Overview
Recorded gameplays for each level (including achievements). Leaving video links instead of embedded YouTube videos to prevent bloating.
Tips
Employee Costs
There are 2 types of costs involved with employees; hiring and wages. Hiring costs goes up with each employee we have and goes back down after firing, while wages go up permanently with each employee hired.
So hire producers and dealers before hiring fighters for the level to keep costs low. It’s a little extreme, but we may consider using our initial producers and dealers to take over bases for early expansions, just remember to save, heal and position them.
Since wages are only doled out upon a new day (midnight), we can hire fighters after wages are paid, then fire them before midnight, even while fights are ongoing. This technique can be used on levels where maintaining fighters is costly (e.g. level 3 and 10).
Base takeovers
A takeover/encounter on a base is only resolved when all parties have arrived and concluded the battle. This means we can leave bases undefended (e.g. “Do not let them take back” objectives) and only send fighters when we detect enemies approaching.
For critical bases, if we don’t have defenses, we can evacuate our employees elsewhere, send fighters in, then bring back the employees. Like for level 4’s objectives and level 10 when Tupo sends multiple raids after Miguel is taken down.
We can also do last minute hires during fights as long as the base is ours, like on level 10 when the base becomes ours but we still have to fight the junkies.
Positioning in fights
Employees with guns will not use them when too close to enemies. Position them further away from stairs and main entrances when defending. With that said, I prefer melee for defense and guns for offense, as enemies usually trickle in and not enter all at once. Guns do not benefit from the employee’s attack stat, this is especially obvious with superjunkies. Stack our fighters at the main entrance to combine their attack power while the enemies trickle in.
Positioning also work during fights, though we have to click and move each employee manually, like to stop dying employees from charging to their deaths. When they stack up, it’s difficult to find them, we can select them using the employee menu and move them away, but only if not engaged in a fight.
Gameplays (with achievements)
Skipping level 1 (tutorial).
Level 2 – Brewing ♥♥♥♥ – It’s Easy
We can exploit the level’s scripts by not selling any drugs at the start. Instead we let Gunther and Kenny produce until all storage is full, since they don’t have salaries. It will take about 3 minutes at max speed to fully fill.
Level 3 – Hui Xiao’s Restaurants
Selling the Green ourselves is more profitable than giving it to Hui Xiao ($1500 vs $1100) so we can ignore the objectives to supply him.
After Tupo/Miguel’s gangsters take over the restaurants, some of them will leave after a while, reducing their headcount to 3 or 4. That’s the best time to attack.
I min-maxed by hiring producers and dealers first and fighters only later, to reduce the daily wages but it’s not necessary to play in such an extreme manner.
To save costs on fighters, hiring them immediately after midnight and fire them before the next midnight.
Level 4 – Gangster ♥♥♥♥
The most important thing to remember is the “Encounters” rule; encounters on a base are not resolved until all parties have arrived and finished fighting. Thus we don’t need to leave defenders on every base, just sending them there before the enemy arrives will do.
I preferred to attack from right to left, to increase the time enemies have to travel and also the time I have to respond. Save before attacking.
Level 5 – ♥♥♥♥ Taxes
If the turf raided by the police is useless, we can save on the money by refusing the bribe. It’s a little bit of luck here.
After the 4th bribery prompt, we can send the cops after Miguel/Tupo, that will alleviate the pressure on us.
The gym is a good place to turtle up since Tupo/Miguel ignores this place. I used it to do the $42,000 achievement.
Level 6 – Kenny’s In Jail
Fighters with guns will engage in melee when too close to enemies. Position them away from the stairs/entrance.
The productivity determines speed of breaking open the cell door. Send producers to do it, boosting them either with purple or gear. We can manually send them to the breakroom to rest to min-max the process.
Level 7 – How It Went Down
It’s probably easier to farm up and assault the bank, but I chose to go after Tupo/Miguel for the achievement.
Level 8 – Kenny’s Rage
Tupo remains unalerted if his thugs don’t die. We can evacuate the stands when he randomly attacks, and claim them afterwards when his thugs leave. The attacks will increase in intensity (rather slow, like about 25 minutes of real life time), so we cannot turtle indefinitely.
For the bank, his thugs won’t go to the bottom 3 levels, so it’s suitable for a factory, relying on transports to instantly pick up drugs to the stands and amass cash.
Once we have built up enough firepower we can attack.
Level 9 – Wholesale Baby
Overall this is an easy level, shouldn’t need any tips. It’s quicker to buy/sell with Big L than to produce the goods ourselves, especially when the quantity of each trade gets bigger with every stage of the objectives.
Level 10 – A Stoned ♥♥♥♥♥’s Plan
The nature of this level is such that fighters are expected to die and be replaced as there are no weapon shops, and the junkies in the base are hostile. Thus I do a hire and fire approach; hire after midnight and fire before midnight to only incur hiring costs. How many fighters we can hire/fire depends on our production line (10 fighters boosted with Green works for me).
Superjunkies aren’t critical to win but can be helpful. Sid is in the 4th base from the right, so target that first if we want her fighting strength. I prefer to keep skill books for the other junkies since I can train Sid while taking down Miguel. The other junkies will depart after Tupo is defeated, so train them up first (for the achievement) before doing so.
After hitting Miguel the first time and when he reaches the head office, be prepared for a few waves of counterattacks. Then take down his bases one by one. Note that the Investor will come by after Miguel is defeated, so be prepared to tackle the research objectives as it’s time limited, not to mention having to deal with Tupo’s initial wave of attacks.
The effects of research aren’t important as it’s limited to this level only and all enemies would be severely weakened or conquered by then, just go with the first effect we get. We’ll need to research Green to level 3, then repeat for Purple, Brown. Make 5 Whites (do make extra because I had producers drop them when reassigning), sell them and research White to level 3.
Level 11 – Tupo Must Finally Die
There’s no need to complete the takeover objectives. When Tupo is in the base, sending even just 1 fighter will trigger him to flee. Then repeat until we trigger the bomb objective.
I kept the original fighters to defend and they worked just fine. Be sure to stack them at the doorway so enemies with guns cannot fire and will be smacked silly. Place healing beds away from the main entrance so producers and dealers don’t walk past it and get caught in the crossfire.
All the drug requirements for the DIffuse Fluctuator have a time limit, but this limit only starts when the mixing is complete, so just unassign the worker from the Diffuse Fluctuator and only reassign when we’re ready for the next step.
The drugs required for the bomb (in order) are: 1 Purple, 40 Brown, 20 Green, 10 Purple, 5 White.
Level 12 – The Final Fight
To prevent Investor from sniffing us out, we must maintain $100 or less by 4:20AM or PM daily. Easiest way to deplete money in large amounts, is to build lockers and keep increasing our fighting force, as hiring costs increase with every unit we have. Then to deplete money in smaller amounts, use the Research Lab to waste away money in $50 amounts.
Personally I chose to sell away the money stashes to get rid of cash and only maintained a fighting force of around 20, because having too many units makes the game lag.
Save before attacking in case the takeover timings match up with Investor’s sniffing. In that case, reload, and delay by 1 or 2 hours before sending fighters.
Credits
I referred to Dalkavuk’s achievement guide while making my playthroughs, do check that out if interested:
[link]