How to deal with all these biters?

[maxp779]

Hello factorio friends, im surrounded on all sides by large biter nests. They are at 0.97 evolution. Im quite new to this game, this is my first proper factory. I need more space to spam more solar to power the 12 beacon setups I will make.

What is the best way of clearing out these things and taking more space? I've got artillery guns keeping them a distance away from my walls and I recently built a spidertron. I can make an artillery wagon but I don't know how it works tbh. Also I don't know how it would defend itself from the counter attacking swarms. Those counter attacks are brutal, it takes 2 lines of laser turrets to hold them off, and 5 tile thick wall. Initially I had 1 line of lasers with the 5 tile wall and they smashed through that

[Serenity]

Use flamethrower turrets. 2 or 3 layers of walls is generally enough with flamethrowers and laser turrets behind them. Gun turrets with uranium ammo are also very good and do more damage than lasers, but are more difficult to supply.

By launching rockets you can invest in laser damage and artillery range upgrades. A few levels of those really help.

With train artillery you can build a temporary defense outpost around them. Otherwise it doesn't really work any different from stationary artillery turrets. And did you figure out that the manual artillery range is much higher than automatic?

[maxp779]

Use flamethrower turrets. 2 or 3 layers of walls is generally enough with flamethrowers and laser turrets behind them. Gun turrets with uranium ammo are also very good and do more damage than lasers, but are more difficult to supply.

By launching rockets you can invest in laser damage and artillery range upgrades. A few levels of those really help.

With train artillery you can build some a temporary defense outpost around them. Otherwise it doesn't really work any different from stationary artillery turrets. And did you figure out that the manual artillery range is much higher than automatic?

Hmm the arty range upgrades sound like a good shout! Yeah I read the manual can shoot further but it would be a lot of clicking I imagine? Theres hundreds of biter nests out there.

I found that the spidertron is doing a decent job on its own if I stay in forests. Or lure the big swarms that attack into forests, biters navigate trees just about as well as I do, that is not well at all! Can laser them to death in there and then rocket their nests again.

I'll try launching rockets, I haven't launched one yet at all so that will be fun

[Hedning1390]

You can sit in one spidertron yourself with a power armor designed for that, then control one more spidertron with a remote. 2 with some practice. However in your case any manual work is too much work with biters set to maximum. I'd say just claim the area that your artilleries have cleared, then move the wall up to the new line. Have an automatic supply line for the artillery included in the wall blueprint so that it moves up with the wall.

[maxp779]

You can sit in one spidertron yourself with a power armor designed for that, then control one more spidertron with a remote. 2 with some practice. However in your case any manual work is too much work with biters set to maximum. I'd say just claim the area that your artilleries have cleared, then move the wall up to the new line. Have an automatic supply line for the artillery included in the wall blueprint so that it moves up with the wall.

Yeah it seems pretty good with some lasers on my power armor + its own lasers.

These cheeky things didn't stand a chance!

[Serenity]

Leave a tile or two between the wall and the turrets. That way you don't get splash damage on the turrets when spitters attack the wall

And as said flame turrets are really good:
https://youtu.be/eXV8dghfF40?t=397
Allows you get by with a thinner wall. Better to kill them than replace walls

[MassiveDynamic]

You are doing impressively well if this is truly your first ever factory. I got overrun 3 times before I was ever able to get past blue science.

That said, use every weapon you can, try them all, they’re fun.

[Premu]

A spidertron is a good choice - I have equipped mine with two fusion reactors, one exosceleton and the rest tier 2 shields.

Meanwhile my personal powerarmor is equipped with four fusion reactors, the rest are laser defenses. If I'm sitting in the spidertron with that setup I just need to circle around at the edges of the biter bases and they simply melt away, while my spidertron is almost indestructible. From time to time I also fire my rockets, but these are not really necessary. My laserdefenses bring already more than enough firepower.

If that is too much work for you to clear out that many nests, you can of course choose the nuclear option - nukes are great to clean out large areas from biter nests.

[maxp779]

You are doing impressively well if this is truly your first ever factory. I got overrun 3 times before I was ever able to get past blue science.

That said, use every weapon you can, try them all, they’re fun.

Thanks, its my 4th factory though. Although none of the others got past red circuits because I made mistakes and decided to start over. Wish I had known how much of a game changer bots were and I probably wouldn't have bothered doing that That said my first factory there was no way I was going to survive. Maxed biters and the standard 100% starting area, was definitely gonna die after a few hours although I didn't realise it at the time.

