Hello everyone, this guide is here to provide easy access to a series I've made on YouTube where I go over tips and tricks for how to speedrun the Any% and IL routes for a different level in each video. Like the YouTube series this guide is a work in progress and as I release more parts to the series I'll add them here too. As well as including the videos for easy access I'll also be including a more in-depth guide for each level above each video as well if you wish to read up on more information that didn't make into the video such as more detailed movement explanations and more.

A Journey Begins! Now being the first level in the game it mostly acts as a tutorial for the player and sets up the story so in Any% there’s going to be a lot of text skipping, aside from that in terms of actual gameplay there isn’t too much to do so this a pretty easy one to pick up so I’ve given this level a difficulty rating of 1/10.

Now the individual level for this run is especially easy for this level over Any% because of the interesting way this level works with resetting. Because this level is just meant to act as the tutorial it seems to have been split into a few segments each with their own restart point. That way if you die or choose to restart the level you don’t go all the way back to the beginning and you aren’t forced to sit through all of the dialogue again. This feature is unique to this level; with all other levels needing to be done start to finish. Unlike the full game categories, individual levels are timed using the in-game timer which restarts when you restart a level. So by resetting each segment until you get each one perfect you can get really optimised runs much easier. For the first part of this I’ll focus on the third and final segment of the level as that’s what you’ll be spending most of your time perfecting when doing IL’s and the other two segments I’ll cover when going over the any% route. Now once you’ve completed the second section of the level where you’re falling from the plane the third and final segment will start with Zack hanging from a tree. Once you’re here this is where you’ll begin doing a lot of resetting until you feel happy enough with a run from here to the end of the level and complete it. Now an important thing to remember when doing this level is to know when text pops up because this level being the tutorial has a lot of it, not only that but also make a point of remembering which text you’ll be able to skip with minus and which text you’ll need to speed through with A.

Be ready to press minus to skip the initial cutscene of Wiki finding Zack in the tree and begin shaking the remote as fast as you can to get down from the tree. This action will be followed by a quick congratulations by Wiki which you can just skip with A. After this you’re going to want to interact with the tree. Now the most important thing with running this game is movement, that’s almost always where you save significant amounts of time and you can actually interact with objects before the cursor visibly appears. Now you want to make sure that your cursor is already in position to activate the tree as soon as Zack falls from it. Personally I recommend positioning your cursor towards the top of the screen where the tree’s leaves are as the hitbox is a lot more generous there. As soon as you skip Wiki’s one line of text by pressing A press A again as soon as you have control over Zack and assuming you’ve got your cursor over the tree Zack should immediately begin heading there and interact with it. An important thing to remember when interacting with objects is to only try activating the object once. If you’ve already pressed on that object and Zack is heading there to activate it, pressing that same object again will cancel the activation and instead Zack will just walk as close to the object as he can and just stand there which you don’t want. Now once you’ve activated the tree and the screen begins to go black to transition to the screen with Zack in front of the tree reposition your cursor in the center of the screen and just pressing A so that you can begin shaking the tree as soon as possible. Once the next transition screen begins to happen be ready to press minus to skip the next bit of dialogue and itemise the centipede. After that another transition screen will show up and be ready to pick up the saw again remembering that you can activate things shortly before the cursor becomes visible although only press A once. In order to pick it up you’ll want to aim your cursor for just below the center and it should be in the right position although it may take some practice to get down. From there you’ll want to get your cursor into position again to activate the tree and remember to press minus to skip some dialogue when placing the saw near the trunk. Once you’ve sawed the tree down use minus to skip a cutscene and then A once to skip some Wiki dialogue and activate the tree. For this I’d recommend aiming the cursor in the center but to the far right. Once doing that there will be two cutscenes to skip with minus before you can move on to getting the chest. Now it’s here at the end that there’s actually a little trick we can implement to save a bit of time. Normally when you go to the chest a clinging curse will appear and Wiki will give you a tutorial on how to exorcise ghosts. However this only appears if you actually click on the chest itself, you can actually just click on the ground near the chest close enough so the ghost will appear and you can exorcise it. This will allow you to skip the little tutorial. Now if you look at the platform the chest is on you’ll notice that at the top of the stairs there’s a slightly raised border going around the platform and you just want to aim for the inner side of that border and that should put you in the best position to exorcise the ghost and then use the time the chest takes to bounce in the air to walk the rest of the distance to it. Keep in mind though that the ghost does appear before you’re in bell range so don’t use that as cue for being close enough. Alright so that’s how to do the third segment of the level in an IL run for A Journey Begins now for how to do the other two. With those though I’ll be covering them from the perspective of doing an Any% run. It’s mostly the same just without cutscene skips which you’ll have to remember for IL’s. The other thing to remember for IL’s is where the segment reset points are. Segment one is at the very beginning until you’re about to jump out of the plane, segment two is once you’ve jumped out and are falling until you drop the umbrella and segment 3 is from when you're hanging from the tree until the end of the level.

