Guild Wars 2

Been messing around trying to get my Baby’s Second Super Adventure achievement (which is stuck at 32/33 for me as it is for many others, despite having run multiple characters through all three, walked/ran/jumped through every checkpoint, and ran around all three spots that people have said had their last trigger occur), and learned something interesting: it is not actually necessary to have the Candle to complete SAB right now.

There are only two places where the Candle seems to be required, and both can be bypassed. The first is the row of trees in Area 6 of 2-1. You can get past this by simply jumping on one of the signs and then through one of the gaps in the trees (only a couple of the gaps work). Even without this stepping stone, it’s possible to ford the river with some dodge jumps, get upstream a bit, and then cross the river again before you get swept too far downstream.

The second time is at the start of Area 9. Again, there are two alternate ways past this obstacle. First, you can use the launch from the Checkpoint to reach the right-hand wall, and simply drop down after the trees and continue on your way. Of course, this method only works once, and if you screw it up before you reach the next checkpoint, you will have to find another way or restart the zone from the beginning.

The 2nd way requires the Slingshot — you can take a series of ledges down the left cliffside, jumping your way towards the lower platform near the waterfall. You need the Slingshot to unlock the Mushroom before you get there.

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I also learned that the Glove of Wisdom is not required to reach the Shortcut Eagle — one of the plants near the tree is just high enough to allow you to make the jump to the first branch, though it may take a fair number of tries for it to happen. Sadly, after the flight, I was unable to find a way past the drawbridge, despite attempting a good many dodge jumps towards it. So much for the thoughts of a true powerless run

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I realise that many of these powerups can be skipped a lot more simply by being in a party, but I thought it was interesting to find ways that didn’t require them. And I don’t think we’ll have much luck finding a way past the Torch anyways.

Actually being in a party and not having the powerglove causes problems in zone 2. If you use the shortcut eagle without it, then you cannot get it on that run, and when you get to the end, everyone has to use the skill together to open the final bridge.

Actually, you can get it on that run, providing you don’t trigger the checkpoint before the bell — it’s possible to backtrack all the way back to the start of the level starting from the struts on top of the bell (or you can just die to start at the beginning of the teleporter maze). EDIT: On further reflection, you’re probably right about not being able to go back — no matter whether you’re on Normal or Infantile, backtracking from the end of the level only takes you as far as the bell in front of the Dart Pagoda, and I think both methods of backtracking further from there require that you sound that bell.

And I also imagine that a person might be able to solo run 2-2 all the way to the boss, and then invite a friend without the glove to get them past it. But I’ve not tested that personally.

If you can get to the dart pagoda, you can get back. If it’s the gong tower you mean, you can jump down and back on the ledge at the checkpoint just after it and make your way back to, and over, the pillars to the piranha tower thanks to clouds. If you can get back there, you can jump down to the drawbridges and further back with clouds. From the bottom of the dart puzzle pagoda, which it is you probably mean, you can make it back to the glove pagoda with clouds from below the bell thingy.
I actually did it once with a friend.

However, this way is insanely much longer than just getting the glove and going back to the shortcut eagle so there’s no reason to do it… But you -can- if you really want to.

I’m well aware you can backtrack under normal circumstances — it’s the whole point behind doing Bachelor of Baubles on Normal Mode. The problem was whether you could do so without the Glove. And I did mean the bell before the Dart Pagoda.

But you are correct — it is indeed possible to backtrack from that bell without ringing it. I’d thought the route required you to go forwards through the Dart Pagoda and reach the roof to find the clouds that head to the Glove Pagoda’s roof. I had not previously noticed it was possible to climb the tree below the bell to reach some of the low hanging clouds that allow you to jump to the base of the Glove Pagoda.

So yes, so long as you don’t activate the checkpoint right below the final bell, you can backtrack all the way to the beginning of the level, glove or not.