\ \ \ -~o~o~O>O>O>O(----------------------------------------------------------------- / / / flOw FAQ -- PSP by Princess Artemis Version 0.5, 3/8/2008 Version 1.0, 3/21/2008 -- Finished with all walkthroughs and improved information all around. Introduction: There are three different versions of flOw: Jenova Chen's original Flash version, the PS3 version, and the PSP version. This FAQ is for the PSP flOw. Please see the credits section for more information on the Flash version. flOw is a PSP game available for purchase and download though the online Playstation Store. It is very similar in many ways to the PS3 version of flOw, though the controls are obviously different and there is no expansion for it. It is played off the memory stick and requires approximately 90 MB of space to download and play. The Parental Control for flOw is Level 3. The objective of flOw is very simple: eat things, grow bigger, and dive deeper into the abyss. The game uses DDA - Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment - to adjust the difficulty of the game as it's played. flOw should always be just enough of a challenge to most players to be fun rather than frustrating or boring. Please see the credits section for more information on this. It has multiplayer, so up to four may play flOw at once through ad hoc mode on the PSP. There are a lot of ways to play flOw...swim around, watching the scenery and marveling at the beauty and the flow...watch it as a "trippy screensaver"...or be a bit more active. The walkthrough portion of this FAQ is geared to a very active game. The rest of the FAQ applies to any style of play. For simplicity's sake, this FAQ will generically refer to the creature you control as a "fish" and the various edibles as "food", though they look more like small prehistoric creatures and the edibles can vary in appearance from single celled organisms to very tiny jelly fish. I've given the fish nicknames based on their appearance and activity, and also nicknamed the edibles based on what they do. For the most part, the level layout is very similar to the PS3 version of flOw, so if you want, you can look up my PS3 flOw FAQ for a different take on things, as I wrote the walkthroughs seperately as I played each version. Some of the differences are easily attributed to the fact that the abyss in the PSP version is smaller, so the levels have been rebalanced. \ \ \ -~o~o~O>O>O>O(----------------------------------------------------------------- / / / Table of Contents: You may use the find function to skip directly to a section. Controls ---------------------------------------------------------------[CNTRL] Basics (fish status, food, level layout, how to advance) ---------------[BASIC] Walkthrough basics -----------------------------------------------------[WALKT] Snake ------------------------------------------------------------------[SNAKE] Jelly Fish -------------------------------------------------------------[JELLY] Manta ------------------------------------------------------------------[MANTA] Electric Eel -----------------------------------------------------------[ELELL] Predator ---------------------------------------------------------------[PREDA] Credit Snake -----------------------------------------------------------[CSNAK] Credits, disclaimer, copyright -----------------------------------------[CREDS] [CNTRL]------------------------------------------------------------------------ The controls for flOw are very simple. Move your fish with the analogue stick. Some fish swim differently than others, so experiment with them. Pressing Start will pause the game--this looks like having your fish rise up one half-level to an empty ocean except for the two advancement foods. Your fish will randomly float around while the game is paused and it's possible that it may eat one of the advancement foods on accident which will either return your fish to the main "menu" or un-pause the game. To un-pause, eat the red food or press start. To quit playing one fish, pause, eat a blue food, then eat the egg in the "menu" for the fish you want to play. I've had a fish accidentally quit the game on me after pausing--it accidentally ate a blue advancement food, then ate an egg for another fish in the main "menu". Pausing in flOw is somewhat risky! This is very rare though. If you are *extremely* concerned about this, put the PSP on hold instead of pausing. The game can also detect when there has been no movement made with the analogue stick for a few moments and will enter a 'dormant' phase--your fish will swim around but not eat anything, just as with a paused game. Same risks apply, however--the fish may eat something on accident. Pressing most other buttons on the PSP will allow your fish to use its special ability. Each fish has its own unique ability. The game will auto-save at different points, usually to save your new unlocked fish at the end of a playthrough. The game is played off the memory stick, so just the fact that the light is blinking doesn't mean the game is saving. [BASIC]------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---Starting the game--- The first screen describes the controls for flOw and explains that it autosaves. The second screen is the logo for flOw with a small fish swimming. Direct the fish to the food to reach the main "menu". At the main "menu", you will see one fish, up to five other eggs depending on how many fish you've unlocked, and a red advancement food. The eggs are displayed in this order: Snake, Jelly Fish, Manta, Electric Eel, Predator, then Credit Snake. To choose a different fish, eat the egg for that fish and it will hatch into the chosen fish. To begin the game, eat the food. To play multiplayer, you have to have the WLAN switch set to 'on', and then if someone else has a PSP and flOw, you may play the game with them. ---Game play basics--- Every level for a fish has at least four components--two advancement foods, the fish itself, and a blurry view of the next level below. The levels below you are active! If there are fish in them, they may eat food on those levels. If