======== ===== ============= =============== ========== =========== ========= ===== ============= =============== =========== ============= ===== ==== ===== ===== ======= === ==== ============= ===== ==== ===== =========== ======= =========== ==== ==== ===== ==== ===== =========== ======= ========== ==== ==== ===== ==== ===== ===== ======= ==== ==== ==== ==== ===== ========= ============= ======= ==== ==== ============= ===== ======== ====IIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII= ==== ============= ===== ======== ====IIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII= ==== =========== IIIIII IIIIII IIIIII IIIIII IIIIII IIIIII IIIIII IIIIII IIIIII IIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIII ------------------------------------ | Netropolis II - Stragey Guide/FAQ | | http://netropolis.lineone.net | | Written by Drunky | | Last Updated: April 22, 2005 | ------------------------------------ Netropolis II - FAQ/Walkthrough ---------------------------------- http://netropolis.lineone.net ---------------------------------- Written by Drunky ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Table of Contents ---------------------------------- 1. Updates 2. Introduction 3. Choosing a Home 4. Game Basics 5. General Tips 6. City Tips 7. Getting Started - Strategies a) The Safe Route b) The Bully Route c) The Suicidal Route 8. Netropolis Slang 9. FAQ ---------------------------------- 1. Updates ---------------------------------- March 15/05 - Started FAQ/Walkthrough April 17/05 - Seperated General Tips into both General and City Tips April 17/05 - Realized I'll probably never update this part of the FAQ again ---------------------------------- 2. Introduction ---------------------------------- Welcome to the world of Netropolis, where anything goes and violence is encouraged. In the world of Netropolis you are put in charge of a starter up company. You begin with $50 000 and only the basics. It's up to you to work your way up the ranks to compete with the real tycoons. However, no one said you had to play fair. In Netropolis you are given an arsenal of Dirty Tricks to play on competitors to get them out of the way. This guide will show you how to use the attacks and defenses to your advantage so you can claw your way to the top. ---------------------------------- 3. Choosing a Home ---------------------------------- When you first start out in Netropolis you'll have $50 000 in the bank and an option to locate wherever you'd like. Its not so much a random choice that will get you to where you want to go. Most people just pick their home town/city and set up shop there. I'd strongly reccommend against that. You can either jump straight into the game which is what most people do, the games learning curve is pretty low and after a bit of browsing you'll be able to get most of the basic actions down. If you'd rather test the waters then there is a NewbieLand for you to try out. Its a map that plays like the rest of Netropolis only you dont get to keep your money and the map will reset itself to give all newbies fair chances. Its really just training ground. Your first priority when looking for a new home is to search for a town with free space. Its common you'll find almost all towns you want with 0% available space but thats okay, as I'll explain later. So if you find a place with free space then get in there ASAP! If you find you have a few options then its best to look at the chart and statistics for the town. It all plays a part, the police statistic shows just how much people will get arrested when trying to play dirty tricks, the fire will show how many fire bombs get set off, cost of living shows the average expense of most buildings, so choose one that fits your strategy. If you dont have one then I'll talk about some in a minute. For the most part you want a town with low fire, a medium cost of living, and a relatively low police presence. Why? Well you dont want your buildings getting firebombed, and since you are just starting out you dont want to get too deep in debt, and seeing as you're starting out you have nothing to lose. Why does that matter? Well it does, with nothing to lose you have everything to gain, so by having a low police presence you can blow away anyone you want and they cant retaliate and you wont get caught :) It will work against you as you progress, but for the moment it will do. ---------------------------------- 4. Game Basics ---------------------------------- The point of Netropolis is to gain as much money as you possibly can by using any means necessary. You have a small arsenal at your disposable and a number of towns waiting for your arrival. Heres an overview of some of the actions you'll have to learn to master in order to become a true Tycoon. ***NOTE - Check the General Tips Section for tips on how to use the basic actions to the greatest benefit*** - Developing Properties The most basic part of the game, buying and developing properties. What you'll need to do to gain a steady income from your buildings. The buildings will be cheap with a low profit in the beginning but it gets better. You have several ways of getting properties. - Buying Unowned: Taking a piece of unowned land and building on it. $200 for unowned land, $198 for destroyed land. - Buying Owned: Buying a piece of property the owner has put up for sale to earn some extra money. - Taking Over: Paying almost 3 times the market value for a piece of land thats already been developed. You not only get the land but the building already built along with any security. (Check General Tips for when this is the best strategy) - Bombing: Destroying an already owned building and then taking over its ruins. Much cheaper than the other methods. - Adding Security ***NOTE - Check the