Strategies

During your playthrough of OE3, you might find yourself becoming stuck on a particular level or boss. During a pvp match you might be confused as to what to do, or wondering how other players always seem to have a plan and to win (or better yet, how can you stop them from winning). This page is here to help.

See also the campaign and faction pages for more help. More detailed versions of the rushing, turtling, and boss battle strategies are available for use as well.

Overall strategies


Some strategies work well throughout the game, but will require some tweaking for different civilizations/factions. Some strategies work well for campaign missions, but not multiplayer; and some boss battle strategies will never work for anything else.
 * Rushing is the tactic of attacking as soon as you can without saving for anything larger than a basic turret or medium ship. Usually this involves lots of fighters, freeze mod, furies, or swarms; however one does not need all or any of these to rush. one must take into account that lasers can take out indefinite swarms of fighters, and that unless you win early the enemy will win. A very basic rushing technique is with naval yard. Keep in mind that one must have well upgraded mediums, such as cloak freeze sapphire Corvett, Clock Hawk Odyssey, Cloak rof rof or Cloak range range Athenas, or etc.


 * Turtling is the exact opposite of rushing. To turtle is to build mostly reactors, extractors, miners, or generators and defend. This is generally achieved through minimal spending with up to two turrets and maybe a shield or phalanx. It is good to remember that two autocannons and a shield can defend against up to two mediums and lots of fighters, leaving you with more time to save energy and minerals. This can also be called a capital rush as this is what you would probably be saving for, unless you want a TON of fighters just for fun.
 * Turret rushing was originally developed as a joke until it proved effective in campaign battles. The tactic involves copious use of constructors, phalanx or shields, and upgraded turrets (preferably a shielded autocannon). You are able to build up to an enemy's base and bombard their base with the strongest offense in the game, turrets. Quad Missile bursts quickly overwhelm Phalanx defenses and Lasercannon fire ignores shields. This is best used with turtling as it is also an expensive strategy.
 * A variant of turret push involves long-range turrets such as Bomb Rack, Quad Missiles and Lasercannon with an amount of range upgrades (both built-in and Technology), which enables persistent fire from a safe distance. In many causes bases spawn close enough that significantly range-upgraded towers might reach a base without even having to advance with Constructor. This could cause an amount of very fast and easy wins against duel opponents.
 * Another variant of turret rushing commonly only used in duels is Artillery rushing. To do this effectively an Artillery turret with emp/iridium rounds is essential, preferably with multiple extra fire-rate upgrades. Equip 2 supplies tech and 2 battery packs then instantly place 2 Artillery turrets so the enemy base is just in range of the Artillery turret's range. Then build other defenses such as microlasers to clear out fighters and medium ships. If 2 turrets is not enough, get 3-4 reactors and 1 miner bay (reactors first) then continue building artillery turrets until you win. This strategy only works against enemies that do not have a phalanx, so yellow and purple cannot be Artillery rushed.
 * Capital racing is the strategy in which you create 4 fighter bays and set them to build miners. people love to create miners so it is essential that you have the best miners. It is essential that you have base shield and base cannons or you will be defenseless. Also you have to have a strong but not too expensive capital ship. It is also helpful to have a hangar. getting capital ships first is a strategy to learn when you are facing fighter rushing.
 * Since hyper repair appeared, mix Capital + Hyper Repair turret rush work wonders on surviving and breaking through frontline - repair rush make capitals survive better and do their job.
 * Capital Priority. To use this strategy effectively, you MUST HAVE Base Cannons, and Artillery-Halo or Ragnarok is strongly recommended. To use this strategy, build 2-4 Extractors and at least one reactor, in case your base is frozen. DO NOT purchase ANY turrets, fighters, or mediums. Then, AT SOONEST OPPORTUNITY, build your strongest capital ship. NOTE: This strategy only works early on, and ABSOLUTELY DO NOT use on bosses, unless you want quick destruction.
 * Please add any strategies that you have found effective here.

Multiplayer Specific Strategies (and counters): 
 * First Always, Always, ALWAYS watch and know what your enemy is doing. You can afford and should take the time to spend the first 2-3 seconds of the match figuring out if/what your opponent is rushing, otherwise you could find yourself helplessly swarmed by fighters 8 seconds later because you did not look at what your opponent was building and you have no resources since you just built a bunch of generators. This should really be under tips, but since this is so important and so ignored as many people act without glancing at their opponent it deserves to be up here near the top.

