Up to 80% Off VPN
So you've made it to the Alien Ruins, and you're staring at this massive Power Plant structure going "okay... how do I get into that Observatory tower then?" Good news: you're in the right place. Bad news: you've got a LOT of grinding ahead of you. This is basically the big story finale for early access, so it's worth it.
Before anything else, make sure you've got the Tadpole Depth module sorted. You're not doing any of this without it.
Step 1: Clear the Angel Comb and grab Axum Vision
Head east from the Research Base (the one located at the Alien Ruins marker) and follow the big purple tube to the Angel Comb in the centre of the Alien Ruins. You need to destroy the viral blooms dotted around it, but here's the thing: you can't just swim up and whack them, or they'll close up. You need the Feedback Resonator upgrade for your Sonic Resonator to pop them from a distance.
The first part of the Comb is shown in the image above, with the second image giving you a rough landmark to place in. Basically, with the Angel Comb "marker" in front of you and the Alien Ruins marker about 130m to your north (right if looking at the cave), you know you've found the first two. Now we need to get in range with your Feedback Sonic Resonator out, and once the display turns green, charge the blast. Do that for both, then head back to the main Angel Comb.
As you head towards the main Angel Comb, you will see the purple path go to the right; follow that. Here you will see the next two; destroy them as before.
One last side job to go. Now head towards the main Angel Comb, but hug the left side and follow the last purple root. This will take you down a long corridor leading to the third location. Keep following it till the root bears right near the purple light source and into the mountain. Head to the top of that mountain and then enter the ship.
Pro Tip: There is a bunch of cool stuff in here worth looting and scanning so you can get some data and blueprint progress. This goes for the area outside the ship.
Once done, head under the ship to reveal the final two locations we need to destroy. Do the same as before, then head back to the main Angel Comb.
Once the comb is cleared, pick up the Axum Vision Adaptation, then head into the alien control room built into the crater wall overlooking the comb. There's a console by the window in the middle: interact with it, and that's Stage 1 done.
Step 2: Fix the Alien Turbine (Prepare Your Wallet)
Drive straight up from the Angel Comb onto the big circular structure above it. Go round to the east side, and you'll spot some colony crates, a blue light, and a busted turbine you can scan. Might want to have your Bioscanner upgrade handy here, just in case.
Scanning it reveals it was sabotaged (cheers, colonists), and the repair list is... yeah. It's a lot:
What you need to bring to the turbine:
- 10x Titanium Ingots
- 10x Mangalloy Ingots
- 10x Strontium
What you actually need to craft all that:
- 60x Titanium
- 20x Celestine
- 10x Atacamite
- 10x Troilite
The Troilite is going to be your biggest headache here. It's one of the rarest resources in the current build, and the world only has so many nodes to give you. Your best bet for farming it reliably is setting up a Metal Farm, and if you haven't done that yet, now is absolutely the time. Crucially, keep at least one Troilite in reserve to keep the farm itself running. It sounds obvious, but it's incredibly easy to accidentally feed your last piece into a processor and then stand there wondering why your farm has stopped working.
Once you've got everything, either clear 30 inventory slots or use the Tadpole Haul Chassis to lug it all back. Then pull out your Habitat Builder and construct the turbine just like you'd build any other facility.
After that, head into the control room directly opposite the turbine. Inside, you'll find a bunch of alien consoles with dials and sliders. Interact with each one until it turns green, then hit the central console to actually start the Power Plant back up. You can do this before repairing the turbine, but the second console in the control room won't fully power on until you have done the turbine repairs.
Getting into the Observatory
Right, the Power Plant's on, which means the Observatory tower near the Research Base has finally unlocked its door. Drive around to the west side of the tower (the side facing away from the Alien Ruins), and you'll find an entrance and a lever to pull.
Inside the room, you will get some story context, and you can scan the room itself (via the windows) and the planets to get more information. This section locks out the current end of the game, teasing what comes next.
What's next for Subnautica 2?
So that's the current early access story wrapped up. What's coming down the pipeline? According to the official roadmap, the next update (EA 1.1) is a Quality of Life patch, which is targeting improvements to Biomods, Blight Encounters, Wrecks gameplay, Vehicle Docking and Fabrication, and the PDR Databank. It's also adding some genuinely useful stuff like more passive Biomod slots, a Storage Cache system, and sprint. Yes, sprint. Finally.
After that, EA 1.2 is the big Co-op update, bringing Voice Chat, Player Trading, Player Revive, and improvements to the HUD and Base Builder tool. If you've been holding off on playing with friends, that's the one to wait for.
Further down the road, the Major Expansion Updates are where things get really exciting: new biomes, new creatures, new resources, a new vehicle, and most importantly, the next chapter of the story. Given what we've seen with the turbine room hinting at at least two more devices in this ocean, it looks like the expansion is going to pick up right where the current content leaves off.
In the meantime, Ongoing Improvements are running in the background continuously, covering bug fixes, balance tuning, and optimisation patches, so the game is only going to get smoother while we wait.
