Last 3 prestige points + Collection rate help?

[Matt]

Is there a sure fire way to ramp up your collection rate? I've came VERY close to beating the game before even being anywhere near obtaining the last 3 prestige points needed to unlock the last tier of talents, am i doing something wrong? Not sure what to invest into boost my collection rate, the bar doesn't seem to be budging at all. Thanks in advance!

[Mirrorminx]

Having 3 psionic gnorps and 20 collectors, using the time skip talent where the time jump affects the runners whenever the jetpack guys timeskip gives you absurdly high collection rate, it makes it hard to keep any shards down at all.

There is another build with mountain king and ice/fire where you have a stack at the far right also works.

The infinite shockwave talent for the garden hulks also can help.

[Longfolius]

My build and how i beat the game:
Talents (17): extra housing, bullet breath, explosive exposition, gattling balloon, bigger pile, notes, future to the back, rocket gatler, deals, reclamation mitigation, combo power, dont eat that, drone target far/close, vulnerability empowerment, agitated zybe, gnorpcalibur:unleashed, drone capacity.

You get 20 runners, no more, put around 10 slammers at the start and put more in the further you get in the game. On your first upgrades get fire breath and rocket arrows. Dont get teleport its not needed, get drones if you need to but no more than 5, once you can get the garden get the upgrade for it asap, tag only blue and green. get one zygnorp, dont use mountaineer, do build the building cause you get 4 gnorps in housing. upgrade your rocket factory, keep it enabled forever. Also get 1 bomber so it can trigger weak spots for you. dont forget to put in your inspirations and you can get all the excalibur upgrades if you have the talent. also take gunners, put them on ice arrows, and you archers on zybe arrows. you should be able to get it now :D just dont upgrades bombers

[Codey]

Originally posted by Longfolius:

My build and how i beat the game:
Talents (17): extra housing, bullet breath, explosive exposition, gattling balloon, bigger pile, notes, future to the back, rocket gatler, deals, reclamation mitigation, combo power, dont eat that, drone target far/close, vulnerability empowerment, agitated zybe, gnorpcalibur:unleashed, drone capacity.

You get 20 runners, no more, put around 10 slammers at the start and put more in the further you get in the game. On your first upgrades get fire breath and rocket arrows. Dont get teleport its not needed, get drones if you need to but no more than 5, once you can get the garden get the upgrade for it asap, tag only blue and green. get one zygnorp, dont use mountaineer, do build the building cause you get 4 gnorps in housing. upgrade your rocket factory, keep it enabled forever. Also get 1 bomber so it can trigger weak spots for you. dont forget to put in your inspirations and you can get all the excalibur upgrades if you have the talent. also take gunners, put them on ice arrows, and you archers on zybe arrows. you should be able to get it now :D just dont upgrades bombers

Big Vouch for this, I tried it without being able to get the last three talents and managed to get to the end pretty easily.

[Gittun]

Originally posted by Codey:

Originally posted by Longfolius:

My build and how i beat the game:
Talents (17): extra housing, bullet breath, explosive exposition, gattling balloon, bigger pile, notes, future to the back, rocket gatler, deals, reclamation mitigation, combo power, dont eat that, drone target far/close, vulnerability empowerment, agitated zybe, gnorpcalibur:unleashed, drone capacity.

You get 20 runners, no more, put around 10 slammers at the start and put more in the further you get in the game. On your first upgrades get fire breath and rocket arrows. Dont get teleport its not needed, get drones if you need to but no more than 5, once you can get the garden get the upgrade for it asap, tag only blue and green. get one zygnorp, dont use mountaineer, do build the building cause you get 4 gnorps in housing. upgrade your rocket factory, keep it enabled forever. Also get 1 bomber so it can trigger weak spots for you. dont forget to put in your inspirations and you can get all the excalibur upgrades if you have the talent. also take gunners, put them on ice arrows, and you archers on zybe arrows. you should be able to get it now :D just dont upgrades bombers

Big Vouch for this, I tried it without being able to get the last three talents and managed to get to the end pretty easily.

How? I've tried this (as you mentioned with the last 3 talents missing) and got stuck pretty hard on 9/10 at about 75%. Feels like I'm doing something wrong, but I don't know how to tell what.

Just trying random combo's doesn't really feel fun because it takes quite a while to get to the part where you can tell if something's going to work or not. This game needs some way to skip the part you've already beaten multiple times...

[Spartandemon]

Originally posted by Codey:

Originally posted by Longfolius:

My build and how i beat the game:
Talents (17): extra housing, bullet breath, explosive exposition, gattling balloon, bigger pile, notes, future to the back, rocket gatler, deals, reclamation mitigation, combo power, dont eat that, drone target far/close, vulnerability empowerment, agitated zybe, gnorpcalibur:unleashed, drone capacity.

