Guide to The Lair of LeChuck (2024)

Tall Tales are story-based voyages in the Sea of Thieves that you can experience alone or with your crew. They tell a narrative and involve solving puzzles, using unique mechanics, and overcoming perils.

The Lair of LeChuck Tall Tale is the third and final part of the Legend of Monkey Island saga, combining the storied “Monkey Island” game franchise with the world of Sea of Thieves. Click here for our guide to the first chapter, and here for our guide to the second.

This guide walks through The Lair of LeChuck Tall Tale, detailing what to expect at each step, how to solve the side quests, as well as where to find those pesky hidden Journals. This guide contains puzzle solution spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Rewards for The Lair of LeChuck

• Complete the The Lair of LeChuck Tale for the first time to unlock the Burning Blade Cutlass
• Complete all Commendations in the Tall Tale (more on these below), and you’ll unlock the LeChuck Portrait for decorating your ships
• Complete all Commendations in ALL 3 Legend of Monkey Island Tall Tales to unlock the Monkey Island Shanty
• Every time you complete the Tale, you also pocket 8,000 Gold

Overview of the Tall Tale

In this Tall Tale, you’ll be visiting Monkey Island, a location filled with puzzles to solve.

• Along the way, there are 10 interactable “Memoir Spots”. These are special locations that let you sit down and take in the scenery, and trigger a narration by Guybrush Threepwood. They’re also always nearby a decorative inkwell to mark their location. You need to discover all 10 along the way to fully complete this Tale!
• Around the island are also 10 of Herman’s Notes, pieces of paper you can read for tips and information. You need to read all 10 to fully complete the tale!
• Hidden within the underground lair are LeChuck’s Five Journals that you need to discover!
• There are some objectives (Commendations) that are easy to miss, so we’ll point them out at each step to make sure you don’t skip by them

To start your journey, you need to talk to Kate Capsize, a redhaired pirate standing by a wreckage filled camp located on every outpost (titled “Capsize Charters”). Here you’ll see the Tall Tale book sitting on a table, ready for your crew to cast their votes and begin the voyage.

When the Tale begins, a short cutscene will play out before the Pirate Lord opens a portal through the nearest stone archway in the sea. Sail your ship through this portal, and after traveling through a short loading zone, you’ll arrive at Monkey Island! Sail straight ahead, and land your ship along the shoreline.

Talking to Guybrush

By reading your quest book, you’ll learn that Guybrush Threepwood wants to meet at the giant Stone Monkey Head on the Northeast end of the island. Run along the beach in this direction, passing the Black Pearl anchored just off shore and the wreckage of the Sea Monkey along the coast, until you reach a path in the woods that leads to Guybrush in front of the fenced off Monkey Head.

Herman’s Note: one of the ten Herman’s Notes is found on the red rock just before going down the North Eastern jungle path that leads to Guybrush

After talking to Guybrush, he’ll give you new pages to read in your Quest Book. To make it into LeChuck’s Lair, you’ll need to acquire THREE golden Monkey Idols and place them on a stone hand altar to retrieve the Cotton Swab Key to the Stone Monkey Head. The pages you get from Guybrush include a handy map indicating the rough locations of two of these golden Idols, the big hand altar, and the camp of “Herman”, an eccentric castaway.

Memoir Spot #1: Directly in front of Guybrush on a red rock is one of the ten memoir spots you must sit in for a commendation

The Light Beam Puzzle…

To start, back track from Guybrush and board the Black Pearl ship anchored close to shore. There are three NPCs aboard you must talk to to earn a commendation. In addition, you can spot Captain Coco perched on the ship’s wheel. “Rescue” the coconut and it will relocate to the wooden ledge, and interacting again indicates that it needs some kind of item to help it see…

Double back again to the North East and explore the wreckage of the “Sea Monkey” ship. In the captain’s quarters you’ll find cereal boxes, each containing a toy “prize”. Search each of these until you discover the Toy Admiral’s Monocle.

Herman’s Note: One of the notes is on a pile of wood planks on the shore next to the Sea Monkey’s wreckage

Take this item back to Captain Coco on the Black Pearl and you can combine them, and now you can pick up Admiral Coco and carry them with you. This is just the beginning of a long process however!

