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Coffins are objects found in the game which, when opened, release one of three things:
- New Spelunkers (unlocked as playable characters).
- Deceased co-op players.
- Hired Hands.
Spelunkers released from Coffins have the same AI as Hired Hands. Coffins can be opened by attacking them with the whip or any other weapon, in some cases, the Coffins might be opened by traps or explosions off-screen and whoever was inside them will probably die.
The person who comes out of the coffin will get a brief period of invulnerability to most sources of damage, so if the coffin is shot with the Shotgun, additional pellets may not harm the person who comes out, but it's possible to open the Coffin with the whip, and hit the person with it before the whip animation is over.
Coffins during single player are generated in adjacent rooms to the main path, and sometimes may require two free rooms to generate, multiplayer Coffins will be generated inside the main path. It's important to note that only one character can be unlocked during a run, and normally only one Coffin will spawn per game (there are, however, a few exceptions), because of this, going to The Haunted Castle will prevent the Robot from spawning in the Mothership.
Coffin Mechanics
In the case of coffins containing Spelunkers, some odd rules apply. There are two type of coffins: Normal and Special.
Normal Coffins
The Normal ones are placed into normal levels randomly, no more than once in a zone per run, whereas the special ones are hidden in special places.
If the player opens a Normal coffin, one of four Spelunkers, randomly chosen -namely Purple, Cyan, Yellow, or Lime- will come out. After this has happened, the zone that the coffin was found in will no longer have normal coffins in it, and the Spelunker that was inside will not appear in normal coffins afterwards. This means that you must open normal coffins in all four areas in order to find all four normal Spelunkers.
Coffins in later areas will not generate if the previous area's Coffin hasn't been opened, therefore is not possible to unlock the Temple character before the Ice Caves character.
Special Coffins
Special coffins are found in special places, and each special coffin will only ever have one particular Spelunker in it, which can be read more about on the Spelunkers page. After the coffin has been opened, it will usually not appear again, with some exceptions, such as the one in The Haunted Castle. In the cases where the coffin does not disappear, opening the coffin a second time will yield a Hired Hand.
While The Mothership and The Worm contain characters to be unlocked, the Coffins in these areas do not look like the rest of the Coffins, and the one in the Worm will be attached to the wall and can not be moved through any means.
Multiplayer Coffins
In multiplayer runs, Coffins are used to revive deceased teammates. When a level is entered with at least one character dead, the game will spawn a Coffin somewhere along the main path of the level. When it is opened, the player who died least recently will be revived, and their ghost will be sucked back into their body.
Bugs
- In the XBox version, players will be put in the revival queue when dying with the Ankh, even if they are still alive, and [will cause the player to die and respawn at the Coffin if this one is opened, dropping their held items and losing most of their inventory]. More information in [Ankh page].