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Gensou Tansaku Nitroid!/Worlds/World 5

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Map of World 5

Foreword

Important! Read this information before entering World 5.

Collect at least 15 UFOs from Worlds 1 through 4 (there are 19 in these worlds). Then go to Marisa's House and talk to Nue. Her reward for collecting 15 UFOs is unlocking World 5. To access this world, you first need to beat World 4.

First of all, buy an Ariadne's Thread. Once you save inside World 5, you won't be leaving the world for a long time, except by using an Ariadne's Thread. You should therefore have a Thread with you at all times. Purchasing Shirikodamas can also help.

Be sure that you are ready to enter this world before you begin it. You should build up enough health (via Marisa's Mega-Vigor Mushrooms) and energy (by collecting the golden cucumbers) to make sure you're confident. It's also recommended that you make backup save files before and during this world.

Apparently, the game creators made World 5 after receiving feedback about the game from the first four worlds. Get ready to push the limits of the game mechanics.

The World

World 5 is long, tough, and very demanding on the player. This is a sound advice.

Nitori wonders where she is: a rather surreal place, vaguely titled Gensokyo, with a broken moon in the background. Then a mysterious fog appears and claims that it has been watching how Nitori has fared. Then it removes Nitori's tools and disperses them! This entity has prepared a long, difficult series of challenges for you, so brace yourself.

A major goal in this world is to find each of your tools again to increase Nitori's abilities and gain access to more parts of the world. Also, the resetting of your tools is only for this world; if you ever leave World 5 and return to another world, you will have all of your tools in the item selection menu.

Note that the order you obtain the tools will be very different this time. The message box displayed when you retrieve a tool here will also be different from when you previously found it, so remember to read it. Such messages may contain clues.

The Earthkeeper Suit

You start at a blank slate with no tools to equip, though you retain the ability to run with the DASH button. The Earthkeeper has positioned itself just above you. You can't get it directly, though, because invisible blocks form a ceiling, but you would nonetheless be correct if you guessed that it's the first tool you will retrieve.

As the sign warns, confirm again that you are ready for this world before you decide to save here. You won't be able to use your Shirikodamas or Ariadne's Threads until you retrieve a tool first. This is probably due to a technical reason within the game's programming.


The right side has yellow spikes to prevent you from going any further, and you can't break the bricks in the floor right now. So head left.

The first part of this world is a test of your ability to survive. The more health you have built up, the better chance you have in surviving.

In 5-1, make use of a short hop rather than a full jump when it's necessary to not jump too high. To avoid the pogo rabbits that hop on red spikes, you can either hop between the rabbit and the spike or jump over the rabbit. Both require very good timing. If you do get hit, keeping going forward to maximize use of the invincibility frame. The bouncies can help you move more quickly, as well. If it helps, you can land on the very edge of a block on which a FOE walks, and it won't reach you.

For 5-2, on the ice blocks, remember that it takes more effort to build momentum. The ice won't directly affect you anymore once you're in the air. If you don't want to accidentally slip on ice (into bouncies, which will likely knock you off the ice), jump into blocks as you move forward. The blocks will stop your forward momentum and help Nitori keep her movement stable.

Because of Earthkeeper drop lift and caution blocks in the way, you can't go to the left side of 5-2, so instead go back to 5-1 from the upper passage. There, beware of the blue rabbit randomly moving and tossing beach balls.

Past it is a giant row of glass blocks. You need to drop down below at the right spot to claim the Earthkeeper; if you miss, you will have to repeat this survival challenge. Hint: look at the ceiling above. At some point, the red spikes (on the left side) stop at a wall, with just the plain ceiling past the wall. The Earthkeeper's horizontal position is basically around the wall's.

When you collect the tool, you get a reminder that it doesn't protect you from attacks. After the tool is yours, save again to recharge your health.

The Hyper DaShoes

Three columns of glass blocks. Drop down from the top, and head left. After collecting the tool, return from the left to the warp door.

This world has certain places in which you are required to take a hit to avoid dying by yellow spikes. Don't be surprised if you find that taking damage is required.

Now head back to 5-2. This time, you can use the Earthkeeper to make the lift drop. If you use the save point there, located below the lift, then you won't be able to go back up and back to 5-1 for a while. You don't need to, anyway, so don't worry about it.

Now, on the floor below the save point, the wind pushes you to the left where there are yellow spikes. Here, use the Earthkeeper to stall yourself while you figure out the challenge. You will notice that there are blue on-off switches. Use the switch toggling to create a blue platform so that a brown FOE (which doesn't walk off edges) can walk over it. Then, while the FOE is still on the platform, toggle again to make the platform disappear, causing the FOE to drop. When the FOE hits Nitori, use the invincibility frame to walk over the spikes and jump up (jump far away enough from the wind so that it doesn't interfere). One note: when Nitori reverts to normal form from Earthkeeper, she hops slightly; don't re-toggle a switch accidentally.

Go left to 5-3. Behind the wall, there is a warp door, and then glass blocks stacked into three columns (see screenshot). Get up above the glass blocks and you will see a save point and a blue button switch. The challenge here is to retrieve your next tool and then return to the warp door right of the glass. Even after you collect the tool, you have to hurry to get back or else you will be trapped and forced to reset (although, you can use the Ariadne's Thread after the tool is yours).


5-3 Initial Challenge

Two columns of glass blocks, with openings at top (outside view), left, right, bottom. Drop from top opening to bottom for the black button switch, then enter the left side opening for the Hyper Dashoes. Afterwards, use the right side opening to return back.

This challenge is not so obvious at first glance. You have to get rid of the left column of the glass to proceed to the left and go for the tool. But you also need to clear enough glass so you can reach the warp door to the right of the glass on your way back. Using your Earthkeeper won't be enough to get rid of all three columns, so manually (without the Earthkeeper) make a steep staircase out of the glass. It's best to clear three glass blocks in one column, six in the next, and nine in the last one. Then step on one more glass block for the last one and jump back up to the top. Doing this will then enable you to smash the two taller columns with the Earthkeeper, and then be able to reach and eliminate the other column.

Once you understand how this works, aim to incorporate this into beating the challenge. The blue button switch is hard to jump over without pressing, so after preparing the glass blocks, it's best to wait for the switch to reset and press it again before heading down for real.

Go left and you will find two more columns of glass (see screenshot). There's an opening on both left and right of the columns; it's vital that you eliminate the glass since you will have to go through those openings. However, you don't want to just smash all the way down. Below the glass columns is a small space containing a needed black button switch, but you won't get out of the pit on your own. You need a glass block to get up to the opening to the left. Since you need to hurry, smash partway and stop. Readjust your position to be above a single column (so that you are leaving glass on the other side) and then smash down again. Press the black switch and get up to the left side opening.

Climb up the black blocks and ladders to find the Hyper Dashoes. Remember, this challenge isn't over! Quickly drop back down and jump through the openings to the right. Then keep going right to reach the warp door before the blue button switch expires; the blue blocks form a wall just to the left of where the three columns of glass were. Once you reach the warp door, you will appear on the other side of the wall, so that you can reach the save point again.


The Hyper Dashoes is the tool that you will relearn to a great extent. Whereas you generally used the hyperdash directly forward in World 4, in this world, you will be using the residual momentum effect much more often. Hyperdash towards a wall, and when you bounce in the other direction, keep running in that direction to sustain an increase in momentum. You have to be running, not walking, for the momentum to stay.

The Stinky Ball

You need another tool, found in 5-4, before you can proceed in 5-3. Before you head there, though, go back to the beginning (lower part of 5-1). The Hyper Dashoes will allow you to get back there.

At the beginning, you can now use the residual momentum to jump over the yellow spikes to the right. Hyperdash to the left, and run (not walk) after you bounce rightward, to keep an enhanced momentum. You need to jump slightly early so that the spike doesn't stop you as you jump. Past the spikes, carefully collect the key floating above a yellow spike. Do the same thing again, this time leftward, to jump past the spikes again.

Now you need to get to 5-4. Enter 5-1 from the upper passage of 5-2, to walk across the row of glass. There's a place where you drop down to another row of glass, but there's a leftward wind trying to push you towards yellow spikes. You need to time the Earthkeeper correctly so that you drop through the wind, but revert before you drop through the glass also. The glass is out of reach for Nitori's jump once you fall below.

This stage has two challenges: one involves an intricate use of jumping with residual momentum, and the other involves a giant maze made of red button switch blocks.


5-4 Jump Challenge

The glass rectangle. You need to get on the floor above it, and then drop down onto the rectangle.

Consult this video for a demonstration. It shows you the steps for this challenge, and the latter portion demonstrates an easier alternative. While the steps themselves aren't too hard to figure out, the execution of those steps is very demanding. Your goal is to get up the yellow staircase above you.

You will see in this order: a yellow button switch, glass blocks that seal up a downward hole, and a save point. Past the save point is a rectangle of glass blocks. Remember this. The rectangle is too high to jump up to normally, so you will need to reach from above.

Press the yellow switch and drop down the hole; punch through the glass with the Earthkeeper. After you drop down, to the left is a warp door that resets the stage. Use the key from 5-1 to unlock the key door to the right. Now here's what you do while the switch is still active. The switch has created several yellow platforms. Using the residual momentum, hop from one platform to the next (they're too far apart for normal momentum jumps). When you need to turn around, hyperdash again to recreate the residual momentum in the other direction.

There's an important caveat, however: if you simply move at full speed all the time, you will overshoot the platform when you bounce off. Which direction you're pressing during the bounce is important.

  • If you move along the bounce, you get the maximum distance from it.
  • If you move against the bounce, you fight against its effect.

So, you have to change directions mid-bounce to reduce its distance and land so that you can actually jump. Once you get past all of the floating platforms, the switch will probably run out before you can climb the yellow staircase. Don't worry about it. You came up here so that you can eliminate the rectangle of glass below you.

To land on the rectangular set of glass below you, you have to make an opening in the floor (there are glass in the floor as well). You can't quite reach the glass by just dropping down through the opening. You will need to use hyperdash to actually run across the top of the rectangle when you drop down. Landing on just the upper-left corner of the rectangle is sufficient to allow you to reach the rest of the glass there (if you're following the video's way, you have to eliminate all of the glass on the right side in the floor, because even one glass block will obstruct Nitori's hyperdash).

Now that the glass rectangle is within reach, eliminate the glass (it's best to leave the lowest row of it for use). Now press the yellow switch again, and this time, directly head to the right instead of dropping down the hole. Use the residual momentum to help you jump across any gaps in the floor, as with before. You should have enough time to get up the yellow staircase and finish the challenge.

There's an alternate method using the Hyper Dashoes glitch jump (as shown at the later segment of the above video). To the left of the glass rectangle is a single block placed higher than the floor to the block's right. This block is too far from the rectangle, but if you use the glitch jump, you can combine the effects of the bounce and Nitori's jump to get up to the rectangle. Doing this means you can skip the part of the challenge down below.

5-4 Maze Challenge

The rest of 5-4 is made for a large maze that moves up, down, left, or right, depending on which red button switch you last pressed. See this video for how to clear the maze. There's a save point next to the first of the red button switches.

First, if you want to drop back down to the lower part, press the first red switch, then hyperdash on a thin platform. If you use hyperdash while the platform descends on Nitori, it will push her through the platform (if you try this while Nitori is on a solid floor, she will die).

The rule of thumb for this maze is to press each red switch as soon as it's accessible. The maze is designed to accommodate pressing each switch right away.

  • The first switch makes the maze descend. Don't attempt to just press the first switch and run to the right normally; you need to be quick to reach the next red switch, so make use of the residual momentum. By controlling Nitori's momentum during the bounce, you can either bounce over the first switch or land on it.
  • After you press the second one, the maze moves left. When you have multiple paths in the red maze, keep heading right to reach the next switch. Note: if you try to jump to the right over a wall, and the maze is moving to the left, the wall might interrupt your jump. Thus, you should be some distance away from the wall and not right next to it when you jump.
  • The third switch makes the maze descend again. Now come back to where there are multiple paths and this time, head down. You will have to wait at times; just proceed as soon as you can. When you see red spikes, if you did things correctly, there should be an opening in the maze to drop down below those spikes. The fourth switch is located below the red spikes.
  • Pressing the fourth switch causes the maze to move rightward. Continue to drop down and land on the bottom floor of the stage. Then head right, moving ahead of the maze's speed, using the thin platforms as needed. If the maze is already descended too low, it will be in the way when you try to go right ahead of it, but this won't happen if you pressed the switches correctly.

The Stinky Ball is located at the bottom-right corner of the stage. The next and final switch is also there. Before you press the switch, look at the ladder and ensure that it's lined up with an opening in the maze. You need to climb the ladder to get out and proceed.

  • Activating the fifth switch causes the maze to ascend. Now that you have the tool, you need to leave this red maze. Use the ladder to get out of the square pit of the maze (if you navigated as intended, that's where you would get the tool). Go back left to where you dropped down earlier. There's a springboard you can use to help you go up. Then go to the right, not to the left.

