Drowned Factory is the fifth stage in Super Mario 74 Extreme Edition, located in a pipe on a brick platform in the second overworld. This stage is based on the Haunted Factory stage from Super Mario 74, but is mirrored and flooded with water. The Boos that used to haunt this factory have been removed, with whirlpools and Skeeters filling it instead. It is easy to get turned around and lost while in this level, and its height and low coin count make it easy to drown. Though Mario seems to start at the highest point of the factory, hidden passages exist in this stage that will lead to a secret attic that did not exist in the original level. Mario must eventually track down all of these hidden passages to reach all the Stars, and he needs his power meter to be reasonably full to survive swimming through to the end of any of these tight, winding passages. Many Stars in this course share similar vague names, making it difficult to figure out where the star is located. This is the only course in the game that contains all three of the Metal Cap, Vanish Cap, and Wing Cap.
Stars[]
Star 1: Pearl Diver[]
Mario starts the level at the highest point of the original factory, but all of the secret spots he's looking for are located on the lower floors. Each one is hidden within a Clam (hence the star's name), but Mario will have to keep his air in mind and avoid the whirlpools littering the lower rooms to survive collecting all five secrets. The secrets are in the following locations:
- Swimming directly down to the first floor from the starting position, a door will be on the right side of the wall facing Mario. A whirlpool is behind this door, but is hard to avoid. The Clam is on the right side of this room. (This is Mario's starting location in the original Haunted Factory course)
- To the right after leaving the previous room (That is the far-left corner on the first floor from Mario's starting position) is a seemingly-empty room with three square platforms in it. The Clam is hiding left of the platform beside the door. (In the original course, this room had two Mr. I's and a red coin on the three platforms)
- After leaving this room, go to the opposite corner of the first floor (The room in the back right corner from Mario's starting position). This room has a maze-like platform on the floor with a whirlpool in the center of the room and a Clam hidden behind the whirlpool. (This room held star 3 in the original course)
- Mario must enter the room opposite the one holding the previous secret, but a whirlpool blocks the door (It is possible to get past the whirlpool by hugging the upper edge of the doorway, but this is difficult and unintended). Instead, he should go to the top floor and follow the big underwater wooden cross to the bigger door. This door leads to a room with many holes in the floor, and the leftmost hole will take him to the room behind that whirlpool. On the far side of this room, a Clam holds a secret on the upper ledge to the left. (This room is the location of star 4 in Haunted Factory)
- On the first floor of the main room, a dirt path leads down the very middle of the room, below all the ledges that lead to the side rooms. Following this path takes Mario through an entrance and around a corner, leading to the next Clam. (In the original course, this path was covered in toxic waste, and led to star 2, where the Clam now is)
After all of the secrets are collected, the star appears above the wooden cross-shaped beams on the upper level of the factory.
Star 2: The Tunnel Labyrinth Part 1[]
This star requires the Vanish Cap. The first step in finding this star is figuring out where the Vanish Cap is. To find it, Mario will have to travel through a long, narrow, twisting path hidden somewhere in the stage: The first part of the eponymous 'Tunnel Labyrinth'. The path leading to the Vanish Cap is located in the room leading to the fourth secret in the previous star: From his starting position, Mario just has to swim through the door to his left on the wooden platform below. If he goes to the very left side of this room, he'll notice there's an alcove in the far end of the left wall. Enter this alcove and swim halfway up it, keeping an eye on the left edge of the alcove, and soon Mario will be faced with the hidden tunnel leading to the Vanish Cap. With the Vanish Cap, he just has to jump down the nearby hole to reach the main room again, and swim back to the room with the hidden tunnel. If he goes down the hole on the left side of the room, he'll reach the target: There's a star behind a thin wire gate immediately to his right in this lower room. As long as he still has the Vanish Cap active, he can get this star. Note that this is the same location as star 4 in the original game.
