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DK loves big metal bananas in Donkey Kong Bananza, and the prologue of the game has the big ape searching an underground mine for big banana gems. Bananas are your main collectible in Bananza, and if you’re lost or confused in the opening moments of this very different DK game, we’ve got you covered with all the banana locations you’re looking for. You can’t escape the mine until you’ve found all the bananas — but only three of them count toward your total score as you progress through the rest of the story.
How To Play | Starting Controls
Donkey Kong Bananza is a game about destruction — and the starting stage is all about digging. You’ll need to quickly learn the basics of movement to fully explore the Ancient Cave mines and collect all four banana gems.
To dig, you’ll need to punch in different directions. The punches are mapped to the buttons on your controller in a novel way — the top button attacks up, the bottom button attacks down, and the middle button attacks forward.
- Basic Controls:
- Punch Forward: Press [Y]
- Punch Upward: Press [X]
- Punch Downward: Press [B]
- Jump: Press [A]
With the basic controls understood, you’ll be able to explore the starting mine and get all four bananas.
Where To Find Banana Gems | SL1 Ancient Cave
Banana #1: At the start of the game, DK begins his search in the mine. This is a short tutorial section so you can’t miss any of the bananas — but there’s one straight ahead. Look for the big pearlescent crystal banana!
Banana #2: The next crystal is straight ahead. You’ll learn the punch command — press [Y] to punch forward — and smash through to the mining area full of monkeys. To the left and forward, there’s a conveyor belt moving dirt. Run through the conveyor to reach the second big banana.
Banana #3: The third banana is deeper in the ancient cave. Use the new downward smash command — press [B] to dig down — and reach the Ancient Cave area of SL1. Down here, move forward until you reach even more bananas and learn the hand slap for collecting lots of gold bananas. Ahead you’ll also find a buried metronome. Attack it to reveal the location of nearby buried banana gem.
Banana #4: Using another smash stone to destroy the cave wall, continue into the cave full of golden insect gunk covering the walls. Even the bugs are carrying gold! Destroy them and keep going up to the last big banana. Grabbing it initiates a cutscene that sends DK all the way down to sublayer 10, down into the deepest caverns.
Unfortunately, the last banana can’t be collected here. DK will try to grab it, but it won’t go to the rest of your score. You’ll only get x3 Crystal Bananas for completing this short tutorial, but they carry over for the rest of the game.
