Once Upon A Katamari All Crowns: Complete Collectible Guide for Every Stage
Track down Once Upon A Katamari all crowns with a stage-by-stage guide covering freebies, save rules, trophy requirements, and the trickiest pickups.
Why Crowns Are the Real Endgame in Once Upon A Katamari
If you are chasing the Platinum trophy in Once Upon A Katamari, all crowns are not optional decoration — they are the main event. Crowns and Cousins are the only collectibles tied to trophies, and grabbing every one of them is effectively the entire completion checklist for this game. The good news is that the goal is simpler than it looks: you do not even need to finish the story to earn the Platinum, because the final stage holds no collectibles at all.
The bad news? Crowns are scattered across dozens of stages, several of them hide behind size gates, moving objects, or level-failure traps, and the game will not remember anything you picked up if you quit or fail. This guide breaks down how Once Upon A Katamari all crowns work, which powerups make the hunt bearable, and where the genuinely nasty ones live.
Crown Totals, Trophy Rules, and the Limits You Can't Ignore
Community-compiled collectible guides put the game's total at 248 collectibles: 141 Crowns, 68 Cousins, and 39 Presents. Because Presents are not required for any trophy, the trophy-relevant count drops to 209 — and of that number, 141 are crowns.
One useful pattern worth internalizing: crown distribution is remarkably even. Across the roughly 47 stages that contain them, each stage hides exactly three crowns. That consistency is a gift for planning, because you can treat every stage as a three-item checklist rather than an open-ended scavenger hunt.
| Collectible | Total Count | Required for Platinum? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crowns | 141 | Yes | 3 per stage on stages that contain them |
| Cousins | 68 | Yes | Unlocks the "Tag, You're It!" stages |
| Presents | 39 | No | Safe to skip on a trophy run |
| Trophy-relevant total | 209 | Yes | Crowns + Cousins only |
Three rules govern how Once Upon A Katamari all crowns behave, and breaking any of them costs you progress:
- Progress does not persist on failure. If you quit out or fail a stage after grabbing a crown, that crown is gone. Re-collect it on the next attempt.
- Cousins gate themselves in sequence. Cousin #2 will not appear until you have collected Cousin #1 on that same stage, and Cousin #3 waits on Cousin #2. Stages with multiple Cousins must be replayed multiple times.
- Tag, You're It! stages are locked behind Cousins. Each of those stages carries its own crown trophy, so Cousin collection is not a side quest — it is the key that opens more crown hunting grounds.
Freebies: The Powerups That Make Crown Hunting Tolerable
Freebies are temporary powerups that spawn in stages, and three of the four matter enormously when you are collecting Once Upon A Katamari all crowns. Community reports consistently rate the Magnet as the single most valuable pickup in the game, because it drags hard-to-reach collectibles directly into your Katamari instead of forcing a precision roll.
| Freebie | Effect | Value for Crown Hunting |
|---|---|---|
| Magnet | Pulls objects below your current size toward you | Highest — solves ledge, tree, and head-mounted crowns |
| Sonar | Reveals the nearest collectible, including crowns | High — essential in dark stages like Lots of Yokai |
| Timer | Freezes the level timer and all moving objects | Situational — great for crowns riding moving targets |
| Rocket | Boosts rolling speed for a limited time | Low — speed rarely solves a placement problem |
Two quirks are worth building a strategy around. First, Freebies carry over between stages if you finish a level still holding one, so you can deliberately bank a Magnet from an easy stage and spend it on a brutal one — like the bird's-nest crown in As Large As Possible 2, a stage that contains no Magnets of its own. Second, Sonar often will not appear as a powerup until you have already beaten and replayed a level, which means your cleanup passes are naturally better equipped than your first runs.
Crown Locations by Stage Type
Most stages in the game fall into recognizable families, and each family demands a different approach. Organizing your hunt by type keeps you from re-learning the same lesson forty times.
| Stage Family | Typical Crown Placement | Hunting Tip |
|---|---|---|
| As Large As Possible series | Rooftops, statues, high shelves, distant islands | Grab low-size crowns early; return when big for the rest |
| As Fast As Possible series | Mirrors of the large stages, plus small crevices | Often shares coordinates with the "Large" version of the stage |
| "Lots of" stages | Themed props — food, coins, icicles, gold, drinks | Read the theme; crowns sit on the signature object |
| Timed "Hurry" stages | Identical to their base stage | Learn the layout once, then speed-run it |
| Tag, You're It! stages | Rivers, caves, ice pillars | Require all Cousins first; Sonar helps in the open ones |
A few examples show how literal the theming is. In Lots of Gold, all three crowns sit on the railway track, a table near the start, and up a ladder on someone's head — and the timed Hurry, the Gold variant uses the exact same three spots. In Lots of Food 3, one crown is worn by a ninja hiding behind a secret wall panel, another dangles from a ceiling curtain, and the third is simply huge on the bottom floor.
