What happens when your ship is blown out of space?
 
 

That time when inspiration kicks in

Ever get that sudden urge to get back into a game because of viewing community content?
 
 
Ever realize that your favorite story related to said game never got finished?
 
 
Ever think that you can write that one story that fills that hole in your heart?
 
One entertaining?
 
One complete?
 
One others can enjoy as much they enjoyed the original?
 
 
Ever think this would be better somewhere else on the internet rather in a Steam guide for a game few even continue to play?
 
 
Well, that question actually has an answer.
 
 
Yes.
 
Yes, this should really be written elsewhere.
 
 
Will that stop me?
 
 
Nah 🙂
 
 
 

Preamble

Keito’s job is a simple job.
 
 
He dons his stained green shirt and beige working pants, grabs his red toolkit, and wanders out of his cabin to perform his routine maintenance checks on the lifepods.
 
 
They’re little escape pods in case the Aurora, the ship he’s currently flying in, ever has to crash land on a planet. Of course, these lifepods are somewhat old and in need of some TLC.
 
 
It seems like he’s the only one that feels that way about them.
 
 
He made a list of malfunctions “yesterday” – time is relative when you’re on a spaceship – and will start his work from the simplest to the most complex. It’s better to have one working lifepod than no working lifepods, after all.
 
 
Lifepod 5 seems to be the only one with a rather simple fix to it: the rechargeable solar batteries. Two of the three batteries are damaged and in dire need of replacement, lest they lead their battery juices all over the inside of the lifepod cabin. Not fun.
 
 
And so he sets about his work, quiet and content. It’s almost kind of fun lugging around giant solar batteries, as fun as it can get.
 
 
He didn’t say his job was a very fun job, did he?
 
 
In goes the new batteries, and he can check Lifepod 5 off his list.
 
 
He scratches away at his list – pen and paper, because he’s had disagreements with his PDA in the past in regards to accurate and orderly note taking, namely how a PDA dislikes his way of scribbling – using his toolbox as a makeshift table. Next lifepod is…
 
 
There’s a rumble, and the whole ship lurches. Keito and his toolbox are knocked to the ground, his tools spilling out and his box gaining a rather large dent in its lid.
 
 
Honestly, he’s currently more annoyed that his toolbox and tools are getting ruined. He paid good money for all of it, even if his job supplies him with spares, on top of far more sophisticated tools, for free.
 
 
And then the sirens begin to blare, and the gravity of the situation sets in fast. The ship has been hit. The ship is going down.
 
 
C’mon, Kei! Forget the tools!
 
 
He tears himself away from his tools, now sliding around the lifepod bay freely, clanging into other lifepods nearby. At this point, he can’t help any extra damage done to the pods. He jumps into Lifepod 5 without second thought, just as yells become audible over the sirens.
 
 
Keito jumps into one of the two chairs fixed to the lifepod’s interior, and begins to press buttons on the control remote with shaking fingers. Somehow, magically, he hits the correct buttons in the correct order. The strap lowers over his chest, almost like an amus*ment park ride, and the pod begins to rumble.
 
 
LAUNCHING LIFEPOD IN 5… 4… 3…
 
2…
 
1…
 
LAUNCHING…
 
 
A loud rumbling noise fills his ears as his stomach drops violently. He looks upwards, towards the reinforced gla*s top hatch. The Aurora comes into full view, the ship clearly on fire. Red flames burst from the sides of the ship’s hull, waving at him as he descends to whatever planet lies below him.
 
 
There’s another rumble, and Keito’s attention turns to his lifepod. An unsecured panel flies free, along with the fire extinguisher – he had a feeling he was missing something in the preliminary checks – and he watches helplessly from his chair as the two objects ricochet around the cabin without resistance.
 
 
The panel eventually lines itself up with his chair. Keito holds his breath and braces for impact as the flat face of the panel collides with his face.
 
 
 

Day 1

Keito wakes up strapped to his chair. Smoke fills his lungs as a fire rages inside the escape pod.
 
 
That certainly wakes him up.
 
 
Bleary and dizzy from smoke inhalation, he furiously raises the safety bar that keeps him trapped in his chair. It beeps in protest once or twice before finally whirring loudly in his ears, letting him go free. Coughing, he dives for the first thing he sees laying on the floor: the fire extinguisher.
 
