The guide description already says enough, this section will instead be used to publicly state all avenues of investigation currently being researched. This means collection of audiovisual evidence and reference, subsequent documentation and official publication.

If you have suggestions or leads on something you feel requires a better explanation from the game, wish to contribute tips or clarify errors in this guide, you are free to do so in the comments and you will be credited accordingly if your information makes it into the guide. The journal's best wishes is to help anyone that needs it and I'm grateful to see the community effort behind it.

Also, ALL VIDEOS IN THIS GUIDE HAVE ZERO COMMENTARY, ARE BRIEF, AND WILL NEVER FEATURE ADVERTISEMENTS. Please notify me if Youtube dares to oppose this directive.

Aight, just got the XEN Turret. I'll test it out and write here the good combinations I find.

An update added the XEN Turrets as research projects, making their acquisition much easier. As I mentioned, I'll provide my research data here later today.


-XEN turrets
-Return at Dawn tips
-Jump Pad XENs having increased kinetic strength when paired with a Chain XEN.

Added Core Output, Infinity Mode, upgrading constructs on the field, explanations on why weapons consume too much ammo, additional screenshot for the Electricity Charger detailing its use powering the Core Tower and tactics you can do with a Pack Mule.

-Added Insurance. (Subject 1v02P_6 risked her life in the name of science for this and fully recovered from her injuries.)
-Updated CONVERTING RESOURCES INTO ENERGY section, explaining the viability of using Cataphracts as oversized lumberjacks.
-Added the Quick Leave section to the NO NEED TO STICK AROUND section. Leave the map at any point without needing to interact with the Core Tower directly.

-Added the Signet Mine Ore Challenge
-Divided the INFINITY SIEGE & OUTPOST DESIGN section into two independent parts due to character limits.
-Added additional clarification on the OUTPOST DESIGN section informing about the X-Ray buttons.

-Finally got to add the section on upgrading constructs on the field.

-Added an easy way to unlock the Flying Dutchman achievement.

-Added a section on swapping turret barrels. It was really fun experience in general that shaped my new repertoire of tactics.
-Collecting information for the new update, please stand by.

-Updated the Infinity Siege section.
-Added a section on making an effective frontline.
-Added a section on how to create Patrol Routes
-Added a section on Pack Mule tactics that help with exploration.

-Added further information on the BREAKABLE DOORS section related on alternative points of entry.
-Replaced the supplementary video on the same section for one that doesn't feature ads while also being conveniently shorter.
-General cleanup on the guide.

-Segmented the guide contents through categories.
-Added a few separators on the guide indexes to make it easier to read by category.
-Changed the format of the Credits

-Added the new Masterkey XEN section
-Added the Reading the Incident Reward section
-Added the Mass Producing Ammo section
-Updated the Shady Dealer "G" section. If you're lucky, "G" can trade you Cataphracts for your turrets. Subject to RN"G".

-Added preliminary section of Return to Dawn Base. PENDING: Unique machines
-Added EXTRACTING LOOT section to Return to Dawn Base category
-Added GENERAL TIPS section to Return to Dawn Base category
-Included Obi-Wun's and Monzterz' guide on RETURN TO DAWN BASE section, it goes into added technical detail that won't be covered in its entirety in this guide.

-Added clarification to the Electromagnetic Plug's mechanics. It doesn't need to be directly plugged to the Core Tower, any outpost component works.
-Added THE MAGICAL WINDOW section to the Misc category. A harmless bug you can try out for yourself.

Curious how the most complete description of Core Output can be accessed in Command Mode instead of where it would be more convenient for the player to know what it even is.



For turrets, the rate is 1% of extra damage for every 10 points of Core Output.

• There is a hard cap of 10,000 Core Output.
• It also upgrades the damage of all Cataphracts (or Mechas)
  
• It increases the damage melee enemies receive when they strike the walls of your Outpost. Do you often felt weirded out that you know and saw those robo scorpions enter your base and then suddenly disappear? It’s because the walls inflict Electrocution, the damage is amplified the more Core Output you have.
  
• It doesn’t boost the damage of turrets placed on the field before you arrive.

The improvements to the X-Boost Field are also very appreciated. Pack Mule Guardians don’t need to reach the actual Core Tower to deliver their goods, they simply need to reach the X-Boost Field. The larger the radius, the more conveniently it can serve as an improvised loot teleport tool if your looting is done while still inside the X-Boost Field.

And if you use the Scan Tool, the scan range increases the higher your Core Output is, to the point the entire map lights up with all the things you can pilfer.

Also, your Outpost automatically farms Resources from trees and scrapped military vehicles within the radius of said field, so a larger radius will have it passively collecting resources around you while you're away.






The math checks out. A Core Output of 1,000 has the turrets do double their base damage and 2,000 has them do triple, 3,000 maxes out at QUAD DAMAGE. Notice how the additional 111 over the 3,000 limit doesn't improve the damage any further. As of May 27, this is no longer the case.

By dropping a piece of purple loot at the edges of the X-Boost field, I can more correctly gauge the distance based on what the game tells me while using the Core Tower as my anchor point.

Pretty much the area of the Outpost, further analysis unecessary.


The radius is now roughly 100 meters.


A radius of approximately 200 meters. Notice how performing an Area Scan has it highlight loot way outside the X-Boost Field’s range.


Early game and onwards, you’ll rely on these Small Generator doodads. Simply cram as many Utility Walls as your Outpost allows and fill them with generators. I used to have walls like these on my old bases.



By late mid-game, you’ll unlock an OP component: The Pillar Man

This succinct guide by Jack19134 tells you all you need to know with just two images.
https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3212098900
In my case, it translated into glorified Bitcoin farms but they get the job done in such an impeccable manner, I have no complaints.



Once you reach the endgame at the City Ruins, you can find Blueprint Parts I and II that can give you the condensed and much better packed versions of the Battery and Material Crates. They increase Core Output when placed at the same time they very generously increase your Energy and Max Resource limit, respectively.

You can find the blueprints in Schalimah's own guide about it:
https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3225231245

Time to explain how XEN configurations can be detrimental to your magazine size and ammo economy. The image explains further:



Normally, Core Guns have a default mag size of 180 and each Ammo Box gives you 1,000 bullets, I effectively have 5 magazines in reserve that I must make the most of.

However, this gun has an atrocious XEN configuration in terms of extending your magazine size. The Pursuit XENs might look good on paper, but notice how it will increase the ammo consumption to 18! That means I will have only 10 bullets in every firefight and being 5 reloads away from going dry after I use an Ammo Box, confirmed by the gun's digital ammo counter.



Will just 50 bullets be enough to stop a single horde of enemies? Of course it won’t, specially in a Fire Mode/XEN intended to be a trash-clearing/mobbing tool against robotic scorpions. This gun won’t even serve a Lobotomite, much less a Desert Ranger.

At most, it can see use with all EUA Tiger Operatives that can make use of their Infinite Ammo ability, but only through a short burst of time and with a long cooldown.

When you pick up guns on the field, please check their XEN configs to see if they don’t come with augmentations that increase the ammo consumed per shot.
You can see those red numbers on both the Ammo Cost and Firing Interval if I choose to apply this Intensify II XEN.


If you are lucky, you can find Thrifty augs that reduce the ammo cost, those prolong your ammo long term if applied to your primary fire slot and Drum Mag Core Guns love that one.



When building an optimal XEN Configuration, it is highly recommended to first choose the primary fire XEN that you like best and have it be the first slot for convenience. Here are the most common types:


Intended for Marksman Core Guns. High damage, low fire rate. Those aren't impacted much by XEN that increase ammo consumption or decrease their firing interval.


Pushes a Core Gun to fire the fastest it can. It's an excellent all-rounded choice against hordes.


Normal everything: Damage, range, velocity and fire rate.


The bullet travels much faster. Regular fire rate, normal damage.

Now that your primary fire is settled, time to proceed.

Now, you found a good gun, good enough for you to give it a name, even. The next step is giving it OP XEN configs.

Do you want to go for massive single-shot damage? Use a Marksman Core Gun and load it with all the XENs that improve damage capability, now you can deal with Tanks from afar.

