Desolate Wasteland

[Nitto17]

Is anyone else having major major problems trying to finish this map? Ive been stuck here sooo long its getting pretty frustrating :(

[Zebap]

try to keep your noise level down to a minimum always spread your soldiers 2 tiles apart so that they cant generate concentrated noise in a single tile and expand carefully if your are playing an 80 day map remember you can kite zombies 1st and 2nd wave with a spike trap even for the 3rd wave if you are already good at kiting zombie, just be careful expanding always leave a ballista to the side that you are not expanding to guard the area. and sell all towers that you see at the beginning of the map to snowball resource faster goodluck!

[amordron]

Shouldn't be using soilders on that map other than the 10 to tank for your sniper ball. There sound to damage ratio is bad at the best of times that map makes it worse. Should be using rangers for longer on that map.

Use traps to deal with the first two waves with a ranger kite and wont pull mutants this gives time to get up a sniper ball with 10 soldiers (dont let them attack use 15-20 rangers as a ring for defense) and kill a mutant via placing traps with a few wall sticks than pulling one.

Once that is done its same stuff from there just with larger pulls so make your balls a bit bigger.


I recommend the solider shock build thou as needs much less economy and better at all points in the game save final wave. For final wave its only slightly worse (than thanatos build) but still handles it easy.

[Andrewbh2003]

i mean its the hardest map because of the noise and release made that map even harder cause of the damn mutants everywhere

[Nitto17]

My main issue with this map is food and uh garbage rng, like I hardly ever get maps that will have a good corners to cover, too many small open areas

[amordron]

Originally posted by Nitto17:

My main issue with this map is food and uh garbage rng, like I hardly ever get maps that will have a good corners to cover, too many small open areas

The corner issue is true for any map vary easy to get small gaps but yes I do see them more on wasteland but it won’t kill you if careful.

The food issue is the main challenge of wasteland along with the sound. Which is why I mentioned going with the shock sniper build as it dosent take much resources to win with. Allowing you to take your time out the gate to deal with a mutant while not being behind on economy for the game. While not needing to get anywhere near as much food to even have a chance to effectivly support iron tier.

Only need in the range of 300-400 snipers and 20-40 shocks based on the map to win at 800 percent. Thou obv never stop making the snipers as more the better. I have managed to win on 800 percent with only one market node at cottage and one at tents no third one allowed as a challenge even as well as other stupid challenges such as 20 stone income limits. Thou this was pre mutant with mutant you need slightly more economy so let’s say double cottage level which is still easy to get with the avg food on map vs needing much more and sooner to support just being able to tech.

[erasmus1000]

I finally beat it this weekend. It is the hardest map I've ever played in RTS! And I did it with the bare minimum lvl to progress to caustic. I don't really know if my tricks are the tricks. But I progressed slowly early game. Main focus building economy. Scout the surroundings immediately to see if food is nearby. Food is the bottleneck of this blasted map. If you don't see enough farming land immediately, I advice just to reroll. I researched stakes and ballista's asap and slowly cleared the immediate surroundings with rangers and stake pull kiting. Temporary shut down all possible choke points with ballista's. Mid game I focused on building snipers. With 20-ish you can push harder but don't "ball push" Indeed spread out they make less noise and pull in the zombies more dosaged in numbers so chances are less you'll be ran over. I combined building army with economy expansion in midgame. Never got far above 2k gold income. Guns are your friend more than on other maps. mid-late game I called in the titans. And with 5 titans and a ball of 150 snipers the map clearing is a formality I got lucky with the mutant positions: all far north, so I expanded south first.
Indeed the mutants are the second bottleneck. Those OP monsters are totally pulled random. And themselves aren't the biggest issue: it's their friends coming with them. So you'll need a wall of lead to counter them.
I didn't go for full map control for the final wave. I settled for half map with decent economy. So I walled off the borders and spawned as much Executors as possible. Got one breaktrough but I coult lay an emergency fallback line and pulled my army from the other, controled flanks and shot the living daylights out of them.
But I agree: I don't mind a tough challenge but this map is ridiculous. I think NG should nerf the mutants in predictability. Make them a tad more "reliable" in pulling them. I had countless mutant overruns on places where I haven't been for ages and I have no idea why they kept dormant for so long and suddenly charge in.

