Game:

Dyson Sphere Program (2021)

Duration: 1:00:54

33 views

0

No voice.

I have gotten very curious about the idea of farming the Dark Fog, so here's some testing in a Sandbox game:

1) A set of sorting blueprints, for levels 0 through 24+ drops - I'll put them up on Dyson Sphere Blueprints in a couple of days

2) Some basic turrets (magnum ammunition) in a location suitable for farming the only hive on the sandbox planet

The Dark Fog settings in this sandbox are:

a) Passive Dark Fog - because it's a testing sandbox only

b) Gain experience at 1000% rate (10x normal rate) - because I don't want to sit around for days, farming while they slowly gain experience

c) All other settings are the default

Setting up the sorter blueprints / Battlefield Analysis Buildings / gauss turrets so perfectly was purely luck - I hadn't tested setting them up prior.

Things to note:

i) The soil pile drops were a pleasant surprise - and you get them even if you're on the other side of the planet, which behavior the developers will probably nerf at some point (not sure if they're gained when on other planets or in other star systems, or if there's a performance hit from that level of tracking)

ii) The drops themselves aren't huge amounts - which several others have noted - still, when on everything-supercharged mode they should be enough to manage a one-planet challenge (which isn't among any of the new achievements added to the game)

iii) Even if the Relay or the Planetary Base itself isn't targeted, aggroing the units generates some threat for the Hive and causes it to level up

iv) Even at 10x normal leveling up rate, it takes a looooong time to level up the base/units - hours - making this near-useless as a source of free stuff (for a fast run - a slow gamer should enjoy it anyways)

v) In the default settings it is very slow, suitable for new players who haven't played this type of game: 1 kill = 1 unit of level-up, so 10+ thousand to reach L6+ (each new level re-sets the start counter of kill/units to zero)

I'll leave this game running overnight, currently it's over 2 hours and the base hasn't yet reached L6 (probably 1 hour of actual attacking).

Note 1: I did not unlock *all* of the technologies. Once we get to the special drops (Dark Fog Matrix Cubes et-al) we can have a look at how the secret Dark Fog technologies and items would be researched. (Yes there are secret technologies - see the last achievement in the below list.)

Note 2: There are many new Dark Fog-related achievements - some of these are speedrun, some are "how in space do you do that?" Originally there were 100 achievements for Dyson Sphere Program, now we have a total of 128:

A) Monster Kill: Icarus neutralizes over 1,000 Dark Fog units within 1 minute.

B) Dust to Dust I/II/III: Collect 1/10/100M soil piles from Dark Fog.

C) Happy Hunting I/II/III: Neutralize 100/1,000/10,000 Dark Fog space units.

D) Bullet Storm: Bullet consumption reaches 360/min on any planet.

E) A Penny Saved: Complete the mission without any buildings destroyed at Difficulty 1.0 or above.

F) Strangle in the Cradle: Wipe out a Dark Fog Planetary base within 1 hour at Difficulty 1.0 or above (can't unlock if Metadata is used).

G) Peace & Love: Complete the mission without any Dark Fog buildings neutralized at Difficulty 1.0 or above.

H) In the Spotlight: Have 40 Laser Towers shoot the same target at Difficulty 1.0 or above.

I) War has Changed: Complete the missions without building any Turrets at Difficulty 1.0 or above.

J) Won't Lie Low: Attract an attack from a space unit within 1 hour at Difficulty 1.0 or above (can't unlock if Metadata is used).

K) POPCORN! Implosion Cannon neutralizes 40 enemies or more with 1 shot.

L) Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken: Keep Icarus' energy shield's power consumption at 1GW while resisting damage for over 1 minute.

M) Invincible: Base radius of Icarus' Energy Shield reaches 25m.

N) A.T. Field: Planetary Shield's coverage reaches 100% over a planet.

O) Super Nova! Activate Supernova.

P) Shoot Oneself in the Foot: Lure Lancers to destroy a Planetary Base.

Q) You Started It: Have Icarus destroyed by Dark Fog at Passive Dark Fog aggressiveness. (Brings new meaning to "passive-aggressive".)

R) Right Under My Nose: Land on a planet that is 8000m or closer to a Dark Fog Hive.

S) You Shall Not Pass! Neutralize a Relay Station before it lands on a planet.

T) Global Offense: Be simultaneously assaulted by 12 Planetary Bases on a planet.

U) Wrong Place: Land on a planet occupied by over 20 Planetary Bases.

V) Gotcha: Find Dark Fog Communicator.

W) It's on Fire: Icarus' Replicator speed reaches 400%.

X) All Calculated: Unlock all secret technologies.

Other Statistics