Pirate Treasures

If you’ve played the Banjo-Kazooie games, you probably know the name Stop ‘n’ Swop, the feature with six differently colored eggs and an ice key that unlocks rewards. Since Stop ‘n’ Swop is still popular with players, Playtonic Games made something similar in Yooka-Laylee. Instead of colored eggs, they use crystal skulls known as Pirate Treasures. Each world within Hivory Towers contains one Pirate Treasure, usually hidden in spots you might miss during normal gameplay. The skull located in the fifth world, Galleon Galaxy, is the hardest to find because it’s in a weird spot compared to other collectibles in the game. Whenever you collect a Pirate Treasure, a dark and creepy organ tune plays as the crystal skull goes into Yooka’s inventory. Unlike the Stop ‘n’ Swop items in Banjo-Kazooie, Pirate Treasures don’t appear in a window or inventory screen. No one knows what these skulls are for yet. Since they’re similar to Stop ‘n’ Swop, players think Pirate Treasures will unlock rewards in future Yooka-Laylee games. Even though they don’t do anything right now, finding all Pirate Treasures unlocks three achievements. A few years later Yooka-Replaylee was released, which brought back the pirate treasures. While they can still be collected, Playtonic Games didn’t add any new info about them. So we still don’t know what they’re for. But some pirate treasures are in different spots in Yooka-Replaylee including the ones in Glitterglaze Glacier, Capital Cashino and Galleon Galaxy.