Piece-by-piece construction
The biggest change from the original game is the move to a precision, piece-by-piece expansion model. Instead of being limited to fixed prefab rooms, you construct custom layouts dynamically — placing individual structural pieces and stretching surfaces to whatever shape the site (or your aesthetic) demands.
Free-form windows & aesthetics
Windows are no longer locked to circular portholes. You can place individual window panels or stretch glass across an entire wall to build custom observation decks. Bases also support customisable colour and lighting:
- Paint different sections of the base independently.
- Apply coloured lights.
- Adjust atmosphere and mood room by room.
This pushes bases from purely functional shelters toward expressive, personal builds — which dovetails with co-op, where a party shares one habitat.
The Dive Elevator
A new vertical-transport module, the Dive Elevator, moves players and storage crates quickly between depth levels. It directly addresses one of the original game's biggest base-building pain points: shuttling cargo and yourself up and down a deep multi-level habitat.
Power
Power generation has expanded with environment-driven options:
- Hydroelectric power — harness underwater ocean currents to generate energy for your base.
- Geothermal power — the highest-yield option, sited near the Thermal Vents for effectively unlimited base energy.
Crafting
Crafting and the fabricator loop are functional at Early Access launch alongside base building. The core flow is unchanged in spirit: gather raw materials (titanium, quartz, copper, and rarer ores from the deeper biomes), process them through fabricators, and turn them into tools, base components and vehicle parts. In co-op, blueprints unlocked by one player are shared with the whole party.