The creator of Maneater probably thought about combining Grand Theft Auto with Pacman but with a shark. It’s an entertaining and unique open world ShaRkPG as it is being marketed as, and it is loads of fun.

While it’s not really an easy sell, with PS Plus offering Maneater for free on the PS5, why the hell not? After a few hours of playing this game, it’s a whole lot of fun when you get used to the controls and the quirky world narrated by a trashy reality show host.

This guide will show you how to get started with this unique game in the hopes that you have as much fun with it as we did when we tried it out.

Know Your Nutrients

Your future megalodon levels up with the amount of creatures eaten throughout her quest for revenge. There are four base nutrients you could consume to earn enough points to level up evolutions at a nearby grotto.

Proteins, a base nutrient used to level up your advanced sonar, could usually be obtained from consuming predators such as barracudas, alligators, and humans. Fats, a nutrient used to help level up bio-electric evolutions, could be obtained from catfish and grouper. Minerals, a rarer form of nutrient able to power up defensive evolutions, could be obtained from consuming turtles. Finally, Mutagens, a byproduct used to reach ultimate levels of evolution, could be obtained from albino variants of current creatures.

If you feel that you’re not getting enough specific nutrients, seek out nutrient crates to supplement your current diet. They’re usually hidden in plain sight or you could seek them out by activating your advanced sonar.

Eat Turtles Every Chance You Get

Having a balanced diet is hard to come by these days with the bayou mostly polluted and every other water creature is either a catfish or an alligator. Where are you going to get your minerals? Besides looking for nutrient crates (which really only give you 220 minerals) or completing quests, turtles are a valuable source of minerals, plus they don’t fight back unless you run into the New York ninja turtle variant.

Your early body evolution – Tiger Body – has a skill called Garbage Disposal, which gives you an additional nutrient percentage depending on the level. Getting it to max (level 5) grants you a 25% extra bonus nutrient modifier. The only way you can level that up is through minerals.

Furthermore, your secondary evolutions such as Bone Teeth and Hearty could only be leveled up with minerals and they are both useful offensive and defensive evolutions, so level them up as early as possible. Turtles, while relatively abundant, are stuck at level 1. Even at max level of Garbage Disposal, you only get about 50 points of minerals per turtle.

Find a turtle, you eat it, and you eat it good.

Master the Evade and Tail Whip Combo

Early in Maneater, your baby shark isn’t the future apex predator four million years of evolution sculpted it to be. It will be vulnerable to larger predators such as alligators and barracudas. A good tactic is to learn how to evade incoming predatory attacks while following it up with a tail whip to stun the would-be assailant. By pressing R1 to dodge, learn to time it right with a well-timed L1 tailwhip.

While at this point in your life cycle, the combo is used mostly for defensive purposes, buying you time to escape, in the long run that same combo will be used as an offensive mechanic. If you’re able to stun your enemy just right, following the tail whip with a bite (R2) could trigger thrashing for extra damage.

Get To Dead Horse Lake As Fast As Possible

When you start your journey at the bayou, it could get boring quickly. The real meat of Maneater really starts when you’ve completed the first zone and reach Dead Horse Lake. To do so, you need to complete the first few missions and reach level 4 to grow into a teen shark.

The first mission is to find the grotto, which is simply swimming into the cave marked by glowing lights. Once you’ve accessed the grotto, you could upgrade your evolutions with the nutrients you’ve collected. The next mission is to consume 10 pieces of catfish at the given area. It’s pretty straightforward, but avoid the alligators. Finally, the final mission is to hunt down a level 5 Muskie, which is not too difficult considering you’ve been brushing up on your evade+tailwhip combo.

By the time you’ve completed, quickly level up to level 4 by simply collecting nutrient crates, other nearby collectibles and eating turtles. You’ll reach the target goal in no time. Besides the hormonal changes, being a teen shark isn’t too bad, you’ll be able to fend off against larger predators and break into bigger cages. Proceed to the Dead Horse Lake area and find the next grotto. This is where the game really begins.

Take Down Apex Barracuda To Get Bone Teeth

Once you’re in Dead Horse Lake, there are a few missions to complete before being able to challenge the apex predator in this area. I recommend you reach Level 8 to be able to take on some of the Alligators and the regular level Barracudas with ease. Make sure you at least have your Advanced Sonar and Garbage Disposal to level 3. If you’re able to get to Infamy Level One, that would be convenient as you’ll get the bio-electric teeth evolution, which allows you to stun nearby foes.

To reach Infamy Level One, make sure you kill a few humans to lure out the Hunters. Once the Hunters are out, start attacking their Jetskis until you’ve built up your Infamy level high enough to summon a Bounty Hunter, Bayou Willie. Proceed to kill Bayou Willie to secure your actual Infamy level and the nice evolution to go along with it.

Use your remaining fat nutrients to level up the bio-electric teeth to at least level 3 and at that point, you’ll probably be at a base level 8. From there you could challenge the Apex Barracuda, who’s a level 10. Utilize the evade+tailwhip combo to avoid its quick attacks and when it starts to gather a school of barracuda, your bio-electric teeth will stun any nearby mob to keep you alive. If your health starts to run low, either eat the attacking low level barracuda or pick off some catfish in the area.

Once the Apex Barracuda is defeated, you’ll be able to equip Bone Teeth. It’s great for extra thrashing damage and you could destroy fishing boats a lot easier. It’ll help you out on your next quest.

Increase Your Infamy to Level Two

The tricky part about increasing your Infamy level to be able to progress to the next area is that fishing boats are tankier than your average jetski. While the bio-electric teeth are great against fish mobs and other water predators, they’re not-so-great against larger inanimate objects such as boats.

Are you getting enough turtle in your diet? Because by this time, you would need more minerals to level up your bone teeth. Level 2 or 3 would be adequate to deal enough damage to the attacking fishing boats. By the time the Infamy Two Bounty Hunter arrives, you’ll be able to make quick work of that machine gun toting Bobbie Bojangles to take home the Hearty evolution.

Make sure you get enough minerals to level up your new skill and you’ll be needing it because the next area has no turtles at all. At this point in time, you’ll probably be at level 10. You are a baby shark no longer… Boy these kids grow up fast.

Maneater is available free on PS5 with a PS Plus membership for the month of January.