Monkey Island · Volume 1 of 4The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition - The Complete 100% Walkthrough

All four parts, step by step: all 16 pirate insults and comebacks plus the Sword Master's 16 lines, all 9 notes on Monkey Island, five escapes from the cannibals' hut, both endings, and the 12 feats that the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions award as achievements. The Steam version (the 2009 Special Edition, AppID 32360) has no Steam achievements at all, so this guide defines 100% as finishing the game, completing those 12 feats and seeing both endings. Written for the Steam release as it is sold in October 2026, which runs on Windows only.

1. What "100%" Means in The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

The Secret of Monkey Island first came out in 1990 from Lucasfilm Games. Guybrush Threepwood turns up on Mêlée Island wanting to be a pirate, and the pirate leaders in the Scumm Bar set him three trials. The 2009 Special Edition by LucasArts remasters it, adds a hint system and full English voice acting, and lets you swap back to the original 1990 presentation at any moment.

The Steam version has no achievements. Six separate checks agree: Steam's global stats page for the game shows no stats, the store page and the store API list no achievements category, Exophase tracks the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions but has no Steam entry (while it does have one for Monkey Island 2 Special Edition), Steam forum posters and THE ZOD's Steam guide say the achievements are console-only, and PCGamingWiki does not mention any. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are the same game with the same 12 achievements, and every one of them is an in-game action you can still do on PC. Nothing pops and nothing is stored: you tick each one off yourself.

So in this guide, 100% means:

• Story (4): The Three Trials, The Journey, Under Monkey Island and Guybrush Kicks Butt, one for finishing each part. Automatic.
• Missable actions (4): Sharp Tongue (learn all 16 insults and 16 comebacks in Part One), Ten Minutes Later... (let Guybrush drown during the Thievery trial), Recordkeeper (read all 9 notes on Monkey Island) and Escape Artist (escape the cannibals' hut 5 times).
• Both endings (1 feat plus the second ending itself): Marooned Everyone. A catapult choice in Part Three decides which ending you get. One save made just before it covers both.
• Run conditions (2): Determined (finish without the hint button) and Human Cannonball (finish in under 3 hours). Nothing on PC tracks either, so keep yourself honest.
• Any time (1): Old School (switch to Classic mode once).

Warning. Seven feats and the second ending can be missed: 8 of the 13 rows in §6. Four are actions with a cutoff in the route: the insults before you finish the third trial, the drowning before you pick up the idol underwater, the 9 notes before you enter the Monkey Head, and the 5 escapes before you give the cannibals the small idol. Marooned Everyone and the second ending need a save from just before you push the boulder at the Part Three clifftop. Determined and Human Cannonball fail mid-run, but a new game always retries them. Every one gets its own Warning callout in the route, placed before the point where it is lost.

Spoiler policy

Each part gets one line of setup and then the solution, step by step. A walkthrough cannot avoid naming puzzles and places, but it does not describe what happens in the two endings. The console descriptions of the story feats and of Marooned Everyone do name late events, so §6 puts those rows in their own table at the end, under a spoiler heading and a Warning.

2. How to Use This Guide

The game has four parts: Part One: The Three Trials, Part Two: The Journey, Part Three: Under Monkey Island and the Last Part: Guybrush Kicks Butt. The short opening at the Lookout Point is folded into Part One here.

Every part below has:

1. A feat line in italics under the heading: how many feats it holds and how many can be missed.
2. A line of setup.
3. Numbered steps, grouped under short headings, in the order to play them. Steps marked Optional are not needed for any feat.
4. Gold callouts headed "Achievement" at the exact step where a feat is done. They use the console names; on Steam nothing pops, so tick the feat in §6 yourself.
5. Warning callouts before every point where a feat can be lost, and before the known softlock traps.

The feats table in §6 has a checkbox on every row. Your progress is saved in your browser, per guide.

Tip. Notes on Monkey Island are numbered 1 to 9 in route order (Note 1 is the banana tree on the first beach). The game hands out note texts in the order you pick them up, so your Note 3 may read differently from someone else's. Go by the place, not the text.

3. The Road to 100%

flowchart TD
    R["Rule for the whole first game<br/>Never press H: Determined"] --> A["Lookout Point<br/>F10 twice: Old School"]
    A --> B["Part One<br/>All 16 insults and 16 comebacks<br/>then beat the Sword Master"]
    B --> C["Thievery trial<br/>Save in Slot A, drown, reload"]
    C --> D["Treasure trial, crew and ship<br/>Part Two: the voodoo recipe"]
    D --> E["Part Three: Notes 1-4<br/>Save in Slot B at the clifftop"]
    E --> F["Notes 5-9 and five hut escapes<br/>then the idol and the Monkey Head"]
    F --> G["Last Part<br/>First ending"]
    G --> H["Reload Slot B<br/>Other catapult choice, second ending"]
    H --> S["Second game against the clock<br/>Under 3 hours: Human Cannonball"]
    S --> Z(["100%: all 12 feats and both endings"])

One careful game for the missables and both endings, then a quick second game for the time limit.

