To make Subnautica 2 strong acid, use 2 Necrolei Buds at a Fabricator for 1 Strong Acid, or run 1 Sulfur and 1 Gold through the Processor's alternate recipe, which the official wiki lists at 1:00 per acid. Both blueprints unlock together with the Power Cell blueprint, which you get by scanning a Tadpole fragment, and the buds come from Necrolei Cysts in the shallow Necrolei Hills.
This guide reflects the official Subnautica 2 Wiki and the Unknown Worlds patch notes as checked on October 17, 2026, when the latest patch was Buddy System Hotfix 2 (October 6, 2026). Subnautica 2 is in Early Access, so recipes, unlocks and crafting times can change in later updates.
01
Strong Acid recipes at a glance
| Station | Ingredients | Crafting time | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fabricator (Resources, Advanced Materials) | 2 Necrolei Bud | Not listed | 1 Strong Acid |
| Processor (Alternate Recipes) | 1 Sulfur + 1 Gold | 1:00 | 1 Strong Acid |
The wiki files Strong Acid under Advanced Materials and describes it as a very dangerous concentrated acid that works as a metal cleaner and as a catalyst for advanced electronics. Neither recipe uses Mild Acid or Acidic Raion Pouches, so the wiki lists no way to turn the early raion acids into Strong Acid. The Fabricator route needs only buds, which grow in a starting-region biome, while the Processor route needs a powered Processor plus two minerals the wiki places in hotter or deeper areas.
02
How to unlock the Strong Acid blueprint
The wiki ties the Strong Acid blueprints to the Power Cell: they unlock when the Power Cell blueprint does, and the Power Cell has no fragments of its own because scanning a Tadpole fragment unlocks it. In practice this puts Strong Acid on the path to your first vehicle. The Tadpole recipe at the Vehicle Fabricator calls for 1 Power Cell, and each Power Cell needs 2 Basic Batteries, 1 Strong Acid and 1 Salt at the Fabricator.
So expect the Strong Acid recipe to appear once you scan your first Tadpole fragment, and plan to craft it as soon as you want a Power Cell. The fragment locations and the rest of the build are in the Tadpole guide.
03
How to make Strong Acid in Subnautica 2 with Necrolei Buds
Necrolei Buds grow on top of Necrolei Cysts, which the wiki lists only in the Necrolei Hills, a 0 to 100 m biome north-west of the Lifepod in the Coral Gardens. Hit the buds with the Survival Multitool; they regrow after a while, and the wiki calls them very abundant in that biome. Since the Buddy System update (August 19, 2026), the patch notes say sources of acid appear as green dots in the Scanner HUD. The Necrolei Cyst guide has the landmarks, coordinates and safety notes for the hills.
For a steady supply, farm the buds at home. The same update made Necrolei Cysts plantable in Growbeds; the Habitat Builder places one for 1 Necrolei Bud, and the wiki lists 1 new bud every 8 minutes per planted cyst. That works out to one Strong Acid every 16 minutes per cyst, and the Growbed page itself rates this crop as excellent for making Strong Acid.
Then craft at a Fabricator. The wiki notes that the Lifepod's built-in Fabricator is corrupted and cannot make every unlocked blueprint, without listing which ones. If Strong Acid is missing there, build a Fabricator inside a seabase with the Habitat Builder (1 Titanium, 1 Copper, 1 Quartz); it draws 2 energy per second.
04
How to make Strong Acid in the Processor
The Processor is an interior base piece for alternate and more advanced recipes. You unlock it by scanning one Processor fragment, then build it with the Habitat Builder from 2 Titanium, 1 Mild Acid and 1 Copper Wire. It draws 10 energy per second while it runs and nothing while idle, and you can load up to 15 ingredients to queue several runs.
| Processor fragment (per the wiki) | Coordinates listed on the official wiki |
|---|---|
| In the Old Habitat | -336855, 393914 @ 55m |
| In the Canteen wreck | -338274, 456865 @ 90m |
| In Spires Wreck 1, north-west of the Great Jaw | -352031, 458217 @ 90m |
| In the Lander Garage wreck | -307312, 407771 @ 73m |
| South-east side of the Tailings Village, in a hut | -293402, 450916 @ 92m |
Feeding the recipe takes some travel. Sulfur appears as loose pickups and as deposits you break with the Sonic Resonator, on cave walls, ceilings and floors and on volcanic seafloor such as the Graveyard and Thermal Vent Clusters. Gold comes from nodes you can break by hand or with any tool and from Sonic Resonator deposits in the Graveyard, its caves, Root Canyon and Thermal Vent Clusters. The wiki describes the Graveyard as extremely hot and says you need the Heat Tolerance adaptation to survive there.
