Aqua Star
100% Route
Note: this page was adapted from swordsmankirby's guide. Some strats may be outdated.
3-1
At the beginning of the level, headbutt (or jump over) enemies until you get fire (left). In the second room, float up instead of taking the Zebons, grabbing Shard 1 along the way (right). Though you can squeeze through the Scarfies, it's faster to stay left and fire over because the platform is lower.
Hold the Emp enemy in your mouth as you navigate to the right, combining with the Poppy Bros. at the end (left). There are few things to be careful about. If you're too close to the Emp, you can swallow the enemy behind it. The Gloms (frogs in the wall) will destroy anything in your mouth, so it is imperative that you jump quickly past them. A safer strat would just be to swallow and take out the powerup later. Finally, I like to spit the enemy out in between the two sets of collapsing platforms so that I don't lose running speed. For whatever reason, you go back to walking speed if you spit on those platforms, even before they fall down.
In the room afterwards (right), just jump and avoid enemies. The two floppers are in the way, so puff them out of the way. The waterfalls push you down, so account for that when jumping.
Drop below the miniboss and run into it with the snowman powerup. After the four hits, the platform will sink, revealing Shard 2. To get to the door when the Tick enemy on the right is still there, just float up and walk towards the exit. Depending on its movement, you might be able to just jump over it or freeze it incidentally during the actual fight, allowing you to reach the exit more directly.
Navigate towards the bottom of the room and break the block with the snowman powerup. When climbing down the platforms, I like to hug the left side, but some people prefer to go more towards the middle. Since the snowman attack lasts so long and there's nothing nearby to help you break the block, you should activate it as soon as possible (i.e. once you reach the lowest level) to minimize the waiting time. After getting shot up into Shard 3, remove the powerup while falling to avoid faceplanting and run it into the Zoos. To avoid the Kapars, just run over the blocks.
3-2
Wait for the first column to fall and run underneath the rest. You can get underneath the first column, but it requires triggering it late with a precise jump. Waiting gives you time to throw away the yoyo powerup, which is useful for clearing the Sparky and Kacti enemies earlier in the level. If you're not comfortable with jumping underneath the Bouncys (middle), you can keep the powerup longer and get rid of it later (right).
Navigate through the mini maze to get Shard 1. There are several possible variations not shown here, such as floating up versus jumping up, or changing where you use fire.
In the next room, fire across the abyss to get Shard 2. In the next room, I like to do one fire on the ground to get the right spacing for avoiding the Kapars, but this requires relatively consistent single fire canceling. Take the last of the crushing platforms up to get closer to the exit.
In the Dedede section, it's faster to jump up the chains instead of climbing up them. It's easiest to damage boost off of the Galbo's fire breath to get up, but if you're low on health it's possible to jump past it. After grabbing Shard 3, jump before the pit to both save time and to avoid waking up the other Galbo too early. In some of the chain jumping sections, you can reduce your horizontal momentum by turning around twice to grab the chain at a better location.
2-3
Before entering the level, backtrack to 2-2 to get drill.
In the first room, use drill to get running speed as you enter the level, but keep in mind that you can get stuck on the entrance. Drill is useful for clearing out the many enemies in the beginning of the room. The first instance is using the drill on the first set of Boneheads. Depending on when you started the drill at the very beginning, it's possible to clear all four of them before letting go of the drill, but since it travels faster than you once you let go, you might as well do it as early as possible. The second drill comes after the Galbo, right before the block. If you do it too early, the second Bonehead might not get hit.
Also in this section is a rare exception to the slope mechanic. Since they appear to be flowing hills of sand, it's faster to run down these small slopes instead of jumping over them. Once you reach the big skeleton, use the drill to break the stone block, get rid of your powerup, and grab Shard 1. After dropping into the hole, take the path to the left. In the miniboss strat shown here, the third fire attack skims the bottom of the Fishbone so that the fourth fire (which is shorter and also slowed down by holding right) lands you right on the exit. Four "direct" hits is probably less than a second slower. After the fight, grab Shard 2 on the left.
The next two rooms are just tests of single fire, but there are some small optimizations at the exits. In the first of these two rooms, it's possible to slide from flat ground onto the slope, causing you to get into the loading zone faster than just sinking in the water. For the other room, try to spend as little time in the water, but don't go too far to the right or else you'll waste time sinking in the water.
The water sections can be sped up a little bit with a few fires. For Shard 3 you can duck in the crevice with the Fishbone. You can also swim to the right of the skeleton piece that drops, but it's slower. Notice that while swimming up to it, Kirby doesn't need to slow down, even when the Fishbone attacks. After grabbing the shard, you can fit in three fires before reaching the exit.
2-4
At the beginning of the level, toss fire and grab bomb. We toss fire here because it's really slow to do so underwater at the end of 2-3. After getting past a few enemies, let the Nruff pass you and then jump on the edge of the purple platform. In the elevator section, float up and damage yourself on these two shotzos. The gap between the shotzos is enough such that usually you won't lose your powerup, but it's still possible. To ensure that the powerup isn't lost, wait for Kirby's "panic" animation to show up before doing the second damage boost. Of course, if you're low on health, do fewer hits.
The strat shown on the left is what some of us refer to as "TAS Blocks". When you get the jumps correctly, it's faster to fall in and grab Shard 1 before combining for lightbulb. I like to do a short hop after the ledge grab to fall into the hole faster, but there's a small risk of jumping too high and faceplanting. In 100%, it's always better to go to the left side because the backup (right), where you grab the powerup first, is no faster if you start on the right side. When combining for lightbulb, keep in mind that the Spark-i can shoot at you, breaking your powerup if thrown. I also like to jump before inhaling because the powerup bounces up when it just gets combined.
Using the lightbulb, light up the panels in the background and press the corresponding switches for Shard 2. The switches don't have to be pressed in order, and you can jump after pressing a switch to cancel the animation. Since walking speed with lightbulb is really slow, you should immediately stop using it once you've memorized the images. After exiting by jumping up the ladder, float up and skip the whole room. When on the elevator, take out the powerup in preparation for the miniboss.
During the miniboss fight, we want to defeat it as quickly as possible while getting double spark, a powerup useful for Pix. The lightbulb can be used to deal two damage, while we swallow a mini Spark-i to do the remaining two hits. My strat is shown on the left, while a safer variant is in the middle. A crazy idea to save a few seconds is to just fight the miniboss with lightbulb (right), risking huge potential time losses in the Pix fight. In all cases, jumping up the ladder is faster than floating up.
In the last room, it's fastest to jump up the poles. The spawn pattern on the right is tougher than that of the left, so unless you want to save the amount of time it takes for Kirby to turn around, it's better to go to the left.
