Volcanea asteroid guide: magma, heat and example seeds

• Heat on tap. Magma pockets and volcanoes are the input for a Steam Turbine setup that produces power while the cooled magma turns into Igneous Rock.
• The start is the forgiving sandstone biome with algae, dirt and Mealwood, so the first 20 cycles play like Terra.
• Five or more oil fields: Crude Oil, natural gas and the petroleum chain are all within reach.
• Gold Amalgam reached 1,600 to 1,800 tonnes on two of the three sample seeds.

• Magma pockets sit close to the start. Opening one releases magma at about 1,700 ºC that overheats nearby buildings and melts tiles made from rock with a low melting point.
• Heat rises through the whole map over time. Without a cooling plan, the base warms faster than on Terra.
• Obsidian, granite and igneous rock make up most of the solids, so digging is slower than through Terra's sandstone.

1. Cycle 1: Research Station, Outhouse, Oxygen Diffuser. Before digging, hover over every red pocket near the start to see whether it is magma.
2. Cycle 1 to 5: Microbe Musher and a Mealwood farm. Keep one row of natural rock between every room and any magma pocket you find.
3. Cycle 5 to 20: the nearest water source on your seed, then an Electrolyzer.
4. Cycle 20 to 40: research insulation and build Insulated Tile walls between the base and the hot side of the map.
5. Cycle 40 onward: a Steam Turbine room over the nearest magma pocket or volcano, cooled by a water loop.

Magma heats everything around it, scalds Duplicants who walk through it and cools into hot igneous rock that keeps radiating heat. If a pocket breaks open, close the corridor with tiles at once and let the area cool behind them; never send Duplicants to dig through hot rock without a reason.

Heat management starts earlier than on Terra. Keep the base in the coolest band you can find, usually beside a tundra or ocean, and treat every volcano as a power plant to build later, not an obstacle to remove.

Metal Rich, Trapped Oil, Mixed Boulders and Magma Channels: the hottest roll of the three, with about 16,000 tonnes of magma. Magma Channels brings it into the crust, so check every pocket.

The start is generous otherwise. A Salt Water Geyser sits 47 cells to the right at (175, 184), two Cool Steam Vent vents sit within 70 cells, and a Natural Gas Geyser 57 cells down covers early power. The Carbon Dioxide Geyser only 30 cells away is harmless and a useful cold source.

The Volcano at (174, 99) is the long-term power plant of this seed.

Large Boulders, Subsurface Ocean, Alternate Pod Location and Metal Rich. The pod sits on the left at (42, 226). The only vent within 60 cells is a Chlorine Gas Vent, so water comes from the Subsurface Ocean's salt water and the Salt Water Geyser 80 cells above.

This is a slower start: plan a Desalinator early and keep the chlorine vent sealed until you can use or remove the gas.

Geodes, Metal Rich, Slime Molds and Frozen Core. Frozen Core cuts the magma to about 7,500 tonnes and adds about 5,000 tonnes of ice, the mildest Volcanea of the three.

A Volcano sits only 51 cells away at (94, 227), next to a Cool Slush Geyser at (79, 209). The cold slush and the volcano side by side make a natural steam turbine site once the colony can build one.

Two Gold Volcano rolls and a Iron Volcano within 111 cells cover metal for the whole game.

The Spaced Out! Volcanea Cluster is rated Moderate as well. Its teleporter target is the Radioactive Swamp Asteroid, which gives the cooler slime and swamp biomes and radiation research. Read the Radioactive Swamp Asteroid guide before the first teleport.

Volcanea is an energy world. Once the base is insulated and fed, tame one volcano with a Steam Turbine, route the turbine's own heat into a water loop, and the power problem disappears. The oil fields then give plastics and petroleum, and the metal volcanoes on Metal Rich seeds supply refined metal without long mining trips.