Hello and welcome to a guide on how to survive as a diver. Sometimes the role of divers is greatly misunderstood, especially by those who may be new to the game. It's not always easy to figure out either, and divers will wind up dying again and again, causing a large loss of tickets and hurting their team a great deal.

So, in this guide I'm going to go over both diver and shark goals, how to accomplish your diving goals, how to stay alive, and even how best to counter each type of shark you encounter.

As a diver, it's good to understand what exactly your enemies are trying to accomplish. As a shark, one's goals are less than a diver's goals. Without further ado, here are a shark's goals:

• Kill divers
• Stop divers from collecting gold

And that's literally it. All sharks need to do to win is steadily wear down diver tickets until there are no more, then finish them off. Their secondary goal is to prevent as much gold collection as possible, the more gold divers have, the less likely sharks are to win. Not that massive amounts of gold guarantee diver victory, it just makes it harder for sharks to kill people.

As a diver, you have slightly more complex goals than a shark, but there are only three.

• Collect treasure
• Don't die
• Protect S.T.E.V.E.

Notice how diver's goals, unlike sharks, do not include killing the enemy. I'll admit, victory is more often achieved by completely eliminating the enemy team than by getting S.T.E.V.E. back to the boat in one piece, but that's not YOUR primary goal as a diver. Your primary goal as a diver is to not be killed by sharks. Every time a shark kills a diver, the diving team is weakened and the sharks are strengthened.

The simplest task, as most sharks do not even target S.T.E.V.E. Your robotic companion is how you win given that shark elimination is not a possibility. As long as a single diver is alive, you can win the game. I once won a game simply by running away with a DPV while S.T.E.V.E. chugged back to the boat and the sharks foolishly tried to catch me without stopping the robot. Normally, sharks do not target S.T.E.V.E. until the fourth safe is open and divers are heading back, but he can and will take damage all throughout the game, either accidentally or purposefully. Once S.T.E.V.E. is heading back, your job then is to make more pressing targets than him, such as P.A.T.s, buoys, or even yourself. Now, that doesn't mean jump into a shark's jaws, but if you and your teammates can successfully keep the sharks' attention from S.T.E.V.E., it's almost a sure win.

Don't get cocky though, you don't want to die too much. The less pressing targets there are around S.T.E.V.E., the more likely sharks are to target him. If your entire team is dead for a full 10 seconds while they all poke around the shop menu, that's a full ten seconds both sharks have to eat consumables and beat up S.T.E.V.E.

Also important! Remember, S.T.E.V.E. moves more slowly as the match progresses. Every time a safe is opened, he moves more slowly. After the fourth safe, he'll be at a crawl. When S.T.E.V.E. takes damage, he slows down. After the fourth safe, a heavily damaged S.T.E.V.E. moves at a dead crawl. Try to keep S.T.E.V.E. above 80% hp! Sea mines also damage S.T.E.V.E., so watch out! For more information on sea mines and S.T.E.V.E., read my other guide:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=641833723

S.T.E.V.E.'s job is to open safes (or in some maps chests but we'll refer to those as safes too). Each time a safe is opened, the whole team gets a $1000 bonus. However, one should not rely on S.T.E.V.E. for their money, as he gets it way too slowly. Which brings us to our next goal.

Collecting treasure is how divers become stronger. Treasure must be cashed into S.T.E.V.E., so don't hold onto it. S.T.E.V.E. can hold an unlimited amount of loose treasure without slowing down, so don't be afraid to collect as much as possible. Always cash in as often as you can, because a diver drops gold when a shark thrashes them.

What is thrashing? It is when a shark darts/lunges, catches a diver in their jaws, and moves their mouse enough to damage that diver. Treasure is dropped based on the amount of successful thrashes and the damage done per thrash. For example, you are carrying 20 pieces of treasure. A shark lunges and catches you and then slowly moves their mouse. You will probably drop 1-4 pieces of treasure per damaging thrash. Then another shark, let's say it's a tiger, starts thrashing wildly. In the split second that follows, you drop 7 pieces of treasure. Then you die, and all your treasure is dropped. Or, a teammate saves you with a net gun, and you're now only holding about 9 or 10 pieces of treasure. Theoretically, it is possible to be grabbed by a shark and it die without you losing any treasure at all, but don't count on it, it happens by sheer dumb luck. Always cash in, always!