another fish eats the advancement food, another will spawn immediately. The exception is the Credit Snake, which has a special level design. To dive deeper, eat a red advancement food. To retreat, eat a blue advancement food. A visual description of advancement food is provided below. To unlock the next fish, you must reach the last level with your current fish and eat the ball in the center of the level. When you do, you will leave behind your original fish and become the egg for the new fish, returning to the main "menu". Each fish has a different shape for its mouth. To eat something, direct the fish so that the food gets in its mouth. Each particle of basic food eaten will help your fish to grow and recharge its health. The health of a fish is shown by colored circles on its body. They may be a variety of colors, depending on what fish you're playing. An injured fish will have the segment missing its health circle go dim. Recharge it with basic food. Each fish starts with one health circle. ---Edibles--- Basic food: A white object with one to five dots or spikes. Very rarely a six dot food will show up. Each fish has a different basic food, but they all share one trait in common--the more nutritious the food, the more dots or spikes it will have. Basic food swims around. Sometimes it will flee. Eating basic food will make your fish grow longer or bigger, as well as recharge health circles. Eating more nutritious basic food will make your fish grow faster. Evolution food: A colored circle with three white extensions, giving it a triangular shape. The color depends on the fish you are playing. Evolution food is the only way to increase your fish's health and to make it a stronger fish. A fully evolved fish will not use an evolution food--after it travels through the fish, the evolution food will be ejected with a distinct sound. Flowers: A large white puff-ball with many long extensions that make it look a bit like a flower. Eating one will make your fish turn red, make its mouth bigger, and cause the growth process to move much faster. The effect will wear off after a while. Advancement food: A circle with a small flagellum that has either red flashing arrows or blue flashing arrows. Eating a red advancement food will cause your fish to dive down one level into the abyss; eating a blue advancement food will cause your fish to retreat a level. Other fish: You can eat other fish! But watch out, most of them can eat you, too, and some of them are fast and mean! Some fish are harmless, even useful. I will describe them in the walkthrough for each fish. To eat a fish, eat all of that fish's health circles. Eating a fish's health circle acts like eating basic food and will recharge your own health circles. If a fish eats your health circles, it will recharge the enemy fish. Game Complete ball: This is in the center of the last level for every fish. Eat it to finish the game with that fish. If you haven't unlocked the next fish, eating this will unlock the next fish. ---Evolution and growth--- For the most part, fish grow and evolve the same way, except for two fish. To grow your fish, you need to feed it basic food. Each dot or spike in a food will add that many white disks to your fish. An unevolved segment will fill up with one dot, while an evolved segment will require up to five dots to fully light it up with disks, depending on how evolved that segment is. When your fish is all full of white disks, more basic food will add a new, unevolved segment to the fish, then empty the fish of its white disks. To evolve your fish, you need to feed it evolution food. An evolution food will travel down the fish until it reaches the last lit segment and evolve it. The first evolution for any segment is the addition of a health circle. If none of the segments are lit, it will evolve the first segment it reaches that isn't fully evolved. Each segment has five stages of evolution, so if all your fish ate were evolution foods, it would take six evolution foods to fully evolve the first segment and then move on to add a health circle to the next segment. If there are no segments to evolve, the fish will release the evolution food. To make a fish with more health, it's best to feed it basic food until an unevolved segment is the last lit, then feed it an evolution food. To make a highly evolved fish, either feed it only evolution food or make sure the last white disk is on an already evolved segment when it eats an evolution food. In my opinion, it's best to start the game with the intent to get as many health circles on the fish as possible in the first few levels. Then let the segments start evolving more, because a highly evolved fish is a faster, more capable fish. The exceptions to this are Manta and Credit Snake. Manta and Credit Snake grow and evolve in a completely different way, which will be described in their walkthroughs. ---Fish status--- Food can be some of these colors also. These colors generally apply to 'enemy' fish as well. White: This is the normal state for your fish. You can judge the health level of your fish by how much of it is bright or dim. Blue: Usually means your fish has just been hurt. Your fish will often flinch if it has been hurt. Eating blue food won't harm your fish. Red: "Angry". A red fish will grow much faster and its ability may be more useful. It may also swim faster. Its mouth will also get bigger. Yellow: Stunned. Your fish will be sluggish and can't use its special ability. Eating yellow food will stun your fish. ---Nutrition Value of Other Fish--- It seems that the number of evolution foods and basic foods a defeated fish will release depends essentially on how many health circles and how many segments are lit up on the other fish. More health means more evolution food, while more lit segments means more basic food. Sometimes this means that the fish one level below you that are busily eating food will usually only 'return' part of the food--they've used the basic food to grow, so it's no longer available to release. Same with an evolution food--if another fish eats it and it doesn't