Early Game Guide: Efficient Start, Power, Mining & Turrets

The early game defines your first few minutes after landing on a sector: securing a steady income of basic resources, establishing reliable power, building core defenses, and meeting the sector objectives so you can research and unlock midgame tech. This page explains what to prioritize, how to set up the basic economy and defenses, and which early units and turrets work best.

Quick priorities

Secure copper income immediately — many buildings and conveyors require copper to build and operate.
Get a steady power source (Combustion Generator or basic condensers/vent condensers depending on map) to run drills, turrets and crafters.
Build automated drills and conveyors to feed a smelter and at least one turret line for defense.
Complete tutorial/sector objectives (if present) to trigger waves and unlock the rest of the map.
Prepare basic defenses before the first larger waves appear (wave timing varies by map; don’t delay).

Early resource setup

Drills: Place Mechanical Drills on nearby Copper and Lead veins first. If Copper isn’t nearby, use your mech to mine and deliver initial copper. If a drill is slow, apply drill boosters (e.g., Overdrive or similar boosters available on that sector) to any drill that can’t keep up with your consumption.
Smelting: Feed a basic smelter (Silicon Smelter / Graphite) for early ammo and components. Prioritize Graphite or Silicon ammo for Duos once you can afford them.
Coal / Pyratite: Use coal to run Combustion Generators early; combustion generators are small and useful for remote or temporary setups and can power a couple of smelters or small factories.
Water: If water is present and useful, consider Vent Condensers or Turbine Condensers as the map dictates. Vent Condensers are only worthwhile if you already have excess power and need more water; otherwise Turbine Condensers (built over vents) are the better use of space when vents are available.

Power basics

Combustion Generator: Small, shared input with smelters, useful to power early unit factories or mixers in remote locations. One generator can support about two smelters or a couple of small machines; it’s convenient even if not fuel-efficient.
Condensers and vents: On maps with vents, Turbine Condensers over natural vents are an early high-value power option. Vent Condensers consume power to produce water and are only advisable when you have a surplus of power and need more water.

Early manufacturing and ammo

Duos are a reliable, cheap early turret. Use Copper ammo initially (cheap, plentiful) to hold lines; upgrade to Graphite or Silicon ammo as you secure those materials.
- Copper ammo: early, abundant but low damage.
- Graphite ammo: higher single-shot damage and useful vs armored targets.
- Silicon ammo: higher DPS and homing; excellent when Silicon is available.
Breaches are solid early-mid turrets if you have Beryllium for their ammo; they scale well but are more expensive.
For Duos and other turrets, water can be used as a booster to increase fire rate where relevant — placing turrets with a water booster nearby is a good way to increase early DPS if water is available.

Early defenses and base layout

Walls: Put 2–4 layers of walls (copper or scrap walls early) in front of vulnerable buildings to prevent Daggers and other small units from focusing tiles and breaching. Copper walls are cheap and effective; scrap walls are faster to build but weaker.
Turret placement: Concentrate turrets near power producers, crafters and the core so attacking air/ground units target your defenses first. Place turrets such that they can cover chokepoints and water passages if naval enemies are present.
Use Scatter turrets early if you need cheap area coverage against Flyers like Flares; Scatter is inexpensive and powerful for its tier, but is inaccurate at long range. Replace with Cyclone later for accuracy and ammo flexibility.
Radars: Build a Radar to reveal large areas quickly if you need map information and have spare resources. Units can also reveal fog while providing scout/harassment capability.

Early units and tactics

Starter unit (Alpha/Dart/Evoke): Core units are weak and primarily for scouting or emergency defense; don’t rely on them as your main defense.
Cheap ground units:
- Daggers: fast, cheap harassment units that are vulnerable individually — use in groups or for early harassment; not great against area or piercing turrets.
- Stells: tankier, high-health early ground units useful for brawling and holding chokepoints; they are slow but soak damage well and are good if you want durable pushes.
- Averts: fragile flyers useful for scouting and harassment, or to intercept incoming missiles. Avoid using them against high-area or piercing turrets.
Unit tactics: Use mobile units to scout, seize outlying resource nodes, and harass enemy bases before you build heavy defenses. Group micro can force opponents to waste cheap defenses.

Handling waves and map-specific hazards

Know the wave composition and timing for the sector. Some maps introduce tougher units early (e.g., Maces or Quasars) — plan stronger defenses or offensive pre-emptive strikes accordingly.
Quasar-like enemies that fire piercing beams can ignore walls and instantly destroy fragile blocks; these beams are only stopped by very specific walls/blocks (check the sector’s requirements) — research and build those defenses if the sector warns about them.
Naval enemies spawn earlier on some maps; patrol and defend water chokepoints with turrets that function over water. Place turrets and walls along water channels to block shortest paths.
If the map has limited deposits of a resource (e.g., rare meteoric ore or graphite), boost drills on those tiles and consider using alternate production (mixers, Pulverizers) to supplement shortages.

Objectives and progression

Complete the sector objectives (for tutorial sectors: collect a set amount of copper, build initial turrets, deliver items to the core). Objectives unlock further map areas and usually trigger wave timers and enemy activity.
Research priority: unlock better turrets (Duos → Cyclones → Afflicts), better ammo (Graphite/Silicon), and utility such as Radars, advanced drills, and conveyor upgrades. If the sector recommends a specific research (e.g., to counter Quasar beams), prioritize it.
When you have stable copper and power, expand to lead/graphite/silicon production and build multiple turret lines or unit factories to transition into midgame pressure.

Common early mistakes

Neglecting copper: without steady copper you cannot build conveyors, drills, or many turrets — secure copper first.
Building Vent Condensers too early: they cost net power unless you already have surplus; prefer condensers over vents or combustion generators until you need water.
Underestimating walls: many early enemies focus tiles or have piercing attacks; several layers of cheap walls prevent your key buildings from being one-shot.
Over-reliance on fragile units (e.g., Averts or Daggers) for defense against enemies with area/piercing damage. Use them for scouting or harassment instead.

Practical early-game build order (example)

Place Mechanical Drills on nearest copper and lead patches; link to a smelter with conveyors.
Build a Combustion Generator (fuel with coal) or a Turbine Condenser (if over a vent) to power drills and smelters.
Produce Copper ammo and build 1–3 Duos with copper ammo behind 2 layers of walls to defend the core.
Research Radar (if you need map visibility) and upgrade ammo to Graphite or Silicon as soon as materials allow.
Expand mines, add boosters to slow drills if needed, and produce units (Daggers/Stells) to scout and take out the enemy base once you have enough economy.

This flow secures the basics: steady copper, enough power to run production and defenses, and the research path to get stronger turrets and units for midgame expansion.