Zephon | New Player Guide

[@nepocrates]

Another good tip for beginners is to understand the Leashed trait. Most neutral units start with this trait. Basically the unit(s) will stay within a perimeter,. it may use overwatch but that does not mean it will attack you on its turn and when you attack it the leashed trait changes to Unleashed trait and well as applying the unleashed to all nearby allies. Unleashed mean the units are now actively searching for enemies to attack and they will attack those enemies. You can see it on the Hammerhead @ 22:54 where you attack the unit and it gets the unleashed trait. So if you are just starting out and blunder into a bunch of neutral units, let them do their overwatch and back out on your next turn. it is a good way to save your units by not engaging until you are ready.

[@BabelBuilder]

Oooo, good one!

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

Also to understand that neutral spawners, or the respawning horned monster are research and xp farms with specimen cages researched.

[@nergarus1931]

I bought this game because the lore seems interesting and has potential. I dont have experience in this type of 4X style strategy game. Found your guide out of nowhere today, so learned a lot as a newcomer. I feel like I will be roleplaying a lot with the diplomacy and just mess around but looking forward to see more content and learn more on the go! Cheers!🙂

[@BabelBuilder]

Glad it was helpful! It's a cool game with a lot of room to explore. Feel free to ask questions and I'll help if I can.

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

I saw someone saying the opening cinematic doesn't match the story. It does. They need to add an option to increase the turn count before end game though. The 100 limit feels like it is for multiplayer, not single player.

[@nergarus1931]

I get it, yesterday I had my first game in the introduction. Nearing 100 turns I was informed the Aliens and Zephon are already nearing the final showdown and I was sandwiched and had to pick a side to have a chance to survive at all, I failed to keep Chieftess in the south alive due to diplomacy failure and she was conquered by the aliens. My army strength is unable to stop the titans due to im in a middle of a war with the purple lab lady which i forgot her name. Maybe the pacing settings or whatever is the turns setting, I dont know.

[@BabelBuilder]

There is a setting for the end game thing. You can raise, lower or turn it off I believe.

[@piboy7454]

Me and my brother got this game and just dived in the deep end. I knew a little of how it was going to work since I had gladius but my brother never tried a strategy game before. We had a blast however, teamed up and reenacted d-day with his hover craft taking dozens of my troops to the other side of a huge ocean to aid him against the titans of zephon.

[@BabelBuilder]

Nice! I have played a ton of coop Gladius, but none in Zephon so far. Everything worked as you would expect? By chance where you able to target allied units with abilities, like healing ect? They patched that mostly out of Gladius and it really hurt coop IMO.

[@piboy7454]

I think you can. I haven’t really tested out everything yet nor did I have a chance at the time because a lot of my nice cosmic horrors were getting moped off the floor by zephon. But I did use an ability to heal one of his bots once. I’ll let ya know later, we plan on playing another round.

[@piboy7454]

But finding out we could put our units in each others transports was cool.

[@piboy7454]

Yep you can, anything that can be used as a buff can be put on any allies. Healing effects however seem to depend on if a unit is mechanical or organic but it works.

[@BabelBuilder]

Nice. That is great to hear. I kind of suspected as much, but happy for the confirmation!

[@seasand6705]

picked it up yesterday. i had played a little gladius once on a free play and a little more zephon during the demo before relsease. this video was very helpful in understanding the economy side of the game. i hadn't come across much info about how it works and what to look out for. Dastactic does in deep on units but i haven't heard him talk much about the economy in zephon

[@BabelBuilder]

Glad to hear it helped. If you have any questions ask, to we can share more info!

[@BayonetRecon]

Great video! This helped explain a few things after my first play through.

[@BabelBuilder]

Any tips or tricks you learned to share?

[@disafear3674]

Really enjoyed Gladius. The visual design of this looks super nice.

[@BabelBuilder]

Zephon does have a distinct look for both the map and the units. I find the map a bit muddy, but I like the unit's more realistic look.

[@catgh2000]

Thanks!

[@BabelBuilder]

You are welcome. Feel free to post any questions, and I will do my best.

[@ProfessorGreg_]

I kind of love the idea of customizable factions. It will be interesting to see how that all plays out when I eventually play the game!

[@BabelBuilder]

I am interested to see what they can do to expand this system without making all of the factions feel too similar.

