Thank you for viewing my guide! I just wanted to say this before the guide proper:

This guide is not complete. I've been working on it since last February, but after ReVamped came out I got really burnt out from this game, and progress on this guide screeched to a halt. I wanted to publish it though, as there are no guides published for this game, and I didn't want my work to go to waste. Thus, I'm going to publish a "0.9" version of this guide, if that makes sense. If someone wants to help me with the completion of this guide, let me know! I'm happy to add people as collaborators. Thanks, and hope this guide helps!

Hello everyone! After playing through this game and figuring out a lot of the tricks required to collect all of Skeleton Boomerang's Achievements, I’d thought I’d share what I’ve compiled in a guide. Seeing that Skeleton Boomerang had zero guides on Steam as of posting this guide inspired me to do this. This is my first guide, so constructive criticism and feedback will be appreciated greatly. I plan on updating it to fill in gaps of information that are missing or correcting any inaccuracies.

This guide will run through all the achievements and how to acquire them. I will break the main game up into areas as I run through everything, and will leave notes towards the best places to get Achievements not directly related to 110% Completion in Normal Mode. In order to collect some of these, there are some gameplay mechanics that are important to understand. I will start by explaining them in the next section.

The Combo System
This is the core of the game, and subsequently of the completion process. This mechanic is why I fell in love with the gameplay of this game. When you throw your boomerang and hit an enemy, you can roll through it or jump over it, then guide it into other enemies by moving around. This will increase your score multiplier, all the way up to 8x the normal point drop, and will continue until you catch the boomerang again. For example, a Skeleton enemy, which normally drops 5 Points, would drop 40 Points when hit during a boomerang chain with an 8x multiplier. (The multiplier also increases the number of points you get from bone chips floating around the stage as well!) It is the main means of increasing your score, as the game saves your best score for each stage and adds it to your total. Therefore, replaying stages to get longer boomerang combos will not only give you new abilities, it will also increase your skill through practice.

The Score System
All your hard work comboing, beating bosses, collecting bone chips and breaking cages around the stages will be displayed by your total score. After crossing certain thresholds, you will unlock more Health, Boomerangs, and Techniques that will grant different gameplay options and strategies. I will go into more details about each Boomerang and Technique below.

Rolling
This other important mechanic. In combination with a deployed boomerang, rolling allows you to defeat many enemies in succession. The reason rolling is so powerful is the invulnerability period during the animation of the roll. This means you can roll through both enemies and the boomerang. You can use the roll, along with your jumps, to move extremely efficiently through stages.

Roll Jumps and Air Rolling
These two techniques are two sides of the same coin. They are both all about movement. If you jump out of a roll, you maintain a lot of speed and can chain these roll jumps together to move quickly through a stage. This is the staple technique for time trials. Air Rolling is rolling after a jump. This allows you to cross gaps and correct mistakes. You can chain air rolls into roll jumps and vice versa. Master these two movement options, and you will substantially improve your performance. These techniques are even required for some more technical jumps in the game, especially in Hard Mode.

Swimming and Swim Rolling
Swimming is an important part of some stages, and some of the hardest places to maintain boomerang combos is underwater. Knowing how to swim effectively will keep your combo going. You can swim up very quickly by mashing the jump button, and roll underwater much more frequently. Holding down underwater allows you to float down quicker. Keeping all of these in mind will increase your swimming speed and your maneuverability. A really cool trick I discovered while playing is Rapid-Fire Swim Rolling. You can achieve this by mashing the jump and roll buttons in tandem to roll and swim at the same time. Swimming seems to reset the roll animation, which allows you to repeat the roll much faster. This was a huge component of getting good times on the time trials for stages involving water.

Dodging
You can dodge by holding down and pressing the roll button. I don’t use this a lot, as it halts your momentum and often has caused me to drop a boomerang combo trying to use it, but you can use it both on the ground and in the air, and in a pinch it may save your life where a roll may have killed you.

Boomerang Bouncing
The boomerang is your friend, and is also your enemy. Dodging the boomerang is essential to success, and learning it’s physics can aid in that process. A boomerang will bounce in the opposite direction of any breakable object or enemy it hits when deployed, so you can use that brief grace period to calculate where you want you roll, move, or jump next. The boomerang can reach some ridiculous speed and angles with the right positioning (or a well timed activation of the Return or Homing Technique upon death). It is possible to have it bounce rapidly between enemies, and while this is a hard scenario to intentionally set up, it is a very good way to very quickly kill a cluster of enemies and rack up Points. In addition, almost all enemies and four bosses are very vulnerable in the back, and throwing a boomerang in the opposite direction of them, then rolling through them so that the boomerang starts bouncing on their back repeatedly is a very good way to shred some higher health foes. I will call this specific technique the Throw Reversal, and will refer to it when notably applicable.

Now with those mechanics explained, let’s begin!

The following sections will go over everything necessary to 110% this game. All the collectibles funnel back into these two achievements so a majority of this guide will be centered around the steps necessary to collect these. You will automatically get the 100% achievement going for 110%, so I’m combining their instructions. You will also unlock every achievement involved with beating bosses and both of the time trial achievements. I will put notes in stages where you can get achievements not directly related to 110% Completion, and cover them in their own section. Note that Hard Mode is a completely separate campaign and will be covered in it’s own section, since you must defeat Mr. Saturday to even access it.

There are two endings, both of which must be reached for 110%. The Normal Ending simply requires you to beat the final boss, but the True Ending is a bit more involved, and I will go into it in its own section.

