Spelunky: Achievements Guide 100%

1. So It Begins – Complete The Tutorial

Self-Explanatory

2. Mines Shafted – Reach The Jungle

Requires completing the first four stages (through 1-4). While by no means the easiest feat, certainly achievable after a short amount of playtime. Some tips if you’re struggling:
– Slow down. Going too fast is the easiest way to take damage in this game. Whether its slipping over an edge that leads to fall damage or jumping into a bat just a few frames before your whip would connect, slowing down will always make it easier to complete a level. It’s not a race. Right now…
– Collect Money and buy from the shops. There will always be a shop on either 1-2 or 1-3, and by that point you should be able to afford something, assuming you went out of your way to collect money. Bombs and ropes will likely be the most effective for completing this task.
– Back-whip the bats. When using your whip, there is a few frames in which your whip will damage an enemy that is up and behind your sprite. The range on this attack is absurd at times, and is highly effective for enemies that are above you. Especially the bats.

3. Jungle Jammed – Reach The Ice Caves

Requires completing the next four stages (through 2-4). This will likely be much more difficult than completing the mines.
– Attack boomerang cavemen when they’re facing away from you. If they’re facing away from you, they can’t hit you with a boomerang. Simple as that.
– Always look down. The Jungle has lots of traps and enemies that can lead to instant death. When preparing to drop down to a lower ledge, find a solid platform or ledge to hang off, and hold down, this will shift the camera down, allowing you to see the ground below.
– Using a rope while a monkey rides your back will kill it.

4. Ice Creamed – Reach The Temple

Requires completing the next four stages (through 3-4). This section of the game can either be incredibly difficult or trivially easy depending on what gear you’ve collected up until this point.
– Find a compass, cape, jet pack, or climbing gloves. One of the most difficult aspects of this portion of the game is the fact that there is no ground at the bottom of the stage to save you from a nasty fall. All four of the aforementioned items help to mitigate this issue in one way or another, the compass arguably being the most important as it points in you in the direction of the exit.
– Additionally, if you have the level feeling “I sense a psychic presence here,” there is guaranteed to be a jet pack two tiles behind the alien resting in his ship.
– Don’t get cycled by a yeti. Yeti cannot be whipped, and if positioned correctly, when they throw you, you will bounce back into them and be thrown until death. Just jump on their heads.
– UFOs explode. If you jump on a UFO, make sure to move the opposite direction that the ship moves afterwards to avoid self inflicted combustion.
– Pick up land mines. The red and grey landmines can be picked up which not only deactivates their charge, but allows you to place the explosive down again later to use if you’re running low on bombs.

A more broad suggestion if you’re getting stuck at a certain place is to use checkpoints. As you progress, you can unlock short cuts by turning in resources at the end of a biome, which allows you to practice a biome you’re particularly struggling with.

5. Made It – Complete The Game

A tall order, but one you’re entirely capable of! The temple is a difficult place to navigate, and Olmec is a difficult boss.
– Avoid Crush Traps. Easily my number one cause of death across the board is crush traps. These blocks that fly at you, some times from off screen, crush you instantly along with any sense of happiness you’ve felt in the past three days. Bomb them, go around them, or if you must, bait them out before continuing to the next section.
– Anubis takes two bombs to blow up. His scepter can cause issues in a pinch, but two bombs with paste will take him out quick. DO NOT USE HIS SCEPTER TO ATTACK. This is an exaggeration, but if there are no enemies that leave corpses, the projectile will turn and kill your. Mummies, scorpions, teleporting-crocodiles and most other enemies in the temple don’t have corpses.
– Make sure a lava baby won’t jump out as you cross a pool of lava. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve died because a lava baby has lept into my pathing while I was mid jump. It pays off to take a few extra moments to stare at the particles in the lava and make sure you won’t be intercepted.

If you’ve got his achievement, congratulations! This game is truly a test of skill, knowledge (and sometimes luck), and you should be proud for making it this far. Now you get to move on to the fun part of the game. The next two achievements are heavy spoilers, so read at your own risk.

