In Atlas one of the many stats players have to watch to survive is thirst. Despite always being on an island surrounded by water, players can’t drink saltwater from the ocean.
How to Find Drinkable Water in Atlas
There are two methods of getting clean drinkable water starting out:
Fresh Water
Players can obtain drinkable water from fresh water such as ponds and lakes inland. Small ponds found close to beaches are still undrinkable, however, as they contain saltwater.
Ponds and lakes that have fresh water can be drank from using your bare hands. Players can also fill their [Water Skin] by using it at a pond or lake containing fresh water.
Not all islands will have fresh water sources available such as ponds or lakes.
Digging For Water
If you can’t find a pond or lake with fresh drinkable water, you’ll have to dig for it. Players can dig for water without any tools right from the start of the game.
You can only dig for water in areas with green terrain. This makes it difficult to spot green land when you’re in a desert Biome.
When finding green terrain, you’ll need to lay down (x by default on PC), left click with your bare hands to search for fresh water. If there is water available, a minigame will begin as shown in the picture atop this page.
A quick-time event will appear with a bar above your hotkey bar. A small line will slide from one side to the other, where you’ll have to click the second it reaches the brighter zone. If you fail immediately, you can try again without penalty. For the most water from this activity, you’ll need to succeed three times in a row.
For each time the player succeeds in the minigame, you’ll add 20 water to a Water Spout that appears. After you finish the minigame, a Water Spout spurts water out of the ground to drink. Interacting with it causes the player to drink however much they need to fill their thirst.
Tips
- The line can start moving from left to right and right to left. It will always start farthest from the zone you need to click it in.
- Once you create a water spout from succeeding at the minigame at least once, it depletes the area of water. This prevents you from digging for more water in a small area near you.
- Multiple players can start the minigame at the same time, allowing more than one person to create a water spout before depleting the area.