On the shore near the Black Pearl ship is a mirror propped against a crate on the beach. Head south of this to another crate and prop up the fallen “Spyglass Stand” sitting in the sand. A spyglass could be mounted here, and it’s obvious that the light reflecting off the mirror is shining this way. Head in that direction and follow the footprints of monkeys and their fallen banana peels. These head slightly into the jungle until they end at the spyglass missing from the stand. Insert the spyglass and look to see it aims at a mounted skull up ahead. Bring Admiral Coco, and here you can remove the skull from the spike and replace it with Coco. The line reflected off the mirror shines through the spyglass creating a beam that then bounces off Coco’s monocle, continuing the beam onward…

Head in the direction of the light beam to find another tipped over Spyglass stand you need to stand upright. Looking through this glass will see another glinting spyglass ahead with a large tree between them. Note: this tree will be important later! We will refer to this as the Southwestern Banana Tree from now on.

Memoir Spot #2: Facing the Southwestern Banana Tree at the edge of the shore is a crate you can sit on

Herman’s Note: Northwest from the Banana Tree is a note on some red rocks at the edge of the jungle

Continue to the next glinting spyglass, and looking through it, continue to the final spot which is a long jog to the north west. You’ll end at another set of three spikes with skulls on them. The skulls on the left and right will not be removable, but the one in the center indicates it could be loosened if you find a way. Just East of here you can see the glittering gold of one of our Monkey Idols in the cage hanging from the mast, but we can’t access it now. We’ll need to remember this and come back later.

Herman’s Note: On the pile of wood planks next to this mast trap is one of Herman’s notes to read

The Stockade and Banana Grease

Backtrack to the Southwestern Banana Tree, and facing North follow the path into the jungle to the camp (also signified by the campfire smoke). Here you’ll meet Herman, a castaway that’s been very busy all over Monkey Island and is the key to finding all three of the golden Monkey Idols. Talk to him to get some more context on some of the goings-on around the place, then make sure to pick up his bundled note on the crate, adding vital pages to your Quest Book. These pages will run through all of Herman’s daily to-do list, which give a lot of detail about where key items are hidden.

Memoir Spot #3: Northwest of where Herman is standing, on the other side of the big red rock, is a short dead end path that leads to a small rock to sit on at the base of a tree

See Also

Monkey Island 3: The Curse of Monkey Island - Lösung - Adventure Corner

From here, the first thing to do is hike up the volcano to Herman’s stockade. This is located West by Northwest, passed the mast trap from before. Follow the path that hugs the mountain ascending up the cascading waterfalls across wooden bridges and red rocks. When you reach the sign post that reads “SUN TAN SPOT”, dive into the water as the To-Do list indicates that the tanning location has fallen in the pool. Find it at the bottom of the water and then swim through the channel to emerge in one of the lower pools. Return to the mountain path and continue climbing to the top with the Sun Tan Oil in hand.

Eventually, you’ll reach Herman’s stockade but it’s locked shut and a key is required for entry. The map on the door has a circle indicating where to find the stockade key, which may require diving into the pool nearby and overturning rocks. Once inside, read the recipe book, which contains several meaningless recipes and one important one (the Recipe for Banana Grease). After reading it, you’ll gain that recipe in your Quest Book, which tasks you with filling the stove pot with 3 burnt bananas (there is a cook stove outside near the cliff), 2 hollowed coconut shells (one is inside the stockade in one of the crates, the other is in a cabinet even further up the mountain path), and the jar of Suntan Oil. Once you’ve added these ingredients, pull the glass jar out of the cupboard near the stove and fill it with Banana Grease from the stovetop pot.

Herman’s Note: on the table in the stockade is another note to read

Now that you’ve got the grease, it’s time to figure out what to do with this creaky old cannon. First, you need to open the window blocking the cannon’s access. You can see it’s attached to a pully in the center of the room, operate this to open things up. Next, grease the cannon with the jar of Banana Grease, and then push it up into position. Now from here, using the mounted spyglass you can see the hanging mast cages from before- use that cannon and take aim with the balls in the barrel nearby, because you need to knock that mast down with a well aimed shot. BOOM! Once you’ve pulled it off, use the convenient zipline to careen down the mountain (DON’T FORGET to bring the Banana Grease with you!)

Herman’s Note: after taking the zipline, walk forward and a note is laying on a red rock on the left side of the path.

