Sea Monkees Quest

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How exactly is the location of the stashbox determined?

Description

The Sea Monkees Quest is the main storyline of undersea adventuring. You must search the zones of The Sea Floor to reunite the Sea Monkee family. Once they are rescued, they reside in The Sea Monkees' Castle.

Only the original six classes can complete this quest (e. g. no Avatars). The first two stages of the quest overlap with the quest An Old Guy and The Ocean.

Time-saving tips

You should always have Fishy active. Currently the best sources of this effect are the fishy pipe for 10 Adventures per day and the Lucky Adventure in The Brinier Deepers (The Haggling) for 50 Adventures per activation.
All underwater adventuring rules and tips apply. While many things don't work, some powerful things work only underwater. Some highlights:
- It's usually better to bring a water-breathing familiar such as a Grouper Groupie (a fairy), a Magic Dragonfish (boosts spell damage) or a Cuddlefish (a potato + a whelp) than bring some other familiar with a das boot. But most of the quests here don't benefit from a familiar that much (or at all).
- Check which ways of forcing item drops work and which don't.
- If you struggle with underwater combat consider using some pulled taffy, wearing a plush sea serpent (at least if you already have it or enough spare FunPoints to buy it) and using Mer-kin killscrolls on mer-kin enemies. But most of the things that help with land combats work underwater too, such as New Age hurting crystals or HP gear.
- Underwater-only effects and enchantments that decrease the combat frequency, such as Colorfully Concealed (obtained from Mer-kin hidepaint), are not subject to the -25% soft cap.
There are several things that you can progress in advance:
- Your sea lasso skill, by using a lasso in every underwater combat, preferably while wearing a sea cowboy hat and/or sea chaps.
- Your gladiator skills if you plan to use them.
- Words for the scholar path from a Mer-kin healscroll and a Mer-kin killscroll (but make sure you have trained your vocabulary skill and don't use the healscroll against mer-kin enemies). You can even do this in land combats.
There are several things that persist between ascensions:
- You should get a fishy pipe early.
- You only need to get Mer-kin Gladiatorial Gear and Mer-kin Scholar's Vestments once, thus you can skip both the Gymnasium and the School on subsequent runs.
- Deep Dark Visions can be permed to simplify future scholar runs (and the skill itself is useful in other situations).
- While Mer-kin knucklebones are not tradable, they are not quest items, so if you get spare ones you can use them in future runs.
Some, but not all, quest-related NCs can be forced. Notably, Into the Outpost can't be forced.
Many things useful or even required for the quest are tradable and should be bought in the mall instead of farming them directly. This includes sea lassos, Mer-kin wordquizzes and other items.

Tasks

If you have a sea lasso, either from the mall or from a previous ascension you can speed up the seahorse step by using the lasso on every underwater monster you fight until you can "expertly" throw the lasso. You will need multiple lassos, since they can break. Equipping a sea cowboy hat and/or sea chaps increases the amount of skill you gain from lassoing monsters. Lassoing will only be effective once per combat.

Rescuing Little Brother

Adventure in An Octopus's Garden until you obtain a wriggling flytrap pellet from a Neptune flytrap. Using it will free Little Brother, which unlocks the The Sea Monkees' Castle.

Rescuing Big Brother

Visit Little Brother and he'll ask you to find Big Brother at The Wreck of the Edgar Fitzsimmons.
Adventure in The Wreck of the Edgar Fitzsimmons until you encounter Down at the Hatch non-combat adventure. Opening the bulkhead will free Big Brother. Once you free Big Brother, he will open a shop.

Rescuing Grandpa

After rescuing Big Brother, Little Brother will ask you to find Grandpa. He will unlock a zone based on your class, so you won't need to buy the map from Big Brother. If you want to adventure in the two other zones (it's not necessary for progressing the quest), you'll need to buy the other two maps.
- As a Seal Clubber or Turtle Tamer, you must adventure in Anemone Mine until Grandpa teaches you a class-specific skill.
- As a Pastamancer or Sauceror, you must adventure in The Marinara Trench until Grandpa teaches you a class-specific skill.
- As a Disco Bandit or Accordion Thief you must adventure in The Dive Bar until Grandpa teaches you a class-specific skill.
There are 3 class-specific noncombat adventures in each zone, and Grandpa will teach you the skill upon reaching the third one.