Dropped treasure is scattered based on shark movement while it thrashes you. If you are slammed against the wall and killed with little movement, then all your treasure will be in a pile near the wall. If you a grabbed by a mako with powerful tail evolution, you can count on your treasure being scattered great distances over open water. Treasure may be dropped into unreachable places, or dropped treasure may be guarded by a shark against returning divers, making recovering it suicide. Best not to lose it in the first place. It is better to cash in in small amounts, than risk large amounts of treasure by holding onto it. If you have a large amount of treasure and fear you are about to die, press Q to drop all of it in a little bag. That way, you can remember where the bag is, and not have to worry about scattered treasure.

Collecting loose treasure and cashing it into S.T.E.V.E. provides a $50 bonus to the entire team, and the entire team should pitch in and help. Teammates that collect no treasure don't help their team enough. Each person should be capable of collecting about $750 worth of loose gold without a DPV. Maps like Galleon and Olmec have large amounts of concentrated loose treasure. On maps like Breach where teammates can be easily separated from each other and treasure is scarce, you should grab every piece of gold you see.

With a DPV, collecting loose treasure becomes a breeze… If you know what you're doing. A DPV doesn't make you uncatchable. A DPV doesn't automatically make you a bawss, it just improves your movement speed, what you do with that decides whether or not you're actually any help to your team. A decent DPV user should be able to avoid sharks and collect at least 2k worth of loose treasure. That's two maxed out trips. Remember, you can hold a max of 20 treasure, and that's $1000. A massive boost to the team. You should be able to neatly avoid death by not moving in straight lines. This means curves, zig-zags, loop-the-loops, and general vertical movement will make it harder for sharks to catch you. Remember, it's not just predictable sharks that die often, it's also predictable divers. With A DPV, you can collect up enough gold to get the Scrooge McDiver medal. That 80% of the map's loose treasure. With that a win becomes an easy reality. That's probably 40-50 pieces of loose treasure. Combine that with your teammate's bonus income and a couple of safes from S.T.E.V.E. and you've got enough to get a piercing harpoon, the ultimate shark stopping force when combines with a reinforced net, but very expensive. Remember, the faster the sharks you're up against, the more likely they can catch you.

Remember, loose treasure is your key to victory. It allows you to buy better weapons and more consumables, which in turn allows you to better fend off sharks.

Okay, now we get to the reason this guide was made: ticket preservation. Ticket preservation is the door through which you enter into victory, loose treasure is your key. What are tickets? Well, my friend, take a look at the top of your screen. See how it has four little images of divers next to a number? Those four little images represent how much of your team is alive. When they are dark, a teammate is dead. That number is how many times you and your teammates can respawn. The point of diving is to not let that number reach zero. The less times you die, the better. This means if you are doing something that is causing your repeated death (Like DPVing, open-water fighting, etc.) You MUST stop doing that. Your goal is to not die. If something is preventing you from achieving that goal, then avoid it like the plague!

Let's go over the main points of ticket preservation:

• Dodging
• Sound localization
• Listening to your heartbeat
• Good use of consumables
• Proper countering weapons

Dodging is the use of a diver's short burst of speed when pressing shift to avoid the jaws of a lunging/darting shark. It doesn't always work, so if you dodge and get caught anyways don't rage, just keep practicing. Sometimes lag is a factor when dodges fail, or a GW is using his cheating vacuum jaws. Dodging is mostly about timing and you can only sprint twice before you're out of stamina. Try to sprint when you see a shark facing you, or if you have a rapid heartbeat in open water (but can't see a shark) random dodging in a beneficial direction can save your life. You don't even have to be looking in the direction you are sprinting in! You can strafe sprint, and even sprint in reverse.

Remember, you don't just have to sprint forwards, you can sprint backwards or side to side, or even straight up and down! Spring upwards by pressing shift while holding the spacebar, or down while holding CTRL (default key).

When going to shoot a shark coming at you, remember it's sometimes better to get out of it's way, turn 180, and then shoot it, as opposed to shooting and not killing it, then get trapped and thrashed. A lot of weapons can't do enough damage to stop bigger sharks, or you may even miss. May not always be the case… but when in doubt, get out of the way!

Another truly powerful mechanic, but one that requires headphones (left and right hearing), or speakers that permit surround sound. Everything makes noise. Sharks can see diver's outlines every time their "sonar" scans the waters in an outward pulse. Divers don't get that. They get heartbeat and proper ears. With these ears, you must listen. Divers make noise when moving through the water, but SO DO SHARKS. When sprinting, lunging, or darting, even just swimming. The only time a shark is perfectly silent is when it is perfectly still, although it can be much quieter when moving slowly. A slow-moving shark is easier to shoot, so most sharks will travel by either sprinting or lunging. Depends on their stamina. A GW is always sprinting, otherwise, it is just too slow. A Mako's most frequent travel method is lunging. Only really the tiger travels without sprinting or lunging when close to divers, making it deadly because your heartbeat only tells you a shark is near, not where it might be.

