Intermediate Manual

• Score and Reputation
  • As an intermediate player, you need to know the difference between Score and Reputation and how to use the difference to your advantage.
  • Score
    • Gone are the days of build a ton of units in the 11th hour of a round to make a final HOF bid. That was a workable strategy in the past, but now your score, not your reputation is what you must foster to earn the covetted HOF star by your name. Score only increase, it does not decrease. Certain activities you do increase your score, namely, 3 things:
      
      Mining Resources and Crystals: For every 100 of any resource you mine, you get a point of Score. For each crystal you mine you get the following points: Blue - 50 points, Orange - 40 points, Green - 30 points, Red - 30 points, Clear - 20 points.
      
      Keeping Kdrones: Protect your K-drones. Acquire new ones. For each week (tick) that goes by, you gain a point for each K-drone in your possession, no matter what it is doing at the time.
      
      Destroying Enemies: Ulitimate Miner Turtle strat may still work - if you're incredibly good at it - but for most people, a good lot of points will be earned on the battlefield. For each enemy unit you destroy, you get a point. Enemy drones (Metal Ant, Killer Bee) do not count.
  • Reputation
    • In times of old, a good Reputation was all you needed to get that HOF star by your name. Now Score makes or breaks, but don't count Rep off just yet. Reputation measures how strong a base is. A lot of things contribute to your Rep. As you may have found out, you can attack stronger bases as high as you dare, but you may only attack weaker bases if they have at least 1/2 of your Rep. Some skillful Section Leaders make good use of this fact and control their Rep well to stay out of range of enemies until the time is right for battle. Consider the following:
      
      Army Size: Plays the biggest factor in determining your reputation. Each unit in your armies adds to your Rep depending on offensive strength, speed, defensive strength, and level. The higher any of these, the more Rep the unit gives. The same applies for base defensive structures.
      
      Store Resources: Whether the resources are at your base or on the market, after units resources normally gives the most Rep.
      
      Military General Strength: As you battle or train your generals, they grow more skillful and provide bonuses for your armies. The more experiences (number of battles) and skillful (size of general bonuses) your general's become, the more Rep they will give you.
      
      Tech Level: Researching projects and building base improvements can't be overlooked. The higher you level up research projects and the more that you do, the more Rep you will earn for it.
• Intermediate resource gathering techniques
  
  K-drones are not the only way to get resources. Here are some of the intermediate ways to increase your resource income
  • Additional Mineshafts
    • After you have leveled up a mine past level 2, you may build additional mineshafts in that mine. Each mineshaft produces income, and the amount each one produces increases as you level your mine up further. Mineshafts in a level 2 mine produce 80 resource per week. Each mine level up increases the amount a mineshaft produces by 10.
      
      Initially you can only build a maximum of 3 mineshafts per mine level. This means, for example, after you have leveled a mine up to level 4, you can have a maximum of 12 mineshafts for that mine. If you build more mineshafts for a mine than the maximum, there is a risk that some of the mineshafts will collapse and if any K-drones are in those shafts they will be destroyed.
      
      You can increase the number of mine shafts you can build per level through researching Mining: Improved Mineshafts under the mining tab in Research. Each level up in Improved Mineshafts allows you to build 3 more mineshafts per mine level.
      
      Additional mineshafts can be destroyed by units that attack base defenses. All base defenses protecting a base would need to be destroyed before the mineshafts can be targeted. You can also further protect your mineshafts by building the Great Wall-SU, which is a high defense structure (def rating: 1900 per wall) manufactured by Superior. To build the Great Wall-SU, you need all Advanced Refinery (the second level refinery) constructions to be completed for all three resources.
  • Asteroid Mines
    • After you have leveled up a mine to level 4 and have constructed at least 1 space port, you will gain the ability to build Iron and C-62 asteroid mines. Asteroid mines produce the same amount of resources as additional mineshafts, however, they are much more expensive. There is no limit to the number of asteroid mines you can build, however, for each asteroid mine that you build, it will become harder and harder for you to find new asteroids suitable for mining, so the cost will go up.
      
