Endless Ocean Luminous – How to Boost Your Creature Scan Numbers Quickly to Unlock Missions

Endless Ocean Luminous, the latest in Nintendo and developer Arika’s cult aquatic exploration games, is out now, and it might not be quite what some folks are expecting. The game features a number of mechanics that may be somewhat confusing at first, but don’t worry, we’re here to clarify things.

One thing you’ll realize upon starting to play Endless Ocean Luminous is that Story mode missions are locked behind scanning set numbers of creatures, and you may also notice your creature scan counter isn’t hitting those milestones as quickly as you might expect. It turns out Luminous is very particular about which creature scans it counts to your total. Here’s how that creature scan counter actually works, and how you can get your numbers up faster…

So, the first thing you have to know, is only creatures you haven’t scanned previously – those still glowing with a blue or yellow “light” – will count toward your total. It doesn’t matter if you end your dive session, if you return to the same map with your progressed saved, any fish you’ve already scanned won’t count.

Second, if you scan multiple of the same species of creature with a single scan, they’ll only count once toward your creature count. So, if you come a big school of bluefin tuna and scan them all at once, that will only add 1 point to your creature count, not 30-something. I know, it’s lame, but that’s how it is.

So, how do you maximize your creature count?

• Look for areas where there are lots of varied fish, and then try not to scan them all in one big mass. Again, you get no bonus for scanning multiple fish of the same type at once. Scan smaller groups of unique fish instead.
• Jump into new maps frequently, as that means you’ll have a new batch of fish to scan, and you won’t have to worry about accidentally double-scanning. If you’ve found a map you like and don’t want to give it up, just use its Dive-Site ID to call it up again later (here’s how to do that). When you use a Dive-Site ID to call back up a map again, its progress will be reset, so that means fresh fish scans!
• Play multiplayer. This is a big one, as progress and scans are shared between all players so that means you can really get those scan numbers up quickly.

Hopefully that provides a little clarity on why your creature counter isn’t going up as fast as you’d like, and how to do things more efficiently.

Endless Ocean Luminous can be played on Nintendo Switch. You can check out Wccftech’s other Endless Ocean Luminous guides here.

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