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If you enjoy Subnautica, but would prefer something a little more relaxing, you’ll want to giveEndless Ocean Luminousa try. The adventure simulation game allows you to explore the fictional underwater world of The Veiled Sea. It blends familiar reality with a hint of fiction for an interesting experience.
While the basic premise of the game is to simulate a diving experience, there are some mechanics that could use a little more clarification so that you can make the most of the game’s features. Dive into this mysterious underwater world and use these tips to enhance your diving progress.
Salvage Treasure
If you happen to begin with the Story Mode in Endless Ocean Luminous, it will remind you tosearch for treasurewhen you’re on your dives. It doesn’t really tell you why.
Some divers may ignore treasure entirely,but this is how you earn money in the game.
You might wonder what you would need money for in a game with no crafting or upgrades. It’s a very simple diving simulator. There’s no air tank capacity to keep track of, so nothing to upgrade, including your other diving gear.
There is, however, a section of the game thatallows you to purchase color palettes for your diver, stickers to decorate your gear, and diver emotes. You’ll find this under the ‘Customize’ section of the game’s home screen.
Some of the costs for these cosmetics are quite high, such asone color palette that sellsfor 50,000 coins. If you want to change the colors of your gear or get some of the fancy diver emotes, you’ll want to hunt treasure.
The circle at thelower left of your mini-mapwill glow yellow when you are near treasure. The sparkles that treasures emanate are difficult to see while swimming around if you’re not close enough.
Pay attention to the treasure indicator tofind treasures even in low-visibility areas. The indicator will only light upwhen you’re facing the direction where the treasure is located.
Complete Special HQ Hunt Objectives
During any type of dive, whether it’s an Event Dive, Shared Dive, Solo, or Story mode,you’re able to encounter a special HQ hunt. These hunts request that you collect data on multiple specimens. You may even havemultiple hunts during your dives.
Thenumber of specimens you need to find and scan is listed in the upper left portion of your screen. This image shows three specimens out of seven have been scanned.
You’ll seean orange dot in your circular reticle,and yourcontroller will vibrateto let you know you are near a hunt objective specimen. Thecloser you get to the creature, the more rapid the vibration pulses become.
Your diving map will show orange-circled areas for the locations of special HQ hunt creatures. If you encounter a hunt before you’ve had a chance to explore the map, however,you won’t be able to see those locations.
Theorange hunt objective circles on your map are usually translucentso that you may still see important map features. These circles are different from the small opaque orange dots you’ll see on the map.
Thesmall bright orange dots are to show you where you’ve traveled, and they will gradually fade. It’s merely to help you orient yourself on the map while swimming and keep track of where you recently were by using trail markers.
Hunts have two phases. The first phase involvesfinding the correct number of creatures. The second phase of a huntreveals a special creature.
Asmall cutscene of the creaturewill automatically play, andyou’ll need to scan it to conclude the hunt.
Explore Dive Maps Strategically
Since special HQ hunts can happen at any time during any type of dive, you may want to be strategic about how you explore. If you stay mostlyin one section of the map, you’re less likely to see the locations of special hunt creatures.
Swim through at least some of the areasin each quadrant of the mapas quickly as possible in Shared and Event Dives toincrease your chances of encountering hunt objectives and locations.
Use the dolphin kick moveto help you swim faster and cover more distance. You’ll have tohit the button repeatedly, since holding it down doesn’t workfor a sustained dolphin kick swimming style.
Maps are technically considered complete at the 80 percent mark. Even once you’ve been notified that the map is completed though,no new areas will be filled in for you.
This meansyou will still have parts of the grid that are undiscovered and are parchment coloredin the midst of your map. It may be a little annoying if you’re a completionist where maps are concerned.
Try All The Dive Options
There aremany different dive optionsin Endless Ocean Luminous. They all offer benefits or different vibes, depending on the experience you want.
TheStory mode is helpful, incorporating some tutorial featureswith a basic story concept. It’s very directed, so there’s not much time for extra diving unless you ignore the guided objectives.
Shared Dives allow you to work together with other diverson a map. If one of the divers in a Shared Dive encounters an HQ special creature, it will initiate a hunt for everyone in the dive.
Scanning creature objectives is also a joint venture, so you’ll get credit if someone else scans a special creature and vice versa. This is an ideal experience when you want to see other divers andshare the workload of a dive.
Event Dives are limited-time dives that offer the opportunity to explore a special mapand see creatures you may find difficult to encounter on regular dives. In all other ways, they are the same as Shared Dives, just with something special added.
Event Dives and Shared Dives have a countdown timer once a special HQ hunt objective is completed. If you don’t leave the dive,it will automatically kick you outwhen the countdown timer at the top of your screen reaches zero.
