Subnautica 2 biomes: all 13 in the current build, by depth
Thirteen biomes are named and reachable in the current Subnautica 2 build, in three regions: eight in the Coral Gardens around your Lifepod, three in the Karakorum Ruins to the east, Sparse Plains off to one side, and the Void as a boundary rather than a place. They run from the Shallows at 0 to 224 m down to Root Canyon at 364 to 750 m, the deepest ground in the game. Unknown Worlds names some of them in its patch notes and has never published a list, so the count and the depth bands below come from players surveying the 1.2 build of September 2026. Both will grow while Early Access runs.
The eight Coral Gardens biomes
Everything in this region sits within a few hundred metres of the Lifepod, and none of it asks for more than a Rebreather.
- Shallows, 0 to 224 m, about 70 m southeast. The starting water: coral shavings, fibrous pulp, quartz, copper and titanium, with the Welcome Center in it.
- Plateaus, 23 to 119 m, about 370 m north. The densest titanium in the build, plus silver and quartz nodes, and the Camp One and Old Habitat outposts.
- Dolerite Spires, 0 to 128 m. Lithium, silver, copper and Deepwing eggs, with a stationary Great Jaw waiting in ambush.
- Necrolei Hills, 0 to 100 m. Necrolei cysts, medical gel sacs, acidic raion pouches, silver and copper. Patch notes call this area Anemone Hills.
- Lead Zone, 34 to 65 m, about 380 m northeast. Shallow cave systems and the only serious lead in the build. Bring a Rebreather.
- South Raceway, 0 to 85 m. Salt, copper and titanium, and the Coral Crab that lives there.
- North Raceway, from the surface down, about 222 m southeast. Copper, quartz, salt and titanium, plus the first sulfur most players pick up.
- Graveyard, 0 to 266 m, about 540 m east-southeast. Salvage-heavy terrain around Tailings Village, and the richest gold, lithium and sulfur anywhere in the build. The Mk. 1 depth module opens it.
The Graveyard is the hinge of the region: it is the first place that needs equipment, and it pays for the trip several times over.
Karakorum Ruins, Sparse Plains and the Void
East and down. These want depth modules and a Tadpole.
- Sparse Plains, 0 to 250 m. One wide open biome built around a Collector Leviathan's patrol route, which is most of what you will remember about it.
- Karakorum Metal Farms, 0 to 500 m. Axum machinery still running, with atacamite, troilite, celestine and bacterial culture in it, and a second Collector overhead. Update 1.1 called this area the Axum Metal Farms.
- Overgrown Ruins, 0 to 600 m, about 1,080 m east. The Axum Observatory and the Rosetta Stone sit here, along with lead, salt, freesia flowers and the earliest celestine you can reach.
- Root Canyon, 364 to 750 m, about 2,170 m east. The deepest ground in the build and the only source of troilite. Celestine, silver, gold, sulfur, atacamite and the Therapy Room wreck are all down there. Mk. 2 depth module.
- Void, down to about 3,100 m. No terrain worth the name, no resources, and a Shiver Leviathan that arrives once you cross the red warning lines. It is the edge of the current build.
Northeast of the Coral Gardens there is more terrain past the boundary, empty of creatures and resources. Unknown Worlds' roadmap previews a region there built around the Collector Leviathan, which is where the fourteenth biome is likely to come from.
Which names are the game's and which are the players'
Unknown Worlds names regions in its patch notes whenever it fixes something in them, and those names do not always match the ones surveys use. Four pairs are worth knowing before you read anyone's list.
- Axum Ruins and Axum Metal Farms in the 1.1 notes are the region and the biome that surveys now file under Karakorum.
- Anemone Hills in the 1.2 notes is Necrolei Hills.
- Tufa Zone, Heat Zones, Blight Zone and the thermal area appear in official notes without matching a surveyed biome one to one. Tufa Towers, about 260 m south of the Lifepod, is where players put the first of those.
- Great Trench and Xanadu show up in community lists as future biomes. Neither is in the current build.
So a list that ranks Blight Zone next to Root Canyon as equals has mixed a patch-note label with a surveyed biome. And a biome that disappears between one list and the next has usually been renamed: the Axum to Karakorum switch moved two entries at once, which is why some guides still count fifteen.
Do the biomes from the first Subnautica return?
No. Subnautica 2 is set on a different planet, and none of the thirteen carries a name from 4546B. Safe Shallows, Kelp Forest, Grand Reef, Lost River, Blood Kelp and the Lava Lakes belong to the 2018 game; any list showing them under Subnautica 2 is describing Subnautica. The Shallows here is a name echo and nothing more. It runs to 224 m, four times the depth of the original Safe Shallows, and everything living in it is new.
The grammar carried over instead. Light falls away with depth, the shallow ring is safe and thin on materials, and the useful stuff sits behind a pressure gate. Recognising a biome still does the work a road map does on land, because sightlines underwater are short and there is no map screen to open.
In practice you read three things at once: the depth gauge, the compass bearing back to the Lifepod, and the terrain. Dolerite spires, tufa towers, the anemone fields of Necrolei Hills and the Axum stonework each look like nowhere else, which is the point. Coordinates on the pause screen are how you write down what you found once you know where you are.
Questions fréquentes
How many biomes does Subnautica 2 have?
Thirteen in the September 2026 Early Access build: eight in the Coral Gardens, three in the Karakorum Ruins, Sparse Plains and the Void. Unknown Worlds has published no count of its own, and more biomes are promised through Early Access.
What is the deepest biome in Subnautica 2?
Root Canyon, 364 to 750 m, about 2,170 m east of the Lifepod. It needs the Mk. 2 depth module and holds the only troilite in the build. The Void goes deeper, to roughly 3,100 m, but it is the boundary rather than a biome.
Do the biomes from the first Subnautica return?
None of them. Subnautica 2 is on a different planet, and no biome carries a name from 4546B. Lists showing Safe Shallows or Grand Reef under Subnautica 2 are describing the 2018 game; the Shallows here is a separate place that reaches 224 m.
What is the Void in Subnautica 2?
The empty water past the map boundary. It reads down to about 3,100 m, holds no terrain and no resources, and a Shiver Leviathan arrives to hunt anything that crosses the red warning lines that mark the edge.
Which Subnautica 2 biome should you explore first?
The Shallows around the Lifepod for copper, quartz and titanium, then the Plateaus about 370 m north for silver and the densest titanium in the build. Neither needs a depth module, and the Plateaus also holds two outposts worth scanning.