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The optimal amount of harvesters and refineries

By Netput

8-Bit Armies is still very new and the community is still figuring out what the best way is to gain advantage over the enemy. Obviously there are multiple ways you can gain an advantage, but this time we took a look at the economic side of the game. As we all know, having a few bucks more will always help to get you the advantage on the battlefield!

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Netput
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Category: Achievements, Characters, Classes, Co-op, Crafting, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Loot, Maps or Levels, Modding or Configuration, Multiplayer, Secrets, Story or Lore, Trading, Walkthroughs, Weapons, Workshop

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Posted

Updated

8 May, 2016 @ 3:27am

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Guide Index

Overview

What did we test and how did we do it?

The results

Conclusions

Brought to you by

Comments

What did we test and how did we do it?

8-Bit Armies is still very new and the community is still figuring out what the best way is to gain advantage over the enemy. Obviously there are multiple ways you can gain an advantage, but this time we took a look at the economic side of the game. As we all know, having a few bucks more will always help to get you the advantage on the battlefield!

What did we test and how did we do it?
This has been one of those boring and tedious jobs. We basically constructed a refinery as close as possible to the oil field and logged how much money was on the bank after every minute. In the mean time we did not build any units or any other structures. We did this in 4 scenario's:

1 refinery + 1 harvester
1 refinery + 2 harvesters (you sell your first refinery once you start constructing your second refinery)
2 refineries + 2 harvesters
3 refineries + 3 harvesters

Important notes:

The 3 refineries + 3 harvesters is a bit of an extra, as you don't really have money for it early on. Please note that building 3 refineries will also give you low power early on.
A oil node is completed after roughly 8000-9000 mined money. We couldn't pin point it exactly. So after harvesting that amount, your harvesters have to move somewhere else to collect.

The results

Total collected money in time:

Average collection per minute:

Conclusions

Something that really amazed us is how slow the collection of money is with only 1 refinery and 1 harvester. Within 2 minutes you are already behind in the economic game against any other opening. So whatever you do, it is probably not wise to start with 1 refinery and 1 harvester, unless you are going totally bat crazy with early harassment. The difference between 2 harvesters and 1 refinery and 2 harvesters and 2 refineries is quite small. So you are probably best off with the 1 refinery + 2 harvester start. Later on in the game however, it could be profitable to keep 2 refineries around.

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This guide has been released on www.GameReplays.org/8bitarmies first. For more information and more (advanced) gameplay strategies, tips and videos please check out our website!

7 Comments

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DarkExcalibur42 26 Nov, 2016 @ 5:54pm

Classic C&C strategy with two harvesters per refinery. That way while one is delivering materials, the second is collecting.

FYI number of harvesters to refineries should be increased with greater distance to resources (travel time becomes a factor). Never have so many harvesters that they're waiting in line.

Also, is the old C&C trick of building a refinery for the free harvester, then selling the refinery, still cheaper than building a harvester? It might be worth it early game just so you can build a tank or something instead of a harvester.