Overview
For those who were complaining about the lack of instructions.
Quick Start
See those resources in the bottom right of the screen? Find them. Mine them. If you can’t mine them, trade them when supply ships pass by. Get all of them.
See those robots shooting at you? They’re human. Kill them. Find their bases, mine their powercore, and kill them all.
How do you mine biomass (that eyeball symbol resource)? Build a biomass tree on empty dirt/ice/sand (you might have to mine it then build plain dirt if there’s a rock or tree on it) then just walk over the biomass seedlings that grow around the tree.
How do you mine ice / sand / dirt ? There are multiple biomes in the game. If the one you are in doesn’t have the resource you want, you have to either trade supply ships for it or go wander until you find a different biome.
How do you build forces? Trade resources for workers, scouts, engineers, or warriors when supply ships periodically fly by. Especially workers. They do everything and can be mutated into specialized classes.
How do you build healing stations / resource reserves / mutation pads / etc? Mine the floor where you want to put the object, build a mini powercore (looks just like the main one, but it has a hole in its top) in the empty floor spot, then build the desired object on top of the powercore.
How do you win? When you find all the things. When you hate the game, it’s over.
Updates
Aside from achievments lacking icons, I think I’ve entered all the content necessary for the guide. At least for game version 0.8.8.1.
Add a comment if you want to see something added/changed.
Controls
All you need to play this game is a mouse, but the keyboard shortcuts come in very very handy.
For example: you can navigate your world by placing your mouse at the edge of the screen in the direction you want the display to move. If you are playing in windowed mode this is a very finicky process. I highly recommend using WASD to do the exact same action.
Probably the most finicky control of the game is navigating the Z index, or the height levels. Scroll the mouse wheel up to go up, and down to go down. On the keyboard, + and – have the same effect (thanks vey2000). Your pointer will indicate how many blocks you are above solid ground. Pro tip: In order to accurately select a new unit, and not send your currently selected unit on a random hike, you will want to be on the exact same Z level as that character. This is especially tedious if you want your unit to interact with something that is on a higher level Z index than it because the screen will not display, or allow interaction with, objects that are on a higher level than the cursor.
Bonus pro tip: Holding shift key will display the stats of whatever block that your cursor is resting on. A great way to learn about your environment and what is minable/collectable.
Left click will let you select a unit, aka an alien, aka a you. Clicking that unit twice will deselect everything and on average is not a very useful command. Clicking anywhere else will send your selected unit to that spot. Right click around a second unit to cancel any command they were given and also have them look in the direction of your cursor. Yes, they can be snuck up on.
Once you select your desired unit *smirk* you will have a menu on the bottom of your screen that will display the actions that you can make with that unit.
Let’s look at the screen menu more in depth, shall we?
1: Pause / Play. Evidence that you are a race of Timelords. This is the most useful feature of the game as it lets dimwitted players like myself take my time and plan out my actions even during the heat of attack. It also makes multitasking a much simpler task and allows you to organize your forces with much effeciency… as far as in-game characters know. It’s keyboard shortcut is the “Space” Bar, or seeing how we have landed, the “Target Planet” Bar.
2: Next Unit. Cycle through the individual units under your control. It’s keyboard shortcut is the “n” key. Pro tips: With a unit selected, you can hot-key this unit by hitting ctr+1(~9). This is useful until you have more than 9 units, and seriously, you will want more than 9 units. Luckily you can click and drag to select a group of units up to six in number. Hit ctrl+1(~9) to hot-key this group, but use alt+1(~9) to select the group and not whatever individual unit.
3: Unit Under Fire (UUF). If this icon is flagged, clicking it will allow you to cycle through any units that are under attack.
4: Unit + Shield. I dunno. An upcoming feature? It currently cycles through the units just like Next Unit. I assume it cycles units that are currently in defense mode, but currently all units are permanently in defense mode? That’s my guess.
5: Target Unit. If you have a unit selected but decide to have a looksy elsewhere on the map, clicking this button will bring your view back to the selected unit. It’s keyboard shortcut is the “g” key.
6: Home Base. Pressing this button will center your view on your home bases’ main powercore. It’s keyboard shortcut is “h”.
7/8: Up Level / Down Level: It changes your Z-Index as a very cumbersome alternative to scrolling the mouse wheel. Their keyboard shortcuts are the + and – keys.
9: Supply Ship Alert. When this turns green, get ready to do some trades. Stuff will be teleported into your inventory and new units will spawn on your spawn points.
10: Selected Unit HUD. Quick stats for health and energy for your selected unit(s). Stats depend on the class and level of your unit. Energy decreases when your unit is doing something and increases when they do nothing. The yellow badge shows the unit’s level via how many lines appear.
11: Stats. More detailed stats about your selected unit. When a group of units are selected, it will only show stats of one of them. I think it’s random. This is also where you click to exchange a unit’s weapon.
