I desperately need more videos on biology of video game worlds like this, monster hunter would be a really good candidate espically for this sorta role-playing style of presentation considering the whole theme of tracking down and learning about monsters
I understand how hard it was to research and gather footage for this series, but It was incredibly interesting and I learned a lot about a game that I had previously played to its fullest. I would love to see you make a video on Subnautica below zero as well! I greatly appreciate the time and effort you put into explaining the world of this fantastic game.
He has actually covered a universe by one of the creature designers of below zero before, so I think it's safe to say he will. You can even see similarities between many creatures and those from Alex Ries other works. Particularly the 4 jointed mouths on many of the animals like the chelicerate. After checking the wiki I can confirm that he did design the chelicerate too.
actually much of this stuff is documented in game and whatever isn't is on the forums. one thing NOT mentioned iirc is that all lifeforms on 2545-b all reproduce a-sexually. that is, they do not "mate". they are fully parthenogenetic and iirc in fact do not have any sexual gametes. this makes them more akin to many earth microbes, where there is not sperm or egg. just an embryo that grows. the lifeforms on this planet also evolve much slower than earth creatures due to the lack of cross breeding and stable environment
The footage gathering, writing and production work are probably behind a ton of practice and effort, but to be honest, all of the lore and writing is mostly just taken straight from the already organized in-game notes. Not to rag on the mockumentaries, though, as I gobbled these up despite having gone through the stuff before for a few times now.
One of the things I love about this game is it’s intensely entertaining and engrossing without being violent. Don’t get me wrong, I love violent video games, lol (so many hours of killing things in the Elder Scrolls) but it’s nice to get some variety, and a game that has you win, non-preachily, through empathy is super cool
well its clear we didnt play the game in the same way, the second i got a chance i killed my first reaper with a knife and stasis, learning they never came back to life was game changing. i killed everyone. but, i will say using the stasis gun at all is lame as shit. it ruins any threat.
@@FeedMeSalt you definitely can choose which way to play it - I didn’t kill anything I couldn’t eat, or that wasn’t actively attacking me, partly cause it added to the horror/sneak vibes and I wanted to see if I could. But more power to you lol! I kinda like that it has both options
indeed. the game is intended to be played as a "pacifist". though you can slay the beasts if you need to for self preservation (or a hunting trophy if you are a monster yourself...)
In my most recent survival save file, I’ve been building a dedicated base in the shallows that I’m calling the Garden Project. I’m planting every plant, catching every fish, and hatching every egg in the game. Every living creature you can grow or keep in an aquarium will be stored in this base. Each lifeform I can’t keep in the base (notably leviathans) will have dedicated room in the archives section of the base, in which I catalogue every species with picture frames and signs. I’m doing this because during the play through (probably my 3rd or 4th play through?) I gained a new appreciation for the beautiful ecosystem of 4546B. And hey, it definitely keeps me busy for a while.
I remember doing something like this in Starbound. There are these small creatures that you can find on different planets called "critters". Two of my favourites are "Chev" - little dear/doe looking being and "Quibble" the little raptor from icy planet. I collected different critters from many planet and build a sanctuary for them on my ship (I used a mod that allows you to build your own ship, I don't remember the name but it was awesome!). I also collected many big creatures in the capture capsules (about 5 to 6 creatures, sometimes more, so they can have an entire pack) and created many specialized biodomes for them! I had wonderful time with that game with and without mods, and I like the game and the modding community to this day... But what I don't like is how people got used as unpaid volunteers for the game (I was very upset then I found out about it)
Also on 4546b there is a strange anomaly that occurs where there appears to be some kind of techno music that plays when your submarine catches fire...a truly fascinating phenomenon
Fun fact the reason the kharaa got out into the wild was because a sea dragon destroyed a facility to take its egg back from the precursors. Another fun fact is that sea dragons may be able to create enzyme 42 which cures kharaa but you would need to kill a sea dragon to retrieve it so you couldn't gather enough to save the planet. Edit: You don't need to kill a sea dragon but only the baby's produce it so you have to get past the mother first.
Wait, doesn't the baby sea dragon product and vomit the enzyme, I remember seeing the baby sea dragons produce the enzyme in below zero too before they changed the story So you basically don't need the kill a sea dragon
@@boyblue3485 no the destroyed facility in the lost river was destroyed by a sea dragon the emperor leviathan never tried to forcefully take any of her eggs back
As a high school biology teacher, I absolutely adored this video. I can only imagine how many hours were spent researching. Thank you for all of your hard work!
So, the places he didn't cover were The Crag, The Underwater Islands, and The Blood Kelp Forest/Trench. Granted, the first one is just a barren rockpile with very little flora. Mostly just a zillion bone sharks. But the other 2 are pretty fascinating in terms of flora and geography. There's at least 1 ghost leviathan in the blood kelp forest, and 2 at the middle edges of the grand reef on either side of the floating island... actually, yeah, that was a missed opportunity too. The floating island, I mean. Could have been included in the grand reef section before diving down into the caverns. Fun place.
Yeah the Floating Islands are interesting and the Blood Kelp Trenches are a a spooky place to explore and build an outpost to chill in. He also missed that there are juvenile Ghost Leviathans in the Lost River.
