If you're on PC I believe you can find a bunch of info by pressing F1

Funny enough, at least on console, the overall colour ambiance shifts when you enter a biome. Like the Kelp Forest is always accompanied with a green film. The Crash Zone is brown and cloudy. The Sparse Reef is suddenly dark and oppressive. The Grqnd Reef is etheric blue and the Blood Kelp Zone is also dark but the contrast of the blood vines it feels ominous instead.

You guess with landmarks and context clues. If you need help there's an online map or two somewhere. There's certain features that give it away but I think the best way would be to read the wiki? Really depends on how fast you wanna get through the game I guess.

Just make up your own name based off the environment. Red grass, blue balls, green river, etc. The only way to know for sure is to look up a map online but that would spoil the mystery.

The terrain changes should be pretty obvious, and each biome has really distinctive features.

You can also use the online interactive map, and if you know what general direction you went from shallows (compass) you should be able to get a really clear idea of where you are.

I never really differentiated them. I heard music change and I saw different flora/fauna, but I never "named" them anything. The only real purpose for doing so is to communicate with other players about the game or to interpret online resources.

Music And lighting are the biggest tells. I would then either use a map online or beacons in each distinct biome to help visualize a map in your head. Crafting the compass also helps immensely in getting your bearings.

You could look at a map online, or make one yourself. Beacons also can help delineate regions for better navigation.

It'll come to you pretty quickly. They're all visually distinct, and the two that repeat — Mushroom Forests and Blood Kelp — are identifiable by noting where the starting pod is in relation to your position.

Thanks! I’ll try that!

Go blind. Explore. Have fun. Figure out which biome you like the most to make a base in.

(: non-spoiler semi-guide

https://preview.redd.it/y8zw5iiylcmf1.jpeg?width=2100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09be5e84e26f55d12d25889819c211d946f14fb4

Play the game and find out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/subnautica/comments/7tp9gj/map_of_subnautica_has_resources_and_crap/

Go to the dunes, there's plenty of materials and useful stuff there.

Also it's completely safe, trust

How do i get a map? How do i remember where I saw the big leviathan skull. I feel like I somehow did everything out of order I only recently have a base after I went to the first alien base. Am I stupid?

I agree with everything but bulb zone idk if I’m alone on this but it’s more of a yellow area for me personally

White: No real danger. stalkers, tiger plants, sand sharks, and crash fish can all be easily avoided with a Sea Glide. You can trip into the Crash Zone and the Dunes in some areas, but overall they are easy to get out of and don't pose a serious threat.

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Green: Slightly more dangerous then white, you can trip into dangerous locations fairly easily, warpers sometimes spawn in areas, but can be avoided if you move quick.

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Yellow: Somewhat dangerous fauna, more annoying then anything else. Can be avoided if you move away fast.

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Orange: Harder to avoid by moving faster, easy to trip into very dangerous locations, may posses ghosts.

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Orange clarifications: The orange circle in the Grand Reef is supposed to show the Deep Grand Reef. I consider it more dangerous due to the ghost at the entrance and an inability to move fast as you need to >!get the orange tablet from the Degasi base, placing you in critical warper warp range.!<

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The orange blob in the crash zone is the entrance to the Aroura, it's hard to tell where it is on the map, so I just approximated the location. I find it not too hard to get in there without even seeing the reaper.

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Red: Very dangerous, reapers everywhere, some locations have warpers. Cannot move fast, but also can't stay still.

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Dark Red: Don't even think about it.

Me who didn’t know there was a grand reef:

Goes into Dark Red My, what large ampeels these are.

There is no biome progression. You can go anywhere you like. It really is open world.

If you are unsure what to do. The radio messages nudge you along in the story progression.

Also be sure to read you PDA/data pad. This is where the game hides hints and clues. The logs you pickup should give you suggestions about what you can do.

Deeper, and further out from your lifepod.

don’t look up anything. learn by exploring

There is no biome order. You just have to find ways to go deeper.

