How do you pass level 4 on Skylanders Spyros Adventure?

Level 4 is the stormy stronghold. Basically you work your way around a circular parapet killing all the enemies along the way. It is not necessary to go throught the elemental gates to complete the level. You can always go back and replay any level and complete the gates later. As you work your way around the parapet, you will encounter what appear to be light poles with poles that resemble big screws. Each has a glowing orb or light or something on top. Go over close to these poles and the game will display RS or something similar. Use your RIGHT JOYSTICK (on an xbox) and moving the joystick in either a clockwise or counter clockwise motion to "screw" the pole into the ground. When it is all the way down the gate will open allowing you to move to the next. I believe there are 4 of these things. When you get to the last one, you will also have reached the end of the parapet. By this time the "Bridge" will have been rebuilt. Go back the way you came for a very short distance and you will find a bridge that decends down to the central tower structure. Take that bridge, kill the air genie at the bottom and a gate will open. Go to the right through the gate and follow this spiraling walkway up and around the tower until you get to the top. When you get there you will have a BOSS fight on your hands with many many enemies of many types all coming at you in groups. Use your most powerful Skylander. Hopefully one that can SHOOT FAST, and shoot and spin, shoot and spin, keep at it until you have finally killed ALL the enemies. Once that is done, position your Skylander in approximately the middle of the top under the whirlwind and you will get sucked up into the vortex, ending the chapter. If you DO choose to do the Air Elemental Gates, be aware that there is a treasure chest available immediately, but to get the hat you must manuever your skylander through a maze made up of blocks with bounce pads on top. While this looks relatively simple for someone new to jumping, it can be TOUGH to learn how to jump from one bounce pad to the next in a zig zag manner. Once you get past the lower level of bounce pads don't pick up the bomb just yet, it won't do you any good. Go to the upper level. Weave your way through the stones, around behind some, again in a zig zag or serpentine manner until you get to a bounce pad where you can jump up on the top of the blocks, then jump your way back to the right and step on the metal button in the top of the rightmost stone. This lowers some of the blocks. NOW go get the bomb and hustle it back to the middle, jump up on the middel barrier and blow up the barrier. Once that is done, work your way further left to get the hat box. Again this is not absolutely required to complete the level. But it is required to collect EVERYTHING.

In all the levels, you can complete a level without going through a single gate. You can always go back and do the gates later. You CAN, if you choose, try to complete a level in one pass. This is possible on many of the levels, but on some it is impossible, because to retrieve ONE special soul gem, legendary treasure or something will send you down one path that you cannot return from. These levels absolutely require two passes. ONCE you have collected everything, killed ALL the enemies, etc. You will probably still have one or two objectives that are incomplete. ENEMY GOAL, means you killed every enemy on the level. This can be tough because some of them can be hard to find. NO LIVES LOST means you must complete the level without getting your skylander killed. Remember you CAN switch skylanders in the middle of a fight or anything else. You don't HAVE to use the skylander of the matching element to complete a section. You just have to use THAT skylander to OPEN THE GATE. Once the gate is open you can swtich. (You may have to switch back to return) In a FIGHT situation, at the VERY FIRST WARNING BEEPS that your skylander is getting weak, remove him immediately and replace him with a fresh guy with a full health load. Try to pick one that is powerful and continue the fight. You may have to do this several times to make it through the fight without anyone getting killed. Weak is not dead. If you can pull this off you will get the check for NO LIVES LOST. The other is the check for completing the level in under some number of minutes and seconds. To pull this one off, USE YOUR FASTER MOST POWERFUL SKYLANDER. Hopefully one that can FLY. You will have to repeat a level MANY MANY times until you literally have it memorized. Then with your BEST SKYLANDER, start your run. Do NOT stop to pick up treasure or booty unless it is directly in your path. Don;t kill anyone that you can get past. Fighting takes time. TIME in this case is the enemy. Some levels have monster gates. (with skull and crossbones on the gate) on those you MUST kill all the enemies before the gate will open. Do not do any elemental gates. Make sure you have all the puzzles memorized so you can do them in the least number of moves. In other words, the object is to get from start to finish as quickly as possible, avoid EVERYTHING that will slow you down. Don't break through ANY fence unless it is directly in the path you MUST take. If necessary switch Skylanders part way through the run. The goal, again, is to get through the level in UNDER the required time. If you have a little timer or stopwatch, you can time yourself to see how close you are. IT IS POSSIBLE TO COMPLETE ALL THE LEVELS IN UNDER THE ALLOTTED TIME, but ONLY if you don't do ANYTHING along the way that will slow you down. Remember if you can dodge and enemy and keep going, DO SO. Pick up no booty and NO TREASURE. Do NO GATES. KILL only the enemies that you absolutely MUST kill. NO THE PATH WELL. MAKE NO MISTAKES, and you CAN make it in under the time.

You absolutely can NOT gather all the treasure, gems, scrolls, all the booty, kill all the enemies, explore every room and side path, AND get all this done in under the time limit. The game is DESIGNED so that you will have to replay the chapters over and over. Early chapters are easy, later ones are harder. If your goal is to get from the first chapter through to the last without picking up all the stuff, then you miss out of half the fun. REPLAY those chapters over and over. Look for stuff you missed. Look for alternative ways to get something done. Eventually you will get GOOD ENOUGH to take a single skylander from the first chapter all the way through to the last chapter without getting him killed. It AIN'T EASY, but it can be done.