A creative base builder in Subnautica has designed and constructed their own airlock extension to their sea base in the depths of planet 4546b. Fans of the Subnautica games are constantly putting their knowledge of base mechanics to use in constructing habitats with genius features, continuing to develop awesome new structures even eight years after the first game's initial release.
Base building has always been a staple aspect of the Subnautica games, allowing players to construct their own homes wherever they like in the world. Habitats allow players a place to sleep, store materials, fabricate tools, store vehicles, and even study live alien specimens. There are a multitude of craftable base modules that players can gain access to in the form of blueprints found throughout the world, with even more base pieces added in Subnautica: Below Zero. Since players can build anywhere on the map with no real size limit, fans have taken advantage of the endless opportunities to build things like map-spanning tunnels, and even tubes that lead down into the depths of the void.
Though perhaps not as wild in concept, one player has built a fully-functional airlock annex to their Subnautica base. The ingenious feature takes advantage of the game's flooding feature by connecting two glass compartments to the main base, and separating each compartment with a sealable bulkhead door. The compartment furthest from the central base has been manually damaged so that it is permanently flooded with water. When the chamber's bulkhead door is opened, the water fills up the airlock chamber and allows the player to swim out through a hatch into the ocean.
Even cleverer, the structurally-intact airlock chamber will then automatically drain itself of water provided that the separating door is closed by the player. While the whole thing is certainly a neat gimmick, it has no real advantage to gameplay, and would be pretty impractical when players are in a hurry. Thanks to all the high-tech gadgets in the world of Subnautica, players can usually just enter and exit their base through a hatch, which is like a simplified airlock free of flooding risks.
Subnautica: Below Zero brought tons of new base pieces and quality of life features for fans to enjoy - so many, in fact, that the game's developers announced plans earlier this year to introduce a new update which would bring many of these features to the original Subnautica. Eager fans playing on PC can experience this for themselves now by opting in to the game's experimental version, but the official release date for this future update remains unknown.
Subnautica is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
