Basic beginners guide

This is a very basic guide to the game, the few things I have picked while playing and eventually beating the game, that I think a new player might like to know.

Welcome to T.A.P.

Hello, and welcome to the game. I am not the creator, in fact to be honest I gave it a negative review, but I am considering changing that, as I dig a little deep.

First off, what this game is not.

It is not a Tower Defense game. It is labeled as one in the store, but it isn't one.

It is not a strategy game. It is almost totally tactical.

It is not a flight simulator, you do not really fly in this game. I will explain later.

Anyway, onward.

Starters

To begin with, you have a small base, and a small ship. Each mission will be on a small island. Tab will bring up the map showing you the enemy, be they bases or units. Your goal is to destroy them, but there is no rush. I will explain later...

Your Base

This is where you will be between missions. Sadly you cannot really explore it, though your view circle around it and as you build various factories they do appear on the map.

The base is where you build the factories that provide your weaponry, purchase upgrades to those factories and buy skills.

You do not build your ship here, that is done in the active game environment.

The illustration shows the base screen.

Across the bottom are a row of icons. The image shows this late in the game, at the start you have fewer.

(1) Loot boxes full of the metal of your choice. Late game.

(2) Skill boxes. Random upgrades to your skills. Mid-game.

(3) Your skills. This tab has it's own section in the guide.

(4) thru (8) the five weapon types. Weapons have their own section in this guide.

(9) Reputation achievements. Again, this has it's own section in the guide.

It is important to reiterate that weapons are not added to the ship at the base, but after the mission has started. At any point during the mission, if you can afford it, you can upgrade.

Skills

As you play, you earn experience points. You can spend these on Skills

Opening the Skills window can be done by pressing three while in the base, or by clicking on the left most button at the bottom of the screen.

To purchase or upgrade any of the skills shown, you require sufficient experience points, should in the upper right corner of the screen (denoted by the star to the right of the number). Some upgrades also require a prerequisite of a particular factory in you base. If this is the case, it will tell you what you need if you click on it.

Sometimes a skill will have red on it. Usually this means that you need to build a particular tower first, but not always. If you want something, click on it and see. You can't take it back though, so only if you want it.

There are a wide variety of options.
You can purchase specialty weapons, you can purchase upgrades to weapons, you can purchase ship improvements, they can allow you to search for rarer metals or improve your chance to find them, and more.

So far each can also be upgraded. I am as of yet uncertain what the cap is, if any.

I highly recommend you spend at least a few on the magnet, which increases the range at which your ship collects scrap and metals, from these, many other things blossom.

NOTE: There appears to be no way to reset or take back points spent on upgrades.

NOTE: At later levels foes can drop skill boxes. When you return to the base you can open these, and gain a bonus to a random skill.

Factories

Factories are needed to purchase your weapons.

There are five weapon types, and each has an array of factories you can build. Their are five tiers, as shown in the diagram above.

You purchase factories with Iron.

You need to build the first tier before the second appears, then they branch out, requiring you to build
wide to get the full list, however you need to build at least one weapon of the fifth tier to get the next weapon type to show up. As such, I found it useful to rush to the top, to open the next weapon type, then come back to fill out my options.

There is more information on this is the weapon section of the guide.

There are two things you can do within a factory.

(1) You can Improve the Factory. This costs Iron as well. It improves the firepower of the weapon that factory produces by 25%, however the cost of the turret increases by 20%.

NOTE: There is a very important bug here you need to be aware of. When you improve the factory, the stats change to reflect the change in damage and cost. When you finish a mission and return the factory will show the damage adjustment, but not the cost, which will revert to the base.
However when you enter the next mission,t he cost is indeed as much higher as it should be.

(2) You can strengthen the plant. This increases the range and accuracy of the weapon.
See the Resources section of this guide for more information.

Resources

The main tactical resource is scrap metal. Scrap metal is used to build your weapons.

Your ship starts without any weapons at the start of each level, but you have scrap metal that you can use, after you start the mission, to build your weapons.

Iron is used to build and upgrade factories. Upgrading a factory increases the firepower of that factories product by 25%. It also increases the cost by 20%,

Aluminum is used to strengthen the turrets. This also increases the range and accuracy of the turret 5% per upgrade.

Lead is used to strengthen a factories turrets of the second tier.

Copper is for the third tier.

Nickle is for the fourth tier.

Gold is for the fifth tier.

