Barrel Volcano- Mallow and Bowser are a good team here, too--Mallow's Snowy attack is invaluable against these--shall we say--temperate baddies. If Mallow is still hopelessly weak, perhaps you can put Geno or Toadstool in his place, but I wouldn't recommend it. See the little stepping stones in the lava off to the right in the first room after the entry--they lead to a little treasure place where you can get stuff. Unlike other Mario games, lava doesn't hurt you physically in this game at all; it simply pops you back to the entrance of the room, fanning your rear. Even though you don't die from it, it's still annoying, so do try and avoid it. There's only ONE place in the entire Volcano that has beneficial lava, but we'll talk about that later. Anyway, there are all sorts of unsavoury characters hanging about. Remember that Vomers and anything that in any way resembles a Vomer can't be defeated with regular attacks at all. Try Pure Water or any kind of Special Attack. In one room, direct your attention to the little stone arch above the doorway with a frog coin. Go through the door, then go back and jump in the lava. The force of the blast should send you rocketing right up to the arch in easy reach of the frog coin. Now, make your way through the volcano, getting frog coins if you find them and killing enemies if you must. Don't be afraid to grab treasure boxes--none of them are enemies like Pandorite or Box Boy. Eventually you'll reach Hinopio's place, where you can spend the night on a---cushy bed, buy items, or buy new armour. I do recommend buying Fire Armour and equipping everybody with it. You may have the Lazy Shells at this point, or you may not, but it matters not. If you do have it, you don't need to use the armour just yet; the weapon will be fine. Don't sweat it if you don't have either, as well. Anyway, don't pass up your chances to freshen up at Hinopio's if you need them. If you don't have a shortage of any type of critical items and your HP and FP are fine, you needn't bother, but let's say just for the sake of argument that your HP is suffering and you don't have a single Pick Me Up. Anyway, stock up while you can is basically what I'm trying to say. I know the room with the fireballs and the donut blocks is a stone drag to try and get across, but just stick with it, and make sure you're ready for anything before you walk through that door. That's where the Czar Dragon awaits you. Pummel him until he buys the farm, and then pummel his ghost until he buys the farm, too. Oh! How awfully nice! You get a Star Piec--err..no you don't. How perfectly awful of those Axem characters. It's advisable to make your way back across Donut Block hell so you can save, but if you're the headstrong type you can go ahead and take your chances. Geno and Toadstool are a good team for taking on the Axem Rangers. Chase 'em down, but you can take your sweet time--it's not like you're actually going to CATCH them no matter how much you rush around like a maniacal rat. Just keep after them and eventually they'll duck right out of the volcano, where they've scheduled the Blade to meet them and shuttle them back to Smithy with their prize. Yes, it's the perfect escape plan--too bad it doesn't work. The Blade is late, repeating his tardy performance with picking up Yaridovich, and the Axem Rangers are left stranded and alone. Mario hops out to pick a fight and get his star back, and the Axems get worried. Just when things are starting to look hopeless for our favourite multicoloured gesturing reciting evil friends, the Blade shows up in a big way. Axems jump on, but before they can take off, Mario jumps on after them. After you beat them up a bit, they'll go down in a blaze of glory, leaving you to watch the fireworks and collect the star. Going back to Barrel Volcano later in your travels isn't really necessary, but it can be fun because Barrel Volcano has really groovy music, and poor Hinopio is so lonely he deserves to have a visitor once in a while.