Any tips for the final campaign mission?

[pcdeltalink]

I'm struggling on the final campaign mission and after giving it multiple attempts I'm asking for some advice.

I've tried a few different tactics now and each time it doesn't seem to help and I eventually get overwhelmed.

Standard defense with turrets, missiles, snipers, etc? Get slowly overwhelmed by the creeper advancing from the creeping land.

Try to Terp the area where the land creeps from and joins? Not enough time, fails.

Go for the crystals in the north to get the obelisk near base area active so blobs aren't attracted to it? Accomplished but doing that weakened me elsewhere and fail even sooner.

I'd like to get some anti creeper bombers in the air but I don't seem to have enough time and the only real place for a landing strip seems to be more north...right where the creeper hits the land.

I've been giving ERNS to different things with little effect in the long run.

Missiles? Great for killing the air sac far away. Useful.

Turret? Still couldn't hold back red creeper, even with 2 of them ERNed.

Sprayer? Even ERNed, couldn't hold it back. (the heck? I thought anti creeper countered red?)

So my question is what am I doing wrong? I know this has to be possible...somehow. But I must be doing something wrong.

[dj8472]

You need lots of mortars upfront where the land joins with cannons behind just in case, don't try to terp the landcreep until it is finished

ERN your first few miners for a massive power boost early game you can set them to ern want before they are constructed they are erned as soon as they are constructed

Crimson creeper has 80% damage reduction against most attacks Except AC where is has the standard 1:1 destroy ratio, you don't want sprayers on the front line, there is to much creeper for that, have them in base set to always on to flood your base in AC

don't build air units until you have your defense set up and terp your first island to make room for them

below is a recorder gif of the first few minutes on my last run that front line holds for the entire mission and you have no trouble taking the top island

https://gfycat.com/rectangulartediouselver

[pcdeltalink]

Originally posted by dj8472:

You need lots of mortars upfront where the land joins with cannons behind just in case, don't try to terp the landcreep until it is finished

ERN your first few miners for a massive power boost early game you can set them to ern want before they are constructed they are erned as soon as they are constructed

Crimson creeper has 80% damage reduction against most attacks Except AC where is has the standard 1:1 destroy ratio, you don't want sprayers on the front line, there is to much creeper for that, have them in base set to always on to flood your base in AC

don't build air units until you have your defense set up and terp your first island to make room for them

below is a recorder gif of the first few minutes on my last run that front line holds for the entire mission and you have no trouble taking the top island

https://gfycat.com/rectangulartediouselver

Much appreciated. And I totally forgot you could order your Sprayers to just flood the area with AC. Functions like that are one of the things the game never really teaches or reminds you of (Kind of like how long it took me in CW3 to realize cannons could target specific things).

But that's genius, By flooding the base in AC, anything smaller bits of creeper that do manage to make it there will be wiped out by the AC before they can start damaging or destroying stuff. Now if only AC was the lovely blue color it used to be, would be a lot easier to see where the heck it actually is at any given time, lol.

[Morphic]

I just finished this mission, took me ~90 minutes. It's basically a slug fest lol.

IMO, before placing your HQ, place all your Towers and Miners across the entire island and little island "your side"(right side). Then drop the HQ near the Redstone and AC stone. Wait a few seconds letting your HQ finish some Towers. Build a single Terp to get some ERNs. Start placing ~4 Turrets and ~10 Mortars to cover the area the land/creeper will meet your island. Build a handful of Missiles to cover your Island. Now build your Factory to make Arg and AC. By now your Towers should be mostly finished and some Miners done to make you flush with Energy. Build Snipers to ensure adequate coverage of your main island. Use 1 ERN in a Sniper covering your defenses at the "bridge" the creeper made. It should provide cover for most of your island.(It's basically for stopping blobs and cauldron balls) Throw 1 ERN in a Missile where you think most Spores/Cauldron will go.

Now you should be holding "okayish" and you have the Energy income to convert some Miners to AC. (work towards getting ERNs and a Portal up. I did both Energy first, then Fire Rate/Range, then Build Speed) Place 2-3 Sprayers and set them to "Always On". I put mine on the big hill to slowly blanket my entire island since my main defenses were holding the line.

At this point, for me, it was a stalemate and I was fine.(After losing my little island to a dying Cauldron since I didn't know it could fling its balls on death lol) Now get your Refinery and claim the Totem. To actually push out you'll need Air. I was able to manage with 5 AC Bombers and 5 Energy Bombers working in unison on a single spot/area. Eventually I swapped the ERNs from the Sniper and Missile to 2 Energy Bombers. You'll need to convert more Miners to Bluite to sustain the AC bombers. Might want to AC bomb your little island for a buffer if you are like me and only had 1 Cannon, Missile and Sniper defending it.

