Barathrum! Walkthrough

You land on the lava world of Barathrum with a Commander, a Galactic Gate, 1000 metal and 1000 energy. To win, you must capture Core's Moho Mine in the north-east corner and destroy every other Core unit and building. If the Moho Mine is destroyed, you lose. On Medium, Core has 108 units: a metal farm in the south-east, two factories in the south, and groups all over the map that wait for their timers.

Core starts with only 100 metal and 100 energy, but its attacks are written into the mission. Four Weasels come for your gate at 5:00, an eight-unit attack leaves the east at 17:00, bombers fly at 27:00 and a last wave of eight sets out at 41:00. In return the ground is rich: metal lies everywhere. Build a strong base inside the lava loop, take the Moho Mine with the Commander, then sweep the map from north to south.

The Battlefield

Your Gate and Commander stand inside a winding loop of lava rivers in the north-west. More rivers and pools of lava cover the west half of the map. The Moho Mine sits in the north-east corner among Core Wind Generators and Metal Extractors, with two Gaat Guns and five waiting Thuds to its west. Core's Aircraft Plant and Adv. Vehicle Plant stand in the south, and a farm of 12 Metal Extractors fills the south-east corner.

The numbers on the map are the plan; the letters are Core's positions. The units shown are those of Medium.

Map of Barathrum! 123456ABCDEFGH
The planEnemy positionsYour unitsEnemy unitsHover a dot to see the unit and its orders. · Map 3,072 × 3,168 pixels · Scroll or pinch on the map to zoom; drag to move. Hover over a feature or a resource for its details.
  • 1Your start. The Galactic Gate stands beside the Commander, and a deposit worth 142 lies at (1160, 344).
  • 2A deposit worth 222, inside the loop. A Core Light Laser Tower stands just south of the loop, at (945, 1022).
  • 3Your east guard, behind the lava. Sentinels and Defenders here meet the 17:00 attack and the Mobile Artillery that stops at (1711, 535) at 15:00.
  • 4The Luger line. From here Lugers reach both Gaat Guns without coming into their range.
  • 5A forward line in the centre. Guardians here cover the ground the Reapers, Thuds and a Crasher patrol over.
  • 6Guardians built here reach both Core factories and the Gaat Gun at (2185, 2440).
  • AThe Moho Mine you must capture. If it is destroyed, you lose. A Crasher stands only 115 pixels from it.
  • BA Gaat Gun, range 400.
  • CA second Gaat Gun. Five Thuds wait just west of it, with a Crasher at (2267, 561) and a Deleter radar jammer.
  • DFour Weasels. At 5:00 they attack your Galactic Gate.
  • EEight units leave here at 17:00: two Storms, a Mobile Artillery, two Raiders and three Instigators.
  • FEight units leave here at 41:00: five Storms and three Instigators.
  • GThe Aircraft Plant. It builds Avengers from 12:20.
  • HThe Adv. Vehicle Plant. It starts on A.K.s at 10:30.

Core's Timetable

Core's orders on Medium, counted from the start of the mission. The factories' later batches start only after each build, so those times are the earliest they can come.

Time What happens
From the start Three Reapers from the south-west corner set off within 36 seconds and patrol to (1368, 1652); a fourth beside them waits 24 seconds. A Crasher and four Thuds patrol from the east side, around (2500, 1050), to points near (1700, 2050). Three Avengers patrol from (520, 2500) to points near (2150, 2300). The Can patrols between (2088, 2965) and (2524, 2894).
5:00 Four Weasels attack your Galactic Gate.
8:20 Two Slashers leave the south. One attacks your L.L.T.s, Sentinels and Commander; the other your Hammers, Jethros and Vehicle Plants.
10:30 The Adv. Vehicle Plant starts building three A.K.s.
12:20 The Aircraft Plant starts building two Avengers. After each batch it waits, then builds more: three after 5 minutes, two after another 5, and three after another 10.
15:00 A Mobile Artillery moves from (2537, 758) to (1711, 535), just east of your base. Two Avengers in the east attack your Thunders, then your Freedom Fighters.
17:00 The eastern group at E sets out. The Storms go for your Aircraft Plants and Commander. The Raiders go for your Jethros, Hammers and Kbot Labs, and for your L.L.T.s, Sentinels and Commander. The Instigators go for your Radar Towers, Solar Collectors, Metal Extractors, Kbot Labs and Aircraft Plants, and for your Stumpies, Peewees, Hammers and Jethros. The Mobile Artillery moves to (1582, 1141) first, then attacks your Hammers, Bulldogs and Stumpies.
27:00 Three Shadows bomb your Adv. Kbot Labs, Kbot Labs, Adv. Vehicle Plants, Vehicle Plants and Aircraft Plants.
27:05 Two Avengers attack your Freedom Fighters, Brawlers and Jethros.
41:00 The southern group at F sets out. Its targets include your Galactic Gate, Commander, Metal Extractors, Wind Generators, Solar Collectors, construction units, Bulldogs and Fidos.

The Plan on Medium

Secure the Loop (0:00 to 5:00)

  1. Put Metal Extractors on the deposit at (1160, 344) and on open ground near the start. Every patch of ground here holds metal. Add Solar Collectors and Wind Generators (the wind runs from 300 to 2000), then a Kbot Lab.
  2. Before 5:00, put two L.L.T.s right beside the gate. The four Weasels attack nothing but the gate, and each has only 84 hit points.

