Tentative beginning | The gameplay Civilization: Beyond Earth Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

As you start the game, it is a good idea to consider the choices, of the individual aspects of the game, that you make on the successive screens. The sponsor has a large effect on the entire game, but the crew also provide you with a considerable bonus. The type of the ship or the cargo also shape the game. Of course the choice of the world is also important - there is quite a difference between Pangea and the Archipelago, isn't there?

The choices are the most important but, if you want to, you can alter all the parameters and change the options available in the Advanced options menu.

This guide's legend

This guide has been color-coded in the following manner:

Brown - Building, fields and field upgrades

Blue - Research

Green - Units

Orange - Affinities and Virtues

Black - Resources

Additional info

The color coding does not concern descriptions of the screenshots, which have been provided with numbers. Then, the color of the figure matches the figure on the screenshot.

Once you take off and reach the new world, land your ship somewhere in the red area. There is a fragment of the map revealed, around it, along with the resources (such as the Floatstone, Algae or the Annelids) and the income that each of the fields yields so, consider your choice to make the development of your city optimal. Those with the Retrograde Thrusters on their ships can pick a spot in a much larger area.

On the bar above, there appear a number of icons that describe your colony. From the left to the right, these are:

• Affinity points and experience - you obtain experience and points from missions, from expeditions and from research.
• Strategic resources - depending on the technological advancement level, corresponding icons appear, alongside with the amount of the resources that you have.
• Culture - culture points accumulate in several points - globally, thanks to which you can buy new Virtues, and in the individual cities, where they stretch the boundaries.
• Health - It acts just like Luck does, in the previous installments . Negative health provides you with penalties to your research and the colony development. Positive health may provide you with bonuses, if you have purchased appropriate Virtues.
• Energy - the in-game currency that plays the role of gold from the previous installment.
• Research Points - the income of research points per turn - it is from their amount that the speed of technological development, in your colony, depends, as well as obtaining new skills and buildings for the colony.

Your first city is your castle on the hostile planet. Right after you access the city screen, you will get to see the planned directions for its development. With appropriate amounts of energy, you can buy the fields that you need. Just like in the previous installments, it is best to found cities within the distance of, at most, three fields away from the resource fields because the will, of the city, to buy such a field, is inversely proportional to the distance. Apart from that, this increases the probability of the fields being seized by another city.

Probably, after several turns of exploration, aliens will take interest in you, which may, but does not have to, lead to conflicts. Nothing really happens if your city is fired at, by two or three units. Still, you should watch out, when you start to exterminate the aliens for good - this may alter their disposition towards your colony drastically.. That is, unless you have the technology and you start to.. tame them.

Right at the beginning select the city production and one of 6-7 available technologies to research into. Be prepared that your city is going to be the only one that you are going to have, for the next several tens of turns - high level of cultural, health, scientific and production development is the best thing you can strive for, because the planet may turn hostile towards you - a good idea is to build Relics, Clinics, Labs and Factories to reinforce the economy.

Start the exploration of the area with the Explorer. He can lead an Expedition on the revealed elements of the environment, such as Ruins or Wrecked Satellites. Expeditions may provide you with various benefits, such as culture, energy, Science points or affinity points. Sometimes, it may also start a mission.

Missions appear during the game and they are a form of telling the story of colonization. Sometimes, these are complex storyline missions that require you to meet a requirement, such as exploring ruins or building a specific structure in the city. Completing these missions is rewarded. Usually with lots of energy, science, affinity points or a new technology.

Most often, however, these are micro-quests, where you need to pick one of the two available options, when you build a new structure. For example, for the Old Earth Relic there are two options - free maintenance or a free culture point.

Culture plays a vital role - it allows your cities to expand and allows you to buy Virtues. Virtues are special bonuses that affect your entire society and function in a way similar to the Social systems in the previous installments.

As soon as you have explored the land, you can consider a new city. Try to found it in the location that will allow build a trading route up to it, to be able to foster its development. The new city starts out as an Outpost - you cannot change the names of such objects. Several turns must elapse(five, at least) before the outpost turns into a city.

At this point, let us have a look at the Health meter - it performs the role of the Luck from the previous installments. If it nears 0, or goes below, it is high time that you built a Clinic or a Medical Lab and to back it up with appropriate Virtues.

Yours and the cities of the other nations can be connected with Trading Routes. Inside your own colony, they foster development - they provide production and food points. Between the cities of different nations- they provide you with energy and science.