Subnautica 2 Base Building Guide: First Base and Power

Updated 2026-10-14: rewritten from the official Subnautica 2 wiki's Seabases, Power, Fabricator, Habitat Builder, Depth and Scanner Station pages and Unknown Worlds' patch notes. The old guide built a whole section around a "global hull integrity" number that floods the base when it hits zero and around reinforcement pieces that raise it; the wiki says depth has no effect on seabases, and no such system is documented. It also called the Fabricator available from the start (the Lifepod one is corrupted and can't make advanced recipes), placed the Collector Leviathan in a "Sparse Plains" biome that isn't on the map, and quoted a respawn message we couldn't trace.

Your first base, step by step

1. Get the Habitat Builder. Scan two fragments; the wiki's spots include just outside and under the Welcome Center at 9m and 16m. Craft it at the Lifepod Fabricator from 2 Titanium, 1 Glass, 1 Basic Battery and 1 Copper Wire.
2. Place a room near the Lifepod. The first piece has to sit on or near the seafloor; later pieces can overhang, so cliff edges work once you have a foothold.
3. Build a Fabricator inside. The Lifepod Fabricator is corrupted and can't make the advanced recipes. A seabase Fabricator costs 1 Titanium, 1 Copper and 1 Quartz and draws 2 energy per second, only while crafting.
4. Add a Solar Panel. It unlocks with the Habitat Builder, costs 1 Titanium and 2 Quartz, and gives 1 to 8 energy per second depending on sunlight. Without power the base stops making oxygen and you start losing air inside it.
5. Add storage. The Fabricator pulls ingredients from your inventory and from lockers inside the base, so a couple of lockers next to it save trips. Since EA 1.1 there is also a storage piece that the crafting system ignores, for things you don't want spent.

*Video: Subnautica 2 Update Vlog, Early Access 1.1 Adaptive Measures, Subnautica official YouTube channel*

Power: the four generators

Thermal Plants and turbines need a power transmission device, and a Power Transmitter carries energy from a distant generator to the base. Each generator fills its own storage, not its neighbours'.

What drains it, per the wiki: a Tadpole Dock or Processor 10 energy per second, a Vehicle Fabricator, Biolab or Modification Station 5, a Fabricator 2, small lights 1. The Scanner Station is the hungry one at 10 per second while active. A single Solar Panel runs a starter room; once a Moonpool, dock and scanner go in, add a Bioreactor or a turbine.

Image: Subnautica 2 screenshot, Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Power, not depth, decides where a second base can go.

Where to build

Close to the Lifepod first, in the Shallows where you start. Most Habitat Builder fragments sit between 6 and 26m, and a Solar Panel gives its best output near the surface. The second base is a power decision: a spot inside a natural current takes a turbine, a spot near a geyser takes a Thermal Plant.

Leviathans are the other filter. The wiki has one Collector patrolling above the Karakorum Metal Farms and another in the Intermediary Basin trench, and the Shiver beyond the Early Access boundary in the Void. Build away from those routes; EA 1.1 even fixed a bug where the Collector could make ghost base pieces construct when it collided with them.

A Scanner Station helps pick that second site. It scans a 300m sphere around the base and lists nearby resources and wrecks by filter, but it is expensive to leave running.

Co-op bases

Clients build in the host's bases. Buddy System Hotfix 1 fixed exterior furniture that clients couldn't move and items on wall racks that weren't refunded by Refund Base, so a joined player can now rearrange the outside of a base too. Our split for four: one person builds and keeps generators ahead of the draw, two gather, one scouts the next site with the Tadpole.

Image: Subnautica 2 screenshot, Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Shallow water near the start is the easy place for a first, solar-powered room.

Moving a base

To start over somewhere else, the pause menu's Refund Bases option deletes a chosen base from anywhere and drops a Beacon with every resource used to build it plus the items stored inside. Empty the Beacon and it disappears. Loose items lying on the floor are not included, so pick those up first.

Related Reading

• Subnautica 2 Vehicles Guide: the Moonpool, Vehicle Fabricator and Tadpole.
• Subnautica 2 Advanced Base Building Guide: power routing for larger bases.
• Subnautica 2 Scanner Room Guide: scan filters and site selection.
• Subnautica 2 Collector Leviathan Guide: where the Collector patrols.
• Subnautica 2 Biomes Guide: what each zone holds.
• Subnautica 2 Co-op Multiplayer Guide: role splits for four players.
• Subnautica 2 Beginner Guide: oxygen, food and first-hour priorities.
• Subnautica 2 Biomes Guide: which biome to work for each early material.
• Subnautica 2 Complete Guide Hub: every Subnautica 2 guide on the site.

References

• Seabases, Subnautica 2 Wiki: generators, oxygen, Refund Bases.
• Power, Subnautica 2 Wiki: generator output and module power draw.
• Fabricator, Subnautica 2 Wiki and Habitat Builder: recipes and unlocks.
• Depth, Subnautica 2 Wiki: depth and seabases.
• Scanner Station, Subnautica 2 Wiki: range and power draw.
• Subnautica 2 Early Access 1.1, Adaptive Measures and Buddy System Hotfix 1: Unknown Worlds patch notes on Steam.
• Subnautica 2 on Steam