PerfectionWhaleFarm
Planter
Finally decided to try to beat this and took me half a day! Holy crap this is probably the most intense thing I've ever played, right there along with Spelunky coinless run... stage 5 and 6 repeatedly had my heartbeat go up so fast and my hands shaking so much! And as a result? The Junimos still had horrendous working conditions working with these broken rails ad infinitum and now I get to experience that right at my house!
Honestly, despite how frustrating it was, it had been always entertaining and addictive. Junimo Kart was quite the Arcade experience! Now onto the Journey of the Praire King...
Here's my experience: some notes in spoilers, so it looks cleaner.
BASIC MECHANICS (All in Wiki basically)
STAGE 5
STAGE 6
OVERALL:
Bonus mushroom stage shenanigans:
All mushroom stages have some shenanigans but this one has some shenanigans with extra shenanigans. Look at that progress bar! More than half way through the map with zero checkpoints! Rip the seven Junimo lives that are lost trying to beat this stage in futile. Look at this last one moments before disaster
There were 8 red mushrooms in this map, one triple grouped, one double grouped, and three single grouped and other shenanigans. Mushroom stages honestly make me cry, please nerf! D:
Honestly, despite how frustrating it was, it had been always entertaining and addictive. Junimo Kart was quite the Arcade experience! Now onto the Journey of the Praire King...
Here's my experience: some notes in spoilers, so it looks cleaner.
BASIC MECHANICS (All in Wiki basically)
- Every 100 coin value = 1 new life
- Every 1 fruit = 10 coin value
- Every 1 coin = 1 coin value
- Every 3 fruits per stage = 1 new life at end of stage
- Each stage, if you have lower than 3 lives, the next stage will start at 3 lives, 4 if you collected 3 fruits
- Each stage, if you have more than 3 lives, the next stage will carry over all those lives, plus 1 life if you collected 3 fruits
- If you die, you restart at the beginning or a checkpoint if you reached one. You do not have to directly touch a checkpoint for it to register.
- You can jump above or slightly above an obstacle [Except Red Mushrooms] to destroy it (losing some speed) but not directly move towards it.
- Sometimes, there are obstacles at the very end of the rail, and you can kind of make a jump using maximum distance by jumping near the obstacle thereby breaking it without losing too much momentum
- TLDR: Use this stage as practice! Life is expendable in this stage, you basically start stage 2 with the same amount of life whether or not you died once, twice or thrice. (The fourth one and you have to start over :( ). Ideally, you want to have mastered all core mechanics of the game going pass this stage.
- Order of things to prioritize
- Fruits (Even if it costs you a life) - The maximum life you can earn from stage 1 to 2 is 4 if you collected all the fruits or 3 if you do not. This essentially is a free life
- Coins (If you can expend a life, otherwise no) - Having more coins means you can quickly reach 100 for the later levels potentially earning you a free life later on
- Life - Going from stage 1 to stage 2, the maximum life you can earn is a net 4. Whether or not you lose 3 lives, 2 lives, 1 live or 0 lives, next round starts with 4 if you got all the fruits
- Stage 1 is perfect to understand the Junimo Kart mechanics. If you are just starting out, I wouldn't rush to try to beat it. Understand how far you want to jump for each gap; understand how the life system work. It will be worth it to intentionally lose a couple of times to try out unsafe approaches to the next rails. Make that jump to the higher rail and see how you can recover and jump to the next one; make the extra effort to reach that fruit or coin in a risky position. Later on, those jumps would not be optional goodies but almost mandatory, so it will do you a great service to master them now.
- One small jump can hop over 1 or 2 space gap
- One medium jump can hop over any spaces bigger than that but not overly wide
- One large jump can hop over any perceivably large gaps
- Coins are guidance of how you should be moving
- If you collected all the coins, fruits without dying, you get to access a much easier secret Stage 2 (I have not done that in all of my Junimo Kart playing)
- TLDR: Once you mastered the core mechanics, stage 2 should not be an issue. The sliding may take some getting used to, but the map itself is not difficult. Ideally, you want a net gain of life going into stage 3 (with 4-6 lives).
- Order of things to prioritize
- Fruits - If you have less than 4 life, you should try to get a fruit even if it costs you a life. In that scenario, your life will reset to 3 going to the next stage, and you will have gain 1 extra life from collecting all the fruits
- Life - Ideally you should not need to lose a life on this stage, but losing one life is not a big deal either. From this stage onward, you want to start saving life so that you can expend it on Stage 5 and 6 (especially stage 5!)
