Sword of the Sea Water Rail: Unlock and Trophy Guide

How to Unlock and Use the Water Rail

The Sword of the Sea water rail extends your triple jump into a brief aerial ride, helping you cross gaps and reach hidden collectibles. You gain access to it in Sacred River, the sixth chapter. Learning to connect rides also earns you Water Rider, which requires four consecutive water rail uses without touching the ground.

Perform a triple jump to trigger the ability. The rail normally lasts only a few seconds before you drop, so plan your destination before launching. Floating lanterns extend the ride when you pass through them, letting you travel farther.

The opening Sacred River rooms introduce this movement through hanging lanterns. Soon afterward, you’ll use rails to reach a room containing a water bubble and cross toward a water point in the middle of a large chamber.

Aim toward the next lantern before your current stretch runs out. For practice, follow the chapter’s opening routes before attempting longer crossings around the ships and floating islands.

Official page: Sword of the Sea (swordoftheseagame.com)

How to Earn Water Rider

The requirement is four water rail uses in one continuous airborne sequence. Touching the ground breaks the combo, so four separate jumps from a ramp won’t satisfy it.

Image: Steam / Giant Squid

You can tackle this near the beginning of Sacred River with a jellyfish, or use the lantern route around the large ship later in the chapter.

Repeat Rails Above a Jellyfish

The early jellyfish method gives you a way to repeat the ability without needing a long route:

1. Bounce on a jellyfish near the start of Sacred River.
2. Perform a triple jump to activate a water rail.
3. Jump off the rail immediately and steer back onto the jellyfish.
4. Bounce upward and trigger another rail.
5. Repeat until you have used four rails without landing on the ground.

Keep your rail rides short during this attempt. Jump off while you can still return to the jellyfish instead of drifting too far away.

Follow the Lanterns Near the Large Ship

For a route that also leads toward a secret shell, continue to the area where you raise a huge ship.

1. Activate the two switches reached from the smaller boats.
2. Reach the water source on the main ship and activate it to restore the surrounding area.
3. Find the small boat behind the ship’s left side.
4. Use the boat as a ramp, then triple jump into a water rail.
5. Steer through the closely spaced lanterns to extend your ride across the area.

Restoring the water reveals additional lanterns along with the returning plants and sea life. Complete that step before attempting the crossing.

Reach Sacred River’s Hidden Routes

Water rails also connect several collectible routes. Use these landmarks while exploring:

Image: Steam / Giant Squid

• Boats near the pillar: After bouncing up the jellyfish, cross the boats with water rails. A small cave on the third boat holds a secret shell.
• Roof above the large ship: Launch high from the halfpipe at the back of the boat, then rail toward the building’s roof to reach another shell.
• Island beneath the floating landmass: Follow the chain underneath the island, then bounce across the two jellyfish leading right. Activate the lantern group on the smaller island to reveal paper lanterns leading toward the far wall and the Trick Attack area.
• Boat near the chapter exit: Before following the exit bridge all the way up, look right for a boat on a pillar. Jump and water grind across to its shell.

Use the ramps and jellyfish at each location to gain height before committing to the crossing.

Unlock Water Rails in Every Level

Collecting all 50 secret shells lets you use water rails outside Sacred River. That makes the shell hunt the route to carrying this movement ability throughout the game.

Image: Steam / Giant Squid

Remember the mysterious vendor’s final reward: a secret shell. Receiving all five vendor rewards costs 8,550 Tetra total, so finding the shells hidden around the chapters alone won’t complete the collection.

Two updates help with tracking the hunt:

• The September 19, 2025 update added a collectible tracker to Chapter Select and the New Game+ pause screen.
• The August 29, 2025 update added a UI animation when collecting secret shells.

Chapter Select unlocks after completing the story, and collected items carry over into chapter replays and New Game+. Use the tracker to target missing collectibles, and keep collecting Tetra from chests, fish tiles, and Trick Attack rewards until you can claim the vendor’s shell.