How To Get Axum Bacterial Culture In Subnautica 2

TL;DR

• Axum Bacterial Culture is found only in the Karakorum Metal Farm zone — roughly 2,100 meters east of the Lifepod and 450 meters deep.
• There are only 5 Axum Bacterial Cultures in the entire world. They do not respawn.
• You need the Tadpole with Depth Module Mk. I to reach them — the area is at the maximum depth of the upgraded Tadpole.
• Harvest using the Sonic Resonator, not your hand — manual harvesting can cause the culture to glitch under the map permanently.
• Save your game manually before harvesting each one to avoid losing them to the known glitch.
• Each culture builds one Metal Farm — the only recipe that uses this material in the current Early Access build.

Axum Bacterial Culture in Subnautica 2 is the rarest and most unforgiving resource in the game. It is a raw material used to craft the Metal Farm, and only 5 samples are known to spawn in Early Access v1.0. They sit deep in a Leviathan-patrolled zone, inside glowing toxic pools, and a known harvesting bug can destroy them permanently if you are not careful. This guide covers where to find every single one, exactly how to get there, how to harvest them without losing them, and what to do with them once you have them in Subnautica 2.

What Is Axum Bacterial Culture in Subnautica 2?

Axum Bacterial Culture is described in-game as a meticulously bred microbe colony used to kickstart Axum technologies such as metal farms. It is “not reproducible in standard Fabricators.” That last line matters — there is no crafting recipe for it, no way to make more, and no alternative source. What spawns in the world is all you get.

Axum Bacterial Culture grows as a clustered spherical object within a seemingly-fractured cage, and can be found naturally in the glowing industrial runoff pools within the Karakorum Metal Farms. It looks similar to gold ore at first glance — small and easy to miss in the toxic yellow-green glow of the pools.

The Metal Farm is the only structure in the current game that uses Axum Bacterial Culture. It is also one of the most powerful late-game tools you can build, passively generating rare metals at your base without you needing to make repeated dangerous dives. Getting all five cultures is the key to automating your resource production entirely.

What You Need Before You Go

The Karakorum Metal Farm zone is deep, dangerous, and far from your starting area. Do not attempt this run underprepared. Here is what you need in place first:

• Tadpole with Depth Module Mk. I — This is non-negotiable. The cultures are roughly 450 meters down, which is why you need the Depth Module equipped on your Tadpole — and even that is the deepest your Tadpole can get. See our guide on how to go deeper with the Tadpole Depth Module if you have not upgraded yet.
• Sonic Resonator — Required to safely harvest the cultures without triggering the glitch. Do not make this trip without one. You will also need it to collect the grown resource nodes from your Metal Farms later.
• Repair Tool and spare Power Cell — The Collector Leviathan in this area can damage your Tadpole. Bring a Repair Tool to fix hull damage between encounters, and a spare Power Cell in case yours gets drained.
• Distraction Flares — a full stack — The area is patrolled by the Collector Leviathan and smaller hostile creatures. Always have flares ready before entering this zone. See our hostile creatures guide for how to handle the Collector safely.
• Good oxygen supply — At 450 meters with creatures to avoid, you will be down there a while. See our guide on how to increase oxygen before the dive.

You should also already have access to the Alien Ruins region before attempting this. If you are still working toward that, our best early upgrades and progression path guide will help you get there faster.

Where to Find Axum Bacterial Culture

There are currently only five Subnautica 2 Axum Bacterial Cultures available, and they can all be found in the alien Metal Farm zone, found 860 meters north-northeast of the Alien Ruins Research Center, 450 meters below the surface.

From your Lifepod, the Karakorum Metal Farm is approximately 2,100 meters east. If you have already reached the Alien Ruins, it is about 850 to 870 meters further east-northeast from the Alien Ruins Research Base marker — follow the compass heading of roughly 75 degrees northeast from the Alien Ruins.

The easiest landmark to follow is the purple Titan Rockbore tendril tube that extends northeast from the Angel Comb area. Follow it down into a ravine and you will reach a zone with glowing green pools and large alien column-like structures rising from the floor. That is the Metal Farm zone. The pools are bright enough to see from a distance — the green-yellow glow is unmistakable once you are in the right depth range.

All five spawn in the same area, though in different pools — the glowing green and yellow industrial runoff pools in the Karakorum Metal Farm area. They are spread across the central and surrounding pools, not all clustered in one spot. Swim the full perimeter of all visible pools to make sure you find every single one.

How to Navigate There Safely

The route to the Metal Farm zone passes through Collector Leviathan territory. Try to approach this area from below, hovering around the 400–450 meter depth. A Collector Leviathan patrols overhead, but it cannot detect you if you are swimming underneath.

