Lethal Lava Land
- For a tutorial on speedrunning this star, see the RTA Guide
- For a tutorial on RTABC for this star, see the RTABC Guide
Lethal Lava Land is the seventh course of Super Mario 64. It can be accessed from the painting containing a red fireball in the basement room of the Princess Peach's castle.
| Lethal Lava Land | |
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| Course Info | |
| Abbreviation | LLL |
| Terrain | Default |
| Setting | Fiery |
| Water | None |
| Course Items | |
| Coins | 108 (  ×92 •  ×8)
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| Enemy Coins | 25 ( ×15 •  ×2)
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| Stars |  ×7
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| Caps |  ×1
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| Star Navigation | |
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| Overview | |
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Course Versions
There are two versions of the course that can appear by selecting different stars. Keep in mind that if there are any blue stars (uncollected) present in the star selection menu, then the last version that can be selected is the first blue star and not the stars after it:
Coins
The max amount of coins for this stage is 133, being split between outside and inside of the volcano (107 outside, 26 inside). This stage is also to home to possibly the most difficult non-glitchy coin in the game- a high bully in the volcano that requires a leap of faith to grab before it lands in the lava. There are no known methods of improving the max number of coins in this map.
| Location | Count |
|---|---|
| Line of coins under bridge | 5 |
| Line of coins on tilting platform past first Mr. I | 5 |
| Three coins on grey ramp near tilting platform | 3 |
| Five coins for completing Bowser puzzle | 5 |
| Line of coins on sinking platform right before first Big Bully | 5 |
| Ring of coins on second Big Bully platform | 8 |
| Five coins on high brown ramp in north-west corner | 5 |
| Four coins on sinking platforms, between crazy box & second Big Bully | 4 |
| Line of coins on sinking platform, north of volcano | 5 |
| Four Ring of coins on platform with 2 bullies | 8 |
| Three coins on spinning platform around volcano | 3 |
| Four coins on small grey ramp, south-east from volcano (with 1UP) | 4 |
| Ring of coins with second Mr. I | 8 |
| Crazy Box | 5 |
| (Inside the Volcano) Three coins on tiny floating platforms, by "Elevator Tour in the Volcano" | 3 |
| (Inside the Volcano) Three coins on S-shaped island at bottom of volcano, by lavafall | 3 |
| (Inside the Volcano) Five coins on first ridge going up | 5 |
| (Inside the Volcano) Two coins on second ridge going up (with first bully) | 2 |
| (Inside the Volcano) Four coins on floating platforms (with the spinning heart) | 4 |
| (Inside the Volcano) Singular coin after the floating platforms (from above line) | 1 |
| (Inside the Volcano) Line of coins, with the second bully, on platform beside waterfall | 5 |
| (Inside the Volcano) Singular coin by checker-board lift, left from beginning | 1 |
| (Inside and Outside) 10 Bullies | 10 |
| 8 Red Coins | 16 |
| 2 Mr. I's | 10 |
| Total | 133 |
A Press Counts
In the A Button Challenge, it takes zero A Presses to collect all seven stars.
| Star | A Presses | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1 Minute |
| 2 | 0 | 1 Minute |
| 3 | 0 | 1 Minute |
| 4 | 0 | 1 Minute |
| 5 | 0 | 2 Minutes |
| 6 | 0 | 1 Minute |
| 100 | 0 | 2 Minutes |
Entering Lethal Lava Land (0x)
Performing a dive recover (press B at run speed) allows entering the painting without pressing A.
Boil the Big Bully (0x)
- Video: https://youtu.be/NbUWR0IkNxE
As the course is filled with lava, Mario can go to higher platforms by simply using lava boosts. Therefore, Mario has no difficulty getting to the platform of the Big Bully and defeat it to collect the star.
Bully the Bullies (0x)
- Video: https://youtu.be/_szjkqYGwkI
Mario goes to the platform with three bullies present and defeats all the bullies on the platform. The star is then collected by a lava boost nearby.
