Hard or very hard Tormented Space maps

[tiba992]

This post is outdated and incomplete, much of the information was compiled into a wiki article. https://knucklecracker.com/wiki/doku.php?id=cw3:tormented_space

Tormented Space contains a lot of very hard maps that make Farbor or early Arca look like a joke and even some impossible ones.

For those who want to improve at the game, like myself, I think it would be helpful to list them, to discuss whether they can be beaten and how they can be beaten. I'll try to update this thread regularly and to add maps that other players have beaten and for which they posted realistic times, so that we can get a feel for the validity of high score times.

I'll start with Coalve, but I'll add more maps in the future.

List

Impossible

S200_185 - Tillyketh - (2018-09-15 reported, upper quarter of right edge of the star map)

Very Hard

S200_134 - Sudpir - (2018-09-19 completed, time: 3:14:30, close to the center of the star map)
S200_157 - Coalve - (2018-09-08 completed, time: 4:33:16, center of upper half of star map)
S200_158 - Penbor - (2018-09-23 completed, time: 1:32:47, below center of left edge of the star map)
S200_153 - Sieioanu - (2018-09-09 completed, time: 2:44:46, center of lower left of star map)
S200_79 - Greeninverok - (2018-09-12 completed, time: 3:23:30, bottem left corner of star map)
S200_107 - Razdon - (2018-09-15 completed, time: 0:55:08, center of the star map)
S200_180 - Ioottum - (2018-09-11 completed, time: 1:08:27, center of the bottom edge of the star map)

Hard

S200_78 - Auchcardensar - (2018-09-10 completed, time: 2:53:27, center-right of lower quarter of star map)
S200_138 - Jupnale - (2018-09-22 completed, time: 1:51:11, close to the left edge of the star map, vertically close to the middle)
More to come.

General adivce:

After posting a couple of walkthroughs here (8 at the moment of creating these notes), a few patterns emerged so it might be sensible to add some general advice up here.
This advice is definitely incomplete and needs to be complemented with proficiency in Creeper World 3 that is only acquired by trying the guides for oneself. It is only designed to steer attempts at beating hards maps in a direction that worked for me and I'd be happy to read other peoples insights in further comments that help me get better in this game as well and that I can add to this list.

The Basics of Effective Play

0. Pause and save often. This should go without saying when talking about hard maps.
1. Balance your energy and do not build too much in parallel. Build one by one unless you have an overproduction of energy. When expanding your energy production (building collectors and reactors), build your buildings one by one. Building two reactors in parallel that don't build at maximum speed takes longer than finishing one first, then immediately building the second one. Same goes for collectors at the very start, so don't waste time here. Letting your energy production go to waste with 25 in storage is a waste of time as well, of course.
2. Start with collectors. Collectors pay for themselves very quickly (if I've done my tests right, around 20-30 seconds, depending on the area they cover), so it often makes sense to put down collectors even in areas that you do not plan to hold. Switch to reactors when there are no more spots available with good collection area that will not fall in the next 30 seconds.
3. I found that it takes around 3.5-3.8 energy to build two reactors in parallel at maximum speed.
4. Disable Resupply to speed up building reactors, when you can afford to do so. You can always afford to do so when your mortars are fully charged. Be careful when your mortars stop shooting, though, you might not see the flood coming through before it is too late.
5. Do not hesitate to destroy collectors to make more space for reactors in the long run.

Combatting Creeper

1. I distinguish between two issues with creeper: The high tide of creeper and the shallow creeper. The former is a mountain of creeper that inevitably forms and expands around the emitter as time goes on and presses against your defenses with increasing pressure. The latter comes with much less pressure and height but it comes much earlier.
2. The first goal is to establish a stable situation. This requires to deal with both threats.
3. The High Tide:
3.1 The only early viable way to deal with the high tide is the mortar. It keeps the high tide at bay but is not suited to deal with the shallow creeper. If it is supplied with sufficient energy, it can keep a certain width of the front of the high tide a mortar-range away from your base. Depending on the size of your base and how badly it is surrounded, you need a certain amount of well-supplied mortars for that task. A base in the corner of the map needs 4 to 5 mortars. A base in the corner with empty space on one more side might only need two. A base completely surrounded might need more than 5.
3.2 The pressure of the high tide will keep on growing in the first twenty minutes of the game, so you need to be careful and always check whether your mortars are still up for the task. A way to reduce the general pressure on the whole map in mid-game is the Big Bertha on auto-target, if energy and space permit it.
4. If your mortars deal with the high tide, you still need to deal with the shallow flood. There are a couple of options for that. They are all unsuited to deal with the high tide.
4.1 The preferred way: Height differences in terrain. These deal with the shallow flood as long as it is at least as shallow as the height difference. Your mortars might be able to arrange that. Use naturally occurring height differences, close gaps with the Terp if necessary.
4.2 The situational way: If you happen to have an ore mine in your base, then anti-creeper (sprayer should usually be on always on)
4.3 The somewhat costly way: Cannons.
4.4 The ridiculously costly way: Shields. They are pretty expensive, but they can also help to expand the base.
5. Digitalis: Experiment with Cannons set to "digitalis" only in a safe setting to get a feeling for dealing with digitalis. This costs a lot of energy and having enough mortars up is usually the bigger issue, so hope that you can establish a stable base that is not too close to the Digitalis.
6. Spores: Not much to say here. You need beams to fight spores and ideally, you have 0.5*[#number of approaching spores] beams in your base.

