Dealing with the Leviathans and other Beasties
Jacke
Calgary Join Date: 2017-03-20 Member: 229061Members
Calgary Join Date: 2017-03-20 Member: 229061Members
I think I've got the usual suspects under control. Stalkers, Sand Sharks, Bone Sharks, even Reapers. Warper might be an issue when I get farther along the story. And then there's all those weird beasties in the Lost River and beyond. Haven't gotten there yet in a game, but I'll figure something out.
But to get to the Lost River, looks like I'm going to have to deal with the Translucent Terror. 'Cause I've already encountered one when deep in the Grand Reef. And apparently there's one on every path into the Lost River.
Testimonials.
And my own story.
I just wonder how the hell I'm going to explore the Deep Grand Reef. Or anyplace with the Translucent Terror. With at least the Hull Upgrade and the Defence Module for sure.
But to get to the Lost River, looks like I'm going to have to deal with the Translucent Terror. 'Cause I've already encountered one when deep in the Grand Reef. And apparently there's one on every path into the Lost River.
Testimonials.
...I'd like to just say that the Ghost Leviathan can pretty darn quiet xD
Spoiler'ed "just in case".So I'm streaming the game for a friend on the PC version, and I'm going through the Grand Reef. I stop to start typing since I can't get my mic to work and just as I'm exiting the chat the Ghost Leviathan is RIGHT THERE and is meters away from me. My seamoth takes a ton of damage and I frantically try and get it away from the guy. I don't make it far, and it blows up.
I never even heard the thing coming, unlike the Reaper and Warper which I can hear from quite a distance (Usually. Sometimes the reaper's in a sneaky mood himself!)
So I was then stuck 287 meters below the surface with an angry leviathan and no battery in my seaglide. Surprisingly I wasn't as panicked as I was with the reapers, but still in quite a rush, I pull out a battery from my flashlight only to see its at 2%, so I pull it out of my scanner and jam it into my seaglide and dash to the surface.
Thankfully the Leviathan didn't follow me, and I escaped - reaching the surface with 24 oxygen left.
I never even heard the guy coming xD I've seen it three times so far and it always seems.... Like it's all stealthy and hushed. Which I suppose makes sense given its name - never hear them coming, never see them until its too late..
And my own story.
I was coming back from the Floating Isle in my Seamoth. Had the 1st Depth Module and 3 Cargo Modules, so even with a load of plants I had room to spare. So on the way north to my main base, I dipped down to around 200-280m looking for mats, frags, and wrecks. Had picked up a few.
So I was in the Seamoth somewhere in the Grand Reef around 250m. Then there was a flash of something white and translucent from behind visible to the upper left and the sub's health went from 100% to 58% in one attack. Can't remember if there was any noise, but don't think so before the attack. I went to full ahead and rising NOW. If I'd been smart, I would have gone full left or right as well, as that used to move the Seamoth faster.
I guess the Seamoth's just over 12m/s is enough to outrun a Ghost Leviathan.
So I was in the Seamoth somewhere in the Grand Reef around 250m. Then there was a flash of something white and translucent from behind visible to the upper left and the sub's health went from 100% to 58% in one attack. Can't remember if there was any noise, but don't think so before the attack. I went to full ahead and rising NOW. If I'd been smart, I would have gone full left or right as well, as that used to move the Seamoth faster.
I guess the Seamoth's just over 12m/s is enough to outrun a Ghost Leviathan.
I just wonder how the hell I'm going to explore the Deep Grand Reef. Or anyplace with the Translucent Terror. With at least the Hull Upgrade and the Defence Module for sure.
Comments
1. Leviathans against the reinforced diving suit:
2. Leviathans against the plated Seamoth with defense system:
I usually always saw the Ghost leviathan, but confess I know almost all locations of this beast.
An advise would be to flee horizontally, but if you get hit out of nowhere, you might be to late to react. So if you have the reinforced diving suit you might want to sacrifice your health in exchange for welding the Seamoth to get out WITH the Seamoth.
If you ask me what I would like: A Ghost leviathan who does radiation damage for just being near his body. That would be a totally different kind of attack and bring back usefulness to the radiation suit.
Well part of the problem of dealing with these guys isn't necessarily the damage they can do and surviving it, but the psychological experience some of us have when in their territory. I'm terrified to be in or around the Crash Zone for long, and I sometimes even whimper - yes, out loud and in real life - when I'm approaching the boundaries between the Grassy Plateaus and the Dunes in a seamoth, even with the Perimiter Defenses. If it's at night I NOPE on out and say I'll come back in an exosuit (I only get somewhat nervous then.)