      (Tip: There is a hidden research called Asteroid Mine Development: Bytanium Search that can help you to lower the cost of finding asteroid mines and to discover the way to find bytanium asteroid mines)
      
      Asteroid mines can only be destroyed by destroyer class and mothership class ships. You can protect them by building ships, satellites, battle stations and Grid Generators. For more on ships, satellites and battle stations, see the Space section. Grid Generators are a high defensive space structure (def rating: 1500) that must be destroyed before targeting asteroid mines. To build Grid Generators-SU, you need Decontamitors (the highest level refinery) built for all three resources.
  • Resource Market
    • You may buy and sell resources in the resource market. The instructions on how the resource market works are listed in the market page and won't be repeated here. Consider different ways to use the market to your advantage. Selling resources at a premium (meaning, for example, selling iron at a cost of 2 bytanium per iron) can earn you a nice profit. You should also be aware that some players mine a single resource exclusively and rely on the market (or their friends) for their other resource needs.
  • Espionage: Leech
    • If you research Espionage: Mechanical Engineering & Optics , this project will eventually lead to you discovering various types of special espionage units that can achieve invisibility and be sent to an opponent's base to stay for the many weeks and accomplish missions. One such unit is the Leech. It's mission is to take resources from the opponent base every week. Having a lot of Leeches out at various bases can lead to a decent income apart from your mining operation.
      
      You can read more about Leeches and other advanced espioange units under Advanced Espionage.
  • Resources From Battles: the Pirate and Collector
    • There are two units that can get you resources during a battle. The first is the Collector-FL. To build the Collector you will need to complete construction of the Iron Purification Plant. Collectors in an army that survives a battle in which units are destroyed will attempt to gather salvagable resources from the battle field. Collectors have no offensive strength, so since they are not a threat, most units do not bother targeting them. (The Spite mech by Advantage targets Collectors).
      
      Each Collector can gather up to 200 of each resource. The exact amount that they gather will depend on the number of units destroyed in the battle and the size of the units. For example, if a lot of large units are destroyed, there is a greater chance that all Collectors will fill up.
      
      The Pirate-SU is a mech unit that can break into enemy mine storage and take out stored resources. Built by Superior, the Pirate has limited attack capabilities and decent defense. To build Pirates, you will need to complete Purification Plants for all three resources. Each Pirate that survives a battle at an enemy base will break in and carry out 25 of each resource.
  • Crystal Mining
    • Crystals can be mined for many different purposes, and one could be to exchange them for resources. Crystal mining can be a risky and expensive venture. The risk comes in the difficulty of finding crystals. You could end up spending a lot of bytanium to program K-drones for crystal mining (which is a more expensive programming job than resource mining) and not find any crystals for quite a while. See the section on Crystal Mining and Usage for more details about it. But as you progress from the beginner to the intermediate level, you must be aware of the option to get your resources from crystal mining. You never know which technique will be optimal at which situation you find yourself in... knowing all options gives you a better chance of making the right decision.
• Crystal Mining and Usage
  You start the game out with 10 of each type of crystal. There are a LOT of options for you as to how you use those first 50 crystals. But when should you use them? And do you need to get more? If you want more, how could you get them? These questions will be addressed below.
  • Crystal Circles
    • Here you find your primary spending place for crystals. You should go through the tabs and be familiar with what each crystal can get for you. Remember, being aware of all of your options helps you make the best decision under pressure. There might come a time when you need resources immediately to get some units so that you can make an attack before your opponent raises up a neuron force field. To be among the best, you should know that Crystal Circles is an option. You should also have an idea for which deals you will most likely use in the future, so you know which crystals to use for resources and which to save for later.
  • Base Improvements
    • Some useful and important benefits can be found in Base Improvements. These benefits can only be gained by spending Blue Crystals. For this reason, it is highly advisable that one of the first things you do in the game is decide on which Base Improvements you will use to be sure you have enough Blue Crystals to do it.
      
      As an intermediate level player, you should read through the different options available under Base Improvements and be familiar with them. One of the most important benefits that you should know about is the Stackable Orders. If you scroll down to the last two options under Base Improvements, you will see where you can add stackable orders to Construction or to Research. Stackble orders allow you to "stack" your orders so they will be executed in order even after you log off. This can be very important for the speed of development of your base. By stacking your orders, you can be sure that your base is always progressing in research and development. As you will find out, certain research projects involve a lot of steps or have many levels. Finishing projects and leveling up faster can put you at a great advantage over an oponent who has been slower at research and development.
  • Crystal Mining
    • Mining for crystals is expensive and carries a risk. No matter which crystal you are mining for, it will require you to dedicate hundreds of K-drones to a crystal mine for long periods of time. You will be missing out on the resources they could have been earning you - all in hopes that during a given week they might find a crystal. Here are some of the cold, hard facts you need to know about crystal mining:
      - You will never find more than 1 of any type of crystal in a given week (tick). This means that the most you could ever find in one week would be 5: that's one of each crystal type.
      - If you do not have at least the minimum suggested amount of K-drones mining for a given crystal(for example, at least 100 mining for red crystals or 500 mining for blue crystals), you will never find any of that crystal. This means it is a generally a waste to have, say, 90 K-drones mining for a red crystal.
      - Programming the minimum amount gives you a chance to find a crystal, but it is an extremely low chance. It is very possible to not find anything for quite a while if you only program the minimum amount. So if you program 500 K-drones to mine for ble crystals, don't expect to find any anytime soon.
      - Your chances of finding a crystal during a given week increases with each K-drone over the suggested amount that you program for searching for that crystal.
      - Your chances of finding a crystal do not increase anymore beyond having 1000 K-drones mining for any given crystal.
      
