The detection rule on the wall is "IT CAN'T SEE YOU. IT HEARS THE WATER." Dry platforms hide you. A landing that clips the water still counts. Guides also describe the creature hearing the loud machinery at the Maintenance lock, so a valve is not a silent action.
Official experience images show a bulky dark creature with a round, toothed mouth and long claws moving through the pool. Written routes call the same hunter pumpkin-headed: an orange-brown round head, a dark body, and long arms. It can come up to a platform edge and open that mouth in front of you while a red overlay appears. Do not jump over it. The hitbox can grab you in the air, so treat the body as a wall.
If you splash
The creature runs to the splash. Move. Standing still on the pad you just announced is how early clears end. Distance matters: if it is far enough away, a splash can still leave you time to reach the next pad. That is not permission to sprint every gap. Water slows you once you are in it.
On SINKING PLATFORMS, do not stop on an ordinary pad to watch the creature. Those pads sink while you stand on them. Dark-bordered pads are the places you may pause.
Pebbles
Pebbles start equipped. Walk up to a cluster of rounded gray stones on a tiled platform. The cluster disappears and you gain one pebble, even if several stones are visible. The message shows the new total, such as +1 pebble (4) when you go from three to four.
There is no carrying limit on the Equipment stall. Buy 1 more for 5 Coins or 5 for 25 Coins in the purple EQUIPMENT circle. At Pebble Skipping level 0, one pebble makes 3 small splashes as it skips. Level 1 previews 4 splashes and costs 150 Coins. Later levels are not given a formula here. Each line caps at 3/3 and must be bought in order.
On PC, press the pebble's number key, aim above the water you chose, and click. Press the same number again to put it away. On touch controls, tap the icon, then tap THROW. Selecting it does not throw it. The hotbar's upper-left number is the slot. The lower-right number is the quantity left.
Throw into water away from the pads you still need. Watch the creature actually move. A throw toward a column can pull it that way and then back toward your platform. The splash is not a clearance signal.
Bottles and the flare
Bottles unlock for 150 Coins and include 3 uses. A bottle makes one loud splash and pulls distant targets to that landing. Use it when a pebble's small skips are not enough to move the creature off a far valve. Throwing Range lengthens both pebbles and bottles. It does not change how wide the attraction is.
Flare unlocks for 450 Coins with 3 uses. Extra uses are 50 Coins for 1, or 250 Coins for 5, with no per-use discount. A hit shows STUNNED and "Flare hit! It's stunned for 5s". The same target cannot be stunned again for 8 seconds, so a second flare during that window does not chain the stun. Flare Radius at level 0 is 10 studs. The level-1 preview is 11 studs and does not add stun time. Unlock Flare before that upgrade appears.
The Wind-up Toy unlocks for 300 Coins with 3 uses. At Toy Battery level 0 it runs for 6 seconds and keeps making noise while it waddles. Level 1 previews 7 seconds. It is the sustained lure. It is a worse first purchase than pebbles, range, or a bottle if you are still missing landings.
Aim every lure before you need it, then cross. Do not throw at your own feet.