[maxp779]

A spidertron is a good choice - I have equipped mine with two fusion reactors, one exosceleton and the rest tier 2 shields.

Meanwhile my personal powerarmor is equipped with four fusion reactors, the rest are laser defenses. If I'm sitting in the spidertron with that setup I just need to circle around at the edges of the biter bases and they simply melt away, while my spidertron is almost indestructible. From time to time I also fire my rockets, but these are not really necessary. My laserdefenses bring already more than enough firepower.

If that is too much work for you to clear out that many nests, you can of course choose the nuclear option - nukes are great to clean out large areas from biter nests.

Have you got any of the white science upgrades for the energy weapons? I've got 8 or 9 personal lasers between my spidertron and my own power armor and they're pretty good! But I have no white science upgrades yet so I definitely need the rockets to clear those bases.

Can the spidertron shoot nukes?

[MassiveDynamic]

Personal batteries are your friend.

[Serenity]

Can the spidertron shoot nukes?

Yes, but you really don't want it shooting nukes all over the place what with being automatic and having an insane shooting speed

[wobbycarly]

Can the spidertron shoot nukes?

Yes, but you really don't want it shooting nukes all over the place what with being automatic and having an insane shooting speed

And it has no idea about personal space...

[MassiveDynamic]

Nor any consideration for self preservation.

[maxp779]

Can the spidertron shoot nukes?

Yes, but you really don't want it shooting nukes all over the place what with being automatic and having an insane shooting speed

Excellent point lol!

I learned the hard way about automatic firing when my repair bots went AWOL so I got out to manually fix the spidertron, I figured it would defend itself while I repaired and it definitely did that but a few seconds later "maxp779 died to spidertron"

[TheRangerLOL]

You just need to feed all the biters some fish and make 'em your pets!

[maxp779]

You just need to feed all the biters some fish and make 'em your pets!

Do fish regrow? I felt bad taking the 1 needed for the spidertron.

[Yoyobuae]

Do fish regrow? I felt bad taking the 1 needed for the spidertron.

Just launch rockets with space science in them to get more fish.

[maxp779]

Leave a tile or two between the wall and the turrets. That way you don't get splash damage on the turrets when spitters attack the wall

And as said flame turrets are really good:
https://youtu.be/eXV8dghfF40?t=397
Allows you get by with a thinner wall. Better to kill them than replace walls

So last night I used small artillery/laser outposts and the spidertron to expand east:


I continued the big 5 tile wall I already had with the 2 rows of laser turrets and set up artillery behind the wall as usual. The hordes of bugs attacked the wall and during the night I ran out of power because I hadn't yet used my new land for more solar They chewed through my 5 tile thick wall, wrecked all the laser turrets and the artillery guns and then wandered all over the inside of my perimeter. Took ages to mop up! What made matters worse was the construction robots kept rebuilding the artillery guns first so they would resume firing on the nests provoking even more biter hordes whilst the perimeter wall in front of the guns was still in tatters

Now my priority is backup defences that don't need power. I think you're right about the flame turrets they are really good! They absolutely wreck swarms. I have the flame turrets built into the wall and the arty guns come with an on/off combinator thingy so the inserters won't give them ammo right away. There are also guns with requestor chests and burner insertors... idk if that's a good idea or not but its definitely an easy thing to do and no power needed once the chests are full:

[Premu]

A spidertron is a good choice - I have equipped mine with two fusion reactors, one exosceleton and the rest tier 2 shields.

Meanwhile my personal powerarmor is equipped with four fusion reactors, the rest are laser defenses. If I'm sitting in the spidertron with that setup I just need to circle around at the edges of the biter bases and they simply melt away, while my spidertron is almost indestructible. From time to time I also fire my rockets, but these are not really necessary. My laserdefenses bring already more than enough firepower.

If that is too much work for you to clear out that many nests, you can of course choose the nuclear option - nukes are great to clean out large areas from biter nests.

Have you got any of the white science upgrades for the energy weapons? I've got 8 or 9 personal lasers between my spidertron and my own power armor and they're pretty good! But I have no white science upgrades yet so I definitely need the rockets to clear those bases.

Can the spidertron shoot nukes?

I don't have any of the "endless techs" research yet, I'm currently in transition to the megabase phase. And with that it's already sufficient to deal even with behemoth biters and spitters.