Swarm Assault Level 80 - Cryptography

Other Tips sources

• https://www.neoseeker.com/swarm-assault/cheats/pc/
• http://awesomerthanthou.blogspot.com/2009/06/game-profile-swarm-assault.html

080) Cryptography

This is a pretty hard level and requires some patience to get through. You don't have any colony, and there are 2 enemies - both possessing a wasp and a spider colony.

The game play comprises 2 steps, and it may take many attempts to get the 2nd step right.

1. Salvage as many Sonic wasps in the initial bout. I found it effective to assemble 
2. Wait for the opportune moment to swoop in and take over the Blue Wasp colony. Defend the colony vehemently and bring its health up to the high yellows or greens.
3. Now, just take over the blue spider colony, then the yellow side. This is a can't-miss, once you've managed step 2.

I have tried a alternatives to step 1, like go right into attacking a colony. But this won't work.. The wasp colonies are often taken down by the enemy colonies themselves.. and fighting over the colony seeds there may get you a colony for a moment, but you won't be able to hold (wasp colonies are in the middle). So I tried attacking one of the spider colonies.. syncing the attack from all my sonics.. However, almost all of them got killed and when the colony exploded, the enemy wasps killed off my remaining wasp (with little health) and regained the colony. Hence the 1st step - salvage as many sonics as you can and wait.. tediously protecting them against neutrals (ants, bombers, lollies). Screen-selecting all and bringing them all to one location wasn't very successful.. Most got killed in the long journey to a single point. Instead, I found it most convenient to gather them in 2 assembly points - one in the North and one in the South. Give each small group a point to gather that is away from enemy sonics. Do this quickly for each sonic you can salvage.. Then slowly move them all to points above and below the Blue wasp colony (number 1 in the north & 8 in the south). This is because in most attempts I've made, Yellow side is somehow slightly stronger than the Blue side.. So it's smarter to wait closest the blue wasp colony, but maintain enough distance to not be attacked. Kill any lollies or neutral ants in the number island (1 or 8) you've parked your precious few Sonic units. I had to try this waiting stage many times before winning. Once I got used to it, I would typically salvage 5-6 sonics in the South and 3-4 in the North.

Now, the 2nd stage. This can play out in many ways depending on the units produced by both enemy sides, usually, Yellows dominate, hence our positioning.. Sometimes Yellows totally dominate and take over the blue side, and I will have to restart. Ideally, you don't want Missile spiders in the picture. They're too hard to defend against once you've acquired a wasp colony. Wait for a colony attack from the yellow side which leads to blue wasp colony explosion as well as depletion of most yellow forces. Swoop in from North and South simultaneously.. prioritize killing enemy units nearby over collecting seeds.. You may blow up the colony once again to take control. But all this may work only if there aren't many yellow wasps (or missiles) left on the West side. Otherwise, you won't be able to defend the colony. Now, it's a matter of defending the colony with whatever wasps you have left (too few, and it won't work). You may need at least 2-3 sonics left alive to defend. Once the colony health has risen a little (still in Red), produce just one paralysis wasp (helps a long way), and continue killing incoming attackers from both sides.. Make sure not to wander within firing range of the spider colony; and watch out for large-scale attacks from the Yellow Assault wasps.. If many yellows start flocking to your colony, go closer and start killing them sooner to minimize colony damage. Once the health level reaches yellow (or you've run out of original sonics), do produce 1-2 assault wasps.. Now, you're at a pretty good stage. Just let the health reach high yellows and produce more assaults and 1-2 more Paralysis wasps.. Actively fend off intruders, raise colony health.. Once you have 5-10 assault wasps, switch to sonics. Accumulate sonics for some time, and when there aren't any imminent yellow attacks, let the sonics go and take over the spider colony. Now you can simply bring all wasps to the yellow side and fend off attackers from just that side. The game is almost won. Now you reap the benefits of all this error.. Let the spider colony gain some health.. get some snipers out and bring them up to the wasp colony. I had to use the snipers to kill off many yellow paralysis wasps that were accumulating near their wasp colony. I didn't even need the missile spiders to take over the yellow wasp colony. And then it's a cakewalk to finish off their spider colony.

Overall, it may take a lot of attempts to win - because of the need for the right circumstances to arise for a successful take-over. I had almost given up after my semi-successful take-over ended with yellow forces overwhelming and exploding my colony after I had defended it enough to produce couple of wasps from it.