Unfortunate you never talked about the fact that this region is one of the few left habitable on the planet, with most of the rest being ravaged by an alien virus
@@ChadtronicFan the rest of the planet is many oceanic biomes such as a tropical area similar to the crater and a large icy tundra, both seen when exiting the planet at the end of the game and the tundra also seen in Subnautica: Below Zero The crater seems to be where some extinction event occurred that only allowed a minority of the species on the planet to survive and also brought the Khaara, which spread throughout the planet and killed off a lot of species thats about all I know
@@rowbotia Now that you mention it, we've seen the crater and we've seen the tundra, and since I've heard that a third installment is basically confirmed, what if it's going to be set in the tropical areas?
I've finished this game multiple time and have personally scanned every single one of these creatures but its just so cool to see them being explained and elaborated in a documentary style video. Loved this.
@@CuriousArchive Have you tought about making a video about barotrauma?its a very nice game and even if you dont make a video on it i'd still recomend it.
That's why i love these kinds of games, so creative and endless options for discovery. The devs can just add creatures without notifications, and you truly "encounter them for the first time." Seeing how in almost every dive we take on earth new creatures get discovered just stumbling upon newly added lifeforms in-game isn't even weird.
I just realized why I loved this 2 part series so much: it has basically the same energy as the chanel Camelworks, who does elder scrolls lore stuff. It has the same storytelling too.
Subnautica is such a beautiful game, and while I don't think Below Zero quite lives up to the original, it still has some interesting creatures that I hope you'll cover one day.
@@jeffumbach Although, we never get to find out what creature is responsible for there being spooky music always present in that environment. Probably some kind of small scavenger like a rock grub or something that lives in large populations in the walls of the zone and produces that as a mating call by echoing it through the rock around you. Scary stuff
very good work, feels like a real documentary. As a big subnautica fan I'm only a little "you missed x species" For those wondering which ones weren't there to my watching: Eyeye and the magma variant the red eyeye Spinefish The extremely rare "rock grub" The Bleeder, Blighter, and Biter scavengers *shudder* And the variant peeper, the Occulus!
Although this series may be over, I would love if you could cover the plants of Subnautica as well(at least ones under the water) like the vine thingies that catch you with its vines and keep you in place, the one that shoota darts, or ones like the gelsacks which for some reason have nutritional value and give you air when consumed.
This video is so cool, I love the style and it was super interesting! My favorite bit of biology in sub nautical are the floaters and how big they grow, the ancient floaters are some of the coolest creatures I’ve seen and are awe inspiring and also just inspired from a design perspective. So interesting how large they grow, I am surprised they were never mentioned but there was a lot to cover so I’m not complaining!
I can see the Sea Emperor leviathan Being a real creature on earth and being more intelligent than us. Imagine a planet where creatures like the Sea Emperor Leviathan having a society, farming lifeforms under their vast oceans. Like humans on land, they do it underwater.
Yeah, but hopefully they’ll be intelligent enough to overcome the challenge of developing technology that lets them leave their planet. Especially with how limited they are in an ocean and the large sizes of their species.
The biters can actually be found in the red grass fields (having my own personal research base in the fields this things can be more annoying than a crash fish can ever dream of)
would have been nice to mention how mesmers hunt very similarly to the real world cuttlefish, otherwise really cool part two and really enjoy all the comparisons to real world creatures, very interesting love to see more
Yeeeeeeessss! Love from Finland! Also what about subnautica below zero. I also believe that the stalker and the snow stalker are close relatives and almost like a dolphin and its land relative.
3:26 The four fins the Mesmer uses.. They psychically grapple and cling to their hypnotized victim until they draw them to their mouth. Not including the psychic part, this seems strikingly similar in behavior to the four grappling mandibles the reaper leviathan utilizes. Interesting...
In this game there are only 3 creatures I was scared of: Reaper Leviathans, Warpers, and Crab Squids. I'm terrified of open water, and reaper leviathans alone made me stop playing blind and pull up a map so I could avoid their territory. Seeing a warper meant I pulled a 180 and went back the way I came. And I'd take long paths to avoid crabsquids, only passing near them if I were going at high speed or if an objective was in their area.
You really gotta appreciate how he didn't just go into information about the fish, but includes bits about some of the interesting plantlife! The tube coral and giant mushrooms are very cool to me, and learning about them here was very fun.
This entire channel is so amazing and I'm always waiting for more speculative biology videos, and like others, I think you should cover the sequel, Below Zero, as it boasts many great lifeforms
The thoughtful narrative structure and parallels to real world organisms make experiencing these creatures once again feel like an entirely new and exciting experience. Wonderful content, keep it up!
1:18 In case anyone’s curious, this is a Warty Comb Jelly. It’s one of the coolest species of jelly out there. I personally call it the Rave Jelly, because it’s cilia (little frilled appendages that make up the “lines” along its sides) reflect light in bright, multi-colored flashes, like strobe lights at a rave party! They produce photoproteins - a combination of luciferin and luciferase - that is triggered by the addition of calcium, which is how they emit flashes of light. :D
I understand that making these videos require an immense amount of effort, but I feel this series would have benifitted greatly from being a 3 part series instead of 2. I felt this lacked the elaboration of the first video and some of the biomes were even skipped. The video was great but I felt it was a little too much for 20 mins and would have been better more spaced out and with greater detail. Keep up the great work.
Something that I ponder about the biology of this planet is that a good bit of the animals clearly have nostrils with no sign of gills and some have hands and fins/ flippers with claws or are clearly evolved hands. So it makes me wonder if this planet was flooded and some of the terrestrial life took to the seas and adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. Like look at the Stalkers, lava lizards, sea dragons and the bone sharks.
The lack of gills does make me wonder how they can breath, a lot of creatures make no sense like the Peppers and Eye-Eye who have almost no room for other organs in their bodies. However this is also the same game that has large underwater deposits of salt (which would still dissolve over time) and lithium (which combusts in water.)
