Has anyone actually beaten this pod? It is extremely difficult and I find myself wiping on the first few floors. Does anyone have any tips they could provide me to help progress?

I've won Sanitary Pod in Solo and MP.



Tips specifically for "Easy" Sanitary Pod, Solo.

Joleri seems like a go to pick for this pod primarily because she has very good stats to begin with. Over time, her stats do not improve as well as other characters, so it's a good idea to keep her at level 1 and just ditch her around floor 4. You get two guaranteed heroes at floor 2 and floor 4. While the consensus is to have Josh in the start of any pod, in Sanitary, it's very difficult to get out of the first few floors with him if he's one of your starting two. Unlike the other pods, you'll also want to research a type of defensive/offensive module right away.



On the starting part of floor two, open doors two directions at a time (like north north, south south) from the crystal. This helps mitigate the "ignored" stele, which can be a game ender when combined with the walking crystal hunters.



Especially in single player without the operator bug, I find it important to focus on operators during the first few floors. That means getting a character with level 3 operate, and getting early food generators to ensure this character gets opping asap. So we know that floors tend to be difficult or easy. It's kind've like karma. If it's too hard right on this floor, a different floor is likely to be easier (12th floor aside). The operator rush strat is actually risky on the first floors because you might end up dying, but that's okay, because to win Sanitary, you kind of just have to suppose that the most favorable outcome will happen. If it doesn't, then keep losing until it does. Since we are sure that sometimes the first floors will be easy, we're assured that the op rush strat works....over many losses. The same logic applies to the 12th floor. There's a very low amount of dust on that floor. Just run in one direction and you will find the exit, or start over.



Consider destroying Cryo Capsules. The likelihood of finding a hero is extremely low in those (1/10?). The risk reward of ind to food, as well as the possibility of having the room blanked of slots is quite devastating.



Monsters move 30% faster when you are researching. Research sparingly, and avoid researching when the fast monkeys (speed 40?) are seen on the floor.

I guess the biggest problem I'm having is just dealing with the large waves of monsters. Should I be clearing each floor to completion or just finding the exit as soon as possible? Sometimes I wipe on the first floor just from the amount of unpowered rooms. What are some of the better minor modules to research? Is it going to be more important to level up my heroes or research better modules?

Should I be clearing each floor to completion or just finding the exit as soon as possible?

The only time you should ever leave a floor early is when the potential cost to stay on a floor is higher than the cost to leave. If your heroes are getting hurt too quickly and you do not think you would be able to open a door without significant risk, then leave. Otherwise, stay and collect resources.



What are some of the better minor modules to research?

I don't want to give any advice that I'm not absolutely 100% sure of, and I don't want to stifle play by only recommending you a limited set of strategies. With that said, don't get bio-organic transference at all, don't consider getting mech pal 'til you have the basic necessities researched. I'm not going to get any more detailed than that, because you can research as much or as little as you want. Going full Kip Lvl 4 or doing pris prod only is just as legit. Find out what works for you.



Is it going to be more important to level up my heroes or research better modules?

At first, getting an operator economy going is important, so I'd say leveling your heroes up to that point is a good idea. Apart from that... leveling your heroes up is the longer term investment than researching (and not leveling your heroes at all is a tactic as well, you may find a pre-leveled hero later, and I put a lot of emphasis on this tactic with Joleri).



Since you cannot pause, you have to factor in your own ability to micro. For me, I couldn't micro very well, so I always resorted to high health/defense characters because my biggest threat was always dying too suddenly. I also favored characters with simple to use active abilities, because playing 4 heroes is difficult for me.



If you want a straight up walkthrough on how to beat sanitary, I could impart detailed knowledge which may only be partially correct (but correct enough, lol) , but part of the fun of it is to figure it out yourself. I too, posted topics on this forum when I was trying to figure out how to beat Sanitary, but my questions were all rules technical. Your questions are more straight up "what do I do", and well, I don't know if you're asking for exactly what to do. I mean, part of me wants to just say "start sanitary, see if you get smoking gun on your artifact, if not, restart game", lol, but I do believe it is possible to beat it without smoking gun(machine gun for you frenchies), I just haven't done so yet.

