Cave Story Secrets

This is a guide more or less that is a collection list of many of the secret bonuses that you can do in the game. It is a work-in-progress and not everything has been confirmed by me on being 100% accurate information. I hope to eventually sort out anything that may be wrong or misleading information. As far as I know, the information stated here is correct.

It should be noted that some of this information may still be unverified and that this page can contain spoilers. For any submissions or corrections please contact me.

Alternate Title Screen Information:

(Contributed by Insaneload)

• After completing the Cave Story by completing the special secret stage (Hell), if you have the Nikumaru counter, your best time ranking score will be displayed in the upper-left hand corner of the title screen. However, depending on your score you can get other characters and their theme songs to appear/play on the screen instead of the main character. It is believed that you must get 5'00"00 or under to unlock the Toroko title screen. There may be other characters as well.

(Contributed by Draconis)

Less than 6 minutes: Curly & "Running Hell" track.
Less than 5 minutes: Toroko & "Toroko's Theme" track.
Less than 4 minutes: King & "White" track.
Less than 3 minutes: Sue & "Safety" track.

Other Secrets

(Contributed by Insaneload)

• Many people say you need the clock to go to Hell. This is not true, the first time I went to Hell I didn't have the clock.
• To get Curly's Underwear, view the map in the room with the bed, save point, and dog in the back room of the bar. It will show you a secret passageway, press down somewhere at the end to find the underwear. They have no use. As far as I know they get no response from Curly.
• To get Chaco's Lipstick, check the fire at her house for the first time. She'll walk up to you and say something. Then, go to sleep, and when you wake up she'll be sleeping and you have the lipstick. Naughtay. This also has no use.
• To get the Alien Badge, beat the fish boss in the sea tunnel without getting hurt. Once again, this has no use. I have absolutely no idea why squids appear when you get the badge.
• If you let the rocket built by Mrs. Sakamoto fall on you, it'll push you into the ground. The only way to escape is pressing down.
• If you talk to Booster with a mimiga mask, he'll think you're a mimiga.
• If you never get the life pot from Jenka, her dog in the Plantation will give it to you. If you don't get a life pot from her after Balrog attacks her, but then you talk to her again after you come back from the labyrinth, then she'll give you a life pot and say she'll give you a new life pot whenever you use yours up. I don't know if she restocks them if you talk to her right after Balrog attacks her.
• If you manage to get to the door to the Last Cave before the rocket is built, it'll say something like "It's not time to go here yet" and won't open. Boo.
• In order to get to the door before the rocket is built, go to the platform near the Press gauntlet, with dragonflies trailing you. Boost up (v2.0 only) onto the first pair of Presses, then get hit by a dragonfly. The hitstun will make you temporarily invincible, so when you try to fly up you won't get crushed. There's also a video of this on the Doukutsu Uploader.
• If you decide to go through the water passageway without draining the water from Curly, near the end of the area it will say "her life functions have ceased". She'll stay on your back, then drift away like usual after you beat the boss. I don't know if she shows up dead in the plantation or not, I might look into it.
• If you leave Curly in the bed in the house in the waterway, she's gone for good, and you can't get her back.
• This is less of a secret and more of a tip: switching weapons while one's effects are already out is very beneficial. Examples are switching when you've used all 4 fireballs up, or switching while your level 3 sword is creaming enemies.
• If you go to the computer in the waterway cabin without Curly, it says "Wife bore child 4-8-08". This has gotta mean something, but nobody I know can figure it out.
• Blade lvl 2 is the most powerful weapon in terms of damage per second, barring the rocket launcher. It still sucks.
• You can still beat the game normally even if you tell Kazuma you want to leave with him. Normally he disappears after the Doctor gathers all the mimigas, but I believe if you tell him you want to leave with him, he'll stay the whole time. This has no bearing on any ending.
• If you go in the teleporter in the Sand Zone with a dog on your back, it'll stay floating there while you teleport. When you come back, it's still floating there and on your back.
• If you go to the Storehouse in the Sand Zone with a dog on your back, it'll disappear once you enter the room. If you come back to Jenka's house, it'll be there.
• On the balcony, scale it on the far right side of the map and you'll eventually reach a sign that says "THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!". If you jump into the clouds from there, it'll teleport you right next to the entrance to the throne room. If you go the slightest bit to the left and then go up into the clouds, it'll teleport you to the Prefab Building instead.
• In the prefab building right before Hell, if you talk to the bookshelf it can teleport you back to right outside the throne room. I never knew bookshelves had teleporting abilities.
• In the Last Cave area, if you have the mimiga mask on, the deep pits that normally lead to spikes will instead have a fan there which will blow you back up. Using the fans you can make it to the Balcony and fight the final boss fights with Misery, Doctor, UndeadCore, however the dialogue will be a little different.

(Contributed by q 3)

• If you beat the secret final boss while Mr. Little is still in your inventory (i.e. you picked him up but haven't taken him home), he'll have a line of dialogue during the ending. His presence seems to have no effect on the normal ending, however.

