The Basic Battery is the first piece of electronics you actually need in Subnautica 2. Without one, you cannot build the Scanner, and without the Scanner you cannot unlock most blueprints by scanning fragments and lifeforms. The recipe itself is short, but one of its two ingredients requires a specific tool to harvest safely.
Basic Battery recipe and where it sits in the Fabricator
The Basic Battery is crafted at the Fabricator inside your Lifepod. Open the Resources tab and look under the Electronics category, the second icon in the menu. The recipe is fixed in the current early access build.
| Material | Quantity | Tool required |
|---|---|---|
| Copper | 2 | None (hand pickup) |
| Acidic Raion Pouch | 1 | Survival Multitool |
Once the materials are in your inventory, select Basic Battery and wait for the short crafting animation. The finished battery drops straight into your inventory. If you have spare resources, queue several at once. Tools, the Scanner, and later Power Cells all chew through batteries faster than expected.
How to find Copper
Copper nodes cluster together, almost always inside cave systems or along cliff walls. The closest reliable deposits sit northeast of the starting Lifepod, near the wreckage of the CICADA. Small nodes can be picked up bare-handed and give 1 Copper each, so you only need to grab two as you swim through any cave.
Medium nodes return 2 Copper when smashed with any tool, including the Scanner once you have it. Large deposits exist too, but they require a Sonic Resonator or Feedback Resonator to break and are overkill for a first battery run.
How to get the Acidic Raion Pouch
Acidic Raions are the large purple and green plants scattered across the shallows and nearby caves, often visible directly beneath the Lifepod. Each plant has several purple pouches on its sides and a Medical Gel Sac at the center. The pouches are what the battery recipe wants.
You cannot pick the pouches by hand. You need the Survival Multitool, which is crafted at the Fabricator using 3x Titanium. Titanium is everywhere on the seabed as small grey rocks, and you can also process Metal Salvage from CICADA wreckage into Titanium at the Fabricator.
Step-by-step harvest
Step 1: Craft the Survival Multitool at your Lifepod Fabricator with 3x Titanium. Equip it from your inventory.
Step 2: Swim to a Raion plant, identifiable by its bulbous purple body, green top, and pink pouches lining the sides. The shallows around the Lifepod and the caves below it are the easiest hunting ground.
Step 3: Approach a pouch until the prompt "Cut Acidic Raion Pouch" appears, then right-click to slice it free. Repeat for each pouch on the plant. A single Raion can yield multiple pouches, enough for several batteries.
Step 4: Once all pouches are removed, you can safely collect the Medical Gel Sac from the center. It feeds into the Enhanced First Aid Kit recipe later.
What the Basic Battery unlocks next
The most immediate use is the Scanner, which is the tool that drives most early progression. Scanning unknown fragments, flora, and fauna fills out Fabricator blueprints, so building it should be the first thing you do after crafting your first battery.
| Item | Recipe | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Scanner | 1x Basic Battery, 2x Titanium, 2x Quartz | Scans fragments and lifeforms to unlock blueprints |
| Power Cell | Built later from batteries | Powers vehicles and base systems |
Batteries also act as fuel for the Welcome Center beacon near the surface, which is part of the early black-box objectives the onboard AI hands out. Keep two or three batteries on you at all times once tools start draining charge.
Common reasons the recipe will not craft
- You are holding generic Raion material instead of the pouch specifically. Only the side pouches count for the battery, not the Medical Gel Sac.
- Copper count is short. Two pieces are required, not one. Small nodes give 1 each.
- You are looking in the wrong Fabricator tab. Basic Battery lives under Resources, Electronics, not Tools.
If you would rather skip the harvest entirely, batteries do occasionally appear inside loose crates scattered around the shallows. It is not reliable enough to depend on, but it can bridge a gap if you run out before reaching a Raion.