I’ve always wondered how fast the game would be with sweatband, sweatpants, speed mushroom, horse, with Robusta, energised with whatever that pickup is that speeds you up! :-D
Did you have chrono weeds by any chance? ‘Cutting weeds increases day length’? That’s super useful with other weed cutting items.
Yeah, there’s some bizarre snapping going on with the controller that did that to me as well. In the end I just reached over and used my mouse to place it but, yeah, that’s a pain in the arse.
I think I got it that run but this particular instance occurred at night. Although I may be mistaken on chronoweeds. It’s nice though. Also I have unlocked the time mushrooms and they’re quite nice as well. I crushed Farlands south in that run because I picked up 2 while there and was able to get back to the farm to get some quality work in.
You know I think I had my worst day 1 in ages on the winning run. But I picked up the biodegrader, was able to finish West, and then it repaired and I just snowballed from there.
Thinking about it more, maybe I did have the “harvesting weeds increases day time” and I am not reading day right in that sentence (e.g. it literally adds time to the day inw ahtrever period you are in). Huh.
Yeah, I love stumbling across those time mushrooms. They’re just the sweetest bonus.
VIII down. My first IX run crashed and burned. So many skulls. Hermit crabs now retreat like crazy and are super obnoxious. Many bullets. Etc.Jesus.
I did the XIII run with a single cow (grass fed, found sometime in september). I had watering bees (2 bees and 2 humming birds, iirc), some water perks, and I prioritized water scrolls. N o other cows or even a srpinkler tracker ever made an appearance. A 2x2 tree did a ton of work, made somewhat early (mid summer, iirc).
Yeah, fuck these guys. I swore more trying to kill them than anything else in the game!
Good luck peacedog!
Man IX is brutal. Everything is so mobile, tends to back up (into crowds), and takes so many hits on day one (5 for rabbits, I think and more for the hermit crab). I’ve already had a few failures. That said, my current run has some promise, we’ll see how it goes. Sticking with, uh, weapon repair change guy since that can help snowball big time.
IX down. 5th try? Or so.
Good Gravy the Year boss fight was actually hard for the first time since I figured out how to do him. More of everything, some new stuff popped up, and I would now prioritize “run to till soil” over many upgrades because standing still is bad and I would hate to have a bunch of soil go untilled after a massive harvest. Which sort of happened, but I had 2 mega trees and so many pigs and hogs it didn’t matter.
Very very early I got eggs sometimes hatch and 2 chickens. I am pretty sure I finished with over 12. Stomp Weeds, Faster Weed Harvest, 2x Weed Harvest, meant weeds were a non issue and I would hate to see them built up for the last fight.
The Farlands held a few more surprises. Buffalo moving diagonal (fuck). Those death tractor thingies showed up in Farlands North (well one did anyway). Things got dicey. I got polygamy after Winter boss (lol) so I grabbed two people for the last figtht (one farmer, one fighter) just because.
It’s pretty amazing how these seemingly small adjustments start to slowly alter your strategy and priorities, and, yeah, it was only year 9/10 where the last boss started to become something to prepare for. Usually by that point I was farmer god incarnate and it was relatively easy, but the steadily increasing field of purple shrunken heads on year 9/10 means you’ve got to keep moving and not get hemmed in. You’ve also got to be able till, sow, water and grow (good) plants to dent its health.
Final year peacedog, you can do it!
Yep, I was already getting in the habit of trying to save scrolls for the last year. I prefer at least 3 seed scrolls, and ideally 1-2 each of water/fertilizer (I will skimp on water with sprinkler tractor, potentially). Just helps move things along.
One thing I forgot to mention: I’ve started doing early single sunflowers if possible. It helps jumpstart things, since there’s a decent chance a weapon will carry over; even a single upgrade can be super helpful. I actually screwed up two seasons on the wining IX run. Where I basically just twiddled my thumbs on the last two nights with minimal growing, only to come up short for the season rewards (by 2-3 rewards each time). I was still steamrolling that hard.
