Earth 2025 FAQ 1.2 Started: Oct 15, 2003 Copyright 2003 by AverMan E-Mail: AverMan62@Hotmail.com To Play Earth 2025: http://games.swirve.com/earth/ o-------------o | - Warning - | o-------------o Anyone may reproduce this FAQ electronically, but don't sell it for money. If you want to use this FAQ for your website please ask my permission, email me at Averman62@Hotmail.com with Earth 2025 as the title. If are given permission to post my FAQ on your site, you must do it with this the Warning in it and do not modify any part of it. Your cooperation is appreciated! Earth 2025 is a copyright to Swrive.com. o------------------o | - Introduction - | o------------------o During one of my quests to fill the void between work and sleep, I came across one of the best online strategy games. This game, if you don't already know, is called Earth 2025. Earth gives you the chance to run your own country against thousands of other live players. If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me at averman62@hotmail.com. So lets get stated! o------------------------------o | - Why did I make this FAQ? - | o------------------------------o This FAQ is created to help newcomers understand the game better. I didnt do it to advertise for Earth. If you want to play Earth 2025 enter this into your browser: http://games.swirve.com/earth/ If you have some useful information and would like to share it, send it to me and I'll add to my FAQ. Email me at averman62@hotmail.com. I might have to modify it a bit but you will get credit for your posting. Thank You!! o-------------o | - Updates - | o-------------o | Nov, 24 2003 | - Added Spying 101 Section Comments: Updates have been really slow and I'm very sorry. I have been really busy at work. Here is the first update and I have more to come. | Dec, 29 2003 | MEGA UPDATE!!!! - Minor Changes + Added New Sections: Landgrabbing/How To Kill A Country/Doing It Right - Researching/Doing It Right - Spying Comments: Sorry Averman fans (if any), I've been really busy lately with work and school but I finally decided not to overwork myself. This means I have more time to work on stuff I like to do like this FAQ. Which is good news to everyone checking in on this FAQ. I have added a lot of new sections that I think will explain a lot of things to you newbies. I also changed the format a bit so its easier to read. One thing that has been bothering me is the lack of any email. This is the thing that drives me to work on this FAQ. I only got one email regarding this FAQ and I'm sure he's not the only one using this. I'll accept anything, just email me: questions, comments, improvements, or tips. Averman62@Hotmail.com, holla atcha ya boy!!! Table of Contents -------------------- 1. Government Types I. Government Types II. Tax Rate III. Industrial Production 2. Buildings 3. Warfare I. Units II. Attack Types III. Missiles IV. Landgrabbing - NEW!!! V. How To Kill A Country - NEW!!! 4. Technology I. Military II. Medical III. Business IV. Residential V. Agricultural VI. Military Strategy VII. Warfare VIII. Weapons IX. Industrial X. Spy Effectiveness XI. SDI XII. Doing It Right - Researching - NEW!!! 5. Alliances I. Defensive II. Intelligence III. Offensive IV. Technology V. Trade Pact 6. Spying 101 I. Doing It Right - Spying - NEW!!! 7. Outro /--------------------\ | 1. Government Types | \--------------------/ I. Government Types -------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ | Monarchy - "territory ruled over by a monarch" | ------------------------------------------------ This is the government system that you start out with. The only advantage to this government type is that you have no disadvantages. ------Pros-------- You can switch your government type with no losses to your resources. ------Cons-------- No Advantages --------------------------------------------- | Fascism - "oppressive, dictatorial control" | --------------------------------------------- This government doesn't offer much of anything. Sure, higher industrial, food, and oil are good and all, but your population and per capital income take a serious hit. Thus making it harder to gain networth. ------Pros-------- +15% Industrial & Food Production +20% Oil Production +20% Construction Speed ------Cons-------- -15% Per Capital Income -20% Population 15% Market Commissions ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Tyranny - "government in which a single ruler is given absolute power" | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This government type is geared for the players who like to play for the fun of crippling other countries. With this government type you'll be able to attack swiftly and gain more from each attack than the other government types. The hit you'll take is to your per capita income, leading to a lower networth. ------Pros-------- +10% Attack Gains -10% Military Upkeep Costs Only 1 Turn Required Per Attack ------Cons-------- -25% Maximum Per Capita Income -You usually tick a lot of players off by attacking them -------------------------------------------------------- | Dictatorship - "absolute or despotic control or power" | -------------------------------------------------------- This is another offensive-minded government. You can really cripple your opponents with the combination of spying and military. The only con is to your construction speed meaning that it'll take more time for you to construct