12 Things Mina the Hollower Never Tells You

Guide Background

Mina the Hollower leans hard into an old-school style, not only in its Game Boy Color-inspired look but also in how little it explains. A lot of its most important systems are left for the player to piece together, especially early on. These 12 things cover the mechanics, routes, and small details that make the opening hours much easier to read.

Tips and Tricks

1. Read the HUD Before You Panic

The red bar is Mina’s current health, and when it runs out, she dies. The more unusual part is the yellow health that starts filling as you land hits and collect flower pickups. That yellow portion is plasma, and it shows how much health Mina can restore when using a vial.

Healing is risky. A vial takes time to use, and if Mina gets hit during the animation, the heal is canceled. Because plasma grows as you attack, it is often better to land a few safe hits before drinking a vial instead of healing the moment you take damage.

The blue bubble on the HUD shows whether Mina currently has a spark. The three squares in the left corner show the equipped weapon, sub-weapon, and vial stock. Sub-weapon charges are restored with blue bottles, while vial refills come from much rarer pickups. On the right side, the HUD tracks bones, kiers, and how many bones are needed for the next level.

2. Use the Underlab as More Than a Respawn Point

The glowing spots on the ground are checkpoints, but they also mark the entrance to Mina’s Underlab. Dropping into the Underlab gives you access to several useful functions.

The water inside fully heals Mina. The device on the bottom right restores all vials. The machine in the top right lets you convert bone stones into bones, which becomes important when you are trying to reach the exact amount needed for a level-up.

As the game progresses, the Underlab can also be upgraded and customized, so it is worth thinking of it as Mina’s base rather than just a place where she respawns.

3. Treat Bones and Bone Stones Like Separate Wallets

Mina the Hollower has two main currencies. Bones are the standard currency gained from enemies and found throughout the world. Bone stones are yellow gems, most often found in treasure chests.

A good way to think about it: bones are cash in your wallet, while bone stones are money in savings. Bones are more exposed to death penalties, while bone stones are safe and can still be pulled from when buying items at a vendor.

Shop prices also communicate what you can afford. The color of an item’s price shows whether you can buy it with bones alone, with bones plus bone stones, or not at all.

4. Manage Death, Sparks, and Level-Up Money Carefully

When Mina dies, she drops a spark near the spot where she fell, but she keeps her bones as long as she does not die again without a spark. The spark can be reclaimed by touching it or by killing the nearby enemy that absorbed it.

Bone stones normally cannot be used for level-ups, but the Underlab machine can convert them into bones. That lets you top off your bones when you are just short of an upgrade.

When leveling up, Mina can increase attack, defense, or sidearm power. Each category becomes more expensive as you invest points into it. If you want to save toward a category you cannot afford yet, you can convert bones into bone stones so you do not risk losing them on death.

If you are carrying a lot of bones and would regret losing them, stop pushing forward, return to town, and spend or store them.

5. Remember Where Sidearms Spawn

Sidearms are temporary weapons used with a button press. They can damage enemies, deal with obstacles, solve puzzles, cross gaps, and reach secret areas that Mina’s standard gear cannot access.

They use a resource called jewels, restored by blue bottles scattered around the world. Sidearms are often found by breaking blocks and candles, but their locations are static. If you know where a sidearm appears, you can go back and pick it up again after dying.

One example is the umbrella in the graveyard, which can always be found in the same spot. That matters because losing a sidearm does not necessarily mean losing access to its route utility forever.

After unlocking the Hollowers Guild and rescuing Rean, an Underlab upgrade becomes available that keeps the most recent sidearm Mina was holding when she died.

6. Do Not Worry Too Much About the Starting Weapon Choice

At the start, Mina chooses between three weapons: Nightstar, Blaststrike Maul, and Whisper and Vesper. Nightstar is a mace on a chain with good range. Blaststrike Maul is a slower but powerful hammer that can charge up for large area damage. Whisper and Vesper are paired daggers built for rapid strikes.

The choice is locked in after the prologue, but it is not permanent for the whole game. Later, the other weapons can be purchased at Legovich’s Arms in the starting town of Ossix.

