Unknown Worlds dropped Subnautica 2 patch 1.2 today, August 19, and it is almost entirely about making co-op feel like an actual co-op experience. The update, officially dubbed the Buddy System update, adds proximity chat, player revives, inventory sharing, a tracking tag, and more. Creative director Anthony Gallegos walked through the changes in a new video, and also gave a first glimpse at what the Early Access 2 update is shaping up to look like.
What the Buddy System update actually adds
The headline feature is proximity chat, and it is more thoughtfully designed than most games bother with. As players move apart from each other, voice communication gradually degrades into a radio-static effect that breaks up the further away you get. Gallegos described it as adding to the tension of exploration, and honestly, the idea of hearing a friend's voice crackle out mid-dive sounds like exactly the kind of ambient dread Subnautica thrives on.
Player revives work exactly as you would hope. If a teammate goes down, you have a window to reach them and share oxygen to bring them back. No more watching a friend bleed out while you frantically drop items on the seafloor trying to help.
Inventory sharing cuts out that same awkward drop-and-pickup routine entirely. Walk up behind another player, access their inventory, and swap items directly. It is a small quality-of-life change that will matter enormously during tense resource runs.
The tracking tag is a new throwable beacon you can place in the environment or inside a portable locker. If you die while carrying one, it extends your black box signal so you can actually locate the gear you left behind. Anyone who has lost a locker in a cave system will immediately understand why this exists.
Two new playable characters join the roster as well: Grace and Jegna, each with two new suit color options. Gallegos was clear this is just the start of cosmetic diversification, with more options planned throughout early access. Players who want everyone to look identical can still do that, apparently.
The HUD also gets a meaningful rework. Icons now appear at reduced scale by default and only expand to full detail when you hover over them for about half a second. With multiple beacons active in a region, the old HUD could get genuinely cluttered. This change should make it much easier to pick out the specific beacon you need without the screen feeling like a traffic jam. Pinned recipes and the base builder tool also received clarity improvements.
Gallegos confirmed that patch 1.2 contains more changes beyond what was covered in the video, with full patch notes available separately.
A first look at Early Access 2
The bigger tease at the end of Gallegos's video was a work-in-progress glimpse at the Early Access 2 update. No release date was given, but the footage confirmed it will bring a new region, new story content, new progression systems, and new vehicles. The footage was clearly marked as in-development, so expect things to change before it ships.
Gallegos framed the Buddy System update as a direct response to player feedback, saying Unknown Worlds builds games the way it does specifically because player participation during development leads to better outcomes. The 1.2 update is a reasonable argument for that philosophy: every feature in it addresses something the co-op experience was clearly missing at launch.
For a full picture of what is already confirmed for the road ahead, the Subnautica 2 early access roadmap covers all the planned biomes, story chapters, and content milestones in one place. The Early Access 2 update is shaping up to be the bigger content swing, and today's patch is the foundation it needs to land properly.
