Shrink Ray Island Guide

Synopsis

A young genius has invented a ray gun that shrinks anything it touches – including you! But when the scientist and her invention go missing, you’ll have to keep the shrink ray from falling into the wrong hands, and find a way to bring yourself back to normal size. To solve a problem this big, you’ve got to think small!

For walkthroughs on Shrink Ray Island, scroll down.

shrink
Released: June 30, 2011 (for members)
or July 28, 2011 (for all)
Common Room: Sweet Dreams Candy Shop
Preceded by: Red Dragon Island
Succeeded by: Mystery Train Island

Resources on this page: Island Extras | Synopsis from Poptropica | Video Walkthrough | Written Walkthrough | Album Photos | Trivia

Island Extras: Map | Official Tour | Video Playlist | Shrink Shot MiniQuest Guide | Champions Map


Video Walkthrough

For a written walkthrough with pictures, scroll down on this page!


Written Walkthrough

Walkthrough written by Rainbow Dash
Special thanks to: Slanted Fish, Spotted DragonHungry Fish, & theredburger

When you arrive on Shrink Ray Island, go directly to the school and into the room where the science fair is taking place. All the other science fair displays are up, save for one: turns out, the star student, CJ, is missing! Talk to CJ’s father next to the empty stand on the right and ask how you can help. He’ll tell you to go check in on their apartment in Avenue A.

talks

CJ’s Apartment

Now head down right to Avenue A. Go to the house at the far end. A cat will get in the house, and you will have to shoo it out! Chase the cat around the house, until it enters the bathroom. When you come out of the bathroom, the cat will have mysteriously disappeared, but his paw can still be felt if you pass by the front door – so every time you do pass that door later on, be sure to jump!

To solve a problem this big, we have to think small…

Now we’ll have to check the house for clues on CJ’s disappearance. Go to CJ’s bedroom to the left and click on the microscope, where CJ has left you a note saying that her invention has been stolen and you will need to think small to find it.

message

And then a man will come with a gun and shoot you. You will be shrunk down to miniature size!

shrink ray shoot

Now, travel through the house to the kitchen on the right. Along the way you will see drawers, pieces of fuzz, books, and all sorts of big things (but that’s because you’re tiny now).

Kitchen

Inside the kitchen, your goal is to reach a scrap of paper with clues sitting unreachably on the table at the far right. First, enter the right area of the kitchen (there are two parts; left and right).

Push the brown rolling pin towards the kettle, and the kettle will start steaming. The steam of the kettle should push you onto the top right shelf, containing flour, sugar, and oil. Tip the can of oil over, and it will drip oil down to the ground.

oil

Jump down to where the cat food bowl is, and push it to a spot where it’ll be directly in the path of the bag of cat food above. Next, hop over to the bag of cat food and click on it to drop the food into the bowl.

When the cat food bowl is full, move it towards the bottom of the table, get on top of the food bowl, and jump! You should land on the farthest right table and pick up the Piece of Paper. Move the cat food bowl again, this time placing it under the grapes on the table, and jump again to grab a grape – which you will now be carrying.

shrink-ray-3

Now go back to the left side of the kitchen. Jump up to the open drawers and pick up the Screwdriver. Next, take the toaster’s cord and plug it into the outlet. Carrying the grape, you’ll now have enough weight to jump onto the toaster switch – wait a moment as the toaster gets heated, and you’ll be flung up to the shelf above.

place

Push the salt shaker on the shelf to the far left end until it rests on the bottom of the spatula. Next, jump on the other side of the spatula, and it will fling you to the top of the fridge, where you can grab the Remote Control!

Dumpster Diving: Into the Trash Can

Jump back down to the kitchen floor and up the drawers to where the sink is, then click down to enter the trash can below. Inside, it’s a bit of a mess, as well as a bit of a maze – to get to certain areas, you will have to click on objects to move them. Scroll down below for help with this maze.

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Follow these steps carefully (careful, one false move and you’ll be squished!):

  1. Right at the start, move the can of tuna to the right.
  2. Jump down and move the next piece of cheese to the left, so the column does not collapse on you.
  3. Jump up through the top and keep going! Move the next can of milk to the right and follow it down.
  4. Next, go left and push the cheese left out of the way.
  5. Jump over to where the tuna can is, and push it right so it falls down. This gives you something to stand on.
  6. Stand on the tuna can and pull the next can of tuna out left. As you do so, run right so you don’t get squished!
  7. The column should collapse, allowing you to walk over the top of it to a new area.
  8. Go right, pull out the final can of tuna to the left, jump on it, and jump up to grab the Torn Page.

