Spelunky 2 Shortcuts: Where to find a Hired Hand, Golden Key
Obviously, you’re the best explorer Spelunky 2 has ever seen. You breeze through every stage without need for an alternative route, bypass every boss fight without breaking a sweat, and definitely don’t die all the time to the horrendous jumping spiders - even the big ones.
But what if I told you that there were a series of Spelunky 2 shortcuts that made the game ever-so-slightly easier? Where, with enough patience and perseverance, you can unlock special timesavers as you crunch your way through to the final areas.
While the requirements to unlock these shortcuts are relatively simple, the later challenges can be devilishly difficult to defeat - but would you expect anything less from Spelunky 2?
How to unlock shortcuts in Spelunky 2
As you progress naturally through Spelunky 2, you’ll eventually (hopefully) battle your way through the mine level to stage 1-4.
Once you’ve finished 1-4, you’ll meet Mama Terra Tunnel - a fellow explorer who’s working on building time saving shortcuts from the cavern entrance to areas deeper in the magical complex.
To complete her shortcuts, she’ll just need a few basic items. However, you can only hand them over one at a time.
This means you’ll have to progress past her three times with the right items to unlock each alternative route.
There are three shortcuts to unlock: One at the end of 1-4, one at the end of 3-1, and one at the end of 4-4.
Once you’ve dug out all three, you’ll bag a silver trophy on PS4.
The items you need are as follows:
Spelunky 2 Shortcut requirements
Most of the items are quite self-explanatory. As shown in the YouTube video from Chocolatecake5000 we’ve embedded below the table, you can find a Hired Hand in coffins, and it’s best to use the 1-4 shortcut to hunt them down.
However, you’ll have to play all the way from the start to bring Terra the Golden Key, which spawns on stage 1-2.
| Spelunky 2 Shortcut Requirements: | |
|---|---|
| 1-4 Spelunky 2 Shortcut: | |
| $2,000 | Collected from gold, gems, and general pickups |
| 1 bomb | Collected from your starting cache of 4, topped up with bomb bags and boxes |
| $10,000 | Just like the first objective, but a little tougher |
| 3-1 Spelunky 2 Shortcut: | |
| 1 Rope | Like the bombs, this is taken from your starting cache, or a rope you find throughout your run |
| 1 weapon | This can be a shotgun you pick up from a shopkeeper, boomerang, or one of the other guns |
| 1 mount | This can be a turkey from the early stages, or a lava dog from that stage. Interact with mounts a few times to tame them. |
| 4-4 Spelunky 2 Shortcut | |
| $50,000 | By the time you've muscled your way to stage 4-4, it's likely you'll have amassed enough gold. But if not, try taking a risk on more lucrative Ghost jars and Golden Idols |
| Hired Hand | See YouTube video below, Hired Hands are found in coffins throughout the run |
| Golden Key | You will have to lug the Golden Key all the way from stage 1-2, where it's not that hard to find. Use it like you would a normal stone, but be careful not to drop it into lava |