The purpose of this guide is to provide a checklist of sorts for what secret collectibles you have found. If you just want to know what levels to look for those pesky secrets and don’t feel like scouring every level 50 times to find them, then this guide is here to narrow your search down!
Various Secrets Location List
Terminology Used in This Guide
This section of the guide is for me to clarify what I mean when I use certain terms for describing different categories of levels. I figure finding the secrets is confusing enough so I’m trying to be extra clear in this guide.
Most collectibles reside in what I call the “main” levels, which are the five levels in each world, those worlds being the circus, ruins, swamp, crypt, and the moon.
The only exception is the Dawn Fragments, which are split between the main levels and the hollows, which get their own section further down.
The lists in this guide have the levels in classic mario format, so the very first level in the game would be 1-1, and the 4th level in the second world would be 2-4 for example.
Oath Blades
This is the collectible you are most likely to have at least one of, since there is one in each “main” level. This makes for a total of 25 Oath blades to find in the game. They are always in separate room:
And sometimes are locked behind a challenging room, like this one:
Because they are in each main level, it would be redundant to have a list of levels that contain them. So I will just give you a hint towards the one in the first level:
Lore Tomes
These books can be anywhere, and are often in separate rooms that may or may not be entered via fake walls. There are a total of 16 in the game, 14 being in the main levels. The first is in Belle’s house, and the last is found by the very person who tasks you with finding them, Jess.
Here is the pedestal that held the one in 2-2:
The lore tomes are located in the following places:
Belle’s House
- 1-1*
- 1-2
- 1-3
- 1-5
- 2-1
- 2-2
- 2-3
- 2-5
- 3-1
- 3-2
- 3-4
- 3-5*
- 4-3
- 4-4
Jess after getting the first 15
*requires one of Claire’s consumable power ups, good luck finding these ones
Hollows
Each of the first three worlds has what are called Hollows, underground areas that serve as more difficult remixes of their above ground counterparts.
Here you can see the entrance to the one for world one on the left, just next to level 1:
And here is world one’s Hollow:
They are unlocked by finding their entrance in a level within their world. All are behind fake walls and serve as an alternate exit to a level, meaning you can use them to get speedrun medals for the levels that lead to them.
They are found in the following levels:
- 1-1
- 2-2
- 3-2
Dawn Fragments
These are the missing pieces for the big archway in the library. There are two of these in each Hollow, one for each boss in those worlds since you rematch them in the Hollows. Since those are impossible to miss (unless you decide against picking them up for some reason) I will just list the locations of the ones in the main worlds, one in each of the first 4 worlds.
Dawn fragments are located in:
- 1-4
- 2-2
- 3-1
- 4-5
I actually forgot the location of the one in world 3, and since these don’t always have something left over to mark their locations after picking them up I’m not sure.
There are also characters hidden in the various levels to free. I cannot find the one in Level 4-4…
For the dawn fragment in World 3, it’s in 3-1 I believe