Entering the Inactive Lava Zone (Depreciated)

[Depreciated; No longer useful] This guide used to be able to assist you in reaching the Inactive Lava Zone with your Cyclops or P.R.A.W.N. Exosuit. This guide does not use developer commands to assist you in your journey. Updated: 8/21/2017

The Update 8/21/2017

That's all she wrote folks! This guide is no longer usable. The path I outlined and used to follow is no longer there. They covered the hole up that I used to use to get to the ILZ and ALZ. Now the major path to the ILZ is through their new Ghost Leviathan.

Thanks for all the kind words and input. If I get a chance to update the new path I will do so in a different guide - But I think somebody else will probably beat me to that as I don't have the time right now.

Best of luck everybody and enjoy the new PERFORMANCE fixes in this update!

Potential Future Dev Change

Hi There,

I'm glad you've enjoyed this guide so far and I am hoping it's helped many players.

I was looking at some of the new content from the last patch and looking through the Subnautica Wikia.

I came across this note on the one page[subnautica.wikia.com]: "The corridor leading to the Crash Zone will be removed in a future update."

From the screenshot of that corridor listed on the page - It is the corridor this guide leads you to. I don't know what the devs might do in the future but keep in mind that as Subnautica keeps getting developed, this guide may become useless for a brief time.

Should this happen, I will work on updating the guide as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Introduction

There is currently a lack of information about how to reach the Inactive Lava Zone and the Active Lava Zone. It is my hope that this guide will assist you in finding your way.

There is another guide by peremoinen that demonstrates how to reach the Inactive Lava Zone (ILZ) already. However, that guide uses developer commands to help you see in the darkness. This guide will show you how to make your way to the ILZ without the use of any developer commands. You'll have to deal with the oppressive darkness all by yourself. With a bit of help from this guide, you'll make it.

I have also included several annotated videos showing you the path I used to reach the ILZ. They can be found below.

The guide made by peremoinen can be found here.

Preparing

Before you go down to the depths of the Inactive Lava Zone, I suggest doing a few things first:

• Build a compass
  
• Build a Cyclops.
  
• Install the Cyclops Ultra Hull Reinforcement Module.
  
• Build a P.R.A.W.N. Exosuit.
  
• Install Pressure Compensator Mk2 (minimum).
  
• Fix the Aurora Reactor (so you can use the rebreather near the Aurora).
  
• Bring ample supplies of food, drink, and extra power cells.
  
• Bring Nav-Aids (see below).

These suggestions will allow you to safely reach the depths of the ILZ.

You will absolutely need a compass to prevent disorientation. Don't even try to reach the ILZ without one.

Food and drink are basic necessities so you can take your time and ensure you don't die down in the darkness.

Optional Items:

• Flares
  
• Light Stick
  
• Handheld Flash Light
  
• Stillsuit

Navigational Aids

Let's get this out of the way. You're going to attempt to navigate a completely dark tunnel. For most of the trip your visibility will be only about 20-30 feet in front of you. The Cyclops and P.R.A.W.N. lights will not help you much until you're about to hit a wall. Daylight only improves your visibility a little. And to top it all off, if you panic and attempt to ascend directly upwards, you will hit the cavern ceiling and likely disorient yourself; most likely losing your way in the process.

To safely navigate these dark confines, you need a strategy. I have two suggestions to assist you: beacons and bread crumbs.


Beacons:
Beacons provide a HUD marker and constantly ping the player. The downside, however, is they provide no distance measurement between you and their location. And on top of that, they provide no light, just a position in the dark depths. The upside is that they're cheap and quick to make. Plus, you can carry a ton of them and lay out a string of them as far, or as short, as you need.

Beacons cost 2 copper and 1 titanium; they take up 1 inventory slot.

"Bread Crumbs":
Bread Crumbs are something I devised on my own. They are just an exterior grow bed filled with (what I consider to be the most bioluminescent flora in Subnautica) creepvine. While they won't reveal a lot in the darkness, you can use them as a kind of connect-the-dots navigation aid. Once properly placed, you can simply follow the bread crumbs through the cavern's depths all the way to the ILZ. Unfortunately, bread crumbs have a downside. It takes a lot of inventory space to string these out. Be prepared to make many trips back and forth while lighting the path. It also takes a while for them to start providing light.

Bread Crumbs cost 2 titanium and 6 creepvine seed clusters; they take up 26 inventory slots.

I suggest you use at least one of these navigation aids, or preferably both. They will help you the most as you adventure forward.

Also, do not be afraid to turn back if you think your supplies are running low.

What about Spotlights?!

You might be tempted to throw down a few foundations and a spotlight or two – don't.

While these powerful lights can be a boon in the darkness, they have really high power costs. According to the Subnautica wiki[subnautica.wikia.com], spotlights require 0.1 power/second to function.

