game is almost too scary to play

it gets even better

You are going to feel really silly when your most feared creature in this game goes from being a gigantic red fish looking thing, to a tiny piece of shit red cyclops fish.

I’ve got maybe 60 hours in and some places still freak me the fuck out! Amazing game and super creepy. Sometimes I decide not to play it simply because it puts me in a weird / eerie mood. lol

r/thalassophobia if you haven't already checked it out. This is what makes the game so scary for me. Don't even need to see any "monsters" just the dark unknown is enough to make me sweat.

i spent the first like 3-4 hours too afraid to even think about going into the kelp forest more than just the very closest edge - and then just enough to get the kelp i needed

My feelings exactly. I didn't even dare swim at night.

My recommendation? Take it slow. Take your time. Stick to the shallows, the kelp forest and the grassy plateau.

Then start exploring the jellyshroom cave, it'll harden you against jumpscares and earn you some neat blueprints.

You should be safe as long as you stick to the water surface. If the open waters is what scares you, I would advise staying on the very surface and not looking down. The Seaglide no longer propells when you're treading the water surface, so try propelling just below the surface and (once again) DON'T look down. If you're looking to get in the Aurora, the safest method is to hug the exterior to get in as soon as possible. Predators shouldn't bother you if you're hugging the walls of the ship at the surface. Be sure to explore wreckages for blueprints. Once you start upgrading your equipment, you should feel more comfortable exploring the dark, deep areas.

Believe me. I went through the exact same emotions as you when I first played.

Be glad for your fears. I never had any in this game and can calmly swim around harvesting and scanning while dodging around leviathans, sharks and whatever else without even looking. (Thank you full surround and high quality sound).

Now, you put me on one of those small, 3 step tall step ladders... forget that noise. heh

The first plunge into the water on your first playthrough is truly a experience everyone should have.

Man, I don't even swim in open sea / lakes / rivers IRL, I just hate not being able to see my own feet. Much like in this game, I hate not seeing everything. People often say that once you know what's out there, you get less scared, but even knowing what a reaper looks like, his roars still make me shit my pants.

Heck, I get shivers when can't see the floor, but I also jump in my chair when night falls or when one of those exploding fish dart towards me. The wreckages also are eerie and I tend to avoid those.

Really have a hate/love relationship with it. I'm 100% fine when Im inside a base just observing the abyss, but once I'm outside I turn into a schoolgirl. Truely one of my biggest fears and I enjoy facing it. Even after countless of hours, I still enjoy the adrenaline this game brings

Same. I spent a lot of time cowering in my pod when I first started. Even now, I still freak out over everything. The ocean is scary. I just built a new computer with a very good surround sound system and started a new game. I hear EVERYTHING. I thought being able to hear things better and know what direction they were would make things less scary, boy was I wrong.

Once you get the seamoth you can just zoom on by all the scary monsters as they arent fast enough to hit you twice. The mountain biome may seem scary with all the reapers but you just never stop pressing forward and your pretty safe.

Oh yeah it is! Try traversing the Grand Reef in Virtual Reality! Or just swimming over the edge into the void, totally creeps me out. I love that sheer feeling of natural horror.

I recommend you read my story from one of the best moments I had in game. Spoiler Alert, contains some information about the Cyclops vehicle and the Grand Reef biome

I find staying near the bottom helps and then dart up to the surface for air.

I was the same way, but once I learned the creature behaviors, and I mastered the areas around my base I gained that confidence to live alongside even the bigger baddies.

This is the most scary game i have played. Scare games dont even come close to this.

I have to play with no sound. Hearing everything stresses me too much.

When you realise the game has no death penalty, you will go wherever you want!