Super Mario RPG Sunken Ship password puzzle solution

A good chunk into Super Mario RPG, you’ll need to go to the Sunken Ship, an area teeming with ghosts and eventually, sharks. The big puzzle in the Sunken Ship involves going into different corridors and solving smaller puzzles to unlock hints to figure out what a secret password is.

You do not need to solve all the prior puzzle rooms to get the code. If you know the password, you can just input it and skip all that stuff. There are additional items you get as rewards (like Flowers), though, so if you’re hankering for more stuff, you should do those puzzles.

Below, we explain the Sunken Ship password in Super Mario RPG and how to input it.

Super Mario RPG Sunken Ship password puzzle solution

The password is “PEARLS.” You just have to hit each of the six blocks and select the corresponding letter to spell it out.

Importantly, make sure you’re reading which block is correlated to which letter. Key letter 1 needs to be set to P, key letter 2 needs to be set to E, key letter 3 needs to be set to A, and so forth until you spell out “PEARLS.”

Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source image: ArtePiazza/Nintendo via Polygon

They’re not in order from left-to-right, the way you’d expect, so if the game is saying the password is wrong, this is likely why. It kind of wraps around going from left-to-right and then right-to-left. See the image above for reference.

Once you input the password, interact with the speaker-tuba-thing behind the letters. Once you do, be ready to take on a boss and fight your way through more rats and fish before you get to the end of the Sunken Ship.

For more Super Mario RPG guides, check out our party member unlock guide, Melody Bay music puzzle guide, or our list of all the hidden treasure locations.