Field manual

How a run works

ABYSS is co-op deep-sea salvage horror for one to four players. Your crew lives aboard the MULE, a salvage submarine falling apart faster than you can pay for it. Every day goes the same way:

1. Pick a site on the MULE terminal’s map. Each one shows its depth, risk and loot.
2. Go down. Things break on the way: leaks, steam, a failing engine. What can go wrong
3. Loot the station before the pressure timer runs out.
4. Get back to the sub. It leaves when the timer hits zero, with you or without you.
5. Sell your haul at the sell press for CR.

Every three days the Repair Bill comes due, and you have to sail to the Repair Dock and pay it. If you can’t, the MULE implodes and the run starts over from day 1. You lose your submarine upgrades but keep your rank, HEX and cosmetics.

Three clocks

Three timers are always running. Most crews that die were watching only one of them.

Carrying things

You start with 4 inventory slots. A 5th and 6th can be unlocked for good in the Depot.

Heavy items are two-handed. While you hold one you can’t switch slots until you drop it.

Weight slows you down in steps. The Lightweight helmet and the CARGO upgrade both ease that.

The crew stash aboard the sub holds 12 items, and up to 36 with the STORAGE upgrade.

When you die

Everything you were carrying drops where you died, and you respawn at the sub. A crewmate can go back for it, or you can. For 50 V-Bucks, Revive brings you back right where you fell, next to your loot. It’s offered on the death screen for 15 seconds.

The death screen names what got you. There are 28 causes and most creatures have their own. See them all

Money

Things nobody tells you

• Your crew’s first dive is a training dive. The bill is tiny and only a couple of easy creatures show up. Use it to learn the sub.
• Anyone standing on the sell press when it comes down gets sold too.
• A Lamp Maw and a Waddler never share a station. Seen one? The other isn’t there.
• The Guitar doesn’t attract anything. The Boombox attracts everything, so drop it and run.
• Bear traps don’t care whose leg. Tell your crew where you put them.
• Scuttles attack whoever is carrying a Biomass Egg, no matter how few of them there are.
• On day 1 a station might be empty. Don’t expect that to last.
• Every site can be picked, even deeper than your MULE is rated for. That doesn’t mean it will hold. Diving past your rating

Latest from the crew

• Announcement15 October 2026ABYSS is outAfter months below the surface, ABYSS is live in Fortnite. Grab a crew and take the MULE down.VVelloCo-founder · Lead programmer

All updates →

Meet the locals

Every creature punishes a habit. Learn which one, and stop doing it.

• Mid-tier · InsideLucyPunishes: going off alone
• Mid-tier · InsidePosePunishes: looking away
• Apex · InsideLurkerPunishes: running in straight lines
• Common · InsideSnagPunishes: greed
• Apex · InsideLamp MawPunishes: moving while watched
• Mid-tier · Inside / OutsideShellyPunishes: walking into its space

All 16 creatures →