The Heat Increases Walkthrough

You arrive in the south-west corner of a lava world with a Commander, four Fidos, four Zippers and two Jethros. The Commander is your only builder. Core has 134 units on Medium, among them 59 Roach crawling bombs, 24 Rapier gunships, 14 Reapers, 11 Cans, 10 Gaat Guns, three Punishers and a captured Arm Zeus. It has no factory and no builder, so it never gets more. You win when the Commander captures the Galactic Gate at the east edge, or when every Core unit is destroyed. You lose if the Commander dies or the Gate is destroyed.

The Roaches shape the first half of the mission. Forty-six of them walk on timers to fixed points in the west of the map and blow themselves up there, and many of those points are around your start. Move out of the corner to the south of the map, where none of them is aimed, and kill the few whose walk crosses your new base. Then beat four air raids that choose their targets by type, bomb the two Punishers that cover the east edge, and take the Commander up the east edge to the Gate.

The Battlefield

Volcanic cones with lava at their centres cover the map, and units must go around them. The Gate stands at the east edge, in the gap between the two largest. Core's base, with its Fusion Power Plant and most of its army, fills the north-east. The open ground in the south of the map is where you build.

Blue numbers mark the plan and red letters mark Core's groups. The map shows the Medium set-up; hold the pointer over a unit to read its orders.

Map of The Heat Increases 12345678ABCDEFGHI
The planEnemy positionsYour unitsEnemy unitsHover a dot to see the unit and its orders. · Map 4,128 × 3,072 pixels · Scroll or pinch on the map to zoom; drag to move. Hover over a feature or a resource for its details.
  • 1Your start. Twenty-one Roaches are sent to points within 300 pixels of it, so leave at once.
  • 2Your base, on a metal deposit worth 222. The nearest Roach blast point is 829 pixels away.
  • 3A second deposit worth 222.
  • 4Your screen of L.L.T.s, Defenders, Fidos and Jethros. It stands just outside the reach of the Punisher at E.
  • 5A geothermal vent. Roaches walk past it, but none is aimed at it.
  • 6The army gathers here, out of reach of the Punishers at E and F.
  • 7The east edge. Clear the Gaat Gun and the two Cans here before the Commander walks north.
  • 8The Galactic Gate. The Commander must stand beside it to capture it.
  • ARoaches in the north-west. Three leave at once and three more at 2:00.
  • BSix Roaches that leave at 3:00.
  • CNine Roaches that wait until 6:20.
  • DSeven Roaches that wait until 11:20. Their walk west passes through 4 and 2.
  • EA Punisher with a range of 1200. Two Roaches guard it.
  • FThe second Punisher, guarded by one Roach.
  • GSix Roaches that leave at 46:20 and walk west past 4.
  • HRapiers, Shadows and an Avenger that wait here for the raids at 21:00, 23:00 and 38:00. The third Punisher stands with them, too far north to reach any point on your route.
  • IFour Cans and four Reapers that march on your Commander at 60:00.

Core's Timetable

These are the moves that matter on Medium, counted from the start of the mission.

Time What happens
From the start Seven Rapiers patrol Core's half of the map on long diagonals; two of them join at 0:10 and 0:20. Three Roaches leave A for the south-west corner.
2:00 Three more Roaches leave the north-west: two for the west of the map, one for the deposit at (952, 1320).
3:00 Six Roaches leave B for points in the south-west.
5:00 Four Reapers south of E start a patrol to (3751, 2135), in the south-east.
6:20 Nine Roaches leave C.
11:20 Seven Roaches leave D and walk west.
18:00 Four Roaches leave the middle of the map, east of C.
20:00 The captured Zeus starts a patrol beside the Gate. At 20:05 one more Rapier starts a patrol from the north to (2506, 2091).
21:00 Four Rapiers from H attack every Adv. Aircraft Plant you own, then every Guardian, Sentinel, L.L.T., Radar Tower and Bulldog, and last your Commander. Two Roaches set off for points less than 100 pixels from your start.
23:00 Five Rapiers, an Avenger and a Shadow bomber attack the same list.
34:40 Six Roaches leave the north edge between B and H.
38:00 Four Rapiers and two Shadows attack the same list again. The Shadows skip Radar Towers.
40:00 Three Rapiers, at 40:00, 40:05 and 40:15, attack your Bulldogs, Merls and Lugers, then your Commander.
44:00 A Valkyrie carries a Roach to (439, 2476), beside your start, and drops it. The Roach is ordered to blow itself up at about 44:30.
46:20 Six Roaches leave G and walk west.
60:00 Four Cans and four Reapers from I march on your Commander.

The Plan on Medium

Leave the Corner (0:00 to 3:00)

  1. Send everything east to 2 at once. Every Roach on a timer walks to a fixed point in the west and blows itself up there, whether or not anything of yours is nearby.
  2. With the Commander, put Metal Extractors on the deposits at 2 and 3 and on open ground around them, then add Wind Generators and a Vehicle Plant. Its Construction Vehicles build the towers the Commander cannot.
  3. Send one Construction Vehicle to the vent at 5 for a Geothermal Powerplant.

Build the Screen (3:00 to 40:00)

  1. Put two or three L.L.T.s at 4 and park the Fidos and Zippers beside them.
  2. Before 11:20, kill the seven Roaches at D where they wait. Use the Fidos: they hit from 480, and a Roach that is killed explodes only within 137. If you leave them, their walk west takes them through 4 and 2.
  3. By 21:00, ring the towers at 4 with at least six Defenders and keep both Jethros there. A Defender does 97 damage to aircraft, so ten hits bring down a Rapier. While you own no Adv. Aircraft Plant, Guardian or Sentinel, the L.L.T.s are the first thing the raids at 21:00, 23:00 and 38:00 attack.
  4. Build an Aircraft Plant at 2. The raids ignore it: only the Adv. Aircraft Plant is on their lists.
  5. At 40:00, have the Commander among Defenders. Those three Rapiers hunt Bulldogs, Merls and Lugers first, so if you own none, they fly straight at the Commander.

