Chapter 2-3: More of the Mines

Gloomy Caverns

Once you’ve exited the power hut, head right and bill drill the boulder blocking the doorway. Head through the tunnel and right, up towards the red tunnel.

< GENERATOR CAVERN >
Another dark area of the mine. Make sure you have enough fire eggs for this part. You’ll need them. Shoot a fire egg into the weird looking generator in front of you and it will light up a portion of the path for a limited time. Keep following the path up and around whilst shooting the generators for light. When you get to the top, defeat the enemy and grab the Jiggy (5) before dropping down the ladder and exitting the cavern.

< GLOOMY CAVERNS >
Nothing else to do here right now – just head back and through the yellow tunnel.

< GLITTER GULCH MINE >
You’ll find yourself just outside the Train Station. Head up and past the TNT crate, then talon trot up the blue hill. Drill Bill the boulder for a Jinjo (1) before heading back down and into the station.

< TRAIN STATION >
Just jump up the ladder and into the driver’s compartment of the train.

< CHUFFY'S CAB >
If you move onto the GO pad, a voice from inside the boiler will tell you that you need to battle them first before you are able to use their train. There aren’t too many nice people in this game, are there? Check your supply of eggs (make sure you have some grenade eggs on hand in particular) then jump through the flames and into the boiler.

< INSIDE CHUFFY'S BOILER >
Wow. The train certainly didn’t look this big from the outside. Upon entering the boiler, Banjo will walk over to a strange, large lump of coal in the corner. It’s actually King Coal, and as it turns out he isn’t the merry old soul everyone thought he was. Prepare to fight.

Boss Battle – Old King Coal: Grubby Boiler Monarch

As soon as the battle starts, jump onto one of the larger metal platforms on the floor and press the Top C button to get into egg aiming mode. Switch to your grenade eggs. Don’t be afraid by King Coal’s huge lifebar of 50 – each grenade you hit him with will take off 3 of his health, and it isn’t likely he’ll pose much of a threat to your own health bar. Keep your aim on Coal and keep on blasting away. You’ll take off an arm soon, shortly after the other will go. Soon enough he’ll be reduced to just a pair of legs; keep firing until he’s defeated.

Old King Coal doesn’t have any attacks really – all he’ll do is wander around the boiler angrily. Occasionally he’ll raise the temperatures of the boiler, making the coals on the ground hot and hurty-ful to touch, but he’ll also make it hard to breathe. If you’re standing on one of the metal platforms, you won’t be affected by the heat of the ground, and if you’re firing away with your grenades constantly, the air loss shouldn’t hinder you either.

Something to try: If you’d like to get more of a challenge out of King Coal, try beating him without using eggs at all. It’s still rather easy, but it’s harder to pull off than the strategy above at least. Either way, grab your jiggy (6) and exit.

< CHUFFY'S CAB >
Hey, King Coal said we’d be able to use the train after we battled him, right? Well, it turns out you still can’t use the train, because apparently there aren’t any stations open to go to. Jump off the train and back into the station.

< TRAIN STATION >
Nothing else to do here, unless you missed the honeycomb in the crate before with Mumbo. Exit.

< GLITTER GULCH MINE >
Take the warp pad to the level entrance and exit. From there, lead left and up the hill. Bill Drill the boulder and head down the shaft.

Ordnance Storage Entrance

Sweet. Upon entering, you would have noticed that Banjo has entered First-Person mode. You know what that means…

Go left and you’ll find Jamjars. He’ll teach you the Beak Bayonet – a helpful technique for killing off baddies whilst in FPS mode without the need of using an egg. Kazooie will thrust forward with her beak to hurt foes. From Jamjars, go left and down to the sealed door. The prospector will comment on you learning a beak attack and says he’ll let you in. He says a box of TNT sticks has gotten loose underground, and he needs you to disarm them all. Problem is, once you disarm the first one, the others will all set their timers to go off. And if you try to disarm using eggs… well, they’ll go boom. He’ll open the area to you. Head on down if you dare.