Once you’ve grabbed that slip of paper, you can allow yourself to get squished to bring you back to the beginning, where you can then exit the trash maze.

Living Room

Head to the living room (left of the kitchen) and use the Screwdriver while standing near the toy truck to unscrew the battery case. Take the Battery and stick that into the TV remote on the table just above the toy truck. Now go to the remote and press the big green button. It should turn the TV on.

Go up to the top of the TV and collect static from the antennas. Once you’ve got static clung to your body, jump over to the green balloon, and the static will allow you to stick onto it as you float over to the pictures on the wall.

Jump onto the picture frame, then jump left to reach the shelf with fish food.

Pour the fish food downwards, and it will fall into the fish tank below to mollify the fish. Turn off the tank’s aqua filter, jump into the tank, and grab the Diary Key in the treasure chest.

key1

CJ’s Bedroom

Now jump down and exit the living room, through to the next room, and reach the diary on the top shelf by jumping up the bookshelf to the plant on top and then to the top shelf to reach it.

shrink-ray-6

Use the Diary Key to unlock CJ’s diary. Inside the diary, you will that one of the pages has been torn out – which matches the Torn Page from the trash can!

Use the Torn Page where you’re standing to reveal this message: “The thief is right out the door! I’ll shrink myself to get the shrink ray and then get him later.”

diary

There will be a simple formula below that: lemon + paper + light. Jump down to where the lamp is on the desk and place the Piece of Paper under the lamp light. Jump on the lamp a few times so the light is shining on the paper completely, and click the switch on the lamp to turn it on.

lamp

A message will reveal itself on the page: look for me at the school coordinates.

While you’re in the computer area of CJ’s bedroom, jump up to where the thermostat is and run on it until the setting is pointed at the red spot, heating up the room.

Go to the telescope at the far end of the room and jump onto the X/Y switches. On the X switch, run right on top of it and set it to 87. On the Y switch, set it to 16. The school coordinates are X87, Y16 – this information can be found on CJ’s cork board in the bedroom.

For this part, you’ll also need the Morse Code Key, which you should get from on top of CJ’s bed. You’ll also need the thumb drive from under CJ’s bed. To get that, jump onto the fan so it goes lower so you can reach the switch. Hit the switch, and the fan will turn on and blow away the dust under CJ’s bed. Turn the fan off and grab the Thumb Drive.

Go back to the computer and plug the thumb drive in. The password for the laptop is the name of CJ’s hero, Marie Curie, with numbers in place of certain letters for added security. Type in m4r13 cur13 – with the space – and upload the data on the thumb drive to the laptop.

04_ShrunkenMicroscope

Now, go back to the right side of the bedroom and tip the trash can over on the way. The rubbish scraps should float up because of the heat coming from the vent, and you will be able to get across. Go back to the telescope and look through it.

From the school, CJ will flash you a message with her flashlight. A morse code translation mini-game will occur, but if you don’t want to analyze the codes she’s flashing, just wait for her to flash each letter and then select the right one, spelling out the message: flush the thumb drive. She wants you to flush it… literally.

Bathroom Break

Now, head left, all the way until you reach the half-open bathroom door (you can see the green tiled walls beyond) and enter. Jump up the half-open drawers to get onto the countertop, run past the sink, and keep going until you reach two switches. Jump down on the switch to the right to turn off the ventilation fan.

By the way, if you do stop by the sink and turn on the hot water faucet, you can let the mirror steam up, revealing hints for CJ’s password. But we already told you that (above).

shrinkray2

Anyway, run over to the hair dryer on the rack left of the sink. Jump onto the red switch to make warm air come out. Then, jump on the right of the hair dryer to make it tilt. Now, jump directly in front of the hair dryer. The heat should push you up and into the shower!

shrink-ray-8

Once in the shower area, go to the water dispenser in the bathtub and turn the warm knob. Water will start to fill the tub. You’ll also need to push a soap bar into the tub from a fixture on the wall.

Now, jump onto the bar of soap, then onto the rubber ducky, and finally out of the tub to the left where the toilet is.

Standing on top of the toilet bowl, use the thumb drive to drop it in. Then jump on top of the toiler paper and click on the flush handle. As soon as you flush, a voice will come from the living room calling, “Drat, where did she hide that darned thumb drive?”

