CG COOKIE on Twitter: "In Blender 2.83 metaballs are supported by Dupliverts and Duplifaces. Parent the metaball to an object and then enable Verts or Faces instancing in the object's properties. Voilà,
Blender] Dupliverts
DupliVerts
fluid simulation - Lego Water with Dupliverts doesn't work! - Blender Stack Exchange