Super Mario Sunshine/Bianco Hills

Bianco Hills is the first proper "area" that you'll encounter in Super Mario Sunshine. Like all the others, it is split into 8 episodes and there is a side-quest of collecting 100 coins.

Episode 1: Road to the Big Windmill

• Objective: Destroy the Piranha Plant Keeper to reveal a path to the big windmill.

When you start the episode you get a quick view of Shadow Mario on top of a pile of goop. He'll be gone by the time you get there but that's your destination for this episode.

Head along the stone path following the red signs and a trail of Gold coins. You might talk so some of the Piantas on the way; some of them saw Shadow Mario pass this way but they still think you're him. The downhill part of the path is covered in water so you can slide down it as in the game previews. If you land in the river at the end you can either jump on the log here or hop up to a ledge to the left a way. You can also use the ropes to cross or simply hover over.

The stone path continues on the right, but you will meet Stus who may get in your way. In other episodes the gate through the wall on the right is open, but it's closed now because of goop on the other side. The path goes under a tall arch with bells on top; if you spray the bells a 1-Up green mushroom falls out.

Keep following the stone path until you get to a big waterwheel. To get past this water wheel, hop up to the ledge to the left of the path, then jump on to one of the paddles as it goes round and let the paddle carry you over the top of the wheel. There is a huge area covered by goop on the other side of the wall and you might as well start cleaning some of it up. You'll find that entire trees have been buried under it as well as a section of the wall. You may also find Mini Piranhas in the goop.

Keep following the stone path until you find the source of the goop, huge balls of it rolling on the ground and into a pond. (If you spray the balls you can see that they're actually rolled up piranha plants.) Avoid the balls and use FLUDD to clear the path to their source, pile of goop similar to what was covering the Grand Pianta statue. You know what to do now, spray it until a monster appears and then spray water into its mouth until you defeat it.

When the monster is dead, a ramp rises up out of the ground connecting the stone path to a bridge. This bridge takes you to an island in the middle of the pond, but that's something to explore in the next episode. For now, collect the Shine that the monster was hiding to complete the chapter.

Episode 2: Down with Petey Piranha!

• Objective: Climb the big windmill and defeat Petey Piranha.

When you start the episode you get a view of Petey Piranha standing atop the big windmill.

Follow the path to the river and cross it as before. You'll notice that the gate through the wall on your right is now open; go through to find that more goop has appeared. Now the source is Petey Piranha throwing it from the windmill. Follow the path to the ramp that appeared in the previous episode and go up to the bridge. The bridge is still damaged though, so hover over the gap.

Once you've crossed the bridge, continue along the path as it climbs toward the windmill. Watch out for the balls of goop, similar to the ones in the previous episode that roll down the path. A jet of water near the top of the path will refill your FLUDD tank.

Keep on the path, using the FLUDD hover nozzle to jump gaps and go around vines as you spiral around the windmill. When you reach the end of the path, jump on to one of the platforms on the windmill's sails and ride it to the top. Jump on to the roof where Petey Piranha is waiting. The roof isn't strong enough for the both of you and it collapses, so you both fall and a battle begins inside the windmill.

Petey Piranha

To beat Petey, you must shoot water into his mouth as with Piranha Plants you fought before. Wait until he opens his mouth and then fire in as much water as you can. When he is full, his belly button will pop out and he'll fall on his back. Jump on top of him and use the Ground Pound move to push his belly button back in. (You may have heard Piantas in Delfino Plaza call this the "box breaker" technique.) Wait until he gets up then repeat.

Meanwhile, if you don't get water into his mouth then Petey will vomit a big puddle of goop on the floor. You might find water bottles in it if FLUDD is starting to run low, and there might be a Mini Piranha in it which you can defeat for coins if you're low on health. Petey may also take a swipe at you with his arms, or maybe they're branches.

Once you stomp his belly 3 times, he'll dissolve and you'll gain another shine.

Episode 3: The Hillside Cave Secret

• Objective: Find the secret level and finish it.

Hillside Cave secret zone.

As soon as you start this episode you'll notice that there are more enemies than before.

Head to the place where you defeated the Gate Keeper in episode 1 and to the left of ramp up to bridge you'll notice a piece of the lake with a low rope over it. Cross this rope to reach the platform at the other end. Cross the lake using the series of ropes and platforms until you reach the grass on the far side. Walk where the arrow points to until you reach a high rope and an arrow point upwards. The secret cave is now on the grassy ledge up to your left so back-flip or triple-jump up there, using the rope if you need to.

Enter the cave and you'll see a short cut-scene where Shadow Mario steals the FLUDD. Now it's time for a mini-level, accompanied by some of the greatest video game music ever; a sort of a cappella version of the classic Super Mario Bros. theme tune. This mini-level can be very tricky as it's easy to misjudge your jumps with out the FLUDD to help you - but you better get used to it as this is one of the easy ones! The best piece of advice here is be careful and make full use of the camera controls so you know where you're jumping.

When you make it to then, grab the shine... quick before you fall off again!