I love the subnautica story, especially since you can telepathically hear the Sea Emperor occasionally from anywhere on the planet, guiding you through the game! Perhaps a Subnautica-Below-Zero video series in the future to continue the story?
3:48 A similar creature to this that can be found on Earth is the Cuttlefish! It can create hypnotic patterns on it's skin that can temporarily stun it's prey, after which the Cuttlefish grabs and eat it.
I still think the implications of the larger fossils down deep imply thay these where around before that layer to the volcanos mouth had finished forming. Maybe even being taken out and fossilized as it erupted. The reason i love it is bc of the Void and how the game implies Ghosts and Reapers are where they are bc theyre smaller prey in their own shelf. For all we know in the void that type of creature could be around!
This is so amazing and interesting. Produced like a normal documentary it takes the work of Subnautica developers to another level. You should keep making this kind of content. It's a really coo way to show it. Maybe one about the species of other games like Horizon Zero Down and other games with their own ecosystems.
Your videos filled a niche that I didn't know I had an itch for. These documentary style of biological study of fictional creatures are amazing. I'm looking forward to more of your videos and I hope YT recommends you to more people as it did to me. You deserved al the subs you can get
@@DytoxPrime You are wrong - they have reached adulthood and they are adults. Of the six Ghosts on the map three are adults (the two in the Grand Reef and the one in the Blood Kelp) and three are juveniles (the three in the Lost River). If you don't believe me just scan one of them and you'll see that this unlocks the Adult Ghost Leviathan entry, not the Juvenile Ghost Leviathan Entry (that's the one you get from the three ghosts in the Lost River). Scanning a Ghost in the Void is no longer possible if you scan one of the three above ground Ghosts on the map. And if you still don't believe me or the ingame scan - here's an entry from the Wiki quote: "Three Ghost Leviathan adults spawn on the map (not counting the infinite number found in the Crater Edge): two in the Grand Reef, and one in the Northern Blood Kelp Zone. " end quote.
You've made me realise just how much I haven't explored in Subnautica... I shall try once again to push past my primal fear and... venture into the depths again. And maybe convince others I know to do the same - venture in again.
You missed some, in the south end of the River there's corals growing atop of the thermal vents, creating a more cone-shaped which they use to filter the smoke as well as keep warm. There are also incredible life forms called Brine Lilies, floating on the surface of brine pools like lily pads on water.
I would have liked to see some notes on other bits - the way the Sea Emperor communicates with everything around it to make the entire habitat passive to you, the other notable skeletons of the Lost River, the juvenile ghost leviathans, and even the Blood Kelp zone with its haunting appearance, showing translucence and bioluminescence in flora.
One overlooked ability of the Sea Dragon is its ability to hyperspace. At least the one in my game, it appeared, shot across the cavern like it had come out a railgun, and I never saw it again...
It's worth remembering that the Sea Emperor is responsible for maintaining all these wonderful life forms within the explorable area of the game, while the outside area is said to be barren.
Yo! I’ve been waiting for this🤣 I randomly saw this pop up on my recommended and now I’m super hook on this dude’s way of delivering me a cool biology episode (Planet-Earth Style) on Subnautica🤣✊🏻👏🏻
11:00 The gargantuan leviathan skull and rib cage, after scanning it, reveals it is many millions of years old. The cave is actually too small for it to have wandered in, which means that the cave formed around the body. The gargantuan leviathan body is also believed to be only a third of its true length, with the other two thirds of its body hidden away. Due to this, it is believed that the gargantuan leviathan grew up to 5 kilometers, or 3 miles long. 3 full miles. For reference, the playable area of the game is only 2.5x2.5 kilometers. Such creatures could only ever truly populate the void, and this gargantuan leviathan likely died while on this rare piece of shallow water to lay eggs. We can find a much smaller gargantuan leviathan skull, which further proves this. Gargantuan leviathans likely roamed the void and hunted on other leviathans, possibly even being cannibals to feed their absurdly large bodies. They also seem to be the ancestor of the two branches of leviathan species: limbed and serpent leviathans. Limbed leviathans include the sea emperor and sea dragon, who are obviously close cousins. Serpents include the ghost and reaper leviathans, who share many similar traits but don’t appear to be that related. Gargantuan leviathans may also still be alive in the void, feasting upon many species of large animals that may also reside there, as there is no proof they have gone extinct. Or perhaps they evolved themselves into extinction, becoming other creatures in the void as well as the other leviathans. But such is the niche environment of the playable area, one of the few places where life is actually abundant on planet 4546B. Many speculate that gargantuan leviathans are still alive in the void (in the lore, as they aren’t actually present in the playable game or in the files) because in an early version of the game, if you traveled out far from the main game’s area, you’d start to hear very strange sounds that belonged to no other creature, reminiscent of a large ships fog horn, and the call was loud and terrifying. This sound has become synonymous with the gargantuan leviathan in the game’s community, even after it was removed, to the point where the gargantuan leviathan mod (which adds the titanic fauna to the void and other areas) has the sound used as one of the creatures calls. While none of it is confirmed, it has also never been denied nor even really discussed by the game devs, suggesting that they want to leave it up to the players’ imaginations, which is an incredible decision, and the perfect way to deal with what was supposed to be an ambient sound that no longer exists in the game files. Life in Subnautica is very strange and diverse, but the same applies to our world, and we can only imagine how strange it gets on Earth, let alone a world where evolution has taken very drastically different directions than Earth animals. The gargantuan leviathan and sea emperor leviathan are the embodiments of this idea, as they have extremely unique and interesting properties, such as titanic size and telepathy, that you could never find on Earth. The whole thing about Subnautica is that almost all of 4546B is “void ocean”, meaning the planet’s surface is almost entirely water so deep it reaches depths 3 km (1.864 miles), or about 7.5% through the planet’s crust if it were Earth. 4546B actually has an extremely small diameter, only 92.16 kilometers (57.27 miles), which is 138.26% smaller than Earth. Which means the crust of 4546B is only .66 kilometers, or about .41 miles. This means that 1.454 miles of the void actually pierces into the planets mantle, which would make it into an incredibly hostile environment. The void floor can be found, but is completely barren. But the bottom of the void in canon would likely be covered in hydrothermal vents and very alien looking plants and animals (even for 4546B’s standards). The only reason it is even solid is because of the ocean’z intense pressure, creating a pseudo crust that is simply a thin layer above the semisolid mantle. Volcanic activity created the area where the player crash lands and interacts with, from the safe shallows all the way to the active lava zone. The flora and fauna is extremely unique to this rare oasis, as the void ocean is home to predators so large and devastating that it would be almost impossible for flora and fauna to cross, and they’d almost certainly starve if they dodged predators. The ones that make it to other land masses, or the poles, were likely moved by the precursors, the advanced spacefaring alien species that have seemingly gone extinct. Or they were incredibly lucky, catching a ride with a large reefback to ensure it can sustain itself while being protected (as reefbacks’ hard shells have made them nearly impossible to kill for even the largest predators in the playable Subnautica map).
