In Dock
How does Manny manage to be so successful? Listen to the shocking news, and walk in shock amongst those poor, young souls (there’s great voice acting from Tony Plana here). Glottis saves you – what a guy. You now need to do the following to break free from your moorings (this still involves a bit of thought – shock – as to how to achieve these things):
Pull both of the anchors up. Drop the left anchor. Move away from the dock. Drop the right anchor – your anchors should have hit each other. Pull one anchor up. It should be linked to the other anchor. Use the scythe to pull the anchor in. Bring in the other anchor – this sets up the “dotted line”. Put the ship in full reverse, and break away! Glug.
Shipwrecked
Contemplate your future until the little wandering guy walks up to you. Speak to him, and agree to go with him (for a laugh).
Next time he walks past, talk to him to attract his attention. When you stop speaking to him, he will stand at the edge of the pool of light for a while. Pick him up, and whilst you’re holding him, walk towards Glottis. You will have a lantern!
The Pearl
Walk around the ridge until you come to the tentacles of the plant. Walk past them, and the little guy will follow. He’ll be trapped, and the octopus will be distracted by him. You’ll then be taken to the edge of the world.
The Edge of the World
Walk into the underwater complex, and go into the office. You’ll encounter Meche, and then Domino will walk in. He isn’t too pleased to see you. Or Glottis. Poor guy.
When you wake up, talk to the children in the cage and try to salvage your reputation. Tell them you can help them work, and then say your hands aren’t too big. Recover with dignity from the savage blow, then pick up the tiny hammer. If you like, you can go and threaten Domino with it.
Go and talk to Meche, and insist you don’t have a gun. She won’t believe you – move that ashtray, that’ll make you feel better. Get the stockings from the bin. If you’re feeling mean, you can show them to the kids.
Walk back into the water, and go to the left. Get talking to the wandering guy about his Bust-All, and give him your little hammer in exchange. Say you wish to trade something for a gun, too – give him the stockings. If you’re feeling mean again, you can show the Bust-All to the kids. The gun is far too easy.
Walk to the right from the complex, and switch on the conveyer belt to convey towards the bottom-right of the screen. Go down to the bottom-right, and climb down the anchor-chain. Luckily, your old friend isn’t dead after all. Climb back up the chain.
Go up the conveyer belt to reach the surface. Use the crane, and take it to the other side of the island. Drop the grabber, and go down to the beach where it landed. Use the Bust-All to cut it off.
Go back to the crane and raise the chain. Lower it again, then raise it to break the crushers. Take the crane around to the other side of the island, and drop the chain. Dismount the crane.
The chain will have been carried down the conveyer belt. Switch its direction to twist the chain, then switch its direction again to hook onto the anchor. Go back to the crane and raise the chain to raise the Titanic.
Tell Glottis to use the broken crushers as a coral-plough for the ship.
Go to Meche, and give her the gun. The distrustful twit turns you in to Domino, and she’s thrown in the safe. To open the safe, you need to use the Bust-All on the lock to reveal the tumbers. You must then do the following:
The tumblers must be flush to the door-jamb – their straight edge should be in the line with the edge of the door. The tumblers should be put in place from the top down To get the top tumber in place, turn the wheel on the door until all of the tumbers are rotating. Get the top tumbler in the correct place. Turn the wheel the other way. You’ll notice the tumbers start turning the other way one by one. The trick is to get the third tumbler in place before the fourth tumbler moves out of place. Reverse the direction of the wheel, and continue until all four tumblers are lined up. Get Manny to look at the tumbers. If he says “the tumbers are lined up and flush with the door-jamb”, you are correct. You now need to insert your scythe into the tumbers, and turn the handle to open the door. Close the safe door (bear with me) and use the scythe with the electrical contact to open the secret door. In the secret room, use your scythe with the pipes on the ceiling, and turn the valve to switch the sprinklers on. Use the valve again to switch them off, and watch the water draining through a tile in the floor. Strange..
Drag the axe from the other room, and drop it on the tile the water drained from. Escape!
You may now escape – but Domino suspects something when he sees you steaming away. He arrives to fight you. The periscope behind you looks very organic – try prodding it with something pretty sharp (like a scythe).
Now THAT was a bit of luck. Don’t you feel this game would last longer if you didn’t cheat? No? Freak.
