Community Aquarius strategy
Revision as of 11:23, 31 August 2025 by GrampaSwood (talk | contribs) (mc, it is not necessary to specify that the benefits are only on Aquarius (we assume the reader knows about the map already). Same with mentioning the precise percentages of the speed boosts.)
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Aquarius | |
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Basic Information | |
Map type: | Payload |
File name: | pl_aquarius
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Released: | July 24, 2025 Patch (Summer 2025 Update) |
Developer(s): | Alien31 Andrew "Bengali Hedgehog" Mishchuk Christoph "Gadget" Manschitz Dansky Logan "Cipherlock" Eaton Lucky Mitchell "AltraNade" Leyte Neal "Blade x64" Smart Szabó "Maxxy" Attila Torkil "TheLazerSofa" Malvik Bidtnes Maxime "Fubar" Dupuis |
Map Info | |
Environment: | Research technologies |
Setting: | Inside |
Hazards: | Sharks |
Deep Water: | Yes |
Map Items | |
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Map Photos | |
Map overview | |
This article is about Community Aquarius strategy.
Note: It is recommended to read the main Aquarius article first to become familiar with the names of key map locations used in this article.
Contents
General Strategy
- Aquarius is a map with two major sections of water along its track. Gameplay is shifted wildly in these locations because in addition to being water, which offers far more verticality to every class, the water provides a speed boost and cannot drown players. Familiarize yourself with the movement mechanics of water while speed boosted on this map.
- All classes, except Heavy, move faster when swimming in water compared to walking on land. It may be advantageous to traverse through the water rather than to go over land.
- There are many narrow hallways on the sidelines of this map serve as flank routes, make sure to keep an eye out on them to prevent the enemy team from easily being able to flank your team.
- Throwable items (such as the Flying Guillotine or Jarate) and alt-fire projectiles (such as the Sandman's ball) cannot be fired underwater, making them a poor choice when trying to push or defend underwater.
- Though the flank routes around Checkpoint B and D are helpful and numerous, they are narrow at multiple points. Be careful when traversing them.
Class-specific strategy
Scout
- The Baby Face's Blaster's speed boost is not relevant underwater due to the default boost already hitting the maximum underwater speed. However, the abundance of water on the map makes it much easier to extinguish yourself when set on fire, making boost harder to lose due to afterburn.
Soldier
- In the large sections of water in this map players are allowed to move independently of the floor at a much faster speed, especially considering the speed boost the water gives. This makes splash damage far less effective than normal for damage. In general you should focus on landing direct rockets or rely on a hitscan secondary.
- Unlike on land, the compression blast does not work underwater. Do not be afraid to shoot rockets at underwater Pyros.
- The Direct Hit and Liberty Launcher's faster projectile speed can make landing direct rockets more reliable when fighting players in water.
Pyro
- The water sections of this map render all of Pyro's primary weapons and flare guns completely useless. On top of this, enemies can very easily navigate to these areas of open water when on fire, making them an ever-present threat throughout the map. Use your shotguns when underwater, or to deal additional damage while an enemy is on fire.
- The Neon Annihilator's Critical hits on soaked enemies are very powerful on this map. You can use your primary weapon's compression blast to force enemies to go into water, then follow them with the Neon Annihilator to land a Critical hit. Trying to approach players head-on while in the water is very likely to give your strategy away immediately, try using the walkways above the water to do dive attacks as it is very difficult to see what happens outside of the water while underwater.
- The Dragon's Fury is very useful for fighting on land. The increased damage to burning players makes the weapon much less reliant on afterburn and much more reliant on direct damage, making the water less of a threat.
- The Powerjack's speed boost stacks with the movement speed increase the water provides, bringing you just barely below the speed of Scout when swimming. Use it to catch up to enemies before damaging them with a shotgun.
- The final checkpoint is a big water hazard with a shark which enemies can be airblasted into.
Demoman
- The large sections of water on this map reduce the effectiveness of splash damage from your stickybomb launchers. Focus on landing direct hits with your primary weapons instead.
