Forward
Welcome to the second installment of the Oddworld Quintology. You are about to join over 600,000 others who have been exploring Oddworld with me since 1997 when I published my first guide. For those of you who have never played the original game or the Exoddus expansion game, I highly recommend you locate copies and add them to your library before they are no longer available. Meanwhile, enjoy what is perhaps one of the best launch games for the new Microsoft Xbox, and possibly the greatest adventure game to date.
Like the previous Oddworld games, Munch's Oddysee is huge. There are dozens of locations to explore and hundreds of creatures to meet, greet, possess, and possibly rescue. Those devious designers and programmers at Oddworld Inhabitants have created some clever puzzles and integrated some new styles of game play including teamwork and the ability to switch off between the two main characters at your discretion. Many of your old favorite enemies are back along with many new ones that are even more deadly.
This guide will provide you with solutions to every puzzle, combat strategies, and Sinjin's famous "Rescue Checklist" that you can use to locate every creature you need to rescue and, even a few you don't.
How to Play
Munch's Oddysee plays just like the earlier adventures with a few new features added in. Here is the default control layout for the Xbox Controller. Abe and Munch have several shared commands and a few exclusives commands as indicated.
Meet the Natives
Oddworld is home to hundreds of characters and crazy items you can interact with. Rather than outline them all in one section, I will give specific notes within the walkthrough, as each new character and item is encountered for the first time. For now, let's meet our unlikely heroes and the two (soon to be) most wanted creatures in Oddworld:
Everyone's favorite Mudokon, Abe, savior of thousands (or at least 399) is back. He can command small armies or clear out a room with a single fart. While his moves remain pretty much the same he can now pick-up and throw other Mudokons to safety.
Munch is our newest hero and like so many heroes before him is the last of his race. This tiny creature is a one-legged (or rather one-flippered) Gabbit who is more at home in water than on land. Currently a victim of evil Vykker experiments, he has a funky Headport that allows him to use sonar and jack into remote control devices. Munch can help out Abe when large areas of water block the way. While slow-moving on dry ground, put him in a wheelchair and he becomes faster than Abe, and his thunderous belch rivals Abe's farts.
Spooce, Quarma, and other Oddities
Spooce is the source of Abe's mystical powers and can be found growing throughout all of Oddworld. Just walk over a SpooceShrub to collect one unit of Spooce. Spooce is used to unlock doors, possess enemies, and resurrect or upgrade fellow Mudokon natives. At the beginning of each level I will tell you how much Spooce is required to complete the level. This number only includes the Spooce necessary to unlock all the doors. You may (and often will) be required to locate additional Spooce. If you run out of SpooceShrubs and need more Spooce you can always chant near a SpooceBud and it will bloom into a full Shrub that you can collect another unit from. You can do this as often as needed so you should never run out of Spooce. You can check your current Spooce by pressing the right trigger at any time.
Quarma (Karma...get it?) is a floating meter than ranks how well you are doing while playing the game. You start each level right in the middle (at 50) and then it's up to you where you go from there. If you rescue every Mudokon, Fuzzle, and Egg Crate your Quarma will go up. If you kill (or allow to be killed) anyone your Quarma starts to drop. Your Quarma does not change if these creatures or items are neither saved nor destroyed.
Quarma is calculated for each mission and as part of the entire game. This averages out your overall performance and allows you to "mess up" a few times, but if you want to get the Angelic Quarma you are going to have to be pretty close to perfect. You can check your Quarma at anytime in the game by pressing the right trigger. Your Quarma is indicated by the halo over your head that ranges from a jagged red halo to a smooth golden ring.
Your actions (or inactions) will ultimately dictate the outcome of the game. If you have a Good or better Quarma rating you get the "Happy Ending" and two bonus levels. An Angelic rating is yours if you rescue every last creature in every level and also resurrect anyone who dies before leaving. In addition to the aforementioned rewards you also get a special "newspaper scene" at the end of the game.
Feeling Evil? You can actually get a "bad ending" by getting a Bad Quarma rating, but this is very hard to do and you practically have to play the game with this objective in mind. You have to really go out of your way and kill a lot of innocent creatures. During the game you can even trigger some different newspaper headlines that reflects your "evilness" before you get the scary ending movie. And if you want to achieve the darkest rating you can, kill every single creature that you are supposed to save for a Black Quarma rating and a bonus newspaper scene.
This guide is designed to get you the Angelic Quarma rating. If you want to go for anything else then you are on your own...
Journey to the Big Well