To All Those Complaining about High Difficulty - Newbie Player Pitfalls/Answering Questions

[TheMoniker1]

EDIT: This guide was created when I was much worse at the game, and before patches changed the game balance, and so is pretty badly outdated. Please read my new, much more thorough guide here instead: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1971611915

I've seen a lot of discussions for people on this forum complaining about the game's high difficulty. There's no denying that despite the appearance of being a simple strategy game, Rebel Inc has a steep learning curve and you need a good strategy to survive. There's no shame in playing on normal or casual until you've got a feel for what you need to happen. Here are some of the biggest mistakes I see new players make, and how to avoid them:

1: Overinvesting in Military
This is the BIG one. So many players see the Insurgents rolling in, begin panicking, throw all their money into coalition troops and national troops and then there's MORE insurgents and then suddenly they're losing 3 reputation a month to lack of stability and then DEAD. If you've read the other thread "war is not the answer" then they are absolutely right. You need to invest in civilian and government initiatives, even as the insurgents are swarming. Keep dealing with concerns and fighting corruption as your top priorities in the midgame, and keep the money you dump into fighting the insurgents to a minimum. That will start stabilizing zones. Once you have a solid base of 5-7 zones stable, you've just about won. Those zones will protect you from lack of stability rep loss, and keep your bank account in good shape (more stable zones = more $$). Maybe you won't destroy the insurgents - but that segues into number two.

2: Trying to destroy the insurgents (too early)
So many new players see the insurgents running around destroying things in the mountains, and charge their troops right up there to try and destroy them early on. This is a major reason why they fail. Let's think about the first map, with the mountains in the upper-right corner. Generally, the insurgents spawn in those mountains, and then begin moving downwards to the nearby countryside and city. A new player might get their coalition soldier up and have him run right up into the mountains to attack the insurgents. But then the coalition gets his butt kicked. The bar goes almost all the way red, he isn't winning at all, and then the insurgents run right past him and start attacking the countryside and cities, and then the insurgents have 6 or 7 tiles while you're nervously waiting for your national troops to finally finish training and your $1 a month to finance a new upgrade. NO. That's wrong. Here's what you do INSTEAD. Place two soldiers (preferably one coalition and one national, but its fine if you need to use two coalition) at the foot of the mountain. If the insurgents try to escape those three mountain tiles, your guys will beat them off. In the midgame, your goal isn't to defeat the insurgents. Its to CONTAIN them. The insurgents will fester in the mountains, spawning their camps and slowly growing stronger. But guess what. You're slowly growing stronger, too. Get that base of 5-7 stable zones going while your troops keep them contained. Every map in the game has a place where you can keep insurgents contained. Mountain pass has two sets of mountains, though you might need more coalitions to run around and protect the countryside. Desert place has both mountains, and the desert. Pistachio forest has the big 5+ mountain section in the middle. Find a place to corner the insurgents, but keep them cornered, don't try and destroy them. Even if you do take out their camp, another one will spawn.

3: Neglecting vital upgrades
Not all upgrades are created equal. There's generally a specific sequence of upgrades experienced players buy. By the time the insurgents come, you generally want to have: The first intel upgrade, at least effective procurement for anti-corruption but preferably anti-corruption I as well, outreach office, 1-2 discussion types and 2-3 service upgrades, Universal Justice (big support level boost + reputation), PR office, and charities. Plus have $10 saved for some initial military expenses. DON'T burn money on these initiatives:
-Any outreach programs (they're just not helpful enough)
-Anything police (police are expensive and take a LONG time to roll out, and militia are potentially useful but you'll eat a support level hit)
-Democracy (elections are way too risky midgame)
-Regional census (it isn't useless, but you need the money for other stuff more)
-Foreign relations office (you are going to need to buy this eventually, how long depends on RNG, but it's a good idea to hold off until then, just not enough bang for your buck here)

Tips for what things you should purchase:
-MEDIA. ALWAYS get PR level I before the insurgents come. Having that support level REALLY gets those zones stabilized.
-Infrastructure, roads in particular. A lot of people neglect the infrastructure side of the services discussions, but roads are utterly VITAL. If you have roads, your troops can move across the map in only a month or two, rather than half a year! Just because it only gives a pathetic sliver of support level doesn't mean it isn't worth getting. Generally, I go for either Main Roads I and Highways I, or Main Roads I and Dirt Tracks I. That will massively help troop movement speeds.
Also, telecoms are a good upgrade, give a lot of support level for the money you spend, and I'd suggest you get 1 level or even 2 levels of them if you're getting infrastructure.
-For charities - they pay for themselves so they should be a top priority, but you should ALWAYS set them to Funding Only. Otherwise, their "help" can be... debatably useful at best. You're already drowning in inflation and corruption by default, no need to make it harder on yourself...
(Exception: You're playing a military-oriented commander like General or Tank Commander with more expensive civilian upgrades. Then it might be good to let charities handle those.)
-Anti-Corruption I at the latest right around when the insurgents show up, II shortly after, and get the III and IV level upgrades as soon as is reasonable. Corruption will drown you if you don't do anything about it.