(Contributed by Draconis)

• After you defeat the Doctor's first 2 forms, talk to Chaco a couple of times. She'll mention Arthur and then several of the other caged mimigas will blush & have hearts appear over their heads. You can then actually pick up those hearts & replenish your healh if need be.
• After defeating Heavy Press & dropping down through the hole, you can fly up & enter the statue room. You can actually shoot the statues this time & destroy them. They will leave powerups (hearts, missiles etc.) & be replaced by statues of Quote, Curly, King & Toroko when destroyed. You can also check the Doctor's (now completed) statue before destroying it to find out his true name.
• Not sure when this actually happens, but you can go back to Grasstown using that teleporter in "Jail No. 2" at the Plantation. If you go back to the Power Room, you'll find that same old robot trying to activate another robot, and mentions something about being lonely & wanting to have a party.
• Speak with Curly at the Plantation with the Mimiga Mask on and she'll comment on you being cute.

(Contributed by Gilneas)

• A Hint for Cave Story speedrunners: You can choose to skip the missile launcher entirely. Now, this is actually extremely helpful because it's replacable to a certain extent and you won't have monsters dropping misiles anymore! You will get loads of extra EXP and Health. Be careful though: don't pick up a missile capacity enhancer, because it will contain the missile launcher instead!

(Contributed by Vinkate 24)

• If you play through cave story while avoiding the missile launcher, the last missile upgrade of the game (the one in Hell that gives 24 missiles) will give you a missile launcher with 100 missiles max. 100 missiles may little damages.
• Also, if you don't have the missile launcher, when defeating balrog for the last time in the labyrinth he will give you a strange chest. That open it, it will give a message that says "a strange force is keeping this shut" or something.

(Contributed by Danny)

• Just so you know you can actually get the Arms Barrier (halves weapon power loss) the first time through the labyrinth on the hard path the timing isn't hard and anyone whos played through it once could do it when you get up on the top level DO NOT KILL THE PURPLE GUY THAT SHOOTS AT YOU jump from just out of range towards and above him and when he jumps under you you will take some damage by falling onto him but you will bounce up and land on the block if you time it just right

(Contributed by A. Matthews)

• "If you never get the life pot from Jenka, her dog in the Plantation will give it to you. If you don't get a life pot from her after Balrog attacks her, but then you talk to her again after you come back from the labyrinth, then she'll give you a life pot and say she'll give you a new life pot whenever you use yours up. I don't know if she restocks them if you talk to her right after Balrog attacks her."

She does, I tested it. She will also give you a new one whenever you use yours up. Hope this is helpful.

(Contributed by Rachel)

• It's not really a secret, just a really helpful hint. If you have the Blade(I'm sure of it on Level 2, it might not work while it's Level 3) and you're fighting the Doctor's mutated form, you can use it to destroy the whole stream of bats as he spews them out.

(Contributed by Pete Schirmer)

• In the "Egg Observation Room?" in the ruined Egg Corridor, the Sisters will only attack if you take the missile upgrade in the center of the room; you can just leave through the other side without taking it. If you do take it and they attack, the exit becomes sealed off. However, there is a brief window of time where you can barely make it after taking the missile upgrade and not have to fight them (requires Booster 2.0). Entering the room afterward does not summon them.

(Contributed by Raad Shaikh)

• While shooting level3 machine gun down to fly, if you hold down the jump button, you will fly much faster. Kind of like in a fan.
• You know how the sisters make that goofy stick-tongue-out kind of face after you give them some damage? Well, they are also damageable when they're doing that, not ONLY when their mouth is open.

(Contributed by Fork Me)

• If you go all the way to Chaco's house BEFORE giving Santa back his key, she'll ask if you've met "Santa the scaredy-cat".
• When you go back to Arthur's house from Grasstown after rescuing Kazuma, you might notice that someone's missing from the groupof people. Leave the house and go to the Assembly Hall. Jack will be there, if you talk to him, he'll explain why Arthur was a heroand how he died. He fought a "terrific red monster, the demon of this island that feasts on Mimigas". Arthur fought it back, but waslater killed by the doctor.

(Contributed by Aar)

• If you have the Machine Gun before you got to the Labyrinth, you can use it to get back into First Cave. If you do so and enter the Hermit's house, a sign will be inside that reads "Out." There will be a table and chair, as well as the chest from before (except it’s been opened). Just a secret.

(Contributed by BronyDash)

• In the Sacred Ground's third room( where theres two hearts with spikes on the surrounding blocks and three presses to the left), if you lost health in the previous room (the long hallway with falling blocks and butes following you) you can replenish your health with those two hearts, then the swarm of eight butes on the above platform (the one you landed on) then boost back in to the previous room. Immediatly go back to where you boosted from (by falling down the same hole as before), then everything will be respawned and you can replenish and repeat until you have full health/exp/missles from the butes. This will not be useful for speed-runners because the process takes about 17 minutes (depending on your weapons) to get everything to level 3 max, full health, and full missles. I use this every time I do the Sacred Grounds; it makes it much easier.
• If you try to go into Sacred Grounds B2 (hallway) before getting Curly, your health bar will go away, you'll go in, the door will be black, then you and your health bar reappear back into the room. In other words, you can't go on without Curly Brace.
• When you unlock challenges on the main menu (say you got the nemesis, on your first run, even if you didn't get the good ending (Like me...)), you still have unlimited chances to play the Sacred Grounds. How, you wonder?!? Well when you unlock challenges the default selection is the first one, even if it is ???. So most's instinct is to go down to the one that is unlocked. But if its not, well even if your first challenge isn't the timed sacred grounds run, its the first option. If you click (tap? push? mash?) A, when ??? is highlighted (where quote is walking in place) then you can play the aforementioned level.

(Contributed by Hate9)

• The level 3 Machine Gun actually makes you fall faster when fired up (in addition to pushing you up when fired down), and shortens your jump height.