8-Coin Puzzle with 15 Pieces (0x)
- Video: https://youtu.be/4PXUXKf2ghU
Bowser's puzzle is reached by sliding kicking and dive-recovering. The eight coins on the puzzle are then quickly collected for the star to appear since the geometry of the course is mostly flat, easing navigation.
Red-Hot Log Rolling (0x)
- Video: https://youtu.be/BxCJYoxELvk
As the shell is not available at this point, Mario must reach the log behind the steel-grate platform without a shell. After a couple of lava boosts, Mario gets on top of the log and rolls on it, and finally collects the star with a well-timed dive.
Hot-Foot-It into the Volcano (0x)
- Video: https://youtu.be/Po3yFHGTieE
Mario enters the volcano. For the next two stars, Mario will utilize the lava boost from the "lavafall", but the major obstacle is how many lava boosts Mario can use without dying. Fortunately, a spinning heart is nearby allowing Mario to regain HP, allowing Mario to reach the destination with 0 A presses with a complicated route.
First, Mario gets on the moving platform with a lava boost and ZB bounces onto the lavafall (Mario is immune to lava effects when slide kicking) to land on the narrow bridge above with 2 lava boosts. Once there, Mario descends to the spinning platform and exploits the heart healing Mario's HP for an extended duration. Mario then moves back to the bottom of the lavafall quickly (since the higher platform is too high to reach) to go back to the higher platform with 3 lava boosts, restores HP with 3 coins, and quickly uses one more to reach the small platform with a pole. From there, Mario performs the final movement of ZB bouncing to the lavafall with height (while collecting 2 coins to restore HP) and uses 2 more lava boosts to reach Hot-Foot-It into the Volcano platform, collecting the star.
Elevator Tour in the Volcano (0x)
- Video: https://youtu.be/IrXqE6DDt0I (26 hours, non-Shindou only)
- Video: https://youtu.be/i_2K_2UOcNM (1 minute)
A sequence of slow bully battery, fast bully battery, PU rotational displacement, then PU movement made the star possible in 0 A presses. This star still required 1 A press on Shindou versions of the game due to the bully death cancel being patched. However, a much faster strategy was found by using hyperspeed lava boosting to reach the star platform from the lavafall, which also worked on Shindou.
LLL 100 coins (0x)
- Video: https://youtu.be/b3XxfYRYPHo
There are enough coins to collect outside the volcano, and so Mario collects most of the coins using a shell and grabs additional coins from bullies and Mr. I.
Other Challenges
In the Coinless Challenge, excluding coin missions, all stars can be collected. The same stars can be collected in the CCC Challenge.
In the Capless/Cannonless Challenge, all seven stars can be collected.
In the No Buttons Allowed Challenge, every star except the two inside the volcano can be collected. They all utilize lava boosts to traverse between the platforms.
In the No Joystick Allowed Challenge, no stars can be collected, as it is impossible to escape the starting platform.
In the Pacifist Challenge, every star except for Boil the Big Bully and Bully the Bullies can be collected.
In the B Button Challenge, the entire course is possible in 0 B presses.
In the Z Button Challenge, the entire course is possible in 0 Z presses.
In the UBER Challenge, Red-Hot Log Rolling, Hot-Foot-It into the Volcano, and Elevator Tour in the Volcano can be collected.
There are multiple unsolved challenges in this course: getting more coins than intended, cloning with the Crazy Box, to reach a Parallel Universe in the main level, and dying in a vertical PU.
Cloning
Since there is a Crazy Box in Lethal Lava Land, it is theoretically possible to make clones by dropping the Crazy Box and then grabbing it as it explodes. No method has been found to successfully accomplish this, however.
The crazy box can be instant released by diving into the side of the platform it sits on, but currently efforts to move it to a place it can be grabbed have been unsuccessful.
It is worth noting that grabbing the Crazy Box fake would not allow for any extra coins. Grabbing a fake Crazy Box results in the crazy box being destroyed without dropping any of its original coins, and without respawning, so if the fake box was used to clone a coin it would result in a net loss of 4 coins. Note that a ring of 8 coins is impossible to clone without a loading zone.