Subnautica Mid-Game Progression Guide

This tutorial picks up where the early game tutorial ends – right after acquisition of the Seamoth. Early game was mostly focused on close-range exploration, getting basic tools built and basic survival needs met.

Mid-game, enabled by the use of an underwater vehicle, will involve deeper exploration, longer missions away from home, further automation of survival needs, acquisition of more advanced blueprints, and development of the story line.

The sections below follow roughly the order you’ll hit them in game. Scan down, find where you’re stuck or curious, and jump straight in.

Visit the Floating Island

Your first mission of mid-game is to drive your Seamoth out to the Floating Island and acquire the blueprints and plant samples needed to begin farming your own food in your Seabase.

How to Get to the Floating Island in Subnautica

Pilot your Seamoth out to the surface island and find your way inside.

Exploring the Floating Island in Subnautica

Grab the greenhouse blueprints and plant samples you need to start farming.

Build a Food Farm

Lay the groundwork for your exploration efforts by setting up a renewable food and H2O source at your Seabase.

How to Build a Food Farm in Subnautica

Set up an interior grow bed for a renewable source of food and water.

Fabricate a Bioreactor

A Bioreactor adds a cheap source of electrical power to your Seabase.

Add a Bioreactor to your Subnautica Seabase

Turn plant matter into a cheap, steady source of base power.

Build an Aquatic Farm

Aquatic farms are key to game progression as they allow you to farm out unlimited amounts of aquatic plants from a single seed or sample.

Build an Aquatic Farm in Subnautica

Farm aquatic plants in bulk from a single seed or sample.

Finding the Other Lifepods (Full Index)

Radio signals guide you to the survivors’ crashed lifepods at several different points below. If you’d rather see them all in one place – sorted by depth so you can plan a route – use the dedicated lifepod index: