Unterzee Navigation 101:

This is a basic guide for exploring the Unterzee. It addresses how the map is laid out, and tools to find out what ports you are near.

Map Layout:

The map of the Unterzee is divided into a 6x6 grid of tiles, each of which will have various features within the tile. Some of the tiles are static, and some will shuffle position, and the position of contents within the tile. The entire western column of tiles stays consistent for every new game, as does the entire southern row. Irem is always in the northeastern corner, and Kingeater's Castle, the southeastern.

West Column:
Whither / Codex
Venderbight
Fallen London
Cumaen Canal
Iron Republic
Dawn Machine / Grand Geode (THE SUN. THE SUN.)

Southern Row:

Dawn Machine - Port Carnelian - Crying Heights - Adam's Way - Varchas - Kingeater's Castle

Each tile has a unique entry message, which identifies the tile you have crossed into. The remaining sections of this guide will detail each map area's tiles, organized by name, with the ports in parentheses after the name (if they aren't labelled in the name), and the entry messages after. Tiles which consistently appear in the map corners will be shown on both lists.

This information should be enough to at least give you an idea of what area you've crossed into, and what ports it might contain.

The Western Zees

Boreal Reach (Whither/Codex): Boreal Reach. Is this snow? Touch it, and it puffs to vapour. The men huddle close to the warmth of pipe and funnel.

Cumaean Canal: Little ships throng the water here. The crew grows wistful: they swap old stories of the sunlit sea. You are near the Cumaean Canal to the Surface.

Dawn's Edge (Grand Geode): Came on deck to find the metal sharp with sparks. Ozonal coronas haunt the ship. This is Dawn's Edge.

Fallen London (Hunter's Keep, Mutton Island): Home waters. The crew dawdle at the rail, watching for the lights of London.

The Iron Republic: Sizzling vapours rise from the sea. Time slips sideways. A coil of rope has stung a stoker, and his fellows beat it to death. We are under the hand of the Iron Republic.

Venderbight: Dust, echoes: even a sepia tint to the air. These are the waters around the Tomb-Colonies.

The Frozen North

Boreal Reach (Whither/Codex): Boreal Reach. Is this snow? Touch it, and it puffs to vapour. The men huddle close to the warmth of pipe and funnel.

Frostfound: The air is cold. The light is colder. This is Frostfound: the castle of silence.

Frostround: Frostfound, vast and chillly. A fortress seiged by questions, answers, and riddles.

Palmerston's Reach: Palmerston's Reach. There is Brimstone on the wind.

The Pillared Sea (Irem): In the Pillared Sea, dreams breach the surface of waking. They walk the deck and speak with the crew. I have ordered double coffee-rations.

The Pillared Sea: Strange puffs of warmth from the air behind the ice. This is the Pillared Sea, where Irem will lie. Lies. Has always lain.

Stormbones (lighthouse, no port): We enter Stormbones. St. Eligius sends his fire to dance in the air, on deck. Very far away we see the great light of the Ragged Crow.

Void's Approach (Avid Horizon, Chapel of Lights): This must be Void's Approach. The air crackles with frosty radiations. To the North, the false-stars fail in the darkness.

The Eastern Reaches

The Calumnies (Aestival): and now we enter the Calumnies. There is a wild and glorious scent in the air. A kind of light. Why do zailors fear this place?

The Chelonate: Another zee-beast corpse afloat. So much carrion. We approach the Chelonate.

The Empire of Hands: The Empire of Hands! We see the jungled isles in the distance. I've set a watch, that no simian stowaways might swarm us.

The Empire of Hands: we approach the Empire of Hands. We clasp our souls tight, lest the Pentecost Apes take them from us.

Gossamer Way (The Nativity): A floating strands of web caresses your face. The air hints at spiders.

The Pillared Sea (Irem): In the Pillared Sea, dreams breach the surface of waking. They walk the deck and speak with the crew. I have ordered double coffee-rations.

The Pillared Sea: Strange puffs of warmth from the air behind the ice. This is the Pillared Sea, where Irem will lie. Lies. Has always lain.

The Sea of Statues (Kingeater's Castle): When I saw the stone hand reaching above the waves - open, as if to receive a sword, perhaps - I knew we had entered the Sea of Statues.

The Sea of Statues: we have entered the Sea of Statues. Giants gape at us. Kingeater's Castle rises ahead, where fools give up their future.

The Southern Lands

Adam's Way (Apis Meet): A carmine tint to the waves. We're approaching Adam's Way, "where flows the Mountain's blood."

The Carnelian Coast (Port Carnelian): The Carnelian Coast. Far to the South, the Neath-roof glimmers above the Mountain of Light.

Crying Heights (no port): Distant shrieks, all through the morning. The Blue Prophets, for sure. These must be the Crying Heights.