Sanitary Pod isn't radically different from Escape Pod and Drill Pod. It's just harder: no Pause, worse luck on heroes and module slots, less base resources per turn, more negative events, that sort of thing. (Also, I only play Easy. I never even tried the Easier setting.)



When I got around to trying Sanitary Pod, I'd already done every other challenge the game presents. I didn't even unlock the pod until I got a no-dust-lost game, which took me several tries specifically aimed at that achievement to obtain. I went and looked up tips and advice others had posted. There were specific warnings from some folks not to choose Max and Josh, because they are too fragile. I heeded the advice, and failed. Several times. Finally I said bugger off to the advice and just played my own game: which meant starting with Max and Josh. I won on the first try at it.



Should you pick these two heroes? Not necessarily. But here is why I like them:



* Max is hands down the best door opener in the game.

* Josh is hands down the best pure operator in the game.

* Those are the two most impactful roles to fill.



Max is reasonably fast and reasonably decent on DPS. He gives two bonus science per turn (a big deal in the early levels of Sanitary) from Door #1 and after reaching level 5 he gives bonus dust when opening door to a room that gives dust. There is the Eye item that mimics his ability, but the item can only enable level 1. At level 10, Max raises the ability to Level 2 (2 bonus dust per room with dust, if Max opens the door) and at Level 15, Max raises the ability to Level 3. 3 bonus dust per room with dust is just fabulously astoundingly amazingly good. The more rooms you can power in the later floors, the better off you'll be. This includes reducing the number of waves that spawn (because there aren't enough unpowered rooms for them to spawn in) as well as increasing the number of rooms in which you can build modules.



Josh has one of the highest wits available, which is important. At level 5 he also gets Knowledge is Power ability which boosts his own wit and every other hero on the team's wit, which makes him the best total wit hero available. Josh gains operate at level 3, which can be had on the first floor of most Sanitary runs: build a Food Module in the first room and, depending on your dust luck, layout, and minor module slots, pick a farther choke point room to plop down 4 Prisoner Prods. As long as your stairs run isn't catastrophically bad (long with lots of unpowered rooms) you can conserve the rest of your industry. Finally, Josh gets the Armchair General ability at Level 6, which is the best one available for your "pure" operator to have, so he can aid the team in combat without even being there. But wait: he also has the ability that boosts damage output of modules in his room, so he can defend a room nicely if it's stacked with 3+ weapons. (Rooms with 6+ guns are just heaven to this ability). Josh fights better as an Armchair General than he does in person, but direct combat isn't intended to be his role. His role is churning out huge amounts of resources, which you'll use to fight the enemy.



So my strat with this pair has some core elements, but the game throws enough luck at you to force some versatility. If you find an Eye, you can turn any hero in to your door opener, and use Max as second or even third Operator until you can get him to Level 10. (Level 15 is probably out of the question, although a sure bet and even a priority if you are running Drill Pod.) No Eye, you probably need Max on door duty by level 5 (assuming your heroes from floors 2 and 4 fail to include a second operator -- it can happen!)



There are two factors in Sanitary Pod that make levels 3-4 especially nasty: less dust than those floors usually get, and monster types you don't normally have to face before Floor 7-ish. Both Level 3 and Level 4 are seriously hazardous, yet you aren't in position to want to exit these floors early. (Never leave Level 4 without your guaranteed 4th team member.) However, if you have Drill Pod experience to level 24+ then you'll already know what to do when you have both a combo of hard monsters and a lack of powered rooms. Your number one enemy on floors 3 and 4 is lack of Industry points to build enough defenses. Thus you want two Operators on level 3 and 4, both working Industry modules. (Nice if you got at least Level 2 Industry by this time, too, but if not, you'll have to cope.



