[NGTM-1R]

So this game, it is on Steam Early Access. And it is a little bit buggy, but it comes to me well-recommended. It bills itself as a survival/building game, set mostly underwater.

Something I learned from my wreck-diving stint when I was 15, in North Carolina: Water I can't see the bottom of and low-visibility shipwrecks (they're the uncanny valley for boats) give me the creeps. (I'm okay with high visibility shipwrecks, and weirdly, if I'm near the bottom, or looking up, I'm okay with any kind of depth.) So, naturally this is the perfect game to give me plenty of mental trauma.

Join me, as I put some psychologist's kids through college!

So, we start off aboard the starship Aurora, which for unknown reasons started going down over this planet. I jump into an escape pod, which gets damaged on the way down, and wall panel flies into my face. I black out.

Wake up, disengage harness, and...JESUS CHRIST THE POD IS ON FIRE GRAB THAT EXTINGUISHER!


Okay. Fire out. Let's climb out the top and see what's going on.

Water everywhere, and...I do believe that was my ride. The pattern of damage seems to suggest multiple distinct points on the outer hull, which either means it was hit multiple times from the outside, or had an internal problem that reached out in multiple directions.


It'd be nice if that was Mars, but I'm betting it's not Mars. That said there's something moving; that crescent shape in the top right corner appears to be some kind of bird.


There's something sticking out of the water over there. Not sure what. My next thing to do is actually go into the water, but it's night, and that sounds like a spectacularly bad idea. We'll wait until morning.


Dawn coming up, so here's the the thing in the water. It looks like a trumpet.


So, having no way to orient myself to anything save my life pod, here's "forward" towards the pod's status screens.


Here's "aft" towards the broken comm system.


The game is actually quite pretty.


Are those some kind of seacows? They appear to have glowing green holes in their butts. I'm just going to leave those alone. (Also pictured: my hands)


I have a shopping list for titanium and quartz, for air tanks. I picked up some metal scrap, but I'm not sure how to find quartz yet, so time to fumble about some more. I do have a secret plan for how to get more titanium to be handy, though, I'll show that if it works. (And describe myself as a moron if it doesn't.)

Getting dark again. Time to go back to the pod. Waitaminute...oh ****. (Also pictured: the UI.)

I don't know how close I am but I'm guessing the answer is "too goddamn close". The only protection I've got is the pod.


...and, the water. I could hide underwater from the explosion, and probably be safer. Water transmits explosion pressure waves better, but for shorter distances, than air, and any radioactive pulse would be reduced...

Okay so I'm going in at night.


It's actually quite beautiful, lot of bioluminscence involved. Those seacow things seem to have gotten a little closer. Ah well, at least it's not because they sense prey. They'd be moving faster then.

I finally emerged, to stare up at not-Mars again. From space I came, to space I shall not return at this rate. It looks so close, like it's taunting me.


Since the explosion seems to have happened, and I'm not dead, and the pod's intact, and I'm not irradiated, I'll just watch the sunrise from here.


So far my secret evil plan seems to be working.

I'm carrying metallic scrap to the area under my life pod and leaving it there, where it seems to persist. That's a positive. It's quite large in my inventory.

Here's some quartz in the grass. You collect this to make fuzed quartz glass for liners and other purposes.


This is the fabricator, which turns natural materials into useful stuff. It also tells you what you need, so it gives me shopping lists. Right now, I just made a couple oxygen tanks. They're small but refillable, and extending my dive time with two of them from 45 seconds (not Olympic-level but suggesting I'm in reasonably good shape) to 105 seconds. So they're worth about 30 seconds each.


Inventory.

Oxygen tank, two bits of fuzed quartz, a fire extinguisher I'm still carrying around, and a bunch of medikits. You might have noticed awhile back with the UI pic I'm at 80% health, presumably from getting hit in the face by a metal panel during the pod's reentry. I should probably get around to actually using a medikit. I don't have a limited supply of them. Technically.

This is the other fabricator, which makes only medikits. It generates a new one every once in awhile, and has just now. I've been stockpiling in the assumption bad **** will happen to me at some point.



I'm back out into the wild, looking for salt, which can be turned into useful things, and anything else I might find. At night. I got over that fear fast... I'm pretty sure these things are harmless. A predator this close would be moving to attack me.


Purple brain coral. It expels oxygen bubbles, three in a row, at short intervals. Each bubble gives you 10 seconds of air. The whole cycle is shorter than than thirty seconds so you can hover over one and refill your O².


