Subnautica 2: How to Make a Fully Functional Fabricator – Requirements, Materials, and Crafting Guide

What to know

• You cannot fix the broken Fabricator inside your life raft; you must build your own.

• The Habitat Builder tool is required to construct base parts and the Fabricator

• A fully functional Fabricator needs an indoor location inside a powered base

• Crafting costs exactly one titanium, one copper, and one quartz

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When you start Subnautica 2 on the life raft, the onboard Fabricator shows warning labels on many recipes and says a fully functional Fabricator is required.

The game does not explain this clearly, but the solution is to build your own Fabricator inside a base you construct. Once you place and power it, all those corrupt warnings disappear and you regain full crafting access.

Fully Functional Fabricator details

You cannot build anything until you have the Habitat Builder tool. You first make basic tools like the Scanner in the life raft Fabricator, then scan old Habitat Builder units you find on the ocean floor or in caves. Scanning a Habitat Builder twice unlocks its blueprint, after which you craft the Habitat Builder at any Fabricator. Once crafted, equip it in your hand to open the building menu.

How to build a base with power

Build your base at the surface first so you can place power sources easily. Open the Habitat Builder menu, select the building categories, and place a corridor anywhere you want your base. Then attach a hatch to the corridor. After that, place a solar panel on the exterior to supply power. One solar panel is often enough, but if it is nighttime you may need a second panel to keep everything running. Enter the base through the hatch once the structure and power are in place.

How to place the Fabricator

Step 1

Equip the Habitat Builder in your hand, press down right click, and go to Interior Facilities in the menu.

Step 2

Select the Fabricator from Interior Facilities. The recipe requires one piece of titanium, one piece of copper, and one piece of quartz.

Step 3

Choose an interior wall inside your habitat and hold left click to build the Fabricator on that wall.

Step 4

Wait for construction to finish, then walk up to the Fabricator and open it.

Step 5

Check the crafting list. You will see that none of the materials have a warning label anymore, which confirms the Fabricator is fully functional.

The life raft Fabricator is intentionally limited and marks many recipes as corrupt until you have a base with power. Creating your own base satisfies the fully functional Fabricator requirement, and once the Fabricator is placed inside that powered habitat, it becomes your primary crafting area with access to all unlocked recipes. You can still use the life raft Fabricator, but by the time you build your own, you will have resources and blueprints that the life raft could not use.