Hannah and the Ice Caves - Trophy Guide

Hannah and the Ice Caves is a sequel to another game on Neopets, Hannah and the Pirate Caves. If you are not familiar with how to play the Pirate or Ice Caves, here is a quick rundown.

There are 30 levels for you to complete; 25 main levels and five bonus levels, which you unlock after completing the original 25. Your goal for each level is to collect all of the treasure chests scattered throughout the cave and make your way to the door to the next level. The number of treasure chests you will need to find is specified on the toolbar across the top of your screen.

The controls are simple: use your left and right arrow keys to move left and right, your down arrow key to kneel down on the ground (to look below or to avoid being hit by an enemy), the up arrow key to look upward, and the spacebar to jump. When you are swimming the water, however, the up and down arrow keys move you up and down instead of looking upward or below.

You have FOUR (not three) lives to lose before your game will end. You'll see three hearts lit up at the top of your screen, and once you lose those three lives you have one final life left, indicated by the hearts not being lit up anymore. HOWEVER, once the three hearts lose their life, you can no longer click 'End Game' and 'Restart Level' to restart the level. If you try doing this your game will end automatically. If you wish to restart the level but you are down to your final life, you need to fall onto some spikes or something creative like that. And even though you begin the game with four lives, you can still collect bonus lives and they will add up; i.e. four lives is not the maximum.

There are many different ways in which you can lose a life: a boulder or steel crate could fall on you, you could get hit by an arrow, be touched by an enemy, burned by dynamite, touch a set of spikes, or run out of breath underwater. Plenty of possibilities but you should always be able to see it coming and have time to make an adjustment.

I'll talk more about some of the enemies in a minute, but let me at least give you a list of them all before you read any further. The first type of enemy you will encounter are the ice skeletons. These enemies can actually be destroyed, but you'll read much more about them in a minute or two. Next up are the flying snowballs. These guys fly through the air at a medium speed in a straight horizontal line. They move back and forth across the cave. Finally, there are the snowbeasts. These are enormous creatures that move at a fast speed on the ground.

Now that we've covered how the game functions, let's discuss the nuances of the game itself. Other than the obvious differences in the level maps from the Pirate Caves, there are a few other significant changes to be noted. First of all, Hannah isn't alone, as she was when she explored the Pirate Caves. This time she has brought along her friend, Armin, to provide assistance, as the Ice Caves are a bit trickier than the Pirate Caves.

*Note: To switch between Hannah and Armin, press the 'S' key on your keyboard or click on the sprite in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.

Armin is very useful in this game, as you cannot complete most levels without him.

*Note: In order to complete each level, you must guide both Hannah AND Armin to the exit after collecting all of the treasure chests.

Unlike Hannah, Armin is able to use his claws to dig through tunnels of thick snow, providing him access to areas that are off limits to Hannah. Second, he is able to defeat some of the enemies that roam the caves, whereas you will lose a life if they touch Hannah.

HOWEVER, Armin cannot defeat the enemies that fly in the air, and the ones on the ground must be handled a certain way or else you could possibly lose a life. The most common guard appears to be a Nimmo; with Armin, you can run up behind this enemy or run it over from the front, just make sure Armin is actually moving when contact is made. Another enemy resembles a Shoyru, but unlike the Nimmo version, you must make contact with the FRONT of the Shoyru's body; if you run up behind them you could lose a life. And finally there is an enemy which I would guess is a Kyrii. You should treat these enemies exactly the opposite of how you treat the Shoyrus: you must run up behind them and make contact with their back. This is very important to remember, so make a mental note of this!

When it comes to the snowbeasts though, you must avoid those completely with Armin as there is no way for him to get around them, whereas Hannah is able to hurdle them if you're careful.

One more thing to note about all enemies is that they will be destroyed if they are hit with an arrow, a boulder, or dynamite. However, you don't always want to do this, especially with arrows, as you may need the arrow to hit something else instead. The most notable example of this is in the level Big Trouble—you don't want to hit the flying snowball with an arrow, but instead try to push a boulder onto it.

Another difference between Armin and Hannah is that Armin cannot jump nearly as high as Hannah. To be exact, Hannah can jump over three squares of terrain, while Armin can only jump over one. Additionally, Hannah can jump across four empty spaces while Armin can jump across just three. There are certain points in the game where you need to be careful with Hannah because if she jumps too high she may hit her head on some spikes!

And finally, Armin is completely unable to swim and you will lose a life instantly if you take him in the water. However, he IS able to rapidly jump across the water without losing a life, but you probably will only use this technique once or twice throughout the entire game, if at all.

The second major difference in this game is that since the terrain is made of ice, you may find yourself slipping and sliding around a little bit. You need to press the arrow keys lightly when around spikes or you might fall over the edge! A strategy that may be a little difficult to master but can pay off is by jumping up in the air and moving slightly to the left or right. Since the air obviously isn't made of ice, you won't move as far as you would on the terrain with each press of the button. This can come in handy particularly in the level Fireworks.

