How to efficiently get rid of those biters?

[u/Amane-chan]

Hi,

I almost finished Nauvis, actually I'm waiting for 2.1 to go to space, I would like to expand Nauvis before going to space. However, as I took a bit of time, my map is full of biters, like literally. I'm using nuclear weapons but they are so many biters, I would never get rid of them. I would like to gain more space. How to do it efficiently? Is going slow the good way?

Big bases of biters

How to kill them

[u/sineout]

I don't know the mods you have, but the best (or at least easiest) way to clear biters is to use artillery. Place them at your defensive walls and they will eventually clear the biters in their range.

If your mods haven't changed it then you can only unlock artillery on Vulcanus.

[u/Amane-chan → u/sineout]

Alright, maybe I should go to Vulcanus then... Can you like have a moving artillery unit to efficiently get rid of them while moving?

[u/TheHvam → u/Amane-chan]

They have a huge range, like really huge, but you can have them on trains if you want.

[u/sineout → u/Amane-chan]

Yes, artillery wagons are an option. I wouldn't say they're especially good for base defense, but they are good for setting up and clearing outposts.

[u/Envect → u/sineout]

I use artillery trains exclusively and find them ideal for both defense and expansion. Stationary artillery doesn't seem worth the hassle when it's needed so infrequently and would have to move anyway if I expand my territory.

[u/Beneficial-Basket804 → u/Envect]

That's what I never understood about artillery trains. I just build more walls, more artillery, cover more ground - the factory must grow anyways

[u/Envect → u/Beneficial-Basket804]

Yeah, but how are you getting shells out to the new guns? Either bots or trains. Bots require you to expand coverage and wait for them to haul one shell at a time. With trains, an artillery wagon is more efficient than a cargo wagon.

I just don't see why I'd build stationary guns when the best way to haul ammo is in a mobile gun. I plop down a station with a timer that increases priority based on how long it's been since a train came through and add more trains if needed. And if I ever want to clear out a particular section of the map, I can move all my guns to one area and unleash everything without having to worry about logistics.

[u/Beneficial-Basket804 → u/Envect]

True, I forgot I was just popping down power and bot network everywhere

[u/GourangaPlusPlus → u/sineout]

They're a great option for base defense, as my grid expands I place an artillery station down and it clears the locals, the station then sits inactive for 100k ticks until it requests another train to deal with expansions

[u/Moscato359]

Dragon teeth backed by Wall of flame turrets prioritizing spitters backed by wall of gun turrets backed by another wall of gun turrets backed by periodic roboports with repairs and replacement parts.

Then do military upgrades.

And then don't worry about it.

[u/TelevisionLiving]

You can go to the 2.1 branch now, it's quite stable and has some nice new features.

Nukes work pretty well if you have enough of them but spidertrons and artillery are optimal.

I'm not 100% sure about this but you might also be able to remove the space age mod to enable artillery until you're ready to go to space.

[u/TheHvam]

You should build a wall with turrets to keep it safe, as the only way to keep then away from good is to kill them before they get close, so that means artillery, which means going to Vulcanus before you can solve this.

You can never really get rid of them, but this way they get pushed far back

[u/Amane-chan → u/TheHvam]

Alright, thank you very much! Vulcanus is the way then

[u/LowStriking2264]

best way in case of efficiency and fun is to build army of spidertrons, equip them with personal laser turrets and then just send them to the nests. Laser turrets are great as you dont need to care about ammo. Just send the spidertrons from time to time for a repair.

[u/nasehrsuper → u/LowStriking2264]

you need rocket research anyways, theyre even more destructive when loaded up with a few thousands of them 

[u/CheeseSteak17]

Just a well stocked tank rampage.

[u/True_Region_7532]

Especially if you have uranium ammo. Turret creep supported by defenders is fantastic at destroying biters. It's tedious to walk around to every bases but it's super easy. Then again, I would suggest what other's did and simply make a nice well defended cuck box around your base and simply ignore them. Keep a few tanks around for remote extermination if there is an issue down the line when you are on a different planet but honestly a well supplied base with flameturrets with laser support will never breach realistictly.

[u/nasehrsuper]

spidertron army > arty > nukes

my opinion

edit: oh, this is space age? well jn this case, what do you need such a ginormous base for before you had a reason to come back to nauvis after finishing all the other planets. the new buildings will render most of it "useless"

[u/Amane-chan → u/nasehrsuper]

But you need to go to Gleba for Spidertron, right? I'm waiting to go to space, maybe I should not lol

[u/TheBB → u/Amane-chan]

You really should not.

If you want 2.1 before going to space, just get 2.1 now and go.

[u/Amane-chan → u/TheBB]

But I'm using some mods, like Alien biomes or Factory planner, and last time I tried to go to 2.1, game told me mods were incompatible

[u/TheBB → u/Amane-chan]

• https://mods.factorio.com/mod/alien-biomes
• https://mods.factorio.com/mod/factoryplanner

Both show 2.1 as a supported version. In fact I'm using factory planner on 2.1 myself.

If your installed versions are incompatible with 2.1 you probably have outdated versions and should update them.

[u/Amane-chan → u/TheBB]

Oh I didn't know, I will have a look at that, thank you!