Game Theory: You KILLED the Planet! (Subnautica)  

MatPat- “you killed the planet!” Me- “ah yes, tell that to the big gun that shot us and our rescue ship down.”

"You killed the planet!" Me with the haunting memories of the deep monsters and environments from the game: *good*

MatPat: the crash likely killed all life near the aurora Reaper Leviathans: "its about drive, its about power, we stay hungry we devour"

MatPat: *exits the lifepod* also MatPat: that's enough research

"You killed the planet" Me, systematically hunting down leviathans and punching them to death with a big stompy robot: No, I conquered it. There's only room on this world for one apex predator.

As someone who played the game and loves it to death, this was more than a bit disappointing

MatPat: "At last! I have found the Scroll of Truth!" Scroll of Truth: "Subnautica's in-game lore proves that the Aurora's crash will not cause the death of the planet." MatPat: [yeets the Scroll] "Nyehh!!!"

Matthew Patthew: you killed the planet! the entire subnautica community: you are not a clown, you are the entire circus

The water bottles in subnautica are actually not plastic. You only need a bladderfish to make a water bottle, meaning that the bottles are fully biodegradable.

Matpat: “the radiation would probably kill all the sea life near It instantly.” Reapers: “Is that a challenge?”

"The game even has a LITTLE bit of story" -MatPat talking about Subnautica

The biggest problem I have with this is that he never once references the Degasi, and even uses the cinematic of the Degasi crashing when describing the effects of the Aurora's crash. In my opinion, the fact that Matpat seems to think that the two ships are interchangeable and the fact that he never references the Degasi in his video, are proof that one of the three following possibilities is true Possibility #1: Matpat either didn't play the game, or did the bare minimum with no non-essential exploration (he speed-ran it). This is the most likely in my opinion. Possibility #2: Matpat did do some non-essential exploration, but somehow missed all the lore entries that would have put holes in his theory or outright proved him wrong. This is, in my opinion, the least likely Possibility #3: Matpat did find the lore entries that proved him wrong, but made a conscious choice to ignore them so that the game would better fit into his predetermined theory. With how much lore he left out of the video, it is not a stretch to say that this theory is not even partially right, it is completely and objectively wrong

"You shouldn't crash here" "Sorry, next time we will ask the alien weapons to not shoot us down"

“A bit of story” *people who know the lore* “Ah yes, just a bit”

Subnautica’s PDA never says their is any packaged food, it actually said that you could eat stuff like nutrient blocks as well as fruits and nuts

Let me ask you something did you get past the reaper leviathan? Or know that there is a gun which shoots you out of orbit unconsensually? Or did you make a theory on a game which you didn't complete :( You also missed the big boy lore

Matpat: the problem that the game doesn't address Literally the game: "the aurora drive core will have devastating effects on the ecosystem if not contained within 24 hours"

MatPat: "YOU doomed the world of Subnautica, so recklessly crashing down onto the planet. Shame on you!" Anyone who actually played the game: "Well maybe I wouldn't have crashed down onto this planet if our ship wasn't SHOT OUT OF ORBIT!"

Ah yes, you're so right, it's totally my fault that the Aliens built a giant cannon to shoot anything that gets close to the planet. I'm so sorry.

The creatures in Subnautica are already used to (small amounts of) radiation. Here’s my proof: in most deeper biomes you can find radioactive crystals exposed underwater. The PDA talks about the radiation, and when you pick them up you can hear a Geiger counter make a radioactive sound. Reapers and Sandsharks thrive close enough to the Aurora even right after the explosion where the effects would be highly fatal for us without the proper equipment. Even jellyrays which have barely any protection behave normally in high doses of radiation. We might have killed a lot of the wildlife, but certainly not most of it.

“The radiation probably killed the animals in the vicinity immediately” Reapers, actively travelling en mass to the irradiated zone: *I have no such weaknesses*

"well beyond the scope of our crash site!" *what's it gonna do, kill one of the infinite dead zone ghost leviathans?*

Actually Alterra has very advanced trash cans that completely breaks down waste to atoms and safely releases it into the atmosphere, so waste is a non problem if the aurora safely landed

matpat: it is your fault the ship got shot and it is you that you killed everyone and you decided to make the ship go there me:controlled descent, the tower shot us down

I would like to point out that the water bottles in Subnautica are Biodegradable, because it states that the bottles are made out of organic matter (aka the bladderfish skin). how else do you think the bottle itself is made when you only give it a fish?

