Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back Trophy Guide & Roadmap

After unlocking the blue gem start the third level “Hang Eight” (Warp Room 1). The Blue Gem opens up an alternate path in this mission. Look for the colored gem platform in this level and step on it.

For example, one Death Route can be found in the level “Air Crash” (Warp Room 2). That’s also the earliest chance to get the trophy.

Air Crash is a level in Warp Room 2. Shortly after the start of the level you are supposed to use a surfboard in a water section. Do NOT jump on the surfboard (first surfboard of this level). Instead, look for a stone platform on the right side of the water. Jump on the floating crates to get to the stone platform. This will instantly complete the level and count as a secret exit. It may take a few tries to do the jumps perfectly but at least it’s very early in the level so you can get there quickly if you lost all lives.

Bear Down is a level in Warp Room 3. In this level you will be riding a polar bear. At the very end of the level the bear throws you over a pool of water to the exit. With your back facing the exit, look for some platforms in the pool of water. Quickly jump over those platforms to the hidden exit on the other end of the pool. Be careful, the platforms will disappear after 2-3 seconds so you need to jump fast.

Diggin’ It is a level in Warp Room 4. After the death route rejoins with the default path you’ll come to a pit with two plants firing projectiles at you. Jump on enemy plant that’s on the little platform in the middle of the pit. You must do a body slam (press Cirlce midair) to kill it. This will instantly trigger the secret exit.

Un-Bearable is a level in Warp Room 3. At the very end of the level you’ll be riding a polar bear while a bigger bear is chasing after you. Once the small bear throws you off his back you will be standing in front of the level exit. Turn around and slide-jump back the way you came. Press Circle to slide and X to jump. You must time it perfectly to jump right off the edge. It can be a tricky jump to make. The small polar bear will be sitting on the ground. Go to him, the secret exit triggers when touching the bear.

Hangin’ Out is a level in Warp Room 4. After dropping through the second hole in this level you will be in a room with bright blue water (can walk in it) and a checkpoint crate. After activating the checkpoint, turn around and walk through the pool of water until you reach the end of the area. There’s another hole n the ground. Drop through it and you’ll be in a room with lava and drones. Get past the drones and you’ll automatically land in the secret exit.

There are a total of 42 Gems in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, divided into two types of Gems:

Colored Gems (5 total)

Obtained by doing certain actions in the following missions:

• Blue: Turtle Woods (Warp Room 1) – complete level without breaking any boxes (in the part with two boxes stacked together, jump on the one with the metal bars because it doesn’t break from a single jump)!
• Red: Snow Go (Warp Room 1) – first you must find the secret exit in level “Air Crash” (see trophy “Jumping the Jetboard”). When you do it teleports you to the warp room in the basement. From here go through the portal to level “Snow Go” which contains the red gem. Please note: starting “Snow Go” from Warp Room 1 does not work. It has to be through the portal in the basement, which only unlocks after you did the “Jumping the Jetboard” trophy.
• Green: The Eel Deal (Warp Room 2) – About 40 seconds into the level the path splits up. Take the right path into the room with lots of Nitro Boxes. There’s a fake wall at the end of the room that you can walk through. This leads to a secret route with the Green Gem at the end of it.
• Yellow: Plant Food (Warp Room 3) – speedrun the level before time runs out – the timer starts after the second checkpoint.
• Purple: Bee-having (Warp Room 4) – About halfway through the level you see some nitro boxes stacked together that look like stairs. Jump on the nitro boxes and they will warp you to a secret route. Complete the route for the Gem.

Clear Gems (37 total)

Obtained by:

• Destroying all boxes in a level (dying is allowed). In some missions you need colored gems, they open up new paths to boxes that are otherwise inaccessible! You must also destroy the boxes in bonus levels! If a level has a bonus round it always contains boxes. The bonus levels are triggered by standing on the “?” platforms which are in plain sight. Three levels (Air Crash, Snow Go, Road to Ruin) have an alternate entrance through the Warp Room in the basement. These alternate entrances lead to more boxes that must be destroyed.
• From Death Paths. During levels you will see platforms with a skull & bones sign. They can only be activated if you haven’t lost a life during the level! If you died you can only see the outline of a platform and not the skull & bones symbol. Get to the platform without dying. During some Death Paths you’ll run into Gems.
• From Colored Gem Paths. Not all, but some of them contain a clear gem. After collecting a colored gem you can trigger a colored platform in some levels. These platforms lead to new paths that contain boxes and in rare occassions a clear gem of their own.
• In Level 3 a clear gem is obtained from beating the timer that triggers just before using the first surf board.