Keep these rules in mind throughout the trip:

• Stay in the Tadpole as much as possible. The Tadpole absorbs creature damage that would otherwise hit you directly. Only exit the vehicle when you are at the pool to harvest the cultures.
• Approach from below, not above. The Collector Leviathan patrols at a higher depth than the pools. Descend steeply toward the 400–450 meter mark before moving horizontally into the zone.
• Use the alien column structures as cover. The Metal Farm columns and surrounding rocky formations break line of sight from the Collector. Park the Tadpole near them and exit quickly to harvest.
• Have a Distraction Flare on your Quickslot. If the Collector locks onto you while you are on foot outside the Tadpole, throw a flare away from your direction of retreat and get back into the vehicle immediately.
• Watch for smaller hostiles too. The area is patrolled by Epicureans and Tongue Thiefs in addition to the Collector Leviathan. They are not Leviathan-class but they can still interrupt your harvesting and drain your health while you are trying to collect.

The Camouflage Biomod is incredibly useful here. Staying still while out of the Tadpole makes you completely invisible to all predators, giving you a safe window to scan and harvest. If you have not unlocked it yet, see our complete Biomods guide for how to get Camouflage and every other Biomod in the game.

How to Harvest Axum Bacterial Culture Without Losing It

This is the most critical section of this guide. There is a known bug in the current Early Access build where Axum Bacterial Cultures can permanently disappear under the map when harvested. Since there are only five in the entire world, losing even one to this glitch can lock you out of a Metal Farm slot indefinitely.

Due to the finite nature of the resource, it is recommended to harvest the Axum Bacterial Culture using a Sonic Resonator to avoid rare reported incidences of manual harvesting resulting in the cultures glitching under the map. Alternatively, the game can be manually saved before harvesting each node. If the bacterial culture glitches under the map, the game can then be reloaded to try again.

Follow these steps exactly for every single culture:

• Manual save before touching each culture. Open the pause menu and save the moment before you break the cage. Do this for every one — not just the first. If the culture disappears after breaking, reload immediately and try again with the Sonic Resonator instead.
• Use the Sonic Resonator to break the cage. Aim at the fractured cage structure containing the culture and fire the Sonic Resonator at it. This method is consistently more reliable than using your hand.
• Pick it up immediately. Once the cage breaks and the culture drops, grab it right away before it can drift or fall into terrain. Do not wait.
• Do not use the Survival Multitool. Some players report that breaking the cage manually with the Survival Multitool increases the chances of the culture falling through the floor. Stick to the Sonic Resonator.

There have been reports that these items can disappear under the map when broken. The best method to avoid this is to use an empty hand when breaking the ore — however, this is not guaranteed to fix the problem. Between the empty hand and Sonic Resonator methods, the Sonic Resonator appears more reliable based on community reports. Save before each harvest regardless and you have a safety net either way.

What to Do While You Are There

The Metal Farm zone has several other valuable resources worth grabbing on the same dive. Do not make a separate trip for these — collect everything in one run:

Unlock the Metal Farm blueprint. When you arrive at the Metal Farms area, you will notice a large glowing pool. Surrounding it are several curious-looking structures. Scan these to unlock the Metal Farm blueprint. You need to scan at least two or three of the alien column structures around the pool to fully unlock the build recipe. The blueprint goes into the Cultivation tab of your Habitat Builder.

Collect Troilite. Troilite ore nodes with a deep green hue are found throughout the same pool area. You need Troilite to craft Mangalloy Ingots, which are required for building each Metal Farm. See our Troilite guide for full details on this material. Grab as much as you can while you are already here — making a return trip to this depth is expensive in time and risk.

Look for the Feedback Resonator blueprint. The Feedback Resonator blueprint can also be found down in this area. If you have not already unlocked it, scan around the structures while collecting cultures. It is the upgraded ranged version of the Sonic Resonator and is critical for the Alien Ruins Angel Comb puzzle. See our Feedback Resonator guide for more.

How to Build the Metal Farm

Once you have at least one Axum Bacterial Culture and have unlocked the blueprint, you can build your first Metal Farm. Each Metal Farm costs:

• 1x Axum Bacterial Culture
• 1x Mangalloy Ingot

The Mangalloy Ingot is the more complex part of the recipe. It requires processing at a Processor station using:

• 1x Titanium Ingot (which needs 3x Titanium)
• 1x Atacamite (found as obsidian black deposits near the Alien Ruins base, in the area with the giant turbine and Angel Comb)
• 1x Troilite (from the green ore nodes in the Metal Farm pool area)

See our guides on how to build Processors and craft ingots and how to get Titanium if you need help with the material chain. Once all materials are ready, open your Habitat Builder, go to the Cultivation tab, and place the Metal Farm on any solid submerged surface near your base.

