Guild Wars 2

ZudetGambeous.9573:

cafard.8953:

I like the no-AoE mob rule. It means that copper is the last to fall due to the horde of players sitting there doing 1-1-1-1-1-1.

That means you can generally do amber or indigo and be in time to tag copper and extract another part on the cheap.

Can’t do this anymore, they fixed it with the last patch.

That’s not entirely true. What you can’t do is tag a champ, then run over to another champ and tag that before the last champ you tagged dies.

What cafard was suggesting was participating at, say, Iron and defeat it (getting a part), and then still have plenty of time to run to Copper and help defeat that (getting another part).

Though personally, I’d prefer all champs die fast and the proper strategies get communicated, so yes, I like this thread.

The Throne isn’t that bad. If you lure every enemy out of the capture circle, the bar will start building up on its own. You can let Turai slowly pick away the last one or two to draw out the time between spawns — it’s possible to get this event done with no more than two waves, with very little downtime.

The 2nd event demands very fast killing speed however, since you can’t even just cherry-pick the Tainted Souls until the final wave spawns.

I imagine it’s possible to do solo, but it feels like the skill/gear-threshold on that may be rather higher than previous timed achievements have aimed at.

You don’t mention the Mordren Pods at all, which is the entire reason the dragon regenerates, and also the reason behind the immobilize/trap mechanic.

The Pods are immune to damage unless you have the Pheremone buff, and it seems that this is applied to anyone who gets trapped by the pods… providing they don’t also get downed by any subsequent attacks. So anyone who does get this buff after being trapped should kill any Mordren Pods that have spawned to reduce the dragon’s regeneration. Left unchecked, multiple pods will spawn which will make the battle far harder than it needs to be.

Dragon stomps can be dodgerolled, which may be safer than jumping due to the larger invulnerability window. It’s certainly a better idea when going after the related achievement, but if you can get the jump timing down consistently, then that can certainly save your stamina for other dangers in the challenge fight.

During Phase 2 of fact gathering, if you ask Kasmeer for advice when dealing with the Noble and Lady Claire, the resulting conversation options do not consume a Conversation Step. This allows you to finish Phase 2 using only 2 steps (both on the Servant), and also means you can finish the whole event using only 10 steps.

I also note that what counts as a step or not feels highly arbitrary, especially given talking to Kasmeer at the end counts, but not talking to Arton or Kasmeer between Phase 1 and 2.

The table says to speak to Minister Estelle first. She’s not indicated by a green objective marker at that point, but you can talk to her to skip the first fact finding round with only one conversation option. It does, however, add a great deal of suspicion. I’ll note there is a way to complete both Super Sleuth and Sneaky Sleuth at the same time, but this seems to be a bug. It also seems very arbitrary what counts as a conversation step or not: talking to Kasmeer at the end counts as one, but not talking to her after Phase 1 or talking to Minister Arton.

As for getting suspicion to ‘full’… you’re not meant to get it to full. You’re meant to get it to as close to full as you can without getting kicked out of the party. Continually using one of the ‘low suspicion’ options is sufficient for that.

Ohoni.6057:

Five people can’t reach T3, at least in my experience. I’ve run Dry Top with a group of 15+ people running from event to event and still barely made T3, if that. The problem is that to reach T4, you need at least a couple of small teams running the lighter events, AND you need a critical mass in your primary group so that you can stomp down some of the events. You get 20-30 people on toad rock and you can wrap that up in 15-20 seconds and move on to the Queen. You get 5 people up there and even if you are all good at it you won’t drop her in less than a couple minutes.

A single player who is used to the specific events is able to do Jungle Tendril, Nochtli and Kite Basket completely solo (with bonus favor for JT and KB), all within 5 minutes each. Nochtli can be a bit of a pain if they make a mistake, and it can become really bothersome if she gets scaled up terribly (often happens if people are killing Moa nearby), but it’s still part of the ‘light event’ group.

That leaves Crystal Race, Inquest Mine, North Mine, Tootsie, Colocal Queen and Escort Selene. Escort Selene can be soloed, but can’t be sped up by much, and doesn’t fit into any chains very well. If you can at least get two of the group events done every 15 minutes while your solo player is taking care of the other events, then T3 is pretty easy.

===

In order to reach T4, you need to split up to cover the group events, especially so you can be at some of them before they start. North Mine and Inquest Mine (Champ Golem version) are particularly critical there, since they have rather tight failure timers, and are tucked out of the way in the map. By comparison, it’s easy to get people to pitch into Crystal Race because everyone runs through that area.

You don’t need a lot of people, but you do need enough willing to be ready for the group events, and not just follow the zerg. But five people should definitely be able to reach T3, if they pick their events wisely.

This bug occurs randomly over the course of a game session, and once it occurs, the only way to fix it is to log out and back in. The effect of the bug is that any Bonus Chests (including Daily Achievement) no longer respond to being clicked on, and thus cannot be opened.

Since every event in Dry Top awards a Bonus Chest, this quickly becomes frustrating, especially when you start losing Bonus Chests due to already having the maximum number displayed. And relogging to fix it becomes a hassle when you’re trying to help out in a particular megaserver instance, requiring an anchor to guarantee you’ll make it back where you were.

It’s likely still “equipped” in your Town Clothes slot, which is inaccessible.

Talk to a Black Lion Trader (Armorsmith) in any of the major cities (NOT Vigil Keep) to convert your Town Clothes — including equipped ones — into usable items/skins/tonics.

What you’re forgetting is that on map completion, what you got was Transmutation Stones. Not Crystals. The difference being that Stones could not transmute to L80 items, meaning that you either had to be very lucky with Daily Rewards, pretty lucky with Black Lion Chests, or just buy them off the Gem Store.

So yes, while a low level player had it a bit easier before, they would eventually become an L80 player and find it a lot more difficult to swap their skins on a whim. Now, at least, there’s more choice there.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Cities have contestable waypoints??? Wow, that’s new!

Cities don’t. But there is a distinct difference in what waypoints are marked contested when you’re in a Megaserver zone.

And, as I said, LFG can easily tell too.

And nowhere does it give a timeframe for when the rollout will occur. Three of the cities are already on Megaservers (easily verifiable via contested waypoints and LFG panel), as are a handful of maps (Timberline Falls, Field of Ruins, Southsun Cove and Straits of Devastation for sure).

Whatever was said in patch notes or forum threads earlier really cannot override what people are seeing in-game.

It’s actually very easy to see whether you’re in a Megaserver or not: check the LFG panel.

