Anyone else struggle to navigate the Grand Reef?

Flappybat

If it wasn't for the compass I don't think I could even find my way out of there. The terrain is so busy and there's not many landmarks. I've been searching all over for the lava zone entrance with no luck despite having the co-ordinates for it.

DrownedOut

"If it wasn't for the compass" is kind of a thing. In fact, besides the compass the only means of orientation are the Aurora and any signals you have placed.

The Grand Reef is one of the complexer biomes, but still has some landmarks to get you through. You should be able to find the entrance if you follow the border with the Sparse Reef but prioritize going as deep as you are allowed at any given moment. At some point you'll find several pillars that introduce a cave that gets you into the ILZ.

Kaybe

I've noticed the game is composed of a series of 'steps' you have to go through to access other things. For example, you get Seamoth, but can't use it at will until you get the power cell charger. You can't access a deeper wreck without moon pool and vehicle mod. Compass is probably just another example for areas deep down.

ComicalSkate

Would have been a lot harder to navigate if the devs had gone with the initial idea to have the floating stones detonate when bumped into like sea mines.

Tarkannen

@DrownedOut This is true, but I've also noticed on multiple playthroughs the Lifepod 5 always faces North... I guess it's some kind of sophisticated survival feature. You can see the little triangle sticker is always in front of you when you exit the pod; I use that for finding my way around to reaching biomes until I'm able to get a Compass. (fun fact: Lifepod 7 sometimes has a free compass inside to pick up and use, but it's not 100% guaranteed to be there in a given game.)

Sidchicken

ComicalSkate wrote: »

Would have been a lot harder to navigate if the devs had gone with the initial idea to have the floating stones detonate when bumped into like sea mines.

Let us all breathe a quiet sigh of relief that they did not do this.

Finding one's way out of the deep reef isn't that hard... you just have to keep going up. Finding something specific down there is tougher. And even tougher if you're trying to drive the cyclops. I just brought the clops to Degasi base 3 to look for anything I may have missed in my first pass. Getting it down there is a stunt, but at least it seems to be immune to crabsquid/warper attack.

Harry82

I get lost allllll the time. Probably because there's plenty of things to distract me, but yeah, its a big place out there... I generally go in straight lines and have loooong since learned to carry several marker buoys with me so I stand a chance of finding something a second time...

EvilSmoo

I got lucky, I guess. I went looking for base 3, and found it without too much trouble. Then I went deeper and found lava and a couple dragons. I found them disturbing, even knowing they couldn't kill my Cyclops.

Then, I somehow got back out the way I had gotten in. Mostly at random. Ended up ramming the Cyclops out of a hole at an angle by rocking it back and forth. Subtle.