Aqua Rock



Aqua Rock (アクアロック, Aqua Rock) is a dungeon-style location located below Apojii Islands. It functions as one of the first dungeons the player's party should clear in The Lost Age after acquiring the Lemurian Ship and gaining access to the Great Eastern Sea. When completed, you gain the Parch Psynergy, and then you can proceed to explore and complete Tundaria Tower to the far south.

Background and Story
Aqua Rock is a giant mountain located southwest of the town on Apojii Islands, on the island named Aqua Island, and it can be reached by sailing. It does not have much historical context revealed about it in The Lost Age. It can be assumed that it, like Air's Rock, it has stood on Weyard since the world's beginning. It is full of water-spouting guardian statues named moai that block entrance to the mountain and test the visitor's adeptness to manipulating Mercury Psynergy, and at the mountain's core is a room containing a tablet laced with a Psynergy power usable only by a wielder of water's might, the Parch Psynergy which can be used to make pools of water effectively disappear and evaporate. It is merely speculation that Aqua Island's mechanisms were constructed in Weyard's ancient past to preserve Mercury Psynergy power within the mountain because the sealing of Alchemy in the ancient past meant the disappearance of almost all Psynergy, and the moai and puzzles were created to filter out potential visitors in the future so that the Parch Psynergy could be passed on to a true Mercury Adept in the modern age.

Much like Garoh with Air's Rock and Izumo with Gaia Rock, the residents of the town of Apojii Islands honor the sanctity of the nearby Aqua Rock. When the men of Apojii come of age, they go to Aqua Rock as a sort of rite of passage.

Description and Walkthrough
Aqua Rock is a major dungeon in The Lost Age. It takes a good deal of time and effort to complete. First, before you can even enter the mountain, you must cast Douse on the giant blue tear stone, hereby called an Aqua Stone, in the center of the nearby town on Apojii Islands. Then sail from the town around the islands counter-clockwise until you can land on a beach on the swirling island with Aqua Rock in its center. Like the other Elemental Mountains, the exterior and interior portions can be treated as separate areas.

Exterior
When you enter, an array of five moai will be in front of you, but if you have cast Douse on the stone in Apojii Islands, the moai will be pushed back, and you can explore the full area. This area involves cliffs that must be climbed carefully because of various intermittent waterfalls projected by pink moai on the top of the first exterior area. You should climb up to the top left area of the screen where two such pink moai and an earth pillar lie; use Move to push the pillar in front of the moai on the right so that its waterfall will be blocked. This will allow you to climb the cliff ladder to the right of that moai into the second screen of the exterior. Walk into the wider waterfall to your right and hold up and right so when you drop back down into the first area you will get to a chest containing a Nut. Drop down further that waterfall and climb down to an empty, grey moai. Cast Douse on it to turn it into a blue moai that spits out a constant waterfall stream. Use the thicker waterfall to your left to drop down one level, then use the new slim waterfall you created to the right to drop down into a new region that is half-submerged.

Make your way to an Aqua Stone that is to the upper right of this half-submerged area and cast Douse on it just like the similar stone at Apojii, and the waterfall behind it will reverse direction. Now go to the cliff ladder left of that. When you climb it, it forks. Climb the left fork to get to a chest containing an Elixir, then climb the right fork to get above the two pink moai that spit out waterfalls that make it challenging for you to climb these ladders. After pushing the earth pillar to the left, go to the reverse waterfall to the right and ride it to a third screen that is located to the right of the second screen you were in earlier.

Once in that third screen, use Move to push both blue stones to the right. They will help you cross the waterfall and let you get to a chest with an Oil Drop. Climb the ladder to the right of that waterfall, then climb the left ladder beyond that and cast Frost on three puddles before going back down to climb the right ladder that will put you on the top of Aqua Rock. The two frost pillars above that you made will lead you to a chest containing the powerful Mist Sabre while the frost pillar below leads you left to the second screen you were in earlier. Back in the second screen with the lake, cast Douse on the Aqua Stone to open up a portal in the lake below. Climb down to the lake and hop across its platforms and into the portal to be taken to the interior of Aqua Rock.

Interior
Now inside, go down and emerge from an exit where there's a Psynergy stone to your left. Hop over to the entrance to your right, go through it, and go through the immediate entrance beyond that. In the room beyond that, where there is a chest in view on top, use Move to position the two earth pillars so that you can hop across them to get to the chest which contains a Vial. Continue onward southeast and use Move on a pillar to move it in front of a green moai to empty a pool, then Frost the puddles to create ice pillars to reach the exit to the lower right. Continue onward to a fork; the bottom fork will lead to a dead-end with a chest containing Crystal Powder while the top fork will leave you to the right of an Aqua Stone. Douse that and take the new path to go through the exit to the room's upper left. In the next room, take the left fork and you'll be able to Move an earth pillar to the right, which will allow you to continue onward along the path right of that.

You will come to a room with a grey moai and an Aqua Stone. Move the yellow pillar one space right and one space down, cast Douse on the moai to fill the pool, and cast Douse on the tear stone to create a bridge connected by the pillars you just moved. You will now continue onward for quite a distance until you reach a hall with a waterfall flowing through the rocks on the floor. You will be able to get to the chest near the end of the fall by Moving the left of two earth pillars to the right, and the reward will be a Tear Stone. Continue and you will end up in a room with several entrances and exits along with two green moai. Exit this room through the leftmost door and use Douse on the moai in the next room to hop to the next room. In this latest room with a series of yellow hoppable platforms, go down into the exit southwest of your entrance.

