Piggy's list of tips and tricks for Subnautica: Below Zero

• Lubricant is much more useful in this game than the previous Subnautica. Always collect extra creepvine pods.
  
• Many items and buildings take raw resources (ex: solar panels). It may not be a good idea to turn all of your quartz into glass when you get the chance.
  
• Spiral plants are found within deep crevices in the purple vents area, and inside the giant vent gardens (yes, you can go inside of those, it took me way too long to figure that out).
  
• Gardening is extremely useful. Plants I recommend growing outside are ribbon plants for batteries, gel sacs for areogel (or for a quick snack!), spiral plants for synthetic fiber, cotton lilies for acid, and creepvine seed clusters. Inside, I recommend growing frost jalapenos for food, Preston's plant for food, and frost vase plants for water purification tablets.
  
• Lead is EXTREMELY important, and is used en mass by every single sea truck module. You can never have too much lead.
  
• Magnite can be a huge pain to find. Thankfully there is a huge vein of it behind the Phi robotics lab on the lower level (behind the destroyed snowfox charging platform underneath the right most collapsed large room).

• Getting an air bladder (made from 1 bladderfish and 1 silicone rubber) is one of the best investments anyone not used to the "no oxygen warnings" part of hardcore can make. That tool has saved my life countless times.
  
• When free diving in the twisty bridges and deep twisty bridges to find sea truck fragments, to find gold or silver, or when trying to locate table coral, make a mental not of each oxygen plant's location. It could save your life if you lose track of your O2.
  
• A common misconception is that enemies hit harder in hardcore mode, and to my observations say that this is false. Do not be afraid of taking risks. The trick is knowing which risks to take.
  
• Flares will ward off predators. It might not do much against a leviathan that is determined to rip out your intestine, but it will ward of many of the smaller animals like squid sharks and brute sharks. Flares can save your life.
  
• When exploring, always have a backup plan for if you run out of food or water. These plans can be anything like a seatruck fabricator module to cook fish you catch, knowing where to find creepvine samples or gel sacs to eat in an emergency, a thermal knife to cook fish on the go, or a water recycling suit.
  
• Med kits are your friend. Always have at least one.
  
• Using a booster tank in hardcore is very risky. I often find myself looking down at my O2 to see that I've been holding shift, and accidentally used all my O2 in a matter of seconds.

I tried to keep as many story spoilers out of this section as possible, and instead dropped hints and other references. If you want a detailed walk through on how to access certain locations and items, there are many fantastic guides on YouTube.

• Seatruck fragments are easy to find inside the twisty bridges and deep twisty bridges
  
• The parallel processing unit fragment is found in the upper portion of the wreck of the Mercury 2 (wreck located in the purple vents biome near the delta station island), and it requires a laser cutter to access.
  
• The entrance to Outpost Zero is accessed via underwater cave. I'm not saying specifically where because that would spoil all the fun ;)
  
• Many high quality upgrades and modification blueprints (things like ultra capacity O2 tanks, prawn suit grappling arm fragments, seatruck afterburner fragments, etc) can be found inside sea monkey nests in the lily pad islands caves.
  
• A strange creature frozen in ice is in fact NOT located over the bridge that you repair. It is in that general area however, and to complete the tasks associated with it, you will need a spy pengling, and a few med kits. A snowfox and thermos also help, but are not strictly needed.
  
• PRAWN suit fragments are located in the old abandoned mining facility underneath Delta Station
  
• Nuclear reactor fragments are located in OMEGA Lab, which is a great place to search for other fragments at. The lab itself is in the lily pad islands area, and is not resting on the seabed.

I tried my best to keep game changing spoilers out of this guide because I want players to stop and smell the roses (or... thermal lilys I guess) that you will see on your underwater adventures. This wasn't intended to be a way to min-max or speedrun or do anything crazy, but is just what the title states: one player's tips and tricks that they discovered.

Subnautica: Below Zero is a fantastic game, but it's unable to quite beat out the original Subnautica, and that's mostly due to all the fond memories I have in the original. Unknown Worlds heard the cry for a squeal, and they delivered, but you can't really beat perfection. Below Zero feels a lot... easier than Subnautica, and that's due to how everything has been simplified. Take enameled glass as an example. In the original, you had to read databank entries (or google it) to find out how to get stalker teeth. Below Zero has a lot fewer opportunities for innovation and discovery, and that kinda makes me sad. It's by no means a bad game, but it simply lacks some of what the original Subnautica provided.

Anyway, I'll stop my rambleing and continue to update this guide as I learn more. Consider this my love letter to the Subnautic series. If anyone actually reads this, by all means, feel free to share things that you learned during your time in the freezing waters of 4546B. So long, and thanks for all the fish! ;)