Mina the Hollower Complete Guide: 60 Trinkets, 2 Endings

This Mina the Hollower complete guide pulls together everything GameBrief has published on Yacht Club Games' gothic action-adventure since it launched May 28, 2026: the review verdict, the trinket hunt, both endings, how long the game actually takes, and the tips that get new players past its hardest early wall. One hub for six articles, so you're not hunting across the site for one answer.

TL;DR: Mina the Hollower is Yacht Club Games' first new IP since Shovel Knight: a $19.99 gothic action-adventure that launched May 28, 2026 on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, Switch 2, macOS, and Linux. The core loop pairs whip combat with a terrain-gated burrow dodge across a nonlinear, Zelda-style world. A first playthrough runs 20 to 30 hours, 60 trinkets are scattered across 13 regions behind only 6 equip slots, and the game hides a second "Blameless" ending behind roughly 50 conditions Yacht Club published on its own developer blog. This hub links our full review, tips guide, trinkets guide, secret ending guide, how-long-to-beat breakdown, and pre-launch preview.

Key takeaways

• Yacht Club Games' first new IP since Shovel Knight: six years of development, led by Sean Velasco, who calls it the studio's "Zelda" to Shovel Knight's "Mario"
• Launched May 28, 2026 at $19.99 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2, macOS, and Linux, single-player only
• Core loop: the Nightstar whip plus a terrain-gated burrow dodge that doubles as a gap-closer and secret-finder
• 60 trinkets spread across 13 regions, but only 6 equip slots; five main weapons (Nightstar, Whisper and Vesper, Blaststrike Maul, Battery Buster, Hollower's Shield)
• Two endings: the standard route, and a secret Blameless ending gated behind roughly 50 conditions spread across 15 locations
• 20 to 30 hours for a first playthrough, 32 to 40 hours for 100%, 100+ hours across a full NG+7 ladder
• Very Positive on Steam as of our most recent research pass in this cluster; only cosmetic palette DLC is confirmed, no campaign expansion planned

What is Mina the Hollower? (quick answer)

Mina the Hollower is Yacht Club Games' first new IP since Shovel Knight: a top-down, gothic action-adventure starring a whip-wielding protagonist who can burrow through soft ground to dodge, reposition, and close gaps on enemies. It launched May 28, 2026 at $19.99, single-player only, on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, macOS, and Linux.

The studio spent six years building it after a decade defined almost entirely by Shovel Knight and its expansions. Lead developer Sean Velasco has framed the shift plainly: Shovel Knight was Yacht Club's Mario, linear and stage-based. Mina is their Zelda, a nonlinear, interconnected world where secrets sit behind breakable walls and gaps that need abilities you find hours later. The Kickstarter that funded it closed at $1.24 million from 21,439 backers back in 2023, which gives some sense of how much of an existing audience already knew what they were backing.

The game also borrows a genuinely Soulsborne mechanic that Yacht Club never used before: a Spark system. Die, and you drop whatever Spark you were carrying at that spot. Get back to it before dying again and you reclaim it; fail, and it's gone. Combined with bosses that Yacht Club built to feel unfair until you learn what they're asking, it's a real departure from the forgiving pacing Shovel Knight was known for. Our pre-launch preview covers what critics flagged from embargoed review copies before the game even shipped, and our full review covers where that assessment landed after launch.

Combat, burrow, and exploration: how Mina's core systems work

Two mechanics carry Mina's entire identity, and the coverage that only describes one of them is missing half the game. The Nightstar whip is the default weapon and handles most encounters at range, but Mina ships with five main weapons total: Nightstar, the Whisper and Vesper daggers for close-range bursts, the Blaststrike Maul for heavy single hits, the Battery Buster, and the Hollower's Shield. Treating the whip as the only tool, the way a lot of Shovel Knight muscle memory encourages, means playing a reduced version of the combat system. Sidearms sit in a separate category again, functionally closer to Shovel Knight's relics: confirmed picks include the Drill Driver, Mist Jar, and Recall Disc, alongside more than a dozen others covering offense, utility, and traversal, each with upgrade paths that unlock new move sets rather than just bigger numbers.

The burrow is the mechanic every preview and guide comes back to, because it does three jobs at once: evasion, repositioning, and offense. It only works on terrain built to allow it, so hard floors and certain boss arenas will simply refuse the input, which catches players who treat it as a universal panic button. Used well, surfacing directly under a boss that's holding distance closes ground faster than anything else in Mina's movement kit. The specific skill that separates new players from experienced ones isn't diving safely, which is easy. It's timing the surface at the right moment and position, and that's the part most coverage glosses over. Our tips guide is built entirely around that gap, including the first major miniboss that nearly every preview flagged as the game's real tutorial, one that tests burrow timing specifically rather than reaction speed.

