Strategy:Lava element

The Lava element is an item that upon use gives you 9 actions of invulnerability, serving as a source of on-demand invulnerability at any time. First and foremost, this item exists to give players a means to have invulnerability to safely nuke the Spider Mastermind without having to get lucky with an Invulnerability Globe spawning on the penultimate level, thus allowing players a way to guarantee getting a full win in any run, provided they also find a means to set off a nuke (which will likely be the guaranteed Nuclear BFG 9000 from The Mortuary/Limbo). If you're not going for a full win however, its use is much more limited; nine actions of invulnerability at any time, while not a lot, could still be really useful, and be what saves you in a near no-win situation, whether you use those nine free actions to kill the most threatening enemy around, to chain up enough hits to activate Berserker before dying, or to rocket jump way out of there without taking any damage. Problem is you only have one more level after you get it, and you probably also still have a Homing phase by this point, so the chances for the Lava element to actually be what saves your run is extremely unlikely. More useful is that you can use it to get some free turns against the Mastermind. Builds that have unimpressive attacking speed, namely rapid fire builds and non-Shottyhead shotgun builds, are the biggest benefactors of this, as they can trade several free blows with the Mastermind and give themselves a significant headstart in the damage race against her, or even kill her outright before she gets a real chance to fight back. Melee builds can utilize it well too, as it will trivialize closing in and activating Berserker without getting shredded down by her, which is the hardest part of the fight for them. Those relying on pistols and Shottyheads will see little benefit from it, as with their incredible firing speeds, the Mastermind will probably only get three, two, or even just one turn to attack before the invulnerability runs out, while these builds will do a lot less damage per attack than other builds and so overall will get a lot less damage in during their invulnerability. Still, any free turns against her is better than nothing, and they can alternatively take advantage of it to get a free reload or two of their pistols or BFG.

Overall, if you're not going for a full win, the Lava element can still be useful but probably isn't worth going out of your way to clear The Lava Pits/Mt. Erebus just to get it, unless you're really concerned about your ability to beat the Mastermind. Omega Tyrant (talk) 02:02, 5 July 2023 (UTC)