ANNOUNCEMENT:This guide is also available on
Steam. I will be prioritizing the updates for the Steam guide more so than here, so you should check it out!
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Introduction--------------------
Combat strategy is a very large topic. So in this guide, I'll be talking about only a small portion of it: Positioning. Why is positioning important? What are some examples of good positioning? And what are some things to watch out for? Although this isn't a finished guide, I will continue to add more in the future.
Take note that this doesn't cover
every scenario on how to position yourself. The procedural generation in this game provides too many unique situations to be listed out. Instead, this guide will cover major topics to help you deal with most cases. And when you have practiced and developed a stronger skill, you'll be better prepared to tackle a more complicated scenario by yourself.
This guide assumes you are using ranged weapons. If you are using melee weapons, some parts will be inapplicable to you.
Important: I'm not a great Cogmind player myself, so if you have any feedback, please let me know! Thanks.
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Topics of Discussion---------------------------------
A. Good Positioning – A Foundation to Good Defensive Play
B. General Tips for Positioning
C. How Positioning Affects Accuracy
a. Your Accuracy
b. Their Accuracy
D. Doorway Tactic
a. Benefits
b. Things to Watch Out for
E. Narrow Corridor Tactic
a. Benefits and Drawbacks
F. Should You Reposition?
G. Other Topics to be Added in--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Good Positioning – A Foundation to Good Defensive Play--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A basic concept in many strategy games, good positioning makes it harder for your enemies to fight against you. In Cogmind’s case, this means finding a place that minimizes the damage intake, therefore increasing the longevity of your equipment and your core. Remember, your enemy’s greatest strength is its number; don’t let them overwhelm you!
Positioning can help you mitigate damage in two different ways: reducing the number of simultaneous attacks from multiple enemies, and reducing the number of enemies pursuing you. Both are important to your survival, and knowing how to position yourself will help you achieve the first way, or the second way, or even both ways.
Positioning can also help you offensively, making the best use of your weapons and allies to kill effectively.
Much of the strategy depends on terrain features such as walls, doors, and machines. Therefore, it's important to have map awareness so that you can take advantage of them as soon as you need them. That way, you can save yourself from a few more bullets.
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B. General Tips for Positioning------------------------------------------------
These are some general tips that can help you in any part of the game.
- Make use of diagonal movement so that you can get from point A to point B quickly.
- Stay close to useful terrain features while traveling. For example, when you see a vertical hallway full of doors on the left-side, try to stay on the left-side wall so that you can take advantage of them as soon as possible.
- Watchers call out distress signals only when there’s a nearby enemy. So therefore, when you see them without a distress signal, you’ll know it’s safe around here. Otherwise, you’ll have to prepare yourself.
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C. How Positioning Affects Accuracy---------------------------------------------------------
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Your Accuracy-------------------
The
manual lists out all the possible factors that can affect your weapons’ accuracy, including how you position yourself. So if your volleys have been missing a lot, it may have to do with your movement.
- Volley modifier: +3%/cell if range < 6
This means the closer you are to your target, the higher your accuracy. A point-blank attack incurs +15% accuracy bonus, while a range of exactly 5 tiles incurs +3% bonus. Thus, positioning yourself to invite robots to draw closer to you will help you hit your target.
- +10% if attacker didn’t move for the last 2 actions.
This means your accuracy will increase after you stabilize your position without moving. After taking cover and positioning yourself in an optimum place, you’ll receive 10% bonus.
- -10% if attacker moved last action (ignored in melee combat)
On the other hand, moving around and shooting is usually not recommended. Otherwise, your accuracy will be severely penalized.
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Their Accuracy--------------------
Other robots follow the same formula for accuracy. Therefore, moving to take cover can affect the weapon accuracy of your enemies.
- Volley modifier: +3%/cell if range < 6
It’s usually better to take cover that is further away from your enemies. That way, it would be harder for them to hit you.
- -10% if attacker moved last action (ignored in melee combat)
Another reason to take cover away from enemies is to force them to move in to attack you. If you can move even 1 space away from their firing range, you can severely punish their accuracy rate. However, this is more applicable for robots that have shorter range weapons (like grunts). Those with long-range weapons like swarmers and sentries have lesser impact.