The maze will continue to ascend and you will eventually see a revolving FOE. Stun it with the Stinky Ball, and use it to get up to the higher part of the maze. Head left afterwards, and only left. You'll actually be in the portion of the maze where you started, only that now the maze itself has relocated. Exit to the left.

When you exit the maze, you will see a sign above a platform. This optional sign is one of the Secrets of Nitroid signs, and you can return here later to read it. If you want to reach it now, it helps to jump to the platform with residual momentum. The save point (next to the first switch from earlier) is below the sign.


Leave 5-4. Notice the yukkuri (which does not move) and a sign next to it. You can drop down and reach the sign (it's the one shown in this screenshot) before you return to the beginning.

Now that you have the Stinky Ball, return to 5-3. The Stinky Ball will make redoing challenges easier as you get there.

The Extending Arm

5-3 is a large stage containing many different challenges. You find the next tool near the end of the stage.

Press the blue button switch, as you did previously, and go up to the top of the second set of glass columns (where you dropped down last time). There's a rabbit there that you can stun to help you get up to above floor. There are several save points, and the description below follows that (one bulletpoint per save point).


The odd thing about this stage is that a bunch of challenges can be easily broken, bypassing the intended method.

  • There's a row of red spikes with brown FOEs walking over the row (with rabbits at the ends to let you climb up). Above you is the same challenge with yellow spikes. Reset if the FOEs don't seem to appear.

Use the Stinky Ball to freeze a FOE so you can stand on it, and then wait for another FOE to come into position where you can stun it and hop across. That been said, if another FOE doesn't come fast enough, just wait for the FOE under you to wake up. Stand on it (on the front part, so it doesn't walk under you), and Nitori will fall through it and take a hit from it. Use the invincibility frame to react.

Afterwards, there's a place where you drop down, with winds to push you into yellow spikes. Use the Earthkeeper at correct positions to avoid landing on the spikes.

  • If you go up and then left, you can see a white FOE roaming around. This challenge involves using correct on-off switch action to bring the FOE down below for use. There are caution blocks down below, but simply hyperdashing through them will send you straight into yellow spikes. The FOE can stop you before you reach the spikes.

Jump correctly over the three yellow spikes; even touching them slightly counts as landing on them. You will see a wooden box and on-off switches. The first switch to press is the red one, but keep in mind that the FOE can either walk over to the right (and drop down), or to the left and get stuck there. If you see the FOE get stuck, reset the challenge.

Now use the switches to ensure that the FOE does not get stuck, or rather, walks into the direction that would get it stuck. Once the FOE drops down to where you are, guide it to walk through the gap to the left. Then use it to allow you to survive when you clear away the caution blocks. It's best to do so when it's still within sight, so that you know it's not past the spikes.

Note: you can actually just push the box left and when it's against the caution blocks, use Hyper Dashoes to slightly push it in and knock away the caution blocks. This bypasses the FOE altogether.

Once the caution blocks are gone, push the box over the spikes (don't go too far left) and use it to get up. Here, you need to hop on the bouncies correctly to make your way up to the next save point. The execution is quite difficult, but you can make it easier by using the Earthkeeper. The tool allows you to drop straight down for better accuracy, instead of relying on somewhat random nature of the bounce.

  • You see an arrow lift. Apparently the intended method here is to use the wind orbs and the black button switch, using the arrow lift to get up higher when necessary. Go to the right to press the black button switch and to activate an upward wind orb. Then go back left and above to activate a rightward wind orb so it can push you through the gap. Then the upward wind orb you activated earlier lets you ascend higher; there, black blocks allow you to finish the challenge.

It's all pointless, though, when you can just ride the arrow lift to bypass the entire challenge.

  • There's a black button switch near the save point and blue button switch on the floor above you. There is also an arrow lift nearby. You need to reach the top of this part before the blue switch expires and blocks the way. The blue switch doesn't last long enough to simply ride the arrow lift around the obstructing blocks.

Press the black button switch before you begin; it creates a series of small platforms that Nitori will soon need.

Ride the arrow lift straight up, then jump out and let the arrow lift continue to go up (the lift can go through the bricks blocking the way). You will need to get back on the arrow lift after taking a detour. Make sure the blue switch is activated, and hyperdash to the right; you will see the black platforms you created. The sooner you bail out of the arrow lift and hyperdash, the better your chances of reaching the lift later.

At the end of the hyperdash, when you bounce, use the residual momentum to hop across the black blocks with proper timing. Note that you slow down with each jump. If you followed the steps quickly enough, you will be able to get back on the lift before it goes up too high for Nitori's reach. Ride the lift up through the blue blocks before they revert and reach the next part.

  • If you go up, there's a ladder to the left that allows Nitori to go up to a thin platform above. Left of these, you will see a set of platforms made up of two star blocks each. The platforms are placed vertically, one block space apart, and alternate in black and white.

There should be a carry block above the top platform (if it's not there, try reloading the last save); this is important for this challenge. You can reach it using the star switch; each time the switch toggles on or off, the block drops one step. If it drops too far, you will have to climb back up the star platforms with the carry block in hand (you can't carry it while climbing a ladder). If the arrow lift from the previous part is still within Nitori's control, it can help you reach the carry block, but it isn't necessary.

There's a white FOE you can lure to the star switch, with the help of some star blocks. Manually use the switch to help the FOE reach the switch, and make sure the white FOE doesn't prematurely drop or you will have to retry this part. The star blocks alternate, so you will have to toggle the switch while the FOE is crossing over from black to white or vice versa.

Once the FOE reaches the switch, it will toggle it periodically. The FOE's toggling of the switch allows you to pass through a tall barrier of star blocks. This can also help you climb up the star blocks with the carry block in hand if needed (use the edges of those platforms). On the thin platform, toss the carry block to the right as you jump. You won't make it there with the block by jumping alone.

The next segment is somewhat tricky. If Nitori tries to proceed downward past the barrier, she will land on the yellow spikes in the way of the descent. You need the carry block as a stepping stone to avoid landing on those spikes, but you also need to take it with you for the segment after this. The trick is this: if you throw a block against the wall with enough momentum, it bounces. If it gets placed on the edge, you can pick it up from below. Throw the block with the correct momentum so you can reach it from both above and below, and watch out for the star blocks, which are still switching on and off.

Once you make your way down, go to the right to find a row of spikes. Again, you need to throw the carry block the correct distance onto the spikes, so that Nitori can hop from one side to block and then to the other side. If the block is too close to either side, it won't help. It is possible to use glitch jump over the spikes, but you only get one chance.


  • This next challenge is a puzzle involving the on-off switch blocks. The switch blocks are grouped in square shapes, each square having four blocks of the same color. Note that Nitori cannot jump more than one such square high.

On the upper right of this challenge is the Extending Arm, which you will need in the next stage.

5-3 Switch Block Puzzle

See this video for a demonstration.

The primary aspect of this puzzle is the order in which you press the switches. But there's also the execution aspect for reaching those switches. Some of the gaps are impossible to cross simply by jumping, so make use of the properties of the Hyper Dashoes to help you cross them.

  • Yellow ON. Drop down below the wind for it.
  • Blue ON. Then yellow OFF. Reach the higher yellow switch using the blue square.
  • Now, with blue still ON, hyperdash to the left from the switch to bounce to the right. Land on the square to the right.
  • Red ON. Then hyperdash to the right. Because the red squares are solid, they will stop your hyperdash, so you can regain ground on a blue square.
  • Yellow ON. Then go back to red and blue switches (there's a blue down below), and turn first red, then blue, OFF. This order is because you need the blue to reach the red.
  • Now jump to the right to reach for the Extending Arm. Don't jump too high, or the yellow square above will stop your jump.

The Extending Arm is not directly above a yellow square, so you need to jump to the right to reach it, and turn around to land back safely. Now you need to make the trip back to the save point.

  • Go back left and set blue ON.
  • Return to the right, yellow OFF. Then, while standing on that yellow switch, hyperdash to the right to bounce left. You will land on a blue square, but don't stop; use the momentum to jump further left. You're going to use this residual momentum and not directly hyperdash to the left, because you can't jump in the middle of the hyperdash.
  • Leave the red OFF and drop down to the blue square below that switch. Hyperdash to the right so you can bounce to the left. It's a bit tricky here: you will be landing on the blue switch and turning it OFF, making it hard to not overshoot and fall off. One thing you can do is to switch to Earthkeeper and turn into statue form when you're on the switch, so that Nitori can stop there.
  • Now you can turn yellow ON to safely reach the save point.

Now, to proceed upwards past this puzzle, you need to turn all switches OFF. What you should do depends on your switch settings:

  • If you have yellow ON and blue ON, then go turn them off in that order. Then, with the Extending Arm you just obtained, latch onto the grapple blocks left of the upward wind to get back to the save point.
  • If you have yellow OFF and blue ON, you will notice that you can't reach the blue switch normally, because the yellow switch is in the way. Do not panic! You can make use of the momentum burst effect to force Nitori over the yellow switch. This tactic is shown in this video.

To do this, go on the floor above the puzzle, and hyperdash to the right. Once you bounce to the left, perform a jump while the increased momentum is intact. Doing this will increase Nitori's maximum mid-air momentum limit to her current airborne momentum (her normal momentum limit resets once you jump). Moreover, she will automatically reach that momentum whenever she is mid-air.

With this knowledge, you can land on the grapple blocks and then dive (not jump) to the right into the wind. Nitori will move rightward much further than you would expect, and will be able to land on the yellow switch. Now as stated above, turn off both switches and grapple back to the left.


  • Before you reach the next stage, there is a mini challenge in which you stun the white FOEs as they drop so you can jump on them. Press the blue button switch to release the FOEs and watch them drop.

The Wall-Walk Shoes

You are now to ascend through 5-5, to find your next tool in 5-6. Ride the wind for the first challenge of 5-5. You make extensive use of the Extending Arm in this stage, so if you didn't get it, go back down and obtain it.

For the upcoming challenge, you can preview the left side of the layout as you ride the wind to get to the top. Likewise, there's a pit to the right where you can drop down there to get a preview of the right side. When you reach the bottom of the pit (floored with yellow spikes), you see three keyhole doors, and a save point behind them.


Once you get up to the top, you see a hole between a save point and a sign. Here, you need to descend to the bottom of the stage and collect 3 keys along the way. While there are multiple ways for just going down, your options are limited when you have to get all of the keys along the way.

The descent is made risky because of the many yellow spikes in the way. You need to grapple onto the bricks with good reflexes to avoid landing on the spikes. You can use the same Extending Arm to collect items as you descend (the keys have to be collected manually, though). As you go down, pick up the green cucumbers to regain more energy. Be careful because you might unintentionally grab an item instead of onto the bricks, which can throw you off; if this happens, quickly use the tool again to latch onto the bricks as you intended.

The first key is on the right side, while the second is on the left side, so you will be using the Arm to move from right to left in the same descent. The third key is further down, near the place where there are three green cucumbers, and you have several brick squares to help you get from the right side to the left side. See the Item Locations section for more information on the keys.

There's more descent after the three keys. Don't collide with the yukkuri; you're done if you do, because invisible blocks will trap you after you fall from the collision. Also, beware of the bouncies pushing you around and causing erratic results. There will be more bricks to help you out, so grapple onto them with the right timing as soon as the way is clear.

You should skip the golden cucumber because you can't really get it safely right now. You should land safely after reaching one final brick block. There are multiple mushrooms in the way of reaching the brick, so quickly grab those first mid-air and then grab onto the brick.


Next is a part where you ride the upward wind to reach a blue button switch. But along the way, there are a couple of corridors with horizontal winds trying to push you into yellow spikes. Use the Hyper Dashoes to counter the first such wind, and the Extending Arm for the second. Use both in the top corridor to help you fight the wind to reach the button switch. Use the Earthkeeper to drop straight down without being affected by the wind.

Past the blue barrier, you will ascend to the next challenge. There's a save point at the beginning, and you can see many squares of bricks and red spikes (there are also bouncies higher up). There are four upward winds available and you have to skillfully move from one wind to another to continue ascending. Time your dives from one wind to the next to avoid the obstructions. If you take too much damage, you can drop back to the save point to heal and try again. If you want to avoid being pushed too high at a given point, you can use the Earthkeeper or drop down between the winds, but it shouldn't really be necessary.

Ignore the bricks for now and ascend to 5-6.


5-6 Speed Challenge

Hit the red button switch (to the left) to make the structure descend, and navigate through it. You can't reach the switch further away than on the purple block.

This is one of the most difficult challenges in this game. Apparently even the creators of the game had trouble with this one. See here for the solution.

There's a red button switch that makes the structure above you, made out of red blocks, to descend. Once it does, it's a race to navigate through its pathway as quickly as possible. You want to obtain the Wall-Walk Shoes by reaching the top part of the structure before it descends too far. Therefore, it's important that you find out and use what steps you can take to save time as much as possible.

