In Spelunky 2, you start with four playable characters: Ana Spelunky (the daughter of Spelunky 1‘s protagonist), Margaret Tunnel (who dreams of living the pirate lifestyle), Colin Northward (an explorer on the hunt for Olmec), and my favorite, Roffy D. Sloth (a hoodie-wearing sloth).
You can unlock several more characters, however, including loveable heroes from the first game and some brand new faces.
Unlocking a new character is pretty simple. If you find a coffin in a stage, you open it to free whoever is inside. If that character is someone you haven’t met before, they will be added to your roster of playable characters.
The locations of these coffins will be random, as this game is randomly generated, but you should always find one in 1-4 after beating the Quillback boss. In case you aren’t familiar, Quillback looks like this.
Once you beat the boss, you should have the option to find two exits, one leading to Jungle, the other to Volcana. Somewhere between those two exits, there will be a coffin. This particular coffin contains Alto Singh, and once you’ve acquired him, the coffin will always contain a Hired Hand (the Hired Hand is not a playable character).
Most characters will be found inside these coffins, though there are some exceptions.
Here’s a list of characters:
Ana Spelunky – One of the four default characters. Already unlocked when you start the game.
Margaret Tunnel – One of the four default characters. Already unlocked when you start the game.
Colin Northward – One of the four default characters.
Roffy D. Sloth – One of the four default characters. Already unlocked when you start the game.
Alto Singh – Coffin will always appear in 1-4 near the bottom of the stage.
Liz Mutton – Coffin sometimes appears on 2-1 (Jungle)
LISE Project – Coffin sometimes appears in one of the Volcana stages. Some people are reporting that LISE is always found on 2-1 (Volcana), but I found this character on 2-3. I believe LISE can be found on any Volcana stage (though maybe not 2-4?).
Nekka – Coffin is found in the Black Market. (Here is a guide to finding the Black Market.)
Coco Von Diamonds – Coffin is found in Vlad’s Castle (a secret area off of Volcana).
Little Jay – Coffin is found in the Tide Pool stages.
Valerie Crump – Coffin is found in one of the Temple of Anubis stages.
Demi – Coffin is found in the Yeti Cave (a secret area off the Ice Caves).
Dirk – Coffin is found in the Sunken City (inside a frog).
Manfred Tunnel – Coffin is found in the Ankh cave (a secret area off 3-1 Olmec’s Lair ).
Tina Flan – Coffin is found in Abzu.
Au – Coffin is found in the City of Gold
Pilot – Coffin is found in the Mothership.
Princess Airyn – Coffin is found in Neo-Babylon.
Guy Spelunky – Complete the game’s normal route.
Retro Spelunker – Complete the Sunken City route.
And that’s how you unlock secret characters in Spelunky 2!