Now because this part is quite a bit longer I’m not going to go into too much detail for exact movements or anything because a lot of that is transferable from the IL strategies, the only real differences here are going to be that you’ll also have to play the first two segments of the level and everywhere I previously said you could use minus to skip cutscenes won’t work as you’ll have to watch them all on new files so just exclusively mash A for those sections. There’s going to be a lot of dialogue and cutscenes so just mash A and remember when you gain control of your character so you can have your cursor in the right position and do your inputs immediately. First you want to activate Johnny and during the next dialogue after that I recommend you hold down the B button and start moving your cursor in a circular motion so that you’ll be able to start doing that as soon as you gain control. From there you’ll then need to press the stage view button in the top right corner which will require quite a bit of accuracy if you want to press it immediately as it’s a fairly small hitbox. After all that, just make your way out of the plane as usual and begin your plummet. The umbrella is in a fixed location so you’ll always have to hold B and pan towards the top left and click on the box it might require some practice but eventually you should get to point where you can begin holding B before gaining control and instantly pan the where the umbrella is and activate the box, just make sure not to pan too far. Next Wiki’s going to ask you to inspect the umbrella and I’d strongly recommend accuracy over speed when trying to press the item button because if you go too far right you’ll press the stage view button which will cause more dialogue from Wiki to show up. Whilst on the item inspect screen mash both A and B so that you can exit the window as soon as the dialogue is over and then mash A and 2 to open the umbrella as soon as possible. After that just drop the umbrella and continue the rest exactly like I described in the IL section except for the cutscene skips with minus. The only thing you can still skip is the exorcising tutorial with the trick I mentioned earlier.

Pit Of Tragedy Pit Of Tragedy doesn’t actually have any differences between it’s Any% route and IL route except for being able to skip cutscenes in the IL so this video will be pretty short as I’ll only be going over the level once. Due to the simplicity and length of the run I’ve given it a difficulty rating of 1/10.