4: Buying stuff too fast
Its really, really tempting to buy 4-5 upgrades right off the bat when the game starts. But this wastes a huge amount of money! Your upgrade-buying plan SHOULD look like this: Buy upgrade... wait... buy upgrade... wait... buy upgrade... and so on. The more upgrades you buy in a row, and the more you buy from the same tab, the more inflation goes up. Every dollar you lose to inflation is a dollar that won't be spent on something else. This means, in the earlygame, you'll be spending time with $30-$40 in your bank account, twiddling your thumbs and watching the inflation number go down. This is fine and totally normal. You can't always wait for inflation to go all the way down to 0, but keeping it below 10% during the earlygame is huge, and increases the amount of stuff you can buy. That power of economy is VITAL, and that's why Banker is the best governor and General is the worst.

TL;DR
1: Limit military purchases, buy civilian and government even while insurgents are attacking
2: Try to contain insurgents during the midgame, rather than destroy them
3: Get media. Get roads. Know what upgrades you want and have a plan for buying them.
4: Lose as little $$ as possible to inflation, even if it means waiting.

I played the mobile version before Escalation, and I know a lot about this game. I managed to beat all the normal maps with the first 6 governors on Brutal, and while the PC version is a little different, most of the tactics on mobile still hold here. I can answer your questions if you have any, so please feel free to ask in this thread!

[Omen UK]

Great post was finding it difficult but only had 3 quick games, that being said and having played Plague Inc. I am really enjoying the challenge though your guide will certainly be a big help for me not making such a mess next time.

[TangoCharlie]

Thanks for the tips! Using the containment strategy allowed me to win the "Desert Steppes" map.

[Ndemic James]

I think some people will find this helpful - have stickied for now :)

[TheMoniker1]

Originally posted by Ndemic James:

I think some people will find this helpful - have stickied for now :)

Oh wow, a sticky from the devs! I am elated. Thanks!

[76561198051514398]

Neglecting early military buildup is horrendous advice, if you do this the insurgency will just spiral out of control until your stability collapses.

[Potato Doge ( ★ ★ ★ )]

Originally posted by TheMoniker1:

I can answer your questions if you have any, so please feel free to ask in this thread!

Currently running into some big issues on Mountain Pass. Trying to wrap my head around how this game mechanically works.

So far this is what I can gather for questions:

1. You want to avoid losing rep at all costs, there doesn't seem to be a way to generate more outside of random events/one time buy and stabilization. Is this correct?

2. Is there a list of every possible non-random event loss of rep? Understanding why rep goes down the drain would be a big help and I can't seem to figure out what causes it to go super terribly at the end of runs.

3. How do you actually contain insurgents? With two sets of forces, it seems like I can't as they always either spawn 2 sets across the map or will actually shift and move behind where I deployed the forces, what's the criteria for them walking over forces and is there a good methodology to properly using the military (getting airstrike vs drone, rushing national troops over building coalition troops, etc)

4. Given how insurgents appear to work (instantly destabilizing a region they spawn in) how do you win? Are you supposed to eventually get upgrades to prevent loss of control of regions to insurgents or do you get them to agree to peace treaty?

5. For mountain pass, how do you actually stabilize the mountains? It seems they don't ever want to stabilize and it's a bit confusing as without stabilizing them, it appears the insurgents are more likely to spawn compared to just being able to surprise attack in stabilized areas.

[TheMoniker1]

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

Neglecting early military buildup is horrendous advice, if you do this the insurgency will just spiral out of control until your stability collapses.

Of course you should always have at least one national troop training until you get all 4. The goal is to do the minimum needed to prevent the insurgents from spreading and spiraling out of control, and put everything else into helping civilians and stability.

Originally posted by Potato Doge ( ★ ★ ★ ):

Originally posted by TheMoniker1:

I can answer your questions if you have any, so please feel free to ask in this thread!

Currently running into some big issues on Mountain Pass. Trying to wrap my head around how this game mechanically works.

So far this is what I can gather for questions:

1. You want to avoid losing rep at all costs, there doesn't seem to be a way to generate more outside of random events/one time buy and stabilization. Is this correct?

