I haven’t played a lot of Tomba lately, so this time, my write up is limited to two train rides, one of them being of the shorter kind. Additionally, the first session had me stuck in a certain area for a long time, so I made even less progress.

I Fought a Pig.

I can’t remember which Evil Pig it was right now, but it was definitely evil and definitely difficult. It had a red robe and the entrance was a red door in the upper part of the Charity Square, so I assume it’s the Evil Pig related to the Red Evil Pig bag.

As I said, it was very difficult. The arena was vertical again. This time, it was filled with sings, which made it very hard to navigate because Tomba! kept getting stuck on one of them. The Evil Pig kept phasing around and summoning a Whirlwind which was hard to doge. The whirlwind didn’t do any damage, but it made Tomba! go into the „just got hit“ animation anyway, which would then cause him to fall onto spikes or on the Evil Pig itself, making him take damage.

The main issue here was that the Red Pig Bag was at the center of the arena and it kept spinning, so a lot of things had to align perfectly for me to throw the pig into the bag. The pig had to be on the right side, I had to dodge his whirlwind, not get stuck to a swing, jump on top of the pig, still be on the correct side, throw the pig into the bag and not hit a swing while throwing it.

When the Wind Dies Down in Phoenix Mountain

It took me almost my entire train ride to do it, but once I did, it felt great. Defeating this evil pig removed the curse from the Phoenix Mountain, so the obvious next step was to go there and explore. I collected a bunch of stuff, handled some events, such as When the Wind Dies Down, but overall, Phoenix Mountain didn’t have a lot of awesome stuff. I did, however, take note of a few chests I couldn’t open yet.

I also took note of dying a lot and resetting my game a lot. Those dashing pants are a blessing anywhere else, but a curse in areas with lots of platforms and pitfalls.

Baccus Village

I also found my way back to Baccus Village for some strange reason. I’m not sure what my intentions were, but getting there, even by accident, was worth it. I realized the local fortune teller actually gives hints on where the evil pigs are, so I found out that the Pink Evil Pig was in an area „with lots of fire“.

I Fought Another Pig

Of course, I immediately assumed the fortune teller was talking about the Lava Caves, since it’s pretty much the only fiery area in the game right now. I used Baron to get there and immediately found the Pink Evil Pig Gate in the nook right above the entrance from Phoenix Mountain.

Compared to the Red Pig, this one was extremely easy, though I might have just gotten lucky. There were no spikes this time. The Pink Evil Pig also kept teleporting around, but instead of a whirlwind, it would summon a lightning bolt which was easy to dodge. The bag was at the top of the screen and a lot more predictable than the Red Bag, so it took me one climb to the top and one jump on the Pink Evil Pig to defeat it.

Defeating the Pink Evil Pig removed the curse from the Haunted Mansion, removing all the black birds from and turning it into a snowy area.

The Restored Haunted Mansion

I immediately went there and started exploring all of the rooms for a second time. I made some notes.

• I found Yan in one of the rooms, advancing the Hide and Go Seek event.
• Yan was right behind some strange guy saying stuff like „Lah, LA, LA“ or something like that. I don’t know what he’s on about, because no event triggered.
• One of the rooms contained a Pirate Captain with a chest behind him. He talked about his right hand man having some sort of treasure. In hindsight, I may have had to use the Thieves Lost Treasure here. I’ll have to go back and try.
• There are a few locked chests in various rooms. I’ll have to go back once I get more keys.

In one of the rooms, I finally found the mermaid whose necklace I had. As a reward for bringing it to her, she taught me how to dive, which is a huge advance, opening up several new areas and options. She also gave me some Mighty Fish Food which I dove out of the pond for her.

Back to Trick Village

Now that I was able to dive, I decided to go back to Trick Village, to collect the 10 000 Year Old Man’s Math Beads, to hopefully get his treasure chest key, but not before checking a few of the rooms in the mansion for diving areas – I found nothing.

Gathering the beads was a lengthy process, because from what I understood, I had to do it in order, since the beads were numbered. In hindsight, and I get a lot of hindsight while writing these reports, I never actually tried picking them up out of order, so it’s quite possible I was overthinking that.

In any case, I got the beads, gave them to the 10 000 Year Old Man and got his 10 000 Year Old Key. He also told me to find the One Million Year Old Man, who would tell me the whole Seven Evil Pigs story. I was also told where he is, but I forgot.

Finally, I also got some sort of wire item, something like Thief’s Wire, or something like that. I forgot the name of it, but I do remember it’s needed to get past a door in the Mole People area, below the Watch Tower.

Treasure Hunting

I used my new found diving ability and the 10 000 Year Old Key to start searching for red treasure chests and loot them. In the Trick Village area, I immediately found another Evil Pig Bag, as well as some other random items. I also found the Jewel of Water.

On a side note, I forgot to mention this, but on the way to Trick Village, I used the Mighty Fish Food at the Ol’ Pond. It worked and it summoned a fish, which I picked up. This didn’t grant me an item, netting me „Fire Experience Max“ instead. Getting this and the Jewel of Water finally adds some sense to the three experience levels I maxed out – it looks like they are elementally related somehow, and have something to do with the two jewels, meaning there’s probably a third jewel out there.

The Jewel of Water seems to do pretty much the same thing as the Jewel of Fire, except the visual effect is blue and watery. Then again, I might not be noticing something again, which wouldn’t be unusual for me.

The Cute Witch

My exploration got me to the Forest of All Beginnings, where I noticed a door on a building in the starting area for the first time ever. I got in and found the cute witch that huge guy from the Village of Civilization was talking about.

She gave me two more events. For the first one, she needs the items she lost – three crystal balls and a magic mirror. I had the balls, but not the mirror, so I couldn’t complete it. For the second event, she needs six ingredients for some magical candy.

• A Kokka Claw
• Some Needlegator Teeth
• Molasses
• Some Silver Powder
• A Biting Plant Flower
• A Butamushi Thorn

I had three of these, so I used them on the pot, just to clear my inventory, but I still need two more.

By the way, that huge guy from the Village of Civilization looks like an adult, but this witch looks like a little girl, so I’m not really sure he should be having the hots for her.

I Hate Mushroom Forest

I spent the last twenty minutes of my second train ride, as well as about as much when I got home to try and collect some of the treasure chests in the Mushroom Forest. There are several treasure chests there, all hanging in the air, above pitfalls, with items in them. This whole area was designed so that it’s extremely easy to fall, meaning the Funky Parasol is pretty much a must, but then you can’t collect these items, because the Parasol slows your fall too much.

I ended up getting one chest at a time and going back to the save point before trying to get another one, but eventually, I did it. Well, technically, I didn’t. One of the chests had some Charity Wings which I couldn’t get in time, but since I have Baron, I don’t really care about those. What I do care is that I got a life or two out of it, so it will be easier to breathe for the time being.

Next up, I’ll search for some more chests and then go visit the Mole People.

Related Posts:

• Tomba! [11] – The Real Evil Pig, The Flower Tower and the GoGoCar
• Tomba! [10] – All Evil Pigs Defeated!
• Tomba! [8] – The Snowball Effect
• Tomba! [7] – The Hidden Village
• Tomba! [6] – The Evil Jungle Pig and More