The Mer-kin Outpost

Ask Grandpa about Grandma to unlock The Mer-Kin Outpost.
There are two things to do in this zone: search for Grandma, and unlock the Intense Currents. Grandma is the only source of the three Mer-kin disguises, at least two of which are needed to progress with the quest. If you already have the Mer-kin disguise(s) built from (a) previous ascension(s), then rescuing Grandma is optional; the Mer-kin stashbox, which is required to unlock the Intense Currents, is findable whether you rescued Grandma or not.

Rescuing Grandma

Adventure in The Mer-kin Outpost until you find Grandma's Note, Grandma's Fuchsia Yarn, and Grandma's Chartreuse Yarn.
Return to The Sea Monkees' Castle. Ask Grandpa about Note to obtain Grandma's Map.
Return to The Mer-Kin Outpost to find Grandma.

Rescuing Mom (optional side quest)

After rescuing Grandma, talk to Little Brother, then visit Big Brother's shop and "buy" the black glass. Equip the black glass and adventure in The Caliginous Abyss to rescue Mom.
- (Needs spading) Equipping a scale-mail underwear, a shark jumper, and/or having the effect Jelly Combed will decrease the number of adventures required to find Mom. Note that skipped combats will not advance the counter.

Unlocking the Intense Currents

Adventure in The Mer-Kin Outpost until a Mer-kin lockkey drops. Remember which Mer-kin dropped it.
Continue adventuring until you encounter Into the Outpost. You must use Combat Frequency modifiers (negative/noncombat) for this adventure to appear. Obtain the Mer-kin stashbox from the tent corresponding to the Mer-kin that dropped the lockkey. (Ex. If a Mer-kin raider dropped the lockkey, it will be in the skull-bedecked tent).
- If the lockkey dropped from the Mer-kin burglar, the stashbox will be available from one of the choices inside the camouflaged tent.
- If the lockkey dropped from the Mer-kin raider, the stashbox will be available from one of the choices from the skull-bedecked tent.
- If the lockkey dropped from the Mer-kin healer, the stashbox will be available from one of the choices from the glyphed tent.
Open the stashbox and read the Mer-kin trailmap to unlock the Intense Currents.

Traversing the Intense Currents

Ask Grandpa about Currents to unlock The Coral Corral.
- Obtain a sea lasso from the sea cowboy and train your sea lasso skills by using it on any undersea monster (aside from the wild seahorses found in the Corral) until you can "expertly" throw the lasso. You will need multiple lassos, since they can break. Equipping a sea cowboy hat and/or sea chaps increases the amount of skill you gain from lassoing monsters. Lassoing will only be effective once per combat.
  - If you obtain lassos earlier, ex. via the Mall, you can train lassos on undersea monsters before you unlock The Coral Corral.
- Obtain 3 sea cowbells from sea cows.
Tame a wild seahorse by using the sea cowbell 3 times to subdue it, then using the sea lasso on it.
Pass through the Intense Currents to access The Mer-Kin Deepcity.

Mer-kin Deepcity

Craft a crappy Mer-kin mask and crappy Mer-kin tailpiece from Grandma.
- If you have the Mer-kin Gladiatorial Gear and Mer-kin Scholar's Vestments from previous ascensions, you do not need to craft the equipment again.
Wear a Mer-kin disguise to access the Deepcity zones. There are two paths to unlock the Mer-kin Temple.
Note that once you finish one path and start combat with the penultimate boss, you will not be able to change your mind and do the other path instead.

