Mina the Hollower: 10 Early Game Trinkets You Should Grab

Guide Background

Mina the Hollower is packed with trinkets, but these ten are especially valuable in the early hours. Some come from side quests, some are bought from shops, and others are tucked behind small route puzzles or early challenge rooms. The focus here is on trinkets worth grabbing as soon as you can, especially the ones that make healing, exploration, boss fights, and dangerous terrain more manageable.

Important Items

Bell of Grace

The Bell of Grace comes from Frayed, the red zombie found beneath the train station in Western Ossyx, also known as the Bowery.

Talk to Frayed in the underside area below the station. After he comments on admiring your bones, he starts appearing around Ossyx to mug you, stealing a few bones each time. When he runs off, hit him as he escapes to win some of those bones back. Keep encountering and damaging him until he is finally defeated. Once that happens, he returns to the station underside as a pile of mush.

At that point, hand over 1,000 bones freely. It is a steep price early on, but the reward is the Bell of Grace.

This trinket gives you a chance to keep half or even all of your bones when you die. Since losing bones after a death can make early exploration feel risky, Bell of Grace is a strong safety net while you are still learning routes, enemies, and combat timing.

Valor Medallion

The Valor Medallion is tied to a side quest in Eastern Ossyx, High Street. Head to the water in the south to find a crying girl who wants flowers. Nearby, across the channel, is a purple man with a hidden giant nose.

Hit the man to make his nose unfurl like a bridge. As he wanders, wait until he stands across from flowers on a rooftop, then smack him and cross the extended nose to reach the roof. Move to the next screen and burrow under the flower pot to pick it up.

Return to the man and throw the pot at him. It breaks, leaving him with a bouquet. From there, use attacks and burrowing to bump him south until he lines up across from the crying girl. Talk to him once he is in position, and he will extend his nose across the water to offer her the flowers.

The girl has a giant nose too, and after the two are united, they reward you with the Valor Medallion.

This trinket lets Mina heal while moving and also keeps plasma even after taking a hit. That matters a lot early on, because standing still long enough to drink during a fight can be difficult. Valor Medallion makes healing far less punishing in tense combat.

Steady Soles

The Steady Soles are found from a rooftop route in High Street. At the north end of High Street is a Keer Lock, so return here once you have one. Unlocking it opens a rooftop path to the north with a telescope.

On the next screen, look for small spaces under the railing that Mina can burrow through. Burrow under the railing and drop through the first gap to fall into an attic below. Inside, break the boxes, jump over the barriers, and reach the staircase in the top-left corner. The stairs lead outside to a treasure box containing the Steady Soles.

Steady Soles let Mina move normally across several types of terrain. They are especially useful while swimming: equip them before diving, and Mina can move much farther before surfacing. They also remove knockback from enemy attacks, making them useful well beyond the opening areas.

Plasma Funnel

The Plasma Funnel is sold at the Trinket Bazaar in Ossyx. The shop is the purple building just west of the central fountain. To open the entrance, attack the bright pile of wood beside the debris.

The shop inventory expands over time, but the Plasma Funnel is available from the start for 700 bones. It makes Mina drink healing vials twice as fast, which can save a run during a hard fight.

Later, once you can equip multiple trinkets at once, Plasma Funnel pairs extremely well with Valor Medallion. Together, they let Mina heal twice as fast while staying mobile.

Intravenous Vial

The Intravenous Vial is also available early at the Trinket Bazaar in Ossyx. It costs 1,250 bones, making it pricier than the Plasma Funnel, but it fills a different role.

When equipped, it automatically uses a vial once Mina has earned enough plasma, and it skips the drinking animation entirely. If you prefer strict control over your healing resources, manual healing may still be better. But if you often forget to heal in time, Intravenous Vial is a strong early-game option.

Chain Capacitor

The Chain Capacitor comes from the Chop Shop in the grassland east of town. Leave Ossyx through the east gate, then head directly north to an area with overgrown grass and a locked shack. Spend a key to open it and enter the Chop Shop.

Pay the owner 50 bones and he will let you smash up a car. The faster you destroy it, the more bones you win back. Finish the whole car in 30 seconds or less to earn the Chain Capacitor as the grand prize.

This challenge can be tough immediately, but the bike sub-weapon helps because crashing into the car damages multiple parts at once. If the timer is too tight, come back after increasing your attack power a few times.

