Sunkenland: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Why This Game Broke Me (In a Good Way)

Alright, let me level with you. I've sunk 400+ hours into Sunkenland, and I've lost count of how many times I've screamed at my monitor watching my carefully built raft get shredded by a shark I didn't see coming. But I'm still here. I keep coming back. That's the thing about this game — it's punishingly unfair in ways that feel personal, yet every time you finally break through a wall, you feel like a god.

If you're reading this because you just bought the game and you're already drowning (literally), let me say this: you're not bad at the game. Sunkenland has an awful habit of teaching you lessons through brutal, avoidable deaths. I spent my first three runs trying to build a mega-base near the starting island and got my entire storage looted by raiders by day 5. Every. Single. Time. I almost refunded it I was so frustrated. But then I figured out some stuff, and now I can hold my own against most of what the ocean throws at me.

I'm going to give you the real talk. Not the wiki-walking, checklist garbage you find on game sites. I'm talking about what actually works based on my own blood, sweat, and game overs.

Why Players Struggle (And Why You're Probably Sucking Right Now)

Let's be honest about what makes Sunkenland hard. The game doesn't hold your hand. At all. It drops you into a flooded world with a knife and a dream, and every single mechanic is something you have to figure out through trial and error. And the errors hurts. I see the same complaints over and over from new players:

• Wandering aimlessly: The map is huge and empty at first. There's no giant quest marker screaming "GO HERE." That's intentional, but the game never explains it.
• Not building defense early enough: You think you have time to explore before setting up a safe base. You don't. Raiders will find you fast, and they will absolutely wreck you.
• Underestimating the oxygen system: I'm going to say this as clearly as I can — you lose health stupidly fast underwater if you run out of air. Panicking causes you to misjudge your swim back to the surface, which kills you. And the drowning screen in this game? It's terrifying.
• Hoarding junk: I'm a hoarder in every survival game. It's a curse. In Sunkenland, holding onto low-tier scrap when you need to be pushing for Fiberglass and Carbon Plating is like packing a suitcase full of rocks for a marathon. You're just slowing yourself down.
• Exploring at night: I cannot stress this enough. The ocean is already hostile. At night, it's a horror movie. You can't see, the Boar Sharks get more aggressive, and you'll likely get caught in a storm. Avoid night dives unless you know exactly what you're doing.

The truth is, Sunkenland breaks players because it treats you like an adult. It assumes you'll read the tooltips, experiment, and learn. But life is short, and gaming time is precious. I wrote this guide to shortcut that learning curve so you can get to the part where you're actually having fun and not rage-quitting.

Day One: What I Wish I Knew Before My First Dive

Okay, you've spawned. You're treading water. You've got a Spear and a Basic Knife in your inventory. Your first instinct? To start paddling toward the nearest island and hope for the best. Stop. Just stop for three seconds and listen to me.

1. The Starting Raft Is Your First Enemy

You'll notice you have a small raft under you. That thing is a liability. It's slow, it handles like a brick, and it attracts Sharks like free sushi. Your first priority is NOT to build a bigger raft. It's to get to the nearest island with trees and rocks, chain yourself to the land, and set up a shore base.

I personally built my first few bases floating out in the open because I thought "hey, water is flat, that's easier." That's a rookie mistake. The Sail you can build with just cloth and wood? Yeah, it does absolutely nothing to help you escape a shark that's circling you. Get to land. The moment you see sand, swim in a straight line and don't look back.

2. Grab These Resources FIRST

Once you hit shore, your immediate list of grabs is:

• Stone (x20) — for a Stone Axe and Stone Spear. The basic knife does damage but breaks in like 10 hits. Useless.
• Wood (x30) — for the Small Water Catcher (you'll die of thirst faster than hunger, I promise) and a Crafting Bench.
• Palms (x5) — eventually you need these for ropes and early roofing.

Don't even think about exploring shipwrecks until you have a Crafting Table built. Why? Because you'll find weapon parts and Composite Scrap down there that you can't even use until you've got the blueprints researched. And if you die before you get back to shore, you lose everything. Actually, you don't lose everything — you drop your stuff in the water, and if you don't get back to the spot within a few minutes, it sinks forever. I lost a full set of Diving Fins and a Pistol on day 3 that way. I'm still bitter about it.

3. Your First Base Location Matters More Than You Think

I know you'll want to build on the highest cliff to "see everything." But the more exposed your base, the easier it is for Raiders to lock onto you. I've found that the best early spot is a shallow bay area, close to the water line but slightly elevated. This gives you quick access to dive for loot, but also gives you okay sightlines to spot threats.