I’ll confirm that Rata Sum, The Grove, Black Citadel, Timberline Falls and Fields of Ruin are all using Megaservers now. Divinity’s Reach and Hoelbrak are not, as far as I can see. I checked Iron Marches too, but that’s still server-specific. There may be a few other maps on Megaservers too.

Right method now, but a few mistakes with numbers. Highlighting them here.

Bri.8354:

127.14% damage would increase your damage by 1,274.
(1,000 * 1.2714)

Should be 1271 or 1271.4 depending on precision.

Bri.8354:

A = 1,975
B = 2,274
C = 229
F = 22.74

2274 – 1975 is 299. But with the correction to B required, you’d want 296.4 instead.

Bri.8354:

A = 2381.8
B = 2842.4
C = 470.6
F = 28.424

Similarly, 2842.4 – 2381.8 is 460.6, not 470.6.

Otherwise, yes, I agree with the maths used.

Bri.8354:

The way they made it sound was that in the worst case players would receive a 10% reduction. Instead we are seeing over double that at the higher levels of critical damage.

The examples you gave in the opening post are actually only a 13-16% reduction in overall non-Condition damage. Your mistake is that the percentage loss you’re recording is the reduction in “extra average damage that Critical adds on top of normal damage”. You’re ignoring the base 100% damage you’d get if you had no criticals at all.

These are the numbers you quoted for your ‘typical Berserker’ build:

A typical berserker build with ascended equipment not using consumables or skills like banner of discipline will have around:

• Precision: 2,045 (58% critical chance, 78% with fury)
• Critical damage before ferocity: 113% + 50% base critical damage (163% total)
• With ferocity: 1,129 (75% critical damage + 50% base critical damage, 125% total)

You will see a loss of 38% critical damage, which is a 23% damage loss.

So that’s a 78% chance of Crit doing +163% critical damage (263% of Normal), and a 22% chance of doing 100% of Normal before Ferocity. After Ferocity, it’s a 78% chance of Crit doing +125% critical damage (225% of Normal), and a 22% chance of doing 100% of Normal.

What you did is 100 * (1 – (0.78 * 125) / (0.78 * 163)) = 23.3. That’s where your 23% is coming from. It’s identical to simply comparing the percentage drop from 163 to 125. The problem with doing that is… well, imagine what the drop in overall damage would be if my crits gave me +163% critical damage beforehand, and +0% critical damage after? How much DPS loss is that? By the calculations you’re doing, you’d have it be a 100% drop in DPS. Which is wrong: I’m still doing my base normal damage. Even if you remove all my critical chance, there wouldn’t be a 100% drop in overall damage because I’ve still got my non-crits.

So going back to the ‘typical Berserker’, the values to compare are (1 – 0.78) * 100% + 0.78 * (100% + 163%) = 227.14%, and (1 – 0.78) * 100% + 0.78 * (100% + 125%) = 197.5%. 197.5 is 86.95% of 227.14, so it’s a percentage loss of 13.05% in average damage per attack.

I agree this is still more than 10% (maybe they’re factoring in condition damage over a battle as well?… who knows), but it’s definitely a lot less than the 23-25% figures you arrived at.

Four words should tell you all you need to know about whether LA will be rebuilt or not:

From Ruin, We Prosper.

When the LFG system was first introduced, it was during the Super Adventure Box update. It seemed a little weird that there wasn’t a Dungeon/Instanced category in the Living Story category then, but given how spontaneous and soloable SAB was, it was easily overlooked.

Tequatl was open world, Twilight Assault had its own category, and then we got to Halloween. Again, instanced stuff available, but no LFG option for it. But it was soloable and short, so again, overlooked.

Now we come to Wintersday, and the ability to form parties for Toypocalypse and the Infinirarium. And we still don’t have a Cross-server option for Living Story content. This is starting to seem like a very large oversight, and I’m hoping it’s something that can be rectified. While it would be nice to have it before this update ends, I realise that this is often not possible. But I do want to remark on its absence in the hope that it doesn’t get forgotten about.

The Bauble achievement for 2-2 is “Bachelor of Baubles, World 2”, not Master of Baubles. And it is awarded when the cage is destroyed, not when the end zone timer runs out.

Sadly, that is the only option available to you. From all I’ve read so far, ArenaNet Support can not offer help with missing achievements (possibly for technical reasons, possibly not).

I do know it’s possible for the achievement to be awarded the first time you do it, so what bug is there must be intermittent and tied to something else. I also know that finishing the Mine Cart stage itself is not required — when working correctly, the achievement should be awarded the instant before you’re teleported to the Mine Cart stage.

It’s frustrating how much trouble there’ve been with achievements for SAB, and I hope the problems with them are located before the next time round. SAB will still be fun, of course, but it really doesn’t want this hassle around souring the experience.

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.

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.

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.

===

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

===

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.

Sadly, the policy on this seems to be that support cannot give out achievements to players. Whether this is a technical issue (for example, if they literally do not have the tools for the Support staff to do this) or not is unknown, but they have declined other players’ requests to be granted the achievement even though they have the same proof as you.

The requirement for the achievement, by the way, is that you stick close to where the chest spawned when the timer runs out. Which is, yes, a very annoying place to put the achievement, given the low timer in some Zones and the fact that other achievements only require that you kill the boss. I know this is no real comfort, but if you do replay the level, I’m sure you’ll find it goes much faster now, since you won’t have to worry about Forbidden Honey or Tough Customer, and you’ve already been through the route once yourself.

So the only suggestion I can make is to give yourself some time for the frustration to pass, and then try again another day. You have just over a week before it closes down, and it’ll also still be there waiting when the content returns with World 3 later down the line.

Good luck, however you decide.

People have been reporting not getting the achievement even since the original Tequatl patch, when it finally seemed to be getting awarded. With cases like this, it’s tough to know how much of the reports are just accidentally missing a particular bauble… but there’s enough reports that some intermittent bug may be likely.

If there is still a bug related to this, then it’s hard to know what to suggest. I will note that a decent run through 2-3 will take about 35 minutes when you know what you’re doing (either on Infantile or Normal). Some people getting the bug have said they were in the map for 2+ hours, so perhaps there’s a time factor to all this? Possibly not, but if you’re determined to get the achievement, then persistence should win out, and you’ll be faster as you learn the route.

Seeing the “door entering” cutscene but not actually going in tends to happen pretty often if you get close enough to enter but not close enough to actually go through. But I expect that any latency issues can cause that to happen a lot more often.

