Try To Reach The Abyss Submarine Upgrades & Evolutions

Your submarine is the build

In Try To Reach The Abyss, gear fantasy lives inside the hull you pilot. There is no separate armor bag to mismanage — you earn upgrade points (including free points for reaching outposts), spend them on Speed gains, hull, and torpedoes, level up, and evolve into a new submarine form every five levels. This page is the build guide for that loop.

Watch the embedded gameplay from DarkpoweePlays (U24Eqb77_so) once you understand the menus; seeing upgrade timing in a live run helps more than reading alone. For how points enter your account, stay fluent with Outposts & Speed. For button flow, use Controls & How to Play.

Video guide

Where upgrade points come from

The most reliable early source is reaching the next outpost, which grants a free upgrade point along with safety. Combined with Speed earned by stepping out, outposts are both gas station and talent tree refill. That design is intentional: Giant Leviathan wants you to commit to the descent in checkpoints, not endlessly park in the tutorial reefs.

Spend points when you are stopped and safe. Mid-channel menu diving is how captains eat a reef wall with the UI open.

The three spend pillars

Speed gains

Speed upgrades shorten marker-to-marker time and reduce how long monsters have to notice you. They also compound with Speed earned from outpost exits and with the natural speed that comes from leveling. If your sessions feel like long empty corridors, you are usually under-invested here.

Buy Speed when:

• The next outpost already looks far on the marker
• You fail runs by soft-locking in dark water before threats even appear
• You want more spare minutes for Research Data caves without missing the main chain

Hull

Hull is forgiveness. Scrapes against terrain, panicked turns, and sea monster contact all test it. A fast sub that shatters on the first bite is a tutorial ghost.

Buy hull when:

• You regularly return to outposts limping
• Terrain in the current depth band is tighter than your steering skill
• You are about to enter a monster-heavy stretch and need a larger mistake budget

Torpedoes

Torpedo upgrades raise your ability to delete or discourage fauna. They matter more as colorful reefs give way to abyss silhouettes. Early over-investment can starve Speed and hull; late under-investment turns every shadow into a forced retreat.

Buy torpedoes when:

• You already see regular hostiles between outposts
• Retreat paths are long and you need hard disengages
• You are comfortable with aiming basics from the Sea Monsters guide

Evolution every five levels

Every five levels, the submarine evolves into a new form. Treat evolutions as scheduled power spikes:

• Levels 5, 10, 15, … — form changes that signal you belong deeper than before
• Plan ambitious pushes for the dive after an evolution when possible
• Recheck handling — new forms can feel different in turn rate and camera framing
• Pair evolution moments with a fresh look at your Speed / hull / torpedo balance

If you are one level short, farm a safe outpost loop instead of yoinking a deadly valley. Dying on the doorstep of an evolution wastes more time than a cautious Speed circuit.

Example spend paths

Path A — Reef runner (early)

Focus Speed, sprinkle hull, delay heavy torpedoes until the first real ambush. Goal: stitch outposts quickly and learn the map’s light-to-dark gradient.

Path B — Armored courier (mid)

Split Speed and hull, keep torpedoes reactive. Goal: survive longer dark transits while still banking outposts for points.

Path C — Abyss enforcer (later)

Maintain Speed enough to rotate, then push torpedoes and hull so you can choose fights instead of only fleeing. Goal: clear fauna that gates Research-heavy routes.

These paths are lenses, not locks. Re-spec priorities whenever the failure mode of your last three runs changes.

Upgrades vs Research Data

Upgrade points and Research Data are different currencies with different fantasies. Points reshape the boat you already have; Research unlocks abilities found through glowing caves and forgotten valleys. Do not skip outpost income to chase research before your Speed baseline exists — abilities feel best on a sub that can actually reach the content. Deep dive: Research Data & Abilities.

Session checklist for upgrade discipline

1. Arrive at outpost, exit, bank Speed.
2. Note free upgrade point availability.
3. Ask: what ended my last bad transit — distance, damage, or DPS?
4. Spend accordingly (Speed / hull / torpedoes).
5. Check level modulo 5 — evolution soon?
6. Re-board only after the menu is closed and camera is live.

Tape that checklist mentally for a week of play and your builds stop looking random.

Common upgrade mistakes

• Hoarding points for a fantasy perfect moment that never arrives.
• All torpedoes, no Speed — you can shoot what you cannot outrun or reach.
• All Speed, paper hull — you arrive at fights already cracked.
• Ignoring evolution timing — pushing content meant for the next form.
• Upgrading while moving — UI focus plus terrain equals free damage.

How upgrades sync with the wiki

• New to the loop? Getting Started
• Need the exit ritual? Outposts & Speed
• Need combat context for torpedo spends? Sea Monsters
• Need exploration unlocks? Research Data & Abilities
• Full tutorial index: Guides Hub

Patch changes can retune costs or evolution pacing — verify against Updates. Official place and community pointers: Wiki. There are still no verified public codes as of November 2026, so upgrades remain the honest power path (Codes).

Watching upgrades in action

The DarkpoweePlays gameplay clip on this page is useful as a timing reference: notice when the pilot chooses to bank at safety versus when they commit points before a darker leg. Pause when an evolution lands and compare the new silhouette to your own milestones. Copy decisions, not just routes.

Closing build philosophy

Try To Reach The Abyss rewards captains who treat the submarine as a living project. Outposts feed the project, levels schedule its metamorphoses, and your spend order writes the tone of each dive — courier, tank, hunter. Keep Speed honest, keep hull honest, unlock teeth when the dark demands it, and evolve on time. The abyss does not care about unfinished talent trees; it cares whether your next form can survive the distance you just claimed.