When a shark moves swiftly, it makes enough noise that you can tell where it may be, to your left or right. When in open water, turn to face it (best you can based on sound, recommended 90 degree turn). This forces a shark to relocate, or come at you head on. This won't help as much is a shark is above or below you, but vertical thinking is a challenge to even the most skilled of players. The activation of some sharks abilities can be heard to tell where a shark will attack from (as most sharks will activate abilities when beginning an attack). The Bull shark has the loudest and most obvious ability sound.

Okay, let's just take a second to appreciate the heartbeat mechanic. It is so OP. Without it, you couldn't tell when sharks were getting near. A shark could silently approach you, be right behind you, and you'd never know. Your heartbeat allows you to have a heads up about nearby sharks. It let's you know when you need to take your face out of the ground and face the open waters and doorways, it tells you that you really should be getting back to S.T.E.V.E. with that massive amount of treasure, it lets you know when you should be able to hear a shark, and will never, EVER, allow a shark to completely sneak up on you. If a shark catches you unaware, then shame on you! It's not like you had no indication of the beast's approach.

Your heartbeat can save your life, NEVER ignore it. When your heart starts beating, you are within adequate lunging distance of the fastest of sharks. When it is beating rapidly, you are within the actual lunging distance of any shark, and in brighter waters, you should be able to see them. When your heart is beating is a good time to take your guns out. When it's not beating? Place your consumables, look for treasure, heal, get everything non-combat related out of the way, because this is your free period. This is when there is absolutely no danger when performing any task. This is when sharks can't hear you placing anything, when sharks can't finish you off while you're weak.

Be swift! Never waste a moment when your heart is not beating. It doesn't take long for sharks to cover distance, so have a plan for when your heart stops beating! Did you see some nearby treasure? Or perhaps you were injured during the fight? Always plan what you'll be doing when the fight is over, and when it ends, enact your plan immediately!

When purchasing consumables, take into the account what map you're on, what safe you're opening, room design, shark species, and experience of both allies and enemies. Depending on the type of shark your facing, you should determine whether to use flares or buoys, mines or P.A.T.s, etc. For in depth mine advice consult: On Sea Mines: A Guide to Proper Mine Usage. P.A.T.s are ineffective against faster sharks that can disable them without taking damage, and more effective against sharks that cannot take them out fast enough. Of course, sharks can just wait outside the room where the P.A.T. is placed until its battery dies and now you've used up $700 (Although this may buy you precious time and is something you should do if it keeps the sharks at bay!). Don't rely on P.A.T.s, they're not smart shooters, they can't lead their shots at all. Don't rely on mines, they can be rendered useless by swift sharks.

A buoy covers a large area and pings about once per second. They sit in the water indefinitely, but provide almost no light. They are absolutely necessary! Unless you are facing a team of TWO tigers, you should always buy sonar buoys! The sooner you see a shark, the sooner you can react to it! It is actually better to have too many buoys than not enough! They cost $100 each (2 pieces of treasure) so you're not losing much by stocking up when you die.

Flares are also vital, and an excellent counter to the tiger shark. If you find your buoys are being destroyed too quickly, switching to flares will allow you to see, and save you a load of money in the long run, priced at a mere $50. That's only 1 piece of treasure per flare. They have a limited life span, so they are best deployed when you first hear a slow heartbeat. They are thrown, and travel a ways from a diver before stopping, then slowly starting to sink. Deploy them directly against a surface to make them stick, or throw them out a window or door to prevent sharks from entering it undetected.

P.A.T., or Portable Aquatic Turret, is an expensive item best only bought after you have fully upgraded your primary weapon. It tends to be more effective when combined with sonar buoys and tagging rounds, and when used against slower, bigger sharks. Slower moving sharks are easier for a P.A.T. to hit. The most effective use of a P.A.T. is when divers are using tagging net guns against Great Whites, Hammerheads, and Bull Sharks. P.A.T.s have a very high rate of fire and can be relocated. They cannot shoot while being relocated, so only move them when there are no sharks around.

P.A.T.s cannot lead their shots, so faster moving sharks like Makos, Threshers, and Tigers are difficult for the P.A.T. to hit. Tiger's cloaking ability allows it to hide completely from P.A.T.'s targeting system. P.A.T.s have a very limited range, unless a shark is tagged. If a shark is tagged, P.A.T. will always shoot at the shark as long as there is nothing between the P.A.T. and the shark.