9:14 fun fact: Crabsquids evolved this as a defensive mechanism against the Ampeel
I mean makes sense if something uses something the prey of said something will try to counter that something
@@piglin469 in the end its *something*
Yeah the crabsquids EMPS looks like it's definitely for the ampeel since they have enough of them
this makes me think, would a real eletromagnetic pulse works on an real eletric fish?
@@italucenaz well we could set that up with some dollar store materials, CRISPR, and an electric eel
I desperately need more videos on biology of video game worlds like this, monster hunter would be a really good candidate espically for this sorta role-playing style of presentation considering the whole theme of tracking down and learning about monsters
yeees monster hunter world is a must
Monster hunter must happen
Fallout biology
@Zekeriya Şentürk huh? Who let you on the internet I think you're a little young to be on youtube
@@YourLocalEldritchHorror 100% that'd be really cool too
I understand how hard it was to research and gather footage for this series, but It was incredibly interesting and I learned a lot about a game that I had previously played to its fullest. I would love to see you make a video on Subnautica below zero as well! I greatly appreciate the time and effort you put into explaining the world of this fantastic game.
He has actually covered a universe by one of the creature designers of below zero before, so I think it's safe to say he will.
You can even see similarities between many creatures and those from Alex Ries other works. Particularly the 4 jointed mouths on many of the animals like the chelicerate. After checking the wiki I can confirm that he did design the chelicerate too.
actually much of this stuff is documented in game and whatever isn't is on the forums. one thing NOT mentioned iirc is that all lifeforms on 2545-b all reproduce a-sexually. that is, they do not "mate". they are fully parthenogenetic and iirc in fact do not have any sexual gametes. this makes them more akin to many earth microbes, where there is not sperm or egg. just an embryo that grows. the lifeforms on this planet also evolve much slower than earth creatures due to the lack of cross breeding and stable environment
The footage gathering, writing and production work are probably behind a ton of practice and effort, but to be honest, all of the lore and writing is mostly just taken straight from the already organized in-game notes. Not to rag on the mockumentaries, though, as I gobbled these up despite having gone through the stuff before for a few times now.
One of the things I love about this game is it’s intensely entertaining and engrossing without being violent. Don’t get me wrong, I love violent video games, lol (so many hours of killing things in the Elder Scrolls) but it’s nice to get some variety, and a game that has you win, non-preachily, through empathy is super cool
well its clear we didnt play the game in the same way, the second i got a chance i killed my first reaper with a knife and stasis, learning they never came back to life was game changing. i killed everyone. but, i will say using the stasis gun at all is lame as shit. it ruins any threat.
@@FeedMeSalt you definitely can choose which way to play it - I didn’t kill anything I couldn’t eat, or that wasn’t actively attacking me, partly cause it added to the horror/sneak vibes and I wanted to see if I could. But more power to you lol! I kinda like that it has both options
indeed. the game is intended to be played as a "pacifist". though you can slay the beasts if you need to for self preservation (or a hunting trophy if you are a monster yourself...)
@@AlienXtream1 Me who hunted down every single hostile leviathan in the game- nervous sweating intensifies
@@feedthemeat543f Ah but did you kill the baby sea emperors?
In my most recent survival save file, I’ve been building a dedicated base in the shallows that I’m calling the Garden Project.
I’m planting every plant, catching every fish, and hatching every egg in the game. Every living creature you can grow or keep in an aquarium will be stored in this base.
Each lifeform I can’t keep in the base (notably leviathans) will have dedicated room in the archives section of the base, in which I catalogue every species with picture frames and signs.
I’m doing this because during the play through (probably my 3rd or 4th play through?) I gained a new appreciation for the beautiful ecosystem of 4546B. And hey, it definitely keeps me busy for a while.
Hows the project going?
It seems really interesting, and also challenging.
I remember doing something like this in Starbound.
There are these small creatures that you can find on different planets called "critters". Two of my favourites are "Chev" - little dear/doe looking being and "Quibble" the little raptor from icy planet.
