[0.15.5] Big worm almost impossible to kill

[Alexander2113]

First biter nest i tried to destroy - and 1 big worm out of 3 is unkillable.
I cleared everything else around, his health goes down to 740\750 and no further

Situated to the north-east of spawn near 5 turrets

[Loewchen]

With what version of the game was the map created originally?

Edit: The worm appears totally killable to me, but you have no military upgrades so it takes quite a long time, but even then with enough turrets and piercing ammo it will die. NaB.

[Alexander2113]

well - strange)

map was generated on 15.5

tried to cheese this worm with a friend, by putting 7 turrets with ammo right around him - they couldn't bring him lower then 700 by shooting simultaneously

main thing that bugs me - there were 3 of them and i killed 2 that were around him - did he evolve before my eyes or something)?

for now i will leave him as a natural preserve - at least until i can rack up some damage

i just really wanted that oil behind him(

[Aeternus]

Try with laser turrets to see if it's a resistances problem? Shouldn't be too hard to get some Big Poles out to draw a power line towards it.

[Loewchen]

main thing that bugs me - there were 3 of them and i killed 2 that were around him - did he evolve before my eyes or something?

There are only remains of non big worms around, you killed only the weak ones yet, the big ones are tough, but they are supposed to be.

Moved to Gameplay help.

[Lav]

I had no issues killing big worms with 3-4 gun turrets, no blue science upgrades, no shooting speed upgrades and mostly yellow ammo (used red initially, but ran out of it while I was eradicating the rest of the colony, and had to make some yellow on the spot). But I normally max red/green upgrades for bullet damage and turrets before trying to engage (maxing red/green/mil is preferable but optional). If you didn't research military upgrades then you might need red ammo at least.

Alternative strategy is the "rinse and retreat" one that I used in 0.14. It requires a flamethrower though. Essentially, put a decoy tower within worm range, let him start attacking it, run forward, rinse him properly (with worm-cleaning solution), retreat beyond worm's range and remove the turret (if it's still alive). But if you're only trying to get to oil that might not be an option.

[Alexander2113]

Thank you for your help

[gmgievo]

So I have a similar issue, 0.15.10
Would love Ideas to deal with this.
I have this on top of my only oil patch within say a 5 minute train ride, on a ribbon world that i am rather attached too.
Just to kill all of the bases to get to this oil patch, I have already raised Biter evolution to 0.5 so blue biters started coming right as i hit this patch with all of the worms.

I killed the other bases with gun turret creep and train raming grenade spamming, But this worm nest litterally takes out my train in 10 seconds.

Any ideas?

[Lav]

That's pretty tough.

In your situation turret creep is not enough, perhaps a semi-automated turret creep exploiting the fact that inserters can supply ammo from turret to turret?

Build an entire AP ammo logistic chain, a row of turrets supplied by inserters at a distance from the nest, produce a large number of turrets and fast inserters (you will need tons), and then advance one row of turrets at a step? Ignore damaged towers, once you advance to the next row, they'll only be good for ammo supply anyway.

Essentially: run along your turret line, placing the next turret line, run along backwards placing inserters between previous turret line and new one, run along once more replacing destroyed turrets in the new line (if necessary), rinse, repeat.

[sillyfly]

If you have Poison Capsules available - they are pretty good at dealing with big worms. Place a turret or deploy some defender capsules as decoy, run in and throw 3-4 poison capsules, then run away.
Come back 15 seconds later and most of the big worms should be dead, leaving the spawners and biters for you to deal with, but they are usually simpler to handle.

[Lav]

If you have Poison Capsules available - they are pretty good at dealing with big worms. Place a turret or deploy some defender capsules as decoy, run in and throw 3-4 poison capsules, then run away.
Come back 15 seconds later and most of the big worms should be dead, leaving the spawners and biters for you to deal with, but they are usually simpler to handle.

Poison capsules require blue science, which needs oil, which needs this nest cleared first.

[Shokubai]

So I have a similar issue, 0.15.10
Would love Ideas to deal with this.
I have this on top of my only oil patch within say a 5 minute train ride, on a ribbon world that i am rather attached too.
Just to kill all of the bases to get to this oil patch, I have already raised Biter evolution to 0.5 so blue biters started coming right as i hit this patch with all of the worms.

I killed the other bases with gun turret creep and train raming grenade spamming, But this worm nest litterally takes out my train in 10 seconds.

Any ideas?

It is tricky but you can range those one at a time with grenades.

[Frightning]

So I have a similar issue, 0.15.10
Would love Ideas to deal with this.
I have this on top of my only oil patch within say a 5 minute train ride, on a ribbon world that i am rather attached too.
Just to kill all of the bases to get to this oil patch, I have already raised Biter evolution to 0.5 so blue biters started coming right as i hit this patch with all of the worms.

I killed the other bases with gun turret creep and train raming grenade spamming, But this worm nest litterally takes out my train in 10 seconds.

Any ideas?

Grenades....and a LOT of patience (in-out, wait for auto-heal, rinse repeat, w/ Heavy armor, probably want a few spares in inventory so you don't have to leave to make more in the middle of weaning them down, and be sure to bring a LOT of grenades [read maybe 1-2k;...yes, 1000+]). I've always not liked that bases even fairly near your start can be map gen'd to have Big worms in them. It makes them almost impossible to remove until midgame or later, and if you chose a small enough starting area that can translate into them being a royal pain in the arse until you manage to get something effective versus them (pro tip: reg. Rocket launcher can 4-5 shot them with basic Rockets and that only takes a little bit of oil and science packs 1+2 to get; unfortunately oil is your problem)
Addendum: if you can push them back far enough to get even one of the oil fields pumpjacked without the worms destroying it (biters=np w/ turrets to protect it), then you use some oil from that to get explosives to use in Rockets for the Rocket launcher, which are fantastic against worms, btw). That would let you clear the rest of that ezpz, and claim your hard won oil.

[fessoric]

As far as I can tell, you don't need blue science to research flamethrowers or solar power. Wait until dawn, drop some solar panels out of range. Creep poles up. Run into range and drop decoys (gun turrets work good). Drop a pumpjack, connect power, drop a flame turret, connect the plumbing, then bust out the repair packs and keep it alive. If you have time, and any of the decoy turrets are still alive, load and repair them. If you can't get the whole nest dead before dusk, be ready to flee and repeat the next day.

[Koub]

I'll quote myself in another topic :

During biter migration, medium worms can now only spawn if the evolution factor is greater than 0.3, and big worms require evolution factor of 0.5.

Source
and

Medium and large worms spawn further from the starting area.

Source

It is unlikely (but not impossible) one finds big worms in bases neat spawn point. 5 minutes train ride away from spawn point, however, and/or if pollution is enough, there should be some.