Rak's Subnautica playthrough (moved from the what are you playing thread)

[PoeticallyPsyco]

My sister and I can attest that those ladders are surprisingly hard to find (they blend in something fierce), but they're there. Not helped by the fact that turning on your flashlight to try to find them attracts the EMP crab. What's in those extra levels is well worth the effort, though.

[factotum]

Reading the new data back on the cyclops, the "Sea Emperor" is in an "isolated research facility" in a Vocanic region 1.4 KM down. (cough cough "lava castle"), and is the best shot at a cure. Not like I can go there now. If I had more magnatite, I might try the air station approach, but right now each air station would need to be a utility room with a nuclear reactor and a hatch... which seems overkill. Could be doable, with the resources on the Cyclops... but I should probably go back for more upgrades and more magnetite.

You can upgrade both the Cyclops and the Prawn to allow you to go that deep, so I'd recommend that approach rather than a string of re-airing stations. You might also want the thermal power upgrade for the Cyclops which generates power when you're in hot places...

[Destro_Yersul]

The thermal plant is great, but it's a catch-22. You need materials from the lava areas to build it, so you can't get it beforehand.

[factotum]

The thermal plant is great, but it's a catch-22. You need materials from the lava areas to build it, so you can't get it beforehand.

Yeah, but it's really handy:

Spoiler

Show

When those annoying little sods who limpet onto the hull and start sucking your power come along, because it'll overcome the power drain from them without you having to get out and cut them off all the time.

[Rakaydos]

1 Day, 15 Hours.

Getting out of the Lost River was more of an adventure than getting in. Crafting a few more Beacons so I'll know my way around next time, I made a few wrong turns, ran into a hammerhead or two, got hung up on fossilized ribs, caught fire a few times, and generally made a mess of things.

Once I was out, though, I made a beeline for the nearest entrance to the Jelly Cave, to stock up on magnatite. I already had a scanning station in place fromlast time I stocked up, so getting about half a locker of magnatite was relatively smooth. I also took the opportunity here to set the scanner to Limestone, and restock on Copper and Titanium. (copper filled up faster, so the last run was actually set to Metal wreckage.)

Since we had those discussions on the floating island and the degasi multi level habitat, I headed south. Found the three habs on the island, including the non-purple tablet, pots and an indoor grow bed. Time to replace the Bed in the Prawn bay with something more useful. Sleep is for the weak.

The degasi hab had another tablet, and a few other things I forget. Probably this is where I got the Wall Pots.

Then I stared working my way back north.. but my map (posted by SilverRaptor and quoted near the end of the first post) said there was a few wrecks, a bit farther west than I've been. I scanned a Sea treader, then tried to figure out how to get out of the cave I got into.

I got an ecological dead zone warning heading north, so I backed up, and used that to ballpark a bearing to the furthest south wreck. When the terrain dropped out from under me, I got out to look around, see if I'd gone too far. What I presume is a ghost leviathan said that yes, I was in fact too far. No dead zone warning this time.

I died, but respawned outside the cyclops, so I quickly got in and went into reverse before it came back. The wreck I was looking for wasnt that far away. That was an accurate position to aim for the other Sea treader wreck, the blood kelp wreck, the dunes wreck, and the Mushroom forest wreck. Since I was in the area, I finally checked out the Sea Floor escape pod, and the captian's cabin in the aurora (there's a third keypad in the aurora, just inside the entrance, that doesnt respond to either code I have... curious.) Loot includes Prawn suit torpedo arms, grapple arms, propulsion cannon arms, Cyclops shield generator, and finally a vehical modification console

Then it was time to return to dock. Pull the power cells for the 6 spares in engineering, drop the prawn onto the platform and walk it over to the mid level moonpool, drop the first two power cells on the charger, drop to the lower level, build the planter, go back tot he cyclops for plants, and put the vehical modification console in the mid level prawn bay.

A quick browse of the options reveals that some of them require meterials I havnt seen yet. But that felt like a good point to call it quits for the day.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

"Hmm, people arnt really replying to my letsplay thread. Are people even interested?"
"wait, I know. Check to see how the view count changes after each post. That means booting up the laptop instead of the phone, so you can see view numbers."
"Ok, where am I at n- FOUR THOUSAND VIEWS?"

Sorry Rakaydos, I am watching the thread but half the time I think of something to post and then go “wait...that might be a spoiler” and then I don’t post.

[Rakaydos]

Sorry Rakaydos, I am watching the thread but half the time I think of something to post and then go “wait...that might be a spoiler” and then I don’t post.

That's fine. I was suprised. I'm used to smaller, active threads, but given that 900 people have viewed this thread since I posted that, The Show must Go On.

[Rakaydos]

1 day, 17 hours 30 minutes.