If you get or can buy an Aftershave, Max (or whoever is opening doors) is set. Once Max can go stealth mode, his greatest weakness is off the table. He can run even 5+ unpowered rooms away from your defense zone and be in no danger. He can camp safely in the path of enemies and weaken them before they reach your defense zone (or inside rooms with modules, too). Snakes, walking bombs, hornet clusters, giant swords swingers...? No problem. They can't hit what they don't see. No Aftershave? Still doable, but you may burn food running back to the powered rooms sometimes. A hipster scarf for taunt is almost as valuable as the stealth: you can prevent crystal damage when opening additional doors off the crystal room, without dragging your operators away from their assignments (and losing out on some of your much-needed income.) Even though the lack of pause prevents maximizing your item swapping, you ought to be able to manage swapping one item back and forth on your Door Opener as needed. No Hipster Scarf? You'll have to make do. You may need additional heroes, even if you have to stop Operating, in some situations, to prevent catastrophe.



Your third hero on Floor 2 is going to be luck of the draw, as is your fourth hero on Floor 4. You cannot count on getting any other heroes (I found none in my winning run). If you've won the game with every hero available (to get the achievement, or just because you like variety) then you'll know what they can each do to at least level 5+. That knowledge can help you make best use of what you get, so if you don't know what all the heroes can do and have never tried making do without your favorites, consider expanding your experience range (if you are having any trouble in Sanitary, that is).



If you take Max and Josh, they both use handguns. I didn't see my first handgun until level 6, so you can see I really did maximize my Operator economy to let my modules carry the weight for me.



A lot depends on monster draws. Some monsters are hero slayers. Some are minor module smashers. Some are major module smashers. Some are crystal runners. You can't afford to waste a lot of modules, especially not building majors that get destroyed. You need a balance of factors, though, to succeed in the long run.



The starting strategy that worked for me was a Food major on Floor 1, a Science Major (operated by Josh) on Floor 2, then a couple doors later I had enough Industry to add a Food module, which I had researched to Level 2. (If I had different research luck, I might have chosen a different second major). Research luck plays a major role, but I disagree with the person in this thread who emphasized the Smoking Gun so heavily. You can make do just fine on Floors 1 and 2 with just Prisoner Pod 1. You better improve on that by Floor 3, but if you're running an Operated Science major from the start of Floor 2, you'll be set unless your luck is terribad and you don't find the research artifacts until the last couple of doors. Even then you should get one research project in. Getting Industry module up to level 3 by floor 4ish ought to be a priority, as you'll build more of this module than any other major.



I find that more-and-cheap is better than fewer-but-mighty, when it comes to early floor modules. However, there are lots of ways to make it work. You can run Dust Field and Autodoc and rely on high DPS heroes to hold the line. You can run lots of small guns. Smoking Gun is the best bang for buck on Floors 3-5, but Tesla module can work, too. If you get Pris Prod to level 3 or 4, though, that beats Smoking 1. Tesla > Smoking if you have module smashers in play. Pris Prod targets hero killers, so use those in extra rooms if a floor gives you hero killers instead of module smashers. Better have Neurostun if there are crystal runners. Tear Gas is useful, sometimes vital.



