Challenges

[Arnold J Rimmer]

Ive been playing for a while now, and tried some challenges to spice things up.
I will be listing them here and taking suggestions to add challenges!
(If it is not mine you can find a (Suggested by ________)

1. Biome Hopping
This one is my favorite. Its basicly you cant leave a biome until u fulfill certain requirements.
EX) You cant leave the Safe shallows/Kelp Forest until u craft (so and so), do (so and so) and Eat (so and so). Then you would move on to The grassy platues, ect ect.

2. Artifical air
Simple, no "real air"
This is really only a challenge in the begginning of the game, where the only artifical air is the Lifepod.

3. Don't just build to survive, build to live. (Suggested by Amanoob105)

That is to say don't just build a base, build a home. Something that's more than just a mere place to park your seamoth and store your stuff. Make rooms to live in and get away from the problems of life. Things like;
A science lab to stimulate the mind. A bedroom to rest the body. An indoor garden to help calm the thoughts. A bar to get completely s**t-faced in.

4. Nomad (Suggested by Alexstratos)

No base pieces, no Prawn Suit.
Cyclops and Seamoth only.

5. Gladiator ( Kinda suggested by JSDF - Thus They Fought There!)

Try to Defeat a leviathan without Stasis rifle, or Prawn suit.

6. Diving Deep

You can ONLY use Seamoth, and once the power cell runs out, you have to make a new seamoth. One use.

I have alot more, and i will edit them in each day, and will be taking suggestions

[Amanoob105]

Don't just build to survive, build to live.

That is to say don't just build a base, build a home. Something that's more than just a mere place to park your seamoth and store your stuff. Make rooms to live in and get away from the problems of life. Things like;
A science lab to stimulate the mind. A bedroom to rest the body. An indoor garden to help calm the thoughts. A bar to get completely s**t-faced in.

(I leave whether or not you make use of them up to you.)

[PrimeSonic]

My latest run has been:

No base pieces, no Prawn Suit.
Cyclops and Seamoth only.

Though, admittedly it's easier with the right mods. 😅

[gumblarg]

Not sure, what is your "Artificial air". It may be the same, but I called it "Poisonous air". I found it very fun and balanced.

Ancients spread some gas in the atmosphere, which is poisonous for infected creatures, but harmless for anyone else. It is an additional measure to prevent anyone infected from leaving the planet. Basically you can't surface for any reason until you are cured. Alien bases have breathable air, also your initial lifepod, your bases and brain corals. It puts a lot of separate limitations.

Play it on Hardcore, of course. Otherwise no fun.
1. First days may be challenging, due to very low range, that you can swim. You will have to use brain corals to move around. Try to do not get lost.
2. Initially orientation may be somewhat confusing, since you do not see Aurora from the water. So it is tricky to tell where is north.
3. No vehicles, except Seaglide, since you need to surface in order to craft them.
4. No melons or other planted stuff, since growbeds only can be found on the island. Find food underwater. Fresh water may be an issue at some point, you need to find and build a water filtration machine.
5. Almost all purple tablets are on the surface, there basically only two, which are accessible from the water. You also will have to preserve ion cubes, which are in limited supply, since you can't use endless resources. Not a big problem if you know where to find and use alien things, but still it is something to consider.
6. You will need to build a lot of underwater breath points with beacons to move around.

[Arnold J Rimmer]

Originally posted by gumblarg:

Not sure, what is your "Artificial air". It may be the same, but I called it "Poisonous air". I found it very fun and balanced.

Ancients spread some gas in the atmosphere, which is poisonous for infected creatures, but harmless for anyone else. It is an additional measure to prevent anyone infected from leaving the planet. Basically you can't surface for any reason until you are cured. Alien bases have breathable air, also your initial lifepod, your bases and brain corals. It puts a lot of separate limitations.

Play it on Hardcore, of course. Otherwise no fun.
1. First days may be challenging, due to very low range, that you can swim. You will have to use brain corals to move around. Try to do not get lost.
2. Initially orientation may be somewhat confusing, since you do not see Aurora from the water. So it is tricky to tell where is north.
3. No vehicles, except Seaglide, since you need to surface in order to craft them.
4. No melons or other planted stuff, since growbeds only can be found on the island. Find food underwater. Fresh water may be an issue at some point, you need to find and build a water filtration machine.
5. Almost all purple tablets are on the surface, there basically only two, which are accessible from the water. You also will have to preserve ion cubes, which are in limited supply, since you can't use endless resources. Not a big problem if you know where to find and use alien things, but still it is something to consider.
6. You will need to build a lot of underwater breath points with beacons to move around.

What about the QEP?

[gumblarg]

Originally posted by Tenno_Skoom:

What about the QEP?

There is an underwater entrance. I do not remember if an elevator can be unlocked from below, but you don't need it for cure anyway.

[PH4T3 <*.*>]

On that 4th one, I guess you wouldn't be trying to beat the game? Cause there aren't enough ion cubes in the game without the prawn suit drill to complete it otherwise.

[Storm]

No stasis rifle.

[gumblarg]

Originally posted by PH4T3 <*.*>:

On that 4th one, I guess you wouldn't be trying to beat the game? Cause there aren't enough ion cubes in the game without the prawn suit drill to complete it otherwise.