Chain Capacitor adds a damage multiplier to your attacks. The more hits you land without getting hit, the higher your damage climbs. The multiplier resets when Mina gets hit by an enemy or when an attack misses. It is especially good for boss fights once you understand their attack patterns.

Spike Spurs

Spike Spurs are hidden in Mourner’s Mile, the graveyard northeast of the grasslands and on the way to an early dungeon.

From the first checkpoint, go east through the gate into a long room with moving platforms and pits. Exit north, fight past the knight, and keep heading north while bearing left. Two enemies burst from their crypts near a cracked tile on the wall between them. Defeat them, then break through that cracked wall to reveal a burrow hole.

Burrow into the room below and work through the spike traps and platforms to reach the Spike Spurs.

This trinket reduces damage from spike traps and prevents Mina from being knocked back when spikes hit her. Spikes appear throughout the game, but they are especially common in this zone. Two rooms in particular become much easier with Spike Spurs equipped, so keeping them on through this area’s dungeon is a smart move.

Proto Spark

The Proto Spark is found inside Queensbury Crypt, the dungeon in the northeastern corner of Mourner’s Mile. It is one of the strongest trinkets you can get early.

Reach the lowest floor of Queensbury Crypt. The right area is marked by a long room with moving planks and many ropes to burrow under. In the room north of that, there are two zombie enemies and a breakable tombstone on the left. Break through the tombstone and enter the next room to find a purple man near some ropes. This is the Duke.

Speak with him to begin an escort mission. The Duke follows Mina anywhere on that floor of the crypt, but if he touches an enemy or obstacle, he starts running around while flashing. Wait for him to calm down, then touch him to make him follow again.

Lead him to the boss chamber to the north. You do not need to protect him during the boss fight; he waits outside the hallway even if you need multiple attempts. The boss is the Duchess, the Duke’s dead lover. After you defeat her, the Duke follows again and opens a secret door near the dungeon exit.

Follow him through, seal him in the coffin as requested, and he rewards you with the Proto Spark.

Proto Spark gives Mina an instant revive the first time she dies. After triggering, it breaks until restored at a checkpoint. It does not give extra vials, but Mina comes back with most of her health restored, which is incredibly valuable during difficult combat.

Primed Vial Pouch

The Primed Vial Pouch is found south of Ossyx. Exit town to the south, then head west. Pass the two soldiers and the moving platforms, then take the next turn south onto a rooftop.

There is a breakable tree stump here. Break it, move right, and hop onto another rooftop with a hole. Burrow inside, break the box, and take the stairs down to the basement. The Primed Vial Pouch is waiting there.

When equipped, it adds two healing vials to Mina’s total. It also makes vials always heal at least a little, even if you have not attacked enemies to earn plasma. Since many early trinkets revolve around staying alive, this one fits naturally into safer early-game exploration and combat.

Flame Guard

Flame Guard is found in the Molten Foundry, a mini dungeon on the northern edge of the Occupied Bridge. From the area where the Primed Vial Pouch route ends, continue north along the path to reach Occupied Bridge.

Inside the Molten Foundry, drop through the broken walkway in the top-right corner, then burrow past the gate to the left. This leads to a checkpoint, and you will want it.

The next room uses lava that can be redirected by digging through adjacent squares. The lava lights up dark areas inside the Foundry and destroys red crystals that cannot otherwise be broken. Keep that mechanic in mind, then pay two healing vials and a cure to unlock the blocks in the northeast.

Downstairs is a tough section built around moving lava, digging under ropes, fighting enemies, and handling moving platforms. Timing the lava flow on the platforms is the hardest part. Push through the gauntlet and the reward is the Flame Guard.

Flame Guard blocks one hit from fire or explosive damage, then recharges after a short time. It is useful in many areas and against several bosses. It is especially valuable against Armand, the blacksmith who must be beaten if you want to buy more main weapons.

Summary

These ten trinkets cover the biggest early-game needs: safer deaths, better healing, more mobility, terrain protection, extra survivability, and stronger boss damage. Bell of Grace and Proto Spark reduce the pain of mistakes, Valor Medallion and Plasma Funnel make healing easier under pressure, and route-specific finds like Spike Spurs and Flame Guard can turn nasty areas into much more manageable challenges.