Some kind of safe? It's marked "Seaglide Fragment" but I can't collect it. I must need special tools.


Kelp forest at dawn. That's new.


This is an interesting-looking little fella. Mostly eyeball.


Those critters look predatory. Long, thin, barracudalike, lots of pointy bits.


They're definitely predators, they're chasing me!

He broke off and went back to the kelp after a little bit.

Found some stuff I think is salt deposits.

They are. Okay. Let's continue our circuit.

Some wreckage, presumably bits of the Aurora. I'm not going to go visit, I saw a sharky-looking thing down there too. Long, flat body with fins.


...that's rather large, whatever it is. And while it's only faintly visible, it's moving, and I have no desire to get any closer to something which can probably crush me by accident and not even notice.


One of those predator things is...playing, with scrap metal? Huh.


Acid mushrooms. Not named such because they give you good trips. They're literally acidic. You can combine them with some copper I picked up earlier to make batteries.


Your pod is always marked on your HUD, like so, so you can always get home.


I caught a fish! It's easy when you have disembodied hands! You have to catch them for food, in survival mode; make water too. I have the game in Freedom mode, where I don't have to eat and drink, but do have to deal with literally everything else.


I did mention this game was early access? I'm not sure what happened here, but I'm betting it's a bug. They actually have an integrated bugreport system in the game, which I think I need to make use  now.


Making a battery.


To make a scanner.


Time to go out and scan things!


...just maybe not here. I must be closer to the Aurora, I hit some radiation.


And that was my first sojourn in Subnautica. Next time: more blundering around and trying not to get eaten as I explore the non-starter biomes.

[Phantom Hoover]

I really want to play this but I'm holding off until it's out of early access.

[NGTM-1R]

My ever-growing scrap pile. I'm not going to run out of titanium any time soon.


I pass near some of the big manatee things. They respond by...pooping?

Or that's poisonous ink globes popping. I'm betting it is. I have no real desire to find out by swimming into it.


Home sweet home.


So, this is where I need to go. You see those brighter green things? Kelp is called creepvine. That's creepvine seeds. They're heavy in oils, and can be converted into rubber or lubricants. I need both. I just have to find someplace that isn't being patrolled by those barracuda things.


My sojourns into the kelp tend to end up hurting. Not because of the barracudas, who I can spot and avoid, but because this happens.

We cannot allow alien worms to sap and impurify our bodily fluids! You have to punch them out to get them off. They do 5% damage every few seconds.

So now I have a knife!

...so I guess the *****in' space guns are out of the question, then? Bit disappointing, but "I'll make do" is the motto of survival games. And so, I will make do.

I also now have a welder, which I can use to fix the pod.

It's kinda nice in here, not producing smoke, well-lit...it's also tilting. Uh. That's worrisome.

My emergency comm system now works. So. What's out there?

Huh. The Aurora's comms and systems are apparently somewhat intact. To get there I'll need a radiation suit at the least. I've also scanned-up bits for a Seaglide, and it's a long trip. The Seaglide is a Diver Propulsion Vehicle, one of those little sled things divers use to get around. To make one, though, I need silver, which I'm guessing means going deeper and into the irradiated areas.

Which means I need to go cut some creepvine with my knife to turn it into fiber mesh for the suit. Oh well, back to the worms.

Stuff on the way: large coral structures tend to be tubular here. It's a good structure for filter-feeders, so not wholly surprising.


Still bugged, after all these minutes? New debris appears near the lifepod. It's just floating in the air, no biggie. I haven't seen any bugs that actually break things yet.


Some new kind of fish.


At first I was going "oh ****" but it turns out that's just how huge the Aurora's wreck is.


I was checking out this thing, which seems to be the dominant predator of the red-grass terrain...


...when I turned and realized one of the barracudas had snuck up on me. Fortunately, it was only interested in some nearby metal scrap.


It turns out you can pacify them briefly by giving them a fish you've caught. In fact, if there's nearby scrap metal, they'll actually bring it to you as a gift if you feed them.

So now I have a radiation suit. Shortly after that, I have a Seaglide. Problem: it eats batteries like mad and is huge in inventory. Blargh.

Time to go get some more raw materials for batteries!

[MP-Ryan]

This game looks like it could really suck me in.

[Colonol Dekker]

Castaway 2258AD.

Starring tom hanks great great great great great great grandson.

