• 17 October 2026
• DancingCoder

The Tadpoles came back. The lights went out.

At the end of Session 06, we had finally reached the strange structure beyond the canyon and promptly run out of air. The answer, we decided, was to go back to Jenny and build some Tadpoles.

This time, we actually followed the plan.

We came back with two vehicles, built somewhere to dock them and started exploring properly. Then we discovered how much of our base's electricity the vehicles wanted.

Most of it, apparently.

Session 07 at a glance

• Players: DancingCoder and Mr.Pendragon
• Main objective: Return to Jenny, build replacement Tadpoles and bring them to the far end of BOTB's tunnel
• Base expanded: A moonpool and two docks at the tunnel's far end, with the working facilities moved closer to them
• New marker: BOTB Gateway
• Key finds: A resource-rich cave, a research outpost, the Modification Station and Engine Efficiency blueprints, and a working Bio-Lab
• Unexpected building lesson: A dock needs some floor beside the water, not just a bigger hole
• Further progress: Another look inside the observatory and a Modification Station built back at base
• Still unresolved: A depth-upgrade lead, the observatory's doorway and a reliable night-time power supply
• Bases: Jenny and BOTB, with BOTB Gateway marking the far end

Back to Jenny

Jenny was a long swim away, and we had already supplied the ocean with enough bodies to know that setting off confidently was not much of a safety measure.

We headed up towards the surface and made our way back. There were more of the brain-looking plants to investigate along the way, and then the familiar sight of our floating SEED logo beside the base.

It was good to see Jenny again.

It was even better to open the lockers and find strong acid and a wiring kit already waiting for us. We had been talking about finding more plants for acid. The acid was at home.

That left the rest of the vehicle materials to sort out. We gathered titanium and copper, put the processor to work and started making power cells and ingots.

There was a brief discussion about dismantling Jenny's vehicle fabricator and one of the docks to take with us. Once we checked the materials, we could leave the dock where it was and prepare to build at the other end instead.

Jenny could keep her furniture.

Two Tadpoles, and a reluctant departure

Eventually, we had two Tadpoles again.

Getting one out of the dock produced an immediate reminder of how these things work. Out it came, then straight back into the dock. The advice was to turn as soon as it dropped into the water.

A successful launch was followed by another piece of excellent timing.

It was dark.

We headed back towards BOTB with the vehicles and the materials for the new docking area. The plan was to leave the Tadpoles near the beginning of the tunnel while we built the moonpool at the far end, then bring them across when there was somewhere to put them.

We wanted them out of the water as quickly as possible. The Collector Leviathan had already taken enough interest in our previous vehicles. Whether docking would put these beyond its reach was a theory we were very keen not to test the hard way.

The dock needs somewhere to stand

The tunnel was still there, which was a pleasant improvement on the beginning of Session 06.

The far end needed a room and a moonpool big enough for two docks. In the dark, working out what fitted where was not particularly straightforward. A little light went in. It did not help very much.

Then the dock refused to fit.

We made the opening bigger.

It still refused to fit.

We checked the materials. They were there. We checked the position. We wondered whether the location itself was the problem.

The actual problem was considerably simpler.

The dock needed some floor space. We had been concentrating on making the hole bigger, which was steadily removing the thing it needed beside it.

Once the layout left somewhere for the dock to stand, we could place it. Then we could place the second one.

A moonpool is useful. A little bit of floor turns out to be useful as well.

BOTB Gateway

The first attempt to bring a Tadpole along the route attracted the Collector Leviathan's attention. We backed off, waited and tried again.

Then came the considerably better news that a vehicle had docked.

By the time both Tadpoles were across, it felt like we had finally made proper use of the tunnel we spent the previous session building. It led somewhere, and now we could leave it in something with an oxygen supply.

There was one small organisational problem.

All our useful things were at the other end.

So we moved the working facilities down towards the moonpool: the fabricator, battery charging and a biobed. We reassigned the reprint point and brought the consumables along as well. The connected base could share building materials, but that did not move our dinner into a more convenient locker.

We also gave this end its own marker: BOTB Gateway.

That should save us arriving at the wrong end of our own base.

A gateway, some fish and no dinner yet

With the vehicles sorted, food and water became the immediate job.

There were new fish to chase, Water Slugs to collect and a useful distraction in the form of the gateway rings. Taking a Tadpole through one produced a noise and a push through the opening. On one screen, it also appeared to pull the vehicle back before sending it through again.

Quite what the rings would eventually do was still a matter of speculation. For the moment, driving through them was interesting enough.

It was also not dinner.

We went back with fish to cook, which brought us to the next problem.

There was no power.