Any-case strategies:
 * Cloaked Fighter rush with freeze rounds: Many people will out of the gate spend all of their resources on a bunch of cheap fighters that have cloak and freeze rounds. Cloak prevents targeting of the fighters until they are right on top of the enemy, and by then freeze rounds can cripple defenses. Even if it does not kill an enemy, it can severely disrupt their base and their economy. Usually no economy focus or only 1 or 2 generators are set up. This can be countered by using a laser protected by a shield, or by putting a cheap building like an empty fighter bay well before defenses, which brings the enemy fighters out of cloak and are then able to be targeted.
 * Fighter rush with Self-Destruct: Again, this involves a whole lot of cheap fighters being built right away. But with self-destruct, suddenly any fighter will do a very large amount of damage and putting buildings in the way does not work. The best way to block this is to set up a phalanx behind your turret to defend it as a phalanx will shoot down the self-destruct plasma shot. Often the damage from self-destruct is high enough to overwhelm shields. Keep in mind that this strategy will no longer work as effectively as before since both the fighter yard and fighter self destruct damage has been nerfed.
 * Medium ship rush: Exactly as it sounds, rushing medium sized ships. This has the clear advantage of being not as easily blocked as fighters, and being able to counter capital ship rushes by preventing an enemy from saving enough for the capital ship. If one can get several medium ships on the field it can overwhelm most defenses and most capital ships, so the enemy has to try and kill your medium ships very quickly, but a lone medium ship is easy to destroy unless the enemy has no defenses. The most common ships used in this rush are the Hades, Corvette, or Falcon, and the most efficient/fastest economic setup is 3 generators and 3 fighter-miner bays for low metal cost mediums or 4 fighter-miner bays for high metal cost mediums. Some counters to this (other than just rushing better medium ships yourself) are lasercannons, whose range and damage can kill most medium ships before they can close in, or deployment of megashields as medium ships often just do not have the dps to overcome them (Spartan is a notable exception. Spartans should be swarmed by fighters pronto, because they will surely overwhelm any turret-based defense, each one-shotting at least one turret before expiring). Also instead of going toward capital ship using naval yard with strong medium ship is an alternative such as corvette with freeze round rapier hangar this will overwhelm your enemy as one hit means one freeze and with overwhelming rapiers may even freeze lock your enemy
 * Capital ship rush, aka turtling: Now we all love our capital ships. We know that often just one of these juggernauts can decide the entire course of a battle, having huge armor reserves and amazing firepower or unleashing waves of fighters. Better yet, there are very few defenses that an enemy can have that will stop your capital ships, so they must rely on their own ship strength to counteract yours. The vast majority of new players, often to their detriment, focus solely on trying to push out these bad boys as quickly as possible. The best capital ships are usually whichever ones have the best upgrades, although the Jupiter and Goliath are often considered as the top overall ships (and you should build your strongest cap ship first as the cost of starports is so high that individual cap ship cost differences are not that important). The risks of this strategy are many. If the enemy medium ship rushes you your base can be either destroyed or you can get caught spending money in defense and never having quite enough for that capital ship. Even if you do get a capital ship out, a single Hades can always one-shot your cap, and any sizable collection of medium ships can easily take out a single capital ship. This is why capital carriers are preferred, as they produce enough "meatshield" distraction all by themselves. And, of course, the other player may always have a better capital ship than yours.The most efficient/fastest economic setup for this is 3 generators and 5 fighter-miner bays.
 * Artillery Rush. Sometimes people just decide that the only way to win a fight is to call down the wrath of the god of thunder. Do not be one of these people. It will almost never work as it is so easy to counter. What you should do is carry a phalanx into every battle, and if the enemy even thinks of placing down an artillery or a Mjolnir, you make it a costly mistake by completely neutralizing any artillery rounds with a single well placed phalanx to shoot them down. An important notice, however, is that Supply Technology allows Artillery to be built right away, without setting up a mining operations first, so if you do not spot that early on you could miss an opportunity to place Phalanx and will play a sitting duck.
 * Biolab rushing is the cheapest and most hated way to win a battle quickly. It requires 4 Supply Technology, allowing a biolab to be built right away. This is usually accompanied by a fighter rush to distract any defenses. Luckily, it is easy to counter as long as you are aware of what's happening. With the appearance of microlasers in pvp, biolab rushing can be easily countered. However, if you place the biolab directly in front of your enemy's station (with constructors), it would leave them with little reaction time. It is also a good idea to place down distraction turrets such as frame-glitched microlasers, freeze blasters, and/or empty fighter bays.
 * Deadly surprise for economy builds is a fighter with SD+freeze+cloak on early game.
 * Fighter sweep: fighter yard, close-range SD and cloak fighter with gladiator - close-range fighters will move in hidden and deal signifficant damage, while gladiators will provide them better survival. Possible counter: laser + repair + fighterbay/barricade on front. This strategy in combination with freeze tech can be used to counter capitals.
 * Structure targeting: EMP ship and any AoE bomber - will destroy enemy shields and put effect on unshielded targets. Possible counter: repair units deployment, fighter spam.
 * Blackhole strategy: Blackhole ship and bulletspammer - bulletspammers distract defenses, blackholes do the rest. Possible counter: tac/mega shield + planax.
 * Plasma spamming: carrier or fighter with SD or ship with SD and piranha bay - quicly spam opponent with pure damage, also can be combined with plasma mastery for better targeting. Possible counter: phlanax.
 * Sweep and wipe: spam small and\or medium ships and high-power capital - eliminate smaller targets to make way for a destroyer. Possible counters: tank damage, planax, fighter spam, cloak field.