The Next Level Play

1. Let unused buildings (shields and terps for expansion) fly around the map in circles to gain a building spot for an additional reactor or mortar.
2. Let The Command node permanently fly above your base to gain 9 additional spots for buildings at the cost of the Command Nodes energy production (this sucks and is super micro-intensive, but it was necessary for me to beat Sudpir).

Walkthroughs

Coalve:
- Landed on the round platform,
- spread some Collectors in the lower left quarter of the map for energy
- got an early mortar to prevent to creep from passing the height 9 line to the left of the inhibitor to quickly
- got two reactors
- got a terp to increase the height 4 space in the lower left corner to make space for the Command station and move it there
- progressively build a 1 tile wall around a small section in the lower left corner before it got flooded, to that there is space for the Command station and ~10 more buildings
- build more reactors and 4 mortars to reach a steady steady state and step by step increased the wall to height 10
- let the terp fly around the map to make space for a shield
-activate the shield for a couple of seconds at a time before energy runs out and fly the terp back in that window to slowly get more tiles for reactors until there is enough energy to steadily expand

Sieioanu:
- Landed on lower right part of the map.
- spread some collectors on the right edge of the map to get some energy
- placed two reactor
- placed first mortar on the left edge of the level 10 area of the map
- build 2 more mortars, let one fire to clear the ore mine, then place them in a quarter circle around the lower right
- in parallel to building those mortars I kept building more reactors
- got an ore mine and a sprayer (always on, not that it makes a difference at that point)
- moved the first mortar more to the left, so that his strikes land to the left of the second-closest ore mine
- kept building more reactors and got a fourth mortar to stem the tide of creeper
- build 6 beams to be ready when the first two waves of spores hit the base.
- delay resupply of beams when possible to keep mortars shooting, delay resupply of mortars when they are full and beams desperately need energy
- fifth mortar and more reactors until no more can be squeezed in.
- got a terp, build lvl 10 sockets for the lower left mortars and leveled parts of the base to squeeze in more reactors
- sixth mortar, 7th beam before 3 waves of spores hit at the same time.
---- somewhat stable state at this point (16:41 game-time, I'll try to post a picture below)
- use terp to put the sprayer on a socket (move some beams around to make space in the middle of the base)
- wall off base more, squeeze in more reactors to get an energy surplus
- get a laser to be able to slowly increase base size with terp
- expand towards the first totem and create a socket for a forge
- as soon as the first energy and rate upgrades can be bought, the base is completely safe and can be quickly expanded

Auchcardensar:
- much easier than the previous two, but still requires some careful work at the start, following strategy is not necessarily optimal
- Landed at the top edge of the map as far to the left as possible
- disable resupply on the Odin artifact
- got a couple of collectors up in a small rectangle on the upper left, this area will be flooded by minute 2, so I didn't expand too much here
- got the first reactor in the upper left corner and a terp when I had enough energy to support building both.
- got a 1-tile wide wall up, walling up a rectangle in the upper left corner. In my case (and this could certainly be improved) 39 tiles from left to right and 16 tiles from top to bottom
- I kept raising the wall, prioritizing the bottom side because the creeper pressure was stronger there
- while raising the wall higher and higher, I kept building reactors and, when I had enough energy to support it, got a second terp.
- while raising the wall to level 10, I started getting mortars (energy got in the minus there, but it was not an issue
- with 4 mortars it looked sufficiently stable to prioritize building reactors
- leveled the base inside to pack reactors densely, while getting two more mortars for a total of six
- smooth sailing at this point, got some lasers and shields to make my way towards the inhibitor (using them to creeper away from the wall and allow the terp to raise the freed ground to level 10)