Star 3: The Tunnel Labyrinth Part 2[]
This star requires the Vanish Cap. Follow the same steps in the previous star to collect the Vanish Cap, and again jump through the hole leading from the attic to the main room. There's one room on the lowest floor of the factory that did not hold a secret spot for star 1, and that's where Mario needs to go. To help orient yourself, if you can see the entrance at the end of the dirt path (leading to secret spot 5, also leading to star 2 in the original stage), turn around and swim through the door on the far righthand wall. If instead you can see a doorway on the short wall facing you, then swim in through the door on the right wall beside that one. However you manage to get into it, you will find a room with a whirlpool in the middle and with columns of varying height in each corner. The column immediately in front of Mario as he enters the room has a thin wire gate at its base, with a star right behind it. Note that this star's location leads to the blue coin switch in the original course.
Star 4: The Tunnel Labyrinth Part 3[]
This star requires the Wing Cap. To collect this star, Mario must first travel to the room that held the third secret spot in star 1 (The one with the platforms in the shape of an underwater maze). Immediately after entering this room, turn right and swim down. A tunnel is carved into the base of the platform at the entrance to this room, and traveling through it will take Mario to the desired room of the attic. Once in this room, Mario must carefully drop down the hole in the floor to land on the thin ledge beneath it, where the Wing Cap is. From this ledge, triple jump to take flight towards the far side of the main room, where a star is located against the wall, far above the water and just under the edge of the roof.
Star 5: The Tunnel Labyrinth Part 4[]
This star requires the Metal Cap. The Metal Cap is exceptionally well-hidden in the Tunnel Labyrinth, but not impossible to find. Swim down through to the room with the first secret spot in star 1 (the starting room in Haunted Factory), and go to the floor on the left side of the room. There's a small entrance here that Mario can swim up, and up, and up. He'll travel through a passage with amps, and hopefully can dodge them and swim fast enough to get to the attic room at the end of this tunnel. Once Mario climbs up the steep slope in this room, he can find a metal box mostly-embedded in the nearby wall, leading to a platform with the Metal Cap on it. With Metal Cap in hand (or on head), Mario can drop down the hole in this room to land on the wooden beams near the top of the main room. He'll have to press the Purple Switch just before the Metal Cap wears off, then quickly swim upwards, towards the cork box that has spawned far above the switch, just above the water level. From this corkbox, he can wall kick his way up the hole it's under to enter the central room of the attic, where the star awaits.
Star 6: The Tunnel Labyrinth Part 5[]
All of the red coins in this level are located in the attic area, and Mario will have to find every last hidden passage into the attic to collect them all. Note that since this level contains only 103 coins, Mario will need to collect virtually all of the red coins to get the 100 coin star, so it is highly recommended they are both earned at the same time. The red coins and passages are located as follows:
- The room with the Vanish Cap (the location of the passage to this star is explained in star 2)
- The room with the Wing Cap (the location of the passage to this star is explained in star 4)
- The room with the Metal Cap (the location of the passage to this star is explained in star 5)
- The room with star 5, found after pressing the Purple Switch on the wooden rafters with the Metal Cap
- A room with a sign telling the player about the Tunnel Labyrinth. The fairly-short passage to this room is found on the wooden rafters at the upper floor of the factory, opposite the wide open room
- A room with a blue coin switch in the attic. The passage to this room is found from the room with the first secret spot in star 1: There's a hidden path high above the Clam in this room, which leads to a passage nearly-blocked off by a Whirlpool. If Mario's having too much trouble getting past that whirlpool, he can instead reach this passage by using the Vanish Cap to go past the wire gate blocking star 3, but keep swimming through the path behind it instead of collecting that star. This path will lead to the opposite side of this whirlpool
- Right next to the previous red coin
- A room with the red coin star spawn point. The passage to this area is hidden in the room with the second secret spot in star 1: From the entrance to that room, swim to the left side of the room and notice that part of the wall is indented outwards. Near the very top of this indented wall, a passage is hidden on its right side.
After collecting all eight red coins, the star will appear in the room with red coin 8 in the above list.
Enemies[]
- Skeeter
- Clam
- Goomba
Trivia[]
- It and Cliff of Pain use the same background music.