Cataclismo Beginner's Guide

A beginner's guide on the very basics of Cataclismo, from user interface to mechanics, and early gameplay/helpful tips!

Gameplay Overview

Your people await your orders, and as your Herald and lead advisor, my job is to give you the knowledge that will help you lead humanity against the horrors of the Mist, and to reconquer the lands that were lost.

Starting a new campaign will lead you through a quick series of tutorials, and it is highly recommended that you play these if this is your first time with the game.

Cataclismo combines brick-by-brick castle building with resource management to defend humanity against swarms of horrors as you construct vast fortifications, build up an army, and unravel new mysteries.

In a world where the Mist has transformed the landscape, you’ll need to optimize your citadel during the day, and prepare your defenses to fight the horrors that come after sundown. Each night brings new horror types and larger waves as you balance exploration, your population, and the limited resources on the map.

Can you survive the night and restore hope to humanity?

The Lady Iris

Lady Iris is the main character in the campaign and will be present throughout the other modes. Born with a Perla stone embedded in her chest, she is a special unit able to perform Artes, special abilities that give her various advantages on the battlefield. Spend time looking over these to see where they can best be used.


Her most unique ability, however, is the power to create a Time Anchor. This is a waypoint that Lady Iris can set to fold time and then return in the future if things don't go her way. To create a Time Anchor, click Create Manual Time Anchor at the top of your screen or use the F5 key. To return to that Time Anchor, click Return to a previous Time Anchor or use the F9 key.

Main Menu

Cataclismo will have several game modes available to play, catering to multiple types of players.

1. Campaign - Experience an extensive and in-depth single-player campaign as you follow Lady Iris and explore the mysteries of the Mist. Early access will initially have ten campaign missions, with the full campaign releasing with 1.0.
   
2. Skirmish - Attempt to survive multiple nights across various hand-crafted maps and difficulties.
   
3. Endless Mode - Takes skirmish mode to a new level with endless waves. Currently on one biome with endless procedurally generated maps.
   
4. Sandbox Mode - Not available yet.
   
5. Level Editor - Create your own custom levels across map size, biome, and game type. Not all biomes will be available at early access.
   
6. Community Levels - Download custom levels from the community or upload your own.
   
7. Settings - Use your settings to create the best game experience, from gameplay to video, audio, and controls.

The Basics - User Interface

Understanding the User Interface of Cataclismo is crucial to crafting the best defense against
the horrors that await you in the darkness.

1. Resources & Population
   
   
   • 1a Oxygen - Units and buildings need a steady oxygen supply to survive amid the Mist of the old lands. Increase your oxygen supply by building Air Filters.
     
   • 1b Wood - Used for the construction of buildings and wood pieces for defense, exploration, etc. It is also required for troop production and citadel upgrades. Build sawmills to increase your wood supply.
     
   • 1c Stone - Used for placing stone pieces that are crucial for strong walls to defend against horrors. Build quarries to increase your stone supply.
     
   • 1d Minerals - Necessary for certain buildings, placing tactical defensive pieces, troop production, and citadel upgrades. Build quarries to increase your mineral supply.
     
   • 1e Military - Shows the number of military units you currently have and the maximum number of allowed units. Upgrade your citadel to increase your military unit cap.
     
   • 1f Citizens - Shows the current number of available citizens. Build Homesteads to increase your citizen capacity.
     
   • 1g Mistfuel - A volatile substance used to train powerful units and build advanced buildings. Build Mist Condensers to increase your Mistfuel supply.
2. Time & Space
   
   • 2a Time Anchor - Lady Iris has a unique ability to place a marker in time, allowing her to return to that point should things go awry.
     
   • 2b Time of Day - An entire day is broken up into three parts.
     
     • 2i Daytime - Explore, construct, and prepare for the night
       
     • 2ii Evening - Signals the attack and allows you to prepare for the wave of horrors. Red pillars on the edge of the map indicate which direction the waves will come from.
       
     • 2iii Night - Horrors will attack your defenses and attempt to destroy your citadel.
       
   • 2c Speed Buttons - Allows you to control the speed of the game. From left to right: normal speed, double speed, and trigger the next horror wave immediately. Use the space bar to pause and unpause.
     
3. Objectives - Any current objectives you may have in the game.
   
4. Settings & Controls
   
   • 4a Map View - Toggles a top-down view of the map to get a better perspective of map layout, resources, units, and horrors.
     
