My tutorial to get past Day 100

[Bishohki]

So im kinda bored, and read allot of people complaining they cant get very far. Right now, I have hit over 400 days, and this is the logic I use to lay out my base. Maybe it will help you, Maybe it will help me if someone who knows more corrects me.

First off, some basic logic:

Crystals are life, Constantly upgrade the mines, literally like every 20=30 seconds or as often as you can. Money that is unspent, is wasted, and should be imidetly invested, Unless you are saving for a purchase.

Signal repeaters are expensive, Do not make the mistake of building too many at once unless you have excess crystal. ( unlikely as all crystal should be invested )

Base layout is important.Try your best to not lay things temporairily, Try your best to place things where they will stay for the game, especialy repeaters. Cannons in the very begining is a exception to this.

With the exception of crystal mines, Do not upgrade things to far past your current need. MOney spent on those upgrades are better spent on crystal, especialy early game.

Do not forget to upgrade your ammo manufacturing and to a lessor degree your storage as you level your weapons. A level 50 weapon is no good to you if you dont have the ammo to fire it, and having to rebuild and or reupgrade stuff can really set you back, especialy if its a repeater.

Dont be afraid to map shop or start over if you screw up and get over run. rebuilding a half destroyed base is too much of a setback late game that its not worth continuing. Loosing a building here or there is fine, but if you get hit hard, loose a few repeaters etc, scrap the game, start over.

THe last lil bit of locic i have for you is, The pause button, its your friend, Especially in the begining. Watch the minimap, as soon as the enemy attack your base, pause, go to the area being attacked and verify a weapon is in range. If not, place one, or upgrade range of a exsisting one. Cannons should be upgraded every few days in the begining to keep up with the enemy.

OK, enough of that. Start your game, pause, lay your first crystal mines, unpause for them to build, pause and upgrade imidiatly. Time is literally money, and I find I scrap allot more maps, if i dont make the most of the first 5 minutes of crystal production using pause. Use the upgrade all option for most upgrades when you can. Even if you cant afford a full upgrade, a partial upgrade will still net you more product.

After a few crystal upgrades, lay your first 4 stone mines. and a repeater heading tward the nearest border. Also lay a cannon ball factory and put a few upgrades into it. DOnt worry about storage at this time, as the cannons will be starving for ammo for the next lil while. DOnt forget to repeatedly upgrade crystals, this is critial to having the money needed to expand in the face of ever more costly repeaters. Bout now your first attack should be happening, Pause the game as soon as the enemy attacks a building, and place a cannon. unpause, DO not overbuild, upgrade, or place cannons where you dont imidiatly need them at this time. Keep upping crystal, and dont forget to up you stone and cannonballs as you place more cannons, but keep a eye on your inventory tab to make sure you are keepin gup with demand but not over upgrading. Having a cannon that hits for 400 when the enemy has 20hp, is a wast of upgrade money. On the subject of inventory, It appears to me that the term storage, Includes ammo loaded into a weapon, so pay more attention to the supply and demand parts of the inventory. Dont forget to unlock the reasearch as soon as you can but do not lay the research center until later in the game.

Back to expantion, head to the edge, You will have to sacrifice a few repeaters under most curcumstances but to me, its unavoidable and inportant to base layout for later game. You will have to lay repeaters til you find the edge of the map. after you find the edge, lay the rest of them so they cover 2 spaces less then the edge of the map, You dont need that land right now, and later upgrades will allow you to cover that land. DO not forget to constantly dump excess crystals into upgrading the C-mines.

For a litte wile its simple, expand 1 repeater at a time, Lay cannons only where you have to for defence, Upgrading range 1 time and dammage every few days. If you have done this right, you should be able to get repeaters all the way around the map in fairly short order, claiming additional mines. I tend to wait until i can easily afford the wood upgrade to make bows, as they arent important to me at this stage. After unlocking wood, i build 1 woodcutter, the arrow factory and storage, a few upgrades dumped into each, more on storage as im not using arrows atm, but want to build up stock for later. When i can afford it, the other 3 woodcutters. One note on placing cannons,, Try your best to lay them 4 spaces from the edge, That is where i want them so they are not in the way of future builds, but still in a tactical place to be usefull after upgrades down the road.At this time, the only resources you should be claiming as you build is crystal.

Once you get repeaters all around, if you have been upgrading crystal, you should have enough money to dump a chunk into cannonball production, I start in the corners ( again 4 spaces from the edge, and place 5 cannon in each corner 1 space apart along the parelel of the edge of the map. I pause then i place cannons, because of the build time, hoping they get built and loaded before the next attack,, THis is best done right after killing a attack for maximum build time before the next attack. If you build too many at once, your guns wont get built in time, or even worse, they will but wont get ammo before they are destroyed in the next attack and have to be rebuilt. Keep a eye on the HP of the next wave, and make sure your cannons are upgraded just a little more then required to 1 shot them. DO NOT FORGET TO CONSTANTLY UPGRADE CRYSTAL PRODUCTION WITH EVERY FREE CRYSTAL!! ( sorry bout that, but it is really important. ) Aound here is when i buy the iron then steal upgrades, ( dont forget to upgrade your factories and storage to accept them ) MOney should not really be a issue at this point, Your not rich but you should have a good flow. Fill in the remaining canons 20 or so at a time, adding 2-3 to the lines from the corners out, Corners are generally attacked the worst, so they get priorety placement. you goal is to fill in a wall of cannon, and upgrade them and ammo production quickly, but not so fast they starve for resources wile they build or load, Now is the time to fill in other wood stone,iron coal factories you have uncovered and you should be able to afford a few upgrades for all.