IMO, you definitely want to work on the Southern islands and work towards the info Cache. Basically don't worry about the Crimson/hardened Creeper just use enough defenses to keep it from overwhelming you at the "bridge". Once you clear/claim the islands leading to Info Cache, it should be smooth, albeit slow, sailing from there. Don't forget to build more Towers/Relays for Energy income and network speed. Also I liked placing a Rift on them too.(I also built multiple Rifts near the HQ since that seemingly speeds packet dispersal)

[pcdeltalink]

Originally posted by Morphic:

I just finished this mission, took me ~90 minutes. It's basically a slug fest lol.

IMO, before placing your HQ, place all your Towers and Miners across the entire island and little island "your side"(right side). Then drop the HQ near the Redstone and AC stone. Wait a few seconds letting your HQ finish some Towers. Build a single Terp to get some ERNs. Start placing ~4 Turrets and ~10 Mortars to cover the area the land/creeper will meet your island. Build a handful of Missiles to cover your Island. Now build your Factory to make Arg and AC. By now your Towers should be mostly finished and some Miners done to make you flush with Energy. Build Snipers to ensure adequate coverage of your main island. Use 1 ERN in a Sniper covering your defenses at the "bridge" the creeper made. It should provide cover for most of your island.(It's basically for stopping blobs and cauldron balls) Throw 1 ERN in a Missile where you think most Spores/Cauldron will go.

Now you should be holding "okayish" and you have the Energy income to convert some Miners to AC. (work towards getting ERNs and a Portal up. I did both Energy first, then Fire Rate/Range, then Build Speed) Place 2-3 Sprayers and set them to "Always On". I put mine on the big hill to slowly blanket my entire island since my main defenses were holding the line.

At this point, for me, it was a stalemate and I was fine.(After losing my little island to a dying Cauldron since I didn't know it could fling its balls on death lol) Now get your Refinery and claim the Totem. To actually push out you'll need Air. I was able to manage with 5 AC Bombers and 5 Energy Bombers working in unison on a single spot/area. Eventually I swapped the ERNs from the Sniper and Missile to 2 Energy Bombers. You'll need to convert more Miners to Bluite to sustain the AC bombers. Might want to AC bomb your little island for a buffer if you are like me and only had 1 Cannon, Missile and Sniper defending it.

IMO, you definitely want to work on the Southern islands and work towards the info Cache. Basically don't worry about the Crimson/hardened Creeper just use enough defenses to keep it from overwhelming you at the "bridge". Once you clear/claim the islands leading to Info Cache, it should be smooth, albeit slow, sailing from there. Don't forget to build more Towers/Relays for Energy income and network speed. Also I liked placing a Rift on them too.(I also built multiple Rifts near the HQ since that seemingly speeds packet dispersal)

This is basically what I'm doing so far. About an hour and a half into the battle and my main islands are flooded really tall with AC and I have managed to claim the southerns islands and the info cache. However you mentioned rifts, I haven't built those because I thought the mission text said the nuclear reactor thing was messing with rift space. I assumed that meant rifts didn't work in this mission. Am I wrong?

[dj8472]

Originally posted by pcdeltalink:

However you mentioned rifts, I haven't built those because I thought the mission text said the nuclear reactor thing was messing with rift space. I assumed that meant rifts didn't work in this mission. Am I wrong?

Micro rifts work fine, its referring to the end of mission jump with the rift lab

[pcdeltalink]

Originally posted by dj8472:

Originally posted by pcdeltalink:

However you mentioned rifts, I haven't built those because I thought the mission text said the nuclear reactor thing was messing with rift space. I assumed that meant rifts didn't work in this mission. Am I wrong?

Micro rifts work fine, its referring to the end of mission jump with the rift lab

Well...I feel dumb now. On the bright side though this will make things a lot easier once I get back in there. Honestly with the insane mess of towers and pylons I have and how far away they are I’m amazed my system has held together so far.

[Strategic Sage]

There is plenty of energy available on the starting territory to keep from getting overwhelmed. Heading towards the bottom of the map and using platforms to get across to the island with the AC breeder is best IMO. Here's how I did it: https://youtu.be/Bx70m-Jay64

[pcdeltalink]

Well, 2 hours and 19 min and victory. I went insanely overkill cause why not? And by insanely overkill...I may have built 18 Thors. It's quite lovely watching those all attack at once and just watch creeper vanish. That was fun :D

Also the Orbital ability Rain is stupidly OP as well, love it!

[Bobucles]

The easiest way around the map is to hit the southern island with the friendly breeder terrain. It will give a good bridge to go further west. Some players swear by overwhelming the enemy creep at the front with anti creep. I find that the front gate defense works very well with regular turrets and one ern sprayer.

[tilemon]

one of the jokes of this missions is you can actually get a sprayer over to the breeder before the creep covers it, and it will hold the area for quite a while, you can then use a porter to build a Rift by it later, or do a bridge of platforms