Line #22 YMMV/Insaniquarium


1	* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper:
2	** Blip in challenge mode. He opens everything in the shop early, making everything go up in price early on. This can break the game against your favor.
3	** Breeders. Once you get enough of them, they'll actually produce too many guppies to the point that you'll have trouble feeding them all even with max food upgrades.
4	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The soundtrack has a lot of underrated gems. In particular, the Chinese-inspired track from Tank 3 is just lovely.
5	* BreatherBoss: Destructor, introduced in Tank 2, where you also obtain Rufus, who can make fighting him a lot more easier since Destructor stays at the bottom of the tank. While he can be a {{Demonic Spider\|s}} if you don't know how to destroy his missiles and don't have Rufus, once you learn that, he becomes a joke. He is also a big part in [[spoiler:getting a NoCasualtiesRun at the final battle.]]
6	* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Initially, you will only have access to 3 pets at once per stage (until you get to unlock the ArbitraryHeadcountLimit after unlocking all four bonus pets). Naturally, some pets are just better than others and will be more likely picked the most.
7	** Blip is one pet that players will almost always bring into a level once they unlock him. [[labelnote:Explanation]]When active in the tank, Blip will give you information about the fishes' hunger and detects where the next alien will spawn. He will also unlock all purchase options at the start of the stage[[/labelnote]] His mere presence can help you keep the guppies fed, help you adequately prepare for alien attacks and minimize deaths, and assist in completing levels quicker and more efficiently by opening the slots in the shop earlier. He's so useful that his only weakness is that he's [[AwesomeButImpractical detrimental on Challenge mode as it opens all price upon being unlocked on that level, which will always go up indefinitely until you completed the stage.]]
8	** Similar to Blip, Presto[[labelnote:Explanation]]when active, you can right click Presto to change him into another available pet[[/labelnote]] is useful when you still have 3 pet slots because of being able to turn into any pet you like, allowing you to change playstyles on the fly whenever you need to.
9	** When it comes to coin collecting, chances are that you are going to use a support pet like Seymour[[labelnote:Explanation]]When active, items will fall much slower[[/labelnote]] or Nimbus[[labelnote:Explanation]]when active, will throw food and coins back up to the top of the tank[[/labelnote]] to keep all the items at bay and click them yourself rather than using any coin collecting pet, simply because you will get them faster before they could be able to reach it.
10	** When it comes to defense, you will most likely pick Gumbo[[labelnote:Explanation]]Lures guppies of all sizes away from the aliens[[/labelnote]] and/or Rufus[[labelnote:Explanation]]Attacks aliens, but is restricted to the bottom of the tank[[/labelnote]]. Gun upgrades aren't that expensive in later levels and you will most likely use your gun to keep the enemy in the bottom corners of the tank, where Rufus can easily dispatch them. Gumbo lures all guppies away from the aliens, doing a better job at keeping your guppies alive compared to Wadsworth (Who can only protect small and medium guppies) so long as an alien doesn't somehow intercept him. Itchy is a CrutchCharacter that doesn't do as much damage later on, while having Gash in the tank means [[AwesomeButImpractical he will eat one of your guppy (including the royal ones)]], Stanley isn't that useful against aliens that aren't using projectiles to attack, and none of them can reposition the enemy alien.
11	* CultClassic: A lot of people who grew up with the game swear by it, and frequently return to it both for memories and the fun, addicting gameplay. Some have even attempted to make fan sequels or {{Spiritual Successor}}s to the game, though very few make it far.
12	* DemonicSpiders:
13	** Psychosquid, the Type-P alien, is very deadly for multiple reasons. He has very high health, moves faster than all of the other aliens, eats multiple fish at once, and after some time, he goes into a defensive mode where he regains health if you shoot him. He's particularly nasty in Time Trial, since fighting him is such a time-waster due to his aforementioned health. Getting Psychosquid fights can easily mess up your run.
