How to enable Subnautica's developer console

We get a little giddy when we open a new game, hit the tilde key, and a console prompt slides down from the top of the screen. Messing with console commands is a PC gaming tradition—mucking about with the passage time is especially fun—and Subnautica includes a thorough library of dev hacks. The console isn't enabled by default, though, so you'll have to do a little prep to use them. Below, learn how to enable Subnautica's console commands and what they are.

Enabling the console

1. Press F3 to open a sub-menu which will appear in the upper-left hand corner of the screen.

2. Press F8 to free the mouse.

3. Uncheck the 'Disable Console' option.

4. Back out by pressing F3 and F8 again. 

5. You should now be able to open the console with the tilde (~) key, though this may vary with keyboards. It will appear as a grey box in the lower-left corner.

Note: The 'Disable Console' option will remain unchecked between sessions, but every time you restart the game you'll need to press F3 to open the menu, then again to close it, before the console will work.

Teleportation

biome [name] — This will teleport you to the biome of your choosing, with [name] being any of the following:

• safe (teleports you to safe shallows, where your lifepod crashed.)
• kelp
• kelp_cave
• grassy
• grassy_cave
• mushroom
• koosh
• koosh_cave
• jelly
• shroom
• sparse
• reef
• grandreef
• dunes
• mountains
• moutains_cave
• deepgrand
• bloodkelp
• underislands
• smokers
• inactivelavart
• islands
• tree
• lostriver
• lavazone

goto [name] — Teleports you to a location. Type 'goto' with no variable for a list of locations. 

warp [x] [y] [z] — Warps to a set of coordinates you provide.

warpforward [meters] — Warps the player forward. Use a number to indicate how many meters forward to warp.

warpme — Teleports you to the last base or vehicle you were in, eg, the Cyclops, the lifepod.

spawn — If you're stuck, just type this to respawn nearby.

randomstart — Plops you onto the lifepod at one of its start locations.

kill — kills you and respawns you back on the lifepod.

Spawning items

item [item] [number] — Adds some number of an item to your inventory. If an item name is two words, write it as one, eg, item copperwire 10.

spawn [item] [number] — Spawns some number of an item or creature in front of the player, eg spawn seaglide 1.

clearinventory — Deletes everything in your inventory.

sub cyclops — Spawn the Cyclops.

sub aurora — Spawn the Aurora (look behind you).

seaglide — Spawns a seaglide.

vehicleupgrades — Gives you all common vehicle modules.

seamothupgrades — Gives you all Seamoth modules.

exosuitupgrades — Gives you all Prawn Suit modules.

exosuitarms — Gives you all Prawn Suit arms.

spawnloot — Spawns quartz, copper ore, magnesium, salt deposit, gold, and four metal salvage.

madloot — Fills your inventory with glass, titanium, computer chips, batteries, a survival knife, a habitat builder, and a scanner.

resourcesfor [item] — Gives you the resources needed to craft a certain item, eg, resourcesfor cyclops.

ency [name] — Unlocks a databank entry. Type ency all to unlock all of them.

unlock [blueprint] — Unlocks a blueprint, eg, unlock cyclops.

unlockall — Unlocks all blueprints.

Cheats and modifications

bobthebuilder — Adds a habitat builder, survival knife, scanner and repair tool to your inventory. Enables fastbuild, unlockall, nocost, fastgrow, fasthatch, radiation.

fastgrow — Plants grow super fast.

nocost — Unlimited use of the fabricator, habitat builder, vehicle bay, and so on, regardless of whether or not you have the resources needed.

noenergy — Turns off or on power usage for vehicles, tools, and seabases.

nosurvival — Disables food and water requirements.

oxygen — Unlimited oxygen.

nitrogen — Adds the potential for decompression sickness, but increases underwater time.

invisible — All creatures ignore you.

fastbuild — Build modules with the habitat builder instantly.

fasthatch — Eggs hatch quickly.

fastscan — Reduces scanning time.

filterfast — Reduces water filtering time.

radiation — Disables radiation.

fixleaks — Seals the Aurora's radiation leaks.

unlockdoors — Unlocks all doors, except those which need to be opened with a laser cutter.

cure [range] — Cures you and all creatures within the specified range (a number in meters) of Kharaa.

infect [range] — Infects you and all creatures within the specified range (a number in meters) with Kharaa.

countdownship — Initiates the Aurora countdown timer.

explodeship — Blows up the Aurora.

restoreship — Un-blows up- the Aurora.

startsunbeamstoryevent — Starts the Sunbeam story event.

sunbeamcountdownstart — Starts the Sunbeam countdown.

precursorgunaim — Bye, Sunbeam.

forcerocketready — Launch the escape rocket without disabling the quarantine enforcement platform.

Debug and system commands

To change your current game mode, just type the name of the mode: creative, freedom, survival, hardcore.

day — Set the time of day to daytime.

night — Set the time of day to nighttime.

daynightspeed [number] — Change the speed of the day/night cycle. 1 is default, so 2 is double, and 0.5 is half.

speed [number] — Sets the game speed multiplier. Using a 2 would double the game speed, while 0.5 would halve it. Good for setting up screenshots.

entreset — Reload all assets, except terrain.

gamereset — Loads last save.

farplane [#] — Sets view distance. Default is 1000.

fog — Toggles fog.

freecam — Toggles free camera. Great to combine with F6 (removes HUD) for screenshots.

fps — Displays FPS and other statistics.

sizeref — Spawns a diver model.

vsync — Toggles vsync.