World structure follows the same logic as the combat. Rooms that dead-end early usually aren't walls, they're bookmarks for a return trip once you've found the right ability. Yacht Club has described the map as "denser than it looks, deliberately so," and that density is where trinkets and sidearms mostly hide. Accessibility options back all of this up rather than replacing it: over 100 modifiers exist, covering reduced incoming damage, more currency drops, and post-fight healing, though some disable achievements when turned on. What they change is economic and health pressure. What they don't change is boss patterns, world structure, or the burrow-timing skill wall itself, so turning modifiers on won't fix a fight that's testing your timing rather than your stats.

A typical mid-game encounter: multiple enemy types sharing one screen, with the whip's range doing most of the early work before a sidearm or the burrow gets involved.

Trinkets, sidearms, and Bones: the collection layer

Sixty trinkets exist in Mina the Hollower, spread across 13 named regions of Tenebrous Isle, and that number is confirmed against the game's dedicated wiki cross-checked with an independent region-by-region walkthrough. The catch is that you can only equip 6 at a time: Mina starts with one Trinket Bag slot and unlocks five more over a full run, three purchasable in Ossex City Center for 1,500, 2,000, and 2,500 Bones in sequence, one hidden in Eastern Heath, and one in the late-game Astral Orrery. That gap between what you'll collect and what you'll actually use in any given fight is the real decision this system asks you to make, not just a checklist to clear.

Ossex, the main hub city, holds the largest single share at 15 trinkets, mostly through Lady Susan's Trinket Bazaar and NPC quest rewards. Community consensus on r/MinaTheHollower leans hard toward Proto Spark, a one-time death save, especially paired with Vascular Syrup, whose slow health drain effectively turns that save into "you have to actively choose to die" mid-fight. Primed Vial Pouch and Iron Lung come up constantly too, for exploration-heavy runs and burrow-dependent traversal respectively. One naming quirk worth knowing before you start counting: Glutton's Jug, a loaned item from a Backwaters frog NPC, isn't actually trinket number 60. Equip it, get 50 kills, and return it for the real reward, Plasma Jug. Lists that count Glutton's Jug as a permanent 60th trinket are describing that interim step, not a separate item.

Bones fund more than Trinket Bags. Stat upgrades like this Attack boost compete for the same currency, so budgeting matters early.

GODEEPER: Chasing all 60 trinkets, plus every purchasable Trinket Bag, changes your route through the game more than any single boss fight. Mina the Hollower Trinkets Guide: All 60 Locations (2026) →

Endings: the standard route and the secret Blameless ending

Mina the Hollower has two endings, and the second one is close to impossible to find by accident. The standard route plays through the game's full final dungeon and boss gauntlet before rolling nine region-based credit cards. The alternate route, which Yacht Club Games itself calls the Blameless ending (and labels "Good" in scare quotes, in its own June 22, 2026 developer blog post title), only triggers if Mina reaches the dinner scene at Radiant Manor with zero blame recorded against her.

That requirement list runs to roughly 50 individual conditions spread across 15 named locations, mostly things to avoid rather than do: a cap of four broken candles, no fighting several specific optional bosses, using the fast-travel train exactly once, buying at most one weapon before Armand gets upset. A smaller handful are active requirements instead, like donating bones to every beggar in Ossex or saving all three schoolchildren from the Carving Man in Septemburg. You can check your standing at any point without guessing: the Underlab houses a device called the Spark Restorator, and a faintly blinking blue-green light means you're still eligible. A dark or steady light means the standard ending is the only outcome left for that save.

Accepting Lionel's offer at the dinner scene skips the entire remaining final dungeon and every boss fight still ahead, cutting straight to an alternate credits sequence fans nicknamed the Deed of Tenebrous, after the document it shows on screen. Whether that's actually the "good" outcome is genuinely disputed. Some players on the game's subreddit argue the blameless run is the bleaker of the two, since it lets Mina leave the island while the underlying Spark Generator problem stays exactly where it was. As of patch 1.0.6 (July 3, 2026), the most recent documented update, none of the requirements have changed since Yacht Club's original post.

How long is Mina the Hollower?

A first playthrough runs 20 to 30 hours, and the width of that range comes directly from the nonlinear, ability-gated map rather than filler content. Rushing the critical path and skipping optional rooms lands you near 20 hours; scanning every wall for breakable bricks and burrowing under suspicious gaps pushes you toward 30. Game File's own thorough first playthrough logged 31 hours, right at the top of that range, which is a useful real-world anchor if you're the type who explores fully.

Full completion, all 50 achievements plus every secret room and optional boss, runs 32 to 40 hours, and that figure assumes you already know your burrow timings from a first clear. New Game Plus is where the runtime really opens up: it scales all the way to NG+7, and each cycle reshuffles item placement, mirrors the world layout, and remixes difficulty rather than just inflating enemy health. A player who climbs the full ladder can spend 100 hours or more in the game total. The single-playthrough number alone is already striking: Game File's 31-hour first run comes close to the roughly 34 combined hours the outlet measured across all four Shovel Knight campaigns, meaning one thorough Mina run rivals Yacht Club's entire prior catalog. Community data on HowLongToBeat lands close to our own numbers, with main-story submissions clustering around 22 to 28 hours and a median near 25.

