Resource Index
Caves are almost always faster than open water. Once you unlock the Sonic Resonator, shatter the big nodes for a pile of materials in one hit. And never swim past Metal Salvage — it converts to Titanium at the fabricator. Route context for each biome: Biomes & Map.
Silver Early Route (Air Tank Priority)
Silver unlocks the Standard Air Tank, your #1 early upgrade. Fastest route: take the Angel Comb branch toward Anita's blackbox, find the Silver cave (red hatch), and mine along the way. This doubles your safe dive time — do it before any deep exploration.
Metal Farm Pools
The green-glowing pools in the eastern Metal Farm zone hold Strontium and late-game deposits, and are part of the Feedback Resonator fragment route. Dangerous but high-yield — bring the Tadpole and a charged Sonic Resonator.
Next: Biomes & Map — route planning and danger zones →
Paldium-free progress note
Unlike its predecessors, the Early Access build gates technology on common materials and fragment scans rather than a single rare currency, which is why the index is organized by material tier instead of one bottleneck resource. The practical consequence: no single farming route is mandatory, and the eastern metal farms plus cave silver cover every early recipe the vehicle page asks for.
Surface caches and the return trip
A dive is only as good as its return: surface caches at the lip of every deep route turn a failed O2 math into a lost bag instead of a lost character. The habit costs one locker per route exit and pays for itself the first time a leviathan forces an early surface — drop the haul, breathe, plan the second pass.
FAQ
Is co-op faster for resource farming?
Yes, with a caveat. The Buddy System update (EA 1.2) added player revives, which turns the deep cave routes that solo divers avoid into routine trips — a buddy means a revive instead of a lost run. But shared loot means shared decisions: agree on who banks which materials before diving, or the time savings evaporate in inventory negotiations.
Inventory discipline underwater
Titanium from Metal Salvage is so abundant that carrying it is a mistake: convert on pickup, drop the surplus in a surface cache, and keep the dive bag for high-value, low-bulk materials. Silver, Quartz and Copper are the items worth swimming home for; everything else should never displace a slot you might need for a fragment scan.
Air, depth and the real resource curve
The resource that actually gates progress is air: every route on this index is shaped around O2 logistics first and materials second. The Air Tank priority route exists because extra capacity converts risky caves into routine trips — and once the Sonic Resonator shatters nodes in one hit, the limiting factor becomes how long you can stay down, not how fast you can dig.