Research Tree

Cifi: Cells Idle Factory Incremental

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The Game

Cifi: Cells Idle Factory Incremental is an early access games developed by Octocube games. The game is currently only available on Android. The title of the game is fairly self explanatory – we have a sci-fi themed idle game based around generating “cells” and more generators that generate more cells. You start off with MK1 generators which generate cells, you then proceed to buy MK2 generators which generate MK1 generators, which as we already know make cells – this cycle underpins the entire game.

The games has several other currencies that you progressively build up in a variety of ways, it also has a good deal of upgrades you can make to various things in order to increase your cell production. The aspect of the game that really sold it to me was the loop mod research tree. “Loop Mods” are the game’s prestige element, so when you’ve reached a point where you think you are better off resetting you perform a loop and invest your accrued mod points into powerful upgrades. As with all idle games, it’s essentially just a lot of upgrades that make numbers go up – but it’s also so much more and when a completionist gamer such as myself sees a tree like that – I am hooked.

As you progress and acquire more cells you can invest them into a variety of ships, each ship is responsible for a different menu and shop. Each shop has new upgrades or currencies to be collected to help improve your earnings. If all of that wasn’t enough the game also has a couple of arcade mini-games, namely Cubeboy Snek and Bling Blong which may bare resemblance to games you already know.

Worth it?

The ad-free version will set you back around £4.99, this will allow you use the 2x cells booster permanently and collect token and diamond gem chests without watching videos. There are also several other packs and options, but this one is definitely the best value and a great way to support the devs. The tokens are especially worth it as it makes the token shop a lot more accessible without having to watch videos.

The game is also still in development with constant new additions, new ships and new ways to grind even cells. The game goes incredibly deep and has gigantic potential to keep you busy for ages. Each play session may not be necessarily be very long, but the long term unlocks and features will keep you coming back for ages. It would be nice to see a little bit more connection between the arcade game and the main game, for example getting some tokens from it. It would also be nice to have a confirmation pop up before purchasing Zagreus as it can be quite easy to click on purchasing it, rather than saving it for later in the run.

Overall the game has an amazing amount of depth, the loop tech tree on its own will keep you hooked until you get all the upgrades, partner that with the increasingly expensive spaceships, each unlocking a new currency or way to grind makes this an absolute must play for any idle game fanatics out there.

Tips

  • Find the balance between short and long runs – in the beginning, before unlocking shard mining you may find yourself doing more short runs in order to accumulate more mod upgrades.
  • Each time you loop make sure you invest in mod point production – either through shortening ticks, increasing the MP production or reducing the tick requirement exponent.
  • Try to avoid getting the Zagreus on longer runs as other upgrades or things you may purchase may increase MP – the loop/MP accumulation process only begins when you purchase it. (Sometimes this is easier said than done as it’s quite easy to miss-click and purchase it)
  • Evolving your ships gives them a permanent boost that persists through loops.
  • In the early game use your level up points to increase the MP you get per loop.
  • You can also get MP upgrades in the diamond and coin shop – prioritise these.

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Dysmantle

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The Game

Dysmantle, developed by 10tons ltd. is a post apocalyptic RPG in which you can break nearly every item you encounter. As it says in the name of the game it’s all about dismantling everything you see. As you break objects down you will get resources used to crafter better equipment that can allow you to break down bigger objects. Thus you gradually work your way up from breaking living room tables and fences all the way to destroying cars and walls.

The story follows a main character who emerges from his bunker to discover that his island has been evacuated and the only inhabitants are the zombie-like ex-humans. Zombies will respawn every time the player replenishes their health at a camp site and the only way to permanently kill them is to enable a special signal on the nearby signal tower. As the story progresses you begin work on a spaceship that will get you off the island. The island itself is a huge open world map with different climates and dangers in each area.

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Worth it?

The game is free on PS Plus Extra tier or will set you back around £20 brand new, £10 for a cheap CD Key. Overall it will keep you busy for upwards of 40 hours and if you’re a completionist can keep you busy for more than 60 hours. The constant breaking of items really doesn’t get old for some time and the desire to upgrade and improve tools and items also keeps you playing. There are a couple moments when you think the story is approaching it’s end only to find out that there’s more to be done, personally I found that dragged out the end a bit but I can also see how they give you more time to enjoy the game and gear up for the end game.