Your Weapons

There are several types of weapons you can buy for your ships. They fall into several categories, have five tiers, and can individually be upgraded.
Within each weapon type, weapon upgrades follow the path on the upgrade list at the base. If you have a specific weapon you want, be sure you know the purchase path that gets you there.

(1) Fire Turrets - basically guns

(2) Missile Turrets

(3) Laser Turrets. Do not damage shields but are very powerful

(4) Electro turrets. These ignore armor. So far they all only attack land units.

(5) Plasma turrets, Ignores shields.

WARNING: Weapons have categories as to what they can attack, universal, land or air. Be sure you know what your upgrade can attack!

In addition to the weapons you purchase, there are weapons and abilities you gain thru the upgrades.

As the game progresses, you get the ability to choose the target preference of your weapons.

Your options are random, by range, by health, by armor and change each time you shoot.

Secondary abilities:

A mix of weapons and other abilities.

(1) Sumo gun. A heavy forward firing shot gun. Very hard to aim. Destroys your forward momentum, often knocks me backwards.

(2) Repairs. This is not a passive ability, you must find a safe space, turn off your engine (cap lock key) and press it (2).

(3) Rocket Rain. Fires a homing missile at every enemy structure in range.

(4) Random Rockets. Launches twenty-four rockets at random targets.

(F) Sunbeam. A laser fired from a satellite. Takes four seconds to aim. This is a very powerful weapon and can be fire from out of the range of the enemy base. One well aimed shot destroyed seven of the nine targets in that base.

NOTE: Sunbeam costs you experience points.

(Z) Electromagnetic Pulse. Turns off nearby towers for a few seconds. If you do not turn off your ship first it will impact you as well.

(C) Charging. Gives you a little energy.

(X) Plasma Grenades. Bombing with plasma bombs, straight down.

NOTE: Plasma grenades are pretty hard to aim. They are easier to use against bases.

NOTE: Apparently you can hold the number key down to see what the weapon will hit. Releasing it will fire the weapon. I have yet to find this useful.

Reputation Achievements

Every five reputation points earns you one of these. As the game states, they may not all be useful.

The order you receive them in seems to be pre-determined. I think it is from the lower left across, then up a row, but I am not certain.

One of them states that there is a final boss!

If you open the box when you have received one, it will have green lights on it, but there is no indication of which ones you already have or don't have.

NOTE: A high reputation makes the enemies tougher. As a percentage, it multiplies the foes abilities to fight back. It also acts as a multiplier for the rewards you get though.

NOTE: There is an achievement that says it is giving you one hundred skill boxes. I did not get them. There is another that says it will give you fifty boxes of metal, that one showed up.

Sales

Some times there will be a sale on the product from a particular factory. The chance and value of these is based on your Reputation.

As you scroll over the various weapons that are available to you, the icon for the company that makes it will pop up.

In general, they do not really come in to play very much, but sometimes you might want to save a few coin.

Your ship

Again, as stated earlier, you do not really fly, what your ship is, is a hovercraft, with limited lift capability.

You have unlimited ability to move around the island a short distance above the surface.

You have a limited amount of energy. This can be increased with skills later on.

Energy has two uses Jump (which I think would more accurately be called lift) , and Turbo.

As you move around, your ship will hover above the terrain, so you don't need lift to climb mountains. Lift is useful for attacking the enemy bases as they are slightly raised, and it gives you a better angle of attack.

Turbo is best for fleeing Hunters, and speeding up the collection of scrap and metals.

The amount of energy is shown in the upper left of the screen, and is denoted by a lighting bolt.

When this energy runs out, it slowly regenerates.

As you seldom need, or even want to lift except during combat, this is fine.

Your ship starts without any weapons at the start of each level, but you have scrap metal that you can use, after you start the mission, to build your weapons.

At the start of the game you get three hard points to build weapons on. One is forward shooting, the other two are on the wings and are self aiming. You gain more hard points as the game progresses.

It is important to note that weapons are not added tot he ship at the base, but after the mission has started. At any point during the mission, if you can afford it, you can upgrade.

As such, I recommend that you spend the first part of the mission scouring the island for scrap metal, to build up your potency.

NOTE: You can find scrap under water. It isn't often enough to make it worth regularly scouring the seas, but you should keep your eye open when near it for shadows.

NOTE: Turning off your engine (cap lock key) increases your magnetic range for collecting scrap.

