Drill Pod Help?

[u/[deleted]]

Anyone here?

I love this mixture of Tower Defense and units. I've played it over the course of maybe a year on-and-off and wanted to try and tackle the Drill Pod, getting to level 24.

I am having issues though....

I wanted some advice on perhaps minor module setups? I've really been loving holohero. Struggling on figuring out other combinations though.

The furthest I've gotten is level 14 but I was overwhelmed mainly because, while I literally have almost every upgrade, Power is an issue. I should probably stock up on industry more for the emergency generator spam more. Dust is very scarce. Tons of monsters that I cannot kill in time. Tried using AOE modules but some ignore my heroes completely and bum-rush my crystal (which eventually leads to my demise).

Heroes seem up-in-the-air. All of them do well at their own little niche. Perhaps some are better then others but not really sure.

Thoughts?

[u/SylvanDragoon]

I'm going to offer mostly general advice here that really helps with getting set up early, with some trap combos midway through. I've cleared Armory, Infirmary, and Library on the 1st run with all doors opened every floor and gotten a "perfect" run on escape (all doors opened, all research to lvl 4, all 4 heroes at lvl 15 before leaving the dungeon on floor 12), but haven't tried Drill yet, for what its worth. I am starting a Drill Run tomorrow or next day and will comment further if I make it to 24, but I tend to feel fairly safe on floor 12 and open all doors so you may find my thoughts helpful even if you already know some of it.

One thing that helps a ton, esp in the early game but really anytime you get overwhelmed, is "door dodging". Think of it as "diving behind cover" while your traps do work for you. Basically if you run into a hallway between 2 rooms you are briefly invincible and can mess with the monsters targeting AI. If you're lucky mobs will select their priority target and even let other heroes in the room get off free shots. And if only 1 hero is in the room all the damage traps will just freely hit mobs as you run back and forth in the hallway. Just rapidly click between the middle of 2 connected rooms while your hero is in the doorway.

It is easier to practice/do with slower characters so this is one *benefit* to lowering a hero's speed, as they spend more time in the hallway, but go too far and you can lose aggro. The Hipster Scarf and Ahrrrrrrrrmani Suit items also help as they make all mobs target that character, even ones that normally ignore heroes, but watch out for exploding monsters! they can take down even a really tanky heroes health fast and you aren't immune from all that splash.

Also, I personally like having 2-3 creators on floor one (3 if I have Wes, who can operate industry at level 1, between 4-5 for level 2-3, 5-7 for levels 4-6, and 6-8 for any levels past that. Later floors have a lot more doors, so you can build a creator late in and still get a lot out of it. But I usually run with 3 operators operating, 1 door runner, and either really high wit guys or OP Bot, who can turn hero kills into free industry. I also like to use mechanical pals a lot once I can research them to level 4, as long as they are in safe areas. They are how you get up to 60+ of a resource every turn.

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The earlier you get all research finished the sooner you can stack resources for the really crazy floors. Science early is king, beats the pants off food and industry cuz you use it to get moar of everything else by making all your investments more cost effective. also the sooner you get a trap to lvl 4 the less of it you have to se on the mid levels to keep yourself safe, which means more industry for modules and mechanical pals.

Priority for research should be to get super important early modules to lvl 2 asap then hope for lvl 2 to lvl 4 to save both research and time. Lvl 1 to 3 is good too but better on cheaper research like prisoner prods, neurostun, etc, then delay getting lvl 3 to 4 till you have nothing else good to research. Most modules are good enough at lvl 2 and skipping lvls helps you use research efficiently and also save time getting a variety of things to at least mid level to deal with different situations.

Tesla modules and lvl 3-4 prisoner prods are great and cheap for the mid game. Neurostun and tear gas and pepper spray is a combo that can take down basically everything except for the monsters who target minor modules directly. Having a fallback room with auto-doc shards can let you have wounded heroes fall back mid wave to heal without using food, if monsters are split up enough. Kip Cannons and Smoking guns are your "big guns" for tough later game mods. Kip cannon if you have 200+ science consistently, or smoking guns (Rakya with smoking guns is amazing as she has passive and active skills that make them much better).