Overall a very satisfying game with an incredibly simple but satisfying gameplay loop and an amazingly detailed open world map with plenty of secrets and little side quests to discover. Definitely worth checking out and very addictive.

Tips

  • Always focus on upgrading your main dismantling tool and getting new ones when they are available (e.g upgrade your crowbar fully, then get the baseball bat and upgrade fully, etc)
  • Different tools are used for different types of object – tires for example require a sharp tool like the machete for example
  • Collect as much of everything as you can – all materials are useful, even leaves as you find out later in the game, collect as much as you can of all resources you encounter
  • Use the farms and make food, food provides permanent stat increases and buffs, food supplies are also handy with certain quests and collections in the late game. Don’t use food to restore health unless you’re really desperate
  • Do the puzzle tombs in order to get the orbs and install deadly transmitters, that way you can rush the signal tower in each region then know that each zombie you kill won’t come back
  • Get the lumber mill and smelter as soon as you can from the central region (729º, 491º and 576º, 458º). When you discover them you will get the blueprints for them and you can build them wherever you want
  • In order to open the timed chests you need to run directly to them from a campfire – the timer resets when you leave a campfire

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Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator

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The Game

Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator is a beautifully simple and cosy simulation game about making wine (as is quite obvious from the title). Developed by Broken Arms Games, the story follows a woman who leaves the busy city life in order to make a mark on the world of winemaking – something she doesn’t know much about, but through the assistance of the experienced winemakers of the vineyard, quickly becomes second nature.

The game’s simple yet beautiful aesthetic compliments the simple mechanics – each action or operation on your vineyard is represented as a “tetris” style block which you must place in a grid before ending the the turn and advancing time.

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Worth it?

The game will set you back around £25, but you can find it on sale or CD keys for around half of that. The game is also available for free with the PS Plus Premium tier. The campaign and story only last 100 turns/days, which does feel like quite a short time, but you have the option of playing endless after that. This is where you can really explore all the game has to offer in terms of research, upgrading your various buildings and production line, purchasing new plots of land to work and the various wines you can make.

Overall it’s definitely a nice cosy game that will keep you busy for a few hours at a time. Longer term it is a bit repetitive and once you’ve unlocked the majority of the research tree it loses it’s replay value a bit. This makes it a little hard to justify the full cost of the game, but the aesthetics, music and overall vibe of the game make it a great game to unwind, relax and enjoy a nice glass of wine with – even if only for a few evenings.

Tips

  • Upgrading your shop and warehouse to allow you to sell to more customers and do special orders
  • Unlock more of the grid before purchasing additional plots of land to work
  • You can stagger when your wines will be ripe by pruning them differently
  • Trial and error – a lot of the game is about trial and error to find the perfect process for each type of win – some require aging, others don’t
  • You don’t always need to hit the ideal levels for each wine to get a good score
  • Make sure you finish seasonal work within the season to avoid impacting the quality of your wines and any upcoming work

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Forager

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The Game

Forager is a survival crafting game developed by HopFrog in which you start out on a single island with nothing but a pickaxe and a desire to “forage” everything around you. You start out simple – focusing on trees, rocks and berries. Gradually you expand your operations to include idle fish traps that will catch fish for you and eventually a smelter and the first crafting elements. The game allows you to expand by buying new islands adjacent to yours. As you expand you will find new materials and ways to upgrade your gear or build new machines to help you. As you establish yourself you can automate certain tasks and set your smelters or factories to constantly produce the materials that you need.

Every time you hit something you expend your energy, you can regain it by eating. Similarly, you start out with 3 hearts/health, if you get hit by an enemy that can drop to 2, certain foods will help replenish hearts. As you unlock islands you come across various puzzles and dungeons which will reward you with resources and ways to increase your health, damage or energy. Every time you level up you are also given a chance to spend your skill points on new skills. There are 4 main areas to spend your skills in, which are also the 4 main building types – industrial, farming, economic and magic.

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Worth it?

The game is free on PS Plus Premium and also available via Xbox Gamepass, on Steam you can get it for around £15, but it’s frequently on sale for around £5. Overall that price seems fair – it’s a great little game, brilliantly simply with quite a bit of depth and very easy to get sucked into and lose hours. Once you get multiple machines and automation running the game is almost musical in its constant sound effects, it also has some great puzzles that are just the right amount of challenging. My single biggest issue with the game is that it seems that some of the trophies are broken on PlayStation (and possibly elsewhere) and it’s been a known issue for a while. It would be a great game to 100% but not getting that achievement really stung and killed the joy of it for me. It’s also worth mentioning that Forager multiplayer was in development but was canned due to some controversy around how the creator treated his team.