I collected different critters from many planet and build a sanctuary for them on my ship (I used a mod that allows you to build your own ship, I don't remember the name but it was awesome!). I also collected many big creatures in the capture capsules (about 5 to 6 creatures, sometimes more, so they can have an entire pack) and created many specialized biodomes for them!
I had wonderful time with that game with and without mods, and I like the game and the modding community to this day...
But what I don't like is how people got used as unpaid volunteers for the game (I was very upset then I found out about it)
I think that if he hadn't died of the Karaa infection, Bart Toragl would have probably done the same due to his appreciation for the planet's biology.
Also on 4546b there is a strange anomaly that occurs where there appears to be some kind of techno music that plays when your submarine catches fire...a truly fascinating phenomenon
I like to think that it’s the ship itself playing it to motivate you to get out, rather than just being a soundtrack
Fun fact the reason the kharaa got out into the wild was because a sea dragon destroyed a facility to take its egg back from the precursors. Another fun fact is that sea dragons may be able to create enzyme 42 which cures kharaa but you would need to kill a sea dragon to retrieve it so you couldn't gather enough to save the planet.
Edit: You don't need to kill a sea dragon but only the baby's produce it so you have to get past the mother first.
Wait, doesn't the baby sea dragon product and vomit the enzyme,
I remember seeing the baby sea dragons produce the enzyme in below zero too before they changed the story
So you basically don't need the kill a sea dragon
@@timezone5259 I didn't know that thank you I miss remembered it I heard about it but I never actually played below zero
Sea dragon... Sea emperor?
do you mean the sea emperor?
@@boyblue3485 no the destroyed facility in the lost river was destroyed by a sea dragon the emperor leviathan never tried to forcefully take any of her eggs back
The sea treader leviathan gives me war of the worlds vibes. I wouldnt be surprised if they were inspired by that
There’s a lot of half life influence in subnautica I believe so I think they’re inspired by the striders.
@@vadernation1233 Guess what the Striders where based on. ;)
@@currykingwurst6393 to me it looks like a 3 legged AT-AT From starwars
the lineage goes
sea treader -> hl2 strider -> war of the worlds tripod
As a high school biology teacher, I absolutely adored this video. I can only imagine how many hours were spent researching. Thank you for all of your hard work!
So, the places he didn't cover were The Crag, The Underwater Islands, and The Blood Kelp Forest/Trench. Granted, the first one is just a barren rockpile with very little flora. Mostly just a zillion bone sharks. But the other 2 are pretty fascinating in terms of flora and geography. There's at least 1 ghost leviathan in the blood kelp forest, and 2 at the middle edges of the grand reef on either side of the floating island... actually, yeah, that was a missed opportunity too. The floating island, I mean. Could have been included in the grand reef section before diving down into the caverns. Fun place.
what about the sea treaders path?
@@jamesegg7372 he showed the Sea Treaders on their path.
Yeah the Floating Islands are interesting and the Blood Kelp Trenches are a a spooky place to explore and build an outpost to chill in. He also missed that there are juvenile Ghost Leviathans in the Lost River.
@@jeffumbach oh sorry
He also missed out the mountains but that biome isn't too important
Best game.
You should also do the sequel.
Subnautica below zero.
Below zero is such an amazing continuation of this game I would love if they made a third one
@@commandergree6510 sub nautica lava
@@paccie9689 with fairly more sea dragons! Even do they are almost extinct
agreed, favorite series hes done i really hope he does one on below zero
@@commandergree6510 nah only the ending
Unfortunate you never talked about the fact that this region is one of the few left habitable on the planet, with most of the rest being ravaged by an alien virus
*bacterium
I thought that the rest of the planet was just open ocean, not ravaged by the Khaara.
@@ChadtronicFan the rest of the planet is many oceanic biomes such as a tropical area similar to the crater and a large icy tundra, both seen when exiting the planet at the end of the game and the tundra also seen in Subnautica: Below Zero
The crater seems to be where some extinction event occurred that only allowed a minority of the species on the planet to survive and also brought the Khaara, which spread throughout the planet and killed off a lot of species
thats about all I know
@@rowbotia Now that you mention it, we've seen the crater and we've seen the tundra, and since I've heard that a third installment is basically confirmed, what if it's going to be set in the tropical areas?
@@nonsensicalhumanoid now that'd be cool, think of all the new leviathans to kill us as well as a probable return of the reaper or a similar entity
There’s a mod in the works that brings the giant fossil back to its former glory and it’s honestly terrifying on how massive it is
Yeah its fucking scary
Love your videos, but it still doesn’t answer my question of which alien fish is best cooked and served with lemon sauce?
I dont think any of them are edible
Gary fish
Wut
@@CrocodylusCarcharias i thought they were inedible
Is it inedible or unedible
My Heart broke when I went back to see Sea Empress laying there, after I sabe her children.
Amazing vídeo! Keep the good job!
I've finished this game multiple time and have personally scanned every single one of these creatures but its just so cool to see them being explained and elaborated in a documentary style video. Loved this.
Yay! Favorite game by one of my favorite creators. This game got me into speculative biology
It's a great one!
@@CuriousArchive I don't know how. But your documentary of subnautica. Is amazing.
@@CuriousArchive Have you tought about making a video about barotrauma?its a very nice game and even if you dont make a video on it i'd still recomend it.
@@CuriousArchive Good Job And Lets Go to Subnautica Below Zero
You should do one on Subnautica Below Zero, the sequel to Subnautica, that game has some very interesting new alien life forms to study.