6. City Of Gold – Reach The City Of Gold

There are many steps one must take to reach the illusive City Of Gold. In the mines, on either 1-2, 1-3 or 1-4, there will be a golden key and corresponding chest somewhere on the level. If you bring the key to the chest, you will be awarded with the Udjat Eye, an item that reveals all gems and items in the wall, as well as leads you to the Black Market in The Jungle.

Once you reach The Jungle, on levels 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3, the Black Market exit can appear anywhere in the level, hidden behind a tile. As you explore, the Udjat Eye in your HUD will begin to blink if you are near the Black Market. Usually one to two bombs will do the trick, although sometimes the exit can be in an area that is difficult to access. I highly recommend paste for exits that spawn in hard to reach places. Once you enter the Black Market, on the far right side will be a shop keeper selling the Ankh, the item needed to progress to the City Of Gold. This can either be purchased for 50000, or can be stolen, although with the number of shopkeepers, this can be quite difficult to do.

As you make your way through the ice caves, you’ll come across a statue that has the ankh symbol engraved into it’s head. Your next step towards the City of Gold is rather counter intuitive: You have to die. The easiest way to do this is to fall into the abyss below, but any method will do. Note that when you die, you will drop any item you’re holding, but not an item you’re wearing, like a cape or jet pack. Once you respawn from the Ankh, you’ll be placed inside the statue with an exit in front of you. and The Hedjet above you. Once your character has contacted the item, proceed to the next stage.

On level 4-1, Anubis will always spawn. As mentioned before, two bombs will take him out, although a shotgun or freeze ray also gets the job done. Upon death, Anubis will drop his scepter, the key to the City of Gold. The entrance to the City of Gold always spawns on level 4-2, and requires both the Scepter and the Hedjet to enter. Without the Hedjet, the Scepter will not open the door. Enter the room and you’ll unlock the achievement!

7. To Hell and Back – Complete The Game The Hard Way

The method for getting to Hell is exactly the same as reaching the City of Gold, there are simply more steps once reaching the City of Gold.

In the center of The City Of Gold will be an enclosed room with the Necronomicon in the middle. Bomb your way into the room to pick up the item, and prepare for a brief encounter with Anubis II. Much like the OG Anubis, two bombs will take him out, although this version spawns red skeletons as opposed to attacking with a scepter. It’s also worth noting that you have the option of taking the exit immediately after grabbing the Necromicon, which will always take you to the Olmec fight. However, Anubis II will follow you into the next level if he is not killed during the City of Gold.

Once in the Olmec fight, you must once again look to the HUD to see the Necronomicon chomping up and down. As opposed to blinking like with the Udjat Eye, the Necronomicon will chomp faster or slower depending on how close you are to the exit to hell. When at it’s fastest speed, the item will indicate that you are directly above the exit. Take care of Olmec as you see fit, and use his head as a platform to exit to Hell. This is much easier said than done, so if you have the spare bombs, pull Olmec to one side of the boss room, and then carve out a hole for him to fall into.

Once in Hell, you’ll be greeted with a host of dangerous enemies and traps, and three stages to complete before reaching the real final boss, Yama. A few tips for reaching the final boss:
– On stage 5-1, one side of the map will always contain Vlad’s castle. Hidden in the walls is a charm that provides you with lava immunity. Furthermore, killing Vlad will provide you with a cape that allows for double jumping.
– Passing under the flying cauldron guys causes them to drop their cauldron and move slowly towards you, but if you take care of the before passing under them, it can be much easier to progress through the levels.
– During the final boss rights, two guards will spawn on either side of you. Upon death, they both drop a bomb box, which can be incredibly useful when attempting to win your run.
– In the final boss room, take care of any spikes you can to avoid instant death

If you manage to take care of the final boss and exit the level, congratulations! You’ve completed the game. Certainly not an easy thing to do, and from here on you only have exploring and challenges to complete. Putting down the game at this time also means you’ve technically beaten the game, although you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t interested in continuing your spelunking.

This segment of the guide covers unlocks in both the journal, and on the character select screen. Finding these things through exploration is one of the most satisfying aspects of the game in my opinion so explore as you see fit and return here if you get stuck.

8. Eternal Life – Obtain the Ankh

As mentioned previously, the Ankh is obtained in the Black Market either through robbery or purchased for 50000. It provides you with an extra life, where you will respawn on death at the start of the stage, or inside the statue during a particular level in the ice caves.

