Where Are My Friends?

Right, it’s better to get this out of the way as soon as I can. This achievement is very difficult, but with enough practice and memorization of every gauntlet/room in the level it can make this much easier. For the record, I had close to 100-something deaths on my first blind run through the level so if you find yourself dying a lot at the beginning, do not feel disheartened. What really helped for me was tackling each individual room separately until I was able to do each without dying, which boosted my confidence on doing everything in an entire run. I’d be lying if I that said turning down the music didn’t help while attempting this either, since it can easily add to the frustration while attempting something like this.

In terms of all the no death achievements in this game, I’d say this one is the hardest – mainly due to the length of the level and also because it isn’t split up into sections like the Jungle level. The Cave level can take as low as 20-25 minutes to complete once you get the rhythm down, but for the entire time you must be alert as there’s plenty of areas you can die at, and even the slightest false movement in some of the rooms can kill you. Unfortunately, you’ll also be fighting the game’s mechanics such as the unnecessary double jump, the awkward notion of momentum on the spring platforms, and of course the lovely cycle-based moving platforms - so just be prepared for that.

The objective for this level is to go in 7 different rooms (or maze gauntlets) and hit a color-coded generator in each of them which can be found at the end of every room. You have to hit a certain amount of buttons (usually 4-5) in each room to open up doors that lead to such generators. The colors of these generators from left to right in the Cave are as follows: Orange, Blue, Red, Magenta, White, Green, and Cyan. There will be several obstacles (spikes and rock projectiles) you have to avoid while making your way to these generators, while also trying to navigate in the level’s darkness. The latter issue isn’t so much of a problem after multiple playthroughs, since you’ll be able to remember the obstacles that are ahead of you and the route you’re supposed to take. You can use to illuminate light around you three times after hitting a sub-generator, with each time gradually getting dimmer until you run out. If you want, you can utilize the same one multiple times - so feel free to treat them as infinite light sources. Hitting these sub-generators aren’t required to progress in each room, but it’s highly recommended to do so anyways.

The really nice thing while attempting this achievement is that you can go in any order you want through the rooms, so for instance say you’re struggling with a specific room and you want to knock that one out first so you don’t have to worry about it later – you can very well do so.

For my deathless run, the order I did the rooms in were:
Green > Cyan > Magenta > White > Orange > Red > Blue

Each room presents an explicit theme of obstacles (refer to the walkthrough posted by RadicalSniper99 for an in-depth analysis of all the rooms). All seven rooms have spikes you have to avoid, and out of all of these only two of them contain cannons that fire rock projectiles (Blue and White). I personally found Green and Magenta to be the hardest two rooms in the entire level, which is the reason why I started them earlier in my runs. I ended up dying (choking) in the Cyan room twice having it as my final room before winning this achievement, which is the only reason I decided to go for it second shortly after – so feel free to have it as a lower priority on your list. I recorded myself doing each room separately without dying, so take the time if needed to study them all.

Green – Spiky Sliding Boards


Cyan – Platform Labyrinth


Magenta – Spring Platform Nightmare


White – Rock Bullet Hell (Part I)


Orange – Time-Based Platforms


Red – Moving Crosses of Doom


Blue – Rock Bullet Hell (Part II)