The Snowball is Humba Wumba’s transformation in Hailfire Peaks and the seventh ordinary world form in Banjo-Tooie. It rolls around the Icy Side with Banjo’s yellow shorts and blue backpack fitted around the snow, changing size and weight as its health rises or falls. Humba’s wigwam stands in the lower icy area near the frozen sea. A nearby Glowbo is on the shore around the ice containing Alphette: pass through the gap in the blue rock and Grip Grab along the ledge above the sea as the normal duo to reach it. Offer Humba one ordinary Glowbo and enter her pool; repeated transformations there need no further payment. The Snowball begins at its smallest size with one honeycomb of health. Rolling through thick snow restores energy and adds mass until it reaches its fixed maximum of five honeycombs. Unlike the normal pair’s life bar, this maximum is not enlarged by Honey B’s upgrades: its five health levels are also its five sizes. Enemy damage and heat remove energy and shrink the ball, affecting which switches it can press and which gaps it can fit through. Move with the Control Stick, hop with A and hold B on Nintendo 64 for the Ice Roll attack; the Xbox attack button is X. Rolling can knock through ordinary enemies, including the Hothands along the necessary Lava Side route, but the Snowball does not acquire the duo’s full climbing or jumping abilities. Its low jump makes some ledges inaccessible even when they are easy for Banjo and Kazooie. Warp pads remain usable and are essential to the straightforward oil-drill route. The wigwam also has a passage behind the cloth on its left interior wall connecting with Mumbo’s Skull on the Lava Side once the cracked wall there has been opened with a Grenade Egg. This provides a shaman shortcut for the normal characters; the Snowball’s own trips through heat must account for its steady melting.
Starting the Oil Drill and Collecting Its Jiggy
The rusty Power switch on the ledge behind the oil drill needs a fully grown Snowball. Reaching it requires a route through the Lava Side because the large steps leading up from the Icy Side are beyond the form’s jump. Roll through snow until all five honeycombs are filled, then use a warp pad and select Fire Side, Upper Area. Immediately hold the roll attack and head left along the ledge, passing through the Hothands toward the uphill tunnel back to the Icy Side. The heat steadily removes health, so continue toward the connection instead of stopping to explore the lava area. That tunnel brings the Snowball onto the high ledge by the drill. If it has lost size, roll through the nearby patch of snow to restore full energy before approaching the switch. At maximum weight, roll onto the large rusty plate to start the machine. The drill extracts a Jiggy rather than oil and sends it down the connected pipeline, so the Snowball cannot simply pick the reward up beside the switch. Return to Humba, shrink enough to enter her wigwam and restore Banjo and Kazooie. Use Split Up and take solo Banjo back to the oil-drill area, looking for the small opening in the pipe leading away from it. Enter with Shack Pack, taught by Jamjars for six hundred and forty Notes on a ledge below the upper Lava Side route. To reach that hatch, split up near the upper Fire Side warp pad, drop to the lower ledge as Banjo and follow it past the Hothands. Shack Pack makes Banjo small enough to fit into the pipe; follow it into the Waste Disposal Plant in Grunty Industries and collect the Jiggy at its far end. Although collection takes place in the factory, the piece is credited to Hailfire Peaks. The Snowball’s heavy-switch work and Banjo’s later pipe journey are separate stages of the same reward, and the oil pipe is distinct from the factory’s nearby water connection to Jolly Roger’s Lagoon.
The Icy Train Switch and Windy Jinjo
A second heavy switch opens the Icy Side train station. Find it on the raised icy wall near the lower warp pad and Split-Up Pads, between Humba’s area and Boggy’s igloo. Grow to five honeycombs and roll onto the large train-marked plate. This opens the station doors but does not award a Jiggy or create a walking entrance through the surrounding ice. Restore the normal duo and prepare the train journey separately. Chuffy must be available from the earlier Glitter Gulch Mine quest, and the Lava Side station needs its own switch activated. Free Gobi from Witchyworld’s Cave of Horrors by breaking his cage lock with a Grenade Egg; he subsequently appears on the upper platform in the Lava Side station. Summon Chuffy there and use Beak Buster on Gobi’s hump to pour water into the overheated boiler. Once cooled, the train can travel to the opened Icy Side station. Ride there, leave the train and follow the broken track and adjoining tunnel to collect the Jiggy visible through the ice from outside. Opening the station as a Snowball and cooling the engine as the duo solve different obstacles. The large form also provides a way to rescue the Jinjo in a narrow windy alcove near the tall central ice pillar and Biggafoot’s area. Approach with plenty of mass and keep the roll attack directed into the opening against the gusts. The Snowball’s weight allows it to push forward where the ordinary pair are blown back, and the wind stops once the Jinjo is collected. A Clockwork Kazooie Egg can also retrieve this collectible, so the Snowball route is an alternative use of the form rather than a requirement to adopt it for every visit to the alcove. Retain enough size for the heavy switches before deliberately shrinking for any smaller doorway.
Shrinking, Re-entering the Wigwam and Health Cheats
Getting back to Humba requires controlling size as carefully as growing for the switches. A maximum-sized Snowball cannot fit through the wigwam entrance or some of the low arches nearby. Follow a route around those obstructions and use the campfire outside the tent to take deliberate damage until only one honeycomb remains. Move into the wigwam as soon as the ball is small enough, avoiding another hit that would finish it and any thick snow that would immediately restore its size. Enter the pool to regain the normal duo. Outside, snow is effectively a renewable health supply for the transformation, while long exposure to the Lava Side can remove all five units and defeat it. Enemy hits similarly change both health and mass, so a switch that worked on an earlier approach may fail after the Snowball has been damaged. Health cheats interfere with this relationship in different ways. HONEYBACK regenerates energy over time and makes the Snowball grow again between hits, although quick shrinking and entry can still work. HONEYKING prevents the damage used to reduce it at the fire. Turn these effects off before relying on a size-sensitive route rather than assuming that extra protection also preserves access to the small entrances. Warp pads still function; a large ball outside the wigwam is not by itself proof that every travel option has been lost. At full size, also avoid dropping into the depressions left by the rescued alien children, where community references report that the form can become wedged. The five-size mechanic is also used as a question in Tower of Tragedy, matching the connection between the visible Snowball and its five-part health bar.