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Summary
The Dark Fog is the main enemy in Dyson Sphere Program. It is a mechanical automaton, resembling a Von Neumann swarm. It was created by COSMO prior to the Dyson Sphere Program, with the goal of providing energy to CenterBrain. For unknown reasons, its connection to CenterBrain was lost, and the Swarm went rogue. It consists of Space Hives and Planetary Bases, gathering energy from stars and matter from planets.
Settings
Upon starting a new game with the Dark Fog enabled, one can configure numerous settings regarding their behavior. Certain settings can be adjusted in-game by interacting with the Dark Fog Communicator via using Metadata, located in the outer perimeter of the starting system, but otherwise they are locked in and unchangeable.
- Difficulty: An automated number tallied by the below settings; note that certain Achievements require 1.0 difficulty or higher.
- Aggressiveness: Dictates the Dark Fog's behavior as a whole, and their number of units sent per attack.
- Initial Level: Determines the starting level of each Planetary Base/Hive.
- Initial Growth: Determines the initial completion progress of each (pre-existing) Planetary Base/Hive.
- Initial Occupation: Determines how widespread the Dark Fog are in the galaxy at game start. 100% is guaranteed to have a pre-existing Planetary Base on the starting system - lower has a chance of one not being present, while higher increases how many pre-existing Planetary Bases will be present.
- Max Density: Determines how many Hives can be present in a system.
- Growth Speed: Determines the speed at which Dark Fog produce new units, as well as new relays and seeds.
- Power Threat Factor: Determines how fast the Dark Fog's threat builds in response to power generated from automation.
- Combat Threat Factor: Determines how fast the Dark Fog's threat builds in response to attacks.
- Combat XP Factor: Dictates how fast the Dark Fog gain EXP during combat.
Dark Fog Structures
- The Hive is a megastructure, floating in space, spread across different systems. Each system that the Dark Fog inhabits has one or more Hives that acts as their centers of operations. A Hive can construct various defenses for itself, as well as energy collectors in the form of Photon Collectors. The Hive also can build and dispatch Relays, which attach to planets to create or reinforce a Planetary Base.
- The Planetary Base is a planetary outpost for the Hive, with the sole purpose of collecting matter from the core of the planet. This resource is infinite for the Dark Fog, and the player cannot collect it. Each Planetary Base is composed of the following components:
- A single Relay Station, floating above the ground structures in the atmosphere. It provides the ground structures with energy from the Hive, and sends the Matter collected by the Planetary Base core to the Hive. A Relay will retreat and return to the Hive if the Core Driller is filled in with Foundations or covered by a Geothermal Power Station, or if the base is repeatedly destroyed and it runs out of matter to rebuild it. It is possible to attack the Relay directly by enabling Upper Air targeting for Missile Turrets, but this will dramatically increase the Hive's threat level and is not recommended for the early game.
- A Core Driller, located just below the Relay, around which ground structures are constructed. It is the first structure built when a Relay settles on a planet and produces matter using the planet's magma. Matter is used by the Planetary Base to build new structures, create new units, or when it has stockpiled enough, send shuttles via the Relay to provide matter for the Hive.
- Multiple Camps, specific to a unit type. The camps use matter and energy to create new units to defend the Planetary Base or launch attacks on the player and his facilities. Each camp has an "overdrive" mode, which will enhance the camp's ability to create units and extract matter by the factor of 10. This is triggered by proximity of Icarus or Signal Towers.
- Multiple defense turrets. Turrets attack all targets in their range and deal huge damage, but they require energy to work. Once the base's energy is depleted, its turrets cannot operate.
- Unknown structures, which seem to have no use currently.
- Each new ground structure takes a while to build.
- If the ground below is not suitable, the base will automatically flatten or fill the terrain as required.
- Dark Fog Planetary Bases and Hives have Levels, which increase after they accumulate enough experience. A base earns Experience anytime it is damaged by the player, regardless if it is attacking or defending. The same goes for the Hive, although it earns Experience anytime the player engages with the Dark Fog anywhere within the system, and it earns Experience considerably slower than bases do.
