General Route

• Complete Sailor Village like Any%
• Complete Cossack Village like Any%
• Complete the Robo Gobbo mission in Caveman Village first
• 100% Caveman Village, starting with Robo Gobbo and ending with the boss
• Return to either Sailor Village or Cossack Village to collect the Golden Gobbos there
• Return to the other village to collect the Golden Gobbos there
• 100% Inca Village in the same level order as Any%

Note that the routes above do not specify where you farm for crystals. You should buy a Jump Jelly before Caveman Village, so you can do Robo Gobbo's Golden Gobbo immediately after doing the level normally. The maximum amount of money you can hold at a time is 100 crystals, and you need to have 3 Robo Gobbos and 3 Jump Jellies for each world (total of 120 crystals). You also have to go to Swap Meet Pete's after every Golden Gobbo in order to buy at least a Jump Jelly, since you can only hold one at a time. Buy extra Robo Gobbos there if you have the spare money. The amount of money you will have to grind between each world will depend on how many crystals you can expect to get in the individual worlds. Picking up 5-crystals that are small detours are normally worthwhile. Enemies also have a 50/50 chance of dropping a heart or crystal, though you often don't wait for item drops from enemies.

Remember that Game Overs get rid of your crystals. If you grind early, accidental Game Overs will force you to grind again, in addition to whatever time you lose from having to redo the level in which you Game Overed.

General Tips

The fastest place to farm for crystals is in Sailor Village, at the Item Collection level. There is a 5 crystal to the left after you enter, and it respawns if you leave and reenter. As you don't have to mash through text upon exiting, it takes about 6 seconds or so for each 5 crystal, which is not matched in any other level. Any detour mid-level that takes less than 6 seconds to get a 5 crystal tends to be worthwhile to minimize grinding here. You should make sure that you always have enough crystals to complete a village, since grinding mid-village tends to be un-ideal.

Once you collect a Golden Gobbo, you have it. This means that you do not have to complete the level, and exiting through the entrance or forcing a Game Over can speed up the level (GO abuse). This only applies for levels which you revisit, which are Robo Gobbo, Sailor Village, and Cossack Village. Game Overs get rid of all of your crystals, which means you can only use one per village, and you then have to grind for crystals again.

Practice Passwords

These passwords start you with 3 Robo Gobbos, 1 Jump Jelly, 40 crystals (to buy 2 more Jump Jellies) and all levels in Inca unlocked. You have 3 hearts, 3 lives, and no enemies killed. The only difference between the passwords is what home world you spawn in. :)

• Sailor: RM6CK9CXS2
• Cossack: QM2BT9CXS2
• Caveman: QM2C19CXS2
• Inca: QM2C997XS2

Level Walkthroughs

Sailor Village, Crow Sandwich: Blue gem is on the first screen, to the left of the second enemy. Cyan gem is toward the bottom left of the second screen. Take bottom exit. Jump Jelly (pink) is two screens over. Go up to near crow for the red gem, and drop down to bottom-left exit for the screen with the Robo Gobbo (straight, left, left for yellow) and the challenge door.

For this challenge, go right first, and push the block on the next screen DOWN and then right. Go right to the next screen and push the block down and then left. Go right another screen (you should be looped around to the first screen) and then up. Take the LEFT door to the Golden Gobbo, and backtrack to the crow at the end of the level. Note that when you leave the door where you got the Golden Gobbo, you end up leaving the RIGHT door. Don't get turned around! Because you can collect 20 crystals in this level alone, GO abuse is not helpful here.

Sailor Village, Caged Gobbo: Push block, then go around to Jump Jelly (pink) on first screen. Go back up the block and around to the top left exit. Go to the top right of the next room for the Robo Gobbo (left for yellow) and then go to the top left exit, picking up the cyan gem along the way. Go left and pick up the red gem in the following room. Ignore the key, and pick up the blue gem and do NOT fall down. Backtrack to the screen right of the red gem, and go up to the room with the challenge door.

