Why even try to bring Cyclops into deep dive?

[fishhooks]

I played my first game using guides and you tube vids about dragging cyclops into the lava fields. Major pain in the azz. Second time, I did it all with Prawn suit (at the right location). Drop down, get nickel and crystaline sulfur...upgrade....drop down again and get kylanite....upgrade...drop down and get to all facilities. F the cyclops (other than a roaming crafting base).

[Suzaku]

It's a mobile base that can do nearly everything your own full base can do. Why wouldn't you use it?

[Arondil]

The cyclops is useful (yesterday I used it to move a base about 600m) but for me that's where it ends. I still find it too slow and cumbersome to be an enjoyable experience.

[Husker_85]

The cyclops has a couple other advantages that aren't immediately obvious. Unlike any of the other vehicles, the cyclops is invisible to predators while it's powered down. Combined with the shield it's WAY safer to take to dangerous places than the other vehicles. It also charges your smaller vehicles so you can use them more comfortably in dangerous areas.

[Amanoob105]

Along with the above.

Warpers can't do anything to you while inside of it.
Huge storage potential should you want to carry all you need fore a new base somewhere.
Huge storage potential anyway.
As OP noted, you can use it for mobile crafting.
You can place pots in it to grow plants for never ending food/water.
The shield doubles up as a bug zapper for the lava larva.
Sonar is always useful.
With the right module you can have it auto-repair any docked vehicle.
Prawn transport.
Warpers can't do jack to you while inside of it. Ever. Even as you ram them in the face, which I recommend as it can be very cathartic.

[Dirak2012]

You can build almost everything inside it, even a bed and grow food inside it. You put a fabricator and a mod station inside, and you can craft pretty much everything.
Personally, I prefer feeling safe than being fast.

[fishhooks]

I agree with everything all you folks said, and I DO use it extensively as a mobile base and for hauling all materials required to build additional bases in one shot. I just think it's a frustrating (and unnecessary) endeavor to try to use it for the late-stage deep dives into the lava fields.

This last play-thru, I only used the Prawn Suit to traverse the Lost River to Research Facility, then to the Giant Cove Tree cave, and from there, a simple drop into the lava fields for the Thermal Plant and Sea Emperor facility. True, I had to deal with Warpers and the Sea Dragon, but a fully charged Stasis Rifle and Repair Tool makes that fairly easy. And it was a lot simpler than the first time I went there with the Cyclops, and I had to constantly fend off attacks from the Ghost Leviathan and Sea Dragon, plus keeping the damn Lava Larvae off my hull. And STILL had to use the Prawn Suit for a lot of it anyway.

SO...why bother banging the Cyclops down that tight, confusing entrance to the Lava Fields, when I can do the whole thing with just the Prawn Suit? Just a personal observation...if I do another run, I won't waste time dragging the Cyclops down there...I think I'll just build a single-room base in the Giant Cove Tree cave and run my Prawn Suit from there.

[Dirak2012]

Originally posted by fishhooks:

I agree with everything all you folks said, and I DO use it extensively as a mobile base and for hauling all materials required to build additional bases in one shot. I just think it's a frustrating (and unnecessary) endeavor to try to use it for the late-stage deep dives into the lava fields.

This last play-thru, I only used the Prawn Suit to traverse the Lost River to Research Facility, then to the Giant Cove Tree cave, and from there, a simple drop into the lava fields for the Thermal Plant and Sea Emperor facility. True, I had to deal with Warpers and the Sea Dragon, but a fully charged Stasis Rifle and Repair Tool makes that fairly easy. And it was a lot simpler than the first time I went there with the Cyclops, and I had to constantly fend off attacks from the Ghost Leviathan and Sea Dragon, plus keeping the damn Lava Larvae off my hull. And STILL had to use the Prawn Suit for a lot of it anyway.

SO...why bother banging the Cyclops down that tight, confusing entrance to the Lava Fields, when I can do the whole thing with just the Prawn Suit? Just a personal observation...if I do another run, I won't waste time dragging the Cyclops down there...I think I'll just build a single-room base in the Giant Cove Tree cave and run my Prawn Suit from there.

The ghosts, I just kill them both before I enter the lost river.
The dragon doesn't attack you if you stick to the floor.
The path is not confusing because I drop beacons at all the junctions.
The shield kills all the leeches.

If you go with only the prawn you have to worry about food, water, energy and mats to build whatever you need. With the cyclops you can craft whatever you need to finish your business in the lava zone in one go and never return.

[miklkit]

The cyclops is a prawn carrier and cargo hauler. I use it to haul the prawn into the red zone and build a base down there and, that's it.

[Agarillobob]

I never used the cyclops, prawn is faster and I never felt the need to build it

on my third playthrough my main base was on the ghost egg leviathan tree area and before that I only had to go down and back up like 2 or 3 times

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by fishhooks:

I agree with everything all you folks said, and I DO use it extensively as a mobile base and for hauling all materials required to build additional bases in one shot. I just think it's a frustrating (and unnecessary) endeavor to try to use it for the late-stage deep dives into the lava fields.

