I did actually laugh out loud.
If the base is underwater, you absolutely need power or else it fills up with water. But for the scenario you’re describing, a single solar panel works fine.
Had a blast this weekend setting up my second base. I went with the same design as my first base, which means I grossly underestimated the amount of titanium required. I had WAY more of every other resource than needed, but the paltry ~120 or so titanium on the cyclops needed to be more like 200. Now I know.
First, let me say that I really don’t love exploring in the cyclops. Even using the three cameras, I find it difficult to get oriented. Especially driving around the Lost River where there isn’t a ton of maneuvering room. I found myself leaving the cyclops and tooling around with the seaglide just to get the lay of the land, or walking around with the prawn suit, but neither of those are particularly great for exploring due to both having weak lighting. I really prefer the seamoth with its uber bright headlights.
So anyway, I ended up building the second base next to that super giant skeleton. Not the mini one with the alien outpost and research thingies, but the big giant one if you go further in. There’s a young ghost Leviathan who hangs out there.
For power I plopped three thermal reactors directly on top of heat spouts, and they read 68°, 69°, and 82°. It feels like they generate power much more quickly than the equivalent 10 solar panels at high noon. (Comparing 750 capacity for both.) Me likey.
While building, when I ran out of my 120 titanium, I took the seaglide all the way to my first base and built a second seamoth to park at my second base. It’s only around 700 meters deep, so at least I can explore with the seamoth just to find where to go deeper. Haven’t yet; after I got back with the new seamoth stocked with around 70 more titanium, I finished putting in all the lockers and saved. That’s where I’m now.
It probably won’t end up being the best place to have put a base in hindsight, but it’s literally as far as I’ve gotten in the game. Super excited to start exploring with the seamoth.
Forgot to mention: at first when I ran out of titanium I scanned for it and found a staggering seven or eight large deposits all around my base in the room with the giant skeleton. Plus tons and tons of other kinds of larges. This is a mineral rich location for sure.
That extra titanium was only enough to finish all the compartments, but still not enough for lockers. That’s when I decided to just build myself a second seamoth back at my first base.
I tried using a mobile vehicle bay in my moon pool but was unable to activate it after getting on. Since I had to surface to make it work anyway, it just made sense to go all the way back to my first base and use the mobile vehicle bay I already have. Collected a bunch of metal scraps for the return trip and now there’s probably an extra 30 or 40 titanium still on my cyclops after finishing.
I am assuming I will build a total of three bases, but I still have no idea of how much further or longer the game is. Still have never seen kyanite.
Oh yes, there’s a ton of minerals of all kinds in the Lost River depths. Only a handful of things you’ll have to return for, like creepvines.
Navigating in VR really is far easier and more enjoyable. I eventually got to be ok with the Cyclops, but I still banged around a lot. Having a proper sense of depth and being able to just look around are big ones, but some smaller benefits are that there is no stray room light to wash things out, and that the stereo vision makes teasing out indistinct shapes (say, a far-away rock wall) significantly easier.
Mild spoiler:
It’s in the next big area from where you are.
Less mild:
There’s a kind of purplish area adjacent to the skeleton room. You picked a good location for your base. Go through that area and there’s a big drop at the end. Follow down through some twisty passages and you’ll get to a lava area with kyanite.
Not mild:
You’ll want to take the Cyclops. In the new area, there’s a big volcano thing that you’ll need to explore, and also a pit leading to an even deeper lava area. That deepest point contains the stuff you need to cure yourself. After that, you’ll need to build the giant rocket, but that shouldn’t be hard with the resources you have.
In the sequel game, Below Zero, you get all new different vehicles. Your most commonly used one is a compromise between the Cyclops and the Seamoth called the Seatruck.
I really did not care for the sea truck. It was less zippy than the sea moth and less impressive than the cyclops. I understand that it was a compromise, but it just did not have the fun of the vehicles from the previous game.
