Clam Leviathan Location (Great Jaw) in Subnautica 2 – How to Find, Scan & Survive It

by Eva Roberts · May 24, 2026

TL;DR

The Clam Leviathan (Great Jaw) is found in the Tufa Towers biome, roughly 280 to 350 meters southwest of the Lifepod.
Use the Wander Blackbox signal to navigate — head southwest to the pit, then go south into the depths.
The Great Jaw is a stationary ambush predator. It does not chase you. It waits with its shell open and snaps shut if you trip its pink internal tendons.
You can scan it safely from the outside shell without going in.
Inside the shell are Lithium deposits, Metal Salvage, and two Portable Oxygen Generator fragments worth scanning.
Bring an Air Bladder before entering the interior — it is your emergency escape if the shell closes.

Clam Leviathan Location in Subnautica 2 is one of the most asked-about questions in the game’s early hours. The Great Jaw — nicknamed “Clamthulu” by Unknown Worlds developers during production — is one of the most unique and unsettling creatures on planet Proteus. It does not hunt you. It does not chase you. It simply waits with its enormous shell open, filled with glowing purple tendrils and lithium deposits, patiently hoping you swim straight in. This guide covers exactly where to find the Great Jaw in Subnautica 2, how to reach it, what is inside, and how to survive your visit.

Table of Contents

What Is the Great Jaw Clam Leviathan?

The Great Jaw is an enormous and sessile Leviathan-class lifeform. It is an enormous ambush predator that functions somewhat like an enormous Venus flytrap. When one of the Great Jaw’s sensory structures in its core is triggered, it will open its eyes and close its shell to trap prey within, where it will excrete neurotoxins to kill the player. When the tendons of the adductor muscles are disturbed, the shells close, trapping prey inside. The jaw then secretes domoic acid neurotoxin, with projected symptoms including nerve damage, short-term memory loss, and death.

Internally at Unknown Worlds, they call it Clamthulu. It is in the game files and the code names. Officially it is the Great Jaw. The shell itself can take decades or even centuries to reach its adult size. The specimen scanned in the game is considered relatively young — no upper size limit could be established. That last detail is the creepiest piece of lore in the game.

Despite being classified as a Leviathan, the Great Jaw behaves completely differently from the Collector or Shiver. It is stationary. It never pursues you. The only way it can kill you is if you enter its shell and trigger its interior tendrils. Understanding this is what makes it manageable — and even farmable once you know what you are doing.

Great Jaw Clam Leviathan Location

The Great Jaw Clam Leviathan is found in the Tufa Towers region, in the south-west corner of Proteus. It is about 350 meters south-west of the Lifepod. The nearest Great Jaw sits approximately 280 meters south-southwest of the Lifepod.

This is one of the closest Leviathan-class creatures to your starting location in the entire game. Unlike the Collector Leviathan guarding the eastern route to the Alien Ruins, the Great Jaw is accessible relatively early — and because it is stationary, it is far less immediately dangerous to approach.

There are also multiple Great Jaws seeded across the ocean. Several specimens are seeded across the open ocean, and at least one is placed along the early progression path while you are hunting Tadpole submarine fragments. This means if you follow the natural Tadpole crafting path, you will encounter one organically without having to specifically search.

How to Navigate to the Great Jaw

The easiest way to reach the Great Jaw is to use a Blackbox Signal as a navigation anchor. You can use the Wander Blackbox as a guide. Once you reach the pit where Wander is found, head south into the depths. Set the Wander signal as active in the Signals tab of your main menu and follow it southwest from the Lifepod.

Here is a step-by-step route from your Lifepod:

From the Lifepod, head southwest on your compass — roughly 225 to 235 degrees.
As you swim southwest, follow the ocean floor as it drops off into deeper terrain. Stay close to the shelf wall on your right — this protects you from open-water threats and guides your path naturally toward the Tufa Towers area.
Pass the colony wreckage in the area. As you move past it, the massive Great Jaw will come into view ahead of you. It is unmistakable — the two enormous domed shell halves are far larger than anything else on the seafloor nearby.
Note the Oxygen Tunic at the edge of the cliff near the Great Jaw. Interact with it before entering the shell area to top up your oxygen supply.

The route is not extremely long, but it is deeper than the immediate Lifepod area. If you go below a depth of 100 meters, you will lose oxygen efficiency, which means your air will run out much faster. This is especially dangerous when heading into the center of the Great Jaw while your focus is on avoiding the purple trip wires. Make sure your oxygen is topped up before you descend.