So when beginning the level you want to make your way over to the pot housing the snake as fast as you can and the best way to do this is in two movements. As soon as you start you want to make your way up as many of the stairs as possible in a single input so I recommend aiming for where you see these hexagon shaped tiles on the wall and click there as that seems to be the most reliable for me. Whilst Zack is making his way to that first location you want to press the stage view button at the top to zoom out and then press the pot. Another technique if you’re just starting out and are finding that method to be difficult is just to use B to pan the camera around and move there in a more with a few more inputs. Ideally you want Zack moving towards the top before he finishes arriving at his first destination so that he’s constantly moving. As Zack makes his way over to the pot you can deactivate stage view mode. Once the snake emerges itemise it and whilst the slither gripper is falling you want to move Zack to position himself as close to the central totem as you can whilst still being in range to grab the slither gripper without moving. This part will take a bit of practice but with time you’ll start to get a grasp of Zack’s grabbing range and where the slither gripper falls. Another common thing we do in runs for this game is grabbing items mid air. This is a much trickier thing to do although there are some areas in the game where the trick is relatively consistent and easier to perform, overall though it’s generally pretty difficult so no need to worry if you don’t get it immediately. The main thing when practicing it is knowing which direction the item is going to travel in the air so you know where to aim your cursor. For good pace you’ll want to be in position and grab the slither gripper as soon as it lands. From here you just want to interact with the central totem which has a pretty large hitbox, especially towards the top of the screen and then interact with the key. Now usually if you keep the remote in the same position as where it was when you went to interact with the key the slither gripper should be in the perfect position for you to grab it as soon as you regain control so just grab it and yank down once. The next step is another one that’ll just greatly improve with practice and experience. A little scene will play when the key falls down and you just want to grab the key as fast as you can. From there you want to path your way to the door so once again the most reliable way for me to do this is click on the same hexagon tiles as we did at the start of the run and that will cause Zack to start descending the staircase by a pretty generous amount which will yield a larger time window for the next input. Next once again press the stage view button, then the door and then deactivate stage view again. After you unlock the door once again in a single input, have Zack move up as many of the stairs as possible then press the stage view button again. From here select the slither gripper but continue to stay in stage view mode. Once he picks up the slither gripper select the chain that activates the ceiling mechanism and whilst Zack makes his way there you can deactivate stage view mode. From there pull the chain as fast as you can and make your way to the chest finishing the run. There’s a couple of ways to pull the chain; you can try one long downwards motions or lots of smaller up and down motions, give them a try and see which seems to work best for you. Lastly just make your way over to the chest.

Three Colossi Just like Pit Of Tragedy, Three Colossi doesn’t have any differences between it’s Any% and IL routes, and is also quite a short run. Due to this being another very short run with not too many movements I’ve given this level a difficulty rating of 1/10.

Most of the run will come down to how well you do the very first step of the level; stacking the totem. You’ll want to interact with the totem puzzle and solve it if the pieces are in optimal positions or reset if they aren’t so there’s a bit of RNG involved. Usually the less turns the better although with practice turning pieces will lose little to no time. You can actually turn the piece before you even start moving the piece around by flipping the remote over during the pick up animation. Apart from that there really aren’t any other tips I can give for this part and a lot of improvement is just going to come for practice, but try experimenting with some different ways of holding the remote and see what works best. After that just grab the crank and make your way over to the colossi on the left. Whilst Zack walks over to his destination to interact with it hold the wii remote straight up to flip the crank as soon as you interact it and during the flipping animation try to aim your cursor at the crank hole to activate it early before the cursor properly appears; keep in mind the hitbox for it is a little strange though. After that just rotate the crank to drop the statue head. When using the crank you want to get into a motion that mimics what’s happening on the screen. It has a fixed rotation speed so there’s no need to go too fast as that will often just cause it to stutter and mess up instead. Instead of picking up the head, quickly walk over to the middle of the room near the right colossi and pressure plate and drop the crank. The aim here is for it to land in a position that it can preferably be instantly picked up after placing the statue head but don’t stress if it isn’t perfect; as close as possible will suffice. After dropping the crank head over to pick up the statue and place that as normal followed by picking up the crank to use on the right colossi, repeating the same strategies as last time for a faster flip. The movement to getting to the chest is a little bit strange with this level, personally I’ve found that the best place to click is on the right side of the chest and for optimal times ring the bell lower on the staircase just within range to exorcise the ghost to save time waiting for the chest to do it’s little bounce animation. Just don’t do it too early or you will waste precious seconds.

Flute Of The Growlin' Goblins Because this level introduces cycles it’s Any% and IL routes differ slightly but only on the very first cycle. Because of this I’ll just go over the level once and point out the cycle difference when we get there. Due to the level being a bit longer than the previous ones, having cycles that you need to make in time in order to remain on pace, and having some slightly harder movements I’ve given it a difficulty rating of 3/10.

Okay so firstly in the IL you’ll be able to skip the opening cutscenes and then head straight for the gondola by holding your remote in the center of the screen tilted upwards. Once arriving you’ll need to skip another cutscene before boarding the gondola and going to the center and then all the way to the other side. Now when using the gondola I find it’s easier to point the remote directly at the screen and to move it similarly to how you would use the crank in Three Colossi although if this doesn’t work for you then you can just hold it sideways and crank that way; experiment a bit and see what works best for you.