Nearly the entire Subnautica community is now extremely dissapointed at you for this video. Good job!

when you realize that its a different planet and humans immediately assume things that harm us will harm things on other planets, heck the reaper leviathans could be sucking up that radiation like its nothing and it could be turning them into super hyper mega giga fish (well more than they already are)

I feel like Alterra was probably able to find some kind of biodegradable polymer to use as a replacement for plastic. Especially since in real life we’re getting closer basically every day.

"You KILLED..." I didn't kill nothing. The player wasnt the pilot and the Architects that created the weapon that shoot the Aurora, how could any human know about it?

as a subnautica fan, I am in pain watching this

Matpat just coming here to say that if you listen to the lifepod 19 second officer keen's voicelog the captain of the aurora says that he is attempting a controlled decent the captain sacrificed himself to make a controlled decent and Matpat gave him no credit

You forgot to mention the only reason why there was so much trash was because the quarantine blaster shot both the aurora and the degassi ship, forcing them to crash land and not just land. The architects caused the infection to go world wide because they stole a sea dragon egg, and underestimated its motherly powers. Causing all the rest to go extinct. So it’s their fault not ours :)

The player: Cures a virus that would've infected the entire planet and killed everything MatPat: We are not a net positive for this planet

“Humans are about to destroy the planet” Well it was the architects who built the weapon that shot down the aurora in the first place soooo….

Another thing that was missed, he gives a food calculation based on the fact that it has been dehydrated , yet I distinctly recall their being a cafe of sorts with items like soda and vending machines onboard.

Subnautica: has a lot of deep interesting lore Matpat: you destroyed the planet by littering

"You killed the planet" Damn guess it's my fault that aliens built a giant gun to shoot ships out of orbit because they got too close

What happened was that the pilot of the Aurora guided the aurora down to safely land it after the turret shot it down. It can be assumed that with how little damage there is, he landed it safely and successfully at the cost of his own life. There's actually an audio file that proves this, the captain talking to the co-captain about attempting to safely land the aurora whilst mid attempt.

if I remember correctly, the AURORA's captain PDA states he remained in the ship to land it in one piece ( aka controlled emergency landing )

I like how the comment section is split into two groups. 1 group disproving Mats theory on the subject of doing more harm than good considering subnauticas world seems far more advance than us. The 2nd half is PTSD victims of the game saying "yeah I killed the planet what about it?"

You assume that the futuristic ship wouldn't have more food then just packaged powder meals? They literally can make a building in seconds and can probably cook just as easily.

Matpat: you caused the death of this planet. The character who found the cure and stopped more leakage of radiation from the Aurora: am i a joke to you?

Subnautica fans: you are not the whole circus you are the entire company

Feels like a theory made to fit TeamSeas rather than an organic creation.

Just play the darn game Mat-Pat, play the entire game, it’s amazing.

"the radiation probably killed the animals in the vicinity immediately" Reapers: We march soldiers, WE MARCH ON

the captain of the aurora tried to save the aurora by controlling the ships decent(making the damage not be as bad)

Every time I see the footage of a player swimming near the aurora my anxiety kicks in

This whole video essentially ignores the plot of the game, and the sheer technological advancement the future humans in this setting have made

the game was like a century away from this day with all that advanced technology you'd think they already had a way of cancelling most major damages caused by impacts of their spaceships

Let’s not forget the fact that the architects wanted to completely destroy the planet just to destroy the virus.

Matpat, a couple of minor things about the aurora. The crash size was probably affected by a few things not stated in the episode. The captain's log makes it clear that he was still steering the ship when it went down with the intent on trying to minimize damage to the ship. He knew it needed to remain intact for a rescue to be possible. This, combined with the fact that the game takes place on the top of an inactive volcano instead of the ocean bottom, could account for why the damage was as small as it was. The aurora might have hit water first and then hit ground after slowing down.

Not saying the crash was harmless but the alternative was essentially mass extinction, i believe a very painful 100% lethality rate. So i would say our presence had a net positive.

