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

[Destro_Yersul]

Yeah, Subnautica itself started early access, and it was a while before the story got added and finalised. Below Zero seems to be taking the same route. It's why I'm waiting for the full release to pull the trigger

[Rakaydos]

Boot up the game, and I get a warning. Graphics card too weak, frame rate might suffer. Noted.

So, you're sneaking down to the planet in the middle of a meteor storm. your lifeDrop pod falls off your lander, and while you survive the crash, your ship doesnt. First task, a run for the pod.

No radio or medkit dispensor. There's a fab, and a bigger storage than in Riley's lifepod. I grabbed a bladder fish on the way over, so first things first- basic survival supplies. I'm severly lacking in blueprints so far, but until I find the ribbon plants that seen to have replaced acid mushrooms, I KNOW how to find sillicone rubber for the knife. Creepvine is right over there.

Rocks seem to be different than there were in the Crater- instead of offering a few different types of materials each. these rocks seems to be "chance of X, or else titanium" There's a seaglide fragment right by the pod, so once I get the scanner, i'll be on my way.

I find a few ribbon plant and pick up a beacon about the same time. I also found some sulfur- same angry bombfish as the crater, but sometimes they have eggs, and sometimes they have crystal sulfer, like in the deeps of the crater. No hab builder yet, so my only fab is back at the pod. Craft the scanner and repair tool.

I also check the PDA- You're looking for your sister.
Alterra hired her to make a robot spy penguin, and while she was there, alterra discovered a leviathan on ice that's still infected with the alien civilization destroying bacteria. Evil corporation was considering -all- their options, sister got the word out, and sufered an unstated "accident due to her own negligence."
You are a former employee of Xenowerks, that does alien world survival games for a paycheck. Alterra recently bought Xenowerks (and no doubt promoted the previous owner to the Board of Directors of Alterra, as per last game's lore- possibly Riley? Our hero has some skepticisim of Alterra that she may have picked up from her last employer)

The supply stash has a resource scanner, and two MVB fragments. Woo! I also find a few more ribbon plants. Back to the pod, craft the resource detector- which can find fragments. woo! it's a bit of a power hog, though. after some deliberation, I craft a seaglide too. Unfortunately, they fixed the "dead battery to craft new tool=full battery tool" trick. There's also some kind of distress signal, of unknown origin, thumping through the water, and a beacon for Delta station, where my sister worked. No high capacity tanks, but I'm able to craft a few microchips and wiring kits and salted arctic peeper before I head off.

Delta station dock has a coffee machine on the docks, and a few multipurpose rooms up on the land. some PDAs and hab fittings, and a radio tower. Also a warning that Alterra is tresspassing on someone's land. Sure sounds like the female Degasi survivor. And sure enough, prawn suit with a blade. "You were warned, Alterra" "I'm not with Alterra." "Then you're doubly screwed."

The PDAs gave a location further on, and on the way there, I run across a wrecked ship. in an accessable room I find a Power cell and Power Cell blueprint, but it's too deep to really explore without an air station. (maybe, MAYBE worth making an air pump and pipes out of all this titanium, if they're going to keep holding off on the hab builder or 3rd vehical bay blueprint)

Then I get greedy. The beacon is too far down, and I'm over 200m down when I get the 30 seconds warning. I wake up in the life pod, with only the Power cell recovered.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

So I've been going back to Subnautica a few times, and now I've broken down and bought Below Zero. Since they added the plot in the recent update, there's hope there might be an actual game behind the survival gameplay.

I'll might set up with an "orbital scan" before I start playing, and I've got a few spoilers from previous updates (and the new trailer), but other than that, I'm going in relatively blind. Wish me luck.

Good luck; I’ve had it crash on me frequently (to the point where I was spending more time loading up the game after a crash then actually playing, and I accidentally destroyed my file when one of my frequent saves ended up being at the tail end of an animation). It seems to happen most often during storms and

Spoiler: Biome spoiler

Show

around the purple vent zone.

It’s been disappointing because I had loads of fun during Early Access for base Subnautica and what I saw of Below Zero was interesting.

[Rakaydos]

2 hours, 54 minutes.

Some exploring brought me into beacon range of the Phi robotics facility, where our hero's sister worked. It's an overland treck, with plants that refresh your heat meter and caves where you can "come up for air" by warming yourself up. More hab components, not a hab builder in sight. There was a map for the land-based areas, and Cold Suit blueprints. They require "snowfox fur", which sounds like a land creature. Some exploration of the area yielded a blueprint for the "Snowfox hoverbike", but somehow I dont think that I will be getting fur from that. (it also requires magnatite, which I havnt found yet.) There's occasional "bad weather" that drains your temperature faster than normal... and ohhey angry snowbear thing. Also I apparently dumped my knife in the pod locker- oops. I do get away, but I'm pretty sure I know where you get "Snowfox fur" now. Drop a beacon in the creature's territory so I can find it later. as I get ready to leave, there's another facility that catches my eye, but it's behind a non-extended bridge. I head back to the pod and craft more food and water, and retrieve my knife.

[Rakaydos]

3 hours, 59 minutes.

Did a second pass of Delta dock, found a scanner room databox, and a hab builder just laying around on a box. I must have been blind. Went back, and crafted it. Then loaded up on base building supplies.

The crashed ship by Delta Dock is my first priority- right at the 100m mark, and unexplored. Even with the air base, there was a lot of seagliding in, finding and scanning one thing, seagliding back out. And I didnt even get a complete laser cutter out of it.

