Quartz shows up early and often on Subnautica 2's crafting lists, and for good reason. You need it to make glass, system chips, the Scanner, the Flashlight, the Habitat Builder, the Fabricator, and a long list of other items that you simply cannot progress without. The frustrating part is that wandering the seafloor looking for random deposits will leave you perpetually short. The good news: once you know where to look, quartz is one of the easier resources to keep stocked.
Where to find quartz in Subnautica 2
Quartz appears as an off-white mineral that does not blend into the brown-orange rock of the starting biome the way copper sometimes does. The problem is not visibility once you spot it. The problem is knowing which structures to target.
Quartz lines Coral Dome walls
Coral Domes
Coral Domes are the most reliable early source of quartz in the game. These are large, semi-circular structures made of orangish coral that sit on the seafloor. Swim underneath one and look up at the pearlescent interior walls. Those tooth-like white growths are quartz deposits, and most Coral Domes have several of them.
Small quartz nodes can be picked up by hand. Medium-sized crystals require your Survival Multitool to break apart, which yields a few extra pieces per node. Coral Domes typically only house smaller deposits per node, but the sheer number of nodes inside a single dome makes up for it.
Coral Domes are spread across the starting area, with at least one located just east of the Lifepod and many more to the northeast and northwest. You do not need to travel far to find your first few batches.
Even broken Coral Dome fragments on the seafloor can carry quartz. If you spot a chunk of pearlescent material lying on the ocean floor, swim over and check it before moving on.
There are loads of Coral Domes to the northwest of the Lifepod specifically, making that direction worth prioritizing on your first resource run.
Scattered quartz near Lifepod
What is quartz used for in Subnautica 2?
Quartz feeds into two main crafting categories: direct use and processed materials.
- Direct use: Scanner, Flashlight
- Processed into Glass: used in the Habitat Builder, Hatch, Fabricator, Vehicle Fabricator, Floor Lockers, Biobed, NOA Terminal, Scanner Station, Solar Panel, and Dive Elevator
- Processed into System Chips: used in electrical components and advanced crafting recipes
The Scanner is the item most players hit first, and it is what unlocks the blueprint chain for almost every major tool including the Sonic Resonator, Wakemaker, and Tadpole. That makes quartz the starting point for your entire tech tree.
Quartz is also used in system chips for electrical crafting. If you are planning to build a powered base, you will need significantly more quartz than just a few Coral Dome runs will provide.
For a broader look at what to prioritize when you first get into the water, the Subnautica 2 beginner's guide covers oxygen management, scanning, and base building essentials alongside resource hunting.
How to farm quartz in bulk: large deposits and the Sonic Resonator
Once you have the Scanner and start climbing the tech tree, Coral Domes will not keep up with demand. That is when large quartz deposits become your primary target. These require the Sonic Resonator to shatter, a tool you unlock later in the game.
Large deposits are found around the seafloor and inside caves rather than inside Coral Domes. They yield significantly more quartz per node than anything in the starting area.
Sonic Resonator breaks large nodes
Best farming locations by distance from the Lifepod
Here are the best confirmed large-deposit locations:
A large trench near a water current roughly 350 to 400 meters north of the Lifepod, close to the Old Habitat, as a strong mid-game farming spot. That trench reportedly contains quartz alongside titanium, copper, silver, and lead, making it one of the most efficient multi-resource locations in the early-to-mid game.
Location 4 in the Axum biome sits close to the current content boundary in Early Access. Crossing past it puts you up against a formidable creature. Get your Tadpole and tank upgrades sorted before farming there.
Scanner Station tracks nearby quartz
How does the Scanner Station help with quartz?
Once you build a Scanner Station, it tracks individual resource deposits within 300 meters of its location. Tag quartz as your target resource and the station will mark nearby nodes on your HUD, turning what used to be a blind search into a directed run. Building one early is worth the material cost given how often you will need to restock.
Place your Scanner Station near the cluster of Coral Domes northeast of the Lifepod for maximum early-game quartz coverage.
Since Subnautica 2 is currently in Early Access, spawn rates and deposit locations may shift with future updates. Keep an eye on the Subnautica 2 Early Access roadmap for any changes to biomes and resource distribution as new content rolls out.
For everything else you need to know about the game's systems, creatures, and confirmed features, the full Subnautica 2 guide collection has you covered.