Aqua Rock
Aqua Rock (アクアロック, Aqua Rock) is a dungeon-like location in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Located near the visited settlement at Apojii Islands in the east end of the world, it functions as one of the earliest "mainline" dungeons the player's party should clear when they first gain access to the large and non-linear Eastern Sea segment of the game with the Lemurian Ship. Similar to the other three "Elemental Rock" dungeons, the ultimate reward for completing it is that the Mercury Adept Piers will be taught the Parch Utility Psynergy, which will unlock the Tundaria Tower dungeon at the south edge of the world.
Walkthrough
Aqua Rock is a major and mandatory dungeon in The Lost Age, though it is somewhat less drawn-out than the notorious Air's Rock earlier in the game. As one of the Elemental Rocks, this amounts to a prolonged test of the party's puzzle-solving ability that will eventually reward one of your party members with newfound innate knowledge of a Utility Psynergy that is vitally important for progressing through the remainder of the game's puzzles and environments.
If you enter Aqua Rock right away, a set of five water-spouting moai will block you from going further. However, you can immediately solve this issue by casting Douse on the giant blue tear-shaped "Aqua Stone" situated in the nearby village referred to as Apojii Islands on the world map. From there, reaching Aqua Rock on its separate island will require sailing counter-clockwise around the island until you can land on its southeast beach.
Exterior climb
Once you have cast Douse on the Aqua Stone at Apojii Islands, the five green water-spouting moai that previously blocked your entrance will have moved aside. Follow along until you climb up a ladder, where small waterfall streams will regularly disappear at both your left and your right. You can cross these streams without falling off the cliff by pressing diagonally upward while running through them. It is possible to enter the bottom of the interior portion by walking through the cave wall covered by a thick waterfall just southeast of your position, but you cannot do anything there yet.
Climb up the cliff ladders closest to the left edge of the screen, timing your motions so that you do not make contact with the disappearing and reappearing waterfall streams partially covering them, until you reach the very top-left corner of the first exterior screen. Here, you will see that the disappearing streams are being projected by pink moai, and your objective is to push the earth pillar from the left pink moai's area right in front of the mouth of the right pink moai, stopping its stream. There is only a dead-end waiting if you climb up to the top exterior screen, between the two pink moai, so drop back down to the wider yellow cliff surface just underneath them.
With there no longer being a disappearing and reappearing stream to your right, you can now climb up the right cliff ladder. The chest to your right, past a three-tile-wide waterfall, contains a Nut; getting to this requires climbing up to the upper exterior screen and falling off the right waterfall so that you land near the chest and can run diagonally upward toward it. Regardless, falling off the waterfall near the chest is mandatory and will let you climb down to a gray, inactive moai. Cast Douse to turn it blue and make it spout a new waterfall stream. Drop down the thick waterfall to your left so you can then use the new stream to drop further down, reaching the southeast, partially submerged part of the area.
The top part of the southeast, partially submerged "mini-maze" branches east and west; taking the east/north branch brings you to an Aqua Stone that you must cast Douse on like in Apojii Islands, which will magically reverse the gravitational orientation of the waterfall behind it. Now take the other branch west to a cliff ladder that branches between two routes that get regularly intruded on by disappearing waterfall streams. The left branch will lead to a chest with only an Elixir; since you likely will not care about that, only bother with the right branch of the cliff ladders. Once you climb past the pair of pink moai responsible for these waterfall streams, you can head west to push an earth pillar to a gray tile to the left of it to create a retroactive shortcut if you wish. The important thing here is to step onto the upward-flowing, magic-tinged river to your upper right and ride the "waterrise" up to the upper screen of the exterior portion.
At the east screen of the two parallel screens that compose the upper level of the exterior, cross the upward-flowing river and cast Move to place both dark-blue rocks onto their respective gray tiles. This will let you run across the downward-flowing river using the lower rock, position yourself at the upper-right corner of the river, and press diagonally upward as you run back west to brush up against the upper blue rock. This will give you an Oil Drop in a chest.
Climb up to where there is a branch where you can climb short wall ladders either left or right. Climb up the left cliff ladder and cast Frost on all three of the stray water puddles to turn them into ice pillars. That way, when you climb up the right cliff ladder and navigate the maze of rocks, you can hop across the upper two ice pillars to the chest containing the powerful Mist Sabre, then hop across the lower ice pillar. Do not drop down the small cliff slide immediately below you; instead, climb down the cliff ladder left of that and follow along into the left of the upper two exterior screens. Cast Douse on the Aqua Stone, climb down to the lake, and hop across the square tiles in the water to hop into the water portal created by the Aqua Stone.
Interior exploration
As you step into a "watery crossroads", pick up the Psynergy Stone to your left. Hop onto the yellow tiles to your right to take the upper-right exit out and continue north to a puzzle room with earth pillars and steam vents. Cast Move to remotely shift both pillars in front of the steam vents; if you want the upper-left chest with a Vial, you will then have to use Move to shift the left pillar further right, then remotely shift the right pillar further left while standing to the right of the right steam vent.
