Subnautica 2 finally arrived in early access after a long legal battle between the co-founders of developer Unknown Worlds and its parent company, Krafton, ended this past March in favour of the co-founders. It's already become one of the biggest hits of the year, selling two million copies in its first day, and as it goes in early access, the community has been very vocal about what it wants to see changed in the game. While Unknown Worlds has mostly been responsive to the feedback, there's one element that goes against one of the game's core tenets, and it doesn't look like Unknown Worlds is budging, no matter how much the community begs them to.
If you're one of the millions who dived into Subnautica 2 in early access, then you know that this issue is combat, and how many players wish they had a way to fight back against the more aggressive sea creatures you encounter. After all, a core element of Subnautica is exploring and surviving on a planet that is almost entirely hostile towards you, so why not have a means of defending yourself through lethal force?
Of course, you can defend yourself in Subnautica 2. Or at the very least, you can divert and distract a creature that is aggressively hunting you so you can make a daring escape. But that's a temporary solution, and the more aggressive creatures also tend to hang around areas that hold key resources. Surviving those encounters is something you will continue to run up against, and Unknown Worlds understands the frustration that those encounters can cause players.
In a blog post on the game's Steam page, Unknown Worlds addressed the feedback around combat directly, and also apologized for comments made by the development team that it understands "made players feel ignored or dismissed," adding that players feedback "matters," and the early access period only works as "a conversation with our players, not a one-way explanation from the development team."
The post then dug into how Unknown Worlds plans to respond to the feedback, why it will be sticking to the game's core design tenets, and how it is currently failing to execute those tenets the way the team had envisioned.
"First, we understand that creature balance needs work," the studio begins. "Right now, some predator encounters feel more frustrating than tense and exciting. Mitigation tools are not always clear, reliable, or satisfying, and players do not always have enough confidence in how to respond when a creature attacks. This is not the experience we want."
Balance changes for the mitigation tools currently available to players, like flares and the Sonic Resonator, are coming in future patches, the studio confirms, as well as balance tweaks to how aggressive creatures are and the range required to trigger their aggression.
The studio then addressed players who are asking for the ability to kill creatures, and made it clear that it isn't judging or condescending to players who want a more "decisive solution" to Subnautica 2's dangerous predators. "Our current direction is not based on judging players who want combat, and it is not because we think those players are wrong. Subnautica has always been built around vulnerability, exploration, and survival rather than traditional weapon-based combat. We believe that is part of what makes the game unique. However, that design only works if creature encounters feel fair, readable, and engaging. Right now, we know we have more work to do to achieve that."
That response has been an encouraging one for the community, as several comments responding to the post on Steam and on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) are filled with players who are just happy to know that better mitigation tools are coming, and understand the game's core design principles.
Now it's just a matter of when they'll arrive. According to Unknown Worlds, it'll all happen "in the coming weeks," so it sounds like players will have to hold their breadth for a little longer before these tweaks are implemented.
For more on Subnautica 2, check out our guide on how to find silver, and for more on the game's future, check out what we learned when lead game designer Anthony Galagos went through the game's early access roadmap in a presentation seen by Wccftech just ahead of launch.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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