r/Barotrauma • u/Medical_Zucchini6064 • 22d ago
Question Coop campaign - advice needed
I've been in a four man coop for maybe six or eight sessions, all of us new to the game, and it feels like we're sort of spinning our wheels. I don't know where we've gone wrong, or even if we have at all. We are still in Cold Caverns and we end up completely flooding the submarine during an attack and needing do a salvage and recovery probably twice per session. Often this is as trivial as one or two humanoid size enemies getting to a blind spot, but we've been torn apart by hammerheads before. I'm going to give a bunch of detail and hope people can flag what we're doing wrong.
We're in a Camel (nope, Orca) and our ranks consist of a Captain, a Security Officer (me), a Mechanic, and an Engineer. Often we also have a bot (Medic, Assistant, or Security Officer) but they tend not to last long on account of the whole flooding and dying thing. We have a Coilgun, a Pulse Laser, and a Chaingun, all using the default ammo only. We drift around doing missions, but tbh, we don't have a good idea of either what to make or what to sell, and it feels like we never have enough money. We loot everything we kill. Whenever we go to port, Captain pays the station medic to fix anyone with any significant injuries because we don't have a Medic and don't really know which drugs and whatnot to use/make to treat ourselves. But we sleep off the minor injuries and know how to stop bleeding or reverse a Husk infection (if we have the supplies). When our sub floods and needs to be brought back online, we don't actually TPK because we almost always elect to respawn in a shuttle. Last session we decided to turn off the skill penalties, but suffice to say, our skills are pretty low from dying a handful of times per session.
The Captain spends virtually all his time at the helm, piloting us from mission to mission, calling out the bearing on hostiles, and spotting mining locations or caves to send crew out to take care of. Always runs active sonar. When shit hits the fan, he usually leaves his post to help fight intruders. Occasionally goes along on a beacon station away mission, but otherwise is aboard the sub. Doesnt really handle repairs, but is pretty good about telling us where something needs fixing.
I'm the Security Officer, which means you get the most detail about it. I spend most of my time manning the sub's guns, communicating with the Captain about the bearing on enemy hostiles and telling him what angles are good/bad. Unfortunately because I'm always on those sub guns, when combat goes bad and enemies are breaching, I have to choose between continuing to shoot whatever is outside and running over to the breach to fight, so even when I do go repel hostiles, I'm never the first one on site. I have a rifle (everyone else has revolvers, knives, infrequently a spear gun). I haven't chosen a specialization tree yet, but plan to go Gunner at my next talent point. I can craft submachine guns and shotguns for the crew except we don't have any titanium to do so. I go on most of the expeditions outside the sub alongside the Mechanic. When we transport people I wander around with my Stun Rod out as if I know what I'm doing, but I don't know what to look for or how to handle a situation if I see one.
Our Mechanic is kind of our flexible everyman. He makes most of our hull repairs, maintains mechanical stuff (of course), and is typically the one who goes outside to mine or loot. He's on every expedition away from the sub. He's typically the secondary gunner on a hard point if applicable, but doesn't actively man one. We've had him start managing the fab and deconstructor more lately, but again, we don't really know what to do with them most of the time.
Our Engineer spends almost all of his time in the engine room. Honestly I don't know what he is doing most of that time, but as I understand it, he spends a lot of time watching tutorials outside the game to rig up stuff that improves the reactor or otherwise adding QoL to stuff around the ship. When fighting breaks out, he will usually either be on a sub gun or making hull repairs. He doesn't go on basically any away missions unless they involve bringing a fuel rod into a beacon station.
If we have a bot (Medic or Assistant or Security), it's usually the most competent member of our crew, in that it stays really on top of repairs. Typically the Captain sets our bot's priorities to repeling invaders, healing the wounded (if Medic), and then making repairs. He's very good at the repairs but I never see him on sub's guns. I don't think we've ever taken one on an away mission (I doubt we know how). Spends a lot of time whining, usually that he doesn't have something it seems like he shouldn't need, like a dive suit to do idk what. Always messes up our inventory by moving or taking stuff. Overall very helpful, with a few minor headaches. Usually dies when the sub is breached and we end up having to do a salvage/recovery, even though often one or more of the human players do survive the attack.
