The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human: Complete Guide

Read this map like a chess board. All item and boss locations use this system.

For example, The Worm is in square A2, as it is in column “A,” and row 2.

Upgrades will be presented here in their order of availability. Although as you progress there is more flexibility in terms of which bosses can be done at any given time – and therefore crates available can vary for players after a certain number of bosses defeated – this guide will use the following boss order:

Worm
Fathers
Forgotten One
Parasite
Tranquil
False Light
Chain Gang
Defiler
Experiment
Heart of the City

I will also be referring back to the map at the beginning of this guide so readers can easily navigate to upgrade locations.

Weapon 1: Lower Harpoon
Requirements: Defeat the Worm
Location: B2

Repair Speed 1
Requirements: None
Location: D2
*Secret passageway on the right wall, 1 wall tile above the lip with an atom item on it.

Hull Strength 1
Requirements: None
Location: D1

Hull Strength 2
Requirements: None
Location: D4

Hull Strength 3
Requirements: None
Location: E4

Weapon 2: Saw
Requirements: Defeat The Fathers
Location: E5

Upgrade 1: Engine (overcome strong currents)
Requirements: Saw
Location: E3
*Saw through vine securing floating bomb urchin and access via broken rock wall

Harpoon Charge Speed 1
Requirements: Saw
Location: D3

Repair Speed 2
Requirements: Saw
Location: E3

Harpoon Charge Speed 2
Requirements: Saw
Location: F3

Harpoon Charge Speed 3
Requirements: Saw
Location: F4

Harpoon Charge Speed 4
Requirements: Saw
Location: D5

Upgrade 2: Jet Thruster
Requirements: Defeat the Forgotten One (saw preferred)
Location: C6

Hull Strength 4
Requirements: Jet Thruster
Location: C6
*Secret passageway accessible from C6 (boss arena or bottom left of entryway)

Repair Speed 3
Requirements: Jet Thruster
Location: D6

Harpoon Charge Speed 5
Requirements: Jet Thruster
Location: C4

Repair Speed 4
Requirements: Jet Thruster
Location: F5

Hull Strength 5
Requirements: Saw, Engine Upgrade or Jet Thruster*
Location: F6
*Accessible without Jet Thruster after the Parasite is defeated

Hull Strength 6, Harpoon Charge Speed 6, Repair Speed 5
Requirements: Defeat the Parasite (Jet Thruster preferred)
Location: D7

Upgrade 3: Triple Harpoon
Requirements: Saw, Jet Thruster*
Location: F7
*Secret entrance in the bottom right of F7 (saw through vines). Accessible without Jet Thruster after the Parasite is defeated

Upgrade 4: Shield
Requirements: Defeat the Tranquil (Jet Thruster preferred)
Location: G4

Hull Strength 7
Requirements: Defeat the Tranquil or Saw, Jet Thruster, Upper Harpoon
Location: H5

Hull Strength 8
Requirements: Defeat the Tranquil or Saw, Jet Thruster, Upper Harpoon
Location: I5
*Secret passage in nook above holo-tape

Hull Strength 9
Requirements: Defeat the Tranquil or Saw, Jet Thruster, Upper Harpoon
Location: I5
*Hidden in empty shell on the far right of the main floor

Hull Strength 10
Requirements: Defeat the Tranquil or Saw, Jet Thruster, Upper Harpoon
Location: I6
*Secret passage on the bottom right

Upgrade 5: Lamp
Requirements: Defeat the False Light
Location: I7

Weapon 3: Upper Harpoon
Requirements: Defeat the Chain Gang (Lamp, Jet Thruster, Shield, Triple Harpoon preferred)
Location: G5

Weapon 4: Torpedo
Requirements: Defeat the Defiler
Location: E6

Upgrade 6: Extra Jet Thruster Charge
Requirements: Torpedo, Jet Thruster
Location: C5

Upgrade 7: Spotlight
Requirements: Torpedo
Location: C5
*Secret passage on the right side below the Eastern hallway

Harpoon Charge Speed 7
Requirements: Saw, Jet Thruster, Torpedo
Location: B5
*Secret passage in upper nook