12: Regen. Regenerate health. It will cost you 2 biomass resources and 300 points of energy to regen 25 hp. You might be able to regen twice in a battle, if you are lucky.
13: Mine. Gather resources by destroying stuff. Click this button and click on what you want to mine. Be careful of where your z-index is, though. Click this button then click and drag to mine an area. Have multiple units selected to make them all mine a thing. Cancel command by having unit(s) selected and right clicking. It’s keyboard shortcut is the “m” key.
14: Build. Make stuff at cost. Same controls as the Mine button. Check out the “Buildables” section for more info. It’s keyboard shortcut is the “b” key.
15: Alert Panel This will keep you informed if your game is paused, what items you exactly got from a trade, or alert you if an action didn’t work. Keep your eyes peeled though, the message only shows up here for a couple of seconds.
16: Map. You need to build a Sensor to have this handy resource/unit map appear on your screen. THEN YOU CAN NEVER TURN IT OFF (I think).
17: Resource HUD. Tells you the health status of your main powercore and your resources: biomass, dirt, sand, ice, stone, minerals, and rare minerals respectively. You start the game with 150 of each resource. If you want to store more than 200, you need to build more Resource Silos.
Characters
There are three types of humans, but there are no in game descriptions. There are:
- White Engineers with 15HP; 800 Energy; and 0% Defense at Level 1, and 35HP; 960 Energy; and 20% Defense at Level 5.
- Yellow Troopers with 25HP; 500 Energy; and 5% Defense at Level 1, and 45HP; 600 Energy; and 25% Defense at Level 5.
- Red Heavies with 50HP; 600 Energy; and 20% Defense at Level 1, and 70HP; 720 Energy and 40% Defense at Level 5.
Buildables
There are two fence options, make sure you pick the proper direction and use square blocks to join the two angles together.
AKA Portable Powercore. This is like the Powercore in your base, but less critical. You will need to build this core underneath certain technologies for them to work.
Light Pole can be built anywhere and emits light for 5 blocks in all directions pending obstruction. The Time Orb will require a Powercore and tells you when to expect night/day. You could also just check any unit’s build menu as the graphic will be the same, just saying.
Lift Pads require two to work. One on one level and the second directly above/below it. They won’t work more than one block apart. Transport Pads, however, wil work anywhere, in any direction, so long as they are built on top of a Mini Powercore.
Mutation Pads will allow you to change workers to other classes of aliens for a cost. Only workers can change class. The Healing Totem will give any of your units 20HP every couple seconds as long as they are within a 5 block unobstructed radius of the Totem. Both these items require a Mini Power Core beneath them.
Sensor Platforms will give you access to the map feature which shows the world you have explored so far. Silos will allow you to store more of any resource, the initial 10 unit cost will depend on what type of Silo you will build. Both of these objects require a Mini Powercore.
Biomass Seed Plants will sprout biomass resources in the 5×5 area around it. It can be planted anywhere, but will only actually work in dirt/sand/ice with access to light. There are a variety of Consoles that each require 4 units of a unique resource. They are purely decoration ATM.
Weapons
Achievement Tactics
WIP
Knifey spoony Changing the equipped weapon of a unit ten times
As the description states.
Did you see that?? Watch an enemy unit loot an alien weapon from a corpse and equip it
Equip a unit with the most powerful weapon it can handle, then send it to it’s death on enemy grounds. Try to have it killed in the presence of it’s enemy equal. Scouts and Troopers, etc. Hope for the best.
Putting the boot in Kill an enemy unit with a proximity mine
As the description states.
War Crimes Plant 20 proximity mines
As the description states.
You can’t just walk into water, but you can mine into a waterbody.
Splenking Reach the bottom level of the world
The direct method is just to mine down, using shift+cursor to watch for water. Some caves do go straight to the bottom, however.
Next time try a larger gun Kill 100 enemy engineers
Resistance is futile Kill 250 enemy heavies
None shall stand against us Kill 500 enemy soldiers
Lambs to the slaughter Kill 1000 enemy engineers
Terraforming Plant 10 biomass seeding trees
All that sparkles Collect 1000 rare minerals
Loot 50 weapons
Lacking in all subtlety Trigger 50 enemy base alarms
This happens if you’re impatient.
Cut the red wire Disable 5 base alarms
This happens if you’re patient and search then mine the giant knob that controls the alarms.
What’s all this then? Find 5 loot crates in enemy bases
Pyromanaiac Cause 500 secondary explosions
5 Star Have a unit reach the maximum promotion level
This achievement currently does not work.
Aww nuts Trigger a trapped resource crate
Ding Loot 5 promotions from crates
This is a good reason why you shouldn’t have a level 5 unit collect any Loot Crates.
Recession? What recession Loot 10 resource cache crates
Allied Tech Center Reveal the whole world from a loot crate
Literally a 1% chance that this object will even spawn.