Staying alive underwater
How does the sonar map work?
Tapping A makes Ecco sing. That's how you talk to other dolphins and whales, work the glyphs and nudge starfish around. Holding A does something else entirely: the song travels out, comes back, and a map of the area appears with enemies, glyphs, sharp objects, fish shoals and, most importantly, air pockets. Whenever a cave looks like a dead end, hold it once before you turn around. Corey Adcock summed up the whole game in capitals in his review: "USE THE DAMN SONAR".
Speed and the breach
Each tap of C pushes Ecco a little faster, and holding it keeps that speed. Press C in the air and he does a spin that looks lovely and does nothing else.
The jump that matters is the breach. Build speed with C, leave the water at roughly 45 degrees and hit B just as Ecco clears the surface. He goes noticeably higher, and the harder jumps can't be cleared any other way. Deep City opens with a ledge you will only get over like this, so practise in calm water long before a level demands it.
Charging, and two inputs worth memorising
B is the charge. Ram a fish and he eats it, which restores health. Touch an enemy any other way and you get hurt, so either hit things on purpose or give them room. Once you have the Death Sonar, fire it by pressing B as if to charge and then A straight after.
A Sea Leech that latches on stops Ecco swimming altogether. Hammer B and C until he breaks free, and do the same against the strong current in Cold Water. And if the music starts getting to you on yet another attempt at the same level, pause with Start and press A to switch it off.
How do you refill air?
Ecco has two meters, health on top and air underneath. Air drains the whole time he's underwater, and once it runs out, health starts falling fast. A breach fills the air meter completely in one go. Poking his nose above the surface works too, just slowly. Look for air vents and the thin trails of bubbles rising from cracks in the rock.
Never let air drop below three bars. Turning back at that point feels like wasted time, but there are no checkpoints, so drowning means replaying the entire level. Turning back is still cheaper.
Getting health back
Charge small fish to eat them. Sing to clams (the game calls them the Shelled Ones) and to the giant sponges, then watch the bubble that comes out: blue or white gives health, orange or brown takes some away. Keep singing at a good one and it keeps refilling you.
Watch the health meter more closely than it seems to need. It's uneven, and the next bar can go after fewer hits than the last one did. Some hazards ignore it entirely: moving rocks, the ice blocks in Hard Water and the swinging shells in Dark Water crush Ecco instantly at full health, invincible or not.
Which glyphs matter?
The big crystals scattered through the levels do different jobs. A Barrier Glyph blocks the way until you find its Key Glyph: touch the key until blue circles wrap around Ecco, swim back and sing at the barrier. Access Glyphs clear obstacles and answer with "Access Granted". In the prehistoric levels you sing at a Pteranodon Glyph, jump along the surface, and a Pteranodon carries Ecco over rocks he can't swim past.
The one to look out for is the Invincibility Glyph. For a while Ecco has infinite health and doesn't need air, and both meters get refilled on top of that. In Atlantis some statues do the same. Dark Water and Pteranodon Pond hide a bonus: sing at a Key Glyph you've already used and it works as an Invincibility Glyph. In Dark Water, the hardest level in the game, that bonus is a lifesaver.
Where players get stuck
How do you get the Death Sonar?
The Vents is the first level where it pays to do more than find the exit. A mother dolphin there has lost three of her pod, and if you bring all three back she teaches Ecco the Death Sonar. It's optional. I wouldn't skip it.
The vents blow a strong current upward, so push the rock into the vent and ride it down: the rock shields Ecco from the current. Then count the alcoves on the left. The first dolphin is waiting in the third one. A dolphin only follows when Ecco swims right in front of it, so lead the way instead of trying to herd it. The other two are behind Key and Barrier Glyph pairs, past spiky shells, with air pockets along the route. Once all three are back with their mother, she hands over the song. The exit is the upper of the two bottom tunnels in the right-hand vent.
