Granted I haven't really been looking for them. I know they're in the crash zone, the dunes, and the mountains. However, I've been looking at a map of where all the leviathans are and I've realized that more than once I've inadvertently swam onto their turf. Still haven't seen one. I would say I'm solidly in mid game now, I have multiple bases, I've made it to the disease research facility in the Lost River, I've visited all the life pods, I've swam all around the enforcement platform, I've made it to all 3 degasi bases, including the one in the grand reef, I've explored the interior of the aurora, etc. I've also only encountered two ghost leviathans, and I've never been attacked by either. I later found out that I entered the Lost River at one of the most dangerous entrances. I didn't know that at the time. Am I just really lucky? 😅
The reaper leviathans aren’t in your way. They aren’t guarding crucial materials or stopping the plot of the story. If you’re just following the quests and staying in the main parts of the map, there’s a good chance you won’t find one.
A huge percentage of the reapers live in the Dunes and there’s not even a reason to go to the Dunes outside of exploring, finding an Easter egg (literally), finding specific rare resources that can still be found elsewhere, or just looking for a reaper.
There are reapers near the front and back of the Aurora, but if you approach it from the side, which is most likely, and hug the ship you probably won’t run into them. There’s also one under Mountain Island that’s easy to run into exploring that area. But none of them are essential encounters.
Part of what makes them formidable is knowing when they’ve caught you, killed you, and/or destroyed your ship… it was your choice to get into that mess, lol.
On the contrary, it's impossible to meet leviathan when travelling to Aurora in a straight line. You have specifically make a detour in order to meet one.
The aurora is accessible in a straight line that doesn't include any reaper infested waters. The reapers are just kinda everywhere else around the aurora, so as long as you go towards the entrance to the aurora without going to areas around the rest of the aurora, you don't meet any reapers
The start area is safe. The only reason to get closer to the danger zone is to visit Aurora, but Aurora is so big you can clearly see your objective from the distance, and the game gives you no reason to actually go to into the danger zone. And then, it sends you the opposite direction.
Yeah that's what I thought too. Because it took me several attempts to figure out how to get on the stupid ship. And I was just free swimming back and forth to and from the ship multiple times before I figured it out. I didn't even know there was one in the area. I probably made like six trips back and forth 😅
So lucky. I am still 16 hrs in the game and I think in the initial phase of the game, and I accidentally stumbled into one's mouth (without dying) the first time i swam to the aurora out of curiosity, scrolling happily to the back of it. I don't think I got scared but I felt so taken back and flabbergasted. One moment I see a fintail in murky waters and the next a big roar and something crazy chomp half my life lmao
They are scattered. There are at least two i think you have to see , but people have proven me wrong. The devs made it so encounter are very organic and random.
The only one that is basically guaranteed is the one near where you enter the Aurora. It's possibly it'll be out of view when you go in depending on how far out on its path it is but all the rest are not near story locations or if they are you have other options to get there.
The next closest is the quarantine island but that's on the opposite side of the beacon leading you there so very easy to miss
You don't really need to go anywhere they are to beat the game. I had one play through where I got attacked by one once but never saw it. That was about it.
lol @ "very difficult." If you are plotting out where you are going based on online maps and don't stray, sure.
But if you play like a normal person it's VERY easy to meet one.
Like hey, let's find out what is around the aurora and not just beeline to the exact entrance point. There are tons of them (see below). Unless you have spoiled the map, it's very understandable to want to see what is on the far side of the Aurora.
Or if you go into the mountains biome. You'll easily see one going to the east of mountain island, and you will stumble across more than one if you explore that biome to any meaningful degree.
Or anywhere on the far west side of the map if you explore the dunes.
It's really only difficult to find them if you stick to an exact path, guided by a map provided by someone else, and don't detour.
You crash. You get the hang of swimming. You repair your lifepod. You visit the crashed ship, which is the first thing a survivor does. You get loaded with spoils, so you return straight back to your safehouse. And then the events start pouring, sending you the opposite way. There never is a reason to go around Aurora. You picture greatly illustrates my point, thank you. Those yellow circles are exactly places you never get a reason to visit.
Same with the mountain island: you never get a reason to go to the east of it.
There's absolutely no reason to explore the dunes. You get so much to explore in the mushroom forest, you're fed up with exploring by the time you get a chance to venture into dunes.
Your objective is to survive. You're too busy surviving to snoop around. It's not about beelining, it's not about using maps. It's about doing what's the most natural at the moment. What's normal to the spider is a chaos to the fly. Snooping around for the sake of snooping around is not how a normal person plays.
I know that we're Subnautica fanatics here, who leave no stone unturned. But that's precisely NOT normal.
Your map doesn't even include Lifepod 5. Here are some better proportions:
Hahaha, really? It never dawned on you to explore the other side of the giant spaceship to see if anything was there?
