Fontaine 4.0 Underwater Exploration Tips

A few days have passed since the launch of the Fontaine 4.0 update. I wonder how everyone's map exploration progress is coming along. I've personally spent the last few days grinding to full exploration completion, and my overall feeling is that exploration has been significantly streamlined compared to before. The new underwater exploration is also incredibly smooth. Here are a few tips and tricks related to underwater exploration to share:

Dehya's "Infinite" Healing Talent

As it stands, Dehya might be the biggest "winner" of this underwater exploration update. The reason lies in her talent: when her HP drops below 40%, she immediately heals for 20% of her max HP and continues to heal for 6% every 2 seconds for the next 10 seconds. Although it has a 20-second cooldown, in the less combat-intensive underwater environment, this essentially provides "infinite" healing, so you don't have to worry about your health.

With skills being unusable, this healing talent becomes a god-tier ability underwater. Additionally, Dehya can be equipped with The Bell, stacking HP while gaining a shield for increased survivability, or paired with the Ocean-Hued Clam set to boost her underwater combat damage. Of course, for a simpler approach, you don't even need to consider artifact sets and weapons; a Dehya built purely for HP works wonderfully underwater.

Baizhu and Lynette's Talents Are Also Excellent

If you don't have Dehya, Baizhu and Lynette are also quite useful for underwater exploration. Baizhu's talent heals the active character when they pick up collectibles while he is in the party, providing another way to sustain the team without relying on skills. The healing per pickup isn't massive, and you need to collect items, but it works even better when paired with Lyney.

Personally, I prefer using Lynette. First, everyone can get a free Lynette. Second, Lynette's talent displays the location of nearby Recovery Orbs on the mini-map and increases the amount of healing they provide. Recovery Orbs are the spots with a few golden fish swimming around, and their icon on the mini-map is also a fish.

Getting close to them will generally restore you to full health and underwater stamina. These orbs are relatively dense and can be found near any combat area, making Lynette's talent extremely useful. Lastly, Lynette's underwater attack has a Pneuma alignment (the attack that absorbs abilities), which can be used for puzzle-solving.

Other Useful Characters

Besides the three characters mentioned above, Noelle and Barbara are also great choices for underwater exploration. When Noelle is in the party but off-field, she will automatically create a shield for the active character if their HP drops below 30%. Barbara is likely more familiar to everyone; at C6, she can provide a one-time revive. Since you don't need to worry about elemental reactions or damage output during underwater exploration, you should bring whichever of these characters you have or have already built.

Special Underwater Abilities

Now that we've covered characters, let's talk about the special underwater abilities. You can obtain these by absorbing them from Xenochromatic Creatures. There are several types of abilities, and all of them can be charged by long-pressing the ability button. For example, a long press of the sonar attack fires it continuously, the ray's water blade can be charged for a more damaging slash, and the armored crab provides a shield counter-attack. I find the armored crab's ability to be the most useful; a short press unleashes a continuous AOE attack, while a long press delivers a high-damage counter-attack, which is also needed for many puzzles.

The Leaping Maneuver

Finally, if your active character has a Pneuma or Ousia alignment (like the Hydro Traveler, Lyney, or Lynette), holding the sprint button as you surface will cause them to perform a leaping maneuver out of the water. This move isn't just for stylish photo ops; it can also be used to collect low-hanging Hydroculi above the water and to solve some puzzles involving treasure chests enclosed in barriers. That's all the tips I have for now. I'll share more if I discover anything else in the future.