Out of bounds - An expedition diary

After I had finished the game I still felt adventurous and wondered how the world looks from a different perspective ... you know, looking down from the nearby mountains. So I set out to the mission to explore landscapes where noone has been before. OK, I am aware several others have explored out of bound regions since the Early Access state of the game, but things have changed and some approaches don't work any more.

This guide is for fun and will (most likely) not help you to cheat the game by taking shortcuts. By the way: I haven't used any cheats or mods, only tools available in the final game as for mid 2023. And I came up with everything on my own.

Be aware that this guide will contain spoilers for people that haven't completed parts of the game. Read it at own risk!

Day 0 - Preparation

Hi fellow scientists,

this is Robin Ayou writing. I've recently returned from a journey that was as challenging as it was rewarding, and which nearly cost me my life. So I better write some notes in the hope that researchers following my footsteps will be better prepared.

Getting out of bounds

Actually my first steps of preparation were farsighted, more than I initially anticipated. I am talking about getting "out of bounds" in the first place.

Weeks ago I had built me a short cut from the Phi Robotics Center to the Frost Acacia flat in the western Glacial Basin. (Note that where possible I use the place and POI names as used in the interactive Subnautica BZ map on https://mapgenie.io/subnautica-below-zero/maps/world.)
I spent a whole week building bases at the two cliffs just to be able to cross the ice shield and save some hundred meters and maybe half a minute detour on the Snow Fox. Well, okay, I admit it was a pure hobby and exercise, but at least it gave me the proof and satisfaction that it is possible to cross the ice shield. And it resulted into two new scenic bases which I equipped with all the mandatory furniture, amenities and grow-beds and which are now available for rent for any possible future adventurers and weekend tourists on 4546B, which I hope will flow in now that the Kharaa virus has finally been eradicated.

"Wolkenheim" station above the Phi Robotics Center

I have found out later that for the ice shield tour which I will be reporting about, I could have done with far less effort. There is a location between the Spy Pengling site south of the Phi Robotics center and the ladder down to the underwater cave where the walls surrounding the accessible area are particularly low, almost an invitation to use this site as an exit onto the ice shield.

.
But since I had my cozy bases in place I didn't bother building yet another one there.

Of course it is part of the fun to find out how to build bases of arbitrary height on land, and if you like puzzles and want to find out on your own, you might just skip the next paragraph.

I'm not giving a step by step tutorial here, but let me just hint that from an airlock balcony you can add a vertical section onto an "I" (or "T") segment and another "I" segment on top of that. Repeat and you can build upwards, two floors at a time. For a cleaner look you can later replace the useless "I" segments in the middle by vertical connectors as well, but this involves good planning and doing this from top to bottom, using a platform next to the base as temporary scaffolding. And it involves some jumping which you better not mention to your casualty insurance.

Packing the bag

Well, I admit this is where my plan had some shortcomings which proved near-fatal later.

Every polar researcher should be familiar that, when embarking on a longer journey, be sure to have the right tools, enough food and water with you. For this three-day tour with a safety fourth day I recommend:

• A fully loaded a working Snow Fox (ideally with ion cell) for quick transportation and for keeping warm (!)
  
• A repair tool in case you encounter bumpy terrain (which is to be expected) and don't want to drive around every boulder.
  
• 6 large bottles of water, such as the ones created from the desalination machine
  
• Some compact and nonperishable food, such as fruit salad, salted fish or these nutrition bars if you have some left. Less ideal are Shrub nuts, as they provide little energy and take up a lot of space.
  
• Last but not least: Appropriate clothing. You won't need a diving mask, so a ski mask crafted from Snow Stalker fur is more appropriate, a warm jacket mandatory.
  
• Optional: Should you really have spare room in your luggage, you might take the resources with you to build a minimum base (an "I" profile with airlock and possibly a bed) as a shelter. You won't need it though as long as your Snow Fox is functional.

I feel embarrassed that I left off with just a few nuts as only food source in my luggage. Don't do this same mistake!

Day 1 - From the glacial basin to the spires

I had spent the night before the start of the expedition in my "Wokenheim" (engl. Cloud home) base above the Phi Robotics cave, once more enjoying the sundown view down onto the landing pad and over the whole basin surrounding it. I slept well and was refreshed and energetic at the next morning.

