Karnov/Stage 4


 * As soon as you begin the stage, you will see a flame tile high up against the outside of the cavern. Use the ladder to collect it.  As you approach the entrance of the cavern, knights will appear to attack you.  Midway through the entrance, your mask tile will blink if you have one.  If you use it here, you'll see a few power-up tiles and K marks (shown right), but they may be more of a distraction than anything else, so think carefully before using it.
 * Through the entrance, you must make it safely over and under a series of volcanoes. The volcanoes spew fireballs, but they flash briefly before they shoot to give you a warning.  The volcanoes that face down shoot out a concentrated group of fireballs, while the volcanoes facing up shoot fireballs that spread out.  The safest place to stand when an upward volcano shoots is right next to it on either side.  The fireballs that it shoots will not hit you if you stand there.  Make your way through the volcanoes to the end of the tunnel.
 * When you reach a series of three conveyor belts, there is a slight detour you can take if you have the shoes or a ladder. If you use the ladder, you will not be able to take full advantage of the detour, so it's better to use the shoes.  Activate the shoes and jump up to the highest conveyor, where a ladder takes you up to the section above.

Detour

 * When you reach the top of the ladder, head left. A brown stone thrower will appear.  Stand one step below it and destroy it.  Then stand on the ledge where it stood, and your mask tile should blink.  Activate it and you will see a large number of power-up tiles appear (shown right).  Your shoes should still be active, so you should have no problem jumping up to collect the tiles and the K marks that line the ledge above.
 * There will be another brown stone thrower to the right of the ladder. Destroy it and advance to the right.  When you reach the ledge, the wings tile should begin blinking.  If you activate it, you can fly out to the right and find a huge cache of tiles (shown left).  Collect as much as you can.  Then you can choose to fly down and resume the rest of the stage, or fly farther out to the right until the end of the stage and fight the boss above ground.

Stage end

 * If you skipped the detour, or flew down with the wings, you will continue right past the conveyor belts. A brown stone thrower will be waiting at the end of a long platform that was preceded by a series of smaller platforms with K marks on them.
 * After you destroy the brown stone thrower, you should consider dropping to the floor below if you have collected the trolley power-up. If you have, it will begin to blink when you stand on the gray railway.  Activate it, and the trolley will appear.  Then you can jump on it, and control its movement with the joystick.  As you drop down the rails, enemies will appear and the trolley will obliterate them when they connect (shown right).
 * You can safely ride the trolley all the way down to the end of the stage, and even incorporate the trolley into your strategy against the boss. If you did not have the trolley, it is recommended that you stick to the series of platforms higher off the ground.

Boss: Spider Woman
The spider woman will drop down from the sky if you approach the end of the stage from the ground. While her attack isn't particular complex, it is difficult to dodge if you attack her too aggressively. Like most bosses, the spider woman will shoot at you when shot, and it will also fire intermittently on her own. Employ the strategy of shooting at her at the peak of your jump and running away from her shots until you are forced to leap over them. If you happen to approach her from higher up, she will cling to the wall behind her and position herself in order to attack you. While she can't approach you, she's almost more dangerous in this fashion since she is more likely to shoot upward at you and this can be harder to dodge. It's safer to take her on from the ground. If you used the trolley to reach her, you can actually jump back on the trolley and ride it to the left to escape her attack. Then return to attack her when it's safe.