You get 20 runners, no more, put around 10 slammers at the start and put more in the further you get in the game. On your first upgrades get fire breath and rocket arrows. Dont get teleport its not needed, get drones if you need to but no more than 5, once you can get the garden get the upgrade for it asap, tag only blue and green. get one zygnorp, dont use mountaineer, do build the building cause you get 4 gnorps in housing. upgrade your rocket factory, keep it enabled forever. Also get 1 bomber so it can trigger weak spots for you. dont forget to put in your inspirations and you can get all the excalibur upgrades if you have the talent. also take gunners, put them on ice arrows, and you archers on zybe arrows. you should be able to get it now :D just dont upgrades bombers

Big Vouch for this, I tried it without being able to get the last three talents and managed to get to the end pretty easily.

So far I can't even get into prestige 15 with this strategy, and I've made four attempts with slight differences in how many of said mentioned units to get and when. At most I can get 40% of the way there, then the bar just drops down to 35%.

Just feels like I'm, overall, playing the game... wrong?

[MrLuciferJunior]

I got it (the finale and 2 extra prestige points) with more runners, my biggest problem was the reclaiming of the rock, so I bought nullifying reclaiment and with the garden, I used the red, aka the hulks, to make unlimited waves, creating an income around 50M, nullifying most of the reclaiment. I also used ice archers and fire gunners, in combination with vulnerability and the acid (garden green), this made a huge pile on the right and a huge collection.

More info: tier 9 took me about 1-2 hours I think, so be patient as well.
Talents (total 14, used 12): extra housing, popcorn, superhot, notes, future to back, project constellation, frostfire, infinite reverberation, deals, combo power, DON'T EAT THAT, vulnerability empowerment.

I also used garden blue (so all colours), 1 gnorp, 15 mountaineers, 30 slammers, 10 bombers, 7 rifles and 1 gattle (this is the only zybellium I used on gnorps/drones). Throughout tier 2 - 8 I also used 0-15 drones.

Zybellium upgrades (not in order): flower power, overdrive (shrine), vulnerability, zygnorp (1), additional housing, the garden, the XY1-AB (upgraded to 8x, 9y), reclamation nullification, gattlegnorp (by mistake but in early/mid game actually usefull), zybellium arrows (wanted to try them, but the fire/ice combo was more powerfull for me).

This is what I had in the end, it's not good explaination how I got there but it's basically what mirrorminx wrote and maybe it helps, I found longfolius' explanation also good.

[Trout var. Al-Khidr's whip]

A lot of specific strategies are linked to talents that create secondary uses for early investments. I can imagine it being pretty frustrating to set something up and be missing the one talent that makes it work.

My recommendations:

Use something fairly simple for clearing. A single mountaineer with the king of the hill upgrade can clear enough shards to finish the game. A single king is a guaranteed king that will never rest and will max out crowns, that is a x16 modifier. Max out width and then drop a decent amount into depth. "Improve digging" is expensive in terms of gnorps; however, it's one of the few things in the game guaranteed to give you a x2 multiplier every time you invest in it (until you max it out). If you are using a king, max out the utility by also planning to use 25 slammers for the inspiration bonus of 20% dig speed and bigger jumps.

Since you are using slammers, might as well make sure they are doing something late game. If you invest in jumps you are planning to use them with drones. So don't. Give them combo chance up to 80% and fire breath. Fire isn't great late game for damage -- so choose the bullet breath talent. Do not choose "The Flow, "Motivation", or "Combo Power" talents. You want your gnorps repeating the bullet breath as a damage source as quickly as possible; no jumping and no meditating. Now, you want your slammers to repeat their cycle as quickly as possible; so hire 10 runners for the inspiration.

Don't use drones. Drones are mostly for creating baby drones in the last two compression stages. You don't need them unless you are going for crazy high damage numbers to get a few more talent points.

Get riflegnorps. Always get riflegnorps. Get grenades. Always get grenades. Use the "Explosive Exposition" talent if you have the points; if you have "Modern Warfare" always use both. Always. With "Explosive Exposition" each grenade subtracts 3 seconds from the next weak spot spawn. "Modern Warfare" makes riflegnorps shoot only grenades. Breaking weak spots automatically fills your overdrive bar -- so you can leave the game running overnight and get the full overdrive bonus. Hire bombers and set them to break weak spots: hire only enough.

At this point you should be approaching mid-game. You should have used only 2 zybellium. If you only have 15 talent points, you've used 2: "Bullet Breath" and "Explosive Exposition".

