Path to Lava Castle / Alien Power Plant (Spoiler)

[Shawn of the Dead]

I had a hard time finding the lava castle, so I mapped my path back to share it with anyone who is having a hard time findin it. This is a very scenic path, going through some of the most interesting scenery in the game.
Before you go: You will need your Cyclops and Prawn Suit upgraded to max dive depth. Also, I highly suggest having a thermal recharger and a medpack dispensor on board your Cyclops, because the lava larva will constantly attach to your cyclops and drain your power, so you have to go outside into the boiling water and scrape them off.
You can make it into the lava castle with just the standard Prawn jump jets, but I recommend either the grapple arm or upgraded jump jets to make life easier.

(Note: In case you don't know, hit F1 to get your coordinates.)

Start at -554, -493, 1271. This is a good ways NNW of the starting position. Just go to that coordinate on the surface and dive straight down. There is a cave there leading down to a single blood tree at -698, -571, 1067. This is a tight squeeze, but the cyclops can make it.

Past the blood tree, there is a ghost forest cave. This is kind of hard to navigate the cyclops through, so you will have to weave in and out among the trees. You want to get to -699, -642, 570. There is a cave there directly underneath some hanging moss. You will go almost straight down through this cave.

Travel to -676, -807, 347. This is the entrance to a large chamber holding a huge egg tree. (Not sure of what it is really called, but it looks like a big egg to me.) Take screen shots for your friends back home. Travel through this cave to the other side. There is a cave leading almost straight down under a blue waterfall (-1293, -911, 421).

You should now be in the lava zone. (Inactive? Active? Who knows). Just follow the cave on a somewhat straight path to the lava castle. The actual entrance is at -60, -1190, -23. It's a small cave on the side near the top, with alien columns on both sides. The easiest way to find it is to look for a small lava flow coming out of it.

You can take your prawn suit into the cave and just follow the path to the large chamber where the power plant is. Use your prawn's thrusters to jump onto the big cables coming out of the side. You should see the entrance (a large port with a energy field) on the side near the top. You will need 2 purple artifacts to get to everything in the base.

I hope this helps someone. I apologize if anything is incorrect or unclear. As I said, I wrote this in reverse order. Also, I am pretty sure I came in a different way to get to the giant egg tree chamber. I know there are multiple paths.

Also, as a side note: Beneath the castle there is a huge open chambger with a large lava lake with small alien structures on top. There is also a giant ash(?) pit near there that is too deep for the cyclops. I explored it with the prawn, but I could not find anything there.

[Edit: Changed power cell charger to thermal charger. Power cell chargers are no longer feasible in a cyclops, but a thermal charger will keep your power cells charged in the lava area.]

[Blackout]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=852072662
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/subnautica/images/a/ac/ILZ_Map_with_background_small.png/revision/latest?cb=20170117011902

[Levanator]

You can also use 'goto lavacastlebase'

[D Blu J]

I got there through the deep cave just in front of the Aurora. Just strolled on in with nothing but my grapple/propulsion PRAWN and a pocket full of miscellenious supplies.

[Modi]

Originally posted by Twiggles:

I got there through the deep cave just in front of the Aurora. Just strolled on in with nothing but my grapple/propulsion PRAWN and a pocket full of miscellenious supplies.

That lava tube is large enough to run the cyclops through as well. Though it's hard to see even with the external lights on.

[Pete1burn]

Thank you!

[Evil You]

It's a bit of a difficult and confusing journey, but these instructions probably saved me a couple hours.

[Shawn of the Dead]

Update: There is another cave to the north of the starting position that is much easier to get your cyclops in. It's at the end of a long valley with the coosh balls around it. You can go straight in the cave in the side of the cliff and go to the lost river. I don't have coordinates, though. Sorry.
(There are several entrances to the lost river. Any of them will work. Some are easier to get in than others.)

[NitroZark]

Personally I stopped getting (too) lost once I saw the 3d map from the scanner room.
- center is near the giant tree cove
- top left is lost river entrance near lifepod 2 in grand reef.
I never had problem fitting the cyclops there. In my last play, I placed the beacon to mark the entrance at -612 -505 1242
- bottom left is the way to lava castle

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1143350293

[GameReaper]

Just make your life easier and go to the gun thingy, there is a portal near the bottom which you can easly activate with an ion crystal XD

[GamingWithSilvertail]

Originally posted by Game Reaper:

Just make your life easier and go to the gun thingy, there is a portal near the bottom which you can easly activate with an ion crystal XD

Etxept... you cant get there directly that way unless you have been at the main facility..... -.-

[Domino/DarkEyv]

I realize this thread is a year old, but thank you so much for this. I'm all for the whole "maps and wikis ruin the experience, it's an exploration game, hurrdurrdurr" spiel, but if I have to wander around for 4 hours getting frustrated and jumpscared constantly in an attempt to find some obscure tunnel, that's where I draw the line and where I think mapping this out is justified.

[viivo]

==

[Grim]

Easiest way honestly is to just keep going down. You can't miss the lava castle with the dragon hanging out on top.

The paths from the deep grand reef (very close to final degasi base which we get a signal for) and the west blood kelp biome meet up at the giant skeleton (the biggest one that the leviathan likes to hang out at). You go down from there (there's only one way). The sea dragon skeleton marks where the research facility is. Right past the skeleton is the ghost tree that has an alternate way up to the northern blood kelp biome. From the tree you head down into the Inactive Lava Zone. From there you literally follow the lava right up to the lava castle and go inside.

That is, of course, after fighting through a swarm of warpers and a dragon. No problem.

[Ribbit]

Making this into a guide with some screenshots would be a great idea

[Stelar Seven]

Just to amend this a bit. The southern Blood kelp, close to the floating island, is a near perfect straight shot down to the lost river, which gets you to the cove tree room absurdly faster than the northern kelp and the tunnel by the Aurora.