If they can’t dig that deep how are there pods with traders at all levels? Did they like disassemble them, carry all the parts to a deeper location and reassemble them?
I think I got to 4 furthest. I saw a youtube video with a guy at a deeper level and there was a trader. I think it’s just more dangerous and expensive to make them drill further.
I think a good system would be for it to have a cooldown given time is money (or rather food wasted) in this game, and when calling somebody down the further you are the higher the chance of some malfunction and the chance of the malfunction being more severe, so that you would have to waste a bunch of medicine rather then find a very specific item.
If they don’t have medical supplies ready I don’t think the first player is surviving long anyway, so the second player wouldn’t need to wait long. Also this game isn’t really known for letting you die immediately. Maybe rather then a timer it could be some kind of parkour/inventory management/etc. minigame the second player has to win to “finish training” and get sent to rejoin the first player right after, then it’s skill-based on both parts.