How do you navigate?

I want to see how others like to navigate in Stranded Deep.

I personally will use the binoculars to find my target islands, and gauge location based on whether or not there are islands where there’s normally islands, rather than using a compass to figure out which direction I’m traveling.

The boss zones usually will have no islands on them, so they’re good landmarks to look for when trying to decide where to go next. The best landmark is the giant ship, as that’s visible from a pretty good distance away.

The Cartographer really helps with this means of navigating.

As I’ve mentioned, I’d like to see how others navigate in the game. Maybe one of you have found an even better method for bypassing the compass.

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Ooooo good question Shokujin!

For me I like to use a compass and make a hand drawn map of the islands. Now and again I can double check stuff via the cartographer but I have a lot of fun drawing out a rough map and making notes of stuff on each island I find.

Though even with a compass and a map I’m bound to get lost trying to get home!

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I use as many elements as possible to keep track of areas. Compass for direction, islands for landmarks or differential aspects, if there’s a shark then I know it’s not a custom island, knowing which way the current in the water is going, where is the sun. Of course most of us use a stick, shelter, or anything else to point to our home island. I draw maps as well, it really does help.

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At first, I started to just go with the flow. BAD MOVE! I kept getting lost. I started a new game and really found ways for travel to work easier. I have one main home build on a specific island, so I know when I am home. Surrounding that are little things I’ve added to point the direction of how to get back home as making a water still on one side of an island that tells me to keep going that way. Another thing I’ve done is used some of those floating balls and laid them out in sea near islands I want to go to again or seeing those let’s me also know I’m close to home. They don’t seem to float off too far.

One major thing though the console versions isn’t as large as the PC version I’m hearing, and I’ve been playing the game so much that I know how to find many of the islands on my own and back home. The night time makes things tricky. I also kind of like getting lost too. I feel so helpless out at sea. Especially when you are hungry and thirsty.

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Lol getting lost is fun, but make yourself a “travel box” filled with water and food. Even if ya are just going to an island that’s near, always bring that travel box and ya will never have to worry bout food or water, just make sure to refill it when ya get to where ya going lol

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Man listen. I did that this one time not knowing where I was going and this storm pushed my things off the raft. This was around the deeper ocean where there is no getting it back. The new update makes this much easier definitely. Also I was flung off my raft glitching from the stuff on it then killed by a shark. Fun times. :joy:

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Before the update, I had an additional section or two of raft that was missing flooring so I could store all my travel crates in a manner that would reduce the likelihood of losing any mandatory supplies to glitching or sliding, keeping only the most valuable items in inventory.

Now that there’s container shelves, I’ve decided that the extra holes in the floor wouldn’t be necessary, and now only keep a space large enough to carry sharks and/or my helicopter in.

Currently, I’m building a second helicopter because I use those more than the raft for travel. I like the rafts more for hunting and bringing larger stuff between islands. I stockpile fuel, so I’m pretty safe with that plan, until it’s time to decide how to hunt the big 3.

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Oh that idea of the shark placement on the raft and gyrocopter is brilliant. I killed a shark months ago and it is still on my island just chilling. I’m sure he/she is saying can you figure what you want to do with me so I can respawn back to life. I still haven’t went for the Big 3 yet. I’m trying to get my gf to play but she is scared to be alone on the islands after watching me. She took the controller and swung the axe… She is almost there.

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I found that sharks yield the larger meat, and the type of shark determines how much you harvest from them. One of the main reasons I even decided to make a shark hunting raft. I turn on the animal aggression feature when I’m ready to hunt sharks, and wait for the music to change to the shark music to know when one’s interested in my raft or myself. Speargun arrows are my choice weapon for hunting, so all I have to worry about is the shark sinking before I can grab hold of it.

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I see I see. Yeah I watched a video on YouTube on the game last month and the guy had harvested the shark meat which are huge pieces of meat. I’m over here feeding off of little snakes and birds and going about my day. I love the speargun but find it is weird that the refined spears do more damage. I’ve never turned off the shark feature but sometimes I see why it is necessary. I love going in the water and seeing all the sea life swimming around.

I always point my shelter to the island i came from. This way if i pass islands i can see if there’s a shelter on it, and if its pointing towards a direction i know i shouldnt go that way if i want to find a new island

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Lol we have all been through it. So, I watch a youtuber “Granddaddy Gamer”, I literally watch him just to see what happens to him each day lol. He gets himself into some crazy predicaments. I watched this guy lose his island and his raft, then swim all over the ocean chasing his raft! Lol I was dying watching this dude. Then I think in the same video, a shark kills him after he runs out of spears, while trying to chase the shark to grab spears from it, so he can throw it at the shark again lol

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I’ve used shelters in the past for pointing the direction I came too, very handy indicator! Especially after I uh… accidentally chucked my compass into the middle of the ocean when tried to check my direction mid trip :grimacing:

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Don’t feel too bad. I somehow managed to toss my compass directly from inventory off the side of the life raft shortly after escaping the plane crash.

I unfortunately backed out to the main menu while the game was apparently still saving, and lost my clay house as a result. So I’ve started a fresh game save on a separate file. My new save has a really nice start to it, so it’s not too heavy a loss. Already got my speargun back. I prefer those to regular spears because the ammo is cheaper to make in bulk. Plus you can carry arrows in stacks of 24, while spears only go to 4 last time I checked.

But yeah. Tossed my compass off the side of the life raft on this save.

Using the sun to navigate now.

When ya inventory is full and ya want to switch to something else lol I’ve lost my lantern, 3 flashlights (torch), compass, and hammer.

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Lol I’m definitely going to have to check his streams out. I’ve lost my island and my raft and was killed by a shark so I know what he went through. It was so bad. Seeing someone else going through that would be super funny.

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Yeah, I know what you mean. I went back to an island and found a refined axe sitting in the shallow water then realised it was the one I lost weeks ago lol.

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At least ya found it lol

When I start on an island, I make an “E” and “W” out of sticks on the shore. “E” goes on the sunrise shore, and “W” goes on the sunset shore. Then placing the “N” and “S” is self explanatory. Also, I build basic shelters facing my “home” island. That way I always know how to get there. Easy compass bypasses.

Ultimately, there is always plenty of wood/sticks and trees to make a system. I have literally speared the shoreline for things like clay deposits… I use three in a chevron triangle fashion to mark direction.

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My daughter was just laughing at me yesterday bout losing my compass. Now that I have the time in and able to navigate pretty well, and know to keep the compass in my tool belt… because I didn’t, and when your pack is full and the compass is in your hand, and you select something from your tool belt, it causes you to drop whatever you are holding… hence missing compass. My kids thought it was funny that I get so frustrated on the game with no compass… if they only knew… Luckily I was able to find three more compasses. Still haven’t retrieved the original.

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