You will unlock a Gold Skull for each stage you clear, and there are a total of 23 in the game. There is also a Cool Necklace in each stage that has a red skull as its icon (the ones that don’t have to be unlocked with Cool Necklaces) and six you can get from Bonus Areas for a total of 22.

In addition to this, there are 21 Gold and Platinum Trophies to achieve by beating certain time thresholds in time trials. I will go into these in more detail in their own section.

You start with your base Boomerang, and the Return and Stop Techniques. There are five unlockable boomerangs and four unlockable techniques that you can achieve. These count towards completion, so always be working on your score during gameplay. A majority can be unlocked by crossing certain Total Score thresholds. I will cover all the boomerangs and techniques below, as well as the means of unlocking them.

Boomerang
Your starting boomerang. A well rounded weapon that you can clear the entire game with if you're up for that kind of challenge. It actually has a major benefit: its smaller hitbox without any additional effect. It makes trying to not hit Hunter Voodoo Dolls during the Final Boss, Spinal Final and a lot of Hard Mode stages much easier.
Return Technique
The basic technique; it can be used by pressing the attack button again while the boomerang is deployed. This is the one you'll use the most, even without having it equipped. Other techniques have cooldowns, signified by the green bar that appears on the bottom of the screen. During this cooldown, the Return Technique is defaulted to. Spamming the boomerang into bosses to deal damage rapidly is made possible by this technique.
Stop Technique
When the boomerang is deployed, pressing the attack button with Stop equipped will halt the boomerang's momentum in mid-air, giving you a brief respite. Having a small cooldown and allowing for more control over your boomerang, it is a very useful technique for getting high combos in the early stages and positioning to hit moving enemies, however it is outclassed by other techniques once you unlock them. I've found Stop is useful for learning the physics of the boomerang and practice.

Normal Mode Upgrades List
5 Health: 400 Points
All health upgrades increase the amount of damage you can sustain by one. You can find health pickups around stages to heal, and checkpoints will fully heal you. Use this to your advantage.
Coolerang: 800 Points
This boomerang emits an aura when thrown that freezes enemies. It doesn't need to contact them to freeze them. A very useful Boomerang for the early game, but can complicate combos and Bonus Areas involving them. It also puts out the flames of fiery enemies, negating their special properties.
Homing Technique: 1300 Points
When the boomerang is deployed, pressing the attack button with Homing equipped will have the boomerang attempt to snap to the position of the nearest enemy, damaging it if the boomerang can reach. It has a medium cooldown, but often you will spend a portion of it re-positioning, so it isn't too annoying. It is my personal favorite Technique, as it increases your comboing potential substantially, and allows you to kill enemies through walls and on ceilings, making parts of levels much easier.
6 Health: 2000 Points
Self-Explanatory
Burnerang: 2800 Points
This boomerang shoots out two secondary flares that orbit around the point of impact. This boomerang is very effective against bosses as they are often big enough for both the flares to hit them, dealing bonus damage. While the boomerang is deployed, any enemies killed with the flares will increase the combo multiplier. It can burn the wraps off of mummy skeletons, allowing you to kill them without having to wait for them to walk into the fire pits.
7 Health: 3800 Points
Self-Explanatory
Doublerang: 5000 Points
These shuriken-like boomerangs allow you have two active boomerangs out at once, and can catch one and redeploy it without dropping the combo. This, combined with the Homing Technique, is my preferred loadout until I score 10000 Points. The combos you can achieve with these two in tandem are hefty. You'll see evidence of this in the screenshots I took for this guide. Having two boomerangs also increases your DPS during boss fights, and makes the Throw Reversal even more damaging. Just note that you must have both boomerangs out to use Techniques.
8 Health: 6500 Points
I highly recommend to wait to do time trials until you have all eight health, as there are a lot of time-shaving damage boosts that could otherwise kill you or put you in serious danger of choking a really solid attempt at a Platinum time.
Pulse Technique: 8000 Points
When the boomerang is deployed, pressing the attack button with Pulse equipped will make a massive energy blast. It will do this up to three times if you can keep the boomerang deployed long enough, so be sure not to waste it. It has a high cooldown, but the game would probably be busted if it didn't, as it completely obliterates most enemies caught in the blast and does high damage to everyone else. It is a staple technique for boss fights and time trials, as it allows you to do a lot of damage very quickly. Using it during time trials is the fastest way to clear a path in a lot of instances, and combined with a Throw Reversal and the Doublerang, have fun watching bones crumble to dust.
Mysterang: 10000 Points
This is hands down the best boomerang in the game. This behemoth is a reward for dedication to comboing, requiring the most points to unlock. It is a large question mark, larger than any other boomerang, and it combines the Coolerang and Burnerang while amplifying their properties. The freeze aura is significantly larger and the boomerang emits four flares instead of two upon impact. It makes it a lot easier to both hit and deal damage quickly to enemies and bosses, only really rivaled by spamming the Doublerang. Once I unlock it, I rarely switch to any other boomerang, as once you reach 10000 Points, comboing becomes less important, so the Doublerang's amazing combo potential is put on the back seat. It also is the Boomerang of choice for time trials and I highly recommend unlocking it before working on them. The less you have to focus on killing what is in your way during an attempt at Platinum times, the better, and the Mysterang combined with the Pulse Technique is a mighty combination.

The remaining two unlockables are earned by beating bosses optional to the main campaign, but required for 110% Completion. I will go over the strategies for beating them in their own section of this guide.