Once arriving at the other side you’ll need to skip another cutscene and then make your way down to the coconut palms. I like to aim for the stairs first and begin moving in the general direction then use B to pan down further and move to the ground at the bottom of the stairs near the trees and then click on the closest tree. From here just grab the trunk and shake the tree to get a coconut. You can either do light shakes or hard shakes, either way it will still take the same amount of shakes, although light shakes have a shorter animation so it is faster. After that, be ready to grab the coconut and head to the gondola again. The coconut will always land in the same position, similar to the key in Pit Of Tragedy, although unlike Pit I find the coconut much easier to interact with. It’ll take a few attempts, but pretty quickly you should get quite good at picking it up fast. In order to go to the gondola I just aim my cursor for the top of the screen slightly to the left and press A and I find that it almost always works and instantly selects the gondola. Once again use the same strategy as the one you chose before to ride the gondola back, although this time you won’t stop in the middle and you’ll be able to go straight across. Now this is where the difference between the IL and Any% route occurs. In Any% the cycles will be slightly ahead because of a cutscene you can’t skip and so you won’t be able to make it across in a single go and you’ll have to wait. Because of this just try to get as far as you can in the first cycle and then go the rest of the way in the second. When the second cycle starts slightly varies from RNG but overall there usually isn’t too much of a difference for how long it’ll take. Remember that even in between the cycles you’ll be able to inch your way forwards a bit without getting caught but be careful with that as going too far too fast will result in you dying. In the IL route you won’t have to worry about that though and you’ll be able to go the whole way in one cycle if you’re fast enough.

Next you’ll need to path your way to the rock and for this I aim the cursor for the lower left region of the screen causing Zack to begin moving down the slope then I use B to pan the camera further down and move closer to the rock until that’s on screen and then I interact with the rock. Shake the remote to begin lifting the rocks and once Zack fully hoists the rock you can stop shaking and Zack will finish the rest of the animation now without the need for any inputs. Whilst Zack finishes throwing the rock you’ll be able to line up your cursor with the hole so that you can activate it instantly when the rock breaks. Coins will appear once the rock is broken and their positions are determined by RNG so they’ll sometimes get in the way of the hole. Next drop the coconut in the hole making sure to turn the remote to drop it rather than tossing it as the toss animation takes more time. This method will be applicable to all scenarios where you need to drop items down holes and in most cases you’ll be able to start turning Zack’s hand over to drop the item early before the remote grip guide shows up. This won’t doesn’t work on this specific hole but it works for the soup pot later on in the level and Mad Science. After skipping the cutscenes you’ll need to grab one of the three sleeping mushrooms by the hole. Try to aim for grabbing the one closest to Zack to minimise the amount of distance Zack needs to walk. After that head for the vine and descend into the soup pit.

Before going to the soup pot, walk over to the snake and itemise it. When itemising items try to utilise fast bell animations as frequently as possible. This is done by doing a single swing of the remote and Zack should reciprocate this and only do a single swipe of the bell. This will minimise the amount of time spent stationary trying to itemise things. Once the snake is itemised head for the soup pot and drop the mushroom in remembering to use the fast drop. Then you want to click once anywhere on the ground and this will cause Zack to walk down the steps then pick up the slither gripper as soon as you can. You won’t be able to directly interact with things until you finish going down the steps so you don’t need to be positioned perfectly on the slither gripper for the first movement to go down the steps. No matter where you try to go Zack will always move down the steps and then stop at the base awaiting the next movement, that is when you then want to aim to pick up the slither gripper which will always be in the same position at the base of the steps. After that aim you cursor in the center of the screen and to the far left and interact with the ladle off screen. Once there aim for the center of the screen to activate the ladle and keep the cursor there when going through the grip prompt. Once that disappears press and hold A again and flick the remote upwards to quickly dislodge the ladle. Once the ladle is dislodged it will always fall in the same position on the ground so with a bit of practice you should develop a pretty good idea of where to position your cursor to pick it up. After you pick that up head for the gong and make sure to hit it hard as a soft hit will play a different animation which won’t attract the goblins. Next head to the vine. In any% it won’t matter if it takes a few movement inputs to move towards the vine before activating it but in the IL as soon as you activate the vine you can skip the whole cutscene. Because of this if you press the vine immediately you’ll be able to skip the movement towards the vine and the cutscene that follows but if you walk towards the vine normally and then activate the vine you won’t be able to skip the initial movement towards the vine and will waste a bit of time.

