Priority Beacon

Summary

Priority Beacon
Type	Military
Type	Military
HP	300
HP	300
Action	Sends a signal to a mothership in orbit to commence Orbital Bombardment within 150 seconds of its construction.
Action	Sends a signal to a mothership in orbit to commence Orbital Bombardment within 150 seconds of its construction.

The Priority Beacon is an end-game structure that can only be built on yellow blocks called Gold Well Pipes that are placed equidistantly around the Mainland. It is a weapon that causes orbital bombardment to begin when there's enough of them built, which fires lasers at enemy structures continuously with laser strikes until all enemy structures are gone, then it targets players. Bombardment begins 150 seconds after the final beacon is built, halting if a beacon is destroyed. It is the most powerful weapon in the game.

Construction

There are a total of 7 Gold Well Pipes in a map, with six of them forming a hexagonal shape around the mainland and one at the very center of the map, well spaced apart from one another. Despite terrain being randomly generated, the Gold Well Pipes have the same position every game. A player looking to build a beacon should have a good iridium supply before constructing it. Beacons are by far the most expensive item in the game. Constructing a Beacon is virtually impossible to be done by hand, and will require several minutes of work by a Fabricator, or more preferably, several fabricators.

The Priority Beacon is the only structure ingame with a flexible price - the price varies for each team depending on how many players the team initially started with. A certain number of Beacons must be constructed to activate orbital bombardment, once again based on the amount of players on the team (see the chart below)

Once a Beacon completed, it has the appearance of a tall antenna with a small base, with some parts the color of the team that build the Beacon. Upon completion, the chat will announce "[Team Name] has constructed [number of beacons completed] out of [number of beacons required]." This notifies enemy players about a beacon construction. The beacon will have a small display showing the amount of beacons built over the amount of beacons required.

Beacons require several Fabricators and a lot of Iridium to build. One strategy is to Sprawl to each Gold Well Pipe and build the beacons. Another is to use a construction barge, using several Fabricators, a Tank, a Distributor, Transceivers, and a Spatial Anchor.

The Beacon has fairly low health and should be protected using a variety of different structures, including Walls, Point Defenses, Turrets, Arc Turrets, and Shield Generators among other defenses. One common defense is using a Reservoir, in which a player builds the structure around the beacon. Having your Beacon destroyed will result in you having to build it again, a very time and iridium-consuming process. Since a message in chat informs the enemy every time a Beacon is built, it might a good idea to defend a beacon spot before building the Beacon.

For every additional player, the total beacon cost increases by 8000. For every other player in the team, the amount of beacons required will increase by 1. The maximum amount of beacons a team must build is 7.

Players	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Beacons	3	4	4	5	5	6	6	7	7	7
Cost (per)	9,667	9,250	11,250	10,600	12,200	11,500	12,833	12,143	13,286	14,429
Cost (total)	29,000	37,000	45,000	53,000	61,000	69,000	77,000	85,000	93,000	101,000

Orbital Bombardment

Upon completion of their construction, a countdown of 150 seconds will begin, with a warning in the chat every 15 seconds notifying all players of time remaining. At the end of the countdown, Orbital Bombardment will begin, which is essentially a constant barrage of Laser Strikes targeted at enemy structures. This can easily destroy even the most fortified bases. This bombardment will continue as long as there are still enemy structures remaining and the Beacon is not destroyed. After all enemy structures are destroyed, the beacon will start targeting enemy players as well. The player can stop an orbital bombardment by destroying enemy beacons so that the number of beacons the enemy has constructed is lower than the number of required beacons. Rebuilding the beacon to meet the beacon requirement still means that there will be a countdown before Orbital Bombardment.

The lasers all originate from the sky at random angles. They may have trouble damaging structures located underground or in Sea Bases, and will instead damage the terrain above them first, or may even strike the structures of the team that built the beacon if an enemy structure is beneath them. The random angles may also cause the lasers to damage Spires if enemy structures are close to them. The Lasers Strikes do not directly target players until all enemy structures are destroyed. Lazer strikes genrally target structures built in reverse order: enemy structures built more recently will be the first to be destroyed.

Countering the Priority Beacon

The power of the laser strikes is extreme, and no barrier will survive indefinitely. However, countless shields and terrain can buy you time. Skybases are most vulnerable to the Orbital Bombardment, while a Sea Base is the most protected.

In the beginning of the game, a player can place structures over Gold Well Pipes, blocking beacon blueprints, and hindering enemy beacon construction.

The Scanner has a mode that allows the player to pinpoint the exact location of friendly and enemy beacons.

It may be a good idea to sneak up on your enemy's base if you know they are building a Priority Beacon and build many small, cheap structures, such as Light Source, so when Orbital Bombardment does begin, it will attempt to hit those structures, destroying the base above in the process. However, this does not work if you tried placing said things near the Beacon, the lasers do not target anything in the Beacon's proximity to avoid it getting blown up by incident.

The best option is to directly destroy the beacon as soon as possible. Beacons have a very low amount of health, and are nearly impossible to repair. A partially complete blueprint takes a substantial amount of time to destroy. It may be better to allow the Beacon to complete building before attempting to destroy it. Beacons can easily be destroyed by most structure damaging weapons, but the enemy player will almost always have defense around it.

Beacons can usually only be built if a team has control of much of the mainland. By contesting land and preventing expansion, you can hinder/prevent the enemy from constructing beacons.

Trivia

• The Priority Beacon is not the actual weapon that bombards enemies, but a signal to the team's mothership that they have asserted dominance over the planet, and are capable of sustaining iridium production. This is what tells the corporation that has hired the Player that it is worth it to bombard the competition.
• Initially, there was only one Gold Well Pipe at the very center of a map. A team only had to build 1 beacon, which cost 25000 iridium to construct. This was later changed because it prioritized heavy basing rather than expansion.
• The fastest recorded build time of a beacon costing 25000 Iridium is 4.16 seconds.
• The longest recorded time a base survived continual bombardment was around 18 minutes.

Iridium
Pipes	Pipe • T-Junction • Four-Way • Elbow
Extractors	Well Pump • Crystal Atomizer • Condenser • Submersible
Tanks	Small Tank • Standard Tank • Large Tank • Hefty Tank
Special	Cap • Refill Station
	Tech	Distributor Cap • Gauge
	Valves	Valve • Drop Tank
Structures
Seat • Bridge
Defense	Wall • Keep • Gate
Basic
	Ladder Block
	Lighting	Light Source • Light Post
	Blocks	Block • Hollow Block • Platform Block • Slab Block
	Wedges	Wedge 30 • Wedge 45
Military
Shield Generator • Priority Beacon
Production	Arsenal • Garage • S.S.I.M
Weapons
Offense	Bore • Artillery
Defense	Turret • Arc Turret • Point Defense
Technology
Character	Spawn Point • Upgrade Station
Wireless	Transceiver • Distributor
Structure Tech	Fabricator • Automechanic
Misc	Boost Pad • Observer • Spatial Anchor