Yeah, that little boost can really give you the early camp-clearing speed to get the snowball going!
And done, Year X first time.
I started with 4x prickly in addition to 4x potatos. So when I wound up down to one heart after day 1 in the fields, I planted a few hearts even though I only had 2. I would repeat this again a few days later, and then plant a sole heart some time late summer, finally starting to get enough for 2x2 thereafter. I picked up the organic armor after the 2nd 2 heart planting (partly why I went with one). And I rode a Catlingun from Spring 2 through Summer, reparing every damn day like a boss.
I thought the dual 2x2 start was worth the risk but after I kept rolling the catling gun I had to press my luck.
I didn’t even finish Farlands South. The reason I wound up with the second partial heart planting was the stupid south beetles adding some new moves to their repertoire. That got me like 3 timed before I adjusted. Also, starting with 4 hearts is tough lol.
I was without much in the way of weed upgrades this time around (I think I wound up with killing enemies chops weeds, chopped weeds damage, and one other late in the run). I used the weed wacker until I lucked into the nuke (from Farlands west, I also used it on a few camps here and there) and used it + an eventual decent turkey/chicken staple to keep things tidy for Winter/Year boss.
Mechdonald I once again used SMG on, 5 upgrades and I had distance + ROF. He’s so easy with that. Of crucial importance on the Catling gun I got faster spin up. I learned to pre-spin up (clip size helps there), because some camps you really want to insta nuke if possible. Got pretty good at learning when to let off and find space too. You need to be in Year X, for sure. I also got lucky in that I got the animal zoo from Farlands West (2nd day visiting), which put me in a very strong position (must have been at least 5 each of pig/hog cow/cow). I didn’t get a 2nd turret until late - I got the upgraded one from a pupa I think it was - but I had 3 scarecrows who did a lot of work.
I planted two date trees early and didn’t see a third until Winter day 3 (I picked up the daily tree item on like Summer 1). But my area got so big - quite a few pigs/hogs - that I wound up doing a 2x2 Peach planting to help anchor the stretch run. I did in fact get run/till and it did come in handy in the Year boss fight (after my second seed scroll a ton of dirt reverted to non tilled but I made quick work of it).
Early track pants and a pony at one point. I used the speed mushroom once after that and. . no. No. I had to retreat to someplace safe LOL. I would have killed myself. Did 2x2 sunflowers in every season but still came up short in Fall/Winter. It’s too hard to plant reliably during waves and I was hording scrolls since I felt like I was going to make the year boss. I probably should have just planted some stuff willy nilly; I had more than enough seeds. But even coming up short on those rewards, you have so much money if you start chanining weapon repairs that you easily have all the bridge parts you need to buy ahead of time. To say nothing of all the extra pickaxes you can grab.
Super satisfying. After a few IX attempts I was starting to doubt I would make it. But more than the earlier seasonsm 9/10 is about getting a good start and accepting that you can’t do big clears on day 1. The Pea Shooter just doesn’t allow it.
I wishb the game had a classic Civlization style throne room/“here’s your farm with all the animals lined up” ending screen shot it generated.
Whoa, nice!
On the forums I argued that 25% wasn’t enough suggesting 33% because I was also concerned that 50% might be too much. Even with 25% it was Rye that carried me to the finish with all winter parsniper repairs! It’s a difficult thing to balance or get right.
Organic armour is great and saves a lot of hearts in the long run. Couples well with hotwire that gives you instant tractor with the chance of hurting you.
Man, that thing is killer for the last boss with a ton of scrolls! I never found it on year 10. Sob.
Hahahah, amazing.
Yeah, the pea shooter is bloody painful for 9/10. You have to get some cashews to drop on weapons and upgrades ASAP. Spinning up is key and then hopefully snowballing from there.
Man, yeah, I was really disappointed there wasn’t some victory screen. That sounds great too.