Once you’ve skipped the cutscene head back down the vine and pick up the flute. You can either make your way around the soup pot until the flute comes on screen and then pick it up or while Zack is travelling down the vine you can pan the camera over and pick it up directly that way. Next head up into the main area of the canyon and aim for the plaque on the center totem. Then aim the cursor slightly below the center to interact with plaque again so you can play the flute. The flute can be played very fast and there aren’t really many tips I can give for it so I’d suggest just doing lots of practice and going at the pace you feel most comfortable in your ability to do without errors. When making your way back to the soup pit I recommend aiming your cursor towards the bottom of the screen but not off screen and moving there and then panning the camera and moving onto the stair down into the pit then make your way around the soup pot and up the vine. Once at the top aim your cursor towards the top of the screen in the middle to activate the gondola and make your way to the middle platform. Next for the most optimal chest movement I recommend either interacting with the chest directly or aiming to the left side of the chest so that Zack paths his way around the chest towards the front taking the left side which is fast and has less movement. Before going around the chest when Zack approaches the chest from behind ring the bell to exorcise the clinging curse first and then continue your way around the chest to finish the level. You won’t need to move forward too much to be in range for the bell.

The Fountain Guardian Most of the level is pretty straightforward although due to it being a bit longer and having some trickier movements I’ve given it a difficulty rating of 2/10.

Now when entering the level the first thing you’ll want to do is start lifting the rocks to get the worm. There are 5 rocks in the level and the worm can be under any of them. In the IL you’ll want to get the worm under the first rock you lift. You can choose either rock, but personally I choose the rock closest to Zack at the top of the vine as I think that one is the least out of the way of the path to the next location, however you can also just grab the rock closest to Zack when you load into the level for faster resets until you get the worm under the right rock. This is where the only difference between the two routes occurs. In the IL you’ll keep resetting until you get the worm under the first rock whereas in Any% you’ll just keep lifting rocks until you get the worm. Normally you’ll pick up the first two in the starting area and then the two on the top platform after climbing up the vine and if you still don’t have the worm you can either choose to path all the way down to bottom where the key is to go the last rock or you can reset to try again. Resetting is usually faster than going to pick up the bottom rock if you get the worm within the first two rocks after resetting but which you decide to do is up to you.

After getting the worm, make your way over to the top of the water slide and interact with it to begin a cutscene which you’ll be able to skip. As soon as you regain control over Zack drop the worm to lure the frog to the starting area. Once that happens descend the vine to go to the frog. To do this I prefer to pan the camera down using B and click on the ground near the vine and then interact with the vine when that comes into view. The position of the frog may vary a bit when you arrive back at the starting area but make your way over to it and itemise it, to save a bit of time try to perform a mid air grab, but don’t worry if it doesn’t work just go pick it up normally. Next you’ll need to drop the bomb in the fountain so you can choose to either click on the diving platform or any of the water within the fountain, whichever is more convenient and then drop the bomb.

After that click on the platform again to jump off and start swimming down to grab the plug. For this I like to pan down to where the plug is visible and repeatedly mash A just slightly above the plug so I’m not interacting with it and then once Zack is quite close I interact with the plug. From there just pull it out and skip the cutscene. The plug will then be positioned next to the vine and grab that as fast as you can although prioritise accuracy over speed as missing the plug can often result in interacting with the vine instead. After picking up the plug, proceed to put it back in the hole.

