Fresh from its huge early access launch, underwater survival and crafting adventure game Subnautica 2 has sparked a significant debate among fans: to kill or not to kill the fish.
Currently, you can’t kill any fish in Subnautica 2, and there is no weaponry to do so, and some players don’t like that at all. While you can sort of deter fish to go away by using a flare, you can’t actively kill fish while out in the deep — despite the fact they can not only pursue you, but damage you.
It’s worth noting that you can kill small fish in a roundabout way, but gathering them up as a resource and turning them into all sorts of useful things back at your base. But there’s no direct killing of any fish while out and about, making everything you encounter on the alien planet effectively immortal. Because of this, you’ll just bounce off fish if you crash into them. Indeed, this is not how it works in Subnautica 1, which does let players kill fish.
Unknown Worlds’ philosophy for the sequel is different. 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. Still, with Subnautica 2 now out in the wild, the discourse around killing fish has resurfaced, and so the developers are once again chiming in.
Environmental artist “uly” has had plenty to say on the topic, insisting that “the conversation around the ways fish die isn’t over.” The developers are talking about it a lot internally, uly said, and hope to provide an update soon.
“Trust me it is a HOT topic,” uly said. “There are so many opinions. Personally, I am hoping we can eventually let the little fish die. I’m team no-kill-shark-sized-stuff tho.”
“When you bump into a predator you shouldn't be going ‘uuuuuugh what a pain,’ you should be going, ‘Ah man... what tools do I have up my sleeve to deal with this guy?’”
“You do get a tool that will deter them, but it doesn’t deter them enough right now,” uly continued. “You prob wont be able to kill the shark sized stuff and larger, but you’ll get tools to deter them. Killing little fish? I’m not in charge of that stuff, but it’s an active discussion in the team.”
As mentioned, flares are an option for deterring fish, but they’re far from ideal. “I think that they take up valuable inventory space,” uly suggested, which “means most players aren't lugging them around. Inventory space is at too much of a premium.”
Clearly, Unknown Worlds is working out how to handle this issue, but don’t expect meaningful change any time soon. Uly said any change to allow players to kill fish would require “a good bit of investment” on the development side, citing game balance, mechanics, animation, sound, and AI considerations.
“We've had this conversation a TON internally,” uly said. “Regardless of where we land, we know that players don't have enough ways to deal with hostile wildlife.”
I’ve been keeping on top of the Subnautica 2 community while playing the game, and every now and then you see players ask for help on how to kill fish, unaware it’s simply not possible. For example, one person posted on the Subnautica reddit to complain about getting bit by fish, pointing out the Survival Multitool doesn’t hurt them back and asking if there is a weapon available further down the line.
“You can't kill fish, it's not in their vision,” one person replied. “If you want a monster killing game, go play Sons of the Forest. “I think it’s a good thing,” another added. “It’ll open up the devs to add more progression elements to deter or distract or pacify fish. Knifing them is probably the least interesting solution from a gameplay perspective.”
A change for killing fish is not on the Subnautica 2 early access roadmap, which was revealed last week. Unknown Worlds said it’s working towards a “big drop” that will expand the world with biomes, creatures, resources, tools, vehicles, and the next chapter of the story. But in the meantime, improvements will be added to the game. The first update will include quality-of-life fixes that Unknown Worlds said “should help adjust and address some areas that need a little tweaking to make your Subnautica 2 experience even better.” The second update, meanwhile, will focus on improving the co-op experience.
Unknown Worlds stressed that the roadmap is subject to change, but there’s plenty here that should excite fans — and there are a lot of them. Subnautica 2 sold an incredible 2 million copies in just 12 hours, and obliterated the first game’s Steam concurrent player peak. IGN’s Subnautica 2 early access review returned a 7/10. We said: “It’s pretty impressive that wading in the shallow tides of Subnautica 2's early access debut is as fun as it is already, and that should be a great sign of things to come, but I also wouldn’t blame anyone for waiting for these waters to rise a bit before getting their feet wet.”
We’ve got a Things to Do First in Subnautica 2 guide to check out before you dive in, plus resource location guides to help you find Titanium, Silver, and more. Discover blackbox and supply crate locations on our interactive Subnautica 2 map, and make sure you don’t miss any Angel Comb Adaptations or Blueprints.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
