City of Gold

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

This page describes a secret.

The City of Gold takes the place of the Temple's last level, and is built of gold: its walls, floors and stone are gold blocks that break into Gold Chunks and Gold Nuggets, its side rooms can be treasure vaults, and a statue of Lady Xoc stands in it, studded with gems. The way in is a gold door on level 14, which takes the Sceptre and opens only for a player wearing the Hedjet, so reaching it means finding both. Its exit leads to Olmec's Lair, as the Temple's level 15 does.

Level 14 always has a gold door, on top of a block that can't be destroyed. Generation puts it on the first block with open space above it that wins a roll of 1 in a number that starts each game at 160 and falls by one with each block that loses, or, failing that, on the first such block in the level ^{[4] [5] [6]}. It can be anywhere, even sealed in rock that only a bomb opens ^{[7] [8]}. Carried into the door, the Sceptre, which only level 13's Tomb Lord leaves, opens it if the player wears the Hedjet, and is used up; without the Hedjet the door says "THE SCEPTRE FITS... BUT NOTHING IS HAPPENING!" and stays shut ^{[9] [2]}. Walking through the open door makes the next level, 15, the City of Gold ^[1]. The first clip shows it: the player, wearing the Hedjet, carries the Sceptre to the door, which opens, and goes through (the Hedjet's gold door) ^[10].

The level starts with the message "IT'S THE LEGENDARY CITY OF GOLD!" ^[11]. It's laid out as the Temple's levels are, four rooms by four on a path from the top row to the bottom, from the Temple's room script, with these differences ^[12]:

The statue can take the room the path drops through to the exit's row, and its bottom row is solid, so the way down can then only be bombed open ^{[7] [18]}.

Every block of the Temple's stone is gold here, the level's walls too, and so are its stone blocks and push blocks ^{[19] [20] [21] [22]}. One block in a hundred is still the Jungle's earth, as in the Temple ^[23]. In the second clip, the City loads with its message, and the player runs down to the Lady Xoc statue ^[24].

The City can also be a sacrifice pit ^[25], and as the statue's room is chosen after the pit's, it can take the pit's room in the third row ^[16]. The City's message then shows twice, 210 steps apart, before the pit's "I CAN HEAR PRAYERS TO KALI!": the timer the City's message sets for the pit's runs the same chain of messages again, which shows the City's first and sets another timer for the pit's ^{[11] [26] [27]}. The roll for a dark level is made for the City as for the Temple's other levels ^[28], and a dark City's message is the dark level's, with the City's 210 steps later ^{[29] [26]}.

Taking the City's exit leads to Olmec's Lair, level 16, which is no longer gold: leaving the City ends it ^{[30] [31]}. In the clip below, the player drops through a hole bombed beside the statue, picks up an emerald, takes the exit, and the lair loads ^[32].

Level generation makes the Temple's monsters here, on the same terms ^[33]: Cavemen and Hawkmen on the blocks, Scarabs if the level is dark, and a Tomb Lord, tried for one time in four, as on any Temple level after 13 ^[34]. The two path layouts only the City uses hold a Tomb Lord each, whatever that roll ^{[35] [15]}. None of them leaves the Sceptre, which only level 13's does ^[9]. Magma Men rise from its lava.

The Ghost never comes to the City of Gold: it only comes to a player without the Hedjet, which the gold door requires ^[36].

The Temple's: Arrow Traps, Spear Traps, Smash Traps and Lava, made as on the Temple's other levels ^{[37] [38] [39]}. The City has no idol room, so none of its Ceiling Traps.

Breaking a gold block of the Temple's stone, or a gold push block, with a bomb or a Mattock, gives three Gold Chunks and a Gold Nugget ^{[40] [41]}. The gold stone blocks among them, one in ten, would too, but give nothing: level generation marks every stone block on a Temple level, the City's included, to break without a trace ^{[42] [43]}. The gold blocks hide no gems or items, as the Temple's stone can: their roll for a gem is skipped in the City ^[44]. Only the odd block of earth can hide one ^[45], and, on a City that's a sacrifice pit, the six blocks of the pit's floor, each of which holds a big ruby ^{[46] [47] [48]}.

Two of the vault layouts are rows of shelves in the rock, holding treasure and a box; the third is six boxes in the rock ^[13]. Each treasure tile rolls, each roll made once the ones before it fail ^[49]:

The statue is 30 blocks, five wide and six tall, and six of them hold a gem: a diamond at its brow, two sapphires, two emeralds and a ruby, each dropping two of its gem when the block breaks, as well as the gold every block gives ^{[52] [53]}. In the clip, a bomb breaks the statue's top, and the brow's block drops two diamonds ^{[54] [55]}.

Shops come as in the Temple, 2 in 15 on level 15, and none once the Black Market has been made ^{[56] [7]}. Treasure is scattered over the blocks as in the Mines ^[57].

• The Lady Xoc statue's blocks drop their gems only inside the check that gives them gold, the City's, which is the only level that makes the statue ^{[58] [16]}.
• The City's side room roll picks 1 to 14 and turns a 12, the idol room's number, into a 15, the third vault's, so the idol room never comes up and the vault takes its place ^[59].