Aqua Man

• Swimming
• Aqua - Part One
• Gorone
• Aqua - Part 2
• Aqua Man - Boss Fight

Swimming

Movement in Aqua is a little different due to swimming.

You can mash Jump to swim, but there is no "Hold Up/Down" to control swim height otherwise. To swim at the same height, time your jump presses. you'll need to do this in the spike corridor.

Much of the movement otherwise in water section is based around getting back to sliding while navigating other obstacles.

Aqua - Part One

There are no bolts in the first half of this stage

Screen 1

Note that some of the movement here happens at specific moments because of swim mechanics. Pressing jump twice when Mega Man's toe crosses the two lines in the background makes Mega Man's swim strokes carry him over the clam with room for a long slide before jumping to the next ledge.

The rest of the squid kills boil down to the 2 grenade on screen limit, so some squids are left alive.

Screen 2 - Vertical Climb

Open with a tornado hold after moving forward slightly. This knocks the snail out of the water, and helps Mega Man go up faster.

Despite having Hyper Slider, the sliding-ball-jump on the next ledge up works without anything special. Just hold Jump.

Swimming through the spikes near the end of the screen is less tricky than it looks. Sliding off the ledge is relatively safe but do swim before touching the spikes.

Screen 3

Open with another tornado to defeat enemies and climb up faster.

Jump up out of the water with Mega Balls and wiggle to jump relatively straight up.

Gorone

From The Compendium

HP: 20

Damage Chart:

Damage Values:

Gorone is a big idiot.  He can dive at any point while making a decision, and his movement is also quite sporadic.  Nearly every weapon does 2 damage against him, so we recommend using whatever weapon is convenient to hit him depending on his position.  For example, if he is above you, Astro Crush works nicely; whereas if he is below you, Ice Wave is a good choice.

Aqua - Part 2

For 40 Bolts, and intentional Game Over is used for optimal bolt gathering. There is a branching path with a checkpoint, each paths with a bolt. 

First Three Screens

Use Grenades and the buster as needed to pass the snails on the first screens.

For 40 Bolts, Use Astro your first time through the second screen to both raise the water level, and collect the first bolt. This makes the lower path on the next screen accessible

When following movement through the third screen, a few things to keep in mind. Snails falling through the water destroy squids they fall through. Be ready to do ball jumps up to the top (on your second pass in 40 bolts)

The second bolt is on the bottom right of screen 3.

Vertical Screen

Both vertical screens have bolts

Walk back and forth between the first row's bombs to lower the counters quickly.

Hold left on the second level to fall through the gap between the bomb and the wall.

Repeat these techniques going down (holding right against the lower bombs) to reach the bottom quickly. There is optional health here that could make damage boosts on the next screen safer.

Last Water Screen

The main ways to speed up this screen are sliding on the spike-mines. While not instant kill, they do a significant amount of damage.

If for some reason you used an astro crush on this life, collect the weapon refill - you need them all for Aqua Man

Aqua Man - Boss Fight

From The Compendium

HP: 40

Damage Chart:

Damage Values:

The 8 Damage for Astro Crush is for both hits in a single use of the weapon. Each individual hit deals 4 damage. So be careful not to spam it too fast.

You don't have enough ammo to defeat Aqua with only Astro Crush (without the Energy Saver). That's why Buster is mixed in.

Notes

Aqua Man can potentially get damage-boosted in either direction by the initial Astro Crush. If you have low health, be cautious with the first Astro Crush, or potentially even open with the Buster shot instead of Astro Crush to better figure out which direction he will get knocked back.

Note you should be charging the buster during Astro Crushes to deal damage as quickly as possible. You need all 4 extra charge shots for 8 damage that Astro Crush does not account for.