Day 19 - Help

[Emmote]

I don't like asking for tips on story missions but I'm going to make an exception to this for Day 19. I've been stuck on it for over 7 hours now.

So... I manage to get my base up and running; plenty of Reactor's, about 5-6 Tech for increased weapon attack speed (so 3 blaster's can kill the empowered drone's) and start working on the left bunker which always seems to die first.
The problem is, I've barely cleared that creeper on the left around the phantom gate before the bunker dies.

I'm just not quick enough, but anything I try just can't speed it up. >.<

Any tips? Only tips please, I'd like to complete with as little help as possible. :)

[Fisherck]

Well, first off, this map has lots of ore. So you should make a lot of makers. :) In the first chamber, I usually have four makers. This type of weapon is wonderful because once you build it, it does not cost any more energy.

Also, from the first three bunkers, you get 1500 energy! Don't be afraid to get into a large deficit to clear up the chamber.

Which leads me to my last tip. You are probably just being too carefull. ;) Try to ignore building to many reactors/tech domes in the beginning, and focus more on the bunkers. And once you get the bunkers, your unstoppable! Or very nearly... ;)

EDIT: Otherwise your tactic seems sound.

[sayaks]

well, you can clear most off the left pool with the starting weapons.
i take the left bunker first then i take the phantom gate.

[Emmote]

Cheers for the ideas.

I just managed to get to the very last chamber, but upon opening it I was swamped by those empowered Drones and one of them managed to gate to my base and destroyed it.

I could cry right now!

[MadMag]

Remember to save :)

[Emmote]

I'm still not used to that feature being in the game so I always forget.

[Emmote]

Managed it, finally. ^^ Save is excellent.

Just keep trying different ways until it works. :)

[Kren]

I simply cannot get a good foothold on this level. I can't get enough reactors up quickly, and no matter which side I go after first for the bunkers, I always lose the other group to creeper. The tips sort of helped, two or three times I even got both groups of bunkers safe, and i was trying to destroy an emitter, but the phantoms got me. I don't like save scumming, but at this point I might have to.

[Kithros]

It's a lot easier to save the bunkers than you might think - just having 2 creeper makers and 3 blasters completely unupgraded is enough to already make a push. 2 unupgraded blasters are enough to kill the drones as long as they get to use their full range against them. I recommend at the beginning moving your blasters to the right side, and your launcher over to the left - the blasters will give you a bit more space for reactors quickly while the launcher does heavy damage on the left, and pick up the gems as quickly as possible.

[apop]

Im stuck on this level, I usually use the starting weapons to clear the creeper pool on top and try to destroy uppermost the gateway first, while I dig and get the crystals on the other side of the map. I gatherthe ore that i can get and have tried using the good creepers on both the left and right side but If i try to advance on either side I lose bunkers on the other side. Ive tried, tried,tried andtried once more for good measure, but im getting desperate! Anyone willing to share some pointers for a winning strategy, or at least how to save to two upper groups of bunkers so I can get on with beating this mission?

[UpperKEES]

Maybe it's a good thing to post a screenshot, so we can identify your problem.

[Kren]

This level is insanity!!! I really need help here, and the tips really don't solve it. They make me get further each time, but I need to have like a hand-in-hand walkthrough...

[Kithros]

What I recommend doing is going for the left bunker first, and then once you rescue one bunker build a bunch more blasters, dig just to the edge of both the emitter and gateway of the right side like this:
(_ is empty space - i think one of those might be ore but it doesnt matter, X is a wall, E is emitter and G is gateway)

_XE__
__X__
___XG
____X

Then you can build shields like this

SXE__
_SX__
__SXG
___SX

After this, you begin excavating to make

S_E__
_SX__
__S_G
___SX

From this, as long as you have blasters holding back the drones from hitting shields and you don't have a huge deficit (you shouldn't after rescuing at least 1 bunker) you can nullify the emitter and gateway without even needing to clear out all the creeper. This strategy works in some other instances too - whenever a gateway/emitter is at a corner of terrain that you can excavate it can be done. One thing to note about this, you can do it with 3 shields also, but in that case the middle shield will take twice as much damage - it can still be done, but if you try that you need to make sure you have no deficit and a microrift nearby.

EDIT: Fixed some problems in the explanation - also, something worth noting is that you don't really need to use any ore rigs to feed the creeper makers, the remnants are good enough to last the first room and once you start rescuing the bunkers you usually have a huge excess of ore anyway (at least I did)

[Kren]

lol, I feel so mean about to say this, but I got it using that strategy, just after you posted. I even nearly beat the level! Now, the final challenge remains: Beating the last pool before the last bunker gets hit. How much firepower do i need, and how can I use repulsors to help? I got overflowed and the repulsors didn't do so well...

any ideas for the last chamber?

[Kithros]

When you get to the last room I typically have something looking kind of like this (after excavating):


X____________X
X_XX______XX_X
X___XXXX_X___X
X___X____X___X
X___X_XXXX___X
X___X____X___X
X___X____X___X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

From here, I put blasters all along the middle (well, you don't actually need the entire middle to be full - but if you're playing it safe more blasters are fine), and then I put microrifts on both the left and right sides along with mass launchers. The microrifts are there to make sure the launchers keep getting energy even if the creeper overflows the middle. I put shields on the end of each side - but it doesnt matter a huge deal, the drones will try to reach one of the microrifts anyway and your blasters might not kill them all before they reach it (but still, it costs only 5 energy), leaving it as something like

XBBBBBBBBBBBBX
XSXXBBBBBBXXSX
XMLLXXXXBXLLMX
XLLLXBBBBXLLLX
XLLLXBXXXXLLLX
XLLLXBBBBXLLLX
XLLLXBBBSXLLLX
XXXXXXXX_XXXXX

In truth, I don't normally use this many blasters so they probably would kill all the drones before they got to the microrifts, but not a huge deal either way - If they do reach a microrift you can either make sure the only other microrift is by your ship and have a lot of blasters waiting there to shoot them down as they come out, or you can deactivate the microrift just before they reach it. The shield in front will get killed by a drone, but it buys at least a small amount of time before the creeper spills out. In the chamber above I also use many creeper makers since I have a huge amount of extra ore. Every bunker gives 500 energy crystals (and technytes and such - remember to research as quickly as possible, for this room you will want to have maxed out attack rate and range, but youll also want things like -20% build cost to set up both faster and using less energy) which gives you enough to be able to build this up fairly quickly.