Want massive wave-clearing? Grab Rapid Core Guns, Standard Core Guns or Drum Mag Core Guns. Those trade damage for the ability to eradicate small enemies by the dozen, so load them with XENs that reduce ammo consumption or cause damage to bunched-up enemies.

Maybe you’re filling a niche like using wanton explosives, then grab an Explosive Core Gun, load it with mods that reduce fire intervals for max spam and increase in blast radius.

The thing is, you should decide on what you feel the most comfortable playing with or that better suits your personal play style as you fight alongside your Outpost whittling down the hordes of enemies.

The better Core Guns have multiple XEN slots, so you can either make your own Swiss Army knife config or go big on a niche, like using two slots for repairs and player healing, respectively.

If you want a personal opinion, all my equipped Core Guns have a Light XEN as their main fire mode to help whittle down hordes (my snipers have them in the second slot). The rest have tools intended for either crowd-control or burst damage against big enemies. I will reiterate, pick whatever you find that makes the game more fun to you.

A good gun makes a Rambo out of anyone, make no mistake. But Tiger Operatives, as previously mentioned, can make guns with a high ammo consumption work so long as they have high fire rates. So they might want conventional Core Guns or perhaps Support Core Guns, since their secondary skill reduces weapon cooldowns and allowing situational spamming of destructive XENs balanced by long firing intervals.

Owl Operatives can have their pet Guardian provide close supporting fire, so they can opt to use a Sniper Rifle even in close quarters or against large numbers of small enemies since their robotic buddy will handle the trash while they focus on the big targets or they can go full support gunner with a Drum Mag Core Gun.

Mammoth Operatives make better use of anything improving Area of Effect damage inherent in explosive munitions and their own primary skill, so they might want weapons and XEN that deal splash damage.

Hare Operatives are much flexible in their weapon of choice since their swords solve the CQC dilemma and some upgrade trees even allow for relentless wave-clearing without having to a fire a single bullet. Since they will be cleaving hordes down, weapons intended for close range with fast fire rates and high mobility options are ideal, like the Cavalry Core Guns but I’ve seen great success with Drum Mag and Regular Core Guns too.

A Core Gun with a functional Primary Slot is all you need in this game, the rest is gravy. If you feel like tossing in a Rocket XEN to bust down doors and destroy large robots, go for it.

If you like littering an area with mines for quick area denial, that’s fine too. Maybe Mend or Healing Range to repair damaged buildings and keep alive your team if you play co-op.

But by then, you already know what you want your gun to do.

---

https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3212529527

To get far in this game, you will need:

• A base capable of withstanding a strong frontal assault, with enemies also coming from both flanks. Depending on what kind of Hazards you acquire, you will need to reinforce the rear of your Outpost as well.
  
• An Operative capable of handling either large hordes of enemies or serving as an HVT-Killer disposing of dangerous threats like Tanks. If they can do both, even better.
  
• Turrets properly configured to deal with specific threat types, as well as CIWS turrets protecting the base from enemy artillery.
  
• A sufficiently high Core Output value so your turrets do enough damage to repel hordes of enemies.
  
• The capacity to produce enough ammo to sustain your turrets’ ammo expenditure. This needs an amount of 1 Ammo Maker per 100 Resources during the early and mid-game so the long cooldowns don’t screw you over. A max of 10 Ammo Makers is a good number, regardless of Max Resources.
  
• A way to minimize base and turret upkeep so you can also contribute to damage on the field.

Regarding the last point, initially there’s not much you can do about it until you unlock the basic Autoloader. Ensure your Outpost design makes it easy to reach and resupply multiple turrets in person. Have your Ammo Makers in a convenient location to reach, take Ammo Boxes and quickly distribute them among your turrets.


An obsolete Outpost layout fulfilling the aforementioned criteria

Once you have Autoloaders, ensure they sustain a minimum of three turrets and a maximum of six to optimize ammo efficiency. You can see if they correctly feed a turret ammo if you see a green line connecting them to it. If you place a component that blocks that line, the Autoloader won’t resupply that turret. Notice how on the second picture, the targeting camera of the Viper Chain Gun actually blocks the line of sight between the Autoloader and the MG Turret on the left.



Eventually you will unlock the Advanced Autoloader that automatically collects Ammo Boxes dispensed by the equally advanced and autonomous wall-mounted Ammo Makers. That way, so long as you keep a steady amount of Resources, the base is self-sufficient and you can go out there and kick ass without worry.

So if my obsolete Outpost is any indication, you will have to come up with new base layouts as you progress in the game that better fit a more concentrated turret distribution and their corresponding logistics. Remember to make the Outpost itself convenient to access for yourself.

---

The left image here shows you how a small system of conveyor belts work and how you can build one tile outside the Outpost's platform, the actual boundary is a yellow striped wall.


Some components were removed to better demonstrate the internals of this small corner

---

On the lower left corner you can find these arrows. These control the altitude of the giant contraption that allows for X-Ray vision. Clicking on the Up arrow raises it, the Down arrow lowers it.
The game implies there is a max height limit of 4,100cm for your Outpost according to this tool

Ever felt like your high-caliber turrets waste their ammo on insignificant threats? You can actually change their target priority and it is highly-recommended to do so within the Outpost Editor so you don't have to manually do it every single time you begin the mission.

Go here:


Then click on the turrets you wish to adjust and then manually adjust the parameters to your liking with this button:

Here, I chose to have my 30mm Turret prioritize large threats, can target medium enemies if there aren't big enemies and will completely ignore the small trash mobs. I also increased its range.

Generally, have the turret fight on something its own size. Small turrets for small enemies, large turrets for the big boys, you get the idea. Some turrets like the CIWS are better used as trophy systems[en.wikipedia.org] that target and shoot down enemy artillery, specially from the Tank enemies that perform mortar strikes from afar on your facilities..
Adjusting a minimum range works best with high-caliber turrets intended for long-range sniping, those will normally be supported by lesser turrets that handle the close-range targets.

Originally posted by HeathenSW:

About turret configuration - the range seem to actually affects the accuracy and thus DPS, but I'm not sure how much. In general the closer the target the more effective the turret is (at least for CIWS), so it's not that good to always set max range. I'd say that about 80% (and below) of max range should be the most efficient. 30mm do not seem to care about range tho and will always hitscan, plus their AOE helps even if they do miss.

You can configure them in the field in almost the same way, both getting close to a turret and choosing the corresponding option or you can configure them remotely using Command Mode. However, those changes are not saved between missions.



Increasing the range in some turrets might help when dealing with those cowardly Tanks.

After seeing you can configure the targeting parameters of your turrets, making a Control Group is the next best step to take. Real Time Strategy games tend to feature this ability to create squads of your units for easier micromanaging. Time is precious and you can’t afford to waste it by selecting your units one-by-one when you’re being attacked from multiple fronts with dozens of enemies at your doorstep.

See this part of Create Squad?



Click on the object (or multiple objects) you wish to group together and after your selection is made, think on what number you would like those constructs to be easily accessed, then press Ctrl + [Number of your choice] to create the Control Group.


In this example, the turrets on the front belong to the Number 5 key. Notice the almost imperceptible number on that corner, highlighted with the white exclamation mark [!]. It tells you to what Group a thing belongs to.


When you are in Command Mode out on the field, now you can quickly press 5 and those turrets will be immediately selected, so you can have them all focus their fire on a specific target in front of your base.



Making groups isn’t restricted to the Outpost Editor, you can create actual squads of units in Command Mode but those are not preserved between maps and are, in fact, reset to the original Outpost Editor configuration, so you will have to create them again on the next location you travel to. I had to constantly add these Guardians to Slot 6 with every new day.



The utility value is massive. In my case I had my Core Tower bound to Number 1, Ammo Makers to Number 2, Generators to Number 3, Guardian Fabricators to Number 4 and the Autoloader to Number 5.
Of course, that is just my personal way to do things and not a guideline. Feel free to assign your facilities to what you feel the most comfortable with, the idea is that you can develop the muscle memory to quickly perform a task in less than three to five seconds.

