Floor Is Lava Parachute Descent
Some Volcano Chronicles episodes don't start on a platform — they start with you falling into the volcano from above. You steer through the hazards on the way down, then your parachute opens and glides you into the climb.
What it does
The parachute descent is a short top-down intro phase that plays before the normal climbing part of certain story episodes. The camera looks straight down as your character freefalls into the crater, and the usual climbing HUD is hidden for a clean view. Your job is simple: steer left and right to dodge what's coming up at you. The on-screen prompt spells it out — "Steer to dodge — rocks, bats, embers & steam!"
You fall in with a small pool of hearts. Clipping a hazard costs a heart; run out and the descent ends on a "you didn't make it" screen, but you can retry the episode straight away. Survive to the bottom and the parachute deploys automatically — the screen flashes "🪂 PARACHUTE DEPLOYED — Gliding down…", your fall slows to a gentle glide, and you settle onto a landing platform. The lava stays frozen until you touch down, so the glide-in itself is safe; from there the episode switches into the regular platform climb.
How to play it
- Start a story episode that opens with the falling sequence — you'll drop into the top-down view automatically.
- Steer left and right (drag or the on-screen controls) to weave between rocks, bats, embers and jets of steam.
- Protect your hearts — every hit costs one, and losing them all ends the descent.
- Ride it out to the bottom; the parachute deploys by itself and glides you onto the first platform, handing you into the normal climb.
Tips
- You don't control when the parachute opens — it's automatic near the end, so focus entirely on dodging rather than trying to "pull" it.
- Small, early steering corrections beat last-second swerves; the hazards read more clearly when you keep to open lanes.
- This is a different thing from the Parachute power-up you buy for a climb — that one auto-opens if you fall off an edge. The descent parachute is built into the episode and costs nothing.
- Dying in the freefall only sends you back to retry the episode — there's no coin penalty for it.