So you traipsed all around the Carribean looking for Golden Keys, only to have the Secret of Monkey Island stolen from under your nose, huh? Well, that's just how Return to Monkey Island does it. Luckily, you have Elaine on your side to help you get back to Monkey Island and pursue your foes.

RELATED: Best Video Game Pirates

This is a shorter act than the others but still has some devious puzzles! You'll have to use all of your wit and quite a few of the items you've been lugging around for the last few hours (we're looking at you, ceremonial dagger!) to finish the game.

Beneath The Monkey Head

And we’re back! Yet another Return to Monkey Island.

You can’t return back to the surface, so your only option, for now, is to progress deeper into the cavern beneath the giant monkey head.

Walk over to the right and you’ll meet up with Wally, who’s hanging from shackles attached to the ceiling. Have a chat with him if you like, but you can’t free him from his shackles - Wally is doomed to hang there for the rest of the game.

Continue on through the cavern until you are rudely interrupted by Flambe. He’ll warn you that you’re making a mistake pursuing LeChuck, but we’ll press on anyway - you can give any response to Flambe, it doesn't matter.

Get to the end of the path and jump off the cliff. Enter through the only doorway.

How To Be An Organized Pirate

After the cutscene, examine the sign on the door that just slammed shut. Only the organized pirate will pass, apparently. Ignore that for now, and head one screen to the left. There will be a statue of a monkey with a parrot – use your crackers on it.

Go left again and you’ll encounter a statue of a frustrated monkey. There’s a pebble on the ground in this room, pick it up. Guybrush will remark that it looks like a piece of eight. Give the frustrated monkey statue your ceremonial knife.

On the next screen to the left, give the squinting monkey statue your double monocle, and on the next screen with the statue of a jolly monkey, pick up another stone coin from the floor. Give the jolly monkey statue your empty mug, and the screen will start shaking – you’ve unlocked the door!

How To Be An Observant Pirate

Head down to the next floor through the new doorway, and the next door you need to progress will shut. This new sign tells you that you have to be an observant pirate, and there is another set of rooms you’ll need to solve puzzles in. While in this room, pick up the stone coin on the floor.

The first screen to the left has a cabin monkey and a stone coin on the floor in the middle of the circle of mushrooms. Pick up the stone coin and put it in the cabin monkey’s chest. On the next screen, there’s a stone coin next to the first mate monkey on the floor – pick it up. The first mate monkey needs two coins, so put them in the chest. You can tell that the monkey needs more coins as it has a bigger chest.

The next room has a statue of Captain Monkeybeard, who has a huge chest, but there are no stone coins to find. This statue needs three coins, but you’ll only have two – for the third coin, use your final real piece of eight.

How To Be A Bloodthirsty Pirate

Head down the next flight of stairs. You get the drill by now. This time, you need to be bloodthirsty – to assist with this, head back up to the first floor and take back the ceremonial knife from the frustrated monkey statue. While you're here, you'll also need to grab the empty mug from the jolly monkey statue. Head back down.

You can only head right this time, so do so. Stab the hurt monkey statue with the knife, and then do the same with the statue in the next room. The statue in the third room, however, is too broken to stab. To solve this, use the empty mug on one of the bleeding statues and then empty the newly filled mug into the grate in the third room. This will open the final locked door.

Walk through the newly opened door into a huge cavern with yet another puzzle to solve.

How To Solve The Code Wheel

While the situation seems extremely dangerous, Guybrush can take as long as he likes to solve this puzzle, which involves getting the right combination of settings on a massive stone wheel.

First, though, walk to the bottom of the screen and to the right, beneath Captain Madison’s hat. Examine the stone slab in the lava until you hear a poem, which is a hint. The relevant excerpts are:

• Four extra years out at sea.
• Three steps right.
• Two left.

There are three moving parts to the wheel – a date in the center and two rings. They must be arranged in a certain configuration before Guybrush can pull the lever on the left. The solutions to this puzzle are on previous screens, hidden atop the doorways that you unlocked: you’ll find the top half of the face above the first doorway, the bottom half on the second, and the date is written above the third doorway.

There are two steps to this puzzle:

• First, arrange the code wheel as the doorways would suggest. The face that you have to make should be in the top section of the wheel.
• With that done, you now need to follow the steps of the poem.
  • Rotate the outer wheel three times as it moves to the right.
  • Rotate the inner wheel twice as it moves to the left.
  • Change the date in the middle four times.

Solving this puzzle reveals a door – enter, of course.

The Final Task

This final section is hidden in an expandable to prevent any spoilers for those reading ahead! However, we recommend solving this one on your own to preserve the experience.

After taking a short moment to appreciate the ridiculousness of these events, pick up the popcorn on the floor if you want. Head out of the alley and into High Street to meet up with a familiar, friendly face. He will hand you his key ring before skedaddling.

If you want, you can pick up another key from Locke’s hand on the left and use it on the gaudy chest nearby to get the true Secret of Monkey Island.

You don’t have to do this, though. It’s totally up to you how to end the game.

Chat to Elaine if you like, but you can’t leave until you’ve turned all the lights off. Use Stan’s key ring on all of the light switch levers around the place.

When you are ready, and only when you are ready, you can leave.

READ MORE

NEXT: Ron Gilbert And Dave Grossman Talk Monkey Island, Working With Disney, And Internet Toxicity