Why this order?

1. Old School first. It costs two key presses. One console guide notes it cannot be earned during the intro credits, so do it once you have control at the Lookout Point.
2. Insults before the Sword Master. You need the comebacks to beat her anyway, and the only source that names a cutoff says the chance is gone once you complete the three trials.
3. Sword, then Thievery, then Treasure. The trials can be done in any order, but two walkthroughs warn about cutscenes: a LeChuck scene plays after your first completed trial and is skipped if that trial is Thievery, and doing Thievery last loses another scene. Putting it in the middle satisfies both.
4. The clifftop save sits in the middle of the notes. Notes 1-4 come before the catapult, Note 5 only appears after it fires, and the rest follow. One save just before the boulder gives you both endings without replaying the notes.
5. Escapes before the idol. Guides time the five escapes before you hand the cannibals the small idol. Whether the idol actually ends them is unconfirmed, so do not find out the hard way.
6. Speed run last. Under 3 hours is far easier on a game where you already know every answer and skip all the optional work. One console guide says everything fits in one game with several saves; another recommends a dedicated second run. This guide takes the second route.

4. Mechanics Worth Knowing Before You Start

• Classic mode. F10 swaps between the Special Edition and the original presentation, scene for scene, at any time. On Xbox 360 it is the Back button.
• Hints. H gives a hint; pressing it again gives up to three, and repeated hints can show a yellow arrow pointing the way. No source mentions any record of hint use on Steam. For Determined, the console workaround is to save, take the hint, then reload the save from before it.
• PC controls. Verb menu: V or Ctrl. Inventory: I or Alt. Hint: H. Options: F1. Verb shortcuts: O Open, U Use, P Pick up, S Push, Y Pull, C Close, L Look, T Talk, G Give.
• Controller. Full controller support (Xbox 360 pad). On the Xbox 360 version the hint button is X.
• Saves. 10 save slots, synced by Steam Cloud. The files live in %APPDATA%\LucasArts\The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition\. This guide uses three of them (see the Warning below).
• Death. Drowning is the only way Guybrush can die. It ends the game, and you reload.
• Insult sword fighting. You learn an insult only when a pirate uses it on you, and a comeback only when a pirate uses it to answer your insult. Against roaming pirates the first to 3 points wins. The Sword Master does all the insulting, first to 5 wins, and the comebacks you learned from pirates still work on her.
• Money. The circus pays 478 pieces of eight. The shopping is sword 100, shovel 75, Captain Smirk 30, breath mints 1 and the treasure map 100: 306 in all, well inside 478. One walkthrough prices the map at 300, which would make the total 506, more than the circus pays even with the 2 from the Minutes. Three other sources give 100, and only at 100 does the money go round, so the 300 is most likely that walkthrough's slip.
• Grog melts mugs. A full mug goes Mug o' Grog, Melting Mug, Mug Near Death and finally Pewter Wad. There are 5 mugs in the Scumm Bar: pour into a fresh one before the current one is ruined.
• The store safe. Its combination changes every game. Watch the storekeeper open it (he does it twice). Push turns the handle clockwise, Pull turns it anticlockwise.
• Language and system. Full voice in English only; French, German, Italian and Spanish get text. The store lists Windows XP or Vista as the minimum, but Steam itself has needed Windows 10 or later since 1 January 2024.

Warning. The three-slot save plan. Slot A: in Part One, after you talk to Elaine with the idol and before you try to leave the mansion (for the drowning). Slot B: in Part Three, at the clifftop above the River Fork before you push the boulder (for the second ending). Safety saves, in any other slot: before the seagull plank on the kitchen pier, before you haggle with Stan, and before you travel anywhere with the monkey. Players report the plank and the haggling can loop forever, and the monkey can get stranded if you take the rowboat. One more trap, in Part Two: keep one burnable item (the map, the dusty book, the feather pen or the business card) out of the voodoo pot, because you need it afterwards.

5. The Master Checklist

Part order. Feats counts §6's rows, so the second ending has its own row alongside the 12 console feats.

The Sword Master's 16 lines are on top of the 16 pirate pairs: she uses her own insults, answered with the pirates' comebacks (§7).

6. The Feats - All 12 (plus both endings)

These are the Xbox 360 achievement names and descriptions, word for word. On Xbox 360 they total 200G and all 12 are secret; on PS3 they are 1 Gold, 4 Silver and 7 Bronze, with no Platinum. The PS3 wording is quoted in Where / when where it adds something. The last row of the story table, the second ending, is not a console feat: it is here so both endings get a checkbox.

Actions and run conditions (7)

Story (6) - spoilers

Warning. These six rows quote descriptions that name late events, and the Marooned Everyone row says who is left behind in each ending. Skip this table if you want to go in fresh.

7. Part One - The Three Trials

Feats: 4 (2 missable) · Part One · Mêlée Island

Guybrush wants to be a pirate; the pirate leaders want him to master the sword, steal an idol and find a buried treasure first.

