Subnautica 2 update 1.1 Adaptive Measures adds creature stun states and biomod upgrades — fish still can't be killed

Unknown Worlds dropped Subnautica 2's first proper named update on July 8 — Early Access 1.1, titled Adaptive Measures. It doesn't let you kill fish, but it does give you a lot more ways to fight back against them.

The biggest creature change is to the Sonic Resonator, which now genuinely stuns enemies. Creative director Anthony Gallegos showed a marrowbreach taking a sonic blast and going limp, slowly sinking to the seafloor — a clear visual cue that the stun state has kicked in. The Survival Multitool also got work: most creatures now have proper flinch animations when you hit them, so you can actually feel the impact before they flee. Blight creatures — the ones you can kill with the resonator — now signal their shift from passive to aggressive more clearly, so you're less likely to get blindsided. Beyond combat, 1.1 adds more biolabs to the early game so you can find and swap Biomods from the start, and a new in-game scanner (which Gallegos refused to name to avoid spoilers) lets you scan creatures to unlock additional passive Biomod slots. Wrecks got a puzzle pass for better gameplay and visual cohesion, the PDA was overhauled so you can replay previous recordings, and there's a new larger base storage option — though it doesn't connect to fabricators automatically.

The no-killing policy has been Subnautica 2's most contentious design decision since launch. The game sold a million copies in its first hour and over four million in its first week, landing strong reviews on Steam — but a vocal chunk of players immediately pushed back on the absence of a knife or any direct way to deal with aggressive predators. A June hotfix had already nerfed some of the worst offenders, and modders built their own kill-the-fish solution in the meantime. Gallegos has previously pushed back on the framing that Unknown Worlds is making a pacifism game, telling MinnMax that simply isn't the intent — the studio wants players to feel like they have meaningful creature mitigation, just not lethal options. The 1.1 stun system is the most direct answer to that feedback yet. The game's development has also been shadowed by a legal dispute between parent company Krafton and studio leadership; a settlement was reached, with CEO Ted Gill stepping down, and Krafton confirmed the whole Unknown Worlds team will receive their bonuses.

Update 1.2, due "some weeks" after 1.1, will focus on co-op — adding proximity voice chat, player revive, emotes, player trading, better HUD signals, and base builder improvements. The big Early Access 2 update later this year will bring a new region, new creatures, new vehicle chassis, new progression, and new story content. Gallegos acknowledged the team is small and working hard, but didn't give a specific date.