add a health circle to the fish, that evolution food is gone. That's why a humongous fish might not release any basic food--few or none of its segments are lit. ---"Dying"--- You can't really die in flOw. If your fish loses all its health circles, it will retreat one level and automatically regain one health circle. [WALKT]------------------------------------------------------------------------ Walkthrough notes: flOw uses Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment to change the difficulty level on the fly as you play. So my walkthrough might not describe exactly what you'll encounter. You might run into more challenging levels with larger, meaner fish...or you might have an easier time with smaller, less active fish. Perhaps there will be a different number of fish. The level layout is the same though. It's not random as far as I can tell. I've played through flOw several times and while I have noticed some levels have bigger fish or more fish than the first time I played, there are still those fish on those levels. Please keep that in mind while following the walkthrough--your experience might be somewhat different. Also remember, the game is active--you can see the level below you, and if the fish below are active, they might eat all the food and evolve! There are a number of times I suggest leaving a level full of food because there is a large or difficult fish battle ahead. This is so that if you 'die', you will retreat to a level full of food to recharge more health circles than the one you'll automatically get. If you do choose to do this, come back and get the food even if you don't need to recharge after finishing the fish fight. That goes for every time you leave food--it's always a good idea to go back for it and grow bigger. \ \ \ -~o~o~O>O>O>O(--[SNAKE]-------------------------------------------------------- / / / Snake is the first fish available. Its mouth looks like a C. At the beginning of the game, it has one health circle and one empty segment. Its special ability is to swim faster. The larger and more evolved the fish is, the faster it can swim. If it is red, it can swim quite fast. ---Walkthrough--- Level 1: Full of one dot basic food. Eat up. Level 2: A couple small Snakes worth an evolution food each. Also some basic food. These Snakes have a habit of eating the advancement food; don't worry, it comes back. Level 3: A medium sized Snake that will turn blue and rush away when bit. It releases two evolution foods when eaten. Some one and two dot basic food also live on this level. Level 4: Three medium Jelly Fish inhabit this level. There's food down there, and the Jelly Fish can be seen eating it from above. They get angry and chase you--use your speed to keep your tail out of their mouths! Each one is worth two evolution foods and a good bit of basic food. Level 5: Some one and two dot basic food. Visible below is a decent sized, active Jelly Fish, so you may want to save the food so you can retreat and recharge. Level 6: A good sized Jelly Fish lives here. It will chase you. There's some food about, if the Jelly Fish hasn't eaten it. Defeating the Jelly Fish will release three Evolution foods and several nutritious basic foods. Think about how you want to evolve your fish while eating them. Level 7: One long Snake and two small, fast Snakes. They eat the advancement food and this does recharge their health. They flinch when bit. The large Snake gives up three evolution foods and several basic foods, while the small Snakes are worth one evolution food and possibly a basic food. Level 8: Chock full of one dot basic food and a few Flowers. Visible below are some active Jelly Fish, so you may wish to save some of the food for a tactical retreat. You can swim down after eating a Flower to give your fish a temporary edge. Level 9: Four medium sized, fairly swift Jelly Fish live in this level of the abyss. There are also a couple Flowers and possibly some basic food. These Jellies are mean and will chase you...and by this time in the game, your Snake should be long enough that the Jellies will have an easy time nibbling off your health circles from your tail. Each one is worth two or three evolution foods and some basic food. Level 10: Quite a good bit of highly nutritious food. Might be a good idea to save it-- the next level has a mean fish in it. Level 11: A big mean Snake lives here. This guy will chase you if you bite it. Try to sneak up on it to bite a health circle and swim away if a more direct approach is troublesome. Try not to swim into its mouth! Will give up a lot of evolution food and even more basic food. Level 12: A good amount of two dot basic food. Below several Predators are visible-- saving the food for a recharge isn't a bad idea--Predators are mean. Level 13: The first time I played flOw on the PSP, there were Snakes here. Every other time it has been a large Predator. I think this is because the Predator hadn't been unlocked. Predators can sense you and lunge straight for your health circles, so be careful and try to sneak up from behind. Though there are no eyes visible on any fish, it seems that other fish can't see your fish as easily if you're behind their mouth instead of in front. Anyhow, there are three Predators here along with a few nutritious basic food if the others haven't eaten it all. Each Predator is worth three evolution foods and a different ammount of basic food, depending on what they've eaten. Level 14: A whole bunch of one dot basic food with some five dots in there. A BIG Predator is visible below. Level 15: A BIG Predator (was a Snake before unlocking Predator). Sneak up on it as much as possible and use your speed to get away while it's chasing you. There's some five dot food as well as other food here, which the Predator WILL eat to recharge. Level 16: Snake's final level. Has a few tiny, harmless Jelly Fish worth one evolution food a piece, a swarm of one dot food, and the game complete ball. Eat it to leave your Snake behind and become the egg for Jelly Fish. Completing the Snake's play through will unlock Jelly