Build Up (5:00 to 17:00)

  1. Make Construction KBots and spread Metal Extractors across the loop, starting with the deposit at 2. Then build a Vehicle Plant and an Adv. Vehicle Plant.
  2. The two Slashers that leave at 8:20 go for your L.L.T.s and Hammers first. Keep your L.L.T.s where your other guns cover them. A Slasher has 655 hit points.
  3. Put Defenders round your factories before 12:20, when the first Avengers come out of the Aircraft Plant. A Defender does 97 damage to an Avenger, which has 202 hit points.
  4. Build Sentinels at 3. Their range of 430 beats the Storm (400), the Raider (240) and the Instigator (180). Kill the Mobile Artillery that stops at (1711, 535) at 15:00 with Lugers or fast Flashes: its range of 620 is longer than a Sentinel's.

Take the Moho Mine (17:00 to 27:00)

  1. When the 17:00 attack is beaten, move four to six Lugers and a group of Bulldogs to 4. The Lugers' range of 620 lets them kill both Gaat Guns, the Crasher at (2267, 561) and the five Thuds from outside the Gaat Guns' 400.
  2. Two Crashers stand right by the mine, at (2635, 416) and (2603, 641). Do not shell them. Kill them with Zeus Kbots, whose lightning splashes only 4 pixels, or with the Commander's laser.
  3. Walk the Commander up to the Moho Mine and capture it. Do not use the Disintegrator anywhere near it. Once it is yours, the mine works for you.
  4. Destroy the Wind Generators and Metal Extractors round the mine and the Deleter at (2319, 520).

Clear the Map (27:00 Onwards)

  1. At 27:00 three Shadows bomb your labs and plants. Each has 315 hit points, so four Defender missiles bring one down. Put Defenders beside every factory.
  2. Build Guardians at 5. Their range of 1250 covers the patrols in the centre and reaches the 41:00 group at F before it can move.
  3. Push south to 6 and destroy the Aircraft Plant at G and the Adv. Vehicle Plant at H first, so that nothing new comes out.
  4. Sweep the south and the south-east metal farm: three Gaat Guns, two Light Laser Towers, a Pulverizer, The Can, eight Crashers that only wait, and every Metal Extractor and Wind Generator. The mission ends only when every Core unit is gone and the mine is yours.

What Changes on Hard

  • Your start is the same. Core has 132 units instead of 108, and still starts with 100 metal and 100 energy.
  • The Adv. Vehicle Plant starts at 2:10 instead of 10:30. The Aircraft Plant starts at 9:00 instead of 12:20, and its batches are 2, 3, 5 and 7 Avengers.
  • An extra Light Laser Tower stands at (785, 846), just outside your loop.
  • Three more Crashers: two patrol the centre with two extra Thuds, and one waits at (2731, 256), 216 pixels from the mine.
  • Five Slashers instead of two: one more at 8:20 for your Aircraft Plants and Kbot Labs, and two at 9:20.
  • The 17:00 group has 13 units instead of 8. A second Mobile Artillery moves to (1211, 1387), then attacks your construction units, Kbot Labs and Aircraft Plants.
  • The 41:00 group adds two Instigators. Four Avengers leave the east at 15:00, five patrol the south from the start, and three come at 27:05.
  • An extra Gaat Gun stands at (2879, 2216), a second The Can patrols the south-east, and a fifth Reaper sets off at 0:48 towards (1368, 1562).
  • The computer player keeps all the income from its 16 Metal Extractors, its Moho Mine and its 19 Wind Generators, against 70 percent on Medium.

Which Units Beat Theirs

Core unit Its threat Your answer
Gaat Gun Laser, 180 damage, range 400, 1200 hit points Lugers (range 620)
The Can 2800 hit points, laser 220 damage, range 200 Lugers or Guardians. It moves at only 0.5.
Reaper 2014 hit points, plasma cannon with range 320 Guardians (range 1250), then Bulldogs
Storm Rockets, 100 damage, range 400 Sentinels (range 430)
Mobile Artillery Plasma cannon, range 620, 600 hit points Lugers, or Flashes that close in fast
Crasher Missiles, 80 damage to aircraft, range 590 Ground units. It has 480 hit points.
Avenger Missiles, 136 damage to your aircraft Defenders (97 damage to it). It has 202 hit points.
Shadow Bombs, 150 damage each Defenders. It has 315 hit points.
Weasel Laser, range 180, 84 hit points L.L.T.s beside the gate

Metal and Energy

Barathrum is rich in metal. The surface metal value is 55, so a Metal Extractor gives metal wherever you build it, and 27 deposits give more. Inside your loop lie (1160, 344), worth 142, and (968, 664), worth 222. Just outside it are (808, 1000) and (888, 1256), both worth 222, and (456, 792), worth 142. Many of the other rich deposits lie under Core's Metal Extractors in the south-east. The Moho Mine stands on a deposit worth 222 at (2728, 472), and it extracts three times as much as a Metal Extractor.

Energy is the harder part. The wind runs from 300 to 2000, and a Solar Collector gives 20. The two geothermal vents, at (2232, 1400) and (872, 2184), are both outside your loop and in the path of Core patrols. Once you have advanced construction units, a Fusion Reactor (1000 energy) pays for the Guardians and Lugers. There is little to reclaim: about 650 metal in rocks over the whole map.

Traps

  • The Moho Mine must survive. Crashers stand 115 and 214 pixels from it, so clear them with weapons that do not splash.
  • Your Galactic Gate dies in a blast of up to 2000 damage within 258 pixels, and your Commander starts 92 from it. The Weasels at 5:00 attack only the gate, and a Storm in the 41:00 group goes for it first.
  • Core's timed groups pick their targets by type. The 17:00 group goes for Aircraft Plants, L.L.T.s, Sentinels, Metal Extractors and Kbot Labs, and the Shadows at 27:00 go for your labs and plants. Put Defenders and Sentinels where those buildings are.
  • Eleven Crashers and the Deleter are ordered to wait 100 minutes, and five Thuds wait until 30:20. They will not come to you, but you must still find and destroy them to win.

Back to the mission page.