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Surviving The Abyssputs players in charge of a delicate human ecosystem at the bottom of the ocean. Using state-of-the-art technology and to carry out deeply unethical research far from the prying eyes of the public, you’ll build a city capable of creating and sustaining a clone workforce.
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Like its predecessors, Surviving The Abyss is the kind of game where everything can be going fine one minute, but disaster strikes the next. Use these tips to get your settlement started right - you’ll need a solid foundation if you want your clone society to succeed!
Surviving The Abyss is currently in early access. As a result, this guide is subject to change as the game develops.
Slow And Steady
Your facility starts with a limited workforce and just enough supplies to establish basic infrastructure. The game is designed in such a way thatit’s impossible to expand quickly.More buildings mean you’ll need more workers, which in turn increases your food, power, and oxygen requirements, which all of which require buildings to produce them, which increases your need for workers, and the whole cycle starts again.
Whenever you establish a new industry, even a basic one like steel production, be ready to support not only the factory workers butalso the technicians you’ll need to expand your life support system.Pay close attention to the requirements of each building before you construct it, or you’ll soon find yourself running a deadly deficit.
Cloning Comes First
Your very first objective is toset up a functional Cloning Lab. The facility’s populationonly grows by creating new clones, so without this key structure you won’t be able to expand. You’ll also need aFauna Trap over an active habitatto get genetic specimens, and a Stabilizer nearby to keep the habitat from becoming depleted.
Your first generation of clones will have around a fifty-percent success rate, with a lifespan of a little less than two months. This means you need tocontinually create clones, or you’ll never have enough workers to keep the city running. In the worst-case scenario, clones will die off faster than you’re able to replace them, leaving critical buildings understaffed!Never leave your Cloning Lab idle.
Related:Surviving The Aftermath: Best Technologies To Research
Lighting Is Expensive
The only way to expand your buildable area is toconstruct lightsthat will illuminate the deep-sea darkness. Each lamprequires five energy to function, so you can only afford to build one or two at a time in the early game. Even if there’s a particularly exciting resource you’ve picked up on sonar, the cost to power all those lights might prove prohibitive.
Once you’ve transitioned to oil power instead of coal, this becomes less of an issue, but the overall expense of lighting is another reason that your expansion should beslow and mindful.Think about how much return you’ll get for your investment before you start laying new infrastructure along the sea floor.
Build Junctions Before You Need Them
Tunnels arefree and instantly constructed, one of the few bones that Surviving The Abyss throws to players. However, as your deep-sea installation becomes more complex, so will your tunnel network. Junctions take a nominal amount of time to construct, but they allowup to eight tunnelsto be connected along a central hub.
Whenever you expand in a given direction,place a Junctionnear the expected centerof your new operation. Even if you don’t need it right away, you’ll be thankful it’s there when the time comes to connect up more tunnels. Placing Junctions early will save you a lot of headaches down the road, since youwon’t need to demolish and rebuild tunnelsto make everything fit.
Cycle Building Shutdowns To Maintain Air Quality
The first major challenge most new players encounter ismanaging air quality in the city.Industrial buildings such as Extractors and Generators reduce the overall air quality of their oxygen network, which can lead toreduced Health for workers.Air Purifiers can fix the problem, but theyrequire Aluminum to build, which can be hard to obtain early on.
The best way to keep your air quality within acceptable limits is todeactivate Extractorsfor resources that are in decent supply. You can alsorotate deactivations- for example, shutting down a Concrete Extractor for a few days, then powering it back on while turning off your Alloy Furnace - to keep production moving. It’s not especially efficient, but your workers will be able to breathe.
An added benefit to this strategy is that it allows you tooperate more building than your workforce allows.When one building shuts down, just move all the workers to the one you’re re-activating. Any extra workers can be assigned to research, exploration, or other roles that help move your colony forward.
