Prehistorik 2 is a compact 1993 caveman platformer, but it plays less like a straight sprint to the right than it first appears. The safest route is usually the one where you slow down, hit suspicious scenery, collect the right pickups, and keep enough health to survive the next trap or boss. This guide focuses on the MS-DOS and legacy computer versions, with modern PC re-releases treated as the same old-school platforming foundation rather than a remake with new systems.
Essential Tips
1. Hit Suspicious Scenery
Your club is not only for enemies. Prehistorik 2 hides food, bonuses, and passages in the stage itself, so build a habit of tapping odd walls, blocks, corners, ledges, and empty-looking pockets before you move on. This matters more here than in many platformers because stage progress and scoring both reward curiosity.
Do not swing at every single tile forever. Instead, read the room. A strangely isolated platform, a dead end with no obvious reward, a gap above a visible bonus, or a wall near a cluster of pickups is worth checking. If a stage seems too empty, assume you have missed a hidden pocket.
2. Find the Lighter Before Forcing the Exit
The sequel does not revolve around feeding the clan with a required food quota, but exits can still demand a key item. If the exit light is not ready, you need to find a lighter before that route will open.
That changes how you should explore. When you reach an exit too early, resist the urge to brute force the same screen. Backtrack through nearby branches, check suspicious scenery, and look for paths you skipped while chasing visible food. A missing lighter usually means the stage is asking you to search, not that you failed the jump at the exit.
3. Use Enemies as Platforms
Enemies are hazards, but they are also movement tools. Jumping on enemy heads can give you the extra height needed to reach high ledges, hidden bonuses, and awkward platforms. If a collectible sits just out of reach, look for an enemy moving nearby before assuming you need a different route.
This is also a scoring habit. Bouncing on an enemy before finishing it can improve your point payoff, but only if you can control the landing. Practice on safer enemies before trying it over spikes, pits, or crowded screens.
4. Keep Your Current Life Valuable
Bonuses are not just instant points. The game can reward the bonuses you gathered during the current life again at the end of a stage, which makes survival more valuable after a strong collection run. Once you have gathered a lot, play cleaner instead of taking stylish risks.
That does not mean you should ignore bonuses early. Food, diamonds, letters, and special pickups help your score and sometimes reshape the screen. The real lesson is timing: explore aggressively while you are healthy, then protect the run once you have something worth carrying to the finish.
5. Match the Weapon to the Situation
The basic club is quick and reliable, so it is the safest default for close enemies and quick reactions. The big hammer hits harder but swings slower, which makes it better when you have space. The axe gives range but less power, while the big swirling axe is strong but slow.
Weapon upgrades are useful, but they do not remove the need for spacing. A slow weapon can get you hit if you swing late in a cramped corridor. If an enemy comes from above or below, remember that aimed strikes can matter as much as raw weapon strength.
6. Treat the Hang-Glider Like a Route Tool
The hang-glider is for reaching platforms and bonuses that normal jumps cannot touch. It can turn a stage from a ground path into an aerial detour, but it has real limits: you cannot attack while carrying it, and enemy contact can cost you the glider even when it does not drain health.
Before taking off, clear nearby threats if you can. Then use a run-up, jump cleanly, and steer toward rewards or safe landing space. If the air route crosses enemies, prioritize staying intact over collecting every bonus on the first pass.
7. Use Checkpoints Before Exploring Deep Branches
Restart lights are your safety net. Once you pass one, a death sends you back to that point instead of farther behind. When a stage opens into multiple paths, touch the nearby restart light before you push into a risky branch.
This is especially important because Prehistorik 2 stages can be bigger and more trap-heavy than they look. A checkpoint turns experimentation from a long repeat into a short retry. Get the light, then investigate the spikes, high ledges, secret walls, and boss approach.
8. Respect Beginner and Expert Differences
Beginner is useful for learning controls, stage language, and enemy behavior, but Expert is the serious completion path. If you are playing for a full clear, do not spend the whole game building habits that only work when the pressure is lower.
Use Beginner to learn how jumps, crouching, club timing, and hidden pickups behave. Then move to Expert once you can read traps and manage health consistently. The game is more demanding than its cartoon look suggests.
Movement and Combat Rhythm
Prehistorik 2 is at its best when you stop treating movement and combat as separate jobs. The same enemy can block a corridor, launch you to a bonus, or punish a careless swing. Enter each screen with a simple rhythm: look, clear immediate danger, check for hidden rewards, then move.
Running jumps cover more distance, but the run-up needs room. If a jump feels barely short, try starting farther back and releasing upward during the fall instead of mashing directions at the edge. When wind, shaking, or tight footing makes you unstable, crouching can help you hold position and prepare a stronger strike.
Health is measured in small pieces, so minor hits add up. If an enemy touches you, a quick counterattack can help recover what you lost, but do not chase recovery into another hazard. Spikes and pits are more severe than ordinary enemy contact, so give them priority in your route planning.
Bosses and guardian-style encounters should be approached with patience. Watch where attacks begin, how much room you have to retreat, and whether a slower weapon is actually giving you enough time to step away. When in doubt, use the quick club until you understand the pattern.
Secrets, Lighters, and Checkpoints
The most important mindset shift is that Prehistorik 2 hides progress and rewards inside the stage. A visible route may not be the only route, and an obvious exit may be unusable until you locate the lighter. Because passwords can also be hidden inside stages, skipping exploration can cost more than points.
When you enter a new area, scan for three things: a checkpoint, a route split, and a suspicious dead end. Touch the checkpoint first. Then explore the lower-risk branch, hitting scenery as you go. Save spike-heavy or enemy-dense branches for when you have a clearer idea of where the exit and lighter might be.
Special bonuses can change your priorities. Fork, knife, and spoon pickups can briefly turn enemies into food, while grenade-style effects can convert enemies on screen into rewards. BONUS letters are worth watching for because completing the word creates a large payoff. A skull, however, is dangerous to your energy, so do not grab every object just because it sparkles.
Passwords deserve special attention on original-style runs. If you find one, write it down immediately and keep platform differences in mind. Prehistorik 2 is old enough that relying on memory between sessions is a poor plan, especially after you have spent a long time finding secrets.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
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Do not rush through empty-looking rooms - They are often where hidden food, bonuses, or passages are waiting.
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Do not assume food is the stage gate - In this sequel, a red exit light points you toward a lighter hunt.
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Do not kill every enemy immediately - Some enemies can help you reach platforms or improve your score before you finish them.
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Do not carry a hang-glider into danger blindly - You cannot attack while using it, and contact can end the flight.
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Do not ignore restart lights - Touching one before a risky branch can save several minutes of repeated play.
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Do not overvalue slow weapons in tight spaces - Power is less useful if the swing leaves you open.
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Do not grab skulls by reflex - Some pickups hurt your energy instead of helping your score.
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Do not leave passwords undocumented - Original-style runs can depend on hidden passwords for practical continuation.
Summary
| Category | Top Tip |
|---|---|
| Exploration | Hit suspicious scenery before leaving a room |
| Progress | Search for the lighter when an exit light blocks you |
| Movement | Use enemy-head jumps for height and bonus routes |
| Combat | Keep the club as your reliable close-range default |
| Scoring | Protect a strong bonus run once your current life is valuable |
| Hang-glider | Clear nearby danger before committing to a flight |
| Checkpoints | Touch restart lights before testing risky branches |
| Difficulty | Learn on Beginner, then move to Expert for serious completion |
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6 checked for this guideEvery factual claim in this guide was checked against at least two independent sources before publication. These are the references used for Prehistorik 2.
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