By the time you get to Part 5 of Return to Monkey Island, the game is almost at its climax. LeChuck has stolen the final locked box that holds the Secret of Monkey Island while Guybrush and Elaine race to make it back to the island and steal the secret back.
The following guide details puzzle solutions for those playing the game on Hard Mode, but, fret not, you can still use it if you’re playing on Casual Mode as the general structure of the game and its puzzles are the same between both difficulties. If you are running through the game on Casual Mode, you may notice additional steps for solving puzzles listed below. Since they don’t apply to you as you’re playing the game with simpler puzzles, just ignore the steps and continue with the guide where things start applying to you.
More Return to Monkey Island guides:
| Casual Mode or Hard Mode? | Prelude – Hard Mode Walkthrough | Part 1 – Hard Mode Walkthrough | Part 2 – Hard Mode Walkthrough | Part 3 – Hard Mode Walkthrough | Part 4 – Hard Mode Walkthrough |
As soon as you start the chapter, you’ll be locked into a conversation with Elaine as you two rush to Monkey Island after LeChuck and his crew. Talk with her and you’ll eventually find yourself at the giant monkey head. You’ll be ambushed by one of the pirate leaders and Elaine will tell you to go on without her as she’ll handle the pirate. Guybrush climbs into the giant monkey head and into the depths below.
Find LeChuck
Once you get separated from Elaine, you’ll have control over Guybrush. Walk to the right of the area and you’ll find Wally in chains hanging over a pit of lava. You can talk to him, but he won’t offer much new information as to what’s going on. You’ll notice that you can use items on his shackles, but you won’t be able to set him free yet. Continue walking along the winding path.
As you continue along, you’ll run into Flambe who will warn you about LeChuck. Once you’re done talking with him, continue along the path until you reach the end. Jump to your certain lava death, trust me, you’ll be fine.
See? You were fine! Continue along the only path forward and you’ll find yourself in a room with multiple doors.
Get through the sealed stone door
Upon reading the sign on the giant stone door, you’ll find out that “only the organized pirate will pass.” Head through the door on the left. Once inside, you’ll find a giant statue of a monkey and a parrot. Pick up the pebble on the ground in front of it. Now, take a look at the monkey statue.
NOTE: It seems as though the stone coin pebbles in this section and the next may have different spawn points that vary from game to game, so just keep an eye out and make sure to grab two on the first floor of statue puzzles and three on the second floor.
You’ll notice that the monkey’s hand is open. Go into your inventory and use your crackers on it and you’ll jump up and place them in the monkey’s hand. Once you’ve done that, head through the door on the left.
Now, you’ll be in front of another monkey statue, but this one is described as being frustrated. It looks like it’s frozen in a stabbing motion, but doesn’t have a blade. Open your inventory and give your knife to it. Head to the next room on the left.
In this room, the statue is of a squinting monkey. Before interacting with it, however, grab the coin that’s in the bottom right corner of the area. Now, give the monkey your double monocle and head through the door on your left.
Here, you’ll find a jolly monkey statue. It looks like it should have a drink in its hand so go into your inventory and give it your empty grog mug. As soon as you do, you’ll see a cutscene where the sealed stone door opens. Once you have control again, head to the left and you’ll find yourself in the starting room with the now opened stone door.
With the door open, walk down the stairs. At the bottom, LeChuck will close a second door in your face.
Get through the second stone door
You’ll encounter similar puzzles in this section. The sign on the door now reads “only the observant pirate will pass.” Grab the pebble on the floor and then head through the right passage this time.
You’ll find yourself in a room with a monkey statue holding a large treasure chest. Ignore it for now and grab the stone coin on the right side of the room. Leave through the right side door and you’ll be faced with another monkey statue holding a treasure chest. Grab the stone coin to the right of the statue and then go through the door on your right.
Give the monkey with the smallest treasure chest in the room you just entered one of your pebbles. Head to the left and give the first swab monkey two stone coins. Go through the left door again and give the Captain Monkeybeard statue the remaining two stone coins and the final coin in your coin purse.
