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

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica, Part Three

By Rita Mariner

(Continued from Part Two)

In the SUBNAUTICA storyline, you will get a series of radio messages from a starship Sunbeam.  They will finally determine that they need to come to Planet 4546B to rescue you.  They will send coordinates of where it is they want you to meet them. It's about 1.5 km from your Lifepod.  Hopefully by now you will have secured yourself a Seamoth, it makes the trip much faster and safer.  You will be a bit surprised when you reach the island and see what awaits you there.  You will be even more shocked when you see that it blasts the Sunbeam from the sky, right in front of you.  You will have to explore around the building, to locate, up to three new Purple Tablets.  You can then enter and explore the alien facility and learn the awful truth.  YOU'RE INFECTED!  You can't leave the planet because of that. Seems the entire planet is quarantined, due to a deadly bacteria, called Kharaa. So NO ONE is allowed on or off the planet, as long as they are infected!

What do you do? Follow the clues to a possible cure?  Your just one lone survivor and these precursors, with all this tech, were not able to solve this problem, over 1000 years ago. Plus they left these nasty enforcer units behind, called Warpers, to hunt and kill any infected individuals.  Your life just went from piss poor, to now it sucks bad.  Personally, I use the Subnautica wiki to help me locate wrecks and lifepods that have stuff I need or the coordinates don't popup on my PDA.  I put each wreck on a piece of paper and list the various fragments and or Databoxes they contain.  I then use the F1 key to show me the planet coordinates of where I am and move to the spot I need to go to collect the items I need.  Remember you will need a laser cutter for most of the stuff, to access it and also WATCH YOUR AIR,  unless your using the Rebreather, over 100m down you suck your O2 Tank dry fast.

That is one of the first things you will be prompted to do is go back onto the Aurora and repair the damaged drive core and stop the radiation leakage.  That will allow you then to dump the Radiation suit and wear the Rebreather and Reinforced Dive suit, once you find it.  You will need a Propulsion Cannon, Scanner, Laser Cutter, Repair Tool, Fire Extinguishers, Med Pacs. I take my Seamoth over, but be careful how you approach the Aurora wreck, a Reaper lurks there.  I have two storage modules on it, since there are some collectibles on the wreck, if you want them, Lab Gear, posters, Bags, batteries, med packs, model of the ship.  There is also a complete set of Prawn Suit fragments to scan. You will need 4 different access codes to the various doors, you get them off PDAs or the radio message you receive. Codes will be needed for Lab, Cargo, Cabin 1 and Captain's Cabin. I find the low entrance, clear it, killing nasties that try to eat you.  You will get to the Lab and a couple of terminals with data that need downloading.  Lots of collectibles in Lab.

After you clear the two areas on the lower space.  I return to the Seamoth, empty my inventory of collectibles and then swim over to the left a bit farther and walk up the wreck that leads to the upper entrance.  You will find storage lockers along the way, as well as more nasties.  Check them, many have batteries, you might need and med pacs, you will need.  You will walk around a curved piece of metal and onto a deck that leads to the airlock opening.  Pickup the fire extinguisher you find on the way.. Use them as you need them, but sparingly.  Only where you need to get through to where you need to be. Hit Administration first, get the data there and what items you can collect or scan.  Then move to Cargo Bay.  Check the Cargo Bay for anything you can use, or scan.  Next stop, Seamoth Bay, PDA there and a Depth Module, have your knife handy from here on out a very vicious nasty lurks the the wreck, called a Bleeder. Next stop the Locker Room, need Laser Cutter.  Search the room for PDAs you will get the needed access codes for the rooms upstairs, plus more batteries and med pacs.  The out the other door and up to Prawn Bay, here you need to put out the fire, so you can get close enough to repair the door control. and open it. 

Now you have hit payday, inside you will find all the Prawn Suit fragments you need, but you will need to put down enough of the fires to get to some of them. Also kill the fires enough to grab a Storage module.  You will then clear one of the stairs so you can proceed upstairs. Upstairs is crews quarters, first stop is cafe or storage room.  Cafe you need to kill the fires then scan anything in there you don't have, pickup another extinguisher, PDA and poster. the you can go right or left and search the rooms.  Some you will need to put out fires.  Search each room for anything you can scan or collect, PDA, battery, Med Pac, poster, bag, etc. Here you will find Cabin 1 and the Captain's Cabin. I find I need to make two trips, to the Seamoth,  if I want to grab and take all the collectibles from the crew's quarters.  The Captain's Cabin is where you get the detailed info for your escape rocket. 

Once I have cleaned out all the cabins, I will head back down to hallway outside the Locker Room and head towards the Drive Room.  Put out the fire blocking your way. Proceed to the station, grab the Cyclops Engine Efficiency Module.  You will know see the problem, large holes in the reactor walls.  You scan them and hit each one with your repair tool. Keep your knife handy as you try to repair the breaches, the Bleeders will be sucking you dry. So while you have you repair tool running, keep your finger ready to bring up your knife, to slice and dice, any Bleeder that attaches itself to you.  I think there are like 13 breaches you need to repair, so it will take some time. Once you have sealed up the Drive Core breaches your done with the Aurora, grab your loot, head back to base and party.  You can now dump you radiation Suit and wear the Rebreather.  Plus the Reinforced Dive suit, when you get the plans.

