Overview
This guide details each of the tiers of production, refinery and research to obtain the Titanium Hull, starting from the submarine and including what upgrades and modules are required, as well as hints and tips on how to progress.I’ve now updated this guide to include the change in gameplay behaviour with the introduction of the basic worktables, and added a general information section dealing with the main goals of progression to the end.
General Information
The surface of the island is divided into 3 segments, and the various blocks put into place to stop you from moving from one to another mean you essentially travel in an anti-clockwise direction from lowest tier to highest tier.
There are usually 2 obstacles to overcome to move to the next area. The first is an increase in the rock hardness of the passage, and the second is an abnormally high temperature flow of lava.
The rock passage is usually indicated by a Drill symbol, and the Tier level required. The lava is usually a brighter orange in colour, and will display a hint when you hover the mouse over it, indicating it is impassible for the moment.
Obtaining the appropriate Tier Drill will allow to go through the harder rock into the next area via Surface Tunnels 1 but you will initially find that passage blocked by high temperature lava. This can be removed by destroying the COG laser that is operating in the current segment, as indicated by the hint.
This laser is accessed on a branch of the current segment you are in through another block of rock, also marked with the same Drill Tier. This branch is in the Cave layer, so you will need to find a tunnel to transition between the surface tunnels 1 and the cave tunnels 2.
Each COG laser has 3 supports, and is located in an underground cave system that usually has 3 landing sites where you can surface your Drillship. One, maybe two, of these can be used as there usually will be other COG drillship(s) blocking the other point(s).
Destroying a COG laser by taking out the 3 supports, which may be defensive turrets, will do a number of things;
1) Stop the high temperature flow of lava, allowing to move to the next segment.
2) Cause any COG drillships in the case containing the laser to go underground.
3) Disable any COG soldiers in that cave. Great for looting, if you have the time!
4) Now only a single Command drillship would ever be on the surface for that segment.
5) Very few COG soldiers on the surface of the segment.
The only change in this pattern is moving from Tier 3 to Tier 4, as this requires the Tier 4 Titanium Hull, hence the name of this guide.
One the Tier 4 COG laser is destroyed, you will be able to traverse the level-2 to level-3 tunnel, taking you to Caves 2, and the final laser at the Heart of the Volcano.
Destroying the supports for this one can take some doing, mainly because of the two elite 3-star command COG drillships.
Submarine Manufacturing
Before you capture your first Drillship, you are limited to only the manufacturing devices available on the submarine, and those found about the world in underground bunkers and mines.
These include the blue Worktable, the red Refinery Worktable, and the green Research Worktable.
Very little can be done with these worktables to begin with, and your main aim early on should be to use the Research Worktable to complete the Tier 1 upgrades for Production, Refinery, Research, Explosives and Structures.
Unlike previous versions of Volcanoids, the submarine no longer has it’s own power plant. Instead, the worktables often use Coal as one of the materials in making any items.
This is until you have researched the ability to manufacture the Production Module Tier 1, which is a deployed module for the Drillship.
Needless to say, you will need a LOT of coal. Fortunately, there is a coal mine to the east of the harbour which can supply a decent amount each eruption cycle, as well as a fair amount along the coastline to the west, towards the copper mine, and a little to the east towards the coal mine.
Since you also need a fair amount of copper, that’s a good place to head to, but you can get 2 copper ingots from scrap copper instead of 1 for each copper ore, and you’ll find plenty of scrap around the island.
The easiest sulphur to reach is north of the harbour, around the edges of the lake of lava. There is another lava lake further east of the coal mine, and south of that will be the sulphur mine.
Once you have your Drillship, then the underground deposits can be picked up as well.
Drillship Manufacturing Tier 1
Once you have claimed a drillship, either through the tutorial or by destroying a required number of modules before installing your own Drillship Core 1, you will then be able to install additional modules, being the Tier 1 Production, Refinery and Research.
There are Rare components, like Pumps or Shredders, that are required for some of these modules or upgrades to be produced or researched, and these can be randomly found in COG drillships, looted from COG robots, or as spawns in the tunnels.
Note that the Research Module allows you to convert these rare components into research of the appropriate Tier. At the beginning you should avoid doing this due to their scarcity, although a subsequent Production upgrade allows you to make these items.
To move to the next section, you will need to install the Drill Tier 2 Update. To produce this requires one or more Tier 2 Drill Scraps. You can either obtain these from 2-start COG drills, or by checking around the Tier 2 tech spawn sites underground.
Drillship Manufacturing Tier 2
With the construction of the Research Tier 1 module and Research Station, a lot more options become available, predominantly the Upgrade options from the research, which are required to build higher tier modules and upgrades, as well as more advanced equipment and a wider range of refinery choices.
Before you can build Tier 2 modules or drillship upgrades, you must build and install the appropriate “other upgrades” via your core stats panel. These research upgrades require a quantity of Intel components, which, like rare components, can be obtained either by looting COG drillships, found on COG robots, or spawned in the tunnels.
They can also be obtained by researching destroyed modules, rare components or COG robot heads at the research station.
Since the time to research these upgrades is quite long, now is a good time to locate the parts needed for the Hardened Drill, and once you have installed each of the above three basic upgrades, you can move into area 2 and start on the Tier 2 modules.
The Production Tier 2 module is the only one that can be produced with an active Tier 1 production module, but it requires rare components that are difficult (but not impossible) to obtain in the starting area.
As such, it is usually now best to obtain the parts needed to make the Hardened Drill so you can move on to area 2.
Fortunately, the hardened drill can also be made using the tier 1 production, but the best chance to find the required part is on the 2-star armoury COG drillship that is usually located near the entrance to area 2.
Drillship Manufacturing Tier 3
Now that we are in the Tier 3 segment of the island, we can begin working on all the research and production needed to full equip your Drillship for the more challenging tasks ahead.
You will find while accumulating all the materials needed, you will be making trips back to the lower tiered segments for iron and copper, sulphur and crystals. Mainly this is for keeping your weapons and armour updated to fight off the COG soldiers while you are doing the manufacturing updates.
An alternative, and this applies to the earlier segments too, is to find the Cave area containing the single Landing Site. This will never be blocked by a COG drillship, and will never have any COG soldiers. It is usually a perfect place to only have out the manufacturing modules, and just enough power modules, without worrying about weapon turrets.
The Elite 3-Star Command COG Drillship
Needed for access to the Tier 4 segment through the high temperature lava tubes, the Tier 4 Hull upgrade would be the biggest challenge yet, as it requires Tier 4 Hull Scraps, which can only be extracted from an elite 3-star command COG drillship, once it has been completely destroyed.
While these COG drillships do include updated weapon turrets, the hardest part is the endless swarm of COG soldiers, who can use a variety of different weapons for each soldier.
Run in close, they switch to shotguns. Move further away they’ll use sniper rifles. The worst though are the ones with mortar guns, as they can make short work of your own Drillship if they start targeting it.
You’ll tend to want to finish them off quickly to avoid having to reload a save.
In the Tier 3 segment, this COG drillship can normally be found camped out at COG Hills. If it actually is at that Landing Site, don’t go after it. Instead, wait until the next eruption, and claim COG Hills for yourself. Ensure you have plenty of hard-hitting weapons on the left side, especially the rear section.
A Gatling turret is usually best due to it’s higher HP total. It can take quote a few mortars before being destroyed. A simple pistol turret usually only survives 1 or 2 hits.