Lookout Point to Captain Smirk

1. Lookout Point. Optional: talk to the lookout. Press F10 to switch to Classic mode, then F10 again to switch back. Walk down to town.

   Achievement - Old School. Feat done the moment Classic mode shows. Tick it now.

2. Scumm Bar. Talk to the Important-Looking Pirates to hear about the three trials. Stand away from the kitchen door and wait for the cook to walk off screen, then go into the kitchen. Take the hunk of meat and the pot from under the table.

   Warning. Save before you step out onto the kitchen pier. Players report the seagull plank can trap you in an endless loop.

3. Kitchen pier. Step on the far-right end of the loose plank, again and again, until the seagull is flung away. Take the fish (a red herring).

4. Town, second screen. Optional: ask the Men of Low Moral Fiber about the man across the street. If they offer you the Minutes, take them once they add 2 pieces of eight.
5. Circus tent (the Clearing on the island map). Offer to be the human cannonball, say you have a helmet and give them the pot. You are paid 478 pieces of eight.
6. Store. Pick up the sword (100) and, upstairs, the shovel (75). Ring the bell and pay. Buy breath mints (1).
7. Alley. Optional: answer the "Psssst" to meet Sheriff Fester Shinetop. If you ignore him and see Otis first, the dialogue changes.
8. Jail. Talk to Otis about his breath, give him the breath mints, then talk again.
9. Store. Ask the storekeeper about the Sword Master, then follow him out of town to the Fork and through the forest. On the way, pick up the yellow flowers (Yellow Petal). The Sword Master's house is now on your map. A direct route from the Fork, per one walkthrough: North (the flowers), North, East, East, West, North, push the signpost, cross the bridge east. Use the petal on the meat to make Meat with Condiment.
10. Bridge troll. When the troll blocks the bridge on the island map, give him the fish.
11. Captain Smirk's house. Insist on training, pay 30 and show him the sword. He teaches you the basics of insult sword fighting.

Insult sword fighting - all 16 pairs

Roaming pirates walk the island map. Stand in one's path and choose "My name is Guybrush Threepwood. Prepare to die!" to start a duel.

• How to learn fast. A pirate's insult is yours once he uses it on you. A comeback is yours once a pirate uses it to answer your insult. When you do not know the right answer, say anything and lose on purpose: every duel shows you more lines.
• Where to wait. The rotated T-junction just west of the Fork is the best ambush spot; another guide suggests standing at the Fork itself and saving there.
• The troll can also teach you the "smart dog" insult.
• Do not stop early. After a few wins (sources say 3 wins, or 12 pairs learned), pirates tell you you're ready for the Sword Master. Keep going to 16 and 16.

Warning. Sharp Tongue is missable. One console guide says the chance is gone once you complete the three trials; no other source names a cutoff, so treat it as real. Get all 16 insults and all 16 comebacks now, before the Sword Master, and certainly before you dig up the treasure.

The 16 pirate insults and their comebacks:

• "You fight like a dairy farmer." / "How appropriate. You fight like a cow."
• "This is the END for you, you gutter-crawling cur!" / "And I've got a little TIP for you. Get the POINT?"
• "Soon you'll be wearing my sword like a shish kebab!" / "First you'd better stop waving it like a feather-duster."
• "My handkerchief will wipe up your blood!" / "So you got that job as janitor, after all."
• "People fall at my feet when they see me coming." / "Even BEFORE they smell your breath?"
• "I once owned a dog that was smarter than you." / "He must have taught you everything you know."
• "You make me want to puke." / "You make me think somebody already did."
• "Nobody's ever drawn blood from me and nobody ever will." / "You run THAT fast?"
• "I got this scar on my face during a mighty struggle!" / "I hope now you've learned to stop picking your nose."
• "Have you stopped wearing diapers yet?" / "Why, did you want to borrow one?"
• "I've heard you are a contemptible sneak." / "Too bad no one's ever heard of YOU at all."
• "You're no match for my brains, you poor fool." / "I'd be in real trouble if you ever used them."
• "You have the manners of a beggar." / "I wanted to make sure you'd feel comfortable with me."
• "I'm not going to take your insolence sitting down!" / "Your hemorrhoids are flaring up again, eh?"
• "There are no words for how disgusting you are." / "Yes, there are. You just never learned them."
• "I've spoken with apes more polite than you." / "I'm glad to hear you attended your family reunion."

Achievement - Sharp Tongue. Feat done when you hold all 16 insults and all 16 comebacks. On console it was reported to unlock on the last insult, but you still want every comeback for the next fight.

Trial 1: the Sword Master

1. Sword Master's house. Challenge Carla. She does all the insulting; answer with the pirates' comebacks below. First to 5 points wins.
2. Win, and you have the 100% Cotton T-shirt: the first trial is done. A cutscene with LeChuck follows your first completed trial.