[jr2]

https://reddit.com/r/submechanophobia   |   https://reddit.com/r/thalassophobia


Sweet dreams..

I'm scared of depths / heights too.  Usually I've got a handle on it.  Oh, check this out:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJn9lkShhL6/

[StarSlayer]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJn9lkShhL6/

I hope he got a good price when he sold his common sense.

[MP-Ryan]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJn9lkShhL6/

What an idiot.  What an unbelievable idiot, who apparently knows ****-all about aerated water to boot.  Lucky he's not dead.

[NGTM-1R]

https://reddit.com/r/submechanophobia

I did say I went wreck diving at 15. (U-boat off the Outer Banks was our last dive, and I actually liked it a lot; but we 140ft+ visibility, you could see the wreck from the surface; it was the walkin dives where you had 25 feet or the one we did on Dixie Arrow where we had about 50ft that were creepy. It's the visibility that matters.)

Waiting out the night above a purple brain coral, before heading into the kelp.


It took a lot of luck. Three medikits. Plenty of knifework. But I killed this mother****er good.


Then it's a quick trip back to the lifepod, where I pick up another

...welp, him dead. Even if I knew I could get to him, I don't think it would be in time to matter.

And...woah. What the ****?


Moving on from that, I spot a familiar shape in the distance and move towards it. Another lifepod. Submerged.


No survivors. Pod is dark inside. The only thing in it is a PDA, detailing the story of one the Aurora's passengers and a crewmember who made it to the pod.



Casting through some nearby wreckage, I discover that Joel and the bots have been here. (He tried to kill me with a forklift~)


There's also this sign from the ship's...diner? We had to pay for food while on-mission? Jesus Christ this is going to be one of those corporate societies things...



So after a trip around in the Seaglide during which I took no pictures and spent too much time freaking out, ending with having to stare up at the sky regularly to recover, I found a small, mountainous island and dug up some gold/diamonds. The game decided to get snarky at me about it.

No really. It did. Here's a diamond (holy crap that's the biggest diamond ever).


Then the snark.


Actually it just got dark really suddenly, what the hell?


It's...huh. That massive, close-in moon. It's a solar eclipse. That's a pretty neat touch.



Am I in the Lost In Space movie now? Because I am not putting up with that. This little guys jump at me if I get close, but can't lead a moving target. I'm tempted to try and knife it, but I'll pass.


Do a little wreckdiving on the way back, but find nothing of interest.


I can now construct a builder tool. Which means...

I can build things.

Just a foundation, a hallway, and a hatch as a starter, with a solar panel on top to provide power; that means it has lights and air.

But I have plans. I just need more quartz and titanium. I'm missing any kind of rooms or the like; I must have to scan them up from fragments or actual examples.

The Underwater Fortress of Doom, in its for-now state.

The glass hallway on the side is for watching my farm of solar panels.

The glass hallway at the "front"? Hey Abyss!

Let's have a staring contest.

The life pod. I'm still dependent on good old Lifepod 5 for medikits and construction of pretty much anything that's not a base segment.


A lunar eclipse from the new base. It really is just a convenient place to wait out the nights, at the moment.

[StarSlayer]

You better crash research Magnetic Ion Armor cuz this might be going somewhere terrifying and deep.

[Cobra]

Unsure how meta we're getting or if you actually discovered this, but you use the scanner on the safes to get cool stuff like submarines and reactors for your bases. Also furniture, like the Mysterious Floating Chairs and Desks. Or just chairs and desks. Good choice not playing in Survival mode... the food and water system is actually kind of annoying. It feels like you need far too much food every far too soon, and you tend to only find the same of one or two types of fish, resulting in those fish nourishing you less until they actually make you sick.

I actually sunk a decent amount of time into this during the early Alpha. You're making me think of playing it again.

[NGTM-1R]

Unsure how meta we're getting or if you actually discovered this, but you use the scanner on the safes to get cool stuff like submarines and reactors for your bases.

Well, I did already get the Solar Panel, so I knew, though I gather I shouldn't expect the subs to look like safes, but like bits of subs in the current version. My real problem is that I'm dependent on stumbling on a wreck to find them for the most part. Brief forays into the nearby terrain have only proved the unsuitability of the Seaglide for long-term exploration of deep water, which is frustrating.

You better crash research Magnetic Ion Armor cuz this might be going somewhere terrifying and deep.

I have it on good authority that this can be arranged.