To say an example:
Enter Command Mode -> Select your Ammo Makers -> Produce what you need -> Return to FPS mode.

---

Anything can be added into a group. In this example, I had Number 6 handle the front door and Number 7 be this window and floor tile.



As expected, the floor tile does nothing but now I can open windows while I’m destroying robots in the battlefield. Tactical feasibility analysis postponed until further notice.

Thank you Nivison, for the suggestion on control groups.

Now that you know about Control Groups, while in Command Mode, holding Shift and then pressing on the corresponding bind for an Outpost Component's action will perform that same action for all the currently selected Components of the same type. That way, you can have all of your Ammo Makers produce an ammo box at once on a shared cooldown timer. Clicking on the action while holding Shift also works.



The same can be done for automatically turning On and Off the Advanced Ammo Makers so they don't consume resources when you need them or when they finished producing a sizeable stockpile of ammo reserves.

It is not recommended to do so with your Generators. If you convert Resources to Energy in bulk, the game won't properly stop the process when you hit the maximum amount of Energy you have, so you risk wasting your Resources.

Like any proper Tower Defense game, you are able to upgrade turrets into types more fitting for the expected opposition or just straight up improve their damage. Outpost does feature that but let me explain how it works first.

The Turrets of your Outpost are not the ones being upgraded. Rather, what you can upgrade are the things you can place using Command Mode that come from Deciphers. These things:



Once you finish research on a Decipher, THEN are their upgrades now available to be researched. You can tell because their names mention ‘Upgrade’ or when selecting them shows the preview of what is being upgraded. Titan Spikes are notoriously vague with their upgrade names and descriptions, but this is a result of an inconsistent naming pattern for the upgrades themselves.


In four words: Improved Titan Spike health

Some upgrades for the Small Artillery Formation don’t show until you research the turret itself. Those include: 30mm Light Turret, Pyro Turrets and the Smart Mortar.

Place down your construct. Then Left Click on it and you’ll see these options, each button conveniently showing you the Energy cost of the upgrade to apply. Here, I upgrade the Auto Miner with Reload Mods.


And here, I place and then upgrade a Stakewall with the same method.

To upgrade Artillery Formations, click on the square platform, not the turret. Should the turret on it be destroyed but the platform still has some HP left, you can place down another turret on it in the same way you apply an upgrade.


And Combat Covers need you to click on the cube or the floor tiles, not the barriers. Of note, you can only apply a single upgrade to them. Choosing another will override the previous upgrade while also locking you out from choosing it again. Notice how after applying two upgrades, now I can only apply one more, but that Autoloader right there has no signs of the Ammo Maker I chose earlier.


And that's it. If you want to build more of those deployable facilities, manufacture and place more Deciphers of the type you want on your Outpost.

Normally, you only really need to upgrade constructs on Recovery Day, that is the only time you deal with enough enemies to cap out on your max Resource limit. Resources that can then be converted into energy using your Generators to then apply the upgrades. More information on how to do so is below.

Thanks to Pandorian and Sam-or-I for the suggestion!

The addition of the Supporter Guardian made me realize I never once used this feature and it wasn't exactly clear how it is done.

While in Command Mode, click on a unit you wish to have it prowl the perimeter, then press the P key or click on the UI command for the Patrol tool. To create a Patrol Route, hold Shift, then Left Click on the locations you want the unit to patrol. The game will automatically link the first and last patrol points together and seamlessly close the loop for you.

In the following video, I demonstrate how the newly-added Rally Point for Guardians is declared by selecting the Guardian Fabricator and Right Clicking on where the freshly-built automatons should automatically move to. In this case, I build a Supporter Guardian, upgrade it to healer mode, then assign it a Patrol Route.


And there you go. The unit will do its rounds until you give it a different order. The best units for this are naturally Supporter Guardians since you can create rudimentary supply chains thanks to their ability to grab Ammo Boxes off Ammo Makers or out on the wild. Place a Patrol Point near an Ammo Maker and then close to the stationary units that will appreciate the resupplies. Obviously, whatever they find that is damaged along their route, they will immediately fix.

At first, the tactical value of playing mix-and-match with ballistic hardware might look novel at best, dubious at worst. Fret not, replacing turret barrels does have strategic merit.

See the humble MG Turret? The most basic type? It is the only turret platform that accepts the CIWS barrel, the most OP general-purpose turret in the game. If you have spare CIWS turrets, you can essentially “upgrade” the MG Turrets spawned using the Small Artillery Platform into a frankly more useful version capable of protecting constructs around it from Tank bombardments.



In fact, this same principle can work behind creating a small death squad of CIWS Guardians, a fully-mechanized fireteam capable of assaulting and securing hostile territory while you handle other tasks. Now group them with the newly-added Supporter Guardian upgraded in Command Mode with a Repair Muzzle, load it with four ammo boxes and you’re all set.

”Squad. Stay alert for Freeman, over”

Only the Supporter Guardian has custom-tailored AI to correctly target and heal damaged entities. Attaching a Repair Muzzle to a turret has it attempt to fire at enemies with it, only healing what it accidentally happens to be on the way. This is easier to see in the City Ruins Recovery Day with the Promethean Core in front of your base.

Besides, the Repair Muzzle can only be mounted in MG and CIWS platforms anyway, the latter being a perfectly good waste of DPS.

Guardians accept the following turret barrels:

• MG Turret
  
• Minigun (Obtained out in the wild or from a Bottom MG Turret)
  
• CIWS (both types)
  
• Both Pyro and Cryo turrets
  
• 30mm Light
  
• 30mm Twin Barrel
  
• Viper Chaingun

Putting the barrel of a Viper Chaingun on a Guardian massively increases its barrel length to comical proportions



Of note, the Supporter Guardian accepts all of the above AND the Repair Muzzle. Even if you remove its Repair Muzzle and give it an offense-oriented barrel, it actually engages hostiles like normal. Obviously, this goes against the whole point of its namesake and reason to exist.

"I'm a healer, but..."

Turrets have interchangeable barrels by their turret base:

• MG Turret, Bottom MG Turret, and CIWS are interchangeable between themselves.
  
• MG Turrets accept Cryo Turret and Pyro Turret barrels.
  
• 30mm Light and Twin Barrel are interchangeable. You can find a Twin Barrel on the Old Barracks map to upgrade any 30mm Light Turret you happen to have in your Outpost. Hauling it is only recommended with the help of a Pack Mule or just attach it to a Guardian.
  
• Viper Chain Guns are exclusive to themselves

Downgrading a CIWS by putting an MG Turret barrel on it has the component float inside it
You can clearly feel it saying “...Really?”

Nothing says Commanding Officer like a throne on wheels. That piece of furniture is by technicality considered a turret weapon, so you can rip it off its base and attach it to a Guardian, which seems to be the only viable candidate for it.



While sitting on a chair, the Guardian can still jump without your body weighing it down, a more expensive alternative to Pack Mule jumping. Also, if you exit the chair while the Guardian is moving towards a given location, it has the gentlemanly courtesy to stop on its tracks and wait for you to get off it before it continues its course.

If TeamRanger ever gives the chair attack animations while holding it, I'm SO smacking an Apostle WWE-style with it.

Special thanks to Sam-or-I for the information and suggestion! I honestly would have never given this a try.

A small piece of trivia, actually.

Hold your reload button. Now you can quickly switch between available ammo types.

Surprisingly, this game has a functioning ballistics system.

If you thought your bullets don't seem to hit targets too far away, it's not because of shoddy coding. The game has barely noticeable tracers in the form of minimalist projectile models, so you would never know to account for distance and gravity when picking long-range targets unless you find out by freak accident like I did. If you're a veteran of Sniper Elite or the Zombie Army Franchise, you'll pick it up effortlessly and consistently nail long shots with some practice.


Of note, some Turret Barrels you can find on the field or ripped off your own turrets are bound by their own rules. For example, the MG Light Turret is fully hitscan, so it travels instantly and its own damage doesn't seem affected by distance either.

As of the most recent update, you can now read the description of an Incident Reward in full by holding Right Click and then dragging the mouse up or down to scroll.

