Mindustry

Mindustry is a real-time strategy tower defense game where players must use various materials to build a complete and complex supply chain, constructing powerful fortifications and logistical support. Depending on your choices, you can attack the enemy base or defend against enemy attacks, showcasing your skillful maneuvering to defeat the enemy and win the level. The game offers players 35 different maps with various styles and hundreds of technology modules and weapons, allowing players to freely create their defensive and offensive systems with almost limitless possibilities. The game also features a custom mode, allowing players to freely customize game rules, adjust resource consumption, enemy attributes, difficulty, and even team up with friends for battle.

Features of Mindustry:

Use production blocks to create a wide variety of advanced materials.

Defend your structures from waves of enemies.

Play with your friends in cross-platform multiplayer co-op games, or challenge them in team-based PvP matches.

Distribute liquids and fight constant challenges, like outbreaks of fire or enemy flier raids.

Get the most out of your production by supplying optional coolant and lubricant.

Produce a wide variety of units for automatic management of your base or assault on enemy bases.

Set up assembly lines to construct armies of mechanized units.

Use your units to square up against fully functional enemy bases.

Highlights of Mindustry:

Addictive gameplay: The game offers a gameplay experience that is addictive and will keep you engaged for hours on end.

Wide range of possibilities: The game's complexity provides a wide range of possibilities for players, allowing them to explore different strategies and approaches to achieve success.

Self-sufficient factory creation: The main objective of the game is to create a self-sufficient factory that can collect materials from the land. This aspect is reminiscent of popular games like Minecraft.

Defend against enemies: In addition to collecting materials, players must also defend their facilities from waves of enemies that attack every 60 seconds. This adds an exciting element of strategy to the game.

Multiple game modes: The game offers three different game modes for players to choose from. Wave mode challenges players to defend against alien attacks, sandbox mode provides unlimited resources for a more relaxing experience, and free build mode offers limited resources for an added challenge.

Factorio-like experience: The game is a great option for those who enjoy games similar to Factorio. With similar gameplay mechanics and graphics, this app provides a similar experience that fans of the genre will appreciate.

Strategies of Mindustry:

You should always have some things prioritized when landing on a new sector, for very early game sectors like Ground Zero or Frozen Forest, securing a source of CopperCopper and LeadLead as soon as possible should be high in a priority list, allowing blocks to built much quicker and saving valuable time.

Search for the enemy drop point immediately. After finding it, make sure to close off any secondary paths the enemies might get with walls to create a chokepoint (leave an opening for enemies to go through but have it as heavily fortified as possible).

For later sectors, you can set a custom loadout where you can start with resources you brought from the launch sector. It is advised to bring a full core of CopperCopper and LeadLead, as well as full core of other resources (though optional).

Limited resources like leftover TitaniumTitanium and ThoriumThorium from deconstructing some DerelictDerelict blocks should be stockpiled to make SeparatorSeparators or DisassemblerDisassemblers, which can create more Titanium and Thorium (especially in sectors without either resources in veins) at a renewable pace without needing Launch PadLaunch Pads.

One of the best turrets for early game is the ArcArc and ScorchScorch, (don't forget air defense with the ScatterScatter) which can easily clean up hordes of T1 or a small squad of T2 just fine as you make more resources and upgrade your defense to higher tech such as LancerLancers and FuseFuses.

The MonoMono is a Support Air Unit which automatically mines ores such as CopperCopper and LeadLead. This massively helps with the economy, and very useful in places where there are less spaces to build drills. They are quite cheap, only needing some SiliconSilicon and Lead, as well as Copper to make the factory itself. They can easily be upgraded into the PolyPoly with the Additive ReconstructorAdditive Reconstructor, only needing Silicon and GraphiteGraphite as input. Polies are incredibly useful and can massively speed up your building speed, as well as being able to heal blocks and mine ores.

When you're sufficiently technologically advanced, it is useful to make a Core Schematic, a schematic which you can select on the launch screen, which will be pre-built if you chose to select it. For a Core NucleusCore: Nucleus, the maximum size of the Core schematic is 15x15 tiles. It is useful to make a T3 schematic, with RTG GeneratorRTG Generator as power and resources extracted directly from the Core for a large army to build up without extra prep, or a pure defense schematic where obscene amounts of turrets are placed and the Unattended Sector Defense mechanic is relied upon to defeat difficult enemies.

After capturing vulnerable sectors, it is important to be prepared for more fighting with enemies. You can either choose to destroy the Enemy Base to prevent reattacks, or standing your ground and upgrade your defense, such as FuseFuse-spamming, which is incredibly effective even against T5 attacks.