buildings. ------Pros-------- +20% Military Strength +25% Spy Effectiveness ------Cons-------- -30% Construction Speed ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Communism - "scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life" | ------------------------------------------------------------------ Communism is my favorite government type. It gives you bonuses to the two most beneficial factors of the game: technology and industry. If you don't buy from the market, the 10% won't hurt you much. ------Pros-------- +20% Technology Effectiveness +25% Industrial Production ------Cons-------- 10% Market Commissions ---------------------------------------------------- | Theocracy - "a political unit governed by a deity" | ---------------------------------------------------- This government system is for advanced players. If you know what you're doing, go ahead and pick Theocracy. ------Pros-------- -25% Military Costs +40% Construction Speed ------Cons-------- -35% Maximum Technology Double GDI Expenses ------------------------------------------------------- | Republic - "a nation that has such a political order" | ------------------------------------------------------- With a republic you can get a higher overall networth but the lack of military strength will hurt you in the long run. As you rise into the higher ranks, you'll be targeted by tons of attacks due to your lack of military strength. The land exploration bonus is only helpful in the beginning of the game. ------Pros-------- +20% Land Exploration +20% Maximum Per Capita Income ------Cons-------- -15% Military Strength ---------------------------------------- | Democracy - "government by the people" | ---------------------------------------- This government type maximizes your technology and you'll make great allies with other democracies. If you spend a lot of time researching, you'll generate tons of revenue. The 3-turn attack penalty might hurt you when you try to landgrab or send missiles. ------Pros-------- 0% Market Commissions +10% Maximum Technology ------Cons-------- 3 Turns Required per Attack II. Tax Rate -------------------------- The tax rate is the main way to gain revenue. By default it starts off at 25% but you can raise it to a maximum of 70%. You should raise the tax rate as your country gets bigger and your expenses grow. Just be aware that whenever you raise your tax rate, a small portion of your population will leave. III. Industrial Production -------------------------- This setting measures how much of a particular military unit(s) you wish to produce. It's best that one day you set 100% on one military unit on day then move to another unit the next day. Eventually, you'll have a huge army!! /--------------\ | 2. Buildings | \--------------/ Enterprise Zones increase the productivity of your population. I'll just keep it simple: Total tax revenues = your population + Per Capita Income(how much your pop. earns each turn) + your tax rate(max 70%). These buildings will help to increase the maximum Per Capita Income your people can achieve. I usually build 100 of these and then focus on building more residences. The more people you have paying taxes the more revenue you'll produce. More residences = $$$$ These are very important. Industrial Complexes are the simple way to create a military. Every turn, based on how many you've built, they will automatically construct units each turn. The more of these you have the more units you can produce. Military Bases are used to lower the cost of buying units and maintaining units. These aren't very important and I suggest that you don't even build any of these. Eventually you'll be making enough revenue that military expenses wont be something to worry about. To research any technology, you will need lots of research labs. To research a lot of technology, you'll need lots of research labs. You should max out all of your technologies then destroy your research labs to make room for other buildings. Farms are a vital part to your country. They produce food to keep your military and population happy. You should always build enough farms to keep your population happy. Never build abundance because it'll be a serious waste of space. Always build them as you go or when they are needed. Oil Rigs generate oil that is used for combat. These are very important but don't go crazy and build lots of these. From the start of your game, you should build about 10-15 of these. By the time you decide to start military actions, you should already have enough oil. If you still need more oil, you can purchase some at the market. Each oil rig will produce 2 Barrels of oil per turn. Construction Sites are extremely vital to the growth of your country. The more you have the less turns it will take you to construct buildings. It will always take one turn to build a construction site. /------------\ | 3. Warfare | \------------/ I. Units -------------------------- These are the units that you'll be able to command as you wage war on you opponents. Attack: 1 Defense: 1 Special Attack: Guerrilla Strike.(More info below) Attack: 2 Defense: 0 Special Attack: Bombing Run.(More info below) Attack: 4 Defense: 4 Special Attack: Artillery Barrage.