Underwater Predators

[Captain Skinny]

So when I was a young man I was in a shark attack. I survived (obviously), but it certainly has made me largely wary of the water, and the things in them. To this day I get the heebie jeebies something awful when watching undersea videos.

However, I also firmly believe fears are meant to be overcome. So when I'm feeling brave, I'll watch shark cage vids, or submarine vids, you know, just to baby myself into a comfortable place.
I've also tried using NMS to help me overcome it. At first, I REFUSED to go into the water, but that once quest pushed me to. I was happy I did it! I was cruising along in my sub (which I named the Sunfish), having a grand ol' time. I saw some little jellyfish fellas which would come up when mining, but they were dispatched easily enough and didn't seem all that malicious, so their attacks were tolerable.
Then one day, I was swimming along, and I found a stone with some bright shinny stones in it. Hadal cores! I am sure you can see where this is going.
My neighbor called because he thought I had been attacked (AND I HAD), and I was literally curled into a ball in the corner. I really mean I barely held it together. Full blown panic attack. I did kill the sumbitch though!

Anywho, enough about my traumas. What I need to know is this:
Besides the Angler monster, which spawn when collecting Hadal cores, do I need be worried about sea predators like I am land predators? I've heard people talk about them, but have never encountered them, and all the convos I've seen about the subject are quite old and our beloved NMS has been though many major updates, so who is to say.

Banter welcome, but be gentle.

[AmberAnvil]

There are large predators in the waters but they have only native prey. I've never encountered an underwater critter that would attack a player besides the Angler and the Eyeball Worm things named Abyssal Horrors. You can identify the Horrors in advance by using your Analysis Visor which will show a Red Exclamation Point - stay well away! : )

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Back in the early days of the game, the large predator fish would sometimes by interloper eaters. For whatever reason, they discontinued that and now they only prey on other fish. They made exploring in the water interestingly scary. They would even follow and stalk you if you were on the shore.

As noted by Amber A, there are a few, but generally you can avoid them. Maybe that was the Dev's point. They knew that sharks were being ruthlessly killed by hunting/fear and generally will leave folks alone....although it is good to be clear of them.

[Dirak2012]

If you REALLY want to face your fears about the depts, play Subnautica instead.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Only hostile creature I've ever seen in water are big jellyfishes. Dark ones that swim around and those white shinu ones that come out of rocks or flora you destroy in water.

[GGcake]

I had a fish attack me once, but it turned out it was already dead and I freaked out because it bumped my leg. I still have fear of going into the water because of this

[DAOWAce]

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

If you REALLY want to face your fears about the depts, play Subnautica instead.

Oh god.

I would say I have a mild fear of water.. not sure what "phobia" it would fall under, as I'm only really afraid of any body of water I can't see through, but still generally afraid of the ocean. Even going into a cave in Oblivion that changed to a murky water path freaked me out.

I played Subnautica. It was both relaxing and traumatizing. When the sun goes down, jfc, hiding in base. And "the void"?... Didn't even look at the screen.

There's a video series on Youtube about someone with thalassophobia doing a playthrough. First video has ~400k views and even the creator of the game commented on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmU0OeOoI6k

Subnautica is definitely a game worth playing, both for conquering fears and for enjoyment.

[Johnny in the Clouds]

The balance of land and sea creatures in No Man's Sky is really good. Plenty to see above or below water. Subnautica is more underwater focused. In No Man's Sky there are some truly big 'fish' in the oceans. They just have to be found and that may involve a long search (but not too long if you know the game and how and what to look out for). Generally though the most vicious predator with the dangling Hadal cores you have already discovered. But even that can be evaded relatively easily simply jumping back into the submarine or climbing back onto land. It is always a jump scare though as you pluck those tantalising lights hoping not to wake it. : )
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2924408938
There are some really big fish which can be similar to those flying things above land and if prodded by a stray pulse beam or mult-itool shot they will attack, but usually the player has to provoke them. Some planets of course do have more aggressive creatures than others and if swimming too close they will 'bite' but at least in Normal mode default settings they are easily avoidable. It can be fun to dial up the hostile settings in survival mode for any land or sea creature (or dial them back if desired).

It's always worth cataloguing all the creatures on a planet and usually there is one 'big' one either in land or water that is unusual and it can be satisfying if you enjoy exploring to discover them. An update increased the Nanite reward for seeking creatures, especially the last ones, that makes the time spent worthwhile. In No Man's Sky being able to travel from one unique planet to another and dive into a deep ocean still amazes me, even knowing it is just a computer program. It's a LOT of fun and the sense of exploration is awesome.

Playing with hostile settings the game play experience changes a lot in may fun ways. Generally though Normal default has a good balance but Survival mode is recommended. Survival with custom hostile settings is a lot of fun if you want that Alien creature stalking you. But with a good jet pack, underwater equipment and blaster 'kid' you'll be fine.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044531229
Slightly off topic. Building an underwater base is really fun to do and adding a byte beat machine for your own music tunes you can watch creatures swim past, while listening to your own tunes or other players or even create your own. Then you always have a safe place to visit and invite others to dance 'swim the fish' in safety. :D
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3043127825
A very quick base requires very few parts and provides instant shelter for safety.: )
Especially when mining resources of any type. Arguably the most 'dangerous' annoying sea creatures, are the jelly fish that can appear at any time while mining plants and rocks. Having a place of safety nearby to reach is always wise. If you have no submarine yet, there is a base part (I forget the name), a single construction part that is a bubble glass type shelter like a prefab, that can be placed quickly to provide shelter and air while spending a long time deep underwater.