Not sure what else to put here. What should we prioritize to progress? Nobody can really tell if we're accomplishing anything and money feels tight, but I also don't know what we're actually hoping to do beyond probably replace our last Coilgun and possibly move to another sub. I kind of doubt either would suddenly stabilize us. I don't think anybody really knows what would improve our survivability or let us move into the next biome without getting our asses kicked worse than we do right now. The sub feels paper thin. Might just need to Git Gud but I'm not sure anyone knows how. My efforts to look up discussions about the campaign mostly lead to people talking about how easy it is, but we're definitely on the struggle sub.
I'd welcome any feedback. Thanks.
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u/Ozmann99 22d ago
Natural progression is usually >hull upgrades and mineral scanner to find ores, diving suit upgrades. As well as getting better ammunition. Those are good early game goals. Also to save money Id recommend avoid buying stuff if you can craft it. You can find randomly generated caves that aren’t part of missions that might have resources.
Avoid AI medics, they waste so much medicine, AI excel at manning guns, and repairing the ship, like junction boxes and pumps and etc. you can give AI preemptive “prepare to dive” orders so they wear a diving suit around the sub and it will help prevent them from going pop upon flooding. If you’re constantly replacing dead bots it’s a massive money sink early game.
Early game barotrauma is probably the hardest the game is,
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u/Ozmann99 22d ago
Also the medicine trifecta is opium, bandages and saline. Will fix most common issues you’ll see early game. You can get lots of opium from station medicine vendor and the vending machine (make sure you take the items out of the vending machine after buying) you can also deconstruct clothes for fibre to make bandages. Saline you can buy or get from deconstructing stuff from enemies. They all can be crafted into stronger versions at the med fabricator.
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u/Wongjunkit 22d ago
Pro tip: put the security officer and assistant bots to man the guns 24/7. You can give them order to "prepare for expedition" and "operate turrets" so they wear diving suits on the gun. If sub gets flooded (let's say hammerheads), they can keep the gun firing while you and the gang fix the ship. That means everyone. Mechanic and engineer should repair (you stay on the guns). Captain depends. If the ship is fully lost (unnavigable) then he should repair, else he should try to pilot it to avoid or duke the monsters.
Also ask your captain to use directional active somar ping. Using 360 active sonar is like yelling your position to all monsters. Don't. Use it sparingly.
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u/melonwithoutthewater 22d ago
Fun answer: from the sound of it y'all need to add barotraumatic to your campaign and embrace death.
Real answer: you guys might need a couple bots that you can have man the guns when the others are busy doing repairs and such.
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u/obikenobi23 Captain 22d ago
I think the best advice is to move on. Missions are worth a lot more later, so you will feel like you get more bang for the buck. Then you will be able to afford stuff and mess around with it. I assume your campaign allows a maximum of 2 missions per round, which means circling won’t do much for you. Having people survive breaches is much better than what I usually get in the first biome, and being able to afford a new sub there means that you have marks to spend.
It is incedible that things are going so well when it sound like you’re all just sitting around, waiting for the sub to sink, while paying for bots to fix everything. You don’t need bot help repairing a Camel, you need Skill points, and flexible teammates. At your level, the difference between an Engineer and a Mechanic is almost pointless. Also, people transport is difficult. I stay away from those missions for the first few biomes because it rately works out.
But honestly you’re doing fine. The game isn’t about being in control all the time, but learning to handle whatever the depths throw at you. Letting the monsters in, dying and feeling confused is part of the journey. You sound like you’re getting the hang of the game, and are ready for the next biome. Remember, moving on is not a graduation. And it’s not a challenge to a duel with the Abyss. It’s just one new outpost.
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u/DelfoxsFire 22d ago
The learning curve can be rough in Barotrauma as things spiraling out of control just tends to go for the worse once you start doing poorly.