After that make your way back out of the water and to do this I like to click on the ledge in front of the diving platform and then head to the key. The key movement can be a little bit odd so I encourage you to practice this part quite a bit and experiment I like to click in the direction of the stairs then pan down and click down the next flight of steps and then pan down and click at the base of the stairs before then going and interacting with the key. Then to path your way back to the water you can either pan up and click the top of the water to do it in one movement although if you want to go especially fast and minimise time spent not moving then you can aim for the top of the first flight of stairs and then pan and click the top of the water to finish the movement.

Then to make your way to the end of the level after jumping off of the diving platform make your way downwards to the bottom left corner and when swimming I choose to mash A as frequently as I can when going through the tunnel at the end make sure to stay as close to the ceiling as possible when doing the dip and hug the wall to minimise as much unnecessary movement as possible. Finally once emerging from the water open the door with the key and proceed to the chest.

King Of The Jungle This level also doesn’t have any major differences between it’s Any% and IL route so once again I’ll just be going through it once and mention the few minor differences along the way. This level is quite a step up from the previous levels we’ve covered so far and most of that comes down to the level's very unique layout which creates some very difficult movement, because of this I’ve given it a difficulty rating of 5/10.

The first step when loading into the level is to grab the centisaw, be careful though when itemising the centipede as it can often look like it’s within bell range even when it isn’t due to the camera angle so move right up close to the tree where it looks like Zack is touching the centipede to be on the safe side as the slight extra movement loses less time than if you ring the bell whilst out of range. Next you’ll want to start moving towards the other side of the campfire whilst the saw is falling, similar to the movement you do in Pit Of Tragedy with the slither gripper and then grab the saw and head across the log bridge. Movement on the log bridge can be a bit awkward, this is because the way the hitbox works depends on which side you are moving onto it from. When moving from the campfire side to the cavern side just clicking anywhere on the log treats it as a special interaction where Zack will move to the log and walk across stopping at a fixed point on the other side. Because of this clicking multiple times interrupts the interaction and halts Zack’s movement so it’s best to just click on the log once and once Zack approaches the end of the movement there’ll be a cutscene to skip before you can begin moving again to the cave entrance. Moving across the log the other way though doesn’t have this same special movement and so clicking on a particular spot is where Zack moves to like normal movement everywhere else.

Next saw down the two sticks barring the entrance and then ring the bell once the cave entrance is unblocked. You’ll need to be ready to skip a cutscene as soon as the bell starts ringing which you can skip in both Any% and IL and then ring the bell once more and skip the cutscene after that as well to drop the vase on the snake totem. For this I tend to shake the remote whilst mashing the minus button with one finger and do that until I’ve skipped the two cutscenes. After that, pick up one of the two sticks at Zack’s feet and head back to the campfire to light it and again try to avoid clicking on the log itself during the movement back.

Once you’ve lit the torch head to the cave next. When entering the cave it doesn’t really matter where you click inside the cave as long as Zack moves past the entrance because as soon as he does a cutscene triggers which can be skipped in the IL run. Because of this avoid clicking on objects inside the cave to interact with them as that will cause an unnecessary movement stutter so it’s better to just click anywhere on the floor in the entrance chamber. Once the cutscene is over you can either use B to pan across the screen and directly click on the holding pedestal to place the torch, however, if you aren’t as confident with your accuracy you can click towards the bottom of the screen on the stairs and as Zack is moving downwards then pan the camera upwards towards the right to click on the pedestal then so you have more time to line the cursor up. Next move to the panel next to the pedestal to complete the tile puzzle.

