How to Get Aerogel in Subnautica: Gel Sack and Ruby

What you need

• 1 Gel sackscan one first to unlock the recipe
• 1 Rubyper Aerogel
• The handheld scannerfor the Gel sack scan
• A FabricatorResources, then Advanced materials, then Aerogel

How to make Aerogel, step by step

1. 1

   Step 1

   Find a Gel sack and scan it

   • 645expected per game
   • 4 sscan time

   • The Aerogel recipe stays locked until you scan a Gel sack with the handheld scanner. The scan takes 4 seconds and leaves the plant where it is.
   • The game's own PDA entry says "These organic structures grow on cave walls", and ends "Assessment: Edible - Aerogel construction applications".
   • The model expects about 645 Gel sacks per new game. The most are in Grand Reef (about 104, 254 to 419 m), Deep Grand Reef (about 100, 439 to 562 m), Mountains (about 88, 201 to 428 m).
   • How a sack is taken off the wall is not in the data we read.

   Every area the model puts Gel sacks in starts 201 m down or deeper (the shallow end of its 80% range), so get a way to survive that depth before you look.

   1

2. 2
   

   Step 2

   Find a Ruby

   • 1,346expected per game
   • Grand Reefmost in

   • Ruby is a loose resource. The model expects about 1,346 per new game, most in Grand Reef (about 227, 235 to 450 m), Blood Kelp Zone (about 216, 260 to 611 m), Dunes (about 145, 242 to 390 m).
   • The PDA calls it "A hard, blood-red gemstone, made of aluminum oxide" and "Essential for advanced fabrication".
   • Grand Reef appears in both lists, so one dive there can cover both ingredients.

   2

3. 3

   Step 3

   Craft Aerogel at a Fabricator

   • 1 Gel sack, 1 Rubyper craft

   • Open the Fabricator, then Resources, then Advanced materials, then Aerogel.
   • One craft takes 1 Gel sack, 1 Ruby.
   • The tooltip reads "Light, porous, dried gel. High heat insulation."

   Not in the data

   The recipe table does not state how many Aerogel one craft makes, so this page does not say.

   If Aerogel is not in the fabricator listyou have not scanned a Gel sack yet: go back to step 1.

4. 4

   Step 4

   Spend it

   • 9 recipes use Aerogel; the table lists them.

   Item	Aerogel	Made at	Other ingredients
   Cyclops fire suppression system	2	Cyclops fabricator	2 Crystalline sulfur
   Neptune Boosters	2	not named in the recipe table	1 Plasteel ingot, 3 Nickel ore, 1 Wiring kit
   Prawn suit	2	Mobile vehicle bay	2 Plasteel ingot, 1 Enameled glass, 2 Diamond, 2 Lead
   Cyclops Decoy Tube Upgrade	1	Cyclops fabricator	3 Titanium, 2 Lithium
   Prawn suit torpedo arm	1	Vehicle upgrade console	5 Titanium, 1 Lithium
   Seamoth torpedo system	1	Vehicle upgrade console	3 Titanium, 1 Lithium
   Thermal plant	1	Habitat Builder	5 Titanium, 2 Magnetite
   Water filtration machine	1	Habitat Builder	3 Titanium, 1 Copper wire
   Water filtration suit	1	Fabricator	1 Synthetic fibers, 1 Copper wire

Common mistakes

• Crafting before scanning. Aerogel will not show in the Fabricator until a Gel sack has been scanned.
• Looking in the shallows. The model has no Gel sack area shallower than 201 m.
• Reading the map layer as a pin list. Gel sacks and rubies are rolled again for every new game: open the Ruby chance layer and search the area.