(Note the cone-shaped mountain on the left, I will be talking about it later.)

I started my tour from the upper exit of the base which opened directly onto the ice shield. I expanded my Snow Fox and went off in western direction. It only took me a minute before I realized that this was a dead end. There's this canyon starting from the underwater lake northwards to the Fissure Caves, and there's no way to cross it canyon. On its southern end, a mountain also blocked the route, so I had to drive clockwise around that one as well, essentially bringing be back to my starting point.

There's a first strange phenomenon actually just on the other side of the mountain top behind my "Wokenheim" base: It's a larger patch of "dirty snow", or at least that's what it looks like during the day. Because during the night, this area actually glows and emits a green light. Fancy. But I would not wait for the night just now and moved on to find a path around the canyon.

(The second photo stems from a later visit to this area.)

To my surprise just a few seconds later I found myself at the top exit of my eastern Frost Acacia base, which came right on cue because the upper plateau ends her and my base provides a ladder down the cliff onto a lower plateau at medium height.

.
So I packed my Snow Fox, crossed my station one floor down and used the center exit to continue my journey northward. Soon enough I passed a narrow ledge near the Alterra antenna which marks the Phi Excavation site. Luckily I found a slope there that would take be back onto the upper ice shield and into a surreal landscape that was flat on the left hand sind, and on the right hand sind partly covered by what looked like oversized bowling balls. Note: In the epilogue I will tell about a hidden cave there which I discovered later at this site.

.

The partly invisible rocks

Driving back east towards the canon of the "Center Temperate Cave" I spotted some strange formations to the left hand side, looking like supersized arches. I couldn't pass below them, but this wasn't an issue as I intended to follow the border of the known world anyway so I wouldn't get totally lost. When I turned around a corner at the eastern end of these strange structures and could finally see their opposite side I realized that I had actually been looking at their backside[bU] all the time. From the north they were rock walls, mainly invisible only from the south. The purpose and history of these rock formations may be decoded by future researchers of this plateau.

.

The big arch

Directly east of the mentioned structures is another mega-structure, a large ... or better ... huge rock arch. You can pass this one though. Since it is standing not far from the edge of the cliff somewhere between the Glacial Basin and the Glacial Bay. I wondered if it can be seen from down there as well, but I think it is not close enough to the edge to be seen from down in the canyons.

.
I had soon after reached the West Mining platform, the southern-most part of the Arctic Spires area. This was when the sunlight faded. I didn't dare driving any further; a snow storm developed and I could easily either get lost or fall down a nearby cliff because I could hardly see my hand in front of my face. A chilly wind blow ice across my body and I felt a strong desire to return home to the bed in one of my bases. In the light of my Snow Fox'es headlight I made "dinner", drank a bottle of water and ate all of my nuts. When I got cold I climbed upon my Snow Fox to warm up. I've had more comfortable nights, certainly, but at least I was well-fed, kind of warm and safe from dangerous creatures here on top of the brink above the West Mining platform.

Day 2 - From the spires to Outpost Zero

The spires

The next morning I brushed the night's snow from my jacked, repaired my Snow Fox and mounted it. The weather was far from optimal for an expedition, but since I was still without a good long-term weather forecast all I could do is hope for better times.

I continued to drive along the western rim above the "Arctic Spires" section. From time to time I got off the vehicle to take a closer look down the rim. At one point I found myself next to the southern Spire mountains, and could (just) see my scenic base in the haze at the opposite rim wall, I had built it onto the narrow ledge next to the "Upper Mid Ice Cave", with a scenic view from up there. It felt good to see a familiar base, even though it was two hundred metres away, and inaccessible from my current position.

.
Continuing my journey northward I soon saw another base of mine which I had erected just south of the Arctic Spires Cache next to the edge of a lower ice shield. The view wasn't very good on that day, too much haze to really admire the Spire Mountains. But hey, that's why I built that base down there which has an observation deck and a perfect view onto the glimmering mountains at night. That is, when the weather is fair...

.