The same deal in the Grand Reef. I was frantically looking all over every few meters and would jump in my seat only to realize "Oh that sound was a Warper"
The problem for me, I think, is the 'Wide Open Spaces' part, coupled with having to look both below and above you. When I'm in an exosuit, and thus on the ground, a lot of the fear i have fades away and I can go into those zones and actually feel like I'm willing to risk getting attacked. When diving in the open, when in a seamoth... I'm just too anxious. I got caught off guard when streaming there since I coulnd't even hear the thing. I knew I was close since I was near the smokers, so it was really my fault for parking there in the open....
But as @Rezca mentioned it's a mental problem. Keeping calm and cool and knowing your possibilities kept me even safe with 2 Big Ghost leviathans spawning in the void while being in my plated Seamoth with shock defense and reinforced diving suit. I just had the nerve to exit, weld the Seamoth and reenter and certainly to trigger the shock the moment I was hit. Didn't even count for the stasis trick.
Now onwards testing the newest experimental ...
( @Jacke I assume you didn't plate your Seamoth and maybe never dared to face a leviathan with reinforced diving suit only? )
I've run into a Reaper in my Seamoth in an earlier game, got grabbed then dropped; ran away and fixed the damage when at a distance. While free swimming, I almost got grabbed by a Reaper charging me but I turned and Seaglided away, although I saw his claws reaching around me from behind. This game I've been set upon by packs of Bone Sharks once while in the Seamoth. That was worrisome but I ran away and repaired the damage.
Outside of Stalkers (also running in packs now, and in the Safe Shallows), who I can usually dodge or easily swim from, I avoid the big beasties (still get bit at times), especially the leviathans. That means I have to see them first....
For the Ghost Leviathan attack, Seamoth didn't have the Hull Reinforcement.
I had the Reinforced Diving Suit on. It was in the Grand Reef around 230m, near the entrances to the Deep Grand Reef. I was moving forward and gliding, looking for mats. I was attacked from behind. My Seamoth went from 100% to 58% in one attack. My immediate action was to go to full ahead and rise. Never heard anything or saw any beyond part of the white translucent body reaching into my field of view at the moment of the attack.
I vote no to the Rad Leviathan. Unless they exclusively hunt @zetachron.
Reaper vs. plated electrodefensive Seamoth: strikes 7% at minimum if you electrocute immediately for release, otherwise it can get up to 85% damage before releasing. That immediately shows the importance of E defense for the Seamoth. The world is open to exploration if you've managed to get the electrodefense system.
My favorite module combination is generally: pressure update, plating/hull reinforcement, electrodefense system, solar recharge module
The Ghost leviathans usually don't grab and drag as well and long as the Reaper and thus mainly do a second damage if no electrodefense is done immediately afterwards, which lets the Ghost leviathan release and use no second attack.
The small Ghost leviathans which are mainly at the Lost River do bite for 27% damage if electrodefense kicks in and 55% damage if nothing is done. The big Ghost leviathans bite for 42% damage, but I haven't seen them grab or damage twice in the test. If that happens the damage would be an overall 84%, which is quite dangerous.
The reinforced diving suit seems to be tougher than the average plated Seamoth. While the Reaper hits with about 40% damage, it can't grab and thus it will take a while before he attacks again. Which is the main advantage of the reinforced diving suit and allows you to swim through the most evil leviathan abyss without fear if you can keep calm in face of terror. Strangely the Ghost leviathan strikes weak at the reinforced diving suit for 25% damage with a small Ghost leviathan and a 39% damage of a big Ghost leviathan. The terror of the abyss is the Sea Dragon and if you avoid his fire breath and jaws the Sea Dragon's claws will hit the reinforced diving suit with only 35% damage. If you ever panic and try to flee, the Sea Dragon will roast and chew you from behind with his jaws, resulting in your immediate death.
TL;DR:
Reaper vs Seamoth+ : 7 - 85 % damage
Reaper vs reinforced suit: 40% damage
small Ghost vs Seamoth+ : 27 - 55 % damage
small Ghost vs reinforced suit: 25% damage
big Ghost vs Seamoth+ : 42 - 84 % damage
big Ghost vs reinforced suit: 39% damage
Sea Dragon claws vs reinforced suit: 35% damage
Sea Dragon jaws vs reinforced suit: 100% damage / instant death
EDIT:
Best strategy: It's mental. Keep calm. Immediately press electrodefense after hit and either flee horizontally in the other direction or exit and weld the Seamoth to reenter and flee then. If you ever face the Sea Dragon, don't flee in panic, but let him claw you, which will give you about 15 secs to react as he turns to come back.
As well, what do you do in the Cyclops or the PRAWN?
That means I was attacked in the Grand Reef/Deep Grand Reef at around 230m just north of the Floating Isle by a big Ghost Leviathan. Or was it? Is that 42% damage with a Hull Reinforcement? I think so, as you mention "Seamoth+" in your numbers summary. If so, I got a 42% hit from a small Ghost Leviathan on an unarmoured Seamoth.
