Donkey Kong Bananza Sonar Upgrade Guide: Find Every Hidden Item Fast

TL;DR

• Sonar is triggered by pressing R (Hand Slap) and reveals hidden items buried in terrain.
• It detects Banandium Gems, Fossils, Challenge Entrances, Treasure Chests, and Banandium Chips.
• The base Sonar range is very short — upgrading it through the Skill Tree is essential.
• Better Sonar has three upgrade levels, giving a maximum 160% range boost when fully maxed.
• Level 1 costs 2 Skill Points, Level 2 costs 2 Skill Points, Level 3 is more expensive but worth it.
• You earn one Skill Point for every five Banandium Gems DK eats.
• Better Sonar is the single most important skill to upgrade first in Donkey Kong Bananza.

What Is the Sonar in Donkey Kong Bananza?

The Sonar is one of DK’s core abilities in Donkey Kong Bananza. It is built into the Hand Slap move, which you trigger by pressing the R button. When you slap the ground, a pulse radiates outward from DK and highlights any hidden items buried inside the surrounding terrain, making their outlines briefly visible through the ground and walls.

The Hand Slap does double duty in this game. It grabs nearby Gold and other surface items — and at the same time, it works as a scanner to reveal what is hidden around you. Without using Sonar regularly, you will walk straight past dozens of Banandium Gems and Fossils buried just beneath the surface of every layer.

DK has this ability from the very beginning of the game. You do not need to unlock it. But the starting range is extremely short, which is exactly why upgrading it through the Skill Tree is so critical.

What Hidden Items Does Sonar Detect in Donkey Kong Bananza?

When you press R and trigger a Sonar pulse, DK can detect the following hidden items in the terrain around him:

• Banandium Gems: The main collectible in the game. There are 777 total across all 17 layers. Most are buried in the terrain and will not be visible to the naked eye without using Sonar.
• Fossils: The currency used at Style Shops to unlock new fur dyes, accessories, and clothing for DK and Pauline. They are scattered throughout every layer and frequently hidden inside rock walls.
• Challenge Entrances: Portals to side courses and combat arenas are sometimes buried or embedded in terrain. Sonar reveals their location before you dig to them, saving a lot of random searching.
• Treasure Chests: Chests buried in the terrain that can contain Gold, Fossil Maps, and Banandium Gem Maps. These maps mark the exact location of a specific hidden collectible on your current layer.
• Banandium Chips: Smaller fragments of Banandium that appear in some areas. Sonar can catch these in your immediate vicinity when they are nearby.
• Small Fractones: Tiny glowing beings hidden in terrain who can be helpful when found.

Sonar does not require you to dig at all. The pulse goes straight through the terrain, which means you can scan a whole section of rock, see what is inside, and then decide exactly where to punch or dig for the most efficient return.

How to Use Sonar in Donkey Kong Bananza

Using Sonar is simple. Just press R at any time while exploring. DK will slap the ground, sending out the sonar pulse. Items in range will glow briefly through the surrounding terrain, giving you a clear outline of where they are.

You can use the Hand Slap as many times as you want with no cooldown or cost. Spam it freely as you move through an area — there is no downside to pressing R constantly while exploring. The flash of revealed items is brief, so look around quickly after each slap to catch everything in range.

A few habits that make Sonar much more useful:

• Slap the ground every time you enter a new tunnel or room. Hidden items can be just a few blocks away in any direction.
• Use Sonar before digging in any direction so you know what you are heading toward and do not miss anything by going the wrong way.
• Slap repeatedly as you walk through open terrain sections. The pulse range is circular, so moving while slapping covers the most ground.
• Pay attention to the direction of the glow. The outline of a buried item tells you exactly where inside the rock it is sitting, so you can punch straight toward it rather than excavating blindly.

How to Upgrade Sonar with Better Sonar in Donkey Kong Bananza

The Better Sonar skill is found in DK’s Skill Tree and is available from the very start of the game. It directly increases the range of the Hand Slap’s sonar pulse, letting you detect hidden items from much farther away with each upgrade level.

To access the Skill Tree, press the Up button on the D-Pad at any time during gameplay. The Skill Tree also opens automatically each time you earn a new Skill Point. You earn one Skill Point for every five Banandium Gems that DK eats.

Here are the three levels of Better Sonar and what each one does:

Better Sonar Level 1

Cost: 2 Skill Points. Increases the Hand Slap’s Sonar range by 60%. This is the single most important skill investment you can make early in the game. The base range is so limited that you will miss large numbers of Banandium Gems and Fossils without this upgrade. Get this as soon as you have 2 Skill Points.

Better Sonar Level 2

Cost: 2 Skill Points. Extends the Sonar range further beyond Level 1. At this point the pulse covers a noticeably larger area around DK and starts to feel genuinely powerful for scanning wide sections of terrain from a single spot. Upgrade this shortly after Level 1 as your next priority.

Better Sonar Level 3

Cost: More Skill Points than Levels 1 and 2. Maxing out Better Sonar gives a total 160% range boost over the base Sonar. At this level DK can detect items buried a significant distance away in every direction, making it much harder to miss anything in a layer. Some players stop at Level 2 to save Skill Points for other upgrades, but maxing it out is worth the investment for anyone aiming for full completion. Planet Core fossils in the later layers in particular are much easier to spot with max Sonar range.