[Nitto17]

Originally posted by erasmus1000:

I finally beat it this weekend. It is the hardest map I've ever played in RTS! And I did it with the bare minimum lvl to progress to caustic. I don't really know if my tricks are the tricks. But I progressed slowly early game. Main focus building economy. Scout the surroundings immediately to see if food is nearby. Food is the bottleneck of this blasted map. If you don't see enough farming land immediately, I advice just to reroll. I researched stakes and ballista's asap and slowly cleared the immediate surroundings with rangers and stake pull kiting. Temporary shut down all possible choke points with ballista's. Mid game I focused on building snipers. With 20-ish you can push harder but don't "ball push" Indeed spread out they make less noise and pull in the zombies more dosaged in numbers so chances are less you'll be ran over. I combined building army with economy expansion in midgame. Never got far above 2k gold income. Guns are your friend more than on other maps. mid-late game I called in the titans. And with 5 titans and a ball of 150 snipers the map clearing is a formality I got lucky with the mutant positions: all far north, so I expanded south first.
Indeed the mutants are the second bottleneck. Those OP monsters are totally pulled random. And themselves aren't the biggest issue: it's their friends coming with them. So you'll need a wall of lead to counter them.
I didn't go for full map control for the final wave. I settled for half map with decent economy. So I walled off the borders and spawned as much Executors as possible. Got one breaktrough but I coult lay an emergency fallback line and pulled my army from the other, controled flanks and shot the living daylights out of them.
But I agree: I don't mind a tough challenge but this map is ridiculous. I think NG should nerf the mutants in predictability. Make them a tad more "reliable" in pulling them. I had countless mutant overruns on places where I haven't been for ages and I have no idea why they kept dormant for so long and suddenly charge in.

Ayyy congratz! I almost had one the other day but got hit unexpectingly hard on one side, and it JUST so happened to be one of my weaker defending sides too >:|
Yeah I usually reroll on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ less grassy terrain spots for farms or if there's too many pathways to defend, yeah the friggin mutants has screwed me over a couple times too

[Curved Vacuum]

Finding this mega-tough on 110%, always get stomped on the final wave due to having to cover too many entrances and defend against random harpies, despite having 5+ thick walls all round.

[amordron]

Originally posted by Violator:

Finding this mega-tough on 110%, always get stomped on the final wave due to having to cover too many entrances and defend against random harpies, despite having 5+ thick walls all round.

Final wave you don't have to grab every entrance can focus into a few if you want. Thing is I don't no how you "have to cover to many entrances". The more you have the better. The more you have the thinner the zombies at that door as such you need less defense there to hold it of. If you cant afford to expand to the edge of the map and defend it all on 110% so ill assume 120 days mabye 100 days the issue is your build as a whole. Your not expanding correctly. Your gold production should be able to hit 6-8k on wasteland before setting up the final defense easy. I see some games I push 12-15k on wasteland but thats overkill and not needed. After setting up the defense thou that will plummet due to upkeep. You SHOULD NOT be setting up your final defense till its close to the final wave the upkeep will destroy you. Only set up what you need for a given wave and invest the rest into economy constantly expand. The only thing you should not stop pumping out is snipers and thanatos (if using them). While using them for wave defense NOt your attack force use the stuff built between waves to deal with the next wave THAN reinforce all at once don't constantly reinforce. This saves you having to waste upkeep on making massive defenses for waves and only need defense towers to deal with stray zombies.While spilt your attack force have one per side of the map so you can react quicker to waves by sending a attack ball there if needed esp if you haven't cleared there as the sound will pull.

The two builds I recommend is either rush iron tier and get thanatos out right away 5 thanatos per door with a few exucutors on nearist will kill everything. The thanatos will do pritty well all the work with the executors killing the harps. This build takes good economy and makes the middle game harder due to droping all your money into tech vs army units and the tech is costly. The final wave is easier with this build by a little.

