Battery & Power Cell Drain Rate

[Axiom]

Hi, I'm super new to the game, so I'm not sure if I'm just not used to the battery drain rate or what, but it seems like it drains wayyyy too quickly on some items.

A battery in my scanner seems ok; I'm getting a lot of use out of that, and finally down to about 30% on that battery. That seems pretty balanced. However, just messing around with a Habitat Builder tool drained that battery just while trying to perfect my first base. Granted, I was making some mistakes on my first base, and changing things around, but it just seemed like in this scenerio the battery should have powered the tool for longer.

Same thing with my Seaglide. That seems to drain pretty quickly.

I'm now especially noticing it on my first Seamoth. I installed the fresh Power Cell and I've taken it less than 1000m away from my Lifepod, and I'm already down to 95%. This seems way to fast to me. It doesn't really make sense either. Is there any way to install a solar recharger on my Seamoth? I've heard about battery and power cell rechargers, but haven't obtained those yet. Where can I get those?

Thanks!

[Cougarific]

Keep playing, you will find new tech that makes much, much better batteries and power cells.

Yes you can install a solar charger on your Seamoth after building a Moon Pool and Vehicle Upgrade Station.

[Cougarific]

Also, if you haven't visited the Aurora yet you can find a buttload of batteries over there. I also like to set aside a single day in the early game to "spam craft" a bunch of batteries and water so I don't have to do it all the time.

Start with an empty(ish) inventory, swim around and grab as much copper and salt as you can, bring them back to base and add mushrooms and coral and make as many spare batteries and water bottles as you can.

[Fighting-Priest]

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Keep playing, you will find new tech that makes much, much better batteries and power cells.

Yes you can install a solar charger on your Seamoth after building a Moon Pool and Vehicle Upgrade Station.

yes later on it balances out as you find better stuff and for the scanner you dont have to replace the battery and some advice is to use the drained batteries to make power cells with so you dont have to use fully charged batteries.

[DaetherX]

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Subnautica_Wiki

The Seamoth does have a solar charging upgrade item.
As for where exactly you can find charger parts... other than generically saying you find pieces of them laying around to scan, and check in wrecks (small hunks of the space ship you can find littered around), I can't say. I think it's random where some items are laying, but some you can always find in certain places.

If you want a map, here's the one I like:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1184605358

[Axiom]

Thanks for tips everyone.

[Duke]

oh later u will make wayyyyyyyyyyyyy better batteries

also build a very small base at first with solar panels and battery charger or you will have a very hard time

nothing too fancy just get the battery charge items (scan there parts in wreckge spots) build one room and just use that as a start

after u get a cyclops u can pick a base spot that u want

[Axiom]

Update: With the moonbase recharging my Seamoth, it's really not an issue at all, and now I have so many batteries after visiting the Aurora that I'm just cycling them through the rechager.

I now have a Cyclops, and THAT seems to drain power ridiculously fast. I've built two Power Cell chargers right on the Cyclops to try and cycle them, but even from just idling, a Power Cell went down to like 50% or something.

Any Cyclops tips? From what I read, they are total energy sinks.

[Reppoc850]

Power cell chargers on the cyclops won't help. Best case you'll get a 1:1 recharge rate which is pointless. Yiu aren't gaining anything by doing that. Better to carry spare cells and have the recharger in a base somewhere

[Axiom]

Originally posted by Reppoc850:

Power cell chargers on the cyclops won't help. Best case you'll get a 1:1 recharge rate which is pointless. Yiu aren't gaining anything by doing that. Better to carry spare cells and have the recharger in a base somewhere

Thanks, yeah I'm actually seeing that now, it's just draining so quickly. Makes more sense to carry the spares.

[Cougarific]

For the Cyclops you can:
-Install the Thermal Generator.
-Install a Solar Generator on the Seamoth and use it to recharge Cyclops Power Cells on the go.
-Install a Thermal Generator on the PRAWN and use it the same way.

[Bugs Bunny]

Originally posted by Daeris:

I now have a Cyclops, and THAT seems to drain power ridiculously fast. I've built two Power Cell chargers right on the Cyclops to try and cycle them, but even from just idling, a Power Cell went down to like 50% or something.

Any Cyclops tips? From what I read, they are total energy sinks.

I built a ton of power cells and many chargers in my base and I just keep a storage box almost full of them. When I go back to base, I bring in all my spent cells and put them in chargers and bring back the charged ones.

It's a power hungry beast despite this... Note that all the toggles (silent mode, sonar, energy shield, etc) are all quick power drains, so keep those off unless absolutely needed.

There are blueprints for better batteries later on too I heard. Not there yet myself.

[Rusty_S]

lol Hell I played the game the first time yesterday still trying to find battery charger pieces to scan. All I keep finding is what I already have scanned.

[Axiom]

Originally posted by Rusty_S:

lol Hell I played the game the first time yesterday still trying to find battery charger pieces to scan. All I keep finding is what I already have scanned.

Look EVERYwhere when you're at a crash site. I originally overlooked quite a bit I could have scanned.

[GeminiEclipse]

I usually find battery charger pieces in the red grass wrecks.

[Grim]

For the cyclops, don't forget to install an energy compensator as quickly as possible (there's one in the aurora), also make sure you shut the engine and lights off when you are not using it.