Mina the Hollower’s secret ending requirements are absolutely brutal

Mina the Hollower has a secret ending, which likely comes as no surprise. It’d be odd for a game with so many optional quests and bosses you can do in any order (or not at all) not to have some kind of alternate ending. In characteristic Mina fashion, though, getting this secret ending is tough. Maybe too tough, for me anyway.

[Ed note: This piece contains spoilers for the ending of Mina the Hollower.]

YouTuber ChickenSoup has spent the last few weeks digging into Mina the Hollower‘s secrets, like what happens when you equip all the Beastium trinkets. They recently stumbled on the ending after seeing what happens if you don’t give Lionel any reason to condemn Mina near the end. They posted a video outlining everything you can’t do based on those criteria, and there are a whole lot of can’ts.

We haven’t had time to test the method ourselves yet, as Mina‘s not a short game. However, ChickenSoup says anything Lionel can accuse Mina of is out. That includes:

• Sealing the Duke in the crypt
• Petting the old guy’s monster-dog in Sandfalls
• Kicking the can when the kids ask you to kick the can
• Defeating the Mock Moon
• Attacking the rabbit-monster when the kids ask you to attack the rabbit monster
• Using the train any time other than when you first visit Coltrane Peak
• Anything that harms another character, like jumping on the sentient leaf

You also can’t:

• View the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the start of the game
• Talk to Klumpy-Dee (that’s a bonus, in my book)
• Restore the Hollower Guild
• Get the fishing rod (if you’ve already obtained it, you can guess why)

And you need to rescue the three kids in Septemburg (which you should anyway, since you get a nice trinket for it), give bones to all the beggars who ask for help, and ask Cappy to accompany you after the ship crashes at the start.

The “don’t do this” list is basically most of Mina‘s side quests — and optional trinkets — out the window, then. Finishing the game that way is challenging, but doable. ChickenSoup found another prerequisite for getting Mina the Hollower‘s secret ending, though: You can’t destroy any lamp or candle. Otherwise, Lionel counts that as damaging the island, which good little unquestioning animal soldiers don’t do, apparently.

Damaging lamps never gets you anything. Busting a candelabra, however, is usually how you get new sidearms or joules, and the way they’re placed makes it very difficult not to accidentally smash one up in the middle of combat. I flail around in combat and tend to smash up everything without really trying, so this ending is probably not something I’ll ever achieve, even with modifiers.

If you do manage to make it through all this, though, Lionel’s friends won’t complain about how mean you are at the end, and Lionel asks you to join his crusade to make the world a better place (for him). Say yes to get a different credits sequence and a new post-credits scene.