How not to suffocate: A guide on ventilation

UBOAT's playable submarine has an extremely limited air supply, sometimes forcing a player to surface at an inopportune time. Thankfully, there are ways to increase your useful submerged period.

Intro

Until you unlock the snorkel, you have very limited means of resupplying your boat's air supply, shy of surfacing. There are means to stretch it out, including the use of Silent Running, Ventilation, Potassium Absorbers, and there are some things to avoid, like the use of the compressors at depth.

Silent Running (Blue Light)

The use of silent running when under water will slow the degradation of the air quality in the submarine by 15%. Of course, this 15% bonus will only be applied to the current level of air- so if you have only ten minutes left, a 15% bonus will only give you an extra minute and a half. If you activated it immediately after diving- when you will have roughly 1 hour of air- this will give you another 9 minutes. Therefore, it is imperative that you activate silent running as soon as it becomes clear that you may need to remain underwater for some time.

To active silent running, move to the light switch (clearly marked) and hold right click. Now press on the "blue light" option.


The use of silent running does not impede boat operations in any way, and does not force your crew from work. This seems to be a simple bonus until the ventilation systems are sorted out.

Ventilation

The ventilation system in UBOAT is interesting. At least in the stock boat, it isn't a snorkel, rather an extra air supply which is automatically recharged whenever the boat's air is naturally replenished- like on the surface or while at Decks Awash.


At first, the ventilation can be used for quite a while, but during extended stays underwater, its usefulness begins to diminish, until its own supply of air runs out, or the Co2 produced by the crew becomes overwhelming and must be removed from the atmosphere.

Author's note- the ventilation system is extremely loud, even louder than the engines. When in close proximity to enemy vessels, its use should be monitored and immediately shut off if they begin to become alerted to your presence.

As I mentioned earlier, the ventilation system is not perfect, and in an emergency it too can fail to sustain the crew. Which is why you've been provided with potassium absorbers...

Potassium Absorbers

Potassium absorbers are extremely limited in availability until the correct HQ mission is completed- and this can take several patrols. What you start out with at the beginning of your campaign may be all you have until several in-game months later, thus, these should only be used in the most dire emergencies, as you may only get four real uses from your existing stock of tablets- and each use will only provide for a few minutes of air.


To use potassium absorbers, take them from the ship's inventory (in the galley) and place them into the ventilation shaft, then switch it on. Each tablet will take a minute or so to burn, and not only increase the ship's air supply, but briefly increase the efficiency of the ventilation. As of now, I tend to use 5 tablets at a time, which allows 4 uses at stock availability, and provides at least five minutes of air.


Of course, the use of absorbers requires the use of the ventilation, which is very noisy. I strongly recommend keeping at least one full use (5 tablets for me) in case of the most extreme situation- in the event that surfacing would certainly lead to your demise, but air is mere seconds from running out.

Compressors and Why You Shouldn't Use Them

NEVER turn a diesel or electric compressor on in this sort of emergency situation. Whether it uses diesel or electricity respectively, both of these will seriously pollute the inside of a submarine and rapidly begin depleting your precious air supply. The description of these units are very poor- they are intended to be used to replenish the ship's supply of COMPRESSED air, not breathable air- which you would use to help surface the boat. Only use these when surfaced and in the clear.

Final thoughts

Thank you for reading! If you have any questions please ask. I will try to update and add a section regarding the snorkel as soon as possible.

Richard.

[tr0mp]

@Harag - 4 are enough to go from <10% oxygen to 100%.
But this takes longer, because after pottasium is gone, the vent will slowly go back in efficiency.

[Harag]

Ahh, that really helps, so after using 10 absorbers I can go back to using the ventilation as normal for a little while? I'll have to test that. I put all 20 in and it went through them in no time and didn't really benefit, but if I can use the ventilation again afterwards then that is better. Thanks again.

[Richardguy]

@harag hey man, the potassium absorbers work by temporarily increasing the efficiency of ventilation and providing artificial air when placed in the ventilation.

Each absorber lasts around 30 seconds now and the idea behind them is that they absorb crap in the air to make it breathable again. So, let's say you've used up your air supply and everything in the ventilation. Efficiency has dropped to 0%. If you put 10 absorbers in the ventilation and switch it on not only will it recharge the ventilation but the air will be replenished inside the boat.

It's a super emergency air supply.

[Harag]

Great guide, many thanks. Just been playing B125 update and had issues with air supply on the spy missions, but after reading this and playing around with the ventilation device learned how it worked better (still not sure on the Potassium yet as I've not played with them to see what they do). It would be good if you could update your guide to give more detail on how these work and how the player should use them on the long spy missions when you need to sneak in undetected.

[Simon]

@Richardguy. In the game at least you should always use the Electric Compressor on the surface if you are actually under way using the Diesel Engines..

Using the Diesel Compressor adds a further burden to fuel drain whereas the surplus recharge rate that the Diesel Engine gives to the Batteries, at Forward 2 or greater, means you get a free recharge of your compressed air.

The only negative is a slightly slower recharge of the Batteries themselves as the surplus charge into them is still positive but lower.
Now this may be a game bug but this works if the numbers are to be believed.

[tr0mp]

Tnx for this information.
Snorkels are first on my list to research and I will take an officer of my ship if necesary to do so.
Your guide enables me to delay that now. I thought Espionage missions would be unplayable without snorkels but now you have given me something to think about.
Happy travels!

[Gimi]

@Savage117
Your Science Alert is somewhat imprecise.

Ballast tanks or Main Ballast Tanks are either completely full (submerged) or empty (surfaced).

To maintain weightlessness a sub uses regulating tanks. These are normally inside the pressure hull and water is taken in or pushed to accurately adjust the weight.

There are also compensation tanks and trim tanks.
Compensation tanks are used to compensate for the weight of fired torpedoes or for the weight difference between diesel and water as diesel is consumed.
Trim tanks are used to trim weight forward or aft as required to keep the trim level.
Changing depth under normal operations is done by using the hydroplanes. As long as you are submerged you should be weightless. Emergency procedures are another matter though.

When your submarine are decks awash, the main ballast tanks would be filled, but regulating tanks would be empty. This would be just enough to hold the conning tower above the surface

[Richardguy]

@Savage117 the compressor should definitely not be used underwater. Yes, it may be useful in surfacing, but under normal conditions you should be able to blow ballast, or if you've sustained damage, use the engines to drive the boat to the surface.
You are correct, it doesn't pollute it, that's what the use of diesel engines would do. It just removes the air present.
I have always used the diesel compressor on the surface with the engine on; as fuel is the most available resource and I'm probably driving anyway.

[Savage117]

Great guide, thank you.

Just saw something I felt needed correcting, it’s not a big deal and it doesn't hurt your guide in any way. I'm just kind of OCD like that.

On compressors, I believe the description tells you it uses the breathable air to refill the compressed air reserves while submerged, in other words it’s pulling the breathable air out of the boat and compressing it for use in surfacing/changing depth of the boat. They are not polluting the air, they are sucking it out into their own tanks.

Warning: Science Alert!!

Compressed air is used to push water out of the ballast tanks when the boat is submerged to increase the boats buoyancy and usually used to surface the boat. In most sub games, when the captain says "blow ballast" or "blow the tanks" he is ordering an emergency surface and filling the ballast with air. During normal operation the tanks aren't usually completely filled with air, just enough to keep the boat at a neutral-ish buoyancy while submerged.

[FluffyBunnyEars]

great briefing thanks.