next Ill talk about science for a bit. About now you should have enough to make your first purchase, but what to spend it on. THis is the order i use: Mine shortcuts1, advanced optics 1, advanced signal transmitter2, After that Architecture, rebuilding glory, Core protection and then shield reach 2. after that, cannon range and cargo speed, Zombie soul extract. After that, i focus on mostly crystal and science upgrades, filling in the rest as i feel the need to. Placing the science building will casue the enemy to attack in greater number and be stronger. DO NOT place more then 1 unless your defence is very strong. I often will delete the science building if the waves are getting to strong to fast to weaken them some to give me time to build, then replace it later when im stronger. You should be upgrading the inner repeaters to max factory and production levels around this time. Note, Overlaping ranges, do not stack, so if you dont have to upgrade to get the bonus, dont.

Your base should be on its way now, Upgrade range and faster aiming on all cannons,Then turn them all to gatlin cannons, Next place arrow towers behind the cannons all the way around, upgrading as neccicary to meet supply and ammo demands. By day 40 or so you should have enough to unlock electricity. At some point around here, You will need to unlock show invisable enemys in the edge towers. I find i can get away with upgrading every other one if money is tight. DO NOT forget to do this or a wave of invisable enemys might end your game, or at least prevent you from going past 100 days. The final stages of base building are about to happen. lay 4 or 5 solar arrays, upgrade them all the way DO not place lasers until you have at least 1 upgrade in the solar. when yuo have. Place 4 energy banks off near the 4 corners, at least behind the 5th row from the edge, I find spreading them out lets them distribute the power cells better/faster when reloading a assload of lasers. upgrade all the bows essentials a few at a time until all are done. You need to have about 60 mil built up to start the next stage.

With 60 mil in the bank, Pause. place 5 lasers in each corner on the second row away from the edge. 1 in the corner and 2 on each side, in all 4 corners. and 5 walls along the edge protecting the lasers from attack. Check the attack power of the next wave and make sure to upgrade the walls hit points too twice the enemys attack strength. Unpause, wash rinse and repeat as you did the cannons, adding a few lasers and walls off the sides of each corner, As stated earlier, this is best done right after a attack to give max build time before next attack. Keep a eye on your money and power to determin how fast you can expand the laser wall and protective wall. Once you are surrounded by walls, and a row of lasers,cannons,and arror towers respectivley with a space between the lasres and cannons, You have hit a magor goal to pushing deep into the day count, and definitly followed my instructions. You should be around day 50 when you start to wall off with the lasers. by day 65 or so, you should have at least shield range 4 unlocked, if not, get it done before laying out shields. ( upgrading the walls should be enough for now to keep you alive. ) once you get shield 4 unlocked, place your shield generators. Do your very best to NOT let them overlap ranges. Doing so seems to screw with how it deploys the shield and is a general waste of resources and space. 2 next to each other will not make then work twice as fast.

You should be generating 100 mil or so every couple of seconds at this point. use the money to buy range 1 for all lasers, using the same start from the corners and work out method. ( just always use that method, start in the corners, always ) Make sure you upgrade cannon range to level 5, and then start upgrading the arrow towers. As money permits, i upgrade them all to max crossbows, they will shoot well beyond the wall. he cannons, on level 5 will also shoot well beyond the wall.

The rest of the game is just upgrading the ♥♥♥♥ out of everything But stone and trees, and to a lessor degree iron, only increase those enough to meet demands. focusing on crystal, electricity, and urauinium. You should be able to unlock nuclear energy by now. Keep a watchfull eye on the enemys hit power and hit points, and only upgrade your defences just a bit past what you actually need to survive the next attack. Dont forget, upgrade crystal with every free unit you have, all the time, failing to do this will chop days, weeks, months off your end game. ♥♥♥♥ gets epensive.

The empty row around the map is for a second row of lasers later in the game, I upgrade them in alternatetion, faster,stronger, faster,stronger. late game, there are so many zombies, you need both fast and damaging lasers

Well, thats how i get my base way past day 100, right now day 431 is my record.
( forgive the misspellings and typos ;) )

[FatIgor]

Thank you! Gave up mid 2020, but came back for another go today. And after twice failing to hit level 30 today I found this. Have now got a game saved out on day 42 which is great.

[almo1010]

Oh yeah, I knew there must be some secret to this game. Head to the edge?! I guess I must have assumed from shapez.io, there was no edge. No natter what I tried I crashed out hard, at night 28. Eplosion zombies!!! They just bully in from all sides.

So, my question is about the Crystal Storage and the edge. You said, "Head for the nearest edge."
How do you know that?