9. Her Favorite – Win The Kapala From Kali

As you’ve progressed through the game, you’ve likely noticed an alter covered in blood on a handful of level throughout the game. These are “Kali Alters.” They work as such: bringing a body, living or dead and lying it down on the alter provides you with favor from Kali. Each body type has a different “point” value, ranging from 1 to 8. For example, a dead caveman would only be worth 1 point, while a living damsel is worth 8 points. Gathering favor with kali has two primary payouts.

First, at 8 points, you receive a random item from the shop item pool that you don’t already have. Second, at 16 points, you earn the Kapala, an item that heals you based on the amount of blood particles you pick up from fallen enemies. The primary way to build points is through the sacrificing of damsels, however you can build these points up over time with other bodies, and they carry over between levels.

It’s also worth noting that you can lose favor with Kali by damaging the alter. Blowing up or destroying the alter in anyway results in a loss of 8 points, with three different punishments for your transgressions. The first destruction, regardless of current favor, with spawn around a dozen spiders. The second, attaches a ball and chain to your character. The third spawns the ghost permanently, forcing you to play the rest of the run haunted.

10. The Entire Gang – Rescue All 16 Hidden Characters

Characters are hidden in coffins through out the game, some of which randomly give you a new character, some of which have specific characters tied to the location of the coffin. Here’s a list of coffin locations.

– Random Mines Level – Hardhat (Yellow)
– Random Jungle Level – Mariachi (Lime)
– Random Ice Caves Level – Pirate (Purple)
– Random Temple Level – Bearguy (Cyan)

The four characters unlocked through the random stage coffins are not location specific, however once you find a random coffin in a given stage, you will not find one again. If you’re missing one of these characters, use the shortcuts and replay a biome until you find the character you’re looking for.

– Top of the Haunted Castle – Van Hellsing (Black)
– Defeat Olmec – Aztec (Brown)
– Near the bottom of The Worm – Meat Boy (Red/Pink)
– Defeat Yama – Yang (White)
– Found on “Smells Like Wet Fur” Level – Eskimo (Pink)
– Found on “My Skin Is Crawling” Level – Round Girl (Violet)
– Platforms above Olmec boss fight – Ninja (Dark Green)
– Found in the Tiki Village – Round Boy (Mint)
– On sale at Black Market (10000) – Cyclops (Dark Orange)
– Found on “Dead Are Restless” OR “I Hear Rushing Water” Levels – Viking (Light Gray)
– Found Inside Mothership – Robot (Dark Grey)
– Found In City Of Gold – Golden Monk (Gold)

11 Seen A Lot – Discover 50% Of The Journal

This achievement will likely happen as you are playing the game, and will not require any additional exploration.

12. Seen It All – Discover 100% Of The Journal

Many of the journal entries will come as you play the game, but some are easily missable if you don’t explore everything. Here are some hints for where to earn missing journal entries.

– Steal an idol in every biome
– Bring an idol to a Kali alter for a surprise
– Bring a present to a Kali alter for a bigger surprise (Not required for achievement)
– Bring a damsel to one of the red/orange stubs in the wall found in both the Jungle and Ice Caves
– Enter the Mothership on 3-4
– Dig up the King’s grave on a “Dead Are Restless” Level
– Take a dive in the “I Hear Rushing Water” Level
– Disturb the Queen Bee in The Jungle and collect her juices
– Rescue both damsels on a hell level
– Bust down the walls of Vlad’s castle and impale him with a metal stake
– Stick around for 2:30 minutes in one level

The seven remaining achievements fall more into the category of challenge rather than anything else. Many of these achievements even have their own special speed-running category! While the requirements are no where near the difficulty of a highly competitive speed-run of the challenge, each of the achievements is designed to give you a taste of different ways to play the game.

13. Ironman – Complete The Game Without Shortcuts

It’s possible you got this achievement during an earlier play through, but if you were only able to beat Olmec with shortcuts and haven’t yet done a Hell run, this achievement may still be locked. With the tips mentioned earlier in the guide and enough practice, you will certainly be able to complete this achievement.

