Super Mario Sunshine/Noki Bay

"Steep cliffs and sea beds are what the Nokis call home. The huge waterfall and the three soaring towers resonate with mystic history."

Episode 1: Uncork the Waterfall

 * Objective: Defeat the Monty Mole at the top of the waterfall.

Talk to the old Noki at the the start and he tells you the water in the bay is polluted; he suspects the cause is a Monty Mole that's put a cork in the waterfall and is shooting blobs of goop down into the water. Now the problem is to scale an obstacle course of a cliff to get to the mole. If you talk to the Noki again he says it would nice if you cleaned up the graffiti while you're at it.

Hop over the floating platforms to the left to reach a giant spiral staircase made of sea shells. Don't fall in the water since it's toxic like the water in Episode 6 of Bianco Hills. At the top of the steps and you'll come to a basket hanging on a rope. Jump onto the basket and then spray water in the cracked vase that's attached to the other end of a pulley. The heavier vase pulls you up to a grassy ledge so jump onto it and follow the arrow until you get to the end.

Spray the pink and yellow graffiti away to create two new ledges. This actually creates a bit of a shortcut since you can now wall kick from the bottom of the cliff to the ledge you're on now. Hop along two more ledges to some spiral shaped graffiti and spray it to create another ledge. Now use it to climb up to the next level. Make your way along these ledges going the other direction to reach a huge puddle of paint. This is coming from the blobs of goop falling from above so watch out that you don't get hit by them. Spray the dolphin graffiti to make a ledge above you. You can use the basket and vase trick to reach this ledge, but you can also get there with a back-flip or wall kick plus hover combination.

Hop over to the next ledge to another pool of goop and a a ramp leading up to the left, also covered with goop. There is whale graffiti here which you can spray to make a ledge, but it isn't particularly useful at the moment. Spray your way up the ramp, dodging the balls of goop rolling down it, and at the at the top spray the octopus graffiti on the cliff to create a new ledge. Do some wall kicks between this ledge and the wall on the left to get up to the next level; there's no pulley to help you this time.

If you're getting low on water by now then you may want to follow the ledge on the left to a puddle where you can get a refill. In fact you can get up to the next level from here with a bit of acrobatics but there is an easier way. Follow the ledges to right and spray the bird graffiti to make yet another ledge, then hop up to the next and top level.

Go left to meet a Noki, the grandson of the old Noki you met below. He introduces you to a springboard; spray it once to make it small enough to carry, then put it down and it will go back to normal size and you can bounce on it. If you want, move the springboard back from the cliff a little way and bounce on it to a high ledge with a 1-Up, then hover down to the ledge with paint on it below. Or you can just drop down to the ledge below with the puddle of water, place the springboard there are use it to bounce up to the ledge with paint on it.

Clear a bit more of the paint from the ledges here and by this time the mole will have started throwing bombs instead of paint. Fight this guy almost exactly the way you did in Episode 2 of Pinna Park, You have the throw the bombs a bit farther this time. Check around the far side of the ledge for coins if you get low on health.

The cork comes out of the waterfall and a Shine appears right next to you on the ledge when the mole is gone.

Episode 2: The Boss of Tricky Ruins

 * Objective: Defeat Gooper Blooper. Yeah, him again!

Talk to the young Noki at the start and he points to his grandfather waiting on the shore at the end of a trail of floating platforms. Hop over the platforms but watch out for the fish that jump between them since they will knock you into the toxic water it they hit you. Talk to the grandfather; he doesn't know why the water is still polluted but he's going to reward you anyway. You see a hole in the side of the cliff and through it a secret chamber where an ancient Noki king is buried. You can open a path to the chamber by spraying paintings on the cliff.

Back up a bit, switch to Mario-cam, and look up to spot a brown square about halfway up the cliff face behind the Noki. Spray it and a maze of groves is created in the cliff, navigating it going sideways or down is easy, but you need wall-kick to go up. There is a time limit since the maze will revert back to a plain cliff face after a while. Get up to the highest part of the maze and head to the right. There is a small ledge where you can go round the corner and then there is another shaft that you can wall kick up.

