Artwork from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.

Plus and Minus Barrels are a type of Barrel unique to Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Plus and Minus Barrels are only found together in Haunted Hall. Their primary purpose is to increase or decrease the time when a Kackle would attack the Kongs. In Haunted Hall, as a Kackle begins to chase a Kong, a timer begins and as it depletes, the Kackle draws closer, until zero, where it injures a Kong. By breaking a Plus Barrel, the timer will increase, keeping Kackle away. However, the opposite happens when Minus Barrels are collected, and should thus be avoided.

One of the Bonus Stages in Haunted Hall contains a Plus Barrel which will cause the Skull Cart to travel in reverse rather than forward.

A secret Plus Barrel can be found in Rickety Race by reversing the Skull Cart as soon as the race starts. It would give the player a significant speed boost, making it easier to defeat the Klanks and finish the race in first place sooner.



  • The original DKC2 manual claims the minus barrels will take them to the "Minus world", a reference to a famous glitch found in Super Mario Bros.
  • A number of connections can be made with Donkey Kong Country's Stop & Go Barrels of Stop & Go Station; the barrels both appear exclusively in that one level, are needed to disable invincible enemies (in DKC's case, Rockkroc, and both provide a temporary effect in disabling the foe (the latter in Plus Barrel's case).