Basin

**Basin** is an attack sector on Erekir. Compared to other enemy bases up to this point, Basin is much longer and more challenging, with lots of open space and frequent spawns of tier 2 enemies. The Mech Refabricator, Cleroi, Reinforced Pump, and Slag Incinerator are researchable in this sector, although the latter two serve no practical purpose for you while attacking this sector.

## Description

The map is divided into two halves; the upper, more desolate half is where the four Bastion cores are while the lower, Arkycite-filled half is where the two Citadel cores lie. Your starting core is squeezed in with a core to the south, although at the beginning only the topmost two bastion cores are accessible as the rest of the map is blocked. Stells come in pairs or threes from the far-away core to the west, three minutes after landing on the sector.

    After destroying the first two bastion cores, a **nuclear strike** will be triggered that lands on your first core in 6 minutes, destroying it and everything around it. A warning will pop up that tells you to construct more cores; failing to do so means that the explosion destroys your only core and instantly make you lose the sector. Once the explosion occurs, the rest of the map opens up. Averts will be made in the base directly below your starting core, while Locus and Cleroi are produced by bases in the bottom half.

The enemy bases in this sector are guarded by a new kind of turret, the Sublimate.

### Structured Events

Objective-editor events occur in the following order:

 nuke1

## Strategy

You do not have tungsten from the get-go and lack other resources, so clearing out the first few bases as soon as possible is a priority. Defend the choke point with many Breaches, or set up a few and create a path that lines up the enemy units to make use of the piercing, and use your starting Silicon Arc Furnace to build Eludes. The closest enemy base only has a single Breach covering it and provides most of the graphite to enemy Stell production, meaning that it should be priority. After the first core goes down, get tungsten and build either a Locus or Cleroi setup; you do not have the power for both. Any excess Eludes can eat up Sublimate flames while your tier 2 units do the job. Make sure to immediately occupy the first free core zone you see in preparation for the nuke. There is a third accessible core that does not count for the nuke trigger below the wall, which you can transfer units and resources via Payload Mass Drivers if you so wish. This core can also be reached by placing turrets for visibility, as there are just enough accessible resources to set up a Tank or Mech Fabricator beneath the wall.

Once you finish off the second base, you will now want to gear up for defending against enemy tier 2s. You can immediately re-build the core that just got nuked, but your army of units must protect you. Here, the Avert can cause issues by sneaking and attacking your Vent Condensers, so it is highly recommended to run a line of Breaches along the wall separating your cores from the enemy. Build another factory for the tier 2 unit you didn't make at the beginning; the two together will steamroll all of the enemy bases in the sector if you have enough of them (around 10 each). The two cores in the green terrain are separated by a natural wall that Clerois can cross over. Much like you have two tier 2 units available, each of the cores in the Arkycite area has two sets of defenses to choose for your break-in, one walled-off spot with Beryllium-loaded Breaches and Sublimates, and the other with Tungsten-loaded Breaches, which isn't walled off. With no enemy turrets past the walls, all that is needed is to get past the defense and stop enemy tier 2 production. If necessary, drop Reinforced Liquid Containers with Ozone in them to destroy enemy defenses.

Basin is unique in that there is lots of space and contains both Arkycite and Slag. After capturing future sectors and completing more of your tech tree, you may want to produce Oxide and Surge Alloy to help with researching needs.

## Trivia

* Basin was introduced in a special Erekir build released before Build 136. It was named *Four* and the map file still has that as its title.
* Basin was made by Epowerj and edited by Anuken.