Ioottum:
- again easier than the first two, but still needs some quick buildup in the beginning.
- this map has some of the ingredients of a very hard map: a wide spread of Digitalis, no hill on which a start would be sensible and most importantly a very small size. On the other hand, it has an ore mine in a viable start position that is spared for more than two minutes and a totem close to my preferred landing spot, so that is what I used to beat it.
- Landed at the right edge of the map, north of the ore mine.
- spread some collectors in the valley that is on the right side of the wall near the landing spot. Everything else will be flooded 90 seconds after the start, so there is no point in going beyond that.
- started to build 2 reactors when I was around 3.0 energy.
- built a mortar to keep the creeper near the top somewhat at bay and got the ore mine
- built a sprayer and immediately set it to always one, while I kept building reactors
- got a terp to close the gaps in the wall and raise a 1 tile wide wall to level 10, also quickly walled of the bottom.
--- this is probably an important point because the pool that was my base quickly filled with anti-creeper and spills over the wall became a non-issue
- kept getting mortars to reach some stability and got a laser to teal with creeper flowing over the wall
- space wasn't used very effectively but probably thanks to the anti-creeper and didn't have to worry.
- after 11:30 minutes: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1509658599
- packed reactors more carefully, leveled with the terp to get the most out of the space, got two more mortars for a total of 6
- placed a Forge, got some energy upgrades, then range and rate, and started to expand with mortars, lasers, terps, and shields. I chose to expand to the left along the top edge of the map, which allowed me to grab one more ore mine. A couple of lasers set to Digitalis, three shields and some mortars behind them, allow pushing through the Digitalis effectively.
- No challenge left at this point.

Greeninverok:
- Very little space to work with and the map is flooded quickly. However, the landing position in the middle of the top edge stands quite high above the surrounding area, which makes it much easier to defend it.
- Landed in the middle of the round plateau, such that 3 units can be placed on each of the edges, except for the top.
- placed 4 collectors, one in the middle of each of the plateau, expanded collectors to the left along the top edge, to use the space that is temporarily protected by the wall.
- started packing reactors densely on the starting plateau
- in time to stop the tide from flooding the Command node, I placed a mortar at the lowest possible position on the plateau (replacing a collector).
- mortars on the left and right of the plateau as well, also a terp.
- level what little is not covered by creep yet to 10, to place some more reactors and a fourth and fifth mortar.
--- map looks like this now and situation is pretty stable:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1509889090
- got one laser to allow to slowly gain ground using the laser and the terp (expanding to the left along the top edge of the map)
- got more lasers and mortars while expanding, at this point there is no more challenge left in the map.

Razdon:
- land the command note below the two ore mines on the higher ground (leave 6 tiles to the left edge for better reactor placement later)
- spam collectors (one by one as energy permits, of course) around the left edge, the level of your command note, the higher ground in the bottom left corner and the round higher ground on the right of your base. I think a collector makes up for its cost in around 17 seconds (a little more because it usually cannot collect on its whole range), so even if you lose some of them soon, it is still worth it.
- start building reactors and in parallel: a mortar to stop the early tide, a laster to prevent leakage into your base around the bottom edge (below the round plateau), an ore mine and a spray to flood your base and a mortar at the top of your base.
-- your base should look like this soon:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1512933391
- this is a somewhat stable situation and you can start building more reactors and a terp to pack your base efficiently.
- now you can soon expand towards the inhibitor, using terp, sprayer, mortars, lasers and (as your energy surplus gets higher and higher) even a shield.
- nullify the inhibitor and you're done.

Sudpir:
- This map is ridiculuously hard. The strategy that finally helped me to beat it was adapted from Wheatmidge, a member of the old forum.
- like many hard maps, this map is very small and gets flooded quickly. The base will also be hit by 3-10 spores roughly every 30-60 seconds . The one thing that makes it possible is that the landing area is on quite high terrain, compared to its surroundings.
- The basic idea of this strategy is to build a base on the landing area and slowly enlarge it with the terp. Unfortunately the landing area is in the center of the map and there is not enough space to sustain four mortars and four beams, which are necessary to keep the flood and spores at bay, so we to keep the command node hovering above the base constantly to make space for 9 more buildings