Don't press the red switch directly, or you won't be able to get out of there in time. Use the Extending Arm to hit it. The purple block on the floor indicates the maximum distance Nitori can be from the switch, for the Arm to reach it.

Here are some tips for the challenge:

  • The key point is moving quickly as possible; you should use the Hyper Dashoes whenever it helps. Any long horizontal distance should be the cue for the Hyper Dashoes. The direction you use it can be forward or reverse; there are a couple things to consider when you decide which direction to go with it. The actual hyperdash (forward) is faster, but you're stuck dashing until something stops you. So use the residual momentum dash (reverse) instead when there are obstructions in the way. You also have to consider whether the bounce (when Nitori collides against a wall) will help you or hinder you.
  • Another important note is the fact that the structure descends relative to the stage. But when Nitori is using a tool that keeps her off the floor (i.e. the Extending Arm), will she will not descend with the structure. So, use the Extending Arm to stall yourself, which can allow you to jump higher relative to the structure than you normally can. So use this to jump up to ledges four blocks high in the structure. For this to work properly, you need to jump high enough (with enough momentum) and ensure that your Extending Arm can stall Nitori long enough (the Arm retracts once it hits something). Note: when you need to change direction as you jump, you should get off the ground before you turn around, in order to avoid losing momentum from turning.
  • There's a bunny you have to stun with a Stinky Ball so you can step on it. Practice aiming the tool in the heat of action. It's easy to miss, and actually more prone to missing when you're too close.
  • A couple places (just before the large staircase) are good places to attempt the glitch jump with the Hyper Dashoes. If the attempt works, you can bounce at the wall and jump up to the next floor at the same time, skipping the need to jump again and saving a bit of time. Don't give up if you're not successful at the attempts, though.

Eventually you will see a very large staircase of red blocks. You want to hop up three steps in the staircase whenever you can; this needs momentum control and good execution. Try to land on the outer corners of the staircase blocks; landing right next to a block will hamper Nitori when she tries to do a running jump. If you lost the momentum, try to first climb up with a smaller hop to land on an outer corner, instead of jumping all the way. If you climb quickly enough, you will be able to get up to where there's a square made up of grapple blocks.

This challenge is deceptive because simply making it to that square isn't your goal. There's a narrow horizontal path to enter in the red structure, but there's a rightward wind that pushes you away. If the structure moved down too low, the wind will prevent you from going through the path in time to reach the tool (and attempting to hyperdash through the path just makes Nitori fall off). Just when you thought you made it, you may find out the hard way that you have to get up here even earlier. React quickly and get Nitori through the path while it's still above the wind.

Once you're past the path, there's one final gap that can be cleared using the residual momentum. Get up to where the strange cluster of red blocks is and hyperdash towards it, and then jump to the left onto a triangular set of red blocks. If you made it here in time, the Wall-Walk Shoes will be there within reach. After retrieving the tool, simply head right and upward past the grapple block square, climbing up any walls in the way, to the save point.


The Shiriko Bombs

The message box for the Wall-Walk Shoes mentioned "sneaky usage". A little known fact is that you can "instant-climb" in certain situations, when there's a wall made up of normal solid blocks and the corner is former with certain types of objects (not all types) on the floor. With the tool equipped, jump into that corner while hugging the wall and you will immediately start climbing, without actually landing on that object on the floor. Yellow spikes are one such type of objects, so you can have Nitori safely on the wall without getting killed. Be warned that this does not work for walls made up of bricks or translucent blocks (the latter which you will soon see).

If you're not using this property, or not aware of it, this is how you would handle rest of 5-6.

  • Free the white FOE and use it to climb safely with the Wall-Walk Shoes to the top of the wall to the right (down below the direction arrow is a pit with yellow spikes). You can either stun it to create a corner with the wall, or drop down into the pit and land on the FOE, so that the invincibility frame will protect you from the yellow spikes.

At the top of the wall, use the Extending Arm to latch onto the grapple blocks to the right. You can't see the grapple blocks from above the wall; you can jump to the right and be ready to use the Arm at the right moment (though it's possible to just reach from the wall). To the right, you see three directional arrows pointing right, so it may be tempting to hyperdash in that direction. But don't do it! This would lead you straight into yellow spikes. Instead, hyperdash to the left, towards the wall you climbed a moment ago. You will bounce and land past the yellow spikes.

  • Climb up the glass blocks to the right to get one floor above. Then step on the carry block to try to get up one more floor (be careful not to accidentally pick it up). The floor with the carry block has a rightward wind, which may make you miss landing on the carry block or overshoot the ledge of the floor above, so you might not make it on your first try. That's ok, but you need to be prepared for the next step.

The rightward wind pushes you past a row of glass blocks and into yellow spikes. After stepping over the glass, hyperdash to the left. You would collide with the carry block and bounce back to the right, but by then, the glass blocks will have disappeared so you can drop down one floor below. Then you have another attempt to go up two floors. When you're hyperdashing, you can hold the DASH button to bounce from the carry block and pick it up at the same time. Doing this allows you to reposition the carry block on your second attempt to get up. However, the wind also makes that difficult; it's suggested that you toss it as you jump so you land on it with the same jump.

  • There's a new save point once you make your way up. To the right is a large pit with a row of glass blocks and a row of of spikes (some yellow) below the glass. There are two carry blocks in the pit, on the right side of the pit. Carefully bring the two blocks up to the floor with the save point. Remember that you can stand on the carry block instead of the glass to avoid touching the glass. You shouldn't let the carry blocks fall onto the spikes. The floor above the save point has yellow spikes and a small wall to the right of those spikes. Now stack the two carry blocks in a way such that you can stand above them and then climb that miniature wall. From top of that wall, hyperdash to the right to reach the next stage. You need the hyperdash because the leftward wind will push you away if you try to go right directly.

If you're using this property of the Wall-Walk Shoes, you can make the rest of 5-6 easier. So don't get confused if it seems like you're skipping the parts below, because in fact, you are. Skip over the FOE contained by the glass blocks. Equip the Wall-Walk Shoes and follow the directional arrow pointing down. You will fall into a pit of yellow spikes, but not actually land on the spikes if you hug the wall. Climb up to the top and use the Extending Arm to latch onto grapple blocks. Just walk to the right, and jump into the small wall behind the spikes to climb it. On top of that wall, hyperdash to the right to arrive at the next stage.

You can also use this property to return to the previous save point in 5-6. At the ledge below the grapple blocks (where you used the Extending Arm earlier), jump to the left and hug the wall to climb it without landing on the spikes there.


That gap to the left is where you need to go in order to free the teleport blocks. Press the blue switch to make the teleport block to the left drop down.

5-7 has a puzzle involving star switches and a pair of teleport blocks. Get used to handling these together. There's an even more complex one later in the world. Remember, Nitori can move the teleport blocks around, and they can in turn help her move around.

You may be wondering how to get the yellow spikes at the beginning. You can teleport to the other side, but you also need to bring the teleport block found left the spikes to their right. To do this, throw the block over while Nitori is mid-air. Once the block is out of her hands, use the Extending Arm (while she is still in the air) towards the bricks.

Remember that carrying the teleport block isn't the only way to relocate it. If you put the block on blue blocks and press the blue button switch, the teleport block will drop. Likewise, you can place the block on star blocks and then press the star switch to make the block drop lower. This indirectly opens access to areas that you can't directly reach. You can press a star switch by placing a block on it, but you shouldn't need to in this stage.

Before you proceed, there are a couple points to note. First, don't place the teleport block in the center of the star block platform, because then you won't be able to pick it up later (you need to be next to a block, not on it, to carry it). Also, you don't want to toggle the star switch too many times; you have something you need to do along the process. There's a small narrow pit below the blue switch (where the ladder is located) that helps you preview the corridor with alternating star blocks. Within the corridor is a place with a yellow button switch. Use it to cross over yellow spikes on the other side.

Once the teleport block drops all the way past the star blocks, it arrives at a small room. There's another blue button switch, and the exit to the room is blocked by an Earthkeeper drop lift. Don't try to use Wall-Walk Shoes to climb out of here because Nitori will die if she walks into the lift. The blue switch can be used to make the other teleport block drop down. If you look to the left, you can see that the way out is between two pairs of bouncies. So you want to teleport to the left side while the block is falling; time the action for when you would appear between the bouncies, instead of above or below.

Now you're able to retrieve both of the teleport blocks and bring them together. For the lower of those blocks, you need to toss it across a gap (where there's another ladder), which is a bit difficult because the ceiling above will limit your jump distance. Throw it as soon as you jump. Use the Earthkeeper on the drop lift to make it fall to clear the way for the other block. Don't carelessly break all of the glass below where the drop lift was; use them to get back out with the teleport block (in the absence of that block, you can just use the Wall-Walk Shoes to climb out).

There's a ledge that is five blocks higher than the floor below it. Although you can stack your two teleport blocks to jump up to that ledge, that's not what you have to do. Place just one block on the lower floor, and jump from that block while carrying the other block. You can't jump up four blocks high, but you can place the block on a ledge that high, so you should toss the block up there and then teleport there. You can see what to do next when you see blue blocks, but before you do that, there's a key in this stage. Jump to the left with the residual momentum (using the Hyper Dashoes) and climb up to where the key is.

Now reposition the higher block on the blue blocks, and then go back to the small room with the blue switch and press it to make the teleport block drop. After teleporting, there's a very large jump you have to do to reach 5-8. Use Hyper Dashoes to cross the gap with the residual momentum. If you miss the jump, head back left, through the one-way door, to try again.


The save point past where you got the Shiriko Bombs. This is sort of a trap; there's a required key to the right, but getting back left takes work, and not loading from this save point can make the work easier. Also, don't go down below yet.

5-8 has many brick walls and makes use of Wall-Walk Shoes to climb them. Most of the floor here is covered with yellow spikes; the instant climbing does not work when the walls are made up of bricks. The walls often have single brick blocks attached to them, on which Nitori can land from above, but will prevent her from climb up the walls any higher from below. Use the Extending Arm to get from one wall to the other. Not all gaps need the Arm.

Eventually you will see a carry block above some star blocks. Press the nearby star switch to make the block drop, but let go of the switch afterwards; you want the block to land on the row of star blocks down below, instead of going through that row. Head right with the block and place it next to the brick wall there to form a corner, so that you can safely climb up the wall for the Shiriko Bombs.

Up to here is quite straightforward, but at this point you can't directly progress forward anymore. If you make a hole in the wall using the Shiriko Bombs you retrieved, and head right, there's a sign that talks about what's down below. You shouldn't go down there until you have regained all of your tools. The sign also mentions a save point, located to the right. There's a brick wall standing between the sign and the save point. You can easily bomb the wall from the left side, but not the right side since there's no place to stand on (unless you bomb from top down).

The save point is therefore sort of a trap. Once you load from that save point, it's difficult to get back to the left side. That doesn't mean this was made just to trap you; you do need to go to the right side for a key, and the game intends you to get back via a hopping challenge. But if you don't reload from the save point to reset the stage, notice that you have the carry block with you. This block can make the challenge much easier.

5-8 Key

Though this stage is very large, there's not a whole lot you can do here right now. Your goal is to find the key on the upper-right portion of the stage, and then make it back to the left side where you entered the stage.

To climb a wall, you need a corner. Notice that whenever you try to climb up a tall wall from its left side, you eventually see a single brick that stops you from going higher. However, you can't climb these walls from the right. This is because to get to the right side of a wall, you need to use Shiriko Bombs to make a hole in the base of the wall. But that means there's no longer a corner for climbing.

So, don't try to climb these walls and instead head right. After three walls made up entirely of bricks, there's a fourth wall that does not start out with bricks. Climb it up to reach the roof on the wall's right. The wall does have bricks that you can break so that you can get on , but that's not your goal right now.

Instead, you need to hop across the top parts of the walls, in order to pick up the key, and to get back to the left side of the stage. To do this, use Hyper Dashoes and jump from one wall to another with the residual momentum. It may help to first stop at each wall and shrink it using Shiriko Bombs, so you can see where you're jumping. The key is next to the third wall from the save point, so it would take one jump across from the roof. It takes four jumps to get over the wall left of the save point, though not all of those jumps need the residual momentum. It takes good timing to jump at the correct moment so that you can land on a top and then jump again.

All of this is assuming that you start from the save point right of that sign, without the carry block to help you. If you do have the carry block, place it next to the wall after you clear its base. Then you can climb a wall on its right side, and get the key more easily. Then, head back left using the hole in the wall left of the save point (which you would have made earlier to get here).


The Secret Rooms

If you get to 5-11 (see below), the sign there mentions these three secret rooms. There are 5 keys you need to obtain before you can find the last two tools. Part of collecting these keys is entering and completing the challenges of these secret rooms.

As you backtrack, you will see many openings blocked off by bricks, which previously were inaccessible. Most of these are paths that allow you to return to earlier parts (or at least, let you return faster and more easily), so look for these. Bricks that are not adjacent to the floors are still out of reach; you will need to retrieve the Drill to break those.