[@ReneSc4r3crow]

Thanks a lot for the guide mate. I come from Paradox 4X games such as Stellaris, EU4, CK3 and your video taught me a lot about mechanics I hadnt grasped on my first playtgrough. Man, I fell in love with the game, hopefully they will release DLCs with more factions and maybe change the rules so you must commit to the faction you pick.

[@BabelBuilder]

There is a mutation setting that will make the leader only use their faction tech, but you have to unlock it.

[@solomonmitchell6048]

Is zephon drm free?

[@Isk1n]

​​@@BabelBuilderdoes the mutation limit research for all players, including ai? How many hero types are available with this mutation?

[@peterhans7810]

At 24:08, Hammerheads do not start shooting unless provoked, they have a passive: "Hammerhead protocol". They don't even use their overwatch against you. Hammerheads can clear Bleed tiles, so if you leave them be they can prove beneficial. Just make sure you disable overwatch on your own units when around them :).

[@BabelBuilder]

That is a good tip. Might want to take them out if you want the bleed.

[@Sunstroke112]

Very helpful guide, thank you sir!

[@BabelBuilder]

Glad it was helpful!

[@tsuna666]

| played my first few games with the Undying Soldier and now am exploring the other leaders but so far I can't see how any of them will ever come close to the regen passive. It's just such a huge difference at all stages of the game, especially in the large engagements that drag on for like five turns.

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

Arc charge environmental storms, and a commander from fallen soldier/human tree can probably boost the cannon damage on the city for emulated mind. Arc charge is +10% damage, 5% self damage. Commander aura of discipline should boost the cannon accuracy. Just be careful that self damage from arcs don't trigger the loyalty debuff for a city being attacked, and if so complain to the devs the cannon should be immune. Same if the aura of discipline doesn't buff the cannon, or regular city turrets. Sentry bots can use arc discharge, the heavy machine gun damage tech, and again aura of discipline to boost the mid game damage of the bots by 20%, and then 10% plus the accuracy buff from the commander. I haven't seen any vehicle with as many heavy machine guns as sentry bots in videos, so they could be great bunker buddies at chokepoints where arcs occur.

[@BabelBuilder]

Yeah, passive health regeneration is MASSIVE, but I think there are some other major ones out there, like the Operative's, fire and then move ability. Combine that with Hit and Run and you can be super annoying when doing a fighting retreat.

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

Heartless Artificer accuracy buff for all units, combined with a commander aura of discipline would probably get most units to 90% accuracy also.

[@EoinLynch-v1y]

Very useful and well presented video. Thank you!

[@jRsqILVOY]

Looks great, like a modern SMAC and a shinier Shadow Empire.

[@BabelBuilder]

I think SMAC is still the king of narrative 4x. Truly a high water mark in the genre!

[@Slice_The_Elder]

Looks good. I own Gladius. Had a hard time with it. Too many factions and different units. This seems like it might be easier to get into (until the inevitable DLC comes out). Thanks for the video

[@BabelBuilder]

I love Gladius, and it is one of my most played games in multiplayer (Outside of mmos). My biggest worry for Zephon is actually the faction being too similar, lol. Time will tell. >

[@Slice_The_Elder]

@@BabelBuilder Maybe I'll give Gladius another shot. Currently back in Stellaris mode and of course some idiot just formed a dominions MP game.....

[@yeahtube69]

This was a great tutorial I am so happy you got one out all the other videos i've seen so far assume you know what all those little numbers mean. Thank you very much will be getting this for xmas I hope... thanks again.

[@BabelBuilder]

Glad it was helpful! Feel free to ask any questions you have.

[@sweskey]

Finally, an Endless Legend style game that won't implode because, good lord, it became increasingly unstable as the expansions and updates rolled out.

[@BabelBuilder]

Gladius was very stable throughout its updating cycles, and I believe this uses an update version of the same engine, so we should be safe there.

[@foxkashima]

Great video, well explained. Thanks :)

[@BabelBuilder]

Glad it was helpful!

[@richarddean4436]

very informative, great video

[@BabelBuilder]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@iDGAFF-1]

I was expecting a ranty barely-useful video, but this is actually quite helpful & dense, especially for a non-Gladius player (though I actually have 'em in my backlog), so thanks. BTW, IDK if it's something you'd do, but we're really interested in the factions & their differences, gameplay- and lore-wise. We've checked, and KZbin returned nothing, so far. Anyway, just a thought. ✌

[@BabelBuilder]

Thanks for the kudos. I do tend to ramble on from time to time, but I like to think there is some value contained within!