For this challenge, push the block on the right to the right and up. Then, go to where the fire-breathing enemy is on the left, and do a running leap of faith down two times to the golden gobbo. Death abuse is an option here if you want to spend the life. Return back to where the blue gem was, and drop down and exit the level, ignoring the key and the cage.

Sailor Village, Item Collection: Jump Jelly (red) in the first room to the left. Go up and take the top left exit in the next room. Jump across near the sign and pick up the blue gem. Jump right across the gap and exit up. Ignore the block puzzle and take the up-left exit. Get the pink gem and ignore the book, going down and around to the bottom left exit. In the next room, get the Robo Gobbo (turn left then right for yellow) and cyan gem. You can do a diagonal jump down to the cyan gem to get it first for a bit of a time save. In the next screen, go to the right and drop down. Go right and take the top exit. Complete the block puzzle here, and exit at the top.

The golden gobbo is right inside the challenge door. GO abuse here to save over a minute optimally, as you skip doing the puzzles in this level. I'm pretty sure backtracking all the way to the entrance would also save time over doing the puzzles, if you have a lot of crystals that you want to keep.

Cossack Village, Gobbo Mine: Get the cyan gem during the block puzzle in the first room at the top right. In the third room, go over to the Robo Gobbo (right for yellow), and then go back around for the blue gem. Getting blue gem first is a bit faster, but it leads to really awkward movement with your diagonal jumps. Take the right exit to the Jump Jelly (pink), and go back and up to the switch puzzle, pretty much completing the level as normal. In the final room, instead of using the last barrel to blow up the top rock, blow up the right rock to get the red gem. Now backtrack to the room with the switch puzzle and go all the way left to the challenge door.

For this challenge, just pick up the barrel and blow up the door. Then, go around the path to the golden gobbo. It's pretty simple. Complete the level normally, since you've already activated the switches.

NOTE: As in Any%, you can skip the switch puzzle by a very difficult jump to go around the door blocking the way to the switch room that unlocks the door to the trapped gobbo. You are required to make this jump twice, and there is huge room for error, which negates the time save it gives. If you're interested, the TAS does it, but it's not very RTA-viable.

Cossack Village, Medicinal Herb: The first gem is the blue gem on the third screen. It's required. In the any% death abuse room, collect the cyan gem, hit the switch, and drop down at the 5 crystal for the Robo Gobbo (left, right for yellow). Go back across the falling platforms and then take the moving platform over to the Jump Jelly (pink). When you move the block in the next room, go right first for the red gem, then go left and up as normal. The challenge door is in the next room.

For this challenge, hit the two switches. Then go right and up to hit the next switch. Go back down, left, and up to the next switch. Go back down and left, doing a leap of faith down to the next platform to hit another switch. Go back up and right all the way to the door, hitting the switch. Take the top exit and go around to the golden gobbo. Exit and get the herb, which is in the same room as the challenge door.

Cossack Village, Item Collection: Go right for the Jump Jelly (cyan, but it looks pink). The pink gem is in the left of the second room. In the third room, go left and up for the yellow gem. Take the path of delusion but ignore the items. Go left and down all the way to the scarf room. The Robo Gobbo (left, then tight spiral right for blue) and red gem are in this room. Now backtrack all the way to the second room for the challenge room to the top left. When backtracking the path of delusion, just enter and immediately go down to exit.

For this challenge, you probably want to walk everywhere for safety. There is only one required running jump, and you can do that on snow rather than ice. The golden gobbo is at the end of the long path. Regardless of what you do here, you want to death abuse to save backtracking. If you have less than 20 crystals, GO abuse is fastest. Otherwise, return to the entrance and leave rather than recollecting the items.

NOTE: There is actually a way to get to the golden gobbo without collecting the gems. If you go to the challenge room, the golden gobbo is directly above the long ramp of ice. There is a very precise jump up that you can do that will get you the golden gobbo. Since you can get this without the robo gobbo, you can do this on your first visit. Compared to collecting the gems, doing the skip first attempt on the second visit saves ~2:40. In addition, it saves farming for 40 crystals, which is an additional 48 seconds. Avoiding a revisit saves an additional few seconds and gets rid of one GO abuse, which could be helpful. This trick is not entirely RTA-viable but can be made semi-consistent with practice and can be worth attempts RTA. The horizontal area that the trick is possible on spans from around where you spawn (so you could just run and jump) all the way right from there. There is a two-pixel wide strip that I tend to setup on, since it has visual cues for distance. Regardless, you need to jump at the last possible frame while running on ice, for which the timing will differ depending on how far back you are.