NOTE: You also get special weapons/abilities that you fire with the number keys.

NOTE: The instructions do not tell you that the ` key (to the left of the 1) removes the HUD. This can be useful at times.

The area of play

The game is played on a small island. It might take you five minutes to fly from one end to the other.

The game told me there will be desert levels (some visual impairment) and winter levels (severe visual impairment) but I have not seen them yet.

The desert map actually has no water.


Tab will pop up a large map that shows the shape of the map, your location (a green arrow which also shows your orientation) and the enemy bases.

More importantly, the island has metal scattered about the island. Your ship has a magnetic ability to draw these in, and add them to your stock pile.

NOTE: Turning off your engine greatly increases the range of your batteries. I have found that flying around and turning the engine off at random gathers me at least a little scrap more often than not.

NOTE: Later in the game you earn a metal detector. This puts yellow dots on the large map (tab key) that showed scrap. Keep an eye out for it, the voice telling me about it didn't mention it until I had had it three levels.

Each one seems to have scrap metal, iron and occasionally other resources.

The speed with which you complete the mission can add to your bonus iron, but so far it is never as good as scouring the island for these materials, the effort put in to this limited only by your patience.

NOTE: In later levels you earn a metal detector which shows all scrap on the map as yellow dots.

I am uncertain, but I suspect the metal re-populated over time. If so, it is pretty slowly.

The enemy bases

You will need to destroy a few enemy bases to complete your mission. The game has hinted at additional tasks, but none have, as yet, shown up.

The enemy bases vary in size.

Bastions: The basic base is called a Bastion, and it has has nine buildings in it. The four corners are shooting towers of some sort. These get tougher as the game progresses.

You need to destroy all nine to complete the destruction of that bastion.

Bastions are all small squares, raised off the ground a little bit. This is why lift is useful when fighting them.

Outposts: The second level is the outpost. It has seventeen targets in it. They are denoted on the map as two squares right next to each other.

Forts: These consist of three cells, or squares. Oddly enough it has sixteen targets in it, I am assuming they are mostly weapons as this is one less than the smaller outpost.

Stronghold: It consists of four cells. There are twenty three targets within its confines.

Fortress : Consist of nine cells. Has forty seven targets within it.

Citadel : Consists of sixteen cells. Has a whopping ninety two targets within it.

Enemy bases may have wires. These increase the size of your weapons magazines. They do not carry over between missions, so use them as you get them.

Enemy bases will eventually also have accumulators. These increase the fire rate of the turret you give them to by 20%.

The last thing they may drop is microchips. They reduce the reload time of the turret you give them to by 20%.

Enemy Units

Units are pretty self explanatory, they move around and try to shoot you. Unlike bases, the number after the slash is total hit points, and the number to the left is remaining hit points.

Units are not supposed to fly. On occasion there has been a glitch where they do, and it pretty much makes the level impossible as they just spin well above you, and are almost impossible to hit.

Hunters: The first unit you run in to are called hunters. They start out in packs of four.

The game says you need to seek out and destroy several hunters, though seeking isn't hard as they chase you all over the map.

Each hunter gets their own row on the list of targets, and their hit points are next to their name. The first wave each had one hundred and twenty eight. This number goes up with the levels.

NOTE: I set one laser to shoot only air units, and it did fire at the hunters, which appear to be hover vehicles much like my ship.

They are pretty tough, and chase you around the map. You need you build your initial weapons quickly, as they home in you immediately.

If needed, you can tap off your engines hit heal, and tap them back on. Just be sure to let go of the accelerator (W) and re-hit it or you wont be moving.

Juggernaut: This is the next unit you run in to. It is a powerful floating platform, much like the hunter but better armed and with a lot of hit points.

Aside from the massive number of hit points and powerful weapons, it also showed up as a solo unit the first time. Later on they showed up in pairs.

Dreadnought : The final boss. A mega-ship, six thousand one hundred hit points. Sadly by that point your ship is so powerful it is not a challenge.

NOTE: Units may also drop wires, accumulators and microchips. See the entry on bases for what they do. Each comes along later in the game than the one before it.

Tasks

There are several tasks you can complete to earn extra iron. In general these are not needed for a mission to be complete, which is lucky because some of them seem impossible.

All tasks start with a zero to the left of the slash and a number to the right which is your goal.