Carla's insults and the comebacks that beat them:

• "My tongue is sharper than any sword." / "First you'd better stop waving it like a feather-duster."
• "My name is feared in every dirty corner of this island!" / "So you got that job as janitor, after all." (also accepted: "Too bad no one's ever heard of YOU at all.")
• "My wisest enemies run away at the first sight of me!" / "Even BEFORE they smell your breath?"
• "Only once have I met such a coward!" / "He must have taught you everything you know." (also accepted: "I'm glad to hear you attended your family reunion.")
• "If your brother's like you, better to marry a pig." / "You make me think somebody already did."
• "No one will ever catch ME fighting as badly as you do." / "You run THAT fast?"
• "I will milk every drop of blood from your body!" (one source: "every last drop") / "How appropriate. You fight like a cow."
• "My last fight ended with my hands covered with blood." / "I hope now you've learned to stop picking your nose." (also accepted: "Your hemorrhoids are flaring up again, eh?")
• "I hope you have a boat ready for a quick escape." / "Why, did you want to borrow one?"
• "My sword is famous all over the Caribbean!" / "Too bad no one's ever heard of YOU at all."
• "I've got the courage and skill of a master swordsman!" / "I'd be in real trouble if you ever used them."
• "Every word you say to me is stupid." / "I wanted to make sure you'd feel comfortable with me."
• "You are a pain in the backside, sir!" / "Your hemorrhoids are flaring up again, eh?"
• "There are no clever moves that can help you now." / "Yes, there are. You just never learned them."
• "Now I know what filth and stupidity really are." / "I'm glad to hear you attended your family reunion."
• "I usually see people like you passed-out on tavern floors." / "Even BEFORE they smell your breath?" (also accepted: "I'm glad to hear you attended your family reunion.")
• If she ever says "I've got a long, sharp lesson for you to learn today.", answer "And I've got a little TIP for you. Get the POINT?" (sources disagree on whether the Special Edition uses this line: see §14).

Trial 2: Thievery

1. Governor's mansion. Give the Meat with Condiment to the piranha poodles. Go in and take the door just right of the entrance. A sequence with Fester follows; when it ends you have the staple remover, gopher repellent, manual of style and wax lips, and Guybrush says he needs a file.
2. Jail. Give the gopher repellent to Otis and he hands you a carrot cake. Open it to find the file.

3. Mansion. Go through the hole behind the painting and take the Fabulous Idol. Talk to Fester and to Elaine.

   Warning. Save in Slot A now, before you try to leave. Ten Minutes Later... can only be done in the water outside, and only until you pick up the idol there. Drowning is a game over, so this save is how you get back.

4. Leave the mansion. Fester throws you off the dock, tied to the idol. Touch nothing for 10 minutes. Guybrush drowns and the game ends. One console guide suggests nudging the stick now and then so the game does not pause during the wait.

   Achievement - Ten Minutes Later... Feat done when Guybrush drowns. Reload Slot A.

5. Leave again. This time pick up the idol. Guybrush climbs out, grabbing a sword on the way. The second trial is done.

Trial 3: Treasure

Warning. Last call for Sharp Tongue. Digging up the treasure completes the three trials, and one console guide says the chance is gone after that; the Scumm Bar pirates leave too. Check that you have all 16 insults and all 16 comebacks.

1. Citizen of Mêlée (the man with the parrot on the street corner). When he asks about Sven, answer "No, but I once had a barber named Dominique." Buy the map (100 pieces of eight; one walkthrough says 300).
2. The Fork, then the forest. The map is a set of dance steps. One walkthrough reads it as Back, Left, Right, Left, Right, Back, Right, Left and finally Back, where Back means the path at the back of the screen; another confirms nine instructions. Whether the steps change between games is unconfirmed, so follow the map in your own inventory. After the last step, walk right and use the shovel on the X. You dig up a T-shirt: the third trial is done. (The hint arrows work here, but they break Determined.)
3. Back to town. LeChuck's ship leaves. The lookout tells you the Governor, Elaine, has been kidnapped and hands you LeChuck's note. The Scumm Bar pirates are gone from now on.

Crew and ship

1. Voodoo Lady's shop. Pick up the rubber chicken (it has a pulley).
2. Scumm Bar. Take all 5 mugs, then fill one at the grog barrel in the kitchen. Walk to the jail, pouring the grog into a fresh mug whenever the current one reaches Mug Near Death. Use the grog on the cell lock to free Otis. He runs off for now.
3. Sword Master's house. Tell Carla "the Governor's been KIDNAPPED!" She joins your crew.
4. Stan's Previously Owned Vessels (the lights on the map). Ask for a cheap ship on credit. When you leave, you have Stan's business card and a magnetic compass.

5. Store. Ask for credit and say you have a job. Watch the safe combination as he opens it (he does it twice). Then send him off to ask the Sword Master again, and while he is out, Push and Pull the safe handle to his combination. You get the Storekeeper's Note: credit up to 5000.

   Warning. Save before you haggle. Players report Stan's sales talk can loop without end.

6. Stan. Show him the credit note. Turn down every extra until he starts repeating himself, then say "Enough about extras, already." Then pick, in order: "Forget it. I don't need this boat anyway.", "Well, maybe you're right...", "I'd like to make you an offer." and "5000! And that's my FINAL final offer!". If it does not take, walk out and come back until his price is under 6000. Harder bargaining can get it down to 4000.