Fish. - --(*)--[JELLY]----------------------------------------------------------------- - Jelly Fish is a round fish, with all its health circles on its perimeter. Its mouth is in the center and looks a bit like three triangles pointed inward. At the start of the game, it has one health circle and four small tentacles. I will refer to them as segments in this walkthrough. Its special ability is to spin, making its mouth bigger and causing suction. This spinning causes food to be sucked into its mouth. It can spin for a while, but it will get 'dizzy' and be hard to control for a moment as it slows down from its spin. Because of the set up of the Jelly Fish levels, it will tend to get health circles and evolve evenly, though it certainly can become lopsided. After all the segments have a health circle and are as evolved as possible, it is a waste to eat an evolution food without first eating enough basic food to add a segment. The light will travel around the perimeter of the fish and then it will make a sound and release the evolution food. ---Walkthrough--- Level 1: Scads of evolution food and a few basic foods. If you swim carefully and eat all the basic food first, you *might* be able to get a fifth segment out of this, but you'll probably have to dive down a level, grab a basic food, then come back up and eat the evolution food. Level 2: Three Jelly Fish good for about three evolution foods each and some basic food. There is also some basic food floating around, and the Jelly Fish will eat it and the evolution foods, so get the basic food before they do. Level 3: Two small Snakes and a large Snake inhabit this level of the abyss. They'll eat all the food around and chase you, so be careful with them. You'll soon have more evolution food than you can eat, so try to get the basic food first and add a segment. Level 4: Much like level 1. Try for the basic food before you go for the evolution food. In the Jelly Fish's case, there is so much evolution food around in the early levels that segment building is very important so you have room to use all that evolution food. Level 5: A good bit of two and three dot basic food plus several puffer fish. Puffer fish are harmless--they just puff out and your fish will bounce off their shells. That leaves them vulnerable for a short time, leaving their two health circles free for the eating. Each puffer will release one evolution food. Since the next level is full of nutritious basic food, you might want to eat as much basic food as you can, gain a segment, go down a level, gain another, then come back up through the levels to gather the evolution food you probably haven't been able to eat, then get the puffers. Level 6: Absolutely teeming with good, nutritious food. Visible below are several Mantas, which present a definte danger to Jelly Fish, so you might want to save most of the food for a recharge or tactical retreat. Level 7: Three or four two health Mantas along with a lot of basic food. A bit Manta will rush away blue and then rush back and possibly take a huge swipe out of your health. If you spin while the Manta is rushing back, you'll likely end up feeding it half your health. Be careful to dodge. Jelly Fish and these Mantas swim at about the same speed, so it can be difficult to catch them and finish them off. Remember, other fish will recharge if they take one of your health circles, so it can be fairly irritating chasing the Mantas around. Each Manta is good for one evolution food and as many basic foods as it had tail segments. Level 8: Full of small Snakes, possibly ten. They eat the food around them so be sure to get it before they do. Each Snake will release one evolution food and most will give up some basic food. Level 9: Swarming with all kinds of good basic food. Below you may see puffer fish. Do what you think is best with the food and the evolution foods you've probably left behind in shallower levels. There is also a long Snake down there eating stuff. Level 10: About seven puffer fish, a lot of three dot food, and a Snake eating everything in sight. The Snake is good for about three evolution foods and some basic food. The puffers are good for one evolution food. Level 11: So many tiny Snakes there's no point in counting them. Each one is good for an evolution food...and eating a health circle will add some lights like basic food does to your fish, so maybe you might get another segment out of this, depending on how many segments you have lit already. Level 12: A ton of three dot and some five dot basic food. There are several Mantas below, while there may be an evolution food or two left above, so you may want to think about how you play this. If you're close to getting another segment, you might want to get it and head up for an evolution food if you know there's one above. Otherwise, save the food for a recharge or tactical retreat from the Mantas. There's also a flower here. Level 13: About seven Mantas, some with three health circles. Also a lot of nutritious basic food. Try to swim around carefully to get the basic food and the Mantas without getting bit. Each Manta is good for two or three evolution foods plus whatever basic food comes from their tail. Try to get the basic food first for another segment before going after the evolution food. Level 14: Scads of quality basic food. Leave it all there unless you need to refill your health circles or are very close to getting another segment and know you've got an evolution food above. There is a *mean* fish below you and you very well may need the food here for a refill or retreat. Level 15: Whatever that fish is, it's MEAN. It has a total of six health circles, rushes like a Manta, and on top of it, every time it gets bit, it releases a school of angry baby fish that will take out your health circles in a hurry. There's plenty of good basic food around, and you'll probably need it. The big fish has to be beaten this way: eat the first health circle, which will cause it to dash away and release a school of baby fish. Spinning will cause them to cool off and not be a danger...but the big fish is going to rush