What many will consider the real game: Tower Defense meets FPS. You’ll unlock this game mode early on and I urge you to play it the moment you unlock it so you can benchmark your Outpost’s performance in a real stress test. Grab the protagonist character and play only Wave 1 and at most, Wave 2, then evacuate. That way, if your defenses fall, nothing of value is lost.

The enemy strength can severely spike up in difficulty depending on the Hazards you choose, so Infinity Siege is the perfect way to gauge the real effectiveness of your turret placement, micromanagement and strategic mind, as well as the combat performance of your Operative, their weapon of choice and XEN configurations.

At that point, you’re in the mid-game but you’ll definitely want to give the game mode a try because you can snag Purple and Orange-tier equipment in less time than conventional Tours. Even Heroic items and Gear can spawn in the Darkest Before Dawn map.



As of 29/May/24, Promethean Cores stopped being freebies dispensers in exchange for a more engaging way to play.

You won’t be getting any rewards until you first build a Promethean Core, those are located in these square-shaped foundations, which we’ll now refer to as Checkpoints.


The cost of building one differs by the map you play in, but thankfully each successive Core built further away costs less and less because the game knows those are more difficult to protect. They can be built in either Command Mode or directly interacting with it.

• Promethean Cores dispense loot if they are still standing once the wave is over, so you can potentially build one BEFORE killing the last enemies of the wave so you can get a free loot drop.
  
• Each Promethean Core also gives you an Incident Reward like free turrets, the more you manage to successfully defend, the more you get to ease your job.
  
• Promethean Cores keep their loot if you didn’t claim it in time, you just have to wait until the wave finishes or it gets destroyed.
  
• If a Promethean Core with loot around or inside it is destroyed, the ensuing explosion does not remove any loot caught in the blast or inside it at the time of the detonation. But you do have to contend with hostiles around it, so wait until the wave is over or a brief moment of tranquility between enemy spawns.
  
• The rarity of the items is not influenced by how far away the Promethean Core is from your base, you can get blue-color loot from the farthest possible Core as you can get Legendary loot from the closest one.
  
• Promethean Cores can be repaired. Either have a Supporter Guardian heal it or pack XENs capable of repairing it.
  
• If you choose to evacuate, you must survive the next wave first.
  There are no free rides here, overconfidence proves fatal.

Choosing to stay will have the game offer you a small trade where you get a Supply Drop and potentially an extra benefit in exchange for a debuff that will last for that wave and you’re free to either accept or reject the trade. Be careful not to accept challenges that may cripple you right there.

Supply Drops unconditionally always offer the following:

• 3 Ammo Crates
  
• 3 Artillery Shells
  
• 3 Xenium Solutions that give 1 Efficiency Point each.
  Most importantly: Three or Five random pieces of loot from the same pool as the Promethean Cores of your map. If you're playing Darkest Before Dawn, that means chances for Heroic equipment.

It is highly recommended to only grab the loot on the wave where you are about to evacuate. This is in the benefit of having free inventory space to carry Ammo Boxes to resupply either yourself of whatever needs it.

But once it is time to go, you'll obviously want to keep your hard-earned spoils of war. Look for these containers around your outpost, the ones with a flashing orange light. Simply interact with them and store your goodies like any other container. They'll be shipped back to base right away.

• Using Drones
  
  
  
• Using Pack Mules that are inside the plane when it leaves. There is a section of it further down the guide. Be advised that sometimes they may suffer pathfinding issues when they have the model with the largest amount of crates on top of them.
  
  
• Keeping your loot inside your own inventory once you board the evac plane.

Obviously, you'll want to build and maintain as many Promethean Cores as possible for max loot. The following part will help with that.

The first time you build a Promethean Core on certain checkpoints, the game will offer a complementary mini-base to help you defend it better. If it gets destroyed, you won’t get another one and it will fall up to you to fortify that location.

For that reason, you have to make use of mobile support units as a provisional fighting force to maintain a defensive perimeter while you reinforce the general vicinity of the Promethean Core.
That is why Deciphers are mandatory in the long run so you have an easier time building an improvised Forward Operating Base, specially with Small Artillery Placements and Combat Covers upgraded to have Ammo Makers and Autoloaders to minimize turret babysitting. The farther away from your Outpost, you will want to have Cataphracts assisting the turrets, specially against Tanks and Apostles if they are way out of your Outpost’s artillery range.

What an effective checkpoint looks like

If you have spare CIWS turrets, rip their barrels off their platform and place them on Guardians. Then have them assist you on securing the location of the new Promethean Core. Once you place down some Small Artillery Placements, replace the barrels in the modest MG Turrets for the CIWS barrels carried by your Guardians, then quickly change their Config to target Missiles to High.

Yes, your main infantry will be Guardians and Supporter Guardians will be the handy engineers fixing damaged components and moving ammo where it needs to be.
Have MG Guardians target small enemies. Punisher and Judgement Guardians will target medium and large enemies, place them in a way so they have an easier time dispatching High Value Targets.
Also, avoid having your Guardians bunch up, a single one that gets destroyed creates a small explosion that harms every other robotic unit around it, potentially triggering a chain reaction wiping them all out.

Because Supporter Guardians automatically pick up Ammo Boxes around them, designate a Patrol Route that passes near your Ammo Makers so they can re-stock on ammo to give and have their route be really close to your units because their ammo-giving radius is very finicky and sometimes it doesn’t work unless it is practically glued to the unit in need of munitions.

By this point, you’ll realize the very thing all real life military tacticians agree is the biggest hassle in any war: Logistics and ammunition shortages. Always build 4 or 5 Combat Covers upgraded to Ammo Makers around your new base and keep an eye out on the Autoloaders. Make Control Groups on your most recent Ammo Makers so you can quickly produce ammo en-masse within seconds. Make the habit of checking every minute or so to see if you can produce more ammo.



A Promethean Core will fall within seconds the very moment the CIWS Turrets run out of ammunition when an upgraded Tank lays down a barrage of rockets on them. Keep them alive at all costs, they are probably the only thing that keeps your bases from falling.

If Infinity Siege is Outpost proper where FPS and Tower Defense collide, Return to Dawn Base is the traditional Tower Defense experience where you are placed on a map and expected to use everything you get to upgrade your defenses, player character and weapon to improve your chances to overcome every successive wave against a fixed line of enemies.

Return to Dawn Base is a sprawling, gigantic map encompassing 7 different sectors, each with their own geographical advantages and disadvantages regarding enemy attack routes and difficulty traversing its surroundings in the search for Resource Pods, your primary source of equipment and boons to aid in your survival.

Every new wave, the AO boundaries expand, allowing you to scavenger further and further away while also letting you switch bases. Every sector has a Holdout Bonus, which are bonuses you get for surviving a wave while inside that sector. Each one has a different bonus, changed with every new wave.

Operators don't have inherent traits like in the base game, instead you're given a blank slate of a random soldier picked from any of the four squads, each having varying starting equipment. Traits instead are obtained every time your character levels up or after choosing an Incident Reward that gives you a free Trait with each completed wave.

The kicker? You can choose freely from 3 different Traits or upgrades that allow you to create OP combinations, like the relentless Hare Operator that cleaves the battlefield in two leaving a trail of fire and explosions in her wake or a Mammoth Operator with Killing Spree and your favorite flavor of rockets.

There also exists a new mechanic: Reforger Points, these are spent to change your characters skills. That's right, you can have a Mammoth Operator replace his own Decoy for a Hare squad blade or a Tiger squad Free Fire skill.

Because of how large the map is, this curiously gives the Troll trait newfound utility, allowing you to traverse the map in short bursts of speed so long as you type a single letter into the chat. Yes, even in offline single-player.

Also, there is a new item modifier: Xenium Pollution. Equipment, XEN and weapons found on the field are regretfully contaminated with high concentrations of toxic particles that render them impossible to send back to base.

Because my research scope is focused on Single-Player and general gameplay, you can consult this guide by Obi-Wun and Monzterz that analyses the game mode in added detail while also providing you with the new technical elements exclusive to Return to Dawn Base.
https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3300556400

Basically Promethean Cores with different contents. There are 5 different kinds of them:

• Weapons: Contains up to 3 XENs and 3 Core Gun attachments.
  