What You Should Bring

You do not need advanced gear to reach the Great Jaw, but the right tools make the difference between a productive trip and a death inside a giant clam:

Air Bladder — Equip one before entering. This is an absolute requirement. If a pink tendril is triggered and the shell begins to close, activating the Air Bladder immediately rockets you toward the surface before the jaws fully lock. Without it, your escape window is extremely narrow.
Sonic Resonator — Required to mine the Lithium deposits inside the shell. You cannot pick them up by hand. See our guide on the Sonic Resonator if you have not crafted one yet.
Scanner or Bioscanner — You need this to scan the Great Jaw itself and the Portable Oxygen Generator fragments inside. See our Scanner guide for crafting details.
High Capacity Air Tank — While you do not technically need it to reach the Great Jaw, having the High Capacity Air Tank will make it much easier to reach and navigate the area surrounding the Clam Leviathan. The deeper portions of the approach and the time spent carefully moving inside the shell burn through oxygen faster than the starting area.
Improved Fins or Wakemaker — Faster movement means a faster escape if something goes wrong inside the shell. See our guide on how to get improved fins and the Wakemaker guide for your movement options.

Setting your respawn point to a nearby base or your Lifepod before attempting the interior is also strongly recommended. Build a base nearby so you have a handy respawn point — a single corridor and a Biobed should be enough. See our guide on how to unlock the Habitat Builder and start building a base if you have not set one up in this direction yet.

How to Scan the Great Jaw Safely

The good news is that scanning the Great Jaw for your PDA and Biomod records does not require entering the shell at all. The Great Jaw is fairly easy to scan since it is stationary. It does let out an initial electric shock when you come near it, but you can survive this easily. Scan its shell without going inside it to do this safely.

Simply approach the outer shell, let the electric shock hit (it will not kill you), and hold your scanner on the exterior. The scan completes quickly. You can get the full PDA entry and any associated Biomod credit without ever risking the interior tendrils. Only go inside if you want the Lithium, the Portable Oxygen Generator blueprint, or the Metal Salvage — all of which require you to enter the shell.

What Is Inside the Great Jaw?

The interior of the Great Jaw contains some of the most valuable early-to-mid game loot available, which is exactly why players keep going in despite the risk:

Lithium Deposits

The Great Jaw bioaccumulates lithium during its growth. Nodules are expelled by the clam’s body to prevent nerve interference. The PDA assessment reads: critical source of lithium, but dangerous to dive. Avoid touching tendons. Ensure you have an up-to-date body scan.

Lithium is one of the most important mid-game materials in Subnautica 2, used for Plasteel Ingots, the High Capacity Air Tank, the Portable Oxygen Generator, and more. The Great Jaw is the most reliable early source. See our lithium guide for all available sources beyond the Great Jaw.

Portable Oxygen Generator Blueprint Fragments

The blueprint for the Portable Oxygen Generator comes from scanning fragments tucked inside a Great Jaw. You need two successful scans of the device fragments to synthesize the recipe. Once unlocked, you build it with the Habitat Builder using 3 Titanium and 2 Lithium, and load a Basic Battery to make it work. The Portable Oxygen Generator produces breathable air through electrolysis while powered — it is a useful mid-game oxygen tool for longer dives away from base. See our oxygen guide to understand where the Portable Oxygen Generator fits in your upgrade path.

Metal Salvage

There is also Metal Salvage inside the Great Jaw’s central chamber. This yields Titanium when processed, making the interior even more worth the visit early in the game. See our Titanium guide for all the ways to get this core material.

How to Enter the Great Jaw Without Dying

This is the section most players need. Entering the shell safely requires patience and precise movement. Here is the exact method:

Equip the Air Bladder before you enter. Put it on a Quickslot so you can activate it instantly without opening menus. If the shell starts closing, you need to trigger the Air Bladder immediately — a half-second delay can mean the difference between escape and death.
Swim in slowly. Do not rush through the opening. Move at a controlled pace and pay close attention to where the pink tendrils are. They extend outward from the central stalk structure and look like fleshy tripwires. They are clearly visible if you have any light source — use the Bioluminescence Biomod or a flashlight to see them clearly.
Navigate around the tendrils, not through them. There is space between each tendril. Move laterally and carefully around them rather than trying to swim straight through to the centre.
Position your back against the interior wall before mining. Position yourself so that your back is to the wall. This should keep you safe due to the knockback effect from the Sonic Resonator’s blast. If you fire the Sonic Resonator without anchoring yourself against a surface, the knockback can push you directly into a tendril.
Mine the Lithium with short, controlled Sonic Resonator blasts. Aim at each Lithium nodule, fire, and collect the drop quickly before it drifts toward a tendril. Do not fire wildly in multiple directions.
Scan both Portable Oxygen Generator fragments before leaving. They are in the central chamber area. Scan them both in the same trip if you can — going back a second time doubles your risk.
Exit carefully the same way you entered. When you are done, retrace your path out through the same gap you used to enter. Do not take shortcuts through untested areas of the interior.

