The Abyss sits beneath Skunk Pond, and it stays locked until you are wearing a complete Diving Suit. Reaching it is a longer project than most zones, since you need three aquatic chips, two new crafting stations, and materials that arrived with the Into the Abyss update on August 11, 2026. Once the order of tasks is clear, the whole run is straightforward.
Quick answer: Collect all three aquatic chips to unlock the Diving Helmet, Chestplate, and Boots recipes, craft the full set at a Workbench, then return to the Diving Station south of Skunk Pond, take the transit system down, and pass the moon pool scanner while wearing all three pieces.
The single requirement to enter the Abyss
The gate check is simple. The scanner at the moon pool only opens when you have the Diving Helmet, Diving Suit Chestplate, and Diving Boots all equipped at once. Nothing else grants access, and no single piece will pass the scan.
Each piece is tied to its own chip, and each chip unlocks one recipe for 1,500 Raw Science. The full unlock cost is 4,500 Raw Science across the three recipes, on top of the crafting materials you gather afterward.
Find all three aquatic chips
The three chips are spread across the Gnarly Bark tree, the Bridge near Skunk Pond, and the Diving Station itself. Grab all of them before spending any Raw Science, then insert each one at a Ranger Station’s Science Shop to unlock its recipe.
| Chip location | Recipe unlocked | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Top of the Gnarly Bark tree | Diving Boots | 1,500 Raw Science |
| The Bridge, right of Skunk Pond | Diving Suit Chestplate | 1,500 Raw Science |
| Diving Station, south of Skunk Pond | Diving Helmet | 1,500 Raw Science |
Gnarly Bark chip (Diving Boots)
Bridge chip (Diving Suit Chestplate)
Diving Station chip (Diving Helmet)
Diving Suit recipes and where to gather materials
With all three recipes unlocked, build the set at a Workbench. Two ingredients, Quartz Glass and Fire Brick, need extra production stations, which are covered in the next section.
| Piece | Materials |
|---|---|
| Diving Helmet | Quartz Glass x3, Toe Biter Shell x2, Cattail Fluff x2, Wax x1 |
| Diving Suit Chestplate | Chrysalis Leather x5, Quartz Glass x2, Cattail Fluff x5, Lint Rope x4 |
| Diving Boots | Chrysalis Leather x4, Fire Brick x2, Toe Biter Shell x4, Wax x3 |
Most of these materials are easy to source once you know where to look.
| Material | Where to get it |
|---|---|
| Toe Biter Shell | Defeat regular Toe Biters and Toe Biter Nymphs. |
| Wax | Underwater in the Koi Pond, on the underside of floating lilypads and beneath large flowering lilypad clusters. |
| Cattail Fluff | Only in the Bridge Biome, near marshy water edges where tall cattails grow above yellow plants. |
| Chrysalis Leather | Veggie garden region, hanging from leaves in the potato and carrot areas near the garden wall. |
| Lint Rope | Harvest Lint Clumps with a Tier 3 chopping tool from the Picnic Table tarp or the Teddy Bear crate, then spin the raw lint into rope at a Spinning Wheel. |
Build the Quern and Kiln for Quartz Glass and Fire Brick
Quartz Glass and Fire Brick are new to the update and cannot be made until you set up two production stations. Both draw from a shared Phantom Quartz supply, so build them before you start processing.
| Station | Materials |
|---|---|
| Quern | Clay x4, Sturdy Quartzite Shard x3, Lint Rope x2, Pinecone Piece x3, Striped Scorpion Chunk x2 |
| Kiln | Fire Brick x8, EverChar Coal Chunk x5, Green Shield Bug Parts x3, Rust x4, Horsetail Stem x3 |
Striped Scorpion Chunks are a new drop found in the Gnarly Bark area. Horsetails can be cut underwater or picked up dead on land, where they look the same but turn brown when dry. You need a tier two snipper or tier two axe to collect them, and gathering roughly 10 to 20 stems keeps you covered through the full crafting chain.
Collect Phantom Quartz and process it
Go to the east side of the Gnarly Bark tree, where the pond meets the trunk, and enter the underground cave. The crystal formation inside is Phantom Quartz. Mine as much as you can, since the full gear set needs a large amount, and stay alert for the creatures nearby.
Once you have a stockpile, run it through the stations in this order.
- Put Phantom Quartz in the Quern to produce Crushed Quartz.
- Analyze Crushed Quartz to unlock its recipes.
- Make Fire Bricks in the Oven using Clay x4 and Crushed Quartz x1.
- Make Quartz Glass using Crushed Quartz x2 and Horsetail Stem x1.
Enter the Abyss through the Diving Station
You know it worked when the scanner reads Access Granted and the moon pool opens for the descent. After your first trip, an elevator becomes available that skips the 30-second to one-minute drop, making return runs much faster.
Note: With the complete set equipped, chill is fully removed underwater and oxygen becomes unlimited. Both matter inside the Abyss, which has its own separate map split into the Touchdown Zone, Galleries, Rocky Chamber, Monitoring Station, and more.
One trade-off is worth planning around. The boots stop you from swimming, so they make ordinary pond exploration harder. For regular underwater trips outside the Abyss, wearing only the helmet and chestplate is more practical, but the full three-piece set is required every time you want to pass the scanner and drop into the Abyss itself.
