Water is an abundant resource in Subnautica, with the game taking place in an ocean world and all. However, there are still a few things you need to do to make water consumable. Here’s what you need to know.
How to Get Water in Subnautica
If you’re playing on Survival or Hardcore mode, one of the things you’ll need to worry about is your thirst level. That’s what Water is for. On the aforementioned game modes, you’ll need to make sure to drink water every once in a while. Otherwise, you’ll eventually die of thirst.
Thankfully, there are multiple ways to gather Water in Subnautica. There are also four different kinds of water you can drink. That said, here are all the kinds types of Water and how to get them.
Filtered Water
This is the easiest type of water you can get in Subnautica. To craft Filtered Water, simply collect a Bladderfish and transform it using the Fabricator. This creature is very common in Subnautica and you can find it almost everywhere in the game, especially in the beginning area.
For your perusal, these are the biomes that house Bladderfish:
- Dunes
- Grand Reef
- Grassy Plateaus
- Kelp Forest
- Mushroom Forest
- Safe Shallows
- Lost River
- Primary Containment Facility Aquarium
One Filtered Water will restore your H2O level by 20.
Disinfected Water
The Disinfected Water can also be crafted using the Fabricator. You can do so by using one unit of Bleach, which then becomes two bottles of Disinfected Water.
To create Bleach, you’ll need to obtain one Salt Deposit and one Coral Tube Sample. Both of which are very accessible in the game.
In case you’re having a hard time finding Salt Deposits, you can find them on the seabed of these biomes:
- Bulb Zone
- Crag Field
- Crash Zone
- Dunes
- Grassy Plateaus
- Kelp Forest
- Mountain Island
- Mountains Caves
- Mushroom Forest
- Northern Blood Kelp Zone
- Sea Treader’s Path
- Sparse Reef
- Underwater Islands
You can gather Coral Tube Samples by hitting a Giant Coral Tube or a Coral Shell Plate with your Survival Knife. You can find them in these biomes:
- Bulb Zone
- Crash Zone
- Grassy Plateaus
- Kelp Forest
- Mountains Caves
- Safe Shallows
- Underwater Islands
Other than crafting it, you can also occasionally find bottles of Disinfected Water on wrecks found in the Bulb Zone, Dunes, Grassy Plateaus, and the Mountains. Be sure to keep an eye out for them.
A Disinfected Water bottle will replenish your H2O level by 30.
Reclaimed Water
Reclaimed Water can only be acquired by equipping the Stillsuit and placing it on the main slot of the PDA. You’ll then receive two bottles of Reclaimed Water every day as long as the Stillsuit remains equipped.
To craft a Stillsuit, gather one Synthetic Fiber, one Aerogel, and one Copper Wire, then bring them to your Fabricator. You must also first obtain the blueprint for the Stillsuit before you can craft it, which you can find randomly in data boxes found in wrecks, Degasi Seabases, and destroyed lifepods.
A Reclaimed Water bottle will replenish your H2O level by 20, but it will also remove 3 points from your food level.
Large Filtered Water
Drinking a Large Filtered Water will replenish your H2O level by 50, making it the most efficient water source in the game.
This water source can only be crafted by using the Water Filtration Machine, a Habitat Compartment which transforms seawater into consumable water. It’s also capable of providing salt. Take note that this machine gathers energy from the seabase. It takes about 51 Energy per minute. Be sure you can power your seabase enough with Solar Panels or Bioreactors.
Before you can craft a Water Filtration Machine, you must first find its blueprint. You can acquire this from the wrecks found in the Bulb Zone, Dunes, Jellyshroom Cave, and from Degasi Seabases.
You can then craft it by using the Builder Tool. It requires 3 Titanium, 1 Copper Wire, and 1 Aerogel for it to be crafted.
This machine is capable of producing one Large Filtered Water every 16 minutes.
Other Sources of Water
Aside from the Water bottles listed above, there are a ton of other sources of water in Subnautica. Most cooked fish and other fauna can also increase your H2O level, but the vast majority of them will only give you an H2O level that is nowhere as high as what your average Water can give.
Here are the other sources of Water in Subnautica and how much H2O level they can provide:
- Cooked Oculus: 2
- Cooked Boomerang: 3
- Cooked Holefish: 3
- Cooked Hoopfish: 3
- Cooked Hoverfish: 3
- Cooked Spadefish: 3
- Cooked Spinefish: 3
- Cooked Bladderfish: 4
- Cooked Reginald: 4
- Cooked Pepper: 5
- Cooked Garryfish: 5
- Cooked Red Eyeye: 9
- Cooked Eyeye: 10
- Creepvine Sample: 1
- Chinese Potato: 3
- Lantern Fruit: 3
- Gel Sack: 4
- Bulb Bush Sample: 10
- Bulbo Tree Sample: 10
- Marblemelon: 14
