Survival Mode Difficulty

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Am i a lousy drugdealer or is it survival mode is insanely overtuned? (or am i missing something?)

The legal money bleed is ramping up way quicker than i can produce. Im currently on Aug 1 of 1988 which is less than 10% of a timeline and the guy asks me to cough up 290k in 21 days which is basically 14k per day. Thats definately NOT happening. I only have Los Grandos which is able to produce 9k tops with all the big laundry buildings. I cant cap the Amado cuz terror level is already at DEA and i still have 2 labs to go, and i cant cap Tensaca cuz i dont have a leutenant with robbery. And yea i cant lower the terror atm cuz i asked for a loan for previous shakedown which was 180k.

I mean ... how is this even remotely possible? And i consider myself LUCKY that i have Amado free of gangs to begin with. But what if two unoccupied regions are way out there. OR what if i start in some godforsaken place w/o any smuggling points whats so ever?

Am i missing something there?

The biggest issue is laundering, to keep up you need new regions and fast. How?

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Just to throw in some data. Beating survival mode is the only global unlock left for me and it drives me nuts.

So i figured to make things a bit easier i would start in Los Grandes, cuz you get a river pier and a free aerodrome from the get go, on top of 5 laundering slots in the city. The soil is rich for both opium and cannabis which makes this region a nobrainer.

As for the Capo, i have all of them obviously, but i figured Michael Angelo Gacha (the mysterious stranger from campaign) is the best guy for the job. He gets opium deal which is very good throughout the whole timeline, demolition to squeeze out some extra cash from unwanted pre-built structures, he can silently kill off crazy leutenants (mostly to free up a slot if nesessary). And he got two very good perks but sadly on the same tier, either AOE laundering boost or a free dryer 1 tech. Both are very strong, the latter lets you get into cannabis buiseness right away in Los Grandes. 5 strength is also very useful obviously. I think he is overall extremely strong Capo, just checks all the boxes for me.

Thats my starting point. After that i think its very important to have Amado and maybe Cerro Tacarina in yellow, cuz i dont want to get into gang wars at least early on (preferably never). So that would take a few restarts. And lastly its also semi-important at least for your first leutenants to be decent, meaning NOT terror-loving psychopaths, but someone sane and hopefully with useful early perks.

Having all that figured out im still struggling. Any useful tips/suggestions at all?

[WrathOfBong(BongRipsForJesus)]

Originally posted by |||||||||||:

Just to throw in some data. Beating survival mode is the only global unlock left for me and it drives me nuts.

So i figured to make things a bit easier i would start in Los Grandes, cuz you get a river pier and a free aerodrome from the get go, on top of 5 laundering slots in the city. The soil is rich for both opium and cannabis which makes this region a nobrainer.

As for the Capo, i have all of them obviously, but i figured Michael Angelo Gacha (the mysterious stranger from campaign) is the best guy for the job. He gets opium deal which is very good throughout the whole timeline, demolition to squeeze out some extra cash from unwanted pre-built structures, he can silently kill off crazy leutenants (mostly to free up a slot if nesessary). And he got two very good perks but sadly on the same tier, either AOE laundering boost or a free dryer 1 tech. Both are very strong, the latter lets you get into cannabis buiseness right away in Los Grandes. 5 strength is also very useful obviously. I think he is overall extremely strong Capo, just checks all the boxes for me.

Thats my starting point. After that i think its very important to have Amado and maybe Cerro Tacarina in yellow, cuz i dont want to get into gang wars at least early on (preferably never). So that would take a few restarts. And lastly its also semi-important at least for your first leutenants to be decent, meaning NOT terror-loving psychopaths, but someone sane and hopefully with useful early perks.

Having all that figured out im still struggling. Any useful tips/suggestions at all?

I just failed a survival run in that region, I beat survival once in the region above it with the airport, which I found to be much easier, because you get a lot of sale slots, and the DEA never attack/shut it down. Compared to the air hanger, the river port doesn't get sized when ur capo is killed, but can be attacked, which is what made that region the easiest for me. I have workshops up and running to before the first capo is killed. and I was doing good in my last run until I took 2 regions and had a gang attack my city causing me to lose because of it. I have not took the time yet, but u can avoid all gang fighting by talking to the gang leaders and picking the right choices haven't taken the time to learn what each boss want's to hear yet.

