Dealing with Lava Larve

[droidling]

Is the Lava Larve supposed to make the Cyclops useless in the lava zone?

I just made a run from the Moutain Island to the entrance to the Inactive Lava Zone near the front of the Arorra and down to the Lava Castel. By the time I got to the castel, my Cyclosp was so covered with LL's that I had run through half my power cells. I got out to clear them off . I tried to use a replusion gun, a stasis gun and a knife. The problem was that by the time I cleared the second side of the sub the other side would be coverd again. I finally had to beat it back to my base at the Giant Cove Tree. I stoped 2 more times as I got into the narrower passage near the tree to clear larve. Arrived at the base with less than 100 power units in the last powere cell on the Cyclops. I started charging cells, and found that I still had 5 of the little critters athat had hitched a ride back with me. I'd pick them off and they would just reattach themselves.

How am I supposed to deal with these things?

[Ac3s]

If your in the Lava zones you need to keep moving, as long as your sub is moving the larve cannot attach themselves to it.
And if you stop moving some of them will latch on, it is then your job to get them off and the best way to do that is to kill them.
I always go in with my knife and keep following them to kill them, if you don't actually kill them they will just run away only to come back a minute later, which is why I never use anything else but the knife and kill them.

So you need to regularly check your sub and get all the larva off from it, not doing this and waiting too long will make more and more of the larva stick on it, which of course will drain your power even faster.

To be honest, I like these larva, its one of the only things ingame that is a threat to the Cyclops and keeps the player on its toes.

(I also always turn off my lights inside and outside of my Cyclops when I'm inside the lava zones, I'm not sure if it helps with the larva but less light should equal to less attraction from them, which is why I do it.)

[SealieP]

You can remove the power cells from your vehicles to quickly remove the little buggers. Let them swim off and then keep going. Or if you need to park somewhere for awhile, then take out the power cells (or leave one low one in) and then go off and not have to worry. There are a lot of ways to deal with it. Repulsion cannon is my personal favorite though.

[Ac3s]

Hmm, seems SealieP's advice is even better.
Thanks, gotta try that for myself next time too!

[droidling]

OK I'll give it a try. If I build a small base then I suppose taking the powere cells out won't be such a big deal.

Thank you .

[vindicar]

When I need to navigate the lava zone, I use PRAWN with thermal reactor. You can drill some Kianite next to the entrance, fall back, craft the upgrade, and then explore it as long as your water reserves will allow.
Arms wise I recommend using grapple and propulsion. Leeches are small enough to be grabbed, and you can launch them into lava streams or just far away from you as soon as they enter grabbing range.
Bringing the Cyclops in is not the best idea specifically because of the leeches. Just plop down a couple of beacons (one at the entrance to the tree cove, one at the entrance to the lava castle), and you will be fine.

[droidling]

I basically followed Ac3s advice. Taking the Power Cells out worked, but it seemed like as soon as I put them back in I would get 3 or 4 of the little buggers comming at me. They don't seem to wander far. It also irritated me when I forgot the Cyclops had no air and suffocated. I built a base net to the Castle with 7 thermal plants and 3 cell chargers, figuring I'd just keep a spare set of cells on charge all the time. I was making trips back and fort to the sub clrearing the larve off each time using a knife. By the time I got through there weren't any more Larve in the vacinity. now it seems I just have to make a point of actually killing the ones I clear off after making a run somewhere.

Thanks for the help!

[Bort]

I like the Lava Larvae. They add a bit of tension to piloting the Cyclops which it is missing for a lot of the rest of the game. When I first saw them, I assumed they were a lava zone equivalent to the Biters, so I mostly ignored them, parked up my Cyclops, and went for a bit of a run.

After a while, I got one stuck on the windscreen of my PRAWN suit, and eventually realised it was draining power. Propulsion cannon dealt with that one, but by the time I got back to my Cyclops, it had about twenty of the buggers attached.