[@bewawolf19]

Ah Zephon, already wasted a decent chunk of hours into it. Great game!

[@HoustonBookDonations]

Great video , thanks

[@BabelBuilder]

I really enjoyed making it! Hope you find it helpful.

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

Same start as like Civ 6. Try to have two cities by turn 50, three if you are not pressured by neutrals. Going army heavy over eco will hurt you longterm.

[@BabelBuilder]

A big key to this is unit preservation. Losses HURT a lot in the early game.

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

Yeah, and nobody I've watched seems to take city placement, the market, tile improvements, etc seriously. The tile boosting techs like fishery, amigara, the forest research bonus, and biome techs like arctic. It's settle on turn one, no 1-2 turn travel to a stronger city site. Few people go for research centers immediately, or stack research, or dip into other tech trees. Even though Fallen Soldier/Human has a heavy machine gun damage tech for sentry bots, or even considered using bunkers on roads as a speed bump, and mine layers vs end game monstrosities.

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

As for humans, massed siege tanks are fully capable of dropping titans too. Skip over cyclones and regular tanks, ignore heavy machine guns for them it's a trap. Vanquisher Siege Tank Dozer Blade Armor Plating Shiraki Cruise Missile Commander with pathcutter, orbital scan spotters, and minelayers/engineers. Maybe a stealth unit with pathcutter too for spotting. At max level they will all hit a titan from max range for 9.8 before any accuracy buffs. If you have a ton of them that's 98 damage per ten at massive range and shiraki is a small scale oblivion. Add in tactical nukes.

[@kitsunegamedev4526]

Very useful, the game is a little bit hard to learn if like me never heard about Gladius 🤣

[@BabelBuilder]

Glad I could help!

[@xiaoas]

I tend to play a lot more aggressively early on, splitting the troops and as you've mentioned in the video I get punished a lot😂

[@BabelBuilder]

I have to actively hold myself back, because my natural instinct is to split up and take more outposts, but every time, it gets me killed. :(

[@Skarwind]

How do you use the items on the top right? It says select a hero before selling etc. I only get the option to sell.

[@BabelBuilder]

Have a hero selected with open inventory slot. Then click (don't remember if it is left or right of the top of my head) on the item in the top left.

[@jamesdetroit3791]

Thanks for the guide. I've been playing as Fallen Soldier but haven't figured out how to unlock engineers. Maybe I missed it in your guide, but please direct how to do so.

[@BabelBuilder]

Engineers are a tier 3 tech. It is a neutral one on the left side.

[@giengphatdat]

Please do mid to late game tips, i'm doing okay at beginning and choke real hard start from mid and go on

[@BabelBuilder]

I am going to have to get some more time in with the game myself, but here are a couple things: +Get 1-2 additional cities up, sooner the better. +Keep expanding your army with a varied force that can fight different targets. +Try to clear directions, either through force or diplomacy so you can send your full army in the same direction, rather than needing to fight on multiple fronts. +Be willing to retreat before fatal losses.

[@giengphatdat]

@@BabelBuilder after watching your video and 1 more game, I've learned that you should focus building your army depends on the map and 1 or 2 unit faction per game. In my case, the game give me 3 outpost for voice units, so i fill my arrmy with monsters and miliatia from the humab faction, so nartually my tech tree become heavyly depends on food, agile and material for tank, work nicely till turn 70-80. But after that i feel stuck in a same place, where i just keep spamming the same unit over and over, i do that because my neighbor spam a whole region of cheap unit to fill the map, make me freak out and do the same, so how you go smoothly from there ? Already 2 city btw

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

Building army early hurts your mid and late game economy. In Civ 6 early warring was the worst thing you could do to shoot yourself in the foot. Try focusing on maximizing city placement, and eco early when the map is less dangerous. Research lab asap, in a forest tile as human for xenobiology station iirc. Influence and the item market, with the higher tier item techs can significantly toughen up heroes also. Especially if you turned off quests, which reward uncommon, rare, etc items.

