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Lava Escape is a route-finding game with a rising floor. You have to reach the exit, and the ground behind you stops being available. That removes backtracking as an option, which means a route that would be fine in an ordinary maze can be fatal here.
Look at the layout and find a route to the exit.
Start moving — the lava begins rising immediately.
You cannot go back over ground the lava has taken.
Reach the exit before it catches you.
Levels get longer and the lava rises faster.
Route planning with a one-way constraint. Committing to a route without the option to reverse is a meaningfully different planning problem from ordinary maze solving.
Plan the whole route before you move. There is no time to plan while climbing.
Prefer upward progress to sideways progress. Sideways moves cost time the lava does not give back.
If two routes look equal, take the one with fewer junctions. Junctions are where hesitation happens.
Do not stop to look. Standing still is the only way to lose a route you had planned correctly.
Only until the lava reaches it. In practice, plan as if you cannot.
It rises faster in later levels, which is what makes them harder rather than longer.
Escape Route hides the path and tests memory. Here the layout stays visible and it tests planning speed.
Find the two or three decision points on the route and rehearse only those. Trying to hold every step is what causes freezing.