The Ribbon Plant is basically a living battery. At its core is a glowing bubble of sulfuric acid, which is ideal for crafting batteries in Subnautica: Below Zero. Because players aren’t able to do much under the sea without a source of power, batteries are an essential early game upgrade for habitat modules, vehicles, and other pieces of vital gear.

Thankfully, Ribbon Plants are pretty common, as long as a player knows where to look for them. They glow bright green and are easy to spot in even the murkiest, darkest waters. Here’s everything you need to know about the Ribbon Plant.

Where To Find The Ribbon Plant

Players will want to get their hands on Ribbon Plants very early on. For every battery, you need two Ribbon Plants. So where do you find them?

  • Ribbon Plants are most commonly found in caves in the Shallow Twisty Bridges biome, one of the first biomes you’ll encounter in your Below Zero adventures.

You can’t miss the Twisty Bridges biome. There are tendril-like bridges that span deep ravines, often with glowing blue orbs on the underside of each bridge. The biome is largely peaceful without too much aggressive fauna, and the Shallow Twisty Bridges is shallow enough that it can be explored without worrying about Oxygen tank upgrades or a Seatruck.

You’re searching for yellow-green plants that glow in the center, usually found in small clumps inside caves. To no one’s surprise, they look like bundles of ribbon, often with a thin tendril extending upwards. Players can harvest the Ribbon Plant and put it right in their inventory. It is used to craft batteries.

That being said, the Ribbon Plant is found throughout the world of Below Zero:

  • Crystal Caves Fabricator Caverns Lilypad Islands Twisty Bridges and Shallow Twisty Bridges

Going Fully Sustainable With Exterior Growbeds

At some point, you’ll want to streamline your Ribbon Plant operation. Even if you charge your batteries, you’ll still need plenty to craft everything in the game. Swimming out into various biomes to gather Ribbon Plants isn’t going to work when you’re operating out of a Seatruck or Prawn Suit. That’s where the Exterior Growbeds come in. They let you plant Ribbon Plants and harvest them over and over again.

The fragments required for the blueprint can be scanned at:

  • The bow section of the large Crashed Ship. At the Omega Lab. The easiest to find is probably the tech site located between the Twisty Bridges biome and Thermal Spires.

The Exterior Growbeds are crafted with two Titanium using the Habitat Builder tool. Once placed, you can place Ribbon Plants directly into the Growbed’s inventory. Each Growbed has 24 slots.

Sea Monkeys Are Your Pals

Watch out for spoilers below.

Later in the game, once you’ve met Al-An at Sanctuary Zero and plugged the AI into your brain, the Sea Monkeys will often gift you a variety of different resources. Although you’re probably more likely after ores, like Gold or Silver, the Sea Monkeys will also occasionally gift you Ribbon Plants.

NEXT: Everything You Need To Know Before Playing Subnautica: Below Zero