Fired with the charge-then-sing input from above, the Death Sonar kills jellyfish, crabs and other small enemies outright and wears down sharks and sea horses. Plain sonar without the charge now freezes jellyfish and sharks for a moment, too. You'll use it constantly, starting with the sharks at the very beginning of The Lagoon. In Ice Zone, shoot every sea spider you see before it gets close.
The Lagoon repeats the deal with three more trapped dolphins, and that reward is meant to confuse sharks. In practice it does the same thing as the Death Sonar you already have. Rescue them if you like being thorough, but if the sharks and Sea Leeches are wearing you down, you lose almost nothing by heading for the exit.
How do you get past the octopus?
You don't fight it. The octopus can't be hurt, and a few lashes of its tentacles will kill Ecco. A glyph in the Undercaves warns you: "Swim slowly past eight arms". Line Ecco's snout up in the gap between the tentacle and the spike, then tap Up gently, a little at a time. Don't charge through, because that kills him. The Lagoon and Island Zone each have another octopus, and the same slow crawl gets you past them.
Sharks, Trilobites and the rest
Open Ocean is built around sharks, and there are two kinds. One ignores Ecco and dies from a single charge. The other hunts him and takes a lot more punishment. Keep charging, and breach whenever one gets on your tail, since sharks can't reach Ecco out of the water. Or skip the fight altogether: dive to the bottom and dash along it, ramming whatever gets in the way, until the screen stops scrolling, then surface. That finishes the level in under 30 seconds. Later on, the Tiger Sharks in the ice levels and Atlantis are a meaner version of the same thing, and the Satan Eels of the prehistoric levels act like tougher sharks.
Trilobites are the worst thing in the sea. They're as fast as Ecco and pass straight through walls, so running away doesn't work. Kill each one the moment it shows up.
Rays are the opposite case. They only attack in self-defence, and Ridge Water has a whole tunnel of them that you should get through without hitting a single one. In Atlantis, Black Puffers gather in circles, follow Ecco and drain health fast, so save an Invincibility statue for a cluster of them. The Crystals lining the Atlantis tunnels sap health faster than anything else in the game. Charge each one once and keep moving.
Is there a shortcut through City of Forever?
Yes, and you want it. The normal route through City of Forever opens with the three hardest jumps in the game, all crammed into a tight enclosed space. The short route skips them entirely.
Where the path splits, go right and sing at the statue. It answers "Access Granted", and the green blocks sealing a cave back the way you came are gone. Swim back, enter that cave and go into the teleporter ring. It drops Ecco directly below the time machine. Position him between the two dishes, fire sonar at the right-hand one, and the time travel sequence begins.
Ecco passes through City of Forever a second time later on, and the same route works. By then he no longer needs air, so the return trip is close to a formality.
How do you beat the Vortex Queen?
The Last Fight is the one level where a mistake really costs you. If the Queen swallows Ecco, you're sent all the way back to Welcome to the Machine and have to play the whole level again. The infinite continues stop here, and the health regeneration Ecco has had since the Asterite is switched off for this fight. Air is no longer an issue, so play it slow and safe.
A Vortex Minion waits in the tunnel on the way in. Like every minion, it takes two plain sonar shots: the first knocks its head off, the head chases Ecco, and the second shot finishes it.
The Queen herself comes in three stages. First the eyes: swim level with one and sing at it again and again, keeping your distance because shrapnel flies at Ecco. It takes a lot of blasts before the eyeball drops out. Then do the other side.
The jaw is the dangerous part, because this is where she can swallow you. Every so often the Queen sucks in. You'll hear a whoosh and see jellyfish being dragged toward her mouth, and that whoosh is your cue: charge into the jaw right after the inhale ends, then get clear. It takes four hits to break the first time, and you have to break it three times in total. Keep moving throughout, and don't charge from below, since that raises the chance she pulls you in.
Last comes the head. Clear any minions with sonar first, then line up with the bulbous head and charge. The screen flashes red on every hit. Five of them end the fight.
