Yooka-Laylee guide and walkthrough - tips for finding collectables and unlocking worlds in the retro-styled platformer

Our complete guide for the open-world adventure's many bosses and hidden items.

Guide by Chris Tapsell Deputy Editor

Updated on May 19, 2021

Yooka-Laylee, the 3D platforming spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, is finally here, and alongside the nostalgic 90s throwbacks of open world hopping and barmy anthropomorphised objects as characters comes a huge amount to do.

In our Yooka-Laylee guide and walkthrough we'll be taking you through the general structure of the game - including how to unlock each world - alongside some of our best general tips and where to find every main Yooka-Laylee collectable.

Yooka-Laylee walkthrough tips, and how to unlock each world

Before we dive into our more general tips for making your life easier in Yooka-Laylee, here's a rundown of how the game's structure works, and how to get around.

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Your main goal is to collect Pagies. Funnily enough, it's never really made clear to you exactly what your objective is at any given time. When in doubt though, it's this: collect Pagies. You'll need them to unlock new worlds, or expand your the ones you've already unlocked with new areas full of other collectibles and bosses. Ultimately, everything you do should be a means for you to collect more Pagies!

Hivory Towers is the Hub World. Again, this is a pretty simple one but worth noting. Returning back to the hub world means returning to Hivory Towers, which weirdly enough also seems to be the lair of your main enemy. All of the new Great Tomes are unlocked here, as are expansions to your worlds, too.

How to unlock each world

Finding the many Great Tomes to unlock each world is one of the more obtuse elements of the game, so here's where to find each one.

1. Tribalstack Tropics - Once you are in the room with the giant gold statue, facing it head on, go onward and right up the slopes, until you reach a giant book. Interact with this to enter the first world.

2. Glitterglaze Glacier - Head back to the room with the giant gold statue, and head up the platforms at the side to a door at the very top. After the quiz, take a right, chat to Trowser to learn a new move, glide over to the ledge and head round to the snowy area, where the Great Tome is.

3. Moodymaze Marsh - Head back to where you spoke to Trowser last (near where Rextro's Arcades are in the hub) to see a door. Turn left as if you were returning to the gold statue room, then go right down the alley and slurp up the ice seed from the planet. Use it to open the door.

In the Archives, chat to Trowser to learn another move, then go into the central water tank to open the way onward. In the next sewer area, you must swim to the far end, under the left doorway, and then up the ledges to the Great Tome.

4. Capital Cashino - Once you have the ability to use your tongue to pull up onto ledges, you can reach the platforms opposite the Moodymaze Marsh Great Tome. Drop down and enter the passageway to a new area. Go ahead and chat to Trowser for a move that lets you go invisible to get past the door sensor. Continue onward and then right to reach Capital Cashino.

5. Galleon Galaxy - Inside the latest part of the hub where you find Capital Cashino, and where you went left to the door sensor, go right and Trowser is waiting in front of toxic waste to teach you a final flying move. Fly over the river of toxic waste to another new location high above. Here on the left, after a locked gate, is the Grand Tome.

Note that each world requires an increased number of Pagies to unlock and then subsequently expand, and by the end, you'll need a total of 100 Pagies to take on the last boss.

Also be aware that you don't need to defeat the boss of each world to continue. It's inconsistent, but either extending the world, buying all the currently available moves, triggering and / or defeating the world's boss will open the way to the next world in the hub. (And if Trowser isn't there to help, it means you have more to do.)

So if you're stuck and can't continue, get as far as you can and try and unlock the next area - doing so allows you to buy a few more moves and unlock some additional Pagies.

Meanwhile, though we won't be providing an exhaustive list and location of every Pagie, here are highlights from some in the early game.

Yooka-Laylee guides and collectables

Bosses:

Here are strategies to take down each boss located at the end of each extended world.

Collectables:

Here are complete lists of where to find every collectable and upgrade (bar Pagies and Quills, which run into three and four figures respectively) across the hub and each world.

Yooka-Laylee tips and tricks

For a game that, at times, is at great pains to explain the most basic of skills to you - instructions on how to jump, crouch, and all the usual basic inputs are detailed in length - there are some surprisingly oblique mechanics.

Everything from how the worlds are structured (there's no map, for example) to what your actual purpose is within them is left pretty much entirely down to you, and at times it can feel a little like wandering around free of direction.

Part of that is, of course, down to the game's intended purpose of bringing back the 90s platforming genre - things were different back then, in the good ol' days - but some of it is just unclear.

There are also some general best practices and bits of advice we've picked up from our travels through the various worlds that don't fit directly into any of the specific guides above, so with that in mind, here are our best tips and tricks for Yooka-Laylee:

When stuck, think in terms of abilities - if there's a Pagie just out of reach, or a puzzle that just seems completely unsolvable, it's probably because you don't have the right abilities yet. One of the first things you want to do in a new world is find Trowzer and see what abilities he has for sale. Then, you'll know if that awkward Pagie can be reached with one of the current world's abilities, or if you'll need to come back for it later on with something else unlocked.
Buy every ability - speaking of abilities, you'll want to buy every one you can. There are generally enough Quills in each world to buy all of the abilities there, at least in our experience so far, and you're going to need every ability at one point or another. Prioritise, of course, but aim to buy every one before you move on to the next world, or you'll only regret having to make the trek back to unlock it again down the line.
Jank-jump your way up everything possible - Being an open-ish platformer, Yooka-Laylee lets you jump up pretty much anything. If you can find a way to just about cling onto a ledge and get another jump doing, it's probably worth a go. We found plenty of secrets this way, so try to reach every inch of the map by jumping your way up it.
Explore, explore, explore - Again, speaking of which, the best philosophy to have here is one of exploration. There are all kinds of secrets and treats hidden away in Yooka-Laylee's many worlds, and most of them you'll never find without a proper sense of discovery. Try your best to find every nook and cranny possible, and if there's something seemingly out of reach, there's bound to be a move you'll find later to help you get there.

Make a note of what the world looks like before expanding - the 'expansion' mechanic is an interesting one, as it often causes some pretty significant changes in the world. Because there's no map however, all you have for documenting what's new and what isn't is your memory, so climb up to a high point early on in a new world and drink it all in, so you know exactly what new areas to explore once you expand it outwards.
Quills don't always lead somewhere, but you should always collect them - Often, Quills will act as breadcrumb trails in Yooka-Laylee, but not always. That doesn't mean you shouldn't collect them though! Trouzer charges Quills for skills, after all, and you're likely to need all the abilities you can get as you progress, so grab every Quill in sight and spend them as soon as you can to make your life easier.
There is a secret collectable type to be found: As well as the many different upgrades and items that are catalogued in the game's status screen, there is one additional type of pick-up hidden away. These are Pirate Treasures, which are cleverly hidden away and almost always require a late-game move to find. Our Pirate Treasure locations page can help you hunt them down, whenever you're ready.

Finally, it's worth commenting on the collectibles in Yooka-Laylee. It's an oddly-structured game, with the core loop essentially revolving around collecting things so you can collect more things... so you can collect more things! Your best bet is to stick the advice we gave just above: exploring and collecting everything you can by any means necessary.

The more you do so, the better chance you'll have of progressing through quickly and easily to the end game. Good luck!

Additional reporting by Matthew Reynolds.