still cant find the lava zone!

[Switucki The Furry]

i still cant find the lava zone i still look everyware and i am looking to find the tree too.i still need help with this

[or0b0ur0s]

If you keep going down at every opportunity (and whichever direction the caves go, left, right, etc., as long as you're going deeper), you'll find that

The Deep Grand Reef leads to the Lost River

The Deep Blood Kelp (1, between Sparse Reef and Dunes) leads to the Lost River

The Lost River flows past the Boneyard and the Tree Cove into a connecting cavern that opens onto the Inactive Lava Zone.

The Giant Hole in the northern Dunes leads directly to the Inactive Lava Zone, but is guarded by a Reaper Leviathan directly above it.

The Deep Trench / Hole off the Aurora's bow leads to one of the Lava Zones (never used it, too many Reapers guarding it)

Both the latter ones are supposed to be big enough for a Cyclops. I only ever got mine through the Dunes one, and even then I felt "stuck" as soon as I recognized I had found the "red" fog of a Lava zone. Even getting out and swimming around, I could not find (in the dark and fog) the way out, so I reverted the save. It also took FOREVER (like 2 real-world evenings) to find the Dunes hole, even with coordinates, because the Dunes is so pitch black, all day long, which I find ridiculous for a biome exposed to the surface. Yes, I know the real ocean is like that, but this is a game...

I scouted the Deep Blood Kelp (1) zone and left a trail of beacons to the Lost River entrance (which is big enough for a Cyclops)... but even following them the Cyclops just kept getting stuck over and over. before I got anywhere remotely near it It's just not possible to find one's way in absolute blackness with the totally worthless Cyclops lights and without any kind of sonar..

I guess when the game goes live if I want to finish it I'll literally have to take my Seamoth along and inch my way forward with sonar, using the Seamoth as a mobile beacon and hope its batteries don't run dry since you'll need to carry your PRAWN for when you get down there. I don't see any other way you can navigate those caves in the dark, especially with something as bulky and hard to steer as the Cyclops.

[U.T. Raptor]

Go to that deep area at the front of the Aurora, and follow the seabed down until you find it.

[KromeHWI]

the grand reef leads to both the lost river and the active lava zone.

if you go to the abandoned base there and go down and to the north(ish) you hit the lost river bone yard with the giant skelleton. this leads to both bloodkelp zonea, coming into the closer one almost directly below the wreck there. it also leads to the huge tree thing they just added.

similarly, if you start at the deep reef base and head down and east(ish) you hit the lava zone. this lead all the way to the castle and dragons as well as to the pit in front of the aurora (this is actually how i found that it was connecrted to the grand reef in the first place. i started at the aurora and just kept going to see where/if it came up again).

[Numbed Nightmare Squid]

Deep Grand Reef is a sureshot way towards the Lost River and by extension, lava zones. Blood Kelp 2 is also a way in. Try and get around to 600m below surface in either of those, and look for green haze. Those are your best shots. You can take the Cyclops, but only if you can drive it well. The Seamoth won't make it far past the Lost River, because its max depth is 900m, even with a Pressure Compensator MK3. The PRAWN Suit will be necessary down here. If you're bringing your Cyclops, make sure to dock it in there.

Also, watch out for Crabsquids. They can now deploy an EMP charge that shuts down your vehicles and electronics for a few seconds. And you'll find Crabsquids a-plenty in both entrances to Lost River that I mentioned.

[Alpha393]

You can actually muscle your way down the blood kelp zone entrance in a cyclops.

[KromeHWI]

getting my cyclops down to the grand reef base (close to where i made my 2nd, deeper base) was a bit of a pain in the butt, but once there, and once i had a base established down below 500 meters, its a simple thing to explore the deep parts with the prawn. hook up the thermal upgrade and you dont have to worry about power at all, and with the grapple arm and jumpjet boost it's fun as hell swinging around through the caves like tarzan! i tend to hug the ceiling and swing from point to point without ever touching the ground at all unless i want to! (it's actually much fater than walking)

there is also a huge, very dark, completely empty cavern down there off to the side of the lost river (by the big tree) that will assumedly be turned into something interesting eventually. but for the moment, be careful about entering, i almost got lost in the pitch black (your lights do next to nothing), and it took me a loooong time to find my way back to the lost river!