Deep Sea Expedition Essentials

[Faivon]

For those who have ventured to the deep sea and lives, can you share your essentials for other survivors to explore the deep sea ocean?

I've had my raft built as mobile base / transporter with beds, smithy, preserving bin and camp fire on it with the ability to transport large dino on behind (also serves as shooting platform). Scuba set are absolutely necessary to manuever through the deep sea also to swim away from predators such as dunky or megalo. Weapons such as crossbow since all other firearms are useless.

What am I confused is what dinos to bring? I brought two Megalo as bodyguards but they're a bit.. fragile, died when fighting two Dunky lower level than my Megalos. What about if I bring dunky instead? Can spino dive deep? I'm worried it will drown though. Uhm, what's my purpose on the deep sea expedition? I'm looking for mosa and plesy. Not to mention exploring the deep sea is very beautiful and thrilling at the same time

[Castillo]

The other day I went all around the island with my Mosasaur to loot underwater crates, as long as you don't encounter an Alpha Mosa, then you should be good :P.

[Maireen]

Just under water exploration? If thats all then I use itchy with 165% speed and me with 300 oxygen and going up the surface for air every now and then. I live down south so I get my oil under water since the beginning and up till now.
Even for taming those giant sea creatures I used the same itchy and lure them to the cave to KO.

[🦊 Hermit]

Up your oxygen stat, that improves swim speed too so you can move quicker. Also make some lazarus chowder to reduce stamina drain and increase oxygen duration still further.

I struggled to conquer the ocean for a long time too, so I asked on this forum and someone suggested starting out with a sarco as an underwater mount. And after trying it I can see why - it's perhaps the fastest base swimmer on the game (icthys and mantas etc. become faster after levelling up, but the sarco starts out really quick), it doesn't have an oxygen stat so does not need to go to the surface to breathe, and you can eat and use map/spyglass on it's back which you can't do with most fish. They have decent health so can take a few hits before being in trouble. And if you do get into trouble, you can hop onto the nearest beach to safety, which icthys cannot do.

Of course, the sarco is terrible in battle, so you need to employ a 'hit and run' tactic if you want to knock out an animal or kill it for resources. Swim away, jump off, fire crossbow, jump on and swim again. But it's speed allows you to do this relatively easily.

I've also recently heard people say that spino with some levels in oxygen is good underwater too, but I haven't yet tested this myself. One thing to be aware of if you try that route though - the spino does need air and so will swim up to the surface if you jump off, leaving you stranded in the deep with lots of nasty fish. Make sure to keep it on follow at all times to prevent it from swiming away.

But whatever you choose, try to get a plessie/mosa asap, because they really are the best underwater. Plessie is almost as fast as a sarco but more tanky and much better in battle, and the mosa is basically the rex of the ocean: massive attack, massive health.

[Faivon]

@maireen: well, its more than that. Taming underwater creatures, warding off mantas, dont think there are piranhas in the vast oceans, looking for new oil and pearl nodes, etc but yeah, I'll definitely get my ichtcy to scout~

@hermit : yay! Fellow ocean conqueror! I'm playing in The Center map so plesy and mosa are so hard to find. I dont think anyone in my server got one yet and I really like the ocean so it will be my specialty in my tribe. Oh yes, I forgot about sarco too. I had one high leveled one but as you have said, its terrible in battle. It has a poor turning animation and will likely get killed.

I prefer to swim myself with scuba set as I can turn faster and swim faster than most and let my creatures ward off any bad fishies (especially mantas)

Also, I heard a trick of looking through the greenhouse walls will let you see the ocean clearly?

[🦊 Hermit]

There aren't any piranahs in the oceans, but angler fish do a similar job. Mercifully anglers are a lot slower and weaker.

The sarco won't get killed if you use the kiting strategy I mentioned ;) And that'll allow you to fight yourself in your scuba gear too, as you like to do. Just use the sarco as a jetski to keep you a distance away from the threats, then hop off and fire your crossbow at them until they begin to catch up. It's relatively easy to do once you get the hang of it, and not too risky to the sarco either so it won't die.

And ah, you're on the Center...yes, the bigger water creatures are very rare there. Plessies do sometimes spawn in one small area of that map, just to the east and south-east of the northern tropical island, but that's virtually the only place you'll find them.

And mosas are even more rare - oddly enough the only place they spawn regularly is underneath the penguin iceburg in the snow biome, and since that's a closed lake with no connection to the ocean it isn't very useful. Me and my friend did once see a shoal of mosas off the south-west shore of the lava island, but I haven't seen a single one since, so their spawn is pretty much bugged on that map. Hopefully the big Center map update due out tomorrow will fix those issues and make them more common.

[Faivon]

Set the aggresive mode to passive then? Cuz if set to neutral or aggressive, they will run off and starts to swim in circles trying to chomp each other's tails.

Yeah, I'm patrolling around that area. Hopefully I can find one today before the update. They are deep below the ocean right?

[🦊 Hermit]

Yeah that's a good point, your mount has to be passive if you're kiting anything.

And yeah, plessies and mosas will not rise above a certain level in the ocean (although I think on the Center that level is higher than on the Island) so stay low, then lure them upwards when you find them. Hover just above their maximum depth and dip down every so often if they start to swim away, and they're pretty easy to tranq. Just have to watch out for megalodons or mantas coming to nibble on them while they're asleep ;)

[Eldardûr]

Haven't played The Center but if there is a snow biome there, better to get your oil with an anky on it, specially icebergs are the best farming spot for oil. You will save a lot of trouble from overweight underwater if u don't have plesios or mosas that can carry decently and u will be able to focus on pearls which are much more lighter than oil.

[🦊 Hermit]

There's a snow biome, but only one iceberg with oil on it. There are some oil nodes at the top of the snow mountains though.

But there's actually a few oil nodes in the rivers that flow between the islands too, those are easier to get to tbh, and will sustain a small operation. You'd only really need to explore other sources when you grow to a larger base and start to consume more.

[Faivon]

Thanks for the tips! I usually clear the area first before attempting to tame one.

It's just that the center map contains a lot of water so transportation wise it would be better either by air or water. Raids are probably by air though except two tribes on the same island. Rule the geography of the map, rules all! XD

[Mi]

Well, Scuba gear is kinda essential. I can't imagine exploring the deep sea without scuba gear, like someone mentioned pumping oxigen, but... uh... no. Wait for scuba.

I usually hopp on my Mosa (I prefer the way they steer over Plesis, they are way too 'squiggly wriggly'...) and I usually take 3 additional scuba tanks with me because I tend to stay down there for quite a while, looking for deep sea loot crates.

When you don't have a Mosa yet, a fast Ichthy is probably your best bet, because you can get away from anything agressive very easily. Megalodons are quite slow and if a group of Dunlkeosteus gangs up on your Megalodon, it's all over for it because the Dunks are so tanky. They also tend to block your way out (ever got stuck in a group of, like, 5 or 6 Dunks? There's no getting away from that).

So I'd say get a fast Ichthy and pump movement speed. It doesn't need health or melee, since you'll just be running away with it. Take some good crossbows along (2 or 3 should be good) and a whole bunch of tranq arrows.

Once you find a high level mosa (or plesi, if you like them, but they are harder to tame since they always spawn in groups of 2), the trick is to stay above the level to which they can rise and just pump arrows into it. It will take a truckload of arrows, so... be prepared. But once you got that mosa, there's no stopping you. :)

have fun!