Need help with cataclysm

[IAN]

I am stuck trying to play at unfair mode, always get wiped or unable to perfect clear at the starting island or two. What is a good pilot? Currenlty I am using the arrogant boost pilot on the drill mech

[Depili]

Choose your starting island wisely, choose your missions and be careful on positioning are the general hints.

At least for the first island try to choose one with the least amount of flying enemies and if possible some enemies that you can still 1-shot to start cracking the tiles. Unfair is a game of deciding when it is worh it taking grid damage to have better board state for the next turn, and sometimes just surviving and letting the perfect island go.

The "boost on full health, otherwise -1 move" pilot is probably also quite bad choice for unfair, boost on kill, preferably with opener is usually better as you can still block with the mech

[Coffee Break Hero]

use Kai Miller on the artillery or the science unit. it helps a ton.
for the artilery it makes 1,1,1 into 2,2,2 damage
for the science it makes it easier to shatter the ground

after you shatter the ground, you can damage and push nearby units into ground that's about to cataclysm with one artillery shot. you can also throw units into shattered ground and they break.

also USE GRASS. if you throw a unit into grass, the grass lights up!

If you give kai to science, avoid isalnds with problematic flying units in the beginning

[Jyles-Jin]

Put Prospero into Pitcher Mech and slot 1 power into Flying as soon as possible. This eliminates the possibility you'll fall into a chasm and opens up strong positioning options since you can bypass enemies and obstacles.

Fling ground enemies onto cracked tiles to instantly sink them. This works even on boss Vek. +1 damage into Drill Mech next, aim weaker vek to crack tiles, deal with the stronger ones by throwing them into water or holes. Try and avoid islands with flying unit compositions until you can get other weapons to effectively deal with them.

You will literally turn the map into a sinkhole to block the Vek. You can easily turn cracked tiles into holes with any instance of damage, use them to block enemy ground advance or even outright destroy Vek spawn points.