Storage

Storage commonly refers to containers in which items can be stored. The amount of item slots varies from container to container. Subnauticas' storage system is unique in that it functions similar to a real container. All items in the game have a certain shape (all circles right now) that occupies a certain number of inventory slots. Small items like titanium and lithium occupy one slot, while large items like the SeaGlide need 9 slots reserved in the form of a square.

In the beginning, the player only has their own inventory, which can be accessed by using the PDA, and the storage inside the Escape Pod and the Fragment Analyzer available. As the player progresses in the game, items can also be stored inside of various containers.

The player's Storage inventory is unfriendly towards 2x2 space utilisation, since the SeaGlide takes up nine square spaces in the inventory, and there are currently no other 3x3 items in the game, the inventory space is forced by default to keep objects in a less-than-desireable location within the inventory. For example, if the player has a SeaGlide, two Tanks, and some other 2x2 items (such as Scrap Metal), then the inventory spaces are no longer linear, and the spare spaces are now filled with the tools. With enough items, since the 3x3 slot demands so much of the inventory, then the inventory space of 5 (y axis) spaces is now completely filled, because the 3x3 slot forces the 2x2 items below it, the player is left with a 3x4 slot where there is no potential area for the 2x2 items to be stored. The way the inventory arrangement program works will force the items into a specific order in the inventory, which then extends the unusable section of the inventory so that there is now a 3x6 area that logically should be able to fit 4 2x2 pieces, but instead can only for 3. If you need to gather multiple 2x2 items, in order to utilize inventory space, use a storage cube to store the 2x2 pieces, and then put the cube back into your inventory, which will auto-organize the inventory for more 2x2 pieces.

To shorten what the above paragraph displays, the inventory is not using the maximum storage space possible when the player has a SeaGlide in their inventory (which is almost always the case), then the maximum number of 2x2 slots is reduced by 3 potential 2x2 items that can be stored in the inventory, so using a storage cube to gather 2x2 resources is recommended.