Lead is the bottleneck for the Sonic Resonator, the tool that lets you progress through the mid-game Karakorum routes. You can find your first Lead within ten minutes of spawning if you know where to dive.
Lead in Subnautica 2 is identifiable as deep purple, cuboid-textured rocks on canyon floors and the bases of cliffs. Small nodes can be picked up by hand with the Survival Multitool. Large nodes require the Sonic Resonator to shatter — which itself needs Lead to craft, so the first 2 Lead you find must come from the small hand-pickable nodes.
Early game — Canyon NE of Cicada Wreck (Coral Gardens "Leadzone" sub-region, 40-70m): The canonical first Lead run. From the Lifepod, head northeast on compass heading 60-75° for roughly 300-340 metres. You drop into the sloped canyon that wraps around the Cicada Wreck exterior — this is the Leadzone sub-region of the Coral Gardens biome. Scan the seafloor and canyon walls for deep purple cuboid rocks.
Mid-to-late game — Karakorum / Alien Ruins: Once you progress the main story into the Karakorum region, Lead becomes far more abundant. Make Karakorum your primary Lead farm once you have the Sonic Resonator (to break the large nodes) and Mk.1 Depth Module (to dive safely).
The Sonic Resonator unlock is what almost every Lead search is really about. Once you have it, every large ore node on the map becomes minable, the Karakorum opens up, and the Heat Tolerance Adaptation chain begins.
For the Sonic Resonator alone you need 2 Lead. For a comfortable early-mid game stockpile (Resonator + 2-3 Germanium conversions + Sugar of Saturn for the food chain) we recommend 8-10 Lead on a single Cicada Wreck run. Skip the large nodes on your first visit — you don't have the Sonic Resonator yet. Come back once you've crafted it to clear the high-yield deposits.
