"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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!"

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

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

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!!!"

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 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"

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

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

"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

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

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.

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, 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.

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!

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

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

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

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)

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 :)

Hello Matpat, excuse my possibly clunky use of the english language. I was really excited about a Subnautica theory because of the incredible lore this beautiful game has to offer. This however turned out to be more of a TeamSeas ad then a theory. Believe me when I say, I'm a big fan of your theories in general, but this time just a pinch of actual research lets it fall apart. Please see the following evidence: The Impact of the craft being catastrophic: Logs you can find in the game (e.g. Lifepod 19 Second Officer Keen's Voicelog) confirm that the captain of the Aurora took over manual control and tried to execute a controlled descent of the ship after the midair/orbital incident. As the Aurora was trying to use the planet for a swing-by-maneuver it's trajectory in relation to the surface would have already been flat and due to its speed the craft would be able to hold this flat approach for a while. This would lead to the Aurora hitting the planet's surface at a much more controlled angle and potentially lower speed in the end compared to a "falling out of the sky" scenario, and therefore much less damage to the geology around the crash site. The waste of the Aurora being a danger to the ecosystem: While there certainly will be an impact of some items on that ship, it should be argued that a civilization this advanced will not rely on plastic as the material of their products. The fabricator (one of the game's crafting stations), where you craft the basic versions of the drinkable water items in the game, materializes them, bottle and all, from midair using some magical 3D printing laser synthesizing. Even if the bottle was made from polymer (I personally think they are made from metal, looking at the model, or rather from some sort of completely organic material as you can craft a water bottle using a fish as input material only), trash would not be an issue. A good indicator for this is the buildable trash can in the game. Its description says that it "Permanently deconstruct[s] unwanted items and safely release[s] their constituent atoms into the atmosphere." The same can be said for the similar functioning "Nuclear Waste Disposal" which also permanently deletes Nuclear Waste from existence. This technology exists and Below Zero shows there to be an ongoing human presence on the planet, so accumulating waste shouldn't be a thing. The radiation (could also insert dissolved chemicals) being a danger to the wildlife of 4546B: As it has been said, the radiation as a result of the leaking drive core would dissipate after a while, should the breaches be sealed. So there is a finite amount of radioactive material/radiation actually finding its way into the environment, that means it will start to be diluted by the ocean. The map we are playing on in Subnautica is called The Crater and is about 2x2km in size according to the data bank entry (Fun Fact: The actual size of the map is almost double that) with the rest of the planet (excluding Sector Zero) being an ecological deadzone with only microscopic and leviathan life. That would mean that the ocean currents would transport the majority of the radioactive material out of this small inhabited crater's area in no time. Your example of the radioactive material from the Fukushima disaster making it all the way to Canada in a really short timespan proves my point. The radiation spreads out, therefore gets weaker and as there is no source for more unnatural radiation to come from anymore, the affected volume of the medium (the water) will be moved and spare the crater. I sure hope we'll get a Subnautica episode about the extensive lore in the future. But hey, that's just a theory. A comment-section theory :)

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.

as a subnautica fan, I am in pain watching this

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 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.

“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….

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

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

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

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 )

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

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

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.

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?

I like how Matpat sometimes makes really in-depth theories about games while proving that he either didn't play the game or didn't pay any attention to the lore these kinds of things don't happen often but when they do it's the most entertaining thing on earth

Matt... As someone who actually played the game, I can say that so much of this was wrong. - Aurora was shot down by the Architect quarantine laser platform and the captain still had some control of the ship, slowing it down enough to not hit as hard - all crafted things in the game were made specifically out of the surrounding flora/fauna, leaving it to be fully biodegradable - batteries and the reactor core were all well contained enough to not leak as much as you said - nutrient blocks had no packaging whatsoever, and Alterra is kinda bad when it comes to treating its employees so not as many nutrient blocks were made - the Kharaa virus was cured by the player, making the second game possible - the alien creatures living there already may have been immune to the radiation poisoning, like the Reaper Leviathans swimming around and the Biters + Crabs waltzing and swimming within

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

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

"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._

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

“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

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

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.

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?

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?"

I miss him already 😢

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

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

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

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

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

Matpat makes theory, ignoring things like “controlled descent”, lore of the game, how detonation on Aurora occurred , size of a map and He made ship crush OUR fault, creating feeling about this video being no more than an ad.

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.

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

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

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).

While I appreciate Matt's dedication to getting the facts, his information with regards to nuclear power and reactors is a bit off. I've been working in the nuclear power field for nearly a decade and its miscommunicated information like this that scares people. With out context of scale talking about radiation means very little. Explaining the values compared to chest x-rays, standard airplane flights or even bananas (yes they are radioactive) helps put things into context. Additionally the safety features in reactors are typically very well engineered and in the community we study what went wrong at both Fukushima and Chernobyl to ensure disasters like that never happen again. Matt in the future it would be nice to see you do a collaboration with somebody from the nuclear power field to explain the differences from game to reality. A lot of peoples only knowledge of nuclear power comes from movies or games, which often depict it as bad. No technology is inherently good or bad, its about who we use it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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?

Aurora: **explodes and kills everything in the area** Reaper Leviathan: yo where did all my friends go?

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

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

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?

So, I enjoy subnautica and I'll correct a couple of points. The map is actually in the middle of an inactive volcano that forms a bowl. The reason there's such a massive dead zone around the map has more to do with the death of certain leviathans well before the player's and not because of the crash or radiation. Also, they hint that where the Aurora crashes was actually originally above water and gets leveled as a result of the crash, so the damage to ocean life is lessened. Also, as far as radiation is concerned, water is a good shield. That's not to say there will be no impact, but probably not that much and once it's gone, it's gone, unlike oil. And as far as the plastics are concerned, that's not great, but it's the least of that ocean's problems.

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

We see the tsunami in the trailer but not the game, although, it was most likely an after-wave.

I find it hilarious that MatPat digs into the deep lore of mobile game ads, but can't be bothered to learn anything about bigger games that _don't_ have dead kids or robot hauntings in them.

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.

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 :)

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

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

"Humanity killed 4546 b! Just like we do everything!" Pretty sure that fault still lies on the dead alien race that thought it was a great idea to build an automated planitary defense cannon network that shoots down the Aurora. Oh, as well as the second ship that responds to our SOS beacon.

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.

Matpat: You destroyed the planet! The Alien Gun: I shot down the sunbeam to stop the virus from spreading AND to save 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.

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

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.

subnautica: has deep, interesting, sad lore MatPat: YOU LITTERED!!!!!111111!!!!!!!11!!!!!111!1!!!!!!!!111!!!!!

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.