14. Casanova – Rescue 10+ Damsels In One Game

While this is not necessarily something you would normally complete in a standard run, it isn’t by any means the hardest task on the lists. If you’re just playing just the four main biomes and skipping Hell, you’ll have a total of 15 damsels to collect on the standard path. This gives you a little bit of leeway when it comes to skipping damsels in hard to reach or dangerous places.

15. Public Enemy – Kill 12+ Shopkeepers in One Game

This achievement may seem difficult at first, but it’s actually fairly manageable in reality. The best way to take care of this achievement is as follows:
– Rob and kill the shopkeeper on 1-2, and steal his shotgun (1)
– Play through the rest of the mines, and make sure to collect the Udjat Eye from the chest. The mines will contain at minimum two more shopkeepers for you to kill at the end of each stage, possibly one more if you’re lucky enough to find another shop (~3).
– In the jungle, kill shopkeepers at the exit or in shops if possible, but focus primarily on finding the Black Market (~4)
– Once in the Black Market, kill every shopkeeper with your shotgun. 6 for each main shop on the stage, 1 for the Ankh shop, and 1 guarding the exit. It’s entirely possible that some of the shopkeepers die to the environment or accidentally shoot each other, so don’t worry if you can’t pick all of them off. (~10)
– Post Black Market, you’re likely around 10 shopkeeper kills, so simply take out a few more exit shopkeepers and the achievement will be yours.

16. Speedlunky – Complete The Game In Under 8 Minutes

This is the first true challenge achievement on the list and it will require a lot of practice and a fair amount of luck to complete. Here are some tips that I found made it easier to complete this achievement:
– First of all, if you can manage to get a good grasp of the teleporter, this achievement will likely be trivial for you, you just need to find a teleporter in the first shop and speed through the rest of the game from there, however, this is in no way practical and I would not recommend it.

– In the mines, lots and lots of crates spawn on the map which can spawn helpful items that make it much easier to complete the remainder of the run, take a little bit of time to go grab a crate, even if it’s out of the way. 8 minutes is a little bit more than enough time than you need to complete a run if you move fast enough.
– If you encounter a “Snake Pit” level in the mines, take your time to drop to the bottom and grab the mattock underneath the rubies at the bottom. It takes longer than completing the level normally, however having the mattock will pay dividends during later, more dangerous levels.
– Good items to pickup if you can: Bombs, Paste, Rope, Compass, Cape, Jetpack, Mattock
– Aim to exit the mines before 1:45 and exit the Jungle before 3:30. This may seem fast, but if you don’t explore and keep moving, it’s quite doable.
– Slow down during the ice caves. When attempting this achievement, I found most of my failures came from moving too fast in this biome and launching myself off a cliff. Having the compass here is incredibly useful, while not necessary, as it makes sure you stay on the correct side of each stage to approach the exit. If you can get out of here before 5:00, you’re doing fantastic.
– During the temple, don’t be afraid to use bombs, even if you have to drop to zero. The stage hazards in the temple are certainly the most deadly, and getting around them and keeping the run alive is far more important than saving your bombs.
– For Olmec, the primary way we will be dealing with him is bomb-less, but will require a few ropes. Approach Olmec, and when he jumps, walk under him until he freezes in the air and prepares to slam down. Quickly move out from under him and stand about one Olmec’s distance away from him (4-5 tiles). Rinse and repeat this cycle, having Olmec create a gap of 8-10 tiles that you continue to use to send him into the lava bellow. As he approaches his final drop, let him freeze, and then move out of the way and use ropes to climb up to the surface. With this strategy, you’ll likely clock in just under 8:00 minutes!

17. Big Money – Obtain 500,000 Gold

This achievement ends up being somewhat simple depending on how well practiced you are at the game, however it also requires a fair amount of luck. Here was the strategy I used to pick up the achievement:
– Find and rob a decent shop on stage 1-2, preferably with a lot of bombs.
– Begin collecting the materials to head towards the City Of Gold
– Pick up as much money as you can on the way to the City Of Gold, preferably around 100-150k before arriving
– Blow the City of Gold to smithereens and collect the Necronomicon. Attempt to exit with around 300k gold, but save some bombs
– Defeat Olmec and head into Hell
– Play through Hell and defeat King Yama, and make sure to take care of the guards in his arena for more bombs
– Once Yama is defeated, head to the center of the arena where a large quantity of Ruby’s is surrounded by Spike Traps. These Rubys are worth around 100k in total, just make sure you hit a score of 400000 before leaving this area.
– Find the exit and claim your run-win reward of 100000 money. The additional 100k will put you over the edge of 500k, rewarding you with the achievement.