Some exploration further along the ice shelf that Delta dock was on revealed a cave with an ion cube, alien device, and some growable nuts. Delta dock also had some pots I missed last time, so turning some metal wreckage into pots I've started growing 2 plants inside a tube base. Also a battery charger, and a coffeemaker... which doesnt actually filter water in this game, just heats a thermos. Which means that I actually have a bit of a water problem. After messing around trying to power relay to a tube closer to the "pilot's last coordinate" waypoint, I gave up, packed up, and saved at the base.

[Rakaydos]

4 hours, 32 minutes
So, run back to the bladderfish-populated area near the lifeboat. I'm hydrated enough to make a few detours, though, and a dive in twisty bridges found a third seatruck part. Recipe involves an Advanced Wiring kit, but there's table coral in twisty bridges too.

Got a bladderfish, got a drink at the lifepod, hunted out another 7-8 bladderfish and turned them into water too. Put some into the lifepod locker, got myself back to 100%. and kept some on hand.

So, Seatruck. Needs the advanced wiring kit- easy enough, there's copper in storage (though I'm running low) and I got enough table coral for two microchips. Needs a power cell- I found one in the crashed ship, but it's in the forard base locker. The base locker also has the last lead I need. And I have plenty of glass.

On the way back, explorations reveal another archetech artefact, and my PDA figures out how to make teleporting lockers. That would be nice, but I'd need an Ion cube on each end, and the new artefact didnt have one.

At the base, the nut trees are full grown. the nuts actually give health, not just food, but due to poor placement, I cant actually reach the pot in the back. The downsides to building a base in a 2 titanium tube. Swapped out my seaglide and scanner batteries at the charger, picked up the lead, power cell, and ion cube, and started back.

This time I swung a bit further south than the direct path when exploring, and was rewarded- a sea monkey nest with a third laser cutter fragment. Unfortunately, still needs diamond, and I have no idea where to get it.

Sea truck. A little smaller than a seamoth, it has a door in the back that supposedly connects to "train segments", but you cant actually move around in the cockpit, just in and out of the top hatch. Still, it's got a crush depth of 150, which should work as a mobile air base. Saving everything else for after laundry day.

[Triaxx]

So... Should you ever manage to get the Seatruck stuck in a pair of doors, remind me and I'll tell you a secret. It's a spoiler though so I won't say anything now.

[Rakaydos]

5 hours, 38 minutes

Brand new seatruck, 150m crush depth. Time to check out that deep part of twisty bridges.

150 gets me about as far as I could safely check in a straight dive-and-rise, but I can be much more systematic about it. Found a likely looking hole, built a Scanner room at 160m. Yea no, that hole goes more than the depth of the scanner. There's a diamond are the edge of the reach of the scanner, but without the HUD, I'm not going to try to make a reach for it. There was a databox with a rebreather nearby and a few other things, but after leaving a few emergency supplies at the scanner room, I'm running a bit low, so it's back to the hab for more hunting. Also building that rebreather, which I almost forgot to do.

Next, checking out the "pilot's last position" beacon. On the way over I spotted a databox with high capacity O2 tank, but I didnt think to crack a not-shale silverbearing rock on the way over. There's nothing at the beacon, but it's a decent place to build a scanner base- doesnt even need a locator beacon, since the radio coordinate does that already. Dont have enough copper for a scanner, though. Still, I can make a cross-tube base with plans to expand into a scanner base. My first tube base is a relatively short seaglide away, just it's annoyingly just outside visual range. I ended up parking the seatruck halfway between, and just seagliding past the truck each way as I dismantled and moved the nut planters, the locker, the battery charger, and fabricator.

There's an annoying creature in the area that does the Mesmer "look at me" trick, but instead of taking a bite out of you, it scrambles your sense of direction, sets your Compass spinning, and all your hud beacon icons are in the wrong locations. As I went out to pack up the solar panel and the tube itself, there was no place to stock back up on air, but it was a short enough trip. Except that damn mesmer caught me, disorented me, and I didnt have enough air to find the base or the seatruck. Sigh.

I respawn in the seatruck. Might be enough playing for now.

[Anteros]

As much as I love Subnautica, I don't want Below Zero spoiled for me before I even play it. So I don't think I can follow this thread.

The original is my favorite game ever, and the little I played of below zero early access didn't impress me, but I'm hopeful they improve things for the final release.

[Rakaydos]

6 Hours, 34 minutes. Not tired enough to sleep, why not give it a little more?

Building up the base at the beacon. since I had the titanium but not the copper, I built a multipurpose room, and collected enough quartz to make a glass aquarium in it. Went back to the pod to collect all the eggs, and swing wide enough to reach the iceberg with the crack through it. Scanned a rock grub, saw another starship fragment, though with no visible entrance. Collected titanium and copper, and my first ruby. (I've already got a few gel sacks) After getting the eggs, came back, built the aquarium hatch and a scanner room. dumped the eggs in, read through the list. There's an exo suit upgrade, and a type of rock with no preview image. Seeing as I need a mineral I havnt seen yet (magnatite), that sounds promicing. Unfortunately, I dont really get a direction before the power dies. 160m isnt 249,, but it's still not great for solar power. I cant quite finish a second solar panel, but after some searching, I find a mess of Seatruck Aquariums, enough for some spare titanium to finish the solar panel. That's enough to break even, it seems- I sat at 0 power for awhile, without the lights flickering. I spent my spare cloth on the rebreather, I think? so no bed in the scanner room.