Supply Kits are vital in the later game when you have more money and sharks with a lot of evolution points. Supply kits cost $600 and come with a mine, 3 buoys, and 3 flares. This saves you $50, and allows you to bring 3 types of items to the fight with only 1 ticket lost. This will allow you and your teammates to place detection and a mine. Be sure to use it only when there is no heartbeat, you don't want to distract your teammates when a shark is near!

Medkits are vital to diver survival. One thing you should be doing is trying to save thrashed teammates. However, even if you save them, they will still remain injured. This is where medkits come in. They cost $200, and are the most important consumable there is. They are the only way to counter Serrated Teeth, Threshers, and Razor Fins with any efficiency! They completely heal you and your teammates, and you should always have at least one near S.T.E.V.E. at all times! Remember, your goal is to preserve tickets, this means keeping your teammates alive as well!

Last but not least we have our weapons! It is vital that you prioritize upgrading your weapons, and proper countering weapons are important! It is also vital that you use the appropriate weapon against whatever team of sharks you are facing right now! For the sake of simplicity, we're going to group each kind of shark into a category: Large, Medium, or Small.


The Great White Shark (GW) is the toughest, and one of the biggest sharks in the depths! His ability allows him to ignore incoming damage on a percent basis, from 30% up to 50%! He has a large health pool, but not much stamina. The best way to counter a GW is with hard-hitting weapons. The weapons you want against a GW are:

• Harpoon
The harpoon is the hardest hitting weapon in the game. It can get an upgrade (Piercing) that allows it to deal even more damage! Even with his ability maxed, the GW cannot take more than 2 shots from a piercing harpoon. If you are against two Large sharks, the Harpoon is the weapon of choice!

NEVER take explosive tips for the harpoon. They may be fun, but explosive spears are slower, deal less damage, and you can only carry a few of them, meaning more trips to the ammo box. They also deafen and blind your teammates. If a shark is thrashing a teammate, and you blow it up, you will blow up your teammate too! Remember your goal to preserve tickets! You can never save a teammate with an explosive harpoon.

• LJ-10 Volleyjet
The volleyjet is an amazing and versatile weapon that fires 5 spears twice, each spear dealing 50 damage. That's as much damage as a mine deals in two shots! It's a bit like an underwater shotgun, with the spears spreading far apart over greater distances. If you are facing the GW and a small shark, the volleyjet is the weapon for you. Add a toxic modifier for even more damage, it's super effective against GW, and may finish off the smaller shark too!

• APS Rifle
The APS rifle should only be used with the upgrade "Heavy Barrel" against the GW, and only if the other shark is a medium shark. Against 2 Large sharks, the spear gun is a better option (unless you have difficulty aiming it, then use the APS rifle instead) and the heavy barrel is ineffective against small sharks due to its slow rate of fire. Add toxic if you're against a goblin, or bleed if against a tiger, the modifier doesn't really matter against the GW.



The most deadly shark in the waters is the enraged bull! It's ability can temporarily give it the most health, stamina, and damage of all the sharks! Without his ability, the bull shark is weaker, but still a threat. The best tools to counter the bull shark are as follows:

• The Harpoon
We've already discussed the Harpoon, so you know the best upgrade to get is piercing. Even with his health increased due to rage, a fully upgraded harpoon can kill him with a single shot! In combination with a net gun, a bull's threat can be almost entirely eliminated!

• LJ-10 Volleyjet
The volleyjet is very useful against the bull due to his large size. Even coming head-on, the volleyjet is likely to land every spear, and unloading both shots into a bull can kill him for sure! Combine with toxic and the bull will almost certainly be killed. The versatility of the volleyjet can allow you to deal massive damage to the bull, while still dealing with a small shark.

• Net Gun
This is one of the sharks the net gun was made for. Unlike the GW, the bull's ability doesn't allow him to ignore net guns when activated. Reinforced nets will keep the bull restrained long enough to use up his ability entirely, leaving him vulnerable. In the net, he is unable to swim away, making a target that just can't be missed! Against a duo of bull sharks, a net gun practically assures victory, just don't miss!


Crushing divers against walls, allowing for almost instantaneous kills, the Hammerhead (HH), properly played, can be the single biggest danger in the sea, even more than the mako, GW, or even an enraged bull. His bulky size however, makes him a target. He can be easily countered with the follwing weapons:

• The Harpoon
With the second largest base health pool of all the sharks, the Hammerhead can take the heat, meaning you may have to crank it up really high in order to deal with him. While normally allowing for instant kills, he can even tolerate 2 shots from the harpoon. It requires the piercing upgrade in order to kill him in a single shot.

• LJ-10 Volleyjet
The volleyjet can deal the damage required to kill the HH quickly, while still allowing you to deal with smaller sharks. It's even ideal against a HH and medium sharks, as the harpoon is costly to upgrade to piercing, and you don't need the piercing upgrade for medium sharks.