Bat: Defeat Sally
The Bat is a unique boomerang in that it doesn't have a unique property, and pretty much acts like your standard boomerang. Having it equipped instead changes your roll into a slide kick that deals damage as you pass through enemies, emulating Sally's base slide attack. It is a pretty niche boomerang, at least in my opinion, and I rarely used it due to when I unlocked it, but it is useful for moving quickly, especially in time trials, and I just preferred the boomerangs. If you like melee attacks, this is the only one in the game, so the Bat is definitely for you.
Heal Technique: Defeat Defilim
When the boomerang is deployed, pressing the attack button with Heal equipped will cause it to start glowing a blue aura. If you then hit an enemy with it before the cooldown timer expires, you will heal one damage. This is an immensely useful technique, and I constantly switch between it and Pulse when playing. It takes a lot of pressure off of you in some of the later levels, especially in Hard Mode, where health management between checkpoints is a lot stricter. It has a huge cooldown, but yet again, without it, the game would be trivialized. It also doesn't work in Bonus Areas, likely to prevent cheesing them.

To sum this all up, 110% requires:
- Beating the Game and seeing the Normal Ending
- Unlocking the True Ending
- All 23 Gold Skulls
- All 22 Cool Necklaces
- 10000 Points
- All 6 Boomerangs
- All 6 Techniques
- All 42 Trophies, 21 Gold and 21 Platinum

One disclaimer about the Platinum times. Some of them are estimates, and I will go into more detail about what that means in the Time Trial section. This is subject to change as I update this guide. I will post a screenshot of each level on the map screen alongside my section of each level, which will contain the time I achieved the Platinum trophy with, which will be a good second resource besides my notes I compiled. Times that are estimates will be notated with an * next to them.

With all that established, let's move on to the stages.

The following parts of the guide will focus on the stages found on the map, sectioned by the gates that bar your progress until each area's boss is defeated, as well as the bosses themselves. I will break each area up into a different chunk and refer to them by a geographical description.

After you land on the Island, you automatically have three stages and a bonus area available to you. You can play them in any order you’d like, but I’ll just list them in the order I usually play them. This guide will not be a step-by-step walkthrough of each stage, as a lot of the gameplay comes down to execution and combo skills, and I want to focus on providing key information about each stage and all the secrets and collectibles tied to Achievements. Most of what I could say about each stage can be summed up in my Important Mechanics and 110% Completion sections, or is pretty easy to understand through experiencing it. I will try to highlight anything important. You can head to Musa’s Shack for information if you’d like to learn about the game and its story a bit. You must clear two of the following stages and collect their Gold Skulls to fight the boss, T-Bone.


Kickoff Coast



Requires: Always Available
Platinum Time: 0:52.00

Kickoff Coast is a great first level, introducing an environment to play around with all the main mechanics I described above. Most of the basic enemies you see through the entire game are introduced in the first few levels, so learn how they operate and how to best guide the boomerang into them. There isn't a whole lot of difficult sections, just beware the pits as they will instantly kill you. Play this level a couple of times if you want to go for a good score, as it will allow you to start unlocking your first upgrades quickly.

Cool Necklace:



After jumping out of the first pool of water, you'll see the first Cool Necklace out in the open. Simply jump into the next pool and swim left to get it, avoiding the spikes.

The end of the level is the best place in the game to get the True Treasure Achievement.


Rolling Snow Ride



Requires: Always Available
Platinum Time: 1:00.00

This level introduces rolling obstacles and snowmobiles. It's still pretty simple, and not too hard even with the starting equipment. Rolling obstacles, mostly those thrown by a specific enemy, are very annoying for time trials as you have to walk a fine line between damage boosting through them and not taking too much damage. You can speed up your snowmobile by holding right, but it is important to be careful when driving, as crashing into a wall will instantly kill you. A way I've found to stay in control while going fast is to tap forward to stagger your speed, giving you more time to react to jumps.

Cool Necklace:



Below the elevator platforms, you will see a small cliff, and on the other side of a wall, the Cool Necklace. Continue going through the stage.



Right before the checkpoint, drop through the semi-solid part of the floor, and avoid the spring pads, making sure to land on the platform so you don't die. From here, move left into the same cave and collect your prize.

This is the easiest stage in the game to achieve the Boomerace Achievement.


Frozen Fright Cavern



Requires: Always Available
Platinum Time: 0:46.00

This level will have you spelunking through an icy cave of spiky hazards and falling obstacles. A lot of the floor is icy and will cause you to slide so watch your step. It introduces one of the main hazards of the game, the spiked stones. These will frequently get in your way and cannot be rolled through or defeated, so always play cautiously around these things. Icicles appear first in Rolling Snow Ride but they are much more prevalent here. You will use them to platform quite a bit in this stage, and some require to be manually knocked down. You will need to be able to accurately hit these down to platform across gaps later in the game, so practice precision with your throws early. The Platinum time in particular requires you to be able to hit some of these icicles while moving, which the Mysterang's increased size can help with. Near the end of the stage, a golem-like skeleton enemy will block your path, as it holds the first key to a locked door in the game. You can be careful and try to keep your distance as he throws out attacks, but if you can spare a hit, you can get up close and mash the attack button until it goes down. This is pretty much necessary for a good time in a time trial.

Cool Necklace:



A little bit of the way through the stage, you'll see two icicles on the ceiling near an elevator track. Hit them down to platform up to the elevator.



From there simply ride the elevator up and move to the right to snag it.

