Chelicerate feels a bit too oppressive

[Xenos]

I've begun playing Below Zero for real now, as I held off initially (despite buying super early) because I wanted a decent chunk of content before I began. Now that I've gotten into it, have the early stages of a Sea Truck, I've begun to think that one of the new Leviathans, the Chelicerate feels a bit too much like it puts one specific area on complete lockdown. It's often dead silent until it attacks something, moves faster than the Sea Truck, and has an area-of-effect grab detection for its attack.

In the OG game, the Reaper was a massive, inescapable threat, but you could detect one far before you could see it with its constant roars. Ghost Leviathans often stood out a lot as well and patrolled wide, open areas allowing you to avoid them by hiding around rocks and behind bones/trees. The Sea Dragon Leviathan, while the biggest threat physically, was also easily detectable by constant roaring, and had a massive patrol area in addition to its low attention span, so if you escaped it once it would just move on and you'd be good for a while.

The Chelicerate so far, especially the one in the Purple Vents, makes the entire area around it impossible to approach. It sneaks up on you in shallow water, giving you almost no warning unless you get lucky and see it before it gets close, or hear the scream it gives off when you're far too close to escape it. If you get lucky, it will get pissy at a Boneshark before it gets too close to you. It also seems to have a very puny patrol area, meaning it never leaves to go elsewhere for you to quickly run in, grab some stuff and run out. I observed both Chelicerates in the Tree Spires from inside the Vent Garden, and both never left the 100 meter diameter area they were in originally. The one next to the Vent Garden would also periodically re-aggro every 10 seconds, giving me the absolute bare minimum window to escape, let alone explore. It reminds me of the Epics in Spore Creature Stage, absolute nutjobs that would massacure anything in a 50 meter radius and were only possible to steal loot from if you had stealth parts, otherwise it would walk over and step on you before you got close.

It feels like the only way to get past one is to go a mile around it, or be forced to take a grab attack and then hope you can reorient and get far enough away that it doesn't just speed you down and grab you again in 10 seconds. Anything scannable or lootable inside the patrol area is effectively just not there, because going outside of your truck to grab an item with one around is literal suicide, but being in the truck obviously means you can't loot anything.

[Zypher]

Welllll, Actually I have been all over that area and scanned the darn thing as well.
There are some big crevasses running through that area, you want to keep BOTH yourself and your sea truck in those.

The start of the crevasse can be found in the very edge of the kelp forest area, pretty much south east of your E drop base. Well away from the leviathan spawn.

Other than that, if you absolutly have to leave the crack for any reason look around..... It's called a leviathan for a reason, they are really really freaking huge and easy to spot.

The way the devs designed that area is to use those cracks. the stuff you want is in them. (At least in the part of it where the levis are.
Take theses words with great weight, and good luck in the depths my friend.

[Xenos]

Originally posted by Zypher:

Other than that, if you absolutly have to leave the crack for any reason look around..... It's called a leviathan for a reason, they are really really freaking huge and easy to spot.

Truth be told, if they just made it louder I'd have no problem with it. But with the early-stage development state of the game causing graphical errors and the such, it has a tendency to not be visible, usually hidden by incorrect loading, and also dead silent. It will often rapidly swarm out of a crevice screaming like hell when it aggros and that grab attack makes me paranoid.

[Amrak]

Last time I looked there are 3 going from the purple vents on the left of lily pads, purple vents middle before Lilly pads and edge thermal tree spires. Just stay close to the crevasse and pillars, do not move fast, and they do give a warning growl. Keep your truck repaired and wear your brown pants! :)

When you finally get the prawn suit, rapid bunching makes them spit you out with way less damage than the truck takes.

[Coops]

Defense perimeter module for the seatruck does work. They let you go more quickly and with less damage. And with the seatruck (unlike the vehicles in Subnautica) you can repair it from inside the cab.

[Nar_Udautas]

use speed boost and leave it behind .. dont have too many modules on seatruck though or he will catch you :)
As was said by others use cracks in terrain by vent gardens to hide.
I think the Chelicerate could be more fierce and louder :)

[Amrak]

Originally posted by Coops:

Defense perimeter module for the seatruck does work. They let you go more quickly and with less damage. And with the seatruck (unlike the vehicles in Subnautica) you can repair it from inside the cab.

I can only repair from the inside if I have modules attached. And if you have said modules attached chelly will catch you. Dropping modules in a crevasse and travel in only sea truck is much safer.

[Coops]

Speed of the seatruck is the same with one or zero modules. Speed drops by 33% with two modules but is only 11% slower with the horsepower booster.

[Amrak]

I do know this. I have defense, horsepower, energy and depth modules. So saying trying to dodge Chelly with a full train is not recommended. In the tree spires you can dodge into a small crevasse easier in the truck alone than with a module attached. Maneuverability is the key to escaping when not close to the surface or open running room. Chelly is tenacious and does hunt you once it has been triggered. That and in the tree spires you have a chance of triggering 2 at once as well. Squeezing a truck into a crack is much easier then a whole train!

[Cougarific]

Leaning toward "it's not finished yet, let's see where it goes" but as the OP points out, even the Reaper wasn't that scary or challenging to avoid once you got used to it.

I'm all for having a *truly* scary, challenging creature in the game - tho its current location may not be ideal.

[ZALGO]

Try attacking it. It's really easy to scare it off with a few hits.

[I am Goot]

I have no issues outrunning the Chelly with the Sea Glide. I only use the Sea Truck as a base of operations (aka Air Pocket) when I go deep exploring/foraging.

You say the Chelly has a small patrol area, so why is this a problem for you?

As far as I am aware, they mostly stick to just below the shallows, of the area they live in. Sure they'll chase you if you get into aggro range, but the Sea Glide is sufficient to get away

But as the other guy said... they're leviathans they are big and easy to see, and if you cannot see them... what are you looking at? From my experience they make plenty of noise when in your vicinity, so if they are managing to sneak up on you, you must not be paying attention.

[Xenos]

I said why its problematic in my post. If theres anything good directly underneath it, you cant get to it and scan it/grab it without being mauled and chased. The Sea Glide doesnt outrun it at all, it just keeps you out of range long enough for him to get bored if you aggro him at the absolute maximum range.

I would appreciate it if you didnt try to universally and falsely apply your own experiences to my game and use it to write me off as a bad player. Graphical errors like wrong terrain at a distance disguise it, and they dont make any noise unless aggro'd onto something in my game. I've watched one for 20 minutes inside the Ventgarden, and he is dead silent when hes not mashing his face into the wall trying to get me every 10 seconds.

Theres also plenty of footage online showing various Leviathans sneaking up on people. Just because they are big doesnt mean you can see them if you aren't looking the right direction and the right time. That's why sound design is so important in Subnautica, it's one of the only games around that you can be attacked from above or below as well as the four cardinal directions. Theres more to be aware of than the human brain is accustomed to.

[Godfearer]

Y'all are gonna love the Shadow Leviathan trio.

[lordbean]

Originally posted by Wiseman Wannabe:

Y'all are gonna love the Shadow Leviathan trio.

There's actually four of them. (I counted them as I murdered them)

[stone-man]

There is also a very scary, but rewarding alternative to dealing with the Chelicerate ...
You can put an uncooked fish in one of your quick inventory slots, and when it approaches hold it out. It looks like its attacking, but it will eat the fish out of your hand. It will then leave you alone for a short time. Once it starts to come at you again just hold out another uncooked fish. This also works with the sharks.