A guide to completing World 3-9 in Super Mario Bros 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

How to Clear World 3-9

Go to the right, but watch out for the Green Paratroopa. After that, there is a Piranha Plant coming down from a pipe. After that, there is a Para-Goomba that drops Micro-Goombas, so you might want to go back to the left so that the Para-Goomba will land on the ground and you can stomp it. After the pipe, you can hit the sixth brick from the left to get a Super Mushroom or Super Leaf, but beware of the cannon that is shooting Bullet Bills.

Next, there are some Bob-ombs. If you stomp one, it won't disappear but it will stop walking. You can pick up and kick Bob-ombs after they stop walking. The stomped Bob-omb eventually starts to flash, and will explode after a short time. The explosion will hurt you or any enemies near it. Their explosions don't destroy bricks, however.

After the two Bob-ombs, there is a wooden platform with some ? Blocks above it, which each contains one coin. Beneath that, there is a cannon, and a brick wall. If you're Raccoon Mario, you can break down the wall, but if you go to the right, don't go down the pipe unless you want to take a shortcut to the end of the level. Skip to Watery Area if you want to take the shortcut. Otherwise, if you broke down the brick wall, just hit the ? Blocks above the pipe. They each contain one coin. Then get back on top of the wooden platform and go to the right, where there are some Bob-ombs.

Next, there are three coins and two Bob-ombs to the left of some Ice Blocks with some Note Blocks between them. If you need a Super Mushroom or Fire Flower, you can remove Ice Blocks to reach the Note Blocks, then hit the middle one to make a Super Mushroom or Fire Flower. To get rid of the Ice Blocks, stand next to an Ice Block and hold the run button to pick one up, then let go of the run button to throw it.

There are three coins and a Bob-omb to the left of an area enclosed by Ice Blocks, in which a Green Koopa Troopa is walking back and forth. There is also a 1UP Mushroom in the regular brick. Remove Ice Blocks until you can get into the interior of the area, then hit the regular brick to get the 1UP. There are three coins to the right of this Ice Block area.

There are Ice Blocks around the pipe, and a couple of Green Paratroopas. Remove the Ice Blocks and go down the pipe.

Watery Area

This area has a few Green Cheep-Cheeps swimming around. If you want to get a Frog Suit, swim all the way to the leftmost end of the watery area and go down the pipe, and push to the right as you fall, to find a Mega ? Block that contains a Frog Suit. You'll wear the Frog Suit immediately (even if you're small Mario).

If you couldn't reach the ? Blocks beyond the brick wall earlier, you can swim to the second pipe from the left and go up it to reach those ? Blocks. Then go back down.

When you're ready to complete the level, swim to the rightmost end of the watery area and go up the pipe there. Go to the right and hit the Goal Block to complete the level.

After the Level

After you complete this level, you can go to the Warp Pipe to the right, which will lead you to the castle, where the king has been transformed into a Kappa (or a Dino Rhino in the SNES and Game Boy Advance remakes), and Toad asks you to help. You'll automatically enter the World 3 Airship.