Subnautica 2 Update 1.2 Adds Proximity Voice Chat and Player Revives on PC and Xbox

Unknown Worlds pushed Subnautica 2 update 1.2 live on 19 August, and the headline addition is cross-platform proximity voice chat — teammates get louder as they swim toward you and fade out as they drift away. The patch is out now on Steam, the Epic Games Store and Xbox Series X and Series S, where the game sits in Xbox Game Preview and on Game Pass. PlayStation 5 owners are still waiting; Subnautica 2 has no PS5 version during Early Access.

The studio calls it the Buddy System update. It is the second major drop since Early Access opened on 14 May, and almost everything in it is aimed at the four-player co-op that has carried the game since launch.

What Subnautica 2 update 1.2 changes for co-op

Proximity chat is the centrepiece and it works across platforms, so a Steam player and an Xbox player in the same session hear each other without a third-party app. Three modes are available in the settings: always on, push to talk, or always off. Distance controls volume, which means shouting a warning about a Bulb Zone predator only works if you are close enough to be heard.

Revives are the other structural change. When a teammate goes down — mauled by a creature, or drained of oxygen or food — another player can now bring them back on the spot instead of watching them reprint. A revived diver keeps their equipment and comes back with a small amount of oxygen. Downed players are not forced to wait, though: they can skip the rescue and respawn at their assigned Biobed immediately.

• Player trading — direct inventory-to-inventory transfers through an interaction prompt, so nobody has to dump titanium on the seabed and hope it is still there.
• Five emotes — Wave, Clap, Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down and Frustrated, on a radial menu, usable on land or underwater.
• Two new characters — Jegna and Grace join the customisation options, alongside extra suit colours.
• Tracking tag — a portable beacon you can drop into a carryable. Leave it in a locker and the locker becomes a marker; carry it when you die and it extends your black box signal range.

Which platforms get the Buddy System update

PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, plus Xbox Series X and Series S. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers have had Subnautica 2 since day one of Early Access, so 1.2 arrives at no extra cost there. Unknown Worlds has not announced a PS5 release date and has not ruled one out either — there has simply been no statement about PlayStation during Early Access, and anything claiming otherwise is unconfirmed.

Xbox players juggling limited internal storage may want to check the console's newer save and storage tools first; we covered the local save manager rolling out to Xbox Insiders, and the current August Game Pass wave lists what else has landed on the service this month.

Quality-of-life fixes buried in the patch notes

Base building picked up alignment guide lines, which makes squaring off a multiroom sprawl less of a guessing game. Signal icons now scale with distance — smaller when far, larger as you approach — instead of cluttering the HUD at a fixed size. The builder menu also remembers where you left the scroll position between sessions.

Beyond that, Unknown Worlds worked through a long list of corrections covering power systems, terrain clipping, multiplayer synchronisation and creature behaviour, along with creature animation and localisation passes. The studio also said it donated $100,000 to The Ocean Cleanup, the non-profit that pulls plastic out of real oceans.

If co-op survival is your thing, two other games on that shelf shipped patches this month worth reading: the ARC Raiders 1.42.0 update and the Helldivers 2 7.0.1 patch.

How long Early Access runs

Unknown Worlds has said the Early Access period is expected to last roughly two to three years from the May 2026 start, so 1.2 is an early waypoint rather than a finish line. The build remains unfinished by design, and features like proximity chat landing eight weeks apart is the pace to expect.