Deltarune Chapter 5 Guide: How to Beat Aqua and Seth
Before you lose your mind trying to flatter Seth into submission, you need to realize this entire fight is strictly a test of endurance.
Aqua and Seth show up to stop you from foiling Flowery's grand plans, and they bring a brutal tag-team dynamic to the battlefield. If you are aiming for a complete pacifist run, this fight will test your patience. You cannot speed this up by picking the perfect ACT command. Flattering Seth does absolutely nothing because they just aggressively throw your compliments away. You simply have to survive for five or six turns until the duo's dynamic completely falls apart.
Surviving the Tag Team Phase
The first four turns of this encounter are rough. The game actively punishes you based on your past mistakes.
The duo opens up by using whichever attack you struggled with the most during your previous solo fight with Aqua. For me, it was the miserable knife fan attack where projectiles scatter into three separate blades. To make things worse, Seth tosses an extra explosive into the mix just to shrink your safe zones.
If you get stuck on the knife fan, the safest strategy is to move your SOUL directly into the space where the attack originated. The projectiles fan outward, so slipping into the origin point usually keeps you safe from the secondary spread. You will also have to deal with Aqua's infamous lily pad chunks. Do not try to jump over the blue balls. You want to hit the lily pads dead on to bounce in an arc. Keep your eyes on the right side of the screen to anticipate your landing and make tiny adjustments. If charging your dash is getting you hit, try spamming your dash input (Z on a keyboard or A on a controller) for better control.
On the second or third turn, Aqua tosses a little rubber duck into the bullet board. It is cute, but do not let it distract you from the explosives.
The Solo Seth Phase
After four turns of you stubbornly using ACTs and surviving, Aqua gets completely bored.
She decides she is tired of using the same moves on the same people, goes entirely rogue with a random attack, and then abandons the fight altogether. This leaves a very angry Seth alone in the arena. Keep using your ACT commands on Seth while they dodge your compliments.
Seth eventually unleashes their ultimate attack. The container spins rapidly while green words fly in from the sides. Those green words actually heal you, but they are massive bait. They are devil letters placed in highly dangerous spots to tempt you into making a fatal mistake. Do not charge your dash here. Use quick taps to maneuver safely and only grab the green words if they fall directly into your lap. Seth repeats this ultimate attack a second time at a much faster speed before getting dizzy and calling Aqua back to help them escape.
Inventory and TP Management
This fight will completely butcher your TP economy if you go in unprepared.
Before you trigger the encounter, you need to fix your inventory. Relying on Heal Prayer is a trap because it drains the TP you desperately need for other actions. When in doubt, just use the Defend command to mitigate incoming damage and generate meter. It is perfectly fine if Ralsei takes a dirt nap during this fight, but you must keep Kris and Susie on their feet.
If you are completely broke, backtrack to the fields and farm regular encounters for Flowery Dollars. Once your wallet is full, hit the soda fountain in the hub area. If you want to know what else you can do with your cash in the hub, check out my Deltarune Chapter 5 Guide: All Cafe Interactions. Stack your inventory right, ignore the healing bait, and you will outlast Seth's temper tantrum.