Crying Heights: The Crying Heights, where the Blue Prophets call the names of those about to die.

Dawn's Edge (Grand Geode): Came on deck to find the metal sharp with sparks. Ozonal coronas haunt the ship. This is Dawn's Edge.

The Sea of Statues (Kingeater's Castle): When I saw the stone hand reaching above the waves - open, as if to receive a sword, perhaps - I knew we had entered the Sea of Statues.

Varchas: A buttery bloom of light on the southern horizon! You approach Varchas, the Mirrored City.

The Central Unterzee

This section includes the middle 16 tiles, which do not touch any map edge.

Demaux's Gate (Iron and Misery Co.): Here the wilder airs mingle with the airs of the near reaches. Demaux's Gate, named for a navigator lost above. How did his bones come below?

Gaider's Mourn: Stalagmites loom in the distance like the cranes of Wolfstack Docks, but vaster, vaster. The Corsair's Forest. Our lookouts are watchful.

The Great Eye: Something forgotten is here.

The Khanate: The Salt Steppes. This is the domain of the New Khanate, whose ancestors came here long before London fell...

Myceligaea (Uttershroom): The water is sluggish with hyphal threads. Violet vegetable bulks break the surface. Myceligaea!

Nuncio: Scuttering and chittering in the corners of the hold. Humped shapes on the deck rail. The airs of Rattsey embolden vermin.

Principles (Pt. Cecil): The Principles of Coral. The corpse-rainbow glow from beneath the waves echoes the false-stars above.

The Promised Sea (Fathomking's Hold): The Promised Sea. All through this place, the song of the Drownies lies shivering-sweet upon the wind.

Salt Lions: A baked breeze rises, the improbable scent of stone out of some distant desert. You are close to the Salt Lions.

Sea of Autumn (Mangrove College): The mists of the Sea of Autumn get into the eyes, the heart. It is not unusual to find yourself in unsuspected tears.

The Sea of Lilies (Wisdom): we watch for fungal-pads in the Sea of Lilies. There is a prison here, guarded by knot-oracles...

Sea of Voices (Polythreme, Godsfall): 'We hear the voices that will not be drowned.' This is the Sea of Voices: we are close to Polythreme, where nothing is truly dead.

Shepherd Wash (Abbey Rock, Station III, Shepherd Isles): Shepherd Wash, the salty hinterland of London, home to hermits, nuns, and shadowy business.

The Snares (Pigmote Isle): Creeping tendrils of fungus, zee-weed, unnameable flora. We enter the Snares.

Stamford's Expanse (Isle of Cats / Visage): The false-stars above are feral amber, like tigers' eyes. Stamford's Expanse, named for one who lost his child to cats...

Unknown (no port): The wind carries the echo of distant chants. Long-dead priests still count the hours in this place.

Unknown (no port): The world is webbed with invisible lines. You've crossed one. Tighten them and it would split like a fruit.

Generic Tile: No landlubber would notice the change. But you feel the air prickle on your skin. Somewhere new...

Unknown (no port, lightship): Here the slate-black sea is like rippled glass, spiked with light from the roof.

Disclaimers and closing notes:

Some of these area indicators will change as the game updates and expands. I'll try to keep the guide current, but it's not impossible that I fall behind on that. There are a few tiles with no ports that I am uncertain of the name of (one is labelled "Generic Tile" when you encounter creatures or ships there for the first time, the others I have presently labelled "Unknown" until I find a better name for them.

There are also sections where I have multiple entries under the same header. Some of these may be entry messages no longer used from previous patches, but I'm happier leaving them in the guide, in case someone sees one in game, than leaving them out.

Please feel free to comment if there's a detail which needs editing, or if you have any thoughts on the guide.

[King Banhammer]

Very much like that, yeah.

[z99-_]

Like this?
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416840492

[King Banhammer]

That's actually pretty nice. Could definitely see adding that. Any possibility of labelling London and the corner bits?

[z99-_]

I made a map showing how the tiles currently move around, if you think it would add to your guide.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415061871

[Yellow12]

Its how I gain startup capitol for my zee captain. captivating treasure - 1000 echos

[King Banhammer]

Nah. No need to apologize. Glad to have people interested.

[Yellow12]

wel, i apologize,asI really must not have been too observant, looking now.

[King Banhammer]

Visage. It's in the same tile as the Isle of Cats, Stanford's Expanse.

[Yellow12]

there is an island in the middle south region with a giant face on it, i forget the name but i know it starts with a V. its position is almost always exactly opposite of Nuncio, give or take a tile square.

[Wokka wokka Motherfokka]

Nice guide! I definitely think this guide could use a color-coded map, showing which tiles are static, and then each grouping of random tiles.