MatPat: It’s just a game theory, his famous last words before quitting😢

But matpat, it isnt our fault as we werent the ones who made the giant laser that shot us at beginning

When he started talking about radiation the first thing that I thought was “well, the reapers seem to be doing pretty good, even though they’re RIGHT NEXT TO THE SHIP”

Matpat believing that Alterra would feed its employees 3 meals a day, smh...

This is maybe the only theory that Matpat got absolutely wrong, yes, the crash maybe did do something bad, but this video released when we already knew about Below Zero! And that game proves the planet is much bigger!

MatPat you make it sound like it was our choice to crash land on the Planet

I think matpat forgot the part where a giant gun on the planet shot the ship down and caused us to crash in the first place so it's not entirely our fault

“You killed the ecosystem on planet 4546 b” Me who almost had a good damn heart attack the time I turned around and a Reaper was charging me: good

MatPat, Here's the thing, the player did not ask to be stranded on the ocean planet. The ship was shot down by the planet's enforcer. Players know this because of the Sunbeam. Life was taking a turn for the worst already on the planet. The Aurora was unlucky to cross into someone's quarantine zone. How did the player know. Radioactive material was already on the planet. We just added more, but we assisted the planet in the end.

matpat: the planet is dead! me who just kills leviathans for fun: i know, and i enjoy it.

"The Aurora's drive core will cause devastating damage to the planet's ecosystem if not contained in the next 24 hours" _player does this._ _Planet not dead._

"Happened to crash land" *Gets shot down by alien Anti Space laser*

Matpat:if you are close to the explosion you die instantly. Everybody with a brain : WELL NO F**KING SH*T

Technically, there were a total of three crashes on 4546B. The Sunbeam, The Aurora, and the Degasi.

"YOU doomed the planet" Correction, the aliens weapons which shot down our ship doomed the planet

Matpat in this video: hes got the spirit, but maybe he needs a little more knowledge about the game before assuming trash contaminates this crater on 4546B.

A.those bottles are biodegradable B. Alterra most likely cleaned the aurora to cover it up

If you found all of the PDAs it states that the pilot stayed behind on the ship to control the landing.

so... who's gonna tell him that almost everything he said was harmful on the aruora was sealed in airtight, watertight boxes you find in game?

The problem with this theory is you assume this civilization has made no advancements in manufacturing technology, also the whole map in subnautica is on top of a island in the middle of a massive super deep ocean. The most that would be hurt beyond the island is a few ghost leviathans.

Counter theory: The reason the aurora didn’t do nearly as much damage as it would’ve done might be because it the descent was semi controlled, we know the captain went down with it while trying to attempt a controlled descent, so maybe that’s why

"The radiation probably killed all the animals in the vicinity immediately" Cave Crawlers, Reapers, Sandsharks:

Important point (spoiler if anyone cares): blame the “Architects”. The Aurora was shot down, by an automated weapon. Another important point is time. Time is compressed for gameplay reasons. After all when the Sunbeam attempts to Mount their rescue - they announce they’re more than a week away. It doesn’t take a week before they show. & of course Sunbeam is also shot down, as was the Degassi years earlier. Humans didn’t doom that planet. Oh and one more important thing you seem to have missed; the Aurora’s captain stayed aboard to attempt a controlled crash landing. This is why the damage doesn’t match what you claimed would wipe out the whole zone. She didn’t simply auger in at terminal velocity.

Overall you've made some very compelling arguments, but I feel I have to point out two potential oversights. Most glaring is that in the audio and text logs you can find scattered around the game, it is revealed that the captain of the ship stayed on board until the very end to make a controlled decent. While not a proper landing, I feel it lends some credence as to why the crash zone is as small as it is. Perhaps it wasn't a proper or gentle landing, but neither was it a full force crash from orbital height. Coupled with a few other theories I've seen, the site of the crash may not have actually been shallow water. There may have been some small degree of dry land, which would explain why the terrain goes so far up to meet the ship nearly all the way around, even poking above the water for a sizable area around the shull of the Aurora. Secondly, with the exception of the truly absurd number of water bottles required to survive, you don't encounter much actual plastic. There may even be reason to suggest the water bottles might not even be plastic as we understand it today. In some cases, they almost resemble more of a metallic container. Though I feel a lot was overlooked in the creation of the game on that point, as no materials are actually required to create the container the water goes into. The bottle just seems to materialize out of nothing during the crafting process. Coupled with that, is the food seen on the ship and various cargo containers scattered throughout the environment. Most are not shown to have any individual containment or packaging of any kind (which is only stranger considering most are found stuffed into cargo boxes). Given the technological level portrayed, it's unlikely that food was brought pre-prepared from another world. And although the ingredients aren't shown or explained, the "Nutrient Block" in my opinion most closely resembles something akin to pemmican. A dry, often bready and nutrient right brick with a frankly mind-boggling shelf life that is often made mainly by survivalists today, and historically in many parts of the world. The logical conclusion is that given how technology has taken over, no one actually makes or stores these food bricks, but instead has them crafted at various and potentially specialized fabricators on the main ship (before the crash). As they can not be made by the player, either they were destroyed in the crash, or remain locked away into areas of the ship that could not be reached due to structural damage (or most likely, something simply overlooked in game development).