Your trouble with that particular area, however, is shared by a lot of people — getting in to that door without dying is very difficult. The trick to getting in is that you don’t want to jump too high when going into the waterfall. I don’t think it’s the waterfall itself that kills you, but rather hitting either the water below you or the water above. So being too high when you enter the waterfall ends up with you clipping the upper area of poison water, which is instant death.

Since you can’t control jump height, the best way to not be too high when entering the waterfall is to jump from further back on the lilypad, or to not push forward until after you jump straight up. This is still rather tricky, so I wish you luck on pulling it off. (And I hope that in the next iteration of the SAB, they make entering this particular shop a bit more lenient.)

Looks like I can finally edit the topic title. Run took about 35 minutes immediately after patch, with no problems. Noticed what seems to be a small new platform below the 1st Chest that helps a little with the last jump (it was sometimes a bit finicky, since it wouldn’t allow you to get on to the next ledge if you pushed too close to the wall). Still don’t see a way to get the last Yellow Bauble without a Dodge Jump, but didn’t look too hard.

Either way, it is done. Thank you for all those who contributed to the search.

coffeeisyum.5297:

And half the time I thought there were secret areas and I would risk jumping for a few minutes thinking it was a secret area only to end up at a dead-end and have to turn around in an attempt to get back. Why would you even do this to people?

Personally, I enjoy 2-3 the most of the new zones, simply because a lot of it is classic JP mechanics. The long vertical climb inside the cave is particularly nice, because it’s a fairly substantial JP without the risk of death (something that you don’t see much of in World 2, sadly). I’ll agree that the scenery isn’t much to look at most of the time, but the stone heads did give the first few areas a bit of character.

As for the possible ‘secrets’ you’re looking for, difficult jumping paths tend to be divided into 3 types in World 2:

• A path required to find a Bauble (usually at least Yellow, but there are Reds and Purples hidden too).
• A path required to find a hidden Dig Site (most of the secret ones have at least 20 Baubles inside, if not more).
• A path that is only there for the challenge, and generally only required in Tribulation Mode.

That said, there’s still one or two areas that we have no idea why they exist, but the majority do have a point.

coffeeisyum.5297:

Then the end boss! The fight was fun but why…WHY would you make the boss reset if everyone in the party happens to die? My BF and I spent more time trying to prevent us from both being dead at the same time than we did actually fighting the boss. We kept looking over at each others screen more than our own. It didn’t help that the lightning sparks were constantly knocking us off. Can you please come up with interesting combat instead of resorting to all enemies having knock-back? It seems lazy.

Sounds like a bug? I’ve died plenty of times against the Storm Wizard solo before I learned the encounter, and he never reset on me. And I don’t recall much knockback, except from his dash attack (which is deadly until you learn how to deal with it). It’s a more difficult fight than the Toad King, true, but the encounter can be learned until you’re doing the entire fight without taking any damage at all (though I do tend to get knicked once or twice by Lightning Sparks in the 2nd phase… no knockback there though).

coffeeisyum.5297:

I think the worst part is that we only have 2 lives now. I feel like I spent more time getting sent to the lava area, then having to click the hub icon, then having to re-enter the world than I did actually playing.

This, I think, is where the main part of your frustration lies, and is likely highly influencing how much you’re enjoying the content. It is, however, something that’s very easy to rectify.

Once a day, you can complete a zone on Normal to find 2 Bauble Bubbles in the chest at the end. So you could do W1Z1 on Normal for 2 Bubbles, or the entirety of W1 for 6 Bubbles (plus another Bauble Bubble from the Bonus Round for 7 total). Once you’ve got a couple of Bauble Bubbles, leave the box and talk to Moto — he’s selling 5 Continue Coins for 1 Bauble Bubble each. Buy 10 Coins (costing 2 Bubbles total). Now, the next time you lose all your lives, you can use those 10 Coins to give yourself 50 lives to continue with.

Buying extra Continue Coins from Moto is definitely worthwhile (unless you have the Infinite Continue Coin, but the point here is that you don’t need it), and you should have more than enough Baubles to fund this. Yes, it does mean you’ll have less Bauble Bubbles to spend on skins, but you should be gaining far more Baubles than you spend, and you’ll die less anyways as you get used to the new zones.

You don’t need quick reactions for that part. What you do need is to be accurate and consistent. There are 3 clouds in a circle for a reason: if you take each jump slow, the first of the three clouds will reappear while you’re still on the third.

Jumping too fast here actually makes it more difficult, especially considering how easy it is to not have the first playthrough of the song register.

The Shatter Serenade intentionally makes that last room very easy — not only because it can permenantly remove icicles, but because it also fully unlocks a shortcut that allows you to skip that entire room.

I’d also note that the “room full of spike pits” is no different than the poison water in 1-3. It doesn’t kill you instantly (unlike Tribulation Mode hazards), so you usually have a grace period to get back on your feet. I sympathise with that room in particular, since if you’re in the middle of the puzzle, it usually forces you to start from the initial climb again, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the bottomless pits everywhere. (I do wish that Health Potions were more economical though.)

Finally, with regards to disconnects, I can again sympathise, but there is a suggestion we can make in the meantime: party up. You don’t need a full party of 5, but if at least one other player is in there with you (and doesn’t get kicked at the same time), then you can rejoin the instance pretty painlessly, straight back at the last checkpoint unlocked. I agree it would be nice if there was some sort of grace period for solo instances, but for now, there are steps we can take to mitigate the problems.

The first Blue Bauble of Area 3 has had me whipping unsuspecting rocks for days now. Having a bauble half-sticking out of a rock is pretty bad, but it also means that there could theoretically be a bauble completely embedded in a rock. You don’t need LOS to whip a bauble (the 2nd Blue Bauble of Area 3 can be whipped through the wall without jumping around the corner), so it’s definitely a possibility. Of course, if there is a bauble hidden in this way, then it’s (probably unintentionally) bad design and should be fixed.

I also do not think there are any baubles behind the Gatekeeper we cannot open. Invisible teleporters, however, bring up a rather uncomfortable possibility, especially given that we know of two teleport instances in Zone 3 already (including burning an Ice Wall from the inside).

If inspiration strikes you, then feel free to search possible leads further. But please don’t get burned out on this — we already know they’re looking into this, and there’s enough bugs reported about current SAB that we can expect some changes before the content leaves this month.