• Space
  
  Once you pass the beginner stage you can no longer afford to ignore the potential of attacking from and being attacked from space. Knowing about the following should help you in planning your space strat.
  • Space Ports
    • Space ports allow you to order ships. Space ports will be available for you to build after you have leveled up your Refineries to having completed the Purification Plant. There are 3 different types manufacturers that have space ports: Advantage, DDT, and Superior. Each one will appear when the Purification Plants of that manufacturer's resources have been built. This means for Advantage, you only need the C-62 Purification Plant. For DDT you need the Bytanium and Iron Purrification Plants. For Superior you need all three.
  • Ship Classes
    • There are 4 ship classes: Fighter Class, Bombardier Class, Destroyer Class and Mothership Class. Each has a role to play which you should know about.
      
      

      Bombardier (Meteor-AD)	Medium-sized, low-flying ships carrying long range weaponry capable of destroying land structures from space. These ships can be used to clear enemy base defenses ahead of a land based strike. For example, if your target has a defense of 500 Diesel Cannons and 500 Anti-Aircraft Battery, to clear the path for your tanks and planes to go in, send in a fleet of 300 Meteor-AD to soften 'em up.
      Fighter (Maverick-FL)	Smallest, fastest and least expensive class. These ships are a first line of defense against Bombardier Class ships, but also can be used as the front line support for Bombardier ships. They attack other Fighters first, then can dip down to the upper-atmosphere levels to attack enemy Bombardier.
      Destroyer (Dragon-SU)	Large, heavy-duty ships carrying powerful weaponry capable of destroying space structures such as asteroid mines and satellites. Also good for clearing out Fighters to make way for Bombardier strikes. Destroyers can also engage Mothership class ships, but cannot fly low enough to attack Bombardier class ships.
      Mothership (Devourer-DD)	Huge, very expensive, extremely powerful ships. These monsterous ships also carry a high maintence cost, but carry a variety of weapons capable of destroying anything in space except the Bombardier class and long-range bombs for destroying stationary land-based targets.

• Intermediate Espionage Techniques
  • There are two particular branches of research you should know about, to increase your espionage capabilites as you graduated from being a beginner.

  • Mechanical Engineering & Optics

    • This branch leads to a set of special units that are invisible, and can be sent to opposing bases to carry out a number of different missions, ranging from spying, to stealing resources to sabatoging enemy units. A few levels into the research, the first new unit you will receive will be the Vermin. You will also get access to a new screen, go to Missions and you will see a new link appear to Special Missions. From there you can order new Vermin (and other units as they become available to you) and assign their mission target coords. For the Vermin, after having ordered one it will take 3 ticks to arrive, then you will be able to send it to any target base, say, 30:1:1, and after the Vermin arrives there it will send you a new army layout report each tick for as long as it stays. All special units have a maximum amount of time they can stay before needing to return to base. There is more info and help available to you that you will see in the Special Missions page.
  • Advanced Espionage
    • This branch opens up a number of additional missions for your agents to carry out. Some of the more important ones are:
      - Bomb Mines: Hit'em where it hurts, bomb their mines and drop their mining levels down a few notches. Very expensive and difficult, but when you have a superior espi level very doable. It can be particularly damaging when the target has a lot of additional mine shafts, as they will begin collapsing, destroying K-drones inside.
      - Measure Force Field: Find out how much time is left in an enemy force field generator, so you know exactly when to strike. - Steal K-drones: The ultimate mission, but also the most expensive!
• Intermediate Attack/Defense Techniques
  • Several researches and constructions can increase the attacking and defending abilities of your base. Knowing about these is critical to moving up from the beginner stage. Also by this point there are certain attack rules that you should know and understand to help you better plan your strategies.
  • Attack Research Projects

    • Transwarp Drive

      • Classified under Energy research, this is possibly the most powerful attack ability a base can have. Transwarp is a long, very long research branch that ends with a construction project, the Transwarp Drive (duh!), but once it is complete you can send your units to any base to attack it instantly! The element of surprise is one of the most powerful forces in battle - if the enemy has no time to prepare for your approaching forces you can do a greate deal of damage.

