# Subnautica **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [January 22, 2018, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227 "2018-01-22T17:29:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/382 "2021-08-16T15:13:48Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > There’s the famous “Serpentine!” from The In-Laws: That might actually be it. In any case, now I have a term to search for. I could only think of “side to side” but that’s resistant to googling. The scene I’m thinking of, I’m pretty sure the word they were shouting was serpentine. In fact I’m getting more and more sure it was the in-laws that I was thinking of. EDIT: Google’s got nothing. I think it was the In-Laws and I just conflated it to a modern movie starring either Michael Cera or Jesse Eisenberg. Or possibly Danny McBride, like in Pineapple Express or something. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/383 "2021-08-16T15:39:47Z")
I think that scene has been referenced in many other places. IMDb has a list, including Cars, Ernest Goes to Camp, and many episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000: > **[The In-Laws (1979) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079336/movieconnections/)** > > The In-Laws (1979) Connections on IMDb: Referenced in, Featured in, Spoofed and more... ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/384 "2021-08-16T17:37:53Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Again it’s really not the monsters. I dig being scared by those; it’s like a horror movie, and I love horror movies. > > It’s the depth itself that scares me. I just feel revulsion, like a claustrophobic person contemplating being buried alive in a coffin. I’m not actually claustrophobic, and I’ve never been particularly afraid of the ocean. I played in the ocean every summer as a kid on family vacations for crying out loud. > > But man, when the floor drops out and I can’t see it anymore because it’s just too deep it’s like my stomach flips. It’s excruciating. Oh, man. A lot of the late game, and I’ll be vague but it’s still somewhat spoilery, is in deep-sea caves But like I said, this sort of fear is one of the few reasons the game wouldn’t be recommended for a gamer. I sure as hell wouldn’t play a game with photorealistic, or even phantasmagoric, injections as a major part of play, no matter how good it was. If you get legitimately revolted by the deep-sea stuff, to the point that it’s not fun just awful, this ain’t the game for you. Or at least, not the way it’s designed to be played. Your base-perfection strategy makes a lot more sense to me now that I actually understand what you mean about the deep-sea business. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/385 "2021-08-16T18:05:51Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > You use the Mobile Vehicle Bay 3 or 4 times during the game (unless you have bad luck with your craft), and each time you’ve got to add it to your quick slots, deploy it, close it, then put back what you had in that quick slot to begin with. I just left it floating on the surface above my base. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/386 "2021-08-16T18:30:58Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I think that scene has been referenced in many other places. Recently an episode of _Archer_ a few years ago referenced it and that’s the first one that pops in my mind. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/qPaXG0oEInY/maxresdefault.jpg "Babou, Serpentine!!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPaXG0oEInY) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/388 "2021-08-18T16:28:37Z")
Well it’s nice when things work out. Turns out my starter base really is directly over the first (250m) proposed habitat location; maybe 20 prawn footsteps after dropping out of the moonpool and I drop straight down to it. The first time scouting with my Seamoth, descending into the deep dark chasm was fairly unpleasant, but then once I could see the floor it was fine. The walls do help, but the ceiling makes it _so much worse._ Maybe I am a little claustrophobic after all? Also, those snakes are dicks and I love punching them with the prawn suit so much… So I explored everything down there with the Seamoth, and am loving the fact that all those blueprints are so close. No plants or seeds, but the multipurpose room so close to the shallows is very nice. My immediate thought on finding the proposed habitat was that I should build my second base down there for mining the larges. There’s even some sweet volcanoes down there for energy. But then I checked on YouTube and yes, a base model prawn suit can jump out of the jellyshroom caves easily. Just ends up about half a kilometer away from the entrance I’m using, but that’s not the longest walk in the world, and once I get the jump jet upgrade I can go directly back out the way I go in. So my starter base turns out to be already where the second base was going. Score! So anyway, after scouting everything down there, I hop in my prawn suit, drop out of the moonpool (after adding three storage upgrades) and for the first time ever start walking around with it, directly to the cliff edge / cave entrance. It’s night but I’m going deep so who cares, right? Over the edge, going down, down, down, bang, jet, down, down, no!, so dark, down, scary! Managed a pleasantly light touchdown but boy that descent was horrifying. Doing it at night turned out to be a bad decision. But okay no