Where have you found the larger Ghost Leviathans outside of the Void?
You say the small Ghost Leviathans are at the Lost River. That means the single ones that guard each entrance to it?
EDIT: The "Mapping Subnautica" page on the Wiki lists Leviathan spawns: 22 Reapers, 3 adult Ghost Leviathans, 3 juvenile Ghost Leviathans, and 3 Sea Dragons. Hmmm, I'm not sure those locations are accurate for the Ghost Leviathans. Perhaps they wander far from their spawns?
And I imagine you could swap the Solar Recharge for the Sonar when at depth or in caves.
But there's a lot of modules for only 4 slots on the Seamoth and the PRAWN. The Cyclops was recently upgraded to have 6 module slots. Would be nice to extend that to the Seamoth and the PRAWN.
How do you escape the Sea Dragon after moving away from his mouth and letting him claw you? Move out of range in the 15s or use the terrain to block?
Besides a Depth Module MK 1, Hull Reinforcement, and Seamoth Solar Module, had the Seamoth Defence in the slot for #1. Got really used to left-clicking 1 when I saw a beastie getting close or suffered an attack. Got damaged, would pop out, repair, then get back in and typing 1 to re-enable the Seamoth Defence for firing. Kept pivoting to keep an eye out for beasties, shift directly, go sideways and backwards. Even while progressing in a given direction. Also kept close to the floor or a wall to limit the directions from which an attack could come.
Had one encounter with a Ghost Leviathan at -200,-230,-1350. Kind of heard a sound and pivoted and saw it close but not charging me. Hit an electric pulse and moved away. It turned away and I moved off.
And continuing to the east, I ran into a pack of Bonesharks which gave me a worse time. Every bite that hit was -15% on the Seamoth. Worse was when the Seamoth was down under 25%, but having a routine meant I recovered from that and continued.
While in the Crags Field and the Crash Zone, had 2 encounters with Reapers. They were never coming right at me and I hit one at least once with a discharge. Keeping situational awareness and continuing to move kept me safe.
And of course, the Bonesharks continued to be the worst pain and threat. Got to shocking so often that I did it to Sand Sharsk too, even though they couldn't damage the Seamoth. Eventually killed a Boneshark that just didn't give up.
Cyclops and Prawn have a complete other strategy. It's already different considering diving and driving the Seamoth. Each way of exploring is unique with advantages and disadvantages, although I never dreamed of having a reinforced diving suit that can take more damage than a reinforced Seamoth. Of course most players don't dare to dive against leviathans as no one has told them that the reinforced diving suit protects them from immediately getting eaten by a leviathan.
Cyclops strategy is almost a thread on its own and Prawn can take more damage, but is sitting duck against Warpers. Generally you should have the jump jets and grappling hook for advanced mobility. Torpedos where generally quite useless to me. I found no real usable Prawn defense. It might be still possible to shoot down leviathans with special items like acid shrooms through the Propulsion cannon, but usually I never try killing any predators and just try to get around them as quickly as possible and do whatever I want. Diving defense is best with stasis rifle.
Cyclops is absolute superior when you enter Warper infested territory, as they don't attack it. As a parked Cyclops isn't even attacked by leviathans (not sure about Void leviathans), it's also good as a mobile operation base in most evil territory.
Void Ghost leviathans tested past the floating isle void.
The LR Ghost leviathans are all smaller and while 3 entrances are guarded, it's possible to pass all by accessing the LR through Bloodkelp 1 entry (the original old first bloodkelp leading to the first LR entry), which is unfortunately not a good opportunity to get the Cyclops through, but allows to sneak past the Ghost leviathan at the big skeleton, which is rather close to the head part, guarding more the entrance to the DGR. Maybe that will change in the future. The LR Ghost leviathans stick to guarding the passage bottlenecks (with the backdoor opportunity mentioned above).
Passing a LR Ghost leviathan bottleneck with the Cyclops is not so good trying silent running, as the leviathans won't wander far from the bottleneck. Thus the best option is to run through them with full speed and shield, then turn engines off. The leviathan finding no goal soon goes back guarding the bottleneck that is now behind. Then you can turn on engines and get away finally. Firing a decoy with engines off and a leviathan around the ship usually results in the leviathan grabbing the decoy and wandering off too. But not necessary in this case. Usually you rather use decoys to keep a leviathan away while gathering resources there.
It would probably be best if the Seamoth cargo would stack like with the Prawn to make accessing cargo more easy. AND if there would be cargo module versions (mk1-4), so you might be sufficient with 4 slots, as you would only need 1 cargo upgrade instead up to 4.
