{"id":688880,"date":"2026-05-23T05:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688880\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T05:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T05:50:09","slug":"dev-says-go-play-sons-of-the-forest-to-subnautica-2-players-furious-over-no-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/688880\/","title":{"rendered":"Dev says \u201cgo play Sons of the Forest\u201d to Subnautica 2 players furious over no weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a bumpy development cycle, Unknown Worlds finally released Subnautica 2 into early access. The game sold an impressive 2 million copies in 12 hours and surged to 650,000 concurrent players on Steam. Players are having a great time diving into co-op underwater exploration. <\/p>\n

However, one thing has bothered players returning to the sequel: they are irritated that they can\u2019t kill most underwater sea creatures, or wildlife for that matter, in the hostile underwater biomes of the game. <\/p>\n

You can\u2019t use weapons or stab Leviathans in Subnautica 2, much like in the original game<\/a>. You only have access to a few tools to scare them away. Even the devs have made it clear that they want to keep the game that way. As expected, you cant please everyone and some fans aren\u2019t happy. <\/p>\n

Not a ‘killing game’<\/p>\n

One player on the official Subnautica 2 Discord stepped up and asked the developers why there\u2019s no actual way to fight back against the hostile wildlife. Artyom O\u2019Reily replied with a straight answer: \u201cWe aren\u2019t a killing game. Go play Sons of the Forest or something if you want to kill.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Unknown Worlds team has pretty much doubled down on the pacifist agenda of Subnautica 2 for unknown reasons. Design lead Anthony Gallegos has also doubled down in numerous interviews, calling the no-kill rule \u201ca continued point of resistance\u201d among Subnautica fans, something that the player base \u201cfeels strongly about.\u201d <\/p>\n

He explained the studio\u2019s vision and said, \u201cWe want people to feel like they\u2019re learning to adapt to live in the world, not to be the conqueror, colonist, and dominator.\u201d <\/p>\n

This philosophy isn\u2019t new by any means and dates back to the first game, developed after the Sandy Hook shooting, when co-founder Charlie Cleveland wanted to create an immersive underwater exploration game without any guns.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Modders to the rescue?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where modder Jibotron stepped into the picture with his \u201cKillable Creatures\u201d<\/a> mod. Explaining the reason behind the mod, Jibotron stated: <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened to being able to kill even the mightiest of leviathans with your knife?\u201d The mod allows you to reuse your survival tools, such as the multitool hammer, to deal 20 damage to any creature, while the sonic resonator deals 50 damage. <\/p>\n

Still, plenty of Subnautica 2 fans aren\u2019t happy about the mod and are siding with the developers in this regard, while much of the wider community believes that Subnautica 2 should offer freedom of choice given its sandbox nature. <\/p>\n

\"Rahim<\/a><\/p>\n

I am a UAE-based tech writer who likes to build and benchmark PCs both professionally and as a hobby. I contribute to multiple tech publications, including TechRadar and Notebookcheck, as well as Game Rant, where I focus primarily on news, commerce, and buying guides. When I’m not scouring the internet for the latest in tech stories, you will find me playing a game of Civilization or DotA with friends and frenemies alike while dropping recommendations for Apple TV+’s Foundation to everyone I come across.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a bumpy development cycle, Unknown Worlds finally released Subnautica 2 into early access. The game sold an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,234,235,227,233,226,236,232,228,229,105,231,230],"class_list":["post-688880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-benchmarks","tag-graphics-card","tag-laptop","tag-netbook","tag-notebook","tag-processor","tag-reports","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-technology","tag-test","tag-tests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}