< ORDNANCE STORAGE >
This is quite a challenging task, as the Ordnance Storage is a large, maze-like area, making it easy to get lost and start going around in circles. Don’t expect to beat this on your first try – you’ll often end up with 1 or 2 TNT sticks left when the timer runs out and Banjo goes boom.

You basically have, after you disarm the first one, 200 seconds to disarm the remaining 14 TNT sticks. Whilst it seems like a lot of time on paper, it can get hairy if you don’t know where to go. There are 3 sticks upstairs and the other 12 are downstairs.
I’d suggest taking out the three sticks upstairs before proceeding to the ones downstairs. Once you’re done, exit through the door you entered from.

< ORDNANCE STORAGE ENTRANCE >
You’d think there’d be something else hidden in here, wouldn’t you? Sadly, no. Stock up on eggs, collect the Prospector’s Jiggy (7) if you havent already, then exit.

< GLITTER GULCH MINE >
Head on over to Wumba’s Wigwam. It’s in plain sight.

< WUMBA'S WIGWAM >
Activate the pad inside the Wigwam. Use the glowbo you found earlier on to transform into a…. detonator. Sure, the transformations may lack the imagination from Banjo Kazooie, but it’s still fun to blow stuff up, right? Exit the wigwam.

< GLITTER GULCH MINE >
Head down to the pile of boulders just outside Wumba’s, and, whilst avoiding the enemy, get yourself onto the fuse. You’ll automatically detonate the TNT barrel and the boulders, revealing a new area to explore. Head inside.

< CANARY CAVE >
Nothing in here but a weird canary woman in a cage. Talk to her and she’ll tell you she’s Canary Mary, and that the prospectors left her down in the caves when they were testing to see if it was there was any toxic gas down there. Press B and blow up the cage, and Canary Mary will fly out and land next to the cart near the level entrance. Wow, how rude. Saved from death yet she doesn’t give anything in return. Exit the Canary Cave.

< GLITTER GULCH MINE >
Follow Canary Mary back down the train tracks, but don’t talk to her. Instead, keep following the tracks down to the Fuel Storage.

< FUEL STORAGE >
Collect the notes (20) scattered about atop the fuel barrels, then detonate the rocks. The strange box will hover out through the passage you just unblocked and stop. Don’t worry about it now, just exit the fuel storage.

< GLITTER GULCH MINE >
Go back to the entrance and warp to Mumbo’s. From there, head down the shaft where you found your Glowbo.

< GLOOMY CAVERNS >
Go ahead and detonate the cell door to get to the Jinjo (3), but be wary of the enemy. Head back out again.

< GLITTER GULCH MINE >
Take the warp pad back to Wumba’s Wigwam once more.

< WUMBA'S WIGWAM >
Transform back into Banjo and Kazooie once more, then jump on the swirling pad and warp to the Level Entrance and Exit.

< GLITTER GULCH MINE >
Head back to where Canary Mary is standing and jump onto the cart. Racing time. If you have a love for mashing buttons, this minigame is for you. Canary Mary needs to stretch out her wings, so basically you’ll race her all the way to the end of the track, AKA the Train Station. How do you get the cart to go faster? Tap A over and over, and Banjo will push up and down on the handle. You’ll find it quite easy this race, just keep mashing away and you should be able to beat her. If you’re finding it hard, you could use one of these strategies:

1 – Start out slow, then get faster at the end. If you save all your energy up until the end, you should be able to overtake Mary and beat her to the line.

2 – Use the ‘Pause’ trick. While it is technically cheating, you can pause during the middle of the race, wait for your thumb or forefinger to get some blood back into it, then press start again and keep mashing away.

Race her to the Train Station, and if you happen to win, Mary will cough up a Jiggy (8). Once you’ve finished your race, Canary Mary will tell you her wings are starting to loosen up and she would like another race. Race her back to the level entrance again and you’ll earn yourself another prize. The race is a bit harder this time, but keep mashing away and you’ll get a Cheato Page (3). Canary Mary will tell you she’s had enough of being down in the gloomy mines and wants to soar in the clouds again. Follow her up the shaft and exit the mines.

< PLATEAU >
Head over to the boulder with something screaming inside and Drill Bill it for a Jinjo. (2)

End of Chapter Two

Next: A day at the Fairgrounds