The vehicles were eating the electricity

The Tadpoles were charging. The base was trying to run everything else at the same time. This was not an arrangement our power supply could comfortably support.

We tried undocking the vehicles and adding solar power. Eventually, we had enough electricity to make food and water, which was the important part at that particular moment.

Leaving the Tadpoles outside while we did it was not especially reassuring. The obvious concern was that we would solve the electricity problem just in time for the Collector to solve our vehicle-storage problem.

Permanently.

We talked about hydroelectric power. There were currents nearby that might make it possible, but getting power back to the base would be another building job. More materials, more cable and more time outside.

For now, we could eat.

The grander electrical works could wait a little longer.

Silver, salt and full pockets

The next gathering trip took us into a cave with plenty of silver and some strange glowing plants. There was copper to collect as well, and a good amount of salt.

Naturally, our inventories filled up.

We had come out for food, water and building materials. The cave was doing a fairly good job of supplying the third item, and a fairly good job of making it difficult to carry anything else.

The salt was welcome, although it did not mean we could simply repeat the better food we had made with Halfmoons before. These were different fish. Basic food would have to do.

Back at BOTB Gateway, we needed another locker and better lighting. We also looked again at Power Storage. Germanium was part of that job, and we had left some of it at our other base because we had not expected to need it here.

Of course we had.

Building a processor gave us another option: make it locally from silver. After the cave, silver was at least something we knew where to find.

We did not get Power Storage built during this session.

A research outpost worth stopping for

Then we found a research outpost.

This was a much better reason to stop gathering. There were things to scan, supplies to collect and equipment that might move us beyond simply replacing the things we kept losing.

Engine Efficiency unlocked. We found the Modification Station too, which immediately made the Tadpoles rather more interesting.

There was also a lead concerning a depth module. At the time, it sounded as though we might have found the answer to going deeper. That would need checking properly back at base.

We stopped to sort out oxygen inside the outpost as well. We were careful about the biobed, because setting our reprint point here was not part of the plan.

Then we found the Bio-Lab.

Water, or growing lunch on yourself

The Bio-Lab needed power. A battery and the connected power equipment got it working, and we could look through the biomods.

One option would slowly produce a water packet by filtering fresh water from the sea. Another offered faster swimming close to underwater surfaces. A third involved growing nutritious algae on your skin.

Yep. Lunch, but attached to you.

Given how much of the evening we had spent looking for food and water, these were fairly relevant choices.

I chose the water option. Mr.Pendragon went with the algae. By the time we compared notes back at base, the exact business of collecting his food was still something to work out.

We had found a possible answer to two survival problems, and made personal hygiene considerably more complicated.

Back inside the observatory

From there, we went for another look at the observatory we had reached at the end of Session 06.

Last time, we had arrived without enough air to investigate properly. Having the Tadpoles nearby made this a much more sensible visit.

Inside, there was a doorway and some damaged equipment to examine. There was also a discussion about an alien power supply, followed by the equally reasonable question of whether we were the aliens.

We did not get the doorway open.

We did, however, find more supplies, including a filtered water packet. That was a more immediately useful result than standing in front of a door we could not open.

There were more messages and directions to follow up. We would need NOA at our own base to go through the next signal properly.

First, we had to get home. The Collector was still nearby, so we went around it.

The Tadpoles had only just come back. We were trying to keep them that way.

Daylight helps

Back at BOTB Gateway, the power problem was still waiting.

Dock the vehicles, and the available electricity became an issue again. Undock them, try the machines, check what was running. There was even a point where docking itself was not cooperating.

For a moment, waiting until daylight seemed like the sensible way to finish the job.

Then daylight arrived.

We sorted more food, compared our biomods and made room for NOA. There was also the familiar business of finding somewhere to put a locker without making the room awkward.

NOA put Ruby's Blackbox on the PDA, at a reported depth of 295 metres. That made checking the Tadpoles' upgrades a fairly sensible next job.

We built the Modification Station and checked what was available.

Engine Efficiency was there. The depth module we had been discussing was not.

So that was a lead, not a new depth limit. An important distinction before we took two freshly built Tadpoles somewhere they could not survive.

You can watch our full gameplay video for session 07 below.

 

A better place to pause

Session 07 got us two replacement vehicles, a moonpool and docks at the far end of the tunnel, a more useful forward base, new blueprints, biomods and another look inside the observatory.

We had also learned that a dock needs floor space, that having fish is not the same as being able to cook them, and that solar power is much easier to appreciate during the day.

The next job was to pause, go through the messages and work out which lead to follow. The depth upgrade still needed finding, and Power Storage still needed building.

But the Tadpoles were back.

Now we just had to stop them eating dinner's electricity.