Next time, I'll continue the hunt for magnatite.

[Triaxx]

Does the Scanner Room still have the driveable free floating camera's? If so those can be impromptu HUD markers.

[Rakaydos]

Does the Scanner Room still have the driveable free floating camera's? If so those can be impromptu HUD markers.

You have to build them separately now. But the charge ports still exist. I did that withh the twisty bridges scanner.

[Rakaydos]

8 hours, 21 minutes.

Some blind exploration in what I thought was the right direction yielded the front half of the Mercury II. This one had some real prizes- a nuclear reactor blueprint, and 2/4 prawn suit fragments. Also more base building resources. Made a pod run, found a nice cave with lots of table coral, so I've got what I need for a camera dron, an extra chip, and another scanner room. There's still more table coral here, so I drop a beacon. I forget the lube on my first trip, so I have to make a second run to the pod.

base has a bio reactor now, and it's own camera drone. flew the drone out to the caliceate reading, and there's nothing there- it's floating in open ocean. There's an interesting anomaly nearby though. Seatruck airbase, and investigate. Big UFO jellyfish, tendrils grabbing the ground below. it left cracks, with thermal vents... and thermal reactor fragments and power relay- not fragments, since I cant scan them, but visual reminders of how thermal reactors and power relays work together. More ruby, uranite, and a PDA log from the lady in the exosuit, which I havnt read. Also a "booster tank" databox.

The main base is still getting prawn suit readings, though, and they're suprisingly close. Anoter examination of the topo map mess says that there's caves under the base. A cursory investigation turned up 3 seamonkey nests, with a thermal upgrade fragment, a grapple arm fragment, and... I forget what the third was. Would be nice if I had the magnatite so I could leave the scanner room going while I looked. Also the Arctic mesmers are annoying for any long duration exploration- as they add a lot of risk when you are out of visual range of a base or the seatruck's spotlight. (and even they they waste a good 10-15 seconds of air.)

Turned the uranite into a fuel rod, saved, and called it there. I'm due for another water run shortly anyway.

[Rakaydos]

10 hours, 0 minutes.

A few local bladderfish tide me over for the water run.

Exploring the local cave system with seatruck support got me the 2/2 thermal prawn upgrade. After moving the truck a few times for better positioning, I find a hole going DEEP... and at the bottom, I'm getting Magnatite readings. Time for extreme measures.

Solar panels work down to 245m or so, and if you're not trying to run a fabricator or scanner room, that's all you need. but 250m isnt deep enough for this hole. Fortunately, there's a lot of gold bearing rocks in the area, because I'm doing a Power Relay chain, down to the point the lighting changes. Tube, hatch, airstation. Only 75-100m more to the bottom of the cave, plenty close enough. Magnatite aquired.

Back to the base, where the bladderfish in the ACU have started breeding. Water problem solved! Power, on the other hand...I can feed bladderfish to the bioreactor, and also nuts. Got it. 5 power, and Hud Chip aquired.

Where's my prawn suit? Unfortunately, the scanner only revealed the two suits I'd already scanned, plus a 3rd in the same wreck. Still one short. Also some supply boxes I need a laser cutter for, and I still havnt found a diamond. Back to the lillypad deeps, except I'm bringing spare water and a nut tree in a pot. It's a long seaglide from the main base, but I can dip through the caves to avoid the arctic mesmers, and dont need to come up for air until I reach the airbase.

No diamond, but there's plenty of magnatite, and the components for Benzine and Polyanaline. dropped the spare water in a sideways locker and the nut tree beside it. Swam back tot he main base.

The aerogel is back at the pod, but once I aquire it, I have the components for a thermal plant. I still need diamond, and I stil havnt explored the deep twisty bridges. (last visited before the high cap tank and the rebreather and the hud chip) That's probably a good place for next time. Saved at the pod, after aquiring aerogel.

[Rakaydos]

12 Hours, 0 minutes.

My sidetracking got sidetracked.

Let's see- Deep twisty bridges. Got diamond, got an ion cube, got another architect scan.

Scanner station in the purple jets area, in the deeps area. Short on titanium, found an archetect scan and ion cube while looking for rocks to break. Also several types of seatruck components.

Required a second thermal plant to pay for the scanner room's upkeep, which required a second aerogel, which required a ruby. Went to deep twisty bridges for a ruby, didnt see one, but went deep enough to find a SEALED architect room, with a ruby in front of it. Came back, came up on the wrong side of the room from the air station, caught sight of it coming around the central pillar just as I faded to black. Respawned inside the station, with the one item I picked up- the ruby. mission accomplished? Except I also need magnatite for the thermal plant, so back down for two more.

Over to the main base to actually craft the aerogel, and also the laser cutter- but I need sulfer for the laser cutter, which should be back in the purple jets area. Still short on titanium, searched wider, wandered into the iceberg area, found a hole with a big nasty creature between it and the surface- and even with the high cap tank and rebreather, I can just barely get from the surface, down the hole for the archetect scan and ion cube, and back up. Would probably be easier if I actually had the seatruck, but I've left it at the purple jets scanner as a locator beacon. And on the way back, I stumbled over ANOTHER alterra base, with exterior growbeds! Now I need to remember to go find a creepvine seed... eventually. Also a desalination plant, which should be a nice upgrade to the main base if I craft ANOTHER aerogel.

