Fighting a Sea Dragon without a PRAWN Suit.

[R1ch4rd N1x0n]

Is this possible?

[grzegorz77]

There are people who do it with a knife.

[R1ch4rd N1x0n]

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

There are people who do it with a knife.

Makes me wonder how that little thing even hurts that big monster.

[grzegorz77]

I think you had to hit 250 or even 600 times, I no longer remember.

edit:
So many cuts cut a hole in the belly of the whale.

[dreamrider]

One preferred method, should you find it necessary, is, as with all knife-vs-leviathan approaches, to get the front quarter of the beast in a stasis bubble...and keep renewing it every ~20 sec.
Then, in between bubble renewals, it takes 250 to 270 solid slashes (ones that bleed yellow profusely), with a standard knife to kill a Sea Dragon.

They have 5000 HP, same as a Reaper, but they are immune to the thermoblade.

If you have a Hardened Survival Knife, from a Time Capsule, or a spawn in, or the Re-Added mod, it will take 167 to ~180 solid slashes.

The Sea Dragons are probably the leviathan class that there is the least need or convenience benefit to kill. Sneaking around them, even with the Cyclops, for the short periods of gameplay when you need to be in their patrol areas, is probably the best choice in terms of time and effort, and risk.

[admiral1018]

The Sea Dragons are annoying enough to kill that the stasis rifle + gas pods is actually viable. For anyone unfamiliar, freeze the Sea Dragon with a charged shot and then drop an inventory's worth of gas pods around its head. The Sea Dragon will die almost instantly if you place the pods within the hit box.

Since there are only 3 Sea Dragons, I find it's worth the time to fill 3 lockers with gas pods on my Cyclops before the trip, assuming this is a playthrough where I intend to kill leviathans (I play differently every time). For all other leviathans, the stasis rifle + thermal blade are my preferred killing method given how quick and efficient it is once you have the timing down.

[R1ch4rd N1x0n]

Originally posted by admiral1018:

The Sea Dragons are annoying enough to kill that the stasis rifle + gas pods is actually viable. For anyone unfamiliar, freeze the Sea Dragon with a charged shot and then drop an inventory's worth of gas pods around its head. The Sea Dragon will die almost instantly if you place the pods within the hit box.

Since there are only 3 Sea Dragons, I find it's worth the time to fill 4-5 lockers with gas pods on my Cyclops before the trip, assuming this is a playthrough where I intend to kill leviathans (I play differently every time). For all other leviathans, the stasis rifle + thermal blade are my preferred killing method given how quick and efficient it is once you have the timing down.

How many to kill one Dragon?

[admiral1018]

Originally posted by R1ch4rd N1x0n:

Originally posted by admiral1018:

The Sea Dragons are annoying enough to kill that the stasis rifle + gas pods is actually viable. For anyone unfamiliar, freeze the Sea Dragon with a charged shot and then drop an inventory's worth of gas pods around its head. The Sea Dragon will die almost instantly if you place the pods within the hit box.

Since there are only 3 Sea Dragons, I find it's worth the time to fill 4-5 lockers with gas pods on my Cyclops before the trip, assuming this is a playthrough where I intend to kill leviathans (I play differently every time). For all other leviathans, the stasis rifle + thermal blade are my preferred killing method given how quick and efficient it is once you have the timing down.

How many to kill one Dragon?

I've never figured out the exact minimum since the hitbox can be finicky, but 30 will usually be enough.

[Quineloe]

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

There are people who do it with a knife.

Do they also do it without a stasis rifle?

[GlazeHaze2]

Originally posted by Quineloe:

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

There are people who do it with a knife.

Do they also do it without a stasis rifle?

Killing any leviathan without the stasis rifle should only be done with the prawn, trying to kill one without the stasis rifle while using the knife is a one way ticket to death.

[grzegorz77]

Originally posted by Quineloe:

Originally posted by grzegorz77:

There are people who do it with a knife.

Do they also do it without a stasis rifle?

I don't remember it anymore.

[dreamrider]

DOOT, one of the true experts on killing leviathans,
(See the Guide, "How to make Subnautica less terrifying", By DOOT),
says it takes ~25 poison gas pods to off a Sea Dragon.

That seems a little excessive given that you can do a Reaper, with the same HP, with 12 to 15 pods. But maybe he is allowing for the fact that with a Sea Dragon, you REALLY DON'T want to have to try to re-bubble and gas it TWICE!

[admiral1018]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

DOOT, one of the true experts on killing leviathans,
(See the Guide, "How to make Subnautica less terrifying", By DOOT),
says it takes ~25 poison gas pods to off a Sea Dragon.

That seems a little excessive given that you can do a Reaper, with the same HP, with 12 to 15 pods. But maybe he is allowing for the fact that with a Sea Dragon, you REALLY DON'T want to have to try to re-bubble and gas it TWICE!

Might be worth testing out later to find the lowest number it can possibly be done with.

[dreamrider]

Much depends on whether the gas cloud removes a certain % per second, or an absolute # of HP per second.

[admiral1018]

So I played around for a bit with this and will do a little more later. The fewest gas pods I can consistently kill the Sea Dragon with is 27. Once I went to 26, I was never able to get a kill.

Now, it's tough to know if this is me or the game since the hit boxes are quite quirky, as I said, but I'd probably stick with my recommendation of 30 to be extra safe.

[dreamrider]

Would be good to empirically compare to a Reaper kill and a Ghost kill.