No real adventures here- restocking the elements I know how to get, building stuff I havnt had before. Heat resistant bodysuit, drill, torpedo, propulsion and grapple arms for the prawn, a depth and solar charge option for the seamoth (and a second storage option, so they dont have to share), and a few more things.

I also spiffed up my base with a lot of glass. Moved the scan station, put an observatory where it was at. Glass looking into the mushroom forest on either side of the grow bed (which is behind the bioreactor), windows on the midlevel moon pool looking into the kelp forest. And reinforcements on the hallways and directly behind the grow bed, so the base doesnt spring a leak with all this glass.

Titanium bunkers are topped off, lithium locker topped off (though I could pre-manufacture a few more plasteel if I wanted to squeeze a littel more in) Magnatite enough for 6 thermal reactors (possibly a bit low, given how low I need to be going, but the jelly cave hasnt respawned them yet. Something to start next session with)

And in the interests of visibility, the Prawnsuit is now bright red, with the Seamoth bright orange.

[Anteros]

Yellow is actually the most visible color by far.

Resources don't naturally respawn. Once you use them up in an area that's it. There's a cheaty way to get around it, but I've never felt the need.

[Destro_Yersul]

I believe all three keypads on the aurora are accessible. Two from PDA documents found inside the aurora, and one from a code you get on the radio.

And yeah, resources don't respawn, with the exception of fish, and some plant items. I got around this by installing a mod that adds a resource drill to generate more, because I don't like that it's theoretically possible to run out, no matter how long that would take. I'm a creative person, I like building large, nice-looking bases, and feeling like it's not a 'waste' to sink resources into decorative stuff is great for that.

[Rakaydos]

I believe all three keypads on the aurora are accessible. Two from PDA documents found inside the aurora, and one from a code you get on the radio.

And yeah, resources don't respawn, with the exception of fish, and some plant items. I got around this by installing a mod that adds a resource drill to generate more, because I don't like that it's theoretically possible to run out, no matter how long that would take. I'm a creative person, I like building large, nice-looking bases, and feeling like it's not a 'waste' to sink resources into decorative stuff is great for that.

I am 90% certian that Quartz respawns. I assumed that other resources did the same.

[factotum]

Resources don't naturally respawn. Once you use them up in an area that's it. There's a cheaty way to get around it, but I've never felt the need.

That's not my experience--there's a big coral tunnel near where you start that always had a good stock of limestone outcrops and quartz in it, and they always came back no matter how many times I cleared the place. I can imagine it might be the case for the rarer resources, though.

[Silverraptor]

Then I stared working my way back north.. but my map (posted by SilverRaptor and quoted near the end of the first post) said there was a few wrecks, a bit farther west than I've been. I scanned a Sea treader, then tried to figure out how to get out of the cave I got into.

I'm glad my map was useful for you. Also, fun fact, you can actually scan the ghost leviathans in the dead zone. They just move so incredibly fast that it is hard to get significant progress on scanning. And you'll likely die a lot, but I managed it in my playthrough. Never underestimate my patience/stubbornness.



Oh, and my game respawned all resources every time I loaded the game from a save. So that lime tunnel was always ready for harvest for me each time I came back to devote a couple more hours to finishing the story.

[Destro_Yersul]

What's actually happening there is that you're resetting the game's cache folder, which regenerates the resource nodes and things. They're not supposed to respawn. Very few things are. Metal salvage might, I'm not actually sure about that one, but under normal circumstances if you clear an area it's supposed to stay cleared.

[Anteros]

According to the devs themselves things do not respawn unless you're somehow resetting the cache folder. That shouldn't happen during normal saving and loading, but Subnautica is such a buggy game I can't say for sure it isn't for some people.

[Triaxx]

There is a source of infinite resources. The sea treaters stir up materials with their feet as they walk, and seem to do so constantly. They can accidentally step on you though, so be careful.

[Destro_Yersul]

this is true. However, the resources they stir up are always shale, which only release gold, diamond, and lithium. useful, for sure. just not as useful as silver and quartz.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I’ve had resource nodes respawn. I just assumed it was because I was playing for a really long time.

[Rakaydos]

1 day, 19 hours

Took the prawn suit out to mine the large magnatite I saw last time I was in the jellyshroom cave. Picked up a large gold while I was there. That gave me a slightly overfull bunker of silver+gold (gold mostly, but no shortage of silver) an almost full bunker of magnatite, and a lead bunker of a bit less than half.

took my upgraded Seamoth on a quick tour of my other bases, collecting lead, diamond, power cells, batteries. I did a lot of "prioritizing" earlier in the game that left lead in lockers in random airbases, so that brought back plenty- I upgraded one of my stored Titanium Bar into Plasteel to fit the lithium I found in it's bunker.

