Subnautica 2 mod makes creatures killable, despite its devs' desire to convince players to "use non-violent and more creative solutions"

The freedom to bonk some sealife in the name of self-defence, if that's what you want

Subnautica 2 is deliberately designed to nudge you away from seeking violent solutions to your 'oh lordy there's a giant leviathan chasing me' problems, with devs Unknown Worlds having been clear that strong feelings have propelled them down that path. Yet, as they've also acknowledged, not every Sub 2 player will agree: cue a mod that makes creatures killable quickly springing up now the survival game's out in early access.

"Getting into Subnautica 2 for the first time and then realising they took away the ability to kill made me angry," modder Domelll wrote in the description of their Killable Creatures mod. "Why take away a feature so simple, especially when it's a sandbox survival game? And after seeing the devs tell people it won't be coming back and it doesn't suit their vision for the game, I thought why not make it myself, having experience modding other games. So here we are!"

As shown off in some clips on the mod's Discord server, it currently lets you bonk or blast away the health of aquatic creatures using your multitool or sonic resonator. These murders, committed either 20 or 50 damage points at a time depending on your implement of choice, don't look to be overtly gruesome. Any fish you kill with either turn or their side, keep floating stock still, or ragdoll, with clouds of what could be escaping air or blue blood being emitted from your victims. There's also a corpse cleanup mechanic built in, which should stop the sea being littered with too many bodies at once.

Domelll hasn't posted clips of them battling any larger beasties like The Collector yet, but they do insist in the description that you'll be able to kill it, provided you've got some well-honed dodging skills. Oh, and the relentless drive to chip away at the 6000 health points it's noted as having in the creature heath table the modders have pinned in their comments.

As ever, one of the great boons of being on PC is the option to use mods like this one to play on your own terms, but it's certainly worth consider the reasoning Unknown Worlds' devs have given for moving in a less violent direction with their design. "The one thing that we wish to push is we want people to feel like they're learning to adapt to live in a world, not sort of the conqueror, colonist, dominator," design lead Anthony Gallegos said during a recent roundtable attended by RPS.

Whether that meshes with your definition of an ideal survival game will vary, as Gallegos made sure to acknowledge during that chat. I f you do fancy giving the killable creatures mod a go, you'll need to grab UE4SS for Subnautica 2 first.