Map and Biomes

0:30 Subnautica 2's world in Early Access is one ocean, centered on the Lifepod you land in, with about a dozen biomes that open in order of depth, heat and oxygen: the Shallows and their neighbors around the Lifepod, the hot Graveyard, the Collector Leviathan's crossing about 700 m east, then the Axum ruins, Root Canyon and the Metal Farms about 2,000 to 2,200 m east-northeast, where a striped fence ends the playable area. Unknown Worlds publishes no map and no depths: the game has no in-game map, and every figure on this page comes from editorial guides written on the launch build of May 2026. As of Nov 4, 2026 the map is the one that launched on May 14, 2026: neither 1.1 Adaptive Measures nor 1.2 Buddy System added a biome, and the world grows next with Early Access 2 in December 2026.

Quick facts

Every biome in Early Access

Depths are All Things How's (May 20, 2026), with Beebom's (May 19, 2026) where All Things How gives none; directions and distances are from the Lifepod. Both describe the launch build. "Official" means the name appears in Unknown Worlds' patch notes.

Sources: All Things How, May 20, 2026, and Beebom, May 19, 2026, the launch build; official names from the 1.1 and 1.2 notes.

Regions as guides group them

All Things How groups the biomes into three regions (May 20, 2026):

• Coral Gardens, around the Lifepod: the Shallows, Plateaus, Dolerite Spires, Necrolei Hills, Anemone Hills, the Lead Zone, the Graveyard and the Tufa Zone, with their caves. This is the first several hours of the game.
• Sparse Plains, a crossing about 700 m east: the Tar Cascades, the Collector Leviathan's trench.
• Karakorum, about 1,000 m east and beyond: Observatory Island with the Axum ruins, the Karakorum Power Plant, Root Canyon and the Metal Farms.

Past them lies out-of-bounds terrain that All Things How says reaches about 3,100 m deep, with the World Tree in it: see Map Edge and World Tree.

6:14 IGN's map tour (May 19, 2026, on the launch build) draws the same world as two regions rather than three: a compact starting region, then, across a chasm with "very little in it" but the Collector Leviathan, a second region that is larger, more spread out and mostly deeper, where IGN expects you to travel by Tadpole. IGN reaches the chasm by heading to "the farthest area north of the life pod", where All Things How measures the crossing east: the guides' compass readings differ, but both find the shortest way over near the hot zone.

Official names and guide names

Unknown Worlds names places only in passing, in its patch notes: Shallows, Coral Gardens, North Coral Gardens, Axum Ruins, Overgrown Ruins, Ruins, Axum Metal Farms, Root Canyon, Graveyard, Anemone Hills, Sparse Plains, Tufa Zone, Thermal Area, Heat Zones and "lower canyon" areas (1.1, 1.2, Buddy System Hotfix 1 and Hotfix 2). Plateaus, Dolerite Spires, Necrolei Hills, Lead Zone, Tar Cascades, Observatory Island, Karakorum Power Plant and Tufa Towers are the guides' names, used by All Things How and Beebom; this viki keeps them because players search for them. How the two sets fit together is not published: "Coral Gardens" is a region for All Things How and a single area for Unknown Worlds, and where the Overgrown Ruins and the Thermal Area lie is not stated.

What gates progress: depth, heat and oxygen

Kotaku's launch review put it simply: progress is held back by depth, heat and oxygen (May 14, 2026).

• Oxygen: you start with 45 seconds of air, so caves and wrecks wait for air tanks, the Rebreather and Oxygen Tunic plants. See Oxygen, Food and Water and Equipment.
• Heat: the Graveyard, its Hot Cave and the Thermal Vent Clusters need the Heat Tolerance Adaptation, from the infected Angel Comb near Anemone Hills (All Things How).
• Depth: the Tadpole's default limit is 250 m on the launch build and the Depth Module Mk. 1 raises it to 450 m (Game Rant), so Root Canyon and the Karakorum depths need the Depth Modules; see Tadpole Upgrades.
• The Bloom: infected areas block caves and Angel Combs until you clear them with the Sonic Resonator, and the pink cankers of the Axum ruins need the Feedback Resonator (PCGamesN). See The Bloom.
• Axum Vision: Axum doors and the Power Plant need the last Adaptation, from an Angel Comb in the Karakorum.

The order the story takes you through them is on Story Walkthrough; the order for a new player is in the Beginner's Guide.

Caves and micro-biomes

Guides list caves under most early biomes and three small micro-biomes (All Things How, Beebom, May 2026):

How big is the map?

Unknown Worlds has given no size, as of Nov 4, 2026. The guides' distances put the playable area at a little over 2 km from the Lifepod to the Metal Farms in the east-northeast, and a few hundred meters in the other directions before the fence (All Things How); that is a reading of guide distances, not a published figure. The developers told Wccftech the world launched with roughly 10 biomes, and that resources now sit in fixed, visible places rather than spawning at random as in the first game. Unknown Worlds' roadmap says the next big update "expands on the world, biomes, creatures, resources" (May 15, 2026).

Finding your way without a map

There is no map screen. Players steer by the compass heading, the distance markers of Beacons and blackbox signals, and the coordinates in the bottom right of the pause menu, which is how the guides give their headings (All Things How). Since 1.2 the Scanner HUD marks sources of Acid with green dots, and the Scanner Station shows Bloom infestations since 1.1 (1.2 notes). Guides disagree on some positions by tens of meters and, for the Graveyard, on the direction; each biome page shows the disagreement.