I’ve been pretty much everywhere I can possibly think of. All over the first Mountain — a few interesting spots I found were:

• A window visible past the Ice Wall in the 2nd Gatekeeper Portal Block puzzle… couldn’t get in there, but then I noticed I could see in the Gatekeeper’s mouth with the correct camera angle anyways, and no bauble was visible there.
• A way underneath the Wallet Shop. If you enter the secret interior Bear area and drop down near the teleporter, you can peek into the shop from under a nearby overhang. A hole there leads under the shop… from which there is nothing interesting and no escape — I had to dig up rabbits to die.
• Several paths that turned out to be Tribulation Mode-only routes. I lost a lot of lives to ice jumps.

Went through the Ice Song maze again, yes. I can’t say I looked up in every single chamber, but I played all three songs in every room, and walked around in every dead-end looking for invisible teleporters. Tried some more things with the currently known invisible teleporter… couldn’t get anything. Searched some more above the Icicle Spike puzzle… explored around the depths of the Mountain Goat climb… threw bombs all over the place in the Moto’s Finger deathtrap room… tried to fry the Generous Man with Moto’s Finger…

It really is wearying at this point. So unless inspiration strikes, I’ll probably wait for a dev response. Of course, we’ve got a lot of players around… maybe someone will get lucky. But for now, I think I’ll just focus on enjoying the content for a couple of days without worrying about intense secret searching.

EDIT: Oh, right, another interesting thing I found early was that passage below and to the left of the 1st Q-Bert puzzle when you’re done with the 1st Mountain. There’s clearly space above, but found no way up there, and couldn’t see anything bauble-like. May be another red herring but… meh.

Yeah, it’s been bugging on me pretty regularly since just after the patch hit. (Well, to be exact, I first encountered it bugged after I got a notice a New Build was available, but before I’d logged off to update, so it was possibly bugged prior to that.) I’d leave the Key around the Checkpoint, myself — if you’re on Infantile, you can just use the Shortcut Clouds to bring the Key across, and if you’re on Normal, you won’t be stashing many Keys in the first place.

Just for safety’s sake, I’ll edit out the suggestion in the guide.

CMF.5461:

Just use the flute anywhere and everywhere pretty much. Although the cave wall above the first shop that you drop into did not appear with the secret song, but it was destructible anyway.

After looking into this further, this isn’t quite true. But it does explain why I had so much trouble finding it until it was pointed out to me.

Moto’s Head does appear on that wall, but on the opposite side. If you play the song while above the Torch Shop, then leave and enter the secret Bear area from the alternate entrance, you’ll see Moto’s sigil clearly.

This feels like a bug to me, especially given that you can’t reach the wall from the other side (or get close enough to it from that side to play the song). I could see it not appearing on the side you’re not meant to reach it from, but it really should appear from the Torch Shop side. That said, I would really expect the sigil to appear on both sides if we get more walls that can be approached/seen from both sides.

I’ve updated the guide to take into account changes in the recent patch. I hope it still all makes sense — it was a bit tricky to edit some of the directions with some of the changes to the Shortcut Clouds. As always, I hope you find it useful.

A lot to read after I woke up, heh.

Ayrilana> That was indeed a Yellow Bauble I was missing. Thanks for the screenshot — it was a nice enough hint that allowed me to find it without any other prompting.

Absconditus> That Yellow Bauble is just as easy on Normal as it is on Infantile — just drop to the left of where the Cloud would normally be instead of from the Cloud itself. (The main difficulty is just knowing it’s there). Also, with regards to the secret you pointed out in your last post, Niodyne already beat you to it. There’s an easier way into that Bear area as well, and that’s the method I prefer to use once I’m done with the first Mountain.

===

I’ve updated the guide with the new information. However, some bad news. Unless I screwed up the run, that was still not all the Baubles in the Zone. Someone may wish to confirm that the above run doesn’t work (just to help nail out user error on my part), but it looks like the scavenger hunt is still ongoing.

Thank you for the help so far. The end is in sight, but we’re not there yet.

Good eye, that was indeed the secret I was missing. Thank you. I could’ve sworn I’d used the Log’s Song all in that area. Guess I got distracted by continually trying to make it back up to the visible cave mouth that you entered from.

Of course, this makes for two rather disappointing facts: (1) I’m missing a Bauble that is not simply resting in a ‘Secret Area’, and is likely in some out of the way place like some of those Yellow Baubles I’ve listed, and (2) there’s only one Store in the second half of the Zone, and we still don’t know how to get Keys from it to the Chests.

I’ve got it listed. There’s two ways down to that waterfall, and I chose to list the one that involves opening a nearby Gatekeeper from the inside, to better show how that Gatekeeper can be used, and because I think it counts as a Secret Area.

Area 9
There are [4 BLUE BAUBLES] at the corners of the arena. There’s also a Gatekeeper to the back left that can be opened with the Lullaby, revealing some food.

Area 10
With just the Storm Wizard to go, there appear to be no baubles in this area. As soon as the chest appears after defeating his 2nd form, you should gain the achievement — assuming you haven’t missed one, or there isn’t any lingering bugs around.

Good luck on your quest!

Area 8
Now that we’re safely at the Checkpoint, we can backtrack to just after the Ice Wall. If you look off to the right and zoom all the way in, you’ll see a cloud. Now comes a very tricky bit. Get your Whistle equipped, and start jumping across the clouds. Due to low visibility, it’s difficult to know where you’re going. You’ll come across three ‘junctions’ where you have a choice of two clouds to jump to. On the 3rd cloud, pick the right one. On the 7th cloud, pick the left one. On the 9th cloud, pick left again. After a few more jumps, you’ll reach a cluster of 3 clouds in a tight circle. The idea now is to play the Gatekeeper Lullaby while jumping in between these three clouds. Take your jumps slow so that there’s enough time for the 1st cloud to reappear while you’re still on the 3rd.

Once you successfully play the Lullaby, you can jump into the open Gatekeeper mouth. You should probably play Shatter Serenade to get rid of most of the Icicles here, and then collect the [PURPLE BAUBLE] sitting in the center of the chamber. Next, bomb all three side of the chamber to reveal three secrets. The leftmost secret is a shop. The centermost secret contains another upgrade: Moto’s Finger. The rightmost secret contains what appears to be a death trap from which there is no escape. However, it seems there’s no escape from this chamber anyways: I could not find any invisible Teleporters, and one of the jumps back across the clouds is too high/far to reach. Still, we needed the bauble, and good thing we had that Checkpoint, yes?

Back at the Checkpoint, continue onwards. On the uppermost platform where the third Polar Bear is, there’s a [BLUE BAUBLE]. Once done, look at the rear of this little mountain-top for a series of clouds that leads to the real meat of Area 8.