9:28 actually copper is only dangerous if ingested at big amounts, those batteries shouldn't be a big deal

I miss him already 😢

Honestly dropped the ball on researching here, while the video itself has a high as ever production quality, using models of plastic waste when there are little to none platics used in the game is just odd, khara has and would have had longer lasting effects on the planet wiping out life as we know it, not even mentioning the ecological dedzone when talking about the distance of the radiation or debris, or the adaptation that the aguatic life had already shown around existing crashes thriving in previous crash sites, or heck the giant gun that shot your ship out of orbit. Dissapointined is the lack of quality research here.

The batteries/power cells and water bottles we find around the Aurora were actually kept safe in boxes, so nothing could've leaked out.

Funny that he mentions Below zero in the end. As many others already said, the Degasi vessel already crash landed on the planet 10 years before the Aurora and didn't effect the planet much. Well... THE MERCURY II CRASH LANDED ON THE PLANET 20 BLOODY YEARS BEFORE THE DEGASI. And the planet is completely fine :)

MatPat: goes into creative mode and looks in the fabricator menu and leaves the lifepod MatPat: That's enough this character is a horrible person

I feel the need to point out some flaws in the expelled supply estimate. First of all, all of the supplies of the Aurora weren't expelled by the crash and explosion, as you can still find a lot in the areas of the ship that you can reach, with an unknown quantity within the inaccessible areas. Secondly, the Aurora wasn't the first ship to crash. The Degasi crashed almost a decade before that, and there aren't catastrophes stemming from that. Then there's also the fact that flora and fauna can be absurdly adaptable and resilient. You've got a pair of leviathans patrolling in close proximity to a lethal radioactive source seemingly unharmed, not to mention lizards that bathe in LAVA. Heck, you don't even need to look far to see strange adaptations. Tardigrades, for example, can survive radiation, extreme pressures both high and low, extreme temperatures, and even being exposed to outer space. And as others have pointed out, the Aurora's captain stayed until the end, attempting an emergency landing, as well as the fact we don't know what the crash zone previously looked like, but is suggested to have prehaps been landmass (or at least very shallow). It's also not completely Aurora's fault, the Architects didn't really plan things through when they just stuck a giant gun on the planet that shoots anything that comes close, because of "quarantine", as opposed to setting up a forcefield or something.

I love the consistency.

You forgot the numerous other shot down ships, the Degasi being a ship that you showed crashing but never spoke about, that leaves 2 large crashed ships, I doubt the Degasi ship was as big as the Aurora but it's still very large. There's also the sunbeam that gets shot down in game, it's very small compared to the Degasi and Aurora as it's more of a rescue ship, but the point of there being a MINIMUM of 3 different named space crafts that were shot out of space only to crash land on 4546B

Something to consider is that there is a huge “ecological deadzone” around the starting area Also just about if not absolutely all food eaten by passengers is synthesised, as shown by an audio prompt when you first cook fish so when it comes to food packaging, there would probably be significantly less packaging from that. Plus we’re assuming that 4546b has similar proportions to earth, for all we know that ecological deadzone could reach past the edge of the radioactive area resulting in little effect on the rest of the planet

I wish he would've done more research into the game itself, and he would've known that the large majority of many synthesized furniture and base parts are made out of almost entirely titanium, as well as the broken ship parts which, when broken down, are made into titanium chunks. Also most man made food in the game is only nutrient blocks and water, which are contained in most likely titanium cases. Additionally, the area outside the crater is seemingly only home to leviathans and microorganisms, which will not help the spread of the disease.