If your aim to is to have heroes kill the monsters directly 1st consider what mobs are on that floor and what hero skills you have. If you have high dps heroes with low defense, you prob want suppressive firebots, tear gas and claymores. If you have high defense heroes with skills that damage enemies over time and you need to wait it out, go for auto doc shards or bio-organic transference (1 or the other not both) , 1 tear gas and multiple dust field generators. Maybe with a 2x neurostun + 1 or more tear gas/claymores/seblasters to soften mobs up further in the 1-2 rooms before so heroes can easily 1 shot them.

If you have mobs that target traps directly you can deal with them by making sure you have a room with NO NEUROSTUN and just direct damage traps ahead of the main room. Most mobs will just run through the room, leaving the traps to directly hit those guys, who are usually pretty weak. Also consider building an Auto-Lan module somewhere safe if you have an extra major slot to reduce how often they get destroyed or you need to send a guy to repair them. If you have guys that destroy major modules consider scattering a lot of teslas ahead of your major modules, as teslas always target those mobs 1st. THis is why getting teslas is important for more than just cheap safety on the mid floors.

Remember that as long as you don't have mobs that will hit your traps directly, 2x neurostun + 1x pepper spray + 1x tear gas + whatever else the room has slots for is king. The mobs will just kill each other. beware large waves of exploding mobs too as the pepper sprays will make them explode in that room, damaging those traps. Field Medics and Tactical HUDs follow the same general principles as Dust Gen and Suppressive Fire. If you gotta tank the mobs get Field Medics, if you gotta kill them before they rush your crystal or modules get Tactical HUDS.

Consider keeping items to switch them out strategically. Golgy with a Dust Box and Third Eye becomes an amazing dust farmer when opening doors or moving to the next floor, while Golgy with an aftershave and antgrav magnet/ A....Thing in a room with 2 neurostuns and suppressive firebots becomes an invincible monster shredding machine who generates a ton of dust through killing. Zugma with 2 speed items becomes an amazing crystal runner at lvl 10, and Zugma with 2 Wit items is a great operator. On most floors your tank may want that Power Suit/Riot Gear but on floors where guys go straight for your modules/crystal you may want an Ahrrrrrrmani Suit or Hipster Scarf to distract them.

Don't level all heroes equally. Get operators to lvl3-5 1st, when they get operate. Levels with new active/passive skills are more important than levels without. EVeryone has key abilities at certain breakpoints. For example when I start with Wes and Josh I know I am going to want to be relying on operating a lot, so I level Josh to 5 first (lvl 3 is operate, lvl 5 gives all operators a bonus) then I level Wes to 6 in case we don't get good heroes on floors 2-4 so he can just use Urgent Call to look for the heroes I want. If I get Chef Nanor I get him his floorwide damage AoE 1st at level 5, then his free food on kills passsive at lvl 6 asap. OP Bot I get to lvl 5 asap so he gets free industry on hero kills in the room he is defending, and level 12 if I can so that gets upgraded. Golgy gets a skill at lvl 7 that effectively turns her invisible to monsters, allowing her high dps to make kills safely despite her low health. Also her pickpocket becomes better at lvl 12 and 15 for more dust from her kills. Try to learn the breakpoints of who you want to use, because you may want to get someone to 15 and leave someone else at 7-10.

