Help with Age of Discovery

[Snow Hakaishin]

How have people managed to get to the 6 biomes with 12 biodiversity while also getting up to 600 Prosperity? I've been crushing all the other eras but this is the last one I'm missing the gild for.

[disquiet]

Hey I just got this 1 hour ago. I used the botanist and focused heavily on plants obviously. Used rainforests, forests and waters biome mostly. I got lucky maybe but towards the end I got the biotica tree that basically adds 50 food 50 science to every tree on the planet and I spamed a lot of trees and got really good points and with rainforest you can easily build biodiversity. Also at first I thought you need to have 12 free biodiversity for it, but no, you can use it(so it's 12 total) and have 4-6 patches of a biome and upgrade and build some well tight biomes.
Hope this helps.

[veressl94]

I did it with the Sage (+Huntress and Artist). I put six different biomes down in the second era, two for each leader, and made liberal use of expanding the planet. With each biome solely belonging to one city, I could focus on geting biotica that served that given leader's quest best and that seemed to be enough - I got each biome up to rank 3 except for one. Also tried to focus on biotica that gives extra biodiversity.

This ended with me finishing the 12 biodiversity part with only 500 prosperity. Spent my resources like never before, getting a draft charge, many eons to put down whatever I can, and some giant abilites. Managed to eke out the last 100 with lots of micros, creeks and sanctuaries.

It was painful. But, in retrospect, with better micro planning and placement I could've finished earlier - don't think I've ever realized how strong the sanctuary is, especially with rare micros. Probably also would've helped a lot if I focused on the cities' bonus shrines.

So yeah, idk if I'd recommend this approach, but I got it this way. If nothing else, favoring population seems to be a good idea since expansion is necessary.

eta: just noticed now that the various museums give stuff like extra eons and drafts. Now THOSE would've been helpful.

[Deadbuffalo]

I went with the Merchant and lots and lots of gems, mostly unlocked via the evolve mechanics. Was very close but was able to use the stream natural feature to get over the line with the 6th biome.

Definitely pay attention to the museums before unlocking more!

[F A T B $ $ $ R T D]

rainforest baby

[WereGrim]

Quick clarification - do all biomes need to be completely unique? (Basically, 1 forest, 1 rainforest, 1 savanna, etc) Or just separate?

[Rexnos]

I managed to do it in my most recent 1000 prosperity game. I chose the poet as my starting spirit (dlc content, grants 50% bonus yields from projects) and focused heavily on projects. I went city of dreams for the skyscraper and cashed out with a massive smilodon (ice age content). There was a monstrously strong orange tree for my botanist as well.

I don't think the dlc content is particularly skewed, but I could be wrong. Some general tips:

1. There's a check mark at the top of the screen for each era in each biome when you've surpassed its biodiversity goal. This is worth bonus prosperity in each era, so try not to place biotica in completed ecosystems, as you could be building up others. It can still be worth it to max out projects before the end of the era, but you might pay for it if you do it too often, especially if you're only placing one-star biotica.

2. Get a fourth city. The fifth city is a lot more optional, but city four seems pretty mandatory. It's important to make use of your planet shop resources and the bonus prosperity from completing a fourth city's requests is a pretty great value. In addition, this fourth city can be dedicated mostly to a fourth biome, making biodiversity more lucrative and easier.

3. Remember to use micros early and often. Most of the common micros only yield a small amount of resources, so it's nice to drop them on percent boosted biotica you might otherwise not bother placing a micro in at all. The first several micro upgrades in the planet shop are cheap and give three micros and the giant's unique. Playing around a giant's unique micro can offer a huge amount of value, whether you're placing tier 1 or tier 3 biotica. Holding on to rare rolls can pay off in tier 3 once you hit them too. Rainforests also have unique diversity boosting micro.

4. Terraform. If you're aiming for more biodiversity, the forest giant's creek improvement grants +1 to each plant and some sick yields. Frankly all of the giants have awesome terraforming powers as long as you remember to use them through multiple eras. The first one only costs five wealth too.

5. Not all spirits work well in all biomes. This advisement falls off pretty aggressively outside of era 1 due to the wider draft pool, but choosing a spirit poorly suited to a biome at the beginning of the game can make life much harder than it needs to be. Make sure your spirit has a city request that can be easily completed with the starting apex biotica and cohorts draftable at tier 1. The first pack for each biome is always the same (though be careful in horizon draft), so your 1-star biome should basically write itself, save for boosted spaces.

6. Go wide not tall once you've completed your projects. Each prosperity point is harder and harder to achieve as cities gain more and more of the same resource. Even if the sage wants food most, it's extremely beneficial to pivot hard out of food once you've completed his tier 4 city request. Each biotica will yield far more when you have less of its resource.

7. Try four patch biomes. I like to start my cities with one four patch biome on one side with literal blank canvas on the other side. The city will expand four patches in one direction in this circumstance. This allows you to more easily work on a single biome, before making a second, different biome in the other direction. I easily hit four biodiversity bonuses (one for each city) in era 2 this way, frequently managing a fifth and occasional sixth.

