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 tells you you need some underwater training to deal with the water pollution in the bay. So he gives you adiving helmet, shrinks you down and puts you into a bottle of water.

As promised, this is basically a training level and you just have to collect eight Red coins to complete it. The underwater controls are similar to normal controls but a bit awkward. Use the hover nozzle to gain height and use the control stick to change direction or move forward or backwards. Don't forget to grab Gold coins every so often so you don't run out of air. Watch out for the Bubbas in the bottle too; if they see you they will drag you toward the bottom of the bottle.

Once you're in the bottle, it's a pretty standard coin hunt. Coin #1 is near the top where you start the level. Coins #2, #3 and #4 are floating around about halfway down. Coin #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 Coin #6 is at the top of this column. One way to get it is to start from the bottom and let the jet of water push you up through the column Gold coins until you reach the Red one. This may take a few tries because it's easy to drift out of the stream. Another way is to  fly at the column just below the Red coin. Coin #7 is in a little alcove in the middle of a sand castle and Coin #8 is on a little block nearby.

The Shine appears at bottom of the jar. There are exactly 50 Gold coins here so if you want a bit of an extra challenge try to get the 50 coin 1-Up here.

Episode 4: Eely-Mouth's Dentist

 * Objective: Clean the eel's teeth.

At the start of the episode the young Noki gives you a diving helmet and points to his grandfather at the top of the cliff. You need to get to the top as in Episode 1 but it's easier this times since there's no goop now and they even give you a rope to reach the first ledge.

Talk to the old Noki again and he tells you that the source of the pollution is an eel with bad teeth at the bottom of the ocean. The waterfall creates a hole in the pollution so you can dive through into an underwater level to find the eel. Just jump off the ledge that looks like a diving board into the falls. If you miss, just swim into the hole where the waterfall meets the ocean. In fact you don't really have to dive at all since if you swim close to the underwater opening it will suck you in.

Now that you're underwater, let yourself sink down; try to get a few coins here and there to keep your air meter topped up. Bubbles of poisonous goop float upwards and you can also get air by popping them, though you lose air if you just touch them. At the bottom you meet the eel and a battle of sorts begins.

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. You'll have probably met him already in Episode 5 of Gelato Beach, but if not then there's not much risk of you not knowing who he is.

He'll challenge you to another race, this one very easy though. The goal is a flag at the left end of the shore. If you do the obvious thing and run across the ledges to the left, a big boxing glove pops out of the ground and knocks you off. Even assuming that happens it's still an easy race. Your advantage is that Il Piantissimo takes the "Swim" part of the name literally and tries to actually swim the whole way. But since you can make much better time by hovering from platform to platform you should reach the flag in plenty of time even if you fall off the ledge at the start.

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: Get to the shell at the top of the bay and complete the obstacle course inside.

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. There are quite a few ways to reach it though. We'll start with the route that involves the least amount of hovering and then cover various shortcuts. There are still more alternatives which you can explore for yourself if you want. We'll label the stopping points in order to have something to refer to when describing the shortcuts.

Go up the staircase (A) as in the start of Episode 1 and talk to the young Noki there. He says something about using ropes to get around. Follow the rope starting from his step to another staircase (B). There is a second rope above it, so either bounce on the first rope or do a back-flip from the top step to reach it.

Follow this rope to a third staircase (C), go up one step and follow another rope to the left to a staircase (D) above the one with the young Noki. There is a spiral ramp above it but you can ignore it for now; you would only use it to reach the 100 coins Shine.

Go up two steps and follow the rope to the end, then bounce to reach a ledge (E) just under the shell we're trying to get to. There is another rope here; bounce on it to get to the rope above and this leads right to the shell.

Shortcut #1: Follow the floating platforms toward the shore and you'll notice on that's got a wicker top. It acts like a very bouncy trampoline and if you jump on it you will bounce up high enough to hover to platform (B).

Shortcut #2: On the rope leading to staircase (C), bounce near the end to reach a higher ledge. The rope here connects to ledge (E) and you can bounce from it to the rope connected to the shell.

Shortcut #3: Go up the cliff face as in Episode 1, but stop on the ledge where you'd take the second pulley lift. Look away from the cliff to see a spiral staircase made of sea shells and hover out to the lowest step. This is the bottom of staircase (D).

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.