[kingjames488]

I haven't really made it very far in survival, I might say it's a bit over-tuned, but people have done it... mostly through cheesey strats from what I've heard.

my best run was in los grandes also, but I went with rapayet grenier as my capo so I had gravel roads, transport company 2, drying rack 2 and areodrome 2 from the start which let me go straight into warehouse 2 and farms 3... so I was able to upgrade the existing areodrome for a good price and plant a 3x3 grid of poppy fields next to it with my capo sitting in the center to boost them all and just constantly keep the opium flowing out of the areodrome, got the cannabis production going over near the dock with access to the drier 2 and took the pier in amado all the while making deals with rival gangs in my area for extra stuff to shove through my smuggling points... then I messed it up by over-investing in stuff and missed a payment by like $2000 lol.

it was feeling like a strong start though.

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Originally posted by BeardManWrathTTV:

but u can avoid all gang fighting by talking to the gang leaders and picking the right choices haven't taken the time to learn what each boss want's to hear yet.

That i know, and i know exactly how to keep rival gang bosses happy too. Its not about them attacking me, its about me attacking them when i will eventually need to expand for more laundering opportunities. And yes i know i can just snag the boss into my cartel but that requires max loyalty, more power, and a free cartel slot, which may not always be the case.

But thank you for highlighting the airport, i will explore that option. Although iirc it wants salsa club and amusement park and it wnts to activate them meaning loss of more legal money ... so basically not a freebie.

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Hmm, missing a payment and getting your capo killed as a result resets the payment race. Not without the other drawbacks ofcourse. So im starting to think maybe you are not intended to keep your capos alive in the first place?

[WrathOfBong(BongRipsForJesus)]

Originally posted by |||||||||||:

Hmm, missing a payment and getting your capo killed as a result resets the payment race. Not without the other drawbacks ofcourse. So im starting to think maybe you are not intended to keep your capos alive in the first place?

oh yea, I don't see anyway possible of winning survival mode without losing a capo, I lost many of capos in my win, I don't see how you could ever win survival without losing a capo

[WrathOfBong(BongRipsForJesus)]

Originally posted by |||||||||||:

Hmm, missing a payment and getting your capo killed as a result resets the payment race. Not without the other drawbacks ofcourse. So im starting to think maybe you are not intended to keep your capos alive in the first place?

yea I started in that region which means u by default get the airport because there is no other exports in that region, you don't need more than 3, I beat survival while only ever controlling 2 regions, I was getting low on gang members to hire at the end but I made it. In the end all I did was pack cocaine into avocados for the ending days, didn't even take the 3rd open region till I was so close to the end I didn't even end up setting up or using anything in that region because I was so close already

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Yea, that makes sense now. I was literally trying to beat the payment race and that does not seem to be possible at all. Thank you for sharing!

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Update.

I am at 40% of the timeline and technically i think i already beat survival mode. I did exactly as i posted above, unfortunately Michael Angelo aka (The Virus) fell victim to CIA sniper. He fought the race until 290k mark. Which is give or take 10% of the timeline. However my second capo, whom i assigned almost randomly lives and he is not going to die anytime soon, unless i choose to replace him.

Thing is, it looks like the money race caps at 1mil in 60 days. It doesnt grow any further. At my stage of development its not a problem at all, im doing about 3mil in 60. So from here the game is very trivial. I got more money than i know what to do with. Currently sitting on 6 regions, producing every poison known to man.

So the question - is it possible to beat survival mode without losing even your first capo? Hard to tell, if i come up with some sick strat maybe i will make a guide or something.

Is survival mode overtuned? Naaa, its fine, just a bit confusing at first glance.

[Incosto]

You can create a little handicap on a start by abusing the fact that timer only starts after you get your 1st money for selling something. You need a capo with kidnap or robbery or both. So you just stay in your city making money on your skills, taking buildings you need and even buing stuff from other cartels without selling anything for some time. Then you start like a king.

Basically this mode is OK. You just get used to easy mode on campaing and sandbox. There is no middle mode with like a moderate difficulty... Only on survival i found out you can actually beat police instead of losing production chain and then buying back arrested buildings...Also if you dont have a single suspicios building police and DEA will not spawn.

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Originally posted by Incosto:

Also if you dont have a single suspicios building police and DEA will not spawn.

Huh? I captured some random plantation that was originally producing coffe. I had in mind that i would just switch it to produce opium. Too late i realised it cant, cause its not on the proper soil. Oh well i just left it to rot. It was empty and turned off. But when SHTF first thing cops did is jumped on it and blew it up to bits. Even though there was absolutely nothing suspicious about it.

However it taught me NOT to get rid of unused buildings unless they are in the way, makes them perfect decoy for them cops.