Never too young to be driving a toy car!

Go back to the bedroom and head for the telescope, making sure the dials are set to the school coordinates: X87, Y16. CJ will flash you another message: Thief is Mr. Silva.

scret

You will see a dark figure pass through the science classroom where CJ is flashing you the message! You have to get back to the school to save her.

Now, get back to the toy car in the living room. Take the battery out of the TV remote and put it back into the toy truck so you can power it. Hop into the toy car and drive it all the way to the bedroom, until you see a stack of books blocking the way. Climb up to the bookshelf and push the book titled Tess’ Tree down. That will act as a ramp for you to ride over!

shrink ray car ramp

Then, a short cutscene will play – you’ll jump across the ramp and break straight through the window. Like a boss!

Now it’s time for another mini-game. Keep driving the car through the streets, but as it goes, watch for things that you should avoid like sewer drains, leaky fire hydrants, and shoes – but do hit the ramps for an extra boost! Eventually, you’ll make it to the public school, PS101.

Shrinking Silva

Inside the school’s science room, CJ will tell you that while Mr. Silva has always been a great teacher, he’s betrayed her and stolen the shrink ray for himself.

shrink-ray-10

A mini-game will begin. You must run from the evil teacher, Mr. Silva, who’s holding the shrink ray and threatening to make you and CJ even smaller! For the final showdown, hide behind any object that will cover you, so that when the shrink ray is pointed at you, it will shrink the objects instead.

While hiding whenever the shrink ray draws near, make your way to the far end of the room and climb up the shelf. Then, jump up to the table and run right, hiding behind the earth globe. When the shrink ray hits the globe, instead of disappearing like the other objects you hid behind earlier, the globe will simply get smaller. Push the globe to the chair in the middle of the room, and jump on it to reach the chair.

Climb up from the chair to the table, then hide behind the lunch box for cover. Once Mr. Silva’s ray shrinks that, quickly dash right and hide behind the mirror. Your next move will be the winning move! Wait for the ray to fire again, and… this time, because it hits the mirror, the laser will bounce back and shrink Mr. Silva instead! He’ll land inside a nearby ant colony container – tiny as can be.

Now, go down and flip the switch on the shrink ray device to “grow”, bringing you and CJ back to normal size. She will award you the Island Medallion and credits to spend at the Poptropica Store. As for CJ’s science project, it’s a prize-winning display starring Mr. Silva as “The Incredible Shrunken Man”!

project

Congratulations, you’ve finished Shrink Ray Island!

Looking for more walkthroughs? Check out our Island Help page! 🙂


Album Photos

These pictures appeared in a former feature known as the photo album.


Trivia

  • Shrink Ray Island is Poptropica’s 20th island. There was a countdown timer on the homepage for its release on June 30, 2011 for members with a demo version for non-members. On July 28, 2011, it was released to the public.
  • In early November 2014, in anticipation of a SUI re-release, a Shrink Ray desktop wallpaper and printable poster were added to the revamped Tour page, and two new Store costumes were added for members: the Milk Box and Bottle Cap costumes.
  • On November 20, 2014, Shrink Ray Island was re-released as a sound-updated island (SUI) for members, with music, a bigger screen, and all the benefits of a SUI – with a demo for non-members. The Shrink Ray SUI launched to the public on December 4, 2014.
  • Shrink Ray Island was re-released for Steam on May 25, 2022.
  • There was a Shrink Ray gold card available in the Poptropica Store, a handheld item that makes characters shrink when you press spacebar while pointing it at them. It was released on July 21, 2011. It used to cost 250 credits, but to celebrate the release of the Shrink Ray SUI, it became free around November 2014.
  • Common room: Sweet Dreams Candy Shop
  • The book in CJ’s bedroom which you push down to create a ramp for the toy car is Tess’ Tree, an actual book by Jess M. Brallier, who is also the publisher of Poptropica.
  • CJ’s bookshelf contains some titles suited to her tastes such as The Jules Verne Collection, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Genetic Soup, Black HolesCalculus, and Geometry Made Difficult.
  • CJ’s hero is Polish-French scientist Marie Curie.
  • CJ may have a love interest named Joey, as shown with the message “Joey + CJ” on her bedroom mirror, and coordinates to Joey’s house on her board.
  • Inside the trash can, there are disposed bottles of Sports Nectar, a Poptropica-invented brand first seen on Cryptids Island.
  • In CJ’s bedroom dresser, there’s a Shark Boy plushie, one of the last remaining traces of Shark Boy.
  • Shrink Shot is the preview game for this island, released on June 10, 2011. You can still play it by getting the gold card in the Poptropica Store. For getting a certain amount of points, you’ll reach a rank, each rank with its own costume prize: Hard Helmet, Bounce Ball, Propeller Hat (members), Spiked Hard Helmet (members), Spiked Bounce Ball (members). Other prizes include: Shrink Ray Balloon, Crayons, Grape Gum, Soda Bottle, Sparkle Power (members). For more details, check out our Shrink Shot Guide.