That was a fun trip. I left my base in the tree cove with a full complement of cells, got into the lava zone, bummed around there for ten minutes before parking up and switching to my PRAWN suit, and yet by the time I got home, my final power cell was on less than 50% charge. I was so relieved when I saw my base come into view and realised that, if I had to, I could swim that far, instead of suffocating in a powerless cyclops, or drowning trying to swim to safety.

[droidling]

I think I understand. When I started playing I was on survival, then tried freedom mode. It was really pretty boring. Without the threat of dehydration and starvation it was all too easy. I went back to survival and found some tricks to catching fish that made it pretty simple. After that it just got tedious. Collecting fish, coral, salt, to stockpile enough curred fish and water to do a little exploring. By the time I fouund the water filter, and alien containment fragments to make food and water a setup and forget function in my bases I had other challenges to keep things interesting. I was just worried that picking Lava Larva off the Cyclops was going to become really tedious. It turned out not to be that big a deal once I got some help with the proper stratagy.

A lot of this game is about learning to cope with new environments. Without challanges it wouldn't be such a great game.

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by Ac3s:

best way to do that is to kill them.

Best way is to use the propulsion gun. It removes them in a second and no matter where you shoot them they will move forever until they hit something and dies... It makes it fun to clean the cyclops.

BTW not even sure what OP talks about. I went down to the lavazone with the cyclops the long way through the whole lost river from the grandreef and down. Had no issues with power even tho I brought 2 backup powercells with me. they where never used. I had two times where I needed to clean the cyclops for worms. I even entered the castle with one worm attached to the cyclops? After easily removing them with the propulsiongun I where able to nicely leave the lavazone the same way I came in. Had one whole powercell left when I came back to my base.

Now I got 3 ion batteries in it = 3000 power so I wont have much problems again even with lava worms... I'm going to make enough ion batteries for all the vehicles. or atleast the cyclops and the exosuit.

[droidling]

Zefnoly: I hadn't built a propulsion gun yet when this happend. It was my first trip into the ILZ. I was moving pretty slow since I had no idea what to expect. I was having problems hitting the Larve with a knife, and the repulsion gun worked but it just tossed them away. They came right back. It was just very frustrating.

[Zefnoly]

Originally posted by droidling:

Zefnoly: I hadn't built a propulsion gun yet when this happend. It was my first trip into the ILZ. I was moving pretty slow since I had no idea what to expect. I was having problems hitting the Larve with a knife, and the repulsion gun worked but it just tossed them away. They came right back. It was just very frustrating.

how couldn't you have that yet lol? it was one of the first things I built. Got it far before I made the cyclops, prawn or the big base I have now. It is a must. And you need it a little bit when visiting aurora. just my advice. make it as fast as possible in your next game. it is also usefull for cathing fish. and dealing with certain irritating species. especially those crabs on the islands...

[Forge]

Quick tip: when you are leaving your submarine and (if you are) leaving your PRAWN, pull the power cells out, nothing to suck? whey don't bother sticking..

[Dee]

Originally posted by SealieP:

You can remove the power cells from your vehicles to quickly remove the little buggers. Let them swim off and then keep going. Or if you need to park somewhere for awhile, then take out the power cells (or leave one low one in) and then go off and not have to worry. There are a lot of ways to deal with it. Repulsion cannon is my personal favorite though.

so much this!

[Warc1]

If you go to the lava zones for the first time in a Cyclops, go with a fabricator installed in the sub and stored materials to build the Cyclops Thermal Reactor Module. You won't have one ingredient, Kayanite, since that is only found in the lava zones. As soon as you enter the lava zones, look for the blue Kayanite crystals and grab them to build the module. They're pretty obvious as blue florescent crystals in the lifeless black and red surroundings.

With the module installed, you don't ever have to worry about lava larva again. The lava zones that are their home are all hot enough power the reactor at all times. You can have 20 of the larva leaching off of your Cyclops and the reactor will still generate enough power to keep you at 100%. When you leave the lava zone and return to waters at normal temps, remove the batteries as described above to detach the larva before moving on.

[1ostcat]

I've never bothered taking the Cyclops into the lava zones, so I've never had to deal with them, except on my PRAWN suit.