At times Subnautica can be an absolutely gorgeous, terrifying, and immersive game. It’s easy to get lost in the alien world of 4546B as you zip around under the waves in a Seamoth submersible or with a handheld Seaglide.

Taking the plunge beneath these alien tides in VR though is a completely different ball game. The extra immersion added with a VR headset is incredible and downright terrifying at times, especially if you’re exploring one of the Subnautica’s scary and dangerous biomes. Although the VR version is a little rough around the edges, it’s still a great addition to the game. So if you feel like taking your deep-sea diving to the next level, then here are some tips to keep in mind when using VR.

Updated February 17th, 2022 by Matthew Mckeown: The Subnautica series is more than just a trial by fire for those with Thalassophobia, it’s also a challenging open-world underwater survival game. The developers Unknown Worlds broke ground somewhat with their take on the genre by giving you an entire alien ocean to explore with the creature variety and detail in some of the submerged areas, particularly in Below Zero, being genuinely impressive.

Of course, it didn’t take long for VR support to be added. Despite the developers being a little all over the place with its implementation, once you get it up and running it can be a blast swimming around. There’s nothing more isolating than floating below the waves in VR in Subnautica with nothing around or below you but silted seawater, glancing huge shadowy shapes silently gliding all around. With substantially improved mod support for virtual reality recently released for Subnautica: Below Zero, now is the best time to dive into the series, here are some tips for playing Subnautica in VR.

15 Play With Mods

One very important thing worth mentioning before you get started playing Subnautica in VR is that you’re going to need to do a little tinkering with mods first. Despite the developer’s best efforts, Virtual Reality mode is still unstable and it can be frustrating to play if you just shove a headset on and start a new game.

Thankfully, in the time since VR became available, the Community has banded together to create some truly helpful add-ons that can smooth over a lot of the rough edges. Ideally, you should be looking for mods that focus on stability enhancements, especially those that provide native VR supportare going to be your best friend. So visit the Nexus and load up with as many of them as you can, although do check compatibility notes otherwise the game files will be complete chaos.

14 Be Prepared For Bugs

It really cannot be stressed enough how prepared you have to be for bugs. Virtual Reality was not the core focus for the developers when Subnautica launched and it was tacked on as an afterthought further down the line after enough fans requested it. So it’s not the smoothest thing to run. Expect a few minor inconveniences and annoyances when you play.

For example, the HUD is distorted, and a little too squashed against your face when you’re wearing a headset, causing some bits of crucial information to be a little hard to see or worse, compressed into a pixilated mess. Doors are still a little buggy, and it’s easy to misalign the cursor and accidentally click on things just out of camera view. The Seaglide POV is also rammed right in front of your face, making it difficult to look around when you’re cruising about with it. Although thankfully there are other mods to work around this that can zoom the camera back and fix a few other minor issues.

13 There’s No Console VR

If you’re interested in checking out the VR in Subnautica for yourself you’re going to need to grab the PC version as there is sadly no console virtual reality port quite yet. Though it was advertised on the VR stores of consoles at one point early in the games life cycle, this was apparently done in error.

Though fans have been asking for it ever since the first game allowed Oculus headset support, there has been no announcement or even interest by the developers in sharing that first-person terror with console players. The base game already puts quite the strain on last-gen consoles, so it could be something that might never happen. Or, saved until a potential next-gen port or the next new Subnautica game.

12 There Are No Motion Controls

Though most modern VR games offer motion controls in one form or another as it helps much better with immersion, Subnautica is confined purely to the headset. So unfortunately you can’t reach out and touch fish, it’s also smooth turning only. If you’re a little iffy with motion sickness, you might want to keep your undersea sessions short.

Standard gamepad controllers are highly recommended, just be careful of the stick bindings as the game can still lock your look control to them, which can be a little jarring if you accidentally thumb a stick and find the camera lurching out of your control.

11 Save Often

Though it may sound obvious, don’t forget to save often when the VR is up and running. A year on and the VR is still prone to sudden crashing, so save regularly if you don’t want to lose your progress.

If there’s a big important part you need to do, such as completing a mission task or venturing to a dangerous part of the ocean, try going without VR first to see how the game handles it, save, then come back. It’s not worth risking all your gear as well as time for it to crash on you at the worst possible moment.

10 Check Your Setup

VR can be quite demanding for a PC’s system and to get Subnautica running smoothly it’s likely you will need to tweak some things.