What other talents will you want?
Open bracket: Take "Extra Housing".
1st bracket: Take nothing.
2nd bracket: Take "The Higher the Pile" and "Gatling Balloon".
3rd bracket: Take "Future to the Back" and "Return to Sender".
4th bracket: Take "Deals" and "Reclamation Mitigation".
5th bracket: Take "Vulnerability Empowerment" and "Arrow's Last Hurrah".
(If you have the 6th bracket: Take "Modern Warfare", "Agitated Zybe", and "Gnorpcalibur Unleashed")

That's 11 talents. The other 4 won't do a lot for you. Carefully choose 4 other talents for the 4 gnorps that will give you.

How you are going to finish: MULTIPLIERS!

Get the GEET protocol from the express, get rockets, get Vulnerability. Vulnerability will give a x2 damage modifier with the "Vulnerability Empowerment" talent.

Get the Garden, upgrade "Enriched Puke" for another x2 damage modifier. Keep the green potion on to start. Get "Flower Power" and then turn on the green and blue potions.

Unlock "Zybellium Arrows" for a x3 damage multiplier. Your archers will be fed arrows from all your "gatling" type weapons by the directors created by the garden using "Return to Sender". Your gatling balloon will feed this, your 2 gatling guns will feed this, and all of your slammers puking out arrows will feed this. If you need more arrows hire more slammers.

Finally, since you will likely not have "Modern Warfare", set your riflegnorps to use ice arrows. This will give you approximately a x1.5 damage multiplier. You really don't need the few extra arrows they would be contributing to be re-fired.

At this point you will have used 7 zybellium. 1 should be used early to mid game to upgrade your housing. The other 2 can be used to unlock 2 gatlegnorps; unlock them when it works for you. Upgrade them with extended magazines and sticky feet.

Expand your X/Y rockets, riflegnorps, and slammers until you win. If you are still having problems replace one gatlingnorp with Reclaimation Nullification. Then buy the shrine, chose the "Reversal Accord", and leave the game running for a few hours. This will make it very difficult for the Stone to pull back shards -- and -- eventually you'll just win. That shouldn't be necessary, you should be able to beat the game in under and hour like this.

It's a bit of a puzzle game figuring out what works with what! Have fun and enjoy! Cheers.

[MrLuciferJunior]

that's a good explanation, should work.
Just know that there are more ways of course to beat it, I wasted some talents and zybellium and made choices Trout doesn't recommend and still got it pretty easy, maybe it took a little longer.

[Trout var. Al-Khidr's whip]

Oh, trust me -- first run to 17 took me 2 days. ;D All sorts of cool combinations you can use depending on what exactly you are looking for in the run. If something I've recommended isn't working for you -- give me a bit of hell and then modify it. 25 mountaineers with buddies also works pretty well!

OH! And once you've unlock "Modern Warfare" turn on grenades and use "Accord: Overdrive". Just do it.

I didn't re-playtest that build. I'll check it tomorrow after my current run. Trying to break past prestige 23 -- currently at 6 G in/out on compression 9. Gotta get 30+ drones and hopefully crack 20 G before hitting the final compression. I think prestige 24 is 40 G output.

[MrLuciferJunior]

good luck! haha

[Nikaxe]

Originally posted by Longfolius:

My build and how i beat the game:
Talents (17): extra housing, bullet breath, explosive exposition, gattling balloon, bigger pile, notes, future to the back, rocket gatler, deals, reclamation mitigation, combo power, dont eat that, drone target far/close, vulnerability empowerment, agitated zybe, gnorpcalibur:unleashed, drone capacity.

You get 20 runners, no more, put around 10 slammers at the start and put more in the further you get in the game. On your first upgrades get fire breath and rocket arrows. Dont get teleport its not needed, get drones if you need to but no more than 5, once you can get the garden get the upgrade for it asap, tag only blue and green. get one zygnorp, dont use mountaineer, do build the building cause you get 4 gnorps in housing. upgrade your rocket factory, keep it enabled forever. Also get 1 bomber so it can trigger weak spots for you. dont forget to put in your inspirations and you can get all the excalibur upgrades if you have the talent. also take gunners, put them on ice arrows, and you archers on zybe arrows. you should be able to get it now :D just dont upgrades bombers

Good build, just one thing that I think is a good way to get more talent points. Get 1-8 drones with the non-zybe upgrade, then watch as your talent points increase to 2. Just something that I did to get more while doing this run. Make sure efficiency mode is on too. On tier 7-9 It also increses your money rate heaps too. Like 2 million every 1-5 seconds depending on your tier.

[Mattrex]

Originally posted by Trout:

A lot of specific strategies are linked to talents that create secondary uses for early investments. I can imagine it being pretty frustrating to set something up and be missing the one talent that makes it work.