Security/Dirty Tricks Guide for more information*** In the game of Netropolis there are several people who would love to get their hands on what you have. Mainly, your property. Its a mostly rare commodity and hard to hold on to. Security will help stop those who want to take your property by less than fair means. You have external and internal choices for security. External is basically things that will stop the trick from getting played, while internal will stop any further damage caused by fires. - Dirty Tricks ***NOTE - Check the Security/Dirty Tricks Guide for more information*** To take over properties or to give a company a little taste of their own medicine you are given control over an arsenal of dirty tricks to play. These tricks can be used to either drive companies into debt or to take their properties as your own. What you decide to do with them is your choice. - Selling/Buying Property to Others or the State When someone wants to sell their property they put up a nice 'For Sale' sign. When they do this you can then buy it for them for the market value. Selling property is a better choice than selling it to the state. When you sell it to the state you only get 40% of its market value BUT you get the money instantly. When selling you have to wait for another buyer to purchase it. So it depends on how desperate for money you really are. But keep in mind both options are preferable to someone bombing you for the property :) - Demolishing Getting rid of your property. Completely destroying it without recieving any cash payment. Not a very good option and its usually only used when clearing away a bombed properties rubble, because that is the only option. - Change It Changing your building from one type to another. Usually done because its not profiting well or is in competition with another type of building. You recieve 50% of your buildings current worth to put towards your new building. Much better than simply demolishing it. - New Stock Changing a retail stores (High Street Store or Market Stall or Small Shop) stock from one type to another. Done usually when theres another building with the same stock nearby. - Highlighting Someone pissing you off? Well instead of going through every building on the map you are given the option to highlight a players building, so they appear as yellow on the maps. Much easier to target them, just make sure you dont get targeted. - Police Record Get arrested recently? Or ever? The police record will keep track of it for the whole town to see. Dont worry though, in Netropolis a long rap sheet is considered a status symbol. - Stats Screen Allows you to see your monthly profit and net worth as it stacks up against the other players. It also allows you to see your individual buildings profits/loss, damage, coordinates, and net worth. - Putting Fires Out If a buildings on fire, yours or a competitors, you are given the option to put it out at a cost of $200. Why would you do such a thing? Normally, you wouldnt. Who cares? Unless you want to be kind. However keep in mind if your buildings are around the fire bombed property you could stand to lose something. So is the $200 really worth the risk? - Renovating/Cleaning Up When a dirty trick is played that doesnt cause structural damage you have to clean up the mess. If a dirty trick is played that DOES cause structural damage you have to renovate. The cost depends on how much damage was caused. You also still have to clean up the mess. ---------------------------------- 5. General Tips ---------------------------------- The following tips will work (hopefully) throughout Netropolis, including towns and the higher levels. Follow them and your chances of survival will increase drastically. They're just general rules of thumb and tips in making sure you do whats best for your companies. - Make use of your 10 accounts As you start out one account is good enough to play the game, but as you progress its going to be harder to get ahead and thats where having more accounts (called Feeder accounts) helps. What you do is get a few accounts set up in the same town. You get each of them a headquarters and gain a steady MEDIUM income. Why a medium income? Because you want to keep those feeders as long as possible inside the town. Do whatever you can to stop them from heroing. Why? So you can constantly send money transfers to another MAIN account. That way you'll always have a steady income and in case a war should break out you'll have plenty of accounts you can use to bomb others to protect yourself. - Do NOT go straight to a city once you've heroed a town Yes I bet you're anxious to move on up to the big boys, we all are. But that is not the best way to do things. The minimum amount allowed to enter a city is $1 million, when you first hero a town you'll probably only have $2 million. So hero another town and maybe another, its not only good practice but when you're ready to move up you'll have $5 million + feeder accounts to keep you alive in the city. - Do NOT GROUP BUILDINGS! Very simply, DO NOT GROUP BUILDINGS! If you have burger bars next to each other or 5 campsites (Why the heck do you have those anyways?) next to each other, they will cut into each others profits. So mix it up, dont put 2 of the same types of buildings in the 3x3 square. ZZZZZ ZXXXZ The O is your building, choose wisely, do not put another O in ZXOXZ one of the X squares. The Z squares are okay, just not the X's. ZXXXZ Its not only your buildings that matter though, make sure others ZZZZZ dont have the same type of building in the area too. And dont build the same type of building next to someone else, they WILL get mad when they notice a sudden drop in profits and they will fix the situation, by getting rid of you. - Location, Location, Location! Believe it