- I landed at the center of the starting plattform and immediatly built 2 collectors (one by one) above and below the circle where they cover the maximum possible area.
- I've built a couple more collectors below the landing platform and on a strip extending from the landing platform to the top edge (2 collector ranges wide) so that they live around 1-2 minutes to kick of the start. I've also built four collectors on the starting plattform
- I started filling up the starting platform with reactors, building two at a time as energy permitted.
- once I got eight reactors on the starting platform, i started deleting collectors ot make room for four more.
- as soon as the last one finished, I launched the command node and send it to the lower ground just above the starting platform and planted more reactors as energy permitted.
- The command node must stay in range of all reactors to always gain maximum energy, so I alternated from sending it above and below the landing circle, changing the direction once it is close to getting out of range.
- I placed a mortar, a terp (in the center of the platform) and a shield.
- the mortar keeps the platform from getting flooded (we will need more soon), and the shield and terp are there to increase the size of the base by raising the ground around it to level 8 (prioritizing 3 by 3 tiles to gain more spots for building quickly)
- place more reactors and mortars
- Save often and reload, once creeper touches your base. There is no way to describe in detail how to juggle creeper and base extension, once your realize that the base gets flooded, reload an earlier savegame and place the mortar a little sooner than you did last time or restart the misison, if you realize, that you could have brought up the economy more efficiently
- manage energy manually, i.e. by stopping reload for shield, terp or mortars when they have big reserves or are not needed, to get a reactor finished more quickly.
- use collectors when you have a free spot but can't commit to the investment of a reactor right now. Reactors also give your command node a little more range when flying around
- I also got a cannon somewhere in between, but I'm not sure how useful it was
.- let terp and shield fly in circles around the map if not needed
- two beams are required to survive the first round of spores (three plus one from the left) and the second (three from the right), four beams completely loaded with energy and on resupply are required to survive the third and first big round of spores)
- if you survived to this point, you probably have four beams (three placed on the left, one on the right) and four mortars and brief moments of evened out energy between the spore attakcs
- keep increasing the reactor count to become more flexible.
- start claiming 3-by-3 tiles with level 10 with shield and terp and start making a circle of them around your base. By this point of saving and reloading you certainly know the weakest spots of your specific layout (in my case it was the bottom right), prioritize that side.
- of course you must make sure, that you don't block off the (never reached) 9-by-9 landing spots for the command node juggling
- a full lvl 10 wall around the base, five to six mortars, five beams and green energy between the spore attacks is a stable state that can be reached at this point
- it is not the most efficient thing to do, but I was so annoyed by the command node, that I've build a lvl 10 wall around a landing spot below my base, so that I can finally land it again.
- At this point I was able to get in range of the totem and get some forge upgrades (in my case: energy efficiency, fire rate and fire range).
- expansion towards the nearest emitter and then towards the inhibitor went as usual.

A couple of pictures:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1517031690
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1517031646
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1517031472
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1517031531
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1517031880
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1517032005
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1517032214
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1517032294

Jupnale
- This map deserves a spot here, even though it's easier than the very hard ones (imho). Since I didn't slack with the screenshots during the early phase this time, I will explain it mostly through pictures, but I'll lay out the basic battle plan in text:
- We land on the large circle in the lower right quadrant and quickly gain some energy with collectors. Since this position is hard to hold, we will move behind the high wall below it soon, but first we must level the terrain to secure a landing position.
- While we're terping a landing position, we will already start getting reactors and mortars. We will use the early terp that we have, to close the gaps in the wall. Without much (or any) reloading (saving regularly is recommended, though, when trying it for the first time) we will get a stable situation with 4 mortars up, a closed wall and we will make room (with the terp again) to get a forge, that will make the energy situation more comfortable and allow us to expand.
- Little warning: I got a little too comfortable between step 5 and 6, es evidenced by the hastily put up lvl 10 tiles on the right-most part of my wall. Raising the wall to level 10 or getting one more mortar or at least creating a save file before getting the forge might be sensible.
- A pictures says more than a thousand words, so here are more than ten thousand words worth of pictures:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519342869
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519342932
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519342968
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519343014
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519343061
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519343091
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519343139
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519343178
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519343231
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519343270

Penbor
- The difficulty on this map lies in the fact, that the starting position gets flooded pretty quickly and there is no natural wall, so we need to do a terp rush.
- My strategy is somewhat similar to that of florrat from the official forum. He obviously pulled off a much better start, but since I didn't die and don't feel like doing that map again soon, I still opted to complete the map rather than restart and because I took a lot of screenshots, I hope this is still usefull for readers and easier to follow.
- Because there are so many screenshots, I'll keep the text guide brief, details can be seen in the screenshots.
- We land in the lower left and spread a couple of collectors until we can afford to build a terp and a reactor in parallel (I didn't quite get to 3.6, though, so I couldn't build them at maximum speed.
- We immediately build a height ten 1-tile wide rectangle to protect our base.
- We quickly (before getting many reactors) get a mortar and a cannon. The cannon protects the upper left of the base, flying in and out to stall the creeper there and the mortar stays in the center to prevent the creeper from getting high enough to get over the rest of the wall.
- build reactors and mortars. If your start was as bad as mine, this can be a crawl because we are very low on energy.
- create a 3-by-3 tile on the top left corner of your base to allow the cannon to have a permanent position from which it can shoot outside. If you have an energy surplus and 4 to 5 mortars, you can start expanding from that tile.
- Get to the totem above the base and get a forge for some energy efficiency, rate and range upgrades.
- destroy the emitters one by one, there is no inhibitor on this map.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520547351
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520547424
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520547505
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520547572
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520547638
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520547706
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520547797
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520560725
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520560785
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520560838
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520560913
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520560968
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561036
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561113
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561181
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561254
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561321
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561390
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561447
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561522
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561596
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561662
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1520561803

