In the underwater world of Subnautica, it's a smart move to build multiple bases across the planet, ensuring you're never too far from a safe space. Subnautica 2 has made the process of building the perfect home easier than before, simplifying the tools and workflows to make the experience accessible for everyone.
Subnautica 2 may take place on a different planet, but many of the base-building principles from the original should still apply to the upcoming PC game. We've spent many hours on Zerzura, building base after base to help you craft the perfect home. Join us as we explain how to build your very own base, as well as a deep dive on how the base-building mechanics have evolved since the first game.
How to build a base in Subnautica 2
To build a base in Subnautica 2, you must get your hands on the Habitat Builder tool. You'll need to create a Scanner at a Fabricator, then scan one of the many Habitat Builder tools scattered around the lifepod you start in.
Your Habitat Builder may not have all the blueprints you need to create a suitable base, with the most important blueprint at this stage being the Room base piece. If you're just starting out, you should take some time to explore the world, scanning as many objects as you can before deciding to settle down.
And if you're playing in survival mode, you'll have the added pressure of finding the materials to create your base, which is why most people tend to build with a minimalist approach at first.
Here's what you need to do to build a simple base in Subnautica 2:
- Equip the Habitat Builder tool and press Right Click to open the build menu.
- Select the Room base piece and find a suitable location to place it in the world.
- Open the build menu again, this time selecting the Hatch base piece.
- Attach the Hatch to your Room, giving you a way to enter the base.
- Next up, open the build menu again and head to the Exterior Facilities tab, then select the Solar Panel in the Power section.
- Add some Solar Panels to the roof of your base to generate power.
- With Solar Panels in place, now you can place items like the Fabricator and Processor to craft useful items.
As is the case with most survival games, you don't need to create anything extravagant if your primary goal is to explore the world. When you first start out in Subnautica 2, you can simply build a box room with the essentials inside.
Subnautica 2 base building tips
The most important thing you must remember when building a base is to ensure you're starting in an area with level ground, giving you room to expand your home. If you decide to build an extension, make sure you expand it directly from your base, adding pieces to the existing parts of your home.
Just as we've highlighted in the screenshot above, you don't want to be in the position where you've built a lovely second base that simply won't connect to your first home. A problem like this can easily be avoided by accounting for the height differences between your two buildings.
You should also consider how much space you have underneath your home - this is particularly important when it comes to building the Subnautica 2 Tadpole, as you won't be able to fabricate this vehicle if you don't leave yourself enough room. While you could build a separate space to store your Tadpole, it's more convenient to keep everything together in one base.
As we've already stressed, scanning objects is crucial to unlocking new items for your base, and you'll need to do this to ensure your base has power throughout the day and at night. You'll begin to generate power for your base using Solar Panels, but this won't help you at night when the sun goes away. At some point during your journey, you will gain access to the Power Storage item that allows you to harness excess power for later use.
How to move base in Subnautica 2
There's currently no way to move or copy your base in Subnautica 2. However, there's a feature that appears to be exclusive to the early access version of the game that allows you to refund the materials you used to create a base. This feature has been intended for players to use when there's been a significant update, just like the ones we've highlighted on our Subnautica 2 roadmap.
Here's how to get your materials back from your old bases:
- While in-game, press Escape to enter the menu, then select 'Refund Bases'.
- A menu will appear displaying all the bases you've created in the world, each broken down by their size.
- You can press 'Look At' to point you in the direction of your chosen base, and you can press 'Refund' to give you back all the materials you used to build that base.
- After refunding the materials, a storage container will appear in front of you with all of your resources.
Judging by the message that appears when you use this feature, it's clear the developers don't want you to use this unless it's absolutely necessary. This feature will most likely not be part of the main game when it officially releases.
Subnautica 2 base building changes
The base-building mechanics in Subnautica 2 have been redesigned from the ground up, introducing techniques that "haven't been used in games this way before," according to Milan Singh, senior gameplay engineer at Unknown Worlds, in the Building Bases dev vlog.
With the introduction of Subnautica 2 multiplayer, you can round up your mates to help you build your next base. As Ben Henry, lead hard surface artist, points out, remember to be mindful about who you let into your base; there's nothing to stop someone from looting all your resources once they're inside.
Procedural system
The biggest change comes in the form of the new procedural system, which moves away from building with fixed pieces in favor of a sculptural system, allowing you to seamlessly construct bases without muddling through menus. For example, when placing windows in your base, you can create them to match the shape you're after, rather than opting for any predefined shapes.
Circular base pieces
There have been some concerns among the community about the move away from circular bases in favor of blocky parts, but we got a glimpse of these throwback designs in the dev vlog.
It should be noted that circular base pieces may be early in the development process, as we haven't seen many examples of fully round rooms in any pre-release gameplay. The procedural system may mean that circular pieces are more challenging to deal with, so this might not be something we see until closer to the game's full launch.
Customization options
You're also able to paint your base, change the color of any lights you have, and disable any lights to change the ambiance of your space. Kiel McDonald, base design lead, notes that this functionality will be available in the future.
That's everything there is to know about Subnautica 2 base building. Once you've built a base with all the essentials, we highly recommend reading our guide on how to get past Bloom, which will then allow you to survive heat, giving you access to most of the Subnautica 2 map.