7. Hook Island (north-east of the map). Climb the pole and use the rubber chicken on the cable. Tell Meathook about the kidnapping and that you need a crew, then open the last door and touch the parrot (any verb does it). Meathook joins.

8. Town docks. Stan hands over the pamphlet, the leaflet "How to Get Ahead in Navigating" and the brochure. Otis, Carla and Meathook arrive, and you set sail.

   Achievement - The Three Trials. Feat done: Part One is complete. One source places this one right after the treasure dig instead; either way, tick it now.

8. Part Two - The Journey

Feats: 1 · Part Two · Aboard the Sea Monkey

At sea on the Sea Monkey, Guybrush finds a voodoo recipe for reaching Monkey Island and cooks it in the kitchen.

1. Captain's cabin. Take the feather pen and the ink. Open the drawer for the dusty book; look at the book to get the bookmark.
2. Crow's nest (up the rope ladder). Take the Jolly Roger.
3. The hold (through the hatch, then the second hatch). Take the giant piece of rope. Open the kegs on the left for gunpowder, and the reddish chest at the bottom right for fine wine.
4. Kitchen. Open the cupboard for the cereal, then open the cereal for its prize: a small key. Take the pot.

5. Captain's cabin. Use the small key on the cabinet, then open the chest inside for the piece of paper (the recipe) and the cinnamon sticks.

   Warning. Keep at least one of these out of the voodoo pot: the map, the dusty book, the feather pen or the business card. After the spell you need one to burn on the fire to make the flaming mass.

6. Kitchen, the pot on the fire. Put in the breath mints, rubber chicken, ink, Jolly Roger, gunpowder, fine wine, cereal and cinnamon sticks. The mints and the chicken are the same ones from Part One: Guybrush still carries both. Other junk can go in too, but keep your burnable. The pot explodes, and when the smoke clears the ship has reached Monkey Island.

7. Fire yourself at the island. Put the giant rope on the cannon and fetch more gunpowder from the hold. Put your kept burnable on the red-hot fire under the kitchen pot to get a flaming mass. Put the gunpowder in the cannon's nozzle. Most sources then light the fuse with the flaming mass and use the pot you took from the kitchen. One walkthrough says to skip lighting the fuse yourself and just use the pot once the rope, gunpowder and flaming mass are ready: Guybrush puts it on as a helmet, lights the fuse and climbs in, while lighting the fuse first can fire the cannon without him.

   Achievement - The Journey. Feat done as Guybrush leaves the ship. Part Two is complete.

9. Part Three - Under Monkey Island

Feats: 3 (2 missable) · Part Three · Monkey Island

Guybrush lands on Monkey Island, where a castaway, a monkey and a village of cannibals stand between him and LeChuck's ship. One continuous list: the steps are referred to by number later.

1. Beach 1 (the landing beach, south). After Herman and the monkey pass, click to stand up. Take the banana, then read the note on the banana tree: Note 1.

   Tip. Read Note 1 even if another guide tells you it does not count. Two sources list only 8 notes and doubt this one; a player who tested it reports that it does count. Reading all 9 covers both readings.

2. Fort (the north rim of the extinct volcano, north-west). Take the rope and the spyglass, then push the cannon. Take the cannon ball and the handful of gunpowder. Open the spyglass for the lens. There is no note here.

3. Beach 2 (south of the fort, on the west side). Note 2.

4. River Fork. The note under the noteworthy rock is Note 3; take the rock, which is flint. Cross to the footholds and read the note to the left of the primitive art before you fire it: Note 4. A different note replaces it afterwards (Note 5), and both count.

   Warning. Read Note 4 before anything fires the catapult. Once it fires, Note 5 takes its place, and Recordkeeper needs both.

   With Note 4 read, head for the clifftop, but stop before you touch the boulder.

   Warning. Save in Slot B now, in its own slot, before you climb up and push the boulder. Which ending you get is decided by where the rock lands, and once a rock sinks the ship the choice is final. This save is your second ending. If you pull the primitive art twice, push only that one rock: one walkthrough pulls it twice and still ends up with the sunk-ship result, possibly from an extra push.

5. The catapult. Choose one:

   • Leave the primitive art alone, and the rock sinks the Sea Monkey.
   • Pull the primitive art twice, and the rock hits the banana tree instead, leaving the ship safe.

   Climb the next footholds and push the rock off the cliff. If you sank the ship, pick up a new rock from the heap just to the right at the clifftop, re-aim and push again to knock the bananas off the tree. Climb back down and read the new note by the primitive art: Note 5.

   Tip. If you walk onto the right-hand outcrop at the clifftop, the game shows what looks like a death screen. It is a joke: Guybrush bounces back up off a rubber tree.

6. Dam (by the River Fork bridge). Put the handful of gunpowder on the dam, then use the flint on the cannon ball (or the lens on the gunpowder). The dam blows and the dry river bed floods.