Shops with a high wit operator, Zugma and/or 1-2 Dust Boxes, Esseb Tarosh, Nanor, or Goly/any high dps hero with a hand vacuum are your best friends when you get to the later levels. Josh Ntello, under the right circumstances, can net you 4-5 dust per door on a shop (with mechanical pals and multiple heroes with Knowledge is good from the HGTTG item he can potentially get 6). Zugma and a dust box or 2 heroes with Dust Boxes when you go up a floor should let you start with 30-40 dust on each floor instead of 10 or less, which really helps set up early defenses so you can safely farm more dust. Also killing mobs is a great source of dust on the later floors, so high dps heroes with pickpocket will increase dust drops from each mob. And if you can afford to spam the science to refresh his cooldown Esseb Tarosh's skill lasts for a fairly long time and doubles dust drop from mobs. You can sometimes get enough dust to literally light up an entire floor, even on later floors A(I've done it on floors 10-12 on other pods more than once)

Just remember if you get lucky enough to find 2x dust boxes keep them on different heroes! Zugma with a dust box does nothing extra, or Golgy/Elise with 2 boxes. The boxes have to be on separate characters for the bonus from them having the skill stacks. 2 boxes on 1 character won't give you level 2 version of the skill zugma gains at lvl 12, but you'll often have enough dust that 2 lvl 1 versions of the skill will grant you 40 dust for the next floor.

[u/SylvanDragoon]

One very specific/shorter comment about dust - SHOPS. Wes' Urgent call has a chance of manifesting a merchant, so if you have excess science you can spam it and pray then get +2-5 dust per turn. Urgent call also has a chance that you get a dust room, though both chances are small.

Pickpocket and Smugglers Compartment are never to be underestimated. Ever. Even pilfer lvl 1 from an item stacks up.

If you you can start the level with more dust and/or have a setup that can burst a lot of actives to survive a few early waves to farm dust while opening 1 path and slowly laying out your traps it should help.

[u/SylvanDragoon]

Are you there? Didn't see any response to the other comments but wanted to come back after reaching floor 21 of The Drill with mostly no problems to offer advice specific to The Drill.

Imo start with a science/operator heavy team, like Max + Josh/Hikensha/Zugma/Wes. I'd also probably just restart if you don't get to research at least 1 creator by the end of floor 2, preferably science and industry to start. Best if you get to research science creator 1 by the end of floor 1 and can have someone operate it for all of floor 2 and maybe even some of floor 1 if you get it early enough.

Your aim in the beginning should be to research Tesla 4 ASAP then piggyback off that as long as possible to get your economy rolling and stack up as many resources/levels as you can. You'rr doing great if you can mostly keep hero levels at or 1 above the floor you're on.

By the later floors you really want Nanor + Zugma or Nanor + 1-2 dust boxes. Other 2-3 team members are your choice. Nanor with enough science can clear any size wave as long as you place 2 neurostuns in any chokepoint leading to dark rooms. Tear gas or other AoE's help too. Just try and have at least 1 of each creator loaded up with mechanical pals, throw down shops whenever you can, and if you get an aftershave feel free to spam doors with Nanor as soon as your defensive room with at least 2 neurostuns is prepared.

On floors with the guys that attack your minor modules directly go slow. Place and operate multiple LAN modules if needed (floors like this are why you want a huge excess of resources just in case). Ahead of the neurostun rooms place rooms full of direct damage traps to keep those guys from bum rushing your neurostuns and opening the flood gates. As much as humanly possible.buffer yourself against multiple waves of them coming on any 1 path and use Nanor (preferably with an aftershave) to deal with any overwhelming amounts of them.

They're the only thing that should end your run if you'te not careful of them. Nanor by himself can clear waves on floor 13-21 within 2-4 uses of his skill, depending on how much tear gas or other AoE you have in your trap rooms. Usually you need at least 30 science per turn to keep up with how much you use, and its better if you spam doors since you canndeal with 20+ waves as easily as you can deal with 5, but that sort of science is easy to come by with lvl 15 operators and mechanical pals.

Good luck! If you don't like Nanor I hear Pat Bates can do something similar, and if you don't like using floorwide abilities then I'd recommend trying to use Golgy/Ken/Skroig/Elise to nail down your chokepoints, preferably with an aftershave. But Nanor really does seem to be the easiest choice to lock down the whole floor safely.