I made the top ten high scores! Yay! Until I realized that rookies tagging along on zombie-killing missions get upgraded to soldiers if nothing bad happens in the battle it was tough sledding. Also a rookie tagging along with a leader on a recruiting mission can get upgraded to leader. The technique doesn't seem to work for builders, though. You can leave your fort unguarded for the first game week. Keep your population growing as much as possible. After researching zombie vitals, research agriculture. The game gets a lot easier once you get pesticides: no crop problems and farms increase food production from 4 to 6 crops. Create a cheat-sheet of conversions. It might be helpful to know these: office or motel ->apartment or school; xxor gas or 8-12 mart->lab or bar; mcnoodles or church->hospital. You'll need to balance the number of builders with the number of soldiers. 2-day reclaiming with 2 builders (plus soldier for zero-risk) is really helpful.
Tips for hard badge: I beat the "Harder" level, still working on "Nightmare." Don't defend the fort for at least a week. The police station by itself can handle initial attacks. Take chances at the beginning - send everybody out doing something. Restart if necessary. Take fewer chances as the game progresses. You need a school ASAP (office or apartment converts to school). You need to keep your population growing. After researching Zombie Vitals, I focused on the agriculture techs. Food was a problem in the beginning. I picked my spots to scavenge, and kept converting tiles to farms. My happiness got down to zero a couple of times. By itself this is not a problem, but if happiness stays at zero too long, bad things happen. Idle survivors should be put on duty in the fort before ending each turn. The turn after a horde attack, you may find some tiles adjacent to those in your control that can be reclaimed without a fight, or with weak zombies.
The first time you play - stop researching the vaccine, horde cash, wait until you have $40K. Then nuke the first city reporting swine flu. 5 points. Restart and play to win (nuking is a losing strategy). Roadblocks are only helpful for the first few days. Forget about the press. Masks and curfews (both reduce panic and keep it under control if you switch up states every 2 or 3 days) until research is complete, then start by vaccinating infected states with high healthy population.
I have no life: Congratulations! You just won the This is the Game that Never Ends Badge and 30 points! Level 78 completed – "Endurance badge" does not even begin to describe this. Go outside. Please. Your family is worried about you.
Stevo1984 - dude, pick your battles. I'm level 96 and usually getting 10K xp/battle - I am focusing on the 3x xp (yellow text) battles. Most of the time, I am putting 0 skill into traps and trap specials. You get a small bonus if you don't build a trap. I am also putting little skill into pure gems now, but have maxed out dual. You should be able to do a shrine burst or two right before the end of every battle. GL!
For the people who think this is just another TD game, nothing special: Yes, when you first start it seems that way. But as you go further along, more possibilities open up. For example, getting the most from "Mana Tap" Shrine takes a little planning. You want to release multiple waves, use mana tap, and then immediately use a shine that does damage (there are several) so you don't get overrun. There's lots more, but that's a small example.
This game is all about speed. Build fast, upgrade immediately, attack fast. If you start at Istanada, go after the city of Eradite first to get super soldiers. Then the city of Deresium to get witches. Then build both of those like crazy. Best money tricks: 1) develop extra food and export it; 2) 5 upgraded pearl pools + upgraded jewelry shop = 4000 gold (way more than a gold mine or market).
Kisageru, to avoid losing a battle, try to save some mana for the last few waves. It's really tempting to spend every last mana point on building, but if you do, anything that reaches your tower kills you. For many battles, the last couple of waves kill slightly more than half of each wave before it reaches your tower and you're okay, as long as you have a mana reserve. The ones you kill balance the ones that overrun you. Click on a monster to check its cost to banish. This is what it takes from your reserve if it reaches the tower.
Kisageru, with 65 skill points, try putting a bunch of them into Tower Builder, Focus, and Forge skills. If you have the Pure Gem Mastery, Recharge, and Radiance (I'm not sure when they become available), they are also a good use of points. To speed up leveling, go back to earlier battles, and look for the versions with bold yellow when you mouse over. These give you triple xp. Make sure you drop a level 1 gem bomb or two on the first two waves of every battle. The extra kills add xp, and give more mana which helps later in battle. If you gem bomb ten waves, you get extra xp. Call at least 60% of the waves early. Good luck!
hidden island - once you take over everything...surprise! Four islands appear in the northwest. Three are attached to the continent: by the prefectures in the extreme north and west, and one that is the midpoint. The fourth contains a final boss. It takes giants to kill him.
The AI tends to play defensively. If you leave a city somewhat weak in order to attack, there is a good chance that it will be left alone, unless the AI feels it will have enough cash to hold both cities. Start by getting all the unit types, and ASAP build the highest level units you can. An army of Samurai will grind down all opponents until you get to the "hidden islands".
The instruction that giants get created every 15 days is misleading. They get created on days 15, 30, etc. On turn one, if you attack a prefect with gold bonus, that means the opponent has no defensive specials, and you have an even chance to get a jump on the game right out of the gate. Game is good, but becomes a grind after awhile.
Donny Jay, sounds like a bug. MM should have been hit and left at 20 hp. His innate looks like the source of the bug. MM cannot be killed when he switches. What is supposed to happen is his hp go to zero, then +20 from the innate. Yoshi's death is due to yellow rock - MM's switch caused 6 damage.
1) Housing & resources developed 2) Academy: start research ASAP 3) Build a few token units 4) Early battles - retreat immediately. 5) Initial contraints: Early - timber/stone. Mid-game - gold (research). Late game - steel/food (units). 6) Upgrading government is a huge priority. 7) Let army units guide further development. Once you reach eagles, you're done. 8) Battle: The 2 sides have a front line. When they meet, melee troops engage. Hold back cavalry unless they can overrun ranged units. 9) No need for recon. No need to capture any external map squares. Just launch your attack on his castle right after you successfully fend him off from your own - he will be weak. 10) It took me too long to figure out that you can built multiple units at the same time if you have food and resources. Near the end, keep at least 6,000 food on hand, or at week end, 10% troops desert. Just buy more food if needed - it's cheap.
Max mana=9999; mana upgrades add 30% mana each time; Also, the "big unit" (Titan, Forest Guardian) costs 9999, so...
last upgrade at >= 7693; 2nd to last at >= 5920; 3rd to last at >= 4555. Just make sure that the final upgrade doesn't leave you short of 9999, or you can waste a lot of mana to enable the big unit. Game "tic" should be faster. Author should edit the story down to 2 - 3 sentences for each scenario.
 "Rebuild")
 "Pandemic: American Swine")
 "GemCraft chapter 0"){kind=icon}
 "The Imperium")
 "UPGRADE COMPLETE!")
 "The Great War of Prefectures")
 "Kongai")
 "Divine Generals")
 "Epic War 2")
 "Rage 3")