Best ways to fight a reaper in Subnautica

Important takeaways

  • Using the Shrimp Suit with a grappling arm and drill arm can quickly kill smaller creatures such as ghost leviathans and harvest leviathans.
  • The Stasis Rifle paired with a Thermoblade offers a safer but slow method of fighting and killing reapers in Subnautica.
  • Equipping the Shrimp Suit with Torpedo Arms and Gas Torpedoes can be a challenging but rewarding way to take down a harvester in the game.



Subnautica is a game filled with options and is notable as a survival game where almost no creature ever has to be fought or killed if the player chooses not to. However, there are ways to take on the giant creatures that inhabit the oceans of the alien planet the player crash lands on.

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While it is almost (but not quite) impossible to take down a sea dragon, the lesser ghost leviathans and reaper leviathans can be killed by the player using only the limited weapons they are allowed to craft in the game. From the obvious to the downright crazy, it methods of tackling and finishing a harvester i Subnautica are many.


Updated on October 23, 2024 by Chris Harkin: Although Subnautica hasn't received many updates recently, as the developers continue to work towards a third game in the franchise, the ingenuity of the players never slows down. Fighting a reaper is still one of the more difficult tasks in the game, and while mostly unnecessary, it can be an important part of clearing areas filled with valuable materials or making common and important travel routes much safer. With this in mind, Subnautica players who love to revisit the game will likely continue to find new ways to get rid of the harvest leviathans that cause so much trouble and destruction when left unchecked.


6 Shrimp suit drill arm

Works best alongside the grapple arm for grappling and drilling techniques

A Shrimp Suit In Subnautica

  • Likelihood of Success: High
  • Materials required: Shrimp suit, grab arm and drill arm upgrade modules


While the shrimp suit is something of a safety net against the giant creatures that roam the world Subnauticait can only take two or three hits from a reaper before it is destroyed. Fortunately, during reaper battles, the creature will usually attack and then wander off for a while, giving players the opportunity to repair the suit between charges. There are many possible accessories for the shrimp suit, but the most common pairing for fighting will be a drill arm and a grappling arm.

This combo allows players to latch on to a leviathan and not let it get away, giving them an opportunity to kill it much faster than in a drawn out battle involving many harvester charges. The drill arm is an incredibly useful tool for dealing damage to these massive creatures. Constantly drilling into this beast while locked with the grapple arm is an effective technique and will pay off, quickly eliminating reapers and even the larger leviathan class creatures.


5 Stasis Rifle/Thermo-Blade

The slow but steady classic method is missing in larger machines

A Stasis Rifle Used In Subnautica

  • Likelihood of Success: High, with good aim
  • Materials required: Stasis Rifle, Knife (preferably upgraded to Thermoblade)

This method seems at first glance to be the craziest of all ways to fight a reaper Subnautica. But it's actually one of the safer and more secure ways to end one. The stasis rifle is a weapon that can freeze in-game objects in place for up to thirty seconds, and the thermoblade is one of the few tools that can actually deal damage to an opponent.


While there is very little safety involved in the process, using the stasis rifle on a charging leviathan can hold the creature in place while the player goes under and attacks with the thermoblade. Slicing away under the belly may not feel as effective as attacking in a shrimp suit, but it's easy when the player has the technique down to keep the harvester in place indefinitely. When the bubble from the stasis rifle shot starts to flicker, it's time to stop slashing and throw another shot with the rifle to continue holding the harvester in place. If you use a regular knife to chop, it will be a slow process, but with a thermo blade, the harvester will be dead in just a few minutes of chopping at it.

It is important to bring medical kits when using this method, as it takes two hits for a reaper to kill the player. Players should also be sure to get up for air when needed or to have another means of breathing handy.

