60 (Physical)
22 (Magic)
42 (Physical)
40 (Magic)
Punchinello has earned a reputation as a loose cannon among Smithy's troops, he's not very bright, despite being rather ambitious. He has considerable expertise with explosives and mechanical devices, which is what kept him in Smithy's favour. In fact, he was able to reprogram and duplicate the Koopa-manufactured Bob-ombs.
He was also held responsible for the cave-in in Moleville Mine. Even so, Punchinello is a fairly low-ranking member of the Smithy Gang, and he tends to work alone, being shunned by the others.
"Once you fight past the Bob-ombs, you'll enter the domain of Punchinello. The big P fights with three sizes of bombs, beginning with the puny Bob-ombs and building up to a huge bomb that blows up Punchinello, the room and everything except your party. Use Mallow's Thunder attack against the smaller two sizes of bombs. You'll wipe out all the bombs at once and free up Mario and Geno to concentrate their attacks on Punchinello. After surviving the battle and winning the third Star Piece, you'll meet Dyna and Mite and ride out of the mines on a trolley." - SMRPG Player's Guide
Attack Pattern: On the map, he stands in place, throwing bombs. You have to attack him from behind, or he'll just shove you away.
Punchinello relies heavily on bomb-flunkies during battle. They come in three sizes. He'll get a new, tougher size of bomb after taking a certain amount of damage. He can also use a regular attack, and he has a Sandstorm attack, which causes all of the members of your party to become afraid. A fear pin will take care of that. He doesn't have too much FP, so don't worry about repeated Sandstorm attacks.
Basic Fighting Strategies: Most magic attacks don't work on him. The Geno beam is the only half-decent one, but it's not much better than a regular timed-hit. If you have Geno Boost at this point, it could be a very useful attack.
Otherwise, Geno should stick to attacking Punchinello, as should Mario. Mallow should use Thunder or attack Punchinello, depending on how powerful the bombs are (use Thunder against the weaker ones, but just try to block the attacks of stronger ones).
Advanced Strategies: Specifically, you should have Mallow use Thunder on the Micro Bombs. If you've got Geno Boost, use that on Mallow, so that the Thunder attack will take out Bob-ombs in one hit as well. If you don't have it, it will probably take Mallow two timed Thunder attacks to beat the Bob-ombs, so it's sort of up to your own judgement to decide whether or not to use it. I recommend using it as long as the Bob-ombs don't sacrifice themselves early on. It's better just to block the Mezzo Bombs, they are too powerful to beat with a quick Thunder attack, and you'll do better by concentrating on Punchinello than wasting your time on them.
Finally, Punchinello's attack basically involves poking one of your characters. To block, try to press A at the moment the poke hits.