Comments on probably impossible Maps
Tillyketh:
- only one non-flooded landing position after 23 seconds
- that only position is being flooded naturally (without intervention) around 1:50
- runners are in range of one edge of the starting position
- no defendable ore mines near start.

[patrick.hasses]

S200_74: Furham

Just wow! Creeper Push is disgustingly fast. Not to mention strong, as you'll need 5 mortars to hold it back. There is also a Spores threat of 7, 4 and 3 that will sync at times for a 10-14 spore shot. So at least 6 beams. That’s a lot of energy, with so little space and time to achieve it. Love a challenge.

Need a fast Terp build. Also, quick CN move alignment to avoid destroy / rebuilds. Area 7 is the start of the wall that will run the entire length right. We push it to 8 for starters then piecemeal to 10 later. Terp Areas 4 and 5 around CN are earmarked for after the wall is complete.

Minute 0:
Units in optimized positions. 0:25 activate remaining collectors. 0:30 Terp and 2 genny.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254699923

Minute 1:
Once Genny complete, build front far left mortar and 1 genny. Terp will fire off on Terrain 7. You are going to need to keep ahead of the creeper using terrain 6 to start then Terrain 7. (Suggest slower speed, or pause with [N] key) Once Mortar complete, build a Genny. Once genny built, build Mortar next to CN.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254704202

Minute 2:
Terrain wall 8. Once Wall 8 done, you'll need to even the 5 spots of terrain around the CN, start with the area below CN. Move CN back one click to align. Once Mortar complete, move to center in front of CN...build left most mortar. Once Genny is built, build 2 Genny. NB to Turn off supply to Terp Once done.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254704607

Minute 3:
Once Mortar complete, build inner Mortar. Once both genny built, build 3 Genny.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254704809

Minute 4:
Allow building to continue.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254705579

Minute 5:
Once mortar and all 3 genny built, Build last mortar and 3 Genny.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254705965

Minute 6:
Those 3 genny should finish round about the same time as the spore 1 minute warning sounds. Once built, build 3 Beams. Turn on Terp and even terrain for 2 units. Build 1 Genny. Turn off the terp. Allow the beams to charge.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254706322

Minute 7:
Allow the beams to charge. Once they destroy Spore. Stop supply to beams. Turn on Terp and even terrain for 2 units. Build 1 Beam. Build 1 Genny. Turn off the Terp when done. Once Beam is built, resupply to ALL Beams.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254706518

Minute 8:
Allow the beams to charge. Once they destroy Spore. Stop supply to beams. Turn on Terp and even terrain for 1 unit. Build 2 Beams. Build 1 Genny. Turn off the Terp when done. Once 2 Beams built resupply to ALL Beams.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254707378

Minute 9:
Allow the beams to charge. Once they destroy Spore. Stop supply to beams. Stable.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254707790

You 'll need to consolidate. Wall up 9 then to 10 on the right first. Terp the area to get more genny space. Move your terp to complete your perimeter wall 10, using a cannon. Bolster the right with another mortar. Highly recommend Forge and Guppy dunking for 2 Energy upgrades.

I completed by pushing to claim a upper left totem. Then pushed the right side directly at that 7 Spore.

[tiba992]

Nice to see that you're still at it, @patrick.hasses .

Here is a short guide for

S200_19 Astcardenphys:
This one isn't overly stressful but still lacks a guide in the wiki.

This map has three nice things near the best starting position, a spore which can be quickly turned into a power circle, an ore deposit and a totem. Unfortunately the ore deposit is a bit of a trap, since in order to hold it early on, it would need to be taken around minute 1, which isn't worth the energy cost in my opinion, so we ignore it for the start.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255552353
0:00: We land on the upper right island and start building collectors.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255552374
1:00: During the first minute, we greedily expand downwards and start getting the first mortar, nullifier and two generators as soon as energy production allows. The lower right will be flooded eventually but we can exploit it for energy as long as possible by designing our net of collectors such that, the graph will only fall apart, once the right-most collectors are destroyed.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255552398
1:40: Around 1:40 we should have nullified the spore and immediately relocate a mortar on the power circle, which will keep the creeper down in a wide range, relatively cheaply. Since most collectors will be lost soon, the next priority is filling our island with generators.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255552303
3:30: After we got up a comfortable energy supply, we can use a blaster and a TERP to gain more ground. I also started building the first beams, but this could have been done later.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255552435
5:00: The spores are getting closer to completion, and I recommend to get more beams starting around this time to aim for a total of 10 by the time the spores launch.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255552449
After we successfully defended the spores, we can use a terp and a cannon to make room for a forge. While the most efficient upgrade is probably energy, I also recommend getting at least one range upgrade quickly because it increases the reliability of the beams even in cases of very unlucky spore RNG.

