Aquaticohas thirteen pre-generated maps on which players can build the underwater city of their dreams. Each features a different breakdown of available resources, from fertile seabed to fish, fuel, and minerals. Even space is a resource as some maps feature tight quarters that can hamper your city’s growth.
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The game divides the maps broadly in to two categories of difficulty; “Normal” and “Challenge.” We took it a step further and assessed each map’s overall difficulty. Whether you want a chill city-building experience or a true test of your management skills, this list has all you need to know to pick the right site for your settlement.
13Submerged Prairie
A true sandbox map, Submerged Prairie hasenormous amounts of buildable sea floor, loosely dotted with mountains you’ll need to build around. Its Fertile, Oil-rich and Ore-rich terrains are all plentiful and wide, so you’ll always have resources to exploit as your population grows.
If you just want to relax and build a city on the ocean floor, Submerged Prairie is the best map to do it on. How much of the map can you cover?
12Wasteland
Wasteland is a great map for beginners, ideal for learning the game’s terrain types and strategies. It’s got plenty of Fertile terrain andlarge oil fieldsin the west, along with healthy Uranium deposits in the corners and plentiful Abyss access for fishing. Wasteland also boasts large swathes of neutral terrain, making it great for players who don’t like to feel like they’re losing value by building over specialty tiles.
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Wasteland’s main challenge is its comparativelack of Ore-rich terrain.Mining operations have to be restricted to the base of the mountain at the center of the map, and the east side is divided by a narrow Abyss. To circumvent this (at least partially), try building Domes connected by cable cars on either side of the divide.
11Descent
If you like building highly-specialized production centers, then Descent is the map for you. Drill for oil in the center of the map, grow crops in the middle, and dig for minerals in the outer corners.
While access to the Abyss can be somewhat limited in parts of the map, there’s alarge area at the northern edgethat’s perfect for fishing with Cages. No matter where you put your Subsurface Base, Descent has everything you need to build a thriving settlement.
10Shallow Reef
The first map that appears on the selection screen can be considered the “default” map, and it’s a middling challenge. On the one hand,most of the terrain is either Fertile or Ore-Rich, which means you’ll never lack for basic resources. On the other hand, Shallow Reef requires you tobuild in tight quarters, with lots of mountains and reefs obstructing otherwise-useful space.
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Abyss access is very limited on this map, while the oil fields are sparse and slender. To top it off, thelarge mountain in the southern part of the mapprevents players from making full use of the stage’s circular shape.
9Sunken Rift
This map has two large buildable areas, divided by an Abyss that canonly be crossed over a narrow isthmus. Eventually you can use cable cars to help connect the two halves of the map, but for much of the game you’ll want to stick to one.
The southern half of the map has less area overall thanks to the large mountains, but has better resource access. The Fertile terrain in the middle isone of the best spots for farmingin the entire game, so be sure to take advantage of it!
8Blue Caldera
This map’s standout feature is its namesake, an enormous volcano that effectively blocks off a quarter of the sea floor. This restricts your construction to thewestern half of the map, so you’ll need to be smart about how you use space.
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Blue Caldera can be especially tricky in terms of oil and minerals, since its deposits are long and narrow. While there is buildable land around the far edge of the volcano, the distances involved and general lack of space make it not worth pursuing.
7Deep Passage
Deep Passage can pose a challenge in the mid-to-late game thanks to therocky terrain in the middle. Use Navigation Signs to speed up traffic between the two halves of the map, especially if you plan to exploit the large ore deposits in the mountains.
As long as you can contend with the impassible terrain scattered across Deep Passage, it’s a fantastic map in terms of resources.Even Uranium is plentiful, which is a rare bonus.
6Neptune’s Throne
This map plays like a maze. The narrow Abysses running through the middle force you to build snaking districts. In the late game, you’ll need torely heavily on cable carsto get your citizens to and from their destinations.
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Other than the topographical challenges, Neptune’s Throne plays like most other maps. you’re able to even turn all those Abysses to your advantage byfishing them near your farms, giving your Collector Drones a one-stop shop for food.
5Dark Abyss
Don’t let the name scare you - Dark Abyss has wide areas of Fertile terrain and plentiful fishing. Its oil fields are large but concentrated in a few key spaces, which limits your starting options, but any area with oil is an equally-viable place to set up shop.
Dark Abyss features some narrow passages that are rich in ores - be careful not to block off your own expansion when you place mines and quarries!
4The Boundary
The Boundary has lots of great areas for farming and mining, but has only a few areas where you can drill for oil. This limits your options in terms of starting locations, and there are lots of rocks and mountains that can impede expansion.
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A good spot to start isbetween the central and southwestern mountains.This gives you ready access to a decently-sized oil field and room to grow. When the time comes to start your mariculture operations, there’s a good-sized area ofFertile terrain just to the north, and an Abyss to the west.