Later on, a Metal Farm can supply both minerals. The wiki lists 3 Sulfur or 3 Gold per 10-minute cycle, and the sample you insert to choose the mineral is not used up.
05
What Strong Acid is used for
The wiki lists seven recipes that take Strong Acid directly:
| Product | Station | Full recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Power Cell | Fabricator | 2 Basic Battery, 1 Strong Acid, 1 Salt |
| Fiber Mesh | Fabricator | 2 Fiber, 1 Strong Acid |
| Advanced Battery | Fabricator | 1 Conduit Crystal, 1 Strong Acid, 1 Silver Ingot |
| Entangled Power Cell | Fabricator | 1 Conduit Crystal, 1 Strong Acid, 1 Gold Ingot, 1 Troilite |
| Dedicated Core | Fabricator | 1 Advanced Wiring Kit, 2 Quartz, 1 Strong Acid |
| Photovoltaic Charger | Modification Station | 1 Copper Ingot, 1 Strong Acid, 1 Troilite |
| Tadpole Scout Ray Chassis | Vehicle Fabricator | 2 Plasteel Ingot, 1 Advanced Wiring Kit, 1 Dedicated Core, 1 Strong Acid |
Strong Acid also hides inside other recipes. Fiber Mesh goes into the Rebreather (2 Fiber Mesh and 1 System Chip), Improved Fins and the Tailing Drum, so one Rebreather costs two acid. The Dedicated Core feeds both the Tadpole Haul Chassis and the Scout Ray Chassis, which means the Scout Ray needs two Strong Acid in total.
On the power side, the wiki lists the Power Cell and the Advanced Battery at 200 energy each and the Entangled Power Cell at 400. Both the Advanced Battery and the Entangled Power Cell also need Conduit Crystal. The Photovoltaic Charger is a Tadpole upgrade that recharges its Power Cell while you stay shallower than 40 m during the day.
06
Strong Acid vs Mild Acid and the other acids
The wiki's acid disambiguation page lists four entries, and one more acid exists only in the game files:
- Mild Acid: a Basic Material made from 2 Acidic Raion Pouches and 1 Copper at the Fabricator (available from the start), or from 2 pouches in the Processor (0:30). It goes into the Processor itself, the Biolab and the Echo Location upgrade, which the wiki marks as currently unavailable in regular gameplay.
- Acidic Raion Pouch: the raw material behind Mild Acid and the Basic Battery, cut from Acid Raions with the Survival Multitool.
- Acid Raion: the anchored creature that carries three pouches and a Medical Gel Sac, usually in caves in the Shallows and also listed in the Necrolei Hills caves. Remove the pouches before you take the gel sac, or it sprays acid that damages you. You can plant it in a Growbed too.
- Strong Acid: the advanced acid covered on this page.
- Volatile Acid: a datamined item the wiki calls unimplemented. Its description mentions fleet vessel power systems.
In short, Mild Acid is the early acid behind base pieces such as the Processor and the Biolab, while Strong Acid goes into power cells, batteries, cores and Tadpole gear.
07
Tips for keeping Strong Acid stocked
- Count your needs before a crafting session: 1 per Power Cell, 2 per Rebreather and 2 per Scout Ray Chassis, based on the recipes above.
- Plant several Necrolei Cysts in Growbeds near your base; each one regrows a bud in 8 minutes, so more cysts means more buds per visit.
- Keep a spare bud when you harvest, since each new cyst costs one to plant.
- Switch to the Processor recipe when buds run short and you already carry Sulfur and Gold.
For the other materials these recipes ask for, such as Salt, Quartz and Troilite, see the resources guide. If you are still in your first hours, the beginner guide explains the early tools and base pieces you need before any of this.