Subnautica Cheats — All Console Commands and How to Use Them

Subnautica has a full developer console hiding behind the pause menu: open it with Shift+Enter (or Shift+`) on the current 2.0 build, type item titanium 10 to give yourself materials, warp 12 18 12 to teleport to the map center, or nodamage to become effectively invincible. The catch: using any console command disables Steam achievements for that save, so the console is a "new save or finish-first" tool. This guide covers how to open the console on every platform, the commands that actually matter, and the ones that will quietly ruin a playthrough.

Here's what you'll learn:

• How to open the console on PC (2.0 and legacy builds) and on consoles
• The essential commands: item, spawn, warp, nodamage, invisible and more
• The full "don't touch these" list of game-breaking commands
• How cheats interact with achievements, and when cheating is worth it

Official resources: Steam store page · Official Subnautica Wiki — Console Commands · IGN Subnautica page · Wikipedia

How to Open the Console

The input changed with the December 2022 "Living Large" 2.0 update, and most old videos show the pre-2.0 method, so this is the part that trips everyone up:

Per the official Subnautica Wiki: "With the recent Living Large Update, the input to access the dev console has changed… press the Shift key and Enter or ` (both buttons must be held at the same time)."

The console box opens in the bottom-left corner. Press the Up arrow to recall previous commands, type, then hit Enter to execute. There is no autocomplete, and commands are not case-sensitive.

The Essential Commands

These are the commands 90% of players actually use, cross-checked against the official wiki and the community command references:

For item and spawn, the name is the internal spawn ID, not the display name — e.g. item titanium works, but item titanium ingot may not (try plasteelingot as one word). The official wiki's Spawn IDs page is the lookup for everything else.

Teleporting Without Coordinates

If warp feels too mathy, the goto command takes named destinations. The wiki's list includes aurora, lifepod5, mountainisland, gunmoonpool, prison (the Sea Emperor's containment), aquarium, lostriverbase, lavacastlebase (the Thermal Plant) and more. Note the wiki warns that a few of these ("lostriverbase" is the notorious one) can spawn you inside a wall — you can usually swim out, but save first.

For in-world navigation without the console, the F1 debug window shows your X/Y/Z coordinates and biome on PC — see our Subnautica Below Zero map guide for how the community uses coordinates as the game's unofficial map.

The Commands That Will Ruin Your Save

The wiki flags an entire category as "potentially impair the in-game experience," and community threads confirm every one of these is a trap:

• explodeship / countdownship / restoreship — manually triggers or reverses the Aurora's drive-core explosion. Firing these mid-story can desync the radio timeline and lock you out of the intended sequence.
• infectionreveal — skips your infection stage straight to stage 4, the fully infected state. It is meant as a debug shortcut for testing; it permanently advances the story's infection mechanic.
• dig [radius] — carves a hole in the terrain. Undoable, ugly, and can delete resource nodes or drop you into the void.
• unlockdoors — unlocks every door, including story doors, which can soft-lock the campaign.
• kill — respawns you at the lifepod. In Hardcore mode this is a delete-save button, and the wiki warns never to use it there.
• cure / infect — force story state; use only if you know exactly what the story does.

Cheating vs Modding: Which Should You Use?

If the goal is convenience, mods are often the better tool than the console. The console is instant and needs no setup, but it's all-or-nothing (achievements off, risk of story desync). Mods like EasyCraft (craft from nearby lockers) or the Map mod fix the same frustrations without touching your save's integrity:

• One-time convenience (respawn a lost vehicle, skip a grind): use the console.
• Ongoing quality of life (map, inventory, storage): use mods — see our Subnautica mods guide.
• Recovering from a soft-lock: console commands like warpme or kill (non-Hardcore) are the sanctioned escape hatch.

One legitimately great use of cheats: sandbox base-building. nocost + unlock all + freecam turns Subnautica into a creative-mode base designer, which is exactly how a lot of the community's showcase bases on the official Subnautica subreddit get built. Do it on a throwaway save, then go back to your real run.

FAQ

How do I enable console commands in Subnautica?

On the current 2.0 build, hold Shift and press Enter or the backtick key. On pre-2.0 builds it's F3 → F8 → uncheck "disable console" → Enter. Consoles: LB+A+RB (Xbox) or L1+Cross+R1 (PlayStation) in the pause menu.

Do Subnautica cheats disable achievements?

Yes. Using any console command disables Steam achievements for that save, permanently for the save (toggling the command off doesn't restore them). Unmodified saves earn achievements normally.

What is the item command in Subnautica?

item [name] [count] adds items directly to your inventory, e.g. item titanium 10 or item diamond 5. The name must be the internal spawn ID (one word, e.g. plasteelingot).

How do I teleport in Subnautica?

Use warp [x] [y] [z] with coordinates (12, 18, 12 is the map center at sea level), or goto [name] with named destinations like aurora, lifepod5, or prison. warpme returns you to your last warp point.

Can I use console commands on console versions?

Yes — Xbox (LB+A+RB) and PlayStation (L1+Cross+R1) both open the dev console, and the mobile port uses a two-finger corner press in the pause menu. The same commands work, but the achievements warning applies to every platform.

Related Guides

• Subnautica Mods Guide — Best Mods and How to Install
• Subnautica Aurora Codes — All Door Codes & Locations
• Subnautica Below Zero Map — Biomes, Coordinates & Navigation
• Subnautica on Switch — Performance, Versions & Worth It

Last updated: August 13, 2026.