Finally get the scanner set up, and oh yea, there's a smaller wreck right next door. AND craft that laser cutter. Another power cell (I really need a power cell charger), a seatruck dash upgrade, and a fragment of a "parallalel processing unit." Whatever that is. And I have enough spare titanium for a nut tree pot in this permanantly powered scanner room. Except I ate my nuts for healing after that iceberg area leviathan took a bite or two out of me. The lillypad deep base is slightly closer. Nut, planted, build a camera for this scanner, and back to the main base.

What did I need diamond for again? Right, Enameled glass! Seatruck depth upgrade! 300m mobile airbase! Also some vehical stuff I have to go back to the Pod to make at the MVB. Oh, and I have the components for some modification station stuff, but they're also back at the pod, for vehical-related reasons. How do I build Quantum lockers, again? they dont show up with the Hab builder...

I'm going to need to take inventory before I go much further. I've got two other crashed ships to investigate with the laser cutter, I've got trailers for the seatruck to figure out, I've got that sealed alien facility in the DEEP deep lilypad area... oh! I havnt actually touched the hoverbike yet, or the Snowfox pelts I would need for the Cold Suit. Wasnt there a bridge I couldnt get past, on land? Back in the water, that giant stationaly Jellyfish looked like it could be entered...

[Destro_Yersul]

That sounds like a lot of exploring. It'll be an interesting game to get into, once it's done. Learning where everything is again, all of that good stuff.

[Rakaydos]

13 hours, 35 minutes.

First things first, the vent garden. If I'm going to get eaten, lets do that before I get too far into a save.
The jellyfish had an accessable but tight opening on the bottom, at about 300m, and plants of various types on platforms inside. One of those plant types is an essential component of synthetic fibers. Come back out the way I came before running out of air. While I was in the area, I dug around the lava area where I found margurite's 1st log, got some more Ruby, gold, and titanium from thermal reactor fragments.

Then I swing east, found the bow of the crashed ship. This one is pretty extensive, with an entire section only accessable by leaving through a hull breach, going through a tunnel with 3 oxygen plants in it, and coming back up through another hull breach. And while you're investigating, the only way back out is back through that tunnel. Died a few times getting the hang of it, but got two more "parallel processor unit" fragments... whatever they are. blueprint complete. Also a few reactor rods. Back to base to drop off my ill gotten gains.

I figure out how to build a quantum locker- it's a deployable, not a base component, but I dont immediately make the connection to floating lockers. Unable to place it inside the base, I try stuffing it inside a normal locker and hope it connects if I build a second one. Need more table coral to make another one, so it's off to twisty bridges.

Lots of seaglide fragments and rocks left here. I found how to build the Recycler, which lets to de-fabricate items into it's components. It doesnt work on everything, but it works on Titanium ingots and glass, so building materials just got a lot more compact. I end up crafting about 25 titanium worth of ingots. Still need silver from the pod for the 2nd quantum locker.

Over at the pod, I need to build a minibase in order to use the modification station and recycler. I crafted all my titanium into ingots, so actually making the base took some resource gathering. Crafted the infinite-seaglide fins, and the 2nd quantum locker. Figured out that I needed to deploy the locker outside, and hurrah! 16 (or was it 24?) units of storage that can be picked up while full! (and also can be left in place and accessed from any other quantum locker)

Since I've all but eliminated pod runs, and it's so far from my main base, I pack up the Mobile vehical bay, and as much of the materials stashed in the pod as I can carry and/or fit in the quantum locker. I'll need to make a second trip to retrieve the locker itself and the minibase, eventually.

Back to the main base. released the MVB, though it's a good 160m up from the base itself, built a grow bed with a creepvine seed, a not-acidshroom, some gel sacks, and some not-deeppshrooms, as well as a spare cutting from the inside of the jellyfish.

I upgrade the depth module to 650m on the truck. Adding Storage and fabricator cars to the truck sounds interesting, but I need more lead. I'm short of lead, silver, diamond, ruby and magnatite. Could probably use some Lithium too. PErhaps redesign the base as a large room instead of 2 multipurpose rooms.

Strings to pull- exploring on land, investigating the sealed facility below the lillypad area, and exploring further south There was also a tunnel below the vent garden I didnt fully explore- with some magnatite, I might move the scanner room further down to get an idea what's down there. (or just move the whole purple vents scanner room and thermal plants?)

Also, at the edge of my scanner room's reach, I sometimes see corners of squared off areas- facilities, is my guess. Any entrance they may have is off the scopes. I could extend the scanner range for a better look, or move the scanner.

[Rakaydos]

14 hours, 41 minutes

Got a brainstorm, since I've got reactor rods from wrecks and a de-fabricator, I've got at least a few lead already. Enough for a Storage pod for the seatruck at least. Except... the storage pod needs a wiring kit. No harm, I've got a scanner room, argonite cant be that hard, right?

Turns out I've pretty much picked the sea floor around here clean... but I never touched the clumps of rock held up by the lillypads. Plenty of silver-bearing rock, but also plenty of lead-bearing rock. I'm soon able to get both a storage and fab module. Figuring out docking took awhile- the first one was super easy, so I didnt immediately grasp that each pod has a front and a back and only docks one way. The fab pod has a locker in it, and the storage pod has 4 small bins and 1 large one. (two of the small ones look like they should be bigger, though)

Off to the purple flares area, to deconstruct the thermal plants and scanner room. I also finished the Sleeper pod schematic, and fabricated a plasteel with the lithium in the area. Over to the giant gellyfish, under it's roots, and built a thermal plant next to a lava vent. This is MUCH more effective than the purple jet I was using earlier- a single thermal plant easilly covers the scanner room's upkeep, and the power gain when the scanner is off is about the same rate as the power drain when the scanner is on. Lots of ruby, stocking up since I'm growing gel sacks back at base now. The scanner map reveals large boxy areas that are probably developer oversight- they probably wont make it into the actual game, and the same for those "facilities" I thought I saw from other scanners. There's also a path generally leading north, toward the rest of the explored map. No thermal signatures, so I leave the scanner room behind and set off with the seatruck.

