Super Mario Sunshine/Pianta Village

Episode 1: Chain Chomplets Unchained

Objective: Tame the baby chain chomps.

Talk to the three Piantas near the entrance of the village. You learn that a woman's pet Chain Chomplets, also known as baby Chain Chomps, are overheated and have gone berserk. One of the Piantas says her grandfather went to relax at the pond in the center of the village, and when you talk to him he mentions how cool and relaxing the water is. So it appears you must get the Chomplets into the water somehow.

The three Chomplets are red hot and leave a trail of lava-like goop in their wake. If you spray them they will attack at first, but if you cool them down to blue then they try to run away. It really doesn't do much good to attack them just anywhere though, since the idea is to get them into the pond. So wait by the lake, but clean up any goop nearby since it hurts a lot if you touch it. When one of the Chomplets comes near, ambush it with a spray from FLUDD. After it's cool, grab its tail and pull it to aim the Chomplet at the pond, then give it a bit of extra stretch and snap it like a rubber band into the water. If you do it right the Chomplet turns white and will not be a problem for the rest of the episode.

If you spray the Chomplets or get too close then they will chase you, which makes a way to lure them toward the pond, though it's a bit dangerous. If you run low on health then break the boxes since most of them have coins in them, in this episode at least. When all three Chompletes are safely in the pond they give up a Shine which lands on a nearby mushroom.

Episode 2: Il Piantissimo's Crazy Climb

Objective: Outrun Il Piantissimo.

You may not have met Il Piantissimo yet, but he appears in several levels. You need to accept his challenge and beat him to the finish line in a giant tree on the far side of the village. This isn't hard if you know a trick; bear left and hop over the fence, then do the slip-slide maneuver: Spray the path ahead to wet it, then press B so slide on the water and move very fast. Slide along the path on the left side of the village. When you get near the end do a hop and get over the fence, then run up the tree trunk to the finish. Il Piantissimo will give you a Shine as a prize for winning.

Episode 3: The Goopy Inferno

Objective: Recover FLUDD and rescue the mayor.

Pianta Village is covered in burning goop! When you start the episode, Shadow Mario takes away FLUDD just like in the secret levels, so you can't even wash the goop away at the moment. No only that, the mayor was left behind when the rest of the village was evacuated, and the village is so full of goop that you can't reach him directly.

After you cross the bridge, turn right and follow the ledge around to the far side of village. There is a Pianta in a big hat standing next to a hole; talk to him for some hints. Drop into the hole and ground pound through the trap door to reach the underside of the village. There are tracks of wire grids you need to get across. There are spiders and electro-koopas here too, but just avoid them and they won't bother you. At the end of the trail is a vertical panel; climb down and hit it to make it slide forward. But jump when it stops because, as the Pianta mentioned, it falls down soon after.

Follow the trail to a pair of ropes hanging down. It's hard to see, but they support a swing, so line yourself up between them and drop down. Jump from the swing to the mushroom next to it, but keep in mind that the swing is very springy so a little hop will take you a long way. The mushroom is connected to others by ropes, so jump or bounce on the ropes from mushroom to mushroom. You can get a 1-Up on one of the mushrooms. Head to the mushroom with a smaller green mushroom on top, jump onto the green mushroom and bounce (it's much springier than you'd think) to a panel next to it.

If you want, flip through the door and get on top of the mesh to get a 1-Up, then go back. Climb up to the ceiling of the mesh and locate the panel handing from it; the camera is a bit squirrelly here but if you maneuver it to one side you can get a good view. Climb onto the panel then thump it to slide as before, and don't forget to jump at the end. Go to the lone Gold coin which marks a trap door, then flip through it and wall kick out of the hole and into village.

Hop from clear patch to clear patch until you reach some platforms, start climbing until you find FLUDD again.

There is an alternative route which may be faster, but only recommended if you're looking for speedrunning techniques. Get to the pond and spin jump or backflip from the water. When you come out some of the water will drip on the goop will clear some of it. Repeat this and eventually you should have a small goop-free area from which it's possible to spin jump over to the platforms with FLUDD.

Yet another alternative, recommended only for truly expert and/or insane spin jumpers, is to go to the left edge of the village where you will see an incredibly small spot where you can walk along the edge without getting burned. If you can cross there, you can climb the nearby tree and jump onto the leaf pointing to the village. If you do a good spin jump, you can reach the area where you get FLUDD back.

