Scoria quick facts
- Formed when Snow freezes Lava
- Destroying it drops Cinder
- A stepping stone for moving Lava
- Part of the Lava-to-Lava loop
Thermal material
Sandustry Scoria: How Snow Turns Lava Into a Solid
Scoria is the frozen form of Lava. It is the state change that lets you handle Lava as a solid, and the source of the Cinder you can transport and re-ignite.
Lava frozen by Snow
Drops Cinder
Mid-cycle state
Verified against v0.5.5 on 2026-08-20
Official source
How Scoria Forms
The whole trick starts with a temperature shift: Snow meeting Lava hardens the flow into a solid.
Lava
The heat source, whether found in a Lava Cave or produced later. Scoria is how that heat becomes a solid you can work with.
Snow
Snow freezes the Lava into Scoria. It is the cooling agent that makes the whole transport loop possible.
Cinder
Break the Scoria apart and it drops Cinder, the solid you actually move across the map before re-igniting it.
Why Scoria Matters
On its own Scoria is just an intermediate, but it is the step that turns the Lava source into the Cinder you can carry.
It cools the problem
Rather than routing a live Lava flow through your factory, you freeze it into Scoria first and only restore the heat when you are ready.
It is the middle link
Lava becomes Scoria, Scoria drops Cinder, and Cinder burns back into Lava. Scoria is the bridge between the Lava source and the transportable form.
Where Scoria Sits in Progression
Scoria is not an early material. It belongs to the heat-management stage, once you are already moving Lava and thinking about controlled fire.
Comes from Lava
You need a Lava source before Scoria exists, so it follows your first encounter with the underground Lava Caves.
Feeds the Cinder loop
Everything Scoria does points toward Cinder, which is where transport and re-ignition actually happen.