Yeah, like the titan hoopfish and sea monkey.
Fuck the sea monkey, it stole a knife.
That's why i love these kinds of games, so creative and endless options for discovery. The devs can just add creatures without notifications, and you truly "encounter them for the first time." Seeing how in almost every dive we take on earth new creatures get discovered just stumbling upon newly added lifeforms in-game isn't even weird.
@@aesiro1336 later in the game they start giving you stuff
@@ohiologist9256 Ye
bz stinks
It's always very interesting what you talk about love what you do. Wish you just the best
Thank you!
@@CuriousArchive I genuinely wish for you to Hit 1 mil before the end of 2022. Love you and your content
I just realized why I loved this 2 part series so much: it has basically the same energy as the chanel Camelworks, who does elder scrolls lore stuff. It has the same storytelling too.
Subnautica is such a beautiful game, and while I don't think Below Zero quite lives up to the original, it still has some interesting creatures that I hope you'll cover one day.
Awesome video, I'm a little bummed you didn't cover the blood kelp zone. Scariest biome by far
"This ecological biome matches 7 of the 9 preconditions for stimulating terror in humans." Including spooky music that only plays there as well.
@@jeffumbach Although, we never get to find out what creature is responsible for there being spooky music always present in that environment. Probably some kind of small scavenger like a rock grub or something that lives in large populations in the walls of the zone and produces that as a mating call by echoing it through the rock around you. Scary stuff
very good work, feels like a real documentary. As a big subnautica fan I'm only a little "you missed x species"
For those wondering which ones weren't there to my watching:
Eyeye and the magma variant the red eyeye
Spinefish
The extremely rare "rock grub"
The Bleeder, Blighter, and Biter scavengers *shudder*
And the variant peeper, the Occulus!
Although this series may be over, I would love if you could cover the plants of Subnautica as well(at least ones under the water) like the vine thingies that catch you with its vines and keep you in place, the one that shoota darts, or ones like the gelsacks which for some reason have nutritional value and give you air when consumed.
Vine that catches you?
@@khalilrahme5227 Below Zero I think
@@time4231 oh yeah could be
Now we get into the intresting stuff
This video is so cool, I love the style and it was super interesting! My favorite bit of biology in sub nautical are the floaters and how big they grow, the ancient floaters are some of the coolest creatures I’ve seen and are awe inspiring and also just inspired from a design perspective. So interesting how large they grow, I am surprised they were never mentioned but there was a lot to cover so I’m not complaining!
I can see the Sea Emperor leviathan Being a real creature on earth and being more intelligent than us.
Imagine a planet where creatures like the Sea Emperor Leviathan having a society, farming lifeforms under their vast oceans.
Like humans on land, they do it underwater.
Yeah, but hopefully they’ll be intelligent enough to overcome the challenge of developing technology that lets them leave their planet. Especially with how limited they are in an ocean and the large sizes of their species.
I love the roleplaying that you make. You aren't simply analyzing the game's biosystem as a gamer but as an intergalactic explorer.
14:22 I personally would have called it the “Aang Squid” due to its playful nature and arrow shaped marking
This two-part series was beautifully written. I wasn't sure what to expect when this popped up on my homepage, but I'm glad I watched it!
The biters can actually be found in the red grass fields (having my own personal research
base in the fields this things can be more annoying than a crash fish can ever dream of)
bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk bonk
This is such a beautiful set of videos. Subnautica is amazing and you really did it justice.
would have been nice to mention how mesmers hunt very similarly to the real world cuttlefish, otherwise really cool part two and really enjoy all the comparisons to real world creatures, very interesting love to see more
Yeeeeeeessss!
Love from Finland!
Also what about subnautica below zero.
I also believe that the stalker and the snow stalker are close relatives and almost like a dolphin and its land relative.
I second this!
Third ☝️
Fourth
3:26 The four fins the Mesmer uses.. They psychically grapple and cling to their hypnotized victim until they draw them to their mouth. Not including the psychic part, this seems strikingly similar in behavior to the four grappling mandibles the reaper leviathan utilizes. Interesting...
In this game there are only 3 creatures I was scared of: Reaper Leviathans, Warpers, and Crab Squids. I'm terrified of open water, and reaper leviathans alone made me stop playing blind and pull up a map so I could avoid their territory. Seeing a warper meant I pulled a 180 and went back the way I came. And I'd take long paths to avoid crabsquids, only passing near them if I were going at high speed or if an objective was in their area.
Nothing is as scary as a small peeper or something thudding into your sub when you least expect it though
You really gotta appreciate how he didn't just go into information about the fish, but includes bits about some of the interesting plantlife! The tube coral and giant mushrooms are very cool to me, and learning about them here was very fun.
We need a Subnautica: Below Zero expedition by the amazing CA!
Im a follower from the 600 subs, and now you are over a 150,000! Congrats
Thanks for sticking with me!
This entire channel is so amazing and I'm always waiting for more speculative biology videos, and like others, I think you should cover the sequel, Below Zero, as it boasts many great lifeforms
Mind-bending and stunning--and that ending . . .!!!
You are the reason why i love biology =D
Really loving these deep dives into videogame zoology.
I can't wait to see more!
It would be cool if he did a video specifically on the Architects/precursors whatever you wanna call em'
I think this is one of my favorite videos I’ve ever seen on TH-cam
Love your channel man! Been here since 500
11:12
...That is, until "Return of the Ancients" has arrived!
I like that you played the game instead of just opening a wiki.