Hi! I’m having a problem with grim fandango: in year 3, when I just opened the vault and storage room to save meche, I dropped the ax in a way that I cannot pick it anymore to solve the next puzzle. Help! What should I do? Is there a way I can go back a few saved versions before instead of starting a whole new game?
Btw this is the remaster version in an iPad.
I used to see a YouTube video of the shooting match between Manny and Hector, but I cant. Anybody know where it is.
That was a funny scene.
I can’t find the video anymore
It was an ok game but we don’t know what manny was or did in his life, before he became a sales skeleton…
Who cares about his past. The game is more interesting focusing on the adventure that Manny is going through instead
Thanks for the useful walkthrough, but…what’s up with the comments at the end of each page? Personally, I have little patience for puzzle solving, so I often resort to walkthroughs, and I don’t really feel any sort of guilt for this, as I’m mainly interested in playing old adventure game classics to experience the story. As such, it feels especially grating to read such remarks. We don’t all play a certain game the same way (and we don’t have to)!
chill the hell out they wrote an entire guide for us lmao
To be honest, I don’t feel bad at all. Using a walkthrough when needed to keep the game fun should be the priority. Keeping it fun. Who in their right mind would have naturally put a turkey baster into dirty dish water and then used that to spike a guys drink. I agree not to use it constantly but the walk through is great to keep the game moving.
A little humour from the original author, that’s all. It’s not for everyone I suppose.
Thank you for this page. It was a life saver. 🖤
I I’ve saved Meche to ger out of the saferoom through the shower drain… and now Im on a beach with her, the two little flying kids and Glottis… and my beached boat… I thought right after the drain a cut scene happens and I fight Domino??? Do I have more to do before that happens??? Ive been searching but can’t find an answer Glottis keeps saying the boat isn’t ready… and then when I try to talk with Meche… Manny says he can’t leave without the others? Please help
You probably didn’t mount the rolls on the ship to break the corals, you can disenlodge them using the crane.
Hiya, have you sort this out somehow? I’m stuck in the same area as you last summer. Thanks
This was a great game, confusing as hell though
I didn’t receive the vip pass from Charlie after talking to him, and Manny says he wants nothing to do with him. So how do I get the vip pass?
Hey Kristina, more information needed really. Did you get the ticket printer from Charlie or have you got neither? If he hasn’t given you stuff yet, there must be something not yet done.
I have the same issue. Talked to Charlie until I exhausted his dialogue. Got the ticket printer but not the VIP pass. Now I can no longer talk to him as Manny says he wants nothing to do with him.
In case some one is still stuck on this, you need to talk to harbour-master first to learn about the requirements for working on the ship and to learn about union. After that you can ask Charlie to craft you a fake union card. He’ll ask you to go to the High Roller’s for him and hand over the vip pass.
I am stuck on the part where I need glottis to leave on the ship but glottis won’t leave the high rollers I have made Bogdan leave Manny’s club
Go again to your roulettes, Bogdan will be there again after you get all the other things you need. Make him lose again.
I am stuck at the end of year 2. I can do the chant about 3-4 times over but then go wrong.
How many times should it go around before its completed ? Or am i missing something?
What?
What chant? The Bees? You don’t need to do that, is just for the lols.
There is an error with these instructions. (Possibly others but this is a major screw up).
You NEED to use the dead soldiers arm with the snow machine grinder *BEFORE* you take away the grinder. Otherwise you will need to return to the snow machine before you can use the grinder on the Sproutella.
These instructions say to “pick up the arm from the dead soldier”.
A little further on it says “Now climb that ladder again and pick up the grinder from the snow-maker”.
Further still and it says “Use the LSA solder’s arm with the grinder to make a bone-grinder. Use this to sprinkle bone fragments over the Sproutella”.
But you can’t use the arm with grinder unless the grinder is in the snow machine.
So you would need to return to the snow machine and replace the grinder so you can put the arm in it.
Sadly most people will not read these comments, and those who do will read them too late so will not know about this problem until it is too late and they have had to back track to replace the grinder
Thanks for pointing it out. This guide is around 20 years old so in the interests of preservation I’ll leave it as is but add a bracketed tip mentioning what you describe.
So I finally got around to playing the game after buying it on Switch last year and this guide has been a great help so far for when I just can’t figure out the next step the game expects me to make.