Repair Speed 6
Requirements: Torpedo
Location: I4

Repair Speed 7
Requirements: Torpedo
Location: I6
*Secret passageway in the nook underneath the save station

Upgrade 8: Drone Part 1
Requirements: Defeat the Experiment
Location: C3

Upgrade 9: Drone Part 2
Requirements: Defeat the Heart of the City
Location: B6

Upgrade 10: Map
Requirements: Drone Parts 1 & 2
Location: B4

Upgrade 11: Drone Shield
Requirements: Drone Parts 1 & 2
Location: A4
*Secret passageway at far left (hanging wires mark the door). Destroy the floating heads with your torpedo and the upgrade will float into view

Below are the locations and transcripts for all 39 Holo-Tapes. Use the map at the beginning of this guide as a reference. Transcripts will be posted in a later update.

1. Location: B2

2. Location: B2

3. Location: B2

4. Location: B2

5. Location: D1

6. Location: D3

7. Location: E3

8. Location: D4

9. Location: E4

10. Location: C4

11. Location: C4

12. Location: D5

13. Location: D5

14. Location: D5

15. Location: D6

16. Location: D6

17. Location: D6

18. Location: C6

19. Location: F3

20. Location: F4

21. Location: F5

22. Location: F5

23. Location: I4

24. Location: I4

25. Location: I6

26. Location: I7

27. Location: I7

28. Location: F6

29. Location: F6

30. Location: E6

31. Location: H5

32. Location: C3

33. Location: C3

34. Location: C5

35. Location: C5

36. Location: B5

37. Location: B5

38. Location: B5

39. Location: B5

Attacks
1. Straight up or down
2. “Sewing” the ground top or bottom
3. Charge
4. Baby vomit

There’s no rush and you have only a little health, so take pot shots when you can. He will always roar before the charge attack and can be kept at bay with a harpoon to the face. Sometimes during his baby vomit attack he will leave enough room to navigate around him, enabling you to get a lot of shots in. If you can’t get around him or don’t want to risk it, just dodge the babies or shoot any that come near you with your harpoon. The battle is almost over when he stays on the left side of the tunnel. Just head over and shoot him until he’s dead.

Reward: Lower Harpoon

Attacks
1. Regular baby vomit
2. Torpedo baby vomit
3. Current charge

Patience is the key here. Try to stay above them, as at this point you can only shoot downward. Both fathers will be regularly expelling pastel-colored baby seahorses into the arena. Though they don’t do a lot of damage on their own, they travel in a school and can significantly hurt you if you don’t stay away from them. The torpedo baby vomit is a directional, ranged attack with blinking babies. These do much more damage and can instakill you if you get caught in the middle of a blast. Maintain a “S” shaped movement pattern above one of the fathers and you should be able to dodge the vast majority of these attacks. The current charge is telegraphed by a father briefly curling up his tail toward his body. If caught in the current, you will be swept toward the sides of the arena – where giant razor clams are waiting for you – so do your best to avoid them. Note that if you follow the basic strategy already outlined here, you should never have to worry about the current charge attack.

Although both Fathers share the health bar, you will end up killing one first. My recommendation is to stick with whichever side of the arena you feel most comfortable with and target the Father on that side as much as possible. With one out of the way the remaining Father’s attack angles won’t be as difficult to manage.

Reward: Saw

Attacks
1. Series of charges
2. Bone projectiles
3. Suction
4. Spinning charge
5. Noxious homing gas

Just like with the Fathers, do your best to stay above him so you can shoot downward regularly. While avoiding the random puffs of noxious gas the boss secretes (they will quickly kill you if you accidentally hang out in one), try to keep above his tail so you have space to get out of the way when he turns around or starts charging. The saw will allow you to greatly mitigate the Forgotten One’s healing abilities.

He will commonly charge you 2-3 times, each time resetting his direction to where you are, so keep moving around him to avoid this attack. He randomly expels bone projectiles which cause damage if they hit you and leave behind toxic waste when destroyed. The easiest way to avoid damage is to move parallel to them as you destroy them. Once the boss has reached low enough health, this attack will happen more frequently and, when coupled with his suction move, can restore massive amounts of health. I recommend you take time to remove bones when able. The suction attack is forward facing; however, the main goal of this move is to bring the expelled bones back to the body.