- Additionally, whenever the Hive dispatches a Relay, the newly-constructed base will inherit the Hive's Level. The Hive and Bases are progressively enhanced as their Levels increase, increasing the durability, amount, and types of units they can produce. Higher level units also drop higher tier loot.
- Eventually, once a Hive has accumulated enough matter and energy, it can produce a Seed, which flies through space to eventually settle in a new star system and establish a new Hive. However, Seeds are completely defenseless and travel relatively slowly, so catching up to them and destroying them is relatively simple. The real challenge is noticing that the Seed exists in the first place, especially for those in distant systems.
Dark Fog Units
Planetary Units:
- Raider: The Raider is the first unit created by a Planetary Base. It is slow, and hovers slightly above the ground. It is quite durable, and deals a fair amount of damage. It will attack during an assault. A Raider's base stats are: 55 hp, 7 damage, and 0 armor. Raiders also gain 5 hp, 1.5 damage, and 0.2 armor per Base level.
- Ranger: The Ranger is a fast, medium-ranged unit. It is quite fragile, and has lower damage than a Raider. It will attack during an assault. A Ranger's base stats are: 40 hp, 5(?) damage, and 0 armor. Rangers also gain 4 hp, 0.66(?) damage, and 0.2 armor per Base level.
- Guardian: The Guardian is a defensive unit that stays around the Base it protects. Upon entering its range, it will try to protect other units. It is medium-paced, but deals the most damage out of known ground units. A Guardian's base stats are: 48 hp, 16 damage, and 0 armor. Guardians gain 4 hp, 2 damage, and 0.2 armor per Base level.
Space Units:
- Humpback
- Lancer
Dark Fog Debris
Destroying Dark Fog units will drop Soil Piles as well as other random items, depending on the Level of the destroyed unit. These items will be on the ground and can be collected directly by Icarus or a Battlefield Analysis Base that is in range. Unlike player drops, drops from Dark Fog units will disappear after some time if not collected.
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Player Tips & Tricks
- Battlefield Analysis Bases can automate nearby repairs and item collection, and even filter specific Dark Fog drops. By continuously inciting the Dark Fog and using turrets to destroy its units as fast as they are produced, the player can set up an automatic farm. Farming the Dark Fog makes every item they drop renewable, allowing the player to get extremely limited resources such as Unipolar Magnets without depleting any ore deposits. All Dark Fog units also drop Soil Piles, making them the only renewable source of it. See here for an in-depth guide to farming.
- Filling a Planetary Core does not invalidate the "Environmentalist" achievement.
- A Gauss Turret with Magnum Ammo and no damage upgrade needs 8(?) bullets to kill a level 0 Raider.
- The Dark Fog's level does not actually increase units' stats that much, so take Dark Fog seriously even at level 0. What really dictates the Dark Fog's danger is how many units it has created. A quick way to gauge the Dark Fog's strength from a safe distance is to look at the Hive on the star map; well-established Hives are larger overall and likely will have many squadrons of fighters around it, while weak Hives are small and may be patrolled by only a handful of units.
- Pay attention to any Dark Fog Seeds in the cluster. Seeds travel very slowly, so it's not necessary to take them down immediately, but allowing them to take root and establish a proper Hive is dangerous. If the Seed does manage to grow a Hive, the Hive will still take time to build proper defenses, so nip it in the bud and eradicate the new Hive quickly.
- Eradicating a Dark Fog Hive requires more than just destroying the Hive itself. Once the Hive's core is destroyed, any Relays occupying planets in the system will send matter back, reconstructing the core almost immediately. While the newly-repaired Hive will still take time to rebuild its defenses, the only way to truly destroy it for good is to also destroy all its Relays in the system. Destroying the Planetary Bases in the system is not necessary; once a Base's Relay is destroyed, the Base will eventually run out of energy and go dormant.
This page is a work in progress. Feel free to add to it. Stats marked with a "(?)" are stats to be checked, as they were guessed from existing ones.