Subanutica 2 major update adds the ability to shoot fish

Jul 08, 2026 - 19:22

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Subanutica 2 major update adds the ability to shoot fish

Published Jul 8, 2026, 11:55 AM EDT

Still can't kill 'em though

Subnautica 2 launched in early access in May to positive reviews, and it sold 1 million copies within an hour. (It's now at over 4 million sold.) Despite the fervor around the underwater survival game, there's been one point of contention among the game's player base: violence, or the lack thereof.

Basically, some players want to be able to kill the monstrous fish they encounter, while others (and the developers) are glad Subnautica 2 won't let you kill things. The game's first major update provides a concession. You can now shoot and stun fish, but you still can't kill them.

Developer Unknown Worlds released the game's first major update on Wednesday. Called Adaptive Measures, the update includes improvements to various features and a couple of new additions, like the ability to sprint. Notably, it makes the Sonic Resonator tool function as a stun gun, so you can start blastin' any pesky fish in the face.

As game design lead Anthony Gallegos explains in an update vlog, Unknown Worlds has "done some work on the Sonic Resonator, where a bunch of the creatures now have stun states, so when you hit them with the Sonic Resonator, you'll see them clearly communicate that they've become stunned." You can see in his footage that fish will go limp when you headshot them, but don't worry — they're just stunned, not dead.

Creatures' flinch animations have also been tweaked, so it's more apparent a creature has flinched and is preparing to flee when you smack them with a tool. Both these changes are "to make you feel like you're having the mitigation of creatures that we want you to feel, which has also been a major part of your feedback."

Community feedback during the early access period is vital to how Unknown Worlds works. "We've tended to have better success the earlier that we put something out because we can find out what players actually are interested in," creative media producer Scott MacDonald told Polygon during an April interview.

Subnautica 2 is already a different game today than it was two months ago after various hotfixes and now a major update. It'll continue to change in early access as Unknown Worlds estimates Subnautica 2's 1.0 launch is two to three years away. Up next on the roadmap is the Early Access 1.2 update, though it doesn't have a release date yet.