This last play-thru, I only used the Prawn Suit to traverse the Lost River to Research Facility, then to the Giant Cove Tree cave, and from there, a simple drop into the lava fields for the Thermal Plant and Sea Emperor facility. True, I had to deal with Warpers and the Sea Dragon, but a fully charged Stasis Rifle and Repair Tool makes that fairly easy. And it was a lot simpler than the first time I went there with the Cyclops, and I had to constantly fend off attacks from the Ghost Leviathan and Sea Dragon, plus keeping the damn Lava Larvae off my hull. And STILL had to use the Prawn Suit for a lot of it anyway.

SO...why bother banging the Cyclops down that tight, confusing entrance to the Lava Fields, when I can do the whole thing with just the Prawn Suit? Just a personal observation...if I do another run, I won't waste time dragging the Cyclops down there...I think I'll just build a single-room base in the Giant Cove Tree cave and run my Prawn Suit from there.

As mentioned above in both my earlier comment and another one after that, the shield acts as a bug zapper to the lava larva. Just turning it on and off again is enough and you get rid of them while loosing less power than they would have drained if you went out there to get them off yourself.
It also harms them so the swim off, but if they comes back two zaps is normally enough to just kill them off.
They won't be missed.

To the rest of the problems you have with it. Eh, I just kept taking it down there with each play of the game to the point I forget that it can be harder at times when you're not used to it.
So I don't have anything useful there.

[fishhooks]

All good points, and I don't disagree with any of them. It's not that I don't like the Cyclops...quite the contrary...I absolutely LOVE it, and use it extensively. I'm just saying that, for the deep dives into the Lava Fields, I've done it both ways, and for me, using the Prawn Suit was a lot simpler than taking the Cyclops down there. Another reason I found that to be the case...once I got to the Sea Emperor facility, using one of those gates is almost guaranteed to put me near one of my bases. So I don't have to back-track from the facility, retrieve my Cyclops, then navigate the return trip to get it out of there. Just get to the facility, drill up a load of ion cubes, then teleport out of there for a quick journey to a nearby base.

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

I never used the cyclops, prawn is faster and I never felt the need to build it

on my third playthrough my main base was on the ghost egg leviathan tree area and before that I only had to go down and back up like 2 or 3 times

Now that's what I'm talking about. I never built a base at that location (it's the Giant Cove Tree area, btw), but I always thought I should. Even a one-room station just for recharging and stocking up on food and water. Next time.

[Dirak2012]

I don't understand what you mean by backtracking.
Once your reach the alien facility, you gather the ingredients through the portals, go to the cyclops parked in the crater in the lava zone, craft the enzyme, get the cure, go through the portal, deactivate the weapon, return through the portal to retrieve the cyclops, build the rocket, and finish the game.
No backtracking needed.

[fishhooks]

Originally posted by Dirak2012:

I don't understand what you mean by backtracking.
Once your reach the alien facility, you gather the ingredients through the portals, go to the cyclops parked in the crater in the lava zone, craft the enzyme, get the cure, go through the portal, deactivate the weapon, return through the portal to retrieve the cyclops, build the rocket, and finish the game.
No backtracking needed.

You can't drive the Cyclops all the way to the Sea Emperor facility (at least, I wasn't able to get it there...maybe I just didn't find the route). So what I mean by backtracking is, I went as far as I could in the Cyclops, then jumped into the Prawn, continued to the facility, and when I had done all the stuff you mention, I still had to return to the facility and get back to the Cyclops, then navigate my way back out.

All I'm saying is, for me, trying to get the Cyclops all the way thru the Lava Fields was way more difficult than simply using the Prawn for the whole trip. Plus it was actually more fun...having to fight my thru a couple of sections and keeping my Prawn repaired was a lot less frustrating than banging into cave walls and fixing leaks after Dragon attacks.

[Husker_85]

Originally posted by fishhooks:

You can't drive the Cyclops all the way to the Sea Emperor facility (at least, I wasn't able to get it there...maybe I just didn't find the route). So what I mean by backtracking is, I went as far as I could in the Cyclops, then jumped into the Prawn, continued to the facility, and when I had done all the stuff you mention, I still had to return to the facility and get back to the Cyclops, then navigate my way back out.

All I'm saying is, for me, trying to get the Cyclops all the way thru the Lava Fields was way more difficult than simply using the Prawn for the whole trip. Plus it was actually more fun...having to fight my thru a couple of sections and keeping my Prawn repaired was a lot less frustrating than banging into cave walls and fixing leaks after Dragon attacks.

Ah, yeah there's a route where the cyclops fits pretty handily. And if you have the thermal upgrade then you can pretty much just fly past the sea dragon using Silent Running since the entire zone is hot enough to give you a bit of charge.

[Cougarific]

Originally posted by fishhooks:

Second time...

Yes I'm sure we all did things slightly differently (hopefully *better*) in subsequent playthroughs.

IMHO having the Cyclops with you in the deep zones is still the best way for a beginner to explore those parts of the map.