How Wizard101's Underwater Locations Might Look Above Ground

Wizard101 has some great underwater locations. Celestia, a once great astral civilization, was just the beginning. But what would happen if you... drained them? What if you got rid of the water? What if they were locations above the surface? Here's what they might look like.

Underwater Tech

Ever since Wizard101 developed their underwater location design, they've used it a lot. First throughout Celestia. They also used it for Crab Alley (which may have come chronologically first as a test of underwater locations if I recall correctly), Atlantea in Aquila, Mirror Lake in Zafaria, Deepwater in Avalon, the Pitch Black Lake in Azteca, and Kataba Iceblock in Polaris. (Are there others I'm missing?) It seems they've let up on the underwater locations in some of the more recent worlds, but it's really incredible how many have it. Let's see what they'd look like above water.

The Crustacean Empire

One of the largest sections of Celestia which is underwater is the Crustacean Empire. It's also just a huge location with a lot of different areas. One of the first things you'll notice about a lot of underwater areas is that everything is - as you might expect - rather blue. Peel back that color overlay and you'll find some attractive colors underneath!

Use the Spiral slider in the center to see the game screenshot (left) and the above-water edit (right).

Let's shed some light on the subject here. How about all of those exposed undersea elements? Well, we're not trying to restore Celestia - that's a project for another day. But take away the water and things brighten up a little.

The mood of Celestia really does change when you're not underwater anymore. It almost makes it feel like the vibrant civilization it once must have been! Let's try not just clearing the water away, but providing a little bit more dynamic sky.

The Portico

This instance has a very grey sky... almost like they forgot the sky box. But get rid of the water, take away all the fish, and clear the sky and it's quite beautiful. I always liked the Portico.

Atlantea

Not all underwater locations use the same sort of effects. Some just look like you're already above water, but swimming. Atlantea, however, has a lot of blue added. Take out the water and you've got some really nice color underneath, so it's going to get plenty of attention from me. Just take a look at this room for starters!

Here's another underwater room with a little hole in the ceiling. This room houses a fun little puzzle that's part of the dungeon quest.

Not all of Atlantea's areas are closed rooms. This one ends up opening up to some pretty cliffs underneath, and I debated which screenshot to use. Once you take out the water, it almost looks like it could be an area in Tartarus. Discovering these kind of locations is one of the best parts of draining underwater locations!

It's Poseidon's throne room that really shines. He's got it set up beautiful trim and designs throughout. It's almost a shame that everything's so... watered down. Here's the view as you enter the throne room without water!

One of the cool parts of this room is that it's a huge platform in a very deep, dark room. Take a look at the throne room in all its glory from above!

Deepwater

One of the few other underwater locations that revealed some more detail and color upon draining the water was Avalon's lake. While I'd primarily been plugging in ordinary skies to show off the location itself, I decided to get a little more creative with this one. Who says we can't have Avalon in the evening?

Do you hope to see more underwater areas in Wizard101?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!