Weapons begin at 2,000 bones each and become more expensive with each new purchase, but they can be worth the cost because some weapons perform better in specific encounters. Buying the same weapon again upgrades it with a new move. For example, upgrading the Blaststrike Maul lets it charge another level and perform a highly damaging explosive attack.

7. Learn Each Weapon’s Hidden Movement Nuance

Each weapon has small mechanical details that are easy to miss.

With Nightstar, jumping forward while attacking extends its range significantly. With Blaststrike Maul, charging and moving in a direction lets Mina roll with some invulnerability frames, avoiding an attack while setting up her own. With the daggers, jumping and attacking locks Mina in a direction after the first hit, letting her strike the same target twice while still holding left or right in the air.

These details make the weapons feel very different once you start using their movement quirks instead of only their basic attacks.

8. Burrow Immediately After Taking Damage

Normally, Mina has to jump before she can burrow, which means avoiding certain attacks requires planning ahead. One important mechanic is never clearly explained: after taking damage, Mina can burrow immediately.

While she is still flashing from the hit, hold the jump button and she can go underground right away. This is especially useful when a mistake has already happened and the priority is getting out before the next hit lands.

9. Know Mina’s Real Jump Distance

Mina’s basic jump is shorter than it may feel at first. If she is walking and jumps normally, she can comfortably clear a one-square gap. A two-square gap requires a burrow jump. Anything beyond that needs help from a trinket or a sub-weapon.

That same knowledge can also save time. Instead of always taking the obvious one-square jump, look for places where a burrow jump over a slightly harder two-square gap lets you skip hazards, bypass obstacles, or avoid a fight.

10. Use the Environment and Burrowing in Combat

Mina does not have to rely only on weapon damage. By burrowing under objects such as rocks and vases, she can lift them and throw them at enemies for big damage.

Burrowing also breaks line of sight against most foes. Against shielded enemies that guard from the front, get their attention, burrow as they move toward Mina, pass underneath them, and pop up behind them. That creates free openings where they are vulnerable.

11. Learn the Important Places in Ossix

Ossix is large and can feel overwhelming after the prologue. From the main town gate, the building just to the right is the Hollowers Guild. Reach it by following the house around to the right side, breaking the crate, and hopping over the obstacles to the front door. At first there is not much inside, but later side quests unlock NPCs there who provide Underlab upgrades.

Straight ahead from the main gate is the shopping district. The first shop on the right is the Emporium, which sells permanent upgrades such as health expansions, vial capacity upgrades, jewel expansions, and trinket bags. To the right of that is the Cure Institute, where kiers can be bought when you are out of keys and find a locked door. Farther left is Legovich’s Arms, where Mina can buy new weapons or upgrade existing ones.

Newspaper stands around town let you read the Tenebrous Times. These show game stats and can point you toward where to go next through the front-page story.

Some buildings have black circles above their doors. These are Spark Doors, and opening them requires giving up the number of sparks shown on the door. Mina starts with one spark, but more become available later. More sparks also mean more chances to recover bones, since all bones are only lost if Mina dies without a spark.

Around town and in the world, talk to NPCs, burrow through suspicious holes, break anything breakable, and strike anything that looks unusual.

12. Use Modifiers, the Manual, and Get Out of the Dark

If the game feels too hard, too easy, or you want to adjust the presentation, Mina the Hollower includes a large number of in-game modifiers.

Boss runbacks can be softened with a boss checkpoint modifier that places an Underlab next to the boss room. Healing speed can be changed with quick heal. The game can also be made harder by reducing invulnerability time after being hit, increasing damage taken, or even making death cost one level in each stat in addition to losing bones.

If a mechanic still feels unclear, the options menu includes an in-game manual that explains many systems in the style of old instruction booklets.

One final warning: do not stay in the dark. If Mina ends up in darkness, get out as quickly as possible.

Summary

Mina the Hollower hides a lot of its most useful knowledge in practice rather than tutorials. Understanding plasma healing, sparks, bone safety, sidearms, weapon quirks, burrow movement, Ossix’s services, and the modifier menu makes the early game much easier to read without taking away its old-school bite.