   • 4b Visibility - These are various settings that let you move the camera, toggle building transparency, and use a grid toggle for maximum precision in construction.
     
   • 4c Settings Menu
     
5. Tutorials & Help - You can reference the tutorials anytime or seek help through subject-based overviews.
   
6. Citadel Prosperity - Higher levels unlock new buildings, units, and tech upgrades.
   
7. Construction Menu - Provides all available building options.
   
   • 7a Blueprints - Create blueprints to construct complex buildings and defenses with a few clicks based on the blueprint selection.
     
   • 7b Wood Pieces - Used for wall defense.
     
   • 7c Stone Pieces - Used for wall defense.
     
   • 7d Advanced Pieces - Used to enhance wall defenses by buffing units, providing access through walls, and shelter from the elements.
     
   • 7e Tactical Pieces - Tactical add-on pieces to buff units and traps that can slow or kill horrors.
     
   • 7f Resource Gathering - All buildings that harvest or produce resources.
     
   • 7g City Building - All buildings that are needed to enhance your city.
     
8. Building Tools
   
   • 8a Eyedropper Tool - Allows you to copy any structure and place on the map.
     
   • 8b Recycle Tool - Click on wood and stone pieces to recycle them immediately, and hold down to recycle buildings. Recycling recovers any resources used to build them.
     
   • 8c Undo Button
     

Economy - Resources, Population And Exploration

Your economy is built on three fundamentals: resource production, population management, and exploration. The combination of these will help your economy to grow, and help you to survive the night against waves of horrors.

Resources

As laid out in the previous section, there are several resources for you to harvest, all of which are necessary for the operation of your city, from its core buildings to its defenses, units, and upgrades.

Your wood, stone, and mineral production relies on the amount of resources able to be harvested within their respective building’s radius, with a meter indicating how much of those resources will be harvested every minute.

Oxygen features the same meter; however, production is determined by the height at which the air filter has been built. The higher the air filter, the more production there is. Note that air filters can be built on top of other buildings and that is a great way to optimize a small space.

Hovering over any of your resource bars in the top left corner will allow you to see that resource's current production rate and, in the case of oxygen, its expenditure rate.

Population

These buildings can only be built if you have people to work them! Your citizens will move into shacks or houses and will automatically be assigned jobs collecting resources. Resources are deposited either in your citadel or at the closest warehouse; be mindful of how far away your resources are from their final destination.

Your citizens are also used in recruiting your army, with larger or more advanced units requiring multiple citizens. It is crucial to remember that your units and buildings all consume oxygen for survival, so building too large of an army too quickly could drastically affect your economy as a whole, especially regarding oxygen consumption.

Exploration

There are two main reasons for expansion. The first is resource production. As waves of horrors become more intense due to new species types and sheer numbers, the need to produce more resources will quickly become apparent.

You must expand your citadel’s influence by constructing a beacon to build on new resource deposits - assuming the area is clear of horrors. If this isn't the case, send out your units to kill whatever is in the area, being on the lookout for resource salvage from lost expeditions that could provide a large boost of resources.

The second reason for expansion is space. Starting out with only the citadel’s area of buildable space, you will find that there isn’t much you can build before things become too crampe. Expansion will eventually be necessary to provide the units, resource production, and defensive structure capability necessary to fight off the waves of horrors.

Keep in mind that if a beacon is destroyed, you will lose access to any buildings built inside its influence, requiring you to reconstruct the beacon to restore access.

Defences

With nightly waves of horrors, building up your defenses is a necessity.

Cataclismo features a brick-stacking defensive building system, constructing walls out of various wood and stone pieces and crafting stairwells, bridges, and other structures that provide space for your troops to fight off horrors.

That being said, stone pieces have the advantage of the Toughness mechanic, where the taller your stone walls are, the more health they have and the stronger they become. As you can see in the images above, the facade of the stone changes to indicate when its Toughness increases.

An increased Toughness level provides more opportunities for the units on top of them to attack the horrors, and as we will see in the next section, has benefits for your units.


Your wood and stone pieces also experience realistic physics. If a block providing support were to be destroyed, the rest of the column would risk collapsing under its own weight, as indicated by a vibrating red highlight. Fixing the support issue will keep the wall operational, but be quick, as the unsupported section will collapse, causing debris to fall to the ground, potentially crushing friends and foes alike.