5:38 IGN's tour (May 19, 2026, launch build) calls the starting region "a pretty straightforward wheel and spoke with the life pod right near the middle", with only a few caves, so the Lifepod is the natural point to give every direction from, as the guides and this viki do.

What changed on the map since launch

• Hotfix 2 (May 22, 2026): "Added more Silver resource areas in early game region" and more Troilite in the late game region (Unknown Worlds).
• 1.1 Adaptive Measures (Jul 8, 2026): Biolabs in Coral Gardens and the Axum Ruins, more Silver in Coral Gardens with a hint line near Silver, a rebalanced Bloom encounter in Coral Gardens and the Ruins, oxygen puzzles in wrecks, and a fix for performance falling over time in the Metal Farms (Unknown Worlds).
• 1.2 Buddy System (Aug 19, 2026): music in the Tufa Zone, Thermal Area and North Coral Gardens, light poles from the Observatory to the Rosetta Stone, no bases inside the Great Jaw, several holes under the map sealed, and Tadpoles destroyed past the fence returned inside it (Unknown Worlds).
• Buddy System Hotfix 1 (Sep 1, 2026): better Collector Leviathan pathing in the lower canyon (Unknown Worlds).
• Buddy System Hotfix 2 (Oct 6, 2026): currents and blackbox signals fixed in the Overgrown Ruins (Unknown Worlds).

The full list is on Updates and Patch Notes.

What comes next

Early Access 2 is due in December 2026 with "new (and returning) creatures" and a "stompy Frog chassis" (Unknown Worlds, Nov 3, 2026). It is the "next big drop" that the roadmap says "expands on the world, biomes, creatures, resources, tools, vehicles" (May 15, 2026). Unknown Worlds has named none of its new places, as of Nov 4, 2026. Names in creator videos about unreleased files, such as "Scorpius Trenches", and All Things How's "Xanadu" are unconfirmed.

Frequently asked questions

Does Subnautica 2 have a map? No. Subnautica 2 has no in-game map screen in Early Access as of Nov 4, 2026, and Unknown Worlds has published none; players navigate by compass, Beacons, blackbox signals and the pause menu's coordinates.

How many biomes are in Subnautica 2? The developers spoke of roughly 10 biomes at launch, and guides list 12 main biomes plus caves and three micro-biomes. No biome was added in updates 1.1 or 1.2; Early Access 2, due in December 2026, is the update meant to expand the world and its biomes.

What is the deepest biome in Subnautica 2? Root Canyon, at 365 to 750 m by Beebom's count, is the deepest dark biome, and All Things How measures the Karakorum Power Plant area to 827 m. The out-of-bounds terrain beyond the fence goes to about 3,100 m but cannot be explored.

How big is the Subnautica 2 map? Unknown Worlds has not said. In Early Access the farthest place, the Axum Metal Farms, lies about 2,000 to 2,200 m east-northeast of the Lifepod by All Things How's distances.

What is the first biome in Subnautica 2? The Shallows, the bright coral area around the Lifepod, with the Welcome Center about 85 m to the southeast.

Which biome needs Heat Tolerance in Subnautica 2? The Graveyard and its Hot Cave, and the Thermal Vent Clusters. Heat Tolerance comes from an infected Angel Comb near the Anemone Hills, cleared with the Sonic Resonator.

Can you go past the red border in Subnautica 2? You can swim past the striped Early Access fence, but Shiver Leviathans guard it and kill on contact, and building is disabled beyond it. See Map Edge and World Tree.

Sources

• Subnautica 2 Regions and Biomes Reference (Early Access), All Things How (Pallav Pathak), May 20, 2026
• All Subnautica 2 Biomes and Regions, Beebom (Bipradeep Biswas), May 19, 2026
• Subnautica 2: Everything We Learned from Unknown Worlds, Wccftech (Alessio Palumbo), May 14, 2026
• 12 Hours With Subnautica 2, Kotaku (John Walker), May 14, 2026
• Subnautica 2: Story Guide, MeinMMO (Alexander Mehrwald), May 27, 2026
• How to get past Bloom in Subnautica 2, PCGamesN (Christian Vaz), May 14, 2026
• How to Go Deeper with the Tadpole, Game Rant (Nahda Nabiilah), May 16, 2026
• Subnautica 2 Early Access Roadmap, Unknown Worlds, May 15, 2026
• Subnautica 2 Early Access Hotfix 2, Unknown Worlds, May 22, 2026
• Subnautica 2 Early Access 1.1 - Adaptive Measures Update, Unknown Worlds, Jul 8, 2026
• Subnautica 2 Early Access 1.2 - Buddy System Update, Unknown Worlds, Aug 19, 2026
• Subnautica 2 Early Access Buddy System Hotfix 1, Unknown Worlds, Sep 1, 2026
• Subnautica 2 Early Access Buddy System Hotfix 2, Unknown Worlds, Oct 6, 2026
• From Creatures to Chassis - Voyage to Early Access 2, Unknown Worlds, Nov 3, 2026
• Subnautica 2 - Biome Maps and Secret Locations, IGN, May 19, 2026 (video)