Exploration

The Last Caretaker Diving Guide: Max Dive Depth, Pressure and Controls

Last Updated: October 11, 2026

Your safe dive depth starts at 10 m, and each level of the Pressure enhancer adds 1 m, up to 110 m at level 100. Below your safe depth your battery drains much faster and your Vitality drops slowly, so plug in a power cable from your boat or carry batteries and Charge Injectors. On a keyboard, hold Crouch (Left Ctrl) to dive and Jump (Space) to rise.

Dive Depth Calculator

Enter your Pressure level and the depth you want to reach to see your safe depth and how many more points you need.

Your Pressure level (0 to 100)Depth you want to reach, in metres (1 to 1000)

Your safe depth: 30 m
Pressure level for 60 m: 50

Put 30 more points into Pressure (level 50) to reach 60 m safely. Until then you will be 30 m below your safe depth there.

Below your safe depth your battery drains much faster and your Vitality drops slowly. Plug in a power cable from your boat, or carry batteries and Charge Injectors.

Uses the confirmed rule: 10 m with no points, plus 1 m per Pressure level, up to 110 m at level 100. Plan the rest of your enhancer points in the Enhancer Planner.

How Safe Depth and Pressure Work

Your safe dive depth starts at 10 m. Each level of the Pressure enhancer adds 1 m, and 100 levels, the most any enhancer takes, bring it to 110 m.

Pressure is on the ENHANCERS tab beside SKILLS in the menu.

Going below your safe depth does not kill you outright. Your battery drains much faster and your Vitality drops slowly, so how long you can stay down depends on the power you carry.

Dive and Swim Controls

On a keyboard, hold Crouch (Left Ctrl) to dive and Jump (Space) to rise. Both are quicker than swimming forward while looking down or up.

Update 03 improved underwater controls and swimming.

How to Dive Below 110 m

Several dive sites go deeper than 110 m, so even full Pressure leaves you below your safe depth there.

To stay down longer, plug a power cable from your boat into yourself before you dive, or carry a charged battery backpack and consumable batteries.

Charge Injectors, unlocked at Tier 4, turn battery power into Vitality. Carry several on deep dives and recharge your battery afterwards.

Some deep sites have air pockets you can surface into, and some have a Heal Station.

How Deep Are the Graves?

Norfolk Grave is the shallowest Grave, at roughly 40 m. Salem, York, Dover, Winston and Brighton Grave all go deeper than 100 m.

The two depths measure different points. The game 0.8.5 location data gives the depth of each site's map marker; the wiki gives the deepest structures reached. Neither number is a confirmed depth for the whole site, so the calculator does not use them.
Grave	Map marker (game 0.8.5 data)	Deepest structures (wiki)
Norfolk Grave	38 m	45 m
Lincoln Grave	80 m	Not listed
York Grave	117 m	137 m
Dover Grave	123 m	140 m
Winston Grave	128 m	140 m
Salem Grave	130 m	106 m
Hampton Grave	134 m	Not listed
Brighton Grave	157 m	175 m

Each wiki depth links to its wiki page.

To spot hidden places on the seabed before you dive, watch the Scan-50 sonar on your boat.

Underwater cave depths are in the underwater caves guide; find each Grave on the interactive map.

TideRipper and Lights

Update 5.0 added TideRipper Hand Jets as a new way to move through water.

Once you unlock a TideRipper, it is in your Tools menu rather than the build menu. There is also a Twin Jet version.

You start with the Torch. Brighter lights unlock at Tier 6 (Lancer), Tier 14 (Nebula, which lights all around you) and Tier 18 (Eclipse, a long narrow beam), and they draw far more power.

The Eclipse's beam kills light-sensitive enemies such as leech swarms.

A light you craft is not put on your action bar for you. Open Tools (T) and assign it to a slot, or right-click it in your inventory and choose Add to Action Bar.

Sinking and Can't Swim Up?

A known bug sometimes stops the game treating you as being in water: you sink fast and cannot swim back up. Loading an earlier save gets you out, so save before you leave the boat.

Other fixes for stuck quests and broken saves are in the troubleshooting guide.

Not confirmed yet

On an Xbox controller you click the left stick (L3) to dive and hold A to rise.
Shift speeds up swimming forward but not rising, so swim up at an angle while holding Shift, W and Space.
For Norfolk Grave, 20 to 30 points in Pressure has worked; you may also reach it with none if you bring batteries.
The sinking bug may happen more often when you jump into the water holding a tool or weapon.
Spent enhancer points cannot be reset, so keep a few unspent until you know how deep you need to go.
The icon beside your health bar that turns orange, then red, underwater is the pressure warning.
The TideRipper's light uses less power than the Eclipse, but it does not kill leech swarms.
A flashlight that gives no light can be fixed by taking it off the action bar and adding it back, or by saving and reloading.
There can be heavy stutter near underwater seed pods, at any depth.

Diving FAQ

What is the max dive depth in The Last Caretaker?

110 m, with 100 levels in the Pressure enhancer. You start at 10 m and each level adds 1 m. You can go deeper, but you lose battery and Vitality while you are below your safe depth.

How do you dive deeper?

Put points into Pressure on the ENHANCERS tab: each point adds 1 m of safe depth. To go past it, plug in a power cable from your boat and carry batteries and Charge Injectors.

What happens below your safe depth?

You don't die straight away. Your battery drains much faster and your Vitality drops slowly.

How do you dive down and swim up?

On a keyboard, hold Crouch (Left Ctrl) to dive and Jump (Space) to rise.

Where is the TideRipper after you unlock it?

In your Tools menu, not the build menu.

Why can't I swim back up?

If you sink fast and cannot swim at all, it is a known bug. Loading an earlier save gets you out.

Official sources and wiki