How to Become a Raiders of Maraqua Master!

Of course, the Raiders of Maraqua avatar has been out for quite a while now, but with the new Maraqua plot (go Maraqua!!), what better way to show your support for the watery world? Of course you could go out and buy a Maraquan Paint Brush and paint your pet, but then, that is rather costly. So hopefully with this guide you’ll be scoring well over the 800 required points to earn your Raiders of Maraqua avatar (and then you’ll be able to save those neopoints to buy ME a Maraquan Paint Brush *cough cough* I mean buy food for your pet).

Starting first with the basics: the aim of Raiders of Maraqua is to collect all the treasures without getting attacked by the various swimming foes. You control Karpoh the Koi by using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Pressing the space bar will either pop the bubble in front of you or send it swimming through water till it hits the wall or other bubbles. You can also push your treasure in the same fashion.

The Bubbles:

The light blue bubbles can be pushed or popped, the dark blue bubbles can be pushed, not popped, and the brown, not a bubble at all but a rock, can not be popped, but pushed, and it will destroy all other bubbles in its path. And lastly there are the non-movable objects: those purple things that don’t move.

The Enemies:

There are four kinds of enemies: the sea slorg, the red stingray, the red shark, and the brown bubble maker. The sea slorgs are, in my opinions, the most annoying. They like to follow you around everywhere! The red stingray seems to like to pop bubbles, and the red shark seems to like to push bubbles. The only possibly good enemy is the bubble maker. He (or she, you never know) will make bubbles appear. These light blue bubbles can be extraordinarily helpful, especial when they help you deliver the treasure to the treasure chests. All the enemies appear from the bubbles, and which sea creature appears is random. If you can hit them with any bubble or rock, you get 5 points. If you can hit two enemies in a row with the same bubble, you get 5 points for the first one, and 10 points for the second one, and so forth and so on. But don’t think you can camp out on level one and just shoot bubbles at anything that moves. After a while, normally after you kill three or five, for 15/25 points, I can’t figure out which it is, they stop giving points. (Just keeping pushing bubbles at the enemies till you stop gaining points). If one enemy kills another, (I told you they weren’t all that smart) you earn 1 point.

The Treasure:

The treasure! Without it, this would be a very boring game indeed. There are two types, one that’s gray and looks like a diamond, and another that is gold, and looks like a plate with a fancy, “M” on it. However, they are both worth the same 5 points when you push them into the treasure chest. There are also gold nuggets that appear randomly on levels, which are worth 5 points each. To collect them, all you need to do is to touch them. (Apparently little Karpoh carries them in his mouth for the rest of the game, yummy). There are also random point bubbles that start at the bottom of the screen and float upwards that you can catch for an extra 10 points. The last “treasure”, which is the best item, is a red cross, which gives you an extra life. If you already have 4 lives, it does nothing. Unfortunately, the extra lives are extraordinarily rare. I seem to find one every four games.

The Levels:

There are actually two types of levels, the “Watch out for flying bubbles, scary sea slorgs and way too fast moving red things” or simply battle levels/normal levels. On the battle levels, make sure you kill all the creatures you can! You will need these points in order to get the avatar or a trophy.

The second type of level is the “Slow and steady, make sure you know what you are doing so you don’t get stuck with no way to get your treasure to the chests since no brown bubble makers will be helping you out this time,” or simply puzzle levels. You have to think about how each treasure will make it to chest. Since the game is not timed, and no bad guys will show up, don’t feel bad about staring at the screen for half an hour (unless of course your little brother needs to do their homework or something).

And now a basic run-down of the levels, I won’t tell you exactly what to do on each stage, since that is half the fun! But I will give you some pointers:

Levels 1, 2 and 3 are easy. The only bad thing here is that often you must wait for an enemy to show up. But be patient! These points are critical.

Level 4 is your first puzzle. No enemies will appear, so you can take your time and think about it. Remember; never push your treasures against the wall, since you can’t push them back to the center. I also find that gold nuggets appear on this round, which I would suggest getting before you push your treasure around too much, since they stop the flow of moving objects and may prevent you from completing the round.

More of the same on levels 5 and 6. You have to work fast on level 7, though. Push both treasures over the left quick, before some pestering stingray pops your bubbles or some shark hits them against the wall. It’s hard to complete the level if they do. Store one of the diamonds (or gold plates) in the chest, and position the other so it can only be pushed in the trunk. Only then venture out to try sending some slugs to a better place.

Luck plays a role in level 8. Just hope that a slorg doesn’t pop into one of the 4 bubbles closest to the treasure, or if he does, he doesn’t knock them around too much. You might have to restart this round if that happens. But if you discover that you can’t complete the level since you don’t have enough bubbles, see if you can kill the sea slorgs first. They will be worth 5 points each, remember?

The first thing you do on level 9 is to go the far left side of the screen and clear out all the light blue bubbles under the dark blue bubble, so that the dark one has a clear path. This stops you from getting trapped when you go after the northernmost bubble.

Levels 10-14 are some more bubble-filled, non-puzzle levels. Watch out for all the dark blue bubbles on 12; you can get trapped easily. And watch where you're shooting the rocks on 14, you might need some of those bubbles.

Level 15 starts a set of puzzle levels. Most of these are easy to figure out if you take the time. No enemies will appear till level 19, so just relax. (This is also a good time to go the bathroom, or let the dog in since you can leave the game to sit for a while). On 15, push the left rock first so it doesn’t get in your way. Level 16 contains 5 treasures, and often holds a few gold nuggets. To get some fast points, push 4 of them into your chest and restart the round. You get 20 points each time. On level 17 remember that the rocks will smash through the blue bubbles. Think about the path your bubbles and treasures will follow on level 18. If you need to, think backward starting at the chest. The worst thing that can happen on these rounds would be a gold nugget appearing close to a treasure or bubble, preventing you from moving it. Thus causing you to restart the level, and you don’t even get the points for the gold nugget since you couldn’t reach it!

Level 19 is very hard, there are always at least 4 monsters roaming the seafloor, popping and pushing bubbles and rocks all over the place. And as if that is not enough, the treasure and treasure chest’s positions don’t make for easy gathering. You’ll need a lot of bubbles just to take two of your prized possessions home to the chest. Hope that you’ll get one of those bubble-makers, and if you do, DON’T KILL IT. Good luck! Good news is that you don’t need to complete this level to get the avatar. If you were lucky in earlier rounds, and picked up many gold nuggets and floating 10-point bubbles you should have 800 points about now. If not, remember to kill all the sea creatures you can!

Level 20. I can’t say that I’ve gotten to this level, that’s how hard level 19 is. But what I hear is that level 20 is the last level, with no treasure on it. Your only object is to hit anything that moves with bubbles for extra points.

Quick tips:

1. Never push your treasure up against the sides of the puzzle. There is no way to pull them back, and they will be stuck there.

2. If you realized that you messed up by pushing your treasure against the wall (or if some sea slorg did it for you), then you're going to have to reset the level. But before you do collect as many points as possible. By this I mean collect any other treasure, and kill as many sea creatures as you can get points for.

3. Be patient! There is no time limit, so just go slow. If you are still having trouble with the puzzle levels, trace the path you want your treasure to go, then figure out what needs to be moved in order to get it there.

Well I hope this article helps you to get a higher score at Raiders of Maraqua! I myself am already prepared for the plot (thanks TNT, I LOVE Maraqua) and looking forward to it, and I hope you are too!