Beginner questions - getting to the oil

[Akita]

Really like this game so far! I have my coal production going, and now its time to go find the oil!

But when I venture out very far from my base, it take a long time to travel, and I usually get killed way out there. I wonder if Im missing something.

- should I have a vehicle? any way to travel faster than running? I just unlocked Tier 4+5 and I opened oil production, but everything else looks to be locked behind plastic/rubber. And the oil is a long way away!!

-I have the 2nd level melee weapon, but still get killed a lot. Should I spend the time to make the healing thing? How do I get a gun? Is there a better fighting tactic then chasing them down on foot and swinging like mad?

- should I travel to the oil and build a second base? or drag power from my first base? From the resource map it doesnt look like there is much iron/copper over where the oil is on the west side.

- Im in the grasslands. Should I build a giant elevated road south across the map? :-)

thanks!

[Willow Rivers]

Yes there are vehicles. You unlock the tractor when you get to the coal power. One of the milestones is transportation that gives you a tractor, the first vehicle.

To get guns you have to reserach using the MaM. One of the trees will give you the Rebar gun. You shoot spiked rods. Research the Carapice and Organs from the animals you kill and you will unlock it.

I build a refinery base at the oil site and truck the plastic/rubber to my base.

[Honorable_D]

At this point you should have dozens of healing nuts and other healing stuff. Just swap and heal as you need to, why do you keep dying? Maybe you'd have better success with the Rebar Gun.

Drag power out to distant miners or extractors—the hassle of multiple power grids isn't worth it.

Some people build basic resource processors at their distant bases. For example you find some copper far away so you drag power out to it. Then build the Miner, Smelters and Constructors needed to turn it into basic material such as wire/cable/copper sheets. THEN, ship the basic processed goods back to base.

[tullaian]

Yes you will need to travel there slowly to start and build a second small base / refinery. Once you get it going you can automate the return of plastic and rubber from the refinery to your main base with a tractor or truck or belts if you desire.

You will need power there either run cables from the main base or build a local power plant. Once you get fuel production going and unlock the fuel generator you can easily produce power at the refinery otherwise you need another local source to get going.

I found the establishment of oil/fuel/rubber/plastic to be the tier I took the longest to get through. Between building all the remote infrastructure without all the tech unlocked yet and building a workable road to the oil smooth enough for AI trucks to use took a long time. Power is a big challenge as refineries use a lot so ramping up while you only have coal available is much harder to do than later in higher tiers where your power problems are already solved.

[Zara]

Generally speaking, I skybridge everywhere. This way I don't have to fight things (which just gets tedious), and I it seems the yellow and purple slugs tend to be higher up anyway, so I grab them as I go. This also means I have a platform to put hypertubes and power lines on, as well as a place for vehicles that doesn't require praying they can get over hills or whatever on the ground.

Also, down the Caterium line in the MAM, you can unlock Blade Runners, which go in your body slot, and increase your movement speed by 50%, and are just really nice.

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by Akita:

- should I have a vehicle? any way to travel faster than running? I just unlocked Tier 4+5 and I opened oil production, but everything else looks to be locked behind plastic/rubber. And the oil is a long way away!!

Yes, vehicles and blade runners.
I highly recommend taking a look at the M.A.M. and its various research trees to unlock more helpful stuff that you don't get directly via the Hub / Space Elevator.

For example, the quartz research tree nets you the Explorer buggy, which is the fastest vehicle apart from trains that you can have.
And the caterium research tree nets you the blade runners, which boost your movement speed on foot, jump height and fall distance before damage.

-I have the 2nd level melee weapon, but still get killed a lot. Should I spend the time to make the healing thing?

Usually the nuts, berrys and shrooms you find around the map are sufficient enough, imho. The craftable healing items are primarily a boost in convenience, space efficiency and on-the-spot healing power.

How do I get a gun?

Via the alien organisms (rebar gun) and sulphur (rifle) research trees in the M.A.M.

Is there a better fighting tactic then chasing them down on foot and swinging like mad?

Yes, learning their attack patterns and swinging when it actually makes sense to do so.
Hogs are easy to dodge on their frontal charge by jumping up or sideways. If you time it right, you can get a swing in, which might stop them in their tracks. Then kill them.
Alternatively, if they charge around you, then try to head them off in one direction and get a swing in to interrupt them. Then kill them.
Alternatively, if you're fast enough, you can rush them before they attack and just kill them quickly that way.

Spiders, you just have to time your swings to when they get close enough to you to hit them. Then either take a few steps back to repeat, or circle around them to keep hitting them.
Watch out for jumping attacks or gas clouds depending on size of the spider.

Spitters have a pattern to their attack. At a distance, they will spit in your direction (predicting your movement, so change direction once the attack is flying towards you) or send out area of effect attacks that are reasonably easy to dodge. Once you get close, they take a second or so before their next attack will be a very short-ranged spit that you can dodge by just taking a few steps back.
So ideally, you dodge the initial ranged attacks, get in close to hit them once or twice, and then step back to repeat.
Watch out for fake retreats where they run away a bit - they immediately follow that up with a short range attack if you get close, so prepare to dodge.

Flying crabs (those little bee-like things hatching from plants) can't take a hit. Keep dodging them and putting in a single hit when they get close to kill them.

- should I travel to the oil and build a second base? or drag power from my first base? From the resource map it doesnt look like there is much iron/copper over where the oil is on the west side.

I'd recommend dragging power from your base to the oil and processing the oil on-site. Moving liquids over any distance is a hassle, especially if you have any kind of elevation to deal with.

[blade_125]

I'm at the same spot you are and oil for me is 2500 M away. What I decided to do was build a bridge over the water. It's time consuming, but avoids the bugs and is far faster than avoiding the terrain. I am now just about set up to have a convoy of trucks to start carting oil materials back to my base.

Also I would suggest finding a silicon mine and going up that tree. You get the buggy which is a much better vehicle than the truck for exploring.

[DrNewcenstein]

In Grass Fields, there are two crash sites that are easy to run across - one is across a giant crater where there's a big green Spitter, and the crash site is surrounded by those plants that eject the flying crabs (big hostile fireflies), on the edge of the Purple Forest (not to be confused with the Pink Forest you can see atop a cliff).

Past that crash site, there's another big green Spitter on a land bridge that leads to the area where the oil is.

Further down that land bridge, the way is blocked by rocks that have to be blown up with the Nobelisk. You want that, because it also takes out enemies faster than anything else.

The oil is in an extremely hostile environment, with every enemy the game has, including both giant spiders and the groups of smaller ones. And of course, the oil is in the back, on the bottom, heavily guarded, so getting to it will be a task.

You definitely want sky bridges. One, so you can cut a straight line from your Grass Fields base over and through the Purple Forest; Two, so you can drop bombs on enemies (and clear out the forest because spiders will glitch to the tops of the taller trees, and your bridge), and Three, so you can build from it with an elevated view.

There is copper in that area, but it's high atop a ridge, almost as far back as the oil.
There's also 4 coal (under the copper ridge), and a lake with a purple slug in it, which means you can set up coal generators and score 5 power shards. There's a Limestone deposit near the coal, as well.

There are 4 oil nodes, one of which is pure. There are 2 right next to each other, and the other 2 are a little ways along the shore of the lake from them, but not as close to each other. Close enough, but not right-next-to like the other ones.

There is also an Iron node on the lowest level, just past the coal, almost as far back as the copper.