Spelunky 2

First off, you do NOT need to beat the game with one mil to get this achievement. It says "end a run", meaning, if you die with one million on you, this achievement will pop, just putting that out there first. For this strat, we will be going all the way to 6-3 which is at the end of the game.

TL;DR Use bombs in the City of Gold for a bunch of money and then have the ghost touch the money in the bottom of the Palace of Pleasure to get the rest of the one mil. Also, beating Tiamat gives you can extra 100k if you're still short.

So, how to get one million gold, the easy way. There are two parts to this as stated above where we will be getting most of our money and when done correctly, you do not need to worry about getting money anywhere else in the run except to buy some stuff in the Black Market. So, if you were thinking you were going to have to meticulously pick up every single piece of gold that you see in the run, that's just not how this is going to go down. In fact, concentrating too much on picking up money is probably going to get you killed and you'll have to start over, so I'm telling you, do not worry about the money.

What we want are bombs. That is what you'll be looking for in this run, tons of bombs. To start out, grab the Udjat Eye from the dwelling and then head to the jungle from 1-4. While in Jungle, make sure on 2-2, 2-3, and 2-4, you are finding the caves that have the three sisters in them. Saving all three of them will get you 12 bombs when you go into the Olmec fight. You also need paste. Sell the golden idols in the levels for some extra cash so we can buy the Hedjet and bombs. Find the black market using the Udjat Eye and buy the Hedjet, paste if you don't have it, and as many bombs as you can. If you don't have paste going into the Olmec fight, it might be worth it to restart.

In the Olmec fight, go up to the top right and pick up the bombs from the three sisters. You should hopefully have around 20 bombs or so, minimum, the more the merrier. Now fight Olmec. In the second phase of the fight, you should have him bomb out as much as you can so that pick up all of the gold that's in this room. You do not need to fight phase 3 of Olmec. If you're comfortable fighting Olmec, it would be great to grab the Ankh for an extra life but not necessary. Now, head to Temple, NOT Tide Pools.

In 4-1 of Temple, put two sticky bombs on Anubis to kill him and grab his sceptar. Take it to 4-2 and use it to unlock the City of Gold. If any of that sounds confusing to you, go check out the City of Gold achievement guide. The City of Gold is made entirely of gold, unsurprisingly. What you'll want to do here is strategically place you bombs on the blocks in the level and blow them up, showering you with gold. There are also pots of money everywhere, stack the ones close by together and whip them for tons of extra gold. Make sure to kill one of the leprechauns before the 3 minute mark hits so that you can have an additional 2 minutes to bomb out as much gold as you can. Do not be greedy, it is not worth ruining your entire run for a tiny bit of extra gold. Watch out for giant golden crush traps, in fact just bomb the ones that might be a threat to you, free gold. Have an exit strategy before the 4 minute mark so that you're not rushed out the door by the ghost when 5 minutes hit. If you leave the City of Gold with 350,000, you are near guaranteed the one million at 6-3, but if you have less than that, it's okay, you'll have opportunities to make it up. You will also need at minimum 7 bombs for 6-3, so do not use all of your bombs here. In fact, stop using bombs immediately if you have more than 350k gold as you might need some spares. -> https://i.imgur.com/xvJrlCI.mp4

If you have less than 350,000 then you have two options to make it up. Number one, you can rely on killing the boss on 6-4. Killing her and the beating the game will grant you and extra 100,000 so you would only need 250,000 going into 6-3 instead of the 350,000. The other option is to grab golden idols from 5-1, 6-1, and 6-2, and then finally the last one on 6-3 although you might be constrained for time. Golden idol on 5-1 is 25,000 and 6th world idols are 30,000 so that's another 115,000 but they are not guaranteed to spawn on levels either except for 6-3.

Cool, so you've made it to 6-3, this is where the real strategy comes into play and where most of your money will come from. First you need to kill all of the body guards in the Palace of Pleasure. You can kill the one standing outside of the door by placing a sticky bomb on the elevator right next to the entrance and having it go down and blow up next to him although this doesn't always work, it will at least make an opening to where he leaves. If he did die, pick up his shotgun. Now walk in and out of the palace over and over. This will give you i-frames meaning nothing can hurt you while you are walking in and out but the body guards will still be triggered to shoot at you and by extension they will accidentally kill each other. When you get a chance, pick up a shotgun if it's close by the door. Start shooting in both directions until you can safely make it to the left wall. Kill the rest of the bodyguards but keep your distance from them. Once they are all dead, you can move on to the next part. Don't forget to pick up the clover that spawns in this room. Take your time but also keep in mind you only have 5 minutes to do all of this. -> https://i.imgur.com/7qT2Qf1.mp4

Now, go down to the creepy basement of the palace. Bomb twice in the left corner to make an opening and get rid of the laser trap that shoots you. Bomb on the right side at the bottom of the vertical laser and grab the ghost pot that is behind it. Go back and fall through the opening you made on the left side and put all the chests in the bottom left corner. Do not open them yet. Now bomb out two of the lasers to the right of you, keep the third one in tact and stand next to it until the bodyguard on the other side shoots himself to death, then bomb that one too. Now, depending on how much time you have left, you can do a few things. There is a golden idol in the palace that can be turned in. You can unlock the door to your right by grabbing the key off of a dead madame tusk, this will make for more options in your getaway. There is also still one or two bodyguards alive in the level that need to be dealt with depending on if you killed the first one by the entrance. And lastly, you can make the pathway to the exit of the level cleaner because you will be running from the ghost soon.

Now to prep the money, make sure all of the chests are in the bottom left corner together, all of them stacked. Shoot them a few times with a shotgun, you will need multiple shots to open them all and then shoot all of the money together so it's in a nice pile. Now we wait for the ghost. If you have extra time you can also smash the ghost pot we grabbed to trigger the ghost but the most important thing for this entire run is that you are standing right next to the money as the ghost spawns. The ghost will spawn at your vertical level and on the closest side to the level that you are on. We want him coming from the left at eye level. Have him chase you into the money, when he touches them, all of the gems will turn into diamonds. Circle around him, pick up all of the money, and then get out of there. The money you just picked up will be worth anywhere from 600,000 to 700,000 gold, the majority of your cash at this point, hopefully putting you above the one million mark. -> https://i.imgur.com/gTYSdc2.mp4

If you don't have it, hopefully you at least have 900,000. Go to the next level with your shotgun and get an easy kill on Tiamat by placing a bomb on the wall in front of her, then placing a rope against the wall where you came in and shooting her until she dies. Finish the level and get your extra 100,000 or if you already have one million, you can die now at any point and unlock the achievement. Congrats.