I’m surprised he didn’t mention the Degasi and Sunbeam, I’d imagine three giant spaceships would be worse then one.

Me: I'm killing the planet? No, the planet tried to kill me

The estimate about food waste may not be entirely accurate. In the military, there are these things called MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat. One MRE is able to provide for 1 adult soldier for an entire day of training, and provides very little waste in the way of plastic. Not only this, but I doubt that the Aurora would have no method of recycling for their waste. It is more likely that they were able to use their fabricators to create meals, and also reuse the waste as fuel, or other possible uses.

Considering how deep other theories dig, I'm kinda surprised how shallow this one was. From replicators removing the need for most packaging to the fact that the water bottles are made of organic materials to the relatively tiny amount of material the Aurora brought to the planet to the 'semi-controlled' landing the captain achieved to minimize impact damage. The crash would certainly have an impact on the ecology for sure but you could probably dump 100 Aurora's onto the planet and have less impact on 4546B than we've had on Earth and we're still around (though for how much longer is debatable). I get you were making a tie-in episode but it was disappointing that it was done with such a surface-level theory on a great game.

My guy really just looked up a plot synopsis and decided he knew the whole thing enough to make a theory

16:27 right here Matpat is talking about how the radiation may have terrible effects for the plant life and animals. yet on this EXACT SAME screenshot just under it mentions that the burden of the radiation caused by Chernobyl is less of an impact than humans leaving the area and life is thriving more there than before. Which like instantly undermines his point.

Video topic: We caused the death of 4546B Video script: proceeds to talk about earths pollution more than game lore

MatPat: "You killed the planet" Me who knows the lore of this game and below zero: "Have you even played the game, no no I didn't." I honestly think this is an excuse to promote team seas there's a lot wrong with this theory.

Hi! As someone who’s played this game dozens of times, I have a *few* things to say about this theory: While the area surrounding the crash site doesn’t seem as damaged as it should be, the surface is only a small part of this game. A lot of this game, if not most, takes place *below* the ocean floor in underwater caves. As for the batteries, most of the batteries found in this game are still sealed in Alterra containers when found. Even if the batteries were exposed, and their copper contents spilling into the ocean, copper is already a naturally occurring recourse on this planet’s ocean floor surface. Also, this theory says that tens of thousands of wreckage are unaccounted for because there would be a lot more debris than just the metal scraps, but look not further than the *entire thruster* that detached from the Aurora during its crash, or in space orbiting the planet seen as the Neptune 01 rocket leaves the planet. And even if the negative effects of the Aurora’s crash exceeded the map we are given to explore during the game, the game takes place on a thermal crater risen above the ocean floor. The ocean surrounding the crash site is just an empty abyss as seen by the sheer drop off at the edge of the map. One final note is that the *entire* planet was doomed to the Kharaa bacterium long before the Aurora’s crash, and while the Aurora killed a significant amount of flora and fauna living on the thermal crater, the player onboard cured the planet of the deadly Kharaa and, as we see in Below Zero, it seems to have worked given the only Kharaa we see in the sequel is on a frozen leviathan. Sorry, not to be “that guy,” but I feel very passionately about this game and its story :) I understand that the cause for this theory is greater than just a video game and it’s pretty cool you guys are raising money to clean our non-fictional oceans!

MatPat is right for thinking about the explosion and crash, but as others have said it was a controlled crash and the explosion was above water. 1: Copper and acidic mushrooms are part of the ecosystem before you got their. 2: Scrap metal that came off the ship helped some creatures like stalkers who sharpen their teeth off it. 3: The water bottles are biodegradable, the batteries are in containers and the food are nutrients blocks that are contained by the same containers that batteries are in. 4: Aliens that have been monitoring the planet and that were killed off shot down the ship. Not us, them. Also somehow leviathan creatures and all other sea life can survive the radiation anyways.

14:46 reapers, sand sharks and stalkers: I'll ignore that

This entire video was such a huge stretch. It assumes that everything hundreds of years in the future is exactly the same as now. Which I consider to be incredibly short-sighted in a video parading around as science-based. Yea, I know that pointing out that subnautica is sci-fi is like protecting something with plot armor, but comparing a space craft from the end of the 22nd century to how NASA is currently getting to Mars is so bizarre and ridiculous.