2. Is there a list of every possible non-random event loss of rep? Understanding why rep goes down the drain would be a big help and I can't seem to figure out what causes it to go super terribly at the end of runs.

3. How do you actually contain insurgents? With two sets of forces, it seems like I can't as they always either spawn 2 sets across the map or will actually shift and move behind where I deployed the forces, what's the criteria for them walking over forces and is there a good methodology to properly using the military (getting airstrike vs drone, rushing national troops over building coalition troops, etc)

4. Given how insurgents appear to work (instantly destabilizing a region they spawn in) how do you win? Are you supposed to eventually get upgrades to prevent loss of control of regions to insurgents or do you get them to agree to peace treaty?

5. For mountain pass, how do you actually stabilize the mountains? It seems they don't ever want to stabilize and it's a bit confusing as without stabilizing them, it appears the insurgents are more likely to spawn compared to just being able to surprise attack in stabilized areas.

To 1: Yes, that's right. The only two ways to "renewably" generate reputation are through Democracy (the elections will happen multiple times) and through taking hardlines in peace negotiations. During the middle of the game where reputation is the most critical, neither of those are really available to you, so reputation should be treated as a precious resource.

2: The first two I'm sure you know well already, Lack of Stability and Insurgent Activity. Lack of Stability starts if you go a long time after the insurgents pop up without enough stable zones, but once you have 2-3 stable zones it isn't a major concern, and once you have 5 stable zones you'll more-or-less never need to worry about it again. Insurgent activity loss increases as the insurgents control more zones, but not all zones are created equal - insurgents controlling remote zones has negligible reputation penalties, but if they control rural, or worse, urban zones, you'll lose reputation much faster. That's why you generally want to protect the countryside and cities more than you want to protect the mountains.
Aside from that, the other two major reputation-eating factors are Coalition deployment. You'll generally need to double-extend their tours around twice per game if you're on Brutal, possibly more. It's okay to eat the hit, losing ground to the insurgents is worse long-term. Finally, there's Corruption, which starts nibbling at your reputation once it gets a ways past 20% of your support level. If your reputation is holding out okay, then starts rapidly draining at the end, its probably lack of stability. You'll want to buy more civilian stuff to get those zones stabilized. Education initiatives roll out fast, so if you're worried those are good buys.

3: Well, it can be difficult to contain the insurgents depending on where they spawn, and a big part of the game's strategy is being able to react. A good rule of thumb is to A: Always fight with a plan (have a plan to keep the insurgents locked up in a specific spot), and B: Don't enter fights you can't win/fights that will tie up your valuable soldiers for way way too long. If the insurgents keep moving past your forces, you'll want to have your forces sit in the zones without insurgents, so they can fight off the insurgents quickly when they do come in. Playing defensively rather than offensively against the insurgents is best mid-game.

As for overall military strategy - most games, you'll want a mix of coalition and national when the insurgents first start appearing, with the ultimate goal of moving entirely to national troops. You'll have to read the situation to decide when to send the coalition home and when to keep them around longer. If the insurgents spawn in two separate parts of the map like you said, you'll want 3, maybe even 4 coalition units, plus airstrikes. On the other hand, if the insurgents spawn in one spot, you can get away with only 2 coalitions and you might not need to buy airstrikes. A lot of players say airstrikes and drones are a super important investment, but they cost a lot of money... it's your decision. If the insurgents are winning, garrisons and airstrikes can really help push them back.

4: Both ways you describe are valid. Signing a peace treaty more-or-less immediately wins the game, though I personally rarely do it. The other way to win is to slowly build up your military, and eventually corner the insurgents, completely eradicate them, and keep a military presence in the zones they used to occupy until they turn stable. Either way, you win when the whole map is green.

5: How fast regions stabilize is based on how populated they are. There are three kinds of regions: urban, rural, and remote. Urban regions have cities, rural regions have farmlands, and remote regions are mountains, forests, or desert. Urban regions stabilize the fastest, rural regions follow a little ways behind, and remote regions take much longer to stabilize. Its best to focus on the urban and rural regions while the insurgents are still a threat, and then once you start beating back the insurgency, you can stabilize the remote regions. They do take a long time to stabilize, but they will do ti eventually. Remember to check region concerns if a specific region feels like its taking too long (click the "region" tab to see a map of local concerns for all areas).

Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

[Searry]

What I do is buy PR, NGO, give them limited accces and then burn the rest on military.
This almost always wins the game.