You arrive at the western part of the Icicle Puzzle (check your map to get relative directions here — it shows where you’ve been even if it doesn’t show the layout of the zone). If you’ve learned the Shatter Serenade, then the puzzle is so much easier, as it allows you to create a good few shortcuts. But first, you should head in and around the corner to the south to find a Gatekeeper in the mid-western wall. Use Lullaby to open it and step into the Teleporter. You can now open up the Gatekeeper at our Area 8 Checkpoint, allowing us to get back here a lot faster if we fall. You can also play the Shatter Serenade around this part of the puzzle to dislodge a Giant Icicle that can act as a shortcut up to Area 9!

There are also [4 BLUE BAUBLES] scattered around the puzzle. You only need the Pushable Block that heads into the NE corner to get all of them, but pushing the rest can make it a bit easier. One is found near the NE Giant Icicle formation, two are on the path leading up to the SE Giant Icicle formation, and the last is on the southern pillar (the last place you jump to before finishing the puzzle).

Once you’ve gotten to the final bridge to the Checkpoint and have cleared out the dangers, it’s time to head back and retrieve the final Key. Return to the bridge and look off the edge to the right to find a chest containing a [PURPLE BAUBLE].

One last bauble to go in this area, and it’s a doozy. Starting from just above the chest, you need to climb up the path of ledges until you reach the top. This requires a good number of leaping around corners, and is very tricky. Once you make it, kill the 3 Bananas up there to give you some breathing space. Now, starting from where you originally got up to this level, you need to start climbing to the right, heading above where the Banana that was nearest the bridge was. This is a very nasty path, and seems to require a Dodge Jump early on. You’ll finally get to the top of the mountain you were circling, and should be able to see a way to jump down towards the last two Bananas. Go ahead and do so and deal with them. There’s a path to the right of the 2nd Banana that leads to a very elusive [YELLOW BAUBLE]. Once again, I hope there’s a better way to get to this one, but as it stands, it’s certainly one of the most difficult to get.

So now that we’re at the 2nd Mountain with a Key in our hand, you should drop off the key, kill the Polar Bear if you want, and then die. Once you’re back at the Checkpoint, grab the 2nd Key and go ahead and take the Teleporter at the very top of the mountain. We should now be at the end of this Area with two spare Keys. We’ll need these later on Infantile Mode.

Area 4
Immediately as you enter this area, there’s a secret behind a bombable wall near the Banana. Inside lies [6 BLUE BAUBLES].

There’s also another [BLUE BAUBLE] up on the ledge behind the Giant Icicle. On Normal, you’ll be up here anyways to bomb the Icicle down.

Area 5
A [BLUE BAUBLE] rest on the left side of the Spike Corridor.

If you play the Gatekeeper Lullaby about halfway down the Spike Corridor, a Gatekeeper on the right hand wall will open up. Heading down here leads to an Ice Maze. The correct route through the Maze starts with the 2nd to last Ice Wall, and is pretty straightforward after that — just go straight when you’re given a choice. You’ll arrive in a large open area that contains a horde of Bananas. Kill them all to open up a nearby Gatekeeper, which reveals a Generous Man who will teach you the Shatter Serenade. This song can dislodge Icicles and shatter Ice Walls without ever letting them regrow, and so is very very useful when used correctly. No baubles down here though.

One more [BLUE BAUBLE] lies near the Goat “Q-Bert” puzzle at the end of the area.

Area 6
Immediately after the Checkpoint, you’ll find another [BLUE BAUBLE] and a Chest that contains a [PURPLE BAUBLE]. Good time to backtrack for one of those Keys we stashed. You can also use Lullaby on the left hand Gatekeeper to reveal another passage that leads back down to the Spike Corridor.

Next is a long sloping climb, with [5 BLUE BAUBLES] scattered along it. Although you dropped down to reach this part, you can still backtrack if needs be: look for a series of ledges about 1/3rd of the way up on the left hand wall. This leads back to the Spike Corridor (same as the previous Gatekeeper we unlocked).

Area 7
After you get rid of the two Polar Bears at the start, play the Lullaby to open up the nearby Gatekeeper. Inside here are three barrels, and an invisible Teleporter sitting behind the center barrel. This Teleporter will take you to a platform in Area 8, and can make a good shortcut. Of course, you can also find ways down back to Area 7 from here, if you make the right jumps. Nothing important here other than another Secret.

If you’re on Infantile, then you should activate the next three Shortcut Clouds so that you have an easy way to backtrack (the first Cloud will block the normal way to backtrack). After that, return back to the start of Area 7 and ignore the Clouds, taking the Normal route climb. You’ll find [3 BLUE BAUBLES] as you ascend towards the Checkpoint. And while there’s another secret along the way, we’ll cover that in Area 8, because it really is a good idea to get that Checkpoint.

Area 3
If you bought a Key, then drop it off at the start of this area. You won’t need it for a bit.

The first [BLUE BAUBLE] is somewhat easy to miss, even though it’s on the normal route. When you trigger the Checkpoint and either use a Shortcut Cloud or the Portal Block to teleport up to the nearby window, keep an eye for a ledge to the right as you fall. The bauble is half-embedded in the rock, but will be collected if you stand on it.

Another [BLUE BAUBLE] is located after you use the Teleporter on the Goat’s mountain. You can jump to the Goat’s mountain from the Shortcut Clouds and make your way up to the Teleporter, or just take the normal route through the 1st Galekeeper Portal Block puzzle.

The third [BLUE BAUBLE] is after you finish with the 2nd Galekeeper Portal Block puzzle, where you jump through a window, collect the bauble, open a Gatekeeper from the inside back to the Checkpoint and unlock a new Teleporter. This Teleporter leads to what we’ll call the Summit, which is the series of platforms surrounding the Checkpoint that make up the peak of this mountain. You’ll note that you can climb to the right (which leads to some Bananas and later a Polar Bear), or to the left (which is a faster way to the final Teleporter of this area).

First, head right from the Summit to a spiked area with a couple of Bananas. A [YELLOW BAUBLE] is located in the center. Next, descend onto the next area with another couple of Bananas. There’s a window nearby you can enter to unlock another Gatekeeper at the Checkpoint that reveals a Chest containing a [PURPLE BAUBLE]. A good time to use that Key we stashed.

There’s another secret in that place where the last two Bananas were. Behind the pillar you can climb up to reach a cloud, there’s an oddly colored wall that can be bombed. Entering it sends you plummeting down to the Torch Shop. However, if you push forward a bit as you fall, you’ll hit a pillar in the center of the chamber. From here, you can climb up some ledges to a bombable wall (another secret!) Score the secret, but don’t explore the area beyond just yet — pull back to the Torch Shop instead. If you’re on Normal, a suicide is probably in order. If you’re on Infantile, pick up another Key while you’re there and get ready to run back. Drop the key off at the checkpoint. (Thanks to Niodyne for pointing out the additional secret here.)