Also, immediately build a Foundation piece and put a Storage Box on it. Why? Because Sharks and Raiders can't break foundations easily in the early game, and if you get raided, they'll steal from your open inventory before they break down walls. A box inside a locked wall is your safe space. Also, keep your box elevated on a platform at least 2 meters high. I've had raiders glitch through walls and steal from ground-level boxes while I was right outside. Why is nobody fixing that? I don't know. Just build high.

4. The Water Catcher Beats the Juice Purifier

This might be controversial, but hear me out. Unlocking the Water Purifier seems like a no-brainer because it produces clean salt water from the ocean. But it requires Plastic and Metal Parts that are hard to source on day one. The Small Water Catcher collects rain, and even though it's slow, it's passive. Build two. Seriously. I rushed the purifier in my second playthrough and spent more time scavenging for components than I actually did drinking water. The Catcher isn't a long-term solution, but for the first 2-3 days, it's your lifeline.

Expert Tips & Tricks — How to Stop Dying and Start Thriving

Alright, you've made it past the first two days without rage-quitting. Good. Now let's talk about how you actually *win* at this game, or at least stop getting stomped every time you leave base.

1. Weapon Tier List (And Why You Should Skip the Pistol)

The game's weapon progression seems linear until you realize certain tiers are traps. The Basic Pistol is the biggest waste of Iron Ingots you can craft. It does a measly 35 base damage per shot, has terrible range, and the ammo is expensive to craft. I'd rather use a Harpoon Gun (which I know you unlock later) because while it takes a second to charge, the 80 damage it deals on a hit to the head absolutely deletes NPCs and sharks.

For your melee weapon, go straight for the Machete. It's cheap — 20 Steel, 10 Leather — and it swings fast enough to bleed enemies out quickly. The Crowbar looks like it hits harder (55 damage vs. the Machete's 40), but its swing speed is painfully slow. You'll get swarmed by two Raiders while you're still mid-animation and take damage you didn't need to. Just use the Machete.

2. The "One Dive, One Goal" Rule

When you get to the mid-game and start raiding cargo ships and underwater labs, you'll be overwhelmed by loot. It's easy to swim around for 20 minutes filling your inventory with whatever you can find. This is how you die. The moment you're down more than 30% of your health, or under half your air tank, you *must* surface immediately. I can't tell you how many times I died because I thought "just one more locker." It's never just one more locker.

Pick one specific resource you need — say, Silicon for advanced electronics — and only grab that. Everything else? Leave it. It'll despawn if you die, anyway. Focus is your survival tool in the deep.

3. Build "Raider Spikes" Around Your Base

You will get raided. It's about when, not if. But I've learned that you can automate most of your defense with Spike Traps and Claymore Mines placed around the parameter. The AI for raiders is actually pretty dumb — they'll always walk straight toward your storage box. Put a few spike traps along the predictable path, and they'll die before they even reach your walls. I lost a solid 2-hour base build because I forgot to place a single mine on a side approach and three Raiders hopped up and torched my storage. Save yourself the misery. Cheap spike traps are worth the materials.

4. The "Boat Taxi" Method for Expeditions

You'll unlock Motorized Boats and even Submarines later. People love the submarine, but I think the Small Rubber Boat with a Propeller is the best exploration tool in the game. Here's why: when you're in the submarine, you can't interact with underwater crates — you have to get out in your dive suit, which leaves the submarine unattended. If you're on a boat, you can jump off, claim a wreck, and if a shark aggros, you just hop back in the boat and speed away. The wet exit is instant. Try doing that with a submarine hatch. I've lost two fully upgraded subs to sharks (and don't get me started on the glitch where a shark glitches inside the sub and kills you while you're seated).

5. Use the Day Cycle to Your Advantage

I touched on this earlier, but listen: the day cycle is about 15 minutes of daylight and 10 minutes of night. That's 10 minutes of reduced visibility and increased enemy aggression. If you haven't built a Torch Sconce or a Lantern on your base by the end of day 1, you're in for a rough night. Also, night time is the best time to do *base maintenance* — let your refineries run, organize your storage, and research new blueprints. Don't be a hero and go diving at night. You'll just get eaten by a Great White while you're staring at a crate, and the game will mock you with a slow-mo death animation.

Common Mistakes That Got Me Killed (So You Don't Have To)

I've died over 200 times in this game. I'm gonna distill those deaths into the top 5 dumbest things you can do, so you don't make the same mistakes.

