Locating Lithium: A Subnautica Super-Guide

Lithium is a rare, tiny, and generally difficult-to-find material. If you're having trouble finding this precious resource, this guide is here to help.

Disclaimer

The information contained within this guide is outdated. New content is added every week, and as the game draws nearer and nearer to completion, this guide will become more and more obsolete.

A while ago, when this guide was created, I was madly in love with Subnautica. I spent an enormous amount time studying it and interacting with its community, more time than I even spent playing it myself. It was amazing.

After a little while, however, I realized I had done everything I could do in the game. I realized how small it really was, and the flaws began to shine through. I was done with it.

And that's where I am now. I could update this guide with more info every time an update comes out, but the fact is, I simply don't want to. I'm tired of Subnautica, at least for now. Perhaps when it fully releases, I'll get back into it. But right now, I'm done.

I hope the information in this guide will be helpful for as long as it can, and I hope that Unknown Worlds ends up making a fantastic game.

- Sporekypig

Preparation

Before you begin your quest for Lithium, there are a few things you should have with you first. As this precious mineral is located in some pretty deep, spooky places far away from the comfort and safety of home, it is highly advised that you have these items before setting off.

1. A few cooked fish and bottles of water, for when you get thirsty or hungry on your mission.
2. A Seamoth, for quick travel, oxygen, and defense against hostile creatures.
3. A Seaglide, for easy movement outside of your Seamoth, or if your Seamoth gets destroyed.
4. A tank or two, so that you have more time to collect Lithium.
5. A Welder, to fix your Seamoth if it gets damaged.
6. A spare Power Cell, so you can recharge your Seamoth if it runs out of power.

Optional Items

These are items that are not crucial to the mission, but will likely make the job much easier.

1. A Stasis Rifle, to deal with any nasty beasts you may encounter.
2. A Propulsion Cannon, to easily snag Lithium from far away.

Places Where Lithium Can Be Found

Lithium can be found in these 6 places:

The Mushroom Forest
The Jelly Shroom Caves
The Floating Island
The Sparse Reef
The Dunes
The Koosh Zone


This guide will explain each location, and where to find Lithium in those locations.



A map of the entire game world, courtesy of the guys at the Subnautica Wiki.

The Mushroom Forest

The Mushroom Forest Biome is one of the deepest, darkest, and spookiest places to find Lithium. It is also one of the deepest, darkest, and spookiest places in Subnautica, period. Inhabited by packs of haunting, ghost-like Jelly Rays and crammed full of the towering, titular mushroom trees, the Mushroom Forest Biome is not a place you want to hang around for too long. However, it is one of the best places to find Lithium, as the crystals themselves are spread out along the ground and on the trees.

The Mushroom Forest biome can often be found just beyond the Grassy Plateaus biome, but if you can't find it, try heading towards the front of the Aurora. A Mushroom Forest can be found near there.


Hazards:

Bone Sharks
Crashing into Mushroom Trees
Water Pressure (only in the deeper parts)


Where to Find Lithium:

Lithium in the Mushroom Forest Biome is extremely easy to find. They are found along the floor of the biome, and on the sides of the Mushroom Trees. Just look for small, purple crystals.



The Mushroom Forest Biome can be found towards the front/middle of the Aurora.



This is NOT Lithium!



Lithium on the side of a Mushroom Tree.



Lithium on the ground.

The Jelly Shroom Caves

If you thought the Mushroom Forest Biome was scary (at least at night), then the Jelly Shroom Caves are its tough, grizzled great-grandfather. A pitch-black, winding labyrinth that seems to never end, this is a place where many go, but very few return from. If you do make it back, however, you will surely not be doing so empty-handed, for the Caves offer some of the best loot Subnautica has to offer. Stacks and stacks of Gold and Lithium lie around every corner, and a single trip to this horrifying abyss should be enough to provide you with enough Lithium to construct a Cyclops, at the very least. The real question is, are you crazy enough to descend to your certain death to get a material that could be gotten elsewhere with half the risk? It's up to you to decide.