Don’t worry though, there are a ton of Subnautica Community posts and fan forums providing detailed walkthroughs of the best setup for individual VR headsets and machines. It’s recommended to have one of these open when you first get started to ensure you’re using the most optimal settings as stopping and starting to continually tweak things can become pretty frustrating after a while.

9 Make Sure You Have Space

Anyone that has any experience with VR will tell you how easy it is to forget you’re in real space whilst you’re looking around in a headset.

It’s incredibly easy to accidentally knock over and break something valuable or bang your head. Therefore, if you plan on playing Subnautica in VR then make sure that there’s enough space for you to move around at least a little bit without causing any damage to yourself or the headset. Try spacing your chair a few feet back from your desk and keep at least two or three feet of clearance on either side of you.

8 Sitting Down Is Better

Whilst you can play Subnautica standing up if you want, sitting down is encouraged as it’s easier on your legs and it can help reduce the feeling of motion sickness associated with VR.

This is because the game uses a controller or the keyboard as an input (sorry motion control fans) and players have mentioned motion sickness and disorientation whilst using them. Sitting down in a chair and being able to swivel 360 degrees can help to reduce that as well as add that little extra bit of immersion when you’re sitting down in a Submarine.

7 Start A New Game If You’re In VR

Although the game’s developer, Unknown Worlds Entertainment, is trying its best to make the VR work, it’s still pretty buggy and there’s an error list report as long as your arm for the issues players are still encountering with it.

Currently, one of the biggest recommendations to help with performance is that players who are planning on introducing VR to their game should start a new save file. Doing so can help avoid a known caching issue with some older saves that can cause the game to be more prone to instability. So start from scratch if you want to have a smoother experience with your headset.

6 Practice In Creative Mode

VR in any game can take a few minutes to adjust to and sometimes every second counts in Subnautica. Whether that’s swimming to the surface before you drown or trying to escape a Leviathan before it can take a bite out of you, those crucial few seconds can mean everything.

The last thing you want to be doing in those moments is wrestling with the VR, especially if you’re playing Subnautica on Hardcore Mode. Therefore, take some time to warm up to using the headset in Subnauticas Creative Mode for a while before you start your underwater adventure.

5 Oculus Home Can Cause Some Bugs

VR can be a little temperamental at times and getting it to run smoothly can take a lot of trial and error. Subnautica Oculus users, for example, may find it particularly frustrating to get set up.

This is because Oculus Home can cause conflicts with the game. But this can be easily disabled by turning off the Oculus Runtime in the Windows Service menu. If you’re still encountering issues there are also a number of mods available in the Community that can optimize VR performance.

4 Use A Gamepad

When you’re using the VR in Subnautica you have two options, mouse and keyboard or a gamepad. However, it’s highly recommended that you use the latter.

This is because having a slower and smoother turn rate with an analog stick can provide a less motion-sickness-inducing experience, whilst a keyboard can be a bit more jarring. The VR for Subnautica supports most gamepads, and it even supports Steam Controllers. So feel free to plug in your peripheral of choice and hop straight into building more Thermal Plans for your underwater base or heading off on another undersea expedition.

3 Unplug Any Other External Controllers

If you plan on playing Subnautica in VR then make sure that there are no other peripherals plugged into your PC. Currently having any other external controller or keyboard plugged in whilst using the VR in Subnauticas can cause keybinding issues.

Check to make sure that nothing else is connected when you start up the game as it could accidentally switch over at the worst moment. The last thing you want is to be staring down a gigantic Leviathan whilst your controls switch to a peripheral that you need to quickly hunt down before you’re turned into lunch.

2 F2 Resets The Camera

One of the biggest annoyances when playing any game in VR is camera drift. This can happen for a number of different reasons, either sensor misalignment or the game is just glitching for a moment.

It can be incredibly frustrating and immersion ruining for that disconnect to kick in as you watch your actions play out from a few feet away. Most games have a recentre button; in Subnautica’s case, this is bound to F2. If you encounter any drift, just quickly pop the headset off and hit that key for a quick fix.

1 There Are Fewer Animations In VR

Sometimes in order to get the VR working correctly, developers might cut a few corners here and there to make things run better. In the case of Subnautica, in order to help with the processing of VR, some of the game’s animations have been given the boot.

Although not really undermining the gameplay particularly much, the animations for things like climbing ladders, eating certain fish, and entering subs have been replaced with teleportation or skipping to the completed action instead. Not only does this make everything run smoother, but it also keeps the frame rate nice and healthy. Expect a more streamlined experience when you jump into the VR side of Subnautica.

NEXT: Everything You Need To Know Before Playing Subnautica: Below Zero