Why Better Sonar Is the Most Important Skill to Upgrade First

There are over a dozen skills in DK’s base Skill Tree, plus additional skills for each Bananza transformation. It can feel hard to know where to start. The answer is simple: Better Sonar first, every time.

Here is why. Banandium Gems are the currency for Skill Points. More Gems found means more Skill Points earned, which means more upgrades unlocked faster. Better Sonar directly increases the number of Gems you find on each pass through a layer. Investing 2 Skill Points into Level 1 immediately pays for itself by helping you locate Gems you would have otherwise walked straight past.

It creates a positive feedback loop: Better Sonar → find more Banandium Gems → earn more Skill Points → upgrade Better Sonar further → find even more Gems → unlock all other skills faster. Nothing else in the Skill Tree creates this kind of compounding return early on.

Combat skills, health upgrades, and juice capacity improvements feel tempting early, but they do not accelerate your progression the way Better Sonar does. The game is not particularly hard in terms of combat, which makes survival upgrades much lower priority than exploration tools at the start.

What Else Should You Upgrade Alongside Better Sonar?

Once you have Better Sonar at Level 1 or 2, these are the next skills worth investing in during the early and mid game:

• Punch Power (2 Skill Points for Level 1): As you go deeper into the layers, terrain becomes stronger and harder to break. Punch Power reduces the number of hits needed to smash through tougher materials, making exploration and item retrieval significantly faster. Think of it like upgrading your pickaxe. This is the second most important early upgrade.
• Better Collecting (1 Skill Point): Increases the pickup radius of the Hand Slap for Gold and surface items. At Level 1 this costs just one Skill Point and immediately stops you from missing dropped Gold as you move through areas. Very cheap, very useful, grab it early.
• Bananergy (levels 1-3): Extends how long DK stays in a Bananza transformation. This applies to all Bananza forms, making it a versatile upgrade that helps in boss fights and in certain exploration scenarios where transformation abilities are needed to access specific terrain.
• Better Turf Surfing: Slows down chunk degradation while surfing on a piece of terrain, letting you ride further across hazardous surfaces like lava and spikes. Very helpful in the later layers.
• Surf Surf: Lets you skim across water and poison water by pressing ZL while holding a chunk. A massive traversal upgrade for certain layers.

Hold off on maxing health upgrades and juice capacity skills early. They are not wasted, but they do not accelerate your Gem collection the way the exploration skills do. Prioritize movement and detection over survival in the early game.

Can You Boost Sonar Beyond the Skill Tree?

Yes. There is one additional way to temporarily extend DK’s Sonar range beyond what the Skill Tree provides. While in Kong Bananza form, if you equip Pauline with the Lagoon Vest — obtained by trading Fossils at the Lagoon Layer’s Style Shop — DK’s Sonar range gets a further boost on top of whatever level Better Sonar is already at. This bonus only applies while DK is in Kong Bananza, but since Kong Bananza is one of the best forms for tearing through terrain at speed, it makes the combination of Sonar scanning and mass excavation especially efficient.

Sonar, Treasure Chests, and Maps — How They Work Together

Beyond directly spotting buried Gems and Fossils, Sonar plays a key role in finding Treasure Chests hidden in terrain. Smashing terrain generates Treasure Chests randomly, and Sonar helps you spot them before you dig right past them. Treasure Chests frequently contain Banandium Gem Maps and Fossil Maps, which mark the exact location of a specific collectible on your current layer directly on the in-game map.

Once you have pinned a Gem or Fossil from a map, press the L button to whistle. This makes the pinned objective visible in the world and shows how far away you are from it. Combining regular Sonar scanning with active use of maps and the whistle feature is the most efficient way to reach 100% completion in every layer.

The Treasure Tie outfit item, purchasable from Style Shops using Fossils, further increases the chance that DK spawns a Treasure Chest while smashing terrain. If you are farming for maps to track down stubborn collectibles, equip the Treasure Tie and start punching through terrain in Kong Bananza form — you will accumulate maps quickly.

Sonar Tips for Completionists

If you are going for 100% completion across all 17 layers, keep these habits in mind throughout your run:

• Max Better Sonar before the later layers. Some Fossils in the Planet Core area are only detectable with max Sonar range combined with high Punch Power. Getting there without max Sonar means missing items you will need to come back for.
• Use Warp Gongs to revisit earlier layers after maxing Better Sonar. Any Gems or Fossils you walked past with a short-range Sonar become much easier to locate on a second pass with Level 3 active.
• Always slap before punching in a new area. Tunneling blindly wastes time. A quick Sonar scan first tells you exactly what is in range and where to focus.
• Nothing is permanently missable. All layers reopen via Warp Gongs after the final level, so even if you missed items early, you can always return with better Sonar and Punch Power to clean up.
• Buy Banandium Gem Maps from the Stuff Shop for 1,000 Gold when stuck on a layer. Combined with max Sonar and the whistle feature, this clears up any final missing Gems efficiently.

For a full breakdown of what the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game offers, check out our Donkey Kong Bananza Nintendo Switch 2 review to see how the game holds up overall.