Quests

How to Get Into Research Outpost Theta-9 in The Last Caretaker

Short answer: Dive to the outpost at about 52, -34 on the map, more than 200 m down, and get in through the broken tubes: the entrance hole is straight down over the edge, and the tube leads to a door you open by its handle. Every door stays locked until you power the place, so in the flooded pool room swim into the third hatch of the third column (3.3), plug in the battery waiting there, switch it on and take the authorization from the PECO terminal. That opens the way down to the last survivor, whose hologram you sample with a Photo Drone to finish Still Listening.

Last Updated: November 7, 2026

Game version: Early Access, Update 6; the outpost and Still Listening came with Update 5.0 (June 24, 2026), and the route was recorded in that version

Getting In

Where is Research Outpost Theta-9?

On the seabed at about 52, -34 on the map, south of Black Vein. The way in is deep: on the way down the depth readout passes 200 m, far below the safe depth you start with.

How do you get into Research Outpost Theta-9?

Through the broken tubes on the outside of the outpost. Go over the edge and straight down to the entrance hole, swim through the tube until you come out, then turn right, and right again, to a door you slide open by its handle. You are inside.

To find the right spot from your boat, look for four concrete slabs with pipes beside them; one pipe stops right at the edge. Line up with the leftmost slab, swim out over the edge and drop.

What should you bring?

A Photo Drone, which the quest cannot finish without; batteries, one of them to power a station inside; and Charge Injectors to top your battery up on the long dive.

There are two TideRippers. If you already have the single TideRipper Hand Jet, take it: the long swim down and through the tubes goes much quicker. The Twin Jet is the one this quest gives you.

Bring a weapon and enough ammunition: the outpost has enemies, and the room at the top of the stairs is full of them.

Keep your torch on in the tubes: it keeps the eels away. Further in, jump over the tentacles on the floor to avoid the worst of the enemies.

What happens below your safe depth?

You start with a safe depth of only 10 m, and each level of the Pressure enhancer adds 1 m, up to 110 m at level 100, so here you are far below it whatever you have. That does not kill you: below your safe depth your battery drains much faster and your Vitality slowly falls. Charge Injectors turn battery power back into Vitality, so the answer is more power, not more Pressure: spare batteries and several injectors.

Powering the Outpost

Why is every door locked?

Because the outpost has no power when you arrive. Every door that needs power stays shut until you switch the place on from inside its flooded pool room, so swimming around the outside looking for another way in does not help.

Which hatch in the pool do you need?

The third hatch in the third column, hatch 3.3. The pool room is the one past the door opposite the vitality station; its walls hold three columns of five square hatches, and most of them lead nowhere.

Inside that hatch a battery has been left for you. Plug it in and switch it on, and the PECO terminal there wakes up: take the authorization from it, because one of the doors deeper in will not open without it.

Where do you go after the authorization?

Swim back out of the hatch into the water, turn a little left, go straight up and climb onto the platform: the authorization opens the door there. Power that station with one of your own batteries, go through, turn right back into the first room and open the door that would not open before. Up the stairs is a room full of enemies; clearing the middle makes the rest easier.

Finishing Still Listening

How do you finish Still Listening?

Keep going down through the lower sections to the last survivor. What is left of them is a hologram: fly your Photo Drone up to it and take a sample, and Still Listening is complete.

The handheld scanner does not pick the hologram up, and the hologram cannot be shot or broken, so if nothing happens, switch to the drone.

What do you get for it?

The TideRipper Twin Jet unlocks the moment the quest completes and shows up in the Skills menu as TIDERIPPER TWIN.

What if you run out of power down there?

Save on the boat before you dive: the trip is long, and it is easy to run out of battery down there. If you cannot reach the surface, load an autosave from before the outpost rather than starting over.

Is anything else hidden in Theta-9?

One room has a screen that shows which of the tunnels from the underwater chamber hold something, and a keypad code turns up inside that cannot be used anywhere yet. A door off the room past the stairs is worth coming back to for loot once the quest is done.