Press F1. There you can see which biome you are, how many seconds have passed and the day you are in.

You could download a map mod

There is this online map that you can see but it will most likely give you spoilers, you will start to recognise biomes as you play further into the game. The place you start in is called Safe Shallows

Search for cheatcodes?

Maybe not shared by others but I love the transition from Safe Shallows to Kelp Forest - there’s some awesome little caves I like to build in and around and love the back ground through the windows.

Check out my post history for some of my bases if you would like but here is one of my favorites:

https://reddit.com/r/subnautica/s/KNNGZmzzrV

I think the Bulb Tree Zone is incredibly beautiful, especially in the pitch black of night. All that bioluminescence on a dark backrdrop hits a special part of my brain.

My one regret so far is that I didn't build a base there. I'm almost done with my first run, and my only base is in the shallows (I'm stubborn, I hate base building in games, but I'm starting to get into it, obviously I had to build at least a basic base).

Same. Especially the giant mushroom tree. I've always wanted to build a base up there 😆😆

Cheers!

I play hardcore simply for the excitement/fear factor (plus one life makes everything you do so important) so I haven’t had enough courage to go to the much deeper biomes to build in just yet Haha!

The lost river. In my every run I clear all the ghost leviathans, after that its just a beautiful place with lots of materials and SPOILER--> a portal to the containment facility so you don't habe to make that long trip just for some acid mushrooms or ions cubes.

I find the mushroom forest very cool, it's just so peaceful seeming

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the tree of life or whatever it's called. That blue zone in the lost river. The color scheme and "peaceful" fauna make ot the absolute best place.

Nope. Not without a mod anyway. The F3 cheat info screen MIGHT show it, but I don't remember.

If you're up to mods, you can install Qmods and then the Map mod. That will have an in-game map that you can use to see the biomes.

So, for compass directions, the Sea Treaders Path is an absolute dream. Find the vent/geyser/thing at the very south of the Safe Shallows. Solid little wreck right next to it. Turn due West. KEEP GOING. You will pass through a bit of creepvine forest (kelp stuff), a little nubbin of grassy plateau (bright red grass), a bit of sparse reef (pretty quiet and empty, not much vegetation), the bloodvine trench deep below you (spooky music and nightmare fuel), and then the Sea Treaders.

In general - make LOTS of beacons. Label the place up! You can always turn the marker off from the menu in your PDA.

Online maps mixed with using the compass and the aurora. I tend to look at the map and say “so i go east from the back of the ship” and work from there

The treader’s are in the south west area of the map and what I do to get there is I go to the trench and then turn left at a angle and go straight till I find it. Also if you turn right then your in the dunes. The trench is super useful if you want to find easy paths to alien stuff and I use the trench to go in and out of the >!lost river!<

Find a map online if you don’t mind the spoilers. But with or without, use your compass in concert with beacons. Leave beacons at known spots around the map, like land, wreckage, bases, or borders between 3 biomes, the distance readings for which can give you a better idea of your location (I’m 1.7 km WSW of the life pod and 500m NW of the South Island). Biomes are very different and it’s pretty apparent when you get to a new one. They usually involve a depth change, a totally different color palette, different flora and fauna, and they even have different background music.

I would love a deep biome reflecting the crawlers and their funky purple stuff.

Yes please, I also want some new biomes!

Dense Biozone/Azure Weald already exist.

I should‘ve probably clarified that by having mineable terrain and water I meant water which doesn‘t have infinite volume, and follows gravity.

Main issue with this is we can‘t have water/anything fluid, as even just terraria had issues with it‘s water physics, and here it would have to be in 3D. I‘m 99% sure there is not one game that allows destructible terrain and water to exist at the same place.

Dense Biozone is already the 'water' biome. Shallow water, admittedly.

I'd like an Alpine Forest. Lots of awkward hills and enormous 'tree trunks' which stretch from floor to ceiling, with some smaller bushes.

Another would be the Obsidian Oasis. Areas of abundant plant life around thermal vents, mixed in with dead zones of ash.