It’s a bit tricky to get the Clear Gem in the Road to Nowhere stage in the original Crash Bandicoot — the first game in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
You need to break every box in the stage and get to the end. Unlike some of the other gems, like the Green Gem in Lost City or the Purple Gem in Lights Out, you don’t need to finish the stage in a single life. And this stage has a ton of checkpoints. The tricky part is that there are two sections of boxes that are really easy to miss.
In order to reach those, however, you’ll first need to acquire the Red Gem in Slippery Climb, which itself is no easy task. Thankfully, we’ve made a guide for that too.
The first hidden area is about halfway through the stage. You’ll have to hop on a gem platform to reach it.
This platform will take you across the sky…
… to a new area with a tricky box puzzle.
The first thing you’ll want to do is bump the TNT crate shown above. Then make your way back to the left, where some transparent boxes were. One of those transparent boxes should have turned solid.
This next part requires perfect timing, unless you’re willing to spend your Aku Aku Mask (like we did in the video below). You’ll want to hop on the crate, hit X to bounce, and then hit square to spin just the exclamation mark box without hitting the TNT. This will fill in the next transparent box, which you’ll hop on top of to get up to the top of the cluster of steel crates.
Jump when you’re up here to hit a hidden exclamation mark box, which will spawn in four crates — three extra lives and an Aku Aku Mask. Once you bust these crates, you can use the gem platform to head back to the main pathway.
You’ll have to do the Tawna Bonus Round as well, which should’t be too difficult. Just make sure you don’t jump on the portal out until the final TNT crate blows up. That one counts as a box too, and once you exit the bonus round, you can’t return unless you restart the whole Road to Nowhere stage.
Now, when you get to the end of the level, you’ll still be two boxes short.
That’s because there’s another gem platform that takes you to another secret area. This one takes a bit of skill, because the pathway to the next secret area is invisible. Be careful to only jump where you see Wumpa Fruit.
When you make it to the end, you’ll be rewarded with your last two crates — and two more extra lives.
To see our full Crash Bandicoot Road to Nowhere playthrough, and how to get the Clear Gem in this stage, check out our video below.