(More info below) Attack: 0 Defense: 2 Special Attack: None Turrets are purely for defense especially against the jets attack, artillery barrage. Spies don't attack or defend but they can be an integral part to your army. Using the variety of spy missions, you can leave an opponents open for your military to invade and in no shape to retaliate. There is more information on this in the Spying 101 section. II. Attack Types -------------------------- When you decide to attack someone, you'll have plenty of options to choose from. A word to all the newbies. Only attack when you military readiness is at 100%. If your attack readiness is at 100%, your military will give you 100% going into the battle. If it's at 20%, they'll put 20% into battle. The higher your readiness the less troops you'll lose and the more you gain from your attack. ---------------- Declaring War ---------------- Having trouble attacking a country because of the GDI protection? Well, you'll have to declare war on them in order to attack them. Once you officially declare war, you'll be free to wreak havoc upon them without worrying about the GDI. A big plus for declaring war is that you get +10% bonus against any country that you're at war with. Declaring war isn't all bonuses, though. The rival country will be able to attack you and the war will cost you $10 an acre for each turn while you're at war. You'll have to wait 48 hours until you can make peace again. You shouldn't really declare war on anyone unless you can destroy him or her in a short time. War is very expensive and you'll have to pay the price even when you're not attacking. ---------------- Attack Modes ---------------- There are 3 attack modes that you can chose from. A normal attack will give you an average amount of loot if your attack is successful. If it isn't successful, you won't lose a lot of your attacking force. An aggressive attack will make your troops fight harder giving you more of a chance to be successful and a greater chance of getting more stuff. Unfortunately, you may suffer a lot of casualties than you're used to. Cautious attacks are the opposite of aggressive attacks. You should never use this attack mode because you will get less stuff even if your attack is successful. ---------------- Strikes ---------------- All of these strikes will take two turns and will always decrease your troop readiness. NEVER attack an opponent with your readiness below 100%. Back to back attacks will lower the loot you bring back. Only the planned strike will This is the vanilla ice cream of the strikes. With this attack, if successful, you can capture about 3%-8% of your opponent's land, tech, food, and buildings. When you successfully attack a bigger opponent, you will get more stuff. Standard strikes usually decrease your militaries readiness about 18%-20%. The standard strike is best when you are attacking smaller countries and will not cause your military to go threw rehab. The planned assault will do the same as the standard strike but will give you a 50% bonus to your troops attack strength. Which will help you out a lot when you decided to attack the stronger countries. The planned assault also has its flaws though. It will cause you troops to go threw a rehabilitation process that will last about 22 hours. During this process, your troops will not be able to attack or defend. Think long and hard before attempting to attack a larger country because you might be defenseless when they decide to retaliate. This attack sends only troops to attack an opponent. Only your opponent's troops can defend this special attack. The guerilla strike will destroy your opponent's food reserves and a portion of his population. The bombing run will send a fleet of jets over enemy lands, your army of jests only resistance will be turrets. This attack destroys buildings as well as a portion of your enemy's population. This attack puts your tanks against your opponent's whole military. If you succeed, you will destroy a large amount of you enemy's buildings. III. Missiles -------------------------- I gave missiles their own section because of their importance. After every turn, you have a chance to create a missile and investing turns in Warfare technology. You are also limited to 1 missile per 200 acres. They can be crucial in weakening an opponent's defense before you attack with your army. The only draw back is that they take two turns and it might not even hit your enemy due to their high SDI defenses. A nuclear missile will destroy a good portion of your opponent's land. Chemical missiles are the most deadly of the three. They will destroy your the victims population and a small number of buildings. My favorite of the three is the cruise missile. These missiles will destroy military unit making it easier for you to invade. Send a couple of these before you attack a large opponent, they always help. IV. Landgrabbing -------------------------- Landgrabbing is the most effective way to aquire land after exploring becomes obsolete. Landgrabbing is attacking another country and "grabbing" some of their land. There are two ways to find people to landgrab. You can use the Earth search feature or in the Warroom there is a list of countries you can choose from. This list usually consist of countries just as strong as you are so I suggest to use the search feature to find weaker opponents. Several factors affect how much land you'll get: * If you choose a Planned Strike instead of a Standard Strike. Planned Strike will always give you a higher attack gain. * If you're opponent is attacked several times by you