When doing the tile puzzle in IL runs you’ll be able to skip all the cutscenes when placing each tile, but in Any% you’ll have to watch the first one but can skip the other two. Because of this in Any% you’ll want to avoid doing the top tile first as the cutscene will be slightly longer as you’ll have to watch the water travel too. Personally I just do the tiles bottom to top but you’re free to do them in whichever order is most comfortable for you. The tiles will always be in the same position on the floor each time you play the level but the rotation of them will change, due to this whilst you’ll always know where to click for each piece you’ll have to briefly inspect if first during the pick up animation and rotate it accordingly. It’s worth taking your time with the rotation to ensure it’s done right rather than go as fast as possible and potentially try placing it in its slot without it being rotated correctly as that will lose several seconds, however if you’re able to do it fast and accurately that’s great too as every second saved counts it’s just about building up skill and confidence to a point where you can do that part faster. It is also worth noting that each time you place a tile and the cutscene plays after the cutscene it will exit you from the interaction screen so you’ll have to click on the panel each time to place the next piece, so be prepared to enter that screen again by centering your cursor and pressing A when skipping each cutscene.

After doing the tile puzzle you’ll need to head through the section now submerged in water. The water movement in this level is very difficult at first and can take a bit of practice to get used to and become efficient at. I find the best way to get through this section quickly is to click once just beneath the water where you would enter for Zack to get into the water then begin pressing A towards the bottom of the water at the bottom of the stairs on the entrance side. Once Zack is close to the bottom of the water mash A at the bottom of the water on the other side where you would exit and once Zack is on the other side of the pool of water click once on the ground of the cave and Zack should swim up and exit the water. During this part clicking in certain places can cause Zack to stop moving such as clicking on the other side of the pillar of rock hanging from the ceiling when Zack is still above the water and the finicky nature of it is what makes this part so difficult and is one of the harder parts to get good at when initially learning the level, but once you get the hang of it it should become one of the more consistent parts.

Once you’ve made it out of the water you’ll want to exit the cave then ring the bell to lure King Growl over to this side of the level and then head back to the other side of the water. This part is another section that contains very tricky movement, which mainly involves exiting the cave efficiently and emerging from the water on the side before the cutscene triggers which we call “making the water cycle”. First when exiting the cave it can be quite difficult to get Zack to exit just outside in once move from your position after exiting the water so I find it easier to click somewhere closer the exit from your initial position and then move just outside the entrance from there. Next you’ll want to ring the bell to lure King Growl before heading back. The closer you are to the cave entrance the less time it takes to walk back to the water and the less time your bell rings for the quicker you can start walking back, so these two factors determine how easier it is to make the water cycle. Do be careful though as you do need to hit a certain point outside of the cave before the bell ring will be able to lure King Growl so it’s worth experimenting to find exactly where this point is to minimise the amount of distance you’ll need to travel. At first you may find when trying to perform this sequence of moves that you’ll be barely missing the water cycle and the cutscene of King Growl will trigger whilst Zack is still in the water and that’s perfectly normal, but over time you should quickly improve and soon enough the cutscene will be triggering as Zack is exiting the water and you will have made the cycle.

After that you’ll want to head up the stairs at the first entrance of the cave and then walk across the top of the mountain to behind King Growl to itemise him. When doing this I find it’s easiest to first click on the stairs heading downwards at the left of the screen from Zack’s initial position after exiting the water. From there I then pan the camera to the next set of stairs and click at the base of those, once Zack’s closer I then click above on the platform between the two flights of stairs and then at the top of the last flight of stairs. This movement also has the potential to be a little bit awkward so it may take some practice to get the hang of as well, but that’s perfectly normal as the unique shape and structure of this level creates these very windy paths and incorporates factors such as elevation into you’re movement making this much harder than all of the previous level covered in this series. Once reaching the top of the last flight of stairs rather than clicking to the right on the floor I prefer to click on the ground above the stairs as sometimes clicking directly to the right causes Zack to move to the right descending the stairs rather than moving up and then around the staircase to the right. After Zack properly exits the stairs and is standing on the ground completely outside of the cave then begins moving to the right of the stage to King Growl.

When approaching King Growl to itemise him you want to be as far as possible from him but still within bell range, that way you minimise your movement when pathing back towards the chest. A good visual indicator of how far away from him you can be whilst also still being within bell range is by looking at the tiles on the ground close to King Growl there’ll be one tile that sticks up above the ground higher from the others and standing on the end of that closer to King Growl is a good distance to be. After itemising him you can then make your way to the chest to finish the level.

The Crystal Key

Coming Soon...