Subnautica 2 Beacon Placement: Best Navigation Points and Markers

Beacon Basics and Crafting

Beacons are the single most important navigation tool in Subnautica 2. These small, craftable markers float in place wherever you deploy them and broadcast a labeled signal to your HUD, letting you see their direction and distance from anywhere in the ocean. Without beacons, navigating the vast underwater world relies entirely on memory, which is a recipe for getting lost -- or worse, drowning far from home.

Beacons are cheap to craft. The recipe requires a copper wire and a battery, both made from common early-game materials. This means you can produce them in bulk at any fabricator as soon as you have scanned the beacon fragment. Always carry five to ten spare beacons in your inventory or vehicle storage, because you will find new landmarks faster than you expect and running out mid-expedition forces you to backtrack.

Each beacon can be renamed, and you absolutely should. A beacon left with its default name becomes useless once you have a dozen of them cluttering your HUD. Use a consistent naming convention that encodes location, biome, and depth so you can read your map at a glance. This discipline is what separates a lost swimmer from a seasoned explorer.

• Beacons are cheap -- craft them in bulk.
• Always carry 5-10 spares on expeditions.
• Rename every beacon with a clear convention.
• Deploy one at every major landmark.

Beacon Placement Strategy and Naming

A good beacon placement strategy follows a few core principles. First, mark your home. Your main base and your lifepod should both have beacons, because in low visibility or after a long dive you need a guaranteed way home. Second, mark the boundaries of dangerous biomes. A beacon at the edge of leviathan territory warns you when you are approaching a no-go zone and gives you a reference point to retreat to.

Third, mark resource nodes. When you find a rich limestone field, a lithium deposit, or a wreck full of fragments, drop a beacon so you can return later. Fourth, mark depth transitions. A beacon at the point where the shallows drop into the kelp forest, or where the kelp forest drops into the deep zones, helps you navigate vertical as well as horizontal space.

Use a naming convention like BIOME-DIR-DEPTH. For example, KELP-NE-120 marks a kelp forest beacon to the northeast at 120 meters. WRECK-S-200 marks a wreck to the south at 200 meters. This lets you instantly read what a beacon represents and how to prioritize it. Color-coding, if the game supports it, adds another layer of organization -- reserve one color for danger, one for resources, and one for navigation.

Key Navigation Points to Mark

Certain locations are worth beacons no matter your playstyle. The lifepod and main base are obvious, but also consider marking your vehicle storage point, any forward bases, and the entrances to major cave systems. Cave entrances are especially important, because they are easy to lose in the open ocean and often lead to valuable resources or precursor ruins.

Mark the borders of every new biome you discover. When you transition from the shallows to the kelp forest, drop a beacon at the boundary. Do the same at the kelp-to-plateau transition and the plateau-to-deep-zone transition. These boundary beacons form a chain that lets you retrace your route precisely, which is invaluable when you are low on oxygen or fleeing a predator.

Wrecks deserve their own beacons, because you will often need to return to them multiple times to scan all the fragments. Mark precursor ruins the moment you find them, even if you cannot enter yet, so you can return later with the right equipment. Finally, mark any thermal vents or geothermal spots you find, because these are prime locations for thermal power plants later in the game.

The goal is to build a network of beacons that covers your regular travel routes and your key objectives. Over time, this network becomes a living map that makes the ocean feel knowable rather than infinite and hostile.

Advanced Beacon Techniques and Maintenance

Once you have a beacon network established, you can use it for advanced navigation. One technique is the triangulation method: by noting the direction and distance to two known beacons, you can pinpoint your exact position on your mental map even in total darkness. This is how experienced players navigate the deep zones where visibility is near zero.

Beacon maintenance matters. Beacons can be destroyed by creature attacks or environmental hazards if placed poorly. Do not deploy a beacon directly in a predator patrol route; instead, place it on a nearby rock or slightly outside the danger zone. If a beacon is destroyed, replace it immediately so your network does not develop blind spots.

Use beacons in combination with the scanner room for maximum mapping power. The scanner room reveals resources in a radius, while beacons mark the points of interest it finds. Together, they let you build a comprehensive picture of the ocean around your base. Some players even build small scanner room outposts at beacon hubs to extend their scanning coverage across the map.

Finally, remember that you can pick beacons back up and redeploy them. As your base of operations shifts, reorganize your beacon network to match. Old, irrelevant beacons clutter your HUD, so periodically clean up markers you no longer need. A lean, well-maintained beacon network is far more useful than a sprawling mess.

• Use triangulation with two beacons to find your position.
• Do not place beacons in predator paths.
• Pair beacons with scanner rooms for full coverage.
• Clean up obsolete beacons periodically.