    • Guerilla Strike and Guerilla Tactics

      • Guerilla Strike
        The Guerilla Strike is a special attack that you can do at any time. In order to execute it, send an army with only 100 or less units to attack an enemy base. When your army arrives, you will see a new button appear: . Clicking this instead of the normal attack orders your troops to G. Strike, which gives them several bonuses:
        -- +50 speed (possible for slower units to attack faster therfore attack before being hit)
        -- +15% attack (stronger attack, does more damage)
        -- 75% escape factor (even if fired upon, they have a high chance to pull back and dodge the shots)
        Motherships are too large and slow to engage in a G.Strike, so if you have any Mothership Class ships in your attacking army you will not be able to use this techniques
        
        Guerilla Tactics
        Classified under Military research, when used to its fullest this research project can increase the amount of damage you inflict on an enemy well over 10 fold. The normal G.Strike has a maximum of 100 units. Fully completing this project increases the maximum to 450! There are many ways to use this ability; any full attacker-style player should have this.
  • Defensive Research Projects

    • Cavern Hangar

      • This is considered a general construction project that you can begin working on from the beginning of the game. After building the Cavern Hangar, you can place units in the Hangar that cannot be seen by normal army layout missions, nor by Oracale, Inc. They can only be seen by the Vermin, but most people do not have Vermin. Whenever you are attacked, units in the Cavern Hangar immediately come out and attack. What this means is you can use the Hangar to create a defensive element of surprise, sort of like an ambush. You can have an enitire class of units hidden so that you appear vulnerable, but when an opponent attempts to exploit you supposed weakness, their plan backfires horribly as your hidden units rush and teach your enemy the error of their ways.

    • Secure Hangar

      • Like the Cavern Hangar, the Secure Hangar can be built and developed from the start of the round. The difference between the two is that units placed in the Secure Hangar can not be detected by outsiders using any method at all. But units in the Secure Hangar do not fight in battles if an enemy attacks your base. This is a good place for storing emergancy units that are easily destroyed (such as Tarantulas or Mauraders) or for hiding your aces in until they level up well enough to take care of themselves.
• Intermediate Combat
  • Aces
    • Aces may be recruited for the cost of 1 blue crystal, or occasionally may be hired if another player fires any of their aces. An ace is a special unit that is capable of dog-fighting in battle - meaning it can take multiple shots and also dodge incoming fire.
    • Ace Levels
      • Aces are rated by their level. There are two ways for an ace to level up:
        1- getting marks in battle (shooting down enemies)
        2- paid training
        
        To level up by getting marks, the ace must destroy 100 enemy units x level. For example, to reach level 2, an ace must destroy 200 units, to reach level 3 an ace must destroy 300 etc. To level up by training, you must pay 50,000 bytanium + 50,000 * level. So to train to reach level 2 you must pay 100,000, to train to reach level three you must pay 150,000, etc.
        
        An ace can only level up 1 level every 10 weeks. So for example, an ace with an age of 37 can have a maximum level of 3.
    • Ace Skills and Salary
      • When you recruit an ace, you can set its initial skills by allocating its skill points. Each time an ace levels up, it gets 50 additional skill points for you to allocate. The ace skills are as follows:
        - Offense: stacks onto the ace vehicle Offense Rating x1. In other words, if a vehicle has an offense rating of 100 and the ace offense skill is 20, in combat the ace attacks with 120 offense rating.
        - Defense: stacks onto the ace vehicle Defense Rating x2. In other words, if a vehicle has a defense rating of 100 and the ace defense skill is 20, in combat the ace has a defense rating of 140 + ace speed.
        - Speed: stacks onto the ace vehicle speed x1, stacks onto vehicle defense x1. So for a vehicle with a speed of 100 and defense of 100, if the ace has a speed of 20, the speed rating in combat is 120 and defense rating is 100 + 20 + (2 x defense rating)
        - Maneuvering: determines the chance of ace getting into position for another shot and chance for ace dodging shots when fired upon. The higher this skill, the more times the ace has a chance to fire again, and the greater the chance an ace will get dodge a shot when fired upon.
        
        The higher an ace's skill, the higher the ace's salary. Ace salary is paid every week.
    • Ace Tactics
      • Since an ace is just a person, it is very difficult to get intel on the exact location of the ace. Neither the mission "Army Layout" nor the Oracle Sattellite reports using Clear Crystals can determine where an ace is at. Use this to your advantage - you enemy may discover in battle that you have an ace, but cannot know where the ace is at.
        
        A Secure Hangar is a wise investment as a safe place for your ace in between battles.
        