Making sure every battery in every device is charged up, sticking extra power cells into the locker in engineering, moved the seamoth's free torpedos into a locker in the Prawn bay.



Goodbye, home. I'll be back when I think I know how to survive a rocket launch.

[Destro_Yersul]

Which mushroom forest is that? Is it the one next to the area full of bulb bushes, or the other one?

[Rakaydos]

Which mushroom forest is that? Is it the one next to the area full of bulb bushes, or the other one?

Call it North 300 by West 750, where there is a sharp cliff between mushroom forest and Safe Shallows, and access to kelp forest resources.

[Destro_Yersul]

That'll be the other one, then, near the Dunes. I ask because I built my base in a mushroom forest on my current playthrough, and I thought it would be funny if we had independantly picked the same place.

[Rakaydos]

1 day, 22 hours.

Setting off, the cyclops, the Prawn, and myself. Stores topped off, 6 vortex torpedos loaded in the prawn torpedo arm, prawn default equipped with drill and empty hand, but with one each of the other arm types in storage.

At the first thermal vent, I build a scanner station. Nothing new to report. I go a little further, look at the edges of the brine, find a nickle and a sulfur... go back to the scanner station, and it reacts with suprise that I meant THAT new stuff.

After drilling for a locker full of nickle, and about a third of a locker of sulfur, I built a moon pool and vehical modification, got my prawn suit depth upgrade 1, and jump jets. The Cyclops depth upgrade 2 was a bit tense, if not difficult- get the resources, then take a deep breath, pull the depth increase 1 from the slot, ignore the warnings blaring as you calmly (but quickly) walk over to the modification station, upgrade it, and walk back and plug it in. My modification station was in the upper prawn bay, and there was a planter bed in the way, and there wasnt any leaks from the attempt.

I'm not particularly interesed in a fight with the hammerhead, so I go straight back to the blue tree, and enter the next biome.

After everything starts glowing red-orange, I build another thermal/scanner/hatch setup. To my suprise, it detects a new resource without prompting- a blue crystal I need for depth upgrades. The first scan station only found enough for 1 upgrade, and I returned to the cyclops to see leeches on it. Punching them with the prawn suit free hand works great, but if this resource is rare, I better make sure I can stay out long enough for it. First upgrade goes to cyclops thermal generator.

The path is fairly straight foreward, until it opens up, and I see a new, impressively large dragon/squid leviathan. I stop, back up, and build a new scanner station. More of the blue crystal resource. Also, apparently there's an alien structure somewhere in this chamber, according to my PDA. Rather than send the whole cyclops to be a chew toy, I send the prawn out mountian climbing. First expedition comes back with enough for 1 depth upgrade. Prawnsuit gets it, beause it's more maneuverable and has the drill- it can bring back blue crystal that the cyclops cant reach, if only the cyclops had the depth upgrade. With the damage the prawn took from the leviathan, and also the sharks, I buy the auto repair, too. (Building an extra repair tool for it, so I can still make manual repairs if needed)

No helping it- cyclops into the chamber.

The far side of the central structure has plenty of the blue crystal. It also has sharks and the dragon, so the prawn suit could only be out for so long. The cyclops doesnt seem to be prey for the dragon, so once I had enough material for the cyclops depth upgrade, the prawnsuit thermal upgrade, (though I dont have it yet, because i'd need a moonpool for it) and a reserve of a few more (the escape rocket probably needs it), I went back to exploring with the cyclops.

I finally find an entrance to the central thermal vent, bracketed by alien columns. I check it out in the prawn, andter emptying the alien materials locker into my pocket. The alien structure in the core has ANOTHER leviathan circling it. Also, I get another psychinc message, inviting me to find the source of the message. The Leviathan severly damages the prawn while I try to find an entrance. I start back to to cyclops, then remember I kept a spare repair tool for this exact reason, repair the prawn and go back in.

The entrance leads to a small facility, with a blue slate, a pile of ion cubes (that are somehow safe to take a power drill to) and an alien arch... with pedestal. The prawn suit got hung up on the ion cube dispensor, but after the cubes were mined, it was freed. The pedistal eats an ion cube and opens a stargate- not being interested in leaving my vehical, I walk the prawn through the gate.

...and I'm back at the big alien gun facility. Gate is still open, so I can go back. The prawn suit gets hung up again, this time on a random ground cube, and I figure saving and quitting might solve it. We'll see when I reload.

[Triaxx]

Yeah Prawn Suit loves getting hung up. If you're not drilling the grapple arm helps you getting unstuck.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

After drilling for a locker full of nickle, and about a third of a locker of sulfur, I built a moon pool and vehical modification, got my prawn suit depth upgrade 1, and jump jets. The Cyclops depth upgrade 2 was a bit tense, if not difficult- get the resources, then take a deep breath, pull the depth increase 1 from the slot, ignore the warnings blaring as you calmly (but quickly) walk over to the modification station, upgrade it, and walk back and plug it in. My modification station was in the upper prawn bay, and there was a planter bed in the way, and there wasnt any leaks from the attempt.