Gladiator path

Gymnasium

Visit the Mer-kin Colosseum and be denied entrance.
Boost +Combat% modifiers and adventure in the Mer-kin Gymnasium until you encounter Ators Gonna Ate and obtain all five pieces of equipment. If you already have the Gladiator disguise and the three weapons from a previous ascension, this zone can be skipped completely.
- Note that this non-combat cannot be forced via Sneakisol, Clara's Bell, Stench Jelly, etc. These effects give you infinite -combat% and will make this non-combat impossible to occur. If you have one of these effects active you must spend it elsewhere outside of the sea to allow this non-combat to occur.
Train with the Mer-kin dodgeball, Mer-kin dragnet and Mer-kin switchblade by landing Critical Hits on monsters (Underwater only). Every 5 critical hits teaches a skill. Land 15 critical hits with each weapon to learn all 3 skills for each weapon. While not required, this will make the fights much easier. With the ability to do enough damage to one-shot gladiators, this training can be skipped.

Colosseum

Craft the Mer-kin gladiator mask and Mer-kin gladiator tailpiece from Grandma. Equip the disguise and adventure in the Mer-kin Colosseum. (Note: Do not build the disguise until you have the components for both parts. You can't return to the Deepcity with half of a Crappy Mer-kin Disguise and half of a Mer-kin Gladiatorial Gear. If you get stuck, visit Grandma to either deconstruct your advanced mask into a crappy Mer-kin mask or make another crappy Mer-kin tailpiece.)
In the Colosseum, you must win 15 rounds of increasingly tougher combat. Each monster can use special attacks that will make fighting them conventionally much harder if you can't counter them. These special attacks can be countered by equipping the correct Mer-kin weapons and using the special skills that you learned, based on the bolded word before they execute their special attack:
- Mer-kin balldodgers and Georgepaul, the Balldodger (Round 13) are weak to the Mer-kin dragnet. Use Net Loss, Net Gain or Net Neutrality to counter their special attack.
- Mer-kin netdraggers and Johnringo, the Netdragger (Round 14) are weak to the Mer-kin switchblade. Use Blade Sling, Blade Roller or Blade Runner to counter their special attack.
- Mer-kin bladeswitchers and Ringogeorge, the Bladeswitcher (Round 15) are weak to the Mer-kin dodgeball. Use Ball Bust, Ball Sweat or Ball Sack to counter their special attack.
- The order you fight the Mer-kins is always the same: balldodger, netdragger, bladeswitcher, and back again.
Note that with enough raw power you can ignore the intended mechanics and just fight them directly. Due to modern power creep in skills, buffs and combat items, it is now much easier to do so.
- Their special attacks only take effect on their turn on round 2. If you get the jump, you can kill them in two turns to avoid any specials.
- For the netdragger's sling, you can either deal a lot more damage per hit than they heal, or wait out the buff and heal through their attacks with things like New Age healing crystals, then strike before they re-use the move.
- For the bladeswitcher's damage-reflecting bust, heal through their attacks and check if the ability has expired with low damage attacks like seal tooth and Sing or passive damage effects like Smokin'.
- You can buff your mysticality and then use strong uncapped spells like Shrap, Grease Lightning and Volcanometeor Showeruption.
- You can buff your moxie and use the mercenary pistol.
- Seal clubbers with sufficiently buffed muscle and Weapon Damage can just use Lunging Thrust-Smack.
- All classes can buff their mainstat and use party favors, love songs, and items like grody jug and shard of double-ice. Ambidextrous Funkslinging is very convenient here to kill within two turns.
After 15 victories, you will gain access to the Mer-kin Temple to fight Shub-Jigguwatt.

