Subnautica: 10 Tips to Keep you Afloat

Subnautica is, among many things, quite difficult. The beginning of the game is mostly just scavenging for resources and trying to survive. In this guide, I'll be giving you 10 tips to expedite that phase, but also make sure you don't die of hunger or thirst along the way.

#1: Build the Grav Trap

The Grav Trap, when deployed, attracts nearby living organisms and holds them nearby, leading to a much easier but still not effortless hunting trip. You'll quickly get many fauna, some edible and some... not so much. If too many Rabbit Rays or no more food fish are getting attracted to your trap, move it elsewhere.

#2: Get a lot of Bladderfish

Bladderfish are great. They can be made into water, cooked into food in an emergency (though they're not exactly calorie-dense), or used for oxygen in an even greater emergency. Would've been nice to know my first playthrough. At least you do now!

#3: Build Lockers for inventory management

Waterproof Lockers are a good storage system and will save you many a trip to go find more Titanium, Copper, Quartz, or whatever other material you may need. Trust me, you'll always want a lot on hand. Once you get the Builder tool, I highly recommend making some better lockers. Go with whatever fits the look of your base best.

#4: Look for new items and scan everything

The best way to get new buildable (craftable? Forgeable? Fabricatable?) items in Subnautica is by going out and scanning items you find with the Scanner tool to unlock their recipes. This also helps you understand more about your environment, so scan everything you can with your scanner tool.

#5: Make a ton of batteries, and save dead ones

Batteries die quicker than I'd like, so I recommend you make quite a bit. Don't throw out the dead ones, though, as eventually you'll unlock a battery (and power cell) charger, and it pays to have enough batteries that you can have enough in your tools while simultaneously charging the rest.

#6: Craft a radiation suit and fix the Aurora ASAP

When the Aurora explodes, it'll start spreading radiation. Your first priority should be getting the materials for the suit (hit a Creepvine with the Survival Knife for a Creepvine Sample), and then you should get the mobile vehicle bay, followed by the Seamoth. Then, move to the side of the Aurora, trying your best to avoid the deadly and terrifying Reaper Leviathans. Only after fixing the Aurora can you use the Rebreather in certain areas without getting radiation sickness, allowing you to swim much more normally than before.

#7: Pipes are situational

Pipes can be good, but don't build a bunch of pipes everywhere expecting to never have to swim to the surface again. I never found much use out of them, to be honest. Maybe if you're exploring a large cave or doing a challenge run.

#8: Crashfish are evil

If you've ever been exploring a cave and heard a loud noise followed by a powerful explosion and 50% less health than you had a moment ago, that's a crashfish. Sadly, you need to go into their nests and trigger their explosive reaction to acquire sulfur. If you have a Seaglide, use it and move in the opposite direction as fast as you can when you hear a crashfish. If you don't, swim towards it and pray it goes by you and can't course-correct.

#9: Leviathans don't respawn

If you somehow manage to kill a Reaper Leviathan, it's gone for good until your next playthrough. None of the Leviathans in Subnautica respawn. You can tell if it's a Leviathan by scanning it. (or judging by the size if it's too dangerous to scan) Once you've taken out a Leviathan, it's gone for good... well, all except a few notable outliers.

#10: Don't swim too far

Subnautica is, at its core, a psychological horror game. Swim too far out, and instead of an invisible wall, you'll find the Crater Edge. It goes down literally forever. Okay, technically not forever, but it extends 8,192 km in all directions. Go farther than that, and you'll be teleported back near your lifepod. The water is black, and there's no flora or fauna, except, for some reason...

The largest lifeform in the game, adult Ghost Leviathans. These things do 80 damage per hit (you have a maximum of 100 health), a new one spawns every 30 seconds up to a maximum of 3 no matter how many you kill, and they tear through machines like paper. The whole thing is a thalassophobe's (like me) worst nightmare. Going here in Creative Mode scares me. Stay away from this place unless you have robust guts. That's 10 tips to help you not sink in the beginning of Subnautica!