Now do a time capsule ‘epilogue’ run of year 1 with Thyme and knock all those cheevos out! Feel how pathetic the first year is after climatising to the late game madness…
I am inclined to agree. Maybe some other change is warranted. Like the chance to string repairs to either drops from 50% to something lower (maybe 33%) as you go (say 50-40-30 or something). It’s not strong enough at 25% but it’s hella strong at 50%. I know some people argue Thyme is the best because of the increased day length but I can’t play the game well enough to avoid hits. I don’t know how much time you lose when she gets hit but I’m not sure I want to find out. Hahaha.
Quietly became one of my favorite items.
Oh yes. I never found the second tractor charge item but I used a nuke on my second planting of crops to get everything ready to go (and then fertilized as many 2x2s as I could). Absolutely crucial.
I wish it tracked a hall of fame for your runs/scores too. Can’t believe they didn’t do that.
For sure!
You’ll be shocked how soft year 1 is. To think we had trouble with it!
That’s an elegant idea, I like it.
I believe it’s 20 seconds per hit! You’ll be just fine with Thyme for year 1 :-D
The annoying thing is that it did have a personal scoreboard before the Steam release update which introduced the online leaderboard and for whatever reason the new personal scoreboard only remembers your latest run which is useless. The previous scoreboard allowed you to give each run a name too. Very bizarre.
So I have all but two of the general achievements. What’s left: 30k cashews (doable) and harvest 144 potatoes in 10 seconds (uhhhhhhh, yeah I don’t see it). I’ve been doing them on Year 3 because it’s just spicey enough that I don’t get bored and have nothing to do the last two days.
I tried Robusta. I have a run going right now but. . . yeah IDK. It’s not for me but I can see how it would appeal to some people. I hate the flower, and Thyme is not for me. So, I’ll go back to weapons guy after this. I cannot imagine Robusta with all possible speed upgrades. I would not be able to play it, lol.
Man it took me a week to get 4x mega trees. I kept coming so close: with 2-3 mega trees and 2-3 of whatever I hadn’t been able to make. Until I finally got it. If you don’t get the orchard thing early then it’s just super lucky, since the golden pupa mini bosses can drop trees or sometimes sunflowers/hear beets/rose seeds. Normally I like that other stuff but when you are going for this you want all the trees, and without orchard it takes almost perfect rolls (not just trees but the “right” trees).
I still screw up on year 3 sometimes. Honestly everything is so much slower I just get complacent. And all that health to start. I can just sort og sleep walk through West one and get hit 3 times and I’m like “eh, no biggie”.
The mega tree achievement is tough and, yeah, depends entirely on drops (the daily tree bag is a huge help). The potatoes one I just couldn’t find enough potatoes, regardless of how well I was doing!
Yeah, Robusta isn’t for me either. He’s Hard Mode, basically, and Atomicrops is hard enough. Speed makes an already twitchy game even twitchier so, yeah, no. I tried with Dandylion(?) but his drifting was awful and just killed me so quickly. I love Thyme and think her risk/reward is smart.
I’d love to see that!
On my winning cheevo run I misplaced one tree by a square. Grrr! So I had to grow in another direction. Thankfully I had enough saplings to get away with it but that was very much a ‘Oh you’ve got to be kidding’ moment.
It’s crazy how you get used to the intensity of the later years. Did you notice the speed, width and spacing of those bastard can crab’s attacks to the west? Year 10 they’re like screen-wide ion cannons, year 1 they’re tutorial cones to weave through.
I’m really loving this game and just beat Year 5. Mostly I use the starting character and have only found one of the Ant Builders (the Sage), so maybe I need to explore more of the secondary biomes. Been married twice, usually saving flowers for good upgrades. Never made a mega tree, but I’m thinking about uprooting trees when I reach the late game with a lot of seeds, as I hate having my movement blocked.
Glad you’re enjoying it Bob, there’s only really been two of us in here discussing it but we both really liked it. Keep us posted on your progress!
I just beat Year 6 and had seeds and space for a mega tree, but existing trees can’t be removed. Oh well, lesson learned. The Sage ant’s upgrade options are exhausted now, so I need to find the others.