Commander Keen: Goodbye, Galaxy!

Keen 4 Tips    Keen 5 tips    Cheats

General Tips

• There are seven free Keens on level 1.

• You can get to the top of the Pyramid of the Moons. We're talking the OUTSIDE. 

• There is a hidden area at the top of the Cave of the Descendants. 

• Princess Lindsey appears twice. 

• In the Chasm of Chills, a slug holds a secret. 

• There's stuff hidden very well in Highville. All you need is a flash of insight. 

• There's a free Keen in Miragia. 

• There's a free Keen in the Pyramid of the Ancients. 

• There's a free Keen on the Isle of Fire. 

• There are at least seven free Keens in the Pyramid of the Shadows. 

• You can get to the secret pyramid by way of something in the Pyramid of the Moons. Reread the Cast of Characters carefully. 

• Dopefish also like to eat the small schoolfish that follow you. 

• Pressing button 1 makes you swim faster. 

• You can squash skypests by jumping on them with your pogo stick while they are preening, 

• You can only shoot mimrocks when they are jumping at you. 

• Mad Mushrooms leap higher on the third bounce. 

Free Lives and Extra Points

Border Village - On Easy Level you can get to it WITHOUT revealing the secret passage. You just pogo off to the left from the second acid pool, turn off the pogo and pull yourself up onto the secret ledge. 

Slug Village - One of the few places without a 1-UP.

The Perilous Pit - the button that activates the moving platform that goes up to the top left part of the level, this button is near a mushroom - look how the mushroom hops "into" a secret area. Two 1-UP's are here tho I don't know how to get them without God Mode. 

The Isle of Tar - if you clip on the "main level" (the big one that goes underground, not the houses) on the far right, then jump and move right, you clip INTO the houses... which is kind of neat. Try it! The 1-UP is in the last house, upper left corner. Use the impossible pogo trick while on the platform. 

The Isle of Fire - When underground on the left, near the yellow gem and the mimrocks, you can jump up into the wall and a secret passage leads to a 1-UP. It's kind of long so you may want to F10-Y your way through it. ALSO a button activates a moving platform - look at the upper left to upper middle parts of the level. There's a secret area of platforms if you can time the jumps (or just jump cheat right up at the beginning if you're lazy). 

The Well of Wishes - The 1UP is early on... No secret areas came up with F10-Y. On Hard, the last part with 2 dopefishes is hard. To avoid a dopefish, make it eat a schoolfish and hurry past it while it burps. 

The Pyramid of the Forbidden - This level is a PAIN especially at the higher levels. Two 1UP's - one at the top of the first steps you ascend, and one at the foot at the end. I warn you not to do this if you don't like anticlimactic disappointment :) 

The Pyramid of Gnosticene Ancients - the red ghosts won't hurt you but they eat a lot of the items on the level (if they touch an item, it's gone - i can't figure out how to get it back). There are 2 1UPs at the first ghost (just walk right and you'll see him on a blue horizontal ledge); one at the upper left corner (which I can't seem to get without clip cheat and god mode). Also, just before the door at the bottom on EASY - there is a secret path "in" the ledge above the door that goes to a 1UP and raygun. 

The Pyramid of Shadows - Lots of 1UP's. Two ways to get them. The first, by the lava pool is easy. First turn on all the blue platforms to get to the door to Room 2. Then the button in the upper left corner of room 2 opens the ledge back up so you can go back to Room 1 and get the 1UP (this took me FOREVER to figure out!) Also, in Room 3, ride the platform and then "look down" (duck) ... when you are totally to the right, jump off and there are lots of 1UP's. An alternate way is to go into room 4 and jump cheat in the chamber where the Council Member is, then walk left. Rooms 3 and 4 are part of the same map. (you can also do this with clipping). 

Crystalus - can't find any 1UP's, but if you pogo on the upper left ledges and make a huge jump to the right off the last one, you can get the yellow crystal MUCH faster than if you went in their proper order. 

The Chasm of Chills - Top has Princess Lindsay and some items. To get out, use down+jump.  Regular (where you come into) - at bottom right, above 2nd egg, a secret in right hand wall goes down. Walk left after dropping - skip the door - where the moving shovel is above, in the ledge, is a 1UP (kind of over the door). Go left more -the holes are a secret path. You can't see where you are (unless you save the game down there... hehehehe!) but a door leads to 4 ice cream cones (and comes out on ANOTHER sublevel) ... Also, on the bottom of the main level, the middle hole (it goes mushroom, platform, hole, platform...) - well on easy it's the one AFTER the one with the Slug... and a secret drop goes down... there is lots of cool stuff down there which I leave to the explorer. 