Once you've gotten FLUDD, you should be able to spot the mayor on top of the golden mushroom. With a bit of practice you can backflip and hover to it, or jump and hover to the ledges on the central tree, climb up a few levels, then jump and hover to the mushroom. If all else fails, clean up the area a bit and hover to the golden mushroom from one of the two tall red mushrooms nearby. Now just spray the mayor clean and collect your shine.

Episode 4: Chain Chomp Takes a Bath

Objective: Get the Chain Chomp into the spring.

There's another Chain Chomp on the loose, but this one is full grown. At the start of the episode his chain is pegged to the path on the near side on the village, but to cool him down you need to get him to the spring which is on the other side.

The first thing to do is release his chain; just pull it a bit and let go. Now he'll wander around and hopefully will get close to the spring so you don't have to pull him very far.

This time the Chomp will avoid you and if he's at an intersection he will always take the path that you're not on. So with a bit of planning you can herd him toward the spring and even right through the gate leading to the spring.

To get him into the spring, first spray him down until he turns blue. If there is a barrel nearby then throw it at him to cool him down instantly. Once he's cool, grab the end of his tail and start pulling it toward the spring, then around to the back so the Chomp will be pulled into it. The Chomp will start to heat up again soon and you'll have to let go if you don't make it on the first try, but spray him down again and repeat. You can stop him from getting too far away from you if you ground pound the end of his tail.

When the Chomp is in the water he gives up his Shine so go ahead and collect it.

Episode 5: Secret of the Village Underside

Objective: Find the secret level and finish it.

For this episode, you need Yoshi. The Yoshi egg is near the entrance to the village and you can find a fruit tree on a platform across the path from the hot spring.

Head back to the bridge and jump onto one of the mushrooms underneath; there is a column of coins marking the way but don't land on the small green mushroom because you may bounce uncontrolably. Hover from mushroom to mushroom until you reach one with a flat top and orange goop on top. Spray the goop with juice to clear it, then hop into the hole to start to obstacle course.

Speak to the first Pianta you see and he tells you about Chucksters, Piantas who throw people around for fun, then he gives you a demonstration. This whole level is going to be about using the Chucksters to get around without falling off the platforms.

You need to be facing in the direction you want to go when you talk to them, and watch out for overshoots. There is a 1-up mushroom above the first platform, and the Pianta will throw you to it if you aim well. There is a coin here too for more practice. The Pianta at the edge of the platform will toss you to the next one.

Now there is a big Pianta and a little one. The big one will throw you farther but if you talk to him too close to the edge you'll go too far. The little one doesn't throw as hard but there's no backstop for him. If you pick the big one then do it when he's as far away from the ledge as possible, and if you pick the small one then do it when he's as close to the ledge as possible.

The Pianta on the next platform tosses you nearly straight up, so it should be easy to get to the ledge above. There are Stus here so stomp on them to get them to leave you alone and talk to the next Pianta, who will toss you to the next ledge with a round backstop.

The next and final toss is the most difficult; the Pianta is walking around so you have to wait for him to be in the right position before you talk to him. Stand on the left side of the platform, at the crack between the two halves, and talk to the Pianta as he passes. If you aim well you'll land on the platform with the Shine.

Episode 6: Piantas in Need

Objective: Free 10 Piantas from lava goop.

When you start the episode the mayor tells you there are 10 Piantas trapped in the goop and you have 3:00 to get them out.

Bear right after you cross the bridge and find three patches of goop, shown in the opening cut scene. The first two each have one villager and the third has two. Keep going diagonally to the right and free the fifth villager between two red mushrooms. Now go left a bit between two platforms connected by a bridge and rescue villager number six (played by Patrick McGoohan) behind the platform on the left. Go over the bridge across the dry stream bed, and continue to the far side of the village. Turn left to find the seventh villager as you approach the hot spring. Continue past the hot spring and round the corner to find the eighth villager. Then take the next left to find villager number nine. The last villager is to the left of the path as you head back to the village entrance.

Talk to the villagers you rescued; all the adults have rewards for you. Then talk to the mayor for your Shine.

Episode 7: Shadow Mario Returns

Objective: Catch Shadow Mario.

Shadow Mario is back and this time he leaves a trail of orange goop and the occasional graffiti M behind him. Don't follow too closely if you don't want to get burned, but otherwise there's nothing new to worry about.