Simple math:

• Bioreactors produce 1 energy every 12 seconds (no matter what fuel is inserted).
  
• The spotlight will consume 0.1 energy a second.
  
• This gives you a net deficit of -0.2 energy...

This means you need at least 2 bioreactors to power a single spotlight sustainably.

If the power requirements are altered in the future, a string of mini-bases with spotlights could be super useful. But for now, don't bother. It's a waste of resources.

The Descent

This guide assumes you will be attempting to enter the ILZ from the side of the map where the Aurora crash site is located.

I'll be using this map[vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net] provided by the Subnautica Wiki.

This is a subsection of the world map with the approximate coordinates of the ILZ cavern entrance marked. It is is about 480 meters below the bow of the Aurora. There is a Reaper Leviathan that patrols near the front of the ship, so be wary if you are only taking your P.R.A.W.N. Exosuit on the way down. The Reaper Leviathan may grab you if you venture too far to the right.


The easiest way to find this area is to start at the wreckage in the Koosh zone (north of the Aurora) and follow the ridge line south-east until it drops off sharply in front of the Aurora. After you've descended to about 450-480 meters, head North-East until the terrain begins to change like this:


Congratulations. This is the entrance to the ILZ cavern.

Into the Darkness...

Keep in mind that all of the headings/depths provided in this guide are from a P.R.A.W.N. Exosuit; if you're using a Cyclops, altitudes will slightly vary. One warning to remember about the Cyclops, it's very unwieldy in the tight tunnels. Expect to do a lot of maneuvering to get this beast to the ILZ.

This is where you need to decide on what navigation aid you're going to use. You can utilize the daylight hours for some assistance as it will slightly increase visibility in the cavern. However, don't expect it to last long enough to be useful. It is very easy to get disoriented in the darkness. I highly advise against blindly going forward or attempting to “feel” your way to the ILZ. I highly suggest you leave a trail of beacons or bread crumbs as you adventure forward.

1. As you enter the cavern the terrain will often drop off suddenly before jutting back upward. This can be very disorienting. From the entryway of the cavern, head north into the caves. Eventually you'll run into a pillar that divides the passage in two.
   
   
   
2. Take the left fork and continue west until you find the next wall.
   
   
3. From there, follow the wall to the right. You should continue along the wall until you reach a depth of about 600 meters.
   
   
4. Then, turn north and continue forward until you encounter a small, sheer drop (at a depth of about 650 meters).
   
   
5. From there, head north-west until the terrain drops off completely (at a depth of about 685 meters).
   
   
   
6. Take a breath, remember that your Exosuit is used in deep space and can take the pressure. Jump off the sheer drop and descend to a depth of about 800 meters.
   
   
7. Hug the wall to your left and continue to head west.
   
   
8. You'll eventually come to another sheer drop at about 880 meters down. Once again, take a breath and tell yourself it'll be okay. Jump off the sheer drop...
   
   
9. You'll land about 1020-1050 meters down. Music should greet you; it did for me every time I did this. If you want, take a few moments to listen to the sound track. It's pretty good.
   
   
10. Head south-west. The terrain is very uneven here, so it will often times drop and then jut back upward. The left wall should be visible for most of this step.
    
    
11. Eventually you will lose sight of left wall. Keep going south-west in a straight line until you hit another wall. You'll be about 1200 meters down at this point.
    
    
12. Hug the wall on your left and keep following it south-west. The color of the water will become slightly green. This means you're headed the right way.
    
    
13. Eventually the music will kick in – and you're there.

Welcome to the ILZ. This entrance makes a good place for a small base to provide you a refuge from the nearby wildlife. (One of which is the dreaded Sea Dragon Leviathan. To my knowledge, it will not approach this entrance.)

Spoiler Coordinates

Here are some coordinates that I used on my route to the ILZ. I have hidden them with spoiler tags. Mouse over the entries to reveal the coordinates.

I highly suggest you try reaching the ILZ without using any coordinates. It's very rewarding to navigate the darkness by yourself.

Remember: The second number in the coordinates is the depth below the water in meters.

Koosh Zone Wreck:898 -176 614
Cliff to Entrance:932 -203 333
Entrance:1215 -478 286
Marker 1:1201 -531 361
First Fork in Cavern (head left):1166 -563 478
Wall West of Fork:1056 -606 465
Bend Towards First Sheer Drop: 1105 -654 638
First Drop: 1075 -683 701
Bottom of First Drop: 1017 -797 747
Halfway to Second Drop: 892 -852 817
Second Drop: 700 -881 919
Bottom of Second Drop: 634 -1079 962
Second Wall (head right): 439 -1215 815
Water Changes Color: 318 -1234 759
Entrance to ILZ, aka ILZCorridor: 137, -1240, 563

Video Guides

Here are a collection of video guides I made. Please excuse the stutter or random direction changes in some of the videos. These are due to the current state of Subnautica's performance optimizations.

