Welcome to my "Git Gud Gyde", which is a selection of tips for playing Subterrain.

Now, let's get one thing out of the way: this is a "read the manual" game. Seriously. Yeah, we know, you're a pro. You don't need your hand held. You've beaten Call of Duty on veteran. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ veteran.

Doesn't matter! Don't skip those tutorials! Read the logs (there's hints on where stuff is!) and re-read them if you forget what they said! Don't have a blackout, EVER! Eat your broccoli!

...and read the help section!



Is this how you express gratitude? Pause the game. Look at the screen.



What? "I'm still not following, broh"? Hit that button, get money. Well, not really. Knowing the basics is the key to saving time, though, and time is money! Remember that! You'll be quizzed!



Get familiar with what the buttons all do. What are you using, mouse and keyboard? You'll be able to read this just fine. Controller? Well, you'll need to know what those buttons do, where they are, and how to get your fingers to them.

If you use a controller, be sure to use aim-assist. TRUST ME. And if you're not, turn it off. TRUST ME AGAIN. It'll really ♥♥♥♥ with your shots if you're using a precision instrument. If you really are terrible, though, turn it on a teeny tiny amount to help you square up your shots.

Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you're using it.



None of us can. None of us.

Alright, fledgling non-scrub! Pick a weapon! This section is currently tuned to the beta's weapon changes!

Dr. West is able to carry three weapons at once, allowing you to swap between the slots. As you fire ranged weapons, heat will build up. When it builds up too high, West throws his gun, leaving you unarmed! It sucks! Heat will dissipate with time, but every once in a while you'll be in a situation where you need another gun to fire, pronto! This is where switching comes into play. By default, scrolling the mouse wheel up or down will swap to your next equipped weapon. There's a delay when swapping, and you'll have to ready your gun, but the alternative is worse: hot guns end up on the floor! Learn how to swap, and get used to how long it takes to "arm" your gun once you do.

As a general tip: you can save a lot of resources by not printing out and researching every kind of melee weapon or gun core there is. Pick a weapon you're comfortable with! It's perfectly plausible to mix all the weapon types as you please as well, but be aware of which gun you're switching to in the middle of a battle (and how much resources you're using). It's also not necessary to upgrade to a new set of guns each time you research a new weapon. Holding off on a few upgrades, or only upgrading one weapon every tier can really help reduce using precious resources.

Also, one final tip: repair your guns! Once you're done blasting things to pieces for a while, use the nano repair bay in central command. It's the lowest station of the far right column of machines, below the remote control for the mine. At first, it'll only repair two guns at once to 50%, but by the time it's fully upgraded, you'll be repairing three things at once for up to 65% of the weapon's maximum durability. You don't need to print new guns when they wear out, maintain and service your weapons!

With that out of the way, here are the main guns!



Pros:

• Great range.
  
• Decent damage per shot, leading to large crits.
  
• Very high accuracy at higher levels.
  
• High critical rating.
  
• Moderate heat and energy consumption per shot.
  
• Moderate durability

Cons:

• Lower rate of fire.
  
• Requires excellent aim.
  
• Overheats quickly when fired in succession.
  
• Alerts enemies when fired!

Pistols are a bread n' butter weapon for Subterrain. While their damage and speed can be somewhat slow, their high critical rating and distance can make up for it. Not the best for close quarters combat, pistols are great for picking off foes from across large rooms or halls when zoomed out. In a pinch, they make for decent mid-range weapons. They are fairly balanced in energy usage, durability and damage output, but be prepared to swap weapons if going into heavily contaminated areas!



Pros:

• Decent range.
  
• Very fast rate of fire.
  
• Low to Medium accuracy.
  
• Very low heat and energy consumption per shot.
  
• High durability.

Cons:

• Inaccurate at max range until upgraded.
  
• Requires consistent shot grouping to compensate for low per-shot damage.
  
• Takes longer to repair than other weapons.
  
• Alerts enemies when fired!

Sub-machine Guns, from this point forward referred to as "SMGs", are rapid-fire weapons that have a little bit of recoil when fired in the form of their "angle" stat. They are excellent in CQB, and can be fired for an extended amount of time, depending on your model of SMG and its upgrades. They have a high durability, so repairs take longer, but occur less often. SMGs can really overload in an intense battle, so be sure to keep an eye on your weapon's heat and swap accordingly. If you don't, you'll be tossing your enemies a gift every once in a while!

Also, it's worth noting that SMGs are what you can place in your generator's turret positions, should you be a slowbie in culling the contaminated population. They don't really track targets well, but if a huge horde is coming to pound your cores, the help could prove useful.