My recommendations:

Use something fairly simple for clearing. A single mountaineer with the king of the hill upgrade can clear enough shards to finish the game. A single king is a guaranteed king that will never rest and will max out crowns, that is a x16 modifier. Max out width and then drop a decent amount into depth. "Improve digging" is expensive in terms of gnorps; however, it's one of the few things in the game guaranteed to give you a x2 multiplier every time you invest in it (until you max it out). If you are using a king, max out the utility by also planning to use 25 slammers for the inspiration bonus of 20% dig speed and bigger jumps.

Since you are using slammers, might as well make sure they are doing something late game. If you invest in jumps you are planning to use them with drones. So don't. Give them combo chance up to 80% and fire breath. Fire isn't great late game for damage -- so choose the bullet breath talent. Do not choose "The Flow, "Motivation", or "Combo Power" talents. You want your gnorps repeating the bullet breath as a damage source as quickly as possible; no jumping and no meditating. Now, you want your slammers to repeat their cycle as quickly as possible; so hire 10 runners for the inspiration.

Don't use drones. Drones are mostly for creating baby drones in the last two compression stages. You don't need them unless you are going for crazy high damage numbers to get a few more talent points.

Get riflegnorps. Always get riflegnorps. Get grenades. Always get grenades. Use the "Explosive Exposition" talent if you have the points; if you have "Modern Warfare" always use both. Always. With "Explosive Exposition" each grenade subtracts 3 seconds from the next weak spot spawn. "Modern Warfare" makes riflegnorps shoot only grenades. Breaking weak spots automatically fills your overdrive bar -- so you can leave the game running overnight and get the full overdrive bonus. Hire bombers and set them to break weak spots: hire only enough.

At this point you should be approaching mid-game. You should have used only 2 zybellium. If you only have 15 talent points, you've used 2: "Bullet Breath" and "Explosive Exposition".

What other talents will you want?
Open bracket: Take "Extra Housing".
1st bracket: Take nothing.
2nd bracket: Take "The Higher the Pile" and "Gatling Balloon".
3rd bracket: Take "Future to the Back" and "Return to Sender".
4th bracket: Take "Deals" and "Reclamation Mitigation".
5th bracket: Take "Vulnerability Empowerment" and "Arrow's Last Hurrah".
(If you have the 6th bracket: Take "Modern Warfare", "Agitated Zybe", and "Gnorpcalibur Unleashed")

That's 11 talents. The other 4 won't do a lot for you. Carefully choose 4 other talents for the 4 gnorps that will give you.

How you are going to finish: MULTIPLIERS!

Get the GEET protocol from the express, get rockets, get Vulnerability. Vulnerability will give a x2 damage modifier with the "Vulnerability Empowerment" talent.

Get the Garden, upgrade "Enriched Puke" for another x2 damage modifier. Keep the green potion on to start. Get "Flower Power" and then turn on the green and blue potions.

Unlock "Zybellium Arrows" for a x3 damage multiplier. Your archers will be fed arrows from all your "gatling" type weapons by the directors created by the garden using "Return to Sender". Your gatling balloon will feed this, your 2 gatling guns will feed this, and all of your slammers puking out arrows will feed this. If you need more arrows hire more slammers.

Finally, since you will likely not have "Modern Warfare", set your riflegnorps to use ice arrows. This will give you approximately a x1.5 damage multiplier. You really don't need the few extra arrows they would be contributing to be re-fired.

At this point you will have used 7 zybellium. 1 should be used early to mid game to upgrade your housing. The other 2 can be used to unlock 2 gatlegnorps; unlock them when it works for you. Upgrade them with extended magazines and sticky feet.

Expand your X/Y rockets, riflegnorps, and slammers until you win. If you are still having problems replace one gatlingnorp with Reclaimation Nullification. Then buy the shrine, chose the "Reversal Accord", and leave the game running for a few hours. This will make it very difficult for the Stone to pull back shards -- and -- eventually you'll just win. That shouldn't be necessary, you should be able to beat the game in under and hour like this.

It's a bit of a puzzle game figuring out what works with what! Have fun and enjoy! Cheers.

I tried this strategy out for a while, but I'm confused as to how you're supposed to get a single mountaineer - even an upgraded, quad-crowned king - to collect any shards at all.

I had one who was, indeed, digging shards quite fast, but he was digging them all on the left side of the field, and approximately zero of them were going into the stash. Even with a ton of digging upgrades and max width, he could only really succeed at keeping the left side roughly level and almost never crossed over to the right side.

I can see how a mountaineer tossing shards that quickly on the right side of the field would collect quickly, but unless all the shards land on that side, he's just going to be stuck elsewhere.