Shiny paint location: the hidden paint studio (Big Makeover)
Also searched as: how to get shiny / shiny paint location / secret paint room / metallic colours / gold paint / Big Makeover / Get shiny / change colour
The short answer
Open the tunnels by finishing the yellow tower, then find the second, hidden paint studio at the bottom of a purple stairwell deep in the tunnels. It offers three metallic colours - bronze, silver and gold. You cannot paint yourself: a teammate paints you with one of them and Big Makeover ("Get shiny") unlocks.
- Players
- 2 players (someone else has to paint you)
- Time
- One tunnel walk once the tunnels are open
- Location
- Deep in the tunnels (yellow tower first)
- Reward
- Bronze, silver or gold paint, and the Big Makeover achievement
The paint studio near the start, where you choose your first colours, has no shiny option; the metallic colours exist only in the hidden studio. It is optional - the guides agree it is not needed for either ending - but it is one of the 12 achievements.
Prefer to work it out yourself? Open one Big Makeover hint at a time instead.
Before you start
- The yellow tower finished - its key opens the tunnels the studio is in
- A light: the tunnels are dark, and tunnel entrances usually have a flashlight lying there
- A teammate, because the paintbrush cannot be used on yourself
Step-by-step 7 steps
- 1
Open the tunnels
Put five gourds in the slots on top of the yellow tower, then shape its key at the key cutters until the last one opens the tunnels. The shiny paint cannot be reached before this.
- 2
Enter at the red tunnel by the map room
From the round red hub where each session starts, go through the gap to the right of the map room. Keep the rock wall on your left until a red tunnel entrance opens on your left, and pick up the flashlight there.
- 3
Climb the stairs and follow the green tower signs
Go up the long staircase. At the top, floor signs point to different towers: go right, towards the green tower. The corridor changes colour as you walk; keep straight on until you go through a green door.
- 4
Turn left up the blue ramp
Straight ahead leads on to the green tower. Instead turn left into the blue corridor that climbs like a ramp, then turn left again in the narrow hallway at its end.
- 5
Take the red spiral to a small red door
Ignore the side door you pass. Take the red spiralling hallway on the left and keep going straight until you reach a small red doorway.
- 6
Go to the bottom of the purple stairwell
Behind the door is a staircase with purple walls. Go all the way down - the shiny paint studio is at the bottom. Polygon and the Steam 100% guide reach it by other tunnel routes, but every route ends the same way: down through a purple area to the studio.
- 7
Paint each other
The three metallic colours are bronze, silver and gold. Hand the brush to a teammate and let them paint you with one; Big Makeover unlocks as soon as it is applied. Take turns so everyone gets it.
Where it goes wrong
These are the places players actually get stuck most often. Working through them in order usually finds the cause.
Other System puzzles
After finishing: Big Makeover achievement (Valve's description: "Get shiny").
Where this solution came from
The route from the red tunnel entrance comes from GameSpot and is repeated step for step by Game Rant. The yellow-tower requirement, the hidden studio, the three metallic colours, painting by a teammate and the descent through a purple area are also stated by Polygon, Insider Gaming and tasselfoot's 100% Achievement Guide on Steam, each by its own route. All read on 2026-11-01. Details only one guide gives - walking times, the painted ring around the last door, and whether a single painted body part is enough - are left out. We have not played this route ourselves.
Puzzles in this game are not assigned in a fixed order: each tower needs a set number of gourds and has more challenges around it than that, so you choose which ones to clear, in any order. That is why two guides list different puzzle line-ups for the same tower — neither is wrong. Unless a coordinate is credited to a named source it is a community measurement, and later versions can shift it; once you are in the area, trust the landmark over the number.