back and take a nice bite off your health while you spin. You might be fortunate enough to dodge the rush, but the babies will probably take off some health on their own. The babies are equal to one dot basic food, so it'll take several to recharge one health circle. If you 'die' or retreat, any babies still there will become angry again. Once the first health circle is taken off the big fish, it will reveal two more. It can refill these. Eating them will knock off some of its fins and cause more babies to swarm. When those two are eaten, two more will show up. Eat those two, then the final will come up. Grab that and defeat that nasty fish! It will release five evolution foods upon defeat. The baby fish are immune to Jelly Fish's suction. Level 16: Jelly Fish's last stage. There will be a few teeny Mantas, each good for one evolution food, a lot of basic food, and the game complete ball. Eat it to lay the egg for Manta. Completing Jelly Fish's play through will unlock Manta. \\ ->>>>--[MANTA]------------------------------------------------------------ // Manta looks the most like an actual fish. Its mouth is the pointed end on the front. At the start of the game, it has one health circle and two tail segments. Its special ability is to rush. Each rush will turn it red and use up one tail segment. Growth and evolution is a special case for Manta. Basic food recharges and lights up its health circles, but the rest is strictly for growing its tail. There seems to be a limit to how long Manta's tail can get. After a while and some evolution, it just gets fancier. Eating evolution food is good, but won't show any immediately obvious effect--what they do is add decorations along the sides of the Manta, and when a certain number is reached, it will gain a new health circle along with fancier fins that make it look more like a manta. Manta can have three health circles in all, which can make it easy prey... protect your fish by having it rush away from other fish trying to eat it. Due to how Manta evolves, you don't have to do anything special to make sure the evolution food will have the desired effect. Just eat it. ---Walkthrough--- Level 1: A few basic foods; eat them to grow your tail. Manta is a bit more agile than previous fish, so get used to the controls. Level 2: Five or six Mantas are swimming around eating basic food. Munch upon them. Each Manta will release as many basic foods as are in its tail and an evolution food or two, depending on how many health circles it has. Other Mantas will eat the food, so snag it first. Level 3: There are two medium sized Snakes here with some food. The Snakes are good for two evolution foods a piece, but may not give up any basic food. Level 4: Lots and lots of basic food with a couple five dot foods and some evolution food thrown in. There are several Electric Eels visible below, so you may wish to save the basic food here unless your tail is really short. Grab the evolution food--you'll probably get your second health circle here. Level 5: Five or so Electric Eels live at this depth. They can be particularly difficult to see when cloaked, but if you listen carefully, you can hear them cloak. Careful not to be stunned by one or eat yellow (stunned) food, as it will prevent you from rushing away. These Eels eat the food in the area. When you defeat one, it will give up two evolution foods and likely several basic foods. Level 6: A large, hostile Snake is here. It will chase you, so make good use of the Manta's rushing ability to escape. Sneak up on it as much as possible. There is some basic food here, but likely not much as the Snake will have been eating it all. It is worth three evolution foods and quite a lot of basic food. Level 7: Full of one dot basic food and a few evolution foods. Just grab the evolution food unless you need to grow your tail--there is an Electric Eel and several puffer fish below, and the basic food will serve as a good recharge if needed. Level 8: Several puffers and a medium sized Electric Eel dwell at this depth. This can be annoying as the puffers noise can mask the sound of the cloaking as well as bounce your fish around. The Eel is good for three evolution foods, but since they eat the basic food floating around, they might not give any basic food. The puffers are good for one evolution food. You might get your third and final health circle around here. A Jelly Fish is below, so try to save the basic food if you can. Level 9: Five good sized Jelly Fish lives here. Be careful--with only two or three health circles, Mantas can be easy meals. Rush if you need to; also, rush to try to take several health circles at once. Each Jelly Fish is worth two to three evolution foods and a variety of amounts of basic food. Level 10: Home to a bit of decent basic food and three special fish. The special fish are harmless--they usually will spit out small amounts of good basic food. Since there are fast Snakes one level below and two Eels further down, leave the special fish alone for now; come back to recharge if needed. They have two health circles, and when bit once will spit out a lot of basic food, while finishing them off will give you an evolution food. Level 11: There are at least seven fast Snakes here. They eat food, and may chase you. Each is worth an evolution food and a varying amount of basic food. Watch out below--there are two Electric Eels waiting for you. Level 12: Two Electric Eels dwell here, and they will chase you and try to stun you. Watch and listen carefully for their cloaking. There might be some basic food here if you got here fast enough so the Eels couldn't eat it all. Each Eel is good for one or two evolution foods and several basic foods. Level 13: Six medium to large Mantas live here. They aren't too difficult. They'll rush if you bite them, and they'll recharge from any stray food as well as eat the remains of any Manta you've defeated. They'll each give one evolution food and as many basic foods as they have tail segments. Level 14: Full of basic food and three flowers. There are two large Snakes below, so saving the food would probably be wise, as the Snakes will chase you. Level 15: There are two large, angry Snakes at this depth. Sneak up on them and rush when necessary, as they will get angry and chase you. They are bothe good for four or five evolution foods and a lot of basic food. Careful while rushing-- you might ruch right into their mouth! Level 16: The deepest level of the abyss for Manta. There are a couple harmless Electric Eels here good for one evolution food a piece, as well as the standard game complete ball and a good amount of one dot basic food. Eat the ball to leave Manta behind and become an Electric Eel egg. Completing Manta's play through will unlock Electric Eel. .