Break the Punishers

  1. Build Thunders and bomb the Punisher at E, then the one at F. Core has no anti-air towers on this map. When E is attacked, two Roaches walk to (2856, 1810) and (2678, 1807) and blow up there; when F is attacked, one walks to (2978, 1414). Keep ground units away from those points.
  2. Keep the Fidos at 4 when the six Roaches from G set off at 46:20. All six routes pass within 400 of 4.

Take the Gate (before 60:00)

  1. After 40:15, build an Adv. Vehicle Plant, Merls and a few Samsons against the patrolling Rapiers, and gather them at 6.
  2. Drive from 6 to 7. A Merl reaches 800, twice a Gaat Gun's 400 and four times a Can's 200. Kill the Reapers on patrol near (3751, 2135), the Gaat Gun at (3958, 1885), the two Cans at 7, and then the Gaat Gun at (3990, 952), north-east of the Gate. Fire at that last one from the east edge, so that no rocket flies over the Gate.
  3. Kill the Zeus that patrols beside the Gate, or capture it with the Commander as the briefing asks. Only the Gate counts for victory.
  4. Walk the Commander up the east edge to 8. Stay on the south-east side of the Gate, out of reach of the Gaat Gun at (3379, 1016), and order the capture. The Commander has to stand right beside the Gate.
  5. Finish before 60:00, when four Cans and four Reapers from I set off for the Commander. If you are late, meet them with the Merls: a Can moves at 0.5, less than half a Merl's 1.2.

What Changes on Hard

  • You start with two Fidos instead of four.
  • Core has 191 units instead of 134: 82 Roaches, 38 Rapiers, 22 Reapers, 16 Cans, 11 Gaat Guns, six Shadows, and two each of Avengers, Valkyries and Deleters.
  • Most Roach timers send more: five at the start, five at 2:00, eight at 3:00, nine at 11:20, nine at 18:00, ten at 34:40 and ten at 46:20. A second Valkyrie drops a Roach at (146, 2353) at 44:00. All of them still aim at the west of the map, so the base at 2 is just as safe.
  • The raids grow. Seven Rapiers and an Avenger come at 21:00; seven Rapiers, an Avenger and two Shadows at 23:00; seven Rapiers and four Shadows at 38:00; four Rapiers at 40:00. Double the Defenders at 4.
  • Eleven Rapiers patrol from the start, five Reapers from 5:00, and a Deleter radar jammer from (2779, 2033) to the north edge.
  • From 10:00 a Can patrols the east edge between (3950, 1603) and (3893, 1195), on your way to the Gate.
  • At 60:00, five Cans and six Reapers march on the Commander.
  • Core keeps all the income its Fusion Power Plant and Metal Extractors make, against 70 percent on Medium.

Which Units Beat Theirs

Core unit Its threat Your answer
Roach Self-destructs for up to 2500 damage within 278. When killed, up to 1200 within 137. 195 hit points Fido (range 480, two shots) or L.L.T. (range 300)
Rapier Gunship, 940 hit points, two rocket launchers of 125 damage, range 450 Defender (range 700, 97 damage to aircraft) and Jethro (83)
Shadow Bomber, 315 hit points, 150-damage bombs Defenders: four missiles bring one down
Punisher Plasma cannon, 320 damage, range 1200 Thunder bombers
Gaat Gun Laser, 180 damage, range 400, 1200 hit points Merl: range 800, 500 damage, three rockets per tower
Reaper 2014 hit points, plasma cannon, 143 damage, range 320 Merls from range, or Bulldogs (2102 hit points, same range)
The Can 2800 hit points, laser, 220 damage, range 200 Merls, from four times its range

Metal and Energy

Surface metal here is 55, so a Metal Extractor yields some metal anywhere on open ground, and far more on one of the 14 deposits. Twelve of them are worth 222. Core mines the other two, worth 86 and 142, and one more at (2504, 584). The two deposits at 2 and 3 are the safe ones. The one at (1944, 2088) is within the Punisher's reach at E, the one at (920, 2184) is 118 pixels from a Roach blast point, and the deposits in the west sit among the blast points. Three rocks near the start hold 350 metal, also among the blast points.

The wind blows between 300 and 2000. Of the 14 geothermal vents, the one at 5 is the safe choice: most others lie among the Roach blast points or in Core's half, and the one at (1864, 1816) is in reach of the Punisher at E. Fusion Reactors are not on your build list.

Traps

  • Every Roach on a timer walks to its point and self-destructs there, for up to 2500 damage within 278. A Roach on its way is harmless until it arrives, unless you kill it beside your own buildings.
  • A Roach that is killed still explodes, for up to 1200 damage within 137. Some wait less than 100 pixels apart, well inside that blast, so one kill may set off its neighbours. Shoot them from range.
  • The Punishers at E and F are guarded. Attacking E sends two Roaches to blow up just south of it, and attacking F sends one to blow up at (2978, 1414). Attacking the Gaat Gun at (2441, 480), in the north, sends one more to (2679, 640).
  • The raids choose by type. If you own none of the types on a raid's list, it goes straight for your Commander.
  • The Gate has only 2469 hit points, and losing it loses the mission. Never shell or bomb the ground around it.
  • Core's Fusion Power Plant at (3060, 528) explodes for up to 2000 damage within 258 when it is destroyed.

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