Welcome to my 100% Achievement walkthrough! I intend to do my best to guide you through all 60 achievements present in Monster Bash HD!

I love the creativity in its achievements, offering a variety of challenges and directing the player to engage with many aspects of the game. And not one even involves anything with score! You will find multiple easter eggs, original game references, kill count tracking, completionist milestones, and one-time challenges!

I'll use this grouping as rough categorization in this guide, such as grouping together cumulative achievements, or monster and boss challenges, rather than the in-game listing or alphabetization.

There are also a couple achievements, such as Arachnophobia, with bugged counters; it still shows the highest progress you've attained, but will start off back at zero as soon as you continue progressing that challenge, even if you had saved your achievement progress before exiting the game.

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Before continuing on, we should cover how the game saves progress, which primarily affects achievement progress. MBHD will never save on quitting the game / quitting the current level. Nor will it save on incrementing a challenge (e.g. dying a few more times, killing X more enemies). It will only save profile progress under two conditions:
Full achievement unlocks immediately trigger a save, as well as upon level completion (whether or not you've improved score, time, or new checkmark completions). Custom levels, even played from the main menu will not trigger a save either. It is also worth noting that you cannot progress achievements through custom levels.

Be sure you trigger a save if you are farming up achievement progress, before quitting out entirely. A good way is to play E2L3 the pitchfork "boss" for a quick easy save trigger, unless you quit right after unlocking an achievement. To be certain, check on your save file's modified date, which on Windows can be located within your %USERPROFILE%

The full path and file is as follows:
C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Apogee Software\Monster Bash HD\Data\profile.dat

If you are playing the GOG version, it will be located in its own subfolder. You will be able to install and play both the Steam and GOG versions at once, while maintaining separate profiles.
...\LocalLow\Apogee Software\Monster Bash HD\Gog\Data\profile.dat

Now as that's sorted, let us begin. While guides often have the hidden achievements near the end, we shall start off with the few Mystery Achievements instead. Steam and GOG has them entirely non-descript, while there is a small description within Monster Bash itself.

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It seems a lot of people idle in-game as one of their first actions (in-actions?). Just have Johnny do his idle animation of shooting at the screen and the achievement will pop.

Steal cheese back from the rat

Upon starting E1L9, there is a bookcase after the first couple fans and zombies on the bottom floor; jump at the book to read it. After doing so a cartoon wedge of cheese will fall out, causing Frank Lloyd Rat to come running out to grab it. Before he runs off with it, shoot it out of his paws to get the achievement.

...
Enter in the original infinite lives cheat code, as the life system along with save/loading your game no longer exists. Be sure to do this while playing a level and not within the menus. Do you remember it from 1993?
Z + F10
Press and hold Z first, then hit F10 to immediately unlock the achievement.

Five Feet Under

While fairly vague, it does involve an environment with feet. It is also a small secret area that was added specifically for MBHD and is not in the original. Reveal my hints below if you'd like to still try and figure it out, but with some guidance.
Hint 1: It is not in the town with the new feet springpads.
Look in Episode 1.
Hint 2: This area may spring to mind.. you're definitely close!
Answer: Immediately before Nemesis in E1L3, shoot at the left wall by the ladder, towards the grave with many feet. It will destroy some hidden blocks, allowing you to jump to the tunnels below without having to damage yourself or correctly timing your jump into the spear pit.

Find the Rokket Mushroom

In every Emberheart remaster of Apogee's classic games, they have hidden a secret Rokket Mushroom in their Ember Hut in a new part within their games. Find Monster Bash's hidden mushroom to unlock a secret game setting and this achievement!
Hint 1:It will not be found within a cave system or cave-themed level; where else do mushrooms grow?
Hint 2:Rule out Episodes 1 and 2.
Hint 3:Explore the second swamp; you may find an unfamiliar path not found in the original...
Answer:In E3L4, reach the sky castle and take the left path. After the large room with jump pads and spiders, shoot this sneaky moveable block and head outside. Jump on the broom (angle your camera to the far left to see it) to reach some clouds. There you will find the Ember Hut, some new goodies, and your coveted prize!
Be careful when exiting the hut, as a few zombies will ambush you as soon as you come out!