Entrances to the Jelly Shroom Caves can be found all over the map, but especially in the Grassy Plateaus biome. Keep an eye out for deep and dark holes in the ground, as these often lead into Shroom Caves.


Hazards:

Magma Vents
Bone Sharks
Getting Lost
Crashing into Walls
Water Pressure
Crabsnakes


How to Find Lithium:

Lithium in the Jelly Shroom stalks discovered by TijlP05, here is a link to their profile in case they changed their username: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198201305071

Once you've gotten in to the Caves, it should be easy to find Lithium. The Lithium in the Shroom Caves is located inside Shale Harvesting Nodes, which come in plentiful quantites (when you get to the main caves, that is). Lithium crystals can also be found inside of the Jelly Shrooms themselves. Just find the entrance to their "stalk" by swimming up to their top, then go inside them.




Shale Node on a Jelly Shroom Cave wall.



Shale Nodes on a Cave wall, near a Jelly Shroom.



Magma vent on the floor of a large Shroom Cave. Be careful around these!



Lithium crystal inside of a Jelly Shroom stalk.



A close-up of the Lithium crystal inside the Shroom stalk.



It's easy to get lost in these massive aquatic mazes.

The Floating Island

The Floating Island is one of the strangest and most breathtaking biomes in all of Subnautica. Suspended at the surface of the ocean by a group of massive Floaters, this this bizarre place is the largest naturally-occuring landmass in the entire game. Unfortunately, this island is a terrible place to find Lithium. While it does appear on the island, it is both very rare and incredibly difficult to find. Those facts combined with the difficulty of locating the Floating Island in the first place, and how far away the island is from your Escape Pod, make the Floating Island a very poor choice for a place to search for Lithium, and I would recommend only going to it in times of extreme desperation (i.e. you've depleted all Lithium elsewhere in the world).

The Floating Island can be found by heading directly east of the Aurora. Just follow where the Aurora's tail end points to, and you should reach your goal. The Island will not appear until you are very close to it, so don't get discouraged if you see nothing on the horizon.


Hazards:

None


Where to Find Lithium:

It can be very difficult to find Lithium on the Floating Island, but if you search long and hard enough, you will eventually find some. Try looking along the beaches and areas near to the water. The one piece of Lithium that I found was on the edge of a cliff, near some trees.





The one piece of Lithium that I found.

The Sparse Reef

The Sparse Reef is a barren, rocky biome that differs significantly from the bright, colorful visuals of the Safe Shallows. Despite its lack of plant life and extreme depth (180-200 meters down), the Sparse Reef is actually not too shabby of a place, with shoals of Spadefish, loads and loads of quartz, and of course, Lithium. While the Sparse Reef is not necessarily a bad area to search for the precious crystal, its relatively small amount of Lithium pales in comparison to the massive bounties of the stuff found in the Mushroom Forest and the Jelly Shroom Caves.

The Sparse Reef can be found by heading directly south-west of the Aurora.


Hazards:

Bleeders (very rarely)
Water Pressure


Where to Find Lithium:

Lithium in the Sparse Reef is easy to spot, as its bright purple color greatly contrasts the dull, muddy hues of the Reef. Most of the Lithium I was able to find was attatched to the large, light brown rocks, so you should look there first. In your search for Lithium, you will want to stay away from the big caves. While their walls are studded with Limestone Nodes, these contain only common materials such as Copper and Titanium. There is little to no Lithium to be found within their depths.




A piece of Lithium on a rock.



Another piece of lithium on another rock. This one is much closer to the cave.

The Dunes

The Dunes are a strange place indeed. Sandy, barren, and deviod of major plantlife, it would seem like the Dunes are a terrible place to live. Yet this biome is utterly swarming with life. Uncountable numbers of fish swirl and group in every direction, hordes of Sandsharks burrow and play in the sand, and packs of Cave Crawlers leap from rock to rock and scuttle up the stony pillars jutting from the sand. And above it all, slicing through the water like a giant, terrifying angel of death, is the big daddy of all monsters. The Reaper Leviathan.