But now I am stuck! I cannot get into the High Rollers club because Charlie did not give me a VIP pass when I spoke to him and now I have no option to talk to him again. When I try Manny just says “I have nothing more to say to him.” He did give me the ticket printer but I don’t know how to use it.
Have I missed a step somewhere or have I encountered a glitch?
Nevermind. My mistake. I hadn’t spoken fully to the captain. Once I did that I got the VIP pass from Charlie just fine.
Hi i am in year 3. I did everything and i think the last thing i have to do ist to tell glottis what to use to Go throught the riff. What do i have to do exactly? I dont get it
Yes, same problem. No cutscene, it just deposits me on the beach with Glottis and Meche, while the annoying kids play around in the background. I went back through the underwater bit to find Domino, but the dialogue options assume Meche hasn’t escaped yet. It’s like I need to trigger something else.
Do you have the grinders on the ship yet?
Edit: Get back into the crane, and drop the chain into the grinders. Lift it back out again, and the grinders will be set free for Glottis to use on the boat. (Don’t worry if it looks like the chain isn’t there, just lower the crane on the beach side and the chain will be there)
Hi!I’ve played this game for years and I’m always missing th same parte in the azteca puzzle.
Is a small piece located in the ship above where I think there is a cloud, does anybody know how can I complete that?Is in Rubacava’s location!
Please help!After 10 years I’m still missing that part in the puzzle, there is something I’m missing!:) Thanks!
Hola!He jugado muchas veces a este juego y siempre me falta la misma pieza del puzzle, me refiero al mural azteca que se va iluminando a medida que avanzas en el juego. Es específicamente la parte de arriba donde está el barco, pertenece a Rubacava, y la parte que no consigo iluminar parece una nube sobre el barco, alguien sabe a qué se debe?
Años después vuelvo a jugar y me sigue faltando esta parte!!!Ayuda!!
Gracias!:)
I did not pick up the memos and visit the coat check girl and now I cannot get back to Manny’s club! Is there anyone that has been through this that can guide me through this issue?
There is an elevator ouside the blue cascket at the left, you have to take it and go up. Then go up the stairs behind the elevator, there is Calavera’s club!
I cannot find which direction the Manny’s club is in Rubacava. What area is it near (the union bees, Blue Casket, Sea Captain, cat track, morgue/prison)?
Hey Navid, you’ll find the lift to Manny’s club right next to the Blue Casket. Look for a door that automatically opens.
Thanks Ryan! So, I found that lift already that took me to the morgue where the two bodies have sprouted and the empty prison. do I need to go further where I got the metal detector? I keep getting stopped by the metal detector before the escalator.
If I remember correctly, once you leave the lift you can go left or right, and left is to the club.
RYAN!!! YOU SAVED ME FROM STARTING ALL OVER FROM THE BEGINNING!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
To get back to the club you need to find the elevator and walk around you will see stairs
Cant get the picture from the ticket guy. I put the stub as Tue, week 2, race 6 but no luck. Help!
try the other ticket stub guy.
make sure you give the rusty anchor note to the tattoo artist, or otherwise the creating a ticket won’t work
Hello! I play the game on a laptop with win7 and a mouse. I am at the last year, so far so good. (Btw thanks for the tips, I am trying hard to get my way, but when I am severely stuck, I check your guide. And then I go “seriously???!!!”… sometimes the way the game goes has absolutely no logic, but anyway, its fun.) So my question is, is there any bug/glitch I don’t know how you call it at the point where I have to trick the alligator??? When I am going down the ladder, then the control for the car disappears and I cannot operate it to catch the gator’s tail >:( big bummer! any tips on that? Thanks in advance…
While it look your way, lower the car onto its tail, you just have time after you climb up to the overhanging metal walkway.
You have to wait till the alligator looks at you then go back up in the ladder then use the controller.
Cheif Boegon is the one you have to kick out, not Glottis.
in the secret room, i used the scythe to turn on the sprinklers, but now the when i hit it in the same spot again with the scythe, the sprinklers won’t turn off and Meche keeps saying “oh, not again”. help!!! i can’t take the constant water sound anymore lmao
‘Glottis is addicted to gambling.’ ‘ he’s a bad loser, so he’ll shut the place.’
