Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze - All Puzzle Pieces, Secret Exits & Kong Letters

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The music just keeps getting better in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze — we’re entering one of the best worlds in the game, the unmistakable Bright Savannah. This rhythmic island is where things get really interesting, and the levels get a little bit harder. The collectibles can get pretty tricky to find at this point — and there’s even a cheat with the Secret Exit. One level has two Secret Exits at the same time! It’s really easy to miss.

But we’ve got everything you need to know right here. If you’re new to the game, here’s where to find all the KONG letters, Puzzle Pieces, and Secret Exits. The Secret Exits and the KONG letters are the most important things you’ll want to find in each level — optional secret exits will immediately unlock additional levels, while the KONG letters unlock the temple. Complete the temple in every area to get mystic artifacts that unlock a totally new world. It’s totally worth the extra challenge.

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All Puzzle Pieces, Secret Exits & Kong Letters | World 3: Bright Savannah

There are four K-O-N-G letters in each stage, and a variable number of puzzle pieces. Finding all the KONG letters will unlock bonus stages in the world.

Puzzle pieces unlock additional concept art in the “Extras” menu. Puzzle pieces are often in secret areas, rewarded for completing bonus areas, or given when collecting certain bunches of bananas.

Secret Exits are special exits to levels that take you to new, completely unique levels. If you’re missing a level in the world, it’s because you need to find a secret exit.

3-1: Grassland Groove

Puzzle Piece #1: After jumping across the bopping elephant platforms, climb the first tree. On the upper branch, after landing on it, a banana fairy will spawn. Grab all the bananas to make a puzzle piece appear.
K Letter: Passing by the bobbing trees, you’ll reach a lengthy field. Clear the grass here — use the platform to get enough height to reach the K Letter.
Puzzle Piece #2: After the first checkpoint, cross the bobbing platform with the spike roller and reach the dry land with the tree. Clear the tall grass and pull the plug.
Puzzle Piece #3: When you reach the platforms beneath climbable green grass on the ceiling, reach the second patch of grass and climb up / left to find a hidden fruit. Open it to get the piece.
Puzzle Piece #4: Right after that, while using the grass to cross a long gap, look down for an optional barrel cannon. Drop into it to get launched and recover the missing puzzle piece.
Puzzle Piece #5: Launching into the background and hitting a checkpoint near the animal cut-outs, go left and clear the tiny island’s tall grass.
O Letter: It appears after the second checkpoint, while crossing the animal puppets.
Puzzle Piece #6: After the O Letter, you’ll jump onto a Zebra and ride it. Don’t jump into the cannon yet — collect all the bananas here to make a piece appear.
Puzzle Piece #7: Bust through the giraffe, and you’ll land on another area with green platforms. Reach the top one and grab all the bananas.
N Letter: Straight ahead from the puzzle piece. Use the same platform to jump to the top of the animal-faced platform.
Puzzle Piece #8: On the second animal-face, clear the brush on the under-side to make a giraffe pole appear. Climb up to find a mini-game cannon.
Puzzle Piece #9: At the second snake platform, chase the banana fairy and grab all the bananas that appear.
G Letter: Between the two snake platforms, above a fat owl enemy.

3-2: Baobab Bonanza

Puzzle Piece #1: At the flower platform, collect all the spinning bananas in front of the dual waterfalls.
K Letter: Found right past the puzzle piece. Bounce off the walrus to get it.
Puzzle Piece #2: At the extremely tall flower stalk, pull the plug to make more flowers bloom. Use the right-most flower to throw an enemy at the target door, unlocking a mini-game.
O Letter: Past the first checkpoint, at the bottom of the hill with the endless rolling spike fruit.
Puzzle Piece #3: Up the hill from the letter, pull the plug on the path. It can be tricky with all the rolling spiky fruit.
Puzzle Piece #4: At the top of the hill, look up at the source of the spikes. There’s a rock platform where the fruits are falling from — use the green tree branch to reach the top of the stone platform to find a hidden piece.
N Letter: Above a burning owl enemy. Wait for it to fire, then slide to the bottom of the swinging vine.
Puzzle Piece #5: At the triple waterfall, land on a flower and wait for a bubble containing a bushel of bananas to float down. Collect all the banana bubbles before they scroll off screen to earn a piece.
Puzzle Piece #6: Up another hill of rolling fruit, look for a closed fruit near a tower platform. Open it up to make a puzzle piece appear.
G Letter: During the giant fruit escape sequence, rush ahead and jump to the climbable grass wall. Go down to the bottom to get this letter.
Puzzle Piece #7: Right above the last letter. Climb up and grab it before the wall crumbles. It only appears after you’ve picked up all the bananas on the path.