7. Pond (at the end of the new river). Note 6, and take the rope from the skeleton.
8. Beach 3 (east, near the clearing). The memo in the bottle, from Yammer, Hem & Haw to Herman, is Note 7.
9. The crack (just north of Beach 1). Tie a rope to the sturdy branch, then a rope to the sturdy stump. Climb down and take the oars.
10. Beach 1. Pick up the 2 bananas that the rock knocked down, then use the oars on the rowboat. Row north-east, then north, to Beach 4: the note in the sand is Note 8.

11. Cannibal village. Take the 2 bananas from the fruit bowl (5 bananas in all) and try to leave. The cannibals catch you and lock you in their guest hut: the note in there is Note 9. Take the skull, open the loose floorboard and escape. That is escape 1.

    Achievement - Recordkeeper. Feat done with Note 9, as long as you read Notes 1-8 on the way. If you skipped one, go back for it now: you must read all 9 before you enter the Monkey Head. Missed Note 4? It only exists before the catapult fires, so reload Slot B and read it.

12. Escapes 2 to 5. Walk back into the village and let them catch you again: one guide's way is to walk over to the big stone head and towards the exit, and the cannibals come back. When they ask for an offering, give them nothing and let time pass. Escape through the floorboard, come back, and repeat until you have 5 escapes. The dialogue is different each time.

    Warning. Do all 5 escapes before you give the cannibals the Wimpy Little Idol in step 15. Guides say to finish the escapes before you hand it over; none confirms that it locks them out, but do not test it.

    Keep count as you go: the fifth escape is the one that matters.

    Achievement - Escape Artist. Feat done on the fifth escape.

13. Back to Beach 1 by rowboat. Find the monkey north of the beach and give it all 5 bananas. It follows you from now on.

    Warning. From here, walk everywhere. Do not use the rowboat while the monkey follows you. Players report the monkey getting stuck on the wrong side of the island after boat travel; one never found a fix, another freed it by walking back and forth. Make a safety save first.

14. The Clearing (walk east). Pull the nose on the left totem pole: the monkey hangs on it and holds the gate open. Take the Wimpy Little Idol in front of the giant monkey head.

15. Cannibal village. Say "Don't eat me! I'll give you anything!" and give them the Wimpy Little Idol. Go into the hut, take the banana picker, and trade it with Herman outside for the Monkey Head Key.

16. Village again. Ask the cannibals about LeChuck, the Voodoo Root and the navigator. Give them the leaflet "How to Get Ahead in Navigating" and they give you the Head of the Navigator. (One walkthrough gets there through a Pig Latin dialogue path ending "What's the Eadhay of the Avigatornay?")

    Warning. Last safe point for Recordkeeper. A console guide's advice is to have all 9 notes before you enter the Monkey Head; the hard limit is leaving Monkey Island at the end of this part.

17. The giant monkey head. Use the Monkey Head Key in its ear and go in. On the second screen use the Head of the Navigator, then go where it points, stopping at each doorway so it can turn to the next one.

18. Clifftop above LeChuck's ship. Talk to the navigator's head and wheedle or threaten it until it gives you its necklace. Wear it: it makes you invisible to ghosts.
19. The ghost ship.
    • In LeChuck's cabin (left), use the magnetic compass on the key.
    • Below decks, take the ghost feather by the ghost chickens. Tickle the sleeping ghost's feet with it (twice, when he is relaxed) for the jug o' grog.
    • Open the hatch with the key, put the grog in the rat's dish and take the grease.
    • Grease the creaky door on deck (right) and take the ghost tools.
    • Use the tools on the glowing crate for the voodoo root.

20. Back at the village. The cannibals swap the root for a magic seltzer bottle. Leave, and you are at the clifftop with the ghost ship gone. Your ride home depends on the catapult choice from step 5.

    Achievement - Under Monkey Island. Feat done as you leave Monkey Island. Part Three is complete.

10. Last Part - Guybrush Kicks Butt

Feats: 1 · Last Part · Mêlée Island

Back on Mêlée Island with the seltzer bottle, Guybrush heads for the church, where LeChuck is waiting.

1. Dock. A ghost confronts you. Pick any dialogue option: each one ends with a spray of seltzer.
2. Next screen. Avoid the Grim Spectre by taking the blue door on the left; it comes out by the clock archway.
3. Church. Interrupt the ceremony. LeChuck takes over from here and punches Guybrush across the island.

4. Stan's grog machine. When LeChuck pulls you out, do not walk anywhere. Pick up the root beer and use it on LeChuck. If you are slow, he just keeps knocking you around until you do it. The ending and the fireworks follow.

   Achievement - Guybrush Kicks Butt. Feat done: the game is finished and you have seen your first ending.

11. The Second Ending - Marooned Everyone

Feats: 2 (2 missable: both need the Slot B save) · Reload from Part Three · Monkey Island and Mêlée Island

The other half of the ending branch, from the clifftop save you made in Part Three.