Or sniper + shock (the one I find easier) skip iron tier entirely so you can go to your end game quite early and dont need anywhere near the same econ. Place 6 walls with shocks behind wall 6 (pre final you dont need the front two as no venoms.) The shocks will be out of range and thats fine the first two are only to buy snipers time they are expected to fall once they fall shocks clean up everything as they enter range. Place sniper towers on highest with the shocks 4 towers per shock is rather easy to get. With 2 snipers not in a tower per tower these are set on nearest to deal with harpys. Should have 300-400 snipers easy by the end game with this build and over 1000 is quite possible esp on a low diff like 110%. There is only 75 harps and venoms per side 4 sides so 300 total of each on nightmare for the final wave. As such its quite easy for snipers in towers to kill the venoms and the ones on ground to kill the harps without issues in the time the normal zombies break the first two walls to keep venoms out of shock tower range. The normal zombies also further become a plug slowing the rate venoms and harps come at since you made the shock towers not able to hit for a first while and limited its kill rate via the walls for when the walls start falling. More walls that fall faster kill rate from shocks but less harps/venoms remaining as they come towards the front of the wave. Unlike than first build thanatos leaves little control in rate of killing. So need to brute force it. (plus the first build uses a ♥♥♥♥ ton more economy to set up but at 100% you most def can have that level of economy.)

You should not have "random harpies" I take random to mean as a harpy you dont expect to be coming or in a location with no defense. If that happens its due to you not watching and planning. Harpies only come on the final wave as far as waves go unless you pull them with your sound. If you pull them with your sound there in a location you expect for them to come and should always be expected. On wasteland if your fighting a harpies will come should always be expecting it and planning for it unless you are controlling your sound to stop them from coming. Its as easy as setting two snipers to stand slightly behind the rest on nearest to kill them. Or have 10 soldiers in front of the snipers on nearest as a meat wall. They can take a few harpies hits and even if one or two dies on well thats there job.

[Curved Vacuum]

It is down the economy totally, with so little food (I am playing on 100 days as the bare minimum to get to the next map) I barely hit 2k when the penultimate wave is done which drops to a measly 400 after I've upgraded to executors (only got these for final wave), double up walls etc. and not able to produce nearly enough troops to cover every exit (I counted 16 on the last try) - was only able to make 6 thanatos. Sounds like more troops and less towers is the way to go maybe then.

The map was also 'blessed' with lots of stone which made it harder to set up any decent pop (ended up with two sets of bank / market with way too few houses, mainly stone) or chokes for that matter. The whole north half of the map was useless for chokepoints at the borders (stone on every one pretty much) so ended up holing up in the bottom half. Add that to dealing with VODs (the waves of death at 20 days complete with random pulled mutants) its a complete ball-ache (this time tried 120 days / medium pop), not sure how I could have avoided this as I'd maxed my economy / sniper production pretty much + the mutant was originally up where the other top mutant was...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1912025259

[amordron]

Originally posted by Violator:

It is down the economy totally, with so little food (I am playing on 100 days as the bare minimum to get to the next map) I barely hit 2k when the penultimate wave is done which drops to a measly 400 after I've upgraded to executors (only got these for final wave), double up walls etc. and not able to produce nearly enough troops to cover every exit (I counted 16 on the last try) - was only able to make 6 thanatos. Sounds like more troops and less towers is the way to go maybe then.

The map was also 'blessed' with lots of stone which made it harder to set up any decent pop (ended up with two sets of bank / market with way too few houses, mainly stone) or chokes for that matter. The whole north half of the map was useless for chokepoints at the borders (stone on every one pretty much) so ended up holing up in the bottom half. Add that to dealing with VODs (the waves of death at 20 days complete with random pulled mutants) its a complete ball-ache (this time tried 120 days / medium pop), not sure how I could have avoided this as I'd maxed my economy / sniper production pretty much + the mutant was originally up where the other top mutant was...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1912025259

If your barling hitting 2k income its not the food limit on the map doing it no offense. The screen doesn't really help me answer exactly what your doing wrong but there is always at min 13k food on wasteland thou much will not be usable this leaves you at least 6-8k unsable food on the map as such you should always be able to get around 10k gold income pre upkeeps (you will see this as 8k pre setting up for the final wave as you will have some upkeep no matter what you do). 2k is to low and shows a clear issue of economy that has nothing to do with the map itself. That is what I would be looking into.