\\. -?-o~%~%~%~@>}(--[ELEEL]------------------------------------------------------- .//. Electric Eel has yellow parts right behind its mouth. It has a hooked tail. Its mouth looks like a C. At the start of the game, it has one health circle, two yellow spots, an empty segment, and very short fins behind its mouth. Its special ability is to cloak and stun fish. It moves much slower cloaked, and cloaking hides all of the white parts of the fish. Cloaking allows the Eel to hide so that it can't be chased or lunged at. While cloaked, its yellow spots will turn dim one at a time. When all the spots are dim, it will uncloak. As you play, the yellow spots will eventually recharge. To stun a fish, the Eel has to cloak or be cloaked when it bites a segment of a fish that has a health circle. Once stunned, the Eel can easily eat the rest of the health circles of its prey. It can restun the fish it is eating by cloaking when the other fish recovers from the stun and biting it again. Eel won't turn yellow if it eats stunned food, but it can be stunned by other Eels. One highly useful trait is that the Eel can stun food by cloaking while the food is being touched by its yellow spots. Stunned food eaten by an enemy fish will stun the enemy fish and make it an easy target. As it evolves and grows bigger, it will gain up to six yellow spots and increasingly fancy wing-like fins behind its mouth. The level layout will favor the Eel growing evenly. ---Walkthrough--- Level 1: Just a small amount of one dot badic food. There's a Jelly Fish and a Snake below you gobbling up food, so eat quick and take them out. Level 2: A medium Jelly Fish and a Snake live here, along with whatever other basic food they haven't eaten yet. Each is worth two evolution foods and some basic food, depending on what they've eaten. Level 3: There are two Snakes and an Electric Eel here, as well as some basic food. They eat the basic food, so there might not be much left for you when you get here. Each one will give up one evolution food and some basic food. If you stunned one before eating it, the food will also be yellow and stunned, so if one of the other Snakes eat it, it will stun them. Level 4: Two medium sized, angry Jelly Fish dwell at this depth. Stun them so they don't snack on any health circles on your tail and so you don't end up helping them stay alive by swiming right into their mouths. They'll chase you and eat any basic food around, which there is a little. Each Jelly is good for one evolution food and several basic foods. Level 5: Two special helpful fish live here. They commonly spit out evolution food. There is some basic food here as well, but visible below are some fast moving Snakes gobbling up food, so you might want to ignore the special fish and their food and come back for it after dealing with the Snakes. Each special fish will cough up a lot of basic food on the first bite, then an evolution food on defeat. Level 6: Four or five fast moving Snakes and whatever basic food they haven't eaten yet fill this level. A good way to catch the fast Snakes is to stun the food by cloaking as you swim your Eel's yellow spots over it. Then if a Snake eats the food, it will be stunned and an easy mark. They flee from you, so they can be annoying to catch otherwise as they are faster than the Eel and seem to know you're there even cloaked. There is also a special fish here spitting out one dpt basic food, which keeps the Snakes fed. All are worth one evolution food and some basic food. Level 7: Contains three medium and one large Jelly Fish that get angry and chase you. There might be some basic food around that they haven't eaten. Stunning them is almost required since they are fast when angry. The big Jelly is worth three evolution foods and the smaller Jelly Fish are good for one. They are worth everywhere from no basic food to a nice buffet. Level 8: About five flowers, lots of small basic food, and a special fish live here. The special fish spits out both basic food and evolution food. There is also an especially fast Snake eating all the basic food. It's good for one evolution food and some basic food. Level 9: If you get here fast, there will be a giant Jelly Fish and two medium sized Predators...if you don't get there fast, the Predators may have eaten the Jelly Fish. There *might* be a basic food floating around that the other fish haven't got to yet. The Predators will lunge at you, so cloak and stun them. They are worth two evolution foods and some basic food, while the giant Jelly Fish is worth five evolution foods and anywhere from no to a ton of basic food depending on how many segments are lit when you eat it. Level 10: A whole lot of basic food, pretty much. Mostly one dot, some four dot. Below you can see some quick moving fish...they are Predators, so you might want to save the food for a tactical retreat. Level 11: So many Predators there's no point in counting them! They're fast and mad, so cloaking is an absolute *must*. Biting one Predator sets off a feeding frenzy, which can get ugly fast if you don't cloak to get the Predators off your scent. They will leave you alone if you haven't bit one and set off the rest. There's a few basic foods here too. Predators will home in on your health circles when lunging, making them very dangerous. Each Predator is worth one evolution food. They'll eat any food left by your defeated foes. Level 12: While you were busy