3-3: Frantic Fields

Puzzle Piece #1: Grab Rambi, then backtrack to the rhino block next to the spike floor. Bust through to find a mini-game door.
Puzzle Piece #2: Past the next tornado, stay on the spikes until you can break through another big rhino block.
K Letter: Above another spike floor, this one you can’t miss — just use the nearby tornado to get enough vertical height.
O Letter: On the platforms that sway up and down, avoid the lightning and jump up on the third platform to get this letter.
Puzzle Piece #3: In the area with all the enemies flying around because of the high winds, look for a floor plug to pull.
N Letter: In the area with the strong winds and burning debris, wait next to the swaying flags until the N Letter flies by.
Puzzle Piece #4: After landing in the heart of the tornado, go left to find a single puzzle piece on a tiny island.
Puzzle Piece #5: Keep going right and watch out for a mini-game cannon barrel flying in the sky. When you spot it, jump in and complete the challenge.
G Letter: Don’t lose Rambi! Keep him until you find this letter floating above a long spiked floor. With Rambi, you can just stomp on those spikes.

3-4: Scorch ‘n’ Torch

Puzzle Piece #1: In the burning brush, use the swinging vines to jump over, then grab the water fruit. Put out the bushes to the left, then sweep with a roll to reveal a hidden piece.
K Letter: High up on a tree branch after crossing the first burning pit.
Puzzle Piece #2: On the tree that crumples into the fire, keep jumping until you reach the top branch.
Puzzle Piece #3: Continue until you find a burning bush on a trap door. Put out the fire and stomp the door to enter a mini-game.
Puzzle Piece #4: On the smoldering floor, put out the surface and grab the plug.
O Letter: Visible up high above a burning floor. Rush past the floor before it gets too hot, then grab water fruit and put out the swinging vine to your left.
N Letter: On another tree that starts to crumble, stay on it until the tree to your right also falls. Wait until you can jump onto a branch and ride it down to the letter.
Puzzle Piece #5: Just past the letter, stay on the third tree until you can see the piece at the top when it falls.
G Letter: Move forward until you see the letter below the burning trees that drop fireballs.
Puzzle Piece #6: Right past the G Letter, grab a water fruit and use it to put out the fire on the tree trunk that blocks a mini-game entrance.
Puzzle Piece #7: At the end of the level, run past the exit barrel and clear the brush to find a hidden piece.

3-5: Twilight Terror

Puzzle Piece #1: Dive into the first water of the level and swim to the left to find a hidden mini-game door.
K Letter: At the end of the first big banana bonanza at the start of the rocket barrel flying sequence.
Puzzle Piece #2: When you see the banana coin followed by a string of single bananas — grab them all, and the coin, to make the piece appear.
O Letter: Stay low and fly under the rock arch.
Puzzle Piece #3: Following the giant monster fish, stay low — when it dives, there’s a puzzle piece under another arch.
Puzzle Piece #4: When you fly under the giant fishing nets, quickly go up to get this puzzle piece above a smaller net.
N Letter: About two smaller nets to the right of the previous puzzle piece. As long as you’re still high up, you’ll be able to easily collect it.
G Letter: After flying through the fishery, watch the fish that bounce up with bubbles. In the last bubble, you’ll find this letter.
Puzzle Piece #5: After diving into the water and exiting the rocket barrel, stick to the right cave wall and open the clamshell. It’s below the normal level exit.
Secret Exit: Take Dixie to the end of the level, and then use her to fight the current at the bottom of the lake, far below the normal level exit. It’s deep underwater, in the bottom-right corner.
Secret Exit: The other secret exit is accessed from the rocket. Before you fly into the fishery interior, stay up high and fly into the secret portal above the hallway.