Melee: The first task is called Melee, and it has me confused. If this works like ranged, it comes from delivering killer blows up close. Sometimes this is impossible as there are fewer enemies on the map than the target number.

Waste Energy: The second goal is Energy wasted. Oddly enough, the goal is to waste at least that much energy.

The fastest way to waste energy is to use lift and turbo at the same time.

When your limited energy is used up, the fastest way to refill the battery is to turn the engine off.

Lost Cargo: The next task is Lost Cargo. I scoured the island looking for anything that looked like cargo but found nothing. I even wandered around the water with no luck.

My guess is that there was none in that level, that they slipped into the ground. I thought they might be underwater, but I got that task on a desert world, and couldn't find a single cargo there either.

Ranged: The next task is called Ranged. This seems to be earned by destroying something with a long distance shot. This is pretty easy when fighting bases. Sadly you get get the task of earn twenty five or so ranged, when there are only two targets on the entire map.

Game play

The nature of the game is basically building factories at your base, so you can build better weapons on your ship.

Each mission starts with a raw ship, with none of the weapons or improvements previously made.

NOTE: Each level starts with a pre-set amount of scrap. There is no value in saving it over from the last level.

In addition you need to buy each level of weapon (gun, missile, etc) before you can build the next.

NOTE: You are restricted in your upgrades by the weapons in the tree that were before it.

Oddly enough, there seems to be no time requirement, and little advantage to finishing quickly.

As you will learn elsewhere in this guide, your ship can be upgraded on the fly, as such, there is no reason not to fly around picking up scrap and improving your ship before combat.

While it isn't necessary, it is often a good thing to attack the enemy from the high ground. The best strategy at that point seems to be to circle around a few times. This reduces your chance of getting hit, while allowing your self-aiming guns to get in a few shots.

Keep an eye on the box in the middle left which shows the enemy bases and the number of targets that remain in each one, as it is not uncommon to finish a base off when not looking at it.

So far the games is mostly about hit and run. Except for the main gun, and the Sumo (which I don't use much) they are all self-aiming, so you can fly around near the enemy, and they will be getting shot at.

Missions to date have been either bases or units. Units are vulnerable to air attacks, bases to land, and of course both can be hit by Universal.

Late in the game, things can get pretty unbalanced, your ship can really overpower the opponents.

Mission end

When your mission ends, you get a run down of how you did.

This includes reputation points, which have several uses, for example it will earn you the potential for better sales, and every five of them gives you an upgrade of some sort.

You get more bonus iron if your health is higher at the end of the mission.

You earn interest on unused iron.

NOTE: Losing is not a big deal. you lose double the reputation you would have gained, but you lose nothing else.


ADDENDUM: Having reached the end of the game, i.e. defeat the final boss, I can tell you it does continue, but the missions do not seem to get any harder.

Oddities

Odd glitches I have found

Some times the menus don't open all the way up. This only happened once so far, but that time it was every menu.

One Bastion was in the ground, making it difficult to fight.

On two occasions I found gun towers that had become invulnerable, repeated full magazines fired into them from point blank range would not kill them.

The games voice over gives you information. It is often after the event it id discussing happens. Sometimes it doesn't seem to happen at all, like the news of different tasks I could to complete.

Sometimes the variety of upgrades you can purchase goes down, for no recognizable reason.

If you learn to hit the trees just right, you can get shot up into the air.

I fired the sunbeam at an enemy outpost, and LOST experience points? This only happened the first time.

After a certain point, at the end of the level I am told I did not complete the Find Cargo task, even though it was not on the list of tasks given to be for that level.

Seriously screwed up level. Two of the Hunters were up in the sky, and out of control. Also out of range of my guns when I reached my maximum altitude.
They were spinning, and not even trying to chase me. Sometimes they would simply teleport across the map.
Had to quit the mission, not happy with that. Had to quit out of the game and come back in to fix the camera issue, too.
To make matters worse, my camera went screwy too, everything was tilted at an angle.

I had a tier four gun, and suddenly it wouldn't offer me the chance to purchase the tier five gun even though I had more than enough scrap.

Keep an eye out for the Socrates. I use it because it is the only plasma cannon that shows itself to be Universal rather than land. Most of the time. I had it populate as land. Sold and repurchased, it became Universal again.

I ran into a level where I just sank in to the ground. This made the game difficult, but not unplayable. Sadly this happened on every level after that point, making gathering scrap a pain in the butt.