Opening the Cage

There are now two downed cages that once hung from the mast. In the skeleton’s skull is a gunpowder gummy, which you can remove and place in the lock of the other cage (the one containing the Monkey Idol). Somehow, we need to get the Beam of Light from that earlier puzzle to reach here and set this explosion off. Remove the skull from the skeleton, and return to the three skulls-on-spikes that we’d discovered earlier. Using the Banana Grease, you can finally remove that skull from the center spike, allowing “Goldtooth’s Skull” to take it’s place. Unfortunately, it falls too far down the spike and isn’t high enough to catch the Beam of Light. Talking to Admiral Coco earlier indicates we need to use some more coconuts to finish this puzzle, and reading Herman’s To-Do List we know that he’s hidden supplies “in the treetops”. Hmm…

Explore the jungle nearby, and just to the East by Southeast of the downed mast is a platform hidden away up in the jungle canopy. Use your sword to snap the rope holding it up, and you’ll find a crate of three convenient coconut shells ready to go! Take them back to that spike and place all three before placing Goldtooth’s Skull at the top, and the Beam of Light will finally ricochet from here to the gunpowder gummy, setting off an explosion that opens the cage containing the golden Monkey Idol!

Where to take the Monkey Idols

The map in the quest book makes note of a “big hand” in the jungle- this is a stone altar where each of the three Monkey Idols need to be placed to retrieve the Cotton Swab Key. The trick to finding it is, once you journey into the jungle’s many winding paths, look for monkey statues pointing the way with their fingers- these will lead you to the stone hand altar where you must place the Monkey Idols!

The Supply Cache

Look back at the pages detailing Herman’s “To-Do List”. In here he makes mention of a “supply cache” at the bottom of a ravine where he stores his “Chilled Banana Soup”, but it’s locked. He mentions hiding the key in one of four wooden animal carvings in the jungle. Seek these out and search inside each one until you find the hidden store room key.

With key in hand, find the ravine- head back to Herman’s Camp and take the path to the North East and it will lead straight there. There’s a ladder heading down into the ravine, and at the bottom is the supply room door you can unlock with the key. Grab the Chilled Banana Soup from inside and take it with you.

Herman’s Note: Inside the Supply Cache is another note to read

Take the soup back to Herman’s Camp and pour it into the bowl inside the rope trap. A monkey will come along to drink it, causing Herman to walk over and check the trap. While he’s doing this, at the other end of the rope you can pull a stake out and spring the trap on Herman, leaving him hanging upside down helplessly. At the other end of the rope is a handle you can grap to shake him three times, eventually making him drop another Key. This opens the wooden chest sitting next to his cooking pot, and inside you’ll find more pages for your quest book, this time detailing where Herman buried his rowboat oars.

The Rowboat

The pages will walk you through the jungle, telling you which path to take every time you find a fork in the road. Many paths will have two similar landmarks (interactable flowers, searchable barrels, kegs of grog, etc) and the book will give a clue as to which of the two to follow.

Herman’s Note: On the path that forks between a compass on one path and a timepiece on the other, one of Herman’s Notes is on the ground by some banana peels

The clues will always lead you to a small fishing pond and an old boot, inside of which are the next set of pages for the Quest Book. Following these new instructions will lead you to the stream where the rowboat is waiting, and tell you where to dig nearby to find the oars.

Memoir Spot #4: On the red rocks near the wooden bridge facing the cliffside

Attach the oars to the rowboat, push it into the water, and take it for a ride down the stream. Eventually you’ll reach a hanging skeleton in another one of Herman’s traps. Park the rowboat just underneath and stand up, and you’ll be tall enough to grab a note out of the skeleton’s hand. This final page illustrates an X next to one of various landmarks where Herman has buried the idol. Once you dig it up, take it to the stone hand altar and place it with the other one.

Herman’s Note: Southwest of the hanging skeleton is a note next to large tree roots.

Memoir Spot #5: Due East of the hanging skeleton, on the last tree on the south side of the stream before reach the ocean, climb on it’s massive roots to find the inkwell and sitting location

The third and final Monkey Idol is also the easiest to acquire. Herman made mention of a “primitive art piece” he constructed on top of the mountain. Head back to the stream clearing where we first found the rowboat, and crossing the little bridge you’ll find the rocks on the side of the cliff are climbable. Up here you’ll find a boulder perched on a log which you can rotate left to right- yes, we are going to be catapulting rocks from here.