Passwords
Level passwords
The game begins in a cavern. Swim left instead of right and you reach the password screen. Most levels show their password together with their name before they start, so jot them down as you go. If you play online here, the Save button keeps one save per game in your browser, but a password works on any device and survives clearing your site data.
Home waters to Big Blue
- Undercaves: WEFIDNMP
- The Vents: BQDPXJDS
- The Lagoon: JNSBRIKY
- Ridge Water: NTSBZTKB
- Open Ocean: YWGTTJNI
- Ice Zone: HZIFZBMF
- Hard Water: LRFJRQLI
- Cold Water: UYNFRQLC
The Asterite and Atlantis
- Island Zone: LYTIOQLZ
- Deep Water: MNOPOQLR
- The Marble Sea: RJNTQQLZ
- The Library: RTGXQQLE
- Deep City: DDXPQQLJ
- City of Forever: MSDBRQLA
55 million years ago
- Jurassic Beach: IYCBUNLB
- Pteranodon Pond: DMXEUNLI
- Origin Beach: EGRIUNLB
- Trilobite Circle: IELMUNLB
- Dark Water: RKEQUNLN
The way home
- City of Forever (second visit): HPQIGPLA
- The Tube: JUMFKMLB
- Welcome to the Machine: GXUBKMLF
- The Last Fight: TSONLMLU
Easy-to-remember codes
The PLEASE codes are much easier to remember than the real passwords, but they can misbehave: in City of Forever the screen may not centre on the time machine, and Ecco gets stuck there.
- Undercaves: PLEASEII or PLEASESS
- Ridge Water: PLEASEZZ
- Open Ocean: PLEASEWW
- Ice Zone: PLEASEEE
- Cold Water: PLEASERR
- Island Zone: PLEASEFF or PLEASEPP
- The Marble Sea: PLEASEUU
- Deep City: PLEASEKK
- Pteranodon Pond: PLEASEGG
- Origin Beach: PLEASEQQ
- The Last Fight: PLEASEOO
And the laziest password of all: NNNNNNNN takes you straight to Welcome to the Machine.
Cheats and secrets
Which passwords give infinite air?
Three passwords skip ahead to the point where air stops mattering. SHARKFIN is the best of them: you start in The Lagoon with infinite air, and the game counts the rescue in The Vents as done, so the Death Sonar is already yours. STARFISH starts you in the Undercaves with infinite air. LIFEFISH sets Ecco up as if he'd already reached The Tube, which means infinite air, though his health still drains as usual.
On a first run I'd keep these for when drowning is what keeps ending your attempts. The air meter is a big part of what makes the game tense.
How do you make Ecco invincible?
Enter any valid password and wait for the screen showing the level name and password. Hold A, and while still holding it, press and hold Start until the level loads. It starts paused and without music. Press Start to play. To bring the music back, pause and press A.
Any cheat changes the passwords the game shows you, and Ecco stays invincible for the rest of the run. And if the Vortex Queen swallows him while cheats are on, the only way out is to reset.
Debug menu
Turn Ecco so he faces the screen, then pause. The easiest way to catch that moment: if he's facing right, press left and hit Start halfway through the turn. With the game paused, enter:
RightBCBCDownCUp
The menu has a stage select, a sound test, a music tempo setting, a message test that replays any glyph text, Unlimited Life, and a teleporter that moves Ecco to any X and Y position when you press Start. Teleport carelessly and he can end up stuck inside a wall.
Stage numbers don't follow the order of the game, and a few of them break it. 0 and 11 crash. 9 is the starting cavern, and leaving it through either cave crashes too. 19 is The Last Fight but crashes on entry, so use 27 instead. In debug mode, dying in The Last Fight also crashes the game unless Unlimited Life is on. The same option stops Ecco getting stuck in Dark Water, though crushing hazards can still kill him. Expect some corrupted graphics in the Atlantis levels.