There are enough. :) There are sources of Ion cubes you probably unaware of. Besides you can mine cubes once you are cured, so cubes, which are needed for the rocket are not affected by this limitation.

[Brainnagh]

Challenge Name: The Monk

This challenge is to cure yourself using the least number of unique items possible. We could extend this challenge to escaping but there is alot of stuff needed for escape rocket which would make rest of the run less interesting.

A few rules:
1. No looting time Capsules
2. If you find an item in a box and use it, it counts as having created it as well (exception being items that can't be crafted)
3. Survival or Hardcore Modes Only

The items listed below will be considered included in anybodies challenge run so the goal is to beat the game using the least number of unique items not listed.

1. Purple Tablet
2. Blue Tablet
3. Hatching Enzymes

[Brainnagh]

Originally posted by gumblarg:

Originally posted by PH4T3 <*.*>:

On that 4th one, I guess you wouldn't be trying to beat the game? Cause there aren't enough ion cubes in the game without the prawn suit drill to complete it otherwise.

There are enough. :) There are sources of Ion cubes you probably unaware of. Besides you can mine cubes once you are cured, so cubes, which are needed for the rocket are not affected by this limitation.

Also most of the gateways you find don't have to be activated. The only ion cubes 100% required are for the Ion Power Cells and those aren't needed until after you are cured

[PlasticFrog]

I thought up two that I plan to try in the near future.
The first is just a mini challenge: No Radio until Endgame
- don't repair the radio in the pod, don't build on in your habitat
- restriction is removed once you've cured the disease and disabled the gun
The real purpose of this is to get alternate messages from the Sunbeam.

Challenge: Minimum Equipment
This is actually a modification of Alexstratos' "Nomad" with two additional restrictions:
- NO Seamoth
- craft ONLY the tools you absolutely need to complete the game (not sure which ones those are at the moment, but I think you can get through Aurora without ever using the laser cutter if you chose the correct path) I would say scanner, knife, repair tool, and light.
EDIT: correction, you do need the laser cutter to get into the crew quarters

[PlasticFrog]

Thought up a third challenge that's a bit more original instead of a modification.

Challenge Name: No Vehicles / The Sprawl
- Do not build any vehicles including the seaglide
- You move through the map by creating compartments from one biome to the next

One downside I can see right away is a serious drop in framerate the bigger your base gets. Also, getting the titanium without drilling would be a huge pain in the butt end.
Would certainly be an accomplishment if you could pull it off, though.

[HSuke]

On 2nd thought, that Sprawl challenge might be a bit too tedious even for me.

Instead, I am going to try gumblarg's "Poisonous air" challenge. It's actually really well thought-out. You don't need to visit the QEP or Aurora until after getting cured anyways. All of the useful items (growbed, vehicles) require going above surface so they wouldn't be allowed. (None of the other challenges seem particularly interesting or difficult.)

I'm going to try it with 1 more limitation:

- Limit of 1 O2 tank. Carrying multiple makes it too easy to go deep and back.

Originally posted by gumblarg:

Not sure, what is your "Artificial air". It may be the same, but I called it "Poisonous air". I found it very fun and balanced.

Ancients spread some gas in the atmosphere, which is poisonous for infected creatures, but harmless for anyone else. It is an additional measure to prevent anyone infected from leaving the planet. Basically you can't surface for any reason until you are cured. Alien bases have breathable air, also your initial lifepod, your bases and brain corals. It puts a lot of separate limitations.

Play it on Hardcore, of course. Otherwise no fun.
1. First days may be challenging, due to very low range, that you can swim. You will have to use brain corals to move around. Try to do not get lost.
2. Initially orientation may be somewhat confusing, since you do not see Aurora from the water. So it is tricky to tell where is north.
3. No vehicles, except Seaglide, since you need to surface in order to craft them.
4. No melons or other planted stuff, since growbeds only can be found on the island. Find food underwater. Fresh water may be an issue at some point, you need to find and build a water filtration machine.
5. Almost all purple tablets are on the surface, there basically only two, which are accessible from the water. You also will have to preserve ion cubes, which are in limited supply, since you can't use endless resources. Not a big problem if you know where to find and use alien things, but still it is something to consider.
6. You will need to build a lot of underwater breath points with beacons to move around.

[Coops]

Originally posted by PH4T3 <*.*>:

On that 4th one, I guess you wouldn't be trying to beat the game? Cause there aren't enough ion cubes in the game without the prawn suit drill to complete it otherwise.

There are at least 23 ion cubes you can get without the prawn drill arm. But to get them all you need at least three purple tablets, an orange and two blue which means you need to sacrifice ion cubes to make tablets to get more ion cubes.

3 Alien sanctuary caches = 14 need three purple tablets
Alien laboratory = 3 need orange tablet
Alien containment facility= 1 need 2 blue tablets
Disease research facility= 1
Alien Thermal plant = 1
QEP = 3

[HSuke]

At least 26:


Disease Research Facility - 3
Sanctuary Caches - 14
Lost River Laboratory Cache - 3
Alien Thermal Plant - 1
Primary Containment Facility - 2
Quarantine Enforcement Platform - 3

Guess I need to update the Wiki