If you are a returning player who has already played the original Subnautica, you can skip past the "Beginner's Guide" section.

You can also use the "General Tips for Returning Players" section of my separate walkthrough.


If you are a new player who has not played the original Subnautica game, please stop and play that one first. I implore you.

The first one is an absolutely amazing and larger game. In comparison, Below Zero (BZ) feels more like a smaller, standalone DLC. You'd be doing yourself a disservice by playing BZ first. You'll also be missing out on much of its lore.

Nevertheless, if you still wish to play Below Zero without having played the original, scroll down for the Beginner's Guide.

• Subnautica and Below Zero are free-exploration games where you are expected to figure out things yourself. Do not expect much hand-holding. Discovery is part of the fun.
  
• Sometimes you can go hours without triggering any events or clues. Relax and just keep exploring.
  
• This game is very light on logic puzzles. It does not require the same puzzle-solving skills you would need to beat Portal, The Witness, or Braid.
  
• Instead, puzzles simply require finding objects, scanning objects, crafting more objects, and placing objects in certain spots. That's about as advanced as it gets.
  
• Recommended game mode: Survival. Don't forget to save periodically.
  
• Don't play hardcore on your first try. Like in the first game, even if you're super careful, you'll probably end up dying to some random game bug.
  
• This game is mainly equipment-gated. From the very start, you can explore everywhere and in any order, but many places are going to be very hard to survive unless you have the appropriate equipment. If it feels impossibly difficult, try going elsewhere first.
  
• There are no limited-time events. You can relax and take as long as you want to complete the game.
  
• If you are really, really stuck on any specific parts, you can look up the next step in my walkthrough. This is generally discouraged if have spent under 20 hours in the game.

• Scan everything: Every time you see something new, try scanning it. Scanning gives you information and helps unlock construction blueprints.
  
• Read the PDA for everything you scan. It often give hints about how to use them.
  
• Food rots. If you don't immediately eat fish after cooking them, they will slowly rot. Eating rotten food will give you less food/water and can hurt you.
  
• Experiment with building everything. Some things will be quite useless (e.g. decorations) while others are extremely useful.
  
• Collect plants/flora. Picking them up usually allows you to use them, while cutting them often gives you seeds you can plant later on.
  
• Mineral deposits and naturally-occurring plant seeds will not respawn after you collect them. Don't worry, there are plenty of materials in the game, and it's nearly impossible to run out.
  
• Certain things have weight and will slow down your swimming speed. Holding an equipment will slow down your swimming speed.
  
• Always carry a beacon. On the rare occasion that you die, you will drop some of your items. Your beacon will deploy where you died.

• Explore around your starting base and slowly expand outward. Keep building equipment until you can go farther and deeper. Later on (probably within several hours), you will find a certain object that allows you to construct more bases. That will alleviate running out of storage early game.
  
• Use beacons to mark important locations.
  
• The seaglide is amazing and will increase your swimming speed.
  
• The air bladder is amazing for quickly escape to the surface.
  
• There are vehicles in the game, and they will help you explore. Find and build upgrades for those vehicles to allow them to explore further.
  
• Growing plants will allow you to have an infinite supply of them. Certain plant foods won't rot.
  
• You will know when you swim too far off the map into the Void if it gets really dark and the background music stops playing. If your feeling of dread rises off the chart, it's time to head back to safety.
  
• There is a certain creature that will steal your equipment. You can chase after them, but you'll probably drown after failed attempt. Instead, learn from the experience and don't hold equipment around them. Later on after completing a specific task, they will help you instead of steal from you.

• There is an island near the center of the game with a base at the top. It contains a map of the entire region. Scan it acquire the map in your PDA. That should help guide you on where to go.
  
• You may come across a moonpool in an underwater base. Its interior door won't open until you trigger its story arc.
  
• The longer your main vehicle, the slower it'll drive.
  
• You may come across a locked building on a small iceberg. It won't open until you trigger its story arc.
  
• If you're still having trouble running out of air, consider carrying an extra oxygen tank. Don't forget to fill it with air ahead of time.
  
• Exploring on land is cold. There are 3 ways to mitigate freezing: use a vehicle, eat things that keep you warm, or construct a certain body suit.
  
• The land regions are large and maze-like. Don't expect to fully-explore them quickly. Use lots of beacons if needed. Vehicles are recommended.
  
• If you ever see a glassy hole you can't enter or cut with a Laser Cutter, it probably opens from the other side.
  
• This game is designed so that you don't have to kill anything. It's easier to swim around predators.

That's it for tips. You should try to figure out the rest on your own.

If you are stuck and need more help, please refer to my Below Zero full walkthrough or the Below Zero wiki site.

• You can press F1 in-game to bring up statistical information, including your movement speed, biome, and coordinates.
  
• You can equip multiple air tanks. Note that the having the Ultra High Capacity Tank in inventory or equipped will slow your movement. You can actually beat the entire game without any vehicles or bases by carrying 3 High Capacity Air Tanks.
  
• The Seatruck can equip multiple copies of the same module. The Prawn suit and use multiple copies of the storage upgrade. However, there is no benefit to equipping multiple Afterburner upgrades.
  
• Each of the 3 parts of the cold suit provides partial protection against the cold. This way, you can wear something different on the head while still being mostly protected against the cold

• The Booster Tank (7.53 m/s) and Seaglide (8.28 m/s) stack for a combined speed of 10.15 m/s
  
• Movement vectors stack for vehicles with thrusters (like in Golden Eye 64). You can move up to 41% faster by holding 2 movement buttons simultaneously and up to 73% faster by holding 3 movement buttons.
  
• While the Jump suit upgrade is equipped, the Prawn Suit can accelerate very quickly while in the air. Combine this with the 2-directional movement trick, and you have a ultra-fast prawn suit that's even faster (15-25 m/s) than a speed-boosted Snowfox (15 m/s).

• Using the propulsion cannon to break a mineral deposit can cause the mineral deposit to break into many copies.
  
• You can use the propulsion cannon to pick up Waterproof Lockers and the Quantum Locker. This allows you to nest them infinitely inside of each other.
  
• You can pick up objects with the propulsion cannon while stepping on them to hover on them like a flying carpet.
  
• If you use the booster tank while holding an object with the propulsion cannon, your speed will increase from ~7.5 m/s to ~47.5 m/s. Probably the fast way to travel underwater.