Note: You can also take a look at our Age of Wonders: Planetfall features and guides hub to learn more about the basics, research trees, secret techs, and character customization.
For starters, their main weapons group uses the Biochemical element. That means a majority of weapons, unit attacks, mods, and the like will use Bio damage. Their secondary weapons group would be Lasers/Thermal element. It’s safe to ignore the Laser-type weaponry because the Bio group is where the synergy lies.
Early techs and mod choices
This is due to their effects — one provides +10 production for each forest sector connected to your colonies, and the other provides +10 food for arcadian sectors. Now, given that your surroundings will often have those two biome types, you’d be set for life. You’ll hardly if ever, need to worry about the growth and production for your colonies. The more you expand, the higher the output.
For the Military Techs, this is where the magic happens. The Xenoplague secret tech has three parts that you’ll want to grab whenever convenient — Alpha Strain Inception, Pustule Infection, and Dispersion. These techs will allow you to start churning out units known as pustules whenever you kill enemies affected by “Parasitic Infection.” A mod from the Dispersion tech called “Plague Pods” can be equipped on many of your infantry units, allowing them to throw a grenade that inflicts the debuff as well.
If you combine it with Biochemical Applications and Volatile Afflictions, you’re on your way to becoming an offensive powerhouse. In fact, the “Acidic Composite” mod from the Biochemical Applications tech will add another debuff that lowers a target’s armor per hit. Remember that part about bio element attacks and weapons that fire repeatedly? Imagine inflicting those armor debuffs over and over.
Age of Wonders: Planetfall – The Plague Falls
Much later, you should eventually obtain the Destroyer Mutation and Plague Lord Mutation techs. The way these work is that once you do have pustule units in your armies, they have a chance of evolving into Destroyers and, finally, into Plague Lords. They even keep any and all mods you’ve previously applied.
Oh, and you don’t actually need to manually fight every single battle. Auto-resolving would still be fine. Just like how pustules have a chance to spawn at the end of each fight, so too can those pustules evolve into higher-end units from auto-resolved results. You can even increase this chance by 30% for each hero you have in a battle via the Biomatter Preparation Training doctrine.
You can eventually unlock more elite units such as the Bombardon, Tyranodon (includes a Tyrannosaurus mount that heroes can ride), and the Arborian Queen. By then, the enemy would have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. You’ve got a deadly combination of high-end units gained via recruitment, and those that are upgraded via consistent spawns.
Also, if you’re out befriending minor AI factions, then the Growth (regeneration mod, extra food in the sector doctrine) or the Spacers (offensive mod that applies the Debilitating Strain debuff for each bio weapon hit), are your best bets.
We hope this guide helps you out in your conquests far from the verdant fields of yore. For more Age of Wonders: Planetfall guides and features, be sure to check out our hub right over here. If you’ve yet to check out Age of Wonders: Planetfall, then you can find the game via its Steam store page.