Scholar path

School

You need to obtain the Mer-kin scholar mask and Mer-kin scholar tailpiece. If you already have them from previous ascensions this zone can be skipped, as the wordquizzes and cheatsheets are tradeable.
Adventure in the Mer-kin Elementary School until you encounter a non-combat adventure. Initially you will have to pick the correct choice to unlock another non-combat adventure:
- Bored of Education: Offer to Play Dry Willy. Unlocks No Rest for the Room.
- ~~Woolly~~ Scaly Bully: Bully the Nerd. Unlocks The Case of the Closet.
- A Mer-kin Graffiti: Threaten To Turn Them In. Unlocks Raising Cane.
- Unlocking any one of these adventures also unlocks Halls Passing in the Night if you have a Mer-kin hallpass in your inventory.
Obtain up to 10 Mer-kin wordquizzes and an equal number of Mer-kin cheatsheets. You can find wordquizzes in either Raising Cane or Halls Passing in the Night by choose the lounge options. Note that the lounge option in Halls Passing is only available after unlocking Raising Cane. If you have a Mer-kin bunwig in inventory, you will obtain 3 wordquizzes. Otherwise, you will find only 1 wordquiz.
The lounge options also give the pieces required to craft the Mer-kin scholar mask and the Mer-kin scholar tailpiece. (Note: Do not build either disguise piece without finding both components.)
Each time you use a Mer-kin wordquiz with a Mer-kin cheatsheet in your inventory, your Mer-kin vocabulary skills will increase by 10%. It is not necessary to max out your vocabulary to 100%; a high vocabulary skill will merely speed up your acquisition of phrases in the next stage of the quest.

Library

Craft the Mer-kin scholar mask and Mer-kin scholar tailpiece from Grandma. Equip the disguise and adventure in the Mer-kin Library. (Note: Do not build the disguise until you have the components for both parts. You can't return to the Deepcity with half of a Crappy Mer-kin Disguise and half of a Mer-kin Scholar's Vestments. If you get stuck, visit Grandma to either deconstruct your advanced mask into a crappy Mer-kin mask or make another crappy Mer-kin tailpiece.)
At the Mer-kin Library, adventure until you find a Mer-kin dreadscroll. You will need to fill in 8 phrases to solve its puzzle. Each of the following actions reveals a specific phrase:
- Use a Mer-kin healscroll in combat. Your Mer-kin vocabulary level affects the likelihood of a phrase being revealed on use.
- Use a Mer-kin killscroll in combat. Your Mer-kin vocabulary level affects the likelihood of a phrase being revealed on use.
- Obtain a Mer-kin worktea from a Mer-kin alphabetizer. Eat sushi, and the worktea will be consumed, revealing a phrase.
- Obtain a Mer-kin knucklebone from a Mer-kin drifter and use it to reveal a phrase.
- Use a Mer-kin darkbook to learn Deep Dark Visions (not necessary if the skill has been permed). You need at least 500 HP to cast it, and at least 9 Spooky resistance (8 for Mysticality classes) to survive the damage. If you do, one of the messages may contain a phrase.
- Adventure in the Mer-kin Library until you encounter the Playing the Catalog Card non-combat adventure. Three of the choices here contain a phrase. Every 10% of Mer-kin vocabulary skill removes one non-phrase choice. At 0% skill there are thirteen choices, and at 100% only the three correct choices remain.

Fill in all 8 correct phrases in the dreadscroll to unlock the Mer-kin Temple and fight Yog-Urt.
- If you have not obtained all 8 phrases, you can attempt to guess them. Each wrong guess costs you one turn and leaves you with 3n - 1 turns of Deep-Tainted Mind where n is the number of incorrect phrases. Deep-Tainted Mind is an unremoveable effect which gives -50% Mysticality and prevents you from using the dreadscroll again while it's active. Because there are only 4 possibilities for each phrase, guessing one or two phrases is relatively easy. The number of phrases you can guess is limited only by your willingness to burn off adventures between guesses.

Mer-kin Temple

If you completed the gladiator path, you will face Shub-Jigguwatt, Elder God of Violence.

Defeating Shub-Jigguwatt requires overpowering him with regular attacks. Before the fight, you will receive a debuff that dramatically increases MP costs for spells. In addition, he will remove all your MP and you will take damage based on 1/2 the MP lost. If you deal damage to him with anything other than a regular attack (including damage-dealing effects and familiar attacks) he will use a counter attack that deals increasingly heavier damage every time it's used. He has 3000 HP and 4000 Attack/Defense, and is resistant to all elemental damage.
Luckily, overpowering him is now almost trivial, since he lacks any resistance to large percentage delevelers. Use jam band bootleg, robin's egg, crayon shavings, electronics kit, and/or rattler rattle, possibly magnified by dark porquoise ring/Ruthless Efficiency, and squish him once he's (relatively) tiny.

