Beginner Guide: The First Week Without Wasted Dives
A bottleneck-based upgrade route for faster unlocks, safer dives and a profitable first restaurant week.
Treat the opening as an unlock route
Main missions unlock systems that compound your progress: permanent weapons, staff, farms and deeper biomes. Advance one primary objective per dive instead of grinding the Shallows without a plan.
- Morning: story objective plus route-adjacent materials
- Afternoon: restaurant stock and quality catches
- Night: enhance a small number of repeatable dishes
Upgrade the bottleneck
There is no universal first purchase. Buy the upgrade that is forcing you to surface early.
- Cargo Box when weight ends the dive
- Air Tank when oxygen is the limit
- Diving Suit when the next objective requires depth
- Harpoon when ordinary catches consume too much time
Keep the materials that gate weapons
Scan every new weapon crate and avoid selling all crafting stock. Rope, Scrap Iron, Lead Ore and Cuttlefish Skin are common early blockers.
- Open crates even when the temporary weapon is not ideal
- Surface with quest items before taking optional fights
- Use manual save slots alongside autosaves
Sources & verification
Facts are paraphrased and cross-checked. Community recommendations are strategy, not developer guarantees.
Official Steam page ↗Community equipment reference ↗Related guides
Oxygen, Cargo and Depth: Plan Every Dive
Use one objective, a reserved cargo budget and a known escape route to make deeper dives safer and more productive.
How to Catch 3-Star Fish
Match nets, tranquilizers and the Recovery Drone to fish size so valuable targets reach Bancho Sushi alive.
Best Weapons and Upgrade Paths
Separate boss damage from live-capture work and invest in the branch that matches the next objective.