Overview
How to get all the Aquaria achievements.
Introduction
This guide will tell you how to get all the achievements on Steam.
Most achievements are pretty straightforward, and you’ll get to them during the course of normal gameplay. Others can be a bit trickier and involve obscure areas or optional sidequests.
Be forewarned, there will be spoilers here.
Hope this helps anyone trying to get all the pretty achievements. Have fun and enjoy!
A New Chapter
Combo Eater
Obtain the Beast Form, which you get after Mithalas. Click to dash and consume your enemies. Recommended to target weak ones, since those with more HP will require more than one bite.
Passed Through
Go north after beating Mithalas. This will require the Beast Form to get past the strong current. Keep going up.
Romance
Find the strange creature swimming around in Veil 2, to the east of Veil 1. Follow it until it swims into the next map (let it go first), and then keep following it until you corner it. Naija will have some narration, use the song she suggests to trigger a cutscene and get this achievement.
Afterwards, right-clicking on the shell will give you the option to make it stay there. There will also be an identical shell in Naija’s home underneath the save crystal.
Dance of the Forest Sprites
In the Kelp Forest, there will be a central open area with a bunch of Sea Dragons. They roar and spit out energy balls / “fire”. In the middle column, at its upper end on the left side, there will be a small passage. Go in there to find the Sprite Cave and a save point.
Spirit Battle
This is an optional song form that Naija can acquire after getting the Beast Form and the Nature Form. In Mithalas, swim to the upper-right area of the map. Use Beast Form to get past the current and follow the map to the bottom-right end of that area. Swim into that building, use Nature Form’s default right-click to drop a flower on the blue bulb and go through. There will be a battle.
Rock Crab Rocked
This will be found to the right of the south-west Open Waters, by the Arnassi Ruins. You will need Beast Form to get past the currents. It will be the lower of the two passages going east. Go past the Arnassi racetrack onto the next map, save, and head up for a battle. Nature Form’s charge right-click can be helpful here.
Boom Shrimp
The Mantis Shrimp is supposed to be in the Ice Veil. There seems to be a glitch in the Steam version where this achievement grants at the same time as Rock Crab Rocked.
To get to this boss, jump to the top-left of the Ice Veil using Beast Form. It’ll be easier with a Hot Soup for extra speed, but not strictly necessary, and wall-jump up by spamming jump until you get out onto the top-right. Jump off the ledge and travel through the bubbles until you get to the top-right of the map, which will take you to the Mantis Shrimp’s cave. As with the other crab boss, Nature form’s charge attack is useful here. However, its armor is quite tough and your own attacks won’t be enough to damage it.
Mergog Defeated
You need Fish Form and Beast Form for this one. This is located at the very north-east of the Kelp Forest, as far north-east as you can go. Same map as the Sprite Cave one.
High Dive
On the right half of Veil 2, there’s a tunnel at the bottom-right corner. It’s easier with Sun Form, but not necessary. You do need Beast Form, however. Wall-jump and go all the way up, and launch yourself off for a fantastic dive.
Octogone
At the bottom of Veil 2’s left half, there is a passage near the Ancient Turtle. You’ll need the Fish Form for this, and very preferably the Sun Form for it’s charged “attack”. Follow the path. There are two branches, Octomun/Octomom will be in the upper branch.
North Pole
The entrance here is in the Abyss. You will need the Spirit Form. It will be opposite the save point and not far east of the Ancient Turtle. This is absolutely worth visiting even if it is optional, and arguably the most gorgeous place in Aquaria. Headbutt the otters while you’re there.
Divorce
This is required to beat the game. Defeat the boss in the Sunken City. Beast Form is useful here, though biting might not be.
Uniter
You need this to beat the game. Explore the Body and find the crystals at the end of each path.
Gullet
Find the Whale. You’ll need the Sun Form. It will be opposite the Ancient Turtle in the Abyss.
Songstress
Obtain all songs and song forms in Aquaria. The last will not be registered to your menu until you obtain the final form in The Body, after putting Uniter to use. Ten songs will be recorded to your menu.
There are also 3 songs that won’t be recorded: the Whale’s Song, the Seahorse Song, and the Ghost Mother’s Song. Unsure if these last 3 are required for the achievement. Whale and Seahorse are found in the south-west Open Waters in the eastern passages. Ghost Mother’s Song will be found in the Sunken City.
Dethroned King Jelly
This boss is found in the western Abyss. Defeat it, and then swim up and right for a reward.
No Escape
This sneaky creature is found in the Kelp Forest, around the area of the Ancient Turtle. It looks just like the creature in the achievement icon, but it is very fast so you will probably only see a yellow flash before it dashes off-screen. Energy Form can kill it even off-screen.