You are now in a room featuring a Movable blue rock, a Frostable puddle, a chest out of reach, and a grey moai. To get to the chest, Frost the puddle, move the rock one space left, and douse the Moai to get to the chest's Water of Life. Leave and reenter the room, and do the same thing but with the rock moved two spaces to the left to get to the exit left of the moai. Continue onward and north after pushing an earth to the right. In the next room, push the earth pillar along its path to the circle on the ground, then hop across it to go through the stairs to the north. Continue onward by tightrope walking and platform hopping, and you should get to a room with a grey moai, an Aqua Stone, and many yellow pillars. To create a path to the exit, push the pillars around so that starting from the down-to-right pillar on the left of the room, a right-to-down pillar is four spaces to its right, then a down-to-right pillar is four spaces below that, then a right-to-up pillar is four spaces right of that, then an up-to-right pillar is four spaces above that, then a right-to-up pillar is four spaces right of that, and a final up-to-right pillar is four spaces north of that.

You are lead into an area with an earth pillar to your right waiting to be pushed into a gap. Go to the entrance to your immediate right and continue onward, where an easy-to-reach chest in the center of the hall reveals itself to be a Mimic that rewards you with a Potion once defeated. Continue and you'll pass a giant Psynergy stone, and head downward to reach an Aqua Stone. Douse that to create two bridges, and hop left to reach a chest containing Lucky Pepper. From this bridge you are able to hop onto the island in the center of the room where the chest at its pinnacle contains the key treasure, the Aquarius Stone. Head back to the bridge and travel along it in the opposite direction to go all the way around the giant room until you're at the lower-right end of it with two available exits south of you. Exit through the left one and in the next room which you already visited go through the central exit to the left of the right moai. A unique pedestal awaits, and you must place your Aquarius stone onto it to part the waters. Continue onward and you will come to a room with a textured slab. Interact with the slab and you will finally gain the dungeon's true treasure: Piers' Parch Psynergy. Use it to clear away the newly formed pool of water and leave the room.

With the Parch Psynergy in hand, you can acquire two more important treasures before you leave Aqua Rock. First, leave the way you came to the room with several exits and many yellow hoppable platforms and there is a pool of water below, with a submerged chest visible. Cast Parch here to remove the water and you will gain a Rusty Sword that can be reforged in Yallam into the Robber's Blade, a Mars-based long sword that is actually less powerful and desirable than the Mist Sabre found earlier. An exit to the exterior of Aqua Rock lies below that. Next, go back into the room's upper right exit, then go into the down-exit to the right of where you come out of, and follow the path to a room with a waterfall going along the ground. Climb the ladder to the right of that river and you will end up to the left of a green moai. Cast Parch on the moai's water supply to remove the river, and you will be able to battle Mercury Djinni Steam below. You should save before battling it and ready summon sequences to use them all at once, something that should be practiced with all wild Djinn. With all the dungeon's treasures acquired at this point, you can use the Retreat Psynergy twice to leave Aqua Rock.

Enemies
Aqua Rock has two bestiaries, a base bestiary for its exterior portion and an expanded one for its interior portion.

Enemy Formations
 * Group 1: Man o' War x1, Faery x0-1
 * Group 2: Roc, Faery x0-2
 * Group 3: Roc x1-2
 * Group 4: Virago x1, Faery x0-1
 * Group 5: Virago x1-2, Ghost Mage x0-1
 * Group 6: Sea Dragon x1, Lizard Fighter x1
 * Group 7: Sea Dragon x1, Roc x1
 * Group 8: Sea Dragon x1-2

Collectibles
The following can be collected in the exterior portion of Aqua Rock:

Nut: Found in a chest in the exterior portion. Elixir: Found in a chest in the exterior portion. Mist Saber: Found in a chest in the exterior portion. This is a very powerful weapon for when it can first be acquired. Oil Drop: Found in a chest in the exterior portion.

Whereas the following can be collected in the interior portion:

Parch: The ultimate reward of Aqua Rock, this Utility Psynergy spell is learned by Piers after examining a stone slab in the final room at the heart of Aqua Rock.

Mercury Djinni Steam: A Mercury Djinni that must be battled to be acquired.

Aquarius Stone: Found in a chest in the interior portion. This key item is used to clear the way to the dungeon's goal where the Parch Psynergy lies. Crystal Powder: Found in a chest in the interior portion. Lucky Pepper: Found in a chest in the interior portion. Rusty Sword: Found in a chest in the interior portion. This can be reforged in Yallam into the Robber's Blade. This fire-based long sword, however, is not considered all that great even when you can first find it. Tear Stone: Found in a chest in the interior portion. Vial: Found in a chest in the interior portion. Water of Life: Found in a chest in the interior portion.

Trivia

 * Aqua Rock is likely based off of Cerro Azul, one of the most active volcanoes in the Galápagos Islands. Cerro Azul means "Blue Hill," likely the reference of Aqua Rock being blue; furthermore, it is an ultra prominent peak within the Galapágos islands relative in location to where Aqua Rock is within the Apojii Islands, which are known as Galapas Islands in Japan (including one missed translation in the English version, where a citizen of Apojii calls the village Garapas).

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