Three instances of bricks, though, are different. They lead to hidden passages, which warp you into the secret rooms. If you look at the map of World 5, you can see three stages that aren't directly connected to any other stage. There is one key in each of these rooms, and each key is next to a warp door that brings you out of the room and returns you near the hidden passage. There's a save point in each room near where you warp into the room.

Remember: once you enter a secret room and save, the only way out (besides using an Ariadne's Thread) is to reach the warp door at the end of the challenge.


Secret-1 (5-16)

To reach this room, go to 5-1, where you began the world. To get here, head back down from 5-8 using your new tools, and look for places where you can use Shiriko Bombs to create openings. From top of 5-3, you can use the white FOEs to help you get past the gap with the yellow spikes. The last set of bricks (just before the passage to 5-2) can be reached by using the Hyper Dashoes residual momentum. Also, if you have an Ariadne's Thread, you can use it and reenter the world to get to 5-1 without backtracking through earlier stages, but note that you still have to return to those earlier stages on your way back upwards.

At the bottom floor of 5-1, to the right of the save point, there's a row of bricks you can break so that you can drop down. Doing so will warp you to secret room 1. Click here and here for solution videos (they use slightly different methods).

This room has 7 floors; you start at the 4th floor, counting from the top. There's a white FOE on the top floor. You need to take the zigzag path to get from top to bottom, while bring the FOE along with you. However, there's also a much easier method that uses glitches; see the end of Secret-1 subsection for details (and see the later portion of the 1st video).

  • In the 4th floor, Clear the way for the FOE to pass through later. Break the bricks that would obstruct the FOE; don't break the ones without which the FOE would get trapped. Also, hit the black button switch, which you will need at the top floor. Then head for the top floor.

3rd floor (counting from the top) has many on-off switches; the corresponding blocks make up pieces of a bridge that allow the FOE to make it past this floor. Some of them can kill you, so don't just walk over all of them. Also, don't jump past the staircase at the end of the floor, because you won't be able to come back out.

2nd floor has glass blocks, most of them underneath a row of blue buttn switch blocks. For now, walk over the blue blocks to reach the 1st floor. You will need the blue button switch before you can clean most of the glass.

  • Once you're on the 1st floor, head right, using the Extending Arm to cross over the yellow spikes (make sure you jump before you use the Arm). Don't destroy the bricks until you're done with the floor, which you're not at this time. At the right side is a fast white FOE. Release it by pressing the nearby blue button switch. Provided that you activated the black switch earlier, the FOE will drop down and roam around the floor.
  • Also with the blue button switch pressed, head down to the 2nd floor and start cleaning up the glass blocks. If the blue switch runs out, go back up and hit it again. There are 1, 2, or 3 glass blocks stacked vertically on the 2nd floor. To save time, you can use the Earthkeeper to clear the 3-block stacks. The single blocks can be dealt with even after the switch expires, and you can simply step on the 2-block stacks so that they become single blocks. Ensure that you don't trap yourself between the blocks if the switch runs out.
  • Now that the 2nd floor is handled, go up and get ready to allow the FOE to head down the floors. Carefully break the obstructing blocks while activating the blue switch at the correct moment. If the FOE takes too long, the blue switch will expire and prevent the FOE from going past the 2nd floor. But you would also probably want to get ahead of the FOE to prepare the next floor.
  • Now comes the bridge in segments of different colors, where you have to set switches ON and OFF. When a switch is ON, it makes segments available for the FOE, but also creates blockades on other segments. Be sure to stun the FOE whenever necessary as you move around to press the switches.

There are two ways to do this part. If you have a plan in advance to toggle the switches in the correct order, it is possible to get the FOE past the bridge in just a few toggles (see 1st video for a way to do this). But if you're not sure about the switch order, you can just stun the FOE as it is crossing over from one segment to the next (as shown in the 2nd video). The game is generous here; if the FOE is even a little bit between both of the adjacent segments, it will succeed in crossing over.

  • Go past the 4th floor down to the 5th. There are two gaps with yellow spikes to jump over, the second gap (counting from the right) much larger than the first. You can use the residual momentum of the Hyper Dashoes to jump over the first gap and then, as you jump across the second gap, use the Extending Arm to latch onto the bricks or caution blocks to the left. This requires precision (see 1st video for this method). Alternatively, you can touch the FOE to take hits and use the invincibility frame to survive whenever you land on the spikes (see 2nd video for this method). If you stun the FOE for this purpose, make sure you're standing on the front of the FOE, or it will slip under you when it wakes up.
Push the box here with the FOE above it, and use it to get past the remainder of the stage.
  • The 6th floor can be stressful after all of this. There's a wooden box that you can use to transport the FOE above the floor (so that it doesn't get stuck on the floor). Since the FOE is faster than the box, regularly make use of your Stinky Ball to freeze the FOE above the box. There's also a hopping rabbit in the way. The rabbit can get in the way, especially when you try to freeze the FOE and the rabbit intercepts the Stinky Ball. Get past the rabbit with correct timing, freezing the rabbit up in the air if necessary. Keep the FOE from falling off the box as you push the box to the right.

Once you get the box pushed far enough for the FOE to continue on (past the two checked blocks in the way), first let the FOE move past the caution blocks to the right. If Hyperdashing past these caution blocks will send you into yellow spikes, so you want the FOE to go first, so that it can stop your hyperdash partway. Then use the same FOE to jump up to a small platform above the spikes by freezing it at the correct moment.

  • The 7th floor has all 3 on-off switches; turn them all OFF here. The FOE will descend down to this floor, as well. Use it to get up to a ledge four blocks high (covered by yellow blocks). Get the key (surrounded by blue blocks) and enter the warp door (surrounded by red blocks).

Overall, this is a long room that makes you successively perform a series of tasks without messing up. In most cases, if the FOE turns around where it's not supposed to, it will go into a ditch and get stuck. So prepare the way ahead of time. And don't lose too much health, either.

If this is too difficult, there's another way to beat this room. This method does not require the FOE (although it can make it easier to get past the 5th floor's spike gaps). At the 6th floor, push the wooden box as far as you can to the right, and then hyperdash towards it. You will reappear on the other side of the two checkered blocks, and so will the box. Then you can keep pushing the box to the right into the caution blocks. Hyperdash into the box to push it slightly past the caution blocks, allowing you to safely dispose of them. Also, use the box to get up to the mini-platform above the yellow spikes. At the 7th floor, use the glitch jump (from between the yellow and red switches) to get up to the ledge.

Secret-2 (5-17)

Throw the teleport block past the bouncy. You will need to get there yourself and head left before the yellow button switch runs out.
Place the block over this hole to climb up; once you do, there's a blue button switch to the left. Use the switch to bring the other block down to where you can reach it from the floor below.

To reach this room, go to 5-4. Backtrack to 5-1, as you did for the first secret room, but this time, take the upper passage from 5-2. The jump challenge should be trivial now that you have the Wall-Walk Shoes. Then you have the red maze again. The passage to secret room 2 is at the top-right corner of the stage. A straightforward way to get there is to navigate through the red maze as you did before, and after the fifth red switch is pressed, go up to where you wait for the revolving FOE. Climb up the wall there to reach the passage; enter it before the maze blocks it.

This stage is a very intricately designed maze, mostly involving teleport blocks and use of star switches to move those blocks around. Remember, you can reposition the teleport blocks as well as use them to relocate Nitori. Solution video here. It is possible to clear this stage with slight variations on how (the video shows one such way).

  • Your first goal is to get both of the teleport blocks on the floor above, where you see the mini-staircase of star blocks. Use the on-off switches and the teleport blocks themselves to get Nitori and the two blocks there. Note that it is possible to go through the bouncy using the hyperdash, though you can beat the stage without doing so.
  • Next, hit the yellow button switch. The star blocks will not be usable yet, so use one of the teleport blocks to get up to the yellow button switch. Once the switch is pressed, quickly take a teleport block to the left and toss it past the bouncy. You will see the yellow blocks activated near the bouncy. You want to quickly get over there (you can teleport there after throwing the block there), and cross over those yellow blocks before they expire.
  • Place the teleport block on the yellow on-off switch blocks, to the left of the yellow button blocks. Then teleport to the other side to press the yellow on-off switch. You want the block to drop down one step, but not further down onto the yellow spikes, so you need to quickly press the yellow switch twice. Now go back to the block that just dropped down. You can use it to press the nearby star switch (make sure that you don't accidentally kill yourself with the star switch).
  • Toggle the star switch with the teleport block to get the other block across, first climbing up the mini-staircase, then moving through the barriers. Along the way, you will set yellow and blue on-off switches to OFF, though you don't need to do so for the red. Don't drop down to where the one-way doors are right now. Below the red on-off switch, go left, but don't drop down to the floor below yet either. Instead, place the teleport block to help you climb up and you will see a blue button switch that can be hit with the Extending Arm. The switch allows you to drop the other block down below, past the bouncies (make sure you teleport out of there before it drops).
  • On the side of the blue switch, you can now drop down through the hole to the floor below. In this region, there are some caution blocks, but simply hyperdashing through them leads you to yellow spikes. So, you can use one (or both) of the teleport blocks to stop you. There are two paths, one left of the region and and one right of the region, that leads you to the upper part of the stage. You should place one block on each path. For the left path, you need the blue on-off switch ON (there is one in the region) to get up a blue staircase.

There's an optional area if you proceed below the blue staircase when the blue switch is OFF. If you take this path, it will lead you to a small area at the bottom-right corner of the stage, containing a sign and a carry block. You can use it for the rest of the maze, but it's not needed. It's risky to get here, though, because of yellow spikes you have to carefully jump over, so it's not recommended that you get here during your attempt for the key.

  • Go up each upward path with the respective teleport block. This is the final part of the maze. There are multiple barriers here; past them, you will arrive at the top-middle part of the stage where there's a key. Some barriers are of on-off switch blocks; you will encounter the switches for those as you proceed. Others are star blocks, so use the star switches there.

This part can be confusing because there are two star switches, one on each side. The state of the star blocks is shared for both switches. When you toggle just one of the switches, the blocks are affected. This means when you unpress one switch and turn it black, the black star blocks become solid and the white ones transparent, even if there's still something on the other switch.

Use the switch on the right side to remove a barrier and reach the switch on the left side. After that, you actually only need to press the left switch (with the teleport block). Then, without touching the right switch, get the teleport block on the right side out of there, past the black star blocks. Afterwards, you can also get the other teleport block out from the left side, past the white star blocks.

Once you bring both teleport blacks to the top-middle, use them to get up to where the warp door and the key are. First jump from one block to throw the other block up to the ledge, then teleport up there and throw the block up again (or just jump up from it). Collect the key and enter the warp door to reappear in 5-4.

Secret-3 (5-18)

To reach this room, go to 5-5. There are several openings sealed up by bricks. One of these is next to the wind orb that ascends you to 5-6. Go through this opening and head all the way left, and then drop down. At the bottom, go into the left side boundary and you will appear in secret room 3.

This room is a platforming challenge, divided into two parts, with a save point at the beginning of each part.

  • First part:

Initially, you see a blue button switch, and a long corridor to your left. You need to head left, drop down, and quickly pass through the blue blocks before they revert. The switch doesn't last long. Use Shiriko Bombs for the switch, Hyper Dashoes for the corridor, and Earthkeeper for the drop.

Avoid the yukkuri and hop across the lifts. These lifts are the theme of this room. Most lifts are drop lifts that fall once Nitori lands on them, so you have to make your jumps count the first time. Much of the stage is carpeted with red spikes, so if you mess up, you will get hurt. If you make a mistake, find the nearest wall and climb it (note that you won't be able to instant-climb), try to proceed from there. If that doesn't work, note that lifts do reappear if you move away far enough, but you're probably better off restarting from the save point.

Also, you will notice that there are translucent blocks, those that don't appear until you get close. They can catch you by surprise while you jump if you're hasty. So watch out for them and ensure that they're not in the way before you jump.

There's one place where you need to hyperdash through caution blocks while you're on a falling lift. Time your hyperdash correctly or you will miss. Past that part, climb up and there are some vertically moving lifts followed by some drop lifts. The jumps need to be very precise and need good momentum for maximum distance and height.

Once you're on the long thin platform, head right and climb up the checkered blocks to reach another save point.

  • Second part:

Now you have a long series of jumping on drop lifts. Practice it until you can confidently make progress in these jumps. Not all lifts require jumping to reach, and a few can be skipped altogether. Keep in mind that the lifts are solid, so you can't go through them from the sides or from underneath.

Running a little bit before you jump makes a difference; Nitori jumps higher if she has a running start than if she does not. This is important to remember in cases where you have to turn around. However, because the lift drops as soon as you land on it, you have to react quickly to avoid falling too low to make the jump. Also, don't bump underneath a lift and thus miss it; this happens if you're too focused on the running part and don't jump at the right time. Stop yourself if you need to.

Again, be on the lookout for the translucent blocks that can interfere with your jumps.

The key and the warp door are at the top of the stage, where the series of lifts will bring you. Collect the key and enter the warp door to exit the room.