• Net Gun
The second shark the net gun was made for, this is the HH's Achilles' heel. Since the HH must grab a diver, and then slam him against a surface, stopping the HH while he re-aims, or while he's against the wall will almost always result in his death. Being such a large shark, and only swiftly moving mid-lunge, he's hard to miss.

• ADS Rifle
If the HH is paired with a small shark, an unmodified ADS can kill him very quickly. Since you know he must slam against a surface with a diver in his mouth, you can pre-fire where he's going to be to hit him as he gets there. The ADS rifle's high rate of fire erodes his health too swiftly for him to escape if he's being focused by your team.

The Tiger (Medium Shark)

Hiding in plain sight, the tiger can be difficult to spot before he's grabbed a diver. It's crucial then, that you can react quickly enough (and have the necessary weapon) to kill him before he's killed your teammate! The best weapons to counter the tiger happen to be:

• The ADS Rifle
In order to save those grabbed by the tiger, you need a high rate of fire. He's also swift, meaning a higher rate of fire allows less of a chance of missing him. Bleed modifiers are especially deadly to the tiger, as he relies mainly on lunging to both enter a room, and escape it.

• Spear Gun
When the tiger is paired with a small shark, the spear gun makes for a good (and cheap) alternative to the more pricy ADS rifle. If you're hurting for gold, bring the hurt with this high-impact, fast reloading weapon!

The Thresher (Small Shark)

With his wild threshing making the thresher hard to hit, it can be difficult to determine what's best to bring against this menace. A good rule of thumb is bring splitting rounds. They don't hit as hard, but the it doesn't take much to bring a thresher down, you just have to hit him!

• The ADS Rifle
Splitting rounds on an ADS rifle will kill a thresher before if has the chance to do much of anything, so don't be afraid to spray and pray it at a shark who's threshing your teammate! Against a large or medium shark, you may wish to do with bleed rounds instead of splitting, allowing you to still spray at the thresher, but still deal damage to large fish!

• LJ-10 Volleyjet
The volleyjet's spreading rings are ideal for trumping the thresher's wriggling dodging that he likes to do. It also allows for serious damage dealing to large sharks, if the thresher happens to be paired with one.

The Mako (Small Shark)

Swift, small, and with high stamina, the mako can be a difficult to hit opponent. Nets, mines, and spear guns are less than ideal against this tiny terror, and with his high thrashing damage, he leaves little time for you to save a teammate from his grasp!

• ADS Rifle
Truly, the best counter measure against a mako is the ADS rifle. The high rate of fire allows for you to miss some, and still quickly kill him. You are more likely to save a teammate using this weapon against the mako than with other weapons (unless you happen to be an amazing shot with spear weapons), and I'd advise you use the bleed modifier. Bleed will prevent a mako from escaping, especially if he's already severely injured.

The Goblin (Medium Shark)

Last, but certainly not least, is this true terror. The goblin's ability to create fake doubles can cause rookies and veterans alike to waste their one good shot, then be thrashed by the real fish, making spear weapons and net guns less than ideal. These following weapon choices will leave you room to err on the side of safety:

• APS Rifle

The APS rifle, along with the heavy barrel upgrade will allow you to completely dispel the goblin's illusions, and still leave you capable of killing the real goblin too, and even his ally. Especially useful if the goblin is paired with another goblin, or a large shark.

• Gyro Rifle
The gyro rifle is another one that deals fair amounts of damage, while still allowing one to deal with the real goblin shark. Best used at a decent range, and left unpurchased in close quarters combat.

• LJ-10 Volleyjet
The Volleyjet typically dispels the illusory fish with the first shot, leaving the second to deal with the goblin. This doesn't leave a whole lot of room for error, however, because if you miss too many spears, you may empty the LJ into the fake, or simply not deal enough damage to the real one. It definitely won't leave you enough in the chamber to deal with the goblin's ally, so you best hope you're teammates don't need to reload like you do right now. Against two goblin sharks, this is a poor choice.

In conclusion, try your best to not die, and keep your team from death as well. Time is on your side, don't go hunting fish unless you are a veteran, and if you're a vet, you really don't need to read this anyways! Always try to rely more on your guns than on destructive consumables, and don't leave your team behind. Cover your teammates, and make sure you can be covered by them. In a random match-up, it is your responsibility to make sure you both cover others, and that you're covered by others. Thanks for reading, and good luck gents and fishes! Happy fishing!

For a more in Depth guide (yeah, pun intended) you should take a look at this:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532137970


If you want to read that mine guide, but don't want to scroll back up, here it is:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=641833723