Donkey Kong 64 is packed to the brim with coins and bananas. Nearly two decades since the game’s release in 1999, a dedicated speedrunner has found a new coin for players to collect.


Players can use banana coins in Donkey Kong 64 to buy various upgrades. The best coins to collect are the rainbow coins which add five coins to every single Kong’s inventory. There were 976 total coins to collect. Now, speedrunner Isotarge has unearthed an 977th coin.


The coin can be found in the game’s fifth level, Fungi Forest. It had long evaded collection by hiding in some tall grass. Rainbow coins are unearthed when you use a slam attack on dirt piles. There’s usually one per level. The grass in Fungi Forest hid a previously undiscovered pile that can be slammed for one more rainbow coin.

“All of the out of bounds coins and bananas are collectable if you’re extremely comfortable with the glitches,” Isotarge said. “But for average players not so much.”

Secrets lurk out of bounds in DK64, possibly left over from development

Isotarge first noticed something was amiss after looking at how the game formats its save data. They were looking at the flags in Fungi Forest and noticing that the information for the rainbow coin was incomplete. They used analysis tools to shoot right to the dirt patch and discover the coin.




There had been a few other hidden coins on Nintendo 64 titles. Notably, a coin that was thought to be impossible to collect in Super Mario 64 was snagged after 18 years. A new, seemingly unobtainable coin was found last year.

These discoveries can potentially shake up speedrunning categories. 100% runs seek to collect every item in the game; this new coin could mean changes in routes as speedrunners search to find the optimal way to find all the collectables.


“Many runs were invalidated because of this discovery,” Isotage said. “It’s one way to keep the community active. I’m looking forward to seeing speedrunners claim back those records”