1. Load Slot B (the River Fork clifftop, before the boulder).
2. Make the other choice. If you left the primitive art alone last time, pull it twice now; if you pulled it twice, leave it alone. Push the rock. On the sinking choice, fetch a new rock from the heap to the right, re-aim and push again for the bananas.
3. Replay the rest of Part Three from §9 step 6: the dam, the oars, the bananas, the village, the monkey (walk, no boat), the idol, the key, the navigator's head and the ghost ship. You have already read the notes and done the escapes, so skip them.

4. Play the Last Part again (§10). This time the ride home is the other one.

   Achievement - Marooned Everyone. Feat done: you have seen both endings. Tick the Second ending row in §6 as well.

Tip. No save before the boulder? Then the second ending means replaying from your last earlier save, or from the start. A Human Cannonball run (§12) is a good place to take the other choice.

12. Run Feats - Determined & Human Cannonball

Feats: 2 (2 missable: both are run conditions) · The whole game

Two self-imposed rules. Nothing on PC records either, so the honour system applies.

Determined (no hints)

• Never press H during the game you count for this.
• Pressed it by accident? The console workaround still works as a rule of thumb: reload a save from before the hint and carry on. Saving before any step you are unsure about keeps that cheap.
• The treasure forest. Hints there show arrows. Use the dance steps on your own map instead (§7).

Achievement - Determined. Feat done when you finish a game without a hint you kept. The first game in this guide's route does it if you never press H.

Human Cannonball (under 3 hours)

• The limit. The Xbox 360 text only says "record time"; the PS3 description and the console guides say under 3 hours. Use that.
• Time it yourself. No source confirms an in-game timer on PC. Start a stopwatch when you start a new game.
• It is comfortable once you know the answers. Console players report about 1:20, 1:25:44 and about 2 hours, and a run of around 90 minutes is said to be possible. HowLongToBeat's speedrun medians are 2h07m30s (Any%) and 1h54m53s (100%).
• What to skip. Every step marked Optional, the drowning, the extra hut escapes, the notes, and any insults beyond what you need to beat the Sword Master. Skip cutscenes and dialogue wherever the game lets you.
• What still costs time. Grinding pirates for the comebacks the Sword Master needs, and Stan's haggling (save first: it can loop).
• Doing it in the first game instead. One console guide says everything fits in one game if you keep several saves. That works if you play fast, but a drowning wait alone is 10 minutes of the clock, so a second game is the safer plan.

Achievement - Human Cannonball. Feat done when the credits roll in under 3 hours.

13. Appendix - Quick Reference

A. The save plan

• Slot A: Part One, after talking to Elaine with the idol, before leaving the mansion. Drown, then reload.
• Slot B: Part Three, River Fork clifftop, before pushing the boulder. The second ending.
• Safety saves: before the seagull plank, before haggling with Stan, before travelling with the monkey.
• Slots available: 10, synced by Steam Cloud.

B. Answers and solutions

• Trial order: Sword, then Thievery, then Treasure.
• Circus: say you have a helmet and give them the pot (478 pieces of eight).
• Sven question (Citizen of Mêlée): "No, but I once had a barber named Dominique."
• Treasure map steps (one walkthrough's reading): Back, Left, Right, Left, Right, Back, Right, Left, Back. Follow your own map if it differs.
• Store safe: different every game; Push is clockwise, Pull is anticlockwise.
• Stan: "Enough about extras, already.", then "Forget it. I don't need this boat anyway.", "Well, maybe you're right...", "I'd like to make you an offer.", "5000! And that's my FINAL final offer!"
• Voodoo recipe: breath mints, rubber chicken, ink, Jolly Roger, gunpowder, fine wine, cereal, cinnamon sticks. Keep a burnable out.
• Catapult: leave the primitive art alone to sink the Sea Monkey; pull it twice to hit the banana tree.
• Navigator's head: give the cannibals the leaflet "How to Get Ahead in Navigating".
• Ghost ship order: compass on the key, feather on the sleeping ghost's feet (grog), grog in the rat's dish (grease), grease on the creaky door (tools), tools on the glowing crate (root).
• Final fight: at Stan's grog machine, pick up the root beer and use it on LeChuck.

C. The 9 notes on Monkey Island

• Note 1: Beach 1, on the banana tree.
• Note 2: Beach 2, south of the fort on the west side.
• Note 3: River Fork, under the noteworthy rock.
• Note 4: by the primitive art, before you fire it.
• Note 5: by the primitive art, after you fire it.
• Note 6: the pond at the end of the new river.
• Note 7: Beach 3, the memo in the bottle.
• Note 8: Beach 4, in the sand (by rowboat).
• Note 9: inside the cannibals' guest hut.

D. Money

• In: 478 from the circus, plus 2 if you take the Minutes.
• Out: sword 100, shovel 75, Captain Smirk 30, breath mints 1, treasure map 100 (one source: 300).

E. PC keys

• F10: Classic mode on and off. H: hint. F1: options. V or Ctrl: verb menu. I or Alt: inventory.
• Verbs: O Open, U Use, P Pick up, S Push, Y Pull, C Close, L Look, T Talk, G Give.