18. Low Scorer – Complete The Game With No Treasure

I found this to be the most difficult achievement to complete, not because of your inability to access items, but because of how hard it was to avoid picking the money up by accident. Here are some tips to make the task easier:
– In the mines, attempt to pick up any crates you can, as well as the Udjat Eye if possible. The Udjat Eye will reveal any hidden gems in the wall, making it easier to avoid accidentally picking them up.
– Whip money piles that are in your way, and use them to activate dart traps that you would otherwise need to use a rope for
– Don’t rob the shop keeper, killing them drops money which you may accidentally grab, plus it makes it harder to clear a stage.
– In the jungle, always proceed carefully downward and across large patches of grass. It’s easy to fall directly onto piles of money from a high distance, and sometimes gold bars can be hidden behind patches of grass.
– Similarly, proceed across trees with caution because gold bars can be hidden directly atop the trunk of the tree
– Treat the Ice Caves similarly to the Jungle, proceed with caution, and make sure to traverse slowly as gold can be hidden behind piles of snow and other stage decoration
– For the temple and Olmec, you’ll be using the same strategy outlined in the Speedlunky achievement, but this time you need to make sure not to accidentally pick up gold from the arena. Sometimes, when Olmec breaks a tile, money will pop out. Do your best to not pick this up, and if you are able, cause Olmec to crush the money, removing it from the stage permanently.

This achievement will take a lot of patience and practice, especially for Olmec. I recommend using the shortcut to The Temple to practice clearing the biome and boss without picking up any treasure.

19. Good Teamwork – Complete The Game With At Least 2 Players Alive

Personally, I struggled to find a way to make any form of Co-Op work on the PC edition of the game, so this may be easier to attempt solo. However, if you do have a friend to play with, best of luck!

To complete solo, enter the settings and create a second keybinding for Player 2. I personally set all of the controls to the number keys at the top of the keyboard, however if you play on a controller, you can really set them anywhere you want.

Drop the second character in on the character select screen and begin a run.

Carry the second player around with you as long as you see fit, and kill them when you’re ready to carry something else (Bonus points if you sacrifice them on a Kali alter as a second player is equivalent to 8 points). Once the teammate is dead, every subsequent level will have a coffin that lets them respawn with full HP, but no bombs or ropes. You can use this to rack up more sacrifices with Kali if the map generation allows you to.

Play through the run as normal, collecting any items that will help you along the way. On Temple level 4-3, find the Coffin and revive your teammate. Make sure they don’t die before the end of this stage, otherwise you’ll have to restart. To do this, either clear the rest of the level quickly with your teammate waiting in a safe spot, or carry them with you to the exit.

The Olmec fight is the hardest part of this run. Carrying the teammate with you the whole time means you will be unable to whip any monsters that Olmec spawns, however leaving him off screen for too long will cause death. Additionally, Olmec could in theory aggro onto your teammate, crushing him and also resulting in a reset.

I believe the easiest way to defeat Olmec in this fight is to lure him to one side, and then bomb out a massive hole for Olmec to drop through. During your excavation, make sure the teammate isn’t off screen for too long. Then lead Olmec to his doom and carry your teammate to the goal.

20. Addicted – Play Adventure Mode 1000 Times

For me, this was the last achievement I completed, the rest being done around 450 deaths total and around 25 hours of game play. However, these stats only apply to the PC edition of the game. I’ve clocked in well over 3,000 deaths and likely several hundred hours on the Play Station Edition, which enabled me to complete this version in a much smaller amount of time. This game requires a lot of game knowledge, practice, luck, and patience. If you never beat the game in your first 1000 runs, that’s par for the course when it comes to this game. Don’t be discouraged if it takes a long time to complete. It’s incredibly satisfying to complete these challenges, and hit that 100% mark.