Episode 4: Red Coins of Windmill Village

• Objective: Collect the 8 red coins

If you've played Super Mario 64, you'll know how this works. There are 8 red coins dotted around the level which you need to find, and they are usually pretty well hidden. Here are the locations of the 8 coins:

1. From the start point follow the path and cross the stream. There is a red coin between the 2 white buildings on your left, sitting on a low rope.
2. Now use the springy ropes here to get on the roof of the building for coin number 2.
3. From here, look around and you'll see a red coin on top of the big white archway. Get over to it by hovering and using the tightrope.
4. Carry on along the top of the wall until you reach a little archway next to the bells. There is a red coin in the archway.
5. Keep following the same path around and up a bit higher and you'll come to another coin. Look out for gust of wind trying to knock you off!
6. From here, cross the nearby tightrope with the electric spark things on it, to get to a roof with a coin on it.
7. Now off to the right you'll see a big windmill with rotating platforms. Hover over to the platform and from here, hover over to the coin floating in mid-air. Make sure you land on the other rotating windmill after grabbing the coin.
8. From here, hover over to the building with 2 little towers on the roof. Wall-jump between these towers to get on to the roof where you'll find the final coin.

The shine will appear on a high platform, so to get it, hover over to the other little tower then follow the tightrope across to the high platform.

Episode 5: Petey Piranha Strikes Back

• Objective: Beat Petey Piranha again.

Head to the far side of the little village and you'll see brown goo everywhere. Near the cliff face there is a Pianta buried under the goo (you'll just see his hat). Spray all the goo around him then spray him clean. Before you talk to him make sure you are facing the cliff face and he is between you and the cliff. This is because as a present for saving him, he'll throw you up on the ledge above (the Piantas always throw you directly behind them). If you can't get this to work you can get up there by climbing on the roof where you found coin number 8 in the last episode and use the tightropes, but the Pianta-throw way is quicker.

Climb on the big steps the reach the top of the hill and then go over to the ledge where the weird pink bouncy things are; you should see Petey Piranha sleeping on a rock in the distance. The pink balls suck onto your FLUDD nozzle, and you can fire them by holding R and then letting go. Use this technique to fire one at Petey; a direct hit will wake him up and make him fly around.

Petey Piranha

Petey flies around spitting sludge everywhere, and the first thing to do is bring him down to your level. Spray him a couple of times to make fall down. When he's on the ground, the battle is essentially the same as the previous battle with him, except he has a tornado attack - just dodge it. When he gets up he'll eventually open his mouth to try and barf up some gloop. Take this chance to fill his mouth with water, and then when falls on his back, stomp his belly. Now repeat this process until you've stomped his belly 3 times and then he'll be defeated. The Shine will appear near where you finally beat him.

Episode 6: The Secret of the Dirty Lake

• Objective: Find the secret level and finish it.

A view of the cave and the logs

From the starting point, head over to the lake and you'll see that it's polluted. The surface is covered with sludge, but note that the water underneath is clean, so if you should fall in make sure you swim underwater as much as possible before resurfacing.

Head toward the giant windmill in the lake. Your destination is a cave behind it with pollution pouring out into the lake. You may have noticed this in earlier chapters when it was locked, but now it's open and there is a group of logs just below it. To reach it, hop onto one of the leaf boats floating near the shore. In this chapter the polluted water has made them rot, so you only have a limited amount of time to pilot your way to the next leaf before it disintegrates and dumps you in the water. With some skill and luck (it may help to practice in one of the earlier chapters) you should be able to make it to the logs floating in front of cave. Another, perhaps faster way of getting there is to climb up to the back of the windmill, then take a running jump off the spiral path and about halfway through your freefall, use the hover nozzle to hover to the group of logs. If you don't quite make it, swim quickly to logs and climb onto one before the toxic sludge does too much damage. Once you are on the logs, make your way into the cave and jump on the mysterious grey and white box. It's the turbo nozzle!! Carry on inside the cave until you reach another one of those evil secret levels with the cool music.

From the start of course, you need to get across the blue and red sliding platforms. These flip over but they always alternate. So if you're on a blue platform and see a red one nearby flip, hop over to it since it will be safe until after the blue one flips, and similarly if you're on a red platform. One way that seems to work for getting across is to wait until the closest red platform heads to the right, then hop to the blue platform in front of you, left to the red one, left again to the blue one in the corner, then forward a couple of times to reach safety. There is a multicolored star here with a 1-Up as a reward for making it. Now you see a cube in front of you. To reach it, wall-jump off the wall on the right. This takes some practice but there is a ledge below to catch you if you don't get it. As soon as you land on the cube it starts moving, ride it while trying to stay on top as it rolls. It goes almost all the way to the next platform and you need to do another wall jump to reach safety again, this time with no safety net. Dash past the sliding prisms so you don't get pushed off, and hop to the next cube. This goes straight up and passes by a second 1-Up. Now there is a more complicated version of the sliding platforms obstacle. Getting over this is tricky and you may have to to a bit of back-tracking to avoid falling off, but one route that seems to work is to start when the nearest red platform is moving past you to the left, then keep more or less to the left as you try to progress. Beyond this is the last platform, so claim your Shiny reward.

