From the Great Jaw trap to volcanic caves, here’s how to safely gather the rare mineral for high-tier gear.
Lithium is the rare mineral that locks out high-tier gear in Subnautica 2. Without it, you can’t craft Plasteel Ingots, and without those, the best air tanks and vehicle upgrades stay out of reach.
The catch is where it hides: inside a trap-jaw leviathan or deep in boiling volcanic caves that require a genetic mutation to survive.
Most pioneers burn time searching the seabed blind. In this guide we’ll cover every lithium deposit location, the tools and mutations you absolutely need, and how to refine it for the gear that pushes your run forward.
Visual identification
Lithium changes look depending on lighting, so knowing both versions saves you from confusing it with Lead. In daylight or general view, it’s a burnt red mineral on top that melts into a light orange at the base.
In caves or dim light, it appears as a clump of long rectangles, with a purple base and yellow tips. Lead has square protrusions; lithium is distinctly rectangular. When in doubt, shine your flashlight and check the shape at the base.
Early game lithium: The Great Jaw
Before you have the Heat Tolerance mutation, there’s exactly one way to grab lithium — and it’s a deliberate trap.
The Great Jaw sits 300 meters south of the Lifepod, at a depth of 50 to 90 meters.
Head southwest over the ocean floor drop-off, follow the right-side crater wall past colony wreckage and a ruined colony building (where you’ll also find the High Capacity Dive Tank recipe).
Continue southeast a short way and you’ll spot the giant stationary clam leviathan.
Inside its mouth, a circular tonsil-shaped structure is covered in bright pink strings. Nestled inside are about a dozen lithium deposits.
The trap: touching any pink thread makes the jaw slam shut. If you don’t escape fast, poison finishes you. The workaround is to grab one or two pieces and bolt immediately. You don’t need a Sonic Resonator here, just nerve and a straight exit line.
Mid-to-late game lithium locations
Once you have the right mutation, lithium becomes abundant in volcanic areas east of the Lifepod. These spots are your farming rotation:
- Tadpole Pens: scattered deposits roughly 300 meters east of the Lifepod. Quick to skim, but density is low.
- Volcanic vents and caves: 400 meters east, marked by reddish-orange water and fiery sparks. The walls and crevices hold multiple nodes.
- Cicada Wreck (Empty Hold): the best farming spot. This wreck sits in the middle of the volcanic vents. Follow the crevices underneath into a cave with over a dozen lithium deposits growing on the walls.
- Zip’s Blackbox Cave: 550 meters southeast of the Lifepod, at the entrance to a large cave explored during the Zip’s Blackbox mission. Another dense cluster that’s easy to sweep once you know the route.
Clear the Cicada Wreck cave first, then loop through the volcanic vents north of it, finishing at Zip’s Blackbox for a full inventory run.
Prerequisites and tools for farming
Three items are non-negotiable if you want to farm lithium safely and efficiently in volcanic regions.
- Heat Tolerance Adaptation: this mutation stops you from boiling alive in hot water. You get it by using the Sonic Resonator on the large pink Angel Comb flower near Wander’s Blackbox.
- Sonic Resonator: required to harvest the largest lithium chunks in caves. Without it, you’ll leave half the deposit behind.
- Tadpole vehicle: an unmodified Tadpole has a Crush Depth of 250 meters. Many lithium deposits sit right near or below that limit, so upgrade the Depth Module before pushing deep.
The volcanic vents can trigger the “boiling up” effect even with Heat Tolerance if you linger too long — move deliberately, mine, and get out.
How to refine and use lithium
At your base, lithium goes into a Processor to create Plasteel Ingots. The recipe calls for 1 lithium and 1 Titanium (or a Titanium Ingot, depending on the terminal). Ingots are mandatory for the High Capacity Air Tank and all advanced vehicle upgrades.
If you need to track deposits without memorizing routes, craft a Scanner Station with 3 Titanium, 1 System Chip, and 1 Wiring Kit. It reveals lithium nodes within a 300-meter radius, cutting down on blind dives.
The High Capacity Air Tank alone changes how deep you can push, and vehicle upgrades built from Plasteel unlock areas that are death traps without them. Every lithium run pays off directly in survivability.
The Cicada Wreck cave remains the most efficient spot once you’ve got the mutation and tools, but the Great Jaw’s early lithium is the piece that lets you start snowballing your gear before any story gate. The rest of Subnautica 2’s progression — base modules, depth upgrades, and the endgame blueprints — is waiting in Solo Jugadores when you’re ready to push past the volcanic zone.
