🤿 Submarine Explorer 3D

Into the deep

Submarine Explorer 3D is a free submarine game that you play in your browser. Your little yellow submarine bobs on the waves next to a research ship. Below you, the ocean goes down and down: past a bright coral reef, through a forest of swaying kelp, into a dark trench and finally to the pitch-black abyss, nearly 500 metres down. Somewhere at the bottom, in the ruins of an ancient temple, lies the Golden Idol.

The sea is a real 3D world. Sunlight ripples across the sand in the shallows, schools of fish dart away as you pass, kelp sways in the current and, as you go deeper, the water turns from bright blue to deep indigo to black. Down there, the only light comes from your lamps and from the strange creatures that glow in the dark.

Four ocean zones

The Sunlit Reef is shallow, colourful and full of clownfish, turtles and dolphins. Kelp Canyon is a deeper valley of tall green kelp where rays and octopuses hide. The Twilight Trench drops away to well over 100 metres, where anglerfish dangle their glowing lures. The Midnight Abyss is the deepest place of all, home to vampire squid, dumbo octopuses and, if you are lucky, the giant squid.

Sonar, claw and scanner

Press Q to send out a sonar ping. A ring spreads through the water, and treasure, wreck sites and new creatures show up as dots on the round radar. Drive up to a treasure until the claw is close and press E to grab it: gold coins, pearls, rings, vases, gems, compasses, crowns and crystals, each worth more the deeper it lies. To scan a sea creature for your Sea Log, get close and hold X until the scan bar fills. Every new creature earns research money.

Air and hull

Your submarine carries a limited amount of oxygen, and the bar goes down while you are underwater. Surface before it runs out. The hull also has a depth rating: go deeper than it and the hull creaks and starts to take damage. If either runs out, the ship's crane pulls you back up, but you drop any treasure you were carrying. Upgrades raise both limits so you can dive deeper and stay down longer.

The research ship

Surface inside the yellow ring next to the research ship to dock. Your treasure is sold, your air is refilled and your hull is repaired. Then spend your money on upgrades: a stronger hull (from 60 m all the way to 520 m), more oxygen, a faster motor, brighter lights, a longer-range sonar and a bigger cargo hold.

Ten missions

The Expedition starts with a first dive to 15 metres. Then you scan your first creatures, collect and sell treasure, explore a sunken galleon for its bell, buy a stronger hull, find a diver's lost camera in Kelp Canyon, scan an anglerfish in the Twilight Trench, recover the captain's safe from a sunken cargo ship, scan the giant squid in the abyss and, finally, bring the Golden Idol up from the abyss ruins. Missions unlock new submarines: Coral after 3, Deep Blue after 6 and the Golden Nautilus after 10.

Free Dive and Treasure Hunt

Free Dive lets you explore every zone at your own pace, fill the Sea Log and hunt treasure. Treasure Hunt gives you five minutes: grab as much as you can and sell it at the ship before the clock runs out, because anything still in your hold does not count.

Tips

Ping the sonar often. Switch on your lights (L) in the deep zones. Watch the oxygen bar on the way down, and remember you need air for the way back up too. Buy the hull upgrade first, then oxygen. Look out for jellyfish: they sting a little. And bigger creatures are easier to scan from a few metres away.

Play anywhere

Submarine Explorer 3D runs in any modern browser on computers, Chromebooks, tablets and phones, with no download and no account. On a touchscreen, use the stick to move and the buttons to dive, rise, grab, ping and scan. Your money, upgrades and Sea Log are saved only in your own browser. See the Parents & Safety page for more.

More games like this

Swim the reef as a mermaid in Mermaid Ocean Adventure, grow from a tiny fish to a giant in Feed and Grow Fish 3D, or fish the deep sea from a boat in Deep Sea Fishing Boat 3D. Every boat game is on our Boat Games page.

Frequently asked questions