Overall Forager is a great game that will make time fly and keep you hooked for at least 10-20 hours while you complete the majority of it. The simple graphics and musical sound effects make it a great experience.

Tips

  • You can get void items by building a void portal from the sigil maker, unlocked via the magic skill tree
  • Build multiples of your industrial buildings and split stacks across them in order to get materials faster
  • Buy sigils from the markets in the late game as a way to quickly grind bosses
  • Don’t bother with the pet skill until later – it just gives you a pet, nothing more
  • Most quest lines require a rare item that can be found by digging in dig spots (small holes in the ground), which randomly spawn on uncovered ground
  • Geology is a very useful early skill to target in order to improve your coal production
  • Vaults and Banks can also be useful early game in order to store items and generate passive income
  • Combine quarries with mining lasers to automate the workflow
  • Magic is useful early game as it will add fairies to the world which can instantly replenish your hearts and energy
  • Dump your inventory at the museum

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Abstrrkt Explorers

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The Game

Do you have that feeling that all mobile strategy games are just annoying gatcha games with loads of microtransactions to help you speed things up? Me too, but this one is something different. Abstrrkt Explorers (or just Explorers) by Abstrrkt is a free, turn based strategy game for android. The game is reminiscent of some familiar classics (live Civ 6) with its hex grid setup and conquest mechanics. The game is pretty much a fully fledged 4X game which lets you build, explore, develop and fight for control over the world. It has a campaign mode, single player and even a local multiplayer option.

The campaign serves as a tutorial and introduction to the game. It gives you series of increasingly challenging and complex scenarios. Things start out simple with a small settlement and 4 initial types of resource wood, stone, food and population. You need to build up your economy through farms, lumberjacks and fishermen or hunters, later on gold is also added. You can then expand your empire through barracks which you can later upgrade. This is where the combat element of the game is introduced.

The combat is a bit of a different take and is based around the influence zones of your barracks and taking barracks from your enemies using your units from your own adjacent barracks. The game adds a bunch of other buildings as you progress, including catapults, harbours and ships. All this and more is delivered in a nice pastel low poly style with simple and intuitive controls.

Worth it?

A beautiful game with a lot of depth. The various game modes will give you plenty to mess around with, the campaign has a lot of gameplay for you to get stuck into (6 missions total). There are 3 types of game you can run in single player (Fixed, Domination, Survival) and a bunch of other settings you can configure. There are some ads, mainly in between campaign missions or when you start a game, overall they aren’t that intrusive but if you’d like to help the developer out you can buy an ad free option for £3.09. The game has a lot to offer, but there are some drawbacks, personally I think the combat can get to a point where you are just trading buildings with the AI without making much progress and that can be a bit frustrating. It feels like maybe another dimension can be added apart from the catapults and you can only ever build one new soldier per turn per barrack. The research tree has a good amount to uncover and keep you busy and it could easily be expanded with new buildings or upgrades.

Overall a great game for short to medium length sessions, although the game definitely has that “one more turn” element that can keep you locked in for ages. The simple style and low poly aesthetics make for a very beautiful and chill experience. There’s a bit more to be desired in terms of the combat, but other than that it’s quite a solid game with various gameplay modes and even a local multiplayer option.

Tips

  • Focus on food the most (especially early game)
  • Try and place as many buildings as you can each turn
  • Reinforce your barracks with units – ideally build a unit every turn
  • If you set a barrack to receive units it will pull in units from all barracks which have the “deploy” option on

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Civilization VI (Rise and Fall, Gathering Storm) – PC & Console Versions

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The Game

There’s no way you haven’t heard of Sid Meier’s Civilization series (developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games). Civilization VI is the latest in the famous series and while the base game came out a few years ago, the developers have been rolling out a series of DLC and updates. They have also published the game on basically every console. I played both the PS4 version and the PC so I’ll cover some of the good and bad of both. Civilization V is one of my all time favourite games (I had over 1000hrs) so I had high hopes for this sequel, but I held off buying it until it came out at a more accessible price.