or not the locations matter. As stated above dont group buildings, but remember that area affects the profits too. A campsite near a major intersection wouldnt earn money in real life, neither would one in the game. So build retail stores and hotels near roads, campsites near rivers and trees, etc. - Dont build ANYTHING cheaper than shops But the game says hotdog stands are key! ... Well the game is wrong. To all the other players hotdog stands, market stalls and campsites are just big bullseyes screaming BOMB ME! Really now, they're cheap and easy to take by force. And extremely easy to takeover since their cost is so low, plus their profit is really low. Shops arent that much better, but out of your choices, its the only thing that gives you a fighting chance. Stick to shops, and vary the selection. I usually go with Off license and records. Why? Because if you go with butchers or bakeries then theres a chance a High Street Store will put you out of business. - Unless you're a troublemaker, DO NOT randomly bomb people It just makes people mad, and if they get mad they'll retaliate. Which means taking out your steady income. Its best to pick who you bomb and who its best to stay away from. Basically if they have a level 2 HQ and a high net worth or high income, stay away. They'll be able to destroy you within a day. If they are low on the food chain, go nuts, unless they're a feeder, then watch out for revenge. - Use bombs along with takeovers on buildings you will CHANGE Mix it together. Why? Sure bombing is cheaper, but you also run the risk of getting caught, and after paying for the bombs and the fines is it really cheaper? Well theres a way to solve that, FIRE BOMBS! Quite simply, fire bomb a building. Then when it burns for awhile the value will be quite low... you know, seeing as its on fire, then you can take it over for a reduced price. Why do I say only do it on buildings you plan on changing? Well that way you can just demolish it and start over. If you fire bomb it and decide to keep it you'll have to take it over, put out the fire, and renovate the damages. Which in some cases will make it the more expensive choice. - Leveling up Want to level up quickly? If you have a feeder in the same town as the account you need to level, build a cheap building such as a market stall, and just graffiti attack the property repeatedly. - Police Strikes are your friend... who will backstab you in a second During Police Strikes you will not be arrested, great huh? Well not so much. While YOU cant be arrested, leaving you free to take as much properties as you want, it also leaves you vulnerable to those stronger than you. So if you happen to be on during a police strike its best you check in every once in awhile to prevent any bombings. If you're not strong enough to defend yourself, then stay as low under the radar as you can. - WATCH OUT FOR HEROS! Keep an eye out for future heros. What does that mean? Well for instance when you reach $2 million Net Worth you'll hero the town, leaving massive amounts of empty land for anyone to claim. So when you see someone has a net worth over $2 million hang out for awhile and wait for them to be forced out of city. Tons of free land to be gained. - Use transfers to your advantage, and to others disadvantage Transfers are a great part of the game, allowing you to send money to anyone who has a headquarters built. This handy feature can make your company while breaking someone elses. What do I mean by this? Well quite simply you can send money to other companies who have suffered serious attacks or who need money to gain more land. Thats the obvious use right? Well theres another one! Use it to break other companies! If you see a company approaching the hero limit, SEND THEM MONEY! Why? So they'll hero and you can take their land right out from under their nose. Why waste the money? Consider it a future investment. A transfer of a few hundred thousand for several pieces of land that can gain revenue? I think its worth it. - Use proper etiquette Really, attacking someone whos online is not very nice. Its just bad manners and its not going to be taken laying down. Its basically an invitation for revenge for being so blatantly aggressive. Only attack those who are not currently active. - Avoid Revenge If someone bombs you, which will happen, its not the end of the world. Pick up your pieces (literally) and rebuild. If you are not in the financial situation to get PROPER revenge then just let it drop. If it continues pick up and move to another town or get aggressive and bring in other accounts to help spread the carnage. And when I say PROPER, I mean PROPER. Dont start some pathetic war where you cherry bomb a building and get sent to jail 4 times. Its just not worth it, you will get laughed at. Save your remaining pride, build up, save up, and then start bombing people. ---------------------------------- 6. City Tips ---------------------------------- These tips deal specifically with cities, cities are no joke. They are way tougher than towns and your chances of actually gaining... no actually, HOLDING land is minimal. So dont count on getting props to help you gain money. - Take the FULL million with you When entering a city take the full $1 000 000 with you. You WILL need it. Theres really no point in taking any less money with you, unless thats all you have, in which case I'd say if you were really low on funds to go back to a town and gain some money. - DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GAIN LAND RIGHT AWAY I CANNOT stress this enough. Seriously. Remember when I told you that if you wanted to gain land in a full town to find the weakest user and take their buildings? Well thats going to be done to you, ALOT. Dont even bother getting land. I dont care