Subnautica - SCUBA, Unknown Worlds, drowning

No worries. The game will flood you with some blueprints, so keep exploring if you can’t refind it. Also, once you get later tools, go back to old wrecks and re-explore.

You’re going to run in to scary stuff. Persevere. Deep water and scary things hide greater knowledge and treasure.

This is really why i love this game. Sure, on some level, it’s almost like a jump-scare horror game- once you know what’s coming and how to deal with it, it loses its sense of dread (and replayability). But when you’re exploring the unknown, pushing into greater depths and new regions, finding all the weird stuff down there, it is epic.

I don’t hold it against the game that it doesn’t have co-op multiplayer, but when someone builds a multiplayer survival crafter like this that doesn’t rely on shitty leveling grinds like ARK or Conan (no matter how you can tune them, and preferably with some procedural generation option like ARK), I’ll probably buy a copy for everyone on my friends list.

There is one thing that is really annoying me, and that is a lack of a map ( unless its there and I just do not know about it). Clearly the starting premise of the game is that you have a PDA with an AI that is trying to keep you alive. It can catalog creatures, and inform you of various events.

Now if you were a high-tech society designing survival software, what is one of the most critical functions that someone would want if they were stranded somewhere? A god damn MAP. Above all, that has to be one of the most important features. You would want to know where stuff is and how to get to it? As you travel, it should map out where you have been and points of interest.

But no. It can fully analyze the flora and fauna of the world, but it can’t map it.

From what I understand that has been tossed back and forth by the devs. They have so far stuck with no map, but I agree with you, an already explored map would be nice to reference, especially if it showed beacons and things you’ve found. I mean, it wouldn’t show underwater, but it would be a nice frame of reference. The scanning room is nice, however.

I go back and forth on this point in my own head all the time. I think adding the in game map might trivialize things a bit, because though it doesn’t feel like it, some of the cooler biomes are actually quite close together and I worry about a map trivializing the experience. Then again, it would really be nice to know where the hell I found that piece of unobtainium! The middle ground in this game I think is pretty fair. Use the scanner room to find resources, caves, etc. Use the beacons to mark POIs on the map. In the long run I understand why there isn’t a map in game but the game supplies you with tools that replace a standard map.

Also a nice tip, and this goes for everyone: As the story progresses and new points of interest are added to your PDA, don’t just beeline for those, take all the goodies and run. Most of them are in specific places for a reason! Look around the area you were led to and explore. There is most likely something cool in the vicinity.

Also, once you find a POI and its beacon disappears, you can turn them back on! There is a beacon control tab in your PDA that lets you turn them back on again (easy to miss). Some of the POIs are very handy as free beacons (POI #2 is famous for this).

Last tip for storage management early game: You can make a quick base out of a single hallway or two, a fabricator, portal, a solar panel and wall storage units that fit right in the hallway. I prefer this to a dozen floaty lockers on the sea floor =)

The scanning room has its uses, but one thing its not, is a usable map. There is no way you can look at a dot on it and then hop into your sea moth and know exactly where to go. The HUD chip is nice, but again its not really any kind of map.

You would also want to take this map with you.

A lot of players download a map off the internet and put it in the game folder where PDA screenshots are held, thus making a ghetto map.

Just starting in this game. I have a couple of questions which I’ll use spoiler tags on.

I got the thing that lets you set up a pipe chain? What is a pipe chain? And said thing wouldn’t let me drop it in the water how does it work?

How do you get the fabricator to make all the blueprints that you can see?

Thanks!

Edit: The spoiler tag didn’t work, so I guess I need help with that too!

Quite honestly I have never used a pipe chain in Subnautica. I know that sounds absurd, I just dove up and down for air. Without spoilering, you get upgrades that let you dive further and have more air available over time, so you get used to it. Vehicles help as well because as long as they have power, they make air and you can refill by popping in and out of your vehicle. Bases you build make air as long as they have power, too. As you dive deeper you use more air. Getting a rebreather helps with this effect. There are also underwater flora known as brain corals that make air bubbles. You can swim above the air bubbles and refill your oxygen.

The fabricator took a little getting used to, but it’s menu driven and shows you all the blueprints you know. They don’t spoil you with what you don’t know, that’s part of the games schtick per-se. You learn stuff as part of pda pieces and artifacts you find elsewhere throughout the game, you scan those with a scanner, and wala, you get a new blueprint. Some things you create use construction other than the fabricator, so you have to make those items first before you can then make the follow on item. Some items require special rooms or external constructors to build too. So just because you scan something and get all the pieces for it, that doesn’t always mean it’s made in a fabricator. The game misses the boat a little in this regard, but you can look up the associated item in the PDA and find out more information.

As time goes by, or as you get close to things or wander into new areas, you will trigger events and messages. These lead you toward new things, new locations, new wrecks, etc.

Wrecks are your friend for finding blueprint pieces.

Thanks Skipper!

No worries, good luck with the scares, this game is full of them. >:)

Quick story, I game with earbuds early on weekend mornings while the house is quiet. My GF will come into the room and if I playing Subnautica even a little tap on my shoulder will scare the living crap out of me. I love how the game draws you in.

Additionally you can place a picture frame and activate any one of those PDA screenshots on it, thus providing a full map that you can easily glance at, say, while piloting your Cyclops or before exiting your base. That combined with the coordinates available through the F1 key.

Another tip that’s probably been covered RE the scary stuff. I found at one point that when spending lots of time just hanging around an area that terrified me, I would slowly become more and more comfortable just being down there and eventually the terror would subside. I believe this could accurately be described as normalization. :)

Public service message: The, “go live,” is today, (Tuesday for most of the North American folks.) Be sure and check for updates on Steam and if necessary, restart steam to validate.

God speed to you guys shipwrecked from the Aurora.

Just thought I’d add that for anyone not interested in using a map that isn’t technically in-game, liberal use of Beacons (you can turn their visuals off when you aren’t using them) accomplishes the same function. I just got in the habit of always having 2-3 on me and dropping them on biome edges and labelling them stuff like kelpforest/redgrass or mushroom/bulbs.

They cost 1 titanium and 1 copper so it really isn’t much of an investment and really sped up my travel times.

I did the same, and that’s probably how the designers meant for it to be played. I do sometimes wish there was a real map, still, though. The scanner room at full range is seriously cool, though.

For those wishing to view the launch stream on Twitch, details can be found here:

Launch time for east/west coast:
EST - 9.15PM, Jan 23rd
PST - 6.15PM, Jan 23rd

Damn it. You guys talking about this makes we want to get back to it on Xbox. Trying to wait for the official release!

They’re live streaming from the Monterey Bay Aquarium? That’s pretty cool.

I thought the release would have happened by now. So does the final update go live when they do the launch stream hours (from now) later tonight?

Correct. It’s part of the stream, the Steam update release. Just for PC, however. Apparently Xbox gets the final version a bit later.

Just to be clear, that countdown is also the time to that patch release on Steam. Also mentioned above, but games played and saved now on the current rev WILL BE COMPATIBLE with the final release.

Also a nice write up from RPS going over future plans. The summary, further content depends on how well the release sells.