A detailed guide for newcomers to Aven Colony: general game principles, how to get nanites, food, water and electricity, purify the air, increase morale, win elections and fight crises
In Aven Colony, you can face enormous challenges in keeping track of various aspects of the game, from electricity generation, food supplies, to the overall morale of the entire colony. And if you are a veteran of city building games, then you should feel at ease. But our guide will be devoted primarily to beginners who are unfamiliar with the genre or who do not know how to consistently plan their actions.
All the tips I’ve collected may not be relevant at high difficulty levels, but they will definitely come in handy if you chose at least normal difficulty or something like that. This guide is relevant for the version of the game released on July 25, the day of the official release. I warn you in advance for the reason that the manual may become partially irrelevant after several patches are released.
General principles
Unlike similar games, Aven Colony lacks supply lines. This means you don’t have to worry about installing farms and food mills as close to the city as possible. All farms receive the same amount of resources regardless of distance.
However, the location of buildings is still important for other purposes. Colonists don’t like to travel far to work, they definitely don’t like walking through other buildings. Forcing them to do this will take a huge blow to morale. Make sure that each worker building has tunnels to outposts and that at least one outpost is close to each workplace. Using special layers will help you see where there are problems.
There is only one problematic point here
However, not all buildings have workers. Many of them, such as warehouses, are automated, so you can set them away from the colonists’ habitat without any penalties.
Building efficiency is essential at Aven Colony . Basically, if a building in need of manpower is not fully staffed, resources and various products will be produced slowly. If you expand too quickly, you can fill buildings by about 60%. To address the manpower shortage as soon as possible, make sure the immigration center is staffed to the maximum (this will result in nine new colonists spawning in a single trip). Do this by clicking on the building, then on the “case” near the portraits, raising it to the maximum level.
The “case” icon is shown in the upper right corner
If you can afford it, then build another immigration center and fill it with all the workers. Later, if necessary, you can zoom out. Thus, we advise you to monitor the staffing of buildings, actively using both the increase and decrease of jobs, depending on how much you feel the need for a particular resource (or it is in abundance).
The efficiency of other buildings can be increased or decreased with additional funds. Farms and greenhouses are prime examples.
Mining nanites
Without the nanites, your settlement in the Aven Colony wo n’t last long. You will receive a small amount of them when completing missions, as well as larger amounts if you find special resources that your construction drones can raise.
Most early missions will provide access to nanites for easy tasks, but still make sure you take care of building up iron or copper mines to rebuild nanite processing buildings (nanite factories) as soon as possible. Laser mines release materials faster, but at the same time destroy them. Therefore, it is better to rely on the somewhat slow, but much more reliable conventional mines.
Iron mine
Three fully stocked and upgraded mines that will send mining to a couple of Tier 2 nanite factories will provide you with cash flow.
If you are in dire need of nanites, remember that a chemical plant can turn kelko spores into kelko slurry and then use it to generate nanites.
Food and water
A level 1 greenhouse is slightly more than twice the cost of a farm of the same level (21 nanites versus nine), but is capable of producing much more food during the warmer months, as well as continuing to farm food during the winter (compared to farms that do not work). I have not tried to compare and calculate the exact numbers, but I can say for sure – strive to ensure that there are at least the same number of greenhouses as farms. Moreover, there are many arguments for building greenhouses and ignoring farms!
Watch the food scale. If you lose a huge amount of food in the winter (for example, you constantly have “-30” or even lower with a small population), then you will have to increase agricultural production. The loss of some of the food is still inevitable, since we are talking about winter, but if you produce it in hot weather, stocking up in cold weather, you will feel fine.
Five farms and four greenhouses for 500 colonists
Foreign crops are often optional. However, they can ultimately help you increase your food variety. But do not forget that you must first study the recipes at the research center, and then produce the food at the mill. The mill also gives you the ability to create earthy foods such as pasta or porridge.
On some Aven Colony maps , you will not have access to fertile lands. To be more precise, they simply won’t be around you. In these circumstances, you will have to rely on trade, gradually expanding towards more fertile lands. After you build a shopping center, you can use the corresponding function (bottom left) and urgently purchase food.