If you’ve never played Civ before then you have been missing out (and probably living under a rock). It’s a turn based 4x strategy game that takes you and your civilization through history and the ages. There are several ways you can win the game – domination, culture, science, religion, score (or in Gathering Storm – diplomatic). You play on a hex grid map and build up your cities and armies and take on rival civilizations, or build alliances and friendships if you prefer a diplomacy heavy game. You decide whether you want to be a peaceful and fun loving leader or a warmongering dictator that drops nukes those who oppose them. If you’re coming from Civ V some of the most notable additions are districts (specialised neighbourhoods) and a civics tech tree. It’s not until the expansion packs and DLCs where the game really starts to feel like something innovative and new, like the addition of Governors and Loyalty.

The game offers tons of civilizations to play as and each DLC adds more, there are also a variety of maps and game modes to chose from. This in itself will give you much to experiment with and keep you busy for hours on end. The base game in itself feels a bit limited, it’s not until Gathering Storm that the developers really made it something special and moved it on from Civilization V. Rise and Storm adds mechanics such as Dark and Golden Ages, loyalty and governors, while Gathering Storm builds and expands on that by adding climate change, disasters, electricity and a new victory mode. Each DLC also gives a bunch of World Wonders, new Civs, units and buildings.

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Worth it?

On its own the base game really isn’t all that much – you’re better off playing Civilization V and all its DLC instead. You can get the Civ 6 base game (on sale) for around £8.50, and each of the main DLCs will set you back around £10, with some civ packs for around £5. The console versions will set you back a little bit more, but try and get them on sale if you can. When it comes to deciding the platform, the obvious benefit of PC (apart from cheap CD keys) is also mods – the Civ modding community is great and there are some really great ones out there – from UI improvements to entire civilizations, units and modes. On the other hand, the console version will let you play from the comfort of your sofa, a potentially very dangerous combination as you probably won’t leave that sofa all weekend.

It’s got to be said that the DLC method does feel like a bit of a rip off, there’s a lot of additional content which can amount to quite a serious sum. The base game on its own is quite basic, especially when you learn about all the great additions in each of the mods. The main one worth getting is Gathering Storm as it includes much of what’s in Rise & Fall, although you can often find the two on sale together. The console version I played (PS4) had some issues worth noting – there are issues with the UI, various highlights and selections are hard to see, issues with scrolling in certain menus, some of the functionality available on PC isn’t available and of course, no mods.

Another couple of the DLCs worth picking up as they add a good deal of new content (secret societies game mode and a civ) are the Ethiopia pack and the Babylon pack (heroes and legends game mode and a civ) – each of those will set you back about £3.99. With all the DLC and various packs you will have so much content to play that you will definitely get your money’s worth – there are potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay there.

Overall Civilization VI didn’t start out as the strongest game on its own, but through a few years of updates, DLCs, new modes and civs it has become a truly epic game that will keep you locked in for hours, thinking “just one more turn”. The console versions aren’t the greatest, but strategies on consoles have always been a bit of an odd combo and considering that – it does do an ok job. Aim to get as much of the DLC as possible (ideally on sale) and you will have yourself something to keep you busy for a very very very long time.

Tips

  • Enable the ribbon UI option so you can keep track of your opponents’ yields
  • Enable the yields UI option to get an accurate idea of the individual tile yields
  • Don’t accept demands from the AI
  • Selling diplomatic favour can help if you’ve got cashflow problems
  • Think about the positions of various districts and yields when placing cities
  • Placing a city on a luxury resource will still give you that resource
  • On harder difficulty there’s less point in getting a religion
  • Domination victory is generally easiest
  • Science matters – regardless what victory you are going for
  • Gold can solve a lot of your problems too
  • Use the “Join Ongoing War” option to help get other AIs involved if you feel you need support (and distractions for the AI) – sometimes they will willingly accept for 1 gold, other times a spare copy of a luxury is enough to convince them
  • Settling on fresh water gives you more housing, coastal cities start with less, which is why granaries and harbours with lighthouses are important
  • Read the wikis and learn as much as you can about your civilization’s bonuses, but don’t force them into your game if it’s not right
  • For tips for playing on Deity or general tips check out PotatoMcWhiskey on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PotatoMcWhiskey

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Big Pharma

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The Game

Big Pharma by Twice Circled is a simulation game available on virtually every platform (except mobile). The game is a conveyer belt manufacturing simulator in which you combine various ingredients to create new and wonderful medicines to help people with their illnesses. Overall the concept is fairly simple, however the initial learning curve can be quite steep. There are quite a few tutorial missions and they can be quite daunting, but once you get to grips with the mechanics you’ll also realise that the game does quite a good job of telling you exactly what to do with each ingredient to achieve the desired effect. Note that I played the PS4 version, so some comments may be specific to that, the obvious benefit (as usual) of having a PC version is mods – although these aren’t available through the Steam Workshop as with other games, so may be a bit of a hassle.