with the Predators, five or six small, fast Snakes living here were busy eating all the basic food. There are several flowers, which the Snakes might eat, making them angry. Stun the Snakes, stun the food, just stun stuff to catch these fast moving critters. They like to eat the red advancement food best when there's nothing else left for them, so stun it and hope they take the bait. Each Snake is worth one evolution food and usually some basic food. Level 13: A large Snake plus any basic food it hasn't eaten dwells here. Just stun the Snake and take its three evolution foods. Level 14: A nice buffet of nutritious basic food plus two special fish to spit out more as well as the occasional evolution food. There's a reason for this--the next level of the abyss has not only the easily visible large Predator, it also has a swarm of small Pretaors. Saving the food for a retreat would not be a bad idea. Level 15: A challenging level, considering there is a very big Predator and a swarm of small Predators! A Predator swarm in a feeding frenzy is a dangerous thing indeed! Make good use of your cloak and stunning abilities to both keep ahead of the Predators and stave off the feeding frenzy. Each little Predator is worth one evolution food and the big Predator is worth five. There is an additional challenge with Predators--each segment has a red circle in it, so it's easy to confuse the segments with health circles. There may be some basic food here, but unlikely. Some Predators will leave behind basic food, while the others eat it. Level 16: The last level for Electric Eel. There are some harmless Predators worth one evolution food a piece, lots of one dot food, and the game complete ball. Eat it to become the egg for Predator. Completing Electric Eel's play through will unlock Predator. \\\\\ -q-Q-Q-Q-{--[PREDA]------------------------------------------------------------ ///// Predator is shaped much like Snake. Its mouth looks like a C with small barbs. At the start of the game, it has one health circle and an empty segment. When a segment evolves, it gains increasingly large fins that can obscure your view. An unevolved segment has a red circle in it, so it may look like it has more health than it does. Its special ability is lunging at health circles. When it detects an enemy fish nearby, it will turn red, meaning you can use its lunging ability. Otherwise, pressing a button just makes it glow red for a moment. However, if it eats a flower, it can use its lunging ability on anything edible until the red wears off. One thing to keep in mind--if Predator 'dies', it will lose a segment off its tail end to recharge its first health circle! If this happens often, you could end up with a very small fish late in the playthrough! Predator is fast and mean, but pays for it by losing segments this way. When a segment is lost, a single one dot basic food usually spawns nearby. ---Walkthrough--- Level 1: A small Snake and a few basic foods populate Predator's first level. Try out your lunging ability. The Snake is good for one evolution food and some basic food. Level 2: Two small, hungry Snakes as well as whatever basic food they haven't scarfed down live here. Because Predator loses a segment if it 'dies', you might want to dive down here first and grab the food so you can get longer before worrying too much about evolving in the early levels. But plan it out if you choose to play this way--wasting evolution food won't make your Predator live longer. Level 3: On this level of the abyss, there are three small Snakes and one large Snake. There might be some basic food here if you get here fast enough. Each small Snake is worth two evolution foods and the big Snake three. They might have some basic food for you. Level 4: That is one BIG Snake. It will get angry and chase you if you bite it. Lunge carefully--once it is bit, it'll start chasing you and you may very well lunge right into its mouth! Be very careful how you handle eating this monster of a Snake--I recommend sneaking up, taking a bite, and swimming away until it has calmed down rather than lunging all over it. When defeated, it will give up four evolution foods and a lot of basic food. There may also be some basic food left that it hadn't eaten. Plan out how you eat the food so you can get the best balance of health circles and segments. Level 5: Three flowers, swarms of basic food surrounding the flowers, and some highly nutritious food swimming fast out by the edges. It can be a little hard to catch. The next levels have some Eels, so you might want to save the food and the puffers for a retreat and regrowth if the Eels 'kill' you. Level 6: One or two small Eels and four or five puffer fish. Each is worth one evolution food. Below there are two good sized Eels and below that is a giant Eel, so what basic food is here that the Eel hasn't eaten might be better saved until you've defeated the next three Eels. Also, saving the puffers may be wise to re-evolve a segment if you lose one that had a health circle. A note to remember--a cloaked Eel cannot be lunged at. Level 7: Two medium Electric Eels and possibly some basic food. Each Eel is worth two evolution foods and maybe some basic food. Be careful and time your lunges-- the Eels, when angry, are faster than a stunned Predator so they may make very short work of you. Keep in mind also that an Eel has to bite to stun, so it may not be wise to completely recharge before going back after them if they do end up taking you out. It's up to you if you want to play the game taking that risk. Below you is a big Electric Eel also, so it might be best to hold off on the food I've advised to leave behind...again, this is just a possible strategy that really only applies to the Predator because it loses segments when it 'dies'. A good way to take on Eels large enough to pose a threat is to sneak up, lunge, and swim away. They defend themselves by swimming away and cloaking, so lunging at them willy nilly might just get you stunned. Level 8: One GIANT Electric Eel and whatever basic food it hasn't eaten lives here. Don't let it