While the Elder level isn’t the final stage of age evolution in Maneater, many players find themselves either stuck at Adult or wanting to know when they’ll be able to smash the Elder gates.
Your Adult shark will be able to evolve into an Elder shark when it hits level 20, but this age development is dictated by story progression.
So, here’s what you need to know about getting your bull shark to the Elder level.
Levelling-up your shark
To begin on the path to reaching the elder level, you’ll need to eat sea creatures, humans, and hunters to level-up.
In the earlier stages of the game, when you hit the level that triggers a growth evolution, you’ll often be told to ‘Visit Grotto’ immediately as you’d have passed the relevant stage of the story.
Growing from Pup level to Teen level can take place from level 4, with the next growth evolution (to Adult level) being available from level 10.
To evolve from Adult level to Elder level, you need to get to level 20 and then also defeat Scaly Pete in the boss battle of Sapphire Bay.
This task directly blocks the cue for you to visit a Grotto to evolve from Adult shark to Elder shark, but you can still increase in level beyond the level 20 marker.
How to fight Scaly Pete and reach Elder level
Many players have found themselves stuck in Sapphire Bay tasked with the ‘Fight Scaly Pete’ prompt over their level bar but without a mission marker.
To summon Scaly Pete for this boss fight, you’ll need to reach certain stages of progression in key areas.
What looks to be the primary method of getting beyond the ‘Fight Scaly Pete bug,’ as it’s being called, is to increase your infamy to Infamy Level 7.
This means that you’ll need to fill the Infamy Level 6 bar and then triumph in a battle against Lieutenant Shannon Sims.
Doing this should unlock the Scaly Pete mission marker, and will grant you the Mutagen Digestion organ evolution.
If that doesn’t do the trick, you may need to get the area progression of Sapphire Bay up to at least 50 per cent, which will involve defeating the Apex Hammerhead Shark to claim the Bone Body evolution and completing the other local tasks.
Defeat Scaly Pete and evolve to Elder level
If you’re already playing as an Adult shark at level 20 or above, you shouldn’t have too much trouble dispatching of Scaly Pete.
The boss battle sees you fight the main antagonist on his boat, with the conflict coming to a freeze midway through to usher in reinforcements for your human adversary.
If you can resist the desire to chomp apart more humans and their feeble boats and just focus on Scaly Pete’s ship, the boss fight won’t be too much hassle.
With Scaly Pete subdued and the Fat Digestion organ evolution unlocked, you’ll then be able to go to a Grotto to evolve from the Adult level to the Elder level.
Using the Elder Shark
As you can see above, becoming an Elder Shark enhances your breach lunge, air lunge, and lung capacity by another stage.
Along with being bigger, stronger, and having access to new evolutions, an Elder level shark is able to smash the Elder gates that can be found sealing off tunnels.
These aren’t to be confused with the huge armoured gates which stop the map’s areas from being connected.
To open these, you’ll need to grab a creature, aim towards and lock-on to the button to the top left of the gate, and then use the whipshot move to push the button.
From there, it’s onwards to becoming a Mega Shark by reaching level 30.