Picking up the mushroom will temporarily activate Noir mode, turning the game into a haunted film noir with only blood-red crimson its sole color of choice.
You may now enable this mode permanently anytime within your game settings, as well as adjust the new gore slider, affecting the quantity of gibs that fly off defeated monsters. Nice reward! Note that the new settings may not appear until you finish the level, either by quitting or by beating it.

Now moving onto general challenges, with some grouped categories following, such as cumulative achievements, followed by monster challenges, afterwards it's boss challenges, then finally ending with completionist milestones.

Read every page of the instructions book in the menu

Nice and simple; don't even need to be in a level to accomplish! Just read the lore of Johnny Dash and it will unlock once you reach the bottom (does not pop up on-screen). Quite a charming little backstory for your adventure.

Kill enemy with pushable object

Pushing a block into an enemy will kill it immediately (except with Rockmen, where it will just push them back; in the original it would immediately freeze them instead). Note that pushing a bouncy chair will not harm enemies and that it must be a stone block. There are a few ideal levels for this:

E2L5: Immediately on starting, you will see a resting Cave Bug right by a pushable block, which you would need to stack to the right to reach a secret cache. Knock it down onto the bug.

E1L4: As you approach your first Checkpoint do NOT kill the Crawling Hand. Lure it towards the left where the Blocks puzzle / achievement is. Shove one of the puzzle's blocks into the hand. It will work even midair if timed correctly.

E1L5: Cross the first water gauntlet and pass the first waterfall. Keep going all the way to the right, skirt past the Swampman, and climb down the ladder. You will see a single pushable block by a Skeleton, waiting to be utilized for this purpose.

E2L1: Near and above the level exit, where you can jump down onto it and collect a dozen Peppermints. There is a block you can free near a final zombie that can be crushed with it, even while it is still rising out of the ground.

Of course, not the only levels where this is possible, but these are the most simple.

Extinguish the candle with fireball

We'll need a level with both a candle and Fireball powerup. The first two levels you can access that has both these are Episode 2's secret level, and E2L6.

E2L6: Head to the center checkpoint and go down the ladder, noticing the Fireball on the right side nearby. Allow the Troll to knock you up onto the platforms to grab the Fireball and all the goodies. Now find the nearest candle and snuff it out! Any part of the fireball (the ball itself or its lava drips) will extinguish a candle and unlock the achievement.

Find and finish the secret level

Episodes 1 & 2 each has its own secret level hidden within. The achievement is misstated and will unlock as soon as you find and enter either one.

Once the level has been unlocked, it may be entered directly from the Main Menu from then on, listed as a new page after the level it's found in. These levels can be a good source of point score, however its completionist checkmarks are not required nor counted for any achievement (e.g. its par time does not need to be beaten to unlock the Johnny Dash achievement).

Here are the entrances to each episodes' secret levels.
Episode 1 Hint: Follow the dragon.
Answer: In E1L4, the sleeping dragon will leave once all pets are freed and the normal exit opens up. Backtrack to its lair and head inside instead!

Episode 2 Hint: In one of its early levels, keep your eyes peeled.
Answer: In E2L2, scattered across the level are odd eyes embedded in the walls of the hellish landscape. The entrance itself will be blocked by a lava flow by the first pet cage and first checkpoint. Shoot all 12 eyes to unlock the entrance (you will be notified after shooting all of them), before heading back where upon the lava flow will have cleared and a platform provided for the player to stand on. Note that you still must free all pets before being allowed to leave; however your Nemesis does not need to be defeated (but he must at least be awoken as his area has both a pet and an eye).

Race Frank Lloyd Rat to the other side of E1L01 and win.

Start the very first level of the game while holding left to land on the sign and prevent yourself from getting stunned. Whenever you restart the level to retry, immediately hold left even during the fade out, which will move Johnny far enough to avoid the first spike. You can keep your rat friend off-screen for a moment to get ready, but he will start running once you proceed to the right. As you can no longer prevent him from triggering, it's an honest race to the finish!