Margrite gives me another warning when I reach an equipment stash. Got a stillsuit blueprint, and a fork in the "road"- deeper, or more of the same. I go deeper, and enter a crystal cave... with Kyanite. I also get a warning about a leviathan, and catch a glimpse of it moving through the relatively narrow caverns. The seatruck isnt that great at evasion, but... kyanite. It hits like a Ghost leviathan, too- 30-45 hull on the seatruck cab, 75 health in person. There was one point where I leave the cab to pick up a kyanite crystal, get jumped by the reaper in the 10m between the cab and the crystal, die, and respawn back in the cab.

I'm mostly navigating these caves by stepping away from the controls and pulling up the Seaglide's sonar while still inside the cab. I get 3 kyanite before I find a hole upward and start heading to the surface. Once I'm "safe" in the purple jets biome, I get up, craft a beacon in the fab pod, and swim back down to this second entrance to the crystal caves. I make sure to label the beacon before heading back to the cab.

Back to the surface, back to the base. Not a bad shakedown, though I could stand for fewer leviathan jump scares. Still dont know where to find another prawn suit piece- I'm one short of being able to craft one. I might try the surface next, try out the new hoverbike.

[Rakaydos]

16 hours, 29 minutes

Prepping for Land expedition.

above sea level, solar power always works, as long as you build it during (or wait for) day. And you dont even need solar power for a basic shelter- an unpowered tube above sea level has both air and temperature control. The quantum locker is 4 slots for 24 slots of storage but is a bit awkward to use. The recycler takes 2 slots, but lets me store titanium NOT needed for a basic tube base as ingots. (5 titanium per slot) And building a snowfox pad and vehical would give me transportation. I get some more silver for wiring kits, move most of my crafting supplies to the seatruck, resolve to look out for more Gold on the way, and head back to Delta base.

Delta base is honestly not much. it's an island, not connected to the land mass to the north. The antenna requires a test override kit, but there's no hint as to where to aquire even a blueprint. There's a scannable wall map, though... and it looks like pretty much everything I've been doing was in the eastern half, except for Phi Robotics. I can see the bridge I spotted earlier on the map, as it separated the Phi robotics area from a long overland trip to another alterra base. O on it's side.

Heading over to the dock by Phi robotics, I check out the bridge first. Same deal as the antenna- needs Hydrolic fluid, lube doesnt work, no hint or scan as to where to find any. (though there is some kelp not far from the robotics, between the dock and the pod)

Instead of heading into the robotics facility again, I break past it, to explore the glacer. I saw a land predator last time in the area, and while critters in subnautica dont drop loot, I need to find "snowfox pelts" somewhere. The hoverbike has an odd steering mechanisim- WASD is all strafing. The only way to turn is to be BOTH looking in the direction you want to turn, AND pressing A or D in the right direction. It can also be picked up and carried- it takes 9 inventory slots. It's notable benifit is having a warm engine- your temp doesnt go down while riding. Still, it's a bit of a hassal, and when it got hung up on a ledge with too little inventory space to pick it up, I left it for later.

Got into a fight with a "Snow Stalker", the large predator from earlier. Does 35-40% of health per pounce, but with good strafing, I was able to kill it with a heatknife while only getting bitten once. No fur drops. Found another Archetect relic and ion cube. And I found a pool with a dock on it, with one underwater cave going back toward Robotics, and another going away.

The away tube emerges in an above water cave with a Stalker and young. I burnt my medkit on my initial exploration pass, and escaped back to the dock area with a third of my life.

This is why I brought a health nut. Not for eating, though- after crafting a tube base, I pulled out the locker, retieved the nut, and planted it. No room for a bed, but I can make a chair. Save, call it there.

On reflection, I can totally decompress an ingot and make a multipurpose room for a bed. That would give the plant a "night" to grow, so I can heal up before exploring again. I coulda swore I scanned a glacer map (not the area map at Delta, a land map), but I'm not seeing it in the databank. perhaps I just took a picture? Anything to give me a better idea what there is to look for in this area. I do want to check out the stalker cave again- prey carcases might have "snowfox fur."

[Rakaydos]

17 Hours, 57 minutes.

Recyclotron defabrication really changes the packing formulas in ways I am still coming to understand.

So, multipurpose room, and bed. I could make it a scanner room, if I only had some gold. With a scanner room, I could find some gold. But i've got a mineral scanner, and caves with veins of material in them, and time to kill. Put together a battery charger- the hab builder is a bit drained, and the mineral scanner will be- it's a real power hog. after fruitlessly searching, (at least for gold- there's plenty of copper, silver, and even veins of magnatite in the walls) I realize I've got the defabricator- all I need is something with gold IN it, like the hab builder's chip. I get it disassembled before I remember I need the gold for a hab component. None of my other tools have a chip as a component. (I didnt think to check the quantum locker itself until much later)

The map I thought I had turned out to be a PDA screenshot in the photogallery. Checking the compas against the robotics lab beacon, I'm about as far south as I can be on land. There's unvisited territory to the west, though. Packing up was interesting, as I realize the best way to pack copper and silver is as Compasses. (2 copper and 2 silver per slot) I ended up leaving the tube with the nut tree in place, even as I removed the hatch and solar panel. plants dont need light, right? Now I just needed to brave the stalker caves.

