Much likeits many predecessors,Return to Monkey Islandis chock-full of puzzles, ensuring that players spend just as much time thinking as they do pointing and clicking. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, many of these puzzles can be found on the game’s titular island, which is where players find themselves during the game’s third act.
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Their main objective while on Monkey Island is to decrypt the map that leads to the island’s secret. To do so, they’ll first need touncover three pieces of LeChuck’s personal information; these being his theme song, his catchphrase, and his favorite food. They’ll then be able to use this information to help Lila to perform a ritual to decrypt the map and reveal its hidden secret.
How to Decrypt the Map to the Secret of Monkey Island
By the time they’ve completed the first half ofReturn to Monkey Island’s third part, players will know LeChuck’s theme song (Do, Do, Mi, Sol, Fa, Fa, Re), his catchphrase (Brandish the seven bilges!) and his favorite food (Tentacles with daisy sauce) and should also have a portion of the latter in their inventory. With that in mind, they’ll have almost everything that they need in order to perform Lila’s ritual.
In fact, there’s a good chance that players will have already foundthe six skulls that are scattered around Monkey Island, in which case, they can make their way straight over to the giant monkey head to get started. If not, they’ll need to explore the island a little more until they have found them all. For those struggling to find them, the locations of the six skulls are as follows:
Whenever they’re ready to begin the ritual, players should make their way to the giant monkey head and begin placing skulls on the spikes to the left and right of Murray and then pick up the nearbyArm Bone. This can then be used to conk the skulls, with each one making a distinct sound when hit, allowing Guybrush to use them to playLeChuck’s theme song.
It’s worth noting that the sounds shown in the image above are tied to the skulls themselves rather than the spikes that they’re placed on, so players will need to keep this in mind. To play the theme song, they should hit the skull on the far left (Do) twice, followed by the skull on the far right (Mi). Next, they’ll need to conk the skull that’s second from the right (Sol) before hitting Murray (Fa) twice. Finally, they can finish up by hitting the skull to the right of Murray (Re).
After playing the theme song, players will need to select LeChuck’s catchphrase (Brandish the seven bilges!) from the options provided and then take a bite of the Tentacles with daisy sauce that Putra prepared earlier by selecting the “Okay…” dialog option. The map will then reveal its secrets, which causes an earthquake right across the Caribbean. Following a short cut-scene, the map will have vanished and the three pirate leaders will turn on Guybrush.
How to Escape From Monkey Island
Over the next few minutes, a few things will happen. First, the pirate leaders will throw both Guybrush and Murray off a cliff. After that, LeChuck and Iron Rose will make an appearance, though, after mocking a badly injured Guybrish for a few moments, the pair leave to hunt down the secret. Finally,Guybrush’s wife Elainewill show up and soon finds Murray in some nearby foliage.
For once, Guybrush is actually happy to see the talking skull, who just so happened to steal the map to the secret while inside Trent’s pocket. Upon taking a closer look at the now decrypted map, the mighty pirate learns thatthe secret of Monkey Island lies with the Voodoo Ladyback on Melee Island, meaning that players will need to return to the game’s first location post haste.
Elaine then explains that she was dropped off at the island, meaning that she and Guybrush will need to repair the wreck of Guybrush’s first ship, the Sea Monkey, in order to escape. Luckily, that’s the reason why Elaine came to Monkey Island in the first place and she brought aShip Repair Manualwith her in order to get it done. When they regain control, players should grab both the manual andMurrayand then leave the area to return to the map screen.
If they like, players can head straight for the Shipwreck area and then use the repair manual on the remains of the sleeping monkey to complete Part 3. However, before doing so, they may want to head over to the giant monkey head and pick up the sixSkulls, which will lead not only to their ship looking a lot cooler when they rock up on Melee Island, but also to them getting the Tight Ship achievement.
Return to Monkey Islandis available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.