Basic Battles
There are four types of battles: Duel, Skirmish, Flank, and Pincer
 * Duels are the most basic of battles. It consists of you and an enemy with equal energy and spacing. different civilizations require different strategies all of which apply here
 * Skirmishes are battles of you and two enemies which can and do fight each other. A very common strategy is to "lay low" and build on the opposite side facing your opponents. this will cause them to fight each other before getting close enough to fight you.
 * Flanks are battles where you and two enemies are laid out in a line with you on either the right or the left. the same strategy with skirmishes applies, however it is more common for you to half-fight the middle enemy as it builds towards you. Sometimes if you miss the moment a whole army of distant opponent clogs up leveling the middle one and arrive to you in overwhelming numbers. Do note that the middle enemy also gets the 250 extra energy that you get when you are playing in pincer battles.
 * Pincers are battles like flanks with you in the center. These are VERY hard. Most choose to skip these missions unless the reward is very great. An advantage in pincers is that you start with 250 extra energy. Remember to have base defence on both sides with important things in the middle. Constructors are very useful here as you can build away.

Bosses
Bosses can be very difficult if played against the wrong way. A boss battle consists of you versus an enemy with a built in shield and higher armor main base, as well as a more difficult AI and a bigger build range. A very distinctive quality of these missions are the starting energy, 2000. Most bosses will win by having up to four capital ships and strong base defence. Turtling is very hard in boss missions as very few turrets can survive and destroy a capital ship. Rushing is also hard without freeze mod but again is possible. A common strategy is to rush capitals just as fast as they do. Remember, the AI never uses constructors, so use that to build more than he ever can.

There is a section on Turret Rushing bosses on this wiki here http://oe3.wikia.com/wiki/Guide:_Boss_Turret_Rushing but there is also a video by rapidity on boss rushing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrHQlrk-I0

Void Lance rushing (aka VL rushing) is the strategy of constructing up to the boss's base and placing a void lance right next to the boss's station.

To do this constructors are essential, and if you do not have a cloaked void lance you will need barricades as well. To do this effectively you will need to equip up to 3 expansion tech, as well as at least 1 fighter rush tech. Sometimes it is more effective to equip mining beams, especially if the boss is close and you need to use extractors. You can also use combinations of expansion and supply tech to increase metal right from the start. Do not use base cannons or base shields as you can simply place a microlaser to get rid of the initial fighters early game, simply save those tech spaces for supply and expansion. Your goal is to reach the bosses base as quickly as possible. You should use your triple rof or rof rof range miners for this mission. Try to place the miners as close as possible to the asteroids as you can.

When entering the battle, pause the game immediately. Place 12-15 miners next to the asteroid furthest from the boss base, and make sure that if there are more than one asteroid out of range of the bosses turrets, you can place the miner on the lower left hand side of the asteroid, do not place them immediately above or below the asteroid, as experiment has shown this to decrease your total metal output for your miners. If your only metal is in range of the boss's turrets, place extractors in range of the asteroid but out of range of the turrets until you have about 600 energy left. Place 1 microlaser in front of your base, partway between your base and your miners to draw the enemy away a bit. DO NOT place anything else. You will need the energy. If the boss is close enough to only need 1 constructor to get to the base, wait until you have 225 metal. If the boss's base is a bit further away, wait until you have about 300 metal, or 375 if you need 3 constructors. when you have enough, pause the game and construct up to the boss so you have enough space next to the boss's station, preferably with empty space all around. Every time you place a constructor, destroy the constructor you have previously created to accumulate more resources. If you do not have enough energy for the void lance, then sell all your fighter yards(which are no longer needed) to gain more energy until you have 200 WHILE PAUSED. Then, place a void lance right next to the boss's base and microlasers/barricades around the boss's station as much as you can to distract the turrets. Then sit back and watch as your void lance shrinks the boss's base away into oblivion. This strategy may take several tries for it to be successful as it relies heavily on luck. The boss can place objects around it's base and completely stop your strategy in its tracks. Good luck.