[@NobodyNothing-f5c]

So say you start with a 30% mineral cliff, or the holy grail of 40%. Add in amigara, which boosts that to 45/55% minerals on that tile. So if you got amigara, and built a city on the cliff your HQ by itself would produce like 8.7 to 9.3 minerals, along with the construction yard making 2.9 to 3.1 for 11.6 or 12.4 per turn without any dedicated mineral facility.

[@sirtrevis]

One (unit) is none; two is one.

[@BabelBuilder]

Grunts together strong!

[@khinev3128]

Fight smart and tactical.. the game😮

[@BabelBuilder]

Sometimes, it does devolve into almost WW1 trench warfare, but its still fun!

[@ALV694]

What is gommick of rogue operative

[@BabelBuilder]

I'd say her main one is being able to move after shooting. Works like the eldar in Gladius if you are familiar.

[@ALV694]

@BabelBuilder which type of units benefit from that, do u think cyber units or human units benefit from this

[@BabelBuilder]

Anything with range will enjoy it, but I'd say fragile units like being able to shoot and scoot a lot. The cyber sniper bot for example.

[@Joasoze]

I have Gladius, why do I need this game? Seems on first glance to be the same?

[@BabelBuilder]

I think that is a perfectly valid position!

[@nunyabuziness9622]

It's like having more factions and maps if your looking at it like that, and more of a good thing is a good thing, it's like saying a new dlc just released for a game I like, why would I buy it when I can just play the main game again? To experience something similar that you enjoy but new ...

[@Tetragramix]

I don't want to play a Warhammer game.

[@messaroundhandleit]

I loved the 40k version they did. Zephon feels the same, but with tons of extra steps. The graphics look nice, but they made the ui and small details very tiny, and the tier list is huge, most of it is add +6 resource to x or y or z. Where as Gladius already had those from the start, and some of the factions didn't even use some of the resources, making them feel uniquely different from the start. I refunded the game after seeing the tier list, it just seemed like you can make all the factions eventually play the same with different skins on top.

[@artificer111]

@messaroundhandleit I just did a Gladius play through yesterday and a good way to summarise it would be: 1. Gladius has more unit variety but also more Overlap between individual units. Units in the middle of the tech tree are have a very small window to be useful and die very easily - while their unique aspects are not strong enough to be viable after the initial showing. Particularly visible with units like Necron Immortals or Assault Marines. Zephon has less units but much space for each to operate uniquely - so even though there’s 3 factions with crossover you can make builds work with any unit for a while sans going obsolete quickly. 2. The economy follows A curve of complexity in Zephon vs complexity spending on your faction alone in Gladius. One issue with Gladius especially as the locked city position factions (Necrons/Eldar/etc) is that you have very few options for changing your build based on the resources you have around you + no resource trading. Zephon giving the same flexibility as Civ Beyond Earth in that the different tech paths use distinct resources makes individual matches feel much more dynamic than Gladius especially if you play singleplayer mainly (the AI is sooo much better too at macro). 3. This is depending on your taste, Zephon leaders + factions feel like the later state of Gladius factions with the DLC content better integrated. You trade uniqueness early game per faction for 9 factions which incorporate a lot more options in each. Put another way, Fallen Soldier could be played 12 different builds successfully while Necrons have 2 maybe 3 that are at all decent. If you have Gladius + All DLC and play mainly only competitive PvP multiplayer it’s less clear, but if that’s not the case Zephon is an easy recommend.

[@BabelBuilder]

I think Zephon's biggest competition will always be Gladius, and the biggest sticking point will be the "weak" design of the factions. That is my biggest complaint so far. For the UI, you can upscale it in the settings, I did this video at 125%, but it can go further, and seems to scale just fine.

[@BabelBuilder]

Good write up @artificer111!

[@gkagara]

This is like age of wonder or civs series

[@BabelBuilder]

Of the two, I would say it is closer to AoW. Zephon is very much focused on war. If you go in expecting Civ, I think you will be disappointed.

[@Starmaik]

If you do a tutorial and show of tooltips to show what you mean (f.e. in your techtree example at 39:00) please dont wiggle the mouse curser if that moves the tooltip. It's super distracting and trying to read what the tooltip says (in this case the tech) while following allong is impossible. The movement is also very distracting and can be nauseating. Looking forward to more guides on the game :)

[@BabelBuilder]

Haha, yeah I tend to "talk with my mouse" like a person waves their hands around! >

[@DaemonJax]

EMM-yoo-late-ed

[@BabelBuilder]

Yes.