Trade
I think you should always have a supply of nanites to spend on food, but you can also export iron or other material in exchange for it. Avoid trading too often, as Nanites and Iron are equally critical to your colony.
Water supply is easy to understand. Use the water layer to find an area that contains a decent amount of water. Install water pumps there. Add more as needed! I have hardly used atmospheric condensers, but they will always be a good backup if there are no good spots for the pump. You can also use converting on geothermal generators in steam mode to produce water as a result.
Electricity
Speaking of electricity, I would like to advise you to use geothermal generators anytime, anywhere. They will be effective even in winter. Open geothermal springs can spew toxic gases. They are quite economical (especially at the second level).
Zorium generators are also very effective, but they tend to be useful in the later stages of the game. Solar panels (for obvious reasons) are ineffective in the winter season, so we cannot talk about their usefulness in general. Wind turbines look good. Their second function is useful for repelling toxic gases. The point is that you shouldn’t have toxic gases if you build geothermal generators at all nearby holes.
The air filter is designed to cope with any emissions
It is worth building an energy battery or two so that at least one lightning tower can be created. These towers provide additional electricity and protect against winter storms.
Air quality
I prefer air filters to blower fans as the latter can be a big threat when spores appear, whereas the former does not. If air quality starts to drop, then use an appropriate layer to position some filters in problem areas. Generators and mines are usually the culprit.
Morality and elections
When your population in Aven Colony reaches 100 people, people will begin to behave like democrats. If you don’t impress them (drop below 50%), you will soon leave your post. To survive these attempts to overthrow power by voting, you must maintain the morale of the population. Typically, you will be re-elected if you continue to care about the obvious – food, water, air quality, shelter, work, energy.
Regularly monitor the level of crime and place police drones on the right points. The colonists seem to be very careful about everything to do with the maintenance of law and order.
Dronerson has a hard time working in this sector
If people are looking for more entertainment, then it’s time to look at the Service Buildings section. Eateries in residential areas, parks will help in this. If you win enough referendums, you can use the VR center, which provides a morale boost.
If you produce exotic stimulants from alien consumables at a chemical plant, then with the help of the distribution point for stimulants you can distribute them throughout the colony at your discretion to increase happiness. Be aware that some of these involve risks to human health. When it comes to health, a hospital is an expensive but worthy boost to morale.
In the colony control panel (bottom left) you can list individual colonists and sort them by spirit. You can then click on people to see which ones are very annoyed and why. In most cases, this is a minor cause – such as starvation or shortness of breath due to poor air quality.
Frustrated Fred
Crises and how to deal with them
The fact that your colonists in Aven Colony will sooner or later face crises, how to drink. These are not some kind of serious disasters that we are used to in such games, but, nevertheless, they are able to throw off your development, destroying some objects (which can become your problem in referendums). There is a fairly clear strategy for dealing with each threat.
Lightning tower . As mentioned above, they protect your colony from winter storms and provide you with additional electricity. To protect yourself, you should build a couple of these towers.
Plasma turrets . They will technically shoot at Creep and Blight spores, but they still can’t handle them well. They will perform better at destroying shard storms. If you are not attacked by spores, then there is no point in installing them.
Drones cleaners . The best solution for dealing with creep spores. As long as you have a sufficient number of drones throughout the colony (they have a limited range, like other types of drones), then attacks from such spores should not be a problem for you. You really need them if there are a lot of disputes.
Drone coverage
Blower fans . In fact, these are your opponents. Toxic gas can get inside. If possible, do not use them at all, and choose air filters for air purification. Sometimes there will be fans that cannot be removed from the base colony.
Wind turbines . As noted earlier, they can blow off toxic gas. Convenient in some situations.
Geothermal generators . Your best protection against toxic geothermal gas. Build a generator and dispose of it.
Hospitals with blight vaccines . If blight spores appear, then you will need a hospital and a supply of vaccine made at a chemical plant.
