Subnautica, the open-world underwater survival-exploration adventure, came out of Steam Early Access in January 2018. Since that time, the game has been a massive hit for developer Unknown Worlds, selling more than 5 million copies. Subnautica offers four different modes of watery goodness, with one of them being the sandbox Creative mode.
Like the Creative modes of games like Minecraft and Fortnite, the mode in Subnautica is an unbridled adventure, allowing players to go anywhere and do anything without a care in the world. Players can build monstrous habitats, explore every biome on the entire map with nothing but their hands and flippers, and experience every tool and item the game has to offer. But what else can be done with all that freedom? Forge ahead, brave explorers to find out.
7 Getting Into Creative Mode
There are two ways to gain access to Subnautica’s Creative mode. The easiest is to start a new game in Creative Mode. From the game’s main screen, click ‘New Game’ and a menu will be presented with the four choices for playing: Survival, Freedom, Hardcore, and Creative.
For those who are already well into a playthrough but want to avail themselves of the joys of Creative mode, fear not, there is a way. While in the game (not at the loading screen), players should press F3 to bring up the developer settings menu in the top left of the screen, then press F8 to bring up a mouse cursor.
At the top left of the screen is a checkbox with the description “Disable Console” next to it. Clicking the box clears the checkmark, thus enabling the console. Pressing F3 again will clear away the settings menu, and pressing Enter will pop up a small text box in the bottom left corner of the screen. Type “Creative” and press Enter one last time to finally enter Creative mode. The oxygen, hunger, and thirst indicators will all disappear to indicate that it was done correctly.
6 Live Forever
Now that Creative mode has been achieved, the most obvious and certainly most impactful result is the inability to die. Literally, nothing can kill you while in this mode, be it lava or the plethora of nasty creatures that inhabit the game’s briny depths.
With death around nearly every corner in the other three modes, imperviousness to the game’s many dangers is a simple joy that cannot be understated. Hearkening back to the days of “God mode” in some of the earliest titles, invulnerability is the keystone for many other activities you can undertake in the Creative space.
5 Build Anything, Anytime
This mode is designed to give players absolute freedom to construct and create to their heart’s desire. To that end, every item and upgrade is at your fingertips from the very beginning. Infinite resources mean that foraging is no longer necessary, and every blueprint is already loaded into the in-game PDA.
Habitats and vehicles that may have taken hours to earn in other modes can be constructed after just a few breaths of Planet 4546B’s atmosphere. Combined with the mode’s invulnerability, these structures can be built anywhere, be it in a lava pool or in the most dangerous of spots in the planet’s ocean. The sky is the limit, the world is one’s oyster, and so on.
4 Kill Reaper Leviathans
It’s not a bad bet to wager that anyone who has fired up Subnautica has, at one point or another, run afoul of a Reaper Leviathan. One of the game’s most terrifying creatures, the Reaper can demolish even the hardiest of vehicles and end the player’s puny life with just a flick of its tail. For players who seek the ultimate revenge against the watery menace, Creative mode’s innate lack of death means that opportunity exists, and in many different ways.
Feel like hacking away at the beast several thousand times with a knife until it leaves that mortal coil? Or perhaps using the torpedo systems of the Cyclops or Seamoth? All it takes is patience and quite a bit of time, as the Reaper has health points galore. The good news is their nasty attitude won’t let them leave you alone, so there isn’t much searching to be done. Swim toward the back of the Aurora and once the water turns brown, it’s go-time.
3 Explore The Aurora Right Away
Upon starting a new game and climbing up the ladder in the Lifepod, a quick glance around will reveal a giant fiery wreck of a spaceship. This is the Aurora, the player’s former ship that crash-landed mysteriously on the planet. In any other mode, the Aurora can’t be approached for some time, as even swimming in the waters around it will result in a quick death from radiation poisoning. The Radiation Suit typically must be found and crafted before going to the ship.
With the invulnerability granted to the player in Creative mode, however, there’s no reason not to head over immediately to the once-magnificent spaceship. Be sure to take along a Laser Cutter and Repair Tool to be able to access all areas of the ship. The Propulsion Cannon helps clear paths through the wreckage too, in order to see all there is to see.
2 Enjoy Fully Upgraded Vehicles
Subnautica players have three different vehicles at their disposal throughout the game. The Seamoth is a one-person submersible that will be your earliest best friend, offering a degree of safety and mobility that can’t be matched. The Prawn Suit will likely come next, essentially a drilling and mining suit that stands up well to the depths and beasts you will encounter there. Finally, the Cyclops is a huge submarine that doubles as a floating base.
Each of the vehicles has several different upgrades, but only a few of them are required for the game to progress, namely the depth modules that let players explore and progress the story. Many players may never even get to a majority of the upgrades, such as the Seamoth Defensive System or the Prawn Suit Grapple Arm, as each requires a lot of resources and exploration to find the blueprints.
That’s no worry in Creative mode though, as the default inventory and PDA already has everything it needs to build the vehicles and all the upgrades! So make sure to check out everything available, from Gas Torpedoes to Fire Extinguishers, Drill Arms to Sonar Systems.
1 Explore Beyond The Edge Of The Map
There is one universally accepted truth about the underwater world of Subnautica: don’t go to the edge of the map. That’s because if you do, three fully grown, fully angry Ghost Leviathans will be there to escort anyone they see off the premises. But in Creative mode, who cares? They can’t do any damage, so there’s nothing to fear.
What is to be found at the edge of the map is another story. The game refers to it as an “ecological dead zone”, so there isn’t likely to be a lot of life, but who knows, there may be undiscovered species just waiting for someone to find them.
NEXT: Subnautica: 10 Things To Do After You Beat The Game
