Familiars are essential to your quest in the PS3 game Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. The right familiars can effectively be your sword, your shield, and even you magic. Each familiar genus offers different advantages and the specific creature type has set tricks and abilities. The Aquatica genus comes in five different variations. Aquatica are weak to poison, which is particularly dangerous to the health of your spell caster. Esther is the most compatible with this genus and Aquatica prefer pie over all other treats. The following guide to Aquatica familiars will help you determine which is best for your team.
Anglerfish – Anglerfish have woefully low evasion, accuracy, and magic attack, though they make up for this with high stats in the other three categories. They have a slightly higher than normal stamina, but this does not fully make up for a pitifully low speed. Except for the Bracer and Soulshield tricks of the Manglerfish and the Spanglerfish, respectively, the tricks of this genus are practically worthless. If you want a familiar that basically can’t be killed, this is a good choice, but even with a high attack score, battles will be painfully long when using Anglerfish.
Tads – All Tads are a mix of tricks that just don’t make any sense together and stats that don’t really work together. Assuming you don’t upgrade it early, the basic Taddlywink has absolutely amazing stats, especially magic attack. You can use it to attack and heal allies a little more effectively than your main spell caster, because it only wears defensive equipment. But, the later forms don’t keep up at all. Magic attack is the only stat that stays good and the upgraded Tads get abilities that aren’t particularly useful. For example, a Tadabout simply doesn’t have the defense or evasion to effectively use its Yoo-Hoo trick. If you really want to have access to water attack tricks, there is some reason to use a Tad, but usually you should switch to a new familiar once you have reached maximum level with a Taddlywink.
Splashers – Splashers are nearly identical to Tads in terms of stats and tricks, except a Splasher doesn’t suddenly nose-dive upon transforming. In fact, the magic attack of a Splasher stays phenomenal throughout all forms and it has very good defense and magic defense. There isn’t much reason to fight with a Splasher, but it makes for a great magic attacker. The advantage of using a Splasher instead of your main spell caster is that it generally has higher defensive stats. A Snapper is ever so slightly better than a Snipper because it can deal a type of damage other than water damage, but the Snipper has a notably higher magic attack.
Rays – Rays don’t have the raw magic attack of a Splasher or the monstrous attack of an Anglerfish, but they do have high scores in both stats and modestly good stats for every other category. In addition, all Rays have a respectable speed. Among the Aquatica types, this is pretty much the best all around familiar. The only real drawback of this type of familiar is that it doesn’t have any tricks that particularly stand out over others.
Sparkees – The main reason to use this type of familiar is to upgrade it to a Deecee. A Deecee can learn the Light of Life trick at level 50, which heals an ally completely. It also has a lesser healing trick that it learns at level 18. Beyond those two abilities, little else stands out among the various tricks that Sparkees possess. This is a shame, because like Splashers, it is a familiar with a high magic attack and otherwise respectable stats. Since the final from of a Sparkee has so much potential, it is probably better to use a Sparkee over a Splasher when you want a spell caster with high magic attack and good defense.