[NGTM-1R]

So first...this is the game's soundtrack. It's not continuous, kicks in at odd moments like, but I quite like it.

I'm out of options I can reach. I know there are wrecks around where I might get more blueprints in the Kelp Forest but my attempts to relocate the one I found have been futile. I've received several signals from other lifepods on the Lifepod 5 comms system.

One is to Lifepod 6, which I've already located. Another is Lifepod 8, near the Aurora.


Then there's this one, which I'm not sure what to make of.

I do have an urge to just tell people "Trankeboop." and nod seriously now though.

I have signals from two other Lifepods, 3 and 7, but they're automated beacons, not messages from living people. Finally, I already showed you picking up the signal from Lifepod 17. You can go back and look at it if you like; it might be worth your time, considering. Having run out of other convenient options and with random, undirected exploration having failed me for the most part, I am now going to attempt to reach those Lifepods that have shown actual life. First is Lifepod 17.

From this image it seems likely that Lifepod 17's flotation system failed and it is on the seafloor, and given the occupant stated something was attempting to enter his pod and the only things large enough to attempt that I've encountered here are hostile, I doubt I will find anyone alive. However given the proximity of Lifepod 8 to the Aurora's explosion I have even less hope of finding anyone alive there.

I've found a brain coral at the edge of the Kelp Forest; I intend to wait out the day and take off at dawn the next. I've stocked up on batteries for the Seaglide. We'll see what happens.

While we wait, some other pics I've taken recently.

Somebody told me that thing, despite its hugeness, is actually safe. I've not gone to look at it and find out.


That bit of random floating wreckage in the air near my pod has disappeared. No, I don't know either. Someone bugfixing my game in real time?


I figured out what that weird thing in a hole was. It's a small volcano. Look close, see lava.


On-site at Lifepod 17. There is significant wreckage in the area; it's still a bit dark, I'm going to wait a moment longer. Also...

Four Hundred And Sixty-Nine Feet. Holy **** this is deep. The deepest I've been in this game is about 75 meters.

Actually it's not quite that. Still, 111 meters? 394 feet? Pretty deep. Surprised I can see that far.


It takes about 15 seconds to reach bottom with the Seaglide, giving me about a little over a minute to do stuff. The problem is the site is swarming in large predators, and I can barely stop to scan anything; I need to keep moving on the Seaglide or they come after me and the bastards hurt a lot when they chomp.


Inside the wreck I picked up several furniture peaces and the Battery Recharger schematic, and I'm able to avoid the predators because they're not in there. I also grabbed a piece of a Mobile Vehicle Bay, which sounds awesome.


There was also this image. A lot of the concept art suggested a female protagonist. Is this a picture of me?


I also grabbed a PDA. This was filed under "Degasi Survivors" and "Alterra Search & Rescue Mission" which NOBODY BOTHERED TO TELL ME I WAS ON A SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION FOR SOMEBODY ELSE!?


Outside, there's the pod, and I grabbed a PDA there too. The occupant apparently tried to create a Seaglide to escape some kind of predators, but the ones here have yellow/red eyes. The pod is breached. There is no sign of the occupant. The Seaglide is capable of outrunning these things, but god knows where they've gone if they survived.

I do like the sound of "Repulsion Cannon" and "Stasis Rifle" though.

Burned a battery already. Had to freehand the last bit of an emergency ascent after trying to lure predators away from an object of interest and losing track of my O². You start to black out when you run out of oxygen, by the way. Here I'm switching batteries.


I...might have found something for that mobile vehicle constructor to actually build. There are pieces of what looks like part of a control panel and canopy around, labeled "Seamoth Fragment". I scanned one, but I can't get at the other due to the predators.


Maybe from inside the pod? It's getting dark though, I'll be on-site a second day at this rate.


Lifepod 17 Site, Day 2. Entering the wreck to check for additional stuff. I picked up more mobile vehicle bay fragments and found a Seamoth Fragment, did not watch my O² levels close enough, and had to complete an emergency ascent from 100 meters deep without oxygen. I came very close to blacking out. If not for the Seaglide propulsion making my ascent faster, I'd be dead.


After that, I decided not to explore the wreck further. Two close calls is enough, though if I craft any more oxygen tanks I may return. Here's a nice shot of it from inside Lifepod 17, where I scanned the last Seamoth fragment I need. I now have complete blueprints for both it and the mobile vehicle bay.


