Need help with Narrow Pass mission

[son-goku]

Okay, I'm getting my ass handed every time I try. I play it on "Accessible" difficulty already, yet I always die to the second wave at the latest.

I have no idea how much RNG is involved but with every attempt, the first wave arrived earlier. When I tried the mission the first time, the first wave came at Day 20. In the second, it was Day 18. Attempt three - Day 16. I'm truly afraid to start the mission again...

The direction the first wave comes from varies as well.

I usually build a few tents, fisherman, two more tents and sawmill. Then I expand to the stones and more tents so I can build the barracks when I got enough stones. As soon as I have a second group of rangers to expand north, it's usually around Day 10 already. Is that okay or is Day 10 to late to start producing soldiers?

In my last game, I kept producing soldiers to survive the first wave (which I barely managed), so I could only build the workshop at Day 19. I get the feeling that that was way too late to survive the second wave which came from the south and split to both southern entrances which was my doom (I didn't even have enough troops to successfully defend against the part of the wave that split to the left)

[GatyKahn]

Skip it go through the northern route and come back when you got some more tech like train tech.

It's probably one of the harder missions in the game.Without tech it's really hard even after the nerf.

[son-goku]

My northern route is now the Land of the giants mission. I didn't really want to go there right now because I don't have snipers yet.

[Operation40]

do you have ballista by any chance? I held the first wave on 'challenging' with 2 ballista as I didn't have soldiers out yet..

[son-goku]

I do. Does it fire faster than 3 soldiers in a tower?

[Evilsod]

Just what do you have...?

Because you don't need snipers to do Lands of the Giant. Hell I'm pretty sure you don't even need Soldiers. All you need is a group of towers, fill them with units and have surplus on the side. Though since the target is a lone giant you can just bum rush it with a 100 or so soldiers and beat it easily.

Narrow Pass is nasty thanks to how difficult Iron is to access. It's a hell of a lot easier once you get Iron Transportation and can start pumping out soldiers early. And don't forget that you can sacrifice Rangers for the greater good by luring away half the horde to make it easier to handle.

[Andrewbh2003]

Originally posted by son-goku:

I do. Does it fire faster than 3 soldiers in a tower?

no but balistas do aoe they kill like 4-5 per hit and they 1-shot so...

and there also cheaper

[Operation40]

balista do decent aoe for their cost.. you'll want double walls for the Z's to group up against .. I like using 2 ballista with 1 behind the other slightly, so they don't fire at the same time

the only bad part of the balista thing is you'll just be scrapping them later as you move your border out.. so a bit of a hit there, economically.. but they should let you turtle long enough to get your soldiers out..

[Andrewbh2003]

Originally posted by Operation40:

balista do decent aoe for their cost.. you'll want double walls for the Z's to group up against .. I like using 2 ballista with 1 behind the other slightly, so they don't fire at the same time

the only bad part of the balista thing is you'll just be scrapping them later as you move your border out.. so a bit of a hit there, economically.. but they should let you turtle long enough to get your soldiers out..

you dont really lose much like balistas are insanely cost-effective

a balista costs 500 g + 20 wood

when you demolish a building you get half back so 250 g +10 wood

that is literally slightly more expensive than a tesla so yeah unless your swallowing land and walling off faster than toast on sunday morning then the cost of demolishing balistas and re-locating em is trivial

[UberVadok]

It took 5 tries for me to beat this mission on 500%. The first wave comes at day 13 or 15, but there are small runner waves at day 10-ish from 2 (out of 4) random directions. My plan was to put 1 Balista on each side by day 10 and keep Gold/Wood for 4 more (yes, 5 Ballistas to hold first wave) when the wave spawns. I didn't realise back then but you also have to know how to manage noice. You can push with rangers to some extend, but you have to stop at some point, otherwise you will attract too much runners. For expand I used rangers to bait small packs of zombies into backup Balistas. For final wave you need 8+ Balistas with 4 rows of wooden walls on each of 4 sides. You don't have to clear whole map earlier. I don't think i built a single Soldier there.

[son-goku]

Originally posted by UberVadok:

You don't have to clear whole map earlier

Well, I just failed my eighth attempt. Got to the last wave but since I was more or less busy with trying to make troops, I didn't kill every infected on the map so suddenly I was attacked from every direction by all the infected I hadn't killed yet.

[One Man Army]

You don't need snipers for the giant mission, just mass soldiers(50+ more than enough behind walls), put them behind some walls and aggro the Giant with a ranger back to your wall. You can kill him without micro.
I would strongly suggest you get the Farms tech if you haven't already, it can accelerate your income and in turn your soldier production a lot.

Lowlands and Narrow's Pass are really hard for their stated difficulty level of 2, so I would suggest you do what I did and go the north path up and do the hero missions to acquire a lot of points.

All these north path missions are easier than those two and having more tech will make them much easier for you.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1791383957

[son-goku]

Originally posted by One Man Army:

You don't need snipers for the giant mission, just mass soldiers(50+ more than enough behind walls), put them behind some walls and aggro the Giant with a ranger back to your wall. You can kill him without micro.
I would strongly suggest you get the Farms tech if you haven't already, it can accelerate your income and in turn your soldier production a lot.

Lowlands and Narrow's Pass are really hard for their stated difficulty level of 2, so I would suggest you do what I did and go the north path up and do the hero missions to acquire a lot of points.

All these north path missions are easier than those two and having more tech will make them much easier for you.

I did the Giants mission in one try, was easier that I thought (especially with a few ballista towers as backup) and now finally, in the tenth attempt, finished the Narrow Pass.

[PeLeSki]

I agree with what this guide says, though I had ballistas by that level and it seemed pretty easy to me. I went, stone, iron, gold, then just pumped out the troops with all the money I was making.
https://guides.gamepressure.com/they_are_billions/guide.asp?ID=50587

[Setokaiva]

I was able to complete Narrow Pass (on the 2nd try) by making a mad dash for the iron lode in the northeast pathway ASAP. I used a combination of Wood Tower leapfrogging with having one Ranger run literal circles around and in front of groups of enemies.

"Hey, fresh meat, right here!"
"RAGAFLAGASHIII--gurk" (arrow to the head)

This was literally the mission where I started using the diversion tactic with Rangers for real. And I needed it 'cuz I played this one on Nightmare difficulty (500%). It does so much good for me when it comes to taking on large hordes that protect resource spots.

Once I had the iron, I pumped out Soldiers ASAP. Didn't even need Ballistas, just Wood Towers stuffed with infantry.

Until then, though, yeah it was a slog. I needed to make far more Rangers in that mission than I have before; thank goodness I had Reinforced Projectiles tech for more arrow damage by then. My first priority, though, was not just to get the iron; it was to get towers on every one of the 4 lanes, and 2 to 3 Rangers each in those to hold back the infected. If I don't have people guarding the lanes by day 3, I'm in serious trouble.

[Qiox]

Originally posted by son-goku:

In my last game, I kept producing soldiers to survive the first wave (which I barely managed), so I could only build the workshop at Day 19.

I usually build the Wood workshop on day 8 so that I have Ballista tech done by day 11 or so. That way I can use 1 or 2 for the 1st wave. By the time that wave arrives, I usually have around 10 Soldiers and 6 Rangers.

That's playing on Brutal 300%.

You seem to be growing your economy very, very slowly.