problem, walk up to a large magnetite (HELL yeah!) and start punching the s\*\*\* out of it. And, nothing happens, because drill arms are sold separately? Are you f\*\*\*\*\*\* kidding me?! On the plus side, the 5-minute YouTube video demonstrating the exit with a base prawn suit paid off big time. The climb out was trivially easy both to recognize and to control, and the 450m walk back to the base was perfectly acceptable. Looked up where the blueprints for the goddamn drill arm (lol) are, limited to large wrecks less than 300m deep (I need the drill arm to mine the magnetite to upgrade the seamoth to go deeper), there’s only one but it’s only half a kilometer away directly south, jump in the seamoth and go. Quite the drop off getting to this large wreck – queasy – and as it’s just coming into view I saw some weird creature creeping around it. The music changed, the whole soundscape was signaling danger, and this medium-sized blue/purple squid/octopus kind of thing was flitting around the wreck; almost seemed to teleport. Short distance, like nightcrawler. I did not want anything to do with this thing so I booked it. Halfway home I remembered that I was in the middle of something, so I went back, cautiously, and found the drill arm fragments on a ledge above the wreck. That sketchy monster thing wasn’t around so I just scanned and ran. (You know the lemming/idiot impulse, where when you look over a cliff you get that faint urge to jump? When I first saw it, I had the impulse to get out of the seamoth and swim up to that thing and try and scan it. heh. I still might, but I want to play around with stasis guns first.) So now I finally have a functional reason for putting a base in a particular place. Easy prawn suit access to plentiful large lithium and magnetite. Highest roof is less than 20m deep so solar power should be good. Overlooking a grassy plateau, nice for parking a cyclops. Close enough to the shallows that it can be the very first thing I build, no temporary structure needed. Clearly not radioactive at the start, as you can see me farming the area in my speed start video. Perfect. From checking out YouTube for recommended base locations and building tips, I’m not sure how many bases I’m actually going to be building. Might be only two or three total. I had deliberately not looked at any base designs in any videos all this time. I just wanted to figure it out myself. Now that I’ve found (“created” might be more accurate, but it always feels more like found) the design I want, it was fun to start checking out what other people had going on. I have to say, I really don’t like the large and elaborate base designs I see in most videos. Like, really _a lot_ don’t like them. To me it’s all about shortest distance / fewest steps, easy direct access from everywhere to everywhere, plus having as many convenient and scenic places to sit as possible. I also only want a fraction of the storage some of these guys are building. I thought I was excessive but it turns out I’m an extreme minimalist. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/389 "2021-08-18T19:14:23Z")
Just so you know (not that it matters now) there’s also plenty of individual magnetite nuggets in the Jellyshroom caves, no prawn required. Same thing with lithium, though you’ve got break a lot of shale to find it. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/390 "2021-08-18T19:53:31Z")
Yeah I actually found two or three on the ground, but devoted those to scanner room upgrades, specifically the HUD display so I could find more. But then when I decided not to build anything down there I’d already spent all my magnetite. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/391 "2021-08-19T18:58:58Z")
Plenty more down there. Seamoth to bomb about and slip out and back in when you find some. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/392 "2021-08-22T13:02:04Z")
Yup. Way I used the vehicles: - Seamoth was my travel ship whenever I could. It’s zippy and maneuverable and fun to pilot. But it has serious depth limitations. - Cyclops was the mobile base, used to access new areas that I knew I’d be in for awhile. But it’s unwieldy as hell. - Prawn suit was the deepest and toughest exploration unit, when neither of the other two would do. But it’s super slow. All three were very useful, but I only spent any real time in the prawn suit once I found myself in the deep downs. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/393 "2021-08-22T13:38:03Z")
Out of curiosity, when you were deep down and mostly using the prawn suit, where were you docking it? A base or the cyclops? I think I’m going to start over again. My current game is approaching 2 days, but the last bunch of hours were burned on silly stuff like testing energy requirements for a charging station. I’ve tried repeatedly to get to the 500m proposed habitat, but I keep getting killed by those octopus things. And now I’m hearing them near the shallows – though I haven’t seen them there yet – so I think I’ve dicked around too long and now they’re closing in. As far as I’m aware, I don’t have any more story points left undone except the 500m proposed habitat. Haven’t gotten a radio call in weeks. I suppose just entering new areas could trigger some more radio calls but, as always, randomly wandering around the deep unknown is pretty much a non-starter for me. My biggest issue is I really really really liked my last game’s starting location. So far the RNG gods have not been smiling upon my restart attempts. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/394 "2021-08-22T15:01:43Z")