The stalkers take 5 heatknife strikes to kill. The juvenile stalkers are cute, but snap at you after you try petting them. And snow STALKER fur is sometimes found on the ground in their lairs. Past the cave there's a sparse foresty area with a snowfox jump jet databox, and following the outside ice-wall brought me to a cave in the ice... one with a security office carved into the walls, and voiceover commenting on it's presence. Clearly plot is afoot, and I'm going to limit my discussion of that plot.

On site, however, there's an Advanced Wiring Kit, to which my immediate reaction is "Arr, there be me gold." There's also the last Prawnsuit fragment (might be a whole prawnsuit, but it was the last fragment I needed), and a selection of fibers reminded me that I could clear out my inventory some by crafting coldweather gear, now that I had furs.

Outside the cave, I started unpacking, decompressing, and recrafting. amusingly, a battery charger is just a Compass and a titanium. The advanced wiring kit became a compass, 2 table coral, and a gold. Turns out there's no other gold anywhere around here. Good to know. (this is when I think to check the quantum locker- yup, the recipe involves an advanced wire kit, which had gold all along) There's an ion cube in scanner range, but its probably going to be an adventure for another time. While I wait for depleted batteries to charge, I uncraft my gloves to make a bed out of the fiber. First compasses, then the clothes on my back? clearly, I need to spend more time thinking about the implications of this technology.

The question for next time is, do I complete the loop back to the seatruck to drop off excess gear? or do I go for the ion cube now? The answer will probably depend on my packing next time, and whether I have room for an ion cube.

[Destro_Yersul]

it continues to surprise me how differently from me you play this game. I don't think I have ever worried about packing things, or moving bases. I basically always just build one big base, and maybe a couple smaller satellite bases, and once each is placed it never gets deconstructed. If I need more stuff, I go hunting for it rather than breaking down something I've already built.

[Rakaydos]

22 hours, 27 minutes

I recovered the hoverbike, and brought it back to the charger. Buncha jellyfish are swarming my seatruck at the dock. Build a minibase to decompress the components I need to make the jump upgrade for the hoverbike... and it's really kinda anemic. I tried jumping the disabled bridge, but no such luck. I start reoganizing the storage pod, running back and forth to the defabricator... when suddenly the seatruck being swarmed by jellyfish blew up.

...that's bad. I quickly pack the minibase, grab the two remaining pods at the approved push bar, and start pushing as hard as I can to get them out of the same zone as those jellyfish. cant use the seaglide, and you move like you're finless , pushing them, but I get it out of the jellyfish, through a kelp forest, and into a different twisty bridges. Safe enough for now. Swam back to the main base (and the MVB) solo.

making a new seatruck involved another twisty bridges scan room run, stocking up on a dozen diamond and a bunch of lead. Unfortunately I also lost my depth module, but I can rebuild that once I get the pods to saftey.

The databank map entry suggests there's another alterra facility tot he southwest of Delta, so I circle delts to the south... and stumble right over the facility, entrance door depth 135. Not too much inside I can reach... except a databox, with MOONPOOL, BABY! YEA! Back to recovering the pods, repairing the damaged one, and bringing them all home.

Then, completely redesigning and reconstructing my main base. The Control room sounds interesting, especially with the problems Ive had with scanners passively draining energy faster than solar charges it, even without an active scan. A large room lets me put the bioreactor and alien containment in the same room, and the water filtrator in a different room, that the control room can shut off. Moonpool and scanner on opposite ends, with the scanner having it's own hatch. Lots of rearranging the internal layout as I figure out what feels best. Then, crafting- the depth module, level 2 depth module, Prawn suit, Prawn suit thermal reactor, prawn suit depth moduel, Prawn suit max depth module, the prawnsuit suitlock trailer for the seatruck. all with lots of resource runs, fabbing, refabbing, grabbing a meal, turning off rooms not in use to save power.

I dont actually have the blueprint for the grapple arm or torpedo arm, and havnt even scanned a single drill arm. I might go try looking for Maida, or that new alterra base, or go fight that creature in the crystal caves. (Prawn suit is invincible!) I never actually went for the ion cube by the robotics facility, and now that I have prawn suil, I can navigate the tight turns to the sealed alien facility while inside an air station. And then there's the last facility on the alterra map, north of the bridge. If I dug up enough titanium, there's no reason I couldnt just base-build my way over that bridge, or over the cliff directly from the ocean. No bridge repair needed.

[Rakaydos]

Not an in game post- Planning and packing.