[almo1010]

Never mind. The mini-map shows the nearest edge. GREAT GUIDE!

[Jon.Topps]

Does nuclear power even matter? I'm finding solar panels are literally 0.1% the cost, and do just as much, and don't use uranium. Am I missing something?

[almo1010]

First off, I've been to Night 351, and I can tell you things will get hairy much faster than you can prepare. And it is not gradual only. There are heavy spikes in enemy power.
That is the point of the game.

So, yes, you need it ALL. But, the game is about
- when to bring up Uranium and how best to use it, as it is very expensive
- when and how to use the walls and shields, spending
- how to balance the Uranium mining for weapon points, shields and lasers

You will find that a reactor produces 10,000 Power cells / 1 Uranium, but slowly and at great cost. Yet, you need to add that to the solar production, to have any chance of keeping the lasers fed.

While shields can run on coal or other fuel, the most effective by far is Uranium.
What level walls by when, is the big blocker, as walls are expensive to upgrade. Having low level walls and high level shields will not work for long.

Also, it really comes as a surprise, that at every 10th level, 50th and 100th level, mad power zombies, are unleashed. Say you have been struggling with 1 billion Hit Point zombies, and now at level 150, there are a few 600 billion spawn-er Zs, thrown in. Melt through and done, unless your walls are over level 100 and plenty of uranium for shields, points and laser power.

So, what you need more than anything is giant loads of cash, er....crystals. All sites must be mined and reinvested. So, I found that I head for the edge, and begin to build a line of weapons and then a wall plus big lasers, adding the crystal mines as soon as visible. I also ignore the first 2 nights and constantly reinvest before getting a cannon up for night 3 or 4 at the latest.

Shields work for the rest of the base, also, except weapons. Upgrading Crystal Storage, increases heath for all but walls. Buying a research lab to soon, will get you over run.

Wild game, I hope this helps. Good luck

[Jon.Topps]

Originally posted by almo1010:

You will find that a reactor produces 10,000 Power cells / 1 Uranium, but slowly and at great cost. Yet, you need to add that to the solar production, to have any chance of keeping the lasers fed.

Sorry, I'm still wondering what you mean. My nuclear reactors are not making that much. When I click on them, they say they produce LESS than the solars are. Am I missing something in terms of how to use them?

Also, any tips for the mages? I can survive basically everything untouched, but the mages ALWAYS take a few things out. It's like the moment they show up my shields just drop, which then allows chaining, and my shields are super high levels. No idea what to do about them.

Also, I'm having issues with supply lines. I have a very good set up I believe, but some walls take multiple days to get shielded, even though generators are full. Here's a pic, what am I doing wrong? I have 15 million uranium in storage, so clearly I'm not out. The shield repair should be basically immediate, but doesn't go up for days, which could ruin my run.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2794363009

[almo1010]

Probably too many generators in one spot sucking up fuel. Set the low one to high priority. One generator per corner is enough on the 3rd row. I keep the line in front of the wall clear to stop chaining. It is true that uranium power cell production seems expensive, but we need the Uranium for weapon boost, IAC.
All about balance.

[almo1010]

Also, I remember having a shield gen that would not protect part of a wall. I had to delete it and place a new one.

[schmick]

Great tutorial, thanks. Have re-visited this game after a long pause. What difficulty is this guide meant for? I was able to make it work for easy + medium, but hard I could not get it to work. The crystal mine upgrades ane the cannon are too expensive, which does too little damage, while zombie HP and damage outscale me after day 6-10... Any tips?!?

[Punnilingus]

Bishokhi: "Money that is unspent, is wasted, and should be imidetly invested,"

Also Bishokhi: "verify a weapon is in range. If not, place one, or upgrade range of a exsisting one. Cannons should be upgraded every few days in the begining to keep up with the enemy."

Dang. Took the first advice but didn't make it cuz 2nd advice. lol

[d_w_kelley]

Originally posted by Jon.Topps:

Also, I'm having issues with supply lines. I have a very good set up I believe, but some walls take multiple days to get shielded, even though generators are full. Here's a pic, what am I doing wrong? I have 15 million uranium in storage, so clearly I'm not out. The shield repair should be basically immediate, but doesn't go up for days, which could ruin my run.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2794363009

Jon, I've noticed this myself and reported a bug. Usually when it happens, it happens in multiple areas. My "workaround" is that when I notice a wall not being shielded, build a new wall section ANYWHERE on the map, this seems to cause all the shield generators to "wake up" and shield all the missing sections.

I do agree with almo1010, build a wall on the outside, then have a gap, it greatly reduces chaining - but doesn't eliminate it entirely.

[d_w_kelley]

Bishohki, great advice. Any chance you can post a screenshot of a corner of one of your maps? I'm much more of a "visual" guy and that would help tremendously. I think you have:
"Wall-open-lazer-lazer-cannon-arrow"

Also, you have repeaters to the edge, then around the edge. What about the interior spaces? Even with max optics / transmitter, you're going to have a lot of dark space in the middle. When/where do you start "lighting up" the interior.