Hop up to the ledge on the right and defeat the bloopers there. There is another brown square here, so spray it like the one below to create another maze. It's a bit more complicated than the first one, but it's linear so it's more a question of jumping skill than getting lost. When you get to the top of a ramp do some final wall-kicks to get to a high ledge; some bloopers are there including Gooper Blooper from Ricco Harbor.

You should be an expert at beating this guy by now, in fact he doesn't even do the tentacle spinning move from the helipad battle. There are coins in the trees if you run low on health. You don't get the Shine just for winning this time though. When the monster is gone a hole opens up, so drop into it. You'll land in the chamber that the Noki elder mentioned earlier and you can claim your Shine.

Episode 3: Red Coins in a Bottle

 * Objective: Hunt the red coins

When you start the episode, the old Noki man tells you why he's about to shrink you to a tiny size and put you into a bottle of water. Then he does it! Once you're in the bottle, it's a pretty standard coin hunt, but this time it's underwater, so it's quite tough to control Mario. Use the hover nozzle to gain height and push forward or backwards while doing this to stay under control. Do forget to grab a gold coins every so often so you don't run out of air.

Coin (1) is right by you when you start the level. (2), (3) and (4) are floating around about halfway down. (5) is on the floor near the edge of the bottle, and by a big upward arrow. Here you can see a tall column of gold coins and (6) is at the top of this column. It can be a real pig to get, because of the jet of water that push you up to it, so try just flying at it juts below the red coin, rather than starting from the bottom. (7) is in a little alcove in the middle of the sand-castle-thing and (8) is on a little block next to the sand-castle-thing.

Note: Watch out for the Bubbas in the bottle, too. If they see you, they will drag you to the bottom of the bottle.

Episode 4: Eely-Mouth's Dentist

 * Objective: Clean the eel's teeth.

The first thing to do is to climb up the climb up the cliff face to where the cannon-firing mole-boss was in episode 1, but thankfully the Nokis have put up a big tightrope to give you a shortcut. Just to the left of the ledge where the mole-boss was you'll see the old Noki man again and he'll tell you the story of the dirty-mouthed eel. Dive off the ledge, using and into the waterfall. If you miss, just swim into the hole where the waterfall meets the ocean. (You don't really have to dive at all[ if you swim close to the underwater opening under the falls it will suck you in.)

Now that you're underwater, let yourself sink slowly down. Eely-Mouth is right at the bottom of the abyss and as you get close he'll spring into action. Don't worry about him eating you, if he does, he'll just spit you out again. The biggest danger in the battle is running out of air, so make sure you keep grabbing coins (sitting on the ground and the walls) to top-up your air supply. You can also pop the purple bubbles to replenish your air supply. When Eely-Mouth is out of his hole he'll open his mouth and show you his gunk-covered gnashers. When he does this, get above him and spray his teeth with the hover nozzle. It takes quite a few attempts to clean all the teeth but when you finally do, he'll hand over a Shine, which lands at the bottom of the level.

Episode 5: Il Piantissimo's Surf Swim

 * Objective: Beat Il Piantissimo to the flag.

Climb the tightrope shortcut left over from the previous episode, and you'll find Il Piantissimo on the upper ledge. He'll challenge you to another race, and this one is even easier than the first.

Jump straight off the ledge and aim for the round with platforms in the water. Hover across the water using these platforms, and you'll get to the flag on the far side. You should beat him quite easily as he seems to take a longer route and he swims in zig-zags.

Note that if you go back and race Il Piantissimo again, after winning the Shine, he'll be about 10 seconds quicker. But don't beat yourself up over it, as he doesn't give you another Shine for beating him twice.

Episode 6: The Shell's Secret

 * Objective: Complete a pretty tough secret level.

This is probably the hardest episode in this area. The first part involves just getting to the secret obstacle course level. It's in a shell in one of the highest place in the bay. Thankfully there is a slight shortcut up to it.

