Raiders of Maraqua: All You Need to Know

Introduction and Basics:

In this game, you act as Karpoh the Koi. It’s your job to navigate through Maraqua and find the treasure. To complete each level, you’ll have to push the treasure into the chest. The treasure can either be a blue gem or gold coin. Both are worth 5 points once they’re sent to the treasure chest.

Sounds easy so far, right? You’re not the only one here—there are guardians too! They’re both good and bad. Pushing bubbles (will be explained more later) into them will earn you points, but if they get too close, you’ll lose a life. They don’t disappear once you push a bubble into one, though. Each level has a certain number of guardians, and a few seconds after you push a bubble into one, a new guardian will appear in a light or dark bubble (also explained later).

Let’s look at the game screen. Your score is on the upper left, and slightly diagonal from that is the restart level option. Now, you may be wondering why restarting the level might be necessary. You’re not the only one who can push bubbles, guardians can too! Sometimes, the guardians will push away a bubble you need in order to complete the level, or appear in a bubble that you have use for. In that case, you can either find an alternative path for the treasure, if possible, or restart the level. On the right of the game screen, you’ll see several Koi. These are your lives, starting out with five. When there are no Koi in the oval, that’s your last life. Although there are only four Koi, it’s actually five lives.

Getting a high score seems to be a hard task, but there are bonuses to help you along the way. The small diamond gold pieces are worth 5 points, and sometimes there will be quite a few in a level! Red crosses may appear as well, and these—you guessed it—mean an extra life. If you have all your lives when you get one, a new Koi won’t appear, but no worries. It still counts, there’s just no option to show more than four Koi lives.

If those don’t seem like enough help, there’s something else. When you push a bubble into a guardian, sometimes a floating 10 will appear. These are bubbles with the number “10” in the middle that will float across the screen. They’re worth 5 times the level you’re on. In the first few levels they might not seem significant, but later these are what will boost your score! You can’t guarantee a floating 10 each time you push bubbles into the guardians, so keep pushing bubbles to cause as many to appear as you can. Try to get every one! Once they float off the screen, they’re not coming back.

Now, let’s talk about the bubbles. There are light ones and dark ones. Both can be pushed, but only light bubbles can be popped by Karpoh and the guardians. There’s something else—rocks. Rocks will pop both kinds of bubbles and any guardians in its path, once you push it a certain direction. Remember that you can’t push a bubble or rock if there’s something in front of it, so make sure you’re not blocking the path. Push as many bubbles into the guardians as you can; each trapped guardian is 5 points. However, if the same bubble traps two guardians, the first is worth 5 and the second worth 10! After a certain number of bubbles pushed into guardians on each level, you’ll stop receiving points. You can either push the treasure into the chest to finish the level, or continue to push bubbles into guardians in hopes of getting floating 10s.

In the later levels, I would suggest spending more time, pushing as many bubbles as you can. For each level, make sure you look at the treasure first! Create the path needed so that all you need to do—once you get the points you want—is push the treasure in. If you leave the treasure at its starting point, those pesky guardians have time to mess up your path. If there’s more than one treasure, push all but one in before going after bonuses and pushing bubbles into guardians. This is very important, because without pushing all the treasure in, you’re stuck on the same level!

There are several guardians: Jetsams, Slorgs, Ghoti, and a Mutant Koi. The Mutant Koi moves at a slow pace, but it has another use as well. It will create new bubbles, so let it stay for a while if you’re in need of some bubbles. For one, it may help with creating a path for the treasure. Secondly, more bubbles mean more to push into guardians, therefore the chance for more floating 10s! Ah yes—there is no need to lose a life because a guardian was too close. Don’t rush; don’t be in such a hurry. If a guardian is coming towards you and you’re scrambling to find a bubble to push, just back away for a bit. Find a bubble and when the guardian comes again, you’re ready.

Now that you have an understanding of the game, let’s go through the first five levels—that should give you a good start.

Level One:

You see that light bubble to the left of the first treasure? Well, keep an eye on that. Push the dark blue bubble out of the way, and then push the first treasure in, easy as that! Go towards the second treasure, popping any bubbles in the way. Push it left, so that it’s in the same spot the first treasure was in. Push it up into the chest.

Level Two:

Ignore the treasure to the left for now; go towards the treasure chest. Push the rock diagonal from it to the right. Push the dark bubble next to the treasure up, and then push the treasure in. See those three bubbles sitting at the top? Pop the light bubble that’s underneath the dark one. Go back to the first treasure, and push it right. It should be easy from there.

Level Three:

Head towards the treasure chest, popping any bubbles in the way. Once you get there, there are two rocks. Push the one on the right to the right. Don’t push the first treasure in, and go towards the second one. Pop or push any bubbles in the way, then push the second treasure left so that it’s next to the first one. Now you can push the first one in. Push the second one up and left, then into the treasure chest.

Level Four:

No guardians on this level, yay! Push the treasure right, down, right, down. Now, go back to push the light bubble up. Keep going, but do not push the rock! Once you circle around, push the treasure left, up, and left into the chest. As for the second treasure, push it down, left, up, and left.

Level Five:

This is an easy level. First treasure goes right and the second one goes up.

Of course, you should be getting as many points as you can before pushing the treasure in. I hope that gives you a good start! Raiders of Maraqua is a fun game once you get the hang of it, and soon you could be sporting the avatar too, or even a trophy. :)