This is just a basic introduction to the wonderful but extremely dangerous world of Spelunky. This will be a series of videos highlighting each areas enemies, traps, and good habits you need to exercise in each. I want to add to this guide by showing the critique I asked for as was given to me by RJ815. This is all his knowledge which is a treasure trove of info I just had to add. So in addition to watching the videos take his critique into account as its always good to get more info. Enjoy and thanks to RJ815!

RJ815's notes:

- While levels might not repeat 100% exactly the same, there are definite patterns to levels too, and that's where a decent portion of the learning comes from (learn scenarios, rather than memorize levels is my motto for Spelunky). The game generates levels in basically room "chunks", and certain chunks are easier to distinguish than others. (e.g. In the Mines, the set-up where you have a wood portion with a rocky bottom and a ladder nearby is very common and noticeable. In the Ice Caves, you commonly see an area entirely made of ice with two entrances and housing some treasure of some sort.)

- While shopkeepers are indeed very hard, I still personally vote the Mothership as the hardest part of the entire game, even harder than Hell itself. The Mothership is basically pure suicide to attempt on a regular basis, especially if coming in with anything less than a jetpack and shotgun combo.

- You are correct about shooting shopkeepers a lot to ascertain they are dead. However, there is one more or less surefire way to know when they're dead. All shopkeepers carry gold and ONLY drop it when they die and turn into a corpse.

This video will show some of the more important habits to get into in Spelunky. I showcase the enemies in the mines in addition to strategies on how to deal with them.

RJ815's notes:

- Though the damsel is definitely the fastest means to get the first altar item and the kapala, other sacrifices can be decent too. If you can find a large collection of humanoid enemies (a tiki men village, many yetis, etc), then it can be worth sacrificing them too if the altar is nearby enough. It is also worth mentioning that slaves / hired hands are worth exactly as much as a damsel, which makes them very valuable to sacrifice if you can. It is ALSO worth mentioning that getting 2 damsel's worth of sacrifices after the kapala gives you invigoration, which is a pretty significant health boost.

- It is not always bad to get the boulder idol, especially if you're certain if won't crush anything valuable like the Udjat Eye, a shop, or an altar, but I do agree that more than any other idol they should probably be avoided most of the time. Jungle and Ice Caves idols are quite a bit safer, though Temple and Hell idols can be tricky too.

- A note on whipping: Indeed, yes you are correct about fairly often getting injured if you whip from the front. However, always whipping from the back can be tedious or even outright dangerous at times if you can't position yourself correctly. The real trick is to intuitively learn the whip well enough so that you know how much time you need to pull off a successful front-facing whip. As an additional note, the initial backswing on the whip allows you to reach enemies slightly higher than front-whipping, which can be especially useful for spiders just slightly beyond your jump range.

- Though the opportunity to do so is rare, scorpions actually make pretty decent sacrifices. They are worth as much as a dead damsel or stunned yeti, making it one of the only worthwhile things to sacrifice besides the damsel in Mines levels. (Dead shopkeepers are alright too if the altar is nearby.) If you feel you have the time, stunned scorpions can also be picked up and thrown into spikes, though it is definitely dangerous to do so. Even throwing or dropping them down a pit is a decent tactic in order to put some distance between them and you though.

- Contrary to what you were saying in your video (and you even showed it with some footage of spiders towards the end!), there is a limit to how far above spiders will trigger. It is a pretty big range, but if you're more than a screen's height distance away, you might be fine.

- While it is quite a bit harder to pull off, sticky bombs are not strictly necessary in order to reach some areas. One very dangerous (but sometimes necessary tactic if you can't find Paste or a Giant Spider) is to "cook" a regular bomb before throwing it. Basically, you drop a bomb and then pick it back up before throwing it once more. Precisely how long to wait before throwing is a tricky skill, as too early and you waste the blast radius and too late and you'll lose 10 HP (likely killing you). If one can master bomb cooking, unsticky bombs are actually superior to sticky bombs due to the variety of physics tricks you can pull off with them, but it is far, far easier to play with sticky bombs in general.

RJ815's notes:

- Funny that you say it's under-rated, as I'd actually say most people agree that the Jungle is one of the hardest areas in the entire game, especially because you are often low on equipment there unless you rob shops and/or the black market.

- It is true that monkeys can steal stuff, including triggering bombs. One of the most important things to be aware of with them, IMO, is that they will get stuck with a sticky bomb if they steal a bomb while you have paste. This can be an effective (if wasteful) means of them suiciding, but it is extremely dangerous if they hop off and then hop back on you while stuck with a stolen bomb.

- Even a boomerang is decent against the beehives, though spike shoes and a shotgun are definitely preferable. Also, it's worth mentioning that, while the regular bees are small and can hunt you down, the Queen Bee is fairly easy to trap behind terrain, trees, and other narrow obstacles due to her size, which can make her easier to kill (even with a lowly whip). Also also, bees (and bats too actually) refuse to enter water unlike many other jungle enemies.