Back at the Summit, continue anti-clockwise around the area to reach the Polar Bear. There’s another [BLUE BAUBLE] here. After that, drop off the ledge behind the bear. You should land on some snowy ground. Follow this down several more small drops until you’re on a small square platform with nothing but a long drop left. Face the wall, and drop off to your left. You should land on an icy platform with a Gatekeeper around the corner. Play the Lullaby to open it and reveal [3 YELLOW BAUBLES]. Then head back out and to the right around the corner to a lower ledge. There’s another Gatekeeper at the far end of the ledge — play another Lullaby to get a [PURPLE BAUBLE].

Once again we have to either suicide or climb again. If you’re on Infantile… go fetch another Key and drop it off at the Checkpoint.

The Summit again, and this time climb up to your left. If you look out over the edge in front of you as you climb, you’ll see another tower below you with a window in it. Drop down towards it and enter. Open up the Gatekeeper from the inside and then start traversing the ledge to your right, hugging the wall. You’ll find an Ice Wall there that you should burn down to reveal a [PURPLE BAUBLE]. If you let the Ice Wall reform after getting the bauble and then burn it from the inside, you should get teleported up to the Gatekeeper as well. Which is interesting, but not really worthwhile to us: probably faster to commit suicide for checkpoint (No, we don’t actually need another Key now….)

We’re almost done with this area, so pick up one of the Keys and head once more to the Summit. We’re heading for the 2nd Mountain, which is avaialble through the Teleporter at the top of this area, but we’ll be taking a slight detour first. Climb up to the left again so that you’re on the midway platform between the two Teleporters. Look down over the far edge to the left of the uppermost Teleporter’s platform, and you’ll see a long drop down inbetween the walls, with a [YELLOW BAUBLE] at the bottom. Falling down here will lead you to an interior area patrolled by a few Polar Bears and a Banana at the very bottom. Once you get down there, a little exploring will get you another [YELLOW BAUBLE] and a Teleporter — which like the one at the top of the Summit, will also take you to the 2nd Mountain.

Area 1
Our very first [BLUE BAUBLE] is right along the usual route, past what I’m going to call the Galekeeper for the rest of this thread.

Head up the giant head near the Owl tree to start with, then look back across the cliff. You can climb across some ledges to reach a [YELLOW BAUBLE]. Then, if you climb back up to the top of the giant head and look down and to the right, you’ll see another [YELLOW BAUBLE] behind a tree. Drop down to grab it.

The Raccoons nearby will lead you into the Forest Maze, but don’t worry about following them too closely: you want to hug the left wall instead. You’ll find a [BLUE BAUBLE] nestled in a little snowy alcove. There’s also a secret in this area: if you continue along the left wall, you’ll come to two Gatekeepers (closed mouths — you’ll learn to recognise them) in the wall. The rightmost one won’t open from this side, but the leftmost one will respond to the Gatekeeper Lullaby. Play it to reveal a passage that you can climb up. This leads through a rather convoluted route that eventually takes you past some Polar Bears to a bombable wall, that leads you to inside a Gatekeeper just outside the Raccoon Stump. All that for nothing? Well, maybe there was a dig site on the way or something….

Back to the giant head, and once you get to the icy area above it, search the inner nooks for two Bombable Walls that lead to the same area. Again, nothing much in here, but at least it’s another secret for the collection.

After dispatching the Polar Bear above, look behind and to the right to see a [BLUE BAUBLE] hovering on a nearby pillar. You may need to use the Whip in midair to snag this one. Alternatively, a Dodge Jump can give you enough distance to get there.

Finally, you’ll come to a nice open cave mouth that contains a Shop. It sells the Torch, which is required to progress any further. If you’re on Infantile, then you might also want to buy a Key.

Area 2
The very first thing you come across in this area is a Polar Bear guarding a Chest, which contains [2 RED BAUBLES]. After that, we need to drop down into the Banana area and pick up [2 YELLOW BAUBLES]. The first is quite well hidden (thanks to Ayrilana for pointing it out to me), but is easy to get to if you start at the Chest, and look west towards the mountainside. You should see two pillars that you can walk between, and a small platform sticking out behind the rightmost pillar. Stand on that platform and look to your left, and you’ll see a gap between the leftmost pillar and the rock wall in front of you. Jump down there, and follow the path round. The first bauble will be just below you as you emerge from the passage. The second bauble is a lot easier to find, and is in plain sight as you dispatch the Bananas patrolling the ground. Finally, there’s a Secret Shop behind a Bombable Wall nestled in a corner alcove.

The next part involves a row of four Galekeepers. There are [4 BLUE BAUBLES] dotting the path across to collect first. After you have them all, backtrack so that you’re between the first and second Galekeepers, and then drop off the ledge below for another [BLUE BAUBLE]. Then walk further in to drop down to a ledge that gives you a choice: drop forwards or drop left. Opening both Gatekeepers from the inside might count as individual Secrets, but for bauble purposes, we want to drop to the left. Open the Gatekeeper to reveal a [YELLOW BAUBLE] (the one visible from the Raccoon Stump, in case you were wondering how to get to it). However, I wasn’t able to find a way out of there without dying….

If you’re playing Infantile, you may want to buy another Key while you’re back at the checkpoint.

Back on to the usual path, you’ll find a [BLUE BAUBLE] behind you immediately after using the Teleporter.

Finally, we reach the long climb inside the mountain. There’s a [BLUE BAUBLE], [GREEN BAUBLE] and [YELLOW BAUBLE] to be collected here as you ascend, which should be pretty easy if you’re on Infantile.

They don’t. On my final runthrough to get the Achievement (after having run through several times before and only just finding that the waterspouts had reappeared), I deliberately skipped sipping from the back of Hillbilly Stills, doing anything at all to the Raccoons, and even entering the Log Shop (so obviously, I didn’t break anything in there, but I didn’t break things in the shops I bought the Keys from either). EDIT: Removed redundant redundancy.

The only thing I didn’t get to test was whether Chests counted or not, but both older posts from April and recent dev posts have confirmed that they do, so….

Area 10
On Infantile, this is a very short Area. On Normal, this is the dreaded Gong Pagoda. However, we’ll be spending a lot of time here since there’s a fair amount of secrets around. There are no baubles in the Gong Pagoda itself, so you only have to worry about going in there if you’re on Normal or you’re after the Assassin Achievement.

