Beacon (Below Zero)

The Beacon is a deployable tool which is crafted by using the Fabricator. It requires a blueprint to be crafted, which can be acquired when first entering the Drop Pod.

The Beacon can mark locations, for example, Caves, Biomes or Seabases. It can be placed in the ocean or on land and picked up again after each use. When placed the Beacon will remain suspended where it is placed.

When placed on land, a pole will extend into the ground and its flotation devices will not deploy.

Beacons will beep when the player is near them.

It works similarly to the beacons installed on the Snowfox, Seatruck, Prawn Suit, Architect Artifacts and Drop Pod, except the pulse is shaped like the Beacon.

The Beacon pings are faded out when nearby. When 1000 meters from the beacon the signal goes from custom text to plain round ping signal.

When many Beacons are in use, they can become difficult to keep track of due to the large number of icons on the screen.

To help keep track of your Beacons you can change their color by opening your PDA and selecting the Beacon Manager tab.

A Beacon can be renamed by clicking on its front panel. A maximum of 25 characters is supported.

When the player dies and loses belongings, Beacons will be activated near their death point and automatically be labeled "Dropped Beacon".

Recipe
The blueprint for this item is unlocked by crafting a Standard O₂ Tank. Or by acquiring from a Data Box or Scanning fragments in a tech site in both the Arctic Kelp Forest and Twisty Bridges. Or acquire/scan the item in the Emergency Cache in another Arctic Kelp Forest, Delta Island and Glacial Basin. It is crafted in the Fabricator.

Trivia

 * The Beacon has the most unique ways to unlock its blueprint.
 * The line in the description "Suitable for surface or underwater use" is possibly a reference to how Beacons in Subnautica would fall partially through the ground and be permanently stuck there due to only being coded for underwater deployment.