Jump over obstacles and through enemies without a care, as you should play on Easy. There are enough hearts to tank damage on Medium, but not much point in that. You have a bit of leeway in movement, as you do run faster than him, but you may get caught on a couple parts of the level if you're practicing. Just restart and keep trying; once you slam Johnny's face into the invisible barrier on the exit, the achievement will unlock as long as Frank is behind you.

Complete E1L02 without disturbing the hanged skeletons

Watch your head and don't bump the skeletons; they're busy hanging around! You only need to worry about not touching or shooting the hanged stationary skeletons; you can kill the roaming ones. You can also clear the cave systems as normal, since the hanged ones are only present outside. You'll need to put a little mileage into the crouching achievement in order to complete this one.

Water a plant

This will be gotten naturally in E1L4; proceed through the level as normal, picking up the Crystalline Flask then filling it up at the waterfall you had passed earlier.

Solve a puzzle requiring the use of blocks

On E1L4, after dodging the knife hand, grabbing the first checkpoint, and killing the crawling hand, you will see a hole above that you will need the three blocks nearby to access.

Carefully stack them on top of each other and move each one by one over to the hole. The hit detection of the achievement can be oddly tricky, but try moving past the right side of the hole multiple times if it isn't triggering.

Save 4 pets with 1 one shot

This is a reference to the stellar shot made in the original game's attract demo of E1L6. However the Boulder splash trajectory is different in MBHD, compared to how it hits the cages in the original, even when standing in the same spot.

Instead, shoot the second cage point-blank (still the same one) while midair after getting punted by the Possessed Shoe, and it will strike all 4 cages for the achievement.

Finish an entire level without taking any damage

Any level will do for this one as well, including those short boss encounters. Of course, no need to stress over a long level for this one; reasonably obtainable by practicing your favorite early level or just wait until a boss level to grab this one. That said, you will have to contend with...

Finish E1L06 without getting hurt

One of the true final skill tests in Monster Bash! A reference to the original hints about bonus points relating to PAR time and damage-less level completion (sadly accidentally overlooked in MBHD).

Initially daunting, you only have a few specific jumps to worry about, of which I can provide jump reference points for. Take care to practice individual sections of the level and repeat the jumps without hitting the spikes before tackling it in full.




Finally, make good use of my thorough breakdown for a step-by-step guide of this challenge. Both my Steam Guide and video walkthrough will both complement each other and also can be used independently. One way or another, you can do it!
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2865807570 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG_xlReaA-o

Get 5 heart pickups while having full health.

Something you will get naturally, as 5 perfect hearts won't be too many, and you will need them for those hearty points! They are worth only 50 (100 in the original) if grabbed when damaged, but 2500-10000 points when proving you do not need their healing properties!

Finish any non-boss level in 1 minute or less

Some levels in MB are short and sweet. Some good non-boss examples that can be completed within a minute and my associated times would be:


E1M3 and E3M7 could be considered semi-boss levels due to Nemesis, however the achievement will still unlock within these levels. Unfortunately I don't currently have many specific tips for the levels, other than practicing the shortest pet path, making use of Johnny's 9 HP on Easy.

The cycle for the broom will be off in E2M4 and it moves too slow anyway. The best improvement for this level is finding the right jump arc while moving across the big row of spikes and only take 5 damage, with the 6th damage by the "Danger?" sign as you jump onto the floating winged platform. Take one additional damage on a Walking Cannon, then one final hit from the Zombie by the exit, entering the exit with 1 HP remaining. You can detour for the Boulder power-up, but it may not help much.

Attempting the achievement on E1M3 is do-able even if it's silly. You will need to play on Medium and "death warp" back to the cliffside with the moving spear. Jump on top of your starting log and aim up, freeing the left-most pet while its off-screen. Then clear three more pets from below before you make sure to activate the checkpoint to be used shortly. Climb the tree and free every other pet, which should be towards the treetops, some of which can be done with shots from off-screen. Make sure to die to a vulture or other hazard as you get the message that all pets are freed. Respawn by the checkpoint and jump on the next spear that arrives, hope for a quick Nemesis by shooting him point-blank (he becomes invulnerable when crouched), then run for the exit as he flies off.

