The Metal Farm is a base module in Subnautica 2 that pulls minerals from the environment over time, turning your habitat into a passive resource generator. Once it is powered and loaded with a valid ore sample, it grows a node you can break for the matching mineral, which removes the need to keep diving into hostile biomes for common materials.
Where to find the Metal Farm blueprint
The blueprint is locked behind exploration of the Karakorum Metal Farm zone, a large basin built around a glowing green pool. It sits roughly 2,100 meters east of the Lifepod, or about 850 meters from the Alien Ruins marker if you have already pushed deeper into the campaign.
Travel there inside a Tadpole. The vehicle absorbs damage that would otherwise hit you, and the area is patrolled by Epicureans, Tongue Thiefs, and a Collector Leviathan. When you arrive, scan the existing Axum metal farm structures around the pool to unlock the build recipe.
Crafting requirements
The Metal Farm is built from the Cultivation tab of the Habitat Builder. Each unit needs one Mangalloy Ingot and one Axum Bacterial Culture, but the ingot itself has a small supply chain behind it.
| Material | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Axum Bacterial Culture | Rounded organic growths inside the glowing green pool at the Karakorum Metal Farm |
| Mangalloy Ingot | Crafted at the Processor from 1x Titanium Ingot + 1x Atacamite + 1x Troilite |
| Titanium Ingot | Processor recipe using 3x Titanium |
| Atacamite | Black obsidian-style deposits near the Alien Base, around the giant turbine and Angel Bloom area |
| Troilite | Deep green ore nodes scattered around the same glowing pool |
One trip to the basin can cover both the Axum Bacterial Culture and the Troilite, so plan the run to grab them together.
Placing and powering the farm
Each Metal Farm draws 20 units of power while running. A single Hydroelectric Turbine will not be enough if you intend to operate several farms, so expand your power grid before placing more than one.
Step 1: Open the Habitat Builder and select the Metal Farm from the Cultivation tab. Position it on a flat, solid, submerged surface near your base so it can stay connected to your power network.
Step 2: Confirm the placement and watch the energy meter. If the farm shows a paused state, your generators are not producing enough surplus, and the timer will not start.
Step 3: Interact with the finished farm and insert a valid ore sample from your inventory. Accepted ores include Titanium, Quartz, Lithium, Silver, Atacamite, Celestine, and other standard minerals.
How the timer and harvesting work
Once an ore is loaded, the farm starts a countdown tied to that specific mineral. Common materials finish in around two minutes, mid-tier ores take roughly ten minutes, and the rarest entries can run up to twenty minutes per node.
| Approximate cycle time | Tier |
|---|---|
| 2 minutes | Common ores |
| 10 minutes | Mid-tier ores |
| 20 minutes | Rare ores |
As the cycle progresses, the filter at the base of the farm rises and visibly fills with the mineral. When the timer ends, a node protrudes from the top of the device. Hit that node with the Sonic Resonator (or its upgraded Feedback Resonator) to break it and collect the mineral. The farm then resets for another cycle.
Verifying that everything is working
You know the setup is correct when three things line up. The power readout on the farm stays active, the rising filter animation plays inside the device, and a harvestable node appears on top once the timer expires. If the filter is not climbing, the farm is either unpowered, missing an ore sample, or placed somewhere the game does not register as submerged.
From there, scaling is simply a matter of expanding power generation and feeding each farm the ore you most need. Stack several together near your main base, prioritize Mangalloy production early, and the constant trips to dangerous biomes for common materials become optional rather than required.