Subnautica 2

What Subnautica 2 is

Subnautica 2 is Unknown Worlds' next major underwater-survival project, the long-form follow-up to the original Subnautica and Below Zero. It pushes the formula into territory neither earlier game tried: four-player co-op as a first-class feature, a new ocean world distinct from 4546B, and what the studio describes as a story-light, exploration-first design, a deliberate pivot back toward the original Subnautica's show-don't-tell ethos after Below Zero's more cinematic approach.

It's been a turbulent road. The project was originally announced for early access in 2025, slipped during a studio leadership reshuffle at Krafton, and is currently targeting 2026 for the early-access window. A 1.0 release will likely come a year or more after that, in line with how Unknown Worlds shipped the original Subnautica.

Platforms aren't fully locked in. PC (Steam) is confirmed for early access. Console parity is expected eventually but not at launch.

Modding: tracking it as it develops

We don't have a modding tutorial yet, and anyone who claims to have one before early access ships is bluffing. A few things we do know that will shape what comes next:

• The engine is changing. Both earlier Subnautica games shipped on Unity, which is why the modding scene converged on BepInEx + Nautilus, they target Unity .NET assemblies. Subnautica 2 is moving off Unity, which means none of today's BepInEx-based mods will port directly. The community will need a new bootstrapper, a new API surface, a new everything. Expect a year or two of foundational tooling work after the game ships before content mods proliferate.
• Co-op changes what mods can sanely do. Multiplayer-aware mods are a different category from single-player ones: state has to sync across hosts and clients, anti-cheat surfaces matter, host-only versus client-only mods become a real distinction. The early modding community will spend months sorting out the host/client model before content mods land.
• Nitrox is encouraging precedent. Nitrox, the unofficial multiplayer mod for the original Subnautica, has shipped working co-op against an engine that wasn't designed for it. The same community is well-positioned to build the first wave of Subnautica 2 tools once the game is in players' hands.

We'll update this page when the modding stack stabilises. In the meantime, if you're a tool author or modder watching this space, the Subnautica Modding Discord is where most of the planning happens.

What's on OpenMods

Once Subnautica 2 enters early access and the first wave of mods land, they'll appear in the catalogue alongside the existing Subnautica and Below Zero mods. Until then there's no live grid below, the Browse all Subnautica 2 mods button on the right will fill out as soon as someone publishes something against the game.

In the meantime, if you're warming up for Subnautica 2 by modding the originals, start here:

• Subnautica: the most-modded game on OpenMods.
• Subnautica: Below Zero: same toolchain, polar setting.
• Getting Started with Subnautica Modding: 10-minute setup walkthrough covering the BepInEx + Nautilus stack you'll see referenced everywhere.