Subnautica 2 Metal Farm — How to Build & Automate
How to build and run a Metal Farm in Subnautica 2: recipe (Mangalloy Ingot + Axum Bacterial Culture), power needs (20 units), and how to mass-produce ore.
Last updated: 2026-06-02
What Is a Metal Farm?
The Metal Farm is a late-game resource automation structure. Once placed and powered, feed it the ore you want to produce and it periodically grows a large resource node — so you no longer have to mine across the map by hand. Instead of swimming out to scattered deposits over and over, you let the farm run a countdown, then harvest a fresh node and let the cycle begin again. For a settled late-game base, this turns ore gathering from a constant chore into a passive, hands-off supply line that quietly stockpiles materials while you focus on exploration, building, or combat.
The trade-off is that a Metal Farm is firmly an end-game investment. Each one is gated behind an Axum Bacterial Culture, of which only five exist in the entire world, and behind a Mangalloy Ingot that itself takes a Titanium Ingot, Atacamite, and Troilite to produce. That means a farm is not something you throw together early — it's a deliberate commitment to automate a specific, valuable ore once your base and power grid are already established.
Unlock & Build Recipe
Each Metal Farm costs:
| Material | Qty |
|---|---|
| Mangalloy Ingot | × 1 |
| Axum Bacterial Culture | × 1 |
The Mangalloy Ingot is crafted at a Processor from:
| Material | Qty |
|---|---|
| Titanium Ingot | × 1 |
| Atacamite | × 1 |
| Troilite | × 1 |
How It Works
- Place the Metal Farm on any solid submerged surface.
- Connect it to power.
- Insert the ore you want it to produce as a "seed".
- A countdown runs, then a large resource node grows out of the top of the machine.
- Blast the node with your Sonic Resonator to collect it, and the cycle restarts automatically.
Because the cycle restarts on its own after each harvest, the only manual step that remains is returning to crack the grown node with the Sonic Resonator. Place your farms somewhere convenient to visit on your normal route, and keep them powered continuously so the countdown never stalls. The Mangalloy Ingot in the build cost is made at a Processor from a Titanium Ingot plus Atacamite and Troilite, so gather those mid-tier materials before committing to a build.
Power Planning (Important)
⚡ Each Metal Farm draws 20 units of power while running. A single Hydroelectric Turbine won't cover multiple farms — make sure your power grid can handle the load before scaling up a farm array (see the Base Power Guide).
How Many Can You Build? Build Strategy
Because every Metal Farm needs one Axum Bacterial Culture, and there are only 5 in the world and they don't respawn, you can ultimately build no more than a handful. Spend these precious slots on high-value, late-game ores that are genuinely worth automating, rather than on common resources you can mine anywhere early on. Since the cultures cap how many farms can ever exist, it pays to decide your full farm line-up before you start harvesting cultures — once a culture is spent on a farm, that choice is locked in for the rest of the run. Pair this planning with your power budget: at 20 power each, even a small cluster of farms can outstrip a single Hydroelectric Turbine, so size your grid for the number of farms you actually intend to run.
FAQ
Q: What can it produce?
A: Whatever ore you seed it with. Swap the seed and it mass-produces that ore.
Q: How much power does it use?
A: 20 units each while running. A single Hydroelectric Turbine won't cover multiple farms, so plan your grid before scaling up.
Q: How do I collect the output?
A: Blast the resource node that grows out of the top with the Sonic Resonator; the cycle then restarts automatically.
Q: How many can I build?
A: You're limited by the Axum Bacterial Culture — there are only 5 in the world and each farm consumes one, so only a handful is possible.
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