How does this make sense in the same paragraph?
Cheif Boegon is the one you have to kick out of your casino.
I’m still stuck with Glottis after getting the picture.
I think this was an issue with the wording — ‘the guy’ would have been referring to Bogen rather than Glottis.
This game is so hard 😭 how on earth could anyone figure it out without his walk-through?!
I sometimes wonder how I got through this game for the first time all those years ago. I can only assume it was a combination of luck and trying a _lot_ of times.
I only look to the walkthrough after I exhausted every idea for passing through. But many times I did everything that you said to do, but not in the perfect way that the game expected. For example, to construct the dotted line in the boat, I did almost everything but I wasn’t being able to catch with the scythe. Only after reading here I could catch it. I was missing the window. And sometimes I do things in the wrong order. It’s a little bit frustrating! Anyway this games still amazing!
Thanks for posting the walkthrough. Great help for the more difficult part. Ignore the haters that need the whole thing spoon-fed pixel by pixel.
played on nintendo switch.
one thing to note. Don’t pick up snow grinder before using arm on it. It can be tricky to put down again.
I can’t get the lawyer because he won’t stop talking with the boss in the high rollers club.
Why ““Tuesday, Week 2, Race 6” ticket?
Is there logical reasons for purchasing this particular ticket in the game?
I struggled with this one too!
There are 3 parts to this puzzle in the picture of the cats racing
Race number is (6) as seen on the billboard.
If you examine the plaque on the cat statue it says Olivia 1 crashed on week 2 of the season. The lastly If you talk to the mean ticket guy, He tells you that they only give out kitty hat on Tuesday. In the photo of the race you see the Olivia 1 in the background and people are wearing cat hats…so we come to our answer. Race 6, Tues, week 2.
So the ticket should be: Race6, Week2, Tuesday
Make sure to get the detail right by examine the ticket after you print it.
I tried Tuesday Week 2 Race 6 many times with both ticket collectors and even examining the ticket before handing it over to the ticket collector but it doesn’t seem to work? Any tips for this issue or is it a glitch?
Help, i used the roullette thing before doing the other tasks, what am i supposed to do?
This!
He’ll come back.
How do i get to the server room
It’s near the entrance to the Department of Death. There’s a side-door you can take which leads to it — inside you’ll find a big machine spitting tubes out.
Trying to use the bone grinder with Glottis and the Bone Wagon. Was I also supposed to aquire the Sproutella ro use the grinder on?
I was frustrated and didn’t play for a while, I cant remember if I got the gun- but if I did, I dont have it anymore, Should I still have it? How did/do I get it? iPod Touch/iphone.
You can use the grinder and Sproutella to find a flower shop, where you’ll then be able to obtain a gun. You shouldn’t lose the gun afterwards.
So I was trying to figure stuff out myself and definitely did not do everything in order. Somehow I have the picture, and Nick is in the boss’ office..I have everything but a lawyer for the bee in jail and glottis is still drunk because I can’t go into the boss’ office:( They won’t leave the office and I can’t go in..is there something I’m missing?
Great work figuring it out! Rubacava is some of the most non-linear and tricky parts of the game, but still one of my favourite game locations ever.
Have you been able to get passage on Velasco’s ship yet, the SS Limbo?
Which picture? If it’s the one of nick and olivia kissing show it to nick, then you can talk to max.
I am in the same boat. Any idea how you managed? (I know its been 2 years but i havent got a saved game that is prior to nick entering the office.)
I’m stuck at the blue casket. I’m supposed to talk to Lola when she takes snaps of Olivia abd Nick. At the front of the room? All I find is a woman who reads poetry.
Old, but still. Olivia takes the pic first time you walk in, so it is most likely done.
Android version: attempting to “use turkey baster with dirty water”. Won’t do it. Any ideas why?
I can’t get the little guy to speak to me at the start of Act 3 – he just walks straight past me and the only icons I get are Examine and Talk To.
I had the same problem. Try walking further out till your as close to his walking path as possible. He should notice you when you talk to him then.
In the elevator, i cant get the forklift bkades jammed in the door because they are already raised and I can’t lower them. How can I lower them. Ipod touch.
This guide is very incomplete, the instructions are extremely difficult to read and follow. It feels like this guide was written by a 9 year old kid who is just learning to write. If it weren’t for the videos in youtube I could never solve the puzzles.
