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This article is about SOMETHING IN THE WATER. For more info on SOMETHING and its variants, see the SOMETHING category page.
SOMETHING IN THE WATER, also known as FEAR OF DROWNING and DROWNING, is an enemy in OMORI and one of the many variants of SOMETHING that can be fought in-game.
PROFILE[]
SOMETHING IN THE WATER appears as a large, blue mass of tangled appendages, possibly resembling kelp, tentacles, or roots. At the end of some appendages are shapes that resemble hanging people. It possibly resembles MARI's hair when she dove into the lake to save SUNNY.
STORY[]
SUNNY ROUTE[]
On TWO DAYS LEFT, AUBREY and THE HOOLIGANS can be found bullying BASIL after finding him in their secret hangout spot within FARAWAY PARK. After a fight with SUNNY and KEL, the rest of the HOOLIGANS leave with only AUBREY remaining. KEL and SUNNY confront AUBREY about her repeated bullying towards BASIL, which causes her to lash out at the two about not being there for her when MARI died. She then confronts BASIL and accidentally pushes him into the lake out of anger. While KEL distracts AUBREY, SUNNY reluctantly dives into the lake to save BASIL.
After diving into the lake, SUNNY appears inside a dark version of his house that seems to be submerged underwater, where MARI's spirit appears and leads SUNNY down the stairs to a DULL KNIFE. She then disappears, and a large face identical to that of SOMETHING IN THE DARK and SOMETHING IN THE WALLS appears behind SUNNY, engulfing him in darkness and initiating the fight with SOMETHING IN THE WATER.
Similar to the previous fear-related battles, attacking SOMETHING IN THE WATER will do nothing. During the fight, the mysterious voice once again calls out to SUNNY, reminding him how to PERSIST. Each time PERSIST is used, it weakens SOMETHING IN THE WATER. Using PERSIST three times defeats SOMETHING IN THE WATER and SUNNY's fear of drowning.
After SOMETHING IN THE WATER is defeated, SUNNY briefly hallucinates MARI diving down to rescue him once again before blacking out. Then, it is revealed that in the present, SUNNY and BASIL were saved by HERO in a similar fashion.
OMORI ROUTE[]
On the OMORI ROUTE, SOMETHING IN THE WATER is first encountered after SUNNY finishes his chores and takes a bath. While in the bath, SUNNY appears to fall asleep, causing his entire body to submerge underwater. The battle is similar to that of the SUNNY ROUTE, in which SUNNY learns to PERSIST. SUNNY then wakes up in the bathtub and can return to bed.
After saving BASIL in BLACK SPACE and resetting HEADSPACE, SOMETHING IN THE WATER, now titled DROWNING in the game's data, can be fought again in the LOST LIBRARY alongside the previous two variants after bringing the SHEET MUSIC to the piano. Unlike in the SUNNY ROUTE, it can be damaged. When defeated, OMORI will learn the skill SUFFOCATE. Defeating it is necessary to obtain the Repressed achievement and enter BLACK SPACE 2.
BATTLE[]
GENERAL[]
| STATS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 HEART
|
 JUICE
|
ATTACK | DEFENSE | SPEED | LUCK | HIT |
| 9000 | 4500 | 10 | 10 | 900 | 10 | 1000 |
| STATS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HEART
|
JUICE
|
ATTACK | DEFENSE | SPEED | LUCK | HIT |
| 10300 | 0 | 84 | 84 | 70 | 10 | 95 |
SKILLS[]
| SKILL | NOTES | DAMAGE |
|---|---|---|
| ATTACK | Water pulls _____ in different directions.
|
(Foe's Max HP x 0.10) |
| DO NOTHING | SOMETHING listens to _____ struggle.
|
- |
| DRAG DOWN | (No description)
|
(Foe's Max HP x 0.50) |
| SKILL | NOTES | DAMAGE |
|---|---|---|
| ATTACK | Water pulls _____ in different directions.
|
(Foe's Max HP x 0.15) |
| DO NOTHING | SOMETHING listens to _____ struggle.
|
- |
| DRAG DOWN | (No description)
|
(Foe's Max HP x 0.50) |
| WHIRLPOOL | SOMETHING creates a whirlpool.
|
(Foe's Max HP x 0.10) |
| DROWNING SMALL* | (No description)
|
(50) |
| DROWNING MEDIUM* | (No description)
|
(100) |
| DROWNING LARGE* | (No description)
|
(150) |
Some skills, unless stated otherwise, have a 20% variance rate. This means they will do between 80% and 120% of their regular damage. Most skills, on the other hand, have no variance.
*Although there is no enemy text for the DROWNING skills, the player text reading either Everyone is having a hard time breathing or Everyone feels like passing out indicates the party slowly drowning to death.
AI[]
| SKILL | BEHAVIOR | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| For the first and second turns, SOMETHING will drag SUNNY deeper into the water by reducing 50% of his Max HP.
For the third to fifth turns, SOMETHING will do nothing. For the sixth turn onwards, SOMETHING will always attack by reducing 10% of SUNNY's Max HP. As SUNNY gets dragged down further, SOMETHING IN THE WATER's appearance drastically changes from Phase 1 to Phase 3. Only after learning PERSIST and using it three times total will the fight automatically end. | ||||
| SKILL | NOTES | BEHAVIOR |
|---|---|---|
| ATTACK | Water pulls _____ in different directions. | 40% |
| DO NOTHING | SOMETHING listens to _____ struggle. | 25% |
| DRAG DOWN | (No description) | 40% |
| WHIRLPOOL | SOMETHING creates a whirlpool. | 100% |
Every turn, each enemy will start by trying to use the skill listed at the top. If the calculation fails, they move on to the second skill and so on, until reaching the final skill which is guaranteed to activate. Each calculation is done independently from the previous ones, so the added percentage is not 100%.