I agree. The Seamoth made me feel ‘safe’ as its manoeuvrability and speed was key to getting me out of danger.
I upgraded the cyclops depth module from 1300m to 1700m while at my second base, which is 700m deep. That means I had to pull it out, upgrade it, and put it back in. I did it quickly, but while I was doing it the Cyclops was only rated for 500m. I got a warning, but as far as I can tell no damage at all. Reloaded and tried it several times, never took damage. Nice!
Much of my in-game time over the past week or two has been spent tooling around in the seamoth in creative mode to learn the layout of the Lost River and both lava zones. Had to go creative so it could go deep enough.
I have now memorized a direct path that should be doable as a single mission, maybe an hour in real time:
Degassi Seabase 500m (orange tablet) => Alien Laboratory (requires orange) => Alien Research Facility => Alien Thermal Plant (blue tablet) => Primary Containment Facility (requires blue).
I think I found the most efficient/direct path between each installation, and I’m almost able to do the entire run without hitting F1 to check my coordinates. The only iffy part where I still need F1 is getting from the research facility to the thermal plant entrance in the lava castle.
At this point I’m starting to think I might do another video. Where my first video ends sitting in my base, I think I might be able to finish the game within 2 hours of scripted play. I kind of want to do that.
Speaking of my first video, not sure why I never thought of it before but you can play YouTube for free on Roku, as in on a television. So I rewatched my entire first video on the TV sitting on the couch. It was so fun! I’ve probably watched that thing start to finish a dozen times over the past year. But now I definitely see places where I could improve. I think I could take off a half hour from that time, or possibly all the way down to 2 hours flat. (It’s 2:39.)
Once I fully learn the path with the seamoth I’ll try it a few tries in the cyclops in creative to get the hang of it. Once that’s done, it’ll be time to find out how dangerous it is down there for the lumbering cyclops in just regular survival mode. I won’t have ion batteries for the trip, or at all, since by the time I get those blueprints I will be all but finished with the game. I have 18 power cells total just as my standard complement, so hopefully that’s enough to silent mode the entire trip. I’m thinking decoys will also play a factor.
I’m starting to get curious about all the teleporter locations as well as the remaining optional alien outposts. Also starting to wonder if there’s any interesting PDAs I haven’t checked. I haven’t been to every large wreck, or even gotten all the PDAs from the ones I’ve been to, but I’ve been to a bunch.
If you’ve got the thermal generator for the cyclops power is never an issue in the lava zone.
Oh shit, great point, thanks!
Progress!
Haven’t been able to play much the last several days, but today I drove my cyclops forward all the way to the thermal plant. No creative mode; this is my actual live game. Saved it there and everything. (It’s my only save, so I’m committed.) The thermal charging suggestion was huge; I wouldn’t have made it without it.
Damn that sea dragon really doesn’t like the cyclops, huh? I’m running silent, popping decoys like they’re candy and that fucker just keeps coming. Doing my best to time my defensive shield for his strikes, but I’m at 50% success at best. When he manages a hit I have to bail out of the Cyclops to repair it. Then he attacks me!
After the first time he attacked me, the gloves were off. Now I’m stasis rifling and stabbing him with extreme prejudice every time he looks in my direction. I have stabbed him maybe 40 times so far. I’m assuming it would take hundreds to kill him, but I don’t actually want to kill him. I want to scare him off, but he doesn’t seem to scare off very easily.
Anyway, so I finished the thermal plant and am back in my Cyclops with six fully charged batteries left, meaning I’ve burned through 12 so far. Luckily it’s a short straight shot down to the lava zone and the primary containment facility. I think I can recharge there if I can just make it. If not I can start fabricating ion power cells since I now have the blueprints and they don’t require mushrooms.
The only issue I’ve been having is navigating the damn cyclops. I can’t see anything out the main window or the cameras, especially running silent with no lights. I keep having to stop and get out to orient myself with the seaglide. The problem is the seadragon sees me doing that the same way a cat sees a laser pointer, which is how I’ve burned through 12 of my 18 power cells so far. (Mostly on defensive shield.) Then I have to stasis him, repair, launch a decoy, and take off in silent mode as quickly as possible. It’s been slow going, but super fun.