You have to have some first aid kits in your inventory for such a dance. Each time you get hit and are not within reach of safety you have to open the inventory and use first aid. 2-5 of them should get you past a Sea Dragons roaming place if you swim fast or have a seaglide. Usually I did it for testing and otherwise use the stasis rifle on the Sea Dragon, using a quick hit to nail him and a charged hit to freeze him while nailed. But in any case you must stay away from his fire breath and mouth. Without stasis gun the trip is difficult and you must watch when he's coming from behind before it's too late. Probably not for beginners and always better with a Seaglide.
@Jacke (last post, bonesharks, etc.):
ED (electrodefense) is best used on leviathans after getting grabbed for a quick release and low damage. As it uses cooldown, you might have bad luck if you ED in advance and still get grabbed, then having to wait for next ED while the leviathan (especially Reaper) damages the Seamoth.
ED on smaller creatures like bonesharks is best done in advance to drive them away or give you better chances of avoiding them at all. It's not advised to dance with boneshark swarms. Generally you should avoid any deep creatures with the help of the superior Seamoth mobility.
When Seagliding always have to have oxygen location(s) close enough, either in front or behind. More tricky when exploring and especially with hostile life. More tricky when exploring places never been before; e.g I've never been beyond the south entrance of the LR and only know of the rest vaguely by reputation.
So a lot of go-out-and-come-back recce from a secure oxygen spot. I've left my Seamoth not far away and seen it attacked by Bonesharks and had to stop what I was doing and return to deal with them. Have to learn what vehicles are safe where.
Going to need to set up way stations in quiet spots. Tiny bases demand a lot of resources. Better exterior growbed with a Brain Coral surrounded by Bulb Bushes. Each 2 Titanium plus a Brain Coral slice and 5 Bulb Bush slices. With the Habitat Builder that's 27 inventory slots. They could save my life if I lose a Seamoth or PRAWN down there at a distance from any base.
(One big issue with replacing a vehicle down in the LR or below is even with the mats needed, you need to hack things to get the MVB to work down there (something with a Moonpool?) and that might not work.)
I've never been comfortable with the PRAWN and need a lot more time in it. And even with the non-hostile Warpers (as I've not entered Precursor facilities) I can see going vertical is a strong tactic against them. I wonder with the PRAWN if a grapple-and-drill-to-the-face might work? Or pop-out-and-Repulsioni-Cannon?
I played a bit with Seamoth torpedoes a few games back, as well as Propulsion Cannon projectiles. In open areas at any range was almost impossible to hit anything. Recently I did use the Stasis Rifle successfully: short shots until pinned, long shot to freeze then move. Outside, the Repulsion Gun was so-so but good at short ranges to drive back beasties (tested again Bonesharks and Warpers).
In short, all weapons work better at short range. Which requires a lot of determination and certainty in the tactics.
Speaking of Modification Station products, I finally discovered where now to find its frags: the Bulb Zone wreck. It's got around 4 or 5 frags. Besides there, I think I checked most other wrecks and a lot of ground and only found 1 MS frag not in that wreck: in the Jelly Shroom Cave Degassi base. Next game, I'll visit that wreck soon after getting the Seamoth as it's not that difficult of a wreck to explore.
Kitting out my Cyclops as my mobile base is where I'm at in my current campaign, before going to the Aurora (always want the Cyclops there to haul away all the loot
We should have a new topic on Cyclops strategy and tactics, being a vital and expensive piece of kit. With 3 major challenges:
1. Vulnerable when crewed with most pilots not being skilled dealing with threatening beasties.
2. Getting it through the tight passages into and and along the Lost River.
3. And worst of all its heavy power consumption.
I burned 10% of my Cyclop's charge with some use of Silent Running and moving less than 100m to park it by my main base. I'm planning to have serious Powercell recharging capacity at my main base.
More things to test. Do you suggest I try getting through with the Seamoth first, or take the Cyclops first? I've never been beyond the south entrance part of the LR and have very little knowledge of the LR. And that was before the Ghost Leviathan update.
That's a great idea. There's all these modules and the Seamoth especially is limited by only being able to carry 4.
Once I craft it, I almost always carry the Seaglide. Once I get the Swim Charge Fins, I almost always use it, if just for the battery recharge function. Already thinking I'll always need the Stasis Rifle and perhaps the Repulson Cannon.
I did get a lot of practice using the ED against Bonesharks. Always had to be pivoting the Seamoth to keep situational awareness. Got good at shocking just as the Boneshark was charging and stopping the attack.
I usually always fired the ED when I saw the target was close or just after seeing the flash of red from their attack. When I know it's a Leviathan, I'll have to avoid shocking too soon.
Thanks again for all your advice, dude.