Fruit are more than bonus points, they keep you alive. As you play through the game, your vitality meter slowly wears away. Collecting fruit will replenish bars in your meter.
Eggs appear throughout each stage. In order to obtain the contents they hold, you must crack them open. You can do that two ways. The first is by crashing into them as you run. This will send the egg flying forward, and the contents will pop out. However, if the egg falls into a pit or the water, you won't be able to collect the item. The other way requires that you have a weapon. If you do, you can simply throw your weapon at the egg. The first hit will crack it, and the second hit will break it open where it lies.
Item
Name
Description
Stone Ax
When thrown (), the axe starts traveling straight, and eventually arcs downward.
Only 2 axes can be thrown on screen at a time.
Can be used against enemies, but they are useless against stone and fire.
Skateboard
Enables traveling faster ().
Cannot stop acceleration, but can slow down to a crawl ().
Gives an additional hitpoint while using the item; bumping into an enemy or obstacle loses it.
Grants 1000 points if you reach the boss zone with it.
Milk
Refills vitality meter to its maximum.
Flower
Doubles the point value of all the fruits during the stage, but not bonus stage fruit.
In Wonder Boy, this appears as a Mushroom that changes fruit into a new food type, giving 500 points.
Honeygirl Fairy
Gives temporary invulnerability.
Crashing onto enemies gives 50 points, and then begins to rise.
Eggplant
Depletes the vitality meter to only 2 bars.
Gives 5000 points upon a stage clear while having this.
In Wonder Boy, this appears as a tiny Grim Reaper.
Hidden eggs are invisible, and are thus very hard to find. The only sure fire technique to tell where they are is to throw a weapon ahead of you as you run. If you notice the weapon hit something and disappear prematurely, chances are it's hitting a hidden egg. To reveal a hidden egg, you must jump at the location where you believe an egg is hidden. If you're right, the egg will appear, and you can open it like normal. Hidden Eggs are a unique feature to Adventure Island. As such, Wonder Boy does not contain hidden eggs.
Item
Name
Description
Fireball
Upgraded from the standard Stone Axe; they travel farther when thrown.
Can be used against enemies; unlike the Stone Axe, it can also destroy stationary and rolling boulders.
Milk
Aside from color palette changes, it functions the same as normal Milk.
Key
Spawns a platform leading to a bonus stage of collecting fruit by hopping from springboard to springboard.
Ruby Ring
Obtainable by finding a hidden egg that normally contains Fireballs, and have Fireballs in possession.
Gives 2000 points.
Extra Life Doll
Obtainable by collecting 3 Ruby Rings, the fourth Ruby Ring will spawn as this item instead.
Gives an extra life.
Honey Bee
Only obtainable at the end of the first stage in the first world.
Enables and gives a continue code to resume the game in the current stage after a game over.