Follow the round white platforms to the west, toward where the race ended in the previous episode. On the way there is a bouncy platform - stand on it and face the huge tall pillar nearby. Use the springboard to jump up high, then hover to the platform in front of you. Do a back-flip jump on to the tightrope above and follow it to the other end. When you get there, use the bounciness of the rope to spring up to the next platform. Follow the next rope across, and at the end of it, bounce up to another rope. Again, follow the rope to the far end and then bounce up to another rope. This rope leads to the shell where the secret level is, so run inside it.

Okay, that's the easy part over. Now for the obstacle course. Wall kick out of the glass box that you start in (try not to over-jump and end up in space!) then run along to the revolving green plank. Use this and the spinning platform next to it, to get across to solid ground. Pound the far nail on the right for a 1-Up. Now use the wall to wall kick onto the platform that is sliding in and out. Make your way across the 3 of these platforms and on to the other side. Next, climb to the top of the wooden pole and jump off onto the ledge, then bounce on the rope to reach the ledge above it. Another way to reach this ledge is to wall kick between the narrow wooden beam and the red wall, but this is very tricky. Now back-flip or wall kick to onto to the step above.

From here, do a two bounce wall kick up to a ledge above, using the angles of the corner. Now do the same to get the top of the structure. You could also start with a back-flip here to do it with a single wall kick.

Next up is a pair of spinning wooden beams, which you will have encountered before; they just spin a bit quicker than normal. When you reach safety, pound in the nail on the right for a 1-Up. You now come to a revolving platform with 3 planks above it. From the platform, do back-flip jumps up to each plank - but take the spinning into account and back-flip at an angle. From the top plank, jump over to the stationary platform and you then come to one final spinning beam. It's a quick one, so run carefully across it and make your final jump to Shine waiting for you on the platform.

Episode 7: Hold It, Shadow Mario!

 * Objective: Catch Shadow Mario.

It's another easy Shadow Mario chase. The only tricky thing about this one is the terrain he uses to get away from you. He'll basically run around at ground level for a bit, then he'll climb the cliff-face ledges, almost to the top and dive off back down to the water. He just repeats this circuit until he's been sprayed enough and the gives up a Shine. Certainly one of the easier episodes.

Episode 8: The Red Coin Fish

 * Objective: Red coin hunt

The first thing to do here is climb up to the ledge, where you dived into the waterfall in episode 4. Use the good old tightrope shortcut to get up there, then dive into the depths of the ocean.

You'll notice from the intro that the red coins are not scattered about like usual. They are bunched together, along with several regular coins, in the shape of a fish, which swims around the level. Let yourself sink down to near the top of the sunken city and you'll see the coin fish. Just use your FLUDD to follow it and keep passing through it when you can. Grabbing the first few coins will be easy, but when there are only 1 or 2 left it can be very tricky to get them. To make it even harder, the coin fish will disperse every few seconds and the coins are all spread out (the red coins seem to disappear!). But just follow the fish and when it bunches back together, quickly swim into it and soon you'll be getting your Shine Sprite!

Make sure you keep your energy meter topped up, and when you eventually get that final coin a Shine will appear at the very bottom of the abyss.

100-coin Shine
This can definitely be done during episode 6, and possibly in others as well. Firstly, there are 50 coins in a trail, leading from the platform where you start the episode, all the way to the shore. There are also coins hidden in a wall-jumping course near where the trail ends. Spray the brown block to open the wall challenge. There are a few coins in the tomb where collect the Shine from at the end of episode 2. And if you climb to the ledge where the boss was in episode 1, there is a big yellow button, which you can ground-pound to reveal a lot more coins. These coins appear on the water near where the waterfall lands. The Shine is quite tricky to get as it appears on top of the tallest tower. You can get to it using the springy tightropes and some hovering.

NOTE---At the wall jump challenge, if you continue to the second area (which shoots you to a high cliff) there is a Yellow Bird containing a Shine. Of course, it will send you back to Delfino afterward, but it's well worth the Shine. Then continue back to the episode to get 100 coins.