Open Mind clarification

[Hokupe]

Hello, does someone of you know what they mean with "no towers" exactly? Is it only wood/stone towers or all attack towers too? I only found outdated information about achievements online so I don't trust something like "wasps don't count anywhere" written 2018.

[Dauersack]

Hi, most of the no tower achievements exclude only attack towers. This means Great Ballista, Executor, Shock Tower, and Wasps can't be used. Defense towers that do nothing but offer a platform to increase range, so Wood and Stone Towers, as well as trap stuff like barbwire traps or mines are fine to use with these achievements. Unsure about Radar Towers for vision since I never use them, I uncover the entire map with the wonder before the final wave.

Open mind excludes only the specifically mentioned defenses, so walls, gates, wood and stone towers, everything else should be fine to use according to several peoples claims. I got it by using no towers of any kind because I also wanted the Best General trophy at the same time, which you can also do if you want to be 100% certain. I combed it with the sniper only achievement, using layers of Wire Fence Traps as makeshift walls that slow enemies down long enough for hordes of leveled up snipers to take care of the incoming waves.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Nighcisama

[Squall__x]

@Dauersack

Hey buddy. I figured this game takes a while to finish however iyo how hard is it to finish 100%?

Btw Strategy games are so immersive for me I wonder if you felt the same playing this 1. 

Cheers.

[Dauersack]

8 hours ago, SqualllK said:

@Dauersack

Hey buddy. I figured this game takes a while to finish however iyo how hard is it to finish 100%?

Btw Strategy games are so immersive for me I wonder if you felt the same playing this 1. 

Cheers.

It takes a while yes, not super long but there are a few rounds required as a minimum, and each will take a few hours. As for the difficulty, I am the strategy game guy among my extended group of friends, never really losing when playing against them, picking up new strategy games quickly and improving upon stuff pretty quickly, and I got my ass handed to me in the first two games, partially because you have to break some rules you know from other strategy games, but also because as a new player you just take too long for everything and get overwhelmed at some point. This game definitely has a learning curve, little tolerance for mistakes given that a single infected making it past your defense or patrols is likely to cause a mass outbreak you will often be unable to recover from, and it requires long term planning as well as efficiency and the ability to adjust in case of something going wrong.

 

Most of the games trophies expect a 100% difficulty as base, which is not too bad, one expects 200%, which kicks you a lot harder, and then of course you are always expected to not use certain things, or only use certain troops, difficulties for these vary, you can combine several of them if you feel confident, or do them one by one. The game has a pause button that you will desperately need to keep an overview, especially during the later enemy waves, and to no ones surprise the trophy to not use the pause button in a game once is the hardest one to get given how crucial it is to not let anything past the defense early and keep organizing troops as well as buildings late.

 

Since I got this platinum, several people have messaged me on PSN asking me for advice on how to beat it, likely because for a while I was the fastest achiever before others got better times, haven't gotten any messages regarding the game since then. Given that people do not tend to ask for advice about any game, it supports the thought that this game can indeed be pretty tough. It does immersion pretty well, you will likely feel paranoid, looking around every corner for stray zombies, getting greedy about resources and then getting hyped for the big showdown against the horde, definitely had a lot of fun playing this game, which is why I finished the campaign and played several more rounds way after the platinum was already achieved.

 

As for the campaign, opinions on it are divided from what I have seen, I thought it was pretty decent, ok story, progression, different types of missions. It can work as a kind of long tutorial too because you have to unlock almost everything in a skill tree first before being able to use it instead of all the buildings and units getting thrown at you right away like in survival, but most trophies are earned in survival, so the campaign is only helpful for the platinum progress if you use it to farm infected kills.