Starfield mod allows you to go exploring underwater to ‘admire aquatic creatures’

An astronaut walks towards a glowing temple in Starfield
(Image credit: Microsoft)

One Starfield modder has now added the option to go diving underwater, allowing players to see what lurks under the surface of the enormous role-playing game’s bodies of water.

Created by Nexus Mods user Ghostrider231, the ‘Underwater Diving Restoration’ mod enables players to look at Starfield’s aquatic wildlife in its natural habitat, and even “harvest [creatures] non-lethally.” The mod brings back features of underwater exploration that fans of Bethesda’s other games will remember well, like bubble noises and oxygen levels which deplete the longer you stay under. That means that players will have to resurface occasionally so that their character doesn’t drown.

Although it’s an exciting addition that expands on the exploration already present across Starfield’s 1,000+ planets, there are a few catches that prospective players should be aware of. For a start, since the base game doesn’t have diving programmed in, the mysterious depths don’t actually look how players would hope. With no underwater fog, it kind of looks like you’re floating around in the air. Except the air is full of fish. 

Otherwise, it’s also worth noting that the third-person camera doesn’t follow your character (the modder adds that “your character will still dive as if you were in first person”), and that underwater swimming doesn’t follow the same rules as zero-gravity movement. That means that you’ll have to look up or down to move in vertical directions. Ghostrider231 has also stated that you might need to fast travel back and forth between two locations to make the mod work.

If you want to take your Starfield exploration to the next level, the Underwater Diving Restoration mod can be downloaded for free from Nexus Mods, but since it’s not an official download, be sure to proceed with caution if you choose to install it. 

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Catherine Lewis
News Writer, TechRadar Gaming

Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.