"Battle for Bikini Bottom" - Mermalair Quiz

Answer: Zero

The Mermalair is completely free to access as soon as the player reaches the portion of Bikini Bottom that enables them to reach it. While this may technically seem like it costs fifteen Golden Spatulas, since that's how much it costs to reach the Poseidome to open up Bikini Bottom, game exploiters have a thing or two to say about that. By exploiting a couple of totally unintended glitches in the game, it is possible to bypass the Poseidome and reach the second portion of Bikini Bottom by going out of bounds and then re-entering the world beyond the Poseidome gate.

After doing so, it is theoretically possible to then enter the Mermalair even if the player didn't have any Golden Spatulas at all. Of course, upon immediately upon entering the Mermalair, progress is blocked unless the player has the Bubble Bowl, which is only accessible via defeating the Poseidome. Thus, it is more practical to play the game the way Heavy Iron Studios intended, but it is still technically possible to enter the map with zero Golden Spatulas.

Answer: Prawn

Prawn is a villainous shrimp who had been held in the Mermalair's Villain Containment Area. Plankton's robots, upon infiltrating the lair, promptly freed Prawn and set him loose to cause havoc alongside them. It is up to SpongeBob and friends to put a stop to him!

Answer: Four

There is the Mermalair Lobby (opening area), Mermalair Main Chamber, Mermalair Security Tunnel, Rolling Ball Area and the Villain Containment Area. It's one of the largest maps in the game.

Answer: Arf

Arf wears a large poncho hat alongside generic cowboy gear. Arf constantly throws his Arf-Dawg minions at the player, which are small robots that essentially suicide bomb straight into the player. Arf is fortunately not too hard to defeat, as the Arf-Dawgs themselves are easy to destroy, and can even be turned against Arf via knocking them back at it.

Answer: The Invisible Boatmobile

The Invisible Boatmobile can be very briefly spotted, in all of its glory, upon hitting the second Bubble Bowl button in the map.

Answer: Reach the override buttons to regain control of their lair

The premise is that robots have hacked into and overtaken all of their gadgets and security systems. By hitting override buttons found throughout the map, their interference can be squashed, and the tandem can regain control of the Mermalair.

Answer: Patrick

Patrick is essential for accessing two override buttons, as well as figuring out Barnacle Boy's button-mashing challenge late in the map via his Throw Fruit. Mermaid Man also administers three side quests that only Patrick can complete.

Answer: They get hurt

The Disco Floor is a long floor of tiles. Each tile periodically turns yellow and then red. Yellow doesn't do anything other than warn the player that the tile is about to turn red. Red will hurt the player upon making contact. The tiles generally are colored in some kind of pattern, so predicting what color is about to appear on a given tile is rather easy.

Answer: Mr Krabs

Of course, where there's money to be found or made, Mr Krabs is not far behind. Mr Krabs wants the player to complete the puzzle because doing so will open up a locked, see-through door containing quite a lot of money inside of it. Also inside this door is a Golden Spatula, which he will happily allow the player to have so long as he gets his money.

Answer: Eight

For such a large map, it's worth wondering if the customary eight Golden Spatulas are worth the trek.