Hopefully this helped somewhat. Most of it seems kinda of basic in hindsight, but at least some of it isn't instantly intuitive.

[♥♥♥♥♥♥]

Originally posted by WereGrim:

Quick clarification - do all biomes need to be completely unique? (Basically, 1 forest, 1 rainforest, 1 savanna, etc) Or just separate?

separate, i did it with 2 water, 2 rainforest 2 ice age.

[Teelo]

Originally posted by ♥♥♥♥♥♥:

Originally posted by WereGrim:

Quick clarification - do all biomes need to be completely unique? (Basically, 1 forest, 1 rainforest, 1 savanna, etc) Or just separate?

separate, i did it with 2 water, 2 rainforest 2 ice age.

Whoops. I did it with 1 of every biome cause thats what I thought it meant. Oh well.

[Ares]

Originally posted by ♥♥♥♥♥♥:

Originally posted by WereGrim:

Quick clarification - do all biomes need to be completely unique? (Basically, 1 forest, 1 rainforest, 1 savanna, etc) Or just separate?

separate, i did it with 2 water, 2 rainforest 2 ice age.

That should make it super easy, just play a normal game with Merchant and then make three small deserts you put 6 gems in once you've gotten enough score.

[niddhoger]

Huh... I did it with 6 separate biome-types split between 5 cities.

I prefer to go a heavy food focus on the start so I can afford all the planet embiggeners sooner rather than later.

This meant some of the biomes were on the smaller side and only had ~4 patches to work with. It helps to drop down mountains/rich hills to give extra room to place biotica on. Mountains are particularly useful as the three bonus slots have reduced eon cost for dropping biotica on them.

Also look for biotica that give bonus biodiviersity and remember that higher tiers of biotica naturally give more biodiversity.

And if you can, remember that one of the museums gives up to +15 bonus eon to play with. This might be the flowers/medicinal herb one? I'd have to load back in to double check.

It's definitely a tense juggling match, but remember not to over commit to any one biome. It helps to lean more into the micros and really leverage your project bonuses to squeeze out the minimum needed to progress. Then move onto the next: you'll really want those draft charges to get more apex biotica. They are both higher tier (more biodiversity) and the mega $$$ for juicing your prosperity.

I've done 3-star Age of Discovery a few times now, and honestly, I had less trouble with it that figuring out how to 3-star the Neolithic Hunter Era 1 challenge. I had to restart that one a few times before I got a winning strategy. In comparison, I got 3-star on Age of Discovery my first run... but that was a scramble to buy more eon and pray for the right micros that give bonus biodiversity: it really was down to the wire with my last biotica of the game clinches the 3-star requirement.

My next run went much smoother as I took care not to overcommit to one biome and prioritize biotica that had bonus biodiversity.

[greensniperhat]

I just got that cheevo, it is hard. Basically you need to start expanding your planet and adding new biomes (at least 1) since the 2nd/medieval era. Hopefully you get biotica with diversity synergies (i.e. mud cracks), that helps a ton. Then it's a matter of maximizing prosperity.

[skyknyt]

Two shallow oceans really hooked me up. Great biome.

[Jarenth]

This is the most recent one I got as well; funnily enough, I was worried it'd be really difficult, and then it ended up being my highest score so far.

What worked for me was:
- Starting with the Painter Spirit, who has a natural interaction with many high-value Biomes (both in spirit power and in some of her Projects)
- Expanded the planet to Maximum And Then Some (by getting 2 Crevices as my second-era bonus)
- Build up a full set of 5 max-rank cities
- Pick spirits as much as possible to get bits of every resource; I started with Painter in Desert/Ocean for Wealth, then Diplomat with a Food focus in Jungle/Ocean, Poet with Science focus in a different Jungle/Ocean, Goddess in Taiga/Ocean (bit of everything), and finally Villain (Wealth/Food) in a different Taiga.

At the end, I had two Jungles, two Taigas, two Oceans, and one Desert. With five cities maxed out and some handy Biotica selection I hit the 600 Progress cap easily; after that it was just a matter of getting the Biodiversity in a bunch of areas high enough. I actually ended up with four unused Upgrades, which is something I've never seen before.

Good luck!

[icarosaurvus]

I used Poet, with forest, desert, and ocean. In essence: Fill the forest with plants, the ocean with critters and plants and the desert with critters, and reap the delicious science from a desert oil and the crab rock. I did it with three cities - any more got a bit annoying, and gave very little in returns. Mostly, what you want is one generalist who you will give a science focus, one science guy (inventor or botanist, or if you have no other choice, miner) and a third, food/gold-focused person for the expansions and the gold for terrain features (Huntress or pirate). Age of philosophy is also a pretty big help. Mountains are also key - I set up a mountain next to each city, and three of my six biomes (two forests and one of my two deserts) were about four tiles big, with three of those being the mountains. (You stack the mountains with high-tier biota, and leave lower-tier things in the oceans and one of the deserts to buff your crabs and oil.)

[s3khmet]

I must be stupid but how do you check the biodiversity score of a specific biome ?
Because "Have 5 Biomes with at least 12 Biodiversity (3/5)" is not really helpfull when you don't know which ones are good...