3-6: Cannon Canyon

Puzzle Piece #1: Right near the start, look up for a high platform you can’t reach without a boost off a penguin enemy’s head. Get up there and complete the mini-game.
K Letter: Found above the swinging bombs, right before jumping into the cannon barrel.
Puzzle Piece #2: While using the cannon barrels, you’ll eventually reach an area with two ropes — one is raising bombs, the other is lowering bombs. Wait for the puzzle piece to lower from above then time your launch.
Puzzle Piece #3: After knocking down the tower and triggering the checkpoint, grab a nearby watermelon bomb and blast through the mini-game door to the left.
O Letter: Just to the right, above some of the wooden platforms.
Puzzle Piece #4: To the right of the piece, go right and slam the wooden deck to flip it around and find a hidden area.
N Letter: Down the waterfall in the barrel cannons, stop when you’re over the river and wait to launch when the N Letter pops up.
G Letter: Further, you’ll reach obstacles with hanging, spinning bombs on ropes. At the third carousel, launch and time your shot to collect this letter.
Puzzle Piece #5: Located below the exit barrel. Drop beneath the platform into a cannon barrel.

3-A: Rickety Rafters

Puzzle Piece #1: After riding the moving platform and ducking under the spikes, you’ll find a single small platform — stomp to find a trapdoor leading to a mini-game.
K Letter: Straight ahead from the mini-game door. Jump from the automatic platform to reach it.
Puzzle Piece #2: When you find two switch-vines, pull the right vine to remove the spikes beneath the vines. Jump down and look left.
O Letter: Past the second checkpoint, pull the switch-vine to lower the platform to the right, then ride it back up to reach this high letter.
Puzzle Piece #3: Continue until you reach a wall with climbable green grass. Climb up and jump from the switch-vine into a shack.
N Letter: Ahead, you’ll find a cannon barrel. Time your shot so you can jump off the bird and grab this letter.
Puzzle Piece #4: Riding the platforms on the wheel, hit the diagonal cannon barrel to launch yourself up and right. As you fly, grab the hidden switch-vine in the green stuff to make a puzzle piece appear.
G Letter: When you reach two automatic platforms with a wall of blue-burning owls, get through the owl then jump to the switch-vine. From the vine, jump left to reach the plainly visible letter.
Puzzle Piece #5: At the raised bridge, don’t jump into the cannon barrel. Instead, clear the brush to reveal a hidden piece.

3-B: Bramble Scramble

Puzzle Piece #1: After jumping on the first sunflower, more will drop down to your left. Jump on them until you reach a high platform with a fruit. Pound the floor to make this piece unfurl.
K Letter: While travelling through the area with the first rocks that move to make a path for DK, you’ll see this one floating in the middle.
Puzzle Piece #2: At the large plant, jump on the leaves and grab the bananas until the piece appears on the top leaf.
Puzzle Piece #3: Continue forward and don’t jump into the cannon barrel! Instead, jump up into the brambles and pull a hidden vine to make a different cannon barrel appear. Hop into that one and grab all the bananas on the vines to make the piece appear.
Puzzle Piece #4: After launching into the bramble, look near the top of the level to find another obvious mini-game door. Hop up from the third plant that appears and onto the flying owl to get there.
O Letter: Just straight ahead, hop onto the bouncy flower and a sunflower will lower down with an O Letter. Dixie makes this way easier to get.
Puzzle Piece #5: Ahead, stop at the small rock island with the fruit in the center. Drop off the left ledge into a hidden barrel cannon.
Puzzle Piece #6: Crashing down from another series of cannons, look left at the wall of brambles. Open the fruit and grab all the bananas.
N Letter: Past the checkpoint, located above a bramble floor to the right of a spiked ceiling.
Puzzle Piece #7: Jump onto the sunflower platform above the N Letter and reach the mini-game door above the spiked ceiling.
G Letter: Between two bouncy pads, two venus flytraps, and a small owl / fat owl combo.

3-K: Precarious Pendulums

Puzzle Piece #1: Break the second purple vase and collect the star-pattern bananas.
Puzzle Piece #2: When you reach the cannon barrel sequence, you’ll launch up into a barrel — don’t go right, instead, wait for it to go left. Launch into the blind path and you’ll hit this puzzle piece.
Puzzle Piece #3: Past the third vase, this puzzle piece is attached to the electrified arm that shifts in a circular pattern. Wait for the third arm to completely spin around to see the piece.
Puzzle Piece #4: Just to the right of the fourth vase. This one is just out in the open. Dixie will help you get this one thanks to her extra hover.
Puzzle Piece #5: When you have to jump across the owls over the bottomless pit, you’ll see the spiked side of a platform has a puzzle piece. Either take the hit or use Dixie.