- -10%/-5% if target is flying/hovering (and not overweight or in stasis)
Using fast propulsions like hovers has a lot of advantages such as extra evasion chance. Take care not to go overweight!
- -1~15% if defender moved last action, where faster = harder to hit
Sometimes you don’t activate all your fast propulsions to conserve energy. Now is the time to activate them all for maximum speed!
- -20% for each robot obstructing line of fire
If you are able to go behind green bots while running, you can use them to obstruct enemy's line of fire. However, be careful with certain bots like engineers that can call for reinforcements when getting hit.
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D. Doorway Tactic-----------------------------
One common position is at a
doorway inside a room, diagonally adjacent to the door. Most robots walk along the hallways where several adjacent rooms are nearby. When you see some bad guys are coming, you can easily slip into one of those rooms and then wait for them to come by. There are many advantages to using this type of tactic.
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Benefits-----------
- It forces your enemies to fight 1-on-1 against you. When a hostile robot walks up to the door, it would stop to fire its weapon. Meanwhile, its buddies can’t go through the same door or aim at you, so they are forced to wait for you to finish off its friend.
It is important to fight diagonally adjacent to the door because if you stand orthogonally, the second robot will be able to attack you.
3-on-1 is a bad idea. I can only attack one grunt at a time. Meanwhile, 3 guys are attacking me all at once.
By positioning myself in this way, these grunts can't attack in group anymore. It's 1-on-1 battle now!
- It gives you accuracy bonus to hit your target. Your attacks are most accurate when targeting a directly-adjacent robot, making fast-moving bots like swarmers and programmers much easier to hit. Standing for 2 turns straight without moving also gives you accuracy bonus.
- It gives you time to swap out your equipment before fighting. If you’ve been equipping a valuable item like a sensor array or a terrain scanner, running into a room early will give you time to swap it out for an armor or a heat sink before the fight begins. If you spot an enemy with high resistance against your weapon type, now is the time to swap it out for something that is stronger against it.
- It lessens the chance of hitting green units that would call for reinforcement when attacked, specifically engineers and haulers. Fighting face-to-face makes it much harder for stray shots to hit them.
- It helps you be more ready to face additional squads. In case more enemies are coming, you’ll be able to continue to fight them 1-on-1 instead of fighting 2 squads at the same time back-to-back.
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Things to Watch Out for--------------------------------
Fighting near a doorway has a lot of great benefits. If you keep this in mind, your combat run will no doubt improve. However, using this tactic may not always result in 1-on-1 fights. Here are some ways that can happen.
- Cannons can break wall tiles. Kinetic and thermal cannons are powerful weapons compared to guns. However, using them to fight may not always be ideal because they can open a hole in your defensive wall. More enemies can start crawling in, and you may be left with fighting all of them at the same time. EM cannons, however, cannot punch through walls, but they can have a different side-effect (see below). Kinetic and thermal guns are the safer options.
- EM weapons can cause chain-reaction explosion, damaging yourself and the surrounding walls. These weapons have a range of spectrum values that determine the chance of causing an explosion when a power source is hit. If you examine an EM weapon, you’ll see that its spectrum can be narrow (50%), intermediate (30%), or wide (10%). Using EM weapons with narrow spectrum have the highest chance of causing an explosion which should be avoided if you want to keep your defensive wall. Using EM weapons with wide spectrum are much safer when using this doorway tactic, but chain-reactions can still occur.
To calculate the chance of causing chain-reaction, take the hit rate % of your target's power source, and then multiply that number by the % value of your EM weapon spectrum. You can view the hit rate % for each part by examining the robot.
For example, attacking a G-47 trooper has a 10% chance to hit its power source. If you use EM Pulse Gun with narrow spectrum (50%), you'll have 5% chance to cause an explosion! And that's not all, the chance is further increased if you use multiple EM weapons or if you need multiple volleys to finish off your target. With multiple grunts to kill, the chance of a chain-reaction will happen pretty often.
Probably not a good weapon to use here...
- Enemies can enter through hidden doors (also known as emergency doors), with a flanking attack that can cause 2-on-1 fight, or worse. There are several ways to reveal this type of door (such as using a structural scanner), but it can still be anticipated without using these methods.
