Warning: Entering ecological dead zone. Adding report to databank.
― PDA, Dialogue
Subnautica takes place inside The Crater of an enormous, dormant, aquatic volcano, approximately two kilometers in diameter. The Crater Edge, also known as the Void, is the area surrounding this crater. With no resources and extreme danger, the zone serves as a border for the game's map.
Adult Ghost Leviathans live in the Crater Edge, where they deter players from straying outside of the playable area. When entering the Crater Edge, a single Ghost Leviathan spawns in at first. If the player stays in the Crater Edge for 30 seconds, a second Ghost Leviathan will spawn. Staying in the area for another 30 seconds will spawn a third and final Ghost Leviathan. They will pursue the player until they return to the playable area, upon which all Ghost Leviathans retreat.
The Crater Edge is thought to be the old home of the ‘Gargantuan Leviathan’, of which a fossil can be found in the Lost River.
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Spoiler alert: The following section contains story related material. |
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The Crater Edge is said to only support two kinds of life, microscopic, and Leviathan class, meaning that prior to Kharaa's decimation of the ecosystem, this area may have been the natural habitat of the Sea Emperor Leviathan species. |
Description[]
The Crater Edge is a large open ocean devoid of any flora, coral, and all but one non-microscopic fauna species: the three adult Ghost Leviathans that spawn when the player enters the biome.
The edges of the playable area, the Crater, stretch downwards to a depth of 1120 meters. At that point, the world cuts off on most ends. Underneath the Inactive Lava Zone and Lava Lakes, the map stretches farther to 1920 meters.
Once the player has gone 8,192 meters in any direction, the player reaches the farthest reachable point of the Crater Edge. Beyond this point, the player, as well as any piloted vehicle, will be teleported back to a randomly chosen location that is 10 meters above sea level and up to 250 meters away from the center of the map.
At approximately 4000 horizontal meters away from the map center, the zone ends. The Adult Ghost Leviathans cease spawning and retreat due the void biome "ending" according to the game and there is only an empty ocean, acting as the real end of the game's limit.
Although these are the real edges of Subnautica, inside the lore of the game, the subaquatic volcano is thought to reach a depth of ~3000 to ~4000 meters, upon where the real ocean floor (also known as the abyssal plain) is supposed to begin. This theory is supported by terrain that could be found at a depth of 3000 meters at the bottom of the Crater Edge. This terrain was removed with the Big Little Update.
Data Bank Entry[]
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Geological scans of this area show a steep decline in all directions. This data is consistent with the theory that the Aurora crashed on the edge of a 2km x 2km volcanic crater. It has likely been millennia since an eruption reached the surface, encouraging the ecosystem within the crater to flourish. The ecology of the trench surrounding the crater supports only two kinds of life: microscopic, and leviathan class. Exploration is ill-advised. |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The PDA refers to the Crater Edge as an “ecological dead zone” though this is an incorrect description of the area, as it supports enough planktonic life to sustain many huge filter feeders. Oceanic dead zones in real life refer to areas of hypoxic water unable to sustain life, whilst the Crater Edge supports a very large amount of life, despite having little diversity.
- Before the Big Little Update, the Crater Edge used to have more realistic terrain at around 3000 meters depth, giving an appearance similar to real world abyssal plains. The bottom of the Crater was found here, which was a relatively flat area that covered a 4km x 4km square. At 3040 meters depth, the world completely cut off and all terrain would cease. It is unknown why this terrain was removed, but it was likely because of rendering purposes.[1][2]
- Sea Dragon Leviathans, Reaper Leviathans, and Crabsquids were planned to spawn in the Crater Edge at one point,[3] but this idea was scrapped.[4]
- The Crater Edge was originally called The Void and the Dead Zone.
- The Crater Edge is the deepest biome in the game.
- The Crater Edge is one of the two biomes that do not harbor flora, the other being the Lava Lakes.
- The Crater Edge's terrain goes beyond 8192 meters, however this cannot be viewed without bugs or mods.
- Before the void, there used to be huge peaks of unfinished terrain. This was part of an experiment the developers were performing when deciding upon what the edge of the world would be. This was removed in Update 8 on January 15, 2015.
Bugs[]
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This section contains bugs related to Crater Edge. Make sure to only post reproducible bugs, and use appropriate system template ( |
When swimming very far out from the playable area, the player's screen will appear to shake violently. This is likely caused by floating-point errors, meaning that the game is unable to accurately calculate the player's location.- Only on consoles, the game crashes upon reaching 3000 meters in depth. The reason is unknown. This doesn't happen very often anymore, though.
- If the player is above the water upon passing 8196 meters in any direction, they will be stopped to a standstill and will begin to fall down at incredibly slow speeds and ultimately teleported back to the playable area upon reaching the water.
- This also happens when the vertical 8196 meter barrier is crossed.
References[]
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivNIbotnHsU Dated August 9, 2018.
- ↑ https://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/subnautica-big-little-update-released/ Dated December 11, 2019.
- ↑ https://trello.com/c/b01KasIo/207-fix-the-void-or-make-it-dangerous-to-be-in-ghost-leviathan-sea-dragons-etc
- ↑ http://imgur.com/a/BSgYH Dated May 16, 2017.