• Right Setup:
• Left Setup:

NOTE: This skip has certain situations where it is impossible (i.e. no frames make the jump successfully). At first, I thought that was due to pixel setups, but it seems like any pixel on that strip will make the jump. Further testing revealed that the gap between the first and second inputs must be at least three frames. If you let go of the up input for only one or two frames, Croc will run and jump like normal but will be unable to make the jump. If you go too fast for those inputs, there will now be two frames that kill the enemy but fail the jump. If you have enough space, there is only one frame that kills the enemy but fails the jump; the frame after that is the correct frame.

Caveman Village, Robo Gobbo: Blue gem is on the first screen on the path. Jump Jelly (pink) is on the first screen, to the left of the top exit. From here, travel pretty much to the end of the level, picking up the cyan and red gems along the way. Backtrack the path of delusion by going down twice. Return to the second screen and go left this time. There is a button here that you need to spam in order to extend a bridge to the area with the Robo Gobbo (right for yellow). Go back across the bridge and left for the challenge door.

For this challenge, go to the middle and push the block left. Go around to the left and push the block up. In the next room, go around and jump right from the left to another block. Push the block up, then follow the path to the golden gobbo. Death abuse is viable here if you want to spend a life. Return to the entrance of the level and leave.

Caveman Village, Water Handle: In the first room, instead of exiting right, go right for the cyan gem and Robo Gobbo (TOUCH NOTHING for yellow). Go to the end room and pick up the blue gem to the bottom left. Go up a room and pick up the red gem, then go and collect the water handle. Return to a screen left of the end room, and go up. Spam the button to extend a bridge across to the Jump Jelly (pink), and go up to the challenge door.

For this challenge, go to the bottom middle exit and hit the switch in the left of this room. Move the block to get back up, and go to the top left exit this time for the golden gobbo. Backtrack, jump down the ledge where the Jump Jelly was, and go right and down to the end room to complete the level.

Caveman Village, Item Collection: Go LEFT and around, up to the blue gem. Go left for the cyan gem to the left of the 4-1 puzzle, collecting the first gear here. Now go back and up through the path of delusion. Complete the puzzle for the second gear, and also collect the red gem in the top left of this room. Backtrack through the path of delusion by going down twice. Go down to the bottom right but remember to go up for the Robo Gobbo (straight, then a tight turn for yellow). Now take the bottom right exit and complete the block puzzle, crossing the lava and going UP for the Jump Jelly (pink) and the challenge door.

The center door is open, so go up there and into the next room. Push the bottom-right, then bottom-left, then top-right, then top-left blocks into position, and the left door should now be unlocked for the golden gobbo. Backtrack and collect the third gear to complete the level.

Inca Village, Letter Delivery: Go to the end like in Any%. The cyan, red, and blue gems will be on the path there. The Robo Gobbo (straight and tight turn for yellow) will be near the end there. Now backtrack until you enter the room where the 8-4 puzzle was. Instead of jumping back across, drop down to the Jump Jelly (pink). Take the bottom exit, and go left to the challenge door.

For this challenge, go up and around to the left. Push the block right, up, and right, and then exit to the top of the screen. On the next screen, go left, push the block up, and keep travelling to the right across the upper level (path is a zigzag), pushing blocks as needed. A death abuse is viable here, if you can spare the lives. Backtrack to the end of the level and finish it.

Inca Village, Mayor Rescue: Get the blue gem and Jump Jelly (pink) in the first room then take the right door. Complete the block puzzle, and take the bottom left exit. Kill the fire-breather and get the red gem, then return to the door you came in. Go through the door you opened with the block puzzle, and go up for the cyan gem and Robo Gobbo (left, left for yellow), then drop down and take the left exit. Avoid the fire-breathing statues (running jump over the flames), and enter the opened challenge door at the top.

