Lava
A hot liquid that refuses ordinary transport. Freeze it, break it into Cinder, move the solid, then reignite it where heat is needed.
Field profile: Lava
The transport loop
Do not try to engineer around Lava's refusal to travel. Change its state instead.
- Apply Snow with the Cryoblaster until the pool becomes Scoria.
- Break the Scoria with a weapon or digging tool.
- Collect the resulting Cinder with belts, launchers, drones or the Grabber.
- Drop Cinder into a sealed heat chamber and ignite it to recreate Lava.
This loop turns a dangerous liquid logistics problem into an ordinary solid-material route.
Heat applications
Water falling onto Lava becomes Steam without reducing the Lava. A shallow pool therefore works as a compact boiler surface. It can also ignite flammable materials that pass close enough to the heat or rising sparks.
Lava touching a Thermal Buffer is different: the buffer slowly consumes the Lava while receiving heat. Keep a visible Cinder reserve beside any production system that depends on this contact.
Filter burners
Lava can be held inside a Filter above a solid block. Configure the Filter for Cinder, fill it, then ignite the Cinder in place. Material passing over the Filter can burn without sharing the same open chamber.
This is useful for Residue and Flower lines because it places the ignition point inside the transport surface. Add a bypass for anything that should not burn and a clearing route for output that changes density.
Failure modes
- Raw Lava does not become belt-compatible because it is shallow or slow.
- One missing corner pixel can drain a storage chamber into lower machinery.
- Thermal Buffers consume their adjacent heat stock over time.
- Igniting Cinder in an unsealed bay can create a permanent hot leak below the factory.