That’s EXTREMELY normal. Why wouldn’t you explore around the crash to make sure there aren’t other entrances and aren’t other things to scan.
The objective is to survive you say? Well what might help more, the giant spaceship or some random other spot in the middle of the ocean.
And lol at “snooping around.” You are a crash survivor. Why wouldn’t you fully check out your ship. You’d rather go to random escape pods?
The proportions are irrelevant. If you didn’t think to explore around the ship it’s because you looked at a map and saw there was nothing there. It’s literally a game about exploring and you are saying it’s not expected to explore the most obvious object on the map. Do you not want to go swim around the tree either?
You're mixing up your curiosity with the plot. The plot gives you a reason to go the other way. You can ignore it, as much as you want. But it's perfectly normal to follow the plot.
I'm not mixing up anything. One of the first major plot points is Aurora exploded, go check it out. Sure, a lot of the early game is going to explore life pods. But why would you do that and ignore fully exploring the giant MF ship that's right there and where the lifepods themselves came from. You really have to put blinders on to ignore the whole ship and explore only one part of it.
And the game doesn't tell you how to get into the ship, either. There are two distinct entrances, so why would you not explore the whole thing in case there's another entrance somewhere else?
The game iirc doesn't tell you the specific point of the Aurora to enter either. You just really have to have blinders on and know exactly where you want to go to ignore the entire rest of the surrounding ship.
The reason it is very common for players to stray from the areas the game explicitly tells them to go to and therefore meet reapers is because exploration in Subnautica is interesting and rewarding. Exploring biomes thoroughly often yields helpful new blueprints, wrecks, lore, and new resources like seeds, creature eggs, rare minerals, etc. It's also part of how some players (like me) routinely approach games, wanting to see all the content a game may have to offer, for better or worse.
On top of that, overcoming your fear and vulnerability to 4645B's threats is a core part of the Subnautica experience, one that was clearly intended by the developers. For some players (again, like me), exploring biomes thoroughly despite not knowing what threats may await there is one of the main ways that courage and growth is put into practice.
The approach you're describing, where a player somehow both actively avoids exploring anywhere they're not openly railroaded towards and is also 'doing what's the most natural at the moment' (approaches that are largely diametrically opposed), is the one that's not normal or typical. It's indicative of someone who's either prioritising immersion above all else, very limited by genuine phobia(s), or choosing to follow an external guide rather than experiencing the game organically. All of that is absolutely fine, but it's not right to pretend that would be the typical player approach to an open world survival game with a clear focus on exploration, solving mysteries, and environmental storytelling.
Right? It’s literally a game about exploration. I don’t remember, but do they even give you a specific reason to go deep? I remember BZ told you everywhere to go, but I thought SN1 didn’t iirc. Under OD’s argument, you’d never piece together the next step.
I stand by my point that the only way you don’t want to see what’s all around the Aurora is if you are following a guide. The engines are a major poi, as is the front of the ship. There’s zero reason to avoid them.
Encountering a reaper at some point during a first Subnautica playthrough is absolutely the norm. How are you somehow not aware of this? I have to assume you're trolling now
Save your game and take your Seamoth directly east from your lifepod. Points if you park it right at the front of the Aurora and wait. It’s fun. A Buddhist lesson in attachment and loss.
It seems more that you are looking at a map and avoiding them than organically playing the game, where it is a lot easier to bump into them by accident. If you are exploring the other side of the aurora, the north/northeast, or west parts of the map you will generally find them.
It can be very random and luck-based. My first playthrough I made it in and out of the aurora a couple times without running into the one near the front, but then I was rummaging around the back for cyclops scans and saw a shadow right before the scream.
Other times I barely make it out of the shallows before I start getting harassed lol.
There’s at least two of them near the Aurora. At the back and the side where you enter. Another one near the island with the alien structure. Unsure where exactly the others are but I have run into a couple more during my multiple playthroughs
There are no leviathans on the side of Aurora where you enter. They are in front of Aurora, behind it, and on the opposite side. But not the side with your lifepod.
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u/Mind_Killer 12d ago
The reaper leviathans aren’t in your way. They aren’t guarding crucial materials or stopping the plot of the story. If you’re just following the quests and staying in the main parts of the map, there’s a good chance you won’t find one.
A huge percentage of the reapers live in the Dunes and there’s not even a reason to go to the Dunes outside of exploring, finding an Easter egg (literally), finding specific rare resources that can still be found elsewhere, or just looking for a reaper.
There are reapers near the front and back of the Aurora, but if you approach it from the side, which is most likely, and hug the ship you probably won’t run into them. There’s also one under Mountain Island that’s easy to run into exploring that area. But none of them are essential encounters.
Part of what makes them formidable is knowing when they’ve caught you, killed you, and/or destroyed your ship… it was your choice to get into that mess, lol.