Wreckage to ILZ Cavern Entrance

ILZ Cavern Entrance to ILZ

Entire Trip with Coordinates Displayed and Annotated

ILZ to Cavern Entrance with P.R.A.W.N. Exosuit without Jump Jet Upgrade

Voice of the Deep Update Changes

Long time, no update. There's been a few changes to the route, albeit slight ones.

1 - The route still remains the same. There has been no major adjustments or changes to the terrain geography in what I laid out.

2 - It's brighter! Going through my route in broad daylight seems to now be a lot brighter. For the most part, up until the last drop it now seems to be much brighter. You can now make out most of the surrounding rock formations as you traverse the darkness. While it's not a huge improvement, it should make navigating with any vehicle much easier.

3 - The ILZ entrance has changed a bit right before you enter the zone proper. Warpers now appear just outside this entrance as well as some of the local wildlife and a few resource nodes seem to spawn further out. Primarily, be extra cautious of the Warpers now guarding this entrance. Overall, it seems like the Warper spawns have been increasd significantly.


If I find any more to update you with after the last patch I will add it to this section later. After my first glance at the patch this morning, I don't see any other major changes to my route I've listed above. Best of luck to all - Oh, and remember: Upgrade those map rooms!

Version Info

1.0.0 - Initial Release
1.0.1 - Reformat and spell check (Contributed by Rev)
1.0.2 - Rewording of guide description and added walkthrough tag
1.0.3 - Changed Bread Crumbs section to Navigational Aids and added the Stillsuit to optional items (Contributed by EvilSmoo)
1.0.4 - Added a new video for P.R.A.W.N. Exosuit and navigation (Contributed by chricton).
1.0.5 - Added link and note from the Wiki, which might concern the validity of my information in the near future.
1.0.6 - Added new information/pictures on the Voice of the Deep Update and slight impacts to the route.
1.0.7 - Formatting fix.
1.0.8 - Guide is now depreciated due to the August 21st 2017 update. The path I have outlined is no longer usable.

Thanks!

Thanks for reading! I hope this guide was of some assistance to you.

Best of luck getting past the Sea Dragon Leviathan!

[Surumon]

@IndiKot -- Few media captures that sort of primal fear of the unknown. The Subnatica developers not capitalizing on this area was a shame, but artistic vision and all. I still really love what they made.

The only other game I played that features feelings of dread was Darkwood. I spent an evening holding my gun trained on the door to my room. The door creaked open part way and then stopped. Something was there. I knew it. Sounds echoed in the house outside my room. I was not going to risk my two bullets and life poking my head out of that door. I sat there, waiting until dawn when the noises stopped echoing throughout the house and I could leave.

Darkwood was developed with the intent of inducing dread rather than relying on jump scares. A lot of it has to do with deny you the full information allowing your brain to helplessly fill the gaps with what you think. Which is often times worse. A great game if you want to explore a different take on the horror genre.

[IndiKot]

@Surumon - You are right. I really wanna see newbies explore these routes in fear of the unknown

[Surumon]

@IndiKot -- I am happy you found them useful still. It was a shame they closed them up. The unnerving oppressive darkness was particularly amazing. All they had to do was slap a fitting music track for that area and it would have stood by itself.

[IndiKot]

A whole archive. I were in search of AT LEAST ONE video showing these old corridors, but i've found way more. THANK YOU MAN!

[Captain Tenneal]

The entrance I use is the one on the border of the koosh zone and the mountains. The most you'll run into is a reaper. But, be careful. There is a Juvenile Ghost Leviathan on the inside of the entrance. Silent running can get you past it no problem. If you want to be even more cautious, bring a creature decoy. It beats the hell out of trying to swim past an adult and a juvenile.

[lil neuron]

Oh yes I think they removed it, rip guide

[Surumon]

@leupateu3 - The entrance I used was a long tunnel system just in front of the crashed Aurora. I believe they removed it because of the time constraint with release. It was a huge zone that would have required a lot of artwork and time to complete. Maybe it'll get added in the future, but until then - It was just one really big empty void. I thought it was really cool, but it's not exactly the best for exciting gameplay.

[lil neuron]

okay, now I understand this guide better, since the ghost leviathan update, I also had to start all over again because my save file is corrupted (the surroundings won't load anymore), and that ghost leviathan in the blood kelp zone will make everything harder..., but anyways trough which biome this entrance was? (in your guide, ant btw I'm too lazy to read it again)

[VV-1]

actually its amazing what happened while i was away, i had larvae stick to me, then as i was fleeing, i ran INTO A GHOST LEVIATHAN and didnt have the energy to use fire suppression -_-

[Surumon]

@Aurorial - Those larvae are incredibly strong. I wish we could have something to deter them from attaching on the Cyclops while we were away.