How to beat an 18:30

[jaekins48]

Hey! I’m all in on the gnorps. I’ve been struggling to get a sub 18:30

Currently I rush time skip bombers with frost fire. I use all my zybelium for time skip with 1 being used for housing, 1 for a zynorp, 1 for plants, 1 for pocket rockets, 1 for reclamation reduction, and 1 for vulnerability rockets. I usually end with 100+ bombers, 20 runners, 1 zynorp, 20% GEET, 2-3 rocket upgrades, and 5+ rifle gnorps. My main issue is the pile phase of the finale.

Any help?

[Captain Muscles]

Using your strategy as a base, I finished in 16:10 (my previous best was 24:something.) The differences I implemented were:

no zynorp (unlock the academy just for the housing)
10 mountaineers for the extra pocket rockets

Thats all I can recall changing.

edit: i previously tried with more mountaineers, but no more than 10 were ever able to fit on the pile.

[jaekins48]

This worked out great! I was able to do sub 16:30 consistently.

[jaekins48]

Saw a new strat on youtube. You cycle through zybellium, frost, and fire arrows. Use 3 zybellium for 3 zynorp so you get a time shift boost for bombers. Get modern warfare so the riflement upkeep weakspots and rockets that trigger weakspots. Causes damage to skyrocket and popcorn all that damage into the far pile. I'm able to consistently get 14:00-15:00 but the guy I saw was able to do 12:40. Gnorptacular.

[Captain Muscles]

I did a quick check on youtube and didn't see a speedrun video under an hour long. Cycling arrows like that sounds like too much micromanagement for me. May not even be necessary - I just got 12:44 with the jaekins-muscles technique :D

[jaekins48]

Heck yeah dude!!!

[Captain Muscles]

Just uploaded a 12:17 run to Youtube. While it was uploading I got a 12:03.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjqIcexh1wo

I found that NOT taking Project: Constellation helped me bring my time down a lot. Having the rockets hit while the rock is frozen was making my progress a little too luck-dependent. Having the rockets land over time instead of all at once made my DPS as well as shard placement much more reliable.

[Captain Muscles]

11:14 today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJPsmwYGWw8

[Gin Zulu]

@Captain Muscles - Something is totally off here. I have tried following your video as precise as possible but I always end up with way less gnorps than you and the housing costs way more. Same talents, and I try to time the Compression so that I get more Zybellium and hence more housing. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'm taking the same Zybellium upgrades as well.

[Captain Muscles]

@Gin Zulu - Might be that your timing is off somehow? I've been trying to follow along with some people on discord that have faster times than me and I have the same problem you are having. It just doesn't work the same and my best guess is that they are timing something that I'm not noticing, like say, getting a tech or triggering ice so that the shards pile up at just the right time.