- The flank tunnels near Checkpoints B and D are great places for a stickytrap, especially with the Scottish Resistance's ability to set multiple traps.
- The Loch-n-Load's faster projectile speed can make landing direct grenades more reliable when fighting players in water.
- Shields can charge directly upwards and downwards while underwater. Unlike horizontal turning, there are no turning control restrictions when looking up and down. This can be used to secure picks of targets swimming above or below you.
- Additionally, if you start an upward facing charge underwater you will keep the momentum when exiting the water, allowing you to fly out of the water while charging. This can be used to jump out of the water onto places above the surface of the water. Use this with your charge to perform sneak attacks on targets on platforms higher than the water, or to get into advantageous positioning behind enemy lines from openings into the water below present throughout the map.
Heavy
- Heavy has a 20% water movement speed buff compared to the other classes' 35%, making positioning and movement underwater slower for him. On top of how he relies on revving his Minigun to be prepared to engage, this makes him extremely slow when in water. Keep enemies at a distance from you to prevent them from abusing your heightened sluggishness and getting in a range where tracking with your Minigun is much more difficult.
- When swimming it is important to keep in mind that you cannot swim upwards while revved up by holding the jump button (default key: SPACE), but you can still move up or down by holding forward (default key: W) or backwards (default key: S) while looking up or down.
- Water does not slow down the falling speed of dropped lunchbox items, meaning they fall like a rock to the sea floor. The water sections of this map are deep and going down to retrieve these items takes up a considerable amount of time where you or your teammate could be attacked. Try to aim for direct hits or the cart's track instead.
Engineer
- Engineers are still able to build all of their buildings underwater. The openness of the moon pools makes getting out of the Sentry Gun's line of sight more difficult. However, it is important to keep in mind all classes have a 25% damage resistance to all Sentry Gun damage when in the water and the fact that submerged Sentry Guns don't target enemy players if they are outside of water and vice versa. Be sure to keep these strengths and weaknesses in mind when positioning your Sentry Gun.
- A Mini-Sentry is a cheaper and more disposable way of taking advantage of the oppenness of the moon pools.
- The Short Circuit's primary and secondary fire do not work underwater, making it unusable in the water sections. However, the energy ball can travel through water it if shot from the outside into it.
Medic
- The Vaccinator's bullet resistance is particularly strong in the water sections of this map as hitscan weapons are more much easier to hit underwater.
- The Overdose's movement speed increase combined with the water's speed boost and improved vertical mobility allows for much easier dodging of enemy attacks.
Sniper
- The distortion effect of water makes sniping into or out of it difficult. When spotting a target inside the water, submerge yourself to prevent this distortion effect from messing with your sniping and vice versa when spotting someone outside the water.
- When not moving underwater, you sink slowly, which can mess up your aim. Keep this in mind when sniping underwater, or find a place to stand still on to avoid the problem entirely.
- Jarate is much weaker near the water sections. It cannot be thrown while underwater and entering the water removes its effect.
- The Classic does not fire underwater unless on terrain, making it much weaker in the water sections.
Spy
- The Pyro's inability to spycheck underwater with their primary weapons makes it a much safer place to be, but be aware that the Pyros are not the only ones capable of spychecking.
- The ability to also go up or down in the water makes fleeing while cloaked much more effective as enemies trying to track you down also have to consider if you went up or down in addition to the normal possibilities. They also cannot rely on splash damage to make your cloak flicker.
- Backstabs are much easier to perform due to the lack of vertical restrictions when in water, allowing you to easily backstab players from underneath or above.
- Be careful when leaving and entering the deep water as they give you effects that are visible even when cloaked. Entering the water gives you a bubble trail for a short period. Exiting water leaves you wet making you drip water for a few seconds.
- The Cloak and Dagger lasts slightly longer than the stock Invis Watch when underwater, but requires even terrain to recharge underwater, heavily limiting the places you can recharge your cloak.