Continue southeast to a shallow lake with a bright-green moai to your right and remotely Move the earth pillar in front of it to drain the lake, and use Frost to turn all three shallow puddles underneath into ice pillars and then hop across them to exit southeast. Follow along to a branch leading north and south; if you want a chest with a Crystal Powder, follow along the lower branch until you get it before taking the upper branch. Follow along with that until you can hop to an Aqua Stone and cast Douse on it, which will create a magical bridge leading you northwest to the exit west of your start point.
As you head northwest, take the left branch and hop across isolated yellow tiles until you stand to the left of a pair of steam vents surrounding an earth pillar. Remotely move the earth pillar in front of the right steam vent, let the left vent push you down, and hop over to go north past the earth pillar. You will soon reach a stand-alone puzzle room where the objective is to reach the elevated exit at the east end. Push the "south-and-east" yellow pillar one tile south and east each to line it up with the others, then cast Douse on the gray moai to turn it blue and fill the chamber with water, then cast Douse on the Aqua Stone to create a magic bridge that makes use of where you had moved the yellow pillar.
Follow along with a rather long, winding, linear route through several screens of the dungeon, and you will eventually reach an area far to the southwest with a thick, light-blue river flowing across the ground through a maze of small rocks. From the upper-left corner of where this river begins just left of the exit you came out of, run left to the other side of the rushing river and hug the left edge of the screen. The chest visible to your right just before you climb down a wall ladder contains a potentially valuable Tear Stone, so drop into the one-tile space just two tiles left of the left earth pillar and remotely Move it one tile right. Now run east into the water above the earth pillars so that you get pushed by the river onto the top of the left earth pillar, letting you hop to the chest.
Once you head downstairs, you will enter what can be called the "bottom crossroads" of the dungeon, with a light-green moai to your left and yellow platforms in the water near you to your bottom right. Despite how much map space the two upward exits right of the stairwell you just came out of will allow you to explore, there is nothing of value you can do there yet, so take the leftmost exit from the bottom crossroads. Cast Douse on the gray moai to fill the lake and raise a series of yellow floating tiles, and hop across them to go north.
You will be in a watery chamber where an earth pillar just above three yellow tiles will prevent you from going further north the short way, so head southwest into another puzzle room involving a gray moai you can turn blue with Douse. The blue stone can be moved onto any of the three yellow tiles underneath it so that the tile underneath it will be weighed down as the water level rises. The upper-left corner's chest contains a valuable Water of Life, so move the blue stone onto the center tile and cast Frost on the stray puddle before filling the room with water; this will create a trail of hoppable platforms leading to the chest. Exit and reenter the room to perform a puzzle reset, and move the blue stone onto the left of the three tiles before filling the room with water so that you can head out the exit north.
Proceed northeast into the chamber with the earth pillar you saw a short time earlier and move it two tiles to the right, head further north, slot another earth pillar into its recess northwest of it, and climb up the northwest stairs. Follow along across a tightrope and hop south across a set of yellow platforms to reach one more moai-and-water puzzle room, which is a large-scale version of a much earlier puzzle with yellow pillars. Move the left "south-and-east" pillar far to the northeast corner of the white outline denoting the movable space, then move the "west-and-south" pillar that was right of that pillar two tiles left. Move the "west-and-north" pillar southwest so that it is four tiles right of the southwest "north-and-east" pillar. All the pillars should be evenly spaced apart, so fill the room with water and cast Douse on the Aqua Stone to create the magic bridge leading to the northeast exit.
Once you head back downstairs, push the earth pillar into the gap to its right and hop across it to take the exit just right of that, and follow along north through the somewhat jumbled layout of water and platforms; the chest at the north end here will reveal itself to be a Mimic that will drop a Potion when felled. Follow along through a purple crystal-covered room, where a giant Psynergy Stone in the center will freely restore your PP, and head south into the "giant core chamber."
In the giant core chamber, cast Douse on the Aqua Stone underneath you, then hop left to get a Lucky Pepper at the northwest corner. Either of the newly generated magic bridges will let you hop onto the central structure and reach its elevated chest containing the Aquarius Stone key item. With it in hand, return to the east side of the core chamber and travel all the way south until you can take the left of two southbound exits back into the "bottom crossroads", and hop through the center-north exit to reach the pedestal at the south end of the core chamber. Use the Aquarius Stone on the pedestal to make the water magically part and let you enter the final chamber, where inspecting the gray tablet will permanently teach Piers the Parch Psynergy. Use it on the water that has just filled up to remove it and head back out.