The remainder is straightforward expansion to the left with terps, mortars and cannons.

[patrick.hasses]

Hi Tiba,

Would you believe I'd just Prepped S200_19: Astcardenphys. XD

Seems like we went about it the same way...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3255799645

[tiba992]

S200_167: Lanhall

This is an interesting one because it is one of the non-tiny difficult maps and it requires dealing with digitalis very early. I messed this one up a little because I forgot to take a screenshot at the 1:00-mark, but the early construction of collectors isn't too different from what one would do on other maps. I recommend saving a lot.

During the first minute, we land our CN on the digitalis (see minute 2 screenshot for the position) and get as many collectors as possible for early energy production. Use the fast forward feature to see how the map looks at 0:30, 1:00 and 1:30 to see how the map gets flooded, if a collector would survive in a position for more than 20 seconds, it's probably worth placing. We also need to get into reactors fast, because most collectors will be lost soon.

The CN can tank the creeper for a while and we want to get rid of the runner's nest before minute 2, so that not too many runners get out. We also need the power circle to defend our tiny island. While we get the nullifier we also build a mortar.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3257357643
02:00: Once the nest is gone, we get a cannon that will be set to target digitalis and placed on the power circle. This gives it enough of a boost to defend itself and almost the CN position.

From that point, we quickly need more reactors and after getting the 6th, a second laser because the island will be flooded soon. Before the CN runs out of health, we need to start flying it up and down, so that it doesn't get send back to orbit. But we want it to remain on the ground for as long as possible, whenever it recovered a little health, for the added energy production

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3257357663
At around 3:30 I was getting the second cannon. I used it a little to prevent the island from getting flooded before getting another mortar. Once the second mortar can push the creeper back a little, the second cannon can also be set to target digitalis. The powered-up cannon and the normal cannon combined, can push back the digitalis enough for the CN to remain on the ground again.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3257357686
At this point we can slowly build more reactors (disable resupply on mortars strategically to speed the building up but not so much that they stop shooting) and more mortars until the position because stable. There is not much we can do with a terp during this stage because we are already on level 10.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3257357709
Around minute 21, I reached a relatively stable state with 4 cannons and 5 mortars. From there, we can get another cannon set to digitalis and then swap out our powered-up cannon for a powered-up mortar. This pushes back creeper in a wide range and allows us to use a lot more ground for energy production and starting pushing towards the emitters.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3257357728

It is a slow push because no totems are nearby for forge upgrades and the push has to go through a lot of digitalis. It could certainly be done faster than I did it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3257357749

[Razorflamekun]

I just find it incredible that you guys can sit on a map for 3 hours O_O I think the most I can sit on a map is about 1:30:00 before I get super tired of it.

[Rapax/希狐]

You can pause and resume the next day

The nature of these maps is that the first 15-60 minutes are pure hell,
once you achieve stability, finally driving the creeper back is very cathartic.

[tiba992]

After the early game is done, I usually set to x4 speed, so what may look like 3h is more like 1h-1.5h in real time (with the early game being slower than real time).

[patrick.hasses]

S200_167: Lanhall.

I've opted to land my CN in the bottom right corner. There is an Odin Artifact, AC Ore mine and Totem in close proximity. There is only a narrow strip of digitalis that we can work around.
The Top Centre is just horrible with the digitalis. As useful as 2 power nodes maybe, the energy output to take and hold them is a little high.
Also we avoid a CN bounce/hover in the start.

So we need a fast Terp build with a well timed artifact Convert strike. Note the creeper will touch the CN for half a moment as you fire the artifact.
Area 9 is a wall that will go up to 10. Area 8 below the CN we will even out once we have the wall in place and will allow us to align the CN.
Area 8 above is for mortar alignment, once we have the wall in place. Area 10 is X marks the spot for your Artifact.

