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World

Biomes

All 17 biomes of the Drowned Caldera, tier by tier — from the rim reef to the volcano at the centre and the Void beyond the edge.

Each biome fills a whole part of its tier. The lower the tier, the darker the water and the heavier the pressure. The depth on each card is the usual depth of the seabed in that biome, measured from the game’s own height map.

The Rim

45–70 m

The reef crest around the whole caldera. Bright and shallow.

The reef crest with its stone buttresses — the edge of the caldera. Beyond it lies the Void.

Tier A · Sunlit Shelf

185–240 m

Sunlight still reaches down here. The best place to find your feet.

Sunlit Shallows

Coral platforms, atolls with quiet lagoons, and grottoes. The brightest, calmest water in the caldera.

A forest of basalt pinnacles up to 340 studs tall, joined by huge stone arches.

A jade plateau cut into a maze of canyons, with hanging gardens and natural bridges.

Sand dunes, flat-topped guyots and blue holes.

An underwater forest: giant kelp that reaches almost to the surface.

Tier B · Twilight Shelf

500–560 mneeds a Mk II hull

The light is going. From here on you need your lamps.

350–560 mMk II hull

Stacked plateaus and mushroom-shaped table rocks.

350–560 mMk II hull

Limestone hummocks, sugarloaf domes and pink feather trees.

430–580 mMk II hull

Terraced craters packed with honeycomb towers.

410–565 mMk II hull

Concentric hogback ridges and groves of sponges.

Tier C · Midnight Slope

860–920 mdeeper than any Otter hull

Full dark. The only light comes from crystals and glowing weed.

Twelve black terraces that step down from the Twilight Shelf to the very bottom.

765–1,035 mbeyond every hull

Deep cracks lined with silver crystals, and geodes in the walls.

780–930 mbeyond every hull

Glowing meadows of ghost weed, standing stones and ancient ruins.

Tier D · Abyssal Basin

1,240–1,300 mdeeper than any Otter hull

The floor of the caldera: lava, sulfur and bones. Deeper than any hull can take.

1,085–1,320 mbeyond every hull

Sulfur Graveyard

Vent towers, lava fissures and the skeletons of leviathans.

1,195–1,305 mbeyond every hull

A cracked plain dotted with smoking mounds.

765–1,305 mbeyond every hull

The volcano at the very centre of the caldera, with lava running down its sides.

Beyond the Rim · The Void

1,600–2,820 mdeeper than any Otter hull

Past the reef there is no floor. The Void Leviathan hunts here.

1,820–2,820 mbeyond every hull

Past the rim reef the floor drops away into the dark. The Void Leviathan hunts here.

To see where each biome is, open the map of the caldera.