To lengthen a Shared Dive, don’t scan the end creature (second phase) of an HQ hunt or pick up the trail of another anomalyand begin another HQ special hunt.
Just make sure tofind all the basic creatures requiredto complete the first phase of hunts.
Althoughspecial hunt work is shared between diversin Event and Shared Dives, anytreasures found are luckily available for other divers to loot as well. You don’t need to worry about splitting treasure equally. Everyone gets a chance to loot them.
Solo Dive is the most relaxed option. There is no time limit, and you can stay in the dive for real-life days if you want, so it’s fine to take breaks and leave your Switch on standby.
If you want to explore maps to completion, relax, check out ruins, and enjoy the scenery, this is the ideal dive mode.
Collect ‘Light’ As Much As Possible
Each task serves a purpose in Endless Ocean Luminous. Collecting Light has a story-based reason, but also results in some perks for divers.
After youcollect a certain amount of Lightduring dives,a lottery will occur to unlock additional tags. Tags are icons and emojis used to eitherconvey a message, or indicate a place of interest.
You cannot purchase tags with the coins you collectfrom treasure, so you canonly unlock them by continuing to collect Lightduring your dives.
Youcollect Light by scanning creatures that haven’t been scanned before. They will appear as luminous blue creatures if they haven’t been scanned.
You’ll havea Light indicator bar in the top left corner of your screenwith a bunch of circles in a row. Once each of those circles is fully lit up, you’vecollected enough light, and the lottery will happen automatically.
Any tags you’ve “won” will appear at the top of your screen for a short duration so you may easily view the results of the lottery.
When doing Shared and Event Dives, ifother divers scan creatures, those creatures will no longer have the luminous blue qualityto them.
You may still want to scan them if you think you’ve never encountered the creaturesso you can update your Creature Log.
Since collecting Light is a byproduct of scanning sea creatures,it will factor into your diver rank in both the Research and Exploration categories.
Remember tocheck above you and on the groundwhen searching for creatures.
Some creatures are stationary and perched in unexpected places. Some creatures are also extremely tiny and difficult to see.
Improve Your Diver Rank
Shared and Event Dives provide you with a ranking system. You cancheck your rank for both types of dives individually.
After you’ve completed a Shared or Event Dive,you’ll see a summary of your contribution. You’ll seebronze, silver, or gold award medalsfor any category based on your performance during the dive.
Each category has a number of sub-categories that display how well you did. If youscroll down, you’ll see the comprehensive allotment of the pointsyou earned.
It’s best totry and do well in all the categories, but sometimes, other divers just happen to be in the right place at the right time. They may beat you to special hunt objectives or be the first to scan creatures.
Evenif you don’t receive medalsfor any categories,you’ll still receive progress for your ranking. As you continue to rank up, you’llunlock certain prizes, such as diver emotes.
Help Fellow Divers
When taking part in Shared and Event Dives, there are some ways you canhelp your fellow divers. Thisimproves your own diver rank, as well as the ranking of others.
It’s considered common courtesy in these multiplayer dives to mark treasure you encounter, along with any rare creatures, or the main objective of an HQ hunt.
All divers will be able to see tags, which makes it much faster to find treasure or creatures.
You cancollect all the treasures and creatures, as well astrack your collection progressin theSalvage Log and the Creature Log. You can access Logs from the main home menu in the game.
Your diver willautomatically wave to other divers nearby, and spending some time alongside those divers will give you a diving buddy bonus that figures into your after-dive ranking score.
Even just a few seconds near another divercan result in some extra points.
If you’re tagging creatures and treasure, doing your best to help in special HQ hunts, and revealing parts of the map by swimming around, there’s nothing more you need to worry about. Just explore and enjoy.
Save Dive ID Numbers
Once you’ve unlocked most of the map,specifically reached the 80 percent exploration mark, the Dive-Site number will be available to you once the dive ends. You’ll have the opportunity totake a screenshot of the number.
This is something you won’t want to forget. When you’re on Shared Dives, you mayencounter a map with some puzzles and special creatures, or you might not have been able to explore as much as you wanted.
You cantake the Dive-Site number and enter it under your Solo Dive optionto explore at a leisurely pace. This makes sure you have achance to catalog all possible creatures, and gives you the opportunity tocollect more Lightfor unlocking tags.
Once you enter a new Dive-Site number for a Solo Dive,whatever Dive-Site number you were working on exploring before will disappear.
Make sure totake pictures of the identification number, or keep a logof any Dive-Site numbers you want to be able to revisit.
There are plenty of creatures to learn about and ruins to explore. Don’t forget there’s an in-game camera mode that’s very nice, in addition to the Switch’s photograph button. Enjoy sharing those awesome pictures and Dive-Site numbers.