I'm returning to Lifepod 5, where I'll see about construction.

When I get back I notice that apparently these sharky assholes followed me home. They're not even supposed to BE in this biome, get the **** out of here! I need a squad of those seacows to come over and gas them or something.



The Mobile Vehicle Bay is huge in the fabricator and takes almost a minute to finish.

I deploy the mobile vehicle bay some distance away, "out front" of my base. I've been advised it should be deployed in water at least 30m deep.

While headed back to pick up materials for the Seamoth, I get this message from my PDA. Okay game devs, I admit, you made me smile.


Then this message comes in; apparently there's more surviving crew. The land they're referring to can't be the Mountain Island I saw, though...


I have a minisub.




Your argument is invalid!

[NGTM-1R]

I'm preparing to go to the Aurora itself. First, checking I can find where I parked my car. Fortunately it has a beacon.

The Seamoth is upgradeable, but I lack any of the upgrades or a means to make them. It''s fast though. It'll do about 23 knots in a straight line and 21 knots sideways, but in an emergency you can Descent-style trichord and combine lateral and forward thrust to get it moving at about 33 knots on a diagonal. You just won't be able to see where you're going. At that speed you can outrun any wildlife I've encountered so far. Unfortunately, it also has a crush depth of 200 meters. I've yet to approach that in my explorations but I know that parts of the game currently exceed 700m. (Weirdly, the human body is a-okay at up to 330 meters with scuba gear. Possibly more, it's just nobody's ever tried to dive deeper on scuba.)

While doing so, I caught this guy going through my scrap pile. And killed him for it.

It's kinda Mad Max how I'm defending a pile of scrap with lethal force now.

Anyways let's get to things, hopping in the Seamoth.


That large black wall is the Aurora. It apparently landed in a relatively shallow area.


I manuevered around the front, where the ship blew up, and into the gap there. We have arrived.


So...I'm ashore? Something. Anyways I'm on the Aurora.


...****, I am in Lost In Space, aren't I?

After spending nearly fifteen minutes dancing with these little guys and trading stabs for bites, I cleared most of them out. I can haz space guns, plz? This is getting out of hand.

Unfortunately, the only door to the interior is blocked off with a pile of crap.


Heh. No, it's not really locked, but close enough.


All those five-percent bites hurt like a *****, but fortunately, a bunch of these crates hold medikits. There's also batteries, water, and occasionally power cells.


I noticed! The thing's shaking violently, and here I am violating common sense.


There's a large ramp over here.


Well...uh. At least I don't need to worry about finding bodies?


VIOLATION OF COMMON SENSE.



...well, that looks like a doorway into hell at the moment, but it's my way in.


I suppose this is literally true, but...uh...well, I'm just glad I have fire extinguishers.


First stop, Admin offices.


Picked up some PDAs. Door code, that'll be important.


Would you guys stop teasing me with cool power armor? I can't scan this, but I can swipe it, so I did.


From the position of the desks in the room, everything was going fine until this came through the wall and booted somebody across the room.


Space Gun! But only half of it! ****!


Apparently we were out here to install a phasegate, which is how ships FTL. Anyways, moving on, I encounter my most formidable obstacle yet: a bunch of stacked crap.


I was initially worried I'd need the propulsion cannon or the like to clear this, but after some platforming work I actually got on top of it, and fortunately it's set up so you can get back over from the other side too.


I admit I actually first thought I needed to interface my PDA with the door. You don't, you just push buttons manually on the pad. I do have to say though, that my PDA appears to be implying I was shot down.



~This is the song, for exploring the Aurora, don't try to kill me with a forklift~

Allow me my foibles. Something in that crate, though.

Cyclops engine fragment? What's a Cyclops?



Apparently, I'm picking up parts of a considerably more substantial submarine.



The cargo deck elevator is nonfunctional and the bottom part is full of water.

Also that blue and orange thing...oh **** me it's the wormy assholes again!

Taste titanium!

You know, I've gotta be honest, even if I actually get a genuinely lethal weapon at some point, me and my survival knife are going to be best buddies until the end of time. Just bury me with it; I'm taking it with me.

Am I qualified? I don't really know what my position on the Aurora was before the crash. All I really know is I wasn't the second officer. Hell with it, let's say I am. I'm going to weld shut the above-water bits. Maybe that'll reduce the rads some.



...a bunch of them are underwater. Fiddlesticks. I'll be back.

