Tips for hard?

[Phoenix]

Hey hey,

Freaking love this game, and thought to try and go for the achievements!
But... damn, the step up from normal -> hard is ROUGH, on normal I get by easily, can clear all scenarios, all types of endless no problemo.
On hard? Nope. I just get absolutely wrecked by all the accumelating problems T_T

Worst part, I did manage to get the 100 extreme endless... somehow XD, but I clearly lost my touch.

Any tips and/or tricks I might be overlooking?

[Bobywan]

I would have said that endless normal or winterhome normal is already clsoe to new home hard, but apparently you already did those.
Maybe try getting better on normal getting all other achievements like the charcoal only, it's kind of like normal but with a step up on ressources while maintaining the other slider to normal.
Or the achievement with only tents, it's like normal but with a malus to heat and more sick people.
Honestly, once you master normal mode, it's not that hard to finish a scenario in hard mode even if that means not being a benevolent captain.

[arjensmit79]

I don't know if "mastering normal" really is the way to go. The same strategy that works on normal does not work on hard. (vice versa yes of course).

Hard is not designed so that you should expect to just play trough it. It is designed that either you spend many hours testing and analyzing different build orders and plans using many save games until you have a plan that works, or you read/watch how others have done it and mostly copy their strategy.

Some things i can say is that this is game is a snowball game. Except that in most strategy games you interpret snowballing as exponential growth of your economy. Here what it means is that all is good as long as is good, but as soon as you start getting trouble, those will easilly snowball out of control.

Hence its all about the first 3-5 days. If you can manage to optimize those, the rest of the game should be relatively easy. So as said, try and retry, find the optimum build orders. And what you truly are trying to maximize during these first 3-5 days is that you want
A: To start researching asap. Every minute counts
B: Start exploring asap. Every minute counts.
C: Abuse the system to research 24/7 without deaths. (google if you don't know how)
D: Add more workshops to research even faster.

Of course while keeping your people from being too cold. Getting many people ill is where the snowball starts rolling.

[General Idea]

First things first is to pick a scenario that you feel comfortable playing on medium (default) level, you should have already learned which resources in order bottleneck, wood, steel, coal and food. And you should have already understood the full scenario and what pitfalls lie ahead.

Plan a strategy that deals with each resource n turn through the tech tree whilst keeping an eye on when the temperature drops occur (they will be arriving that much sooner and last that much longer on hard level). Build as many workshops as you can for fast research and stay ahead of the snowball.

Be proactive and not reactive so that you keep ahead of the snowball. Experiment with the first few days if need be to build up your level of confidence. Try out different laws if you haven't already. Ie. child labour rather than child shelters to boost your economy at the expense of Hope.

Use Discontent as a resource to your advantage activating extended shifts and emergency shifts as much as possible (requires the death of one of your workforce to be most efficient). You can always remove the extended shifts to reduce Discontent if challenged by your people to do so in an ultimatum and then immediately apply the extended shifts again, you won't have to worry about been booted out for another two days (rinse and repeat).

Make a note that your workforce will become hungry a day earlier than on medium level and you should build a cookhouse earlier in anticipation. The same dismantle and pause process on the cookhouse will allow you to control when your workforce get to eat and preserve whatever rations you have, if any.

Automatons are crucial to your success so utilise as many as you can. The two Medical Automaton techs if researched before the end of the Automaton Project will yield 100% efficiency on all automatons, the equivalent to your workforce, but are unaffected by any Order or Faith boosts unlike your workforce.

[s0_RoNerY]

Originally posted by arjensmit79:

I don't know if "mastering normal" really is the way to go. The same strategy that works on normal does not work on hard. (vice versa yes of course).

Hard is not designed so that you should expect to just play trough it. It is designed that either you spend many hours testing and analyzing different build orders and plans using many save games until you have a plan that works, or you read/watch how others have done it and mostly copy their strategy.

Some things i can say is that this is game is a snowball game. Except that in most strategy games you interpret snowballing as exponential growth of your economy. Here what it means is that all is good as long as is good, but as soon as you start getting trouble, those will easilly snowball out of control.

Hence its all about the first 3-5 days. If you can manage to optimize those, the rest of the game should be relatively easy. So as said, try and retry, find the optimum build orders. And what you truly are trying to maximize during these first 3-5 days is that you want
A: To start researching asap. Every minute counts
B: Start exploring asap. Every minute counts.
C: Abuse the system to research 24/7 without deaths. (google if you don't know how)
D: Add more workshops to research even faster.

Of course while keeping your people from being too cold. Getting many people ill is where the snowball starts rolling.

Speedrunning the game using the same strategy on hard can still be applied on normal. From what I’ve seen, the game isn’t heavy on RNG.

[Pottsey]

When jobs time has ended take Engineers out of jobs and max out all medial centres to heal faster over night. Then at 6am or 8am put the Engineers back into jobs. Repeat per night as needed until you have enough spare engineers to not need to do this.

[arjensmit79]

Originally posted by sO_RoNєrY:

Speedrunning the game using the same strategy on hard can still be applied on normal. From what I’ve seen, the game isn’t heavy on RNG.

Yes, as i wrote, vice versa it does work. A strategy for hard will of course beat lower difficulties with ease. But most likely not the other way around. If you optimize a strategy on medium, it will not work on hard because the game parameters are different (less resources, lower temperature etc). If you just do whatever and it happens to win on medium, sure it could be that your random strategy happens to be a winning one on hard, but that chances are not great.

[Phoenix]

Great advice so far!

Currently most of the achievements remaining are the scenarios on hard/survivor, hence looking for some tips and tricks :)

I am noticing the thing I struggle with a lot is that tech is a LOT slower, and I feel the people gather resources slower.

I did manage Arks on Hard just now, was fun! But took a lot of saves to ensure I could roll back to a good point in time if needed (didn't need them in hindsight, but eh).

[Miathan]

A New Home on Hard is pretty easy, it's no more difficult than Refugees or Winterhome on medium and you don't need any advanced game knowledge for it.

Arks hard is only slightly more difficult. If you start research and scout as soon as possible and turn the generator off during the day to save coal for the first few days, you should have no trouble completing it.

Real difficulty starts with Refugees and Winterhome on hard.