So a basic tube and hatch costs 4 titanium and a quartz. A thermal reactor costs 5 titanium, 2 magnatite and an aerogel.
A moonpool+bioreactor requires more space. A large room would actuall pack better than a multipurpose room, only costing 2 plasteel instead of 6 titanium. The moonpool requires 2 ingots, 2 lead and a lube. And the bioreacotor costs 3 titanium, a wiring kit (that you need in order to get power, so no compass tricks) and another lube.
That's 13 slots and 12 slots(plus a critter or plant), but they can share 3 titanium, so it's 22 slots to carry both. Once you have power, a recyclotron (2 slots) lets you pack denser. That should all fit into the prawnsuit backpack. (9 titanium, 1 quartz, 2 magnatite, 1 aerogel, 3 ingot, 2 plasteel, 2 lead, 2 lube, a wiring kit, and an ion cube)

A fabricator costs 2 quartz (1 glass), 2 titanium, and 2 copper (copper wire). A battery charger costs a copper wire and wiring kit (compass), plus a titanium. A bed costs a cloth (can be worn as a glove) and a titanium, and a pot and nut for medical help costs 2 titanium and 4 slots for the nut. the titanium can be gotten from a single ingot, so these components add 8 slots. A scanner room costs an ingot worth of titanium, and components from a microchip. (2 slots) A Nuclear reactor and water purifier costs a plasteel, advanced wire kit, 3 lead and at least 1 fuel rod, plus a copper wire and a second aerogel (in case you want to run the water purifier from the thermal plant), as well as the tube's worth of titanium (since it has to go into the large room or a multipurpose room) And 1 plasteel just about covers two Reinforcements if the base is deep enough to need it.
This internal inventory then, is: 1 glass, 2 wire, 1 compass, 2 ingot, 1(4) nut, 1 chip, 2 plasteel, 1 advanced wire kit, 3 lead, 1-2 fuel rod, 1 aerogel. 19 or 20 slots. Throw in a Creepvine seed for infinite medkits.

Actual packing: the internal inventory should probably go in the prawn suit, and the base supplies in two of the 3x4 storage bins in the seatruck, and carried when leaving the seatruck behind. I've got one 3x5 bin reserved for land gear: the jump-equipped hoverbike and the coldweather facemask. The other 3x5 bin, and the 6x3 trunk and the fab module's 6x2, are for resources collected along the way.

[Rakaydos]

1 day, 0 hour 11 minutes.

Preparation.

So if I'm going to be doing any serious leviathan fighting, I need medkits. I've got 2 creepvines planted outside the base, but they take time to regrow start with them. Seed, 5 samples, replant the seed, craft the fibers, seed, 5 samples, replant the seed, craft the fibers and medkits. Go resource hunting.

The list in last post is pretty long, and somehow a lot of the resources I needed for it went into the vehical and upgrade crafting last session. Whenever I'm not actively using the scanner room, I've got power off to the scanner and power on to the water purification plant. I harvest the creepvine 3-4 times and get 7-8 large waters. I got to the point where I have all the special resources I need, but I'm short 10 titanium and 1 lithium. (that is, 1 ingot and 1 plasteel) I figure I can finish that with resource gathering en route to... wherever. I should only need them for the more comprehensive bases.

Before leaving, though, I really should have a Reinforced dive suit. For fighting leviathans in, of course. I pin a recipe from the fabricator, gathr the last component from the outdoor growbed, and... oops, Its's the still suit. The reinforced dive suit isnt hard either, but it needs a ruby (not hard, I saw one earlier, something from the growbed, and 1 more titanium. I swear, I got 3 gold and 2 copper looking for that titanium.

The extra gear and uncrafted ingots makes storage a bit tighter than planned. One locker has the snowfox hoverbike and the coldweather headgear, and 2 "combine with snowball for a large water" tablets. A second has the reinforced dive suit, and the rest of the slots filled with medkits. The top cabinets have everything I need to turn the lights on in a base and get the recyclotron going, and the prawn has almost everything I need to outfit a base, in compressed forms. The bench locker has the coldweather bodysuit and a bunch of water and salt. The fab locker has some odds and ends, as well as a nut. I'm wearing the rebreather, the still suit, and because it's a nifty way to carry a cloth, coldweather gloves, along with a hud chip, compass, high cap (but not ultra cap) tanks, and swim charge fins.



All aboard the Cave Train? Last call!

[Destro_Yersul]

I really like the ability to pin things, so you can track resource progress. That's a nice QoL upgrade. Not sure about the seatruck vs the seamoth, though. How do you find it? The seamoth is my favourite exploration tool in the main game, to the point that I usually skip the seaglide entirely in order to just rush the moth.

[Rakaydos]

The sea truck by itself, is basically a slightly smaller Seamoth. But instead of upgrading it with modules, you find wrecked pieces of what are essentially train cars. Each train car slows you down a bit, but they keep your narrow profile, and each one gains you more and more Cyclops functionality. I dont even think it's possible to fit a cyclops down some of these biomes, so mobile-base functionality on something narrow in profile and maneuverable like a seamoth is great. (Seriously, these biomes start at lost river and go up past mushroom forest in terms of vehical navigation)

[Kareeah_Indaga]

The sea truck by itself, is basically a slightly smaller Seamoth. But instead of upgrading it with modules, you find wrecked pieces of what are essentially train cars. Each train car slows you down a bit, but they keep your narrow profile, and each one gains you more and more Cyclops functionality. I dont even think it's possible to fit a cyclops down some of these biomes, so mobile-base functionality on something narrow in profile and maneuverable like a seamoth is great. (Seriously, these biomes start at lost river and go up past mushroom forest in terms of vehical navigation)

I don’t know if they tweaked it with the last update, but I found the Seatruck to be a lot clunkier than the Seamoth. The corners kept getting caught on things and getting in and out of the vehicle was trickier. I didn’t get past just having the first module during my playthrough though.

[Balmas]

I think it's pretty telling that one of the most downloaded mods when I last played Below Zero did nothing but make it so that the Seatruck didn't slow down when you added modules.

