Darkwater Game Guide: How to Not Drown in Underwater FTL
Your Game Guide to Darkwater's Waterlogged Nightmare
So you dove headfirst into Darkwater, expecting a chill subnautica experience or maybe a haunted FTL run.
Instead, you’re getting drowned by sea monsters, panicking in Stampers, and watching your buddy get eaten through a broken window.
Congrats! You’re playing it right.
With barely any info online and more bugs than an early access survival sim has any right to, this guide’s here to help you not totally suck.
We’ll break down everything from arcade games to why the Crucifix is trash. And yeah, we’re keeping it chaotic.
(If you haven’t read our Darkwater review yet, start there first. Or don’t. You’re probably mid-mission already.)
Arcade Mini-Games: Your Weirdly Important Submarine Pastime
How to Play Stampers in Darkwater
Stampers is an interesting game where you paint tiles and suffer. This is not explained well in the tutorial.
The game starts with a pattern, and when you click on the game you will “stamp” that exact pattern on the board where you click.
The goal is to equal out the number of purple spaces with yellow spaces by “stamping” in places that won’t allow yellow spaces to spawn.
Image Source: Darkwater | Targon Studios
For example, if you get a pattern with something like a purple in the middle with a yellow above and to the left, if you stamp in the top left node, there is no space for yellows to be stamped and you’ll win the round.
Hot Tip: If you’re just randomly clicking, you’re not “improvising” — you’re throwing.
How to Play Breaker in Darkwater
This game’s easier to understand. Basically a maze mini game, you rotate nodes in order to complete the circuit from the center node to the outlying node.
You can rotate all of the board pieces with the exception of the entry and exit nodes.
Image Source: Darkwater | Targon Studios
The game seems to be designed with a lot of feints in mind (the seemingly easy path will usually prove to be impossible, revealing that you had to turn an earlier piece and take a detour to the scenic route around the whole damn board).
This mini game is used for diffusing bombs during the gameplay, so I do recommend familiarizing yourself with the general idea.
Outposts: Loot, Floods, and Underwater Regret
While navigating the waters, you’ll often see nodes marked as “Outposts” that serve as loot maps that you can search.
Image Source: Darkwater | Targon Studios
- Your inventory fills up fast so get in the habit of going up the ladder to deposit your stuff and coming back down quickly.
- If using a sub layout without a drain (like with the Heavy Cruiser), you can drain water by going to an Outpost, however, this will also dump the water into the Outpost, potentially flooding the area. It’s recommended to drain your sub at a Shop instead.
- If an Outpost is partially flooded, items will still spawn on the floor (although it’s much harder to see them).
- If you’re solo and don’t have any ranged weapons, don’t bother trying to fight an anglerfish. They will destroy you in a matter of seconds.
- You can revive teammates for free at outposts or for a small fee (I think 20 credits) at a shop.
- When reviving at the shop, the cost does not scale per player – you can buy your whole team back for a flat cost.
Shops: Darkwater's Underwater Costco
While navigating the sea, you’ll also see nodes designated as Shops that are generally used for selling items, resurrecting teammates, and purchasing new items and systems.
Image Source: Darkwater | Targon Studios
- Find a shop early on and reorganize your ship to centralize your pump closer to your other systems for easy draining.
- Make sure to sell all of your picked up junk items at shops like the Crucifix, Mechanical Supplies, Cigarettes, etc.
- Using a sub without a pump system, like the Heavy Cruiser, the best way to drain your sub’s water is by docking at shop.
- I recommend upgrading your Weapon systems and Pilot System ASAP.
- You can drop items on the floor of the sub if you don’t have storage room, however, make sure you take things out of your storage lockers and off of the floor before you change the layout or it will likely disappear.
- Workshop upgrade is OP, mainly for the blowtorch.
Events: FTL Said ‘Hi’ and Then Tried to Kill You
Any node on the map that isn’t designated with a name (i.e., Shop or Outpost) will have a random FTL-style text or battle event.
Most of these will provide you with some options that will lead to an outcome that can result in positive, negative, or no outcomes.
Image Source: Darkwater | Targon Studios
- Always equip your repair tools before starting an event.
- Most events have a chance of failing, potentially leading to an unfavorable outcome.
- I generally recommend just trying to fight when the option is available for the guaranteed resources.
- Sub combat 101: Focus mines → weapons → navigation.
Loot: What the Hell Does This Even Do?
If you can’t use it, sell it. If you don’t want to sell it, you can scrap them at the Workshop after you purchase the room upgrade.
Image Source: Darkwater | Targon Studios
Check Everywhere. You’ll find items in desks, medicine cabinets, shelves, tool boxes, beds, etc. or just lying around.
Loot will still spawn on the floor in slightly flooded areas, so look carefully.
Crucifix: Trash. Sell it.
Mechanical Supplies: Sell it.
Music Discs / Anthems: Intended for the Gramophone. But that bugs out often. Guess what? Sell it until next patch.
Scrap: Keep it. Feed it to the workshop gods.
Darkwater Weapons: Don't Bring a Wrench to a Fish Fight
You can find weapons within Outposts and purchasable at Shops to fight enemies found at the Outposts including wrenches, knives, sledgehammers, and more.
Image Source: Darkwater | Targon Studios
- Blocking matters. Use your Right Mouse Button to do the thing.
- The sledgehammer is the heavyweight melee champ so buy it early if you haven’t found one. 2 hit kill on scuba divers vs. 5 hits with wrench or 3 hits with knife.
- Don’t 1v1 an Anglerfish unless you’ve got firepower, backup, or a death wish.
Known Darkwater Bugs: The True Terror Lurking in the Deep
You’re not hallucinating. The game is just a bit jank sometimes, but it’s in Early Access so I’m sure these will be addressed soon.
Torpedoes not loading? Drop and pick it up again.
Voice chat gone? Restart the game.
Gramophone? Can softlock the game. Avoid and sell.
Auto pump upgrade? Doesn’t work. Sell.
Missing nav node? You’re softlocked. Restart and cry.
Darkwater Guide: Sink or Swim, Baby
Darkwater is a funderful chaos simulator, and somehow one of the most addictive little submarine disasters in recent memory.
Get good at the arcade games, prep for every event like it’s the apocalypse, and sell everything that looks holy. If you made it this far, you’re either smarter than you look or too stubborn to quit.
Either way, I respect it.
Got something I missed? Leave a comment, start a fight, or throw your Crucifix at someone.
If you’ve already picked up Darkwater, I’ll see you at the bottom of the sea, sailor.
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