Tyvm for head start idea, i did it in the third campaign mission. just didnt talk to the chick on the pier until i got my full blown empire up and runing. Didnt realise you can cheese it similarly here.

Btw i completed the survival. Before 50% of a timeline actually. You only need 7 (or is it 8?) regions capped, and i was already on 6 last post.

[Waschbär42]

Originally posted by |||||||||||:

Originally posted by Incosto:

Also if you dont have a single suspicios building police and DEA will not spawn.

Huh?

I think he means the fact that, if you don't own any buildings (other than smuggling points) in your controlled areas, then they won't spawn since there are no targets

[kingjames488]

I stuck it out with that messy "good start" I'd mentioned earlier and managed to hold out for a win. ended up mostly just sitting there at the end watching the remaining 6 or so lieutenants giving them raises constantly to keep them from getting themselves killed or raising the terror for no reason.

only had 2-3 cities most of the game expanding into a 4th right at the end more out of bordom than anything, made most of my money from opium, cannabis, and meth in that order... tho I did have enough spare resources in the last year or so to expand into heroin.
also lost like 2-3mil due to constantly forgetting about asset forfeiture and messed up a bunch of times losing capos and such... so by no means does it need to be a "perfect playthrough" to win.

I found it really useful to take loans from the mayors, up to pretty much any ratio late game, for the loyalty gains instead of putting legal money into events. 2 cities can pretty much support this, tho 3 is better. pretty much whenever they become available take a loan to get loyalty. it's just so vauable to have lieutenants at smuggling points you don't want them sitting around in the cities, also you'll need favour to take over enemy gangs without the long terrifying battles.

also I'm tentatively going to say that the starting capo doesn't matter that much since you'll probably lose them pretty fast... though the initial setup is kinda important... so eh? it probably doesn't matter as much as it would seem at first.

I've been meaning to try unlocking expansive starting buildings with that mayor favour, not sure if that works but it only costs 15k so if there's more than that it's a potential starting strat.

[WrathOfBong(BongRipsForJesus)]

Originally posted by kingjames488:

I stuck it out with that messy "good start" I'd mentioned earlier and managed to hold out for a win. ended up mostly just sitting there at the end watching the remaining 6 or so lieutenants giving them raises constantly to keep them from getting themselves killed or raising the terror for no reason.

only had 2-3 cities most of the game expanding into a 4th right at the end more out of bordom than anything, made most of my money from opium, cannabis, and meth in that order... tho I did have enough spare resources in the last year or so to expand into heroin.
also lost like 2-3mil due to constantly forgetting about asset forfeiture and messed up a bunch of times losing capos and such... so by no means does it need to be a "perfect playthrough" to win.

I found it really useful to take loans from the mayors, up to pretty much any ratio late game, for the loyalty gains instead of putting legal money into events. 2 cities can pretty much support this, tho 3 is better. pretty much whenever they become available take a loan to get loyalty. it's just so vauable to have lieutenants at smuggling points you don't want them sitting around in the cities, also you'll need favour to take over enemy gangs without the long terrifying battles.

also I'm tentatively going to say that the starting capo doesn't matter that much since you'll probably lose them pretty fast... though the initial setup is kinda important... so eh? it probably doesn't matter as much as it would seem at first.

I've been meaning to try unlocking expansive starting buildings with that mayor favour, not sure if that works but it only costs 15k so if there's more than that it's a potential starting strat.

yea in all my survival runs I have always used someone who has a tier 2 building unlock so I can go start to cannabis and not even bother with opium and then straight to packing it from there. in my survival win all I did was pack weed till I got a pretty good amount of money, then pack cocaine at the end, which was the same for me, when I saw I was good till the end just sat there on 4x till I was at the win, sad there was no achievement for winning on survival

[WrathOfBong(BongRipsForJesus)]

Originally posted by Incosto:

You can create a little handicap on a start by abusing the fact that timer only starts after you get your 1st money for selling something. You need a capo with kidnap or robbery or both. So you just stay in your city making money on your skills, taking buildings you need and even buing stuff from other cartels without selling anything for some time. Then you start like a king.

Basically this mode is OK. You just get used to easy mode on campaing and sandbox. There is no middle mode with like a moderate difficulty... Only on survival i found out you can actually beat police instead of losing production chain and then buying back arrested buildings...Also if you dont have a single suspicios building police and DEA will not spawn.

this is incorrect, I just tried this. Tried getting a starting setup and supply of drugs before starting to sell but the mission just Activated even though I never sold anything.