Pros:

• Extreme burst damage and high rate of fire.
  
• Spread can hit multiple enemies at once, or instantly kill lesser foes up close.
  
• Knocks enemies back, giving you room to react.
  
• Crits will make Big Fats shake in their... boots? Feet?

Cons:

• Short range.
  
• High energy use per shot.
  
• Higher heat generation, can overheat easily.
  
• Low durability.
  
• Alerts enemies when fired!

Shotguns are extreme damage and extreme spread over an extremely short distance. These are definitely much more "up close and personal" weapons, and are the most viable of that type. They excel the most when you are point blank, which is a risky strategy, but the damage is amazing. Shotguns also have a high rate of fire and generate a lot of heat, so swapping weapons will probably be mandatory in tense battles. In situations with a lot of enemies it's advisable to use windroid, as the lack of stamina loss from sprinting and increased speed will allow you to juke with ease.

These weapons are things I'd consider supplemental. Not required, but depending on your play style, you may find a use for them. The further you are in the game, the more you probably want to consider the following as a backup or supplement to your current setup.

At the bottom of this section is a "secret" gun. NO LOOKING. Unless you know already or don't care.



Pros:

• Good damage.
  
• Splash damage.
  
• Can be bounced off walls, slides on the ground.
  
• At higher levels, gains a proximity sensor for detonation.
  
• At higher levels, attracts enemies.

Cons:

• Requires good aim, and at lower levels: good timing.
  
• Not suitable for every situation.
  
• Can be expensive to make if used excessively.
  
• Blows you up, too!

First off: grenades work by placing them on your hot bar. When that hot bar button is hit, it'll toss a grenade in the direction you're facing. Don't bother trying to throw a grenade from your inventory, because it'll probably get you killed, and Dr. West doesn't want that. Think of Dr. West.

Photon grenades are something that every doctor should have once the contamination reaches high levels. These things, as they are researched, are absolutely invaluable for getting out of terrible situations. The first two types of this grenade are fairly simple and require good timing on top of good aim, but at level three they start attracting enemies to their location. This works if you can break line of sight, but be careful if they are closer to you than they are the grenade, as they might still home in on you.

A frequent use for these is surviving the dreaded "stairwell ambushes". Pop a masamari and check out what your situation on the other side of the door is in a dangerous area. Lots of red dots? Open the door and hurl a grenade, running in the opposite direction. Hell, throw a few if they attract enemies.



Pros:

• Stuns enemies.
  
• Splash stun!
  
• Stun increases as grenades improve.
  
• Can be bounced off walls, slides on the ground.
  
• At higher levels, gains a proximity sensor for detonation.
  
• At higher levels, attracts enemies.
  
• Won't kill you!

Cons:

• Requires good aim, and at lower levels: good timing.
  
• Not suitable for every situation.
  
• Can be expensive to make if used excessively.
  
• Won't kill anything!

This is a safer approach if you're not really confident in your skills. The stun can buy you time to blast some enemies to bits with your weapons, but for the most part, they operate like photon grenades. They don't do any damage at all, though, and instead stun enemies for a short amount of time. At first it's rather short, and almost not worth using, but as they improve they begin to be just as useful as photon grenades (especially at level 3).



Pros:

• Doesn't require energy.
  
• Can do 4x damage criticals when you sneak up and "backstab".
  
• Quiet - doesn't alert enemies.
  
• An attack can be "charged" to do double damage.
  
• Minor knockback.
  
• Increased damage with Musclemax™ brand performance enhancers!
  
• No "arm" time when swapped to; switch to it and swing away!

Cons:

• Extremely close range.
  
• Good timing is required to line up swings.
  
• Generally lower damage than guns.
  
• Not suitable for swarms.

There's a few melee weapons in the game, but the only two that end having the ability to be researched, and therefore viable, are batons and knives; hammers and wrenches unfortunately are sort of "junk" melee weapons. The good doctor is a capable slugger, but there are a few things to keep in mind. First off: melee is not going to work in every situation. It's a good backup, it's good for punting around cocoons, and it's good when you're trying to be sneaky. It is, however, not advisable to charge three Big Fats, mostly because they are much bigger and much stronger than you are. Melee will require fancy footwork, and speedy armor and windroid can help. Musclemax is also something you should keep on hand if you are seriously considering melee, as it'll pump up your puny researcher arms into something a little more appropriate for cudgeling things to death.

Secret gun time! Remember, don't look if you're into not having things spoiled!



Pros

• Huge damage!
  
• Huge spash damage!
  
• Decent range!
  
• Very high "link" capability for larger upgrades.

Cons

• Huge death if you're in the splash range!
  
