Recharge batteries and Power Cells without rebuilding your tools

1. Equip the depleted tool. Use the battery reload action: R on default PC controls or D-pad Up on controller; check your bindings if remapped.
2. Choose a charged battery from your inventory. The unload action lets you borrow one from a less urgent tool.
3. Keep the depleted battery for charging. Confirm the tool’s charge bar before continuing.

1. Scan two Battery Terminals in Old Habitat, north of the Lifepod.

   Older footage · checked Oct 25, 2026 · before Subnautica 2 Early Access 1.2 (Buddy System, October 2026)

   0:40–1:26 · 46 sSwimming into the old habitat and scanning a Battery Terminal fragment

   0:40–1:26Swimming into the old habitat and scanning a Battery Terminal fragment
2. Look beside the long corridor linking the habitat sections, then on the floor associated with Quaker’s black-box signal.
3. Build the terminal on an interior wall and place depleted batteries in its six slots.

1. Search the platform and crate area roughly 260 m east-northeast of the Lifepod, about 60 m deep under a rocky overhang. A Power Cell Terminal scan is reported near the Tadpole and turbine fragments.
2. At the Tadpole Pens, inspect the left wall in the backroom for another Power Cell Terminal fragment. Follow the Pens access guide if the room is locked.
3. Scan distinct fragments until the blueprint confirms it is complete. Meanwhile, use a powered Tadpole Dock and spare cells.

Destructoid and Game Checklists both list the Power Cell as 2 Basic Batteries, 1 Strong Acid and 1 Salt, and GameWith’s June recipe page agrees. GameWith’s older May terminal guide says 2 Salt, so carry a spare if you are crafting far from base.

1. Dock at a powered Tadpole Dock, or remove the cell from the socket on top of the vehicle.
2. Put the depleted cell in a Power Cell Terminal and install a charged spare in the Tadpole.
3. Confirm charge is increasing before relying on either method. A spare left in a locker at base cannot rescue a powerless vehicle on a distant trip.

Check charger type, enabled state and base power. Published charger-load figures disagree, so use the HUD with the terminal empty, then with charging items inserted. No fixed charge time is guaranteed here.

If scan progress seems missing, check the build before searching for extra fragments: Adaptive Measures fixed Battery Terminal progress being absent after the first scan.

1. Wait for a visible charge increase at base.
2. Check power again while other machines are running.
3. Load the spare cell and battery into your departure inventory.