Welcome to our Resource Guide for The Alters: Last Variable.
The Alters: Last Variable DLC brings a fully functioning pipeline system to The Alters, and it can seem quite daunting when looking at the tutorial for the first time. There are three new materials required in the pipelines — Phased Rapidium, Proxylium, and Mega Fluid — and each has to be brought into your base through pipelines that require different sets of buildings. Here is everything you need to know about building your pipelines.
Table of contents
Overview
Every single resource is made by a similar process: take the fluid out of the ground at the location of extraction and pass it through one or more processing buildings before pumping it into an allocated storage building back at your home base. The trick is that all of the three resources use the same infrastructure, so you will have to build them in order and might even find yourself re-routing some pipes that you had previously laid.
Pipes are no different from your energy grid pylons and should be laid one by one to create a path between two buildings. Most of the buildings’ connection points are quite flexible about angles, so try not to worry about it too much.
Resource 1: Phased Rapidium
This is the first item that becomes unlocked in the game. This is done via the Theory tab in the research laboratory section. Having your geologist working on the research queue will make your work faster if you happen to have this character.
What you need to create:
- Extractor – built on the site where Rapidium deposits are mined.
- Phaser – built on any geyser (some are marked on the map).
- Pipeline linking the two, back to base.
- Phased Rapidium tank – built at the base building panel, Command Center.
Build Order:
- Begin with the Phaser, as it is usually placed near a geyser outside your base. This device has one input and one output port.
- Connect your pipe to the output port of the Phaser and lay it towards the Phased Rapidium storage tank near the entrance to your base to complete one leg of the pipeline.
- Visit your current rapidium extraction site and place the Extractor there.
- Pipe the Extractor to the Phaser.
What to Expect: When assembling the line, you will notice a solid red liquid filling up the pipes that feed into the Phaser. After passing through the Phaser, the solid red line transforms into a red coiled line after which it will feed into your storage tank. You will be able to toggle the map into tracking the substance mode in order to observe the path it takes and to know how much you are producing..
Resource 2: Proxylium
Proxylium becomes available only after your field lab finishes another of its sleep cycles. Proxylium relies on Phased Rapidium infrastructure, which makes it easier for you as it means that all needed infrastructure will be already built.
The things you have to build:
- Second Extractor, which will be placed on the mineral deposit rather than on a Rapidium deposit.
- Mixer.
- Proxylium Storage Tank (added via base builder).
Build Order:
- Put the new Extractor near the minerals deposit, but this time use the pipe going back to base just like you did with the first one. The difference is this one outputs a solid purple fluid rather than the red one.
- Put down the Mixer, which has 3 ports in total.
- Take the purple fluid from the minerals Extractor and connect it to one of the inlets on the Mixer.
- Next go to the red coiled pipe that you already made, disconnect it from the tank and reconnect it to the other inlet on the Mixer.
- The Mixer mixes the two together to create a new fluid signature; the red coiled line with the solid purple line inside it. The output connects to the Proxylium Tank.
Resource 3: Mega Fluid
Thirdly and finally, the substance is also the most complex, but just like the rest, it utilizes structures that have been previously used by you rather than constructing new ones from scratch.
Requirements for construction:
- A Doubler (unlocked in the research lab, constructed in the workshop)
- A second Phaser.
- A second Mixer.
- A Mega Fluid storage tank.
- Pipe.
Build Order:
Second Phaser:
- Position it above any geyser (the enriched mineral field location is appropriate here).
- Disconnect the minerals pipe from the base and connect it to this second Phaser, turning it from a solid blue/purple line into a coiled line (just as the first Phaser did in case of Rapidium).
- Route the coiled output back to the base, it will be connected to the second mixer soon.
Doubler:
- It should be located above the geyser too.
- This machine has three ports: one for the input and two for the outputs.
- Disconnect the current Rapidium pipe and connect it to the doubler’s input.
- Connect the pipe to both the output ports and send it along your route and create a new route from another output port.
Mixing at the Mixers:
- In your old Mixer (which you have been using for Proxylium), cut off the pipe leading to the storage tank.
- Insert the new solid red pipe from the Doubler into the Mixer, along with the existing red coiled line that goes into the Mixer.
- Create your second Mixer. From your first Mixer, insert the red coiled line into one of the ports of the second Mixer.
- Connect the purple/blue coiled line from the second Phaser into the second port of the Mixer.
- This will give you the right setup for Mega Fluid. Take the output into your Mega Fluid storage tank.
Full network summary
At the base, one solid red line runs to a Phaser (becoming a coil), a second solid red line comes from the Doubler, and both feed into a Mixer to form a combined red solid-plus-coil line. Separately, the minerals line runs to a second Phaser to become a coil. Both of those combined outputs then feed into the second Mixer, producing Mega Fluid, which routes into its tank.
Production Management
As Rapidium, Proxylium, and Mega Fluid all use the same pipes, producing any one of them in large quantities will require the disconnection of another product’s supply lines. There is probably a better way of doing things optimizing Doublers and Mixers, which would allow for the production of all three items at once; however, it is not necessary to do so to complete the game. The following method will work well: whenever the story requires a certain item, simply venture out and disconnect/reconnect the supply lines of the pipes and produce it.
If, on the other hand, you wish to hoard resources rather than constantly running about, then you may construct several storage tanks for the same resource.
Additional Upgrades
There are two optional additions that could help you increase the number of resources produced:
Efficient pipeline — an upgrade to your research lab which increases the flow of fluid in your pipeline.
Time Booster — a building placed into the time anomaly and connected to your pipeline to increase the production of resources.
These upgrades are recommended for those who are looking to improve speed and efficiency, but there is no need for them if all you want to do is to complete the story.
More indie games
For more articles on other indie games, please check out the links below:
Videogames.
Gym.
My dog.
Sneakers.
Manga.
In that order.