Skellychan can be found hidden in this level for the Skelly’s Sekret Achievement.


Angry Avalanche



Requires: 4 Cool Necklaces
Platinum Time: 1:55.00

This level is all about dodging around obstacles and carving a path forward for yourself. Being the first unlockable level, it expands on the concepts introduced in Rolling Snow Ride and Frozen Fright Cavern, creating some fun platforming challenges. It also introduces metal enemies, which cannot be defeated, as well as Hanging Fruit, of which there are three varieties. The yellow ones are stationary and simply allow you to jump off of them, allowing you to scale large vertical distances. Lava makes its first appearance, and is one of the hazards that deal double damage, but unlike most games, is not lethal. It is still very dangerous though, and this level contains the first of many challenges involving dropping icicles to allow yourself through an otherwise unavoidable obstacle. You must collect a key at the peak of the level, and drop back down into the cave and into the final hallway, where you'll encounter fish skeletons on fire. They can be put out temporarily with the Coolerang if you have it. As it is an unlockable level, there is no Cool Necklace to find. This is the same for all levels unlocked with Cool Necklace thresholds.

The goal of this achievement is to hit an end of the level treasure chest with a 4x Combo or greater. The best level to achieve this is in Kickoff Coast, although I will also discuss a method you can do in Crypt Caper. Note it is achievable in any level as long as you can manage to get a combo all the way to the end, I am just highlighting two particular cases where there are three enemies at the very end of the level in a relatively safe position to easily get a 4x combo without the risk of dying.



The Kickoff Coast method is simple. Cross over the pit with the three skeletons near the end of the stage before the crumbling platforms, and then get a 4x combo going by defeating the three of them. You'll know you have it when the boomerang has a red aura. Rolling through them makes this rather simple. From there, carefully maneuver over the crumbling platforms and guide the boomerang into the chest by standing to the right of it. The achievement should then pop.

Another simple method is utilizing the three skeletons that throw bones on the big staircase at the end of Crypt Caper to get a 4x combo going. Using a combination of rolls and the Homing Technique is recommended. From there, just climb the stairs without catching the boomerang, and stand to the left of the chest to guide the boomerang into it.

This achievement is unlocked by throwing the boomerang and then quickly hopping into a snowmobile and driving fast enough to finish a ride without re-catching it. If you make it to the end of a ride, the achievement should pop. This is easiest to achieve in Rolling Snow Ride but it's also possible in any other stage that has a snowmobile section, which are Spooky Space and Bone Chilling Trail.

This achievement entails locating Skellychan, a skeleton wearing a bikini and rabbit ears. She can be found in Frozen Fright Cavern.



Near the end of the stage, you'll notice an icicle below this platform here. You must hit it with your boomerang until it begins... rising? Well then. Hop on before it gets too high up and make your way up.



You'll find Skellychan shivering at the top of a cliff here, complaining about how cold it is, alongside a sign and a bunch of bone chips forming a star. I don't remember exactly how you unlock this achievement, as I got it a few years before creating this guide, but interacting with her should do the trick.

T-Bone Boss Fight



Requires: 2 Gold Skulls
Reward: 200 Points, Gate Key, Blast from the Past Achievement

Strategy: Stand under T-Bone and do a short hop, then throw the boomerang into its jaw repeatedly. This is the fastest way to deal damage and you should always be doing this when not dodging its fire blasts. Get high when it does the Big Fireball attack that creates a shock wave and air roll over it, careful to not bump into T-Bone. The meteor attack is pretty easy to avoid if you are on your toes and constantly moving. When bosses in this game reach low health, they enter a second phase where their color darkens, signifying critical damage, and their attack patterns get significantly more aggressive. I like calling this their Raged Phase. When T-Bone’s body falls away and it’s head starts floating around, it gains significant mobility and will begin to barrage you. Always be throwing your boomerang in the direction of T-Bone when you’re not under it, even if it doesn’t end up reaching. If you do, it will go down relatively easily and quickly. You probably won’t have any special Boomerangs that have effects that impact bosses at this point, but if you do have fun shredding this thing and sending it back to the Cretaceous Period.

Past this point, the game opens up quite a bit and you have a lot more options as to which stages and challenges you want to tackle in which order. You can also head to Tony B’s Cabana to learn about your various Boomerangs and Techniques. You will need to clear five stages to face Grim Bob.

Swampy Cemetery



Requires: 1 Key
Platinum Time: 1:17.00

This stage introduces a few new obstacles. There are skeletons that can be used to propel you upward throughout the stage. Their spraying is cycle based, which can pretty substantially impact a time trial run. It also introduces slime droplets, which are very annoying as they can slow you down substantially and even kill you outright in some later stages. There is a large skeleton that will start chasing you about halfway through after the checkpoint, and touching it will instantly kill you, so stay on your toes. Getting hit by a slime drop can be lethal. Past the chase, the rest of the level is a breeze. This is a pretty short and simple level, so I'd like to take a moment to praise this game's soundtrack. It fits the game perfectly, and is incredibly well done. It adds so much flavor to the stage. Disco (and Cosmic) Necropolis, Spinal Column, and Scare-ribbean Island are my personal favorites, and the former is the stage theme for a majority of the levels in this area, so have fun playing to this absolute banger of a song.

Cool Necklace:



After the chase, instead of going up and to the right, use the skeleton's spray to go to the left on top of the structure you were chased through.



From there, just walk to the left and hop up to the necklace.