Are you taking over the entire map do you have at least 2 housing bays really 3 as your on 110% 2 is more for 80 days. Are you placing tents > cottages worrying about getting a 2nd and 3rd bay more than getting houses upgraded BUT never stoping building if you dont have a spot to build the third bay yet upgrade till than. Are you properly using bank and market.

Are you using advanced buildings (you really should not be). Get the food wonder not advanced farms. Where do you use advanced buildings late game (if the answer is mills ever short of 100% out of room for other stuff and no wood income thats wrong, on that map you should not need adv quarys as tons of stone as a map feature, adv farms are acceptable if they give 90+ food anything less is a waste of money and always have a warehouse buff if there advanced an advanced without a warehouse is wasted funds). Yes in a pinch you will get a few "lesser" adv farms but you will try not to. Its better to not get the farm than use more money for it than it produces.

Are you correctly using huts to support the farms (placing even inside farms to get a food buff where practical.

What is your defense and army till that point are you having good income but wasting a ton on stuff that is not needed resulting in a massive upkeep. Without info cant help you. Only geting exuctors for the final wave is correct (well one for wave 9/10 also makes sense if on brutal or nightmare).


You where not "blessed" with a lot of stone that is a map feature of wastelands map it has the highest amount of stone of any map.


You said two housing bays but where going for stone that tells me lots you want 3 before going to stone. Should not be a reason to upgrade to stone houses and I do most of my games never making them as 3 bays are much better and 800% you got no time for it. Stone houses are only for after 3 good bays are setup.

You said the north has no good chokes. That is NOT a bad thing. That is an ideal thing. The best choke is none. Much pref to build right on the map limit and surround the base with no choke points. This gives the strongest possible defense via spreading the wave out so much they cant even break a single wall layer (thanatos build) or just breaking the two sacrificial layers (shock build). Esp on wasteland where the largest cost in a big wall is stone and as said stone is the only real non issue on wasteland.


In short give us screens and tell us what your doing there really no much to go on with your post.

As for the mutants you avoid it by killing the mutants before moving out. IF there is a mutant assume it will come and set a trap to kil all the mutants before clearing. First thing I do is clear all mutants on 800% beofre moving out using only traps and ranges till after wave 2 in order to do that. Sniper shock build using far less economy allows for the slower start.,

[4Edge]

stuck on this map also, tried all sorts of tactics but soon a s i expand they come running. Will try snipers instead of soldiers perhaps

[robfilrhijar]

wish i kept the replay of this map because when i finally beat it 3/4 of my base got infected but i had way too many titans and stuff just held my command centre they couldnt get that lucky for me haha but yes took me a very long and frustrating time to finally beat this map.

[Magma Dragoon]

Originally posted by 4Edge:

stuck on this map also, tried all sorts of tactics but soon a s i expand they come running. Will try snipers instead of soldiers perhaps

It doesn't matter, you'll still draw harpies and mutants when you push out.
A group of 20+ rangers will rarely draw a harpy and can kill harpies and chubbies in small numbers without taking losses. The ranger group clears the middle of the map where there are few special infected while you mass snipers to clear the edges.

Rangers also don't use any food so you can keep building tents without halting unit production. Rangers let you power econ and build units at the same time.

Ack, didn't notice the date. I think this is solid advice for anyone else struggling with this map though.

[Vambran]

I did this map on %110 at 100 days by massing archers. At around day 70 i stopped expanding and just put everything into defence. Prob would had lost though if i had to fight giants though. Taking out the mutant early game was stressful enough.