14	** The Type-D alien, AKA Destructor, can be this for first-time players. [[GuideDangIt There is no indication that you can shoot the missiles it launches]], and even all the offensive pets plus a max weapon can't kill it before it launches a round of missiles. As a result, you'll be spending a lot of money to replace your fish before you learn how to destroy the missiles.
15	** Ulysses the Type-U alien can be this as, unlike Destructor, his energy balls won't be destroyed when you shoot at them. Instead, they get deflected and will kill ''any'' fish they come into contact with rather than the one it initially targeted. This can be frustrating if you have trouble deflecting, because deflected projectiles can cut down swathes of fish if they come into contact. It's especially bad in the later stages where you have a large amount of fish, as it can be difficult to deflect his energy balls without taking out a large chunk of your tank. If you have [[LuringInPrey Gumbo]] and aren't careful, you can [[EpicFail accidentally murder your entire tank.]]
16	** Bilaterus. For one thing, [[AmbiguousGender they]] have to be killed ''twice'' to stop invading the tank. Their spine also can kill fish, giving them a large hitbox for fish to be eaten by. Ultravores are especially prone to being killed by Bilaterus due to their large size, and it's quite costly to replace them ($10,000).
17	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Blip is quite fondly remembered by players. While being one of the most useful pets in the game definitely plays a part in it, it also helps that he's a very cute-looking porpoise with an interesting backstory.
18	* FridgeBrilliance: Carnivores eat guppies, which cost 100 dollars. They drop diamonds, which give you 200, enough to buy two guppies. Same with ultravores, but they multiply both values by 10. Coincidence? Unlikely.
19	* GameBreaker:
20	** Amp, especially in the stage where he is introduced. Your tank is full of fish that you can't seem to manage properly? Not wanting to farm hard enough for a royal guppy? Just let him zap your entire tank and turn them into diamonds! Combine this with Angie and Walter and you have the ability to turn your entire tank into a stupid money making machine [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential by torturing these fishes to killing and reviving the fishes non stop]], with only Bilaterus that possesses an actual threat to this strategy.
21	** While Blip is a BoringButPractical option for non-challenge runs, Presto has the very powerful ability to transform into any available pet on demand. Among other uses, this allows him to perform the [=Amp/Angie=] combo with only one fish while letting you have another two of your choice (Like Blip and Gumbo). There's a reason why he's only available after the final boss.
22	** Walter is an epitome of SupportPartyMember turned up to eleven. While positioning him correctly to be efficient can be downright impractical, Walter allows the player to use something like the Amp and Angie combo fast in succession up to five times until the 10 second cooldown.
23	* GoddamnedBats: Gus, the type-G alien. You can't hurt him with lasers, so you basically have to feed him to death. The problem is that when he first appears, you probably don't have a food quantity upgrade yet, so you can't just mash the left click button on him like other aliens. Once you have all food upgrades purchased however, Gus becomes little more than a minor nuisance.
24	* LowTierLetdown: While the pet balance is pretty decent, there are unfortunately a few pets who lag behind.
25	** Wadsworth will protect small and medium guppies from alien attacks. While this is useful for preventing a GameOver so long as the player has even one small or medium guppy, that's all he really has going for him, and even then, in Challenge Mode, he spits out guppies if they're the only fish in the tank. Anything better than a small or medium guppy (Read: everything else) is left at the mercy of the aliens, meaning if everything but the guppies are eaten, it'll be near impossible to recoup. There's also the fact that Gumbo, often considered much better for not only protecting large guppes as well, but also breeders, is unlocked only three levels after he is.
26	** You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who disagrees with the game's own sentiment that Rhubarb is a bad pet. His ability is to snap at fish to keep them off the bottom of the tank, and nothing else. While this isn't useless in the case of keeping fish safe from aliens pushed into the ground, his likely intended purpose, keeping fish from dropping money onto the ground to disappear into the sand, isn't very useful when Seymour does the job better by slowing money down to the point of it taking several seconds before the money fades away after touching the ground. Guppies can also easily be kept off the ground by using food near the top of the tank, or with Gumbo during an alien attack. The worst part of Rhubarb is that he's an active detriment in Tank 3, as he will snap small guppies away from the ground, making it overly difficult to feed guppycrunchers.
