Beginner Guide

If this is your first Subnautica, three things will keep you alive: oxygen, scanning, and knowing where home is. Everything else is built on top of those.

Deep sea exploration scene with submersibles and glowing underwater structures

First steps

▸Keep first dives short. Oxygen runs out faster than you think on early gear.
▸Scan everything you can reach. Most blueprints come from scans, not from menus.
▸Build a one-room base near spawn. Storage solves the "I keep dying with my best stuff" problem.
▸Always pack extra titanium-equivalents for emergency repair. You will need them.

Early priorities

Oxygen buffer

Battery supply

Storage room

Navigation landmarks

Food & water

Basic tool upgrades

Want a timed plan?

The first-hour plan turns these principles into a 60-minute play.

Open first hour guide

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The classic Subnautica mistake

Pushing too deep before you can survive there. Original Subnautica was famous for it: chase one shiny resource into a leviathan's hunting ground, die, lose everything. Stay shallow until your oxygen and depth limits comfortably cover the round trip, then push out one zone at a time.

Subnautica 2 official screenshot: deep ocean exploration scene

Scan before you push deeper

Info is the cheapest upgrade in the game.

Subnautica 2 official screenshot: underwater habitat and exploration

Know your way home

A beacon on your base saves more lives than a knife upgrade.

Deeper biome-by-biome strategy lands after we've put real time into the EA build.

Keep planning

Once the basics click, these pages cover the rest of the early game.