Aqua Tunnel

**Current Stage: Aqua Tunnel**

*Previous Stage: None | Next Stage: Relic Maze*

**Aqua Tunnel** is the first stage for Milla in Freedom Planet.

In the story of Freedom Planet, the level is a flash forward at the beginning of the game. It takes place in the sewers underneath Shang Tu. Milla, Lilac, Carol, and Torque have been imprisoned by the Magister. Lilac and Carol could bust themselves and Milla out easily, but Torque has been put in a separate cell without his weapons. Milla digs through the dirt ground below her in an attempt to reach Torque and bust him out. She offers to take Lilac and Carol with her, but they stay behind so as to not arouse suspicion from the guards. At the end of the level, Neera catches Milla and sends her back to Lilac and Carol's cell.

## Act 1

The level opens up with Milla landing on a green jello-like block. When she jumps up while standing on it, she is shot high up into the air, instantly showing the player how these blocks work. There are some patches of grass throughout the section that Milla can dig into for treasure. There are also streams of water below that move the player into the next area whenever Milla jumps into them. Though there are many secret areas that are concealed by looking as if they are covered by walls, the level itself is quite straightforward. There are many weak enemies that can easily be taken care of by Milla's small shield laser. The player also must platform across moving machinery, like the Shang Tu aqueducts. Eventually, the player will reach a gate where they must fight a miniboss called the Iron Worm. It has one attack: launching damaging green blobs (likely contaminated water) below itself. The player can quickly take care of it by using Milla's big laser attack.

The player then jumps into another water stream that pushes them into an underwater area. They have to swim past several moving platforms until they reach a green jelly block that launches them up into a big open area with a sign with an arrow and a cube pointing to a fish head, when the player throws a cube into the fishes mouth, a gate opens that leads them into the stage miniboss, the Chomper. The Chomper is a fairly easy enemy to defeat; all Milla must do is hit its angler-fish light into it's mouth three times and not get to close to the Chomper itself. Upon beating the Chomper, a water stream will push Milla into the stage's next act.

## Act 2

The next part of the stage is somewhat more puzzle-focused. The player finds themself in a room where they must hit buttons that flip the sewer pipes around so that Milla can get through. After this, the player must climb upwards by jumping on top of moving swings, aquaducts, and platforms. There are few enemies in this section, so the player can just focus on platforming. Once Milla reaches the top, she goes through a tunnel with many weak enemies. There are spikes at the top of the tunnel, so the player can't jump without taking damage, but since the enemies are so weak using Milla's small laser works just fine. From here, the player platforms across more jelly blocks and aqueducts until they find a short green pool of contaminated water with a platform on it. When Milla jumps on the boat, it moves to the other side of the pool. When the player sees another "boat" in contaminated water, they hop on it only to find that this pool extends indefinitely to the right. The boss begins on this platform.

## Stage Boss

The boss fight with the Chomper Snake is relatively easy. It has two attacks: jumping over Milla and splashing contaminated water on her, and shooting three large bubbles with bombs in them at her. The Chomper Snake rotates between these two attacks in a pattern. It is not damaged by any of Milla's conventional attacks, so in order to defeat it, Milla must fire it's own bombs back at it. To do this, Milla will have to stand underneath the third bubble, catch the bomb that drops from it, and throw it back at the Chomper Snake. If the player does this four times, then the boss dies and the level is complete. Milla must also be on the boat for the "Stage Complete" to trigger.

## Enemies

#### Regular Enemies

* **Firefly**: Fireflies fly through the air and occasionally flicker their lights on for a moment. While they are flickering, they do damage to a player that runs into them. They do not actively target the player.
* **Ganseki Jr.**: Gansekis are covered in spikes, and as such will damage the player if they walk into them. They will either walk towards the player or hide under their spiked shell where they are impervious to damage.
* **Slime**: Slimes slowly hop towards the player, leaving little slime balls in their trail that explode.

#### Minibosses

* **Iron Worm**: The Iron Worm spews balls of contaminated water downward. It cannot move as it is stuck to the ground. Its weak spot is its helmet.
* **Chomper**: The Chomper fires balls of contaminated water at the player. It will also grab the player in it's mouth and throw them at the wall if they get to close to it. It has a weak spot on it angler-fish light.