The game features research trees and various exploration missions that you need to undertake in order to discover new ingredients and improve your machinery. At it’s most basic level the game is based around increasing or decreasing the concentration of various ingredients in order to achieve desired effects (these can be seen in the info panel of each ingredient). When at a certain concentration some ingredients can be combined with others or run through a specific machine in order to change or upgrade their effect completely. This is where the game gets interesting and a lot more complex. Combining various ingredients and increasing/decreasing their concentration until you achieve the perfect cure can be quite a complex process and if you don’t do it efficiently enough, you won’t be making much of a profit.

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Worth it?

Generally speaking the game will set you back between £20-30. Honestly I find that a bit on the expensive side, so look out for any offers. It does offer a lot of scenarios to play through and a lot of depth and there’s a free build mode too. On PS4 the controls can be a bit of a challenge to get used to and don’t always feel very intuitive to use, it sort of goes without saying that it’s a game made for a PC.

Overall other than some control issues and the slightly elevated price, the game is quite addictive and can be really satisfying once you get that supply chain up and running properly, it has some really satisfying sound effects and will keep you coming back for more. There’s plenty of scenarios to keep you playing for a while and if you’re playing on PC you can even have a go with modding the game.

Tips

  • Keep an eye on each ingredient’s info card – it will tell you what concentration you have to get it to and what device you then need to use to get the desired effect
  • The info card will also tell you the total manufacturing cost and medicine value – don’t overextend for really good drugs early on as you won’t have the machinery to make the production line efficient enough and you’ll end up losing money
  • Hire researchers as soon as you can afford to so that you can begin researching better machinery – focus on the agglomerator and ioniser
  • If you can’t get rid of a negative side-effect, turn that medicine into a cream – it will reduce the negative score from the bad side-effect by 50%

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Infinitinode 2

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The Game

Infinitinode 2 by Prineside takes tower defence games to a whole new level. The game is a follow up on the quite successful Infinitinode, taking a lot of what made that game great and improving on it. Amongst some of its most notable features are the mind-boggling research tree, the custom map creator and editor, regular updates, daily quests and seasonal leader-boards.

In total the game has 15 unique towers, each with it’s own set of in-game upgrades which allow you to specialise that specific instance of the tower. From Tesla coils to flamethrowers, cannons to lasers – this game has them all. The game also features 9 regular enemies and several bosses – each enemy has specific tower’s it’s weak against, so it’s up to you to place the right towers in the right places.

If all the defending wasn’t enough the game also has mineable resources on each map. You can build special excavation units on these positions in order to harvest said resources. You will need these to upgrade your towers.

The game offers a series of pre-made maps as a campaign – especially challenging towards the end. If you complete the campaign you will unlock endless mode, which serves as the “endgame” – offering better prizes, infinite waves, harder enemies and even more research.

Worth it?

The game has an option to watch videos to increase a level’s winnings by 25%, it also has a chest decryption element that will give you prizes over time, once your chest has been decrypted. Other than these two “gatcha” elements, the game does a very good job of keeping you in without bombarding you with ads or crappy micro transactions. It offers you daily missions with rewards, I even missed a day and it saved my progress allowing me to resume from the last day I completed. There are some purchase options around double gains, personally I haven’t purchased any of these but if you’d like to support the developer this is probably a good way to do so (and reduce your grind time).

Overall this is an amazing tower defence game with excellent RPG elements – the skill/research tree is a really addictive element, wanting to constantly upgrade and improve your towers, buying global perks or improving your resource mining capabilities. The custom map editor, daily challenges and endless mode give the game insane replay value and will keep you coming back for more and more. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good tower defence game.

Tips

  • Set up a custom farming map on which you can grind papers and resources
  • Make sure you progress the story branch of the research tree in order to unlock levels
  • Get the BOUNTY modifier tile as soon as you can, this will help you massively when grinding coins in game
  • Use the wiki and reddit for more advanced tips

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