• Incident Reward: Gives you 3 options to choose from free Resources, Energy, Operative health, damage boosts, Outpost HP or better chances of Gear having higher quality
  
• Item: Contains random Valuables and random pool of items including Injectors, Food, Drinks or Armor Plates.
  
• Ammo: Contains up to 3 Shells and 3 Ammo Boxes, potentially having Injectors, Armor Plates, Reactive Mines, Recovery Kits and possibly a new item: Juice.
  
• Armor: Contains an armor piece and 1 XEN

A healthier alternative to the famous Perk-A-Colas, juice of many different flavors can be found in Ammo Resource Pods, each having a different bonus upon drinking them and the buffs are stackable.

• Cherry: +200 ATK
  
• Orange: 20% Crit Bonus
  
• Grape: 20% Crit Chance
  
• Apple:+40 Stamina

Two versions can be obtained as rare drops. Injecting one into your bloodstream grants you a free trait point, while the Trait Reforger one gives you both +1 Trait Point and +1 Reforge Point.
Hypos containing boosts for your damage, crit chance and crit bonus.

Those destroyed and rusty Cataphracts are not decorative models! At least two of these are found across the map, with randomized spawning locations and require 80 Energy in order to restore it.


There is a chance that the Cataphract will turn out to be a total loss. In this case, you will instead be repaid in Resources, a number between 1,100 to 1,400 Resources. By all means a fair trade.

However... If the Cataphract restoration is successful, you can obtain exclusive unique variants of the Vanguard and Knight mechas, Heavy versions of them packing their own autonomous turrets giving supporting fire!

• The Heavy Knight sports two Small Sentry Gun barrels on the upper weapon bays.
  
• The Heavy Vanguard feature two auxiliary 30mm cannons mounted on the sides

However, be advised, regular versions can also be restored from the wrecks. In this case, a conventional, regular Knight Cataphract. Still, extremely useful in drawing aggro from hostile Apostles and tanks.



Think you're hot stuff? Aight, then step into the ring! Found on the north-east Dawn Base Ruins sector, a Mechanos Beacon shines ominously in the distance, calling forth a champion to meet his match. Once the boundaries of the map expand enough, you can actually walk to it and engage in a fight with an upgraded Apostle.


As the description states: "Defeat the Apostle within the time limit to earn bonus rewards".

So far, the fight does not favor single-player playthroughs and it is apparently meant to be a raid boss to be engaged in co-op. Be advised, the Apostle will follow you to your base!

Meet the old Orbital Cannon, your primary method of loot extraction. Let me explain how to use it first.

Every sector sans the one containing the cannon has Transport Pods. Anything that is not contaminated with Xenium like Valuables, crafting materials and usable items can be deposited here so they are then sent to the Orbital Cannon as ammo. Simply get close to it, deposit your loot and click on Begin Transfer.



Now, to withdraw your hard-earned spoils of war, simply switch bases to the one with the Orbital Cannon. If you found anything of value along the way, you can actually enter the building of the cannon and access this terminal. Place your new loot and leave.



Next, simply complete the next wave. Your items will be delivered back to base directly, which means you successfully extracted them even if you lose the match.

This section has subjective recommendations based on my own personal experience in single-player. If you have tactics to share or argue against what is listed here, please do so in the comments so it can be held for review.

If you're using the preset Outposts, make sure to integrate your own Control Groups first. This simplifies matters greatly when having to mass-produce ammo or quickly convert Resources to Energy.

ALSO, make sure to configure the turrets so they target the right enemy. A new common problem now is that Tanks no longer sit back and mortar your base, they now opt to rush forward to distract your turrets from the rest of the enemies while also dealing heavy damage on your outpost with their dual Gatling guns.

Pulverizers also exploit the AI of your turrets with the same purpose when they jump forward. Ensure your turrets know who to attack first so the robo-scorpion army can't hide behind the armored offensive.

The Enhance Outpost buff allows you to spend Energy to boost your turret's damage, the cost depending on the turret's quality grade. Crowd-Control turrets like the CIWS have an easier time handling trash mobs by the ton, while heavy-hitting turrets like 30mm cannons or the Viper chaingun can punch through the armor of big enemies better.
If you ever played classic TD flash games, this is as close to that mechanic as it gets.

Heroic-tier turrets can't be upgraded.

Unless you have Supporter Guardians or Healing Grenade Launchers, you're going to rely on luck to find Mend XENs, Core Guns with healing XENs or Recovery Kits to repair the long-term damages your outpost sustains, but there won't be anything to repair if it gets destroyed by the second wave.

When you have the chance, always go for boosts for your outpost's HP, it makes a real difference when you're swarmed with Apostles on the fourth wave or have to deal with a legion of Tanks demolishing everything left and right with their bullets.

Guardians and Cataphracts have the heroic duty of distracting strong enemies from attacking your outpost with just their existence and give your turrets immense breathing room to dispatch their targets before they could attack them. If you have free Guardians loafing around, place them at the front line.

If you have spare Cataphracts or don't plan to use them, park them in the way of the Apostles. They simply won't resist attacking it, giving your turrets a free target to engage without putting them at risk.


Gold now pays for unique items that REALLY help improve your chances of survival. The loot in Return to Dawn Base doesn't compare to regular Tours, so I instead convert the Valuables I find into Gold by stuffing them into Dismantlers. The process takes a lot of valuable seconds, so do this as the first or last thing you do before a wave, or just place a Dismantler on your outpost, the gold won't go anywhere then.

Gold is exchanged at the new Crafters where you can obtain Knight or Vanguard beacons, Trait Injectors or with Shady "G" for Fateful Encounters that help ease the difficulty.

Recommended items to scrap for Gold:

• Spare or obsolete weapons and armor.
  
• Valuables, up to Legendary tier. If you're a bad mf, nobody stops you from dismantling Heroic loot.

Don't dismantle XEN, you're given practically nothing.

The assaults intensify to new levels with every successive wave, to the point it is a good idea to have a reserve of 100 Energy at all times so you can temporarily overclock your MVP turrets and destroy dangerous foes or crowds faster.

The robo-scorpions carrying the explosive barrels are priority targets as an Operator, they reduce the HP of the horde or outright erase a group of them when prematurely detonated, saving the turrets' ammo and attention while also potentially chipping away the armor of big targets. If they drop and linger in front of your turrets, be careful. Barrels detonated by a turret's bullets induce friendly fire on your outpost and can destroy components.
Grab them and toss them away, preferably at the enemy.

Eventually, the game will teach you about Base Management, where basically you assign operatives to work at the facilities in the base due to lack of staff. It is practically mandatory to do in order to access the more complex Research Projects at the Research Center, you can clearly see we can’t do Professional-tier upgrades until we upgrade it.



While at the EUA Base, press your Base Map key and look at the toolbar at the top of the screen where the many buttons corresponding to each facility are located and press on the Base Management button.



Clearly, the Research Center is in dire need of personnel. But who is the best person for the job?



When you recruit new soldiers, you might have noticed in their Traits a skill that “enhances the efficiency at X department”. Bancroft here is a techie, so he improves the Research Center’s efficiency if I have him work there. Assigning him to work there is a good move and you’ll notice right away that the Research Center is now at Lvl. 3, notifying you that the next level up requires a CR of 50,000 to reach.



The CR or Combat Rating of an operator is improved with every level up, unlocking their traits and upgrading those, but only marginally. What really does the trick is equipment.
Notice how each single piece of gear carries CR Value? If the Operative will be a full-time employee working at a department, then it is highly-recommended to give him disposable equipment with good CR Values. Anything above 1,000 CR is good.


In total we reach 18K CR according to the game. I also went over to his Traits and upgraded his ability to boost his bonus to the Research Center. Bancroft is ready to work.

Quite the drastic improvement and we can now access the Professional tier of Research Projects!



This is based on my subjective personal thoughts, ordered from the most important to the least important to me. Objective assessment pending.

