Help! I Can't Find The Active Lava Zone!

[The G.O.A.T.]

I have been trying for a few days to find the active lava zone but for some reason it eludes me. My capsule is in the shallows next to some wreckage that rises above the water. Can anybody help me pinpoint EXACTLY where the EASIEST TO FIND ENTRANCE is?

[Syndicake ☠]

The only entrance I know is in the deep grand reef and it took me some time to find it. I recommend taking some beacons with you.

[djknockturn]

You can reach the ALZ, naturally, through the Inactive Lava Zone. You'll need to go deeper, through the Lava Falls, to get to the heart of the ALZ. You'll know you've reached the ALZ when the geography goes from being small pockets of lava to full on lakes of lava. Hope that helps.

[The G.O.A.T.]

Originally posted by djknockturn:

You can reach the ALZ, naturally, through the Inactive Lava Zone. You'll need to go deeper, through the Lava Falls, to get to the heart of the ALZ. You'll know you've reached the ALZ when the geography goes from being small pockets of lava to full on lakes of lava. Hope that helps.

Not really but thanks.

[The G.O.A.T.]

Originally posted by Syndicake:

The only entrance I know is in the deep grand reef and it took me some time to find it. I recommend taking some beacons with you.

Is it ANYWHERE near the huge walkers that drop doodoo as they walk? Or is it closer to the crash site?

[The G.O.A.T.]

Ya know what? Never mind! I just got dropped on my side in the PRAWN and I can't get myself upright. I'm gonna quit this game until it's completely done. Just entriely too frustrating trying to find one single zone (the ACTIVE lava zone) and then on top of it, you get dropped on your side with no way to correct yourself. I feel like a monkey trying to screw a football. Fed up.

[Stelar Seven]

You need to be deep. Go to the blood kelp, keep going down. Eventually you will see green tinted water, you are near the lost river. Through lost river is the inactive zone, pass that to the active zone

There is a direct path in the deep, deep grand reef, but it is hard to find.

There is a big hole in the red grass or sparse reef that will let you bypass the river and enter the inactive zone directly.

It's all tunnels so go preparedness. It is also stinking deep. Too deep for a moth, cyclops will need to be careful, and there is at least 1 hole that will crush a prawn.

[The G.O.A.T.]

Originally posted by Apostate:

You need to be deep. Go to the blood kelp, keep going down. Eventually you will see green tinted water, you are near the lost river. Through lost river is the inactive zone, pass that to the active zone

There is a direct path in the deep, deep grand reef, but it is hard to find.

There is a big hole in the red grass or sparse reef that will let you bypass the river and enter the inactive zone directly.

It's all tunnels so go preparedness. It is also stinking deep. Too deep for a moth, cyclops will need to be careful, and there is at least 1 hole that will crush a prawn.

That is probably the most definitive answer I've received yet. Thanks man! You've given me reason to continue trying! Thank you very much!

[Atlas MK II]

There's another cave directly underneath the front of the Aurora that leads down to the ILZ. If I recall correctly, as you come out there's a pit directly in front of the lava castle which should lead down to the ALZ. Watch out for Lava Larva, they sap your batteries.

[Stelar Seven]

Originally posted by Atlas MK II:

There's another cave directly underneath the front of the Aurora that leads down to the ILZ. If I recall correctly, as you come out there's a pit directly in front of the lava castle which should lead down to the ALZ. Watch out for Lava Larva, they sap your batteries.

This is the one path I have never been able to find.

[barmie]

If the Prawn ever falls over just save the game then load it again

[Team Vladof]

There's 3 ways to get to the lava zone... and all of them are still in development and a PITA to go through (at least, in my opinion).

1) near the front of the Aurora crash site, you'll head down and notice a drop off that keeps going deeper and deeper... and it gets darker and darker. If you keep going down and forward, you'll eventually find out you're in a massive, pitch-black lava tube tunnel. You will need to follow this down and around as it loops back towards the center of the map towards the lava zone. The fact that it is pitch black and the austere lighting from the Cyclops makes navigating this a royal PITA. This route took me like 15 min to truck through one night, and it required me to get out of the Cyclops to look around with the flashlight to determine where to go at times.

2) In the Deep Grand Reef (follow the tail-end of the Aurora down to the area with the blue sphere things)... there is a cave that has tons of blue sphere things and crabsquid. You'll need to wander around in there with the cyclops (again, a tight fit), but eventually you'll see a few lava pools that direct you towards some tunnels... like the ones at the front of the Aurora, these eventually turn into pitch-black lava tubes.. and they are once again a massive nightmare to navigate. I have not tried this route yet... but I think it's shorter then the Aurora's front route (without the massive u-turn)

3) If you wander into the Blood Kelp zone (the place with the white stringy kelp that has the blood-red pustules on it)... head down, down, down and you should eventually come to a cave that starts to lighten up with greenish "water" ... this is the lost river. Follow it past the massive old skeleton (and I think past an odd looking tree thing), and you should end up, once again, in a massively pitch black section that is a royal PITA to navigate. However, it's much shorter then the lava tubes (takes maybe 1 minute to get past it). And then you should be at the lava zone soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The place all of these take you is a massive tunnel network with some volcanic veins and stuff called the Inactive Lava Zone... there's leeches and lava lizards swimming around. You follow them long enough and you'll make it to the lava castle.

You'll notice near the lava castle that there are lava falls going down in cracks in the floor. Following those down takes you to a vast area of lava.. this is the Active Lava Zone.