The thoughtful narrative structure and parallels to real world organisms make experiencing these creatures once again feel like an entirely new and exciting experience. Wonderful content, keep it up!
been checking for this everyday since part 1
subbing just for those 2 vids
This was great. Can't wait for the video(s) on Subnautica: Below Zero.
Biology of metroid, halo, monster hunter, i need it all now! great work! haha
1:18 In case anyone’s curious, this is a Warty Comb Jelly.
It’s one of the coolest species of jelly out there. I personally call it the Rave Jelly, because it’s cilia (little frilled appendages that make up the “lines” along its sides) reflect light in bright, multi-colored flashes, like strobe lights at a rave party! They produce photoproteins - a combination of luciferin and luciferase - that is triggered by the addition of calcium, which is how they emit flashes of light. :D
Best series
There’s much more in this game than there was when I watched a couple let’s plays about it. Makes the world seem even more real.
Subnautica’s got to have one of the most diverse and well thought out ecosystems of any game ever
This game is extremely beautiful even though I have already played it it’s still awesome to know more about the wonderful creatures on 4546-B
I understand that making these videos require an immense amount of effort, but I feel this series would have benifitted greatly from being a 3 part series instead of 2. I felt this lacked the elaboration of the first video and some of the biomes were even skipped. The video was great but I felt it was a little too much for 20 mins and would have been better more spaced out and with greater detail. Keep up the great work.
This series is making me want to play the game all over again.
Something that I ponder about the biology of this planet is that a good bit of the animals clearly have nostrils with no sign of gills and some have hands and fins/ flippers with claws or are clearly evolved hands. So it makes me wonder if this planet was flooded and some of the terrestrial life took to the seas and adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. Like look at the Stalkers, lava lizards, sea dragons and the bone sharks.
The lack of gills does make me wonder how they can breath, a lot of creatures make no sense like the Peppers and Eye-Eye who have almost no room for other organs in their bodies. However this is also the same game that has large underwater deposits of salt (which would still dissolve over time) and lithium (which combusts in water.)
Glad to be back!
im hobnestly so glad someone made a biology of subnautica in ayoutube video. this is surely a unique game that's never to forget.
Can't wait for the below zero episode
Loving this channel man. Keep it up 👍🏼
I love the subnautica story, especially since you can telepathically hear the Sea Emperor occasionally from anywhere on the planet, guiding you through the game! Perhaps a Subnautica-Below-Zero video series in the future to continue the story?
Dang! I am so picking this game up, asap! Great vid!
3:48 A similar creature to this that can be found on Earth is the Cuttlefish! It can create hypnotic patterns on it's skin that can temporarily stun it's prey, after which the Cuttlefish grabs and eat it.
I still think the implications of the larger fossils down deep imply thay these where around before that layer to the volcanos mouth had finished forming. Maybe even being taken out and fossilized as it erupted. The reason i love it is bc of the Void and how the game implies Ghosts and Reapers are where they are bc theyre smaller prey in their own shelf. For all we know in the void that type of creature could be around!
19:25 I'm sorry, I cannot get enough of how those two baby sea emperors ran into each other
Yes, I loved the first subnatica video and was hope for another one soon and this is perfect.
I loved this so much. I never played subnatica myself but I was fascinated by its creatures. I'm hopping you might do the sub zero expansion too!
I’ve never played this game, but that fossil appearing out of the depths gave me chills. Damn, maybe I should take up gaming.
This is so amazing and interesting. Produced like a normal documentary it takes the work of Subnautica developers to another level. You should keep making this kind of content. It's a really coo way to show it. Maybe one about the species of other games like Horizon Zero Down and other games with their own ecosystems.
Your videos filled a niche that I didn't know I had an itch for. These documentary style of biological study of fictional creatures are amazing. I'm looking forward to more of your videos and I hope YT recommends you to more people as it did to me. You deserved al the subs you can get
awesome video, to bad this is the last 1 because i was hoping you would do the arctic biome of Subnautica
YOOOOO IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOREVER YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
What an amazingly beautyfull visualisations of an extraterrestrial Earthlike planet. A ocean world.
This was amazing!!! Would love more content like this!!!
12:10 It's actually not necessary to travel to the Void to ecnounter adult Ghost Leviathans - there's a few of them above ground on the map.
No, the ones above ground haven't yet reached adulthood. That's why he specified "adult"
@@DytoxPrime You are wrong - they have reached adulthood and they are adults. Of the six Ghosts on the map three are adults (the two in the Grand Reef and the one in the Blood Kelp) and three are juveniles (the three in the Lost River).
If you don't believe me just scan one of them and you'll see that this unlocks the Adult Ghost Leviathan entry, not the Juvenile Ghost Leviathan Entry (that's the one you get from the three ghosts in the Lost River). Scanning a Ghost in the Void is no longer possible if you scan one of the three above ground Ghosts on the map.
And if you still don't believe me or the ingame scan - here's an entry from the Wiki quote: "Three Ghost Leviathan adults spawn on the map (not counting the infinite number found in the Crater Edge): two in the Grand Reef, and one in the Northern Blood Kelp Zone. " end quote.
I've always found Subnautica fascinating and this was a very cool to watch
You've made me realise just how much I haven't explored in Subnautica... I shall try once again to push past my primal fear and... venture into the depths again. And maybe convince others I know to do the same - venture in again.
I've been waiting this for so long!!
You missed some, in the south end of the River there's corals growing atop of the thermal vents, creating a more cone-shaped which they use to filter the smoke as well as keep warm. There are also incredible life forms called Brine Lilies, floating on the surface of brine pools like lily pads on water.
