In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the color of your Yoshi companion isn’t just a random surprise-it’s a secret timed event that savvy players can manipulate. From the moment you acquire the mysterious egg in Glitzville, an invisible 20-minute clock starts ticking, cycling through seven vibrant Yoshi colors. Master the timing between acquiring the egg and the pivotal battle against the Iron Adonis Twins, and you can hatch the Yoshi of your dreams-whether it’s classic green, fiery red, or elusive black and white. Ready to pick your perfect partner? Here’s how to crack the color code and make your Yoshi truly yours.
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
Yoshi’s color in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is determined by an invisible in-game timer that starts the moment the Yoshi egg joins Mario’s party at the hot dog stand in Glitzville. The color depends on how long the egg takes to hatch, cycling through seven colors within a 20-minute real-time window: Green (0-6 minutes), Red (6-9 minutes), Blue (9-12 minutes), Orange (12-15 minutes), Pink (15-18 minutes), Black (18-19 minutes), and White (19-20 minutes). After 20 minutes, the cycle resets. Players can influence the color by timing when they hatch the egg, typically by saving before acquiring the egg and fleeing the Iron Adonis Twins battle at the desired time range. Once the Yoshi hatches and the game is saved, the color is fixed and cannot be changed.
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.

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 get the exact Yoshi color you want in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, you need to carefully time how long the Yoshi egg stays in your party before it hatches. The color is determined by an invisible real-time timer that starts the moment you receive the egg at the hot dog stand in Glitzville and ends after the battle against the Iron Adonis Twins. The timer cycles every 20 minutes through seven colors: green (0-6 minutes), red (6-9), blue (9-12), orange (12-15), pink (15-18), black (18-19), and white (19-20). To choose a specific color, save your game right after obtaining the egg, start a stopwatch, and either flee the Iron Adonis Twins battle at the right time or wait until the timer reaches the desired color range. If the wrong color hatches, reload your save and try again until you get the Yoshi color you want.
To try to get a specific color, you should do the following:
- Get the egg and play through the game normally.
- Before you fight the Iron Adonis Twins, save your game.
- Play through the fight (running away immediately) and continue the game as normal.
- See what color Yoshi you get, but don’t save if you didn’t get the color you wanted.
- 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.
How can I reliably get my favorite Yoshi color in Paper Mario TTYD
To reliably get your favorite Yoshi color in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, you need to manage an invisible timer that starts the moment you acquire the Yoshi egg in Glitzville. The color depends on how long the egg spends before hatching, with a 20-minute cycle covering seven colors:
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Green: 0-6 minutes
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Red: 6-9 minutes
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Blue: 9-12 minutes
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Orange: 12-15 minutes
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Pink: 15-18 minutes
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Black: 18-19 minutes
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White: 19-20 minutes
Here’s the reliable method:
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Get the egg and save your game before the Iron Adonis Twins battle.
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Start a stopwatch as soon as you get the egg.
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Play normally and reach the Iron Adonis Twins fight.
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Run away immediately from the battle to hatch Yoshi and see the color.
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If it’s not your desired color, reload your save from before the fight and wait a different amount of time within the cycle before triggering the hatch again.
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Repeat until you get the Yoshi color you want, then save your game to lock it in.
Since the timer pauses during loading screens and cutscenes but runs during gameplay, timing precisely is key, especially for rarer colors like Black and White. Once you save after hatching, the color cannot be changed.
What is the exact timing needed to hatch my favorite Yoshi color
The exact timing needed to hatch your favorite Yoshi color in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is based on an invisible 20-minute timer that starts the moment you acquire the Yoshi egg in Glitzville and ends after the first losing battle against the Iron Adonis Twins. The Yoshi color corresponds to the elapsed time within this cycle as follows:
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Green: 0 to 6 minutes
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Red: 6 to 9 minutes
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Blue: 9 to 12 minutes
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Orange: 12 to 15 minutes
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Pink: 15 to 18 minutes
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Black: 18 to 19 minutes
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White: 19 to 20 minutes
If the timer surpasses 20 minutes, it resets and cycles through the colors again.
To get your desired color, save your game before the Iron Adonis Twins battle, start a stopwatch as soon as you get the egg, and then trigger the hatch by fleeing the battle within the specific time window for the color you want. If you miss the window, reload your save and try again, adjusting the wait time accordingly.
Note that time spent in cutscenes or paused does not affect the timer, but real-time gameplay and battle time do. The narrowest windows are for Black (18-19 minutes) and White (19-20 minutes) Yoshis, requiring precise timing to obtain.
