Finding secrets in Mario games can be pretty tough, remember those tricky ghost house secret exits in Super Mario World that relied on you finding an invisible door that was activated by a P Switch? And in terms of hard to find secret exits, New Super Mario Bros 2 is even worse, the secrets are hidden in such a clever way that an unprepared gamer could be searching a ghost house for hours trying to find just one.
That’s where this guide comes in! Now, you’ll be able to find any secret exit in the game perfectly easily, all the better considering there’s no mark on the map distinguishing places with secret exits!
Table of Contents/Quick Navigation
- Tower 1
- Ghost House 2
- Tower 3
- 3-4
- Ghost House 3
- Ghost House 4
- Tower 4
- 5-1
- Ghost House 5
- 5-A
- Ghost House 6
- Mushroom 1
- Mushroom Ghost House
- Flower 1
- Flower Ghost House
- Where the secret exits lead
New to this game, the towers now mostly have secret exits! Also new to this game, they’re an utter pain in the ass to find due to the fact the levels are so cramped and because the game designers had to find extremely tricky locations to put them!
And world 1 tower’s secret exit is one of the worst of the lot.
So to find it, do the following. First of all, get to the midway point and go in the door just past it. See that hole in the right wall all the block snakes are going into?
Go in and keep going right. You’ll get sent to a room with a pipe, so exit and follow the path to find the red secret exit flag that opens up the world 1 cannon.
It’s a terrible secret to find considering how every other ‘hole’ in the wall in the entire level leads absolutely nowhere of interest and considering how most guides are incredibly vague about it. But hopefully the above description should make it much easier.
Another extremely tricky exit to find, this one is found in the Boohemoth chase and requires finding an invisible block with a vine in it.
So continue on with the chase until you get to the second star coin (where the platform lowers to let you into a small alcove with the coin). Just after it there’s a step and then a ghost house column to the right. There’s also a tiny two block gap between them.
Fall down the gap, and jump up at the left side of the gap to make a hidden block with a vine appear, then climb it to reach a room with a door. Go out the door and follow the path outside to a red secret exit flag.
This one requires more than a bit of courage to reach, since you have to reach the spike column room while Mini Mario and exit through a small pipe.
Go right at this part.
Basically, go up past the moving blocks and Fishbones at the start, and when the two blocks move up and away to let you past, quickly go right to find a Mini Mario only pipe. Go in, and follow the (tricky and still filled with enemies and obstacles) path to the secret exit.
That mini pipe leads to the secret exit.
The poison pond level right after the tower also has a secret, but this one’s a lot easier to find and reach. What you need to do is go all the way through the level until you reach the midway point and the rising poison water. Now, go all the way right, and you’ll eventually see a red pipe blocked off by some brick blocks.
See that red pipe? Secret exit is through there.
Wait until the deadly water is low, break the bricks and exit through the red pipe to find the secret exit flag. As you may have figured out, it’s best to bring a cape to this level if you want to get there easily, since timing a shell and quickly ducking under a smashed brick before the water kills you isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do.
Jeez, world 3 sure has a lot of secret exits! Must be the Forest of Illusion influence creeping in…
None the less, the ghost house also has one, which only works as a shortcut leading to the castle. And unlike most of the others, this one is obvious enough that some people may have even found it before the real exit!
Go into this passageway here. It’s simple enough.
Still, what you have to do is go all the way through the level until the last room, the one with the two ghost held lifts that move upwards. Stand on one of the two smaller ones to the left, and face away from the wall to lure out the Boo. When you see a gap, go in and then break the brick blocks to reach a door. Follow the path to the secret exit.
Then break the bricks to get in this door.
This one is a bit simpler. What you need to do is go to the long room with the two moving ‘Boo walls’, and keep going until you see a red ring. Now, wall jump up the two moving walls to a door, and enter it to reach the secret exit. This isn’t the hardest secret in the game to find, you can likely see the door from the ground anyway.
You will probably find this secret for yourself. Note the red ring, because that marks the spot.
This one however is probably going to be found due to sheer luck at best. First things first, you have to get all the way to the midway point, and enter the second part of the level.
See that ! marked pipe where you shoot fireballs into it to? Well the secret exit is a bit beyond this point. So follow the elevator up to a ledge with a massive Dry Piranha Plant and you’ll see a blue pipe to the left. Go in the blue pipe to find a secret room, then go up the pipe there to reach the secret exit. It’s a very, very well hidden secret given that the only hint to this pipe leading anywhere is the blue colouration, and the fact that the ledge below this looked just about identical.
See the pipe Mario is standing just next to? Go in there.
Did you know there was a ghost house in world 5? Well there is, and this secret exit takes you there.