For this challenge, go right and up, exiting at the top of the screen. Then, go up the stairs, to the left, and around to get the golden gobbo. Backtrack to the door and this time go left (not the fire-breathing statues), picking up a lot of crystals along the way. Take the left exit, then go up and complete the level like in Any%.

Inca Village, Red Jewel: Get the cyan gem in the first room as well as the Robo Gobbo (straight and tight right for yellow) in the bottom left. Now break the wall in the top left and complete the level like in Any%, picking up the blue gem along the way and picking up the red gem at the top of the bee room after defeating the bees. Go down two screens, and you should be in the second room. Go left one room for the Jump Jelly (pink), and take the up exit for the challenge door.

For this challenge, you can take any path to exit the room at the top left-center. Cross the crumbling blocks to the golden gobbo. You can death abuse here if you want to spend the life. Backtrack and complete the level like normal (the door to the red jewel is already open). If you did Inca Village last, you should have everything by now and can beat Dante to get your cutscene!

Note: The cutscene between the first and second phases of Dante will be different from Any%. If there is no dialogue from ???, you missed a golden gobbo somewhere. It's better to find out at this point rather than after ending the timer and realizing the end cutscene is not the 100% cutscene.

My Money-Grinding Route

(Note: this may be suboptimal, but it's gotten pretty good at least)