        In battle, the ace may be targeted when enemy units that target the ace vehicle attack. The more similar units there are to the ace, the lower the chance the ace will get fired upon. So one ace piloting a Rage-FL in an army among 500 other Rage-FL has a much greater chance of going through a battle without getting fired upon than in an army having 50 Rage-FL.
  • Attacking Bases and Heavy Structures
    • As you may know by now, when attacking bases many units cannot attack base structures. Generally, most tanks can, as well as certain LRMW (Noventa Cannon) and planes (Bomber, Devastator). But there are also classes of base structures. The Heavy class base structures (Heavy Ground, Heavy Air, Heavy Space) are heavily fortified and can only be attacked by the following units:
      -- Devastator (plane)
      -- Demolisher (tank)
      -- Noventa Cannon (LRMW)
      -- Mothership Class ships
      
      Just so you know as well, here is list of the Heavy Class base structures:
      -- Vehicle Hangar (Heavy Ground)
      -- T-Sniper Post-RO (Heavy Ground)
      -- Land Mine Factory-DD (Heavy Ground)
      -- Heavy AA-RO (Heavy Air)
      -- Docking Bay (Heavy Space)
      Be sure to have one of the units able to destroy the target base structure when you see any of these in an enemy base layout report.
  • Generals
    • Generals are often overlooked by newer players, but selecting the right general for the job can be the factor that makes or breaks an attack. Your generals gain experience as they lead your armies in battles. As an intermediate player, you should know your generals' strengths and weaknesses, use them to your advatange in battle, and be able to plan out which generals will be specializing in certain types of attacks over the course of the round.
    • All-Purpose Bonus
      • There are two all-purpose bonuses for your generals: Attack and Defense. These percentages are applied directly to each unit's attack and defense stat in a battle, regardless of what type of unit it is. The all-purpose bonus levels have a chance to increase whenever the general leads an army in battle and destroys at least more than 30% of the total losses of the battle. This means that how well the opposing general does matters, and if you do well enough you can stop your opponent from gaining a bonus in your battle.
        
        Example 1: attacker's army has 1000 units, defender's army has 1000 units. Attacker destroys 100 units and defender destroys 100 units. In this battle, there are 200 total loses. Since the attacker destroyed 50% of the total losses, this is more than at least 30% of the total losses and the attacking general would have a good chance of getting a bonus.
        
        Example 2: attacker's army has 1000 units, defender's army has 1000 units. Attacker destroys 100 units and defender destroys 300 units. In this battle, there are 400 total loses. Since the attacker failed to destroy at least 30% of the total loses, the attacking general would not get a bonus. The defending general would have a very good chance of getting a bonus.
        
        The all-purpose bonus increase chance is also effected by the size of the armies. A small army attacking a large army has a higher chance of getting a bonus increase.
    • Specialty Bonus
      • There are three specialty bonuses for your generals: Air, Ground and Space. These percentages are applied directly to each unit's attack per class. In other words, the Air bonus increases the attack stat of planes and helicopters. The specialty bonuses are only increased when the general earns an all-purpose bonus AND the general's army is a specialized army. To be a specialized army, the army must be at least 75% of one of the specialty types.
        
        Example: attacker's army has 1000 units, 800 are planes, 100 are tanks, and 100 are AA. The attack goes well and the general gets a 6% increase in all-purpose attack bonus. In this battle the army is considered a specialized air army, and the general would have a chance to increase in specialty Air bonus.
        
        All units classified under DEF and SPEC do not receive any benefit from the specialty bonuses (they do, however, benefit from the all-purpose bonuses).
• Clan Operations
  • Many join clans while they are a beginner to learn more from vets and enjoy the protection from comrades while growing their base. After a while, you might want to know more about how the clan works. As an intermediate player, you should know the following.
  • Clan Rank
    • At different ranks in the clan you are given more ability in clan operations. Rank is assigned by the clan leader. You can see your current clan rank by going to the clan forum.
      
      9: Clan leader. Has all clan power. Can change clan logo, change clan description, assign ranks, invite new members, boot players from the clan, send group mail to everyone in the clan and disband the clan.
      
      8: At this rank you may declare clan wars on behalf of the clan and have access to the Cincomm-9 War Consul.
      
      7: At this rank you may manage members of the clan by assigning rank or removing members from the clan.
      
      3: At this rank you may invite new members to join the clan.
  • Privilege Posts
    • At every rank you may post in the clan forum. However, you may only view posts that have a privilege level at your rank or lower. You may also set the privlege level on your posts up to your rank. This way, the leaders of the clan may carry out high level clan planning discussion that is only accessible to the top and most trusted members of the clan.