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On your first visit to Ricco Harbor there is a huge oil slick covering most of the water and many areas are inaccessible. This is all down to Gooper Blooper, a huge squid. To find him you need to cross part of the construction-site obstacle course that makes up this level. Start by running on the big ship right in front of you, then follow the arrows. When you reach a platform with 2 Piantas on it, one of them will try to throw you (but he's far too weak) and the other will tell you to spin a wheel with your FLUDD to raise a submarine. Do this and jump onto the sub then across the pathway beyond it. From here you should be able to reach the street above. There is a water fountain to refill you tank and a couple of small Bloopers to kill to give some energy if you need it. Also make sure you stomp any crates that you see lying around (especially ones that are sitting on manhole covers - it makes life easier later on). Then it's time to face the boss.
Gooper Blooper
Run over to the pile of coloured crates at the far end of the path and you'll see one of his tentacles sticking out. Grab hold it with B, and pull it until it comes off. He'll get mad and burst out of the crates. Squirt him in the face and he'll try to smack you with his tentacles. When his tentacles are on the ground, grab one and pull it off (you can jump on them to flatten them before you pull if you want to). When all 4 tentacles are off, run up and grab his nose with B and pull it. Keep pulling it and eventually it snaps back and hits him in the face and kills him... or does it...
He comes at you a second time now, and slightly better. Spray him in the face and he'll throw his tentacles at you, one or two at a time. Do the same as before, jump on them if you need to, and pull them off. Watch out for the occasional blob of goo that he'll spit at you. When his last 4 tentacles are off pull his nose again to finish him off. The Shine will appear where Gooper Blooper was sitting.
From the start point, turn around 180 degrees and you'll see some wooden canoes. To the left of these are some logs floating in the sea. Cross these logs to reach a platform with a Pianta (called Big Daddy) and 3 coloured Bloopers on it. Walk up to any them to get on it and start surfing. Follow the trail of gold coins to a polluted cave entrance in the far corner of the level, surf into it.
This is a simple and fun surfing race against the clock. The only catch is you have to complete the course in under 45 seconds or Big Daddy will throw you out of Ricco Harbor! If you crash you'll just go back to the start of the race. If you finish the course within 45 seconds a Shine will appear next to Big Daddy.
If you destroyed the crates in Episode 1, this first part will be simple. If not, you'll need to go the long way round (as described in Episode 1). Anyway, jump through the manhole cover near your start point, follow the tunnel to its end and emerge from the tunnel.
You'll come out next to 2 silos with "Fruits" painted on them. To the right of these there is a moving crane, and just past that, there is an orange-rimmed platform. Jump/hover to it and climb to the top it. Hover over to the roof of the building with the "M" on it (or the one that used to have the "M" on it, if you washed the "M" off already). Go left along the rooftops until you find one with a stack of crates on it. Smash these crates to reveal a manhole cover, but don't go down it.
Next to this roof there is a narrow, silver catwalk. Jump on to it and follow it. Take a right when you get to the blue catwalks and spray the Bloopers as you go. When you get to a crate, climb onto it and wait for the red and white pole with a hook on it to move toward you. When it's close enough, jump on to it and then shuffle round to the other side of it, ready to jump off. When it stops at the other end, jump onto the fence opposite.
Climb up the fence to the blue outline - this is a hatch. Tap B to make the hatch spin around. Now jump on to the fence opposite and again climb up to the hatch. Spin the hatch around with B and then jump on to the nearby platform. Follow the arrow along the blue catwalk, using the FLUDD to hover over the gaps. Take out the 2 Bloopers and continue to the platform with the red box on it - this is the Rocket Nozzle. Collect it if you want, but it's not essential for this level.
You should see 2 big arrow signs pointing upwards, and a small square platform beyond them. This platform is a trampoline - when you jump on it you'll leap really high. So line yourself up straight and jump on the trampoline to get to the next catwalk. Go along the blue catwalk and follow it round to the left. Do the next to trampoline jumps and follow the blue path round till you reach the final jump - a double trampoline jump. Line yourself up straight and jump away flinging yourself into the huge yellow cage where the Shine is hidden. Dust yourself off and claim your Shiny prize.
It's time for another of those lovely obstacle course levels! But first you need to get there. You need to climb the large tower surrounded by scaffolding (Ricco Tower) to reach the obstacle course, and there are 2 ways to do this:
Once you get inside the tower, it's time for a very tricky obstacle course level. The first few spinning beams are easy enough, they seems quite sticky to Mario's shoes so just walk around them, jumping makes things much harder. When you reach the solid green platform make sure you pick up the 1-Up mushroom (a back-flip or wall jump will do it). This means the even if you should die on the next bit, you haven't really lost any lives. The 3 spinning wheels aren't too hard either. But the final set of beams are very tricky as they are different shapes and sizes and spin at weird angles. All I can say is make full use of the camera, to judge your jumps, and just keep on trying. Thankfully, once you get past these, the Shine will be waiting for you on a nice steady platform.
Head to the far end of the dock - where you battled Gooper Blooper last time - then look out to sea and you'll see a big helipad. This is where the giant squid is waiting for another beating. Below the helipad is a platform with the Rocket Nozzle on it - which you'll need to get to onto the helipad. So, hover over to it, using the boats or logs to help if you need to. Then use the Rocket Nozzle to launch yourself up onto fence on the underside of the helipad. Climb to either end of the fence then use A to get through the hatch (alternatively you can just launch directly from one of the boat-roofs on to the helipad). Now it's boss time again.
Gooper Blooper
It's almost the same as before, just slightly harder. If he tries anything funny, like spinning around with his tentacles out, jump out the way and spray him in the face as soon as you can. To summarise:
He'll come back to life, as he did the first time so just repeat the steps above again to finish him off. The Shine will appear where Gooper Blooper was sitting.
This episode is another Blooper surfing challenge, so from your start point, turn around and run to the pier were the Pianta and a selection of coloured Bloopers are waiting for you. The Pianta will explain what's going on, then stomp on the big red button to start the clock.
You now have 2 minutes to collect the 8 coins so jump on a Blooper and start surfing. There is a trail of gold coins around the harbour, and the red coins are in amongst this trail, so the easiest way to tackle this level is to follow the trail of coins. Be careful not to crash as you'll lose a life and have to start the whole thing again. If you miss any coins just go back and find them at the end, you should have plenty of time to spare.
The shine will appear on the platform where the Bloopers are, so surf over to it and jump on to the platform to grab it.
Shadow Mario's back so it's time for another chase. He's starts off right in front of you so go and spray him to start the chase. He makes his way along the tanker then up on the catwalk. With some back-flip jumps on to the funnel of the ship and then a spin jump and some hovering you can follow him up there. Then the chase continues around the catwalks until you beat him. There's no need to rush along the catwalks, he won't go far and you really don't want to fall off as it's annoying having to climb back up there. When you've squirted him enough he'll fall over and give you a Shine. Easy.
Go over to the market and you'll see a Yoshi Egg. He wants a durian. Jump up to the machine nearby and ground pound the raised switch. A fruit will fall out. If it's not a durian, hit the other switch. Repeat until you get a durian. Once you have Yoshi, go to the edge, where you'll see fish jumping in and out of the water. If you shoot them with Yoshi juice, they'll turn into platforms. Use it to get to the first metal platform. From that platform, hover to the ledge with the palm tree, then hover to the next metal platform. Shoot the next fish so you can reach the last platform. From there, you can shoot the Orange Juice Generator blocking the Shine. Get a Rocket Nozzle (under the platform where Gooper Blooper was in Episode 5) and rocket back up. The Shine is yours.