For example, if you have a sensor array, pay attention to your enemy’s movement when inside the room. If you can spot an enemy going into an adjacent room instead of through the hallway, there is definitely a hidden door.
Another way to anticipate the flank is by paying attention to the visual ping effect on the map. If you hear a hidden door opening sound with a sudden blue-color marking in a distance, you are about to be flanked.
Depending on the situation, you can choose to stay where you are, go to that hidden doorway, or even go outside to another room to fight. Use your judgement.
- Enemies may be inside the room already such as sentry, operator, or even a squad of patrollers. There are multiple ways to see them such as using a sensor array. If not, the problem may escalate depending on the situation.
If it's a lone sentry, it shouldn't be much of a problem, provided you can take it down quickly.
If it's an operator, try to destroy the nearby terminal immediately before it can call for reinforcements (using a launcher or a cannon). It's not recommended to aim at the operator due to its speed. If you can't shut it down quickly enough, get rid of the nearby enemies as soon as possible before retreating to another area. Hopefully the reinforcements are still far away.
If it's a group of patrollers, the situation starts to become complicated. You can try to finish off the patrollers first while standing near the doorway, or you can move out of the room to another location. Either way, it won't be an easy fight.
- Hunters and Behemoths can shoot through walls. These guys are not bothered by any obstacle and will shoot you down using their penetrating weapons or wall-crushing cannons. When facing them, you should get out of your hiding place and attack, or you can run away from them (usually from Behemoths).
- Nearby garrison can summon endless reinforcements. You can tell if you see a log message saying that a robot has called for garrison support. If that’s the case, you’ll be under constant attack by those reinforcements, and the only way to break that cycle is to shut down that Garrison fast, or get out of that area.
This is the one place I should NOT be in...
- Carrier can bring in nasty surprises, especially the one that carries the assault squad and has perfect tracking of you. Do not let it come close to you. Otherwise, it will release its squad and will immediately surround you. Instead, let it detect you first in a distance. If you don’t think you can kill it in one shot, don’t bother attacking; just wait a bit in the hallway so that it can release its hounds away from you. Depending on what kind of hound, it may be better to start the fight in the hallway than in a room. Some enemies to watch out for are hunters, brawlers, protectors, and saboteurs.
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E. Narrow Corridor Tactic-----------------------------------------
Another good place to fight is at a narrow corridor of only 1 tile wide spacing. However, this type of defensive play can be a little tricky to use. It works best if you’re already positioned at the opposite end from your enemies, or if both of you are already at the same corridor. That way, your damage intake will be minimized from the very start. Take note that corridors can come in different lengths, with longer ones are generally more useful than the shorter ones.
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Benefits and Drawbacks--------------------------------
Compared to doorways, tight corridors aren’t very common to find. However, taking advantage of these features can offer a lot of benefits. At the same time, you should be aware of some of their drawbacks.
- Squad-on-1 battle can become 1-on-1 fight in a similar manner as the doorway tactic. With only 1 tile width to go through, bots can only line up to engage you one at a time. However, unlike the doorway tactic, you are always opened to attack from the other side, so it is possible for robots to suddenly flank you.
Although it's usually disadvantageous to be exposed to flanks, it can also be advantageous, namely, giving you time to avoid fighting all the enemies. The opportunity will present itself by paying attention to your enemies’ movement. When you are facing off against one robot in the line of sight of all the other robots, those friends won’t be able to attack you unless they go all around the walls to the flanking position. Depending on how long it takes to get there, you may be able to finish off the first enemy before running away, saving yourself from fighting all the other squad members. The time it takes to reach you depends on the map layout (including the length of the corridor) and their propulsion type. If it takes too long, these running robots will lose track of you and stop pursuing you in the middle of their route.
These 4 grunts are trying to kill me, but since only 1 grunt can engage me at a time, all his other friends will have to find another way to get to me...
The closest way possible is through a long journey around the corridor...
By the time I killed the 2nd grunt, the remaining survivors are too far away to catch up. I saw an opportunity to escape to the other side, saving myself from fighting them.
- Busy green bots can block attacks for you. Serfs, engineers, haulers, and recyclers can be found traveling through the corridor, making it difficult for robots to attack you. Although you may not be able to fight back either, you can use this opportunity to manage your equipment, reposition yourself, or even run away before they can catch up with you.