or other players, the land you get after multiple attacks will dop after each sucsessful attack. You should attack a player no more than twice unless the landgrabs are really good. ^^ * If you attack an opponent with a small amount of land, you'll get a small amount of land in return. Remember that you'll get a % of your opponents land so pick countries with a lot of land. * If your military technologies are high. The military technologies that can improve your attack gains and lessen your losses are Military Strategy (more attack gains), Weapons (higher readiness), and Medical (lessen your losses). V. How To Kill A Country -------------------------- This is how you can kill a country. You can't do this by yourself so be sure to ask for a little when you want to take a country down. * Reduce their per capita income to 0 * Take all their land * Kill off their population /----------------\ | 4. Technology | \----------------/ Investing your turns in technologies can enhance you country without having to use any of your land. They won't increase enhance your country dramatically but it will give you a little boost. It is also the best way to generate revenue. This technology helps you reduce all of your military expenses. This includes purchasing military units and your overall military expenses. This is worthwhile and will save you land because you're not building any Military Complexs. Add a decent amount of points into this technology because it will lower your losses in combat and, if a disease befalls you country, it will help cure it. This is very important if you're very active in military activities. This will increase productivity. More productivity = higher per capita income = $$$$ Invest some points in this technology whenever you can. Researching in this will increase your population thus increasing your tax income and total revenues. This will increase your farm production without using any of your land. It's really up to you if you want to invest your turns in the technology. It'll save you land but you wont see a lot of results until your country is really big. This will increase the amount of loot you'll get from an enemy. Put some points into this technology but you usually get enough from regular attacks anyway. This will increase your chances to develop missiles. The more you research the greater the chance of you developing a missile. Remember, you can only have 1 missile per 200 acres you own. By developing more advanced weapons technology, you can make your military stronger without adding volume. New weapons, better training, and more military knowledge can all help your forces fight more effectively by increasing their maximum readiness rating. By increasing industrial capacity, you raise the level of output per turn by industrial land. This allows you to generate more military capacity every turn at no extra cost and. Increasing this increases the chances of ANY of your spy missions. Spying is one of the easiest ways to destroy a country if you boost this stat high enough. SDI or Strategic Defense Initiative, gives you a chance to destroy any missile that comes at you. There is a small chance of the missile still making it through but with a high SDI no missile will touch you. Oh yeah, one more thing, as missiles are sent at you, your SDI will gradually decrease. Just keep this in mind. XII. Doing It Right - Researching ------------------------------------ The more Research Labs you build the more technology points you'll get. To do this right, you'll have to have a higher number of Research Labs then the rest of your buildings. If 2/3 of your land consists of Reseach Labs, you should notice a vast improvement. Also, if you ever find that you are low on money, you should spend some time researching instead of using the Generate Income feature. You'll generate income and improve the overall performance of your country. /--------------\ | 5. Alliances | \--------------/ Alliances are the most player interactive part of this game. If you manage to make friends in Earth 2025, you can form alliances to take on the game together. You can randomly pick people to make alliances but only pick people around your networth. There are several alliances that you can form and each has there own strengths and weaknesses. It will cost you to create alliances only chose the one that will benefit you the most. Defensive alliances will allow 25% of your allies' army to aid you whenever you are attacked. This alliance will cost you 0.2% of your networth. An intelligence alliance will allow an increase in spy defense and spy operations. This alliance will cost you 0.15% of your networth. Not really worth it. :( An offensive alliance is the exact opposite of a defensive alliance. An offensive alliance will give you 25% of your allies military in any of your attacks. It will cost you 0.2% to maintain this alliance. Personally, I think the technology alliance is the best alliance out of the bunch. This will give you 10% of you ally's technology that he researched. This alliance will cost you 0.15% to maintain. You can never have enough technology!! The only drawback to this alliance is, if you or opponent forget to research any technology, neither of you get anything out of the alliance. This will allow you to trade things between you and your ally. It will cost 0.05% of your networth to maintain. This is the most useless alliance available. /---------------\ | 6. Spying 101 | \---------------/ Spying is a big part of Earth 2025. You can destroy a country without losing a single troop or launching a single missle. Before you start infiltrating other countries, you'll need to have a good number of spies. 