The Ice Worm carcass

The terrain of the ice shield became a bit bumpy in the northern part of the Arctic Spires area. There was a slope on the right hand sind leading down south, but then the steep rim continued, and it had the shape of a wall, so that I had to drive essentially around it on its northern side. The next time I could access the rim again and peered over it's edge it was a familiar sight. I was looking directly onto the Ice Worm carcass. From up here it looked not that dangerous any more. OK, at least I knew I was still on track.

This photo has actually be re-created later, as I didn't want to show you the original "white-out" version of this view where the carcass was barely visible due to the snow. Originally it wasn't that late in the evening.

The Phantom Mountain

Have you noted that big, cone-shaped singular mountain or volcano that can be seen from the shelf ice and many places on the map? From today's tour along the western rim of the Arctic Spires area I had seen it a few times, in the few moments when the sky cleared up. I had always wanted to go there, ... maybe stand on top of it?

.
Strange thing is, this mountain sometimes disappeared and re-apeared, you know, from one split of a second to another. It "glitched", you might say. Soon I wasn't able to see this distinct shape any more but I came to a mountainous area between the Spires and the starting area. I tried climbing the mountain but had to realize that some upper parts were penetrable ... you cannot walk or bike on them, just walk right through them. I also had trouble getting down again because some of the slopes on the eastern side were pretty steep. It might just be soft snow but I wasn't sure the Snow Fox liked this type of terrain. So I descended the mountain pretty carefully. I had finally made may way more or less around it during the evening. Once I thought I had fallen into some gap or gorge, but luckily I was wrong and I could always find a way out of trenches and other obstacles.

It was almost night when I reached Outpost Zero, and I was lucky to find it - more by chance than anything else - as I had gotten quite disoriented in the mountains.

Outpost Zero

But now I was high above Outpost Zero, as I said. It had already become dark when I first looked down into the familiar canyon area. But how strange it looked: I could see the grow-beds and some interior of the base ... but not the base hull itself. This is weird, because I wasn't even that far away. (I guess this is a desired "culling" optimization, the same effect as with the before-mentioned rock walls whose backside was invisible.)

.
Again I spent a lonely night out in the icy wind and snow. This time I only had water left to drink ... any my Snow Fox with still above 50% of energy ... enough to keep me warm through the night.

Day 3 - From Outpost Zero back to the Glacial Bay Dock

Invisible walls

If you have tried - like I did - to build bases to climb outside the basin in which Outpost Zero is located, you will probably have realized that you can hardly, if at all, walk on the ice shield above the basin. There are invisible, impenetrable walls preventing us from leaving this area. Now I was standing on the other side of said walls and found myself impossible to enter the area. So close to civilization ... and yet so far from it.

Sometimes this invisible wall was close to the edge and allowed me to peek down for a nice photo, sometimes it was a bit further back. But it was always there. I realized I would not be able to finish my expedition here and went on.

.
There was one other area I hadn't visited yet, and that was the starting area, the basin where the lander had so ruggedly crashed and burst into flames.

The wave

But before that there was one highlight I was really looking forward to. You probably have noted this wave-shaped ice rock on the edge of the cliff near the starting area, the one with the icicles hanging from it. From the very first day I wanted to climb that mountain.

And now I could finally do so.

.
Unfortunately when I had reached its peak the weather instantly turned into a thunderstorm. And as we know a mountain top is ... well ... not the best place to be in a thunderstorm. I descended back down to my Snow Fox, and as the storm subsided, I did a second ascend. This time I was greeted with a gorgeous view over the shelf ice. I could see my Pengwing observation base among the ice floats. Some Pengwings also appeared on closed drift ice.

.
Last but not least I could now admire my nearby panorama base from a different point of view. This base was an earlier attempt to check if the invisible walls maybe could be built over, but alas, this proved futile. But as a result I now had a comfortable base with panorama window, double bed, toilet, again a grow-bed with a variety of food and a view over the whole shelf ice and onto the starting area. This base is currently free and can be rented, Just drop me a note if you are interested. ;-)

.

The landing basin

Back on my Snow Fox I surrounded the landing base area which was now close by. Again I took photos and was happy I could now have the point of view that I had not reached from within, given the invisible walls that bordered this area as well. The weather was mostly fair for the moment, giving me good views downwards.