The sea stage is the exception that breaks the pattern. As Large As Possible (Sea) splits into a Kraken Route and a Ghost Ship Route depending on whether you roll up a specific octopus after a size threshold. Some crowns only exist on one route, and because of how Cousins spawn in sequence, player experience suggests running the Ghost Ship Route on your second visit and the Kraken Route on your third.
The Hardest Crowns and How to Beat Them
Some crowns in Once Upon A Katamari all crowns are genuinely mean. These are the ones that generate the most forum complaints, along with the workaround that actually works.
| Stage | Crown | The Problem | The Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| As Large As Possible 2 | Crown #3 | Must land on a bird's nest on a head after rolling off a roof | Bank a Magnet from another stage — this level has none |
| Light the Sacred Fire | Crown #1 | Sits beside a pool that instantly fails the level | Approach from the Moai side and stop short |
| Light the Sacred Fire | Crown #2 | A man steps in front of it and blocks your path | Grab it immediately or restart — it is right at the start |
| Only Fifty | Crown #2 | Huge crown, but you may only roll up 50 objects | Skip every optional pickup and save your count for it |
| Only Fifty (Appraisal) | Crown #1 | Hidden behind a dartboard with a tight size window | Grab it while small; you will not fit later |
| Cowbear Pasture | All three | Rolling up a sign, cone, or bear ends the stage | Thread between obstacles; size up the sea crown carefully |
| Lots of Icicles | Crown #2 | Locked in a high, closed-off area | Roll up 500 icicles to open the climb |
| Rev Up Those Fryers | Crown #3 | Balanced on a man's head with no direct route | Cross the pipes right, grab the Magnet, then pull it in |
Notice the recurring theme: most "impossible" crowns are not skill checks, they are preparation checks. A single banked Magnet or a deliberate small-size approach converts several of these from frustrating to trivial.
A Practical Order for Collecting Every Crown
Trying to sweep Once Upon A Katamari all crowns in stage order is a recipe for repeated failure, because size restrictions and locked routes punish you for being efficient too early. A layered approach works better.
| Pass | What You Do | Why This Order |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clear the tutorial and collect Cosmi automatically | Unlocks the flow of the game with zero effort |
| 2 | Run every stage once, grabbing crowns you can reach at low size | Captures all the "grab it before you grow" crowns |
| 3 | Replay multi-Cousin stages until every Cousin is banked | Unlocks the Tag, You're It! crown stages |
| 4 | Return to stages with a banked Magnet or Sonar in hand | Converts ledge, tree, and dark-stage crowns into easy pulls |
| 5 | Sweep the timed Hurry and As Fast As Possible stages last | You already know the layouts, so the clock stops mattering |
Two habits keep this efficient. First, never quit a stage after collecting a crown — finish it, or you lose the pickup. Second, hold onto Freebies rather than burning them for convenience; carrying a Magnet out of a stage and into the next one is one of the strongest tactics available for crown cleanup.
If you want official context on the game itself, the publisher's Bandai Namco Entertainment official site is the most reliable place to check platform availability and product details.
FAQ
How many crowns are in Once Upon A Katamari all crowns checklist?
There are 141 crowns in total, spread across roughly 47 stages at three crowns per stage. Crowns, along with 68 Cousins, are the only collectibles required for the Platinum trophy. The 39 Presents can be ignored entirely on a trophy run.
Do I lose crowns if I fail a stage?
Yes. Collectible progress does not save if you quit out or fail a level, so any crown you grabbed during that attempt is forfeited. Always finish the stage after a pickup, even if you have to limp to the goal.
Which freebie is best for finding crowns?
The Magnet is widely considered the strongest option because it pulls otherwise unreachable collectibles straight to your Katamari. The Sonar is the best backup, especially in dark stages such as Lots of Yokai. Remember that Freebies carry over between stages, so you can bank one for a stage that lacks it.
Why can't I find a crown that a guide says exists?
The most common causes are size gates and route splits. Some crowns only appear on the Kraken Route or Ghost Ship Route of the sea stage, and others require you to be small enough — or large enough — to reach them. Sonar can confirm whether a collectible is nearby before you burn time searching.
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