Episode 7: Shadow Mario on the Loose

• Objective: Catch Shadow Mario.

Ah, a nice easy shine. You deserve one after the previous episode. Shadow Mario returns and you just need to keep chasing him around and spraying him. If you lose him, just keep searching and follow the evil music. When you've sprayed him enough he'll fall over and give you a Shine.

Episode 8: The Red Coins of the Lake

• Objective: Collect the 8 red coins.

In this episode, all the coins are located on the east side of the level - above or near the lake. You'll be needing the Rocket Nozzle if you want to make this task easier, so from the start, follow the path, cross the river and go over to the nearest building. Between this building on the next are 2 tightropes. Use the ropes to get on to the rooftops and you should now see the red box containing the Rocket Nozzle. Grab it and head east through the narrow archway and along the straight path until you reach the end of it. You are now between two small windmills and red coin number (1) is right above you on a tightrope between the windmills. From here, look east to see three wooden platforms with a tightrope above them on the other side of the water. Coin (2) is found on this tightrope. From here, look north over the lake and you'll see a small group of 4 gold coins with a red coin above them, this is (3), so swim over and use the Rocket Nozzle to boost up to the red coin (to rocket while in water, charge up and just before the rocket goes off, jump out of the water). Just north of here are some low wooden platforms with a rope joining them. Swim over and use the Rocket Nozzle to grab coin (4) from here.

Swim back to shore and walk to the bottom of the hill that leads to the bridge. Here there is a very tall wooden pole with a green and white flag on it. Rocket to the top of this pole, then walk along the tightrope that has electric enemies moving along it, jumping them as you go. About half way along you can bounce up to grab coin (5) then continue to the platform at the other end. From now on, watch out for gusts of wind trying to knock you off. Cross the next rope to the platform with the Pokey on it. Beat him by jumping on his head but be very careful not to fall. Cross the next tightrope, which has coin (6) above it and then the next, which has coin (7) above it. When you reach the platform after collecting coin 7, there is a pretty difficult jump to the next platform. The platform that you need to reach is the one pretty much straight ahead that has 2 flags below it and looks like it is too far away. Line yourself up so you are looking straight at it, then walk to the edge of the platform and start charging the Rocket Nozzle. Just before it blasts you, push forward on the control stick and keep pushing forward all through the jump and you'll just about make it to the platform. Cross the tightrope from here and you'll find coin (8) halfway along (it's very high up so you'll have to bounce 2 or 3 times to reach it).

The Shine will appear in a little alcove in the big windmill, so go right up to the part where you climb on to the sails, and hover over from one the sail platforms.

100 coins Shine

• Total coins: 150–170
• Recommended unlocking Yoshi first.

Grab 100 coins in Episode 8. The key points for 100 coins include:

• Spray the Mini Pokeys until they crash into a wall for three coins each.
• Spray the windows in the village, usually the ones over doors drop a coin.
• Jump on the Pokeys while they are standing up for three coins.
• Spray the Seedy Pods, the small blue enemies, from a distance, and then run up and jump on them for a single coin. Or just have Yoshi eat them.
• Sprinkler Squirt inside the rings of flowers for 6–8 coins.
• Traverse the trees; defeat the Seedy Pods for coins and grab the coins lying around as well. For empty trees, spray them for coins. You'll get a total of 15–20 coins.
• Turbo around the lake for about 15–20 coins.
• Walk the ropes above the lake for another 10–15 coins.
• Spray the mini windmills to make a coins pop out of the platforms on top.
• If you have Yoshi, spray down the beehives hanging from the trees and eat the bees. Completely destroy both beehives for a total of about 38 coins.
• There a a few more coins to get by having Yoshi eat the yellow butterflies.

Secret Shine #1

Start Episode 3 and enter the Hillside Cave as before. As with every secret area, you can replay it for another shine. However, this time you have to get red coins within a time limit. Luckily, you have FLUDD back.

At the start is a red block. Ground pound it to make the red coins appear and the timer start. You have one minute. The first red coin is right in front of you - it's on the left side on the second block. The next four are trickier. Get the lower-right coin first, then the lower-left, upper-left, and finally the red coin in the upper-right. From there, hover to the two stars for red coins 6 and 7. Hover back to the bridge and hover onto a cube. From there, hover to the single star to your left for the last red coin. After getting it, a new Shine will appear next to the old one and the timer will stop. Hover back to the bridge and jump across the stars.

Secret Shine #2

Start Episode 6 and enter the secret area for the replay. This time, you get 1:30 to get the red coins. (Before you enter this puzzle while you are in the cave DO NOT get the turbo nozel!!!) Hover over to the first red coin. It's by the red platform in the middle. The next is on top of a star. Just below it is a 1-up - get that, too. The third is in between the red arrows. Next, hop on the block. Stand on the green corner for red coin 4, then yellow corner for the 1-up, and between the orange and blue corners for red coin 5. Red coin 6 is at the far left corner. Red coin 7 is in the middle, and at the back right is the last red coin.