I kept the prawn suit in the Cyclops at almost all times. Two notes: 1. I don’t think the octopus things change their territory. No creatures really do that. There’s no time limit on the game at this point, although it’ll try to make you think there is. 2. You’ve gotten through about 25%-50% of the story at this point. There’s so much more story, and it’s really good. But the remaining story is going to be triggered by your exploration. If going deep remains unpleasant for you, you may have gotten all the joy you’ll get from the game–but if you can overcome that, there are some really beautiful things still to see. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/395 "2021-08-22T15:04:57Z")
Also, I’m a little unclear on what you mean by “proposed habitat”. Is this a hint you’ve gotten about a location? If so, you won’t need to build there. There’s really no one location that you absolutely have to build anything. Look at stuff like that as breadcrumbs that are trying to lead you deeper into unexplored territory. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/396 "2021-08-22T15:38:41Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Prawn suit was the deepest and toughest exploration unit, when neither of the other two would do. But it’s super slow. With the upgraded jump jets and grapple arm, the prawn can move way faster than anything. But it can be more annoying to perfect the technique. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/397 "2021-08-22T15:41:13Z")
That’s true–the grapple arm especially speeds you up. But I found grappling to be pretty clunky, and it just wasn’t fun to use in the way that grappling is delightful in many other games. The seamoth remains the most fun means of transportation for me. Zippy and faster than anything except perfect grappling, and far easier to control than that. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/398 "2021-08-22T16:41:33Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Also, I’m a little unclear on what you mean by “proposed habitat”. Is this a hint you’ve gotten about a location? If so, you won’t need to build there. When you get to the proposed habitat you find a PDA that points to a deeper proposed habitat at 500m. If you then go there, you find at least one more PDA plus blueprints for a picture frame. I’ve managed to get into that abandoned habitat at 500m three times now I think, picked up the PDA and scanned the picture frame, dashed outside to get the second PDA and ran back inside, then run for the seamoth and book it. Every time the octopus dudes kill me as I run away in the seamoth. The first time I got disoriented and ended up under a ceiling and could never find open water before they killed me. The second time there were two of them and they just full on kick that s\*\*\* out of me. The third time I got away but then as I came out of the deep and started home, there was one in front of me which took out my 20% health seamoth easily – I wasn’t far enough away yet to get out and repair it safely. As for not changing locations, can you always hear the octopus dudes at the thermal geyser in the shallows? Pretty sure I couldn’t hear them there before, but now just getting close I hear them loud and clear. (It’s almost like a mechanical sound.) ETA: I could read the PDAs before jumping in the seamoth since it seems pretty safe in the busted habitat. But that would feel like cheating to me; I only read PDAs safely at home sitting on a bench eating fruits and vegetables. EDIT 2: Totally agreed on the seamoth. My favorite vehicle by a wide margin. And honestly for me, I think the seaglide is my #2. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/399 "2021-08-22T17:31:59Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > You’ve gotten through about 25%-50% of the story at this point. There’s so much more story, and it’s really good. But the remaining story is going to be triggered by your exploration. If going deep remains unpleasant for you, you may have gotten all the joy you’ll get from the game–but if you can overcome that, there are some really beautiful things still to see. I actually had a little bit of difficulty finding the “really really deep” access point. Maybe others had no issue, but I had to kind of search to find a way to go massively deep, like deep enough to get to the last major chunk of the story. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/400 "2021-08-22T17:33:30Z")
Octopus dudes=the ones who teleport, right? Although I don’t think you can kill them, stabbing them a bunch usually makes them teleport away, and is really cathartic. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/401 "2021-08-22T18:45:46Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Octopus dudes=the ones who teleport, right? Although I don’t think you can kill them, stabbing them a bunch usually makes them teleport away, and is really cathartic I forgot about those guys. I hated those guys! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227/402 "2021-08-22T21:51:08Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I hated those guys! Me too. They’re like mer-men but with an octopus for the lower half instead of a fish. They were especially irritating when I was trying to explore and figure things out and look, here come these assholes to ruin everything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/subnautica/807227.md?page=21)