Subnautica 2‘s early access will introduce you to a massive squid monster, before the first post-launch update sends you into its lair

Subnautica 2 is finally headed into early access on May 14th, following a lengthy legal battle between publishers Krafton and founders at Unknown Worlds rooted in when that launch should happen. Following that news, Sub 2’s game design lead has spoken a bit about the delay and outlined some plans for the game’s big scary squid, The Collector.

First off, the delay. Unknown Worlds’ Anthony Gallegos was fairly diplomatic when asked about it by Polygon. “I always am a fan of launching earlier and earlier. I think I’m more aligned with [Unknown Worlds founder] Charlie [Cleveland] than other people. But, like I said, even among founder-level leadership, I think you would get varying opinions.” He added that the extra wait meant more time to flesh out the game, though with the downside that not being out in early access has naturally meant less in the way of player feedback to act on so far.

As for what you’ll be in for when you do finally delve into early access Sub 2, Gallegos revealed the studio’s plans for the Collector Leviathan – a massive squid monster they’ve been teasing for a while – in a chat with Plankton Consuming Gamer.

This beastie will be in Sub 2 at early access launch, the developer confirmed, and it’ll do bad things to you if you get too close to it. More intriguingly, he added that with Sub 2’s first post-launch update, things’ll be taken to another level via the addition of an explorable lair the Collector will move into. “It’s its home,” Gallegos said. “This was always how we planned it: The Collector would have the space that it existed in that was very much its place to be and the goal of that next big world update will be driving that home. I still think the Collector is scary in its regular inception, but I think as we get more into that, it’ll become way more so.”

He didn’t get any more specific than that about what the lair’ll do to make the squid extra prone to leaving soiled diving suits in its wake, but my assumption since it grabs you with tentacles and chows down would be that dialling up the darkness and limiting your escape routes in claustrophobia-inducing fashion are good bets.

As of right now, Unknown Worlds are busy building early versions of this region, with no indication yet as to when it might be rolled out.