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The Tadpole Pens are a named story location in Subnautica 2. The site is an abandoned habitat reached after the player has gained the Heat Tolerance adaptation, with a keycode-locked door gating final entry. It is a place to explore as part of the Early Access story, not a creature-breeding facility, and despite the shared name it is distinct from the Tadpole vehicle.
Not the Tadpole Vehicle
The Tadpole Pens and the Tadpole submersible share part of a name but are two separate things. The Tadpole is the player's submersible vehicle. The Tadpole Pens are a fixed location on Proteus: an abandoned habitat the player visits during the story. The name should not be read as the place where the Tadpole vehicle is acquired, and the site is not a breeding pen for any creature.
Access
Reaching the Tadpole Pens requires the Heat Tolerance adaptation, which lets the player survive the conditions on the approach. Final entry is gated by a keycode-locked door, making the Pens one of a small number of hard gates in a build that otherwise leans on traversal-driven progression. Without both the adaptation and the keycode, the habitat cannot be entered.
Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
Heat Tolerance adaptation | Needed to survive the approach to the habitat. Acquired earlier through the Biosampler adaptation system. |
Keycode | Required to open the sealed door. Entry is blocked until the code is obtained. |
The Habitat
Inside, the Tadpole Pens are an abandoned habitat, left behind by earlier occupants and explored after the player works past the keycode lock. As a story location it sits in the same category as the other named sites the player uncovers across Proteus, contributing to the world's history rather than functioning as a vehicle bay or a breeding facility. Specific contents of the habitat are part of the in-build story and are tied to the Early Access chapter rather than to any vehicle-unlock flow.
Status in the Current Build
The Tadpole Pens are present in the current Early Access build as a Heat-Tolerance-gated, keycode-locked story location. Any further additions to the site, or new connected locations, are not in the current build and have not been detailed beyond the broad Early Access and Development Roadmap framing.
See Also
The Tadpole vehicle, a separate subject despite the shared name.
The Colonist Logs lore arc.
The CICADA colony ship the Pioneers trace back to.
Location
The Tadpole Pens sit roughly 675 m east of the starting Lifepod, in a hot biome around the lava-vent zone at a depth of approximately 150 m. The heat in the surrounding area is what gates the approach and is the reason the Heat Tolerance adaptation is mandatory.
Heat Tolerance Source
The Heat Tolerance adaptation needed to reach the Pens is obtained earlier by clearing an Angel Comb located about 200 m northwest of the Lifepod, on a bearing of around 300 degrees from the start point. Without that adaptation, the approach to the Pens is not survivable.
Keycode Mechanic
The keycode that opens the sealed door is not a number the player has to memorize. It is obtained by interacting with a black box left by a Pioneer named Zip, whose box sits in the deeper hot caves below the facility. Picking up the data writes the key directly to the PDA, after which the door opens on approach.