- On dark levels: You shouldn't kill the golden flying bugs. They're actually valuable treasure even though they can count as killed enemies. Also, besides the shotgun, there are two other notable things regarding light. 1. Torches that go out in water in the Jungle can be relit if you bring them to a lit stationary wall torch. This is handy if you're having trouble bypassing water in the dark. 2. The camera, while normally not all that great, is particular handy in the dark. Instead of just lighting up a small area like the shotgun, the entire screen is lit up briefly with its flash.

- Ha ha, it's not a white butt on the vampires, that's their face (note how pale their face is when they are flying or jumping), it's just that they're hanging upside down like a vampire bat. Besides a bomb when they are stunned (a decent tactic), getting the ASH tombstone shotgun and shooting them with it is a good idea too.

- You didn't really mention this at all, but a note on the Giant Piranha / Ol' Bitey in Rushing Water random events. It is basically never worth facing him, even with a shotgun, as the potential for death is high and the reward really isn't that great anyway.

RJ815's notes:

- Spikes Shoes are one of the most important items for the Ice Caves as they remove the slipperiness of ice, treating it just like normal rocky terrain when you have them.

- You sort of covered this, but falling platforms are actually quite handy for descending without fall damage (or with a lower risk of it) if you know roughly where you will land. (Of course, dropping without knowing where it'll hit is risky, especially if it goes all the way into the abyss.) Ropes, jetpack, and climbing gloves mitigate the need to use them, but they can be handy if low on equipment.

- Besides pissing off shopkeepers, UFOs are a pain around altars. Angry shopkeepers are one thing, but altar punishments and low of favor are even worse IMO.

- You don't HAVE to kill the Mothership's Queen to get the Plasma Cannon, something rather unique to other boss enemies. In fact, if you bomb through the floor where the Queen is, you can pick up the Cannon early and use it against her and the two Alien Lords in the level.

- I believe aliens always pop out of crashed UFOs, though it may be that when blasting them with a shotgun or something the thing explodes and kills them before they can eject / get far enough away.

RJ815's notes:

- Part of people's fear about the stone traps is that they used to be more dangerous in the original version of Spelunky. IIRC, they used to be instant kills (or at least high damage) on contact, but the ones in the HD version only hurt you if they can crush you, making them noticeably safer than before.

- You were skillful in taking care of Anubis, but those stone traps can crush items and weapons too, including the valuable Scepter. As such, it is kind of dangerous to rely on them for stuff like that because it could screw up a trip to Hell.

- Lava pools, depending on their layout, can be reasonably jumped over with some consistency. The main trouble is avoiding the magma men that pop out of them, as they can knock you straight into the instant kill lava. But otherwise, stuff like the cape and spring shoes can help you get over even the lava pool gaps that can't normally be jumped past. Anyhow, for the magma men, the trick is to watch the surface of the lava. They always appear in a ball form before they pop out, so if you see things at the surface of the lava, you know to wait until it's safer to jump.

- Good advice on Croc men. Those guys are an absolute pain to fight or even just aggro, so it really is just best to completely avoid them if you can.

- The sprinting under Olmec strategy works, but your method could possibly be safer and slightly easier to pull off. The sprinting method is touted often (especially with stuff like Speedlunky) because it's a little faster and because it can even be useful when you don't have the extra space to maneuver around. (The method shown requires more extra space than the common way to do it.)

RJ815's notes:

- While crates are often valuable, I would not say to ALWAYS go for them. Similar to your motto, I'd ask: "What's the worst that could happen?" If that's spending two bombs on something crappy like a parachute, I consider that a net loss, which can really hurt in the Mines and Jungle while you are initially low on supplies. However, I do advise generally trying to go for crates if you only have to spend one rope or bomb to get to one. Any more supply usage and you run the risk of your expenditure not being worth it. Sometimes two ropes or bombs used will pay off if it's a good item, but three or more is basically never good unless you have a real excess of them.

- I'm not sure three pack bombs are really all that worth buying unless you're really running low. 12 packs are worth buying or stealing though.

- I personally think the compass is only truly worth it for the Ice Caves, as otherwise it's not too hard to find level exits. I generally don't buy it and usually turn it up in some crate or in the Black Market at some point anyway, making purchasing it usually unecessary IMO. And if you can at least get climbing gloves and/or a cape from the market or earlier, that can be sufficient for the Ice Caves even if you don't have a compass.

- Had you roped up to the little treasure cove behind the shop in 1-3, you probably could've gotten enough treasure for buying at least the gloves, also possibly any extra supplies in that shop too. Bit of waste not to get easy treasure if you need it like you did.