But finding it is insanely tricky. What you need to do is play through the level til you reach the midway point, and keep going until you see a star coin under a rope. See that Yellow Block and a rope suspended high in the air above it? Jump under there, then jump upwards in the middle of the rope to make a secret block appear with a vine. Climb up.
Oh, this is the star coin bonus area? Err… sort of.
You see, the developers were really, really sneaky here. They hid the secret exit IN the bonus room! No kidding.
So jump across the Paratroopas and you’ll reach a rope next to a high wall of multi coloured cubes/blocks. Jump around on this rope to find a secret block with a vine near the middle of the rope.
Here’s where to find the secret within the secret room.
Go up the vine to find a ledge, and then drop down between two walls to reach the other side of the large wall you saw earlier. There are lots of Paratroopas moving around here, so jump across their heads to reach the secret exit flag.
If you end up here, you’re going the right way to the secret exit.
Another tricky secret exit, with an alternate path needed that’s almost as long as the main one. First of all, go to the pendulum in the first room.
When it swings to the right, jump around and you’ll find a secret block with a vine. Climb up, then go up the stairs to the door.
This hidden block is usually a pain to find.
This takes you to another room, complete with more pendulum and ropes to swing on. Cross the room (avoiding the Swoopers/bats as best you can), then when you reach the Big Boo hit the switch and exit through the door to the top right.
This will lead you outside, so climb the pole and swing on the rope towards the secret exit flag.
And the secret level accessed from the last secret exit has it’s own secret exit? Yep.
Here though, it’s much easier to ‘find’. Just ride the airship all the way to the end, and then hit the blocks near the flag. A vine will appear, so climb it up to a new area, then head right to reach the secret exit flag.
You can get high enough to reach the block with the vine by either bringing the springboard or just becoming Raccoon Mario and flying up.
This level is a hellish maze when you’re trying to find the real exit, and the secret exit is even worse.
So what you need to do is as follows:
Keep going until you reach the room with the Big Boo right next to the entrance. Now, go right and go in the door as usual to end up near a switch.
Go back in this door.
However, don’t go left. Instead, go back into the door you went in before to end up in the Big Boo room near the same switch you were at earlier. Go all the way right until the end of the room, where you’ll see another Big Boo.
Yes, this area is actually made of two seperate rooms, and going in the door above switches what room you’re in.
Here, lure it away and hit the switch that’s behind it to make part of the wall drop down and reveal a door.
This leads to a room with a switch and moving walls. Hit it to make the walls move and go up to reach the third star coin, then keep wall jumping upwards to find a hidden door.
It’s hard enough to get here. None the less, keep wall jumping past the star coin.
Go through it to end up outside, and go right to find the secret exit flag.
Much easier to find than many other exits, although still requires locating a hidden block. What you need to do is the following:
Go right all the way past the midway point, until you reach two high columns of walkthrough blocks and a Koopa. Bounce off the Koopa and get to the top of the right column, and jump while in the centre of it to make two hidden blocks appear, one of which has a vine. Go up the vine and right to reach the secret exit flag.
A simple secret exit this time around, proceed through the level as normal until you reach the ? switch that needs to be pressed to make a star coin appear. Now, go right from there and into the door to find the secret exit.
This one’s easy. The switch you need to press is only across that small gap.
The sunset level’s secret exit however is actually pretty ingeniusly hidden. To find it, keep going through the level until you find a yellow pipe with two ? blocks floating above it. Hit the right side one and it becomes a winged block, so jump on top of it and ride it along.
Ride this winged block to the line of coins.
This will end up pulling Mario high into the sky, so in the area you end up just head over to the right across the snake blocks to find the secret exit.
The final secret is easy to find. Go to the top of the first room, and after you get the Star from the block, just hold right while falling to enter the passage to the right that’s halfway down. Go through to reach the secret exit flag.
Finally, here’s a list of where each secret exit in the game will take you.
- World 1 Tower -> World 1 Cannon
- World 2 Ghost House -> World 2B
- World 3 Tower -> World 3 Cannon
- World 3-4 -> World 3B
- World 3 Ghost House -> World 3 Castle
- World 4 Ghost House -> World 4B
- World 4 Tower -> World 4C
- World 5-1 -> World 5 Ghost House
- World 5 Ghost House -> World 5A
- World 5A -> Green Mushroom House
- World 6 Ghost House -> World 6A
- Mushroom 1 -> Mushroom A
- Mushroom Ghost House -> Mushroom B
- Flower 1 -> Flower A
- Flower Ghost House -> Flower B
That should be all the secret exits in the game, so I hope that answers everyone’s questions in regards to how to get all the secret exits. If you’re still having trouble, either comment below or ask on the Gaming Reinvented Discord server for more help!
1 Comment
Is “Seperate” a word? Can you just stop making typos on major pages?