Lava Lakes

The Lava Lakes are a cave biome in Subnautica. At 1300+ meters down, they are the deepest biome on the map. It has the highest ambient temperature of any biome: up to 71°C.

Within the Lava Lakes, the Primary Containment Facility can be found. This particular biome plays a major role in the story of Subnautica.

The Lava Lakes can only be accessed via the Inactive Lava Zone, as well as meaning that only a Prawn Suit equipped with a Prawn Suit Depth Module MK2 and/or a Cyclops with a Cyclops Depth Module MK3 is able to explore it.

It can also be divided into two parts: Lava Lakes and Lava Falls.

Description

The Lava Lakes are much smaller than the Inactive Lava Zone, but feature significantly more volcanic activity. The chamber consists of a huge molten lake, surrounded by falls and masses of magma. The lava falls are a common sight in this biome, along with obsidian pillars and magma formations jutting from the walls and lakes. The increase in activity and volume of lava gives the zone a higher visibility and a brighter orange fog than the Inactive Lava Zone.

The Lava Falls can be found by descending from the Inactive Lava Zone above to the main chamber below. Two large pits/openings act as entrances to the Lava Lakes:

1. One entrance is found south-east from the Lava Castle.
2. The other entrance is located roughly south-west of the lava castle, which can be found in a domed depression in the Inactive Lava Zone, named the Lava Pit.

Typically, a Sea Dragon Leviathan can be found guarding the lava lake. Towards the end of the lake, five Sonic Deterrents can be found attached to obsidian mounds by cables. The purpose of these cubes is to ward off fauna from the nearby alien base, the Primary Containment Facility.

Resources and Fauna

• Crystalline Sulfur
• Kyanite
• Large Kyanite Deposit
• Crimson Ray
• Lava Larva
• Lava Lizard
• Magmarang
• Red Eyeye
• Sea Dragon Leviathan
• Warper

Gallery

The passage from the Inactive Lava Zone to the Lava Lakes

Lava Falls

Another lava fall, in the lava chamber

A small pool of lava

Even more lava

A Sea Dragon Leviathan in the Lava Lakes

Sonic Deterrents in the Lava Lakes

The exterior of the Primary Containment Facility

The top of this specific lava fall is the highest point of the Biome

A system of dark caves on each corner of the Primary Containment Facility

The Lava Pit sub-biome, able to spawn Magnetite and Quartz

Concept Art

Trivia

• The Lava Lakes was originally called the Active Lava Zone.
• The Lava Lakes is one of the only two biomes without Flora, the other being the Crater Edge.
• The Lava Lakes is the deepest cave biome in the game.
• The lava pit within the Lava Lakes appears noticeably different in structure and color to the rest of the biome.
• The Lava Lakes are divided into numerous sub-biomes, namely; Lava Falls, Lava Pit, ALZChamber on the seabed near the Primary Containment Facility, and Lava Lakes, while the Biome ID itself is Lava Zone.
• There is a very sparse amount of Limestone Outcrops, Sandstone Outcrops, Magnetite, and Quartz located in the Lava Lakes. However, getting near these nodes changes the biome ID to the Safe Shallows and Grassy Plateaus, meaning the Surface Biomes overlap with the Lava Lakes; this is very likely an oversight or a bug.