How to get lithium in Subnautica 2

Subnautica 2 lithium on a table — (Image credit: Unknown Worlds)

Locating lithium in Subnautica 2 will prove significantly more challenging than finding titanium, lead, or gold. That's because this rare metal only seems to appear in one location early in the game. Thankfully, though, you don't require much of it to craft anything you find at first.

Lithium is also somewhat perilous to gather since it involves swimming into a giant mouth and essentially grabbing some before it closes—scary, right? If you're prepared to brave this massive maw, here's where to get lithium.

Subnautica 2 lithium location

You can only get lithium at The Great Jaw early on in the game. Before you can, though, you'll need a few things:

To unlock the Sonic Resonator
To unlock the Standard Air Tank

I also recommend bringing some Air Bladders for backup O2 and crafting the Basic Fins, plus the Wakemaker mobility gadget, since you'll need to move fast. To reach The Great Jaw:

Head southwest from the Lifepod over the drop-off in the ocean floor and follow the crater wall on your right side
You'll pass by some colony wreckage and spot a ruined colony building ahead and below you
Just outside this building, on a table, you'll find your first piece of lithium in a fragment of coral dome (this actually respawns over time, too)

Make sure to head inside the building as well to get the High Capacity Dive Tank recipe card if you don't have it yet. Now, continue southeast a short way to The Great Jaw—a giant podlike mouth with a tonsil covered with purple strands in the centre. There are lots of Oxygen Tunics around the outside of the jaw, so be sure to refill here, especially as your O2 will be lowered inside the jaw.

Subnautica 2 lithium - The Great Jaw tonsil — You can smash and grab the lithium blocks inside The Great Jaw with the Sonic Resonator, though you'll have to escape fast (Image credit: Unknown Worlds)

Now, the lithium you need is inside the tonsil structure (and you'll have to smash it with the Sonic Resonator), but the jaw will begin to close as soon as you trip the purple strands, trying to eat you. This means you have to smash the lithium, grab some, and then escape as fast as possible. If you haven't got it, I recommend taking the dash from the Biomod terminal in the Welcome Center ruin south of the Life Pod.

Once you unlock the Heat Tolerance adaptation so you can enter the volcanic vent zone, you can find lots of lithium in the hot caves below the Tadpole Pens, so you won't have to keep visiting the jaw. Thankfully, there isn't all that much you need lithium to craft early on. It's basically used for making Plasteel Ingots in the Processor, and you only need one of them to upgrade your diving tank.

Sean's first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation and his taste has stayed much the same since. When not scouring games for secrets or bashing his head against puzzles, you'll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over his Destiny 2 fit, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW, and Inverse.