27	** Out of all money-making pets, Brinkley is considered to be easily the worst. He eats fish food to produce money, but most of the time, the money given is the pretty lousy Star (Only 40 dollars), which when considering you need to feed him three times for 15 dollars, means that he makes less money overtime than even Vert does. He can produce better types of money, but it takes a ton of feeding him to make that happen (You have to feed him 108 times to get a treasure chest). His money production is considered too much of a hassle than its worth, and players opt to use Shrapnel, Niko, or even Vert over him.
28	** Exclusive to Challenge Mode: Picking Blip is an unexpected death trap that many players new to Challenge Mode will frequently fall into by accident. While his informational utilities are as useful as ever, his ability to unlock the shop from the very start is incredibly problematic, as it causes prices to hike up from the beginning. As a result, people consider using Blip in Challenge Mode to be an outright SelfImposedChallenge, and will only use him via Presto once the entire shop is already unlocked. On the other hand, if you play your cards right, you can actually use Blip to complete Challenge Mode runs in record time by collecting a ton of money early and buying eggshells without needing to grow a Guppy to large, but this is more DifficultButAwesome than anything.
29	* NoCasualtiesRun: If you [[spoiler:beat [[FinalBoss Cyrax]] without losing any pets, the ending text will respond with surprise and call it an amazing feat]].
30	* NightmareFuel: Yes, even a game about raising fish [[{{NightmareFuel/Insaniquarium}} has its own page]].
31	* OneTruePairing: Yes, even this game has ships in it. Amp and Angie are frequently shipped together, both for its AngelDevilShipping quality (With Amp representing the devil to Angie's angel), and for the fact that [[GameBreaker the two pets synergize insanely well together]]. It's likely the only shipping in the entire fandom.
32	* QuirkyWork: This is a game where you take care of aquatic creatures while fending off aliens, robots, and other odd creatures from killing everything in the aquarium. There's a reason why it's called ''Insani''quarium.
33	* SelfImposedChallenge: [[spoiler:In Sandbox Mode, summoning Wadsworth, then summoning Ulysses, then summoning a whole bunch of non-guppy fish. The goal is to try to get Ulysses's orbs to kill all of the fish. You can also add to this by putting in Angie.]]
34	* SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer:
35	** The Virtual Tank allows you to buy guppies and carnivores in many different colors to keep as pets that you can name, in addition to the other fish available in the game. Your fish can't die, so it's incredibly laid-back compared to the other game modes. It doesn't hurt that the shells you get from the Virtual Tank can help you buy extra pets for the main game.
36	** [[spoiler:Sandbox mode]] also counts, provided that the player knows how to unlock it. [[spoiler:It allows you to infinitely spawn any fish, pet, and alien (With the exception of Cyrax and Mini-Sylvester) in the game with just a single corresponding key. A player could easily find themselves side-tracked from the rest of the game due to the endless possibilities Sandbox mode provides.]]
37	%%* TearJerker: The end credits song, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9scA_0ZKbY Lullaby]].
38	* ThatOneSidequest: Want to have more than three pets at once? You better grind hard for shells to purchase the four bonus pets firsthand, all of which equate to over 80k. In the game where you gain 1-2k for a very average Time Trial run, it's going to be a massive grind.
39	* ViewerSpeciesConfusion: It is actually surprisingly common for people to question whether Psychosquid is actually a squid or an octopus, because of him having 6 tentacles, a coned (but finless) head, and his name being Psycho''squid''. Octopus have eight arms, while Squid have eight arms and two tentacles (Though are often confused for having six tentacles).

Context YMMV / Insaniquarium