How to Use the Metal Farm

Once placed, the Metal Farm needs power before it will do anything. Each Metal Farm consumes 20 energy, meaning you should build several Hydroelectric Turbines and other power-generating machines to support them. See our guide on how to add power to your base for help setting up a solid power grid before you start stacking farms.

Once it has power, the process is straightforward:

• Interact with the Metal Farm and insert a valid ore — valid materials include Titanium, Quartz, Lithium, Silver, Atacamite, Celestine, and others.
• A countdown timer starts. Production time is roughly 10 minutes per metal output.
• When the timer ends, a large resource node grows out of the top of the Metal Farm structure.
• Blast the node with your Sonic Resonator to collect the ore. Harvesting the result restarts the timer automatically.

Location has no impact on material generation, so place it wherever you wish — as long as it is connected to power. You do not need to place it near the Karakorum Metal Farm zone. Build it right next to your main base for easy access. Also note that it can be placed in the starting biome area without any issues — it is not biome-dependent.

How Many Metal Farms Can You Build?

Since there are only 5 Axum Bacterial Cultures available in the current build, you can build a maximum of 5 Metal Farms. In practice, most players collect 3 to 4 due to the harvesting glitch eating one or two before the save trick is discovered. With 5 cultures and 5 farms running, you can passively generate five different metals simultaneously — completely eliminating most of the late-game resource grind.

If you have lost all five before building a single farm, your passive farming setup is effectively locked out until Unknown Worlds either patches in a respawn or adds an alternative crafting route. Based on the in-game description hinting at future fabricator support, this is almost certainly coming in a future Early Access update, but there is no confirmed timeline yet.

This is why the manual save before each harvest is so important. Treat every culture like it is your last one — because in the current build, it might be.

Best Metals to Farm With Metal Farms

You can technically farm any compatible ore, but some choices are more valuable than others given the late-game resource demands. Here are the best picks for your limited farm slots:

• Troilite — One of the most limited natural resources in the game and a core ingredient in Mangalloy Ingots. Farming Troilite means you can keep building Metal Farms and crafting Mangalloy without returning to the deep pools. Highly recommended as a first farm target.
• Celestine — Used to make Strontium, which is required for turbine repair and other late-game crafting. See our Celestine guide for natural locations.
• Gold — Required for several electronics and base components. Farming gold passively removes one of the more tedious late-game resource hunts. See our guide on how to get gold to compare farming versus natural sources.
• Lithium — Used in a wide range of crafting recipes throughout the game. A solid farm target for general use. See our lithium guide for more.
• Silver — Another broadly useful material for electronics and equipment. Check our silver guide to see where natural deposits are if you want to supplement a farm.

Tips for the Axum Bacterial Culture Run

• Do everything in one trip. Collect all 5 cultures, grab all available Troilite, scan the Metal Farm structures for the blueprint, and look for the Feedback Resonator blueprint while you are already in the area. Every return trip to this depth is a fresh Collector Leviathan risk.
• Manual save before every culture — no exceptions. The glitch is not 100 percent reproducible but it is real and the consequences are permanent. The save costs five seconds. Losing a culture costs a Metal Farm slot forever in the current build.
• Approach from below to avoid the Collector. Descend to 400–450 meters before moving laterally into the zone. The Collector patrols at a higher depth and loses your trail when you are underneath it.
• Park your Tadpole near a rock formation when you exit to harvest. Do not leave it floating in open water where the Collector can find and damage it while you are on foot picking up cultures.
• Make sure your Habitat Builder is in your inventory before you go. You can scan the Metal Farm structures to unlock the blueprint and then build your first farm right there if you brought enough materials — saving you a trip back to base. See our Habitat Builder guide if you have not unlocked it yet.

The Axum Bacterial Culture run is one of the most high-stakes resource dives in Subnautica 2 right now — both because of the creatures guarding the area and because the resource itself is finite and unforgiving. But once you have your Metal Farms running, the entire late-game resource grind changes dramatically. All the dangerous material hunting that the Power Plant repair demands — the Titanium Ingots, Strontium, Mangalloy — becomes much easier to manage with passive generation running in the background. See our guide on how to fix the Power Plant and open the Observatory for how those materials fit into the story endgame. Subnautica 2 is available now on Xbox Game Preview and Steam.

Related Subnautica 2 Guides

• Where to Find Troilite
• How to Build Processors & Craft Ingots
• How to Go Deeper with the Tadpole Depth Module
• How to Get the Feedback Resonator
• How to Deal with Hostile Creatures in Subnautica 2
• All Biomods in Subnautica 2 & How to Get Them
• How to Get Gold
• Where to Find Lithium
• Where to Find Silver
• How to Get Celestine
• How to Fix the Power Plant & Open the Observatory
• How to Add Power to Your Base