- Coins - If you are at the very least half-heartedly collecting coins and fruits, you should have 100 coins by this stage earning you 1 free life.
- Going fast - Honestly not even worth it. If Stage 3 happens to be the Slime stage, you may be losing out on potential life gains by skipping. It could be an attractive goal for some though.
- Stage 2 is the stage you want to start collecting lives and make a net gain so you can lose them later on. The new gimmick for the stage is the slippery slopes. This can be a blessing or a curse. If you can go fast enough (provided there are enough of these slippery slopes), you can skip stage 3 altogether, but if you are not used to the accelerated speeds of these slopes, you may die often. Usually, you can gauge whether or not there are enough slopes for you to skip stage 3 by how many of the triple single-space rails there are. If there are too many, it's unlikely you can complete it in time. Then, it's much preferable to be slow and steady to earn more lives instead.
- TLDR: If you have the whale stage, try to stay on top of the map if possible. Jump on bubbles if you can, bubbles are less threatening this way. If you have the slime stage, priority is to stay alive, second priority is to reduce drag by jumping out of green slimy area immediately if possible. Ideally, you want to be competent enough so that you will not die to either versions of stage 3.
- Order of things to prioritize
- Life for Whale / Fruit for Slime - The goal is just to survive whale stage if possible. Everything else is optional. It's unlikely the tricky maneuvers you do on the whale stage to get coins or fruits will pay off more than the earlier gains you had from stage 1 and 2. If it is possible, by all means go for it. On the other hand, slime stage is less punishing, and you can afford to go for fruits. The logic for fruit vs. life for slime stage is the same as stage 2. It will be situational, but I'd try to go for the fruits.
- Coins for Whale / Life for Slime - Coins will continue to help you reach 100 (ergo a new life) so that's always desirable. On the other hand, slime stage, getting 100 coins but losing a life is the same as just not losing any life. Often you get enough coins to get the 100 bonus at this stage anyway without really going for it.
- Fruit for Whale / Coins for Slime - It's unlikely to even get all 3 fruits on the whale stage. A lot of the fruits like to be in unreachable places (except by bubbles), but if they are easy to get, by all means get them (they are worth 10 coins).
- This stage has two versions: the Slime stage and the Whale stage.
- SLIME
- The slime stage is much easier and besides trying to avoid being too slow, it feels functionality like stage 1.
- If you have the slime stage the priority is to stay alive and earn lives as much as possible. Ideally you should have earned 2 extra lives going to stage 4 but in my experience usually you earn 1 net extra life (usually losing 1 life due to being too slow or what I call a cost of operations for the stage), which is okay too.
- WHALE
- The whale stage will probably absorb all your life gains from the earlier two stages, but at least it is not a game ender stage. Usually if are scrupulous of where the bubbles are floating to and scrupulous to try to stay high, you should not die to this stage.
- Note some of the fruits are at unusually high platforms that may not be accessible through normal jumping, that's why understanding
- SLIME
- TLDR: If you are low on life STILL (less than 3) and almost have 100 coins, it may be better to try not get coins on this stage so that you can have a life up on the next stage. Try to get as much life as possible because you will need it for stage 5. This stage compared to Whale-3 and 5 is relatively easy; use it as a reset stage to gain lives again. From this stage onward, the Junimo Kart speed is permanently faster, adjusts your jumps accordingly. Ideally, you want to continue to maintain a net positive or neutral life gain.
- Order of things to prioritize
- Life - At this point any deaths will make getting net gains tough. Try not to die, but dying once or even twice on this stage is ok.
- Fruit - Having three fruits is still ideal for this stage. There are little to no tricky fruit locations on this stage.
- Coin - There is a LOT of coins on this stage. It will not be difficult to get 100 coins for another new life. N.B. if you are not doing well on lives (less than 3), you may want to get enough coins closing up to 100 but not at 100, so that you can get a new life on the next stage instead of this stage.
- At this point, you want to just make a net positive life gain, and this stage is perfect for that. The new gimmick of this stage: ghosts, are not very particularly tricky. Sometimes you can get unlucky and get an unavoidable death by these ghosts, but overall it is not a very difficult stage. One other gimmick going forward is that the speed of the Junimo Kart is permanently increased from this stage onward, but the gaps themselves also are wider so adjust accordingly.
