Subnautica 2 adds proximity chat and revives, plus donates $100K to charity in latest early access update

Subnautica 2’s newest early access update just dropped, and it contains a bunch of co-op improvements and a very generous charitable donation.

The undersea exploration game’s Buddy System update added proximity voice chat to enhance the co-op experience, the ability to revive other players, and an option to interact with other players

Most importantly, though, the update is being celebrated by developer Unknown Worlds with a $100,000 donation to The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization that helps remove plastic pollution from oceans.

“Subnautica began with a love for the ocean, and it means a great deal to continue the conservation work we started with the original game through this donation to The Ocean Cleanup,” said Fernando Melo, Executive Producer at Unknown Worlds. “We will keep doing our part to protect the ocean we have spent so long bringing to life.”

Today’s update also added a number of emotes to express yourself underwater, so if you and your friends have been waiting to dive in, then maybe this is the update to do so. Check out the full patch notes below

Subnautica 2 Buddy System patch notes – Aug. 19

Gameplay

• Added Proximity Voice Chat. As players get further away, they become harder to hear. Voice Chat is available as “always on,” “push to talk,” or “always off.”
• Tracking Tag added to the game. Can be placed in carryables (like a locker) as a short-range beacon. If present in hand or inventory when reprinting, will increase black box range.
• Players can now revive each other before reprinting. Revived players will keep their equipment and regain a small amount of oxygen. Downed players can also choose to immediately reprint and respawn back at their assigned Biobed.
• Added Wave, Clap, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, and Frustrated emotes. Emotes are selectable from a new radial menu. Triggerable in water or on land, and can be interrupted by gameplay input.
• Players can now interact with each other to directly exchange inventory items.
• Added Jegna and Grace character options in Character Customization, as well as two new color schemes for characters.
• Interaction text on Upgrade Biobeds changed to clarify their use.
• Added a distinct beep to player upgrade spots within a small radius.
• Added a small flash to screen on Upgrade Biobeds.

Fauna & Flora

• Added flinch animations and VFX to Marrowbreach, Hammerhead, Nibbler, Needlershark, Epicurean, and Twin Eel.
• Adjusted Bulletheads so they deal more damage but can now be dodged (…sometimes). 
• Added more Coral Crab animations.
• Revised model and animations for the Bloom Parasite. 
• Improved Jelly Ring tentacles.

Resources

• More Carryable Racks added to early game wrecks and human-made sites.

Base Building

• Improvements made to the base building system’s placement UI, including alignment guide lines.
• Improvements made to how the game handles Move mode for clients in a multiplayer session.
• Updated Tadpole Dock icon to reflect updated model.
• Base edits now account for size snapping, such that it’s possible to fully deconstruct a room with Shrink (among other things).
• Trashcan is now functional as a trashcan. Items added to trashcan will be destroyed one by one after a short, five second delay.
• Bases can no longer be built inside of Great Jaw.
• Items that are preventing an object from being built are displayed in a list.

Vehicles, Tools & Equipment

• Changed Feedback Resonator’s interaction with creatures to stun them instead of causing them to flee.
• Extended duration of the Sonic Resonator creature stun to 10 seconds.
• Sources for Acid now appear as green dots in the Scanner HUD.
• Repair Tool now unlocks after two scans.
• Tadpoles that are destroyed outside of the Early Access fence teleport inside of the Early Access fence so that they can be recovered.

Menus & UI

• Signals adjusted to increase clarity and reduce HUD clutter. Icons get larger as player gets closer, and text will appear on hover for signals further away.
• Save Codes can now be directly pasted into the Cloud Save Download input box. 
• Builder menu’s scroll position persists when closing and re-opening the menu. 
• Pinned recipes highlight when the player acquires resources relevant to those recipes. 
• Items shown in Pinned Recipes are no longer dimmed, to improve readability. 
• Improved error language for errors specific to non-Game Pass Microsoft users.
• Audiologs show elapsed and remaining playback time.

Art & Visual FX

• VFX performance improvements to the Graveyard and its Water Slugs, for the players who collect hundreds of Water Slugs.
• Tallshrooms now have an icon in the Scanner HUD.
• Added impact VFX for Tongue Thief.
• Light poles connecting Observatory and Rosetta Stone added.
• Removed odd blue outline that was sometimes visible on Collector Leviathan.
• Improved consistency of sparks VFX across the game.
• Improved consistency of electricity VFX across the game.
• Added shock VFX for Hammerheads impacting objects.
• Added more environmental effects to abandoned outposts and wrecks.

Voice & Narrative

• Previously unlocalized lines are now localized.
• Naming of Carryable Racks is now consistent across the game, instead of sometimes being “Wall Rack” or “Hardpoint.”
• Reduced frequency of NOA alerts.
• Adjusted Welcome Center message in Spanish and Italian.
• Adjusted pacing of dialog to better match the actions occurring during the recordings.
• Added Databank entry for Mod Station.
• Added Databank entries for audiologs that were missing them.
• Further refinements to voice over prioritization, so the most important lines are heard.

Music & SFX

• Music added to Tufa Zone, Thermal Area, and North Coral Gardens.

Miscellaneous

• New Privacy Policy additions from July 15th will pop up on first play.
• New Frame Generation modes 5x and 6x (RTX 5000 series) added.
• New Dynamic Frame Generation added. Will automatically select the appropriate Frame Generation mode to get a good performance (RTX 5000 series).
• VSync and DLSS Frame Generation can be turned on at the same time.
• Added description for Nvidia Reflex in Settings.
• Reorganized order of volume sliders.
• The in-game Feedback Tool now allows attaching a save file.

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For the full notes, including an ocean of bug fixes, check out the Steam website.

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