 
He wields the thing like a weapon of war, yelling all the way as he presses the trigger. Foam sprays from the nozzle, dousing the flames and leaving a neat pile of white bubbles in front of the big lifepod status screen.
 
 
Electronics spark, damaged and broken. Smoke still fills the compartment, but it’s slowly being vented out. He sighs as the extinguisher hangs in his grip, finally able to breathe.
 
 
He looks upwards. From what he sees through the cla*s cap in the escape entrance, the sky is clear and bright blue, similar to the sky of Earth. The pod rocks gently as the sound of waves can be heard outside of the pod’s hull.
 
 
He drops the extinguisher on the floor, making a loud clang. But with it being so quiet, he doesn’t care for the noise.
 
 
One hand on the ladder, he hefts himself up and pushes open the heavy hatch above his head. Salty sea air floods his senses. He can almost taste the salt on his tongue. Two more steps, and he finally hauls his body outside.
 
 
The wind beats at his face as he stands atop his pod, staring at the downed Aurora. The ship lay in the midst of the water, smoking and flaming from parts of the hull.
 
 
He knows others escaped with him. He can’t help but wonder how many more didn’t make it.
 
 
It’s ocean as far as he can see, bar two separate islands. One lays close to the ship, and the other floats behind the pod, seemingly covered in trees and wildlife.
 
 
But one look into the ocean tells a different story. He can see glowing plants decorating a shallow sandy surface, and white coral tubes poke out from the waves. Schools of alien fish jump in and out of the water without care, colored blue with a single bright yellow eye on one side of its flat body. It’s both eerie and beautiful at the same time.
 
 
Keito climbs back into the pod to look for a dive suit. He’s still in his mechanic getup, far from anything ideal for swimming around in on an alien planet.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
It’s tight, but it’ll do for now.
 
 
He tugs at the tight collar of his dive suit, the ill-fitting black rubber the only thing he has to wear now. It’s just a simple wet suit, not even coming with an oxygen tank, flippers, or dive mask. How annoying.
 
 
He stuffs his dry clothes into the little storage compartment in the pod and takes a deep breath, his gaze turning to the floor hatch that will drop him feet first into an unknown underwater world. The floor of the pod is cold beneath his bare feet – Why would he swim with his shoes and socks on? It’s a perfect way to ruin them – but at least it’s safer to stay inside than venture outside. Who knows what dangerous flora and fauna are out there ready to bite his toes off?
 
 
But if I stay in here, I’ll just starve like a coward… he chides.
 
 
The hatch opens with a little effort, revealing the ocean floor below. Strange fish swim lazily beneath his feet.
 
 
He takes a breath and holds it.
 
 
His eyes take a moment to adjust to the water. But when they do, he finds himself staring at a sigh that is no less than a painting. Purple mushrooms and red coral shelves cover small rocks and span large flat surfaces of purple-red moss. The tops of the tubes he saw poking above the waves extend far along the ocean floor, some big enough for him to swim through. There doesn’t seem to be a hostile fish in sight, just the small cute ones he saw from above.
 
 
It’s so breathtaking he almost doesn’t notice that his lungs are already screaming for air.
 
 
Quickly, he scrambles back into the lifepod and gasps, getting the floor drenched in ocean water that rolls from his head and dive suit.
 
 
Amazing…
 
 
——————————-
 
 
LIMESTONE OUTCROP NEARBY.
 
MINE FOR SURVIVAL RESOURCES NOW.
 
 
Keito sighs internally and puffs out his cheeks. Since rebooting the PDA, the little AI has been chatting his ear off nonstop. Mine this, mine that, make this, make that, and on and on and on.
 
 
He swims down to the limestone outcropping, highlighted by the PDA in a wonderful (and totally not eye-bleeding) bright red on its screen, and stares at it. Even knowing he swims with as much oxygen his lungs can hold, he still takes pause as he considers how best to break open the rock. Does he punch it? But that’ll hurt.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
His hand now throbs with pain as he shoves chunks of copper and titanium up into his lifepod, and then himself.
 
 
Swimming with metal is difficult.
 
 
His PDA buzzes violently on his hip. So, with a long sigh, he whips it out just to see what it wants.
 