STRATEGY[]
As most of the other fights in FARAWAY TOWN, SOMETHING IN THE WATER's A.I. is completely scripted, meaning SUNNY must use his previous skills from the previous SOMETHING fights to withstand the creature's attacks. Once SUNNY learns PERSIST on the fourth turn, the player must use it three more times to automatically end the fight.
In the LOST LIBRARY, similarly to the other fear-related bosses in the OMORI ROUTE, OMORI's friends start off AFRAID, rendering them unable to use skills. Skills or items can be used to remove it. Throughout the battle, SOMETHING IN THE WATER uses skills that both damage and reduce SPEED. At the end of every turn, SOMETHING IN THE WATER will attack by summoning a whirlpool, reducing their speed and dealing damage, and then all party members are damaged at a fixed value. SOMETHING IN THE WATER is able to use three skills per turn: it will use one during its move, and then another two at the end of every turn.
The battle occurs in three phases that progress as SOMETHING IN THE WATER's health is depleted, and the phases are indicated by a transition of SOMETHING IN THE WATER's appearance from the top to the bottom. With each phase, the damage received at the end of every turn increases from 50 to 100, then to 150. It is recommended to use healing items/skills that can heal the entire party, such as HERO's SNACK TIME, due to SOMETHING IN THE WATER's constant AoE damage.
Much like SOMETHING IN THE DARK, this fight is primarily a damage race, as SOMETHING IN THE WATER's ability to reduce party members' maximum HP coupled with its increasingly powerful DROWNING effect means its damage output can become unsustainable. Since it starts out quite weak, though, it is recommended to use the early turns to shred its defenses with AUBREY's POWER HIT, HERO's TENDERIZE and RUBBER BANDs. You can then combine KEL's TICKLE and OMORI's RED HANDS to dish out extreme amounts of damage in order to whittle down SOMETHING IN THE WATER's impressive health pool as quickly as possible. Additionally, it will likely be possible to use the ultimate attack every turn so you may just use HERO's SNACK TIME + ultimate attack every turn.
QUOTES[]
Mari's Advice (Something in the Water)
|
|---|
|
SOMETHING drags you down...  ???: Steady your heartbeat... Don't be afraid. It's not as scary as you think. ???: You have to keep going. Don't give up. No matter how impossible it seems... You reach out to the voice... and remember how to PERSIST.
You push through the darkness and swim higher... |
Unused version of the battle (Troop 459)
|
|---|
|
SOMETHING drags you down...
You feel BASIL thrashing in the water... You can't move!
BASIL stopped moving.
???: Steady your heartbeat... Don't be afraid. It's not as scary as you think.
???: You have to keep going. Don't give up. No matter how impossible it seems... You reach out to the voice... and remember how to PERSIST. |
Mari's Advice (Unused)
|
|---|
|
You feel a chill run down your spine... ???: SUNNY... Sometimes it's okay to be afraid. ???: I'm right here with you. Take a deep breath and open your eyes. |
Player Text (Something in the Water)
|
|---|
|
The room fills with water. You feel like you can't breathe. |
GALLERY[]
.png "Something In The Water (Pre-Battle).png (217 KB)")
TRIVIA[]
- When SUNNY returns to his room after defeating SOMETHING IN THE WATER on the OMORI ROUTE, there is a 50% chance of finding "something" sleeping in his bed. Leaving the room and re-entering will cause it vanish.
- In the game's data, this figure is referred to as Something in the Bed. Curiously, it also uses the same overworld sprite as SUNNY during nighttime.
- The color palette for the three fear scenarios and BASIL's boss fight was originally meant to be red and black. This was changed to a deep dark saturated blue as OMOCAT wanted to convey a sense of dread and despair.[1]
- SOMETHING IN THE WATER's battle theme is named Thalassophobia, referencing SUNNY's likely irrational fear of deep bodies of water.
- In-game, it is simply known as SOMETHING.
- SOMETHING IN THE WATER is the only fear-related boss to not have a smiling face. However, the face appears behind SUNNY before the fight with SOMETHING IN THE WATER.
- In the game's data, SOMETHING IN THE WATER is supposed to grant the player 10000 EXP and 1000
during its fight in LOST LIBRARY but this doesn't happen since the fight abruptly ends once the player defeats the entity. - The LOST LIBRARY variant of this enemy is referred as DROWNING in the game's data.
- An early version of SOMETHING IN THE WATER appears within the game's files, dubbed FEAR OF WATER. All of its coding is removed in the game's full release but its images are all what's left of the enemy.
- SOMETHING IN THE WATER's rematch in the LOST LIBRARY has one of the highest healths of any enemy in the game, only surpassed by AUBREY from the console-exclusive BASIL RUSH event. In addition, it possesses more HEART compared to its normal variant, making it the only FEAR boss to have this trait.
- There is an unused version of the SOMETHING IN THE WATER fight, which is labelled as (With Basil) water in the game's data. When on the SUNNY ROUTE, SUNNY would see BASIL thrashing in the water at the start, and on the fourth turn, BASIL would stop moving. Eventually, SUNNY would learn the PERSIST skill on the eighth turn on both routes.
REFERENCES[]
- ↑ "Instead of using red and black for the fear scenarios and the fight with BASIL, I used deep dark saturated blue to evoke a sense of dread and despair. Saturated dark blue is a color that isn't used very often so I thought it could make the scenes more memorable as well." - @Drawfest4 on X.