The spinning charge attack is the rarest the boss will employ, and it’s him spinning around and then charging in a relatively upward fashion. It’s best to steer very clear of him when he does this. Finally, at 1/3, the boss will start concentrating his rotten flesh into a player-seeking cloud of noxious gas. It lumbers toward you slowly, so is easy to avoid, but creates more passive gas pockets as it moves and emits extending paths of diluted gas around it. You won’t be able to damage the boss during this attack, so take the opportunity to remove some bones.

Reward: Thrust

Attacks
1. Homing
2. Divide

The Parasite is about as straight forward as it gets. While fully formed he actively targets the player, attempting to eat you. After a few seconds of that, he will divide multiple times into a flurry of small parasites moving around the arena; however, these do not seem to actively target the player in the same way. Once the Parasite has fully divided, the pieces will shoot around for a little while before coalescing back into the fully formed boss to start the process again. The easiest way to address this fight is to shoot him in the face while he is chasing you and then focus on dodging the smaller parasites, getting shots off if you can, but prioritizing the dodge. The reason this fight is listed in this spot is because the thrust ability will greatly aid your ability to stay healthy. Once the Parasite starts coalescing again, fire as many harpoons as you can into the forming mound of his body. You should be able to kill him in 3-4 cycles this way.

Reward: 3 upgrade crates

Attacks

1. Tentacle Movement
2. Roar

The Tranquil is a fairly neutral boss that you can beat by simply working around. I recommend having the thruster engine for this fight; however, you can defeat this boss before getting it. Attack the tentacle joints until they appear ragged and then use the saw to hack off both the ruined segment and any segments blow it (e.g. if you saw through a ragged joint three segments up, the first two will detach as well, even if healthy). Once you can safely do so, attack the Tranquil’s eye until it releases ink and then switch to the mouth.

At half health the Tranquil will use its remaining four tentacles and get angry. The tentacles will move more quickly and the Tranquil will periodically roar, causing rocks to dislodge from the ceiling while it extends some of its tentacles outward. Repeat the above steps to defeat the Tranquil.

Reward: Shield

Attacks

1. Hide and Seek
2. Fish Hoard

The False Light is one of the easiest bosses in the game. Simply wait for its silhouette to appear and then drive away from it. The False Light will chomp down on nothing and you will be able to land multiple hits. Rinse and repeat for the entire battle while dodging the falling rocks dislodging from the ceiling. Periodically you will be accosted by the fish swimming in this area. They don’t do much damage, are easily killable, and frankly don’t matter a whole lot unless you’re struggling to dodge the boss.

Reward: Lamp

Attacks

1. Hoard of Sharks
2. Charge
3. Bomb

The Chain Gang can be incredibly difficult without certain items  but is certainly possible with good positioning and a little luck. The main danger is not actually the giant shark, but the “gang” part of Chain Gang. A hoard of sharks will be constantly charging you during battle. Although they die to 1 harpoon hit, some are very hard to see and it requires a constant barrage of harpoons on the player’s part to stay alive. Harpoons will go through the sharks, so you can take out multiple with a single shot.

The big bad has two bombs attached to him via chains. He’ll float around and charge you. Get him to hit a bomb to reduce his health by half, but he will become much more aggressive.

Reward: Upper Harpoon

Attacks: None

The Defiler is less a fight and more a race to escape. Use your Saw, Torpedo, and Jet Thruster to avoid and remove obstacles in your path. If the Defiler touches you, you die, so make sure you take in your surroundings and map for the correct path and places to stay out of the way.

At the end of the path, the Defiler will enter a trash compactor and be no more. Make sure to get the holo-tape message after the first charge and let yourself out the bottom with a harpoon-switch door.

Reward: Torpedo

Attacks
1. Hyper Beam
2. Gelatin Snakes

The Experiment is a fairly straight forward fight. Its only weak spot is the patch of belly protected by a laser shield, so you’ll have to stay beneath it to damage. It will retaliate when you hit the laser shield, so be careful.

Besides the defensive small laser attacks, the Experiment will often release a hyper beam attack that spans the entire arena. It is telegraphed with a laser pointer, so try not to drive into it. The tower in the middle of the arena spawns gelatinous appendages that grow toward the players location for a short time before vanishing. They can trap the player in bad spots, so always remember to give yourself plenty of space.

