DinoBones: Tidy Up the Museum — Beginners' Tips

Hi, I'm Vook, a middle-aged coder who likes playing games a little too much.

This page is beginners' habits and FAQ for DinoBones — placement colours, tiny bones, tools, and the mistakes that sent me crawling under pallets. Same caveat as the hub: personal notes, not exhaustive. If something worked differently for you, leave a comment.

I launched more teeth across the workshop than I care to admit because I grabbed a whole crate stack at once — the game does not forgive collision.

Full route and achievements: walkthrough hub.

Before you place bones

Rule	Detail
Fix carriers first	Hit every rust bubble 5× on all nine steel supports — no bones until the stand is repaired (Solid Foundations)
40 sources	12 pallets (single species) + 28 crates (two species each — read the label icons)
Pallets before crates	Large bones clear floor space; less pinball
Plaque + map	Each exhibit names the dino; workshop map (in front of start) zooms layout

Placement feedback

Cold → warm → hot = correct dinosaur, closing in on the slot.
Red glow = wrong species entirely — walk to the other stand.
You cannot place a bone incorrectly or remove one after it snaps in — treat every pickup as final.
10% expertise for a species: carried bones for that dino turn yellow; the bone in your hand pulses on the diagram (sometimes a circle marker for fiddly joints).
TAB opens per-dino progress — bone checklist and percentages.

Monocle (50%) and field book (95%)

Both live in the workshop once you earn them per species:

Unlock	Tool	What it does
50% on a dino	Monocle	Highlights that species' bones in its colour in the world
95% on a dino	Field book	Missing pieces spawn behind you with sparkles — grab and place

Teeth, toes, and jaw splinters are where I used these — not optional on T. rex or Triceratops.

Physics — bones launch

Picking up a bone that collides with others throws the stack. Happens constantly in mixed crates.

What I do:

One species per trip when the floor is crowded.
Fix all nine carriers before opening every crate.
After a fumble, sweep under pallets and corners — teeth love the dark.

Water last — grass eats teeth

Watering can unlocks from Triceratops frill progress (hub Phase IV).

Seven grass exhibits can grow to full size → A Greener Museum. Mammoth snow does not count; two dinos share one raised platform.

I water after skeletons are done — tall grass hides micro-bones and makes floor sweeps miserable. Achievement does not care when you water.

Coins are not tied to dinos

Nine coins total: 1 from Kentrosaurus progress (rolls out and starts the press — coin 9 in the set) + 8 hidden around the museum. You cannot grab the eight pickups until that Kent coin unlocks the machine (hub Phase III → The Big Reveal).

Pickup screenshots: devil alice's Steam coin guide — workshop, front door, behind Pachy/Kent/Para, by Mammoth/Trike, T. rex front-right corner.

Stamp order on the album wall (always this sequence):

Kentrosaurus · 2. T. rex · 3. Triceratops · 4. Mammoth · 5. Spinosaurus · 6. Pachycephalosaurus · 7. Parasaurolophus · 8. Pteranodon · 9. Brachiosaurus

The first stamp is always Kent because that skeleton unlocks the machine — not because you found a “Kent coin” in the wild.

Stuck checklist — what I tried (and what worked)

“I cannot pick up coins”

Wrong assumption: coins on the plant pot are bugged, or there is a ninth hidden floor coin.
Actual rule: press does not exist until Kentrosaurus osteoderma plates/spikes (28 parts, no head/tail vertebrae) → a coin rolls from the Kent stand — that is coin 9, the press starter.
Then grab the eight world pickups (Steam pin guide) and stamp all nine into the album.

“I have eight coins but the album is not full”

You are missing either the Kent roll (press never unlocked) or one blind spot — on my run it was T. rex front right corner, not the back pillar.

“Pteranodon wings will not complete”

Bug I hit: Os pteroideum dextrum exists twice in the crate set — both count toward wings.
Also check: 25 wing parts across the two bird crates (hub wing list).

“Hammer never dropped”

Wrong trigger: finishing Pteranodon or the whole Brachiosaurus.
Correct trigger: Brachiosaurus head — Cranium + Mandibula complete → Hammerhead.

“Camera / cat / cassettes missing”

Want	Need first
Camera	One Pachycephalosaurus head bone
Cassettes	Parasaurolophus head complete
Watering can	Triceratops cranium + Epoccipitale spikes (not teeth)
Snow globe	Mammoth head complete → dig drift
Model kit	T. rex 100% → rug by stairs
Cat	Spinosaurus 100% → front cat flap

All paths in hub Phases IV–V.

“Cat is stuck / floating”

Fix: Save → main menu → reload. Same as getting the cat to behave for Say Meow photos.

“95% but I cannot find the last bones”

Grab that dino's field book in the workshop.
Stand still — sparkles behind you.
Cross-check TAB checklist for duplicate tooth names.
Still short? Floor sweep under every pallet near that exhibit.

Bone totals per species

Handy for TAB sanity checks at 10% / 50% / 95% / 100%:

Species	10%	50%	95%	100%
T. rex	31	153	290	305
Triceratops	27	133	250	263
Mammoth	20	96	182	191
Spinosaurus	39	194	368	387
Kentrosaurus	24	116	220	231
Pachycephalosaurus	17	83	157	165
Parasaurolophus	19	90	171	180
Pteranodon	9	42	79	83
Brachiosaurus	14	68	130	136

Grand total: 1,941 bones.

Mistakes I made (so you skip them)

Opening every crate before carriers were fixed.
Watering grass mid-build and losing teeth in the lawn.
Assuming coin #3 belonged to Triceratops because of the slot art.
Skipping the second Os pteroideum dextrum on Pteranodon wings.
Lifting the T. rex rug before the skeleton was 100% — no model piece yet.

Back to the full route: hub walkthrough.