think small

671 thoughts on “Shrink Ray Island Guide”

  1. Ok so the bathroom part it was to hard because when u jump in front of the hair dryer it just pushes u back

  2. When i was in the toy car trying to go in the ramp it said i will have a good reason to do something crazy like that

  3. i cam not get on to the top picture frame from the balloon for the life of me, can someone help make it sound easier please

    1. Same but I just did something else but I don’t know what it was. I think I jumped up onto the straw then jumped left onto some cheese then somehow I found the paper…?!!?

  4. when i try and place the paper under the lamp my character says: ‘i’m not sure what to do with the paper’. what do i do?

  5. I’m having issues getting from the green balloon to the picture frame. Do you think you could help??

    1. Kyla, did you try turning off the AquaFilter thing? I have no idea why, but you need to turn it off to get the key.

  6. I did Shrink Ray Island again, but this time I have to do almost everything twice to complete it once. At first I thought it was just me being forgetful, but then I went to the toilet to flush the thumb drive and I didn’t have the drive! I know I got it but– POOF! — it’s gone! So I went to get it again, brought it to the toilet, used it, but then it said I should download the contents onto the laptop first. I ALREADY DID! It did this with 9/12 of the stuff before that. PLEASE, please, please, please, PLEASE fix this!

    1. And please, no more ads! I hate having to cross 1 extra part every time I want to switch a room.

  7. May someone help me please drop the thumb drive in the toilet? It won’t let me do it. It always says, ”This is not the right place to use a thumb drive.”

  8. Try quickly jumping on the pictures. And flying down gives you more room to jump on the picture without bumping into anything.

  9. Poptropica Help Blog, I read your whole guide and it is very helpful. But I am having issues with one thing. When I get to the toilet, and I go to my backpack and click ”Use” on the thumb drive icon, my character always says, ”This is not the best place to use a thumb drive.” What is going on with it? Please tell me the answer ASAP

    1. You need to first back up the thumb drive on CJ’s computer, then get the message from CJ through morse code to “flush the thumb drive”. More details are in the guide. 😉

  10. Nevermind… I got it. Plus, I when I already finished the island, it took me back to the part where I was running from Mr Silva… But I just had to manage it. Please tell me what happened!!!

  11. I can’t get through the garbage can and I feel dumb. I’m stuck at the part when you use the tuna can a a stool. Somebody help please!

  12. I didn’t use the globe this hilarious and not fair to the rest of u guys but I died then saved my game and left poptropica and came back later then I landed on the table ( without restarting) and ran straight behind the mirror and won

  13. Can someone please help me with the part where you have to fly out the window with the toy truck, because it says Jumping off this ramp will land me strait through the window! I need a pretty good reason to do something crazy like that.

  14. How do I jump from the green balloon to the picture frame? It goes down so fast that I don’t have an opportunity to get to it.

  15. I currently on the toilet I clicked use thumb drive but my person says this in not a good place to use the thumb drive

    1. Just jump on the flush thing. Even though I didn’t drop it, the story went on and the thumbdrive was gone from my inventory.

  16. Help guys! When I first enter the trash can, there is a big can of tuna blocking my way to the right, and a piece of wood blocking my way to the left. I tried pushing the can of tuna, but it won’t budge. The piece of wood won’t move either. How do I get out of the fishy-stick trap thingy?

  17. Every time I get on antennas then the green balloon it just goes to the table and puts me there someone plz tell me how to get up to the fish food 😁😁😁

  18. Every time I get on antennas then the green balloon it just goes to the table and puts me there someone plz tell me how to get up to the fish food ????????????

  19. Okay can someone tell me wot credits r people r mentioning them in comments about spending them but I don’t know wot they r or how to get them or how to use them plz help!!!!!

  20. idk why but i have done everything before the telescope part. so i turn the -x and -y thing, but when i looked at it, it just a science room??

