Gnorp 10

An easy guide to get to compression 10 and with enough patience beat the game.

Introduction

I am not claiming to be an expert or have mastered the game but simply posting what worked for me - I expect there are ways to further improve this or alternate ways to achieve the goal.

Based on the current version of the game as of 28/01/24 - updates may change things enough that this no longer works.

Where to spend your points

Talent points (12 required):
Row 1: Motivation, Runner Backstop, Extra Housing, Bathing in Fire
Row 2/3: Gatling balloon, time-shifted delivery
Row 4/5: Future to the Back, Project Constellation, Frost fire, Deals, Reclamation Mitigation, Arrows' Last Hurrah.


Zyb Use:

1 in shard storage: Additional housing
1 in Slam Club: Fire Breath.
2 in GPL: Time shift Impact.
2 in archery for Zybellium arrows.
2 in garden: One for construction and one for Flower Power
1 in Rock Analysis Lab: Reclamation Nullification


Gnorps and upgrades:

House of Shards: All buildings except robotics lab and academy.

The Express (Soft Cap: 35 gnorps & 30 capacity): no inspiration, max speed, 40% GEET, break (Requires Cafe, Get ASAP), rush delivery.

Cafe: Build but don't purchase Mountaineers - only used to unlock break for the express.

Slam Club (Soft Cap: 25 gnorps): Runner Inspiration, No warm ups, max combo chance, Fire Breath.

GPL (Soft Cap: 25 gnorps): Time shift Impact x2, Ultra Boost, Concentration.

Archery: Zyb but buy fire + ice for cheap housing.

Rock Analysis Lab: Collection, Balloon Gunner & Weak spot upgrades.

Gun vs Rock: 6 gunners (set to ice).

Shrine: Power.

Garden: Only Green, Flower Power, Enriched Vomit.

Missiles: (Soft Cap: 6x+6y).

Housing: As needed.

Suggested build order

1) House of shards
2) Lab & Collection
3) The Express (5 Gnorps)
4) Cafe - do not invest in mountaineers.
5) Slam club (5 Gnorps)
6) Archery
7) GPL
8) House x4
9) GPL: +5 Gnorps
10) Express: Break
11) Slam Club Combo Chance 20% & Fire breath
12) Archery Range: Fire and Ice Arrows
13) Slam Club: +5 Gnorps, Combo Chance 40% & Runner Inspiration
14) GPL: +5 Gnorps
15) Gun Vs Rock (2 Rifle Gnorps, Ice)
16) Balloon Gunner
17) House x6
18) Slam Club Combo Chance 80%
19) The Express: +5 Gnorps, Capacity 10, Speed 2 & Delivery Rush
20) House x9
21) Slam Club: +15 Gnorps & Combo Chance Max
22) GPL: +10 Gnorps
23) Gun Vs Rock + 2 Rifle Gnorps
24) House x3
25) GPL: +5 Gnorps
26) House x1
27) GPL: Time shift x2
28) Additional Housing
29) GPL: Ultra Boost
30) Express: Speed Max
31) The Garden: Green Only & Flower Power
32) Express: Geet Protocol 10%
33) The XY1-AB
34) Lab: Weak spot discovery, weak spot frequency & weak spot weak spot
35) Express: +10 Gnorps, Capacity +20 & Geet Protocol 40%
36) GPL: Concentration
37) House x4
38) The Shrine: Find the chosen > Accord: Power
39) Garden: Enriched Puke
40) Archery: Zybellium Arrows
41) Gun: +2 Rifle gnorps
42) House 5x
43) The Express: +10 Gnorps
44) YX1-AB: X and Y rockets +1
45) Lab: Reclamation Nullification
46) YX1-AB: X and Y rockets +1
47) The Express: +5 Gnorps.

To advance further requires not many additional gnorps but a large amount of shards - now
is a good time to let it run in the background for 8 hours or so while you do something
else.

48) YX1-AB: X & Y rockets to 8 & Vulnerability
49) Purchase rail gun & the Finale to complete the game at full tier 10 compression.

Note: Need to be actively playing to activate the finale during the compression event.

Post script

Still going to take some time to fill up the compression bar enough to trigger the game
ending so sit back, relax and watch the rock get bombarded with everything set up so far
... or go do something else and check in once every hour or so, entirely up to you.

If you want to speed things up a bit you could throw some of the extra gnorps into some of
the other offensive options that are available but looking at the damage tool tip it looks
like the greatest bonus would come from upgrading rockets (biggest increase but becomes
absurdly expensive) or adding gnorps to the GPL (minimal improvement but zero shard cost) - by the time I reached part 48 I had over 50 spare gnorps and the compression bar was slowly increasing, even with the rock re-absorbing most of the shards being generated by damage.

[Andras Zodon]

This was pretty similar to my build in most respects, but alerted me to a handful of small optimizations I could make to actually clear Compression 9. Thanks!

[Legmin Krimpington]

FYI to all trying to use this it only requires 12 perk points but you need 14 to get the shrine and the bow perk upgrade that he uses

[Seroganth]

Good guide. Currently in shard waiting room, but I'm on step 48/49. Follow this step by step, and buy random cheap housing in between the steps when you're lacking, you'll be a-okay!

[Ryder Golde]

currently in 'waiting' part before 48 so I figured I'd leave my current thoughts on this guide
I'm an absolute fool, having never thought about using Slammers to proc fire
and also, I'm wondering if Rocket Gatler and Timeshift Retainment would also help with getting up to tier 10 and slightly boost the win (I'd spent time grinding up to 17 points before trying to win)
also with the final set of Talents unlocked, Zybe Agitator could be used to obtain more Zybe given how quickly this strategy seems to compress, and I'm sure some extra Zybe to go around could be used for other upgrades (like maybe Pocket Rocket and more Timeshift?)
all this said, I'll absolutely be doing some general experimenting in this game once I have a win under my belt, and this strategy will be on that experiment list
thank you in advanced! ^^