Healthy
There are 5 in total and require you to sing in Song Form, Naija’s regular form. While optional, getting all the life eggs is pretty useful since it increases your HP bar.
Song Cave
In the area where you learn the Bind Song, you will find a rock. Lift it using Bind, and sing the note that is the same color as the egg to open it, then swim into the open egg.
Kelp Forest
Kelp Forest has one before the boss. You need Nature Form and Energy Form to unlock the passage, and then Fish Form to get to it. Go to the green circles and use the Nature Form right-click on the red flowers to pick up a pearl, then drag it to the red line and fire up the gate. Then go through the Fish Form passage. You’re forced to take this path because the area where the life egg is located at is blocked off by thorn walls (green lines on map).
Open Waters – North-East
There is a Fish Form path in the north-east Open Waters that leads to a sunken ship.
The Abyss
One is in the Whale in the Abyss. You need the Sun Form. It’s next to the Ancient Turtle.
Ice Veil
Beat the Mantis Shrimp in the Ice Veil. This requires lots of jumping to get to it, and is the same boss that the Boom Shrimp achievement would be tied to if it wasn’t bugged. The Boom Shrimp achievement entry has more detail, scroll up to read it if you need help.
Feather-Mouth
In Veil 2, there’s a parrot that flies around on the right half. Wait for it on land on the right-hand side and eat it in Beast Form when it flies back around. It flies around tree level so climb onto the rocks to get a good launch pad.
Mass Transit
You need to touch the Ancient Turtles or swim very close to register them. The last one is right before the final boss before beating the game. There’s also an Ancient Turtle in the Arnassi Ruins, accessible through a Fish path, that will only take you to an optional mini-boss and does not connect with any other Ancient Turtles.
Bucking Bronco
You can find this odd, prehistoric-looking creature in Open Waters, right before Mithalas City. If you dash at it right, you are able to mount Ekrit. It’s best to board Ekrit away from an exit point because he will try to throw you off and might swim off the current map while thrashing. Not too difficult if you can find a good sweet spot for Ekrit to swim circles in.
Monkey Flinger
Use Nature Form’s charge attack to fling a monkey into the water in one of the Veils.
Weird Fish
Requires Sun Form and Fish Form. This easter egg is located in the Abyss, near the Whale’s tail. Use the Fish Form to swim into a small passage and head north. Click on each of the fish for a little fun.
Explorer
Visit every single map and area in Aquaria. You don’t have to white-out the entire map and cover every little crevice, but you do need to enter all the little houses, holes, etc, so check every glowing white circle on your mini-map. Those are map exits. If you’ve gotten every song form, all treasures​, all 3 of Naija’s memories, the 3rd cooking slot, all life eggs, all pets, and the Weird Fish achievement, then you should get the Explorer achievement.
If you’ve beaten the game (or at least entered the final area) and still don’t have the achievement, then it’s worth looking over the optional items to see if you missed a hidden area. One other area people have missed is a 4th save point in the Energy Temple. Also note that apparently Spirit Form crystals show up as map exits on your mini-map, so if you are looking for an exit and can’t find one, it might be one of the dark blue crystals instead.
Super Chef
Just like it says on the tin, find all the recipes in the game. You obtain the recipe for a food item the first time you get the item. It is possible to figure out recipes just by trying random combinations. However, to get this achievement you will need a guide (or superhuman determination and obsession) since a number of items will not be found through normal gameplay. As there are an incredible number of recipes, I won’t be listing them here. That’s a guide of its own and there are fortunately already many available online, including on Steam.
Notably, Red Bulbs appear to be only obtainable from Song Plants, so there is a limited quantity of them in the game. Special Bulbs are rare and mainly found in Song Plants, but also can be found in 10% of the Sea Dragon drops.
Red Berries are not to be confused with the much rarer Red Bulbs. Also, Rock Turtles (the ones you use the Bind Song on) will always drop turtle meat, unlike the larger green turtles.
Speed Racer
Pretty straightforward, though a little tricky to pull off. Get a score of 0:59 seconds or less at the Arnassi racetrack. You can use Spirit Form to try to shave off a few seconds of your time when you’re close to the dark blue spirit crystals. I personally used Fish Form and ate 2 Royal Soups, which grants +2 speed buff for 30 seconds each. Sing the song notes carved into the rock to activate the race. Might take a second or so after finishing the last race before you can try again, so if your song didn’t activate the race the first time, just sing it again.
Trivia: Change into Spirit Form to take a better look at the lights racing past.