Stranded Deep is a realistic, survival game with a steep learning curve. Players will encounter many hazards while they are marooned in the pacific ocean, from man-eating sharks to food poisoning. With so many things to learn, and so many dangers to navigate, staying alive will require both patience and preparation.
As players explore their island in the early- game they should focus on accomplishing specific goals such as gathering food and water or building a self-sufficient base. After learning how to stay hydrated and healthy, players will eventually be able to venture further out from their starting island as they explore the procedurally generated map.
Updated by Beau Low on September 3, 2021: Six years after its initial release, Stranded Deep continues to grow and evolve. Not only have new features been added to the base game, but there is also a wealth of fan-made mods that can add new features and maps to the realistic survival game. To stay alive on their desert island, players will have to learn numerous tricks to find food, water and shelter from storms or dangerous animals. As well as covering the bare essentials for survival, there are also hidden treasures and underwater shipwrecks to be explored and plundered. Now that fans can enjoy this hardcore survival game on the Switch, this article has been updated to include additional tips for new and returning players alike.
14 Stay In The Raft At The Start
During the game's introduction, the main character survives a plane crash that leaves him stranded in the Pacific ocean afloat in a rubber dinghy. Some players may be tempted to leap out of their starting vehicle and swim to shore so they can start gathering materials, leaving their boat to float away — taking a valuable cache of food supplies with it.
While the dinghy is slow, it can still be useful in the early game for traveling to other nearby islands. It can also be used as a large bowl for storing loose physics objects such as coconuts or potatoes, although it will sink if players attempt to do this in the water.
13 Cliffs Are A Great Source Of Eggs
For most players, the first mission in Stranded Deep will be to find food and water. Coconuts can be used to stay hydrated until water stills can be set up; however, finding food can be a little bit trickier.
A reliable source of food at the beginning can be found on cliffs or any tall rock formations. If players can jump to the top of these rocks, they have a good chance of finding bird nests. Nests will often contain eggs that may help a starving player if they can't find anything else.
12 Corpses Won't Spoil, But Food Will
Stranded Deepttempts to simulate every detail of being marooned on a desert island, where every day is a fight for survival. That said, the game is not perfectly realistic, and there are a few ways that players can exploit the mechanics to give themselves a much-needed edge.
All food, especially meat, will spoil after a set number of days, making it inedible unless players want to risk getting sick. However, the corpses of slain animals do not degrade in the same way, meaning that if players leave their corpses whole. They can remove pieces of meat from them as necessary, and prevent their food supplies from rotting.
11 Storage Containers Make Great Shelters
Upon reaching land, players will likely want to start gathering as many resources as possible. Stones and fibrous leaves are both useful to collect, but hunting for resources in the sweltering pacific heat will quickly begin to take its toll if players aren't careful.
Spending too long in direct sunlight will lead to sunstroke, which is a relatively mild debuff that causes dehydration. The easiest way to deal with this is to find shelter and wait for the effect to wear off. If the player can find a large red shipping container washed up on their island, they will find they can open the doors and use them to hide from the punishing sunlight when necessary.
10 Craft Multiple Water Stills
Thirst is one of the more difficult variables to control in Stranded Deep. Players will find that their character's water level decreases steadily over time, or rapidly if they become dehydrated. Initially, players will be able to find enough fluid from coconuts or Quwawa fruit, but eventually, they will need to create a more reliable water supply.
Water stills are relatively easy to craft, but in order to do so, players will need to find a tarpaulin, which can be located along the shores, sometimes under rocks. Stills will only accumulate water during rainfall, meaning players should always build more than one to ensure they gather enough water to get through long spells of dry weather. After making a basic still, players will also need a drinking vessel such as a coconut flask or a water skin to carry liquids in their inventory.
9 Stay Close To Ship Wrecks During Shark Attacks
Eventually, players will want to leave their starting island to find more resources and discover more of the map. Rafts can be used to travel between islands, but the Pacific Ocean is a hazardous place.
If players go diving or sailing and encounter a shark, they should immediately either get out of the water or find a shipwreck. Sharks will not attack the player if their back is to a solid object such as a sunken wreck or rock formation. This tactic is also useful for shark hunting, once players have the harpoon gun.