A quick guide by FateIsEscaped on void lance rushing is here:

☀http://www.kongregate.com/forums/3-general-gaming/topics/405230-the-obliterate-everything-3-topic#posts-8737352

which happens to be the Obliterate Everything 3 topic page on Kongregate.

Another common and useful strategy employed by high level players such as rapidity is combining biolabs with freeze rounds and strong turrets/ships (shown in a video by rapidity on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nSBmjM2O8Y). This strategy generally only works on yellow, as green has too many lasers and red's tridents have laser turrets on their capital ships. Having a good economy is essential for this strategy, as is having powerful turrets that can overwhelm yellow's phalanxes (the best for this purpose are autocasters, autocannons and autoguns, although autoguns are generally passed over in preference for the higher damage on the other turrets). As well as strong turrets and biolabs, using self-destruct fighters with this strategy can be very helpful. Strong capital ships are also important (I recommend beam halos and legions with sapphire hangars), but holding off the enemy capitals until you can get them is most important. I have personally tried this, but it took me over an hour, which is why some players choose to use other strategies. Helpful techs for this strategy are expansion, freeze rounds and of course base cannons are ESSENTIAL as they add extra freeze autocannons for no extra cost. A variation on this strategy if you don't have a biolab is to use a void lance or two instead of biolabs early game, then use the biohazard capital. Doing this limits your capitals but allows you to use the fighter yard with gladiators and spectres (preferably non-round-modded or freeze spectres, for maximum freezing power) or other auxilary turrets.

An example of this tactic is from my battle against a level 37 yellow boss. I used rof range sd miners and my setup was this http://i.imgur.com/bG8U2XZ.png?1 It took me several tries to be able to even survive for longer than a minute as the boss kept spamming caps as shown here http://i.imgur.com/FyvVA63.png?1 When I had a chance I took it, using the strategy above: http://i.imgur.com/YyyujaF.png?1 I then defended until I could save up for more caps http://i.imgur.com/2IEIUAW.png?1 then I finished them off: http://i.imgur.com/PjbtlXL.png?1 This is just an example of these tactics being put into action, showing they are viable and can work with the right equipment, even at high levels. Note that the auxilaries I use here are not necessary for this strategy to work (other than biolab), as the fighter yard is often preferred over a constructor as gladiators are moveable phalanxes and are an easy way to overwhelm yellow's defenses as they rely mostly on missiles projectiles as defense. Other auxilary turrets are also viable, such as tactical shield or barricade for a more versatile defense.


 * NEWER PLAYERS                                                                                                                                        On early levels (levels below 10) during which you are not expected to have an assortment of the items necessary for these strats ready to go at any moment, your best bet to beat the bosses is to spam capital ships. The key to this working is your capital, as you need to have the right ships for each situation. Against green and red, both of which use tactical shields as their defensive turret, using an Artillery Halo is your best bet, as it will easily overwhelm the defenses and punch a hole to the base. However, against the yellow faction bosses, using an artillery halo will result in frustration and a waste of valuable energy and metal. Generally the Beam Halo is a good all round cap against any faction, as there is not a defense against beams yet. Another powerful capital to use is the Archangel, as it has a built-in tactial shield which will protect your ships from a certain amount of damage. Most capitals which are either powerful or tanky, or are just good at providing targets (carriers) or are good at clearing out fighters (generally beams) will be good against any boss, but obviously some will not work against one faction or the other. As a general rule, the more expensive a capital is, the better it will fare against a boss. Consider pairing some capitals with others to provide an unstoppable combo, such as using a high-bullet capital such as the Cataclysm with the Artillery Halo so the combined bullets overwhelm any defenses. As well as using effective capitals, consider using medium ships to provide backup or to hit the enemy hard where you need it most. Medium ships such as the Spartan or Hades are good for this kind of backup, or alternately you could use a naval yard of Tremors or other carriers.