After you are done with the three secret rooms, head back up to 5-7. Again, it should be easier this time around because you have more tools.

The Water Jet

Once you have 5 keys, it's time to look for the Jet. First you need to head down to 5-11 from 5-7. Find the bricks on the floor, near the one-way door, and use your Shiriko Bombs to go down there. This place is a mini-puzzle that involves a carry block. Free it by pressing a star switch, and take the block with you. There's a white FOE that you should bring along. Drop your block to make the FOE turn around when necessary, and use the FOE to get up a ledge with your block. Then you will see a downward passage sealed by star blocks; place the carry block to the nearby star switch to open the passage. This puzzle is made more trivial if you bring along teleport blocks from the stage.

Once you enter 5-11, there's a sign that speaks about three secret rooms. If you didn't visit those rooms yet, you should go back and find those rooms for keys. To advance forward from here, as well as to go back up to 5-7, you need to head to 5-12, the stage on the right from here.

This stage is a maze made up of translucent blocks. You will have to look around to see how it's designed, since the maze layout is not immediately visible. Break the bricks when you need to, and remember to drop bombs from bricks above to break bricks below (when you can't reach the bricks directly because of bouncies). Understand that you can't land on, climb, or latch onto bricks anymore after you destroy them. Also, there are some invisible blocks you need to uncover to complete this maze.

Your objective is to first find the red on-off switch and set it to ON, and then find the red blocks that allow you to climb up to the passage to 5-12. Just be careful not to get stuck and have to retry. Use the item selection menu to switch tools quickly. You will also notice that there are yellow blocks turned OFF; you will be coming back to those once the switch is ON.


Climb this wall to get from the first part to the next. Bring the gear up there too. If you drop down past the black blocks here, you can then head left to return to the start (don't drop down below the bricks down there right now). Note the black and gray switches at the top-left of the screenshot.

There's a gear in 5-12. If you want to return back to 5-7, take the upward passage, which you can reach with the gear.

You need to use the gear in this stage to explore this stage and go for the yellow on-off switch, which you needed in 5-11. If the gear moves away from you, it will eventually loop around and return as long as it's not stuck in a disconnected component (this can happen due to switches). If the gear isn't touching any blocks, it is stuck mid-air until something solid touches it again. You can preview the top part of this stage by walking over the roof.

In the first part, you see black button switch blocks here and there. You can use the gear to help you get up to the black switch (note that there's a gray switch right next to it). You need the black switch pressed to make the gear roll towards the next part. To get to the next yourself, though, you first need to activate a wind orb, which will be blocked off after you press the black switch. So you would want to activate the wind orb and then press the switch.

With the black switch pressed, climb up the wall after moving past the wind, and make sure that the gear is also able to reach you. In the next part, use the gear to help you safely get over the yellow spikes; use the yellow button switch to allow the gear to reach those spikes. Because of the low roof, it may actually be easier if you don't stun the gear. On the other side of the yellow spikes, hit the switch again from that side to have the gear proceed to the part after this.

Afterwards, you will see the yellow on-off switch below. To get there, you need to press the blue button switch, which you can reach by freezing the gear. The gear will keep looping around the blue switch since the component is now disconnected. There are invisible blocks that connect the component to the next part (underneath the single yellow block near the blue switch). The blue switch disables a barrier so that Nitori can drop down to the next part. The gear can get down there without the blue switch.

Now use the Hyper Dashoes to leap towards the yellow on-off switch. You can stun the gear for the bounce, but you can also use the red spike if you use the invincibility frame correctly. After the switch is ON, head back left to the start. You will be using the gear one last time to help you get up to a ledge before you walk to the left.

Note: You will see yellow blocks in this stage that block the way down when the switch is ON. There's an optional area if you go down there and drop further down below bricks. You need the Jet to reach the bonus in this area, so for now, don't go down past the bricks. Climb back up on the left side.


Go back to 5-11 once you have pressed the yellow on-off switch. Head left to find yellow blocks that allow you to climb up and reach the next portion of the stage.

Past the new save point is an obstacle course with spikes, bouncies, flame cannons, rabbits, and yukkuris. There are four floors, starting from the top. The main problem is that there are horizontal winds forcing you forward, and the scattered places you can land on are slippery ice blocks. Except the last floor, each floor is made up of red spikes, so you will get hurt if you slip. There is a three-block distance between the floor and the wind above for these two floors, so if you're on ice directly above the spike floor, you will be below the wind's reach.

Use the Earthkeeper to help you land accurately and prevent slipping from both the wind and the ice. Note that you do a slight hop when you switch back to normal form from status form. This can limit your reaction you land where the wind can affect you. After a bit, there is a yellow button switch and a blue button switch. Each helps you at one place when it is activated, and then in the next place, you would want to wait until it is deactivated. You can use the Earthkeeper to stall yourself for this purpose.

The fourth floor is mostly ice with wind right above it. There are yukkuris, mostly easy to dodge, along with upward wind. There are also yellow spikes in a couple locations of this obstacle course; the upward wind can cause you to fall on yellow spikes if you don't watch out for them. At the end, drop down to the passage below between the FOEs (the one-way door is the way back).


After the obstacle course, you should be in 5-13. You need 5 keys to unlock all of the keyhole doors and proceed. If you don't have enough keys, go back up to 5-11, and then 5-12, to backtrack and search for the remaining keys. To reiterate, this is where you get them:

  • 5-7. Near the end of solving the puzzle that involves teleport blocks, you have an opportunity to collect the key.
  • 5-16 (Secret-1). With Shiriko Bombs, enter from 5-1 and find the key at the end of the room.
  • 5-17 (Secret-2). With Shiriko Bombs, enter from 5-4 and find the key at the end of the room.
  • 5-18 (Secret-3). With Shiriko Bombs, enter from 5-5 and find the key at the end of the room.
  • 5-8. After you collect the Shiriko Bombs, keep going right by making holes in the brick walls. Find the key on the upper-right portion of the stage. As mentioned above, it's easier if you don't use the save point to the right of the sign.

This stage has many objects seemingly at random places. Somewhere along here (on the right side of this stage) is the Jet. If you drop down to the bottom of the stage, at the bottom-right corner, there is the Drill, with a save point and a warp door above. You can't get the Drill from here, though, because of invisible blocks. Use the warp door to return to the top of the stage.

The objects in this stage are actually for constructing an automated stage. If you drop down from the top of the stage where the keyhole doors were, and you let the leftward wind push you, Nitori will get pushed around by objects while you don't press anything. This doesn't always work out, but when it does, Nitori is led to the Jet. You can, of course, go for the Jet manually.

Once you get the Jet, immediately fly to the left with it, or you will drop down onto yellow spikes.


The Drill

The Jet is important because there's a place back in 5-1 that requires it. If you see the map, the top of 5-1 is connected to 5-14, and the Jet allows you to go there. Go back to 5-11 and then 5-12 to return up to 5-7. From there, you can backtrack to 5-1. It should be even easier to backtrack now that you have the Jet.

Enter 5-1 from the upper passage from 5-2. Head right past the row of glass blocks to where there's wind and yellow spikes. But this time, use the Jet to go above. You can either go to the left or to the right. The right has a return portal, so at last, you can leave this world freely without an Ariadne's Thread.

Heading left from that return portal, fly through the top portion of the stage and find the passage. There are translucent blocks and red spikes in this portion, but the game is very easygoing at this point, so you shouldn't have much trouble reaching the passage.

You will appear at the bottom-left corner of 5-14. You can't do anything here right now, but you can go left to appear in 5-13 where the Drill is. Collect it, and you will have all of your tools back. Now, it is recommended that you hunt for the collectibles and optional signs in this world. Most of these are available in previously visited stages, though a few are past the autoscrolling stage (5-9), which is where you need to go to finish the world.

The Endgame

With all of your tools retrieved, return to 5-8, and head right to find a second save point. From there, drop down below to 5-9, a stage that scrolls down.

This stage is littered with yellow spikes, among other things. For the most part, you will need to be using the Jet to remain in the air so you won't land on those spikes. Because the path downwards goes left and right, you will need to let go of the Jet to change direction and reignite it while you're in mid-air. There are a few places to land in this stage, if you want to take a moment to prepare yourself and recharge your energy in the meantime. There are also many green cucumbers to quickly recover your energy.

You will be using a variety of tools to proceed.

  • If there are bricks in the way, you can use the Drill to break them.
  • Where there's an Earthkeeper drop lift, use the Earthkeeper and then quickly switch back to normal form and reequip the Jet. Don't remain in statue form for long because you won't be able to do anything.
  • When you see caution blocks, use Hyper Dashoes to go through them, and you will bounce in the air above yellow spikes. There are bricks (with two cucumbers in front of the bricks) that you can reach with the Extending Arm when you bounce. Switch to it and use it at the correct moment to pick up the cucumbers and then grapple onto the bricks.

You should stay in the screen and not go too far up or down relative to the screen location. While most objects will despawn off-screen, the yellow spikes will not, so you can run into them and get killed if you don't catch up with the downward scroll. Don't go ahead of the screen either. That will make Nitori plunge to the bottom of the stage, where there is a floor of yellow spikes.

After a staircase-like path between two sets of spikes (red on top, yellow on bottom), there's a sign in mid-air; it's quite difficult to properly read the sign, or take a screenshot of it. The Jet tends to move Nitori away before the sign's message box can open and stay open long enough (it takes time for the sign to open).

Once the stage stops scrolling, you land on translucent blocks above yellow spikes (these blocks won't save you from the spikes if they were too far off-screen). There is a choice of seven doors. Only one door is correct and will warp you to 5-15. The rest warp you back to the beginning of the autoscrolling stage you just cleared. The sign above gives you a hint as to which door is correct. The correct door is the third from the left.


5-15 Riddles

This stage is unique. There are three rooms in this stage, each containing the three on-off switches, which start out as OFF. In each room, there is a riddle that you have to solve to figure out what permutation of the switch toggling you would need.

Each room has red barrier blocks. If you pressed the switches correctly, the barrier blocks turn transparent, allowing you to go past them and enter the next part of the stage. If you did not press the switches correctly, the barrier blocks hurt you if you're too close to them. There's only one save point for all three rooms (in the first room). Therefore, you don't want to guess incorrectly too many times.

There's another warp door in each room, which resets the switches and warps you back to that same room.

  • First room

Read the sign near the save point for the riddle of this room. It's a mini-poem. You have to find a clue embedded inside it.

Explanation:

(This assumes that you have the English patch installed.) Read the first letter of each word in each sentence. This tells you the answer. Hit the switches in the order of the three sentences (the fourth sentence probably shows the color associated with the characters).

Answer: Red, Blue, Yellow

Once you pressed the switches, use the Jet to fly up to the warp door above the barrier blocks. This sends you to the second room.

  • Second room

When you enter the room, the sign there is for the warp door that resets the switches. For the riddle, go up to the floor above for a series of signs.

This riddle is about the various different sages representing colors. You are to sort the sages based on the signs telling you that one sage is higher or lower than another. Start reading from the rightmost sign and go left. In case you didn't know, Ruby and Sapphire correspond to the red and blue switches, respectively. Note that you may have to press a switch more than once.

Answer: Blue, Red, Yellow, Sapphire, Ruby

Explanation:

The first sign explains how to order the sages, from lowest to highest. The second sign clarifies that Blue and Sapphire are for the blue switch, Red and Ruby are for the red, and Yellow is for the yellow.

According to the third sign, Yellow is lower than Sapphire and higher than Blue, so yellow is between two blue's. Likewise, the fourth sign hints that Red is between the two blue's. The fifth sign states that only Sapphire and Ruby are higher than Yellow. The sixth sign says that Ruby is higher than the two blue's.

After the switches are pressed, head left to walk through the barrier blocks to find a warp door, which sends you to the third room. Get ready to react to it.

  • Third room

When you warp into this room, you will drop below and see checkered blocks as you fall. The "riddle" here is to quickly catch the colors of those blocks and remember them. Press the switches in the order the checkered blocks showed up as you fell (top to bottom).

Answer: Y, R, B, Y, B, B, R, Y, R

Press the switches and walk past the barrier blocks to the right. After that, there's a fork, with a choice of left (the exterior of 5-15) or right (a passage). Enter 5-10 via the passage at the right side. You need a key before you can make progress going left.


You can climb up here from bottom-right of the stage. These four objects correspond to the four holes in the wall (to the left of these objects). Use the Extending Arm to hit the switch through the hole.

5-10 is the last full challenge of a stage before the world's boss. Here, you will review usage of your tools and use your skills to proceed through the stage. This stage is divided into three parts, each beginning with a save point.

  • First part

You see a key that you will eventually need to get. Head right, climbing any walls with the Wall-Walk Shoes. Watch out for the rabbit tossing beach balls; use the Stinky Ball to eliminate them and to stun the rabbit itself. Use the Shiriko Bombs to dig through the bricks and drop below, but don't break all of them. You need a brick in the last layer to enter the hole to the left.