Keep in mind that the last time I played Below Zero, cold weather still wasn't a thing to be concerned about, but I think the devs missed a beat with how they implemented the Seatruck compared to the vehicles from the first game. The Seamoth, if you'll pardon an analogy, is a sports car--fast, nimble, agile, perfect for just getting around. The Cyclops is a semi truck: slow, powerful, with enough storage space for long journeys and mobile basing. The Seatruck, on the other hand, feels like an around-town van with a series of trailers behind it. It lacks the storage and mobile base-iness of the Cyclops, and the zip of the Seamoth, until you're left with an unhappy compromise that's worse than either option.

[Rakaydos]

Perhaps I was just turned off the seamoth too early by the tiny (base) depth limit, and because I missed beacon scans on my first playthrough, mostly used it as a beacon and an airbase in a fixed location instead of as transport. by the time I got the depth upgrade from the Aurora, I was addicted to the prawn.

In Below Zero, beacons hit you with the cluebat at the start of the game, (alterra beacons are active, and also scannable, so it's not a matter of finding fragments, AND their utility is being demonstrated) and once you have the hab buildier, any place you need an airbase, you can just build an air base- there isnt really as many yawning voids in this game. I think the seaglide is slightly slower, too, at least vertically. 10ms, not 11, or something.

[Rakaydos]

1 day, 1 hour, 47 minutes

So first thing, I actually took the prawn suit out for a short trip and punched a squidshark to death. y'know, as a warmup. Repaired the prawn afterward, brought it back to the seatruck.

Where to first? well, I really didnt get much of a chance to explore the crystal caves, what with the jumpscare leviathan, and I've recieved an achievent for finding the Survivor's base when all I found was a platform and a databox, so retracing that expedition with more exploration sounds good.

I stop at the scanner room I left here, stick the prawn suit next to a thermal vent, and swap the drained Seatruck battery into it and a full one back into the seatruck. The thermal reactor fragments in the area are easy titanium, and there's a few lithium available, so I'm able to finish out my wishlist easy enough. No real unpack, just a recharge pitstop. The stillsuit is making my water packing redundant, but I really didnt pack much in the way of food. Hopefully my heatknife finds plenty of prey.

Maida's base is before the crystal caves- I just followed the wrong wall to find it. She's got her own moonpool I can access, with a customized prawnsuit that's seen better days. In the next room you get jumped by a Stalker, and Maida has some words for you while you're on the ground. She's finally entertaining the possibility you might not be alterra, and says if you sabotauge the main radio tower, she MIGHT remember a few things about your sister. She points you to a scannable fragment of a "test module" that could do the job, that "she couldnt make work." And no wonder, the blueprint requires the thing I had to scan in at least two different wrecks. Also, there's a seatruck perimiter defense module lying on the floor. I'm sure she wont miss it. The Stalker keeps me from following maida into the other room.

Back to the seatruck, and the crystal caves. And the jumpscare leviathan. The plan is, bait it into grabbing the truck, climb out, pull out the knife, and slash it intil it backs off, then repair the truck while it's away, and repeat. The plan works. I can safely explore in 5 minute segments, punctuated by 30 seconds of terror and rage.

The crystal caves are pretty extensive, it seems, and extend deeper than the seatruck's 650m depth. I've got the max depth for the prawn, though, so I took it down. some really deep sections have no side tunnels but extensive minerals, and another area seemed to be a cave of cyclops-sized ruby crystals. I didnt rule out tunnels behind the ruby section, but I know how to return there.



If I only had a drill arm.

I worked my way back up to the seatruck. The leviathan's territory includes some of the deeper areas, and at one point I actually cornered it in a small cave bend. Unfortunatly either I didnt kill it, or it peaces out on death- it seemed like it fled partially through a wall when it left. I've heard it but havnt seen it since.

Not really in a hurry to head back to the surface, I keep exploring the crystal cave and collecting kyanite. It's the low-calory warning that gives me pause. There no red featherfish in the immediate area, but there is batteryplants- and there's enough room in the cave for a moonpool-large room base.

The initial large room-moonpool setup was a bit tricky, making sure both could be placed in the confines of the cave while being hooked together. And it's deep enough that just the two rooms floods. but once the bioreactor was in and turned on, the recyclotron built, and another plasteel I brought for this purpose retrieved, I had a Reinforcement so I could patch up the base.

Still hungry. I've got two nuts in storage, so 2 grow pots, in order to get ahead of my hunger. Batery charger for the repair tool, deconstruct the glove into a bed, and take a quick nap. Still only a third of the way done, so I build and sit on a chair (which stops your meters from going down) and start reviewing my PDA, especially the alterra voice logs. There's a radio towe mechanic who basically tells you to look in the wrecked ships for something tower related. (which I've done, and which maida has now given the other piece of the puzzle) There's more backstory on the seatruck pilot, who implies his moustash grooming kit has saved his life at least once on this planet. And your sister has been discovering more about alterra's activities on the planet. Also, the robotics lab team plays Among Us Alien Intruder.

When that's done, the plants arnt ready, but I can sleep again. After that, the first nut has grown, so my food status is stabilized. More unpacking, got the fabricator out, did a battery swap between truck and prawn (it's easier to dock the prawn than detach the seatruck cab and dock it), and saved. Next time, I'll probably unpack a scanner room.



The long wait for the nuts to grow may be a bit of a problem for a long term expedition. Two sleeps and a chair between them worked this time, but chairs are boring, unless you have a backlog to go through. I do have a lot of salt, so I could probably hunt some rations down and store them. If I did it here, though I should probably be wearing the dive suit from the IAMVRYBDAS locker, in case that jumpscare leviathan comes back. (which I still need to scan, dammit!)