Subnautica: Below Zero includes a set of accessibility options and quality-of-life settings that significantly affect the gameplay experience, particularly for players with visual impairments, colour sensitivity, or other accessibility needs. The game also has settings that less experienced survival game players may not know about that make the experience more manageable without compromising the core challenge. This guide covers the most important settings to adjust before you start playing.
Highlight Interactable Items
One of the most useful settings in Subnautica: Below Zero is Highlight Interactable Items. When enabled, this setting places a subtle visual outline on items in the environment that can be picked up or interacted with — plants that can be harvested, fragments that can be scanned, items that can be collected. For players who have difficulty visually distinguishing interactive objects from the environment (which can be challenging given the game’s rich, densely detailed underwater environments), this setting is transformative.
Survival vs Freedom vs Creative Mode
Below Zero offers three main game modes. Survival mode includes hunger, thirst, and full consequence for death (losing your inventory). Freedom mode removes hunger and thirst but retains all other gameplay including oxygen management and creature danger. Creative mode removes all survival pressure entirely and gives you unlimited materials. For players who want the exploration experience without survival management stress, Freedom mode is an excellent choice that retains the tension of oxygen limits and creature encounters.
Other Key Accessibility Settings
- Field of View slider — adjusting FOV can reduce motion sickness for sensitive players; a higher FOV shows more of the environment
- Subtitles — enable for all story content; some story reveals come through audio logs that are easy to miss without subtitles
- Colour Blind modes — several colour filter options are available to improve contrast for players with colour vision deficiencies
- Mouse sensitivity and key rebinding — fully configurable for players who need alternative control schemes
- Gamma adjustment — the deeper biomes can be very dark; gamma adjustment helps without eliminating the intended atmosphere
RicardoPlays Accessibility Coverage
Ricardo has addressed Below Zero’s accessibility settings in his playthrough series on the RicardoPlays channel. The channel covers both the optimal settings for a first-time player and specific recommendations for players with particular accessibility needs. All RicardoPlays Below Zero videos include subtitles for story audio content.