Assuming one has plenty of extra lives, is there any value, in general, to collecting coins in Super Mario 3D Land?
If like in Super Mario Galaxy 2 there is a use for coins but only those collected in a specific level, then please don't name the level, just say that there are such levels.
No. The only purpose of regular coins is to get extra lives.
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I am trying to farm Star Coins to unlock the Special World levels, and I noticed that sometimes, I get Mystery Boxes that I have already seen. I cannot get another Star Coin from them (the Star Coin in the box is transparent, and if I collect it, I get 3 regular coins instead).
How many unique Mystery Boxes are there? I am assuming there is a finite number, otherwise I would get a new Star Coin every time.
There are apparently 35 distinct mystery box rooms, 20 regular mystery boxes with 1 coin each and 15 gold mystery boxes with 2 coins each for a total of 50 star coins from mystery boxes. More than the single-player maximum star coins of 335 can be earned through StreetPass mystery boxes which are duplicates of those 35 rooms. To see all variations, you need to reset the mystery boxes by either waiting 24 hours or changing the date/time on your 3DS.
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I'm trying to get all the star coins in Super Mario 3D Land, but I'm unable to find the second star coin in level 3 of Special World 2.
Where is the second star coin located in the level S2-3?
A short while after the level's checkpoint, you'll come across a water jet while riding a green platform. The star coin is just above that jet, you have to try and stop the platform above the jet and jump for the coin when the platform's raised.
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How many star coins are there in super mario 3D land? It's easy to know how many there are in the regular levels, but with the bonus boxes it's much harder!
There are 285 Star Coins in the levels and potentially an infinite amount of star coins in the bonus levels, however you can only accomulate up to 999 star coins, although you'll need only 290 to unlock every level.
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Fuzzies are usually found on bouncy ropes or on transparent grids that they float along. They are incredibly annoying. I know that you cannot jump on them to kill them, or use Boomerang Mario, but is there any way you can get rid of them? Or are you just stuck with them?
A picture, for reference: 
The only method to kill fuzzies is to run into them while invincible due to the effects of a star.
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I have been playing Special World 2-4 for a while now, and that level has you using the Propeller Box almost exclusively.
I noticed that sometimes I can get really high up when I use the Propeller Box, and sometimes I don't go quite as high. What determines how high the propeller makes you go? How can I make sure I go as high as possible as often as possible? (I would like to stop dying at some point...)
The propeller starts either by jumping and holding the jump button (A or B) or pressing the jump button for the second time after jumping and holding it, so the ideal height will be achieved either by using the first method or by using the second at the top of your jump, either way, once you start ascending, you'll need to hold the button as long as possible to maximize your height.
Once you start the propeller and reach the maximum height or release the jump button, it cannot be used again for ascending until you hit the ground, you can use it to slow down you descent, though.
An exception to this rule is when you land on an enemy and hold the jump button as you do so, you'll get a small boost and you can once again use the propeller. If you hold the jump button this will happen automatically.
Also worth noting is that any way to jump higher otherwise can be linked to the propeller jump, for example, jumping from an orange trampoline/note block, a jump from a crouch position (hold L or R button until Mario grunts) or wall jumping and holding the jump button after the last jump.
As a side note, if you have a propeller hat and you have a wall nearby, you can ascend the same wall by constantly wall jumping and floating back towards it. Using this method this can help you save yourself if you accidentally drop off a pit.
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I've went and done the lives cheat thing and committed Mario suicide like 25 times in the castle and it still hasn't appeared. I'm pretty sure I had it for the first two stars I got on that level though! (I have the 2nd & 3rd stars) Just need that first one as I'm kind of a dunce and missed it the first time around...
If not does anyone know a cheat to get past Bowser?
If you have already completed the level once, and go back and try to complete the level again, the Invincibilty Leaf (the item that gives you the white Tanooki suit) will not appear anymore, no matter how many times you die.
The same goes for P-Wings - if you have already completed a level once, then you will not get to use the P-Wing in that level.
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I finished the main story of Super Mario 3D Land, and am working on the Special world levels now.
I die a lot (the levels are harder!), but I never seem to die enough in a level to have the White Tanooki Leaf appear so I can use the White Tanooki Suit.
Do I need to die more times in the Special Levels? Or does it not appear there? Or am I just not counting how many times I die properly?
Neither of the Assist Blocks appear in the Special Worlds.
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Every Mystery Box has the potential to reward you with a Star Coin (most require you to kill an enemy or two first).
If I keep meeting people through Street Pass, or doing whatever else spawns Mystery Boxes on the World Map, can I essentially farm Star Coins this way?
I want to make sure I have as many Star Coins as possible so that I can use them to unlock things as the game progresses.
You can farm up to 999 star coins.
Purple boxes respawn on their own every day or so, but you might get a box you've already cleared.
I think the better option for getting star coins are the levels themselves. You can get up to 285 coins from the 16 worlds and special worlds, and you need 290 coins to unlock the final castle, so the minimum number of purple boxes you'll need to clear is 5.
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There are an interesting number of levels that are locked without a certain number of Star Coins. For the most part, you seem to be able to pass these levels by and just play the next level (with the exception of one of the Bowser's Castle levels, I think).
Do I need to unlock all of these levels to finish the main story part of the game? (Or do they just count towards one of the 5 shiny stars you need to get the Final Level?)
The main story part of the game concludes when you clear the final castle in world 8. It doesn't matter how many levels you go through to get there.