Prawns? Hey, wait, isn't that what the poster of the power armor said it was called? GANGWAY!


I picked up this while in the locker room. More about this other ship, the Degasi.


Another door code, couched in something shady.


This door is sealed. Unfortunately for it, I have a laser cutter.



Ladies and gentlemen.



Power armor has arrived.

Hmm. That all sounds very nice, I admit. I should probably look up what it takes to build...

Uranium? Aluminum Oxide? Plasteel ingots? Christ, I don't even know where to get this stuff. Figures.

[Cobra]

Holy ****. They added ****tons more to the game since I last played.

[StarSlayer]

688I or bust 

[LaineyBugsDaddy]

P.R.A.W.N.? I see what you did there, Subnautica...

[NGTM-1R]

The underwater area of the PRAWN bay is a mess, extremely damaged, multiple electrical hazards in the water. I tried to explore it, but it's oddly hard to stay oriented, and I didn't find anything.


Well, now I'm going back home. Maybe.


There's a little restaurant and bar in here. Well, at least they have a vending machine, booze scattered around, and a sign




I can at least take the vending machine with me.


Here's the store room. Lot of nutrient blocks and bottled water. Coming here early would be very useful if I were playing Survival rather than Freedom mode and had to manage this stuff.


Another yoinkable PRAWN poster. Somebody explained to me that the most viable combat style for the PRAWN suit against large opponents isn't with a torpedo system but to combine the drill arm and a grappling hook arm; grapple to the enemy and pretend your drill is the drill that shall pierce the heavens.


Most of the dorms are four-man or six-man rooms with lockers. I found another one of those pictures.


I'm guessing it's not me at this point, unless I was the girl everyone on the ship fantasized about.

Some background on who I'm working for.



There's also this bit encouraging you to treat relationships as commodities. Corporate Shills, Space Brigade, confirmed.


Several of these large holes in the ceiling are dripping molten metal, which can damage me when it hits/splashes on me.


These things aren't open-able, are large in inventory, and serve no purpose. I'm disappointed. I could probably use a change of clothes by now!


Locked room, double bed, arcade toy of something from Natural Selection 2.



Scanning this is probably pointless, considering I'm only going to need single-beds as far as I can tell, but who knows? Maybe there's a secret survivor romance quest!


Headed back to the engine room. I'm rather annoyed to discover fires I put out don't stay out.


Going under to do some repairs.


But the wormy things are down here, and I have to knife a few of them...and then something terrible happens.

My game bugs out, and my knife straight up disappears from my quickbar and inventory. I have to dodge them the rest of the time, but I sealed all the leaks. I'm told radiation should abate in a few days because of that. Happy thought.

I'm out. Heading home.


Hmm...something big has been here, and I'm told these things are safe, so let's go.



It makes no moves towards the Seamoth, seems uninterested entirely, so I decided to be stupid, get out, and scan it. Meet the Reefback.

It actually is harmless. While I was scanning it, it actually turned and tapped me with its tentacles. I wasn't harmed or knocked around. It's large, but actually very gentle. According to my scan, it's thickly armored, and its behavior is consistent with a herbivore at the top of the food chain.

Arriving home, I immediately put up the most important loot from my trip to the Aurora. This poster was in the bar. It is by far the best advice you will get in this game. Also, kittens. In space, or possibly underwater, or maybe both. Could sure use more kittens.

[NGTM-1R]

Good news: Rescue is on its way. Still it's not here yet, and until it is then it's not safe to just relax.


A quick trip to Lifepod 3 reveals no survivors.




I do stumble across some wreckage, deep in the kelp.


The Seamoth makes exploring wrecks a lot safer. You don't have to return to the surface, or come from the surface, to restock air. This increases your time to explore and your safety a great deal.


Just one issue: somehow, some predators got inside this one.


Knife out. They mostly ignored me, but I did take some damage from the occasional swipe. I also returned some, but they're hard to kill with a knife. And these are basically the least-dangerous predators in the game. If I have to fight anything tougher, I'm going to need that PRAWN suit.


The best part? There was nothing here. No fragments, even ones I'd already discovered, no new furniture. All that flailing with a knife and getting bitten for nothing.


As always, the Kitten reminds me what's important.


Notice the lockers on the walls? I've moved most of my raw materials, biological samples, and tools down into my seabase. Lifepod 5 is still my source of fabricator and medikit support, but in time I hope to change that too.