Tombstone Storm



Requires: 1 Key
Platinum Time: 1:16.00*

They say lightning never strikes the same place twice. This level does not follow that logic, and do not rely on it. You'll begin by making your way through the outside of a large crypt, a thunderstorm raging as Disco Necropolis bumps in the background. A cloud will chase you relentlessly through the outside portions of this level, and will strike you with lightning every couple of seconds if you do not take cover, damaging you. This obstacle makes this one of the hardest levels to maintain a combo in, at least on the outside portions. You will get a respite once you enter the crypt. A few new enemies are introduced here, most notably a mummified skeleton that cannot be damaged without first burning off its wrappings. Once you head back outside, a lot of your cover will be moving platforms, adding an added layer of challenge to staying out of the storm's unrelenting attack. Take care as you make your way to the end. This level is full of pits, but two checkpoints should keep frustration to a minimum.

Cool Necklace:



Before the first checkpoint, positioned before the entrance to the crypt, you'll spot this stage's Cool Necklace on a high balcony. Remember its location and hop into the crypt.



Once you emerge from the crypt, hit the second checkpoint, and instead of continuing right, hop on top of the structure to your left using the platforms available to you. From there, make your way through a tricky challenge where you must exclusively use moving platforms as cover while dealing with the snake skeletons blocking your path.



At the end of the path you'll reunite with your friend and add him to your collection for your effort. You can reset to get back to the second checkpoint from here if you're in a hurry, although you'll lose the Points you gained from the enemies you killed.


Breezy Ravine



Requires: 1 Key
Platinum Time: 1:15.00

This stage is all about wind and momentum. And spiky stones. A lot of them. You will need you to utilize both the floater jump and faster speed you can achieve from vertical and horizontal fans respectively to climb upwards and navigate the hazards in your way. This level is notable for being the first to feature a mandatory Air Roll from a jump, utilizing the wind from the fan to cross a huge gap. The timing is tricky, but you'll want to get it down. There are some much nastier jumps you'll need to do in the same way, with much less windup time and room for error. Celeste this level and show it who's boss.

Cool Necklace:



This necklace is very simple to get, and is pretty easy to spot. You'll see a gap between the fans here some way through the level that has a single bone chip floating between them.



Simply walk between the gap and the necklace is yours.


Spooky Space



Requires: 1 Key and 8 Cool Necklaces
Platinum Time: 3:00.00

If you play this level right when you can first unlock it, the first part of it may be the toughest platforming in this game yet. The slime droplets are what you really need to watch out for, as they can cut your momentum in mid-air and send you plummeting to your death. You'll come across a snowmobile, and have to ride it while being chased by the big skeleton from Swampy Cemetery. Evade it and you'll soon come across another snowmobile where once entered, it... blasts of into space? This game is so good guys. This stuff writes itself.

The rest of this level is an autoscroller where you'll fly through space on your rocket snowmobile jamming out to Cosmic Necropolis as you have to dodge around enemies and obstacles. You'll have to mow down aliens with your boomerang to progress at points, and the level ends with you getting to literally bash your skeletal pursuer's skull in. This level is a blast, and you can score an insane amount of points if you can manage to keep your combo going. This may be the single best level in the game to grind for a good score, as I'm pretty sure you can get 2000+.

This is a level you can achieve the Boomerace Achievement in.

Grim Bob Boss Fight



Requires: 1 Key and 5 Gold Skulls
Reward: 300 Points, Gate Key, Trigger Discipline Achievement

Strategy: When starting the fight, avoid the scythe he throws while spamming the attack button into him. The trickiest part is hitting him as he’s a little evasive. Dodge his waves of bullets, followed by the round of bullets he fires from the foreground off-screen. When he enters his Raged Phase, he'll spawn in skeletons into the arena, and his foreground attacks become much more numerous aggressive. Simply keeps wailing on him until he is defeated. The Burnerang makes the fight much easier, as the secondary flares do extra damage when they collide with him. This is the easiest fight in the game in my opinion if you have enough health, which you should if you have been scoring high. I managed to kill him before he even started shooting his gun with the Mysterang.

Sally Boss Fight



Requires: 1 Key and 10 Cool Necklaces
Reward: 300 Points, Bat, Skeletons Go Home Run Achievement

Strategy: This fight, depending on when you do it, may be one of the easiest or hardest fights in the game, as she is optional, not to complete it though! Her and Defilim are required to beat for 110% completion. If you have the Mysterang, she is a complete pushover, but if you don’t have at least the Burnerang and 6 Health, you’ll be in for quite the fight. Do your best to dodge the baseball she’ll hit and kick around while she slides and swings her bat, and try to get as many hits in with the boomerang as you can. Any contact with her or the ball will cause damage. She’ll occasionally launch an energy blast at you, so make sure to avoid that with a jump or roll. You want to refrain from getting too close, or she’ll bat you into the wall for two points of damage (it is possible to roll out of the animation and only take one if you’re quick enough). This is the first of four bosses accessible where getting the boomerang stuck bouncing on their back with the Throw Reversal is effective, although Sally will jump around a lot so you will need to set it up a lot. Once she enters her Raged Phase, she’ll summon a second, darker baseball, making the fight more chaotic. Stay focused and swing for the fences and you’ll hit her to the crowds and steal her bat.

After beating Grim Bob, you can go to both Area 3 and Area 4, so you can choose what you’d like to do next. You will need to clear eight stages to fight Anne’s Revenge.