Dig through another set of bricks, which are above yellow spikes, with the Drill. There's also a red spike within the top layer, so you may have to dig a little lower, but don't fall on the yellow spikes in the process. Past the bricks, activate the wind orb, and head back left to that hole. Duck as the wind propels you through the hole.

  • Second part

You see a black button switch. You have to press it so you can go past it, but you will need to deactivate it afterwards. You might also see a bunch of red exploding FOEs. These are actually identical to the walking dolls from World 1's Alice boss battle. That means touching one will make it explode, while hurting Nitori and sending her sliding. Use Stinky Ball to defeat these.

Now, use the Jet to fly above, avoiding the red spikes and bouncies (which interrupt your Jet). You can stand on the rabbit stunned with the Stinky Ball to get an extra boost, and if you get hurt mid-flight, use the Wall-Walk Shoes on the translucent walls to catch a breather and recharge your energy. Note that you can't instant-climb these walls.

When you ascended above, you see a rightward wind. Head all the way right across the floor and watch out for obstacles. There's a blue button switch there; the blue blocks are somewhere in the floor you just crossed. Hit the switch (use Shiriko Bombs for extra time), and first fly out of there to the left with the Jet. When you land in the wind, use Hyper Dashoes to dash left through the wind. With the blue blocks gone, you will slightly drop down into the opening, and bounce back. Immediately use the Earthkeeper to drop down instead of being sent back right.

Down here is the gray button switch; you need to press it, so that when you go back up, you can fly up to the third part. But to get out from down here, you also need a blue button switch again. You should look around to see what's in this region. To the right is a translucent wall with four holes. If you drop down to the bottom (be careful of yellow spikes there) and head right, and then climb up the wall, you will see bricks and a blue button switch. These correspond to the four holes. Therefore, you would want to use the Extending Arm through the bottommost hole to hit the switch. Getting here to see these is hard, but you should only have to get here once if at all.

There are three glass blocks above the yellow spikes, so use them wisely. Drop down and go left to reach the gray switch, and come back out. Then hit the blue switch by using the Arm at the right time through the hole. It's easier to do this if you use the Hyper Dashoes to help you leap to the right into the wall. Once the blue switch is pressed, quickly use the Jet to reposition Nitori to safe ground, and then to fly up through the blue blocks back to where the wind is.

Now you won't need the blue switch, so don't press it again when the wind pushes you to the right. There's a hole in the ceiling, now that the black switch is unpressed. Head left through the wind and go past the wind. Then turn around and use the Jet to fly up. If you need to, you can wait at the walls around the red spikes from earlier, for a good moment to fly up. Watch out for the exploding FOEs; they'll drop down from above through the opening, and walk left towards those spikes.

  • Third part

Remember the red exploding FOEs? They get boosted when they walk over springboards, and they explode when they touch bricks, breaking them. The goal in this third part is to guide them so that they will eliminate some bricks for you. If you go to the right, you see a smilie face. This is the source from which the exploding FOEs spawn. The source is invincible, and it hurts you, so don't touch it. Also, don't fall back down to the second part through the black blocks.

There's a yellow button switch nearby; you need to press it to bring the FOEs over. There are some glass blocks in the vicinity, too. Break those, since you want the FOEs to proceed left.

To the left, you see a yellow on-off switch, and nearby, corresponding yellow blocks and bricks underneath. You need to pass through there, so turn the switch OFF and break the bricks with the Drill (or use the FOEs to eliminate the bricks). Before doing this, though, first let some FOEs cross over the yellow blocks while the switch is ON. Keep in mind, the FOEs can go through holes one block high, but you can't.

In the next part, look for a blue on-off switch. To reach it, you need to first clear the bricks. Because the bricks are within an upward wind, you can't land on the bricks to place Shiriko Bombs, which means you need help from the red FOEs. They will reach the bricks if they walked over the yellow blocks instead of falling through them. So if the bricks are there, go back and set the yellow switch ON and have the FOEs reach the bricks, and then press the yellow switch again and come back.

Go left to find a vertical corridor with upward wind and bricks inside. You want the blue switch OFF to have the FOEs proceed into the wind and land on the bricks. With the switch OFF, go past the blue blocks and head further up to find a place where you can enter the vertical corridor.

Drop down through the corridor with the Earthkeeper. Head left to find the key, and use the Shiriko Bombs to clear bricks and drop down. You'll be back in the beginning of the first part. Go back to 5-15 to the left.


You can use this return portal to leave the world at this point. Returning to World 5 will place you in 5-1, though. The FOE above toggles the star switch for the final obstacle.

When you enter 5-15, head left to the exterior of this stage (the barrier blocks are sealed, so you can't go back inside the riddle rooms). You are now to proceed to 5-14, the stage to the left.

Climb up the very tall wall with the Wall-Walk Shoes; you will see the checkered blocks used for the third riddle. Once you climbed high enough, switch to the Jet and fly to the right. If you fly correctly, you should land on the outside of the first riddle room. Now keep climbing up and head right. On top of this room, you should see above you the second riddle room. From here, if you fly to the right, there's a ledge on which you can land, so that from there, you can climb up the outside of the second room to its roof.

Now you should be at the top of the stage. Just go left from here and drop down to the bottom-left corner of the stage. There's a save point there and a keyhole door. Use the key from 5-10 to enter 5-14.

5-14

5-14 is a nice conclusion to the game; it has most of the objects appearing in the game as commemoration. Note that these are actual objects that can affect you as expected. Among these is a return portal, found on the left side of the stage, behind a wooden box. Since you can't go back to the previous stages before the autoscrolling stage (at least, without using the glitch with the wooden box), this second return portal is here to allow you to warp out of the world.

Marisa is visiting the world. You will find her on the right side of the stage, with on-off switches nearby. You can purchase items from her here without leaving the world (which would mean you have to redo 5-9 and 5-15 to get back here). But if you want to collect mushrooms for those items, you're probably better off leaving. Important: buy as many Shirikodamas as needed. They will come in handy for the boss battle.

There are also signs left by the creators of this game, congratulating you for getting to this point. Above the signs, in the upper-half portion of the stage, is a final mini-challenge preceding the boss battle. To enter this portion, you need the on-off switches OFF, so go press them if needed. They're underneath where you found Marisa.

Somewhere in this stage (left side) is a FOE that will patrol around, toggling a star switch. The challenge of the upper-half portion is a pathway filled with star blocks. White star blocks create walls, while black ones fill up most of the space. There are several "safe spots" that are not occupied by the black blocks. You need to use the Jet to fly around when the black star blocks are transparent, but when they turn solid, you have to be in one of the safe spots. If you really need to, you can also duck inside a small safe location until the blocks turn transparent again. Land during this time to recharge the Jet's energy.

Go from one safe spot to another until you reach the save point at the top of the stage. Note: it helps to switch to the Drill to reach the save point, so that you don't accidentally jump straight up to the passage and skip the save point.

Boss

The culprit of the incident is revealed!

From the final save point, jump up. The mysterious fog from before descends down at the right side of the screen; it is Suika Ibuki. It turns out that she was behind this incident. She has invited you here, and now it's time for the final showdown.

Like with Utsuho, this is an actual boss fight. Suika's health bar is at the top-right corner of the screen.

This battle has four phases. Each phase is radically different, so pay attention to the description below.

The tools that affect Suika are the same as with Utsuho. You can damage Suika with the Drill, Stinky Ball, and Shiriko Bombs. The Earthkeeper will protect Nitori from direct contact with Suika.

Mini-Suika Phase

When the battle begins, Suika will casually lie down on the ground, so feel free to attack her. She won't stay like this for long, though; after some time, she turns back into fog, becoming intangible. She will roam around in the air while in this form during this phase.

To turn Suika back to her normal form, you have to first defeat 8 mini-Suikas. These are small enemies that appear at Suika boxes (squares with a mini-Suika drawn on each); there are 8 such boxes spread throughout the lower portion of the stage, one for each mini-Suika. These will move around and will hurt you upon contact, so avoid touching them to conserve your health for other phases of the battle. Unlike with Suika, Earthkeeper form does not protect you from the mini-Suika.

The mini-Suika behave according to commands. During this phase (and the one after it), sequence of four commands each will appear on the right side of the screen, and the mini-Suika follow the commands, top to bottom. After a sequence ends, there is a short pause before a new sequence appears. Each command is displayed in a different color and has a different sound and effect on the mini-Suika.

There are four commands:

  • Move: The mini-Suika slides left or right, whichever direction Nitori is relative to it. This is the only command that makes the mini-Suika move horizontally. It will fall off a platform if the mini-Suika moves off of it. It bounces in the other direction if it collides against a wall; otherwise, it does not switch direction during a single move command, though it can with multiple move commands.
  • Jump: The mini-Suika jumps into the air. It generally won't jump through solid blocks, though sometimes it does. If it jumps through a thin platform, it immediately lands and stops there. Repeated jump commands will make the mini-Suika jump higher, even in mid-air.
  • Roll: The mini-Suika starts to roll, becoming invulnerable to your tools until it stops rolling at the end of the sequence. However, if this was the last command in the sequence, the mini-Suika will remain in the rolling animation even after the effect has stopped.
  • Charge: There is no noticeable effect. However, the charge intensifies the rest of the sequence. A move and/or a jump after a charge in the same sequence will have a greater effect. However, if two or three commands of the same type follow a charge, only the first of that type will have a greater effect.

Know how these commands combine to predict how the mini-Suika will behave, so that you can prepare to avoid them and defeat them.

Drill, Stinky Ball, and Shiriko Bombs are your weapons to defeat a mini-Suika. When a weapon hits a mini-Suika, it makes a face and remains for a short time before disappearing; during this time, it is intangible, but it will absorb hits from your weapons. That means if two or more overlap, you have to attack each one separately, and not try to defeat them all at once. Don't repeatedly hit a defeated mini-Suika, because each hit will reset the time it takes to disappear, making it remain longer.

Once you get rid of all of the mini-Suikas, the boss will show her true form. You only have a short time to attack her before she turns into fog again. Thus you need a strategy in which you can immediately go after Suika after you defeat the last of the mini-Suikas. The mini-Suikas will reappear shortly before Suika turns back into fog. Repeat the procedure until you empty Suika's life bar to start the next phase.

Note about the stage: the lower part of the stage has a variety of enemies and objects. There are FOEs, rabbits, and bouncies to get in the way during the boss fight. Platform types are regular solid, ice, brick, glass, and thin platforms. There is a brick ceiling about halfway up the stage, so you can't access the upper portion until later. Some distance below that ceiling, there is a pair of upward wind orbs that you can use later to go up.

There is an unfortunate occurrence that sometimes happens in which the mini-Suika jump through the brick ceiling, forcing you to restart. Therefore, try not to let the mini-Suika go too far upwards.

Normal Phase

Do your best to avoid this attack. It will cripple Nitori's movements and and drain her energy, even after it reaches 0. Notice also that the command sequences are still appearing.

Now it's time to have a direct fight against the boss. The mini-Suika will still follow command sequences, but they are now just there to interfere with the fight. Concentrate on the boss, while avoiding or defeating the mini-Suika if they're in the way. The command sequences appear more rapidly and the commands are more intensified. When you defeat all 8 mini-Suikas, they reappear at the Suika boxes soon afterwards.

Suika will chase you, and when a command sequence ends, she takes action. Her action is one of two things: jump or attack.

  • If you're up higher than she is, she will jump to try to reach you; she jumps really high, and will jump through solid blocks if she has to (not all types, though).
  • If you're at about equal height as she is, she uses her Oni Binding chain attack. That is, she swings her chain accessory in preparation like a lasso for a brief moment (probably not enough time for you to react if you don't see it coming), and then throws it horizontally at the direction where Nitori is. The chain has a very long reach, much like your Extending Arm. The chain stops extending if it hits you. Note that it's the chain itself that affects you, not the red accessory at the end.

Do your best to avoid her chain attack. If you touch the chain, not only you take a hit, but it continually drains your energy and severely slows your movement. The effect continues until you escape it or until Suika ends the attack herself. The energy drain does not stop when you reach 0 energy. Therefore, if the chain touches Nitori for a long time, it will take a while before your energy begins to recharge.

Suika won't move while she uses the chain attack, so you can try to get behind her and counterattack. She will remain still for a short moment after the attack is over before she moves again.

Giant Suika Phase

These wind orbs will help you get to the upper portion of the stage, though they are not strictly required. If Giant Suika lands on these, they will be destroyed.

Once Suika's second life bar is emptied, she leaps into the air and presents a dare for Nitori. At this point, the mini-Suika stop moving, for there will be no more commands. Now your objective changes. Instead of damaging Suika, you need to collect 8 Oni Moon Cakes. These are all in the upper portion of the stage, which was previously inaccessible due to the brick ceiling. Suika's attack pattern will give you access to this upper portion. The problem is that this same pattern is also quite deadly.


Missing Power (Giant Suika)

Suika's pattern in this phase is to try to crash-land onto you. She will leap straight up and go off-screen, and then locks her horizontal position to yours, and drops straight down. When she lands, the screen shakes with a loud noise.

