Walkthrough (Subnautica)

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Suggested Information This page serves as a suggested playthrough of the game, however the player does not have to play the game in this exact series of events.

This page serves as a full-game Survival Mode walkthrough of Subnautica. It also contains gameplay tips and helpful pointers for successfully mastering the oceans. Keep in mind that this page will have spoilers, as it also summarizes the events as you follow along with the story. Note that if at any point in the playthrough you become unable to progress due to a bug, check Console Commands to see if any commands can help. If you are simply looking for exploration tips, check out Exploration Tips or Getting Started.

Background

You play as Ryley Robinson, the Non-Essential Systems Maintenance Chief aboard the Aurora, a spacecraft sent to the Ariadne Arm by the Alterra Corporation in order to build a phasegate. Following the ships catastrophic hull failure and subsequent crash landing, he must find a way to escape from the water planet known Planet 4546B, and discover the cause for the Aurora's crash.

Beginning

Opening Sequence

After the Aurora's hull failure, Ryley enters Lifepod 5 and ejects the lifepod. It lands in the Safe Shallows, the first biome the player will enter. Following the cinematic sequence, the player will wake up, and after a short stuggle to get out of the chair, will stand up. This is when the player will gain control of Ryley. A fire has started in the lifepod, move towards the Fire Extinguisher on the ground, (see Key Bindings for game controls), and pick it up. Aim the fire extinguisher at the base of the fires and use it to put the fires out until you can no longer see their bright red and orange glow. After the fire has been put out you will boot up your PDA, a tablet that will act as a databank, inventory, beacon and screenshot manager, as well as act as your virtual assitant for the duration of the playthrough, giving game hints and anecdotes.

The Lifepod

Inside the lifepod there is a storage chest with a red top, inside the chest you will find two Nutrient Blocks and 2 Filtered Waters. These will serve as your food and water source until you are able to create your own. Along with these there will be 2 Flares, which can be used to light up dark areas until a more reliable light source is found. Also inside the lifepod is a Medical Kit Fabricator, which will automatically provide First Aid Kits for the player to use when they get injured. It is recomended to take a first aid kit so you have a way to heal in the event that you are attacked by fauna. Also inside the lifepod is the Fabricator, which is used to craft natural resources into other materials, kncluding food and water sources. It is also used to craft several tools, the most vital ones being the Scanner, Repair Tool, Standard O₂ Tank and Survival Knife. Finally, you will see the Damaged Radio and damaged secondary systems. These can both eventually be repaired using the Repair Tool.

Into the Ocean

There are two hatches on the lifepod, one on the top and one on the bottom, choose one of the hatches and use it to exit the lifepod. At this point it is important to begin collecting resources to build your basic equipment. The easiest one to craft is the scanner, which requires one titanium and one battery. Begin your search by looking for Limestone Outcrops, they can be found on the floor and walls of several biomes, incudong the Safe Shallows. These can contain Copper Ore or Titanium, both of which are vital resources early onto the game. Collect at least one of each resource, along with several Acid Mushrooms, which are used to craft batteries. While exploring keep an eye on your Oxygen meter, if it runs out you will have mere seconds to reach the surface before the screen goes black and you die. Once you have collected the appropriate resources, use the fabricator to craft a battery, and then a scanner. The scanner can be used scan fragments, which will allow the player to unlock new blueprints, and to scan Flora, Fauna and Coral. Once you have crafted your scanner, begin collecting more titanium for a standard O₂ tank and survival knife.

Gathering Food & Water

In survival and hardcore, keeping your water and food levels high is important if you want to stay alive. The nutrient bars and filtered waters in the lifepod will help you start, but can only get you so far. The earliest sources of food and water both come from small fish, such as the Boomerang, Bladderfish and Peeper. All of these fish can be caight by hand, and cooked with the fabricator to provide a steady food source. However, one fish, the bladderfish, can also be crafted into filtered water, so it is recomended to reserve bladderfish for water. Another source of water, though slightly harder to obtain is Bleach, which is crafted with a Salt Deposit and a Coral Tube Sample. Bleach can be crafted into two Disinfected Waters, which provide slightlu more water per bottle than filtered waters.

Crafting Important Tools

The survival knife is an important tool, used throughout the game for various reasons. It requires Silicone Rubber to be crafted, which in turn is made from Creepvine Seed Cluster. These are groups of small, yellow balls found on certain Creepvines, a tall, green kelp. Creepvines can only be found in a biome known as the Kelp Forest, which is distingushed by the abundance of creepvines and Stalkers. It is recommended to collect the seed clusters as fast as possible, avoiding stalkers, in order to minimize the damage taken by an under-equipped player. After collecting the required resources, head back to your lifepod and begin crafting the reqired materials to make the oxygen tank and survival knife.

The next tool you should focus on is the repair tool, which will be used to repair the lifepod's secondary systems and the radio. Crafting it requires one titanium, one Cave Sulfur and one silicone rubber. The most difficult of these to gather will be the cave sulfur, as a titanium is fairly easy to get, and you can use the extra silicone rubber left over after crafting the survival knife. Cave sulfur can be found in Sulfur Plants, whoch are found in the Safe Shallows Caves. Each plant contains one cave sulfur, however the plant is guarded by a defensive fauna known as the Crashfish, which hide inside the plant until the player approaches it, at which point the will be released from the flower and will charge at the player. These fish will swim towards the player at a rapid speed, and after a time explode dealing massive damage to anything in its blast radius. Crashfish can be dangerous to players who lack the proper equipment, however there are certain stratagies that can be used to avoid them. After they launch from the flower, instead of swimming away from the crashfish, swim towards it. Due to its high speed they are unable to maneuver back towards the player, and will swim away, exploding harmlessly. At this point, collect the yellow cave sulfur from the flower and return to your lifepod to craft the repair tool.

Exploring Further

Distress Call

Soon after repairing the radio, you will receive a radio massage, interact with the radio to listen to it. After lostening to the message you will recieve a beacon leading to location of Lifepod 3, and its crew. Swim towards the beacon, watching out for any aggresive fauna, and also keeping an eye on your Oxygen meter. Upon reaching the the beacon you will find a destroyed Lifepod 3, with no crew in sight. Explore the wreck and you will find several new items, including a Data Box. Interacting with the databox will allow the player to unlock new technologies, and this specific databox will grant the player the ability to craft the Compass, which can be used for navigational purposes. There will also be an abandoned PDA, these PDAs can be found scattered throughout the world, often conatining important information. The final item that can be seen is a Seaglide Fragment, using the scanner, scan the fragment. necessary

Fragments

Throughout the world dozens of different types of fragments can be found, these can all be scanned using the scanner and doing so will unlock the item being scanned. Many Blueprints require several of their fragments to be scanned in order to unlock that technology. Scanning the first fragment will often unlock a Databank entry, giving information about the the item. The recipe for the item can only be unlocked once the necessary amount of fragments have been scanned. Wrecks are abundant with fragments, and as such are a good place to unlock new blueprints.

Data Boxes

Several blueprints are not unlocked through scanning blueprints, but rather by opening Data Boxes. Unlike most fragments, only one data box needs to be opened in order to unlock the recipe, despite the fact that several of the same data box can spawn.

Abandoned PDAs

Abandoned PDAs can be found scattered across the map, most often in places like wrecks and destroyed lifepods. These PDA's often contain information pertaining to the story of Subnautica, and can hold codes and clues to help the player. Some PDAs will also provide beacons to important story checkpoints. It is reccomended that the player picks up as many of them as possible, in order to more easily follow along with the story and learn more about the world that surrounds them.