Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds is still talking internally about what to do in response to the game’s big killing fish debate, but players have taken the matter into their own hands, diving deeper to uncover ways of actually defending themselves.
To briefly recap, killing fish isn’t properly supported in Subnautica 2, which launched to huge success in early access form last week. You can deter fish by using a flare, but there are no tools designed specifically for causing fish damage, which means that you’re faced with having to put up with them nibbling at your heels as you go about your underwater business.
But, it turns out that there are ways to defend yourself in Subnautica 2, but you’ll have to put in a bit of work to make use of them. Across subreddits, discords, and social media, players have identified mid-game upgrades that offer some defense, and even let you kill fish in a round about way.
Mid-Game Defense Upgrades
The Feedback Resonator, an upgrade for the Sonic Resonator that lets it fire a projectile, lets you shoot fish from a distance. You’ll need to work your way deep into the game to obtain it, but some reports indicate the Sonic Resonator can actually kill fish, so it’s certainly worthwhile.
Redditor Jeidoz suggests the Shockwave biomod upgrade, which gives you an electric discharge that can push fish away from you. And then there are the aforementioned flares when you’re in a pickle.
Jeidoz said they were able to complete the early access Subnautica 2 as it is now without taking damage, which sounds like a herculean effort. They used flares and dashed to run away from predators, then the Sonic Resonator to encourage fish to push off. Then, getting further into the mid-game, the Electric Discharge was used “for any dangerous situations,” and the Feedback Resonator was used for single-target enemies.
“In the current version of Early Access, I believe we only have mid-game (or even pre-mid-game?) options,” Jeidoz said. “With future updates, we can expect new vehicles, new bio-mods, fixed fish reactions to light, and other tools/actions. Currently, the PDA mentions some of them, but most fish only react to flares, ‘sounds’ from vehicles, the Sonic Resonator, the player, and stationary vehicles.”
Developer Stance on Combat
So, the upshot is, the more you play Subnautica 2, the more you’ll be able to defend yourself. But this is not the outright ability to kill fish, as some want. Yes, you do kill fish “off screen” by eating them raw, cooking them, or turning them into other resources. But some players want to effectively clear the game out of fish, giving them the breathing room to bend the depths to their will.
This, though, does not sound like something the developers at Unknown Worlds will ever make possible in Subnautica 2. The developers have spoken in the past about not wanting players to conquer or dominate the environment, and that it wouldn’t feature tools that would let them slay anything that gets in their way. "We aren't a killing game," level designer Artyom "Artie" O'Rielly recently said in the Subnautica Discord. "Go play Sons of the Forest or something if you want to kill."
Future Tweaks
Still, Unknown Worlds is certainly thinking about tweaking the game in response to the debate. Also speaking in the Discord, lead game designer Anthony Gallegos said the developer can tune creature aggression to make fish less annoying to deal with.
“One thing that should help with this soon is the array of creature flinches we're doing,” Gallegos explained. “Right now they aren't communicating that you've impacted them, and that will change.
“We can do a lot without a stasis rifle for now, though," he added. "Some of it is just going to be rounds of tuning around creature aggression, downtime between when you run them off, etc. We clearly have work to do there, and we're doing it!”