The Cave of The Descendants - At the lower right, with 5 platfroms over spikes, a secret in the right wall leads to two ice cream cones. Also, the hole with the shovels has 2 1UPS in a secret at the lower right (but you can't escape wihtout God Mode and/or Jump cheap.... 

Hillville - 1UP way up high. Use secret bricks. (A secret brick is a line on the upper block that flashes on and off) There are 2 regions with "jets" - the platforms on top can be stood on. 

Sand Yego - 1UP at top middle of first level. Use secret bricks near green gem and mimrock. 

Lifewater Oasis - You cannot get to the underground river without using no clipping. If you hit the very top of the level, you will be teleported to a random place - this might get you to the river but you won't get out! For some extra drops, jump into the ceiling at the first ledge in the left wall as you fall down the shaft at the start of the level. Otherwise, the only major secret with much in points is just before the council member - a hole you can't see the bottom of, but it's there. 

Pyramid of the Moons - go right, down second pole, thru door, walk left, jump pit, and secret is after 4 arrow guns up top. Pogo, turn it off, climb pole, run right, jump. At door, jump again and go left thru next secret - when you drop to next door, go thru. IT comes out at the 1UP above the Arachnut (green thing, what's his name.)  Also, try standing on one of the moons on the floor for a while, you'll get a surprise! :-) Oh, and twelve inches make a foot.

Miragia - 1UP is on far right. Just above wetsuit, jump up and right on secret brick, then drop thru far right hole. at bottom is 1UP and platform to bring you back up. Also, you can get the three ice cream cones between the first and second bottles without cheating - from a high ledge you have to jump, lay off in midair, then push back - just jump without hitting a wall.

Where do I find the wetsuit?

The wetsuit is found in Miragia, as you probably read above.

Keen 5 Tips    Keen 4 Tips    Cheats

General tips and info

• There are 9 free Keens on level 1. 

• Hidden in two of the levels are the names of the two level designers, Creative Director Tom Hall and Software Engineer John Romero. 

• There are 30,000 hidden points near the start of the Defense Tunnel Sorra. 

• You've probably figured this out, but pogo on the fuses to break them. 

• The way to the secret level is the Gravitational Damping Hub. To find out how to find it, look down and translate. 

• You can't destroy the QED directly. Find someone (or something) that can. 

• You can look down and duck under nearly-invincible Slicestars and rather vincible Volte-faces, but not under Robo Red. 

• You can stand right next to Robo Red and not get shot, but then you are right next to Robo Red, which isn't very fun either. 

• In Keen 5 some switches read GO in the Standard Galactic Alphabet when you flip them. It's a neat touch! 

I'm still stuck! Help!

Robo Red - Robo Red never becomes that big a threat. There is always a safe place to jump when you are near him. Just watch where you're going and don't mess with him and he never sees you. 

QED - You use a mine to destroy the QED. (Curisouly, the Quantum Explosion Dynamo is abbreviated as 'QED,' from Latin "Quod erat demonstrandum", meaning 'being that which has been required to prove' (In math, the QED conclusion is sometimes used to "technical" proofs) 

The Secret Level - Just before the normal exit, underneath the arch, use the jump down command (jump + down at once) to drop to a secret area. Follow it and get to the secret Korath III base. (If you stand next to the lasers shooting up and look down, you will see a sign reading "Jump down at arch").

The fuse on the Korath III base - Jump into a niche in the wall above the green door. Use the impossible pogo trick to the left in order to reach the platform. There are many sugar bags and you can pogo up to the secret fuse. Note: Breaking the secret fuse finishes the level, so you might want to collect some goodies before doing this.

Cheats    Tips

Cheat Option

Press B-A-T simultaneously to get 99 ammo (if you have more you will lose everything exceeding 99), all gems and an extra life.

End Game

Press E-N-D simultaneously to save all Council Members and go to the ending sequence.

Debug Codes

There are two ways to activate debug mode:

• Start the game with the command-line parameter NOWAIT (this also removes various delays and screens)

• While playing, press A-2-ENTER (you will get a confirmation message)

Once you have done this, press F10 along with the following keys:

Level Warp Codes

To warp to another level, press F10-W followed by the warp code for the level you want to go to.

Keen 4 Warp Codes

Keen 5 Warp Codes

Practice Mode

To practice a level start the game with the command-line parameter TEDLEVEL followed by the warp code for the level you want to practice.
For example, to practice on Border Village, you would type KEEN4E TEDLEVEL 1. Practice mode will give you infinite lives to practice a certain level. The only problem with this is that if you use the control panel, you can only play paddle war or return to the game or the system locks up. Also, if you leave the level in any way (finishing it, etc) the system will lock up.