How to get to Bone Beach - Mina the Hollower

The Bone Beach location is a tough place to reach in Mina the Hollower, but with one Spark Generator under your belt, you can get there if you know how.

Bone Beach is a tough biome to handle in Mina the Hollower. It’s certainly not the first place you would go, but if you’re bold, it could easily be your second stop in the game. At the very least you could open up the path for later. Here’s what you need to know about to get to the Bone Beach location as soon as possible in Mina the Hollower.

Prep note:

This guide assumes that you’ve completed at least the first Spark Generator restoration, likely in Queensbury Crypt. In terms of prep, it would be good to at least be at Level 4 in Attack, Defense, and Sidearm power, as well as upgrading to the point where you can carry around 5 health vials and about 30 Joules worth of Sidearm energy. It would also be good to have the Keri the Wisp trinket to make certain jumps and challenges easier. If you’re going to Bone Beach, you’ll pass where Keri the Wisp is located. Also, you need to keep at least one Kear handy for the trip.

How to get to Bone Beach in Mina the Hollower

Get through the Cave Network and Mining Passage

In order to get to Bone Beach, you need pass through two sections of the Cave Network and the Sandfalls Sifted Sands region, which are both bristling with difficult platforming, tough enemies, and even a boss you must defeat to open the way. For the Cave Network, make sure you have that Kear on hand and save at least two health vials.

Starting from Ossex City Center, head south two screens into the South Outskirts. If you have been to the Cave Network before, you likely have opened a shortcut straight south. If you haven’t, head east at the first bat. You’ll navigate a big pit and two mouse rebels armed with zap guns. Get past them and the pit to reach another pit further east with a floating purple balloon hovering in the middle. Jump on it to bounce over the northern ridge and go in the doorway to the first Cave Network section. In this section, you need to reach the eastern doorway you can see on the higher ridge. Start by going west and jumping on balloons until you spot a set that takes you south. Then use the balloons to turn east in counterclockwise fashion until you reach the northeast section.

Outside the first Cave Network section, go south and jump off the western ledge between broken buildings to the north and a blue mountain ridge to the south. Go west and defeat the enemies, but don’t jump off the western ledge. You’ll see rows of destroyable brush against the southern wall in two alcoves. By cutting out the brush in the southwest alcove and burrowing under the purple balloon in this section, you can move it to the southwest alcove against the thinner blue ridge wall. Then you can jump the wall to the higher section and let down the rope shortcut on the southwest end. In the blue mountain ridge section there are two red birds and a hulking mouse rebel here. Dispatch them and go east inside to the second Cave Network section to the east of the blue.

In the second Cave Network, also called the Mining Passage, you’ll have to start by using two health vials to break the Kear Lock right inside the entrance. Then, you’ll navigate several rooms of invisible floors, two to the east, and one north. In each room, you should use the sprinkles of Bonestone dust speckling the ground and water droplets to let you know where it’s safe to go. With the Fishing Rod, you can jump right to many of these enemies and skip through, but the Volt Axe will also work very well on the strong chain flail rebel mouse in the last room. Tap the button in the far west of the flail mouse room and exit northeast out of the Mining Passage to the Sandfalls Sifted Sands Area.

Blow up the mine cars in Sifted Sands

Going directly south from the Cave Networks exit into Sifted Sands will put you in an area of turning paths with spikes around a central island with a locked entryway that requires three health vials to open, as well as strings of minecarts blocking the path. You have to blow up dynamite-laden mine cars at the end of each string to clear them out of the path. Start by going south on the east side of the middle island until you find a clearing with a buried bomb. Burrow under the bomb to pick it up and immediately starting heading to the east into another shifting section with bats, and then straight north to find the start of the minecart string with the dynamite. Throw the bomb at the minecarts with dynamite to destroy a whole line of carts blocking your path. You can kill the bats to clear your path before carrying the bomb and use Keri the Wisp to jump and float down over the moving ground so you get there faster.

After that, go back to the south area where you found that first bomb. Take another out of the nook and carry it to the immediate west where platforms are floating over a pit towards more minecarts. Try to time yourself up on the platforms to drop the bomb as it explodes on the carts to the west, opening another path. Go under the burrowing tunnel to the west and immediately under the burrowing path to the south in the next screen with the jumping brute. Fight past the spiked floors and fire frog and leave through the vines to the northwest.

This path puts you right next to another buried bomb. You have to blow up the carts near pits north of this bomb and to do that, you need to set the bomb so it explodes against the carts before falling down the pit. It takes 7 seconds from the time you grab a bomb before it explodes, so time it up appropriately based on that. You will clear three dynamite mine cart setups, each slightly more north from the last. Be sure to grab the chest with the Bonestone as well since it’s on the way. If you cleared each of the minecart setups described in this section, then when you head back to the central area, you will find that the path has been opened, save for the lock that will take three of your health vials to open. I would also suggest going to the west side of the central shifting sands and breaking the candles to get a Recall Disc Sidearm. Go inside where the last challenge awaits.

Defeat Major Miner

Once you head into the middle entryway of Sifted Sands, you will find yourself in a mine with creepy little miners watching you. Walk through the corridors and grab the Joules along the way if you need them. You have to fight Major Miner.

Major Miner does four things you need to watch for. He’ll start by smashing his hammer on the ground and flinging three rocks in a cone pattern at Mina. He’ll do it one to four times depending on how low his health is. His other most-used attack is smashing the ground, creating cracks throughout the arena which then shoot flames up after a few seconds. As the fight goes on, he will use an attack where he spins around the arena and drops small rings of pickaxes every few seconds. If you have the Recall Disc, you can throw it down and cast again when he’s near you to explode and transport safely to it. Otherwise, just burrow under him and stay as far away as possible when he does this attack.

The biggest threat to Mina is the smaller miners on the ledges to the left and right. From time to time, they will throw pickaxes at you, which are very easy to dodge. However, every once in a while, they will throw a tied up miner into the arena. You need to get to this miner, burrow under them, and pick them up as soon as possible. If Major Miner gets to them first, he will gobble them up and restore a large chunk of his health, prolonging the fight. Beat him and don’t forget to swing on him a few more times after while his minions carry him away to knock more bones out of his pockets. You earned it. Leave to the south, and you have officially reached Bone Beach.

Now that you know how to reach Bone Beach, you’ve opened a difficult path in Mina the Hollower. Be sure to stay tuned to our Mina the Hollower topic for more news and coverage.

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