riddles – 🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺

Hey there, everyone! At long last, it’s time to continue the abruptly ended story of Fairytale Island with the new “side quest” Rumpel’s Challenge… which was once locked behind a paywall, but is now available for all who have completed the main island quest!

Video Walkthrough

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

Written Walkthrough

To begin, find Rumpelstiltskin himself waiting on Home Island. If you don’t see him here, you can also look for the magic man on Fairytale Island after you’ve earned your medallion.

You’re (naturally) startled at the sight of a known villain hanging around as though he owns this place, and immediately call for Amelia to tie him up with a rope. But Rumpel doesn’t have time for your threats. He tells you that he knows where the real Fairy Tale king is imprisoned, and gives you a riddle, all for his amusement.

Accepting the side quest will cause Rumpel to vanish in a puff of purple smoke. Now, time to find the king…

The instructions on the riddle point to Mythology Island; specifically, the Museum of Olympus with its statues of gods. Once inside the museum, you’ll find a second riddle hovering in front of Zeus’s statue; whose head has now been replaced by Rumpel’s.

Pick up the second riddle. “Vikings”… “time”… this riddle clearly references Time Tangled Island!

If you’ve already completed Time Tangled, you should have a time travel device ready and waiting in the lower-left corner of your screen once on the island. If you don’t see the device, follow the first part of our Time Tangled Island walkthrough to acquire it.

Now click on the image of the Viking at 2 o’clock on the time device. You’ll be transported back to the year 831 AD. Climb up the rocks as high as you can go, past the cave. A third and final riddle will be waiting for you beneath another horrible stone bust of Rumpel.

“Weep and cry”…who else fits this description but the disheartened Fairy Tale prince himself! Follow the riddle to Fairy Tale Island and enter the castle area, where you’ll find the prince sitting on the flight of steps, continuing to lament the loss of his real father.

He’ll perk up when you share the clue with him. He knows what “golden troves” is referring to: the castle’s treasury! And luckily, he’s got a key.

Left: the treasury in Rumpel’s Challenge. Right: the last place Rumpel was seen in Fairy Tale Island. Look familiar?

Inside the treasury, jump up onto a platform at the far right, where a gate hides a small trove. Pulling the lever on the wall beside it will raise the gate and reveal a gold mermaid with — you guessed it — Rumpel’s head in place of the original.

Moving on from this cursed image… jump down from the platform on the opposite side, and descend the stairs onto a lower level. Pull the lever set into the side of the stairs, which will raise a gate up ahead. Go through it and jump all the way down. Here, you’ll find your path blocked by another gate; pull another lever on the wall just behind you to open it.

You know what they say: never tickle a sleeping dragon.

There’s a new challenge beyond this gate: a giant, snoozing dragon, guarding its treasure. To avoid waking it and activating its fire-breathing abilities, jump over the heaps of gold until you reach the opposite side of the scene. Whew — you’ve made it pretty far!

Finally, you’ve reached what you came for. As you’ll see, there are six troves behind gates: three on a bottom floor, and three on a top floor. Each trove has a pink panel beneath it. And trapped behind the bottom middle gate is the king!

Upon seeing his father, the prince cries (at least this time it’s out of relief). His tears change the panel below him from pink to gray, and the adjacent gates surrounding the king’s cell will be lifted.

The key to freeing the king lies in the prince’s “fragile crybaby disposition,” to quote the king. In other words, you’re supposed to throw various insults at the prince to make him cry on the panels to activate the movement of the adjacent trove gates.

The Pop Creators knew what’s up when they wrote these sarcastic lines.

The key to opening the king’s cell is to get all of the gates open at once. This can be done a number of ways, although the simplest way may be this: bottom middle (done automatically), then top middle. (Thanks for the tip, Ammonite.)

Hurrah, you’ve freed the king! That’s all there is to this mystery, right?

…Right?

Aw geez.

That’s that for Rumpel’s Challenge, everyone. What did you think of this side quest? Personally, I’m finding it a bit odd how fragmented Fairytale Island is turning out to be (plus the frequent use of the term “side quest” — what is that, really?). I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how this all wraps up in the end.