1.- Research Center – Responsible for the very turrets, upgrades and constructs that get you far in the game

2.- Trade Port – Those price reductions on Refreshing the merchants’ inventories help a lot when trying to find what you can buy, specially crafting materials for Manufacturing or even Outpost Components themselves.

3.- Barracks – Having more capable soldiers helps with variety since using the same type of Operative gets boring eventually. Not to mention, you can get truly broken trait combinations on a recruit that will make it a very fun and highly effective trooper to use.

4.- Intelligence Center – I’m still yet to use this because the Dispatch missions are a very optional gameplay element. The fact you can get wounded operatives to RNG doesn’t help either.

Originally posted by Riktor87:

An additional thing I found recently, there is higher levels than 5 in base facilities with operatives boosting them, so far I've found trade post level 6 adds yet another item roll to the shops pool, and level 6 in research makes master research below your level so speeding it up and costing less as well.
https://steamproxy-script.pipiskins.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3233230975

I have just confirmed that it is indeed true. The threshold for it is 174,000 CR to reach and it does upgrade the facility's performance. Notice how the A.T.C Expansion can be sped up using 10 less Efficiency Points.



Shoutouts to HeathenSW for the suggestion, this is a very important gameplay element that can very easily be taken for granted.
Also, big thanks to Riktor87 for his discovery about these elusive Level 6 facilities! Limits are clearly meant to be broken, wherever they exist.

In the event your Operative falls, all of their equipment is permanently lost unless you insure it.



At any time in any window that allows you to manage your inventory while back at the base, Right Click any piece of Gear and click on Insurance.
The ensuing confirmation window will ask if you want to spend Insurance Points to do so. Those are obtained by selling Gear. Getting rid of weak or obsolete armor, weapons, etc. this way serves mainly to protect high-rarity equipment for your favorite Operatives.



An Insured piece of equipment features a small little shield icon on the lower left corner.

If the mission ends with your operative declared Missing, a special segment will inform you of all insured equipment being recovered and added to your Base Warehouse as “compensation” on the mission results screen. The insurance cost of that specific item increases every time it is successfully recovered.

You can use your Power Converter to transmute items you deem unworthy into Energy. When it says “DISMANTLE” it doesn’t actually mean “Remove this thing off the wall”. Press the option, it will lead you to this screen where you can choose what you want converted into Energy. In this case, I added some Lumber.



And the process is extremely simple, just close the screen. The Power Converter will automatically transform the input items into Energy after some seconds, going in order until every piece of fodder is processed. The size of the stack of items affects the speed, with individual units being processed faster.

Process the inconsequential. If you don't use Food Items, dump them here, to say an example.


A personal piece of my gratitude goes to Riktor87 for explaining what the damn thing is actually for, this has been a game changer for me.

The trick to those long hauls is finding resources to then convert into energy. The easiest source is from your own base if it spawned near harvestable items like destroyed military vehicles or trees, where it will automatically produce +3 resources every two or so seconds without consuming energy, provided you installed a Power Converter in your outpost.

But, it's also much slower in comparison to the faster alternatives: Cutting down trees and stripping tires out of cars. Every car packs 4 tires waiting to be stripped and each tire gives you 10 resources, 40 resources total per vehicle. If your map spawned an abandoned car park with four of them, that's 160 free resources waiting for you which means a free Energy boost. Additionally, tires have a chance of giving you Fiber and Polymer materials.

Every tree pays for its own Energy cost, assuming you choose to process the lumber it gives you. Lumber is required to build Storage Boxes during the early game, be advised. Building the amount you need first is recommended.

The Power Converter makes cutting down trees a recommended source of Energy, with every fourth tree recouping the costs provided you choose to convert the resulting Lumber into electricity. 12 units of Lumber give you 24 Energy when processed. Added with the 15 energy from the 150 Resources to Energy conversion you can now pay for and you get 39 energy, which is a net gain of 15 energy.

Traveling to all the map nodes is now more than easier!

Many thanks to Riktor87 for the original discovery and Isdren for the follow up! You guys helped me git gud at the game faster and that means I can document it better!

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Once you have Cataphracts and a sufficiently high Core Output value, shooting scrap and cutting down trees with heavy ordnance is a very cheap and effective way to collect Resources, taking just 11 shots to gather almost anything, assuming no Pilot Traits on the Operative.

The only small caveat is that harvesting resources this way completely ignores the Incident Reward that increases the amount of materials recovered when you manually harvest trees and scrapped vehicles.



However, it does benefit from the Incident Reward increasing the damage of any Operative while inside the X-Boost field, making the already ammo-efficient method yield even more per bullet.

But at this point in both the game and your own skill, you most likely come for the speed and convenience in using this method.

Thank you for the recommendation, HeathenSW! Apologies it took too long to verify, the RNG of this game is to blame.

One would think that you can’t pass through the Base Camp because otherwise it will be like a one-way trip to Recovery Day but it’s not completely true.

Just click on Return to Base, then close the screen. Really, that’s it. Now you can traverse to the other side.



Because I had nothing better to do against a wave of enemies that monkeys with darts can easily destroy, I chose to play as a circus trainer teaching this Guardian to jump through a window.

Thanks for the suggestion, Pandorian!

So, you're ready for Recovery Day but notice that included in the loot about to be sent back to base are important provisions you want to keep.

In my case, I want to keep a Portable Light Turret, some Care Packages and some Electro Ammo.


There. Whatever items you didn't use will be retained in your character's inventory, as usual.

Highly appreciated, Pandorian!

These are most commonly found with the harmless Mechanos' Drones and very rarely spawn in some buildings. Drones can be found in these types of locations:

• Inside a sci-fi tech building
  
• On the roof of a concrete WWII coastal bunker with barbed wire on the top edges. This one is clearly visible.

Don't sneak up to it since it will detect you anyways. Instead, rush it and take the batteries from it as you would any other item in the game, it won't attack you nor even call you names since it is powered by a public AI language model. Stealing two batteries from the drone takes a bit of practice, eventually resulting in you stealing both batteries AND the little Care Package on the front of it.

Here's a demonstration of it. To facilitate your heist, ensure you have a direct path to the stairs connecting to the building.


If you found a battery and you confirmed there aren't any objects that may require it, shove one into a Generator within your base.



It will provide 60 energy which is best employed for EUA-Sanctioned mass deforestation resource collection by cutting down trees. Alternatively, it can give you a much-needed refill in case you are running dangerously low on power or giving you some breathing room in case you wish to open doors using Energy. Assuming you choose to trim the local flora, you can amass 400 resources for every single battery you find by cutting down 10 trees.

While carrying it, if it bugs out and "falls" out of your hand, just press the Throw command. It will be tossed as any regular item as if nothing happened.
DO NOT press the command to place it in the backpack unless you are within an enclosed space because it will fling itself towards infinity and beyond, making it hard to find if the game's physics feel particularly sadistic.

Also, I sacrificed a battery to test out if they are vulnerable to bullet shots. They are and explode in a blast of electricity. Tossing them around and throwing them at walls doesn't seem to detonate them.

Given their very unintuitive nature, you wouldn't know how to use these at first.


First, go up its tower. You'll find this sphere outside, take it.



Luckily, the game put me in a scenario that perfectly demonstrates its use. ANYTHING that requires a Power Bank to be opened, the Charger functions as an alternative. Grab the Electromagnetic Plug close to it and affix it to the construct in need of a jolt by throwing it at it. The cable goes through everything and it has infinite length, so you don't have to maneuver around things to get it where it needs to be.



Once you see it firmly lodged in place, return to the Charger.

If you're here to simply activate a terminal or open a door, then please proceed.
Grab the sphere and place it on top of the Charger. Dropping it with the "Place in Backpack" bind works better than throwing it here since we're just interested in opening doors.



You'll see it immediately charge up the cable. Upon confirmation, you'll see this notification:



Voila! The door is now open!

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Thanks to Nivison and Isdren, the secrets to using the Electro Hammer as an Energy source have been discovered. When the sphere says “charge increases as it travels with distance”, it means in practice that you should throw it into the air and have it land on the Charger.

First off, attach the plug to your Outpost.

Originally posted by Chaotea:

Electric charger doesnt need to be placed on the core tower to give you power, external walls work too.