  21. I’m trying to put the piece of paper under the lamp and all my character says ” I’m not sure what I should do with the paper ” and it’s getting annoying …

      1. I have the same problem. It keeps saying, “I’m not sure what I should do with the paper.” I’ve already switched on the lamp and jumped down on it as far as it will go.” I refreshed the page, logged in and out but it still didn’t work.

  22. BTW Thanks for making the poptropica cheats! You may call me a cheater but I don’t try to do the island all by myself I just use the cheats cuz I’m too lazy haha. 🙂

  23. it won’t let me put the thumb drive in the toilet! How did you guys who won get it in there? HELP! I’ve only got one medallion, and I NEED this one!

  24. I can’t jump down to the picture frame when I hold he green balloon. It always landed me on the floor. Any suggstion?

  25. is it just me or does anyone else think that the end where you have to hide from mr silva is hard i just cant go fast enough

  26. What have you about glitches? The green balloon takes me to the floor by the armchair…. goes through the floor, then rises back up…
    Can’t continue.

  27. Well got past the balloon issue, but now theres an issue that definately attributes to game design. Hit the globe and you’re stuck forever.

  28. Hey, the salt shaker is not getting on the spatula. It keeps really slowly moving to the right. I think that it’s a glitch.

  29. I want to say thank you for doing this i mean you have a guide for every single island and you guys put so much time into this, and im so grateful that someone basically is helping strangers, again thank you to the whole poptropicahelp staff for putting all this together.
    It really helps us even though we have problems sometimes its really helpful and great, thank you. 🙂

  30. I’m stuck on the balloon part. When I get on it from the end of the tv it puts me on the table or the bottom of the picture frame PLEASE HELP ME.

  31. whats the point of the computer? CJ’s hero is Marie Curie. But when i typed that in, it said the name was right, but it wouldn’t log in, then in the bathroom is a newspaper saying how to have an uncrackable password is to have the password be someone you admire and change some of the letters to numbers

    slantedfish: Her password is in this guide – it involves her hero’s name with some numbers mixed in. 😉

  32. how do you get on the picture I can’t do it
    😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
    😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

  33. Help me please! I’ve been climbing up and down the antenna for 5 minutes but, I don’t see static around me! For:Slanted Fish

    slantedfish: Try watching a video guide to see what should be happening!

  34. Help!! I accidentally went in the car before I found the note that says me Silvia is the bad guy and I am stuck in the car.

  35. One time my sister got stuck on the green balloon. She was just right in the middle of it. We had to log out just to get off of it. It was golden in terms of funny.

  36. I have tried the ballon to the picture frame tons of times and it hasn’t worked. I go straight to the floor every. Single. Time. What should I do?

  37. I’m not sure if either of these are glitches, but maybe they are (No, i’m not talking about the shrink ray from the despicable me).
    You can remove the battery from the truck while you are inside it. Also, in the trash section, sometimes if I time it just right, I can just go straight through the trash, making the maze easier… Any ideas?

  38. Im playing on my phone not sure if that’s why but when I jump on the balloon it doesn’t let me jump off until I’m no longer static and it doesn’t even float by the top painting. How do I get the fish food?

  39. when i try to flush the thumbdrive my character tells me this is not a good place to use it. I then figured out its cause i was lazy and never did the telescope message things, so i set the coordinates and looked but all i saw was a window of the school, and it still wont let me flush the dang flash drive

    1. The thumb drive is under CJ’s bed. See the guide above for more details. You can also do Ctrl+F (Command+F on a Mac) on your computer to find key words on any web page like this one, so if you’re looking for something, it’ll highlight it for you.

    1. I keep coming just short of the fridge. When I try and jump high, I go right through the spatula and land on the ground, and it’s really annoying. Have any ways to fix it? If so, please tell me! I love this island, but I can’t seem to get past this stupid part!

  40. Uh, usually it seems I do these steps out of order but the truck s stuck to the left side of the bathroom for me. Will it reset if I just do the other steps I guess like th truck isn’t needed until the very end and I wish the creators would try and patch a lot of these so we don’t need to try and fix them…

  41. Ok, I don’t think I can progress here unless I ge tthat battery out of the truck which is now stuck on the right side of the bathroom. I mad ethe msitake of using the truck too early before I needed it. Is there any way to fix this glitch and reset it cause I alrady tried reloading the page? Thanks for any help in advance and sorry if I take a while to respond to you all!

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