Tech Tree Strategy (Now out of date since release of 1.80.5)

This tech tree is now officially out of date due to the release of a new version with substantial balancing tweeks. So I'll begin work on a new one.

-----------------

Just wanted to post the tech tree I used to beat the game and a maybe a tip or two. The tech tree I had by the end of the game except for the final upgrade is shown below.



I found the rocket laucher, ballistics, the explosive shell upgrade, psychology, decoy, and robotics to be of little use and overall a waste of money. While robotics does take care of tiny ground units, so does the four mines upgrade and most shots still hit them anyway.
Especially on Saturn and beyond, I found the disruptor when paired with another disruptor, just about maxed out, to be incredibly effective. The blast radius and damage is excellent, but be sure to have the disruptor shielding or all your defenses turn to dust. Using the efficient mining strategy I posted, with this tech tree gave me an easy 25-35 grand every round to work with. Hope this helps somewhat.

I went like this.

I wasnt too impressed with the stunning blasters or the mines. I think next time I'll try the rockets and disruptors.

Lasers and shields are a must have, they are so incredible.

I see you went with robotics and the decoy. I'm assuming Cas wants us to use these as the Boffs harp on you fairly regularly to research them. I hope the new update makes them more necessary.

Admin wrote:I see you went with robotics and the decoy. I'm assuming Cas wants us to use these as the Boffs harp on you fairly regularly to research them. I hope the new update makes them more necessary.

I thought you had to take robotics, since at least one of the bosses decomposes into minature titans that the blasters dont seem to target. I'm fairly sure they may randomly come with other titans as well in later levels (saturn+).

The decoys are nice to have at the front of your base during the titan levels. Put some barricades around them, and within range of a shield and you wont have to worry at all about losing any towers at all. They're not cheap to replace, but they rarely get destroyed (or at least they didnt for me. With the titans attacking one section of the barricade it made the lasters that much more effective. This tactic was really effective for me on almost all the titan levels. I highly recomend them.

I tried to head towards whatever the boffs recomended, I just assumed that those options are the *must haves* for specific titans that I was going to face in a few levels (like the capacitator on mars for instance).

theStoryteller wrote:

Admin wrote:I see you went with robotics and the decoy. I'm assuming Cas wants us to use these as the Boffs harp on you fairly regularly to research them. I hope the new update makes them more necessary.

I thought you had to take robotics, since at least one of the bosses decomposes into minature titans that the blasters dont seem to target. I'm fairly sure they may randomly come with other titans as well in later levels (saturn+).

The decoys are nice to have at the front of your base during the titan levels. Put some barricades around them, and within range of a shield and you wont have to worry at all about losing any towers at all. They're not cheap to replace, but they rarely get destroyed (or at least they didnt for me. With the titans attacking one section of the barricade it made the lasters that much more effective. This tactic was really effective for me on almost all the titan levels. I highly recomend them.

I tried to head towards whatever the boffs recomended, I just assumed that those options are the *must haves* for specific titans that I was going to face in a few levels (like the capacitator on mars for instance).

Until the newest update 1.80.5 you couldn't target tiny titans, but you could still hit them. So a combination of cluster mines, accidental turret fire, ie firing at another titan, but hitting the tiny one, and wide spread disrupter blasts and careful mine placement allowed me to completely avoid researching robotics altogether. To date I've never used robotics or the decoy, but it looks like I'll have to start. Good advice for the decoy by the way.

Oh I forgot until I got the reply email just now about the screenshots I took (click on the images to see full size)


So this what I did for the very last level.





and to see how easy it made it



I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to make it this easy though.

Nice setup and talk about a great location! I only really used lasers to combat flying enemies, but it's cool to see them used as a primary weapon. I had so much money and powerups by the end stage that I just placed tons of guns in a disorganized fashion and had no problem beating the last stage.

I'm going to open a new topic on maximizing cash flow. I've been working on maximizing cash flow and I'd love to hear any tips you might have.