8 Sleep When Needed, Save Often
Once players have decided where they want to set up their base they can start building a shelter. The recipe for this includes a single lash, three sticks, and four palm fronds all of which can be easily obtained on any starting island. A shelter will facilitate sleeping as well as saving the game.
Sleeping reduces food and water, so players should avoid resting too often or they will risk becoming dehydrated. On the other hand, it is vital to save as frequently as possible. Many recipes will require hunting for specific resources, and it is easy to lose progress if players die while they are gathering.
7 Create Farming Plots To Grow Useful Plants
Some resources will naturally replenish over time, while others are finite. As players build more tools and bigger structures, they will need more materials, some of which can be generated by farming. A basic farming plot requires 4 sticks and one lashing, which can only be combined in this way if the player has a crude hoe in their inventory.
Farms can be used to produce edible fruits such as Quwawa or Kura fruits. Alternatively, players can use plots to grow Yucca trees, a bountiful source of fibrous leaves, or Pipi for creating antidotes to poisons.
6 Grow Potatoes For Fuel
One thing that players can use their farming plots for is growing potatoes. These vegetables can be eaten; however, it is better to save them in the early game so they can be replanted later on.
As well as being a steady source of food, potato farms can also be used to make fuel for boat engines, and generators. To turn potatoes into fuel, players will need to build a fuel still and locate a jerrycan so they can carry their bio-diesel to where it is needed. Making fuel will also require a lot of water to maintain the potato farms.
5 Beware The Indigenous Wildlife
The islands in Stranded Deep are far from paradise, and hungry sharks lurk in the waters between them as a constant threat to intrepid swimmers. Sharks can kill unsuspecting players very quickly, as not only do their attacks do a lot of damage, they also cause lacerating damage.
As well as sharks, there are also a plethora of other dangerous creatures, including poisonous eels and starfish. When wandering along the beach, players should keep their eyes peeled for the purple Crown of Thorns starfish, which will poison anything that steps on it. Poison will make health decrease steadily over three days, but players can survive if they have enough water and know how to restore their HP.
4 Don't Eat More Than One Coconut Per Day
Coconuts are one of the most useful fruits in Stranded Deep, as they contain milk that can be used to quench thirst. Once they are drained, it is possible to hollow them out to make a drinking vessel or crack them open to eat their flesh.
Eating more than one coconut in quick succession will lead to diarrhea, a debuff that causes rapid dehydration. This mistake can often be fatal for players who don't have enough water. As such, it is better to only eat coconut flesh when absolutely necessary, and aim to subsist on roasted crab meat instead.
3 Raid Shipwrecks For Valuable Resources
Many essential materials in Stranded Deep are easy to find, and others will naturally replenish after a few in-game days. In order to find rarer and more valuable items, it will be necessary to venture further away from the starting island. Shipwrecks can be found washed up along the coast or underwater, and are great places to find better materials and equipment.
Exploring shipwrecks will often yield lockers and cabinets, which contain rare resource drops and sometimes food. It is also possible to find wooden crates on these ships, which can be transported back to a player's base and used to store excess materials. Finding sunken wrecks is much easier at night when players can look out to sea and spot grey patches of bubbles coming from the submerged ruins.
2 Build A Wooden Raft With A Sail
After building their main base and becoming self-sufficient, players will need to construct a better boat. While the starting rubber dinghy works for small voyages, it is very slow and prone to being capsized by sharks.
Wooden rafts can be fitted with sails and move much faster across the water, allowing players to make significantly longer journeys. Storage crates can also be attached to rafts, enabling travelers to take large stores of items with them to other islands. Constructing a wooden raft will require large amounts of wood and lashings as well as building a plank station.
1 Leave Markers To Remember Important Locations
As players begin to explore more of the map, they may encounter a new problem: not being able to find their starting base again. In the late game, this isn't too much of a setback, as players can easily set up another base. However, there are useful tricks to help with orienteering around the tropical archipelago.
Players may find it useful to leave a small pile of stones or sticks at important spots. This is useful for remembering a valuable resource deposit, or for simply marking areas that have been visited before to prevent needless backtracking. Another useful trick is to build a shelter on any new island pointing in the direction the player arrivedfrom, so they always know their way back. Knowing which areas have been explored before will help with finding new areas, and eventually reaching the end game.