Cannonade Brigade



Requires: 2 Keys
Platinum Time: 1:20.00

This stage is full of cannons and aquatic fairing skeletons. Avoid the cannonballs to the best of your ability as you make your way through the stage. Once you pass the checkpoint, the water level will start oscillating up and down for the rest of the stage. There are a ton of mines and cannons you will have to swim or jump around as you make your way forward, making sure to kill and combo skeletons as you go. The final part of the stage is full of boxes bobbing up and down in the tide. Use this to your advantage as you platform through the cannon barrage for the treasure.

Cool Necklace:



As you move through the stage, you'll see the necklace on a seemingly unreachable ledge. Continue on for now, you'll need to trigger the tidal shift first.



Once you pass the checkpoint, walk forward until you trigger the water to start rising up and down. At this point head back to the necklace.



Avoid the mines and cannons as you make your way back, and you should now be easily able to jump up onto the semi-solid bridge connected to the ledge. Jump up to claim your necklace, then restart to warp back to the checkpoint if you wish.


Bonunaga’s Ambition



Requires: 2 Keys
Platinum Time: 1:22.00*

You'll encounter a couple new aggressive enemies on your romp through this Japan-inspired palace. Ninja skeletons will throw shurikens at you as you hop along the rooftops, and samurai skeletons will aggressively charge you, able to attack you both on the ground and in the air. At the end of the stage, you'll do battle with a much tougher samurai, capable of blasting you with energy and blocking your attacks. You can't spam attacks here like you can on the golems, patience is key. Wait for your opponent to drop is guard and toss your boomerang. The Burnerang and Mysterang's flares can deal extra damage. Once you defeat them, grab the key and collect your Gold Skull. This is another stage that has an incredibly high amount of Points to be scored pretty easily with proper comboing.

Cool Necklace:



At this point in the stage, use the trampoline to reach the rooftops on the left, then platform your way forward.



Climb up the semi-solid balconies and onto the rooftops, then drop down into the Cool Necklace. After, drop through the floor and carry on to the right.


Lock Bottom



Requires: 2 Keys
Platinum Time: 1:50.00

This stage is a giant maze with doors that require both normal and special colored keys to unlock. It is a puzzle, and requires navigating the layout of the level efficiently to solve. The dim lighting
further adds to the difficulty and atmosphere of the level. You will have to somewhat memorize the layout for Hard Mode and especially the time trial, Luckily, the stage will attempt to guide you by spawning a trail of bone chips and enemies to show you which general path to follow next. The ultimate goal is to find the Green Key and use it to collect a final normal key and finish the stage. Lock Bottom has a lot of enemies, so getting a large score here is very possible. This is my personal favorite level in the game. I really enjoyed solving it, and especially learning about an intentional shortcut that is required to get the Platinum time. I will not spoil it here if you want to find it yourself, but I will discuss it in detail in the Time Trial section.

Cool Necklace:



You'll pass this Cool Necklace a couple times as you start making your way into the complex, behind a locked door. You need to knock down the trampoline in this picture to access the room later. You'll need to find the hidden White Key to unlock this door.



After getting the Red Key and delving deeper into the complex, you'll find a row of breakable boxes that once shattered, reveal a pathway into an underwater cove full of mines and swordfish skeletons.



Swim your way through these and hop up into this hallway, where you'll find the White Key. Hop down and make your way back to where the Cool Necklace is.



Bounce up with the trampoline and unlock the door, then go collect the necklace.

This is the only stage in the game that has a trampoline that can be moved in any way by Hunter, so this is the place to get the Skeleton Gelatin Achievement.


Bouncing Bridge



Requires: 2 Keys and
Platinum Time: 1:30.00*

Simply drop the trampoline on breakable blocks in Lock Bottom onto an enemy. This is the only place in the game you can do this.

Anne’s Revenge Boss Fight



Requires: 2 Keys and 8 Gold Skulls
Reward: 400 Points, Gate Key, Waterlogged Achievement
Strategy: The Throw Reversal completely trivializes this boss. Dodge the cannonballs and when the water rises, get above and behind it before it hits you, then wail on it’s behind until you get close to the wall. After that, throw your boomerang away from it and damage boost through the boss with a roll. The boomerang should now be bouncing against the boss’s weak point. Avoid the anchor by standing as far left as possible, moving to avoid more cannonballs, and making sure not to jump too high as to dislodge the boomerang. Repeat, and dodge the mines when necessary once it enters its Raged Phase, and you should be able to take it down in two cycles, especially if you have the Doublerang, which allows you to increase your damage output by getting a second boomerang stuck in the weak point.

As stated above, you can do this Area before Area 3 if you prefer. You need to beat eleven stages to fight Calavera Catrina.

Trap Chamber



Requires: 2 Keys
Platinum Time: 1:50.00



Cool Necklace:












Cranium Clifftops



Requires: 2 Keys
Platinum Time: 1:50.00



Cool Necklace:












Big Bad Badlands



Requires: 2 Keys
Platinum Time: 2:00.00



Cool Necklace:










Hanging Around



Requires: 2 Keys and
Platinum Time: 3:30.00*

Calavera Catrina Boss Fight



Requires: 2 Keys and 11 Gold Skulls
Reward: 500 Points, Gate Key, Out of Tune Achievement
Strategy: The fight starts with her moving back and forth and occasionally leaping. Use this time to rack up damage. The Throw Reversal is extremely effective here. Use the Pulse Technique in tandem if you have it to deal a lot of damage. She’ll send up her rose occasionally, which explodes into waves of petals you need to dodge. After she reaches about half health, she begins rapidly spinning around the stage. You can hit her occasionally if you aim at her during this part, but she’ll eventually fly off. At this point, her two musicians will come down and play notes that can damage you. I’ve found standing in the corners of the stage allows you to be a lot more consistent in dodging their notes as you only have to worry about your jump and not your movement. Afterwards, she’ll land and enter her Raged Phase, meaning she’ll move a lot faster, and the musicians will start raining notes down on you. It’s possible to inflict enough damage to defeat her before she starts spinning again, but otherwise, repeat until she is defeated. The dead sure are festive.

