Explorer's Cavern 2

Explorer's Cavern 2 is a cave-themed level. It was modified from Under Skull Mountain 1.

## Walkthrough

Grab the Red Stealth helmet and head to the right. The flag is just over there, but you're forced to fall into a giant pit instead of reaching it. You'll eventually fall onto a large block of terrain. The goal is to go up through paths on both sides of the map, grabbing a helmet from one and using it to reach the top of the other. There are a number of pitfalls on the way to both paths, but jumping will reveal steel blocks to block these pitfalls once you backtrack enough to try again.

### Berserker

Grab the berserker helmet. It's on the far right of the map, in a prize block just above where the elevator drops you off. Then go back down to where you were initially deposited and go up the left path instead.

Once you've gone up the elevator on the left, the rubber blocks take you to a set of ice blocks on the right-hand wall. Break the lowest one and wait for a chain reaction. Then repeat a little higher up. This combined with some shooter blocks on the left-hand wall will allow you to freely move upwards. Further up to the left is a room with a shifting block. Get the shooter block to the right to break the rock blocking your path, then push the shifting block up twice to easily reach the teleporter. Berserker must be retained for the duration of this obstacle.

The teleporter takes you directly below the finish.

### Juggernaut

The juggernaut helmet can be found on the Berserker path, in the solitary column of prizes to the right of the two rubber blocks. Bring it to the right-hand path. About halfway up, there's a room filled with ice blocks and shooter blocks. Hit the shooter block, and once the chain reaction has finished, break at least three of the four prizes above the ice block to the right. This allows you to hit the ice block to successfully break a rock in the way. The left wall has a shifting block that, when pushed up twice, allows juggernaut to ascend further. A few rubber blocks and drills later, you've reached the area just below the flag.

## Secrets

* Immediately start holding LEFT when you fall into the pit. Once you land on an incline, continue jumping left to reveal an extra life.
* Another extra life can be found near the bottom of the map.
* On the berserker path, there's a staircase formation of 8 steel blocks. Jump left from the second-to-highest step to reveal a shortcut in the form of a steel block.
* Use berserker to knock the steel block below the staircase formation to the right. Then jump as high as possible on that steel block to access a continue.
* This level has TWO hidden diamonds, both in completely different sections of the map.

## Trivia

* Other than the 254 second speed bonus on Echelon Rift 2, this is the longest speed bonus in stage 1.
* Most of the terrain in this level is unmodified or copy-pasted from Under Skull Mountain 1.
* A number of the steel blocks in this level exist solely to prevent unintended shortcuts that were found in testing.
* The initial idea for the level (other than the # of screens which was changed from 26 to 24) remained exactly the same, other than the addition of a large drop at the start. Originally one was going to start at the bottom of the level.

## First Occurrences

* This is the first time Juggernaut is found on the main path.
* Mini Hopping Skulls show up for the first time.