When to upgrade HQ to level 2?

[.VM8RA]

I started the campaign last night. I'm currently just building bigger, getting my power up to support a lot of AI cores and towers, but currently I'm just selling and then placing loads of them on entrances where hordes will appear (every time i get the yellow warning that a horde is coming)

I can hold them off no problem, especially if I manage to get a lot of turrets in the right area, but it has me spooked about upgrading my HQ. Is the wave from this going to be way bigger? also what if I end up getting one of the random waves, and get the wave from the upgraded HQ at the same time?

I feel I need to upgrade as I can't do a lot of things until I have it done, but I don't want to mess it up.

PS: I'm starting to understand why people build defence outposts at the edges of the map, as having to keep moving my defences to where the horde is coming from will get old. I can't support enough cores and towers to have OTT defence on every possible area they will attack, so basically I have to sell and them rebuild every time it happens.

Granted I still have my base defences in all areas, but I have about 40/50 or so towers that I keep moving round depending on where they're coming from (usually having to defend two areas at once)

Should I just get a lot more power and just really start to beef up the entire perimeter, or should I just upgrade it and hope for the best/do my usual of deleting and moving my extra defences depending on where the attack will come from?

PPS: I took out the nest, I just have to upgrade my HQ as a mission right now.

[Ragnaman]

asap, you can do everything with just the mech + walls.
And yeah, the AI works in such a way that its enough to build 4 outposts close to edge of map to lure all attacks to them, ensuring whatever is in the center of the map does not get attacked (aside from annoying burrower event).

[.VM8RA]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

asap, you can do everything with just the mech + walls.
And yeah, the AI works in such a way that its enough to build 4 outposts close to edge of map to lure all attacks to them, ensuring whatever is in the center of the map does not get attacked (aside from annoying burrower event).

I think I will eventually start to do this, but need to get better at the game first. I don't think I'm fast enough yet.

Maybe starting out at a central location, then when I have the ability to, then go and set up 4 x defence outposts.

Do you know of any videos of people doing this strat? I learn best from seeing someone else do something, then copy it rather than via reading or whatever.

Would be great to know when they tend to do this, do they shoot straight for their outposts?

I also feel like I'm not good enough to defend the big upgrade wave with just mech and walls, as I'd run out of ammo really quickly. Do you build the little platforms and just melee over the fence or something?

I keep forgetting to make room for the steps TBH, but I don't think they're even needed with level one fences anyway.

[TradeGy]

Been a while since I played but as I remember the first couple HQ upgrades do not bump the difficulty of the waves up by much, even if you are not confident of soloing waves.

An easy way to solo waves is to build Power Fists, for both arm slots as even if you cannot see them both working the DPS is there, and just melee-kite waves. Power Fists deal energy damage and give a minor HP steal making you basically a tank for the early waves.

When you get to the point where you don't want to deal with the waves yourself all you have to do is build small 'outposts' as waves will run towards the closest 'energy source' eg. whatever you have built that is closests to their path toward your HQ. You do not need many towers at these outposts, like 2 Flamers, 2 Artillery and 2 sentinel/minigun towers are enough for early waves (like up to HQ 4 or 5) and if you place a teleport pad at every outpost its super easy to just pop over and check everything is going as it should in a wave.

I would advise against establishing the proper outpost for the acid biome/palladium early on, as the snails have insane range and both the magma/titanium and desert/uranium are easier and give good resources for upgrades.

As the game goes on all you have to do is move and expand these small 'outposts' to draw attention of the waves and just add and upgrade the towers.

[Ragnaman]

I usually build like so:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢰⡦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣤⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠰⡷⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠺⠗⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Central area and 4 defensive outposts.

[.VM8RA]

Originally posted by Ragnaman:

I usually build like so:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢰⡦⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣤⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠰⡷⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠺⠗⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠉⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Central area and 4 defensive outposts.

Thanks. I'll likely have to turn mining outposts (when I build them) into defence outposts also because they will draw attention if closer to a spawn site.

[Daniel.Kiwi]

Don't move your defenses to cover a new attack.
Leave them there until you've built past them.

Upgrade when you can hold em off easy

[archaonreich]

am i the only one who just expands his base endlessly.. the last game i had like 600 turrets and like 50 of those super range artillery that use plasma to fuel them... like 50% of the entire map is in my center base? I never use shield towers though.. i find the extra resource cost for those things irritating.

[Morphic]

Originally posted by archaonreich:

am i the only one who just expands his base endlessly.. the last game i had like 600 turrets and like 50 of those super range artillery that use plasma to fuel them... like 50% of the entire map is in my center base? I never use shield towers though.. i find the extra resource cost for those things irritating.

No, I did this as well.. Factorio made me pick up this habit. However, over time I kind of do a melding of outposts + expanding. I don't bother doing the "defense/corner outposts" strat because if you mess up and don't harden it enough the waves will blow through and now you have nothing to defend that side with.

Instead I just make minor defenses around my resource nodes, enough to hold off threats long enough for me to get there. Meanwhile my main/center base has majority of the defenses. This strat basically creates a situation where I can meet the waves, try to take out as much as I can(or high threats like snails/bombards) then fall back to main base.

If my resource nodes get destroyed, I can just rebuild them pretty easy/quickly so I don't really lose out on much. Though I do use shield towers if I can comfortably fit them in and supply them. Otherwise I opt for more artillery/damage towers since you don't need shields if you kill everything before it kills you.

[.VM8RA]

Originally posted by Morphic:

Originally posted by archaonreich:

am i the only one who just expands his base endlessly.. the last game i had like 600 turrets and like 50 of those super range artillery that use plasma to fuel them... like 50% of the entire map is in my center base? I never use shield towers though.. i find the extra resource cost for those things irritating.

No, I did this as well.. Factorio made me pick up this habit. However, over time I kind of do a melding of outposts + expanding. I don't bother doing the "defense/corner outposts" strat because if you mess up and don't harden it enough the waves will blow through and now you have nothing to defend that side with.

Instead I just make minor defenses around my resource nodes, enough to hold off threats long enough for me to get there. Meanwhile my main/center base has majority of the defenses. This strat basically creates a situation where I can meet the waves, try to take out as much as I can(or high threats like snails/bombards) then fall back to main base.

If my resource nodes get destroyed, I can just rebuild them pretty easy/quickly so I don't really lose out on much. Though I do use shield towers if I can comfortably fit them in and supply them. Otherwise I opt for more artillery/damage towers since you don't need shields if you kill everything before it kills you.

That's pretty much what I do as well.