 
HOW TO SURVIVE: STEP-BY-STEP
 
Tools You Will Need Right Now
 

• Scanner
• Repair Tool
• Survival Knife

Don’t Forget
 

• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• Power

 
He looks up. The sky has gone dark, and his body is tired. It’s a nice list, but the last thing he wants to look at right now.
 
 
He kicks aside his metals and takes a seat in his little safety chair, waiting for exhaustion to take over. He’ll deal with survival tomorrow.
 
 
 

Day 2

Aching, Keito rouses with kinks all over his body. He moves, very slowly, out of his chair into a standing position. His hair hangs heavy on his head, his scalp in pain from a lack of brushing or proper care. It’ll be like that for a while, probably.
 
 
The sky is blue again.
 
 
A foot collides with something hard and cold, making him look down. Titanium and copper still remains scattered on the floor carelessly. He lets out a hopeless sigh.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
FROM AVAILABLE PLANETARY DATA, CRAFTING RECIPES HAVE BEEN UPDATED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE.
 
 
He looks down at his PDA with a frown.
 
 
The knife seems to be the easiest: Titanium (x1) and Silicone Rubber (x1)
 
Silicone Rubber… Creepvine seed cluster?
 
 
At least a picture is there to tell him what it looks like. Simply put, a collection of bright yellow orbs that appear to be glowing.
 
 
WARNING. DETECTING INCREASED LOCAL RADIATION LEVELS.
 
TREND IS CONSISTENT WITH DAMAGE TO THE AURORA’S DRIVE CORE.
 
 
If he needed any more bad news to start his day.
 
 
He stretches, attempting to straighten out his muscles and bones, then slips back into the ocean.
 
 
The morning is rather temperate, for which he is grateful for. The ocean creatures are already out and about their day, swimming and playing with one another. A shame he can’t say the same for himself.
 
 
He turns to the task at hand:
 
 
Well, it was going to be “find some Creepvine”, until his stomach growls.
 
 
He turns to the nearest fish, one of those flat yellow-eyed ones he saw the other day. It floats by him lazily, seemingly unconcerned about the large humanoid creature next to it.
 
 
He grabs it. Easy, since it wasn’t moving very fast. It sits in his hand, not really making an attempt to escape. Probably because it already knows it’s going to be his breakfast.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
Water.
 
 
The fish – Peeper, is what the PDA called it – was dry. Now he’s looking for a source of clean drinking water.
 
 
Another funny fish floats by him. It’s got an orange body and transparent purple… fins? He can’t exactly describe what they are, other than some sort of inflation sack or “balloon” that is it’s top and bottom 98% of the rest of its figure.
 
 
ORGANIC LIFE CAN BE TURNED INTO OTHER SOURCES MEANT FOR SURVIVAL.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
He must thank his PDA sometime.
 
 
He downs the last drop of his Bladderfish water and tosses the bottle aside, landing amidst the scattered metals with a hollow thump. He doesn’t care.
 
 
Back to the ocean.
 
 
He’s slowly starting to get used to the weightlessness of the water, and the calm atmosphere of the environment around him. There’s enough fish to keep him fed for days. Though he’d probably die now from a lack of meal variety. He could try and swim to one of the islands for some plant food, but to swim back and forth that sort of distance every day? He doesn’t have the strength nor stamina to do something like that just yet.
 
 
He needs Creepvine. Where is it?
 
 
He spins in the water, attempting to locate anything he may a*sume to be Creepvine or spot its seed clusters. But there’s nothing but coral and fish in sight right now.
 
 
He pops his head back into the lifepod just to sigh.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
The tall green plants somewhat resembling seaweed weren’t very far from the lifepod, but still quite a swim. He sees some seeds glowing on some of the Creepvines and smiles to himself. Now he can get a knife, at least.
 
 
He swims closer to a single seed cluster and tears it from the Creepvine. It comes off surprisingly easily in a small bunch of five glowing yellow seeds. It’s rather warm in his hands, also unprotected like his feet are. A rather comforting feeling.
 
 
Something roars and moves between the Creepvine not too far away from him, causing him to jump in his skin. It’s a long red-grey toothy fish, stretched so long it appears rather pencil-like. It transports a large square of scrap metal in its mouth, twisting around and around as if looking for the “right place” to put it.
 