Out exploring again. A splash of blood indicates the end of a Boomerang at the hands of those little bastards, called Bleeders. Each bite from them is worth 7% damage. You can knife them, but they bite and run so it's hard. The big fellow is a Sand Shark, who's actually less scary than he appears. They're constantly invading the starter biome and about as common as dirt in the grassy plateaus areas, and incredibly fast in a straight line, but they almost never catch a fish they're chasing because they can't turn. A simple zigzag will leave them miles behind.


Inbound on Lifepod 7 and Lifepod 8. I remember the days when I didn't stray far at night with a sort of amused nostalgia, now.


I told you, Sand Sharks as common as dirt. Ugly fella, ain't he? The Seamoth can be damaged, note its listed health, but this is usually by collision at speed. As long as I sit still, these guys just bounce off when they attack. (On the other hand, don't clip one at 21 knots.)


Important loot. I probably haven't had coffee in two weeks.


Lifepod 7 is once again breached, no survivors.


Which is a shame, because these two sound like they had the right attitude. I would have liked to meet them.


I spotted a wreck, but closer, I realized it was the same wreck as Lifepod 17. Still, there was some stuff in a different section I hadn't explored last time because of the Sand Shark presence.




Somehow I don't think Natural Selection 2 is a thing in the 21xxs. (It's a developer injoke; this game is made by the same people.)


So I saved, left a bit, came back after RTBing and...holy **** floodlights.




Like I should probably be more annoyed that the game automatically leaves the lights on when I reload, but. Floodlights. Wish I'd know about that earlier!

Out on the road again. Lifepod 7 makes a good checkpoint.


The devil is that thing? Looks spiky. When I got near it, it actually fired a spike at the Seamoth, though not fast enough (quite) to catch it as I reversed and lateraled.


Visual on another wrecksite, moving in.


That thing...does not look friendly. Considering it's spewing electricity everywhere. Also, uh, what are those balls?


The Seamoth has a crush depth of 200m. We're getting close enough the onboard computer is warning me about it.


Dunno about the volcanos, but I'm guessing the electromagnetic signatures are the long, lightning-spewing guys. Also, check out the new predator. (Interestingly, if you remember the predator described by the occupant of Lifepod 17, this guy with armored skin and green eyes seems to be what he was describing. But this is the first biome I've seen them in.)


Something to grow things in? Well, agriculture would be a good way to provide food for myself if I was playing on that sort of difficulty, especially in terrain where you can't catch fish (or catch fish safely). I'll have to scan that. As soon as the sharky bastard stops bumping me.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact the ground is preventing him pushing me further down, I'd be in trouble. We are very, very close to crush depth.

Huh. They're called Koosh. They do actually look a little bit like Koosh, too.



And they apparently get much bigger than this.


Lacking an entrance to the wreck that's convenient, I leave the wrecksite and move out and up. Along the way...this happens.

Those things on the sides of the boulders are actually life form, some kind of filter feeder judging from their scans; they're called floaters and add buoyancy to any object they're attached to, and can in theory be used for all kinds of shenanigans such as drowning large fish in air by attaching enough of them, or sticking them onto the sides of a flooding submarine to save it. There's a floater boulder near my start point too. I'm just not sure why they're currently raining down from above here.

A little beyond them...another new biome. Mushrooms?


Well, not quite, but they do look it.


This appears to be the dominant form of life here. It's harmless; I got out and scanned one, could probably pet it if I wanted. They're called Jellyrays, relatives of the Rabbit Rays around my starting area.


Interestingly Lifepod 13 is...not here? I think it glitched out. It's not at the beacon for it, nor is it on the ocean floor.

I take what I just said back about the dominant form of life. He's a little hard to spot, but he's in there.


Bit better.


Not pictured: pants-****ting terror. I've been spoiled on this guy, as it is "critical survival information" to quote a friend. That is a Reaper Leviathan. They are the largest and most dangerous creatures that are a part of the regular game at this time. If you manage to scan one, the scan includes a note at the start essentially asking how the hell you did it. Their prey is literally everything else with the possible exception of the Reefback. They have no known predators. Their mandibles and jaws (they have both) are capable of crushing the Seamoth and even hurting the PRAWN suit.

Like a fool, I turned away hoping it hadn't noticed me. Heard a roar, and jammed my fingers down on the buttons for ascent, forward motion, and lateral motion for the maximum trichord speed. At a full trichord the Seamoth is easily the fastest thing in the game, but I still got clipped by the Reaper just barely in its initial lunge. At least, that's what I think happened; supposedly they grab and shake you if they actually catch you. If it had actually grabbed the Seamoth I'm pretty sure the Seamoth and I would have been destroyed.