Memoir Spot #6: Right next to the primitive art piece

Herman’s Note: On a rock by the cliff wall west of the primitive art piece

Look out into the jungle and spot the glowing idol perched atop a stone statue. Rotate the log until it’s roughly pointed at the idol, and then climb further up the cliff to a higher ledge. Here is a sign that reads DON’T TOUCH next to some boulders you can carry.

Memoir Spot #7: On this higher ledge is another spot to sit down

Grab a boulder and place it on the “X” marked at the edge of the cliff just above the catapult. Then interact to drop the rock and send it flying through the jungle. If you miss the Monkey Idol, you can readjust and try again, there is an infinite supply of boulders.

NOTE: There are two bonus commendations that require use of the catapult. First, you must hit the “Southwestern Banana Tree” from earlier, which is a bit tricky to spot from up here. Second, you must hit your own ship! This will be easier to pull off if you bring the ship around to the Southwest end of the island, but it may take a few tries to pull off.

Now take the zipline back down to the jungle, and head off to where the tall statue was reduced to rubble. This is a little tricky to find, but if you spot the very tall stack of red rocks in the jungle, the statue was Northwest of there. Among the rubble is the third golden Monkey Idol- return this to the stone hand altar and it will rise from the earth, revealing the Cotton Swab Key!

The Caves

Take the key back to Guybrush on the North end of the island, and he’ll open the fence to let you at the giant Monkey Head. Use the Cotton Swab Key on the Monkey’s left hear to unlock the lair entrance.

Memoir Spot #8: Inside the fenced area on a crate before you enter the Monkey Head

Talk to Guybrush to acquire the “Head of the Navigator”, a spinning zombie head whose eyes will point the way forward that you need to go. Before entering the Monkey Head, make sure you’re finished with everything you want to do on the surface of the island!

Memoir Spot #9: When you climb down the ribcage to enter the lair, a sitting spot is on a nearby mushroom

Head down into the lair, and you’ll enter a lengthy maze of branching paths and corridors. Luckily, the Head you’re holding will spin and face the direction you need to go. Just make sure if you’re playing with crewmates that everyone sticks together, or else the head will get confused and lead you in circles.

Note: in these corridors are FIVE HIDDEN JOURNALS written by LeChuck. Reading them unlocks a commendation so you won’t want to miss them, but the maze makes it impossible to describe where each is. Just make sure while following the directions of the Head that you keep your eyes peeled and spot the glowing blue journals as you go

Eventually, you’ll reach a point where you have to jump down several steps of rocks. This is a point of no return. If you haven’t found all 5 Journals by now, you might want to turn back and search again!

Drop down these rocks and turn the corner, then drop down into the pool of water below. A slide will take you deeper into the lair, and after a few more paths, you’ll reach the end of the line. Guybrush will take the Head of the Navigator off your hands, then head down to LeChuck’s ship to trigger a cutscene.

Memoir Spot #10: On a rock overlooking LeChuck’s ship

The Chase

Board the Mad Monkey ship and drop sails. Grab the wheel and navigate the ship through a long series of tunnels. Periodically the path ahead will be caved in and you must face the bow of the ship in that direction so Guybrush and Elaine can shoot the rocks and open the path.

Eventually, you’ll catch up to LeChuck and enter a wide open volcanic arena. LeChuck’s ship will sail around, and you need to chase it down and shoot at it. After numerous hits it will explode, only to respawn again in the arena. Destroy the ghost ship three times to trigger a cutscene, and LeChuck will kidnap Guybrush and Elaine and take them to Mêlée Island. You’ll enter a loading zone automatically and arrive in his wake.

The Battle

Head to the Church in town and another cutscene will play out. Next, it’s time to fight. LeChuck will engage your pirate in a bout of Insult Sword Fighting, which players learned about in the previous tale, The Quest for Guybrush. The trick is, each time LeChuck delivers an insult, use the prompt to pull up a list of comebacks/retorts. Choosing the correct one to match the insult will result in the ghostly pirate getting stunned, allowing you to get some blows in.

After fighting LeChuck for awhile in the street, he’ll teleport further towards town. You must do this several times until he ends up in front of the Scumm Bar, and after fighting him some more, the Pirate Lord will arrive with Root Beer Spray Bottles. These will finish off LeChuck for good, and a cutscene will mark the end of the Tale. Just sail the ship out of the portal when you’re ready to go, and the Tale will be completed- congratulations!