After you distribute all the pebbles, you’ll see a cutscene where the stone door opens. Head through the left door and you’ll be back in the room with the now open door. Walk through it. After watching a quick cutscene, one final locked door will slam shut.
Get through the third stone door
The sign on this door ominously says “only the bloodthirsty pirate will pass.” Before heading into any of the rooms, go up to the first round of monkey statue puzzles and take back your knife and mug from the statues as you’ll need them to complete the puzzles on the third level. With those in hand, return to the third floor of puzzles and go through the passage on the right.
Stab the sad monkey statue with your knife. After you do, it’ll start leaking oil onto a drain on the floor. Pull out your mug and use it to collect some of the oil. Now, head to the passage on the right.
Use your knife on the next monkey statue and then head to the right once more.
The final statue is broken and can’t be stabbed, so it can’t leak oil into the drain. Instead, take out your full mug and drain it onto the grate in front of the statue. Once you do, the door leading to LeChuck will open. Head back to the left and to the area with the now-open third door and walk through it.
Solve the code wheel
Approach the code wheel puzzle that’s blocking the door that LeChuck and the pirate leader ran through in an earlier cutscene. There are three ways to interact with it: moving the outer wheel, moving the inner wheel, and changing the date in the center.
You won’t be able to solve the puzzle without the proper context, however. Head down the stairs you just came up and follow the path leading to the bottom right. At the end of it, you’ll find a stone slab to read. Examine it. It reads:
After four extra years out at sea,
their peg legs grew weak in the knees,
three steps right but two left,
till they fell off the deck and they met Davy Jones for some tea.
The slab’s information is useful, but you’ll need one more crucial piece of information before starting on the puzzle. You’ll notice that the code wheel has different faces on it that can be made by turning the outer and inner wheels and a date in the center. In order to solve the puzzle, you’ll need to find which face and date to start with.
Return to the first floor of the monkey statue puzzles you solved earlier. Look above the door leading downstairs and you’ll see a drawing of what the top part of the face should look like. Go downstairs to the second level and you’ll see the drawing of the bottom half of the face above the stairs leading down. Head to the third level of puzzles and you’ll find a date written above the door.
Memorize these three elements (they change from game to game so I can’t tell you exactly what you need to input) and then return to the code puzzle.
Set the wheels so that the face pieces you saw above the doors are set at the top of the wheel and then put the date from above the final door into the center area. With all that in place, you’re going to apply the information from the stone slab.
Interact with the date code four times (“four extra years at sea.”) Then interact with the inner wheel three times (“three steps right…”) and the outer wheel twice (“…and two steps left.”) Once all of that is inputted properly, the door will open. Walk through it.
NOTE: Obviously, spoilers for the end of the game from here on out.
The End
Once you go through the door, you’ll inexplicably find yourself in the back alley of High Street on Melee Island. You’ll have a few different options for the ending of the game. If you’re looking to see them all, make a manual save as soon as you step through the puzzle door and into the alley. There are a handful of endings that you can see (guide incoming,) but they all boil down to what you choose to do at the end.
To see one ending, exit the alleyway and get the key ring from Stan, then walk back through the alleyway door into the lava area beneath the Giant Monkey Head. Walk up the stairs to the monkey statue puzzles and you’ll eventually be able to see a prompt that says “deny what I thought I saw downstairs and return to the world I know.” If you select it, the game will be over and cut to credits.
Head home with Elaine
To see the rest of the endings, use the keyring on all of the light switches to turn them off and then leave the area with Elaine either after having opened the chest that the mechanical LeChuck has on the left side of the area with the key in the hands of the mechanical version of Locke Smith or go directly to Elaine without having unlocked the chest.
Once you leave, you’ll watch a final cutscene where Guybrush tells his son what was “actually” in the chest. This final choice is up to you and will dictate the ending that you get. After you answer, you’ll be done with the game and see a short post-credits scene depending on which answer you chose when talking with your son.