1. Sailor 1: Crow Sandwich -> get the 10 crystals that are clearly on the route, and also get the 5 crystal on the penultimate screen. This results in a bit of an annoying jump to get back up, but you can reset on this jump if you want :P For a marathon-safe route, you can ignore this 5 crystal if you want; it will just be an extra crystal in the upcoming grind.
2. Sailor 1: Caged Gobbo -> take the upper (right) route and get the 15 crystals that are clearly on the way. Where the path splits (you get a choice of two separate 5 crystals, and I suppose you could get both for a total of 20? I haven't timed if it's worth getting both, yet), you want to take the LEFT path and ignore going up past the robo gobbo platform and the cyan gem. Get the heart pot on the way to Item Collection for safety purposes!!! Or you can skip it for 10 seconds of timesave but less safety in this run.
3. Sailor 1: Item Collection -> grind to 50 crystals here. Then complete the level like normal :) Remember to buy a Jump Jelly before going to Cossack!!!
4. Cossack 1: Mines -> get the 5 crystal in the first room. Get the 5 crystal from the diagonal jumps. Get the 5 crystal from the switch room (where you could death-abuse if you think a life is worth 1 second of timesave in this category).
5. Cossack 1: Herb -> get the 5 crystal after the horrible jump. Get the 5 crystal near the switch (above robo gobbo; you could death-abuse here if you think a life is worth 1.5 seconds of timesave). Get the 5 crystal in the room after the moving platform (before crossing up the bridge to push the block). Get BOTH 5 crystals in the last room; you should get the right crystal first.
6. Cossack 1: Snowman -> get the 5 crystal by the tree in the first room. If this is NOT marathon-safe strats, do Snowman Skip and reset on game over. Ideally, you'll have 4 lives by now which means 4.5 attempts at the skip (on 0 lives, you need to jump back as well, so I count that as half of an attempt). If this is marathon-safe, you'll do Snowman Skip on the second pass. After getting the mittens, you'll get the 5 crystal there.
7. Caveman: Robo Gobbo 1 -> You should have 80+ crystals (total of 100, with 20 spent on a jump jelly). Skip the first crystal (it could be worth getting if you want to lower the earlier grind, but it means you can't do Platform Skip...). Go all the way to the end and get both 5 crystals in the last room before collecting the robo gobbo. 8.) Caveman: Robo Gobbo 2 -> Avoid the first crystal regardless of whether you do Platform Skip; it should be a safety crystal on the way back. Go all the way to the end to pick up the gems, but don't pick up the crystals in the last room. You'll pick up a 5 gem by the robo gobbo platform. At this point, you should have 95-100 crystals. If you have less than 100 by the time you backtrack to the entrance, you can pick up the 5 crystal there.
8. Caveman: Water Handle -> You should have bought items and will have 20 crystals left. Get the 5 crystal while the lights puzzle is cycling through the solution. Get the 5 crystal right below that room. Get the 5 crystal by the end. Buy a Jump Jelly (and maybe a robo gobbo if you got up to 40 from drops)
9. Caveman: Item Collection -> There aren't any crystals here. It's a good place to game over if you need to for lives, I guess, though you might still have some leftover crystals from Water Handle.
10. Sailor 2: Grind -> You should have 2 items currently. If so, grind to 75 crystals. If not, grind to 95. Buy your items and have 35 crystals left.
11. Sailor 2: Crow Sandwich -> Get 5 crystals after getting the blue gem. Get 5 crystals on the third screen. Get 5 crystals on the fourth screen. Get 5 crystals between the two smashers on the fifth screen. Buy a Jump Jelly and Robo Gobbo and be left with 15+ crystals.
12. Sailor 2: Caged Gobbo -> Get 5 crystals at the jump jelly. Get the 15 crystals along the normal route, but you'll take the RIGHT path at the fork in order to go up to the robo gobbo and cyan gem. Buy a Jump Jelly and Robo Gobbo and be left with 0 crystals. This route relies on 5 random drops, but you can also get the extra 5 crystal at the fork in the path for safety or grind to 80 (or 100) at the grind.
13. Sailor 2: Item Collection -> Ignore money on this level because you're going to Game Over abuse at the end of it all :)
14. Sailor 2: Grind 2 -> You should have 2 items. Grind to 70 crystals and fill up on items before heading to Cossack. You should enter Cossack with 30 crystals.
15. Cossack 2: Mines -> Get the 5 crystal at the beginning. Get BOTH 5 crystals in the third room (robo gobbo and blue gem). Get 5 crystals from the death-abuse room. Buy a Jump Jelly and Robo Gobbo and be left with 10+ crystals.
16. Cossack 2: Herb -> Get the same 25 crystals you got on the first pass here. Buy a Jump Jelly and Robo Gobbo and be left with 0 crystals. Again, this relies on 5 random drops, but you could alternatively get the first extra 5 crystal at the barrel section at the end of Mines or just grind to 75 at the grind. You should have full items at this point. 17.5) Cossack 2: Snowman -> If you did early Snowman Skip, ignore this :) If you're doing marathon strats, you'll do Snowman Skip here and GO abuse. You should have 0 crystals so won't lose any, and you'll be warping straight to Inca after this anyway. You can keep trying Snowman Skip until you get it, though it takes around 3-4 game overs before you lose time to going through the level normally. If you decide to completely ignore Snowman Skip (not really worth it imo), you have to go back to Sailor for an extra grind for the 40 crystals for the 2 items you used in Snowman.
17. Inca: Letter Delivery -> Get the 5 crystal near the second block (across from the gem door), the 5 crystal near the red gem, and the 5 crystal at the end. You have to rely on 5 random drops, but you can grind the flame-breather guy at the end of the second-to-last screen if you have horrible drop luck. It's not worth going to Sailor Village to grind only 5 crystals... Buy a Jump Jelly with your 20 crystals.
18. Inca: Mayor Rescue -> Get the 5 crystal by the cyan gem and the 15 crystals on the route back from the golden gobbo area. Buy a Jump Jelly with your 20 crystals.
19. Inca: Red Jewel -> There's nothing after this level, so you don't need any crystals. :)

This is the route I've routed out, along with alternatives for eliminating RNG and taking into account early or late Snowman Skip and keeping the potential for Platform Skip (~20 seconds timesave if done first try twice). There might be some good crystals that I've left off the route currently that could shave a few seconds off (and shorten grinds, most importantly), but this is a pretty big improvement over my initial route which generally just did grinds. ^^"

As a note: I had tested some times and was in the process of updating my route, but I lost everything when my computer died, so... I'll have to retime some things. :) I was able to eliminate the first grind. The other two grinds aren't as lucky...