They Are Billions Update: Defend Your Colony!

Greetings!
First, we’d like to show off the main theme that our composer Nicolas de Ferran has created for They Are Billions. As you can see in the video, the theme is played during the main menu of the game. We have called it: “An Ocean of Doom”. Hope you like it!

Today, we will talk about one of the most important parts of the game which is defending your colony from the infection. We are sure every player will follow their own strategy, so we won’t tell you what to do but instead, tell you what you can do. Most of the strategy techniques must be researched first in the workshops so you will have to think carefully on which of them you invest in. There are a lot of tactics and combinations. Experiment with all and have fun!

Geography

Mountains, forests, cliffs, lakes, ruins and many other geologic elements are part of the world map. Though you cannot do much with them, you can decide to expand your colony around the most protected terrains. The less exposed the colony, the easier it will be to defend it. At the same time, you will want to be near resources, so deciding where to extend the colony can be the most important decision to survive.

Your Army

The first few units in which you start the game with will be your unique defense in the beginning. Units can patrol between two points and will kill any enemy that they find in their way. The first units can be enough for dealing with roaming infected that come close to the colony, but you will need many more to stop bigger groups or defend against the dreadful swarms. The advantage of the army is clear, they are dynamic. They can move and be placed wherever you need them while all the rest of defense elements are static. If you need to extend the colony, you will have to destroy them and rebuild them again in a new place.
Units can also cure themselves with time, while all other structures must be repaired when they are damaged by spending gold and resources.

Walls and Gates

Blocking all access into your colony with walls is always a great idea. However, walls are not cheap, especially in the beginning. You will have to decide carefully where to build them. Use the terrain to your advantage. Also placing gates will allow your soldiers to pass through and enter and exit your colony. But do not worry, the gates open and close automatically for allies. Your enemies will have to destroy them to enter. Walls are passive defense elements. They block access from the infected. However, the infected can destroy walls while they trying to reach the colony. To survive, you will also need offensive attack elements like units, traps or turrets to kill them. You have lots of strategies here. For example, you can make several walls rings that surround your colony so if the infected reach the colony, they will be contained in the next ring.

Army Towers

Place your units in these towers and they will gain a big bonus to their sight and attack radius. They work perfectly with the walls. Placing a few towers wisely can protect all your colony frontiers without having units patrolling. Towers are a great way to protect your units, as these towers are very strong. The downside is, the same as the walls, they are expensive. When you wish to extend the colony, you will have to destroy them and build new ones. The towers also need units inside, otherwise, they are just big passive walls.

Traps

On the ground, you can place traps such as stakes, metallic wired fences, or even mines. Though there can be billions of infected, they are not very smart when deciding their path into the colony. The stakes and metallic traps will damage the infected while they walk over them. If you build many of them, they can destroy large groups of the infected. The downside is that the stakes are also damaged while the infected come though, so you will have to repair them from time to time. The mines are different. They explode and can kill even the strongest infected easily. They are expensive, so use them carefully. Of course, none of these traps can harm your units.
There are a lot of strategies to using traps: place mines in front of your walls, place them in a safe place and attract the infected to them by using your fast rangers, or surround your more vulnerable buildings just in case the infection reaches the colony, it won’t spread as fast…

Guard & Radar Towers

These towers allow you to watch from much farther away than with just units or other structures. This is a very big advantage. Detecting roaming groups or big swarms much earlier can make a difference, as you will have more time to move your army or even place traps. Also, they will unveil a big part of the map that surely you have not seen before. This allows you to discover resources or safe places to extend the colony.

Attack Towers

The Great Ballista, The Executor and more… They are very sophisticated and expensive to research and build but they are also very powerful. They have a very large attack range and produce extraordinary damage. But, in contrast with the other structures, they need some workers and energy to operate. Be careful where you place this powerful machine. If the infected manage to break into them, the workers inside will now be infected and your enemy in combat. At the same time, if they lose their access to energy because the infected have infected a nearby Tesla Tower, they won’t work at all.

Development and the Incoming beta access

Right now we are working very hard on polishing the Survival mode of the game. Though the game is fully playable and looks very good, there are several small things we want to polish before creating the first gameplay video or releasing the beta. Most of the things are just small issues like some missing sounds, improving the in-game help, adding tips, other cosmetic elements, some optimization, and of course, finding and fixings some mini-bugs. All of these things can take some time, so we expect that the next update in about two weeks will include the gameplay video. Then, perhaps in the week to follow that, the beta will be available through our website.

See you soon!