On the other hand, some bots like engineers may call for reinforcements during the fight. This can happen when you overkilled an enemy and the remaining shots hit those behind. At this time, it may be a good idea to quickly finish off the enemies or leave the scene.
Tight corridor also makes it harder for you to travel through, so escaping in this way can be difficult without flying, kicking, or crushing.
- Penetrating weapons become extra effective. It’s generally rare to see robots to line up in a row, but using this tactic can provide this type of opportunity. Penetration can now be used at full potential.
- Small wall-breaks do not diminish your defense. Cannons and chain-reaction explosions can ruin your doorway tactic, but not so for narrow corridor tactic. Unless the corridor is really short or has lost too many wall tiles, your enemies can still find it difficult to gang up on you. Beware of the swarming engineers though.
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F. Should You Reposition?------------------------------------------
Although it can be easy to understand
how to execute these defensive tactics, the hardest part is usually knowing
when to execute. The "correct" answer can be very blurry. Here are some factors to consider:
- How fast can you eliminate your enemies?
Suppose you have 2 guns against a group of 4 swarmers in front of you at a range of 10 tiles. The nearest door is behind you, 5 tiles away. Should you move to use the doorway tactic?
Here's my answer: I would think it's a good idea to move there. The reasoning is that your accuracy is too low to kill a single swarmer in a volley, so you can estimate that it will take you a lot of turns to finish all of them. Meanwhile, these swarmers have a decent accuracy against you. Therefore, running into a nearby room will most likely let you take less damage in the long run, and will help you kill them more easily.
On the other hand, if you have a rocket launcher in your inventory, you can easily swap one of your weapons for it. Most likely, a single rocket or two will take out the whole pack. Because you can eliminate them so quickly, doing this way will probably be more beneficial compared to running to the doorway.
- If you're at a Factory floor or above, is it worth the time to move to the chokepoint? How dangerous is the programmer squad?
Starting in Factory, the central A.I. will start dispatching programmers at you. Therefore, time starts to become another resource you must take into consideration. Here's an example.
Suppose you're on an early Factory level. A group of 3 grunts have detected your presence at 10 tiles away in front of you. The nearest door is behind you, 5 tiles away. Should you move to execute the doorway tactic?
Here's what I think: It can go both ways. If you choose to perform the doorway tactic, it would take you many turns for the grunts to reach you, time that would count down the programmer ticking clock. Considering that it takes 120 time units for grunts to move a single space, they would take a total of 18 turns to get to the doorway that is 15 tiles away from them. On the other hand, fighting on the spot would alleviate yourself from wasting time, but that would expose you to more damage from enemies.
At the same time, it could also be a good choice to run to the doorway. An early Factory level doesn't dispatch a lot of programmers, so they're not that dangerous yet. Therefore, it's also not a bad idea to fight them slightly more frequently. (However, killing more enemies will raise your alert level, topic that won't be discussed in this guide.)
- Are you desperate to salvage from enemies?
Suppose you're down to only 3 damaged weapons. You have little to no backup for them. You're facing a group of 3 grunts 10 tiles away in front of you. The door is 5 tiles behind you. Should you move there?
Here are the 2 key advantages for performing defensive tactics in this case: you would take less damage so your weapons will break less quickly, and the salvage left behind (propulsions, weapons, etc.) would be closer to you. Less damage to your weapons means better chance to win the battle. Also, recyclers will be less likely to pick up everything on the floor because you are much more ready to grab them as soon as possible. Even if you lose all your weapons in the middle of the fight, the grunts you killed will probably leave behind guns adjacent to you as opposed to 10 tiles away from you. Additionally, if you destroy the grunts afar, moving toward to that location may attract even more enemies there.
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G. Other Topics to be Added in-----------------------------------------------
1) Other forms of positioning (e.g. corner, etc.)
2) Positioning with guided launchers and penetrating weapons
3) Positioning with allies
4) Positioning with machines and other obstacles
5) Positioning in open area
6) Taking advantage of green bots for repositioning
7) Is it worth the time to reposition?
8) Should you reposition during combat?
9) How does movement speed (and propulsion) affect positioning?
10) What utilities can help you in positioning?
11) What hacking commands can benefit your positioning?