On Normal, you’ll have to complete the Gong Pagoda first. Otherwise, you can follow the hint arrows past an apparently non-functional Dart Trap. Either way, you should reach the rear of the Pagoda, where you’ll find a [BLUE BAUBLE] and a block you can push to activate the Normal mode shortcut.

Next, head to the side of the Gong Pagoda nearest the Toad Pagoda. You can hop over to the roof to collect [2 BLUE BAUBLES].

Now comes the fun part. Back over to the grassy area between the Toad Pagoda and the Gong Pagoda. You must climb up the outside of the Gong Pagoda using the trees and clouds. Don’t worry about Dart Traps — other than the 1st Floor, there aren’t any on the outside the Gong Pagoda. Take the Owl’s tree up to the 4th Floor, then jump from the 4th Floor to an outstretched branch of another tree. Use that tree to reach the 5th Floor. Head to the back of the 5th Floor to find Clouds that get you to the 6th Floor, and another set of Clouds to reach the roof. From the roof you can make one final jump to land on top of the nearby peak with a Petal Thrower on top.

Now, we’ve got three things we need to do. First, there’s the [BLUE BAUBLE] on top of the Side Pagoda. I’m not sure if there’s another route to it, but the only way I got to work was to Dodge Jump (Jumping and Dodging at the same time) off the nearest edge of the peak towards the bauble. Normal jumping didn’t seem to be quite enough (was very close though, so maybe a really pixel perfect jump could do it). If you find a better route, feel free to share!

Next, find yourself a Key and get back up on top of the mountain. Again, ignore the Petal Thrower, and instead bomb the top of the mountain. Drop down and avoid the acid water, and bomb the wall directly opposite where the Gong Pagoda is. You can now drop down onto a Chest containing a [PURPLE BAUBLE].

Lastly, get back up on top of the mountain, and this time use the Petal Thrower to hurl yourself across to the ledge on the opposite side. You can then follow the path to a Hillbilly Still and a Raccoon Maze. Once you find the Raccoon Stump, there’s a slightly depressed part of the ground that can be bombed to find a cave, and inside you will be taught the Gatekeeper Lullaby if you have a Flute. Immediately use it to reveal a side area that was hiding a [PURPLE BAUBLE].

Assassin Count:

• 2 Assassins (2 Red) on 1st Floor of Gong Pagoda
• 1 Assassin (White) on 2nd Floor of Gong Pagoda
• 3 Assassins (Red, 2 White) on 3rd Floor of Gong Pagoda
• 2 Assassins (2 White) on 4th Floor of Gong Pagoda
• 2 Assassins (2 Red) on 5th Floor of Gong Pagoda
• 4 Assassins (4 White) on 6th Floor of Gong Pagoda
• 3 Assassins (2 Red, White) on walkway to Checkpoint

Area 11
This area is essentially a Teleporter Maze. If you’re after the Assassin Achievement, you will be required to both successfully pass the Maze, and then return and fail it. The correct route is Left, Right, Right, Forward, Forward. The best path to failure is Forward, Left. Once you’ve killed all the assassins on both paths, then you’ll get the Assassin Achievement immediately if you’ve killed them all up til now. If you haven’t, well… time to get backtracking.

For baubles though, all we care about is the correct route, as described above. If you get spun around, remember that all directions are from the position of the Exit Teleporter (the one with the sparkles going up). At the end of the correct path, you’ll finally get a [BLUE BAUBLE]. You can also reach this bauble by falling down on to it from the Shortcut Clouds on Infantile Mode.

The Checkpoint showing the end of this area is only available along the Failure Route, but it does mean that everything after this is a new Area. It’s probably best not to trigger it at all though.

Assassin Count:

• 6 Assassins (Red, 5 White) along correct Teleport route
• 2 Assassins (2 Red) along wrong Teleport routes

Area 12
After all this, it’s time to backtrack all the way to Area 4 and enlist the aid of the Shortcut Eagle. If you succeed in the little minigame of dodging owls up there (note that the Eagle’s head offers a defensive barrier against both owls from the front and you getting knocked off from behind), then he’ll drop you off at the very end of Area 12 on top of the struts of the final Bell. There are [5 BLUE BAUBLES] to collect up here.

Area 13
Just about done now. All that’s left is the final [BLUE BAUBLE] before facing the boss. With any luck, you should be done.

Area 5
The only [BLUE BAUBLE] in this area is on the Upper Floor, along the required path through this area.

Assassin Count:

• Boss Fight with Glove Assassin
• 4 Assassins (2 Red, 2 White) on Upper Floor
• 1 Assassin (Red) outside Glove Pagoda

Area 6
Just one [BLUE BAUBLE] here: on the 2nd Floor of the Dart Pagoda, in between four deadly Dart Traps. If you’re playing Normal Mode, you’ll get this one on your normal route. If you’re playing Infantile Mode, it’s probably easier to just jump towards it and die immediately after collecting it.

The Glove Gate at the top of the Pagoda cannot currently be opened, and does not count towards the Secret Room tally. There is an Assassin hiding behind the gate, but he can be killed or lured out without opening it.

Assassin Count:

• 1 Assassin (Red) patrolling outside Dart Pagoda
• 2 Assassins (Red, White) on Top Floor of Dart Pagoda
• 1 Assassin (White) behind the Glove Gate (either hit him through the gate or lure him out)

Area 7
Before you progress onwards, go around the back of the Dart Pagoda to find some clouds that can get you to the roof of the Dart Pagoda. You can now jump back towards Area 5 and collect [9 BLUE BAUBLES] from the struts of the Bell and the roof of the Glove Pagoda.

The only other baubles found here are the [2 RED BAUBLES] in the Chest on top of the Piranha Pagoda. Don’t worry about a key: we’ll be seeing a shop very shortly.

Assassin Count:

• 3 Assassins (3 Purple) along Piranha Gauntlet
• 2 Assassins (2 White) on 1st Floor of Piranha Pagoda
• 4 Assassins (2 Red, 2 White) on 2nd Floor of Piranha Pagoda
• 4 Assassins (Red, 3 White) on 3rd Floor of Piranha Pagoda

Area 8
Bomb the top of the peak immediately after the Checkpoint to reach a new Shop. Inside that Shop is a bombable wall that allows you to look out the side of the peak. Maybe there’s a Dig Spot there… haven’t tested. Either way, bombing and walking through walls is always useful to try and get that Secret Area Achievement count up, even if some secrets don’t happen to count.

There are no baubles in this area.

