Axum Bacterial Culture is the gating ingredient for the Metal Farm in Subnautica 2, and it is one of the few finite resources currently in Early Access. There are only five samples in the world, all clustered inside the same biome, so every harvest counts.
What Axum Bacterial Culture is
Axum Bacterial Culture is a Raw Material described in-game as a meticulously bred microbe colony used to seed Axum technologies. It cannot be produced by any standard fabricator, which is why the in-world samples are the only supply.
Visually, each culture appears as a cluster of small spheres sitting inside a broken cage-like structure, set against the glowing yellow fluid that fills the Metal Farms pools.
| Property | Detail |
|---|---|
| Category | Raw Materials |
| Biome | Karakorum Metal Farms |
| Source | Harvesting |
| Known spawns (Early Access v1.0) | 5 total |
| Reproducible in fabricator | No |
| Primary use | Crafting the Metal Farm |
Where to find it: Karakorum Metal Farms
The Metal Farms sit on the eastern edge of the map, deep past the Alien Ruins. From the Lifepod, head roughly east; the biome begins around the 2,000m mark, with depths between 400m and 600m. The area is recognizable by its glowing yellow industrial pools, which are the fluid Axum used for metal cultivation.
Two hostile species patrol the biome: the Epicurean and the Tongue Thief. Neither blocks harvesting, but they will harass you while you work, so plan oxygen and travel time accordingly. A Tadpole submersible with a charged Power Cell makes the round trip manageable.
How to harvest safely
Manual harvesting works, but it has a known issue where the culture can clip through the world geometry and become unrecoverable. Because only five exist, losing one is significant.
Step 1: Equip the Sonic Resonator before approaching a culture. The resonator dislodges the sample cleanly and prevents the clipping bug that has been reported with hand-harvesting.
Step 2: Aim at the spherical cluster inside the fractured cage and trigger the resonator. The culture should detach from its housing and become a free pickup.
Step 3: Collect the dislodged sample and store it. Keep at least one in reserve before committing the rest to crafting.
What it crafts
Axum Bacterial Culture has one confirmed use right now: the Metal Farm structure, built through the Habitat Builder. The Metal Farm lets you cultivate metal resources at your base instead of relying purely on harvesting nodes around the map.
| Recipe | Tool | Axum Bacterial Culture required |
|---|---|---|
| Metal Farm | Habitat Builder | 1 |
Because the resource is capped, the practical ceiling on Metal Farms per save is tied directly to how many cultures you successfully extract.
Verifying the harvest
A successful harvest places "Axum Bacterial Culture" in your inventory as a Raw Material. If the sphere disappears without the item entering your inventory, it has likely fallen through the terrain. Reloading a recent save is the only reliable recovery, which is why the Sonic Resonator approach is worth the extra setup.
Once you have at least one in storage, open the Habitat Builder's Interior or Exterior Facilities menu, and the Metal Farm option will accept the culture as part of the recipe.
Plan the trip with a fully charged Tadpole, a Sonic Resonator, and enough oxygen capacity to reach 400–600m depth without rushing. With careful harvesting, the five samples are enough to set up a working metal economy for the rest of your current playthrough.