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The Eggplant is a strange object which appears when a Mystery Box is placed on a sacrificial Altar.
Once the eggplant appears, the current level's background music changes to strange chiptune-style piece.
The full extent of the eggplants purpose, or if it even has a greater purpose other than a reference, is unknown.
Theories
Beta content cut from the final game? Or does this thing really exist?
Spelunky's creator Derek Yu has referenced several other games and movies in Spelunky, which has led some to believe the eggplant is either a reference to the Nintendo game Ice Climber, which prominently features an Eggplant at the top of the mountain. This is further reinforced by the Eskimo Spelunker bearing an uncanny resemblance to Nana from Ice Climber. Alternitively, it may be a refern [[ or the Eggplant Wizard from another Nintendo game Kid Icarus.
Some things that could be considered to indicate the eggplant has a greater purpose are:
- There are certain rare chiptune music tracks in each area of the caves that play much less frequently than the regular background music tracks, known as 'Mines egg', 'Jungle egg' and so on. The Eggplant chiptune is known as 'Ultra Egg'.
- It has no journal entry, despite being a unusual item of interest.
- It can be carried between levels.
- It is very fragile, and easy to splatter if not handled carefully.
- Andy Hull, the lead programmer of Spelunky HD of the XBLA version has jokingly feigned ignorance of the existence of the eggplant when asked about it on his formspring. Here and here and in livestreams, denying knowing anything about the item.
- With the release of Spelunky HD on PC, a texture was found in the game files of a large menacing eggplant monster. While this may indicate the existence of the creature in the game, it is entirely possible that the textures are simply leftover resources from beta content that were never finished and cut from the final game. The animation keyframes only show the creature grimacing.
Video
Video footage of obtaining the item can be viewed below.