Subnautica update 1.2 launches today, and it’s all about making Unknown Worlds’ underwater survival game feel better in co-op. With the introduction of proximity voice chat, emotes, player trading, and revives, you’ll have a more friendly time adventuring alongside your fellow explorers. Whether you prefer running solo or in a group, you’ll also benefit from the new Tracking Tag and interface updates designed to making building feel smoother, as the developer continues work on the new region coming in update 2.
In line with the modern trend of co-op games, proximity voice chat is top of the list. This will sound clear when you’re all close together, but as you start to drift further apart you’ll hear a radio effect kick in and gradually break up more as the distance increases, until you can barely hear them at all. For some more non-verbal communication options, there’s now an emote wheel with options like a wave, thumbs up, frustration, and applause – use these in as friendly or antagonistically a manner as you please.
The Subnautica 2 buddy system update goes beyond simple communication, however. You can now revive your fallen allies, whether they were attacked by a hostile creature or fainted due to lack of food or oxygen. There’s a limited time to get to them, so move fast. A new Tracking Tag item has been added to mark the locations of boxes you leave out across the ocean, and if you die with one of these in your inventory it’ll extend your Black Box signal out further, making it easier to find.
You can now trade items with other players by simply holding down a button when close to them – they’ll be notified that you’re peeking into their bags, so use this responsibly. To help tell everyone apart, there are two new playable characters, Grace and Jegna, and two more suit color profiles.
Unknown Worlds has also given the UI some more love. The build tool should now make it much clearer when and why you can’t place an object down. Pinned recipes have been made simpler, craftable recipes will be clearly marked, and beacons will now start small but expand when you hover over them to show their full details, keeping clutter down as you start to place more at key locations.
Subnautica 2 update 1.2 launches today, Wednesday August 19. Creative Director Anthony Gallegos notes that the team is hard at work on early access update 2, which is where we’ll be diving into a new region, home to the Collector Leviathan. That’ll introduce more story, new progression, and a stompy mech reminiscent of the first game’s PRAWN Suit.