Episode 8: Fluff Festival Coin Hunt

Objective: Find the Red coins.

This coin hunt takes a while because most of the coins are well hidden. Some of the villagers will give you hints on the tougher ones though. You can do these in any order, but you'll be happier if you do the last one last.

Starting from the entrance, climb the tree on the right and follow the leaf that hangs over the bridge to the end.
Check the tall grass on the left side of the village.
Dive to the bottom of the hot spring.
Check behind the tree to the left of this, watch out for bees though.
Look under the fruit tree to find a very red apple there.
Break the boxes on the right side of the island.
Go back to where the villagers have congregated and drop into the hole next to a nearby mushroom. Flip the gate to the underside of the village, then ride the sliding panel to the next grate. Go left to and follow the grate to the end, then drop onto a swing. Hop to the grate next to this and climb to the top of the grates. Turn around, hover back to the grate you were hanging from a moment ago, and follow it to the coin. Now turn right, hover to another grate, turn left, and hover to a third grate which has a sliding panel hanging under it. Climb down to the side grate on the right and flip through the gate. Now you'll be repeating what you did in Episode 3; get to the sliding wall and ride it to the next grate. Get to the gate here and flip it to come out in the hole you started from.
Hover to the ledges around the central tree. Back-flip and hover up to the one with the Rocket Nozzle on it, grab the nozzle and hop back to the ledge with the swing. Jump up to the swing and use the Spray Nozzle to start swinging. You'll get stuck in a cloud. Now use the Rocket to get to the next cloud and then the leaves of the tree. Get to the crown, and rocket to the top of the platform there.

To get the Shine, or if you did the last coin out of order and need to get the Hover Nozzle back, this is what you need to do: Follow the trail of coins to the left. At the end of the leaf you'll notice pieces of fluff like dandelion seeds drifting by. Wait until one gets low enough, then jump on. Ride the fluff to a cloud over the chasm between the village and the rest of the island. Drop down to the cloud beneath when the fluff is directly over it. If you're there for the Shine then you're done, but if you need the nozzle drop to the cloud under the one you're on then to the one under that and get it. Back-flip up to the top cloud, then locate the large tree next to the hot spring and the leaf that's pointing more or less in your direction. Spray the cloud to make it grow, get to the edge closest to the leaf, then jump and hover until you land on it. Now you can get down the tree to solid ground.

100 coins Shine

The only episode where this is reasonably easy to get is Episode 5; you get two beehives for Yoshi to munch on and there are plenty of coins under the village.

Pound the nose of the Pianta statue in the hot spring. (9 coins)
Pokeys in the grass (15 coins)
Row of coins under village on path used Episode 3 (10 coins)
Mushrooms under the village (40 coins)
Pound the center of the red mushroom with green-yellow spots across from the middle of the bridge (20 coins)
Bees (48 coins)

Secret Shine #1

Objective: Collect 8 Red coins in the Village Underside secret area in less than 1:30.

Start Episode 5 and enter the secret area for a replay. The red button is on the first platfrom and when you press it you get 1:30 to collect all the Red coins. This is actually not too bad considering this is the last level of the game and it's a secret Shine.

Start by doing a back flip right on the button and hovering to Coin #1, which is above the middle of the platform. Now that you can hover you can bypass most of the Chucksters, so hover across to the next platform getting Coin #2 just before you land. Hover to the next platform and talk to the Pianta to be thrown to the platform with the Stus; this is the only time you have to use a Chuckster for this Shine. Do back-flips to get Coins #3 and #4, but if you want to show off then jump on three Stus in a row to get the needed height. Hover to the next platform, then hop up to get Coin #5 and hover back to get Coin #6. Now hover back to the platform with the Stus, then diagonally to the right to a platform with a Pianta running around with his backpack on fire. Do a back flip to get Coin #7, the hop onto the rope and bounce to Coin #8.

When you're done you might want to put out the fire and get a 1-Up as a reward. The other Pianta here will throw you to the platform with the Stus on it, but you may be safer just hovering there from the rope. Get the Shine from the same platform you found Coins #5 and #6.

Secret Shine #2

This is a well hidden Shine, but you get a big hint if you talk to the Piantas around the village. Start Episode 8 and get to the location of Coin #8 according to the walkthrough above. The fact that there's a Shine painted here is another clue. Now aim FLUDD at the sun and shoot the water. You'll see a picture of a shine sprite appear and then an actual Shine.