Beat par time on any level

Some levels are more lenient than others when it comes to PAR times. Good examples would be any boss level, and ironically some of the larger maps, as their PAR times are inflated to match their size. For example, E1L4 can be beaten in under 5 minutes (with PAR over 16 minutes), if you take the secret level exit and death warp to the waterfall after freeing the pet by the double knife hand trap.

Get all bonuses on any level

Any level will count for this one, so you can fully complete a level that has the fewest checkmarks. An excellent level for this is the Pitchfork miniboss on E2L3 that only has an easy PAR time and no other items to collect; defeat it within half a minute to unlock this with little effort. Note that difficulty does not matter as these are not counted under bonuses.

If you decide to do it on a full level, you will need to beat the PAR time, collect all candy and loot, open all treasure chests, and destroy all Skull Watchers. You may also do them through multiple attempts as the checkmarks will remain once completed.

Crawl over 100 tiles

Sometimes you have to take your time, being a game both action-based but also tactical and methodical in how you navigate through its platforms and monsters! MBHD is a tile-based game, so simply crawl over 100 of them.

However I noticed the game seems to loosely track this achievement. Nonethless, it should be obtained by the end of Johnny's adventures. Be sure to stand back up from the crouch for the achievement to unlock.

Ride 50 brooms

This may sound like a lot, but the game doesn't care if it's the same broom repeatedly, even without restarting the current level. Find one broom and jump on it repeatedly, with each time Johnny's feet touching the broom incrementing it by one.

If you're trying to rush this, the first episode is great. The sky broom in level 2's secret loot path can be jumped on repeatedly. It's located far above the exit log; climb the tree and kill the Vulture after dodging the Knife Hand. Jump on the wooden bridge while waiting for it to arrive.

The underground broom in E1L3 is a good choice. It appears you don't even need to touch the ground between each increment. Since it's meant to take you back to the level start, be careful not to jump when it's near the top or you will clip through the one-way platform. E1L4's broom by the shoe and chattering teeth is also an excellent pick.

Break 100 objects

Any breakable objects count, including cracked spear tips, lightbulbs, and blocks. If you wish to rush this one, go to E1L5 where you start immediately surrounded by 13 (how lucky!) destructable blocks. Blast them all, restart the level, repeat and you will have this in no time.

Shoot 10000 rocks from slingshot

Indeed, let's rock like Duke Nukem! Keep in mind that only the standard rocks fired from your slingshot will count, so fireballs or boulder power-ups will not increment this counter. However the splitshot works wonders for it, since it's the same rocks as normal, but in a triple shot instead. The boulder does produce rocks just like the normal shot, but it doesn't count because it is the boulder that explodes and produces them, not Johnny's slingshot - Aren't technicalities wonderful?

Destroy 50 treasure chests

Often placed at deadends and in secret areas, you can find small and large chests that take a few hits to open and lay claim to their points.

Get 100 Check points

In a game such as this, checkpoints can be a life saver! You may grab the same one repeatedly by restarting the current level.

Die 50 Times

In a game such as this one, this should not be much of a problem, especially when game overs and limited lives have been removed. If you wish to rush this, activate the checkpoint in E1L1 by the very first secret underground loot cache. Head to the left of the secret hole and jump down any of the other gory spike-trapped holes, which will kill Johnny in one hit. Repeat to taste. You may also die repeatedly in Episode 2's secret level by walking right off your spawn point into the lava.

Save 100 pets

Your main objective! The more freed, the less the Count will have to work with for his dark army!

Collect 250 peppermints
Collect 500 Candy Kisses
Collect 1000 candies



Be diligent in your looting while out and about on your adventures. Some candy is more common than others, but Johnny's sweet tooth isn't picky! A dozen loose peppermints can be found within the beginning of the first swamp level at E3L3, if you need a good source of the rarer treat.

Get petrified 5 times

You will start encountering Medusas in Level 8 of Episode 2 and in Level 5 of Episode 3. Just enter her line of sight upon which she'll fire her stonifiying attack. Spam both jump and attack at the same time to break out of it quicker.