GODEEPER: If you're deciding whether the length justifies the price before you buy, our full breakdown compares Mina against Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge 2, and Animal Well at the same price point. Mina the Hollower How Long to Beat? 20-30 Hours (2026) →

Is Mina the Hollower worth playing?

Yes, according to GameBrief's full review. At $19.99, Yacht Club delivers a 25 to 30 hour nonlinear action-adventure with Soulsborne-style boss depth, seven distinct NG+ modes, and the production polish that defined Shovel Knight. The difficulty is real, not exaggerated marketing copy, but it's tunable through the built-in accessibility modifiers rather than baked in as a take-it-or-leave-it wall. It's single-player only, with no co-op or online component planned, so anyone hoping for a shared-world Shovel Knight follow-up should look elsewhere.

Yacht Club has been candid about what six years of development cost the team. Velasco told Loot Level Chill "I'm tired... it does feel like we survived a battle," and the studio's pricing decision was deliberate rather than a compromise: $19.99 was set, in Velasco's own words, "to sell," an acknowledgment that players have more good games competing for their money than they can spend. That same candor extends to the roadmap. Only cosmetic color palettes are confirmed as future content; Yacht Club is not following the paid campaign-expansion model that defined Shovel Knight's post-launch life, and current post-launch focus is bug fixes and quality-of-life work instead.

All Mina the Hollower guides on this site

This Mina the Hollower complete guide only summarizes each article above. The boss-by-boss breakdowns, the region-by-region trinket table, and every condition on the Blameless ending checklist all live in the guides themselves. All six are listed here in one place:

• Mina the Hollower Review: Yacht Club's Gothic New World: the full critical verdict on difficulty, world structure, NG+ depth, and whether the $19.99 price holds up.
• Mina the Hollower Tips: 25-30 Hours, 14 Things to Know: burrow timing, the boss-pattern approach, and the Shovel Knight habits that actively hurt new players here.
• Mina the Hollower How Long to Beat? 20-30 Hours (2026): a full playtime breakdown by run type, plus how Mina compares to Hollow Knight and other indie action-adventures.
• Mina the Hollower Trinkets Guide: All 60 Locations (2026): every trinket by region, the Trinket Bag unlock order, and community-favorite loadouts.
• Mina the Hollower Secret Ending: What Actually Unlocks It: the full Blameless ending requirement list, sorted by category, and what accepting it actually skips.
• Mina the Hollower Preview: Yacht Club's New IP Delivers: pre-launch impressions from embargoed review copies, before the wider critical consensus landed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Mina the Hollower? Yacht Club Games' first new IP since Shovel Knight: a gothic, top-down action-adventure built on whip combat and a terrain-gated burrow dodge. It launched May 28, 2026 at $19.99 on PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch, Switch 2, macOS, and Linux.

How long does Mina the Hollower take to beat? 20 to 30 hours for a first playthrough, 32 to 40 hours for 100% completion (all 50 achievements), and 100+ hours across the full NG+7 ladder. The range comes from the nonlinear, ability-gated map, not padding.

How many trinkets are in Mina the Hollower? 60 confirmed trinkets across 13 regions, verified against the game's wiki and an independent region-by-region walkthrough. Only 6 can be equipped at once: 1 starting slot plus 5 unlockable Trinket Bags.

How many endings does Mina the Hollower have? Two. The standard route plays the full final dungeon and boss gauntlet. A secret Blameless ending triggers only if Mina reaches the Radiant Manor dinner scene with zero recorded blame across roughly 50 tracked conditions.

Is Mina the Hollower worth buying? Yes, per GameBrief's review. At $19.99 it delivers 25-30 hours of content, seven NG+ modes, and Soulsborne-style boss depth, with accessibility modifiers that tune the real difficulty without cutting content.

Is Mina the Hollower multiplayer? No. It's single-player only, with no co-op or online modes confirmed or planned. The whip-and-burrow combat and the nonlinear world are built entirely around a solo playthrough.

Does Mina the Hollower have DLC planned? Only additional color palettes are confirmed. Yacht Club Games has said post-launch work is focused on bug fixes and quality improvements rather than paid campaign expansions, unlike Shovel Knight's DLC model.

References

• Mina the Hollower on Steam: store page, price, platform details, current review standing.
• Yacht Club Games: How to Unlock the Blameless "Good" Ending: the developer's own breakdown of every Blameless-ending requirement.
• RPG Site interview with Sean Velasco: pricing strategy, DLC approach, and accessibility philosophy.
• Loot Level Chill interview: difficulty design philosophy and the "I'm tired" development-cycle quote.
• 31 hours with Mina the Hollower (Game File): firsthand playthrough timing, plus the combined Shovel Knight campaign length.
• HowLongToBeat: Mina the Hollower: community-reported completion times for main story and completionist runs.