“have a runner…”
Thanks for the feedback Sammer. The guide was written almost 20 years ago so your comment about age probably isn’t too far off the mark! However you might also be struggling with the British colloquialisms throughout. For example, ‘do a runner’ is a slang phrase for ‘run away’.
Unfortunately not many people have the time or appetite to write an entire game walkthrough, but if any fans were to fancy taking this challenge on I’d be happy to host it.
Is it even possible to play this game without constantly having to look in the guide?
Honestly I have no idea how I ever figured the puzzles out by myself as a kid. Same for Monkey Island. I do recall needing help with the stump maze sign puzzle though — good god.
Please could you tell me abou what “deflated balloons” you are talking about?
You can get balloons with no air in them from the clown at the festival. :)
I’ve figured it out now but thank you anyway. :)
Hey, I feel like there may be a glitch on the iPad version? I’m trying to get Chepito stuck in the tentacles, but he and Glottis stop at the edge of the rock, and I can’t get them to move.
I had to reboot, try that.
Not just on ipad version it happened on pc too i think where it crashes there but stopped happening for me best way is to save before that part and load it after you crash
Ah found the salvadors memo finally :) so forget muy question
how I can get revolutionary book at Blue casket if I don’t have salvadors memo?? Help!
I’m playing on PSVita and I can’t seem to knock down the sign in the Bone Cruiser. Any suggestions?
on PS4, you need to exit the Cruiser and “X” on the sign; you’ll pull it from the ground.
It already got knocked down when you originally got in the car, you just have to pick it up
Before trying the roulette thing, make sure you have completed the other tasks. Also, check that Bogen is in the playins room. He wears a blue military cap, and Manny should say a few words to him.
I can’t seem to grab the grinder from the snow machine. Every time I try to remove it, it grinds more stuff. Any tips?
You have to use your mouse for that part… sorry if you are a keyboard player of this game, so am I..
On console (ps4) I used square or circle instead of X because X would only grind snow
Every item can be interacted with in different ways. On PC, you can use U (use), E (examine), and P (pick up). The last of those is what you need to use on the grinder. It’s also worth noting that many items in the game produce different dialogue/results from Manny, for example using U and E will cause different responses — some of which are quite funny. I only learned this after playing through the game multiple times and discovered a lot of extra dialogue. :)
There’s a hidden roulette table in Manny’s Office you can use to pissed off the cops.
How do you go bankrupt? I’ve done everything and am running around in damned circles now because it wont let me do anything.
He wasn’t as clear on this so maybe this’ll help. Like Amarelle said, there’s a hidden roulette table on Manny’s desk in his office when you go examine it. However, specifically you need to make sure the magnet is turned off – specifically for the third roulette table (or if that in itself is unclear, look to the left and you’ll see that the machine only magnetizes one machine at a time in a cycle – just make sure to make it so the magnet is turned off for all of them as it’ll automatically turn back on for all, so that it comes around and the policeman eventually loses like the big dumb loser he is)
I’m still extremely confused and I’ve been at this for an hour, can you explain in more detail
Hopefully you managed to solve it, but if I remember correctly you basically examine Manny’s desk to reveal the panel, and then when you can hear/see that it’s Bogen’s turn you activate the machine which will cause him to lose his bet. At that point he’ll get rather angry.
You don’t go “bankrupt”. I wonder if the author actually understood the game. In order to get Glottis kicked out of the VIP lounge you need to upset the chief of police by denying him his kickback, which is paid out as winnings at Manny’s casino on a rigged wheel. When the game is fair, the chief loses, gets upset and raids the club. A chain reaction causes Glottis to get kicked out of Hector’s race track. Glottis is then free to board the ship.
Causing the police to raid the club “shuts it down” causing bankruptcy and for Glottis to lose his line of credit ( which is what Manny had already been told would happen earlier )
It’d be great if you weren’t such a condescending asshole to people who need help solving puzzles. Like sorry not everyone is as smart and rude as you.
Honestly I don’t think he means it. I get what you’re saying, but I think he’s just trying to emulate some of the humor from the game. He’s not doing the best job, granted, but I don’t think he’s trying to be harsh either.
I thought it was amusing
Woosh