If the Shell Starts Closing

If a pink tendril triggers, activate the Air Bladder immediately to rocket toward the surface before the jaws lock. The shell closes quickly but not instantaneously — you have a small window. Do not panic and swim sideways. Aim straight upward through the opening and trigger the Air Bladder. If the shell fully closes before you exit, the domoic acid neurotoxin will start draining your health rapidly. Your only option at that point is to find the gap between the shell halves and push through before your health depletes entirely.

The Dash Biomod from the Biolab in the Welcome Center ruins is also extremely useful here. The Dash Biomod gives a better escape window after the purple strands are triggered. See our full Biomods guide to make sure Dash is set as your active Biomod before this dive.

The Collector Leviathan Connection

There is an important piece of lore worth knowing about Great Jaws and the Collector Leviathan. Collector Leviathan lairs in the deep chasms also contain shells of smaller, gutted Great Jaws — the “mini-Clamthulus” — but those are corpses, not live encounters. By exploring their lair, you will find giant clam shells gutted and emptied of their contents. The fleshy center cleanly torn out. That is the Collector’s pantry. The PDA states its favorite prey are the Coral Crab and the Great Jaw — the juvenile versions, not the monstrous adult.

In practical terms: if you find a Great Jaw shell that is already split, hollowed out, and clearly dead, you are inside Collector territory and should leave before it returns. Live Great Jaws are intact, open, and waiting — gutted shells mean a much faster predator is nearby. For full details on surviving the Collector Leviathan during your eastern routes, see our hostile creatures guide.

Great Jaw Lore – What the PDA Says

The great jaw’s interior is lined with tiny coral polyps, which feed on sunlight with photosynthetic bacteria. The majority of the great jaw’s food probably comes from photosynthesis. This makes it technically an omnivore — the animal trap behaviour is supplementary, not its primary method of feeding. The lithium it accumulates is a by-product of its biological processes, not something it stores intentionally. You are essentially mining its kidney stones.

The PDA also notes: the scanned index specimen is relatively young. No upper size limit can be established. This line, combined with the Collector’s lairs full of gutted juvenile shells, strongly implies the massive adult specimens are something the current build of the game has not shown you yet.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Every Great Jaw Visit

Do the scan and the lithium run in the same trip. There is no reason to visit twice. Scan the exterior first from safety, then enter for the lithium, metal salvage, and Portable Oxygen Generator fragments. One trip covers everything.
Refuel on oxygen at the Oxygen Tunic near the cliff edge before entering. Do not enter on a low tank — the depth penalty makes your O2 burn faster than normal, and the careful movement required inside takes time. Stock up on oxygen upgrades before attempting the interior.
Set a nearby respawn point. Build even just a single-room base with a Biobed southwest of the Lifepod near the Great Jaw area. If you die inside, you respawn close by rather than at the opposite end of the map. This also applies to the lithium and Axum Bacterial Culture runs in the eastern zones — a nearby base always saves time.
Recharge your tools before every visit. The Sonic Resonator needs to be charged to mine lithium. Running out of charge mid-harvest inside the shell is a stressful situation you do not want to deal with. See our guide on how to recharge tools and batteries before every major dive.
Visit multiple Great Jaw locations if you need more lithium. There are several specimens across the map. Once you are comfortable with one, the others follow the same rules. Later in the game, the hot caves below the Tadpole Pens area also become a reliable lithium source once you unlock the Heat Tolerance adaptation.

The Great Jaw is one of the most memorable creatures in Subnautica 2 — a Leviathan that does not roar at you or chase you down, but still manages to be one of the most dangerous things in the ocean if you are not paying attention. Once you understand how it works, it becomes one of the best early resource opportunities in the game rather than a threat to avoid. You can explore it on Xbox Game Preview and Steam Early Access right now.

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