- You got lucky in 1-4, as I feel you might not have explored some previous levels well enough and could've missed the Udjat Eye in different circumstances. With the Eye and Black Market, you really have to be thorough until you get them, as otherwise it's easy to miss them if they end up in a rarer spot. Additionally, even in 1-4 when you spotted the key, the chest could've been hidden behind terrain you didn't really explore, but it was just out in the open for you this time. Again, thoroughness is important.

- You mentioned thoroughness in 2-1, but you were not really that thorough there, and the blinking distance / blue light does not have that far of a range either. Finding the Black Market can be even more of a pain that the Eye, because at least with the Eye you have a better chance of spotting the Key or the Chest somewhere, but the Market entrance can be totally buried and quite hidden at times.

- Buying bombs in the Market is totally unnecessary unless you're extremely low on them. It is possible to consistently lure the top floor level shopkeepers out of their shops with only two bombs even by staying near the level entrance, and it's usually enough to then just step into their shops and steal enough to carry you through more of the market, leading to a positive feedback loop where you can rob even better with more supplies and equipment. (An example of the mentioned two bomb placement can be seen here, from 11:50 - 12:07.) Shopkeepers on lower floor levels will often either trap themselves, shoot each other or just otherwise not be that big of a deal, so I really do think buying bombs in the market is a waste 99% of the time.

- It is unnecessary to watch shopkeepers fight in the market. You can let them do their own thing while you steal supplies from their shops. I push the ghost pretty often in market levels, so it's best not to spend any more time than necessary anywhere there. You managed to get a pretty quick run since many of them shot themselves in the Ankh shop.

- With the blue head, while you do have to die on that level, you don't have to do it right away. Making preparations beforehand can be useful. A bit of sacrificing can be helpful if you can pull it off (though it seems you didn't do much sacrificing in this run), though I always try to at minimum deliver a damsel to an exit before suiciding into the blue head. Even though the damsel enters a different level exit, it will count and will start you off on the next level with 5 HP, which always helps since you've lost your health boost using the Ankh. (The same is true for other stuff like delivering idols to unused exits.) Since you lacked the Kapala and didn't have an easy means to regain health, doing such would've been particularly helpful for you.

- Similar to the previous one, if you're lucky enough to get a damsel close to the Mothership entrance (as you were on your 3-4), placing them into that entrance will score you an extra heart even if you don't actually enter the Mothership. Allows you to carry your shotgun more freely and worry less about keeping the damsel alive and getting it past the end-of-level shopkeeper.

- In the Ice Caves, it's often unnecessary to waste bombs on shopkeepers near the level exits. It is usually sufficient to just trigger them with your presence (from above is best as it's harder for them to reach you), and they'll usually just end up in the abyss and kill themselves at some point. This allows you to easily save bombs for the Temple, City of Gold, and Hell. Of course, if they're stuck on terrain you may need to still use bombs. However, another alternative is to just throw a proximity bomb at or near them, as that's a free source of explosives and works nearly as well for causing them to blow up or drop off.

- With the Scepter on top of the stone trap thing, you could've used a rope near the level entrance to lure the trap to the right and drop the Scepter off of itself as it moved, though that was risky. Would've saved you a bomb though.

- You had an easy altar in 4-1 and totally didn't use it. Which is a shame since you could've definitely easily gotten the first altar reward from sacrificing the very nearby living damsel, and posisbly even the Kapala if you sacrificed some other things (like dead hawk men and shopkeepers) quickly too. Would've made Hell easier for you and it was a quite favorable random generation for you that you didn't really take advantage of.

- In 4-2, I highly recommend trying to get a shotgun before entering the City of Gold. If you're comfortable with using the Scepter to do that, it is an excellent means of doing so without wasting supplies (though there is always some risk to its fast psychic blasts). Even so, just using bombs or something else would be fine too. Putting the Scepter into the golden door frees up your hands to carry something else into the City.

- You stress about the shopkeeper in 4-3, and getting a shotgun in 4-2 makes it less of a hassle, which is another reason I recommend following that strategy.

- I'm not fond of killing Anubis II in Olmec's Chamber. It's generally easier to handle his skeletons in the City of Gold terrain IMO, whereas there is too much access for the skeletons in 4-4. Furthermore, the shotgun is more than sufficient to take him out, as you really should be saving bombs for Hell as they can be incredibly valuable there.

- Leaving a shotgun or other held item unattanded with Olmec is a bad idea. He can easily crush it, likely leaving you weaponless for 5-1, the first level of Hell.

- If you have the spare bombs, I consider Vlad's Amulet an item always worth getting, nearly on the level of stuff like the jetpack. It is so extremely useful for avoiding the annoyance of magma men and the deadliness of lava that it is worth the time to get it. Plus, since it's near the top of the level, it usualy doesn't even take that much time to get if you just bomb your way through.



I would like to thank RJ815 once again for his contributions to this guide. Also check out his extremelly well written guide at http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=189019604