Seamoth is at 30% structural integrity. The right hull is outgassing and there are cracks in the window, plus water dripping into the interior. I'm RTB for repairs.


...what the hell happened here? I suspect another glitch.



Retrieving my welding gun to repair the Seamoth. I'll have to carry it with me next time.


There were a couple of these around; I suspect they're parts of a PRAWN, since scanning them didn't get me anything new.


So while I'm very happy with the Seamoth in general, and it can move faster than I ever can, and dive deeper than I could freehand or go with just the support of the Seaglide, and makes wrecks easier to explore...you saw that it has a hard floor without modification. And the parts to modify my Seamoth? Well, they're all too deep for it to reach right now I'm pretty sure...

But not too deep for the human body. I'm gonna have to freehand some more soon. Not quite yet, but soon.

[NGTM-1R]

Another Seamoth recon run. I found this guy just hanging here. He doesn't react to me, or the Seamoth, or even getting knifed. Fish can jump out of the water in this game; the Peepers, those big eyeball fellas, will do it to escape you. Sandsharks are very fast in a straight line. I'm betting this guy came into the shallows, a peeper jumped, he jumped, and he landed like this. That's about the depth I need to be at to refill oxygen...so it counted him as in the air.

Then he drowned. In air.


I present these two pictures mainly because they're the only decent pictures of your character you get. Also, because my hairstyle is ridiculous.



Basically jellyfish that decided to attach themselves to a fixed surface. Also, they hurt like hell.


New biome, too deep for the Seamoth currently. I left a beacon to mark this entrance though.


Various fragments. The chargers will come in handy. I'm not sure how to use the Thermal plant, though I bet leaving it next to a volcano would help. The Filtration Machine I don't even actually need in Freedom Mode, but I'm grabbing it just because it's the only thing to be spotted on Sparse Reef.





I have no idea what that is, but it looks creepy as ****. The game...agrees with me?



That's very pretty, but I question its practicality.


Reefbacks at night. Reefbacks are awesome. They don't DO anything, but they're awesome. Why? If you're near a Reefback, you're safe.


The devil is THAT?


Further exploration give me no answers, but I do discover a black smoker.


Then, something very important.

An island. But not a normal island. It's not connected to the ocean floor. The big purple thing there? That's a king-sized Floater, providing buoyancy to the island. There are actually several of them. It's not attached to anything, much less the ocean floor.

So I found a beach and ran my Seamoth up onto it to park it. Remember this picture. It's gonna hurt later.


This may be the most important thing I've seen in the game. Artificial structures. Someone else has been here.



Plantlife is very lush, much more than the Mountain Island. Being here now, the answer is obvious. SCAN EVERYTHING.





I can't scan the large trees, though.


DISREGARD SCANNING, ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURE!



There was a small garden here.


Interestingly, one of these planets isn't native, but an import.




Inside the habitat (which is itself scannable) there's a datapad.



It sounds like all was not well among what I believe are the Degasi survivors.

Interesting, but not sure I want to use it. Still, scan.


I...don't know what I'm scanning here, but it's scannable, so.


The woods at night.


'nother datapad.




This sinkhole in the middle of the island goes reaaaaaallly deep. Considering the island isn't attached to anything.


A brief catalogue of useless advice from my PDA I noticed while I was climbing a mountain at night.


If that sounds dumb...you're right.


But it did get to one of the little observation posts.


More scanning. There was an indoor garden here, small, but still. It's also possible to scan the building itself.





The fern is interesting, as it hints at features not yet added to the game, like creating genetic hybrids.


There's also a datapad which I somehow missed.


Huh. Interesting. It implies that the group did go deeper, and then...split up? Something went wrong? He sabotaged things? "We're not wanted down here" could just be a statement of discomfort. "They don't trust us" on the other hand implies an active, intelligent entity.


Mountaineering at night is still a bad plan.


In fact, it's so bad, I literally fell off the island and ended up in the water, waiting for daylight.


Uhhh...where's my Seamoth?


At first I thought it had just slid off, but when I got in the water...it's glitched inside the island and I can't get at it. That's the first genuinely gamebreaking bug I've encountered.


I retaliate by using console commands for the first time to create a new one.