Oh yeah, and there's also some Lithium. Just a little, though. Not nearly enough to justify the amount of risk involved with visiting this biome. In fact, I would even say that the Dunes are the most dangerous place in Subnautica to get Lithium, even more so than the Jelly Shroom Caves (mostly due to the presence of the Reaper). Only visit this biome if you are extremely desperate for Lithium. As in, you have used up all Lithium everywhere else in the entire world. Even the Lithium on the Floating Island.

You can find the Dunes by heading west of the Aurora.


Hazards:

Sandsharks
Cave Crawlers
Water Pressure
Reaper Leviathans


Where to Find Lithium:

Lithium in the Dunes can be found on the ground and on the sides of rocks and stone pillars. Look for their signature purple color and crystal shape.



Lithium on the side of a stone pillar.



Lithium on the side of a rock.

The Koosh Zone

Location discovered by TijlP05! Here is a link to their profile in case they changed their username: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198201305071


The Koosh Zone is probably Subnautica's most bizzare biome. Located far beneath the surface (200-300m down), this strange place has the ability to weird out even the most seasoned of explorers. An expanse of small cliffs, hills, spires, and archways dots its landscape. Every once in a while a lava vent appears, belching out fire and death. But the most prominent feature of this biome is, of course, the Koosh Bushes. Bulbous, spherical, bright-blue..... things? Plants? Animals? Bacterial colonies? Who knows? The only thing that is certain is that they are everywhere. And you know what else is everywhere? Lithium! Well, not an absurd amount, like in the Mushroom Forest or Jelly Shroom Caves, but a very respectable quantity indeed. If you take into consideration the relative ease of locating this area compared to the other top Lithium spots, then you have a very good candidate for a spot to hunt Lithium. Just make sure that you go in something that can handle going deep underwater.

A Koosh Zone can be found directly behind the Aurora.


Hazards:

Bone Sharks
Water Pressure
Magma Vents


Where to Find Lithium:

Lithium in the Koosh Zone can be found in Shale Harvesting Nodes, which are scattered throughout the biome on the ground and on the walls of its cliffs.



Shale node on a rock near some Koosh Bushes.



Shale node under a rocky archway.



Shale node by an erupting Magma Vent.

Ending Comments

Thank you so much for reading this Subnautica Super-Guide! I sincerely hope that it helped you find all the Lithium that you needed. If you have anything to say to me, ask me, or anything else, please go right ahead and leave a comment! If there was anything that I missed, or something that you discovered that would benefit this guide (i. e. a new place to find Lithium, etc.) please let me know in the comments and I will be sure to give you as much credit as possible if I include it in this guide.

Thank you once again for reading, and have an awesome day!


The End

[𝕭𝖑𝖔𝖇]

W

[wowguy]

ahh, back when lithium looked like purple crystals... i kinda liked the old design.

[MJFBB]

I really respect the time and the effort that went into this guide. It was really useful for me and my friends im glad that i found this.

[alfiebops]

I thought this was a joke ngl

[xinfinit_13x]

i checked the jellyshroom forest and found about 5 there (ended up getting six because i had one) and got the other thing, glad to see this guide still helping people like me out!

[TijlP05]

damn this was a long time ago, I haven't used steam in a while...

I miss these days...

[Shadow_Of_Mayura]

you missed the lithium you find inside the caves in the "Sunbeam" or "Ancient" island (the one without the Degasi 3 habitats. the place where you disable the weapon) I got maybe 30+ in the caves before my inventory got full. You'll find a lot of shale outcrops too with diamonds.

[IceTeaz]

Thanks

[dancle]

Nickel is in the Lost River

[Vivianna]

I.m looking for nickle... any Ideas?