if there is EMPTY properties. DO NOT TAKE IT. - Your first priority is leveling up Dont try to build buildings or set yourself up. You will fail. Horribly. So first things first, take a property, (the cheapest you'll probably find is a $20 000 building, hardly any building is less than that, which you should keep in mind) and make sure it belongs to a relatively weak user (which in cities is still pretty damn strong), cherry bomb it 4 times (hopefully it doesnt have security) and take it over. Keep in mind the chances of you finding a building with no security is slim to none. So you probably will get arrested for it, but dont worry about it. Your starting out and that million dollars is going to be used for the sole purpose of leveling up. When you have the building, build market stall. You actually may lose it during the leveling up, but just take it or another one back. It doesnt matter, there will hardly be any consequences. Anyways once you have it, graffiti attack it 150 times. Yes its time consuming but its your best bet. Make sure you take over ANOTHER property and build your HQ when you're ready or else you wont advance to another level. You should now have an HQ, a graffiti'd market stall, and roughly $900 000 depending on how much you got arrested. Sell the market stall. You are now set for the city. - TRANSFER! If you did what I said and set up a feeder network of accounts you should be able to use your 3 transfers a day to send 1.5 million to your city accounts. Keep in mind you should take 2 or 3 accounts (maybe even 4, and when you get setup in your others drop a company or two down back to town level) to the same city, that way they can protect each other. Either way you should have 6-8 accounts ready to feed the others in the city. So do it. - DO NOT grab land until you have at least $10 000 000 in EACH account Really, you WILL need to be able to protect your land. A measly million dollars wont be able to do that. You need to have the money to protect your accounts so make sure you have enough to continually pay the fines for when you get arrested trying to reclaim your properties. - If you cant grab a bunch of land in one shot, DONT. You will be seen as an easy target and picked off. The lowest profits someone in a city is likely to have is $20 000, your $5000 wont stand much of a shot in blending in. So just dont bother, let your transfers get you money and forget buildings for now. - Planning on protecting just a few? Ah the uninformed strategy, just take a few buildings and protect the hell out of it. Just one problem, sure it'll work in teaching ONE person to keep their hands off after it passes back and forth between your hands and theirs about 10 times. But then again you have to teach EVERYONE in town that lesson. You'll spend more over time trying to regain the properties and spending the cash on fines than you would if you kept the properties. So just refer to the above tip. ---------------------------------- 7. Getting Started - Strategies ---------------------------------- Okay you've chosen a home, now what? Well first off you should aquaint yourself with the game if you didnt play NewbieLand. There are a few ways to go about this: a) The safe route (The slow route) b) The bully route (The quick route) c) The suicidal route (Good f'n luck) a) The Safe Route Safe? What makes it so safe? There are bombs out there!! Well calm down, you dont *always* have to bomb, as much fun as it is. There is also an option for doing 'friendly' takeovers. This route has some main advantages and disadvantages Advantages -You dont piss people off -Access to better buildings Disadvantages -Expensive -Takes a long time -No guarantee you'll keep the property -Fewer actions What does this all mean? Well quite simply a takeover is more expensive than a Dirty Trick. When you do a hostile... I mean 'friendly' takeover, you're really paying nearly 3 times the value of the property. Why is such a seemingly stupid option even included? Because it helps. When you takeover a building it doesnt make the previous owner mad. It should make him happy, now he has 3 times the buildings worth to reinvest into another property. Great for staying under the radar until you're strong enough to actually compete. However the down side is if the previous owner LIKED his old building, you've just given him ammunition money to bomb the hell out of you. However if you showed courtesy to him by taking him over, then chances are he'll do the same to you and get it back fairly. I've even known players to bomb you, but then send a money transfer as an apology. Always make sure you takeover what you can afford. This route is very slow, with only $50 000 starter money you can only takeover a few buildings at a time. Not to mention takeovers are only one or two actions, while bombing is around 7 (when you're at level 1/2) actions. Start small with cheap buildings. Then work your way up, to taking over burger bars. You dont have to be the appropriate level to takeover a building you are not allowed to build. So thats a good advantage. b) The Bully Route Its very deserving of its name and my personal favorite. Cheap, simple, quick yet dangerous. Dont you hate it how you're new to a game and some jerk keeps picking on you for no good reason? Hehe, well dont let that happen to you. How? By doing it to someone else first. Find a player who has a low profit (maybe $500-$1000) and doesnt appear to have feeders handy. (Usually usernames are similar) Highlight him, and check out his properties. If he has low priced buildings (Hotdog stands, campsites, market stalls) then proceed to launch 4 cherry bombs at each property. Your chances of getting caught are low and once you've done that you'll have 7 actions and a nice new property, slightly