Reaching the Black Market

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 28 October 2026.

This page describes a secret.

The Black Market is a level of seven shops, the Ankh Shop among them, and its only way in is a door hidden inside a block on one of the Jungle's levels 5 to 7. The door is made once a game, on one level, so it has to be found and opened there; the Udjat Eye, from the Mines, beeps on that level. One run, with seed 9 from the level 5 shortcut, bombs the door open on level 5 and walks through the market to its exit ^[1]; the clips of those steps are cut from it, and the others from replays of the Eye and the market's shops.

• A game started at level 1 or from the level 5 shortcut. The door is on level 5, 6 or 7 ^[2], so a game started from the Tunnel Man's level 9 or 13 shortcut has no market.
• A way through rock: bombs, or the Mattock. The door is inside a block, which has to be dug or bombed out ^[3] (the hidden door).
• Optional: the Udjat Eye, which only a game started at level 1 can find: it's in a locked chest on level 2, 3 or 4 ^[4].
• Optional: money. The market's wares cost what any shop's do on its level, and the Ankh $50,000 (the market's shops).

1. Get the Udjat Eye, if you want its help. One of the Mines' levels 2 to 4 has a locked chest, and one of the same level's loose treasures is its key; carry the key to the chest, and it opens on the Eye (where the chest is) ^[5]. In the clip, the player carries the key down to the chest and picks up the Eye that pops out ^[6].

2. On levels 5 to 7, listen for it. On the level with the door, and only there, the Eye blinks and beeps, faster the nearer the player is to the door (the Udjat Eye and the market) ^{[7] [8]}. Far from the door it can stay silent until he's close. In the clip, the Eye is silent as the player runs across the top of level 7, and blinks only once he's beside the door ^[9].

3. Find the door. Level 5 has it one time in 3, level 6 one time in 2, and level 7 always, if neither did ^[2]. It's inside a block that isn't a tree and has another block under it, and level generation makes the block under it one that can't be destroyed (where it's put) ^[3].

4. Open the block. Bomb it, or dig it out with the Mattock. The door is an object of its own, not the block, so it's left standing in the hole, on the block under it ^[10].

5. Walk into the door, as into an exit: up, standing on the ground in front of it ^[11]. The next level is the Black Market ^{[12] [13]}, with the message "WELCOME TO THE BLACK MARKET!" ^[14]. In the clip, a bomb blows open the rock on level 5, the player walks into the door, and the market loads ^[15].

6. Shop. The market has one of each item shop as a rule, a Dice House and the Ankh Shop, laid out the same way every time (the layout). Pick a ware up, and its Shopkeeper names the price; the pay key buys it, with the money in hand (how buying works) ^{[16] [17]}. In the clip, the player drops into the Ankh Shop and picks up the Ankh, and the Shopkeeper names its price ^[18].

7. Leave by the exit, at the bottom right. The bottom row of rooms leads from the left column to it (the layout) ^[19]. In the clip, the player climbs down from Wang's Clothing Shop and walks along the bottom row to the exit ^[20].

• Buy what the rest of the game needs here: once the market has been made, no later level has a shop ^{[21] [22]}.
• The market's level is the one after the door's, so a door found on level 5 makes a market on level 6, whose wares cost less than on level 8: prices rise 10% of the base price with each level past the second (prices) ^[23]. The Ankh's never changes (the Ankh Shop's prices).
• One market in five has two General Stores and is missing another shop (Two General Stores).
• The Ankh, thrown up out of its shop, angers no one until the player picks it up outside (Throwing the Ankh out).
• The Reaching the City of Gold guide carries the Ankh on from here.

• Leaving the door's level without taking it. The door is made once a game: once it has been, no later level makes one, until a new game ^{[2] [24] [25]}.

• A lit bomb in a shop. An armed bomb in a shop's room, near a Shopkeeper, angers every Shopkeeper that's active, near enough the view, with "TERRORIST!" ^[26], and the market's seven are close together: in the clip's run, five of them at once (the market's hazards) ^{[22] [27]}. In the clip, the player drops a lit bomb in Wang's Supply Shop, and its Shopkeeper shoots him dead on the next step ^[28].

• Walking out with a ware unpaid. Carried out of its shop's room, it's stolen, and the nearest Shopkeeper attacks ^{[29] [30]}. The theft marks the player a thief, and while he is one, the market's other Shopkeepers stop greeting him and walk about, attacking when he comes near (stealing) ^[31]. The City of Gold route's run steals the Ankh all the same, and leaves past them ^[32].