The following levels have Death Paths:

• Air Crash
• Road to Run
• Diggin’ It
• Cold Hard Crash
• Piston It Away
• Night Fight

Some levels contain more than one Clear Gem due to the combination of all boxes + death path gems / colored gem paths. If a mission has only 1 gem it will be from destroying all boxes. If it has 2 gems that means there’s one from destroying all boxes + one from the death path or colored gem path (level 3 is special, it has a clear gem from beating a timer that triggers automatically).

It’s important that you get all the colored gems first. Without them you can’t get some of the boxes. The gems are mission rewards rather than collectibles.

See Crash Bandicoot 2 Gems Guide for a more in-depth breakdown of each level’s collectibles.

There are a total of 27 Relics in the game. Relics are rewards from doing speedruns / time trials. When you finish a mission in record time you earn a relic. There are 3 possible ratings depending on how fast you are: sapphire (slow), gold (good), platinum (best).

It is highly recommended that you wait with this until after beating the story. The final boss drops the “speed shoes” which make you run much faster! Without this upgrade it’s impossible to beat some of the target times.

Luckily, you only need all gold relics and not the platinum ones. It’s still going to be the hardest trophy in the game. To beat the required times you must finish the mission as quickly as possible, which means you can’t die and must get time crates along the way. The time crates will freeze the clock for a few seconds. Focusing on not dying is often better than going at full speed. You can slow down and still earn a gold relic as long as you collect the time crates and stay alive.

Please note that the time trials only unlock after beating a level for the first time. You will then find a stopwatch at the start of the level. Pick it up to start the timer. After completing a level you can press L1 while standing in front of it to see the relic target times (please note that pressing L1 shows the times for all 3 relics, pressing R1 shows only the times for the next best one).

Also see List of Target Times for Gold Relics

I pressed Circle to boost, then X to jump. The enemies were holding up their ice blocks and I was boost-jumping into it. Afterward I fell into the icy water and the trophy popped.

This can only be done in a new game before collecting your first crystal. Each level requires you to find a crystal for Cortex and once you do he no longer gets angry.

Step 1: From the title screen, start a new game. You can keep all existing save games, simply select the option “Disable Auto Save” and nothing will be lost.

Step 2: In the first Warp Room start & quit any level 3 times in a row. Once the level is loaded, press the Options-Button to pause and select ‘Quit’. It will immediately end the level without having to make any progress. Each time you do this Cortex will remind you of the crystals that you are must find for him. He will get angrier each time. After quitting 3 levels (can be the same level each time) the trophy will unlock!

Important: Never complete a level / never pick up a purple crystal! After collecting the first crystals the trophy no longer works and you’d have to start a new game again.

Technically, this trophy is missable. But since it can be done in a new game within 5 minutes at any time it really doesn’t matter when you do it. I want to point out again that no progress is lost when starting a new game, so you can do this whenever you want. You don’t have to make any progress in the game to do this. Thereby it’s not really ‘missable’.

Lives can be found from many boxes. They will drop a crash bandicoot icon that you can pick up for an extra life. These boxes show up in many places throughout the levels so you’ll run into them very frequently. You must have 99 lives at the same time. In the bottom right it says how many lives you have. So basically: keep going for a long time without dying too often.

You also earn a life when 100 apples have been collected. Destroy all boxes you come across and pick up the apples.

It’s possible to farm lives by repeating the same level over and over again and collecting all apples & extra lives in it. The fastest way to farm is in level Bee-Having (Warp Room 4). At the first checkpoint box, before an electric trap, you can find a bee-hive. Stand in front of the hive. When the bees spawn, slide-attack (Circle + Square) into the hive to kill the bees instantly. It takes a little bit of practice to get the timing down. When all the bees die it gives you an extra life. What’s best is that they keep respawning infinitely every few seconds. So you can farm 99 lives within 7 minutes here. Even if you die the checkpoint is just a few steps away.