Your defensive structures are broken up into several sections

Wood & Stone Pieces

Wood & Stone Pieces are the core of your wall structure; remember that Toughness only applies to stone pieces.

Advanced Pieces

Advanced Pieces are doors and windows, providing access through walls and protection on top of them against horrors and the elements. Windows are perfect for multi-level walls to maximize unit placement.

Tactical Pieces

Tactical Pieces are the most unique. They are designed to be added to your walls, boosting your unit's range, damage output, or morale, and some tactical pieces act as traps that impede the horrors’ movement. These tactical pieces are unlocked as you level up your Prosperity within the Citadel.

Use this knowledge to build effective wall systems to withstand the horrors!

Units

Your units are citizens trained to fight the horrors. This section will explain a few key aspects of all units to help you determine when and where to utilize them best.

Recruitment

Recruitment of units begins in any of your Military Growth buildings, using the Barracks most heavily in the early game. Units cost various resources, such as wood, minerals, and citizens, not to forget oxygen, as we’ve already discussed.

Unit Stats And Actions

Each unit has a breakdown of its stats and actions. On the left side, you have a description of its use and details, including damage output, attack rates, and how much space the unit takes up. The right side provides a range of action options, telling the unit to focus on higher health horrors or to attack in an area rather than focus on the horrors themselves.

Low or High-Ground Units

The most important factor regarding effectiveness is ground height. To achieve maximum damage, units must be within a certain height above their target. Low-ground units need to be 0-4m above their target, while High-ground units need to be 5 or more meters above the target.

The best way to quickly see if your unit is in optimal range and height is by selecting and hovering over the unit, or hovering over the white diamond above the selected unit's card. Anything in white is too high, anything in red cannot be attacked, and everything else in green is in the optimal area.

Factor these in when building your defenses. You should experiment with multi-level platforms that use your troops in their best element to fight off the horrors at peak efficiency.

The Night

After a long, hard day, you’ll face waves of horrors and try to make it through the night.


As night approaches, there is a preparation period. During this preparation period, you’ll be able to see which directions the horrors are coming from alongside a rough idea of their numbers, providing time to bolster your defenses with extra walls where needed or to shift units around.

With the onset of the night, the horrors will come out of the darkness and attack your settlement in an attempt to destroy your citadel. Defeat all of the horrors, and you’ll have survived the night.

Gameplay Tips

• Scout your map early and look for resource salvages to gain a large surplus of materials to quickly build or expand.
  
• Most buildings allow you to build on top of them. Use this to create platforms for your Air Filters or towers for defense.
  
• Remember that all buildings and units consume oxygen; plan air filter construction accordingly.
  
• Experiment with multi-level walls to allow your different units to always be at their optimal height.
  
• If a wall falls, the units on top fall with it. Knowing when to pull your units from a crumbling wall is crucial to their safety.
  
• Be mindful of your unit composition. Bowmen are high-damage and quick-firing but only shoot a single target. Lobbers are low damage but deal damage to multiple targets at once, and your Captor slows down horrors. Under the right combinations, you can fight off large groups of horrors.
  
• Unit upgrades and tactical pieces provide several buffs to turn your units into horror-killing machines.
  
• Hover over a unit to see its optimal range and height. Anything in white is too high, anything in red cannot be attacked, and everything else in green is in the optimal area.
  
• Lady Iris has several abilities. Look over them and use them where appropriate.

[(OG) Hero Luka]

Answering Gelti's question, you can sometimes kill them with AOE attacks while targeting another structure that is target-able.

[Gelti]

Anyone figured out a way to destroy the ruin blocks in campaign that you cant target with the unit attack command "T"?

[Ohm is Futile]

This will likely be rebalanced, but warehouses act as a drop-off point for resources. Building them close or even next to a sawmill or quarry will dramatically increase your income if they're not that close to your citdadel.

Neat little guide!

[[mad.] 13AKES]

Air filters are great to be placed on blocks of 4 houses, with a group of Tall Wooden platforms built on the roofs of the houses, to get them above the 5 blocks high.

[AA Man]

Another thing, Air Filters get more efficient the higher up you place em, placing them 5 blocks up from the ground under them gives you max efficiency. Keep note that you have to build on the terrain to increase height. if you put one on a mountain you have to put a 5 block tall platform under it, same as one in a hole.