4 Shrimp suit torpedoes

Trickier to hit with but more rewarding when they hit

A Shrimp Suit Prepared In Subnautica


  • Likelihood of Success: Medium
  • Materials Required: Shrimp Suit, Torpedo Arm Upgrade, Tons of Torpedoes

Shrimp suits have other accessories that provide other ways to fight and kill a reaper. However, it can be dangerous and messier than using grab and drill arms. Subnautica does not provide traditional missiles or torpedoes, but it does allow players to create gas torpedoes. These will explode on impact, releasing powerful gas fumes that can kill even a reaper leviathan. However, each arm of a shrimp suit can hold a payload of six gas torpedoes, and even at maximum damage, each torpedo can hit a target for around 500-550 damage.


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This means that players will probably need to make both arm mounts on their shrimp suit into torpedo arms and fill both with gas torpedoes. Even then, reapers are notorious for their lack of staying still unless hit with a stasis rifle. Players can try to let a reaper get close and then shoot it up before returning to their shrimp suit to fire all of their torpedoes before the creature escapes the rifle blast. This can definitely kill a reaper, which has 5000 health and can be eliminated by taking the full damage from 10 torpedo clouds. With a total of 12 torpedoes in the payload, it is likely to die, but unlikely if the harvester is allowed to move during the attack.

3 Seamoth torpedoes

Can usually be done earlier in the game

A Lake Fires A Torpedo In Subnautica

  • Likelihood of Success: Low-Medium
  • Materials required: seam, possibly depth upgrade modules, torpedo module upgrade, lots of torpedoes


If players want a real challenge, it is possible to kill a reaper with a Seamoth. The fast vehicles seem good for fast underwater travel, but it's still hard to avoid a charging machine in one, and a Seamoth can't take more than a couple of harvest strikes before exploding. Fortunately, players can also attach a torpedo system to the Seamoth, which will damage a reaper.

However, the Seamoth torpedo system maxes out at 6 torpedoes. It is possible to make all four Seamoth mounts torpedo systems for a total of 24 torpedoes, but this leaves the Seamoth hugely vulnerable to attack. If fired quickly at the right time, this large array of torpedoes can kill a reaper, but the Seamoth is definitely a vulnerable tool to rely on in such a fight.

2 The lonely knife

For hardcore gamers who love a challenge

Subnautica: Below Zero - Knife item model


  • Likelihood of Success: Fairly low
  • Materials required: Knife, preferably fire extinguisher and other swim speed upgrade

A game that Subnautica comes with all sorts of challenges that players love to come up with, and one that will test the limits of Subnautica The gameplay and patience of the veterans is trying to kill a reaper with a knife or a thermal blade, minus the stasis rifle that makes the more common method of combat so popular and much easier.

It is possible to knife a reaper leviathan to death without the stasis rifle holding them in place, but it takes much longer and is much more challenging. Harvesters swim faster than the player and often charge if the player stays close to them. Trying not to get caught is the challenging part, but while the player can use a mix of quick items like fire extinguishers, air bladders and more to avoid the stomping giant, they still need to get enough knife in to kill it. This is a long and slow method, and the stasis rifle is highly recommended before a player tries to kill a reaper, but it is worthwhile and a very exciting challenge.


1 Cyclops Shove

Suicidal and only for crazy players, but it can work

A cyclops in Subnautica

  • Likelihood of success: Really low
  • Materials Required: Cyclops, Shield Generator Upgrade

Cyclops are usually more of a major target for the Reapers to attack than a tool of their destruction. Locke to escape the reapers replaces the ability to fire missiles at them, but the cyclops can kill a reaper. Cyclops deals damage i Subnautica when it hits creatures in the water. This can result in smaller creatures being accidentally killed when they get caught in the path of such a large vehicle. A reaper will also take some damage when Cyclops hits it. Normally this doesn't matter as Cyclops will take much more damage, but with a shield generator on the ship that activates right before the reaper hits, reaper will still take damage, but Cyclops won't.


Shields take a huge amount of energy. So for this method to succeed, it is almost necessary to use ion power cells rather than ordinary ones. Even so, players will need to shut down the shield between reaper charges to succeed. Walking at high speed into a harvester like this for several minutes can kill it, but the method is hugely dangerous as a Cyclops is hard to replace.

SUBNAUTICS

System

PlayStation-1 Xbox-1

Released
23 January 2018

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