Return to the bottom crossroads and cast Parch on the shallow pool at its north end to empty the pool and reach the chest with the Rusty Sword, which will be reforged into the rather unimpressive Robber's Blade back at Yallam. Now head out the northeast exit, then head through the southeast exit right next to you, and follow along east and north to an area with a wide river flowing through rocks; far at the north edge of this river is the Mercury Djinni Steam, which stands at the base of the waterfall being produced by a light-green moai head. Climb up the wall ladder right of this river and position yourself next to the watery top of the green moai, and cast Parch to remove its ability to produce water and remove the river. You can now climb down and walk up to Steam to battle it and add it to your collection. This is the last collectable of significance from Aqua Rock, so you can now cast Retreat, return to the exterior portion of the dungeon, and cast Retreat again to leave Aqua Rock.
Enemies
Aqua Rock's exterior portion features a bestiary that exists in an expanded form throughout its interior portion.
| Bestiary of Aqua Rock (Exterior) | ||||||||||
| Monster Name | LVL | HP | ATK | DEF | AGI | EXP | Coins | Weakness | Drop | Drop Rate |
| Faery | 23 | 105 | 182 | 46 | 150 | 172 | 175 | 
|
 Nut
|
1/4 |
| Man o' War | 24 | 137 | 193 | 42 | 70 | 55 | 87 | 
|
 Antidote
|
1/32 |
| Roc | 24 | 245 | 214 | 50 | 116 | 238 | 193 |
|
 Vial
|
1/16 |
| Virago | 24 | 185 | 199 | 47 | 89 | 87 | 120 |
|
 Elixir
|
1/16 |
| Bestiary of Aqua Rock (Interior) | ||||||||||
| Monster Name | LVL | HP | ATK | DEF | AGI | EXP | Coins | Weakness | Drop | Drop Rate |
| Faery | 23 | 105 | 182 | 46 | 150 | 172 | 175 |
|
Nut
|
1/4 |
| Lizard Fighter | 24 | 212 | 204 | 61 | 60 | 89 | 124 |
|
Nut
|
1/16 |
| Man o' War | 24 | 137 | 193 | 42 | 70 | 55 | 87 |
|
Antidote
|
1/32 |
| Roc | 24 | 245 | 214 | 50 | 116 | 238 | 193 |
|
Vial
|
1/16 |
| Sea Dragon | 24 | 270 | 231 | 68 | 90 | 257 | 194 |
|
 Unicorn Ring
|
1/64 |
| Virago | 24 | 185 | 199 | 47 | 89 | 87 | 120 |
|
Elixir
|
1/16 |
| Mercury Djinni (Steam) (unique) | 24 | 620 | 192 | 54 | 159 | 571 | 457 |
|
N/A | |
| Mimic (unique) | 27 | 676 | 240 | 66 | 145 | 760 | 531 |
|
 Potion
|
1/1 |
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
Collectables
Exterior portion:
Nut: Found in a chest in the exterior portion.
Elixir: Found in a chest in the exterior portion.
Mist Sabre: 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.
Interior portion:
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.
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.
The following can be collected roughly all at once at the end of the dungeon's interior segment:
Parch: The final reward at the end of Aqua Rock, this Utility Psynergy spell is learned by Piers after examining a stone slab in the final chamber at the heart of Aqua Rock.
Rusty Sword: Found in a chest at the bottom of the interior portion, submerged in a pond that must be removed with Parch. This can be reforged in Yallam into the Robber's Blade.
Mercury Djinni Steam: A Mercury Djinni that must be reached using Parch and then battled to be acquired.
History
Aqua Rock is a giant mountain located southwest of the village on the Apojii Islands that lie at the east edge of the world of Weyard. It is situated in the center of its own island, referred to as Aqua Island by the village locals, and it can be reached by sailing. The game reveals little historical context about it, and its relevance in the world's ancient past can only be speculated on. In the present, the villagers of Apojii honor its sanctity, and when the men of Apojii come of age, they make a pilgrimage of some sort to Aqua Island.
Since the similar Air's Rock is described in folklore elsewhere as having stood since the world's beginning, similar origins can be presumed for Aqua Rock. Like the other three Elemental Rocks, it is full of statues that emit the element reflected in the mountain's in-game name. In Aqua Rock's case, the villagers refer to these "guardian statues" as "moai" and can only speculate on what they could be guarding.
In The Lost Age, Felix and his traveling party of Adepts visit Aqua Rock and use Piers' Mercury Psynergy to explore it in an implied bid to expand their prowess with all types of Psynergy, which would be useful in their quest to eventually reach and light the remaining Elemental Lighthouses of Jupiter and Mars. When they reach the final tablet, they read the following engraved message:
- Wielder of Water's strength... Lay your hands upon this stone.
- If th'art worthy, the power to drain away the standing water shall be yours.
Piers agrees that he would fit the description and follows the instructions, and he is imbued with the Parch Psynergy, letting him evaporate the pool the chamber immediately fills with water to momentarily trap him and Felix.
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).
The half-submerged ground level at the base of the mountain.
A giant Psynergy Stone in the basement of Aqua Rock.
