up. Vanish Luigi can phase straight through the bars without touching the post at all, Wario flattens the post in a single Pound the Ground hit instead of three, and a Super Mushroom found inside a nearby Brick block also flattens it in one hit for any character. During "5 Silver Stars!" specifically, the Chain Chomp is loose in the open field rather than chained, and the wiki notes Vanish Luigi becomes the only clean way to collect that mission's star without a fight.

Where the 146 coins are

The Super Mario Wiki's course statistics give the total: 146 coins. Ukikipedia itemizes every source, and the arithmetic checks out cleanly against the wiki's own enemy and coin-type counts.

3 + 6 + 5 + 25 + 8 + 5 + 5 + 40 + 5 = 102 static coins, which matches the Super Mario Wiki's yellow-coin count exactly. Add the 12 Bob-omb drops and 11 Goomba drops (23 from enemies), the 16 from the eight Red Coins, and the 5 from the Koopa shell's blue coins, and 102 + 23 + 16 + 5 = 146, matching the course total.

Three things worth knowing from that table before you start a coin run:

• The "run around a post" mechanic is worth more than any single room. Five separate posts around the map each drop a ring of five coins when you run a full circle around them — 25 coins total, more than the entire mountain's two coin lines combined.
• The sky rings are the single densest reward in the course. Forty coins from the five rings themselves, plus five more from their centers, for 45 total — tied only by the 25-coin post circuit as the best per-minute return, and both require gear (cannon or Wing Cap for the rings, nothing special for the posts).
• The blue coins only exist in Version 3. They come from riding the Koopa shell, and per the course-versions mechanic above, that shell is not present if you selected Star 1 or Star 2. Select Star 3 or later for a 100-coin attempt, or those five coins are simply not on the map.

The Wing Cap, and the five red coins that are not the problem

Bob-omb Battlefield is one of only three courses with a Wing Cap red block, alongside Lethal Lava Land and Shifting Sand Land, per the cap guide — which also covers the general mechanics of flight and why the red switch has to be pressed first. Course statistics from both the Super Mario Wiki and Ukikipedia count three Wing Cap blocks on this course in total — the two easiest to place are on the floating island itself and near the moving platforms on the main mountain path — so you are rarely far from a refill if you lose the cap mid-flight.

The eight Red Coins for "Find the 8 Red Coins" are spread wide, per the Super Mario Wiki's layout notes: one above the moving platforms on the main path, one above Chain Chomp's post, one on a rock near Chain Chomp, one under the bridge to the mountain, one on the steep incline at the mountain's base, one above a tree on the floating island, and two in the center of a cluster of four logs. Seven of those eight are reachable on foot. The eighth — the one on the floating island — is the only coin in the set that requires a cannon shot or a Wing Cap flight, which is why players who try this mission before unlocking flight tend to get stuck at seven.

What Super Mario 64 DS changes

The version differences post covers the N64-versus-DS split across the whole game; the mission reshuffle above is the Bob-omb Battlefield-specific piece of it.

Mistakes this course punishes

• Selecting Star 1 or Star 2 before a coin run. The Koopa shell and its five blue coins do not exist in those versions. Select Star 3 or later.
• Firing a cannon during the footrace. Koopa the Quick voids the race and you have to restart the mission to try again.
• Approaching King Bob-omb from the front. He grabs you first. Circle behind him — full tactics are in the boss guide.
• Fighting the Chain Chomp instead of the post. Three ground pounds on the post frees it; touching the Chomp itself costs three wedges of health (five without a cap).
• Trying "Find the 8 Red Coins" before the Wing Cap or a working cannon route. Seven of the eight coins are on foot; the eighth needs flight or a cannon shot to the island.

Quick Action Checklist

• Enter through the unsealed west-wing painting; no stars are required to open the door.
• Defeat King Bob-omb from behind, three throws, always toward the plateau's center — see the boss guide for the full fight.
• Select Star 3 or later before a coin run to spawn the Koopa shell and its five blue coins.
• Run a full circle around each of the five posts for 25 coins total — the single best per-post payout on the map.
• Use the four-cannon chain (start, field, mountain, island) or a Wing Cap flight to reach the floating island's Red Coin and its Power Star.
• Ground-pound Chain Chomp's post three times rather than fighting the Chomp directly.
• On DS, remember "Shoot to the Island in the Sky" does not exist — its slot is "5 Silver Stars!" instead.