Defilim Boss Fight



Requires: 2 Keys and 15 Cool Necklaces
Reward: 400 Points, Heal Technique, Most Def Achievement
Strategy: Defilim is… weird. If you’ve played Super Metroid, Defilim is like the Phantoon of Skeleton Boomerang. He floats around the stage, dropping fire on you while you try to strike him with your boomerang. He has a shield, however, and it will only be deactivated once you defeat his four skeletal minions. If you have the Mysterang, it makes this fight a lot easier, and you should have the Pulse Technique by the time you’re able to fight him if you’ve been getting good Scores on stages. Using these two, you can rack up good damage whenever the shield is down. The Burnerang is also very effective if you don’t have the Mysterang. Once his shield goes down, his crossbones will start flying around, trying to strike you. Dodge them while you attack. This boss has four distinct rounds, as his shield will go up at distinct damage intervals, signaled by a change in his color. At this point, the skeletal minions will respond, although be wary that from the second round onward that the Skeletons can explode into flames that can damage you. Once Defilim enters his Raged Phase, which will be the third round of the fight, his flame attack will also spread out, so be extra careful where you move. His crossbones will split into two as well during his vulnerability phase. Focus on positioning and hope for some luck, and you’ll send him back to whatever hole he crawled out of.

Once you breach the final gate, you'll have the choice of three levels in front of you. Note that in order to play the penultimate level, you'll have to have at a minimum cleared all the non-unlockable stages available to this point.

Sunken Sanctuary



Requires: 4 Keys
Platinum Time: 4:40.00



Cool Necklace:










Bone Chilling Trail



Requires: 4 Keys
Platinum Time: 2:30.00



Cool Necklace:







Boomerace Achievement


Crypt Caper



Requires: 4 Keys
Platinum Time: 3:40.00*


Cool Necklace:









True Treasure Achievement


Bone Zone



Requires: 4 Keys and 15 Gold Skulls
Platinum Time: 6:00.00



Cool Necklace:

Scattered around the map are six Bonus Areas. They are invisible until you walk over them, but I will highlight their locations as well as keep points towards their completion. You need to find all six for the achievement, as well as for 110% completion, as they each award you with a Cool Necklace for beating them. The Homing Technique is your best friend here. NOTE: The Heal Technique does NOT work in Bonus Areas!!

Icy Hideaway
Location: Coastal Area
This bonus area is located in the snowy coast area to the right of the T-Bone boss, in the leftmost corner.



Icy Hideaway is the easiest bonus area, but it introduces the main catch of all of them: You only get one health. This makes what would otherwise be pretty simple challenges tricky, especially without the unlockable boomerangs and techniques. This is a simple race to the finish, where you have 30 seconds to make it to the goal. As long as you are careful, you should make it with a comfortable amount on the clock to spare. Bonus areas in general are a great way to add to your score, as a lot of them require defeating skeletons.


Craggy Contest
Location: Inland Area
In the rightmost corner of the snowy valley to the northeast of Breezy Ravine. It is also to the left of the T-Bone fight.



Craggy Contest is a combo challenge where you must kill all ten skeletons without re-catching your boomerang. If you do, you die. You also cannot take any damage from hitting enemies. You have 60 seconds to beat the challenge. This is, in my opinion, the hardest Bonus Area in Normal Mode as it took me a couple tries on my second playthrough, even with the Mysterang and the Homing Technique. The enemies are in tricky positions and all the spiders are on platforms above pits. The snakes jumping makes them hard to hit in a combo, and freezing them in the wrong position often worsens that issue for me. Luckily, the Homing Technique makes this a little bit easier to manage. The time limit is also quite generous, as long as you aren’t too reliant on Techniques due to their cooldowns. What’s great about this Bonus Area is that completing it guarantees you’ll unlock the Skeleten Achievement, so this is the best place in the game to get it if you don’t already have it.


Submerged Secret
Location: Inland Area
The ship in the middle of the lagoon between Kickoff Coast and Tony B’s Cabana. There is an invisible underwater path a little northeast of a dead tree. Follow the path you can walk to the ship.



Submerged Secret is a combo challenge where you must kill all eight skeletons without re-catching your boomerang. Like Craggy Contest, you’ll die if you do, as well as hitting any of the enemies or the mines in the water. You have 50 seconds to beat the challenge. I highly recommend the Homing Technique, as it makes the water section infinitely easier and generally makes hitting moving enemies a lot more consistent. The Mysterang will trivialize this Bonus Area. I honestly think the Coolerang makes it harder because it freezes enemies in undesirable positions sometimes but it might just be me.


Mausoleum Mystery
Location: Inland Area
In the mausoleum directly to the right of the dead tree a bit north of the Grim Bob boss fight.



