1+++
  2title = "Tips for Outpost"
  3date = 2020-05-10
  4updated = 2020-05-22
  5+++
  6
  7[Outpost](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127110/Outpost/) is a fun little game by Open Mid Interactive that has popped in recently in my recommended section of Steam, and I decided to give it a try.
  8
  9It's a fun tower-defense game with progression, different graphics and random world generation which makes it quite fun for a few hours. In this post I want to talk about some tips I found useful to get past night 50.
 10
 11Build Pattern
 12-------------
 13
 14At first, you may be inclined to design a checkerboard pattern like the following, where "C" is the Crystal shrine, "S" is a stone launcher and "B" is a booster:
 15
 16![Bad Outpost build pattern](outpost-bad-pattern.svg)
 17
 18Indeed, this pattern will apply **4** boosts to every turret, but unfortunately, the other 4 slots of the booster are wasted! This is because boosters are able to power 8 different towers, and you really want to maximize that. Here's a better design:
 19
 20![Good Outpost build pattern](outpost-good-pattern.svg)
 21
 22The shrine's tower does get boosted, but it's still not really worth it to boost it. This pattern works good, and it's really easy to tile: just repeat the same 3x3 pattern.
 23
 24Nonetheless, we can do better. What if we applied multiple boosters to the same tower while still applying all 8 boosts?
 25
 26![Best Outpost build pattern](outpost-best-pattern.svg)
 27
 28That's what peak performance looks like. You can actually apply multiple boosters to the same tower, and it works great.
 29
 30Now, is it really worth it building anywhere except around the shrine? Not really. You never know where a boss will come from, so all sides need a lot of defense if you want to stand a chance.
 31
 32The addition of traps in 1.6 is amazing. You want to build these outside your strong "core", mostly to slow the enemies down so your turrets have more time to finish them off. Don't waste boosters on the traps, and build them at a reasonable distance from the center (the sixth tile is a good spot):
 33
 34![Trap Outpost build pattern](outpost-trap-pattern.svg)
 35
 36If you gather enough materials, you can build more trap and cannon layers outside, roughly at enough distance to slow them for enough duration until they reach the next layer of traps, and so on. Probably a single gap of "cannon, booster, cannon" is enough between trap layers, just not in the center where you need a lot of fire power.
 37
 38Talents
 39-------
 40
 41Talents are the way progression works in the game. Generally, after a run, you will have enough experience to upgrade nearly all talents of roughly the same tier. However, some are worth upgrading more than others (which provide basically no value).
 42
 43The best ones to upgrade are:
 44
 45* Starting supplies. Amazing to get good tools early.
 46* Shrine shield. Very useful to hold against tough bosses.
 47* Better buildings (cannon, boosters, bed and traps). They're a must to deal the most damage.
 48* Better pickaxe. Stone is limited, so better make good use of it.
 49* Better chests. They provide an insane amount of resources early.
 50* Winter slow. Turrets will have more time to deal damage, it's perfect.
 51* More time. Useful if you're running out, although generally you enter nights early after having a good core anyway.
 52* More rocks. Similar to a better pickaxe, more stone is always better.
 53
 54Some decent ones:
 55
 56* In-shrine turret. It's okay to get past the first night without building but not much beyond that.
 57* Better axe and greaves. Great to save some energy and really nice quality of life to move around.
 58* Tree growth. Normally there's enough trees for this not to be an issue but it can save some time gathering wood.
 59* Wisps. They're half-decent since they can provide materials once you max out or max out expensive gear.
 60
 61Some okay ones:
 62
 63* Extra XP while playing. Generally not needed due to the way XP scales per night, but can be a good boost.
 64* Runestones. Not as reliable as chests but some can grant more energy per day.
 65
 66Some crap ones:
 67
 68* Boosts for other seasons. I mean, winter is already the best, no use there.
 69* Bow. The bow is very useless at the moment, it's not worth your experience.
 70* More energy per bush. Not really worth hunting for bushes since you will have enough energy to do well.
 71
 72Turrets
 73-------
 74
 75Always build the highest tier, there's no point in anything lower than that. You will need to deal a lot of damage in a small area, which means space is a premium.
 76
 77Boosters
 78--------
 79
 80If you're very early in the game, I recommend alternating both the flag and torch in a checkerboard pattern where the boosters should go in the pattern above. This way your towers will get extra speed and extra range, which works great.
