Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica, Part Four

By Rita Mariner

(Continued from Part Three)

Now that you have risked life and limb, as well as death from radiation poisoning or fire. You can collect the needed resources to build your PRAWN suit.  Initially it can go down to 900m without any special mods, but the first depth mod will get it to 1300m.  You make that in the Vehicle Modification Station, you put in your Moon Pool.  If you don't have either one of those yet, your slacking off.  You can find Moon Pool fragments in the Mushroom Forest, when you go to check out the Lifepod of the religious guy, whose body your suppose to claim, he's dead.  They're all dead, Dave!  You can also find other vehicle and equipment fragments in the Mushroom Forest, while your there.  All depends on how much time you want to spend looking.

Hopefully you have discovered and looted the first Degasi base on the floating island. That gives you most of the Habitat structures you need to get started on your base. Next stop will be Degasi Seabase 2, you will find this in the Jellyshroom Cavern, near Lifepod 17. You will need the first depth mod for the Seamoth, or you can't do the trip, the cavern is at 250m or more.  There are several platforms, with cargo pods and or lights, the first one has a PDA with the location to the second base.  Once you pick it up, the beacon on the base activates and you now know where it is and you can move towards it.  The cavern is full of Crabsnakes and they love to chew on your sub and YOU! They hide inside the giant Jellyshrooms.  There is also a boatload of Shale chunks, full of diamonds and lithium all over, along with lots of loose Magnatite, a new resource, you will need, make sure you scan it.

Once you get to the base, swim around the exterior and scan all the loose items and plants you find there, before entering.  This base is covered in a nasty plant, called Drooping Stingers and if you hit them, they will hurt! So try hard not to touch them.  Inside you will find several PDAs, including one with the location to the last Degasi base at 500m.  There is also the Water Filtration machine, so if you playing in Survival mode, this will solve your fresh water issue, as well as generating salt for use in other fabrication. So it will be well worth you time to fill up your inventory down in the cavern and if you have extra storage on your Seamoth, fill them all up, with resources you find down in the cavern. 

Head back to your base, empty your inventory, and the sub's. Make the 500m or 900m depth upgrade for the Seamoth, if you can, you will need the Modification Station for this. if you don't have this item yet, you can't go the the last Degasi base and you will need to spend time now, looking for the 3 fragments you will need to get the blueprint, as well as gathering the resources to make it. Once you have the station and make the upgrades to the Seamoth, you will  really need the 900m depth upgrade for this to work, or it will be a short trip.

Check your beacon manager on your PDA and you can change the colors of any beacon you have listed to make it easier to see.  I usually make the ones I need to get to to Yellow, since that stands out the best.  You then head towards the one that shows the Degasi Deep Base (500m).  This base is guarded by both Warpers and Crabsquids.  Warpers can pull you from your sub and the habitat, so if they do, just swim away and stay out of their reach and make your way back.  Crabsquid uses an EMP blast to knock out power, but just for a few seconds.  This base is extremely important and is full of collectibles along with stuff you need, so you have to loot and scan it, both upper level, lab and lower level.  So make sure you keep yourself healed and each time you pop out for air and to dump loot into sub storage, repair the sub!

After you have cleared out the base, RUN AWAY!  If you head in the right direction, you will end up in the Lost River.  You can tell because you will start to see pools and streams of green brine. The green brine is very acidic so unless you have the reinforced dive suit, don't dive it, it will hurt you FAST!  It will hurt the sub too, but not as fast.  You should come across the skull of an ancient leviathan,  There are alien lights focused on it. If you follow them up to a ledge you will find a force field door.  If you found it in the base you just looted, you have the key to open it, I hope you scanned it first. You can open the force field, enter and gather the data, grab up more ion cubes, an egg and a bunch of stuff to scan.  Outside you can swim around and you might find a new resource, Nickle Ore, scan it first, then pick it up.  There won't be too many pieces there, but you can find a few.  There will be some rubies too.  If you have beacons with you, good idea to mark the Skelly.  Now you can continue to explore the Lost River or look for the exit which is just up and to the rear of the Skelly.  Make sure you beacon the entrance so you can find it again.  Also if you still have room in your inventory, grab some of the Blood Oil from the tall white vines you see and maybe Deep Shrooms if there are any there, you can grow them.  Enough for now,  Next trip is exploring the Lost River.

Rita Mariner