Mindustry – Beginner Guide

This guide aims to be a useful guide for Mindustry beginners who need some help, while trying to remain spoiler free.

The Core

Basic Information

This section is about your main structure, the Core. Throughout the game you will send yourself and your core to different areas, some areas have small “Core shards” while others have medium “Core foundations” and most of the harder levels start you with the “Core Nucleus”. The core is used to store materials for later use or for launching to spend on your Tech Tree. Each piece of the core has a different storage capacity, Shards hold 4k of each material, Foundations hold 9k of each material, and Nuclei hold 14k of each material. If your core gets destroyed by Enemies You fail the level.

Core shard, Core foundation and Core nucleus.

Usage

Your core is used as a main hub, you can put materials in it and take material out of it. Any materials left inside of the core when you Launch will be transferred to your material storage to be spent on your tech tree, or launched to areas with you to get a head start.

Protection

It is critically important to protect your core, most levels will start you off with some weak defenses around the core, while others start you with strong defenses or simply no defenses. either way, you do not want your core to be destroyed, if it is destroyed, you lose all of the materials in the core, as well as any buildings on the map, and thus fail the level. Sometimes if you have enough general defense, core defense isnt needed, but it’s always good to have as a safety precaution

The Defenses

Information

Defenses are one of the main features of mindustry, you will build walls and turrets to defend against the consant enemy threat, as the waves progress and get harder, you defense should get bigger and stronger, you start out small with Duo turrets, then you can get turrets such as Meltdown which fire a massive laser beam at enemies

3 Duo Turrets

Meltdown Turret

Walls

Walls are useful for keeping enemies out of places, or making elaborate mazes for enemies to traverse through, they are almost essential for any successful defense, there are a few tiers of walls, but they all serve the same purpose. Some walls will be more durable, or some walls will deflect bullets.

Turrets

Turrets are essential for progression, when fed with ammo they will shoot at enemies and defend your buildings, most of the early turrets will shoot materials such as Copper, Lead or Graphite, while others such as Arc’s. and the previously mentioned meltdown, will consume power to shoot. When combined with walls and a steady supply of ammo, these can defend your base for a long time, but dont for get to check up on your defenses and update them if needed.

Defense

Most of the time, you want to dedicate a specific area for defenses, usually the best area is somewhere near the enemy spawn, but not too close, a mix of turrets is good so you can counter most units, you can also block off routes using walls so enemies only have one way to go.

Example Defense

Of course, defenses come in many different shapes and sizes, and most of the time you have to adapt to your current surrondings. so be sure to experiment to see what works best.

The Enemies

Information

Enemies are the robots that try to destroy your core, they come in many different shapes and sizes, some equiped with lasers, others explode on impact, but are weak and have no range. The first units you will encounter are the Dagger Mechs, Crawler Mechs and Wraith Fighters.

Dagger

Crawler

Wraith

Pathfinding

The AI will generally try to find the quickest route to the core, so for example if you walled off an area they would try to go around it sincedestroying walls takes time. If the enemies have nowhere to go, they will try to break through the thinnest wall, regardless if there are turrets there or not. Since they prefer to not break through walls, this allows you to make a maze of walls for them to go through while you have turrets shooting them, however most enemies will attack anything nearby so be careful when doing this.

Weaknesses

Most enemies have their own strengths and weaknesses, but these apply to all enemies.

Water + Electricity = Damage. If you use the Wave turrets with water, then put some Arcs down nearby, the enemies that are wet will take extra damage from the arcs of electricity fired by the Arcs

Artillery Most enemies dont have long range weapons, with the exceptions of some Bosses and high end enemies, so artillery turrets such as the Hail or Ripple will generally be useful, they also are good for crowd control

Bosses

Bosses are incredibly strong enemies that deal heaps of damage and have a lot of health. From what i know only medium – hard zones have these, so no need to worry just yet but bosses will really test your defense. Even defenses consisting of dozens of turrets can struggle against bosses, and in later waves you’ll have to fight multiple bosses, but this is unlikely to happen until you have high-end turrets that can deal with them

The Mechs

Information

The Mechs are a selection of robots that you, the player, play as. You start out with the basic Dart mech, but unlock “Mech Pads” later, to upgrade your capabilities. The earliest of which is the Alpha Mech Pad. When interacted with (and powered) this will transform you into an “Alpha” Mech. The Alpha Mech is essentially a ground-based version of the Dart, with increased firepower, build speed, and health. Mechs generally have an Ability, the Alpha Mechs ability is passive regeneration

The Factories

Information

Factories are what produce intermediate materials, such as Pyratite ( A flammable compound used in various turrets), Graphite and Silicon. Some of these materials you can send to the Core, Such as graphite and silicon, Others are used as materials for Advanced Materials.

Layouts

Making working factories can be a bit complicated, having to bring different materials to it, and then export the product elsewhere, each factory needs different materials and designing them is generally half of the fun, here is a design i came up with that works reliably for factories that require 2 inputs, such as Silicon or Metaglass.
 

The Power

Information

Power is an important part of mindustry, most factories require power to produce things, and some turrets such as Arcs and Lancers require power to fire. There are multiple ways to generate power, from simple Solar Panels to complex Thorium Reactors. Generally the more complex or expensive, the more power produced.

Batteries

Batteries are useful for storing runoff power from solar panels, or any other reactors, aswell as making a nice explosion when fully charged then destroyed. Generally batteries are useful early game when you have very few ways to produce power, but they’re not always reliable

Power Nodes

Power nodes are your way of transferring power from one point to another, if you click on them you can change their connections, either removing connections or adding connections. Power nodes use lasers to transfer power from one to another, so you can safely surround them in walls to protect them.

The Transportation

Information

Conveyors and Conduits are your main buildings for transportation, good for getting items from one point to another, while they may seem simple at first glance, you can do some truly complicated things with these.

Conduits

Conduits are for transporting Liquids, such as Water or Oil. Water can be used to speed up buildings such as Drills and Turrets, making them more effecient, while oil can be produced into either Plastanium or Coal

Conveyors

Conveyors are generally the thing you will build the most, as they get your items from place to place automatically. There are also certain conveyors that Split 1 conveyor into 3 aka the Router or conveyor bridges which bridge gaps over walls and terrain.

Other Small Details and Tips

• Turrets can use different types of ammo.
• Routers can be connect to eachother making a chain, useful for supplying lots of turrets.
• Bridges output to 3 directions.
• Pyratite, Coal, and Blast Compound all set on fire when something explodes nearby.
• Water can put out fires.
• If left on the ground from a leaking pipe, slag will start fires.
• If you press Shift when in a ground-based mech, you can fly.
• Scrap can be processed to make Lead, Titanium, Copper and Graphite.
• Wave turrets fuelled with water will put out fires.
• You can hover over power nodes to see how much power is being made / consumed, aswell as battery charge.
• If you carry pyratite on you and get destroyed, you will go out in a fiery explosion, most likely killing your attacker.