I did that too on my last playthrough; nerve wracking! But the alternative was trundling that behemoth of a vehicle all the way back to shallow water.

The big problem I ran into with Kyanite is that there are very few non-drill nodes of it.

[Rakaydos]

I did that too on my last playthrough; nerve wracking! But the alternative was trundling that behemoth of a vehicle all the way back to shallow water.

The big problem I ran into with Kyanite is that there are very few non-drill nodes of it.

It's not like the Seamoth is any good that deep. There's no reason NOT to bring a Prawn drill in the bay.

As for the depth upgrade, the other OTHER option is just to craft a spare depth upgrade. Upgrade the spare, and swap it. But that wasnt nessisary.

[Destro_Yersul]

my problem with kyanite is that the drill nodes aren't guaranteed to give you much. There's a fair bit you can pick up around one of the alien structures, though. The one in the lava castle, I think.

[Triaxx]

Just north of the North eastern bulb zone is a long low sloping tunnel easily navigable by the Cyclops. Take ot down there and past a Ghost Leviathan is Lost River. But below it is a lava castle entrance.

That's how I go in. There's a spot to park the Cyclops by a thermal vent, then I take the Prawn past the Leviathan either way. As for maneuvering? Double Grapple Arms make it super fast. Grapples plus the jet pack mean you can coast almost as fast as the Seamoth.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

It's not like the Seamoth is any good that deep. There's no reason NOT to bring a Prawn drill in the bay.

As for the depth upgrade, the other OTHER option is just to craft a spare depth upgrade. Upgrade the spare, and swap it. But that wasnt nessisary.

I was in Lost River when I swapped mine, so Seamoth was still an option. And I didn’t have the resources for an entire new module; that would have been even more tedious than steering the Cyclops back to shallows.

[Rakaydos]

1 day, 23 hours. Short session today, and I have something else so I won't be able to play again this afternoon.

The prawn suit was freed up by the reload, and I was able to go back through the gate.

The lower level of the facility was sealed off with another purple tablet, and I just used my only one getting the blue tablet. I know the recipy, though. I dont have diamond on me, but there's shale by the Enforcement facility. I did bring supplies for a thermal plant, fabricator and hatch, but while I could plant a thermal plant in the doorway of the alien facility, I had the build a tube a ways down the wall of the lava chamber. I could build a power relay, but then I couldnt build the replicator. and I didnt have the titanum for the hatch anymore, because I used it on the tube.

But I previously built a scanner station by the enforcement platform, while waiting for the Sunbeam. Even if it doesnt have a fabricator, I could disassemble it for the parts I need for the replicator. (I could just go out to the cyclops for the diamond and replicator, but I'm so close to not needing to!)

Got my diamond, got the materials for a fab, built my replicator, built a purple tablet, scanned the Alien Thermal Plant, got Ion Power cell technoligy, and got the location of the Primary containment Facility. Deconstructed the thermal plant, the replicator, the hatch and the power relay, but I didnt have room for the tube, either in the prawn or myself, after picking up the scanner station and the pile of ion cubes as well.

On the way out, I got turned around, took a different path out, saw a few more sulfer and kyanite resources that I dropped titanium for, but eventually made my way around to the Cyclops.

The dragon was waiting. I dodge some fireballs, got bit, gave him a free dental examination with my drill, and managed to get docked with the cyclops before he came back to finish me off.

The offline cyclops gets, like, zero aggro. I made myself a pair of ion power cells, though generally I'm good on power- I carry extra batteries, and I replace anything below 90% at the charger anytime I'm on the cyclops. I've got the thermal charger on the cyclops now, along with all my spares in engineering, so I probably dont need it but it's probably a component of something lategame, like the rocket. my stash of +50 purified waters is running low, but my locker of bleach is doing fine- so I'm transitionng over to disinfected water except for long prawn missions like I just had.

So, primary containment. no hud marker, but the datapad says it's south by southwest and below me. turning on the sub and making that bearing, I run right into it. I have to get out of the sub to see there to exit the hole (directly behind and below where I entered, of course) but it was easy enough to enter the next chamber.

"I am what you seek. I want to help you" says the psychic hallucination.

Another dragon attacks me, but he isnt persistant, and the Cyclops is tough. I locate the facility, and park the cyclops 3m from the door.

Facility needs a blue tablet. it also looks pretty big, and I discovered last time I cant just build a fab inside an alien structure. I'll need to prep for this... next time.