[AC Seaweed]

mmm


Saffron and Desert start:

Intel 1 > AntiCorruption 1 > Charity/NGO's (funding only) > School 1 > Medical 1 > Water 1 > School 2 > PR1> Procurement > Rural 1 > Rural 2, Rural 3 is optional
Allows you to take a bullet from the insurgents on those maps


Other maps:
Intel 1 > AntiCorruption 1 > Charity/NGO's (funding only) > School 1 > Medical 1 > Water 1 > School 2 > PR1> Procurement > Rural 1 > Rural 2, Rural 3 is optional> AntiCorruption2 PR2
Makes sure you can stabizlize non-insurgent areas very quickly, Remote zones are where they spawn, keep them there, usually if they are already attacking one zone, unless theres a camp in a diffrent zone you can Keep national soldiers for front lines, Coalition for support.


This stratedgy might even be better with some >.> advisors

[Trundle]

if anyone or OP got a tips for brutal difficulty please share it here.

[Zephkiel]

Originally posted by TheMoniker1:

Originally posted by JohnTheGreat:

Neglecting early military buildup is horrendous advice, if you do this the insurgency will just spiral out of control until your stability collapses.

Of course you should always have at least one national troop training until you get all 4. The goal is to do the minimum needed to prevent the insurgents from spreading and spiraling out of control, and put everything else into helping civilians and stability.

No, no no no. You only ever need the first set of civilian initiatives (water expansion, health services and education), and you never need to extend any coalition soldiers. You can get roads, electricity and telecoms a little later (once your military is training) and you'll never get a jobs protest or a big stability penalty. Corruption is more important to keep down for stabilising.

Coalition soldiers give you a support penalty that can end your game pretty much from the start if you get two or more; you should only buy one to begin with and only get a second if you absolutely need it (like if two critical areas are being hit at once. Hold off as long as possible). Reputation is key, so training new Coalitions to replace the old ones is better than extending them. Always have a National Soldier training until you have all 4 and focus on their upgrades so you can ditch the Coalitions.

By focusing primarily on civilian initiatives you're wasting so much capital that could be used to make your permanent forces much more viable.

[General Didieto]

Originally posted by TheMoniker1:

You need to invest in civilian and government initiatives, even as the insurgents are swarming.

I don't know about that. Very early game you have no option. However, in the mid-game there are ways of "over-investing" in the military and wiping out the rebels through constant war. All of this while investing only whats necessary in your stabilized regions.

At least that's the way that I play, and it works. I understand your strategy though, and I believe that it's easier to follow. I just wanted to say that there are other ways... more focused on brute force.

[Tellashim[GIF]]

Investing in the economy AND your troops simply isn't possible, even on normal. It's one or the other. The deployment periods for those blue troops just simply are not long enough, and getting national green troops takes way too long. There HAS to be a balancing act between the two, because right now, its literally impossible to fight in mountain regions, simply because of how many regions there are and how long it takes the military to get involved.

[TheMoniker1]

Originally posted by Zefream Chochrane:

Investing in the economy AND your troops simply isn't possible, even on normal. It's one or the other. The deployment periods for those blue troops just simply are not long enough, and getting national green troops takes way too long. There HAS to be a balancing act between the two, because right now, its literally impossible to fight in mountain regions, simply because of how many regions there are and how long it takes the military to get involved.

Yeah, that's right. You have to spend the initial phase when the insurgents start their attack mostly protecting cities and the countryside, so that you have time for the zones to start stabilizing. The insurgents get weaker every time a zone stabilizes, so once you have most of the rural and city areas stable, then you can march into the mountains and start beating the insurgents back.

[Tellashim[GIF]]

Originally posted by TheMoniker1:

Originally posted by Zefream Chochrane:

Investing in the economy AND your troops simply isn't possible, even on normal. It's one or the other. The deployment periods for those blue troops just simply are not long enough, and getting national green troops takes way too long. There HAS to be a balancing act between the two, because right now, its literally impossible to fight in mountain regions, simply because of how many regions there are and how long it takes the military to get involved.

Yeah, that's right. You have to spend the initial phase when the insurgents start their attack mostly protecting cities and the countryside, so that you have time for the zones to start stabilizing. The insurgents get weaker every time a zone stabilizes, so once you have most of the rural and city areas stable, then you can march into the mountains and start beating the insurgents back.

But by the time you have stabilized the cities, the mountain regions are gone, your coalition troops are gone and the hits from reputation ground way too much out. I lose every time because i lose the reputation game, because i have to keep the coalition around to keep the insurgents on their toes. If i try to focus on civy production, the insurgents take over everything, and the reputation loses keep coming, far too quickly. There is a problem when reputation starts snowballing. You've gotta give people at least a chance to fight the insurgency and invest in civilian stuff.