Mausoleum Mystery is a challenge where you have 75 seconds to defeat thirteen skeletons without taking damage. It’s pretty simple, even without the Mysterang, especially if utilizing the Homing Technique. Be careful with the area where the spider skeletons are crawling on platforms above a pit and you should be fine.

There is, however, a much trickier and more rewarding way to play this bonus. If you try to combo all the skeletons, this Bonus Area becomes an entirely different beast. It’s quite tricky without at least the Burnerang and the Homing Technique. This is a great place to increase your Score quite a bit if you’re up to the challenge, but this is another place to unlock the Skeleten Achievement if you are struggling with Craggy Contest.


Island Hideout
Location: Archipelago Area
On the small island directly above the Bonunaga’s Ambition island.



Island Hideout is a challenge where you have 100 seconds to defeat twelve skeletons, all of which are underwater. This will test your underwater maneuverability skills. Generally, it is safer to approach the swordfish from below and the seahorses from a place where walls block their projectiles. This is another challenge where you make your own difficulty, both with how you want to play it and what Boomerangs and Techniques you bring to it. This is another spot to rack up Score if you can manage a big combo, as well as getting the Skeleten Achievement.


Fortress Trial
Location: Mountainous Area
On the island to the right of the mountain range between Cranium Clifftops and Big Bad Badlands.



Fortress Trial is a race to the finish where you have 65 seconds to race the goal. This one is all about platforming, so this is a good place to practice moving quickly for time trials. There are a couple tricky jumps and notably a required Air Roll between a gap with spikes on the ceiling and floor. Be careful of the metal spiders over the pits as you can’t defeat them and always watch where you are landing, as spikes may pop out and kill you in certain areas. If you keep these tips in mind, and maintain a somewhat brisk pace with Roll Jumping you should be fine.


Once you find the sixth and final bonus area, the Bone Bonus Achievement will pop. You still need to complete it for 110% completion though.

One final thing about Bonus Areas: I just wanted to put this in here as a bit of an interesting heads up. I managed to get to exactly 10000 Points upon defeating Calavera Catrina and unlocked the Mysterang in my second playthrough without doing any unlockable stages or bonus areas so it’s very possible to save them until the end when you have all the Boomerangs and Techniques.

Defeat Mr. Saturday's First and Second Phases, and achieve the normal ending. I'll share more tips in a later revision.



Requires: Beating Bone Zone

This section is about how you achieve the true ending.

You must first:
- Collect every other Gold Skull and Cool Necklace
- Beat Mr. Saturday
- The level Spinal Final will then open up, you must beat it.

Spinal Final



Requires: Beating Mr. Saturday, 22 Gold Skulls, 22 Cool Necklaces
Platinum Time: 6:00:00*

This is the hardest stage in the game, but it is an amazing culmination of all the game's mechanics and a fulfilling final test before the True Final Boss.

Defeat Own Bones and see the true ending. This boss is very difficult, and will require a lot of patience. I highly recommend using Mysteryrang, alternating between Pulse and Heal to keep yourself alive. If you've gotten every Boomerang and Technique then this should also be the last thing you need to do for 100%.

Requires: Beating Spinal Final (And by proxy, everything else in the game)

As stated in the guide, having all the boomerangs and techniques (notably Mysteryrang and Pulse) as well as all the Health Upgrades is highly recommended before you start going for these. This is due to the damage boosts that you can do in many stages to save time. Each stage has its time listed, but I will place the full list here. As stated, times with an * next to them are estimates, and while I updated them with the information from my playthroughs, these times were figured out by this user. I wanted to spotlight their research in this guide. If anyone has the confirmed platinum times for these, let me know and I will update them.

Also, getting Platinum will automatically get you the Gold trophy in each stage so these two achievements will be unlocked around the same time. Getting the trophies counts as the last 10%, so theoretically you can get the 110% and the two time trial achievements all at once. Also, there is no achievements tied to doing these in Hard Mode, so they are purely personal achievement.

Lock Bottom is the only stage that isn't pure speed and execution, as there is a hidden route through the stage that allows you to bypass one of the keys, and it is pretty much required for the Platinum time. It's fun to find out by yourself, but the description of the route is in that same discussion linked above. It will be added in here in the future.

TIMES LIST
Kickoff Coast: 0:52.00
Rolling Snow Ride: 1:00.00
Frozen Fright Cavern: 0:46.00
Angry Avalanche: 1:55.00
Swampy Cemetery: 1:17.00
Tombstone Storm: 1:16.00*
Breezy Ravine: 1:15.00
Spooky Space: 3:00.00
Cannonade Brigade: 1:20.00
Bonunaga’s Ambition: 1:22.00*
Lock Bottom: 1:50.00
Bouncing Bridge: 1:30.00*
Trap Chamber: 1:50.00
Cranium Clifftops: 1:50.00
Big Bad Badlands: 1:47.00
Hanging Around: 3:30.00*
Sunken Sanctuary: 4:40.00
Bone Chilling Trail: 2:30.00
Crypt Caper: 3:40.00*
Bone Zone: 6:00.00
Spinal Final: 6:00.00*

Will flesh out the Hard Mode section later.

Get 100% in Hard Mode. The necklace locations are unchanged, everything is just way harder.

Achieved after beating Mr. Saturday in Hard Mode.

Achieved after beating Own Bones in Hard Mode.

Will be added in the future, as this mode is still relatively new.

1/11/21 - v0.9.0
Released the unfinished guide.

I'll post my final thoughts on this game once the guide is complete. For now though, fun game, definitely play it. ReVamped needs some serious re-balancing though.