200-2000 is a good range to keep. Then you'll need to put tons of turns into researching your Spy technology. The more spy technology you have, the more effective your spies will be. You can jump in the ranks by destroying countries with an array of these missions. -------------- | BioTerrorism | -------------- BioTerrorism is the best was to attack your opponents population. Unlike the Stir Rebellions spy mission, BioTerrism will cause a disease to spread throughout your opponents country. The disease will last for more than one turn unless your opponent has a high medical level. --------------- | Bomb Airbases | --------------- This mission, if succesful, will destroy a portion of your enemies jets. ------------ | Bomb Banks | ------------ To prevent your opponents from stockpiling excess cash, you can opt to attempt to bomb their country's central banks and destroy a portion of their money supply. ---------------- | Bomb Buildings | ---------------- This mission will destroy your opponents buildings. which will drive them crazy because they have to use their turns to rebuild their buildings. ------------------ | Burn Food Stores | ------------------ Similar to bombing banks, burning food stores destroys a portion of another country's food stock, forcing them to not only watch their finances, but their food supplies as well. ------------------- | Burn Oil Reserves | ------------------- By burning your opponents oil reserves, you can slow your enemies military activities. ------------------- | Cause Dissensions | ------------------- This mission will cause your opponets military to leave thus making it easier to attack. ------------ | Demoralize | ------------ This will lower the readiness of your opponents military. Simple as that. ----------- | Espionage | ----------- Espionage is a great spy mission that actually benefits you!!! It will take a portion of your enemies technology and add it to yours. Sometimes you can research more points than you can steal. ------------ | Market Spy | ------------ This will let you know how much of your opponents military is on the market. Make sure you don't waste your time on this one. -------------- | Military Spy | -------------- This will give you a better picture of your enemies military. You should use this spy mission if you decide to attack an enemy and just want to know his military capabilities. This spy mission is really useful. ----------------------- | Sabotage Intelligence | ----------------------- This mission will send your spies against your enemies spies. This is the only way to destroy enemy spies. ------------------- | Sabotage Missiles | ------------------- If you fear an opponent is ready to launch missles at you, send you spies on this mission. This mission will destroy a number of your opponents missiles. ----- | Spy | ----- Spying will give you every aspect of the country in the same format as your status page. This is EXTREMELY useful when you're about to go to war with or attack a country because it lets you know what you're up against. This is the most useful of the spy missions. ------------------ | Spy On Alliances | ------------------ This is similar to a regular spy mission but it will give you information on your opponents allies. Not very useful because why would you spy on your allies? ----------------- | Stir Rebellions | ----------------- Stir Revellions will cause a small portion of your opponents population the leave. If you do this enough, it'll cause a devastating effect on your opponent. People generate revenue but, if you cause enough people to leave, your opponent won't generate enough money to cover their expenses. If they run out of money, its game over. I. Doing It Right - Spying ------------------------------------ The most useful to you are: + Espionage - gives you a portion of your targets technology + Spy - lets you know EVERYTHING about your opponent. The rest of the spying missions should be used sparingly because spying mission are not always succesful. The best to kill population are: + BioTerrism + Stir Rebellions /----------\ | 7. Outro | \----------/ o--------o | Thanks | o--------o None Yet..... o----------o | The List | o----------o You can always find updated versions of my FAQ at Gamefaqs.com & Neoseeker.com. o---------o | My FAQs | o---------o Here are all of the FAQs I've made!!! You can check them out at: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/9429.html ----- Game Boy (Advance) ----- Medabots AX FAQ/Walkthrough Lil' Monster FAQ/Walkthrough ------------ PC ------------ Age of Wonders FAQ/Strategy Guide Age of Wonders Battle Tactics FAQ Avernum FAQ/Walkthrough Earth 2025 FAQ ----------- PS/2 ------------ X2 Wolverine's Revenge Boss FAQ o-------------o | - Warning - | o-------------o Anyone may reproduce this FAQ electronically, but don't sell it for money. If you want to use this FAQ for your website please ask my permission, email me at Averman62@Hotmail.com with Earth 2025 as the title. If are given permission to post my FAQ on your site, you must do it with this the Warning in it and do not modify any part of it. Your cooperation is appreciated!