Assassin Count:

• 1 Assassin (Red) on 1st Peak
• 2 Assassins (2 White) off side of Pillar Jump Gauntlet (kill with ranged weapons)

Area 9
Immediately after the Checkpoint is the Side Pagoda (I only call it that because it’s a small Pagoda with no distinctive features that is off to the side of two very easy to remember Pagodas). You should be able to explore under the main Pagoda to the right. If you do so and follow the path round to the left of the mountain, you’ll eventually find a wall you can bomb in a niche underneath a wooden platform. This leads to a shop that sells the Chain Stick, an upgrade to your melee weapon.

The only [BLUE BAUBLE] in this area is found in the Toad Pagoda, a one-room death trap immediately after the Side Pagoda. Kill all the Toads with ranged weapons. Don’t try to get the Bauble yourself — the area is surrounded by Dart Traps. Use your Whip instead.

Assassin Count:

• 5 Assassins (2 Red, 3 White) on Side Pagoda
• 1 Assassin (White) around back of Toad Pagoda

Zone 2 has fallen. On one hand, writing up a Bauble runthrough didn’t take quite as long as Zone 1 once I sat down and looked for everything. On the other, I sure spent a hell of a lot of time on Zone 2 before even finishing off Zone 1 and writing the guide for it, had already found almost all of the secrets there, and it’s certainly where I’ve had my most deaths. It’s also really really REALLY long. Ah well.

Anyways, same rules as before: breakables, enemy kills, Raccoon Stumps, etc. don’t count for Bauble Achievements. I cannot stress enough that you should do this run on Infantile. Sure, it’s possible on Normal, but you will likely hate yourself by the end of it, simply due to backtracking issues.

I’ll also be recording Assassin counts in each Area, for those looking to get the “Become the Master” achievement. Note that, unlike many other SAB Achievements, this one will be given to you as soon as you complete it. You do not have to finish the zone before you get it.

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Area 1
On the starting mountain, there’s [2 BLUE BAUBLES]: one behind the shop and another sitting in sight on a lonely pillar (jump from the tree to get to it).

Around the 2nd peak, there’s a [BLUE BAUBLE] in plain sight.

Behind the 3rd peak is another [BLUE BAUBLE].

On the final peak before the checkpoint, there are [2 BLUE BAUBLES], again rather easy to find.

Assassin Count:

• 2 Assassins (Red, White) on starting mountain
• 2 Assassins (2 White) behind 2nd peak
• 2 Assassins (2 White) around 3rd peak
• 2 Assassins (2 White) on final peak
  — A Red Assassin from the next area may charge through the Checkpoint

Area 2
The first [BLUE BAUBLE] is found on the roof of the first Pagoda, directly in front of you. The next [BLUE BAUBLE] is immediately behind the Dart Trap.

When you get to the second Pagoda, there’s another [BLUE BAUBLE] on its roof (use the Petal Thrower and push forward as you fly), and a [RED BAUBLE] in the chest. If you’re playing Infantile Mode, then you won’t have come across a shop yet — remember this chest for backtracking.

The final [BLUE BAUBLE] here is on the 2nd Peak before the Piranha Pool.

Assassin Count:

• 3 Assassins (3 Red) at 1st Pagoda
• 4 Assassins (Red, 3 White) around 1st Peak
• 6 Assassins (2 Red, 4 White) at 2nd Pagoda
• 2 Assassins (Purple, White) on 2nd Peak (use Bombs to get the Purple Assassin)

Area 3
There are no baubles in this small area. Just concentrate on the puzzle, or use the Shortcut Clouds to skip it.

Assassin Count:

• 3 Assassins (3 Red) by Piranha Pools

Area 4
As you climb the 1st Peak, look for a path to the left hugging the wall that leads to a [BLUE BAUBLE].

If you continue past the Petal Thrower, you should see a cloud to your right. Jumping across it leads to the Shortcut Eagle. You need the Glove of Wisdom to progress here, but we’re going to assume you got that on a previous run. If not, well, you’re going to backtrack anyways. There’s a [BLUE BAUBLE] sitting right in front of him. Once you’re near that bauble though, the Eagle will start talking. You have a very limited amount of time to grab the bauble and jump up to the mountain above! If you take too long, the Eagle will take you soaring off ahead, and we don’t want that quite yet!

Assuming you evade the premature shortcut, you can bomb the top of the Eagle’s mountain to find a shop. Perfect place to get that Key, and it’s one of the Secret Rooms you need to find in this Zone anyways. As for the Eagle, here’s the deal. You need to ride him to get some Baubles near the end of the Zone… but that means you have to backtrack after the ride. On the plus side, there is a way to backtrack from the very end of the Zone to here, even on Normal. This also allows you to unlock the Gong Pagoda’s shortcut from the rear. On the minus side, your Checkpoint will be set to near the end of the Zone, and any death will send you right back there. I’m going to assume you’re playing Infantile again, and that we want to unlock all the Shortcut Clouds. That means skipping the Eagle for now, and returning much much later.

Back to the Bauble Hunt. As you start climbing the 2nd Peak, look to the left for a [BLUE BAUBLE].

Once you get to the Pagoda, instead of crossing towards it, look behind and to the left for a Petal Thrower. Take it across to another [BLUE BAUBLE] and a Petal Thrower that will hurl you into a Secret Shop.

Assassin Count:

• 2 Assassins (2 White) while climbing the 1st Peak
• 2 Assassins (Red, White) while climbing the 2nd Peak
• 3 Assassins (Red, 2 White) patrolling the outside of the Glove Pagoda

32/33 here as well, after running all three zones many times. I’m not even sure what I’m expected to do to hit each ‘trigger’. Should you stop dead on a checkpoint and let it launch you straight up? Should you push as far forward as you can and hit some invisible trigger ahead of the checkpoint? Should you just walk normally through the checkpoint gate after it launches you? Are the triggers only available during the Checkpoint Launch?

I know there’s necessarily some triggers that don’t require Checkpoints, but given I’ve walked just about everywhere in the first 2 Zones and along every part of the Infantile Path in Zone 3 (including up to the one Checkpoint that isn’t visited in the Infantile path), the launches are the only things I can think of. And I don’t know what’s the proper way to get past them, having tried multiple variants of the above.

Only noticed this very recently because I hadn’t taken the time to look that closely at the fountain before, but it looks like there’s a new inscription on the fountain, replacing the old runes that were there.

It apparently reads: “WELCOME TO MADNESS”.

Given the state of the stonework in the center, I think we might be able to make a guess on where we’re getting into the Mad Realm in the upcoming Acts….