The Machine - 4 Keys & Secret Ending

A Knytt Stories walkthrough

Knytt Stories is a minimalist metroidvania platformer where players can create and share their own levels. It comes prepackaged with one level made by the game creator Nifflas, called The Machine. It's a rather straightforward level, but it has a secret ending that may be accessed if the player collects all four hidden keys. Unfortunately, there is no readily available guide online to finding those keys, so I took it upon myself to write one.

The keys in this guide are presented in an arbitrary order. There is no "right order" to collecting them, but to save time you may do them Blue -> Yellow -> Purple -> Red.

The blue key is the only one that does not require the Umbrella to collect.

Before you begin...

None of the keys nor the secret ending are available unless you set the level difficulty to Normal. You can change the level difficulty in the starting area, just west (left) of Juni's house.

Red Key

The red key is found immediately after you go through the regular ending. When in the "Congratulation!" room, do not follow the "Return" arrow but, instead, climb the wall to the right. There is a secret passage hidden in the topright corner. The red key is inside.

Yellow Key

The yellow key is found in the snowy area where you collect the Hologram. In the eastmost "falling snow" section where you must slowly drift with your Umbrella to avoid the spikes, take the longer and wider left path instead of the narrow path right. The entrance to the key area is hidden inside the ceiling.

Blue Key

The blue key is in the green jungle section. At the eastmost end of the jungle region, there is cave with a particle-spewing creature that blocks your path down into ghostland. Instead of going down, though, take the tunnel that leads up, and then left onto the cliff face. Keep climbing up and you will find yourself near the jungle ceiling, with floating 2x2 blocks. Jump from block to block until you reach the third one, then climb into the little 2-tile notch in the ceiling. It marks the beginning of the hidden path that leads to the blue key.

Purple Key

The purple key is found in the region above the starting area (it's where you get the Double Jump upgrade). When jumping along the ceiling, you will at some point be forced to go up into a series of screens, including one with a brown cave creature and another one with a floating grey enemy. If you already possess the High Jump, Double Jump and Umbrella upgrades you can use those to jump from the flying grey enemy screen onto the wall above the brown cave creature's cave.

Keep climbing up until you spot a 2x2 block. Step onto it, then jump as far and high as you can to the left, using your umbrella to glide down. If you do this right, you will be able to grab and climb the western cliff. The purple key is up there.

Secret Ending

Once you have all the keys, head to the yellow-red poisonous forest, at the far-eastern end of the world. When you first reach it, though, instead of going into the forest proper, take the tunnel down into the blue caves below it. Right beneath the screen where you first encounter a ninja in these caves, you will find the entrance to the secret ending cave. You need the red key to enter it, and all three other keys to get to the secret ending itself.