If you follow that for a bit, you'll find an area that drops off into what looks like another Lost River place... but it's actually just a very massive, empty space. Word has it that the Sea Emperor prison will be there in a future update. But, for now, if you get your PRAWN stuck down there w/o adequate climbing gear (no jump jets or grappling hook), you're sort of screwed.

The irony is that you sort of need the PRAWN jump jet upgrade to really navigage well here, but to get it you need sulphur...and you can only get sulphur from here. So... yeah.

Before heading here, you need to make sure you get the Ultimate Compresion Compensator for the Cyclops built and installed that lets it go to 1500m and the Mk 3 Compression Compensator for the PRAWN that lets it go to 1700m, becuase you'll be maxing out those depths in short order once down there.

Getting OUT of that god-forsaken place is a nightmare. Take some beacons and try to mark the entrance you came in.

I got lost for about an hour trying to find a way out as the walls and cielings kept drawing in poorly from a distance making it hard to tell what dead-ended.

I ended up going in through the Aurora's front area, and found an exit by heading out through the lost river into the blood kelp.

The place is mostly just a tourist trap right now... it's got creatures...but there's really not a whole lot to do or see there.

My recommendation is to wait until they finish the lost river and (hopefully) add more lighting to the two lava tubes that lead there. Because navigating the pitch-black lava tubes is a nightmare!

[Cougarific]

Updated map:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=754210842

[The G.O.A.T.]

Originally posted by Team Vladof:

There's 3 ways to get to the lava zone... and all of them are still in development and a PITA to go through (at least, in my opinion).

1) near the front of the Aurora crash site, you'll head down and notice a drop off that keeps going deeper and deeper... and it gets darker and darker. If you keep going down and forward, you'll eventually find out you're in a massive, pitch-black lava tube tunnel. You will need to follow this down and around as it loops back towards the center of the map towards the lava zone. The fact that it is pitch black and the austere lighting from the Cyclops makes navigating this a royal PITA. This route took me like 15 min to truck through one night, and it required me to get out of the Cyclops to look around with the flashlight to determine where to go at times.

2) In the Deep Grand Reef (follow the tail-end of the Aurora down to the area with the blue sphere things)... there is a cave that has tons of blue sphere things and crabsquid. You'll need to wander around in there with the cyclops (again, a tight fit), but eventually you'll see a few lava pools that direct you towards some tunnels... like the ones at the front of the Aurora, these eventually turn into pitch-black lava tubes.. and they are once again a massive nightmare to navigate. I have not tried this route yet... but I think it's shorter then the Aurora's front route (without the massive u-turn)

3) If you wander into the Blood Kelp zone (the place with the white stringy kelp that has the blood-red pustules on it)... head down, down, down and you should eventually come to a cave that starts to lighten up with greenish "water" ... this is the lost river. Follow it past the massive old skeleton (and I think past an odd looking tree thing), and you should end up, once again, in a massively pitch black section that is a royal PITA to navigate. However, it's much shorter then the lava tubes (takes maybe 1 minute to get past it). And then you should be at the lava zone soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The place all of these take you is a massive tunnel network with some volcanic veins and stuff called the Inactive Lava Zone... there's leeches and lava lizards swimming around. You follow them long enough and you'll make it to the lava castle.

You'll notice near the lava castle that there are lava falls going down in cracks in the floor. Following those down takes you to a vast area of lava.. this is the Active Lava Zone.

If you follow that for a bit, you'll find an area that drops off into what looks like another Lost River place... but it's actually just a very massive, empty space. Word has it that the Sea Emperor prison will be there in a future update. But, for now, if you get your PRAWN stuck down there w/o adequate climbing gear (no jump jets or grappling hook), you're sort of screwed.

The irony is that you sort of need the PRAWN jump jet upgrade to really navigage well here, but to get it you need sulphur...and you can only get sulphur from here. So... yeah.

Before heading here, you need to make sure you get the Ultimate Compresion Compensator for the Cyclops built and installed that lets it go to 1500m and the Mk 3 Compression Compensator for the PRAWN that lets it go to 1700m, becuase you'll be maxing out those depths in short order once down there.

Getting OUT of that god-forsaken place is a nightmare. Take some beacons and try to mark the entrance you came in.

I got lost for about an hour trying to find a way out as the walls and cielings kept drawing in poorly from a distance making it hard to tell what dead-ended.

I ended up going in through the Aurora's front area, and found an exit by heading out through the lost river into the blood kelp.

The place is mostly just a tourist trap right now... it's got creatures...but there's really not a whole lot to do or see there.

My recommendation is to wait until they finish the lost river and (hopefully) add more lighting to the two lava tubes that lead there. Because navigating the pitch-black lava tubes is a nightmare!

Team Vladoff, I can't begin to thank you (and ALL the rest of you) for helping me try to get there. If I can't make it there after all you all have given me (ESPECIALLY you Vladoff) then I'm just mentaly handicapped and might need to find some other form of gaming amusement. That's actually the reason I am trying to get to the ALZ. I want more propulsion for my PRAWN and as you said, I need to get to the lava zone for that sulphur that can make this happen. :/ Once again, THANKS to ALL of you for taking the time to help a fellow Subnautican. Cheers!

[FlamingMonkey]

Team Vladoff, I cannot agree more about this area being a PITA to get to, and even worse to get out of. Especially since 90% of the bloody kaynite crystals clip through the ground. I suggest just skipping this area until you have absolutely nothing else to do, and just use the console to grab kaynite and sulphur.

[Lauleyhn]

The easiest way for me was through lost river with the prawn. Still, i prefer the seamoth whenever possible to use.