Minute 0:
All collectors in optimised positions. 0:15 remaining collector. 0:30 Genny and Terp.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258750328

Minute 1:
Terp should start the wall. Once genny built, build a genny. 1:24 you need to drop that Artifact, prolonging the demise of the remaining Collectors. (Note the creeper will touch the CN for half a moment as you fire the artifact.)
This will again allow the Terp to start building the wall. Wall up 9 then 10. Once genny built, build a mortar.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258750276

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258750233

Minute 2:
Once Mortar complete, build a genny. Once the wall is complete. Terp area 8 below CN.
Move CN down 1 click into alignment. Terp area 8 above CN. Turn off Terp once done.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258750171

Minute 3:
Once genny built, build 2 genny. Once those 2 are genny are done, Build a genny and a Mortar.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258750137

Minute 4:
Once those 2 are built. Build 2 Genny.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258750102

Minute 5:
Stable.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258750058

First quick land grab was in front of the top wall. Just Terp terrain to 10 and use a cannon to clear away creeper.
Note: Next conquests are the 3 blocked out area's.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258750033

Next push bottom left.. Just a narrow 3 unit width. Should be able to leap frog cannons, mortars and a shield. Use the Terp to even out terrain, building Genny's as you move.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258749979

Next Annex a large chuck above the left annex to make use of the totem for your forge. Energy upgrade up, energy storage and weapon range are a must.
Grab the AC ore mine. Build 4 bertha's. Attack from the totem directly at that Emitter. Will need plenty of cannons on digitalis targeting. Hit the air stage node next.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258749945

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258749894

Surprisingly the rest will tumble like domino's.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3258749819

[Ethaziel]

Originally posted by wheresDaMuffin:

S200_41 Ragruckstead: https://imgur.com/a/rFlaMSk A really good map to introduce terping on hard maps.
S200_131 Fanbosttum: https://imgur.com/a/MqGzJmJ A fun low ground corner start.
S200_181 Talinverpac: https://imgur.com/a/Hqbj0fR Came back to this map not to torment myself, but to... ah can't think of anything cool. Yes, I tormented myself.

Nice Talinverpac strategy.. I chose a bit different one. I quickly terped small "fence" south from the starting position to get more safe ground for reactors. It took several tries, but I managed to get pretty stable position before I started hovering to get extra space. This way it saved me like 30 minutes of hovering :D Then I had to slowly build my ground around, carefully balancing the energy to keep mortars well fed :) But not so long after I managed to get 9x9 and after that it was "easy". Finished in a bit over 2hours game time...

https://imgur.com/a/y8gIczc

[tiba992]

S200_69: Eridon.

This one was pretty difficult for me. I first tried using the ore mine early but that costs a lot of energy and doesn't push back the creeper for long. I also initially experimented with CN positions on the lower mid/left of the map, but the creeper push from the left was too high, so I settled in the lower right, which gets flooded faster but it is a lot easier to defend because of the lower surrounding height.

The following guide is more of a rough sketch, since I didn't take many screenshots, not knowing which attempt would succeed. There are many detailled guides in this thread from which the basic pricinciples can be learned to fill in the gaps.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266557417
The start is critical, collector building should be microed with pausing, so let not package sit unused. The collector positions are not optimized, so a better placement may help with an easier start. At ~0:30 I start the TERP in an attempt that ended up winning the map but getting the wall up was still a hassle, so if starting it even earlier, if viable, may make your life easier.
Shortly after staritng the TERP, as soon as there is enough surplus energy because no more profitable collectors can be placed, I started first a mortar, then a reactor, but deactivated the latter whenever energy was short to prioritize the TERP and Motar.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266557454
The first priority with the mortar is to wall off starting from the right edge of the map. This gets threatened around 1:20 so it should be walled off before. I got lucky with the first mortar shot (visible in-fight in the screenshot) because it allowed me to protect the upper right collector with walls as well.
Shortly after this we will start to lose more and more collectors, so as energy allows (TERP should be working full-time), we construct more reactors and possibly strategically placed connectors to keep the network connected before collectors that are the only connection between two parts of the graph are flooded.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266557482
Unfortunately I didn't have saves from the next three minutes. The priority is of course to TERP each segment of the wall before it gets flooded. I didn't quite succeed in doing that for the part directly above the CN, so there as a leak and I had to get a cannon to push the creeper back. I disabled resupply as soon as the wall was closed and used the flying cannon as a link to squeeze a litter more energy out of disconnected collectors.
We also need a second mortar to hold the creeper on the left. The two mortars work for a surprisingly long time, while the wall is being raised higher.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266557508
From that point, it gets a little easier. Prioritise are getting more reactors and more mortars up to four, using the TERP economically to level construction sites.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266557532
Four mortars are enough to hold the creeper back for a while, allowing us to ramp up energy production, then get up to five mortars for more safety.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266557569
With five mortars and enough spare energy, I got a shield to expand the base towards the north, where we can first get ore, then a totem and finaly start clearing the emitters.