• Really high heat!
  
• Really high energy use!
  
• Expensive to create.
  
• You gotta find the blueprint!
  
• Alerts enemies when fired (duh)!

This baby is the BFG9000 of Subterrain, and is sort of a "secret" gun, which is why I have to black out this section like a government record. If you make this gun, make one- ONE, and manually drag it to your inventory, and carefully plan how you're going to use it. If you haven't saved in a while, or are incapable of saving, consider another gun. Good? Good.

So this gun fires out a blast of plasma that, when it hits something, explodes into a massive green field, damaging everything and anything in the blast. That includes you, Dr. West. Do not fire this at walls. Do not fire this at enemies breathing down your neck. Do not "forget" you had it equipped. Don't look down the barrel, and for the love of GOD do not forget how much energy it can use when your power reserves are low.

Armor has a lot of aspects. Obviously, better armor will allow you to survive for longer, but it's important to make choices that won't negatively impact your play style.



The main thing to keep in mind, first and foremost, is how armor protects you. Your "con college uniform" will shred the moment you get tickled, so the standard colonist suit is where you'll be starting. The suit provides 5% damage reduction against physical attacks, and can be sacrificed to the research gods in order to develop better versions.

The progression is: standard colony suit, advanced colony suit, power armor; each suit type has three iterations before changing, so researching the Mark III of the standard suit will lead to the advanced version, etc. Each upgrade up this chain increases the physical damage reduction by an additional 5%. On top of this, each level up also provides an additive 5% reduction against any contamination that slops on to Dr. West when he's hit. Less contamination to deal with means less decontamination pills to gobble down.

Also, another thing to note is "hotbar" slots. Wha'dat? Those are those slots you can drag things to and quickly activate using number row keys. You can quickly swap out canisters, toss a grenade, pop a masamari or medkit, or throw down a beacon without having to open the inventory. Best part, buckaroo? Anything on the hotbar doesn't take up any backpack space, including weight! Those canisters are damn heavy in your backpack, so pop 'em on that bar.



After you shed your orange jumpsuit and move into standard colonist suits, eventually you'll research enough to reach the advanced version. This next armor has the same increase in protection as the previous levels for damage and contamination resistance, but it also comes with something extra: a 10% speed penalty! Oh no!

Due to this, it's much smarter to only create one suit of the advanced suit for research purposes. Save the resources for something that won't mess with your speed so heavily, because, let's be honest: time is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ money.



So why would you research that clunky armor? Because the next level after that will regain the lost speed, and the one after that will increase your speed by 10%. And, this speed increase stacks with windroid. Flippin' windroid. What does that equal? Weren't you paying attention?! ♥♥♥♥♥♥' money.

This debuff/vanilla/buff variation will reoccur once you advance to power armor. Of course, you can disregard this extremely useful advice and slap on that slow armor, but you better be pounding down those windroids to make up for the 10% speed debuff.

Your time usage is unbelievably important. I can't stress this enough.

Stop taking hits to the face! Dodge and block, dammit! Not taking hits to the face has the following benefits:

• You look cool.
  
• Dr. West will take much less damage, if he takes any at all.
  
• Less contamination, less decontamination pill poppin'.

Take some time and practice dodging. Learn how many times you can dodge before you're out of stamina, and figure out how far the "dash" goes. These are keys to efficient usage.



Dodging is so important, I would say it's the most important thing to learn in the game. Monsters telegraph what they are going to do, so a quick dodge is the only difference between taking a big hit of damage and contamination and looking like a total bad ass.



Dodging uses stamina, so be mindful that you don't over dodge yourself into a corner and end up with a big fat's fist through your face. Dodging will remain useful to the very end of the game, but as you get better gear and better versions of windroid, your reliance on it will be reduced. At that point, you'll be able to juke and weave with just walk speed alone, saving your stamina and preventing you from building up fatigue. Less fatigue means longer excursions, longer excursions mean more efficient lootin' and killin'!



Blocking is tied to the level of the power pack you have, and better power packs allow you to mitigate more damage. The amount they block can be seen when you highlight over the power pack itself. Blocking prevents bleeding, fractures and can be used when dodging. That's right, you can use them at the same time. Combine the two, and you'll be shooting straight up from "bad ass" to the star of "Project Bad Ass".



Keep in mind, blocking does use power. That said, the amount of power it uses is much less than the amount of stamina dodge uses, so in some cases, like against a brain bug's little buddies, blocking is perfectly fine. The main goal with a block is to prevent yourself from having to limp or bleed out after a fight.