STAGE 5
- TLDR: This stage is where you will use up most if not all of your net life gains from earlier stages. Both stages will prove hard to beat and require precision, but Mushroom stage especially is potentially a game ender even if you go in with 8 lives T-T. Ideally, if you can just stay alive and maybe get 3 fruits that would be nice. Pause the game if you need to, to get a clear head and relaxed hands.
- Order of things to prioritize:
- Life - This stage in my experience is the hardest, so the number one goal and sometimes should be the only goal is to stay alive.
- Fruit for Volcano - Getting three fruits is pretty easy at this stage, if you can get them on Stage 1 easily. No point in not trying for them if they are there. If you got 3 fruits, the minimum lives you will have going into stage 6 is 4, which is ideal.
- This stage has two versions: the Volcano stage and the Mushroom stage
- VOLCANO
- There are two types of platforms on this stage: (1) the zigzag rails with plenty of space for a breather (rocks tend to fall on this type of platform), (2) the consecutive singular rails requiring precise jumps
- This stage will really put into test how well and how precise you mastered your timing and jumps. Sometimes the checkpoints are a little unreasonable, but as long as you mastered the jumps, this one should not be a game-ender.
- It may be good to pause and take a break if you are dying at a certain location often. At this point onward, it is only about how well you mastered the mechanics and how psychologically fit you are able to execute that mastery.
- There are two types of platforms on this stage: (1) the zigzag rails with plenty of space for a breather (rocks tend to fall on this type of platform), (2) the consecutive singular rails requiring precise jumps
- MUSHROOM
- This stage is so unforgiving and it's not even a meme. There are a lot of unfair characteristics:
- VERY LITTLE SAVEPOINTS. Seriously, look at the image below, I did not encounter ANY savepoint, and I am more than half way through the map (Lost all 7 lives in one go to this bs T-T). Oftentimes than not, this is the reason why this level is so hard imo, in conjunction with all the other features of this level. Given a reasonable spread of checkpoints, this stage is at least not a game-ender.
- Red mushrooms spewing toxic BS - This will frequently be how you die on this stage if you are not used to it (which I still am not used to it). Sometimes you see two of them side-by-side or even three. I find that performing medium jump is most successful. Tiny jump will make you touch the mushroom very often. Large jump will kill you especially if it is two mushrooms side-by-side.
- Purple mushroom - This has low risk, but makes the platform extra bouncy. Gauge your jump to the next platform accordingly
- Purple platform mushroom that comes in two, where staying on the first one will elevate the second - You want to time your jump so that you are on the first purple mushroom platform as long as possible, frequent times having the second purple mushroom raised is required in order to continue as some platforms are too high to reach otherwise. These will always come in pairs, sometimes the second one is so low it can only be accessed if you stayed on the first one for some time.
- This stage is so unforgiving and it's not even a meme. There are a lot of unfair characteristics:
- VOLCANO
STAGE 6
- TLDR: There is only one goal now: stay alive. There is only one advice that can maximize that (prop to Brandigan): Look ahead, think about which platforms you want to land on next besides the one you are currently jumping to. This should be the only thing you need to remind yourself of, at this point you should be fairly competent in Junimo Kart. Ideally you want to go into this stage with 4-12 lives, but 3 is okay too... hopefully.
- Order of things to prioritize:
- Life - There's nothing else to prepare for! This is it! If you are low on lives, consider also collecting easy coins and fruits as they may allow you to gain one more life during the stage. The main priority is still to stay alive though.
- This stage has a lot of choices on where to go. It may be worthwhile to see a playthrough of this level just to understand the map style of this stage. Make sure to think two, three, four steps ahead on where to go next and then stay on those choices. This will maximize your success. Stay a clear head and pause if need be. Otherwise, this stage has not much gimmick and should be fairly straightforward.
OVERALL:
- I personally beat Junimo ironically with the following stages: Cave 1, Slippery Slopes 2, Whale 3, Mushroom 5, Sunset 6
- Stage 1: 4 lives and 60ish coins
- Stage 2: 6 lives
- Stage 3: 4 lives
- Stage 4: 5 lives
- Stage 5: 1 life -> 4 lives
- Stage 6: 3 lives remaining
Bonus mushroom stage shenanigans:
All mushroom stages have some shenanigans but this one has some shenanigans with extra shenanigans. Look at that progress bar! More than half way through the map with zero checkpoints! Rip the seven Junimo lives that are lost trying to beat this stage in futile. Look at this last one moments before disaster
There were 8 red mushrooms in this map, one triple grouped, one double grouped, and three single grouped and other shenanigans. Mushroom stages honestly make me cry, please nerf! D:
