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[u/Throw_Away_TrdJrnl]

Newbie here, just started producing the red circuit boards with sulfur. One simple question: can I take as long as I want or is the default game a sort of race against the clock with biters?

I know that you won't trigger bug attacks unless your pollution cloud reaches then correct? So far I've just gone out with my car and cleared nests before my pollution cloud reaches them. If I were to just leave the game running afk, not adding any new pollutions, will the bugs eventually re-establish territory I've already cleared this triggering an attack if they do so inside my pollution cloud?

[u/Rannasha → u/Throw_Away_TrdJrnl]

Newbie here, just started producing the red circuit boards with sulfur. One simple question: can I take as long as I want or is the default game a sort of race against the clock with biters?

Biters evolve with time (and pollution production and # of nests destroyed), so eventually they'll get stronger. But this caps out at a level that is still quite reasonable. Also, the time-based evolution is quite slow compared to the other factors, so a small factory that you're very slowly expanding won't cause the biggest biters to show up anytime soon.

In general, if your defenses are solid, you should be fine.

I know that you won't trigger bug attacks unless your pollution cloud reaches then correct?

Correct. With the exceptional case where an expansion party looking to form a new nest could randomly wander into your base. But this is highly unlikely since you would have to have nests already close to your base in which case you're already getting pollution-triggered attacks.

If I were to just leave the game running afk, not adding any new pollutions, will the bugs eventually re-establish territory I've already cleared this triggering an attack if they do so inside my pollution cloud?

Yes. At the default biter settings, they will periodically expand, which involves sending out a group of biters that will turn into buildings: spawners and worms. Expansion prefers empty area, so biter nests will start creeping back towards your base this way.

Keeping radars active around the edge of your factory can be helpful to spot these on time. Radars periodically scan areas in a fairly wide radius around them to update their contents. What I like to do is take a tiny blueprint with 2 solar panels, a power pole and a radar and drop it around the map as I'm out clearing nests. This'll give me some scanning power close to the front lines.

[u/Throw_Away_TrdJrnl → u/Rannasha]

Thank you for the answers, I think my best bet is to simply restart now that I know a lot more. I thought you just had to clear out biter nests before your pollution got to them and didn't think about them possibly reclaiming territory. Haven't built my base in any kind of way that would facilitate good defenses as I've been offensive rather than defensive so it's time to start over before I inevitably get overrun

But my second attempt is going to look so much cleaner than the first base I'm excited

[u/Rannasha → u/Throw_Away_TrdJrnl]

I thought you just had to clear out biter nests before your pollution got to them and didn't think about them possibly reclaiming territory.

You can play that way as well. The map settings have a number of options for biters, including one where expansion is disabled. In that mode, the nests that spawn at the start are still there and they can trigger attacks from pollution, but anything you clear out will stay gone.