[Captain Skinny]

Then considering that, perhaps I will venture once more into the deep. I have yet to encounter any enormous or directly aggressive fauna underwater, save for our friend the angler. The environments are super cool, and I've been feeling lacking not having explored quite so deep as I could've.
Cheers and happy hunting!

[RPG Gamer Man]

You could try desensitizing yourself to sharks and underwater predators. I did this with my fear of heights. I went to high places on purpose to try to desensitize myself to it. I went to the Grand Canyon, Empire State buidling top floor, Space Needle, etc. Although i still have a fear of heights, i am not as scared as i used to be. Since it costs alot to go swimming with sharks, i suggest using video games as a medium to desensitize you to underwater predators. There are a few i can suggest.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/629820/Maneater/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/264710/Subnautica/

Also, i also came face to face with sharks in the wild in Australia when i used to live there. Luckily my family warned me about a shark very close to me so i swam out of the water to prevent getting attacked. The shark i saw was a reef shark, very big. Of course everything there can kill you. You got poisonous rock fish, even some starfish are poisonous there. You got sea slugs, which some are also poisonous.

NOTE: IF this post upsets you OP, please let me know and i will delete it if i can. Thank you. it is not meant to upset you, but to try to help you.

[frvind74]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3237163519

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Where's the good predator fish? Oh he is a good boy.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2581551207

[UncreativelyNamed]

One thing you can do, if you still want to collect those Hadal Cores, is to turn off predators in the difficulty settings. Then, even if you trigger the Angler, it won't attack you and can't damage you except for, if I remember right, a small initial hit when it first appears. After that, It will just swim around making its godawful noise. (I'm fairly strongly autistic, with bad sensory-processing issues especially when it comes to noises, and for me that sound is...not traumatizing, but it's certainly not pleasant.) Of course, if you turn off predators, you won't get attacked by animals on land, either. This is good for me, because I don't like killing things, but might not be so good for you, of course.

[Chaosolous]

Deep water is infinitely scarier than deep space.

[Johnny in the Clouds]

Originally posted by UncreativelyNamed:

...This is good for me, because I don't like killing things,..

If you throw bait at any charging predator they immediately stop. Place bait throw on a hot key and always have a stack of bait with you : D ( I have it bound to a button on my controller)
There is also the invisibility tech you can use (a multitool blueprint) that can be crafted for your weapon and when activated as a secondary weapon, gives you a few seconds to escape from things like sentinels undetected.

If you must kill creatures for any creature type missions, the monstrosities skulking at abandoned buildings count towards the creature tally... so you never have to kill ordinary creatures just the 'monsters' that prefer not to eat bait and prefer to eat you...
:D

[UncreativelyNamed]

Originally posted by Star-Lord:

Originally posted by UncreativelyNamed:

...This is good for me, because I don't like killing things,..

If you throw bait at any charging predator they immediately stop. Place bait throw on a hot key and always have a stack of bait with you : D ( I have it bound to a button on my controller)

Yeah, that's a solution, but I prefer that the predators just leave me alone altogether. I just pretend that I'm walking around under a cloaking device, so nothing can see me. Good idea for other folks, though! I'm just combat/killing-avoidant in general. I even avoid fighting sentinels unless I'm in a mood or there's a "Kill 'X' number of sentinels" mission with a reward that I really want. I usually buy off or use defense chits on pirates, even.

If you must kill creatures for any creature type missions, the monstrosities skulking at abandoned buildings count towards the creature tally... so you never have to kill ordinary creatures just the 'monsters' that prefer not to eat bait and prefer to eat you...
:D

Yeah, I don't kill those, either. LOL Because they're a bug mash-up and, as a lover of all things arthropod, I think they're adorable. (Yes, I know I'm weird.) So I just dig tunnels under whispering eggs, shoot them from underneath, and let the buggies scurry about unmolested on the surface while I sit in the tunnel, where they ignore me. I refine the eggs to nanites then wait for the buggies to bury themselves before moving on to the next cluster. :)

But another way to fulfill "creature killing" missions if you don't want to kill things is to sit and watch predators killing prey because for some strange reason that counts as YOU killing things. Bizarre, but there it is.

I used to use a mod that I really liked that got rid of all creature-killing missions on both the space stations and the Nexus and replaced them with other kinds of missions. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated for two or three updates now, so I'm thinking this is finally what will push me to figure out the AMUMSS thing, or whatever that acronym is. Because I just don't want to kill things. Anything. Not in real life (which is one reason why I'm vegetarian), and not in games. No judgment on anyone else, of course; it's just not my thing. It's one reason why it's hard for me to find adventure-y video games that I will enjoy.