Note Doors are found throughout Gruntilda's Lair in Banjo-Kazooie. Gruntilda cast a powerful musical spell on 12 passages in an attempt to slow Banjo and Kazooie's progress through her lair. Each door requires a specific amount of Musical Notes which are collected from the worlds to remove the magic spell.
Banjo & Kazooie perform a little jig each time they open a Note Door, pictured on the side:
The 12 Note Doors[]
- The 1st Note Door requires 50 Notes to open. It leads from the entrance room of Gruntilda's Lair with the giant Grunty Portrait to the room with the Grunty Round Floor Tile.
- The 2nd Note Door requires 180 Notes to open. It leads from the Pipe Drainage Room to the Huge Grunty Statue room.
- The 3rd Note Door requires 260 Notes to open. It leads from the Huge Grunty Statue room to the room with the Giant Stone Urn.
- The 4th Note Door requires 350 Notes to open. It leads from the Grunty Face Statue room to the Lava Room.
- The 5th Note Door requires 450 Notes to open. It leads from the Grunty Face Statue room to the Water-Level Raising Room.
- The 6th Note Door requires 640 Notes to open. It leads from the Water-Level Raising Room to the Click Clock Wood entrance room.
- The 7th Note Door requires 765 Notes to open. It leads from the Click Clock Wood entrance room to the Grunty's Furnace Fun entrance.
- The 8th Note Door requires 810 Notes to open. It leads to the room with the Gruntilda Puzzle.
- The 9th Note Door requires 828 Notes to open. It leads from Dingpot's Room to the Giant Blue Egg.
- The 10th Note Door requires 846 Notes to open. It leads from Dingpot's Room to the Giant Red Feather.
- The 11th Note Door requires 864 Notes to open. It leads from Dingpot's Room to the Giant Gold Feather.
- The 12th Note Door requires 882 Notes to open. It leads from Dingpot's Room to the Red Honeycomb Energy Puzzle.
Mathematical design of the Note Doors[]
Despite the seemingly random note values for each Note Door, they have a mathematical designed as follows:
By the time the player encounters a Note Door they will have access to a certain number of worlds in which they can obtain notes. The player can only obtain all the notes needed to open the 1st Note Door from 1 world (Mumbo's Mountain). Because the total number of notes in any given world is always 100, the player only has to collect 50% of the notes in Mumbo's Mountain to open the 1st Note Door.
However the 2nd Note Door requires 180 notes, which amounts to a requirement of at least 60% or 60 notes from each world. This is because the player can now access up to three worlds (Mumbo's Mountain, Treasure Trove Cove and Clanker's Cavern), so collecting 60 notes from each world will add up to 180 notes in total, which will open the 2nd Note Door.
In short, each sucessive door requires a greater minimal percentage of notes to be obtained from all the worlds the player currently has access to. Until the 8th Note Door is encountered, the player does not have to open all 9 worlds to open the first 7 Note Doors, since the 7th Note Door requires that at least 95.625% of notes are collected from 8 worlds. However at the 8th Note Door, because no world has 101+ notes to collect, you have to collect at least 10 more from the ninth world.
The following table is a breakdown of the minimal percentage of notes required to be collected from any given accessible world, at the time of encountering the given Note Door.
Note Door | Notes value | Number of Worlds Opened | Percentage of notes required from each world |
1st | 50 | 1 | 50% |
2nd | 180 | 3 | 60% |
3rd | 260 | 4 | 65% |
4th | 350 | 5 | 70% |
5th | 450 | 6 | 75% |
6th | 640 | 8 | 80% |
7th | 765 | 9 | 85% |
8th | 810 | 9 | 90% |
9th | 828 | 9 | 92% |
10th | 846 | 9 | 94% |
11th | 864 | 9 | 96% |
12th | 882 | 9 | 98% |
This second table demonstrates that you can open up to 7 Note Doors, leaving one world un-opened.
Note Door | Note Value | Number of Worlds Opened | Percentage of notes required from each world |
1st | 50 | 1 | 50% |
2nd | 180 | 2 | 90% |
3rd | 260 | 3 | 86.66666667% |
4th | 350 | 4 | 87.5% |
5th | 450 | 5 | 90% |
6th | 640 | 7 | 91.42857143% |
7th | 765 | 8 | 95.625% |
8th | 810 | 8 | 101.25% (to prove the requirement of 9 worlds) |
Cheat Codes[]
Note Doors 2 through 7 have special cheat codes to open them.
Warning: Using more than 2 of these codes or the codes to open up worlds will result in your save file being erased!
- CHEAT THESE GO RIGHT ON THROUGH NOTE DOOR TWO - Opens the 180 Note Door.
- CHEAT NOTE DOOR THREE GET IN FOR FREE - Opens the 260 Note Door.
- CHEAT TAKE A TOUR THROUGH NOTE DOOR FOUR - Opens the 350 Note Door.
- CHEAT USE THIS CHEAT NOTE DOOR FIVE IS BEAT - Opens the 450 Note Door.
- CHEAT THIS TRICKS USED TO OPEN NOTE DOOR SIX - Opens the 640 Note Door.
- CHEAT THE SEVENTH NOTE DOOR IS NOW NO MORE - Opens the 765 Note Door.
Trivia[]
- Banjo & Kazooie's Note Door dance appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as one of their taunts.
- If there was a 13th Note Door, it would be almost certain that the Note Value of that door would be 891, based on the mathematical model shown above, requiring 99% of all the notes in the game. Though it's absence might be a reference to the 13th floor Mythos .