As good as Smoking Gun is on Floor 4, though, it's no longer a total godsend at Floor 10+ with large packs of mobs. Pepper Spray can be a difference maker when your powered room count is sad, especially at level 2+. Sometimes Pepper Spray is all that can save you, although it tends to be too pricey if it's getting destroyed on every wave. I love my Claymore Mines a lot for the harder floors. I learned to love them in Drill Pod, when floors 20+ are churning out packs of mobs so thick your guns couldn't miss if they tried. A Neurostun, a Tear Gas and 2+ Claymore mines is my ideal defense room. What kind of heroless rooms I set up to mitigate the incoming depends on the monster mix and my research luck. A large room with a Stun and lots of Tear Gas can do massive damage to bulky high DPS mobs or other slow movers, but forget it for the speedy ones. If the minor module smashers are in play, there's no choice but Tesla everywhere outside the core defense zone, and you better make room for a LAN module as well. Tesla also good vs the big crystal guys that smash majors, and OK vs everything else. ... My Floor 11, I found the exit behind the 32nd door. I bled out 300 Industry despite an income of 34 per door, as many waves I had 4-5 rooms of Tesla modules to rebuild. There was no choice. Anything else would have been even costlier.



That seems to be the biggest key for me: Industry resources. You need some Food to level up heroes (especially early), and you need some Research. Key research can make your whole game. But what you must have, every floor from 3 on, is a large enough pool of industry to fill almost every available minor module with something to aid the cause of killing the enemy, and you need to be prepared to build as many as 7 majors on a floor that gives you good enough layout and module slot and monster draw and dust luck to enable you to pull it off. I had almost 800 Industry saved by the end of Floor 10 and I ended with about 250 left. Build up your Industry Stockpile on Floors 3 and 4, then only put your Operator on Science or Food when you can afford to draw down the stockpile for a whole floor if that should prove necessary. You often have to live with your first major choice for the duration of a floor. Sometimes you may not even get a second major, and often you may not get a third. Major smashers, missing slots, lack of dust, need to defend from multiple directions, etc. You can ride your existing research levels for a floor or two, but if you run out of industry in a situation where you can't take an early exit, it may be game over. Whether it's Josh or someone else, I'd recommend always choosing at least one strong Operator in your initial pair. (If you go random, well, you're especially brave and likely don't need any of my advice.)



In my winning game, I draw Mitzi on level 2 and turned her into my door opener while Max operated. However, I was getting pressed hard late on Floor 4 and lost her on a bad wave, two doors before I finally found my other hero, with only a couple doors left to open. My other hero was Elise, a weak operator but outstanding defense guard. Josh's 2 bonus wit helped her some. I had to make do with just these three heroes for a long time, but I got Max to 10 and cruised OK on dust from floors 5-9. In need of another hero, I opened every Cryo-capsule I found. Three gave food and one gave poison mist, but the sixth one I opened (on Floor 10, midway through) gave me Joleri at Level 7. Just in time! That fourth hero really helped a LOT on Floors 11 and 12. ... If you're down a hero for some reason, you have to open the Cryo Capsules. You should have the industry to spare for it, and failure usually just transforms your industry into food. Not a big deal. If you don't need the hero, don't touch the things, though.



There is also, I suppose, the Shop module. On Drill Pod, I just automatically put an operator who can pull 3 or 4 dust per door at work in the Shop, if I find a Merchant in the first half of a floor. But in Sanitary, the need for Industry is so heavy, I sometimes used the shop and a single MechPal to pull 1 per turn and keep the merchant alive (for buy/sell purposes) while keeping my Operators churning resources. Depending on other factors, such as dust luck, presence of successful dust factories, location and layout regarding the stairs, etc. Pulling 3+ dust per door out of the Shop may make the difference on floors 10-12, but prior to that, Max's 2 bonus dust per room with dust in it may get you by. If you don't have Max, then 1 per room still helps. But if your door opener gets no bonus dust, and you don't have other means of gathering extra dust, then the Shop may be a higher priority for you.



My game I had each resource module type to Level 3. I rarely ran more than one Food or Science module per floor. Usually I'd run one with Josh operating, and pull about a dozen extra units of that type per door, and still run Industry on the other available slots, but no pattern survives contact with your random luck factors. You have to cover any holes or weaknesses, exploit any advantages (especially item luck), deal with lots of variables. That's the best thing about this game: so much to adapt around, so much to strategize over. What a gem of a game design.





- Sirian