All Secret Artifacts and Hint Guide (Spoilers hidden)

[SigmaEcho]

I've found all 4 secret artifacts, reached all the hard to reach treasures, and I think I've found all the secrets in the game, so I've decided to write this guide for the community. I've hidden the clues so that you don't have to have more spoiled than you desire.

HINT #1: Master all the game's controls to find all the secrets. Or more plainly, you can jump higher and access seemingly out-of-reach places by firing a charge shot downwards, giving you a small boost.

HINT #2: If you can spot it, chances are you can get there.

HINT #3: Who turned out the lights? Or more directly, you can shoot out the torches.

HINT #4: Don't believe everything you see. Or more explicitly, there are false/hollow blocks in the game. At one point, a snake falls through one, telegraphing their existence. You can shoot through false blocks to reveal their location.

HINT #5: Explore all areas! Or more spoiler-y, there are a lot of invisible/hidden pipes throughout the game, I'd say somewhere between 5-8.

All 4 Secret Artifacts

There are 4 secret artifacts in the game, one in each world. You can see which one's you've obtained in the game's status screen. There are 3 stages, called "towers," in the first 3 worlds, and 4 towers in the 4th; a boss at the end of each world, with a bonus boss in the 4th world. After you beat all 4 worlds, the game continues in hard mode (levels are denoted with a skull icon 💀), with slightly different and slightly harder versions of the same 13 towers in 4 worlds, with an extra final boss added. Defeat hard mode to see the twist ending of the story.

World 1


Artifact #1 is an Elephant, and is located in 1-2 near the end of the stage. There is a seemingly unreachable opening with one lit torch and one snuffed out. Find the false blocks by shooting upwards, near the center of the screen. Use a charge shot, pointed down, to boost you up high enough to wall-jump into the area, and shoot the lit torch to reveal the artifact.

World 2

Artifact #2 is a Beer Mug and is located during the boss battle at the end of 2-3. See any odd places? Notice anywhere you'd like to explore? See any pipes? Yup, you can shoot the vikings throwing barrels at you and jump inside their pipes to reveal the secret artifact.

World 3

Artifact #3 is a 4-leaf Clover and is located in 3-2💀, in the hard mode half of the game. I have only found it in the hard mode, and if it is attainable in the normal first half of the game, please leave a comment explaining how to find it, and I'll try to update this guide. Have you destroyed every block you can find? Just before the end of the tower, destroy the block on the far right of the stage, beyond the bubbling pools. It will reveal the clover, but you might need the bird to snatch it without getting hit.

World 4

Artifact #4 appears to be a novelty bat ears headband, it resembles the hood of the protagonist from Super Bat Puncher, so it's probably a reference to their first homebrew NES game. and is located in level 4-3, during the boss battle. Winning isn't everything. Maybe take it easy on the bad guys for once? Ever notice this boss is a little too easy? Let all the bats destroy themselves by just waiting off to the side, and the artifact will appear.

Bonus: Still having trouble finding a way to that seemingly sealed-off chest at the end of 4-4? Use the charge jump to get as high as you can, and see if you can find any secret hidden pipes.

Bonus: During the last boss, if you have the bird, see if you can reach an unusual place using your advanced maneuvering abilities.

[Onyx]

Thank you so much for this guide! However, I must question the clover's absence in Normal - it seems highly out of place considering every other artifact is easily attainable in Normal. But then again, perhaps that is the point?

One thing that I can confirm however is that mysteriously enough, the pond underneath that block that would normally break in hard is not bubbling compared to every other liquid in the game.

Normal 3-2 : https://i.gyazo.com/89f7e000f776e40bf9e9d4145be22a91.jpg
Hard 3-2 : https://i.gyazo.com/0fb5eb3d98907d624584cffe76789d00.jpg

It is completely static, yet I have delved inside of it both with and without items and have not received anything in return. A theory I have is that the item was originally intended to involve the water but they decided to simply make it a block that breaks above it - except, they forgot to do this for normal and only remembered to do it for hard.

Thus why the water seems so out of place with no bubbles whatsoever in 3-2 normal in that specific location yet the area bubbles in hard as they fully made the intended change in that version.

The takeaway from this is that this may need to be patched by developers as I don't feel the static water is intentional and I do feel they intended to add that breakable block above it, however since they may be wanting to keep the differences in both versions (nintendo and pc) next to none, they may just accept it and move on.

[maya]

With the first item being only in T1, and the clover only being in T3h, the game cleverly forces you to have to play through all 8 towers to get the 4 artefacts and then beat the final boss in one run.

[C1]

I managed to complete the game on hard with all 4 artifacts after a LOT of playing. Discovered 3 artifacts on my own, but had to look up the4-3one.
One thing I have not seen anywhere, including here, is what the artifacts actually do:They produce this message on the THE END screen showing high scores: "Well done! Try this code: 7195". This code enables HELL MODE, which is like hard mode plus. It has these changes:
1. No artifacts to pick up or displayed on score screen.
2. Minimum screen scroll speed seems to be between two and four times faster.
3. Enemies have the same health but all are harder. For example Skeletons throw bones twice as often as they do in hard mode, Bubble Goats no longer pause every 3 bubbles, Bats, Ghosts and Bone Boomers all move faster, etc.
4. Bosses are harder. Only encountered Mr Grimmig so far, but he is able to spawn multiple Ghosts more often. And because Ghosts are normal enemies, #3 applies meaning they all move faster - this requires new tactics and really is quite a bit harder. I expect the lightning in boss 2-3 to be even more frequent, the bats in 3-3 to be faster and perhaps more of them, and the remaining bosses I have no idea if or how they are harder.
5. No idea what happens (if anything?) upon completing hell mode...
Also there's a way to "cheat death"! If you die but your bloody corpse picks up a Fairy or Magic Feather via momentum, you respawn seemingly without losing a life and have a few seconds of invincibility... Of course this is not exactly easy to do, just a random game quirk :p

[Niss3]

Originally posted by SigmaEcho:

Bonus: During the last boss, if you have the bird, see if you can reach an unusual place using your advanced maneuvering abilities.

Hey @SigmaEcho ! I've been using the hover shot hover technique to pretty much go everywhere on the triangle house bossfight but nothing happens anywhere. Can you please spoil what you found?

After "killing" the boss you can collect the fearie early and take damge from the hidden boss sprite, but I cant find anything useful.