.
I didn't have much time left to admire the scenery, though. As you recall, I hadn't eaten for almost two days, and even though I wasn't very thirsty yet, I was close to starving by now. And I could not just go down to the starting area because of the invisible walls.


So I continued my expedition westward along the coast. As noted yesterday, there is this mountain between the starting area and the Arctic Spires area. This time I pressed on to find a way around its southern slopes and although I put my driving skills to its limits, I somehow managed to get me and my Snow Fox safely around it. I was now driving on the high cliffs that mark the natural northern border of the Glacial Bay. The sun was already sinking, coloring the whole landscape in an almost magical orange light. Meanwhile I could see one of my primary bases at the "Glacial Bay Dock". It was located close by, just some 50m down the cliff on the other side of the bay.

.
I was aware that I had no chance to drive all the way around the spires area and back to my starting point at "Wolkenheim" station. I probably wouldn't even survive the next night. I just had one faint chance ... a leap of faith.

I did it.

Oh, how I love this Snow fox of mine. I just drove over the edge of the 50m cliff and thanks to this clever piece of engineering landed softly on the shore of the coast almost underneath the hydraulic bridge. My Snow Fox only suffered medium damage but that would be taken care of later at the charging station in front of the base. I just had to cross the bay at a narrow section and get the Snow Fox to the other side. Then it was a short final bump until the Snow fox reached its dock. I thanked myself for the well-equipped base and plundered the first Fevered Pepper Tree I came across there. Then I fell flat into my bed, not even caring to take a shower first. This would have to wait ...

Epilogue

It's a few days since I experienced this adventure, and I have checked one thing that came to my mind only afterwards: I had told that from "out of bounds" I could look down onto a base of mine erected close to the western entrance to the ravine leading to the "Arctic Spires Cache", one of the Alien structures on land. I had built that station in order to comfortably admire the "Spires" at night without having to deal with oversized worms outside.

(The upper floor contains the bedroom, growbed and panorama window and the lower contains the bathroom and kitchen. In case you wonder, the kitchen has a window too.)

As it turned out, that base was, after I had done some structural alteration works, another perfect spot to get out of bounds ... or come back to after such trip. It only takes a base 5 storyes high, then an airlock can lead directly onto the lower ice shield, as seen in the photos. From there a broad ramp exists at the northernmost part of this area which leads up to the upper ice shield I had been travelling on for most of the time during my adventure.

.
Why s this relevant? Well, this starting point basically cuts the time for getting to the areas around the starting area basin or Outpost Zero to half. (Who knows, maybe further east there are even more opportunities to get onto the ice shield.)

There's also another noteworthy discovery that I did on another trip to the upper ice shield east of the Frost acacia region, close to the excavation site. At the point where the mentioned ramp up to the ice shield ends you'll find strange black balls to your right hand side (see photo from day 1). Some of them seem broken, and when I drove up to them and had a closer look I found ... an entrance to a cave.


I descended down into this steep tunnel and was pretty surprised to find me looking a the excavation site, more precisely at the large frozen leviathan, just from another perspective. Even more precisely I was within the ice.

.
A word of warning: After stepping further down I haven't found a way out of this situation because invisible walls blocked any access to the areas where people are supposed to be (that is, of course, outside the ice block) and the cave tunnel was too steep to re-ascend back to the entrance. In hindsight it was a good choice to be not too nosy on my initial expedition. (But now I had to recover an earlier save game and lost the last photos from the PDA.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this trip over the ice shield. There's more oddities to be found up there, but I leave this as a task to you and other researchers to continue my investigation. I'll have a jouney to do with some precursor ...

[fisa.is.your.friend]

Thank you for sharing this fun expedition! I also am undergoing my own project to have several bases, a lab in each biome, and a small home and hideout. I hope you had a good trip up to the ice shield!

[Andy]

i don't really remeber how but i jumped over a mountain in my prawn suit once and landed right next to the architect tissue scan cave.

[Bysalmorphic]

I first met the frozen leviathan when I accidentally found myself out of bounds with a relatively simple prawn grapple by the Glacial Forest. I thought that top opening looked eerily well designed and figured I stumbled upon an easter egg.

Got stuck down the frozen rabbithole of course, thankfully I saved before the start of the expedition so I didn't lose much progress.

[Flames]

wow