When she crashes down, she will be in her Missing Power form (Giant Suika). Do not touch her when she is a giant! Contact with Giant Suika does 10 damage and can kill you before you can expect it. After she lands, she punches towards left or right (whichever direction Nitori is), and then shrinks and leaps up again to repeat the pattern. Any enemies or Suika blocks that Giant Suika touches will be destroyed.

Giant Suika's landing and punch attack will break bricks or translucent blocks. She will land on solid or thin platforms instead of breaking them, so you can hide underneath those, but make sure they're visible so there's no risk of being flattened. Where Suika lands depends on where you are in the stage and how far upwards in the stage you have explored.

Oni Moon Cakes

The Oni Moon Cakes are sparkling yellow orbs; Suika will not destroy these. Collect all of them and the phase ends; Suika will no longer become a giant thereafter.

To reach the Moon Cakes, you first need to go up. Use the aforementioned wind orbs, or the Jet, to get to the brick ceiling (there are some brick and solid platforms just underneath the ceiling for you to land on). Be careful not to have Suika land on you as you make it there. Suika's stomps should clear an opening through the ceiling.

There are two teleport blocks a bit above the brick ceiling: one on the left side and one on the right side. Use them however you would like. However, you need to place them at a safe spot, because Suika can destroy those as well. If just one is destroyed, the other will become nothing more than a regular portable block. And remember not to place one at a place such that warping to it would kill Nitori.

Note about the stage: the upper portion of the stage has many bricks and translucent blocks. Giant Suika will destroy these, so hide underneath regular solid or thin platforms instead. As you keep going up higher, there will be fewer platforms available for Nitori's (and Suika's) landing.

The 8 Oni Moon Cakes are grouped into pairs in the description below. For a pair, the two Moon Cakes are at the same height and placed in similar locations, one on left and one on right.

  • The first pair is on the floor just above the brick ceiling. From the center, where the winds from the wind orbs stop, head left for one Moon Cake and head right for another. The teleport blocks are on that floor further left and right, respectively.
  • The second pair is higher up and more to the sides. The two Moon Cakes are enclosed in boxes of translucent blocks, so you will have to rely on Suika to free the Moon Cakes. You can have Suika land on the platform next to the translucent blocks and punch the wall.
  • For the third pair, from the thin platforms where you got the first pair, go up higher with the Jet (Suika will probably have destroyed most of the blocks you can land on). As you ascend on each side, you will see smaller thin platforms, and a platform made up of checkered blocks. There is a Moon Cake above each such platform. Destroy the bricks with your tools, or have Suika get rid of them.
  • From those platforms, you can see that the trail of thin platforms on each side is ascending upwards and converging towards the center. You need to follow up these platforms to reach the fourth pair on the topmost platforms. The trick is to stand on the very edges of a platform to get as close as you can to the next one up higher. If even a little bit of another platform above you is in Suika's way, Giant Suika will land on that instead of on you.

Pandemonium Phase

Now Suika gets serious, according to her words. She will turn into a fog and descend back down. Go all the way down and heads towards the middle and you will see Suika there or arriving there. She floats at a location between the thin platforms, a bit above the bottom floor; this is where Suika will be for the rest of the battle. The goal is to attack Suika and deplete her health while avoiding projectiles she shoots from that location.

Suika has 5 attack patterns in this phase. When you deplete her life bar, it refills and after a pause (during which she is invulnerable), Suika switches to the next pattern. Also, each time she does so, some of the stage objects will disappear, and your options in the item selection menu will decrease. Eventually you will be left only with the Drill and Earthkeeper. The information displayed on the screen layout will also likewise disappear, so keep track of your health!

Each attack pattern is made up of projectiles that travel linearly. Suika's attack patterns are following:

In the final pattern, your Stinky Balls will have disappeared, along with most of your equipment and just about everything else you can see. So switch to the Drill and finish the battle!
  • The first pattern is simple. She shoots white projectiles, three in a succession, then pauses for a short moment, and then repeats. Her aim changes clockwise.

Things begin to disappear after you clear this pattern.

  • For the second pattern, she continually fires streams made up of bullets; three streams are made up of smaller circular projectiles, while three are made up of longer oval ones. The streams swing counterclockwise. The circular projectile streams are 45 degrees apart, whereas the oval projectile streams are 90 degrees apart, and one stream of each type will overlap with each other.

Notice that your mushroom count is no longer displayed on the screen. Your Hyper DaShoes and Ariadne's Threads are no longer selectable in the item selection menu. These aren't permanently gone; they reappear after the battle is over.

  • The third pattern is where Suika shoots a group of circular projectiles one way and a group of oval projectiles the other way. Both groups of projectiles are made up of five projectiles of that type, close together at first and then spreading outward. Suika's aim for each group is adjusted counterclockwise each time she shoots. Notice that the bullets tend to align together in the direction of travel.

In addition to previously disappeared items and information, the stars indicating your health and your energy bar are no longer shown, although the frames for those two remain. You will need to manually keep track of your health now. The Extending Arm and the Wall-Walk Shoes have disappeared.

  • In the fourth pattern, Suika will repeatedly shoot circular and oval projectiles in random directions. She also occasionally releases a giant glowing sphere in your direction, which travels slowly. The glow will make it difficult to see, and can really get in the way when you're trying to get in position to attack.

Now the Shiriko Bombs and the Jet are no longer in the item selection menu. Suika's health bar is also no longer displayed. All the objects (other than the blocks making up the terrain) are gone. Very important: use a Shirikodama before this pattern ends if you need to heal. You won't have Shirikodamas in the final pattern.

  • The fifth and final pattern is similar to the fourth, but faster and more regular. Suika rapidly shoots circular and oval projectiles (each time, she fires one of each type in opposite directions) and adjusts her aim clockwise each time she fires. As with the previous pattern, she also occasionally releases a giant glowing sphere.

At this point, all of the information displayed on the screen is gone. The Stinky Ball and Shirikodamas have disappeared.

In this final attack pattern, you will have to be careful trying to hit Suika at close range with the Drill, since you don't have Stinky Balls. Two hits with the Drill will finish Suika.

Ending

Suika is impressed with the kappa's abilities. She brings Nitori to a party. The Touhou characters that appeared in the game, and more, appear in a final screenshot. Congratulations! You've beaten the last world of the game.

As with Utsuho, the game is saved after you beat Suika. When you reload the file, you will appear at the save point just before the boss stage, with an additional Ariadne's Thread. It is also possible to make your way back to the lower portion of 5-14. If you go to the left, there's a shortcut back to the lower portion; drop down with the Earthkeeper through glass blocks. Then you can manually reach the return portal to leave World 5.

"If you like, please search for the Secrets of Nitroid as well!"

Item Locations

Other than the keys and tools, it is difficult to get any permanent items without retrieving the Jet. Wait until you have enough tools before you attempt to go for the UFOs, the Golden Cucumber, and the secret signs.

  • 5-1 Earthkeeper

Enter the room from the upper passage of 5-2 to reach the large row of glass blocks. Drop down below at the right place to collect the Earthkeeper in the drop. Look at the wall to the right of the red spikes above as a guide for where to drop.

  • 5-3 Hyper DaShoes

At the end of the first puzzle with the blue switch. Climb the black blocks and the ladders to reach it.

You're not done, however. You have to return to the warp door (on the floor below where the blue switch was) before the switch deactivates, or you will have to retry.

  • 5-1 Key

From the save point near the starting point, hyperdash to the left to gain the rightward residual momentum, which allows you to jump over the yellow spikes to the right.

The key is floating above a single yellow spike to the right. Jump from the block to get the key and turn around mid-air to land back safely; be careful not to land on the spike.

Now use the residual momentum to jump over the spikes again and return to where the save point is.

  • 5-4 Keyhole

Use the Earthkeeper to bash through the glass blocks at the beginning, and go right to unlock the keyhole door. You can return to the save point with the warp door to the left if this keyhole door slows down your attempt.

  • 5-4 Stinky Ball

This tool is at the bottom-right corner of the stage. Navigate through the red maze to reach the item. Then use the ladder to climb back out, and continue to go up, and then left, to exit the maze and return to the save point to the left.

  • 5-3 Extending Arm

After you clear most of the challenges in this large room, near the end, you will come across a puzzle that involves square-shaped on-off blocks. To see where the Extending Arm is, go on the roof above the puzzle and head right. You will eventually see the item as you collect mushrooms and a life orb.

Your goal of this puzzle is to toggle the switches and correctly use the Hyper DaShoes in some jumps to get the Extending Arm on the top right of the puzzle and return back to the save point.

  • 5-5 Key x 3

The first obstacle course in this stage is a downward descent, where you have to use the Extending Arm to grapple onto square blocks of bricks to navigate through and avoid landing on deadly yellow spikes. It's challenging because you need to pick up the three keys here in a single run, so that you can clear the three keyhole doors down below once you've descended.

The first key is to the right, so make sure you head right instead of left. They key is under the two mushrooms and the green cucumber, and to the left of brick block next to it. The Extending Arm won't pick up the key, so you should be able to collect the key and latch onto the brick block in one motion.

The second key is to the left. Immediately after getting the first key, turn around and you should grapple onto the brick block to the left. Then you will see another brick block further left, with a key to its right and a green cucumber two spaces to the right from the key. You will probably have to use the Extending Arm twice: once to collect the green cucumber, and once more to reach the brick block and collect the key. This requires two quick successive use.

The third key is further down than the first two. Keep going down and eventually you will see three green cucumbers to the left of a brick block, on the right side of the stage. That's when you should get ready to pick up the key. Collect as many cucumbers as you need, and then turn around left. There are brick blocks that will help you go left. The second of these also has a key to its right. Be sure to pick it up on the way.

  • 5-5 Keyhole x 3

At the bottom of the stage, after the descent. You need to have collected all three keys in one run, because there won't be a way to go back up without resetting (unless you use an Ariadne's Thread).

Clear the doors to reach the next save point and proceed with the stage.

  • 5-6 Wall-Walk Shoes

This item is very helpful, and as such, it's guarded by one of the most difficult obstacles in the game.

Get through the pathway laid down by the red blocks, as quickly as you can. If you make it past above the wind, you should be good to go for getting the item. At that point, get up to where the large red wall is, and use the residual momentum one more time to jump from there to a small triangular cluster of red blocks. The Wall-Walk Shoes should be around there, within reach.

Now the red blocks should pose no problem; climb up to the right until you reach a save point.

  • 5-7 Key

The challenge of this stage is to use the two teleport blocks to get to where the one-way door is, and to bring the two blocks there so that you can get up to the nearby ledge to the right, 5 blocks high.

Once you do, you can get up to the higher ledge to the left, where there are some mushrooms, by using the Hyer DaShoes' residual momentum. Climb up the checkered blocks to the left and there should be a key before the large wall.

Keep in mind that you're not completely done with this challenge yet. Get one of the teleport blocks up to the aforementioned 5-block-high ledge and place it above where the blue blocks are, and use the blue switch to make it drop, so you can teleport and proceed.

  • 5-8 Shiriko Bombs

Press the star switch to make the carry block above drop past the star blocks. You don't want it drop all the way and land on the yellow spikes below, so get Nitori off the star switch once the carry block is past the above star blocks. It should land on the row of star blocks below you, above the spikes.

Now take the carry block to the right and place it next to the wall of bricks, so that you can safely climb that wall from the carry block. Climb to the top; the tool should be there near the top.

Now don't go for the save point past the brick wall right away if you're not ready. This save point is like a trap at this point; it's difficult to get back to the other save point at the left side of the stage. That is not to say that you shouldn't go to the right side of the stage eventually. There is a key there that you need to collect.

  • 5-16 Key

In 5-1, to the right of the save point, there are bricks blocking the way. Use the Shiriko Bombs to break them and fall through below. You will appear in 5-16, titled Secret Room-1.

Guide the white FOE at the top of the stage to the bottom of the stage. You can use it along the way to get to the bottom safely, and then at the bottom, to get up over a wall.

At the bottom, turn off each switch and proceed. The key is surrounded by blue blocks. The warp door is surrounded by red blocks, and gets you back to 5-1, above the bricks.

  • 5-17 Key

In 5-4, navigate through the red maze to reach a platform at the top-right of the stage, with bricks blocking off the passage. Use the Shiriko Bombs to break the bricks and reach 5-17, titled Secret Room-2.

Bring the two teleport blocks to the top of the disturbing maze. If you jump up the opening above you, you will see a warp door above, which you can use to get back to 5-4. You need to go up twice (5 blocks high, and then 4 blocks high) to reach the door and the key.

Place one block on the floor, and use it to help you get the other block on one of the ledges. Then teleport up there, and use that block you just put up to jump again (or, if you want, throw the block up again, and teleport up there). Pick up the key before you leave. You will return to the first red button switch in 5-4.

  • 5-18 Key

In 5-1, at the top where the wind orb is there to get you to 5-6, the wall to the left of the wind orb has some bricks. Break the bricks with the Shiriko Bombs. Past the bricks, go left and drop down at the edge. At the bottom is a hidden passage to 5-18, titled Secret Room-3.