 
Keito decides to take his seed cluster and retreat back to the lifepod before it notices him.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
The sky is turning shades of yellows, oranges, reds, and purples. He’s seen sunsets on Earth behind the foreground of silver skyscrapers and the zippy specks of distant hovercars. Here, however, there’s nothing but an island and the Aurora blocking his view. It makes the ocean glitter magically as the day slowly turns to a warm dusk.
 
 
He’s going to need a base soon. He needs a proper bed to sleep in, and room to properly stretch. There’s too much he needs to do. At least he has a knife… somewhere in the mess of metal inside his lifepod.
 
 
He readjusts his sitting position and turns back to enjoying the fleeting moment while it lasts.
 
 
 

Day 3

Once again his body protests his rousing, but move he must. His stomach is empty and dry, and he still has other things to do.
 
 
Repair Tool: Silicone Rubber (x1), Titanium (x1), Cave Sulfur (x1)
 
 
He doesn’t know where to get the sulfur from.
 
 
Scanner: Battery (x1), Titanium (x1)
 
Battery: Copper (x1), Acid Mushroom (x2)
 
 
The mushrooms are right outside his pod. He doesn’t really want to count right now but he does also have the right amount of titanium and copper at his disposal as well.
 
 
“How do I get Cave Sulfur?” Keito asks his PDA screen, and is met with no reply. How wonderful. The lights are still off, and too many things are sparking for his liking. He’d like to feel safe in his pod if it wasn’t so broken.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
The scanner hangs from his tool belt, a little something built in to his dive suit. He’s amazed it actually has something functional aside from being a simple rubber constrictor. His knife also hangs from his belt as well, though whenever he draws his hands back as he swims, his right hand strays to the hilt of his knife. Just in case, of course.
 
 
He swims around aimlessly, mostly hunting for some breakfast while also keeping an eye out for any spot that may contain sulfur.
 
 
It’s just him and the fish.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
He bangs open the medkit fabricator as his fish slowly cooks behind him. His body aches all over as he sits down and cracks the green cover open, revealing all the basic medical supplies he may ever need: gauze, waterproof and non-waterproof bandages, painkillers, and even an epipen, to name a few items.
 
 
He didn’t believe that there’d be a fish that could explode. One he couldn’t out-swim.
 
 
In chasing his decided catch-of-the-day, he stumbled upon not only sulfur, but a tiny red fish that chased him right out of the small cave he swam into and blew up. The blast itself didn’t hurt too much, but he feels that it certainly gave him a nasty rash on his back.
 
 
He pops a few painkillers into his mouth and shoves his cooked Peeper into his mouth, munching on it happily. He just needs some water and this rash to go away, and he’ll be just fine for a while longer.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
Lights are on, finally. Now he can see a little better in his small lifepod. Not like there’s much he needs to see in the first place, aside from the metal still scattered across the floor.
 
 
SENDING DISTRESS SIGNAL . . .
 
RESCUE OPERATION WILL BE DISPATCHED TO YOUR LOCATION IN 9… 9… 9… 9… 9… HOURS
 
CONTINUE TO MONITOR FOR EMERGENCY TRANSMISSIONS FROM OTHER LIFEPODS.
 
 
No sooner as the radio is done with its robotic spiel…
 
 
THE SURVIVAL TASK LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED.
 
 
Keito glances down at his PDA for a moment, just to see what the PDA updated about the list.
 
 
HOW TO SURVIVE: STEP-BY-STEP
 
Tools You Will Need Right Now
 

• Flashlight
• Habitat Builder

Don’t Forget
 

• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• Power

 
A flashlight might be good. Habitat builder? Maybe if he wants to make a bigger base, eventually.
 
 
Habitat Builder: Computer Chip (x1), Wiring Kit (x1), Battery (x1)
 
Computer Chip: Table Coral Sample (x2), Gold (x1), Copper Wire (x1)
 
Wiring Kit: Silver (x2)
 
Copper Wire: Copper (x2)
 
Battery: Acid Mushroom (x2), Copper (x1)
 
 
Keito can’t help but let out a sigh, the aching of his frail body only intensifying as he stares at the long laundry list of metals and organic materials he’ll need just to be able to make a base bigger than his current cosy little lifepod.
 
 
Yes, it’s cosy in here. I like this lifepod.
 
 
He kicks aside some of the metal on the floor to clear a space for him to lay down.
 