You can choose to install directly into the Core Tower or literally any outpost component. Yes, even chairs, lamps, turrets or Guardian Fabricators work.





Then return to the Charger. The following video shows a way you can consistently score baskets on it:

Since I main Wilhem in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, I'm half-man and half-machine, so deciphering the technique a robot would use to consistently access the safe was easy. Stand in the middle of the playing area, ensuring you aren't close to the right wall to prevent the ball from somehow colliding with it after you throw it.



Then aim at this position, easily identified as the upper-left corner of the metal plate with yellow latches on it. Throw the ball and be amazed at how you consistently perform NBA-Worthy shots.



Here is a video demonstrating the process:


And there you go. Doing this mini-game offers Energy (from +1 to +4 energy per successful basket), unlocks a Comm Station within the first 5 points, another Comm Station after 10 points and the locker next to it opens when scoring 20 points, with the possibility of it containing Purple-Rarity loot.

Of note, check the surrounding areas to see if there are more Electro Orbs you can use to speed up the process.



You can see that two are enough but you can't go wrong with increased efficiency.

After the war with the machines is over, you may want to keep a low profile unless you wish to be hounded by managers looking for their next star player on their basketball teams.

If you see a health bar on a door, it can be busted down. Unleash your inner Rampage Jackson and punch down doors if they have around 600 or so HP, it saves you time and ammo.



However... Doors that feature this comedic amount of structural integrity that makes any Killing Floor player blush, you will need explosives.



Any will work, with the best IED being those explosive barrels you can carry. I normally use the incendiary red ones since those are sometimes very conveniently found close to destructible doors. Place it near it and shoot. Some doors might require more than one explosion. This one needed two barrels to blow it open.

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Sometimes, a locked door can be circumvented entirely. For example, in the Snow Ruins, the windows of the wooden houses not only are destructible, but they are also big enough to let you through. In this small case, it helps prevent calling in Chasers.



Later, you might encounter a building that features a locked door the likes of these (pictured left below). In case you don't want (or have) the required keycards or Power, simply look for this giant entry point located on one of the building's sides. Should you lack mobility Gear such as double-jump boots, have a Mule Guardian with plenty of items stored inside follow you to the target area, then park it there, climb on top of it and reach the gap in the wall.



Also, this apartment building features another locked door at the top floor. But as you can readily see using Command Mode, you can reach that room from outside, assuming you have a way to climb to the roof and then drop down.



Don't let a mere door stop you from getting Heroic gear! Always check for alternative entry points if the situation (and building) allows. Special thanks to Alyuna for the information in this section!

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Hands down, the most useful XEN configuration one could have is the Scatter Shot Morph XEN loaded with Battering Ram XENs added to it. I recently got lucky enough to find Battering Ram II XENs and the results are impressive. Destroying 90k HP doors doesn't take too long for minimal ammo consumption. Here is what you can do with a single one:



You can also farm trees and destroyed vans in a few shots or even a single shot if you have enough Battering Ram XENs! You'll definitely want to keep this one for all your scavenging runs! I figure a full row of them should be enough to destroy 90k HP doors in a single trigger pull. Remember that you won't obtain Lumber if you cut down trees this way.



Also, if loaded with a Mend XEN, it just so happens to be one of the greatest repair tools in the game for constructs and your Outpost components, bringing back to life Promethean Cores in one or two shots, greatly surpassing the Focus + Mend combo.

Special thanks to Isdren for the initial info lead and Anthr4x for both info bits!

Depends on the energy cost and the type of door/container in need to be unlocked.



If the energy cost is very low, it's always better to use energy since you naturally farm Resources to then convert into Energy anyways. Lockpicks can only be either found with RNG or crafted by yourself beforehand, so those carry a heftier opportunity cost.

There are some containers that can only be opened with a lockpick, others strictly require keycards or energy to do so. Regarding doors, please check first with an Area Scan, Detector or use Scan Gloves to know if there is something worth behind it, I've been fooled once by a locked door inside a school building featuring an astounding nothing.

Normally, when you finish scavenging and send your loot away, you might have to repel a hostile invasion. Like so:



But sometimes, you won't see that alert. In those cases, you're free to leave right away. Ignore the enemies rushing towards your base if you can help it, just press on End Exploration and let your turrets conserve their ammo for the real fight on Recovery Day.



Also, assuming you can evacuate at any time, you can click on your Core Tower or access its assigned keybind (if you assigned it one as explained in the CONTROL GROUPS section) while in Command Mode and simply press [Ctrl+V]. You will finish the scavenging op from wherever you are, no need to directly go back to the Core Tower. This also has the added benefit of being instantly done, no need to wait.

Whatever you are holding in your hand by the time you have to pull out, it will still be in your possession when you arrive to the next map.

Anything counts, in this case a Power Bank.



But if you want to see something funny, bring with you one of those standalone MG turrets to another map. You'll end up T-Posing until you drop it and so long as you don't sprint OR shoot, you get to move at your original speed unimpeded.

Ran out of space on the Core Tower main container? If you have a Pack Mule, store the remaining items into it instead of having it hog your own inventory space.



They’ll be perfectly intact on the next map. Also, small detail. Pack Mules deliver their cargo as soon as they reach the outpost’s X-Boost Field, they don’t have to touch the Core Tower.



Now, the contents inside Pack Mules can count as recovered loot during Recovery Day if you have them enter the Escape Shuttle. Manually direct them inside it using Command Mode or have it follow you inside. Ignore how it falls off the aircraft, your loot is actually safe.

If it isn’t inside the Escape Shuttle when its takes off, the loot will actually be lost.

This video demonstrates that, first with the proper method extracting some Lumber and Pyro Ammo, then how it is incorrectly done and losing a Portable Light Turret afterwards.

Ever wondered why there are always explosive barrels surrounded by shelves when you visit abandoned supermarkets and convenience stores? They sure aren’t fortifications against a zombie invasion. Destroying the barrel where it is gets you a very generous amount of Scrap Metal from the destroyed shelves around it.



Gas Stations make for the best sources of free Scrap Metal due to their multiple Pyro Barrels in the general vicinity. Grab a barrel, place it close to the shelves and get your free scrap!



Also, small detail. The destructible shelves are apparently a completely separate thing from the "decorative" shelves, if that makes sense. Notice the HP bars. If you have limited explosives/barrels to use, check if those shelves can be destroyed first so you don't waste your ordnance.


Special thanks to martin and Cadvan for their discovery!

A neat detail! If you have a Guardian Fabricator kept indoors and need to direct freshly-produced Guardians to the front lines, simply click on the obstructing door and press the Z key. This game really seeks to promote Smart Homes having untapped military value. Waifu AI sold separately.

You may occasionally find these towers with a circling drone around it.



The flying rascal is actually harmless and even better, it is flying loot. Civilian Drones give Efficiency Points which is what is actually needed to speed up Research Projects and given their inoffensive nature, they make for a good source of said points.

The color of the drone affects the rarity and subsequent Efficiency Points. The description thankfully lampshades on why each drone is better than the other.

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In order to get the most Efficiency Points out of one, you have to grab it mid-air. This video shows the easiest method possible:

Special thanks to Southmonk for sharing how you can catch them in a much better way!

Shooting it down is not recommended. It will be downgraded into a Damaged Civil Drone that yields the least amount of efficiency points, regardless of the original model.

'G' is a trader sometimes found in the very first map you play in a Tour, located on the map as a Friendly Unit out in the wild. Greeting him allows you to trade with him after he finishes his brief speech. You have the option to barter with him using either 500 Resources or paying with a random turret from your Outpost.



For demonstration purposes, I obtained the needed resources from the local trees and traded with him. In this case, "G" trades me a generic Incident Reward of a random Guardian. Might be useful for those without Guardian Fabricators. The same can happen when trading him turrets.



However, there is a chance of him trading you instead a full-blown Knight Cataphract if he takes a Legendary or higher turret. Here, the RNG had me sacrifice a CIWS in exchange for a useful support unit.


Depending on how your Outpost is designed or the map layout, you might not be able to deploy the Cataphract right away. But you can do so in fully unobstructed terrain.