[Ethaziel]

S200_98 Pontmoilyr

https://imgur.com/a/kVQFniK

Interesting map. Maybe I was lucky, but I actually did it on first try :) But I would still say it looks harder than it actually is. GL

[tiba992]

S200_87 Dankaotar:

This one seemed harder to me than it really is, primarily because of all the bait lying around the map. Two spore emitters and one aerial exclusion can be sniped very early with a single nullifier and an ore mine is also immediately available. I think neither is advisable to do/take early. The gameplan that eventually worked out for me was early focus on reactors, one TERP, two mortars, three Beams, then two more mortars and from there it was pretty stable.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3269654333
First minute: Get as many collectors as is efficient (non-optimized build in the screenshot), then go for reactors.

Second minute: The line that we want to hold (see next screenshot) starts getting flooded around ~2:05 in the valley, so we need to start building a TERP around 1:20-1:30 and shortly after our first Mortar.

The CN will get flooded. We leave it on the ground for as long as possible without having it destroyed, then start flying it up and down on the platform and land it whenever we regenerated some health for the extra energy production.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3269654309
We get more reactors and a second mortar while using the TERP to increase the height of our wall when and where necessary, eventually raising it to 10. The valley takes a while to flood, eventually we need a third mortar which will also take some pressure off of the right mortars but not before the spore launch.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3269654268
Three beams need to be ready by 7:00 when the first wave of spores launches. Three beams are enough to defend two spore launches with very brief recharge time in between as long as enough energy is available (disable mortar resupply briefly if necessary).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3269654250
After the initial spore launches are defended, we should get a third mortar and more reactors, as soon as possible, then a fourth mortar. Beams' resupply should be enabled when necessary for the next spore wave. The TERP is used to create more space for reactors.

I didn't get a fourth Beam until much later in the game, IIRC around minute 30, but it would probably have been safer to get it earlier. More reactors, mortars, a mine and a sprayer can be used to expand the walled-off area and eventually land the CN. The spore launchers are easily pushed and two totems can be connected on the way. The remainder of the small map can be cleared quickly.

[Ethaziel]

S200_61 Astwickport

https://imgur.com/a/e4mktUy

Looks easier than it is. Spores here are brutal :)

[tiba992]

Originally posted by Ethaziel:

S200_61 Astwickport

https://imgur.com/a/e4mktUy

Looks easier than it is. Spores here are brutal :)

Nice solution! Added it to the wiki ( https://knucklecracker.com/wiki/doku.php?id=cw3:tormented_space#refnotes:1:ref88 ).

I think just about a quarter of Very hard maps don't have solutions yet. There might also be still more Very Hard maps that are not yet listed (I think, I have beaten about half of the maps but sometimes I still stumble over maps that might deserve a spot in the list).

[tiba992]

The following three maps aren't very notable, I just did screenshots because they are on the list of low score counts and lack guides so far.

S200_98 Corelk:

Best landing spot is top right and the two critical points in time are when that location gets flooded and the first spore hit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271099135
We start with a rather greedy build of collectors along the top edge, reactors and place a TERP shortly before 1:00. The screenshot shows it placed after the 1:00 mark and I cut it rather close.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271099214
When the TERP is close to being done and we have some reactors up, we also start with the first mortar. After the TERP is completed we should immediately wall off the right part of the lower edge of our position.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271099300
While the wall is being erected we get more reactors, after the wall is completed we get more mortars. The creeper push isn't that threatening.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271099389
Around 4:50 we can get two Beams which are sufficient as long as the base is small. After the spore wave is deflected, I recommended pushing downwards to get the totem and clear the map from there.

S200_135 Watermageer:

This map has three threats. The elevation on much of the usable ground is rather low, so it gets flooded early. The digitalis delivers a pretty strong push against the landing position, so more mortars than usual are required. The third threat is a single spore emitter but it can be cleared early on.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271099555
We start with collectors along the entire left side and go into early reactors.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271099599
Once around 2-3 reactors are up, we start getting mortars to defend the ground on the left edge and the landing platform. Before the valley gets flooded, we get relays to keep the lower part of the collector network connected for as long as possble. Around 2:00 we can start clearing the spore emitter.

Unfortunately I didn't create more screenshots or saves because the map was rather straightforward from this point: More reactors and mortars as quickly as energy production allows, which is pretty quickly. The platform needs around 5-6 mortars to push against the creep from the nearby digitalis. I recommend expanding first towards the ore, then the upper totem and then downward for the power circle, and another ore and totem.