If you completed the scholar path, you will face Yog-Urt, Elder Goddess of Hatred.

Before the fight, you will receive a debuff that limits your base stats to 30, and you will continuously take ~90% of your max HP in damage every turn. Attacking Yog-Urt (including damage-dealing effects and familiar attacks) while this debuff is active will trigger an insta-kill counter attack. The debuff wears off after 8 rounds, minus 1 round for each Mer-kin prayerbeads equipped. After that, Yog-Urt is a significantly easier fight, with only 400 Attack/Defense.
To survive the debuff, you'll have to heal every round, but skills are disabled and you can use any combat item only once in this fight. As such, you'll need a variety of different healing items.
- Lower your max HP to the point where cheap healing items like red pixel potions can restore over 90% of your HP. See the Yog-Urt page for a list of healing items.
- With 3 prayerbeads equipped, you only have to survive for 5 rounds, which means you need at least 5 different healing items to survive Yog-Urt.
- Another strategy is to wear 2 prayerbeads and a Mer-kin gutgirdle. If you have a lot of non-removable passive HP-increasing skills (like Spirit of Ravioli), the gutgirdle can dramatically lower your max HP. This means you need to go 6 rounds before the debuff is gone, but you may be able to get by with cheaper consumables.
Make sure that you still have enough stats and combat ability to defeat Yog-Urt after the debuff ends. Your buffs will be restored to full effectiveness once the debuff wears off.

The Real Final Boss

Each Hateful Habiliment and Violent Vestments piece of the same slot can be meatsmithed together to create a Clothing of Loathing piece. You will need to clear both the gladiator and scholar path with all 6 classes (that's 12 ascensions worth of awesome).
Equip the 6 Clothing of Loathing pieces you have and enter the Mer-kin Temple. This is a separate "third" path, and can be done without any other adventuring in the Deepcity. Notably, though, it cannot be done after you kill Shub-Jigguwatt or Yog-Urt, and you cannot kill either of those two bosses after killing the final boss.
Once you enter the Temple, you will face the real final boss.
- Before the fight, all your buffs will be removed and you will receive an effect that basically reduces the turn limit to 12. The boss is resistant to 5 of the 6 damage types on any given turn, and changes vulnerability each turn. The damage type that the boss is not resistant to in a given turn is determined by clues given out in the intro text. See the boss's page for tools to determine the pattern of weakness. Once you figure out the boss's vulnerability, the 120 MP Hobopolis elemental spells, possibly with other powerful spells like Toynado, Shrap, and Volcanometeor Showeruption, will be enough to defeat it within the 11-round limit.

Rewards

Access to Big Brother's shop and a bubblin' stone.
Learn a class-based skill:
Grandpa's stories unlock new items and encounters, including a trophy opportunity.
Access to Grandma's shop.
Access to Mom's effects.
Taming a wild seahorse increases your initiative when adventuring underwater.

Hat	Weapon	Off-hand	Pants	Accessory 1	Accessory 2	Accessory 3
Lens of Violence (S)	Pigsticker of Violence (DB)	Brand of Violence (TT)	Jodhpurs of Violence (AT)	Ass-Stompers of Violence (SC)	Novelty Belt Buckle of Violence (P)
Lens of Hatred (AT)	Staff of Simmering Hatred (P)	Cold Stone of Hatred (SC)	Pantaloons of Hatred (S)	Fuzzy Slippers of Hatred (DB)	Girdle of Hatred (TT)
Goggles of Loathing	Stick-Knife of Loathing	Scepter of Loathing	Jeans of Loathing	Treads of Loathing	Belt of Loathing	Pocket Square of Loathing