Interested in the Mermaid's Teardrop? Of course you are! When the stage begins, head immediately right to where your nephew is standing at the base of a high wall. He says there's no hope of ever getting past it, but then lightning will break a way. Pogo up onto the ledge, run right and be ready to pogo the back of a crab that dashes back and forth throughout the area.
From the end of that ledge (note the cannon below; you'll be back here shortly), you can pogo down onto the back of another crab below, then push right. There's a large barrel here, and beyond that some crates against a wall with an iron door. Pogo along the wall to reveal a large and small diamond. With that done, head back left to where you saw the cannon.
Get just behind the cannon, pull with your cane, and you'll discharge a shot that breaks down the metal wall just to the left. Pass through the opening, then descend the rope into the next room. If you head to the opening just to your left, there's a small diamond hardly worth your time. To the right, you can pogo off the back of a pirate to a ring. Hop left from that ring to reveal a large diamond hidden in front of the grated window.
If you hop right from the ring, you'll be on a ledge with a red switch. There's a conveyer belt below it. Stand to the right of that switch, hook it with your cane, and pull it left. The chest will slide along to the right, where you'll be able to hop down and bust it open for a large diamond.
Continue right past a rope, and there's a large barrel against a wall. Pogo up from it and collect the diamonds along the wall, then climb down the rope just to your left. In the next room, you'll see you can move both right and left. Start by heading left, until you see a pirate heading toward you. Now let him follow you back to the right, and bounce off his head to make it up on the ledge leading right. This will allow you to clear the barrel, bop the crab on his head, and drop down to the cannon, which you can use to blast open another metal wall. The treasure chest you access contains a large red diamond.
Now go back left, past the rope, to where you found the pirate. He'll be back, and there's also a crab. In this area, pirates seem to spawn repeatedly if you move even slightly left or right, so take advantage of that for some easy cash if you are short on funds (they often leave behind large diamonds when defeated). Just left, you'll find some blocks you can destroy with your cane, then a red barrel. Pull it left a step or two so you can access the treasure chest here, which holds another red diamond.
From there, continue pulling the barrel left, but beware of the speedy mouse that is waiting to attack from the left. Keep pulling the barrel left and you'll find a high ledge with a large treasure chest. The chest contains another 1-up doll. Snag that, then drop back down and descend the rope into the room below (the nook just to the left of the rope contains a small diamond, in case you're interested).
In that room below, Launchpad offers to take you back to Duckburg. Respond to that as you see fit. Note that the cranny just over his head holds yet another small diamond. To his right, there's a raft you can knock into the water. Do so, then push off so you're gliding across the waters toward the right. Along the ride, bounce up onto one ledge to break open the treasure chest and obtain a red diamond. Continuing right, there are birds in the area (pogo off their backs) and a ledge with a large diamond hid overhead. You'll need to use rings to safely reach the ledge to your right, where the raft comes to a rest and you can open a treasure chest to obtain an ice cream cone.
The next area is tricky. You'll need to hop from ring to ring, but watch out for the birds. They drop bombs that can knock you from a ring and into the water. The problem is that even if you step far enough right that one bird sweeps through the area, another will follow. They come endlessly, in fact, so you'll just have to make your jumps carefully and be ready to grab onto any ring within range, even if you're knocked back in the middle of a hop from one to the next. When you reach the safety on the other side, climb the rope into the next room and you'll see a crab to the left, an empty space to your right.
You can walk through the wall to the right, swat open a treasure chest, and find a red diamond. But don't just stop there; continue through the wall to the right and you'll come out looking over two blocks that hang over two treasure chests. Pogo off the right of the blocks and press against the next wall to your right. You should wind up on the ceiling this time. Walk right along this surface and drop down to the chest below, which holds a
piece of the treasure map! Now go back left and open those two treasure chests, which both contain large diamonds. Proceed back left to the room with the rope, and climb it into the next room.
Here, you can hop left and pogo against the wall. Near the ceiling, you'll reveal a large diamond. From there, head right and hop up to the hanging ring. Ride it down and you will cause a gate to raise. Pass through and at the next of the rings, hold it until the gate rises. From there, pogo off the raised metal to the right, onto the top of the stack of barrels. Drop down to the right, pull down the final ring, and pass under the final one of the metal gates in this area. There's a crab to your right. Pogo off its back, and then up onto the stack of barrels along a wall to the right (there's a diamond hidden above this).
Next, you should climb up the rope into the next room. A bird here wants to drop a bomb. Sneak under that, then press against the wall to the right. Pogo upward and you'll find another large diamond. Now resume your climb up the rope, into yet another room. The treasure chest here contains a large diamond. From there, climb up the second of the room's two ropes, into the next area.
Here, you'll see ledges to the left. Gyro is in plain site, and a crab patrols the wooden beam above him. Take out the crab, then drop down and talk to Gyro, who will give you the Hammer Adaptor. It adds additional strength to your cane's swings, which is quite useful. From there, head back left and hop along the ropes that lead further left over a bottomless pit (note that if you attempt a jump from the lower ledge where you met Gyro, it's easy to get hit on the head by the overhead beam and forced into the pit).
On the left side of those ropes I mentioned, a ledge leads to a rope descending into the next room. Here, you'll see an opening leading to the right. Pogo in that direction and you'll find a red diamond hidden in the wall.
Continue right and you can bounce off the head of the pirate to another chest, which contains a red diamond. Descend into the next room and head left. There's a treasure chest here, but you don't want to bust it open just yet. Instead, head for the red switch you'll see, just to the right of the conveyer belt. Stand on its left side, hook it with your cane, and pull left so the belt pushes the treasure chest up against a pile of barrels. Bounce off the chest, over the barrels, and break open the treasure chest there to gain a 1-up doll. Now quickly hop back over and grab the red diamond that was hiding in the chest you used as your stepstool.
With that item grabbed, you can now walk through the low gap to the right, which leads to the stage's boss battle.
Captain Duckbeard
This fellow sports a hook and a red hat, complete with skull insignia. The area where you'll fight him is littered with hooks dangling on the walls, making your assault a piece of cake. Well, mostly.
Unfortunately, you're not the only one able to scamper from ring to ring. As you pogo around, Scrooge will automatically grab onto the rings, whether you like it or not. And so will your nemesis. The goal here is to keep far enough from him so that he's almost always lower than you, whether that means he's on the ground or one of the lower rings. This frees you up to pogo him from above.
A few direct hits and he'll go down for the count, granting you the tear that equates to another $1,000,000 for your piggy bank.
NEXT: Mu