Huh. The sea dragon never paid me any mind. I’ve never used shields or torpedoes or anything. I just kinda stayed out of his way. If he got too close, I stopped, maybe shut down the engines. He’d swim away and I could continue. You may have pissed him off with all that stabbing…
He struck first*, I swear! But seriously, that’s good to hear. I’ll just assume I pissed him off somehow, and that a potential future re-run may not be so difficult.
*I didn’t even see him the first time he struck. Out of nowhere he smashed my cyclops for a fun startle. I turned off the cyclops, got out and just as I started looking for damage to repair he bit me, or possibly batted me with his claw. I was knocked a good distance away from the cyclops; maybe 50m. That’s when I went on the offensive.
You know what, I bet it was my decoys. I had already launched decoys before his first attack. I’ll have to try it without decoys and see if it goes better. Too bad I can’t retry it now, as again, I saved so I’m committed where I am. I can only go back to the end of my first video, before I even had blueprints for the cyclops and prawn suit drill arm. (I didn’t even have my first magnetite yet!)
I can confirm that the sea dragon hates decoys. I’ve launched at least eight, and watched him very quickly destroy them all shortly after being launched. So that probably is what pissed him off.
He ate me! He straight up ate me. I was charging up a stasis shot a little late as he was swimming ever closer to me, his mouth opened and swallowed me into blackness, instant death.
I’m actually deeper and elsewhere, so this may not even be the same dragon I pissed off earlier. In any case, I think I might try to kill it. My lowly knife (not even a thermoblade!) draws green blood each strike so it seems like I do hurt it, and I can hit it around 25 hits per full stasis charge.
As someone who (gently) criticized your original method of playing, I’m glad you’re finding the “traditional” game so satisfying. Though your tenacity in trying to kill the Sea Dragon Leviathan may be sub-optimal strategy - most players are content with scanning the damn thing and running for the hills.
There are two. One that swims around the power plant, and one that patrols the entry to the primary containment facility.
I’ve never had any problem with slipping past them. Silent running at low speed. Stop when they come near, shut engine down if they’re loitering next to me. Power back up and ease on by when they move on. I don’t think they’ll ever attack the Cyclops if you’re sitting dead in the water.
It’s amazing how not scary at all the deep parts are, because they are essentially rooms with walls and ceilings. Well appointed rooms, even.
It’s stuff like going over the edge of the crater that is terrifying. Hell, just entering the sparse reef is unsettling.
Anyone see this video? I find the music annoying but whatever. The main thrust for me is “fuck this guy.” I’m probably going to have nightmares from this.
Googling just now to find it turns up a bunch of “free diving blue hole” videos. Fuck all those people! Thelassaphobia is real. (Though I much prefer to define it as fear of the deep rather than fear of the sea.)
As for my game, I kind of fucked it up. I drove the cyclops the wrong way away from the thermal plant, so had to figure out where I was supposed to go to get down to primary containment. Of course the dragon constantly attacks, so I popped into creative mode just to check it out, spawning a seamoth for a quick look around.
Dipped a little bit deeper, pretty sure I found it but couldn’t quite see so I went to options to switch the color grading from filmic to one of the brighter ones. Except I missed Options and accidentally hit Save. That was my only copy of the game. I can technically continue on, because loading always turns off creative mode, but that console command usage and creative mode is now saved into my game file. Unclean!
So anyway I bought both Subnautica and Below Zero on Steam yesterday (yay!) and have already begun plotting out a complete video, this time running the entire game. Spent the dozen or so tries it takes getting a good starting spot set up yesterday. It’ll be a month or three before I get back down there to the sea dragon for a proper win.
Anyone here ever played Planet Crafter? It looks (literally almost exactly) like Subnautica but without the water.