Salt Flats campaign strategy?

[BustedHipGaming]

This is the first map I have seen where the enemy has a base I have to destroy, and which starts me with a significant base of my own. The problem: My starter base is total garbage. The mech factories are slow AF because the resources going to them are set up like completely inefficient. I keep getting annihilated trying desperately to get the resources going that I need to replace the starting layouts with better ones.

How do you beat that map?

[nul]

I personally started out by... failing, and seeing why I failed.
I watched the patterns that went on, and eventually, figured out a solution to the problem.

You need to focus on survival first and foremost. The enemy has an advantage to start. They have stronger defences. They have free units from an arbitrary timer.

This is probably the only map where I didn't just wall up and actually resorted to 'short pathing' them. Figure out where they want to come from. Leave that path open. But litter the hell out of it with turrets protected by menders and walls.

And don't stop when it's 'just enough'.
Because another advantage of the enemy is that it's offence also keeps getting stronger, without having to expand or optimise their own base.

Make a good layout and make sure it's good enough to last against... I dunno. Something 3x as strong as you're currently facing.

THEN, delete whatever unit production the map gave you. Make your own better, optimised layout. THEN, it's not just, send the units loose and they take care of everything. Follow them. Figure out where THEY are failing. And figure out how to deal with the problem with your mech. Sometimes Alpha is a better option than Dart, especially with all the scatters they have. Maybe the next thing you need to do is take out some Hails, or Lancers. Hails are better directly destroyed, as their ammo economy is pretty strong. Where a Lancer may be better dealt with by taking out power nodes.



Edit: As a side note, never, never rely on units to take out units. As much as I'd like a more rts feel for this game as opposed to the just... turtle up and survive as long as you can. The units are too basic for that. They just, path to their target, and fire at things as they move based on their priority. Armies in attack/pvp tend to just, chop off a few numbers then pass each other by to get cleaned up by actual defences.

[PhailRaptor]

Part of this is going to come down to how the resources were distributed on the map. The approximate amounts are always the same, but the specific locations are randomized. (Other maps your core does not have a guaranteed position, either). You can run into the scenario where the ammo you intend to use is in an awful location, either right where you need to build defenses, or so far away that it takes ages for it to reach the front lines.

RNG will be a factor, and there will be occasions where you just don't have good options to work with.

[BustedHipGaming]

Thanks for the tips. I had not thought of just turtling and THEN worrying about the layout

[AllOutWar76]

What I do is build light defense in the beginning to hold me off while I work on getting materials. Then I go for the first mech you can build, I forget the name. Some turrets only target flying mechs while others only target land moving mechs, and there are some that target both. What I do is build the first mech ASAP and move to the right side of the map, then up and towards their core area. From there I start taking out their defenses with whichever mech is best suited for the turrets I'm going after. The goal for me is to clear a safe path to the core where I can destroy it solo.

For me it's a matter of time invested. Sure I can build an army of drones to destroy the core, but that can take an hour or so. I'd rather get it done in under 10 waves. Also, once you destroy their core you unlock the loadout function for the map. What you can do is rush the map like I do, then once you unlock the loadout you can start off with whatever materials you have launched in your previous playthroughs up to the max limit the core can hold. From there it will be much easier to build up defenses.

Or just play with the default loadout and keep trying. Eventually you will figure out how to lure the enemies into a gauntlet style area of turrets that will annihilate them giving you plenty of time to build. Also don't forget to always use pause when designing anything as the wave timer won't tick.

[Tman]

I'm struggling to attack, particularly the flails. What are effective counters to these? I was able to take out a few of them by providing support for my units which eventually whittled them down (as the enemy flails were concentrating on my units, I was able to build flails of my own within range)

I have inched my way forward, but have come to a point where the enemy flails are just taking my guys out and I don't have a counter b/c my guys are ignoring the flails.

I thought to take out the enemy's supply line for the flail ammo, but it appears it's just cosmetic because I have decimated the supply line but it just stays full and shoots all the time.

[Shard]

Since this has been bumped, I'll share what I did. Take a few suicide runs through the enemy base, locate where the drills are, and individual conveyors that supply everything. At the start, the lines aren't full, so you can race in and do a back and forth to make it harder to hit you and chop those belts down near the miners so nothing is supplied. You will die multiple times doing this, so pause the game and set up your copper drills first so you have some basic resources when you get done, as you will need them. I wasn't able to get everything, since some mines are near the middle, but I was able to cut off almost everything, which meant even just the crummy starter unit factories could win the mission after about a dozen waves once I doubled their resource supply.

Combine the conveyor sniping with a single layer copper wall enclosing all of your base except a killzone tunnel and put heavy defenses there. Enemy waves will chew up your units, but after a while even just the starter factories with a bit extra resources will win it.

[Tman]

I didn't get what you meant by suicide runs, then I finally found the alpha mech which I hadn't used before, so I now get what it means to control something and shoot/destroy things.

(for those reading in the future: Alpha mech is a facility that spawns you in an alpha mech that you can control via WASD and when you get killed, you will respawn back in it. You can still build in the alpa mech, but now you are limited in movement (slower) and you can't ignore walls and structures when trying to maneuver)

That made short work of the level - even though I didn't figure this out to wave 30, so the enemy was very entrenched, but it allowed me to get in and cause a lot of damage and ruin it's infrastructure.

[Shard]

Suicide runs as in you go in intending to die. Fly in, get a good look (pause as needed) to locate important targets. Then go in and focus on killing those targets rather than surviving. Took like four deaths to utterly cripple the defenses by cutting out lone conveyors near the mining drills.

[Ohm is Futile]

Haven't tried the Salt Flats yet, but the Fungal map could be cheesed fairly easy for the Blitz achievement. Depending on the turret coverage, you can build walls in the enemy base to draw fire and you can destroy all kinds of things with your own vehicle such as the ammo/energy supply for turrets. Put down more walls to completely empty the ammo storage then just walk in and snipe the cores.

Also, as Tman said, you can use the pads to switch to a stronger vehicle. The mechs can fly if you hold shift, but you can't fire and fly at the same time.

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

salt flats build a stealth bomber pad asap or any flying ship and just bomb the ♥♥♥♥ out of the enemy core. That or do the arc spam movement going up. Arcs in clockwork can pretty much destroy anything. HAve some copper walls to keep the enemy turrets distracted and you can pretty much swarm the enemy line easily.

[PeLeSki]

I just built a horizontal wall leaving a gap where I had a kill zone, then set up air defenses across the horizontal wall, and while I was waiting for my army to build up, flew in the back and sniped all the enemy's conveyor belts.

[Caz]

Originally posted by nul:

You need to focus on survival first and foremost. The enemy has an advantage to start. They have stronger defences. They have free units from an arbitrary timer.

THIS is what makes Destroy Core maps not fun. Either give players the same benefit or prevent the enemy from getting free units on Core maps. Cutting supply lines should be a viable strategy to preventing the enemy from attacking.