sneak up on you, it'll stun you and gobble all your health up in a flash. Consider watching from the level above and then diving down in the middle or end of the beast so you know where the thing is at. Because it's so big, a few lunges might be safe before swimming away. It's hard to see it cloaked, but try to keep it on-screen while it is so it doesn't end up sneaking up on you. And just to make things harder, it'll get angry and chase you. If you aren't stunned, you may get away safely. Eventually you'll wear it down enough that its last health circles are near its mouth, so at that point, a lunge or two could be worth the risk. It will give up five evolution foods and possibly no basic food, or maybe a lot, depending on how lit up it is. Hope for a lot! Depending on how you faired, planned, and how much basic food it left behind, you might want to dive and surface back to level 6 to get the maximum use out of the evolution food. Level 9: Some rest for the weary! Three special fish, lots of nutritious basic food, and a medium Jelly Fish worth some basic food and two evolution foods. There are also evolution foods free-floating here, so it's a good place to regrow if you got knocked around badly by the last Electric Eel. Get the Jelly Fish first--it will eat the basic food, but be careful lunging so you don't get one of the special fish on accident if you're saving them for a retreat or relying on them to regrow. There are a lot of Jelly Fish below, so saving some food here might not be a bad idea. Level 10: There are about six Jelly Fish here and any basic food they haven't eaten. Go to town lunging at them--you might lung into their mouths, but you should be able to stay ahead. Most are worth two evolution foods and some basic food, others are good for three or one evolution food. Below are visible two very big Jelly Fish...you might see them eating. Level 11: Two big Jelly Fish and whatever basic food they haven't scrounged up before you reached them. They get angry and chase you...and though they will eat the health off your tail, lunging around is the best way to take care of them fast. Both are worth three evolution foods and some basic food. There is also a medium sized Snake here worth three evolution foods and some basic food. Level 12: Giant Jelly Fish ahoy! Plus any basic food it hasn't eaten. It'll get angry and give chase, but lunging around will take care of it quickly. Go slower if you don't feel like getting eaten in the process, but Jellies are hard to sneak up on. Good for four evolution foods and a decent bit of basic food. Level 13: Two flowers and a whole lot of very nutritious basic food. There's a Predator swarm ahead, so you might want to leave the basic food alone and come back for a recharge. Level 14: Predator swarm! They're small, but once the feeding frenzy is on, there's no way to stop it, so likely the easiest way to deal with this is to go on your own feeding frenzy. That should keep you ahead. Each one is worth an evolution food and maybe some basic food, and each one might eat the remains of your kills, so they may evolve, too. There's a good bit of basic food here, too. Level 15: A giant Predator lives at this depth of the abyss. There could be some basic food here if it hasn't eaten it all. It's big and angry and just as mean as you are, so while you may be able to sneak up on it sometimes, lunging might be your best bet. You may end up lunging right into its mouth though, so be careful. Only problem with sneaking up on it is it's so big and evolved, its health circles might be hard to see, plus unevolved segments look so similar to evolved segments, it may be hard to tell them apart. Your Predator senses the real thing though. Defeating the Predator will give you six evolution foods and many basic foods. Level 16: The deepest part of the abyss for Predator. There's just the one dot basic food and the game complete ball, so eat it and become the egg for Credit Snake. Completing Predator's play through will unlock Credit Snake. ->>>>>>o(--[CSNAK]------------------------------------------------------------- Credit Snake is a special fish. Its mouth looks like a C. At the start of the game it has a mouth and two segments. Its special ability is to swim faster. Credit Snake grows in a special way: it will grow one segment by eating the the health circle next to each line of credits. It has no evolutions, so it just gets longer. It will never gain health circles. There is nothing else to eat, just the health circles and a red advancement food. Eating a health circle will dim the text next to it, so if you want to easily read the credits, don't eat the health circle until you're done. To finish Credit Snake's game, eat the game complete ball on the last level. This will cause you to leave behind Credit Snake and become the egg for Snake. There's no real need for a walkthrough more specific than this, other than to say it can't retreat a level because there will never be a blue advancement food to eat. Credit Snake is just a fun way to present the credits for flOw. [CREDS]------------------------------------------------------------------------ Credits and disclaimers: thatgamecompany for making the beautiful game flOw. Jenova Chen at http://jenovachen.com/ for coming up with the game in the first place and working on implimenting Flow Theory in games. The Flash version is playable at that link. The official flOw site at http://www.us.playstation.com/flOw/ for some game play basics and the use of DDA. The PSP flOw site at http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP/Games/flOw is where I got the information for the ad hoc capabilities. flOw is copyright (c) 2007 Sony computer Entertainment Inc. SCEI has nothing to do with this FAQ and has not endorsed it in any way. This has not been written for profit. This FAQ is copyright (c) 2008, Sara D. Green. I may be contacted at princessartemis@gmail.com -- please indicate that you are contacting me regarding this FAQ. Please let me know if there are any errors in the FAQ. 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