14. Accuracy & Sources

This walkthrough was written fresh for this site in October 2026 from a fact sheet researched the same month. Sources: the Steam store page, the Steam store API, Steam's global stats page and two Steam community threads; THE ZOD's Steam walkthrough; PCGamingWiki; Exophase's Xbox 360 and PS3 lists and its game search; GameRevolution; StrategyWiki's walkthrough, achievements and insult pages; the Monkey Island wiki on Fandom; two SuperCheats walkthroughs (Coolthud's PC/Xbox 360 guide and eyao's Special Edition guide); archived copies of TrueAchievements' and XboxAchievements' guides; CheatHappens; SuperCheats' PS3 page; stephan-brumme's trophy list; Scummbar.com; Cyberly; and HowLongToBeat.

What is solid. The Steam version having no achievements: the six independent checks listed in §1 agree. The 12 console achievement names and Xbox 360 descriptions matched across Exophase, GameRevolution, StrategyWiki, Coolthud and XboxAchievements; the PS3 list matched across four sources. The insult wording follows Fandom and eyao.

Where sources disagreed, and what this guide did:

• Recordkeeper count. TrueAchievements' walkthrough and XboxAchievements say 9 notes; TrueAchievements' top-rated guide and THE ZOD list 8 and doubt the banana-tree note. A commenter who tested it reports that the banana-tree note does count. This guide says read all 9.
• Recordkeeper spelling. Exophase has Recordkeeper; GameRevolution, Coolthud and XboxAchievements write RecordKeeper, StrategyWiki Record Keeper.
• Guybrush Kicks Butt. 45G on Exophase, GameRevolution, Coolthud and XboxAchievements; 25G in StrategyWiki's table. 45 fits the 200G total; 25 would make it 180.
• Map price. 100 pieces of eight per StrategyWiki, eyao and Fandom; 300 per Coolthud.
• The "long, sharp lesson" insult. Fandom and StrategyWiki say the Special Edition's Sword Master never uses "I've got a long, sharp lesson for you to learn today." (it appears only in the Ultimate Talkie Edition); eyao's Special Edition list includes it, answered with "And I've got a little TIP for you. Get the POINT?". §7 lists it as a fallback.
• Insult wording. StrategyWiki, THE ZOD and TrueAchievements spell "smarter then you" and "more polite then you", and write "I've heard you were a contemptible sneak"; eyao and Fandom use "than" and "are". Coolthud says his own wording is approximate. The exact on-screen Special Edition text is unconfirmed.
• Ctrl+W. Scummbar.com and Cyberly list Ctrl+W as a "win the game" key for the original game. Whether it works in the Special Edition is unconfirmed. Do not press it on a save you care about.
• Sharp Tongue cutoff. Only XboxAchievements says the chance is gone once the three trials are complete. TrueAchievements reports the console achievement unlocked on the last insult; this guide asks for all comebacks too, as TrueAchievements' walkthrough does.
• Escape Artist cutoff. Giving the idol as the cutoff is inferred from a guide's wording ("before finally returning to give them the idol"), not stated as a hard lock.
• When The Three Trials unlocks. TrueAchievements says at the end of Part One; StrategyWiki places it right after the treasure dig. Unconfirmed.
• Human Cannonball limit. The Xbox 360 text says "record time"; the PS3 text, TrueAchievements and Fandom say under 3 hours.
• Marooned Everyone on console. Commenters disagree on whether both endings had to come from one save lineage (the PS3 text says "Use one save slot"). This does not matter on PC.
• Catapult outcome. Fandom's Part Three walkthrough pulls the primitive art twice yet ends with the other ride home. That conflicts with TrueAchievements and THE ZOD, which this guide follows, and may reflect an extra push that sank the ship; §9 tells pull-twice players to push only one rock.
• Firing the cannon. StrategyWiki, Fandom and Coolthud light the fuse with the flaming mass and then use the pot; eyao says to use the pot and let Guybrush light the fuse. Both are in §8.
• Hidden flags. All 12 are secret on Xbox 360. On PS3, Exophase shows every trophy as visible but TrueAchievements' cross-link calls the PS3 Recordkeeper trophy hidden. Unresolved.
• Part names. The console text says "Last Part: Guybrush Kicks Butt", as do Fandom and eyao. StrategyWiki and Coolthud say Part Four, Fandom's game page says Chapter 4, and THE ZOD titles it Final Part.
• Not confirmed anywhere: whether the treasure map's dance steps vary between games, the exact on-screen insult text, whether Ctrl+W works in the Special Edition, and whether THE ZOD's Steam guide is still publicly listed.
• Could not be fetched: live pages from TrueAchievements, XboxAchievements, PSNProfiles, PlayStationTrophies, GameFAQs, TrueSteamAchievements, SteamDB and Exophase (archived or API copies were used where they existed).

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition © LucasArts, Lucasfilm and Disney. Developed by LucasArts. This is an unofficial fan-made guide.