Just like in the Pirate Caves, there are gems hidden in some levels that will provide you with a huge score-boost at the completion of the level. The levels that contain gems are: Warm Up, Snow Beast Attack!, Hannah's Solo Climb, Big Trouble, Gunther's Revenge, Splish Splash, Zig Zag, Icy Islands, and Armin's Task. Each gem awards 5,000 points after you complete the level, meaning if you collect the gems on all of the listed levels you will be awarded an extra 45,000 points, so this is very important!

*Note: There is also a gem crate in the level Arrowned, but as far as I know it is impossible to get, so I left it off of the list.

Also, earlier I mentioned that you begin with four lives but you can add on extras by obtaining bonus lives. Well, there are seven bonus lives available throughout the game, meaning that if you collect them all you have eleven lives to lose before your game will end. These will come in handy when you reach the final level as this is when you can really boost your score the most, so try to save as many lives as you can for the end.

As alluded to several times before, touching spikes will result in you losing a life, so of course you must avoid these at all costs. However, you ARE able to destroy spikes by using any of several methods: by pushing a boulder over them, landing a crate of dynamite on them, or shooting them with an arrow. All three of these methods CAN result in you losing a life, so be sure you're extra careful! Also, if a treasure chest or any kind of crate falls on a set of spikes then the spikes will be destroyed.

*Note: Spikes can be found on either the ground or the ceiling, so watch out!

Just like in the Pirate Caves, some gems and bonus lives can only be obtained by going through what is called a 'secret area.' A secret area is an area of space that appears to be just like the regular terrain, but in fact you can walk right through these secret areas leading you to hidden parts of the caves. Although they can be tricky to spot, the best way to identify a secret area is by looking for terrain with small fragments missing, where you can see the background image through small holes in the terrain.

When you are underwater with Hannah, not only should you keep an eye on the bubbles on the bottom of your screen, which indicate how much longer Hannah can stay underwater, also keep an eye out for 'air pockets,' small spaces underwater that allow Hannah to take a deep breath before heading back into the water. This is especially important in the level Sunken Treasures, as Hannah has to plunge deep down into the water repeatedly in order the fetch the treasure chests.

Also, when you're underwater and heading back up for the surface, pressing both the up arrow key and the spacebar seems to get you to move faster. However, don't move too fast because there may be spikes waiting for you somewhere up above!

A technique that you absolutely have to use in two of the later levels, Armin's Task and Winter Wonderland, involves crouching down to the ground with one character and switching to the other while still crouching. This will allow you to keep the first character crouched to the ground without you having to switch to them or hold down the down arrow key. Instead, you can go about your business with the other character while the first one waits safely and patiently. The reason why this is important to know is that in these two levels there are enemies flying dangerously close to the ground, and in order to keep both characters safe you need to be sure that you can duck with the one you are controlling but also that the one you are not controlling is protected from the enemies. Likewise, when you switch back to the character you left crouching, use the same technique just in case the enemy turns out to be directly above you when you switch.

In the level Free Fall, the first of the five bonus levels, you have to blindly fall down deep gaps and land on the correct ledges or you will either lose a life or have to climb all the way back to the top of the cave and start all over. Luckily for you, there are ladders on each side of the two gaps. In order to safely complete the level, have one character keep a lookout on the ladder and guide the other character down the pit to collect the treasure chests and avoid the dangerous spots.

That just about does it for all the various techniques you will need to know. I know it's a lot to remember but it isn't as complicated as you may think.

Before wrapping this up completely, take a minute to read the following information about how to earn a gold trophy and how to maximize the NP you will make from this game.

Back when the game was first released, I earned a silver trophy on the first day of the month with a score of 445,575. Nowadays, that score may be good enough to keep you in gold trophy position for the ENTIRE MONTH, but of course nothing is guaranteed. If you can even just beat the game you are highly likely to earn yourself a gold trophy. You will also earn 750 NP every day you are in gold trophy position, so the NP can really add up! Don't be too selfish though, if you already have a gold trophy wait a while before going for gold trophy position so you give other people a chance to earn a trophy for themselves.

Besides the trophy and potential extra NP, if you beat the entire game you will be able to start on the final level every time you play the game. It is a pretty easy level and beating it will award you 1,000 NP, so if you complete the final level three times each day you'll earn 3,000 NP on each of those days. It only takes about two minutes to beat the level so this is an effective game for making NP.

Well, that just about does it! I wish you good luck earning a brand new shiny trophy for your cabinet. Hopefully this guide will leave you better prepared for your exciting adventure that awaits. If you are looking for a detailed step-by-step walkthrough, please visit my petpage, ~Terabasol.