 81
 82When you're in mid-game (stone launchers, gears and campfires), I do not recommend using campfires. The issue is their range boost is way too long, and the turrets will miss quite a few shots. It's better to put all your power into fire speed for increased DPS, at least near the center. If you manage to build too far out and some of the turrets hardly ever shoot, you may put campfires there.
 83
 84In end-game, of course alternate both of the highest tier upgrades. They are really good, and provide the best benefit / cost ratio.
 85
 86Gathering Materials
 87-------------------
 88
 89It is **very** important to use all your energy every day! Otherwise it will go to waste, and you will need a lot of materials.
 90
 91As of 1.6, you can mine two things at once if they're close enough! I don't know if this is intended or a bug, but it sure is great.
 92
 93Once you're in mid-game, your stone-based fort should stand pretty well against the nights on its own. After playing for a while you will notice, if your base can defend a boss, then it will have no issue carrying you through the nights until the next boss. You can (and should!) spend the nights gathering materials, but only when you're confident that the night won't run out.
 94
 95Before the boss hits (every fifth night), come back to your base and use all of your materials. This is the next fort upgrade that will carry it the five next nights.
 96
 97You may also speed up time during night, but make sure you use all your energy before hand. And also take care, in the current version of the game speeding up time only speeds up monster movement, not the fire rate or projectile speed of your turrets! This means they will miss more shots and can be pretty dangerous. If you're speeding up time, consider speeding it up for a little bit, then go back to normal until things are more calm, and repeat.
 98
 99If you're in the end-game, try to rush for chests. They provide a huge amount of materials which is really helpful to upgrade all your tools early so you can make sure to get the most out of every rock left in the map.
100
101In the end-game, after all stone has been collected, you don't really need to use all of your energy anymore. Just enough to have enough wood to build with the remaining stone. This will also be nice with the bow upgrades, which admitedly can get quite powerful, but it's best to have a strong fort first.
102
103Season
104------
105
106In my opinion, winter is just the best of the seasons. You don't *really* need that much energy (it gets tiresome), or extra tree drops, or luck. Slower movement means your turrets will be able to shoot enemies for longer, dealing more damage over time, giving them more chance to take enemies out before they reach the shrine.
107
108Feel free to re-roll the map a few times (play and exit, or even restart the game) until you get winter if you want to go for The Play.
109
110Gear
111----
112
113In my opinion, you really should rush for the best pickaxe you can afford. Stone is a limited resource that doesn't regrow like trees, so once you run out, it's over. Better to make the best use out of it with a good pickaxe!
114
115You may also upgrade your greaves, we all known faster movement is a *really* nice quality of life improvement.
116
117Of course, you will eventually upgrade your axe to chop wood (otherwise it's wasted energy, really), but it's not as much of a priority as the pickaxe.
118
119Now, the bow is completely useless. Don't bother with it. Your energy is better spent gathering materials to build permanent turrets that deal constant damage while you're away, and the damage adds up with every extra turret you build.
120
121With regards to items you carry (like sword, or helmet), look for these (from best to worst):
122
123* Less minion life.
124* Chance to not consume energy.
125* +1 turret damage.
126* Extra energy.
127* +1 drop from trees or stones.
128* +1 free wood or stone per day.
129
130Less minion life, nothing to say. You will need it near end-game.
131
132The chance to not consume energy is better the more energy you have. With a 25% chance not to consume energy, you can think of it as 1 extra energy for every 4 energy you have on average.
133
134Turret damage is a tough one, it's *amazing* mid-game (it basically doubles your damage) but falls short once you unlock the cannon where you may prefer other items. Definitely recommended if you're getting started. You may even try to roll it on low tiers by dying on the second night, because it's that good.
135
136Extra energy is really good, because it means you can get more materials before it gets too rough. Make sure you have built at least two beds in the first night! This extra energy will pay of for the many nights to come.
137
138The problem with free wood or stone per day is that you have, often, five times as much energy per day. By this I mean you can get easily 5 stone every day, which means 5 extra stone, whereas the other would provide just 1 per night. On a good run, you will get around 50 free stone or 250 extra stone. It's a clear winner.
139
140In end-game, more quality of life are revealing chests so that you can rush them early, if you like to hunt for them try to make better use of the slot.
141
142Closing words
143-------------
144
145I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do! Movement is sometimes janky and there's the occassional lag spikes, but despite this it should provide at least a few good hours of gameplay. Beware however a good run can take up to an hour!