NOD Outback Hard: Guide

[Vovin]

So I'm replaying for the upteenth time and the only mission that has given me serious problems is Outback. I'm sure somebody will be looking for tips because it's kinda broken and you have to cheese it.

Here's what you do:
- Do not attack the convoys. After you attack one and get the truck, the Scrin will attack. You don't want this at all.
- Knock down the Tib spire with your stealth tanks in order to block the convoys from leaving. Unfortunately this still leads to an random event where the convoys will still try to leave later and get stuck just beyond the spire, and this makes them FAR harder to deal with. Leave the GDI defenses to deal with the Scrin later.
- While you are doing this, send your other units south and west to escort your engineers to the west base. Leave the mutants.
- Bring your stealth tanks west and use your tanks to destroy only the machinegun turret at the base with the barracks, LEAVE the AA guns alone. Capture the barracks and the lab.
- Recruit another engineer to capture the ore factory up north, although you won't really need more resources.
- May as well save at this point.

Phase 2:
- The next steps are very important: What the game doesn't tell you is that you only need ONE nuke truck, and you don't automatically lose if 2 of them get destroyed. Do not try to capture all three nuke trucks, it's not worth it.
- The next problem is that you need to trigger the Carryall countdown. You can only do this by having ALL of the existing nuke trucks in your control AND at the base in the east (where the marker is). Since the Scrin get triggered after capturing one truck, and they send massive waves that will wipe this base out, and you will have to wait 3 minutes AFTER the countdown starts, I'm sure you can understand the problem.
- Solution: Capture the first nuke truck and send to the escort base spot. Destroy the other two nuke trucks, not the convoys. You'll probably lose units doing this but it's the only way to win for sure.
- When that one truck is the only one left, countdown will trigger, and you need to immediately escort that one truck from the east base to the west base where there is hardly any Scrin. There are some Stalkers and maybe some aircraft on the way there but nothing like on the eastern side of the map. Your stealth tanks will take care of anything.
- When the count down ends, you win. It doesn't matter where your lone nuke truck is in relation to the Carryalls.

I don't know any other way. I've tried using Rocket Troops/Mutants and garrison around the east base but it is impossible, unless you keep the nuke trucks separated because when one goes, they all go.

[Mr.Kill]

Pretty much have to sequence break this mission. I doubt they intended or wanted the player to steal barracks, then refinery then spam rocket troopers to completely hard counter scrin assault. In C&C 3 base devastators do cannon damage and thus cannot kill rocket troops effectively. Kane's wrath changes that to a more lethal grenade type which makes the devastator pretty much anti-everything on the ground.

[Vovin]

Originally posted by Mr.Kill:

Pretty much have to sequence break this mission. I doubt they intended or wanted the player to steal barracks, then refinery then spam rocket troopers to completely hard counter scrin assault. In C&C 3 base devastators do cannon damage and thus cannot kill rocket troops effectively. Kane's wrath changes that to a more lethal grenade type which makes the devastator pretty much anti-everything on the ground.

I've watched some videos, some published just a few years ago and using the latest official patch. They both managed to edge by near the base in the east with one truck. One guy turtled up in quonset huts to the north east of the NOD base, garrisoning with mutants.

However, both of these guys seemed to be able to trigger the Carryall countdown without having a truck near the beacon in the base. For instance, they were able to capture one and hide it, while it would still trigger the countdown when the Scrin eventually destroyed the other trucks. I tried the replicate that but couldn't. So I don't know what happened there but the real trick is you gotta have the last truck near the beacon in the base THEN pull it west as fast as you can.

[StrangestEcho]

If you capture the refinery with the harvester inside it you can then just farm for a while and spam up a large number of mutants and rocket troopers, which will allow you to defend the nod base and three trucks with relative ease. The nuke trucks can be repaired by the factory. It's boring, but yeah the mission is poorly balanced in the last patch and farming will guarantee success.

I think I used 15 of each.

[Vovin]

Originally posted by StrangestEcho:

If you capture the refinery with the harvester inside it you can then just farm for a while and spam up a large number of mutants and rocket troopers, which will allow you to defend the nod base and three trucks with relative ease. The nuke trucks can be repaired by the factory. It's boring, but yeah the mission is poorly balanced in the last patch and farming will guarantee success.

I think I used 15 of each.

You can't construct a harvester from the refinery so you can't farm. You just get a few thousand credits stored from the refinery. But you don't have to build any units if you just get a surviving nuke truck to the west side after the Carryall countdown begins.

[Mr.Kill]

Originally posted by Vovin:

Originally posted by StrangestEcho:

If you capture the refinery with the harvester inside it you can then just farm for a while and spam up a large number of mutants and rocket troopers, which will allow you to defend the nod base and three trucks with relative ease. The nuke trucks can be repaired by the factory. It's boring, but yeah the mission is poorly balanced in the last patch and farming will guarantee success.

I think I used 15 of each.

You can't construct a harvester from the refinery so you can't farm. You just get a few thousand credits stored from the refinery. But you don't have to build any units if you just get a surviving nuke truck to the west side after the Carryall countdown begins.

You can farm from the refinery if you capture while the harv is docked. Read his post more carefully.

[StrangestEcho]

Originally posted by Vovin:

Originally posted by StrangestEcho:

If you capture the refinery with the harvester inside it you can then just farm for a while and spam up a large number of mutants and rocket troopers, which will allow you to defend the nod base and three trucks with relative ease. The nuke trucks can be repaired by the factory. It's boring, but yeah the mission is poorly balanced in the last patch and farming will guarantee success.

I think I used 15 of each.

You can't construct a harvester from the refinery so you can't farm. You just get a few thousand credits stored from the refinery. But you don't have to build any units if you just get a surviving nuke truck to the west side after the Carryall countdown begins.

Capturing a refinery with a harvester docked will indeed transfer control of the harvester as well. I believe this mechanic exists across the entire C&C franchise except Generals. The Tiberium in this level regenerates so you can farm as long as you need to and trivialize the second half of the mission.

It's a useful mechanic to know for multiple levels across the franchise, and that's why one of the NOD missions specifically has a bonus where you have to capture three Scrin Refineries. You're supposed to steal the harvester as well and use the refinery to farm.