The OFFICIAL Church of Seed
Cycle
Member, Moderator
Welcome brothers and sisters. This place is our temple, our sanctuary, our garden of Alder. This is a safe zone for us to discuss wonderful strategies and builds for our idol, for we must find the best way to lead His Plantiness not only onward to victory, but also unto the hearts and souls of our enemies. From Goliath rushes to Tree of Life abundance, all builds are welcome. Appreciation for all that is Seed is also welcome. For instance, the Seedbot is objectively the cutest unit in the game.
Discussion open.
In the name of Mama Earth and Plant Dad, st-amen.
Here's a build to get us started
Garden of Sekhmet
Goal: Tree of Life + Needleferns dominate your battles. Heal your allies, heal yourself, shoot baddies from far away pew pew.
Merc: Raiders
Build:
Initial: upgrade to T2 immediately, 2 Seedbots, expand to center Green with remaining 10 gems
next 150g: Seedbot
- special - if you're in top and have a ranged ally, take the red camp from your first expansion to start getting gems
next 10 gems: expand somewhere else for soup
- special - if you're in top and have a ranged ally, take the gem camp as well from this expo
next 200 scrap: upgrade Merc building to start getting Shielders (read tooltip to get right one)
next 225g: Grove Tender
- special - if you can, try to take the double gem expansion and place an Ion Cannon (built from Engineer) at it for defense
- spend all gems from here out on Shielders
next 400 scrap: healing charm
next 400 scrap after that: Rabbit's Foot speed charm
next 150g: Replenishing Roots (aka Tree of Life upgrade)
next 225g: Grove Tender #2
- special - if you're almost level 6, next 150g on Lengthy Sowing (aka Plant Sapling Range upgrade)
next 225g: Grove Tender #3
rest of gold is dumped into Seedbots, and gems into Shielders.
Use Needlefern as a very powerful zoning tool, and snare with Alder's Living Vines when the opponent gets too arrogant. Drop Tree of Life to gain an advantage in combat (remember that multiple Trees of Life don't stack!). After hitting level 6, always remember to save at least 1 sapling to place a well-positioned Deeproot Terror. NEVER use all of your saplings in an engagement if you have combat tricks (ie: Tree of Life/Deeproot Terror at vital moments). Remember to position your Needleferns in safe spots - they have long range and do toooons of damage if they don't get targeted down. Use Shielders to protect your Needleferns/Tree of Life/Deeproot Terror.
Comments
This build is good. Needleferns when they have the space to work their magic are very tough to deal with.
Your seedbots are very important as you need seedlings, so you need to keep them safe, but they also are a good source of extra damage. Balancing how you engage with them is very important.
Once you have seedling range, look for engagements where you can throw your seedlings behind your enemy so they are surrounded and potentially have to retreat through the seedlings. But if the enemy is able to kill the seedlings before they even finish growing then you'll be wasting that long cooldown.
PlantDad is a squad that needs balance. When to engage and when to fall back, what units to press with, and when to morph your more powerful plants. All of these can dramatically change the outcome of a skirmish, so take care to keep your beautiful baby plants safe.
With the change to ion cannons which means they can hit only structures, I am unclear as to how they are supposed to help with the defense of the double gem base if you can take it. I experimented with the other mercenary group so that you could have healers and teleporters, and while they felt strong and the mobility is amazing, I don't feel like they quite match the power that the shielders give you, and they come at a later time.
Ohhh Teleporters are so sick. Here's another build I've been messing with:
Omnipresent Indomitable Fist of Gaia (OIFoG)
Goal: fastest reasonable Bramblethorn Goliath possible lets you dominate the early game, hitting 6 before anyone else and allowing you to snowball, bringing leafy justice to tall.
Merc: Assault (Square)
Build:
Initial: upgrade to T2 immediately, and then T3 as soon as that's done. You're delaying your first expo.
first 150g on a Seedbot.
-> if your ally is making T1 units, you can still clear the scrap titans by the first expo
-> spend all gems from here out on expansions until you've expanded everywhere
-> spend your first 400 scrap on the Rabbit's Foot (movespeed) charm
-> spend your next 400 scrap on another charm of your choice (I like the HP regen charm)
Next 275g: Bramblethorn Goliath #1
Next 150g: Seedbot #2
-> if you're just about to hit level 6, then next 150g on Lengthy Sowing (Plant Sapling range upgrade)
Next 150g: Seedbot #3
-> spend the rest of your scrap upgrading your Merc building to build towards Teleporters
Next 150g: Seedbot #4
Next 200g: Insatiable Appetite (Goliath Re-cycle charge upgrade)
rest of gold on Seedbots as you see fit
Build Teleporters as soon as you have money, and keep them separate from your army. You'll want one Teleporter somewhere near the top, and one somewhere near the bottom, and if you can get more, spread them out on your side of the map. Unhotkey them from your main army, and keep their hotkeys separate so you can access them as needed.
The Bramblethorn does INSANE damage in a small aoe cone. Use this aoe damage to clean up the early game, and punish players who don't split their army. Additionally, the Goliath's ability Re-cycle allows it to eat Saplings or Trees and gain health and other abilities. We're mostly going to just eat normal Saplings as a way to generate life and also get a little movespeed boost to chase greedy armies. If the Goliath gets low on health, walk him back to your starting base to heal! The healing rate there is super super fast, and it's really worth it to not lose the Goliath.
Take full advantage of the power of Alder's basic ability Living Vines, snaring enemies whenever they might get out of position.
The goal of Teleporters is to negate Alder's weakness of the slow movespeed. Having a network of teleporters will allow you to be where you need to be, when you need to be there.
Pathing in this game is not for the weak-hearted! To get maximum DPS, you have to ensure that your Goliath is within melee range of your opponent -- do NOT let him sit behind your Seedbots! The Goliath is a leader and charges head-on into battle like any leader should. He is the champion Alder deserves.
Well said BTYM :D
Thank you, brother.
I played against this build today and holy moly -- that early Bramblethorn is SCARY.