Kill 100 Zombies

Your basic monster to target; put down this zombie apocalypse! Killing the body but leaving the head rolling will still count towards the kills (however not recommended).

Smash 10 zombie heads before they hit the ground.

Ideally you will aim to do this whenever you kill a zombie. Their heads roll fast and can catch you offguard from offscreen! If you are having trouble, prime the zombie with 2 shots, wait a moment, then shoot 2-3 more shots at neck height.

Kill 50 Thing Hands

These little guys have 2 HP and other than being jumpy, they shouldn't be much trouble! They don't tend to jump much unless you're near, so you can run up to them and shoot them from a crouch while they prepare their jumping animation. If you're close enough, even if they jump away, they should harmlessly fly over your head.

Score splatter bonus on 50 skulls

Simply shoot a skull as its falling for additional points (the key to scoring big!), then repeat this with 49 more skulls. One hit per skull is all you need to increment this achievement, with more hits not mattering if it is on the same skull.

Get 8x splatter bonus on Skull Watcher.

Time to aim big for this one. This achievement originally had falling in mind, with Johnny following a skull down as it falls and shooting it. The timing may be tricky and there are few spots long enough, such as the long chains in E2L2 or flying down with the broom in E3L8.

Bearing that in mind, we still can get creative however: In E1L4, grab the Boulder powerup and blast the cluster of skulls immediately to the right. You can also find a Fireball and use them on a skull up high. In E1L6, the skulls are the ones you passed by on the ramp, whereas in Episode 2 the skulls are up high by the cauldrons.

Kill 50 Spiders

Found solely in the two swamp levels in Episode 3, they are stationary traps that hurt on contact. Red spiders cannot be killed but the purple ones can, despite the icon. This is one achievement whose counter is bugged and may reset even after saving progress, if you close the game before finishing the achievement in full.

Kill 50 eyeballs

Keep your eyes out for this one! E2L7 is a great level to farm some eyeballs, as this level has 3 Giant Eyes you can kill to spawn 4 little ones each, as well as many power-ups to kill them efficiently. The Giant Eye itself counts towards this, so you will get 15 eyeballs per run.

Kill 25 Pumpkin Heads

These nasty creatures appear once you begin your journey into town in Episode 3. They have above average health, have a fast ranged attack, and can jump or fall off platforms. They also leave behind an exploding pumpkin on death. Before it explodes, it does not hurt the player and you can time your jump above it to avoid the shrapnel.

Kill 50 Witches

All three wicked witch types count towards this. You will start seeing them in E2L6, with several more appearing in E2L7.

Kill 50 enemies with the Rocket

The rocket powerup shows up as early as the second level in Episode 1. Keep restarting the level after using all 10 rockets to rush if desired. It does 5 HP worth of damage and any monster within this level can be one-shot without wasting additional rockets on the same creature. There are also rockets right in the beginning of E1L7, with plenty of Hands and Guests for you to target.

Beat Cyclopes without getting thrown in the air

Be mindful of whenever he lands; keep on your toes and jump whenever you see him about to land. While he has a very floaty jump move that can be easily reacted to, you may also be knocked into the air anytime he lands from dropping off any platform. There are power-ups to your right that will make the battle go faster.

Kill Igor without killing any of his flies

Grab the Boulder powerup to the far right and aim carefully. Ideally his big head will absorb all 4 shots from it and the flies won't be hit by its collateral. He has 30 hitpoints but will go down in 6 big rocks if your aim is true.

Beat Count Chuck in 2 minutes (medium/hard)

Time to put your Dash Master skills to work in the final showdown! Since you must play on at least Medium, you cannot tank as much damage in your haste, but you will still have enough to work with! Shoot the blocks blocking the Possessed Shoe and let it knock you into the skulls. You can do this from where you spawn as your shots will arc down and break it from the other side. Jump from the skull pile onto the rising platform. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to make its first cycle, so you end up waiting a bit even being extremely fast out of the spawn gate.