Reward: Drone Part 1

Attacks
1. Flower Canons
2. Vine Maze
3. Plant Chompers

Although this fight has multiple steps, the fight is pretty easy. Shoot the flower canons to progress downward while avoiding the plant chompers whizzing around the arena. Once you reach the plant mass that is the Heart, shoot it until it goes into phase two: The Vine Maze.

Equip your saw and use your thruster engine to find and hack through the openings in each wave of vines. Continue to pummel the Heart while avoiding the projectiles until it’s dead.

Reward: Drone Part 2

Attacks
1. Neutral
2. Attack Drones
3. Laser Missiles
4. Surround and Destroy

This boss is immune to harpoon hits, so switch to the torpedo for offense and upgraded drone for defense.

While in its neutral state, the Guardian will move randomly around the arena without targeting the player. Even when attacked, it will not respond directly. During this time, drone attacks will come in waves. The drones have a limited lifespan and can be destroyed with one hit from your torpedo or harpoon (the explosive and triple harpoon upgrades are great for dealing with this). Destroy the drones or avoid their fire until they time out.

Laser missiles are fired fairly regularly during the fight and do have exclusively straight trajectories, so try not to cut it close. Use your thruster engine liberally if you need to. These missiles are particularly frequent when the Guardian is in its “surround and destroy” mode, homing in on the player and attempting to corner you. Avoid being trapped at all costs, however a torpedo to the face will cause the Guardian to back off. Rinse and repeat until its body is destroyed.

Note: There are electric surges in the top and bottom of the arena that can make escape particularly challenging. Try to keep yourself in the main area of the room.

Reward: None

Attacks
1. Flailing Limbs
2. Environmental Control
3. Laser Missiles
4. Giant Laser

The final incarnation of the Guardian is a restricted-area-bullet-hell battle. Once again, it can only be hurt by your torpedo, so focus on that for offense and your upgraded drone for defense. If you don’t have the upgraded drone at this point, it’s too late to go back and get it so you’ll have to make do.

The Guardian will limit your available area to a quarter of the room at a time, spinning in either direction at intervals to imperil you with a variety of additional obstacles. In one quadrant there are trash shoots; in another, sewer pipes. The final two quadrants have an endless supply of drones and an electrical current respectively. However, once you activate the drone quadrant, they will continuously plague you in increasing numbers until the end of the fight. Your job is to avoid the flailing mechanical limbs (different patterns in each quadrant), laser missiles, drone lasers, and any applicable environmental factors for as long as possible.

After a few turns around the arena, the Guardian will visibly target you for the giant laser attack. It has a ramping up period, so listen closely as the pitch heightens and make sure you have enough room to be safe without bumping into the space-restricting arms, as they can rebound you into the giant laser for instant death if you cruise into them on accident. After the laser fires, shoot the Guardian with your torpedo and get ready for the ante to bump up. Once its HP is to half, the restricting limbs become electrocuted and can also one-hit kill you if you accidentally bump into them. Continue evading and torpedoing until the Guardian dies.

Reward: None

Hard Mode is unlocked after activating three magic crystals and retrieving the Hard Mode upgrade.

Using the map at the beginning of this guide as a reference, the crystals can be found at the following locations:

Crystal 1
Requirements: Jet Thruster
Location: D5
*Secret passage in the narrow pipe path to the right of this section

Crystal 2
Requirements: Torpedo
Location: I4
*Secret passage in the middle of the carved gravestone. Drive downward and the stone will split open, revealing the path

Crystal 3
Requirements: Torpedo
Location: I6
*Secret passage within the secret passage that housed the repair speed upgrade. This passage is accessible by driving upward around the midway point between the far West wall and the Eastern entrance

Obtaining Hard Mode

Once all three crystals are activated, return to G5 where you fought the Chain Gang. There will be a small patch of bioluminescent particles waiting near the left entrance. Once you drive close enough, they will begin to rise toward the ceiling. Follow them to reveal a secret passage. Hard Mode is unlocked one you obtain the icon that looks like a skull wearing a top hat.