Occasionally you will come across a boss which has no asteroids near it. The boss will only build fighters as it has no metal to mine. If this happens, don't argue, just accept your luck and beat the boss much more easily than normal. Also if the boss only has 1 small asteroid during the first try, then it disappears during the next try, the boss may not build extractors and will therefore fighter rush. This happens because one of the boss's preplaced turrets has been placed over top of the asteroid. This can also happen to normal AI.

General Tips

 * Shields are one of the best early upgrades as they add extra life, regeneration of life, immunity to acid, immunity to freeze, and can be a more effective defense against some types of ammunition.
 * Furies/self destruct ships, lasers, shields and artillery are your friend against the infecting civilization.
 * Shield auxilaries and phalanx turrets increase the lifespan of a turret by 200% to 1000%
 * The tech "freeze rounds" and "supply" are VERY handy
 * Miners are so much better than extractors, except in the first few seconds of a fight.
 * Energy Cells aka Battery Packs is one of the strongest techs in the game. Most matches are decided quickly, and the ability to be beating your opponent right out the gate in economy usually clinches you the game. It also gives you flexibility to respond if the enemy fighter rushes.
 * The mining rate/energy rate increase techs should never be used as the amount that they increase is far less than the amount of extra generators/miners that you could buy with an extra energy cell.
 * Learn the counters, and properly respond with them to the enemy's strategy/tactics.
 * Focus on upgrading/obtaining quality versions of early turrets and fighters over meds and caps: most of the game is decided very early, and that's when every small bit matters.
 * Pay attention to details about ships and turrets. Many things matter more then the raw HP and DPS: turning speed, range, homing, whether a carrier launches to the front or to sides, e t.c. For example, Spartan and Goliath insane DPS does not practically mean the same avalanche of destruction a Trident or Cataclysm will unleash, instead, it means they will oneshot something once in quite a while. (And since that something will often have much less then 400hp, most of that "dps" will be lost on overkill).
 * The plasma mastery tech makes self-destruct more effective by a huge amount, as it makes sure that your self-destruct plasma shot will hit something when normally it would miss.
 * Building just one cheap fighter at the start of a multiplayer game can be extremely helpful no matter your strategy. It can disrupt the other player's resource income, and often forces the other player to build a turret that costs more than your own fighter bay, thereby effectively "recouping" your losses and then some.
 * It is usually better to be on the offensive than the defensive. Even if you cannot break through the enemy's laser turret defenses with your fighter bays right now, eventually when you get to the bigger ships your previous ones can be invaluable as support, while the enemy's turrets become obsolete. Eventually the only way to win is to destroy the enemy's base, and old defensive turrets built near your base can not help you do that.
 * If you find that your ships just keep dying before they can get within range of the enemy you can build forward "corridors" of phalanxes or shields that will protect your ships so that they can get close enough to do damage. But be warned, overextending is an expensive mistake.
 * Biolab is often useless... unless you have freeze rounds. With freeze rounds you can effectively trap enemy ships or turrets, giving your biolab's infected the chance to destroy or even turn the enemy to your side with ease. Obviously does not work well against shielded enemies.
 * The most commonly successful multiplayer strategies are often a combination of several strategies, or at least a player who is able to adapt quickly to an enemy and is not too fixated on any one strategy.
 * Constantly lightly test and prod your enemy until you find a weakness (maybe they forgot to bring a phalanx to this game?) and then bring the hammer down when you find it.
 * Keep track of what type of economy your enemy has, and about how many resources they have. If they have not bought anything in a while you should brace for trouble as they are saving up for a nasty surprise, or if they are an energy heavy economy maybe they are planning on a late tower push into your base. The ratio of metal income structures to energy income structures also tells you what type of ships your enemy is planning on building.
 * Constructors act as another base not just with regard to build space, but as a "kill to win" building too. This is especially handy against Alien faction where your base can accidentally die to a random Sperm getting through.
 * One of the most effective ships in the game is the Gladiator. Not only does it have a phalanx, to block projectile shots; but when spawned using fighter yard, the large number of phalanx at a player's control is perhaps enough to overwhelm most projectile-based civilizations. NOTE; DO NOT USE ON GREEN FACTION, their lasers will easily take care of your gladiators. In addition, they are somewhat less effective against goliaths because of the laser mounted on the goliath. Fighter yard rushing is expensive and you will need to balance your metal/energy requirements carefully as the fighter yard requires 200 metal and 200 energy to build. Keep in mind that gladiators cost 150 energy and 50 metal to build so destroy/build structures to suit your energy costs at any one time in the game.
 * Don't be afraid to ask! Most people in the chat are happy to tell you more about the game, as half of the game is based on luck.