 
 

Day 4

His back still hurts, but at least he’s not as stiff as he wakes for yet another day of survival.
 
 
Silver. Where do I get silver?
 
 
He does want a bigger base. He can’t live in the lifepod forever, no matter how daunting a task obtaining all the materials he needs just to make a Habitat Builder may seem. It’s just not feasible for him.
 
 
Keito stands and reaches for the health pack, rummaging around for the painkillers. He’s got to be careful how he uses them. The last thing he wants on this damned planet is a painkiller addiction.
 
 
Silver. Food. Water. Gold as well, though it’s probably with the silver. He’d be surprised if the gold and silver weren’t together.
 
 
He’s also not been too far from the lifepod. On one hand, he’s not a robot with unlimited energy. On the other hand, he’s got to expand his patrol range just a little bit, at least in order to continue surviving. Well, and somehow find a way to get off this ocean planet as well, but that order of business is still a long way off. First, he needs a stable living condition.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
He found a box. And in that box is a broken Seaglide.
 
 
SCAN FRAGMENTS TO UNLOCK NEW CRAFTING RECIPES.
 
 
You don’t say… he grumbles to himself, once again puffing out his cheeks in protest towards his PDA. Still, he unclips his little scanner and holds it out to the Seaglide fragment. Blue light envelops the fragment for but a minute, then it and the blue light disappears into nothingness.
 
 
Fun times in magical ocean land.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
It’s worth to swim around a little more. When he gets tired, he just flips onto his back and floats on the waves for a moment to catch his breath. And when he’s below the waves, he finds more and more broken fragments to scan.
 
 
Within minutes, he’s finally able to create a Seaglide (as for some reason his PDA forgot how to make one in the crash landing) and even discovers something he didn’t know existed: the Gravtrap. A sphere that emits a high-energy electric tether that grabs a hold of small sea animals. At least it makes hunting a little easier, if only he had one right now. Oh well, he can probably make it when he gets back to the pod.
 
 
Still no silver or gold. Lots of scrap metal.
 
 
He swims to the surface to catch his breath once more, flipping onto his back and spreading his arms wide. The stars are just barely visible through the blue atmosphere, the only clear celestial bodies the two moons that circle the planet. It’s calm as he drifts there, a single man amidst blue waves, between the stars and moons of a far-away solar system.
 
 
Don’t get yourself killed, okay?
 
 
Those where his sister’s last words to him before he left to board the Aurora. She probably meant figuratively killed by his supervisors and superiors, not literally killed on a planet far from home. Either way, she’d be upset if he allowed anything to happen to himself, he presumes. Only natural. Siblings are how siblings are.
 
 
He heaves a heavy sigh and slips himself back underwater once more, back on the hunt for more fragments to scan.
 
 
——————————-
 
 
More titanium, less floor space.
 
 
It’s sad, really, how cluttered his lifepod has gotten once more. All this titanium needs an outlet, doesn’t it? And he would give it that outlet, if he knew where some silver and gold was!
 
 
He runs a hand down the side of his face and shoves a fish onto the tray of the Fabricator. Gradually, the rising smell of cooked Peeper fills the small cabin, as Keito picks up one of two empty water bottles he keeps amidst the strewn metal chunks. May as well reuse the bottles, lest the cabin fills with useless metal and useless plastic water bottles.
 
 
He picks the Peeper off the Fabricator tray and shoves the bottle and a Bladder fish back onto the tray instead. He watches the bottle fill in silence, munching on the cooked fish as slow as he can, savoring the flavor. Even if it’s dry, it’s still savory food. Anything to keep him going for another day.
 
 
He downs the water in three large gulps, gasping for air by the end of it. So far, everything is working in his favor. At some point, fate will take a turn, he knows it. When that will happen, he doesn’t know. Maybe when he runs out of fish to consume. Maybe when he explores even further out with a shiny new Seaglide.
 
 
He kicks aside the titanium that litters the floor as best he can and manages to clear one little spot on the ground for him to rest. It’s smaller than how it had been last night, but it’s still better than the chair.
 
 
Never will he return to the chair. Never.
 
 

 
 
I hope you enjoy the Below a Foreign Ocean – Subnautica guide. This is all for now! If you have something to add to this guide or forget to add some information, please let us know via comment! We check each comment manually!