How do I deal with Lava Larvae sucking all my energy?

Question

After months of exploration and crafting, I've finally got a deep sea base in the Tree Grove of the Lost River. I brought my upgraded Cyclops and PRAWN suit down and I'm now prepping for an excursion into the Inactive Lava Zone.

I managed to get pretty far - I even saw a Sea Dragon Leviathan while scouting. However, I find that progressing any further is starting to get very risky due to the overwhelming number of Lava Larvae that attach themselves to my vehicles. Once attached, the larvae start sucking energy from my Cyclops/PRAWN suit power cells, and the amount of energy that I lose grows exponentially with increased larvae. This means travelling in Sea Dragon territory is even more dangerous than normal because it's quite likely I will run out of energy while trying to escape from a Leviathan.

I know there are a couple ways to deal with them - I can exit the vehicle and scare the larvae off by slicing them with a knife or propelling them with the Propulsion cannon. However, I don't like this idea much because it involves my naked meat-sack of a body being exposed to the very sharp teeth of Lava Lizards or the Leviathans (not to mention the underwater fireballs). I've also tried to get Lava Lizards to eat the Larvae off my vehicles, but that usually ends up with me getting attacked as well. And finally, using the Cyclops shield works well, but also uses a lot of energy itself, plus it has a lengthy cooldown during which the larvae just reattach themselves.

Do I have any other options to deal with Lava Larvae? Or do I just need to bring along a bunch of extra power cells?

Answer 1

One trick listed on the Wiki page for these creatures is to remove all power cells from the vehicle. They will detach from the hull after doing so, since there is no more energy for them to drain.

If the vehicle's energy is turned off by removing all Power Cells, or the Power Cells are depleted, they will detach.

This is a bit of a hassle, since it will require you to get out of your vehicle (excluding the Cyclops). Once you get even deeper into the lava zone, the temperature of the water will be too much for you to stand, and will begin to damage you if you don't have the proper gear. The damage is slow, but it's something to keep in mind. The Wiki page also states freezing them with your stasis rifle works. This might be an easier solution since the rifle allows for some long-range removals.

As far as any other removal tactics, you seem to already know them. Besides trying the power cell trick, there isn't much more to do. One or two larva won't drain power very much, but once enough attach, the power drain becomes fairly fast.

Answer 2

There are several things that have changed since I originally asked this question, and I've found some additional techniques that help manage these annoying energy leeches.

It is true that the shield generator uses up a lot of energy, but it is the most effective way to get the leeches off overall. From what I can tell, it costs about 20 energy for a single "pulse" (turning it quickly on and off again), which is about 1.6% of of the total power available if you're using power cells, or 0.33% if you're using all ion cells. If you have a bunch of larvae attached, sometimes it's better to just shock them off than to let them keep draining your battery.

Another effective way to avoid having the larvae attach themselves is surprisingly mundane - just drive faster than they can swim. As long as you keep moving forward, even at the lowest speed, the larvae can't keep up and they'll be prevented from attaching to your sub. Of course, this strategy loses some viability once you get to the inner dome where the Sea Dragons lives (I tend to move veeery slowly in their presence), but at least I don't drain all my batteries getting to them in the first place.

Answer 3

Once you get the Thermal Recharge mod for the Cyclops, the recharge rate in the ILZ and Lava Lakes is faster than a skin full of Lava Larvae can drain. The only thing I have noticed is that if you have 7 or more attached, you cannot start the engines, but you can pulse the shield to get rid of them and then start the engines. Frankly, once you have the Thermal Recharge mod you can ignore them as they also drop off as soon as you exit the ILZ back to the Lost River.

If you get one on the PRAWN the only answer is a knife. Use the plain survival knife to kill them, as they don't take damage from the Thermal Blade and will come back to suck your PRAWN and annoy you a minute later.