How to Unlock the Rebreather in Subnautica 2

1 week ago 8

Published May 18, 2026, 8:14 AM EDT

Melissa Sarnowski is a Gaming Writer at DualShockers who has been covering games professionally since 2022. She specializes in lists, reviews, and features, with additional experience writing guides for Hardcore Gamer.

Before joining DualShockers, Melissa contributed to Screen Rant, and she currently writes for CBR and Hardcore Gamer in addition to DualShockers. Her work focuses heavily on RPGs, horror games, MMOs, indie games, and simulation games, with recurring coverage of franchises such as Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, The Legend of Zelda, and The Sims. She holds a Bachelor of Science in English from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Subnautica 2 adds difficulty by making you watch your oxygen levels while underwater, and that means that having ways to survive underwater for longer periods of time is incredibly useful. It's also pretty much essential if you want to make meaningful progress in the game, as you'll be traveling farther from the Lifepod and going through wreckages that don't offer you much in terms of oxygen.

Subnautica 2: How to Get Lead

You don't need a lot of Lead in Subnautica 2, but you need some.

The Rebreather will give you some more time underwater when you have it, but you need to have both the Repair Tool and Sonic Resonator to find and scan all four pieces of the Rebreather that are required to unlock the recipe.

Scan Four Rebreathers

To unlock the recipe for the Rebreather, you need to find and scan four separate Rebreathers. Two are to the north of your Lifepod. Two are to the south of it. I happened to be in the southern area of the map at the time, so the first two pieces listed here are from that side. If you're in the northern area, then you'll want to do pieces three and four first, but those pieces require the Sonic Resonator and Repair Tool, respectively.

Piece 1 is about 300 meters to the south of the Lifepod and somewhat to the east. It's quite close to Chap's Black Box, so you can use that as a marker, then go beyond it to find some debris on the ground. The Rebreather is in an open storage box. Scan it for your first recipe fragment.

Piece 2 is now to the west from Piece 1, or about 280 meters south of the Lifepod and then to the west. You'll find a large amount of wreckage. From the location of the wreckage, turn to the north. You'll see a bunker hatch in the side of the rocky cliff in that direction, which is difficult to spot if you aren't looking for it. That bunker is where you need to scan the Rebreather, and you can get an inventory expansion upgrade from the Biobed while you're there.

Heading to the north side of the map, Piece 3 is 300 meters north of the Lifepod and to the west. This piece is inside the big wreckage, but you need the Sonic Resonator to get inside. Swim around the edge to find a little rectangle where there's some luminescent plant life and use the Sonic Resonator to destroy it, giving you access to the inside of the wreck where you'll find the Rebreather after a trip through the air ducts.

Finally, Piece 4 is to the east of Piece 3, putting it about 400 meters northeast of the Lifepod. There's another big piece of wreckage here. To get inside, you need to swim underneath it and get to the area where you find two broken doors. Use the Repair Tool to repair one of them, and then you'll find the last Rebreather inside and to the left.