To be continued

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Subnautica, Part Two

By Rita Mariner

(Continued from Part One)

So what is SUBNAUTICA story, besides being stranded on an alien, water plant and having to fight to survive.  You will be collecting resources to make your first set of tools to survive. Once you get your Lifepod repaired.  You will start to receive radio distress messages from other Lifepods.  All of them have a PDA or two, look around outside for a second one.  Some will have Data Box, with a blueprint for a piece of gear you may not have. 

As the story progresses you will visit the first of three Degasi Bases.  It is on a floating island.  You will find you first clue that aliens are possibly involved, as you explore the base(s).  There are three buildings on the island you need to explore.  Watch out for some nasties, they BITE!  Keep your knife handy!  There will ba a lot of stuff to scan as well. Some additional habitat pieces.  Several PDAs are there, you need to find them all, since they will lead you to the next base.

In between running off to the various Lifepods, you need to investigate your local area for any and all fragments you can to build your data base.  You will need to get your Seaglide first. You will then need to find the Mobile Vehicle Bay, so you can build the Seamoth, once you find all the fragments.  The Mobile Vehicle Bay will also build your Cyclops and Neptune Launch Platform. So best to find the fragments as soon as possible, so you can start to collect the needed resources.

While most resources come from limestone, sandstone and later shale rock outcroppings.  Crystals are used to make glass and are found separate.  Lithium can be separate or in Shale. More exotic resources are found much deeper and you will need a fully upgraded Seamoth to even hope to get to them.  You want to start building your habitat as soon as possible, so you can house your resources as you collect them.  You also need to find the fragments and build a Moonpool to house, recharge and later upgrade your Seamoth and Prawn suit.

When I play, I spend a lot of time looking thru the Mushroom Tree Forest, since it has a bunch of fragments waiting to be scanned.  I can find Cyclops, Moonpool and Modification Station fragments.  There are also lots of lithium and shale rock, so you can score some diamonds.  It will take time to find them and you need to watch your depth, plus there is a nasty there, called a Rock Shark that will beat the heck out of your Seamoth, so keep your repair tool handy and charged up. Enough for now.

Rita Mariner

Reader Submitted: Game Review Subnautica

By Rita Mariner

  I have never been one who was much into video games, but I started to watch the You Tube channel of The Mighty Jingles, ex-British Navy guy.  I started playing World of Tanks, then World of Warships, but they they had issues, plus being multi-player games, you were at the tender mercies of your team mates, good or bad.  I then tried X-COM, but even though it was single player, I was having a hard time with it.  I guess my PC wasn't up to the task, or I wasn't.  I was getting frustrated.  Then I finally found a game I loved: SUBNAUTICA, a single -player, survival game.

  What is SUBNAUTICA?  It is a single player, game of survival.  Your spaceship,  the Aurora, has crash landed on an alien water world, Planet 4546B.  Your Lifepod is damaged and you have no tools and limited supplies. The PDA you have gives you information on how to build the first set of basic tools you will need to survive, but you need to get out and find the resources, on the ocean floor. 

You can play the game in one of 4 different modes.  One: Survival:  Here you have to watch your air, food and water, as well all the things around you trying to kill you. Freedom:  like survival only without having to worry about food, or water. Hardcore: like Survival, but only one life, you die, you start over from scratch.  Creative:  No limits, all blueprints at the start, can't die, just explore, build away..  I tried this one, got bored with it, no challenge.

   So what you have to do to survive is find resources to start building to stuff you need to advance the storyline.  Limestone you will find, Titanium and Copper.  Sandstone contains Lead, Silver or Gold. Later when you locate Shale they will contain Lithium and Diamonds.  Many other needed resources will just be out in the open waiting to be picked up.  Once you get your Scanner built, scan everything, it is your best friend. Next tool is Repair Tool, that one is tricky, since is requires Cave Sulphur.  This resource comes from the nest of a very cranky fish. You get close to them, they charge you and BLOWUP in a cloud of acid, which hurts!  If enough of them hit you at once, you can die! so pack lots of med packs and use them. 

   There are vehicles in Subnautica, but you need to find the fragments of them, in order to build them, Seaglide, Seamoth, Mobile Vehicle Bay, and Cyclops.  There are many other items you will need badly in the game, Laser Cutter, Battery Charger, and you will have to explore wrecks to find them as well as Data Boxes that have complete blueprints to other equipment.  There are also lots of PDA's laying around with data on them, try not to miss any.  They will in or around wrecked Lifepods, or wrecked pieces of the ship, abandoned bases. Enough for now.  Check out Mighty Jingles Subnautica to see more about the game.  Be warned though, Very addicting.  Game is available on Steam for $25.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Rti-QyCHIE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Continued in Part Two

Rita Mariner