That said however, you might want to go through the optional levels just for the Star Coins they have. There are three castles that require certain amounts of Star Coins: one needs 50 while the last two need 90 and 100. I did the math, and while there is a buffer, you have to be pretty thorough at getting Star Coins if you intend to avoid optional levels altogether:
+---------------+------------------+-----------------+
| Star Coin Req | Max w/o Op. Lvls | Max w/ Op. Lvls |
+---------------+------------------+-----------------+
| 50 | 66 | 81 |
| 90 | 105 | 135 |
| 100 | 108 | 141 |
+---------------+------------------+-----------------+
(The numbers are how many Star Coins you can have before entering the level, counting only the 3 Star Coins per preceding mandatory level.)
So while the optional levels are technically optional, to finish the main story you'll probably want to go through them.
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I am having trouble with level 3-5 (read: I die all the time), and apparently the game decided to help me out, by placing an item box at the beginning of the level with a white and yellow striped Tanooki Leaf in it.
While I appreciate the help, and think I look much better in the white Tanooki suit than I ever did in the brown one, I can't help but wonder...
Are there more than aesthetic differences between the white and regular Tanooki suits? I can't tell (I am still dying a lot, in pretty much the same places, because it doesn't help me with timing my jumps... XD).
The White Tanooki suit gives Mario the powers of the Tanooki suit plus invincibility for the whole level.
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In various levels, you can find a viewfinder/binoculars that look like this: 
What are they used for? You can stand behind them and look around the level, but is that all that they are for? That strikes me as a pretty strange thing for Nintendo to have added.
When you look through them you are generally supposed to be looking for a toad, the toad will then throw a 1up or a star coin down for you. I think they were just added to take advantage of the gyroscope controls the 3DS has built in.
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After beating the castle of Special World 1 you unlock Luigi as a playable character. I played as him for a bit but I didn't notice any game play differences between Mario and Luigi. I remember in Super Mario Galaxy that Luigi could jump further, but he took longer to stop.
Are there any differences between Mario and Luigi, or are they identical?
He skids a bit more (faster/more momentum?) and jumps higher (Luigi can triple jump), but the biggest difference that I've noticed though is that he wears green and that he is Mario's brother.
"Tanooki Luigi" wears a Kitsune suit.
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In World 5-2, the level with the top-down perspective, there is a room with a sand floor, and a ? block in the middle of the room.
There is also a gate/mesh door in that room. I cannot get past it as Boomerang Mario, or regular Mario.
What do I have to do to get past that door?
I believe that is the zelda room, you'll need to have the fire flower and light up the torches in the room. There is a fire flower in the very first room between the "!" question mark boxes.
[?] [?] [?] X <--there's some fire power. [?]
Hope that helps.. the formatting for posting that picture is a little off but you get the idea if your looking at the very first room of the world.
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I noticed that sometimes when I StreetPass people I end up with a Mystery Box or Toad House in my Super Mario 3D Land game.
How does this happen? Do I have to have the Super Mario 3D Land cart in my 3DS when I pass them?
I want to get as many boxes and houses as I can (trust me, I need all the help I can get!)
To get StreetPass data, you just have to have the StreetPass feature turned on for the game. You can have up to 12 games turned on for receiving StreetPass data at one time. You don't need the system on, or the cartridge for that game in the system.
If you want to send StreetPass data to another game, you'll need that game in your 3DS. Therefore, people you pass who give you Super Mario 3D Land data have that game in their system.
A discussion in a thread on Nintendo's forums put it this way:
You do not need to have the game on or even inserted into the system to recieve Streetpass content for that game. The 3DS will recieve up to three Streetpass data transmissions per game at a time, which you can see in the Notifications tab on the 3DS home screen. However, in order to automatically send data transmissions for a game, you must have the game inserted but not necessarily on.
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Is there any way to have more than 3 saved games in Super Mario 3D Land? My wife and kids have claimed all three saved game slots, and I'd like to play sometime...
The 3DS has an SD card, so it seems like it ought to have lots of storage, but I don't see any way to use it.
Unfortunately, Super Mario 3D Land does not support any more than 3 save slots. The SD card does hold save data for many games, but you cannot add to save slots or anything like that.
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In Super Mario 3D Land if you land right on the top of the flag pole (so that Mario does a sort of one-handed handstand), you get a 1-up. I also noticed that the Mario flag that goes up is gold instead of red.
Does it unlock anything if you get all gold flags in a world/the whole game? Or is it just a nice aesthetic change from red because you got a 1-up?
Getting them all is one of 5 things you can do to get a "star" on your save file in the main menu. The others are:
Defeat Bowser in World 8's last level, successfully complete all levels with Mario, successfully complete all levels with Luigi, and collect all star coins.
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In Level 2-3 of Super Mario 3D Land, by Mario's right foot, there is a block.
If you break that block, there is a brown gear inside of it.
How do I use it? What does it do?
You need to hit it with your Tanuki's suit tail and it will lift the platform it's on.
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In New Super Mario Bros, once you cleared all levels in the game any mushroom house you've visited would reappear and won't disappear again, meaning you could get unlimited items at any time.
This doesn't seem to be the case in Super Mario 3D Land. I've completed the game including all the S-* worlds and collected every star coin, but the mushroom houses still aren't accessible. I know the purple challenge rooms respawn once daily or so or when using street pass, but that doesn't seem to be the case with musroom houses. Has anyone managed to make them reappear?
The only way I've gotten them to respawn is when I street pass with someone who doesn't own the game. When I street pass with a random person who hasn't played Super Mario 3D Land, I'll get a mushroom house instead of a new purple box room. Other then that I haven't seen them randomly respawn on their own.
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