This stage has two parts; it has a save point at the beginning, and another after you clear the first half. It makes heavy use of drop lifts.

The key is at the very top, and the warp door to its right. Climb up to the top with proper jumps. Grab the key and enter the door and you will end up back in 5-5, some distance to the left from the bricks you destroyed earlier.

  • 5-8 Key

From the second save point, there are several brick walls. To the left of the third brick wall is a key, near the top. The problem is that you can't climb the walls from the left side, because they're all either disconnected or blocked by a brick. And you can't climb them on the right side either, because you have to bomb each wall to proceed to the right.

What you need to do is go all the way right and you will see a normal wall that turns into a brick wall as you go up. Climb it, and use the residual momentum to hop across the top of each brick wall. You can do this to get the key and to go back left.

If you did not save at the second save point, then you can bring the carry block here, and use it to climb the right side of the walls.

  • 5-13 Keyhole x 5

Right after the save point, the path below. Be sure to collect the 5 keys scattered about the world, or you will have cleared the obstacle course in 5-11 for nothing.

  • 5-13 Jet

This stage is very big and has a lot of objects mixed in, but there are only three permanent items to collect. Out of these, the Jet is on the right side of the stage. Try to drop down on the right side to collect it.

Be sure to have ample energy by this point. Immediately after getting the Jet, use it to fly away to the left, or you will drop down onto the yellow spikes and you will have to redo this challenge if you die.

  • 5-13 UFO

On the bottom-left corner of the stage, where there's a floor of yellow spikes and a whole bunch of bouncies floating in the way.

It takes a lot of skills with the Jet to fly though this area, get the UFO, and come back out. Collect the green cucumbers to conserve your flight, and remember that touching a bouncy will cancel your Jet, forcing you to re-activate it.

  • 5-12 UFO

Once you have the Jet, come back to this stage, and turn the yellow on-off switch off. That allows you to reach the lower portion of the stage, with its own save point.

There is a wide pathway full of blue blocks, and blue switches dispersed in several places. You need to get from one switch to another, and do so quickly to avoid getting stuck or killed by the blue blocks.

Reach the end of the path, and you will drop down to one last blue switch. Go left from there to find a UFO above a sign. Collect the item and read the sign, and then use the blue switch to go through the path in reverse and get back to the save point.

  • 5-5 Golden Cucumber

In the descent, after the three keys. Past where there are bouncies, you should see the item on the right, inside the space between bricks above and yellow spikes below. The space between is just two blocks high, barely enough for Nitori to fit.

There are also bricks to the right of the item, so that you can use the Extending Arm on them. However, this is a trap. The placement is designed in a way that is almost impossible to get out. If you simply use the Extending Arm to reach the item, you will helplessly land on the spikes, because the Arm doesn't reach far enough to reach the brick block to the left from there.

Come back here once you have the Jet. Fly from down below with rightward momentum and get in the space to collect the item. Then reset the Jet a few times to turn around and try to move a bit left. After about a block's distance to the left, switch to the Extending Arm (via the item selection menu) and immediately use it towards the left. Use it repeatedly to clear any green cucumbers so that you can latch onto the brick block. Finally, switch back to the Jet and fly down to the left to land safely.

This is difficult to perform, and you should have collected all the other cucumbers in the game so that you have the maximum possible energy to do this. If you don't want to do this, you can bring an Ariadne's Thread with you. Once you collect the cucumber, immediately open the item selection menu. At the Ariadne's Thread, double-tap the ITEM button (once to equip it, and once to use it). If you're fast enough, you will be warping out of the world before you land on the spikes, and you won't die.

  • 5-13 Drill

At the bottom-right corner. You can't get it directly, because invisible blocks are in the way. Instead, from 5-1, use the Jet to fly up to the top to reach the passage to 5-14.

To get there, enter 5-1 from 5-2 and head right, going past the row of glass blocks and flying up at the opening. From here, go left, and go through the path to the upper passage, which is hard to see because it is made of translucent blocks.

You will appear at the bottom-left corner of 5-14. You can't do anything from this location, but going left will transfer you to 5-13, where the Drill is. Collect it and use the warp door above to quickly get back to the top of the stage.

  • 5-7 UFO

After you get the Drill, get up to this stage from 5-12. On the way back out to the main part of the stage, there are some bricks on the second wall to the right, but they are too high for Shiriko Bombs.

Break the bricks with the Drill, and at the right, drop down one floor below to find a UFO. If you drop down further, there's nothing; just fly back up with the Jet.

  • 5-8 UFO

You need the Drill for this item. Past the second save point, keep heading right, and use the Drill to break through any brick walls blocking the way. Beware the yellow spikes.

Once you get to the right side, there should be a row of bricks you can destroy with the Shiriko Bombs. Drop down and you will be at the bottom-right corner of the stage, where there is another row of bricks. Do not destroy this row, because down below leads to 5-9.

From the corner, head left, drilling through brick walls. Be careful not to fall down onto the yellow spikes on either side of the second wall. Once you reach the normal rigid wall, climb it and you will see the UFO. After you get it, return to the save point (head right, up, left).

Note: you should have ample energy at this point in the game, and don't destroy too many bricks, lest it hinder your way back out.

  • 5-10 Key

Get past the challenges of this stage. The key will be visible when you first enter the stage from the left, but it is blocked by a ceiling with bricks.

Once you reach the third save point in the stage (by turning off the black blocks and going up past them), you will see the red FOEs coming from the right, if you haven't already. If you head right, you will see the source of the red FOEs.

At this point, guide the red FOEs far enough to the left, so that when you see a floor of bricks within the path of an upward wind (which means you can't stand on the bricks to use Shiriko Bombs), the FOEs will destroy the bricks for you. Then you can proceed down from there using the Earthkeeper.

To the right from here, you will see mushrooms and life orbs, as well as any red FOEs that went on without exploding. Turn left and drop down to find the key you saw at the beginning. Destroy the bricks there with the Shiriko Bombs, and be careful of the beach ball attacks from the rabbit on the right when you get back to the save point on the left.

  • 5-10 UFO

After the third save point, just head left. Stay on top of the stage, on the roof made of translucent blocks. Once you see the scattered translucent blocks, there should be a UFO amongst them.

If you fly over the scattered translucent blocks, you will see to the left a sign with some mushrooms. The sign is unreachable from here; you have to reach it from the other side. See the Miscellaneous section below for the sign in 5-10.

  • 5-15 Keyhole

After you get the key in 5-10, head left from the initial save point there and you will return to 5-15. You can't go through the red barrier blocks, so you will have to travel on the region outside the puzzles you did earlier in this stage.

After some wall climbing and flying, you should be able to drop down from the top of the stage to the left. There's a save point and a keyhole door blocking the passage to 5-14. Use the key from 5-10 there.

  • 5-19 UFO x 2

In Suika's stage, go up to the very top corners with the Jet. There's one UFO at each top corner. You should definitely wait until you have cleared Suika's third phase (Giant Suika with Oni Moon Cakes), so that there's no threat of Suika landing on you while you try to get the UFOs.

Miscellaneous

The hard-to-see sign in 5-9.
  • 5-1 Sign

Below the passage to 5-4 is a yukkuri that does not move and a sign to its left. It's optional, and once you get down there, you can't directly get back up to the passage (meaning, without passing through 5-2 or using the Jet), so don't purposely go down there if you don't want to do things over again.

The sign's message is related to the yukkuri meme. It's a good advice for players frustrated with World 5; you can take it as telling you to calm down and do things at a comfortable pace.

  • 5-17 Sign

There's an odd sign at the bottom-right corner of the stage. It's optional, and is just too risky to reach the sign when you first play this stage, so it is recommended that you skip it when you're trying to get the key.

To reach the sign, once you get to where there are caution blocks, head to the left side of the stage. There should be a zigzag path that eventually leads to the bottom-right corner. You can use the residual momentum effect to jump over the three yellow spikes, but it is safer to just come back here when you have the Jet.

The sign has a tip about Secret Room-1. Strangely, this sign calls that stage the third secret room. There is also a carry block there some reason, to the sign's right. You can bring it back with you to use in the stage, but it's not necesssary.

  • 5-1 Return Portal

This is a reward for playing World 5 long enough to obtain the Jet. Entering from 5-2 to the right, go past the row of glass blocks and fly up at the opening. Then keep going right and there should be the return portal. You can now exit World 5 without using an Ariadne's Thread.

  • 5-9 Sign

Near the end of the stage, past the staircase-shaped path made up of yellow spikes below and red spikes above. The sign in this autoscrolling stage is very difficult to read because it is in mid-air, instead of resting on any platform. To read it (or take a screenshot of it), you need to hover with the Jet near the sign long enough for the message box and its contents to appear.

The sign hints you at which warp door you should select below.

  • 5-14 Return Portal

On the left side of the stage, below the white FOE there, there is another return portal behind the wooden box. Use this to exit the world, since you can't get back to the other return portal in 5-1 once you're past the autoscrolling stage (5-9). Note that even if you exit the world in 5-14, you appear in 5-1 when you return to World 5.

  • 5-14 Marisa

Marisa is paying a visit to this world in this stage. She will be on the right side of the stage, above the wind orb. She sells items like usual, so you can just purchase items here instead of leaving the world to get to Marisa's House. However, if you want to collect mushrooms or other items in other worlds, you will have to leave World 5.

Secrets of Nitroid

There are seven signs that give you hints on how to unlock achievements in the Extra option at the main menu. These are distributed to different stages. Most require you to return to the stages with more tools, and in any case, it's easier that way.

Click here for more details on the achievements. Spoiler warning! While the actual text of the achievements are in spoiler tags, the details are not.

  • 5-4 Sign

A platform floating above the second save point. It is possible to reach this at the same time you get the Stinky Ball, on the way back afterwards.

Navigate through the red maze, as you did when you were getting the Stinky Ball. Once you exit the maze in order to return to the save point, the sign should be visible on top-left corner of the stage. There will be a gap between the red blocks and the platform; you have to jump over properly to reach the sign, or else you will just drop back down to the save point. Depending on how you managed the red switches, the gap might be smaller or larger.

If you come back for it later with more tools, it should be much easier to make your way up to the platform and read the sign.

This sign hints at the Alice fight.

  • 5-12 Sign

Same place as the UFO in this stage. The sign itself states that because you probably already have this achievement, you also get a UFO for your troubles. Reminder: you need the Jet.

This sign hints at collecting a lot of mushrooms.

  • 5-7 Sign

Once you have the Jet, from the save point at the start of this stage, fly over to the right. You still can't skip the puzzle of this stage this way, but you can reach the sign at top-right corner of the stage, behind some mushrooms.

This sign hints at the battle with Utsuho.

  • 5-11 Sign

After you get the Drill, go up from 5-13 to appear in the returning path of 5-11. This path is to the right of the passage down to 5-13, and you can go through the one-way door to reach the passage if you need to go back down.

Climb up a bit and you will see bricks to the right. They're too high to reach with the Shiriko Bombs, so use the Drill. Descend diagonally through the path; watch out for two sets of yellow spikes! Use the Drill or the Jet to avoid landing on them. Head right and there's a sign between mushrooms. Read it and head back left, flying out of there using the Jet.

This sign hints at the golden cucumbers.

  • 5-5 Sign

At the top where there is a wind orb that allows you to go up to 5-6, there are bricks on the right wall that you can destroy with the Drill.

Head right and eventually you will arrive at a new save point. From there, go through the path that goes downward in a zigzag. Avoid the spikes and getting trapped by invisible blocks. At the end of the path, there are many mushrooms and a sign. To the left of the sign is a vertical path, where you can drop down to return to 5-3.

This sign hints at making Tewi mad.

  • 5-2 Sign

Climb the wall on the left side of the stage (there are mushrooms and life orbs near the wall). After climbing, you will see yellow spikes and a wall of bricks behind them blocking the way. You need to correctly use the Drill to get past the bricks. Use the Extending Arm or the Jet to reach the bricks before you switch to the Drill.

Continue through the path and on the above floor, you will see an obtuse staircase with red spikes above and below. Get past these to get to the roof. You can combine the residual momentum with the Jet to fly past the spikes. If you just use the Jet, you will likely run out of energy and get hurt.

Get up to the roof of the stage, and head right. There should be a sign at the right on top of a triangle made up of checkered blue blocks. Read it and return to the beginning of the stage.

This sign hints at making past Aya and Hatate in a certain way.

  • 5-10 Sign

Past the third save point, you would have the red FOEs destroy the bricks within the upward wind, as mentioned above for the key in this stage. Instead of going down from here, head left through the opening in the wall (use the Drill to break the bricks blocking the way).

You are now on the other side of the scattered translucent blocks. Navigate through this maze to reach the roof where the upward wind ends. Head right for some mushrooms and a sign. Read the sign and head back, to where the wind is.

This sign hints at the staff credits displayed after you beat Utsuho.