Be mindful of the Resource and Energy costs of constructing a Cataphract.

As always, there's a caveat. As mentioned by Nivison here:

Originally posted by Nivison:

Shady 'g' trade is very much not worth it since the most expensive guardian is 350 materials making the 500 materials trade worthless and only giving him an MG turret a good trade.... basically not good

Maybe you are yet to have Knight hangars, perhaps you have too many turrets to care. But you are more than free to ignore him.

Found in a few places in the new Return To Dawn gamemode, 'G' instead trades you Incident Rewards for resources or Fateful Encounters if you pay him in 268 units of gold. The former are the ones you can get from the yellow Resource pods and the latter are the ones you get from completing objectives, both are good options and in this particular case, 'G' makes for a potentially good ally. His trades have a cooldown of just 5 seconds. So long as you have resources, you can choose to keep doing business with him.



'G' flexes his 'Guild of Invincible Merchants' membership at all times. During an impromptu ballistics demonstration, I learned two important things:

• "G" is effectively invincible. I figure this is an anti-griefing decision to prevent players from killing him before any interested party could interact with him.
  
• He's 100% metal and circuit, yet somehow he bleeds when shot at. Maybe he's a biomechanoid.

You can rest easy knowing 'G' laughs off any source of damage. If only the same could be said for the paranoid shotgun-toting shopkeepers of Spelunky...

This is the main attraction of the Signet Magnet Mine in the City Ruins region. I completely ignored it the first time since it looked more like a decoration than an actual gameplay element. The lack of voicelines or notes explaining its significance didn’t help, plus Command Mode doesn't acknowledge its existence.


Despite the abundance of Xenium textures surrounding it, walking around the gigantic ore is perfectly safe and even more telling: It has a health bar.

Upon striking the giant Ore with any source of damage, it will self-destruct in three seconds. Failure to destroy it in time simply makes you miss out on its loot, the game displaying how much damage you inflicted to it and MGT will sass you (that punk).

To destroy what the game calls an AETOS Wreck, you literally have one shot from your most powerful cannon available to you, be it from your own Outpost or from the tanks conveniently in front of the ore. Yes, this is pretty much a glorified high striker funfair game but with high-yield explosives.



If you use the tanks, be advised. Aim at the pillar itself, try to avoid hitting the clusters of crystals that “protect” the ore since those in practice reduce the damage of the explosion. If you want the full technical explanation: Those have the explosion spawn farther away, reducing the AoE damage it inflicts to the AETOS Wreck. But, Outpost being Outpost, sometimes it does destroy the giant ore despite hitting the crystal clusters.

In case your Outpost has cannons powerful enough to destroy it, crystals and all, go ahead and use them. The map can spawn a small building up a hill that has Shells and explosive crates to resupply your Outpost’s heavy hitters.

Your reward for destroying the darn thing is 500 Resources, a large amount of Signet Ores, Gold and rare drops of Diamonds. Destroying the Ore gives you the full reward, you only get partial rewards if it self-destructs before you wreck it based on the damage inflicted to it.



Unlike me, who at first didn’t know that the Ore had a clear health bar if you get up close to it, originally thought that you get more loot depending on the damage you deal to it, in general. So after cutting down all the trees in the vicinity to get 3,000 resources to fire a Nuke at it, I can confirm the rewards stay the same regardless of damage. Mystery solved, don’t follow in my footsteps.

---

Turns out, it's not just for decoration either. That explosive container it carries can be dropped onto the AETOS Wreck, but in its current position it lies dangerously outside of the safe boundaries of the map and way out of position for it to land on the giant ore.

To use it, look for the first terminal over here (left picture). You can reach it through intense parkour jumping over all the square tiles or simply flying towards it using a Ranger Cataphract.
Rocket Jumping may also work if you have a Scattershot Barrel and a Rocket XEN to propel yourself towards it.
Activating the terminal will jumpstart the crane and it will move from left to right. To have it drop the red canister, you must access THIS other terminal (right picture).



Easier said than done, falling off the crane is really easy while it is in motion, your best shot is while it is stopping to turn left. Then, activate the terminal while the canister is around the AETOS Wreck to drop it before you find yourself dangerously outside of bounds. Once the thing is in place, just shoot it. Conventional firearms work.

Are you a proud Cargonian?


Any Guardian works, but obviously the Mulebots are better for this. Simply get on top of one, then direct it towards your next stop using Command Mode. Sadly, unlike in SS13, you can't rename them, nor hack them to brutally ram whatever obstructs their path.
Yet.

That suspension will make San Andreas proud. Fill a Pack Mule with enough items so it changes to the model with a few crates on it, this is so it has better collision with your player model and prevent you from falling off it.
Once done, hop on top of it and you're ready to go Mule Jumping.

Watch how the normally unattainable blueprints requiring some sort of improved vertical mobility or flying are no match for the EUA's ingenuity.


Also, the largest model can actually help you reach high places like this rooftop where an elusive Radsource Extract was hiding in. I simply climbed on top of it and reached for the rooftop's edge afterwards.



Can't climb a mountain despite all your military training? Leave it to the Pack Mule, its advanced traction system and powerful drivetrain allow it to conquer even the steepest inclines!


Or simply go become a human technical. Turret barrels slow you down while you hold them, so getting on top of a Pack Mule helps with your mobility problem. This is merely for entertainment, however. The barrels with good firepower pack enough knockback to shove you off your trusty steed. This tactic also circumvents the slowdown of Blizzards.

During my reconnaissance work on detaching turret barrels, I stumbled upon this curiosity: Any CIWS turret produces enough recoil to serve as a machine gun jetpack. Simply fill it with ammo, detach its barrel and shoot downwards. The achievement unlocks once you land, so you might want to use a timer.


XQCD has an old article on the feasibility of heavy weapons as alternative methods of personal transportation. [what-if.xkcd.com]

While verifying Chaotea's tip on Electromagnetic Plugs giving electricity if attached to walls, I wanted to confirm if outpost components in general fulfill the criteria and attached the plugs to random things to confirm if anything counted. Yes, chairs, turrets, lamps, they all work. If it is an outpost component, you can affix the plug into it and it charges normally after you give it a jolt of electricity.

However, I wanted to see what happens if you try doing so with a window that changes in its open/closed state. The results made me laugh like a madman for a few minutes as the window flattens or stretches the plug to GMOD levels.


Normally when it finishes giving you Power, the Electromagnetic Plug falls to the ground. When stretched, its physics bug out and remains locked in place until you grab it to correct its size or have the window do so for you. Its things like these that give this game so much of its charm.

This section marks the end of the guide for consistent format purposes and will instead be used to credit all the gallant contributors who helped demystify this game as soon as I confirmed their findings. We all thank you!

Information regarding effective distance for the turrets. Lead on Mechas being a good tool to destroy the scrapped military vehicles.

Lead on how to access the inventories between Field Storage and player storage while in the Base Camp node. Lead on how to use the Base Camp node as a transition node towards another map.

Explained the Energy Converter’s role in energy production through lumber and its feasibility. Gameplay suggestions.

Lead on how the Energy Converter actually works. Correction on trees and Lumber utility. Lead on proper door breaching, bullet physics. Confirmation on the Electricity Charger that it can be used as an Energy Source. Lead on XENs useful to destroy high HP doors.

Spotted why “G” is a bad trade if you choose to pay with Resources. Explained how the Electro Hammer actually works to produce Energy. Lead on Pack Mules transporting loot between maps. Suggestion for Control Groups.

Provided a better method to catch Civil Drones without needing to jump off the tower.

Provided an easy way to get scrap metal by destroying commercial shelves using the explosive barrels that suspiciously always spawn near them.

Swapping Turret Barrels, making a big contribution to my tactics.

Information on alternative entry points to circumvent locked doors.

Information on the Masterkey XEN, specially the Battering Rams XENs attached to a scatter shot XEN.

Clarifying that the Electromagnetic Plug works on walls, by extension any outpost component, leading to the discovery of a hilarious, harmless visual bug. Gave me a bout of laughter during the verification process.