Help with difficulty!

Pattern_buffer

I'm currently on Pattern_Buffer, and have beaten all other levels (except BioSphere and Temple), but I just can't seem to beat Pattern_Buffer. It's just too damn hard with the millions of evil Darwinians. I have mine upgraded to have basic weaponry, and have upgraded Armour, but I still can't seem to hold my own against them at any more than one spot at a time, which obviously won't do. Does anybody have any hints, tricks or anything else to help me out?

Fnoigy, on May 19 2005, 05:31 AM, said:

I'm currently on Pattern_Buffer, and have beaten all other levels (except BioSphere and Temple), but I just can't seem to beat Pattern_Buffer. It's just too damn hard with the millions of evil Darwinians. I have mine upgraded to have basic weaponry, and have upgraded Armour, but I still can't seem to hold my own against them at any more than one spot at a time, which obviously won't do. Does anybody have any hints, tricks or anything else to help me out?
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2 or 3 Battle Cannons (converted Armours) at each trunk port should hold off the evil Darwinians. Wherever you can source green Darwinians (incubators, if I remember rightly?) set an officer sending them towards near one of the trunk ports, or a heavily infested area. You may also find that upgrading them to have grenades helps. Do not underestimate the power of sending in a big group of Darwinians to a heavily-infested area. They clear it quicker than you think, then you can collect the souls and regenerate them! 🙂

That's my 2 pennies anyway...

There's another problem, I've tried that. In fact, I've tried setting up like 5 next to one, but it still eventually gets overrun, and they end up hijjacking my Armoures. Also, another problem is that my engineers will tend to bring the majority of souls to the same incubators, and so there's only one source of new Darwinians, and so only one location to send new ones to. Also, either my upgrading is just going slow, or it stops entirely after I've done one upgrade in a level. Is it just me, or does upgrading only occure once per level, and then just stop progress afterwards?

Fnoigy, on May 19 2005, 01:17 PM, said:

There's another problem, I've tried that. In fact, I've tried setting up like 5 next to one, but it still eventually gets overrun, and they end up hijjacking my Armoures. Also, another problem is that my engineers will tend to bring the majority of souls to the same incubators, and so there's only one source of new Darwinians, and so only one location to send new ones to. Also, either my upgrading is just going slow, or it stops entirely after I've done one upgrade in a level. Is it just me, or does upgrading only occure once per level, and then just stop progress afterwards?
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Upgrading stops when you run out of research points. You get research points by capturing control towers. Thus, if you have captured all of the control towers in the a level, and all of the points have been applied (which is done slowly), then research will stop.

xander

Fnoigy, on May 19 2005, 02:17 PM, said:

There's another problem, I've tried that. In fact, I've tried setting up like 5 next to one, but it still eventually gets overrun, and they end up hijjacking my Armoures.

Hmmm... don't put the battle cannons too close to the port? And maybe it helps a lot to have grenade-wielding Darwinians. I think I did, by the time I played that level.

Unfortunately, I don't, and I'm out of research for the time being. I think I may have to reluctantly resort to a little bit of cheating.

Side question: What are those yellow Japanese kite-looking boxes with the yellow glowy ball inside that I sometimes see floating up like a soul?

A few tips:

- Armour works best from a distance and without obstacles. An officer should gather darwinians near your cannons so they shoot anything that comes near and refill the darwinians in the cannon when killed.

- Darwinians with just lasers are fine, large groups are most effective against the red ones, just send them straight into them to avoid them shooting grenades.

- Engineers are immune to laser fire. They cannot be harmed by the evil darwinians unless they use grenades which they never have done on an engineer. Just send a group of darwinians and a few engineers into battle to let your own darwinian population grow like lightning.

- When you have recaptured both pattern buffer control things on an island the evil darwinians stop invading.

Actually I found the level to be rather easy with ver 3 darwinians and ver 1 armour. I had lvl 4 engineers (which won't build bridges by the way) which could help (loads of souls). The next level with those red darwinians is much harder, although very doable.

Fnoigy, on May 19 2005, 08:44 AM, said:

Side question: What are those yellow Japanese kite-looking boxes with the yellow glowy ball inside that I sometimes see floating up like a soul?
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They're kites the Darwinians create to guide souls on up to Darwinia's heaven. They'll be created when a Darwinian chances upon a soul (whether it be virus or Darwinian or squaddie)

Leen, on May 19 2005, 02:13 PM, said:

I had lvl 4 engineers (which won't build bridges by the way) which could help (loads of souls). View Post

Yeah. Bridges were taken out in one of the last beta stages, but the message wasn't removed.

Fnoigy, on May 19 2005, 03:44 PM, said:

Unfortunately, I don't, and I'm out of research for the time being. I think I may have to reluctantly resort to a little bit of cheating.

Side question: What are those yellow Japanese kite-looking boxes with the yellow glowy ball inside that I sometimes see floating up like a soul?
View Post

You may want to reset the level. My strategy on the level was to set up several battle cannons around the trunkports before activating the terminal things. Make sure that they won't hit eachother when firing directly in front of the trunkport, and use a few officers to make sure that the cannons have a fresh supply of DGs is some of them die.

Or, you could load up several armour, and rush each of the terminals, never giving the evil DGs a chance to spawn. Clear the level with squads, then take the terminals all at once.

xander

I think the easiest way to beat patern is to clear out the entire level first. Set up four cannons per gate with all your dars and engineers areound them. then send a small group of dars to each console

Of course, you hav to reset the level first.

Don't be afraid to use squads to lay down some serious directed fire if your cannons are getting overwhelmed.