Player Comments of Mindustry:

I came to Mindustry feeling nostalgic for an old tower defense game called Xeno Tactic, hoping this would scratch that itch with an added RTS dimension layered on top. And the first few levels of the Erekir campaign delivered! It was factory-building first, a little tower defense in the middle, and some RTS flavor as the cherry on top. I'm not an RTS guy, but I was enjoying the mining and factory systems and looking forward to the tower defense side developing into something more substantial.My expectation was that the factory puzzles would get tighter and more complex, and the tower defense would introduce more variety. Maze building, unit diversity, that kind of thing.What actually happened around level 7 was the opposite: the factory and tower defense elements got sidelined in favor of RTS. You spawn into a big open map, the mining challenge nearly disappears, and the game just... hands you half your factory. It felt like the developer knew those parts weren't scaling well and automated them rather than making them more interesting.Then came the real wall. Learning RTS fundamentals is already hard, but having to build a factory just to reach the early game makes it nearly impossible. Imagine if chess required an hour of setup before you could play your first move. That's not a flaw for someone who loves RTS. They'd probably enjoy every minute of it. But I'm not that person.So the same thing that always happens to me with RTS happened again: I'm having fun building, not optimally but genuinely enjoying myself, and then somewhere in the mid-to-late game an overwhelming force creeps out of the darkness and explodes my sand casle because I wasn't fast or efficient enough. And there's nothing I can do about it because it's already too late.I know it's a skill issue. I just have no interest in developing those particular skills. That's entirely on me, not the game.

If you’ve played Factorio and loved it, I’d definitely recommend giving Mindustry a try. It feels like a more simplified version of Factorio where you control a ship, mine materials yourself (or place automated miners), and build up your base while securing areas of the map.One of the key differences is that the game sends waves of enemies at you, so you need to build proper defenses to protect your base while your production lines keep running.There’s also a research tree where you spend collected materials to unlock new defenses, belts, and other upgrades. So far I’ve only completed the first map, Ground Zero, which acts as the tutorial. It guides you through building your first systems and progressing through research, but it doesn’t hold your hand too much.You still have to figure out how belt placement works and how the segments connect. If you’ve ever spent hours in Factorio trying to solve logistics and build puzzles, it’s pretty satisfying when everything finally clicks. Mindustry feels a bit simpler when it comes to belt spacing and layout, which makes it easier to pick up while still being fun to optimize.Overall, I’d say the game will easily pay for itself in terms of playtime and the satisfaction you get from building everything up and making it work.

Two games in the same engine.One of them I find kind of boring (Erikur or something).The other, Serpulo, is dangerous for me to start playing again. It's too addictive to get into the habit of building and optimizing and re-building and re-optimizing the flow of resources into machines that convert them into more advanced resources to rocket off to other segments of the planet. I should be going to bed, or doing some work, but I just want to keep watching the numbers go up.The "strategy/defense" gameplay is very exploitable and not too challenging, with only a very sharp difficulty spike when the enemy gets a flying guardian (the boss enemies) and otherwise a very easy thing to handle. But...I don't really say that as a complaint. It's way more fun to just set up some easy, reliable defenses and go build things anyway. It's fun to just use the tier-two bomb dropping flier units, skirt them around all the enemy's carefully-placed defenses, and then have them cut supply lines around the enemy's main base, bleed the turrets' remaining ammo dry with my player-character unit, and then obliterate said main base while not touching the rest.The "building/supplying/crafting" gameplay is where everything is. It's so fun to just watch the numbers go up, to realize there's a way to make them go up just a little bit faster and then implement it. It's frustrating to notice that there's sand in the silicon inputs to the shock alloy factories, but you get such a sense of relief when you go find the source of the problem and fix it. It's SO satisfying to hook up an overdrive dome and watch EVERYTHING around it instantly start whizzing around at twice the speed. So on, so forth.

FAQs of Mindustry:

I can't find my friend's multiplayer game!

If you are sure that you are on the same network, and you still can't find their game, considering using a wifi hotspot instead of a public network. Some public wifi networks simply do not allow server discovery.If you're using a wifi hotspot and you still can't find a friend's game, you could try connecting directly via IP. Instead of looking for the game, find the internal IP of the hosting device (look up how to find it for the specific device you're using), and have the other player type in that IP in the Play > Join Game > Add Server button.

How can I play with someone across networks?

You need to port forward and share your IP with the other players. See the guide here.Consider using a public server, such as those that are on the game already.

Can PC players play with iOS/Android players?

Yes, Mindustry is fully cross-platform. As long as all the devices are running the same version of Mindustry, any device can connect to any other device.

How do I import a map?

First of all, you need to make sure that the map is compatible with your game version. If you're running Mindustry 4.0 or later, you need a .msav map file. Once you download the file onto your device, open the Mindustry main menu. Select Editor -> Import Map (on the top of the screen). Find the directory that the map is in, select the file and press "open".Note that the file chooser will only display files with an .msav extension. If you can't find the file, make sure that you're looking in the right place and that the extension is correct. Note that Discord may sometimes remove the extension from files when downloading, so you'll need to open your file browser of choice and add the extension manually.

How do I export a map file?

Open your map in the editor. Open the menu, then press "Export". Select a directory, type in a filename and press "Save".

Does Mindustry run on a Raspberry Pi?

While the game itself could theoretically support it, no, it does not support the Raspberry Pi.However, the dedicated server will run on a Pi as long as you have the right version of Java installed. Note that the 3.5/Classic dedicated server will not run on a Pi; only 4.0 and above is supported.

Summary:

In Mindustry, players build and manage factories to collect resources, produce supplies and weapons, and use them to defend against enemy attacks. The game offers a variety of resources and production chains that players can use to build complex production systems, from the most basic raw materials to the final product. At the same time, players need to arrange the layout of defense towers and weapons in order to protect factories from enemy attacks.