damaged. After awhile you'll have a level 1 HQ and you can now do Fire bomb, cherry bomb, cherry bomb to take the building. Keep at that and you'll have a great profit in one or two days. c) The Suicidal Route The strategy perfect for kamikaze missions. Bomb anyone and anything, making as many enemies as humanly possible in a short period of time. The problem with this method? What'll you do with the buildings you've bombed? Everyone in the town will be pissed and gang up on you to take the properties back. Only a few users can actually successfully pull this one off, and even then for a short period of time. Not worth it, some of the newbies attempt this method to seem like a badass, yet after a day or two they realize they're broke, no one likes them, and suicide is their only option. (I mean that literally, there is an option in the game where you suicide, meaning you die, your company is left to your children and you can restart the game all over again with $50 000 to start off with, hopefully it'll be better spent this time around). ---------------------------------- 8. Netropolis Slang ---------------------------------- Below is a list of words you may come across in your game, some will be obvious, other will confuse you. So I've made a nice little list for you. Ally - Ally or Allies are a group of users who if you bomb will get together and bomb you back. Usually this is an empty threat to sound intimidating but if they have a high net worth, tread carefully BB - Burger Bar CB - Cherry Bomb DD - Destruction Bomb FB - Fire Bomb GD - Guard Dogs HDS - Hotdog Stand HSS - High Street Store HQ - Headquarters OLS - Off License Shop, one of the more popular small shops Prop - Property/Properties RLP - Reclaiming Lost Property (Someone took it, and they want it back) SG - Security Guards ---------------------------------- 9. FAQ ---------------------------------- What is heroing? Heroing is when you manage to become successful enough in a town to move on to either another town or the next level (cities then capitals). However you will have to start all over again from the bottom. (If you go from a town to a city you'll be able to take extra money with you, same with from a city to a capital). How do you hero a town? To hero a town you need either $1 000 000 cash or $2 000 000 net worth or own 5% land and hold it for one hour. How do you hero a city? To hero a city you need either $50 000 000 cash or $62 000 000 net worth or own 8% land and hold it for eight hours. How do you hero a capital? To hero a capital you need either $75 000 000 cash or $100 000 000 net worth or own 13% land for sixteen hours. How do you level up? To get to Level 1 you need 50 actions To get to Level 2 you need 150 actions and $50 000 cash To get to Level 3 you need 500 actions and $1 000 000 cash To get to Level 4 you need 1000 actions and $10 000 000 cash What are Police Strikes? Police strikes are when the police will no longer arrest someone who gets caught committing a dirty trick. What do they mean when they say a nuke is coming? A nuke is a massive dirty trick that cost $20 000 000 and is capable of taking out a huge chunk of the map. That land will then be unusable because of the radioactivity. Towns are hardly ever nuked, not worth it. Cities and capitals on the other hand... Why doesnt my security stop screamers? Screamers and Fritzers are capable of bypassing security seeing as they are missiles and launched at the property. Which is why the required Hi-Tech Center is so expensive. I just bought some buildings but it says I havent built them, why? The stats are updated every 5-10 minutes. So you have to wait until the next update in order to find out what has happened to your building. How do I send transfers? Go to the bank (Either through the link in your HQ or the property), select the town/city/capital the recieving account is located, put in how much you want to send and your password. The money will be sent minus a banking fee, and an email will be sent to you verifying the transfer and a message will be sent to the reciepent informing them of your generosity. (Max 3 transfers per account) What are feeders? Feeders are accounts who are built up in towns or cities, with the exception that the goal is to have them stay as long as possible in that location without heroing. They stay just under 5% or less of land owned and send excess money to a main account located in another area. Usually done to keep accounts alive in cities as an extra source of income. What is suiciding? Suiciding is when you decide your account is in such deep debt that its no longer worth trying to recover. You suicide, you leave the company to your "kids" (it still stays in your control) and you can restart the game from another location. With your cash reset. I'm broke with no properties, what should I do? Well thats a tough one, you have three options. a) Beg others for money, not the most effective strategy. b) Suicide your account and start over again in a new area. c) Make another account and build that one up, when it starts to gain excess profits, transfer the money to the one in debt. ---------------------------------- Questions/Comments/Suggestions? Then please email me at GimpyTheGreat@Gmail.com Except for spelling errors in the Description part of the Guide, those were published as is from the Netropolis website, and that is the way I listed them. ---------------------------------- This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. The following sites have permission to use this FAQ as long as it is credited: http://www.GameFAQs.com http://www.NeoSeeker.com ---------------------------------- All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. ---------------------------------- Copyright 2005 Brandon Duve (Drunky/GimpyTheGreat)