Why the descent matters
The descent earns you nothing directly, but it decides where your ascent begins. Every metre you add is a metre of richer water on the way back. Losing your hull at 150 m on a 385 m line means skipping every squid, viperfish and angler below you.
Know what is coming
- Fish swim horizontally and turn at the edges. They are predictable: judge their speed and pass behind them.
- Jellyfish drift slowly and bob up and down. They glow pink even in the darkest water, so you always get a warning.
- Coral (in the upper 115 m) and rocks (below) grow from both walls. They never move.
Hazards become denser with depth, and your hook gets faster: descent speed rises the deeper you go.
Five techniques
1. Hold the centre lane
Rocks and coral live at the walls. The central third of the screen is the only area where only moving hazards can reach you. Return to the middle after every dodge.
2. Look further down
The camera keeps the hook in the upper third of the screen so you can see what is coming. Train your eyes on the area below the hook, not on the hook itself.
3. Small corrections, early
Steering has inertia. A small movement started early beats a big swerve at the last moment, which overshoots into the next hazard.
4. Pass behind swimmers
Aim for where a fish was, not where it is going. By the time you arrive, it has moved on.
5. Use your invulnerability
After a hit the hook blinks for about a second and can't be hurt. If you are about to take an unavoidable second hit, going straight through during the blink costs nothing.
Managing your three hull points
Think of hull as a budget. On a short line you can afford to be aggressive. On a long line, if you lose two points early, consider pressing Space to reel in on your own terms — a controlled turnaround still gives you the full ascent from that depth, while a tangle at the next jellyfish gives you exactly the same with less depth.
Use the light
Below roughly 100 m the water darkens quickly, and by about 300 m you are relying almost entirely on the spotlight. During the descent the beam points downward, ahead of you. Some deep-sea species carry their own glowing marks — lanternfish photophores, the angler's lure, the viperfish's dots — that show up even outside the beam. Learn them and you'll spot many fish before the light reaches them. Read more in our article on real bioluminescence.
Related: when to buy Spotlight Power.