Black Market (HD)

Accessible From:	The Jungle

The Black Market is a secret level accessible from The Jungle which contains seven Shops, all packed with Shopkeepers.

It is the only place in the game where one can obtain the Ankh, a powerful item which must be obtained to reach The City of Gold and eventually Hell.

Finding the Black Market

The entrance to the Black Market is always found on one of the first three levels of the Jungle (2-1, 2-2 or 2-3). It is always hidden behind a ground tile, requiring explosives or a mattock to open.

The Black Market is most easily found with the help of the Udjat Eye from The Mines, as it will begin "blinking" on the player's HUD when the player gets within a certain range of the entrance. Akin to a "Warmer/Colder" game, the Eye will blink faster the closer the player is to the entrance.

Even without the Udjat Eye, it is occasionally possible to see the leaves surrounding the entrance sticking out from behind a wall. The entrance can also be found by chance from randomly destroying tiles in the Jungle, though due to the nature of the world generation this is highly unlikely.

Because of the random nature of the Black Market's entrance, it is quite possible for it to end up in unusual or inconvenient locations, such as just beside a Vault.

The entrance to The Black Market, found inconveniently close to a Vault.

Inside the Black Market

The Black Market is its own level, and contains 3 rows of six entirely random shops, with one found in the bottom right of the six being guaranteed to be a "Spin the Wheel" shop.

A seventh shop always spawns on the end of the second row selling the Ankh for a whopping $50,000. The Ankh is an incredibly valuable item that allows the player to survive death once or open the Moai to obtain the Hedjet, a necessary item for reaching the legendary City of Gold.

The rest of the level generally contains normal Jungle enemies and traps, with the lowest portion of the level being made up entirely of standard Jungle chunks.

A full black market level

Strategy

Depending on whether or not the Shopkeepers are mad at the player, The Black Market is either an avaricious bazaar or a towering fortress, both equally brimming with loot.

• The Black Market must be visited in runs seeking to reach Hell, as the Ankh is the key to obtaining the Hedjet, an item required to gain access to the City of Gold, and by extension Hell from obtaining the Book of the Dead found there.
• When seeking to lawfully obtain the Ankh, players will have to collect as much treasure and Golden Idols as they possibly can in order to reach the goal of $50,000.
  • Ghosting gems into much more valuable diamonds can greatly help the player acquire enough money to buy the Ankh and other items found in The Black Market, though it can be very risky, especially if the player does not have much rope or other forms of mobility.
• If getting $50,000 before entering the level doesn't seem likely or the player is seeking to obtain massive amounts of resources in a short amount of time, they can take the risk of angering the Shopkeepers and appropriating all of their wares. This can be extremely difficult without proper battle tactics or weapons.
  • With a shotgun, the player can immediately start killing shopkeepers at the top of the level. If not, they may start at a shop that contains one.
  • Bomb Cascading with Paste is incredibly useful when robbing The Black Market; particularly in the top right side just above the Ankh stall, where shopkeepers regularly coalesce and bombs can be easily dropped on their heads by placing them together above them.
  • The tiles in front of the first shop may be destroyed to make the Shopkeepers fall into the lower layers when angered, leaving the top layer containing the level's entrance safe. This can be useful tactic if the Spelunker has no weapons or the Shopkeepers were already angered before or upon entering the Market.
• Fire Frogs, Snails, and flying corpses may anger the Shopkeepers in situations out of the players control, and should be accounted for.
  • If the Shopkeepers are already angry at the player when they enter the level, any Hired Hand shops will likely instantly trigger the Shopkeepers into attack mode from them attempting to fight the Shopkeepers for the player.

Spelunky HD Places
Area 1	The Mines
Area 2	Jungle • Haunted Castle • Black Market • Worm
Area 3	Ice Caves • Worm • Mothership
Area 4	Temple • City of Gold • Olmec's Lair
Area 5	Hell • Yama's Throne
Miscellaneous	Entrance
See also	Level Feelings