What is the "normal" time for a "normal" play through?

[Corvus]

I put normal in quotations because I do understand that this game is a sandbox that you could technically just play indefinitely.

I ask this because I've put a fair bit of time on my first play through, and I haven't really explored the lost river too deep beyond the deep grand reef entrance. It's not because I'm stuck or I don't have the tech to do it, I have all the vehicles upgraded to the point where I can get down there for nickel. My issue is that I'm constantly getting "SQUIRREL" moments when I see something to go check it out, or I wanna build something for my base. Then suddenly I realize that I haven't actually progressed through the story that much and I'm coming up on 25 hours in this play through.

So this is mostly a question of curiosity. What's the "normal" time of actually finishing the story?

[morph113]

I don't think there is a normal time, as the game is very free and sandboxish so you can do everything at your own pace. During early access I never finished the story and I never touched any endgame stuff, so I can't count that.

But I just finished the game for the first time since 1.0 and it took me 40 hours on my hardcore playthrough. Obviously I could have finished it quicker. I mean if you really want to rush through the story and know what you have to do, you can do it in a couple of hours.

I'd say that 30-50 hours is probably normal when you play through the story for the first time. Maybe 20 hours and less if you really don't bother building a big base and just keep running from mission objective to mission objective.

That of course counts for first play throughs and players who may never played the game before and don't know where to get certain resources etc. A veteran player who just wants to finish the story can probably rush it in a few hours.

[Ascended Shrub Lord]

Depends, if you know where stuff is, it shouldnt take more than 25 hours. If your completely new going in blind and do not use the wiki, i could easily see the game taking around 50 hours.

[Reppoc850]

I think a lot depends on how focussed the player is on completing the story. For a new player that hasnt seen any videos, stays committed to following the storyline , avoids too many "squirrel " moments and manages to not get lost that much it should be doable in the 40 - 50 hour range.

It is possible to do it much faster ( i've heard of experienced players doing storyline speedruns in under 4 hours) but it also can take much longer . I know from experience you can have 100+ hour playthroughs where the storyline is not the objective and "squirrel" moments rule the day

[static]

It's unlimited; you can finish the story and leave the planet if you so desire, or you can stay and explore, build and play in an open ended way with no time limit. It's all up to you. As others have said, it's very possible to put 80-100 hours (or more) into a single save.

[Jhonny G]

Have done everything to keep myself spoiler free and just discovering things on my own. Still on my first playthough and so far I have logged around 70 hours on that save (according to the game).

That said it's proberly 'un-normal' to take this long, but my water fobia is giving me a good run for my money ^^

[archonsod]

I suspect for a new player you're looking from around 20 hours if they get lucky to 60 hours if RNGesus frowns upon them. So probably 30 - 40 hours on average, assuming they largely follow the plot with the odd diversion to go explore or root out a useful tech.

[Grim]

20-40 hours base easy.

Halfway through the game stops telling you where to go so if you don't already have an idea then even if you rush through it as fast as possible it's still going to take some time.

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by Reppoc850:

it should be doable in the 40 - 50 hour range.

^This sounds right for a brand new player.

Originally posted by Ascended Shrub Lord:

if you know where stuff is, it shouldnt take more than 25 hours.

^This sounds right for an experienced player.

Originally posted by herugrim:

20-40 hours base easy.

And ^this sounds right as an average.

[MaGicBush]

Well I'm at 30 hours and just got the prawn suite and went to the aurora. Been exploring it all and working on my base and enjoying that. Now I'm at a point after getting a few upgrades I want to finally do the story. I think I play different than a lot of people though as I like the exploring and base building aspect and don't care about the story.

[Pnume]

Well on Speedrun.com, MirrorMeddle logged a 1h 15 min run 3 days ago
https://www.speedrun.com/run/z0eqn39m