I would have liked to see some notes on other bits - the way the Sea Emperor communicates with everything around it to make the entire habitat passive to you, the other notable skeletons of the Lost River, the juvenile ghost leviathans, and even the Blood Kelp zone with its haunting appearance, showing translucence and bioluminescence in flora.
I got the flu and this right here is getting me through it, love it!!!
This little series on subnautica is amazing. Love it my dude!
Now i need one about below zero, this was do good
Take a shot every time he says Abyss XD
I kid, this series of videos is legitimately one of my favorites I've seen on Subnautica
I love your voice it’s so calming! And reminds be of a real nature documentary!
That was a beautiful ending that I didn't see coming... I think k I need to experience this game myself
Been waiting for this.
One overlooked ability of the Sea Dragon is its ability to hyperspace. At least the one in my game, it appeared, shot across the cavern like it had come out a railgun, and I never saw it again...
It's worth remembering that the Sea Emperor is responsible for maintaining all these wonderful life forms within the explorable area of the game, while the outside area is said to be barren.
Yo! I’ve been waiting for this🤣 I randomly saw this pop up on my recommended and now I’m super hook on this dude’s way of delivering me a cool biology episode (Planet-Earth Style) on Subnautica🤣✊🏻👏🏻
what an interesting presentation for a video, i like it
11:00 The gargantuan leviathan skull and rib cage, after scanning it, reveals it is many millions of years old. The cave is actually too small for it to have wandered in, which means that the cave formed around the body.
The gargantuan leviathan body is also believed to be only a third of its true length, with the other two thirds of its body hidden away. Due to this, it is believed that the gargantuan leviathan grew up to 5 kilometers, or 3 miles long. 3 full miles. For reference, the playable area of the game is only 2.5x2.5 kilometers. Such creatures could only ever truly populate the void, and this gargantuan leviathan likely died while on this rare piece of shallow water to lay eggs. We can find a much smaller gargantuan leviathan skull, which further proves this. Gargantuan leviathans likely roamed the void and hunted on other leviathans, possibly even being cannibals to feed their absurdly large bodies. They also seem to be the ancestor of the two branches of leviathan species: limbed and serpent leviathans. Limbed leviathans include the sea emperor and sea dragon, who are obviously close cousins. Serpents include the ghost and reaper leviathans, who share many similar traits but don’t appear to be that related. Gargantuan leviathans may also still be alive in the void, feasting upon many species of large animals that may also reside there, as there is no proof they have gone extinct. Or perhaps they evolved themselves into extinction, becoming other creatures in the void as well as the other leviathans. But such is the niche environment of the playable area, one of the few places where life is actually abundant on planet 4546B. Many speculate that gargantuan leviathans are still alive in the void (in the lore, as they aren’t actually present in the playable game or in the files) because in an early version of the game, if you traveled out far from the main game’s area, you’d start to hear very strange sounds that belonged to no other creature, reminiscent of a large ships fog horn, and the call was loud and terrifying. This sound has become synonymous with the gargantuan leviathan in the game’s community, even after it was removed, to the point where the gargantuan leviathan mod (which adds the titanic fauna to the void and other areas) has the sound used as one of the creatures calls. While none of it is confirmed, it has also never been denied nor even really discussed by the game devs, suggesting that they want to leave it up to the players’ imaginations, which is an incredible decision, and the perfect way to deal with what was supposed to be an ambient sound that no longer exists in the game files. Life in Subnautica is very strange and diverse, but the same applies to our world, and we can only imagine how strange it gets on Earth, let alone a world where evolution has taken very drastically different directions than Earth animals. The gargantuan leviathan and sea emperor leviathan are the embodiments of this idea, as they have extremely unique and interesting properties, such as titanic size and telepathy, that you could never find on Earth.
The whole thing about Subnautica is that almost all of 4546B is “void ocean”, meaning the planet’s surface is almost entirely water so deep it reaches depths 3 km (1.864 miles), or about 7.5% through the planet’s crust if it were Earth. 4546B actually has an extremely small diameter, only 92.16 kilometers (57.27 miles), which is 138.26% smaller than Earth. Which means the crust of 4546B is only .66 kilometers, or about .41 miles. This means that 1.454 miles of the void actually pierces into the planets mantle, which would make it into an incredibly hostile environment.
The void floor can be found, but is completely barren. But the bottom of the void in canon would likely be covered in hydrothermal vents and very alien looking plants and animals (even for 4546B’s standards). The only reason it is even solid is because of the ocean’z intense pressure, creating a pseudo crust that is simply a thin layer above the semisolid mantle.
Volcanic activity created the area where the player crash lands and interacts with, from the safe shallows all the way to the active lava zone. The flora and fauna is extremely unique to this rare oasis, as the void ocean is home to predators so large and devastating that it would be almost impossible for flora and fauna to cross, and they’d almost certainly starve if they dodged predators. The ones that make it to other land masses, or the poles, were likely moved by the precursors, the advanced spacefaring alien species that have seemingly gone extinct. Or they were incredibly lucky, catching a ride with a large reefback to ensure it can sustain itself while being protected (as reefbacks’ hard shells have made them nearly impossible to kill for even the largest predators in the playable Subnautica map).
I would give my right lung just to have the same feeling as I did when I played this game for the first time. Subnautica is a masterpiece.
The first video was what brought me to your channel a few days ago! So cool to see the second one out now 💞
Fantastic. See if you can get an interview with the Devs on this!?!
Wonderfully made! Thank you!