What's a barrier, you ask? Well, my dear friend, Dr. West has two of these things called "arms". He can use this fascinating bio-technology to move things like desks and chairs in the way of uncouth louts that roam Mars MPO. Move up to a desk or anything else that allows you to grab onto it and right click. The doc's able to pull things around in exchange for some stamina, and he's unable to defend himself, should he get into a scuffle with some rather large and fat ruffian, whilst holding on to objects.



West is able to shoot over obstruction, but so can enemies. While a big fat or an eyeball guy will have to push the obstruction around to get to you, a spitter or a brain bug that's had too much to drink will still be able to nail you from afar. Objects tend to vary in weight, so don't rely on a suitcase to block a fatty.

Open your ears for a minute, I want to talk to you.

Close your eyes. What do you hear around you? Why the ♥♥♥♥ aren't you doing that in Subterrain?! Use your senses to get an easy advantage against your grotesque foes!



Each nasty creature has its own set of noises. No, I'm not going to spell that out for you. Do you know how long that'd take? You'll figure it out. Listen for scuttles, grunts, and the like. Before long, if you pay attention, you'll be able to figure out what's near you by sound alone.



So I'm sure you've seen those little yellow eyeballs floating around. I'm not sure what they're called, but they probably should be called "a huge pain in the ass". These guys are minimalist fighters; they sort of float over to you and try to shock you if they hear you. However, these guys have the uncanny ability to open doors, allowing anyone hanging out with them at the time to charge your ass and jam you in a blender.

The good news is: Mars has noisy doors. If you ever hear a door in the distance, and you didn't open it, watch out! One of those little bastards just opened a door and has an idea of where you are. They don't forgive, they don't forget. All they know is how to open doors and ♥♥♥♥ up your day, vicariously, anyway.



Even the lowest level of Marsmari, the purple medical supply, is super useful. Marsmari will allow you to see enemies through walls and behind you, represented by red dots. Small dots for small guys, big dots for big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trouble. Better versions of Marsmari last longer and allow you to see further, so it's always worth an investment no matter what play style you pick.

Let that sink in for a sec.

Pop quiz: what should you always have if you can afford it?

Marsmari!



Spitters will sometimes try to peg you from afar with spit. Unfortunately for them, their spit is bio-luminescent or some ♥♥♥♥. Watch for bright greenish blobs floating toward you in the darkness, even if you're not looking in their direction, and you'll be able to figure out where they are shooting from.

Looting is an important aspect of Subterrain, and you're doomed to die on Mars if you don't get your ♥♥♥♥ together and start stripping the place bare. That said, there's some key things about looting that will save you time, and in some cases, a trip back.



Whatever you bind it too, be sure to use "loot all" fairly often. You will be battling your oxygen and thermal ratings constantly. Clicking every piece of loot out of a box is a surefire way to end up blue in the face and covered in ice. Using the interact button and mashing loot all is a mess-free way to collect as much as possible in a room without wasting your breath. Just be careful to not have this habit in your base, as you'll be crammed full of metal and Minerva components if you do this at your shared storage.



Since lugging ♥♥♥♥ around is the name of the game, it is imperative that you get your ♥♥♥♥ together. Yes, I'm talking about backpacks! This should be a no-brainer, but getting yourself the largest capacity bag should be on top of your list at all times. More storage means you can bring back more loot, but it also means you can bring more supplies into dangerous situations. If you're lucky, you may even find a bag better than the one you have on in the wild! Cherish that moment. Forever.



Man, I can't wait to bring all these side bags and batons back to recycle. Wait, what's that? They're not worth a damn thing? WHY AM I CARRYING THESE?!

Use your "obliteration director", or your "cursor" or whatever you call it, to highlight over anything in your inventory to see what it recycles into. Broken temperature regulator? Let's see. Oh, it's worthless and weighs a kilogram? DROP IT. DO IT! An assembled (but junk) gun? Look at all that electronic resin! KEEP IT. Stop lugging ♥♥♥♥ back to base that hardly makes a difference in your quota, and you can spend more time looting things that will actually help you craft things.

Handy quick reference of what things are generally worth keeping: electronic "junk" items, guns+parts (it saves space if you assemble them if you find them separately), jewelry, food items, medical supplies, Minerva samples and any items you haven't researched.



What's that you say? You've got an ass load of energy left, and your canisters are still full? In this case, either assign a container with a lot of space, or bring a side bag. Drop the side bag near the tram, and when you're full, take the elevator down and dump all the stuff you don't need to explore into it. Carry on afterward. You'll have to make a trip back eventually to pick up the extra stuff, but it's still slightly more efficient to pile it all up there while you clear out more contaminated and loot more stuff. You can decide when it's appropriate to come back to collect the rest.