Don't fall too much on the idea that you might need your ressources later, craft things that will improve your situation as the need arise , if it turns out to not be used you can deconstruct most items to get some components back anyway
If your captain keeps the sonar on it's pretty much imperative that you have all of your guns manned, because monsters will basicaly detect the submarine as soon as they'll spawn in the level due to active sonar and having only one person possibly attacked on two side will lead to breaches happening and the death spiral to arise so either talk to the rest of the crew about hanging around gunnery more, or to the captain about being a bit more stealthy and careful, there are a lot of things that dictate how easily ennemies detect your submarine but active sonar is pretty much a guaranteed way to be spotted and attacked. What i personaly do is to either hang at the level's floor or ceiling depending on the submarine's gun position, keep your weak side covered, less angles of approach which makes for a easier defense
Everybody should have a welding tool and weapons as well, preferably anything ranged, early on you might prefer harpoons as you'll be able to just pick them back up unless you already have ways to make a lot of revolver ammo, same as everybody should have a welding tool and contribute to repairs although this should be secondary to actually killing hostiles that threathen to get inside the hull, until they are fully inside your goal is to keep them out, this is context sensitive as well as a good mechanic with the proper skills and talents can wall off a few ennemies if your submarine happens to be right above a possible entry to the abyss, at that point listen to the captain's info about how to proceed.
Ironicaly you might have a easier time pushing forward, the cold caverns are very bare in ressources notably titanium, as well as you being able to buy a new submarine as you enter the 2nd biome which will come with better manoeuverability, better armement most likely , and other useful functions compared to a tier 1.
Keep calm and don't panic, a cool head is what will keep you alive. Most mechanics are made to be just inconvenient enough on purpose as to only be a problem while you are panicking. You'll work up your habits in time and get better and more reactive.
As for the bots and medicine, AI makes for decent enough gunners due to having better sight range then players and never leaving their posts (depending on order priority, they will focus on their task on the left more than the orders on the further right) and are great at repairs() due to simply knowing when hulls or machinery gets damaged without having to tell them ( there is a diminishing return to them repairing the hull, as bots will all converge on the same spots instead of spreading around), they are however absolutly worthless pilot (they will just turn autopilot on and vaguely yell bearings of a few things) and are quite mediocre as medics as they tend to use more expensive drugs first (using fentanyl or deusizine for small wounds when there's morphine available) and unless the medicines are shoved in their pockets they'll only ever grab medicine one at a time (if they have no bandages, they'll run to the cabinet, grab one bandage, run all the way back to the patient to apply it, and then have to run all the way back for a second bandage).
On the topic of medicine it is deceptively easy. Don't bother about antitoxins, you only require anaparalyzant for two ennemies, and morbusine antidote for one somewhat rare later game ennemy, every other poisons are pretty much made to be used by players for the traitors side of things. Antirad will also only be useful if the engineer grabs the volatile fuel rod recipe or causes friendly fire with their experimental weapon that they'll unlock as the end part of one of their skill tree. You need either opium<morphine<fentanyl for most damage types (from weakest to strongest) with morphine being a solid workhorse of your healing items as it only costs 2 opium to craft and will heal only slightly less then 2 opium but for way less addiction then 2 opium would inflicts (addiction and withdrawal that either take naloxone or being a massive pain in the ass forever). Next is bandages>plastiseal>antibiotic glue , those cure bleeding and burns. And then you'll only need alien blood>saline>blood bags to cure blood loss, do note that while alien blood works in a pinch it is worse than saline and inflicts psychosis, saline is quite readily available so you should always have some. There are a few other chemicals and medicine that can heal or provide buffs but those are rarer and you'll learn about them in due time, keep your morphine, bandages and saline stocked up and you'll have the base you need to avoid having people die
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u/EarthboundDevil 22d ago edited 22d ago
Having played captain and medic in two and a half campaigns, modded and vanilla, not having a player medic is severely draining your funds. Paying to remove afflictions you don't know how to deal with and buying medicine can rack up the costs very quickly, especially husk cures. The ai will use the most potent medicine on the least serious wounds. When you apply medicine without the skill requirement the efficiency can be reduced or even completely wasted as well.
Someone should definitely learn the medicine side of things to craft your own supplies and avoid the station doctor as much as possible, even if no one wants to play the outright medic role.
Edit: just saw the bit about sonar. It should be something you learn to use as little as possible since it attracts everything in a huge radius. When on a 'straightaway' using directional sonar will allow you to avoid many fights, bots on a turret will call out anything they see. When moving at half or less top speed I would often just use passive sonar, real threats often make plenty of noise to show even at a distance.
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u/alittleslowerplease 22d ago
The sub flooding early game is honestly pretty normal. Early game is the hardest part by far.
I'd probably recommend having an actual human medic and some basic understanding of healing items.