• Ignoring the "Danger" symbol on the UI: You know those red icons that pop up on your screen when you're close to a hostile shipwreck? That's not a joke. If you see a red skull, that means there are armed enemies near. I thought they were just hints, not warnings. I lost an entire load of High-Grade Carbide trying to raiding a marked vessel with nothing but a stone dagger. Once you see the red skull, you need at least Flak Armor and a Shotgun.
• Running on the ocean floor: You don't have Flippers? Do not sprint on the sea floor. It makes a ton of noise that attracts sharks from three zones away. I swear the game uses a sound-proximity mechanic. I once tried to sprint to a shallow wreck and suddenly had 4 Boar Sharks circling me. I only survived because I spammed the Shark Repellent (which costs 1 Chaos Crystal, so use it sparingly). Walk slowly, or just swim at a normal pace.
• Not repairing your walls after a raid: Raiders will bang on your walls. If you don't seal that hole IMMEDIATELY, you're leaving your base wide open for a second wave to just waltz in and steal everything. I've had a raider car, like a boat, bring a whole squad to finish the job after I left a cracked wall overnight.
• Over-committing to the Recycler: The Recycler can break down items into raw materials. It feels like infinite money. But it takes 30 seconds to process, and the noise attracts Raider Boat Parties. I ran my Recycler overnight in my base, and I woke up to three Raiders breaking through my door because the noise drew them in. Build it in a far-off corner of the map, or just never leave it running when you're idle.
• Quit saving your Lockpicks: New players hoard lockpicks because they think they're rare. They're not. The game throws them at you, and you should use them. I once had 30+ lockpicks in my box and I broke through a locked steel door with a Pistol (which does absolute garbage against doors) because I was being cheap. Ammo is way more valuable than a lockpick. Use them, and use them at the start of a dive so you don't waste time. Same logic applies to Bolt Cutters — you find them, you use them.

And one more mistake — and this is a big one. Don't build your base too high above water. I know a viewpoint is nice, and I built a foundation 10 meters up on a cliff once. It was gorgeous. Then a Tsunami (yes, there's a rare weather event) came through and flooded the whole thing. I kept it, but the damage was constant. The game punishes you for building in extreme elevations because the physics place you in a "storm zone." Build at water level or just slightly above the tide line, and use barriers to protect against waves. It's less pretty, but your base won't break apart.

This type of resource-management and risk-assessment is something I also used to make my playthrough easier. If you're a fan of roguelikes where resource management is key, check out Deep Sea Survivor guide. It scratches the same "am I prepared for this?" itch.

FAQ — Questions You're Too Scared to Ask

Q: Is the game worth playing solo, or do I need a group?
A: I play 90% solo and I love it. The difficulty scales slightly, but you can handle it if you follow the "one dive, one goal" rule. You'll need a group for the endgame Underwater Facility raids, though. Three players with submachine guns make quick work of what takes me 20 minutes of stealth and luck.

Q: What's the best way to get Rubber?
A: You can't farm it from plants early on. You'll find it in car wrecks on land, so always grab a Wrench and dismantle wheels and tires. You'll get, like, 2 pieces of rubber per wheel. It's tedious, but you need it for diving gear. Don't craft the flippers first — always craft the Large Air Tank when you can. The flippers are nice, but range is king.

Q: Do Sharks eventually stop spawning around my base?
A: No. They're like cockroaches, they just keep coming. So build a Kill Zone — I made a shallow pit with spikes and a Bait Crate that lures sharks in so they get skewered while I reload my harpoon. Works like a charm. I had a base in a cove with 3 different shark spawns and this setup stopped them cold.

Q: Should I steal yellow tape barrels across the map?
A: You mean Explosive Barrels? Yes, but they take two inventory slots and they explode if you take damage. If you're carrying one and a shark nibbles you, you're going to blow up and take half your base with you. Only move them when you're in a rubber boat and the area is clear. This is similar to how you handle explosives in Raft Survival guide — but here, they're way more volatile.

Q: How do I get the Blueprint for the Submarine Dock?
A: You can't just craft it. You have to raid the Naval Research Station — it's the big floating platform to the southwest. It's a difficult raid, but it's doable if you bring two full Magazines of Heavy Ammo. I recommend using the AK-47 because it has a 30-round mag. I died twice trying to clear it with a bolt-action rifle because I kept running out of ammo mid-fight.

Q: Is there a way to save the game without quitting?
A: The game autosaves every 5 minutes in the background, but the only manual save is via the menu when you quit to the title. So if you're doing something risky, you can't just save scum. Back out to the menu before a big raid and it'll load at your base. It's unfair, it's clunky, but it's how the game is made.

The close-quarters combat and positioning inside the Naval Research Station is intense, but honestly, it's a similar flow to taking over a zone in Rust Legacy — you need to clear the floor from top to bottom, and never stand still in a corridor.

Stick with it. Sunkenland takes a minute to click, but when it does, there's nothing quite like the rush of surfacing with a rare salvage haul just as a storm rolls in. See you on the waves.