Drop down the left side of the hole while shooting the wall. You should land on a breakable block, and at least one of your shots should immediately hit and break it - this cancels the stun effect "hey what pretty stars". Do not free the Shoe - it takes too long. Run across the spikes and you should only take 2 additional damage if your first instance of damage occurs partway across the spikes.

Once you reach the platforms, run through the monsters in your way and grab your rockets and refill with the heart. You should have had 1-2 remaining health as you do so. Now climb to the top while avoiding more monsters as well as the temptation to waste any rockets on them (the Hands are pointless to kill and the Pumpkin Heads have 6 HP, meaning you would need to finish them off anyway). At the top, run left crossing the covered hole while activating the non-applicable checkpoint. Take a moment to remove the skulls blocking your way - since you have to crawl through, you'd take a few hits to tank it.

While you're under time pressure and are wanting to hurry, you should still practice controlled shots during the boss. Once you break a charm and spawn a bat, only shoot once, otherwise you'll waste multiple rockets that should be used on more bats. Unfortunately the charms flash randomly and each charm is only a valid target before another charm is chosen.

Defeat Nemesis in all 3 episodes.

Your Nemesis will appear once per episode, within levels E1L3, E2L2, E3L7. He appears to have 16 hitpoints and will occasionally shoot at Johnny. To defeat him safely, you may keep him off-screen while pelting his pajamas. It is slower but at times may be needed on Hard!

If you bypassed him in E2L2 and detoured into the episode's secret level instead, this achievement will still unlock even if he was not directly defeated in that episode.

Destroy all Skull Watchers in the game
Collect all bonus pickups in the game
Beat all par times in the game
Break all treasure chests in the game
Collect all the Johnnies in the game




Time for some completionist milestones; be sure to grab all the loot! Specifically, leave no candy behind. Items such as power-ups, which give no direct points, aren't included as loot.

Create and post user level

Unlocking this will differ between the Steam and the GOG version, as while you can make custom levels, there is no place to post them without the Workshop.

For Steam, simply make a quick level and post it, or save up for a creative jaunt.

On GOG, you only need to playtest and successfully beat your level within the editor itself and it will unlock.

Complete Episode 1
Complete Episode 2
Complete Episode 3
Complete all episodes




Each one will trigger respectively upon the Episode's completion, on any difficulty.

Finish any episode on Hard difficulty

Once Hard has been checked off for each level within an entire episode, it will unlock. Keep in mind that beating any episode on Nightmare will also unlock this achievement. If it does not appear, replay any short level in the episode and it should trigger.

Finish any episode on Nightmare difficulty

Nightmare difficulty is unlocked once you beat that episode on any difficulty. It is only unlocked for that specific episode and you will need to beat each episode to unlock its own Nightmare difficulty. There is a chance it will glitch out after starting up Nightmare for one episode, then quit back to the menu, it will temporarily unlock for other episodes.

Finish the entire game with 100% on every level

You must fully collect or destroy everything as respectively listed under Bulls Eye, but for every level this time EXCEPT for the secret levels. Chances are this will be next to one of the last achievements you unlock. Keep in mind that while it states 100% on each level, it does not count difficulty. It will unlock as long as you finish every top section checkmark on each level.

Complete all achievements

You can choose one episode to master and beat on Nightmare (my first Nightmare completion was Episode 2). The other two episodes may be beaten on any difficulty, which will still consider them 100% completed. But surely you want to test your skills a bit more?

For fun, let's imagine up a couple more achievements!

Bring any Chattering Teeth to the exit with you and leave through the door.

There are some ideal choices for this. E2L6 starts with 3 sets of Teeth hounding you immediately. E1L6 has some teeth within a large fireplace that are safe from crossfire until you're ready to move them to the exit.

Destroy all Skull Watchers on any non-boss level without scoring any splatter bonuses

Of course this only applies to any level with skulls in the first place; unfortunately it also must be a non-boss level, so the final levels of Episodes 1 and 3 are out (Episode 1 being a great choice if allowed).

Hope all this helped out some people get more out of this great platformer! Additional images or corrections will be on my radar, of course. I'll be keen to update things as needed (new strategies or otherwise), as well as information once the third secret level is available!