Quick Links
Though optional, Rainpunk Technology is a powerful tool to boost the various facets of your economy, from food production to industry and infrastructure.Against the Stormis both a juggling act and a race against time, and Rainpunk can help you with both these aspects by boosting production speeds and improving the Resolve of your villagers.
Related:Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting Against The Storm
If you want to know the ins and outs of how to utilize this powerful– and at times volatile– mechanic, from how to get it and how to use it, we have you covered in this complete guide to Rainpunk Technology.
Against the Storm is currently in early access. The information in this article may change in subsequent updates or when the game is fully released.
How To Unlock Rainpunk Technology
You don’t start the game with access to Rainpunk Technology; rather,you have to invest inthe Smoldering Citadel, which houses the various meta upgrades that improve future settlement attempts.
To unlock Rainpunk Tech, you need to upgrade the Obsidian Archive to level six, which unlocks the Rainpunk Engines upgrade. This will take118 Food Stockpilesand requires you to be level six, soyou’ll have to finish a handful of games before unlocking it.
How To Get Infused Rainwater
The simplest way to get Infused Rainwater, the resource that Rainpunk technology runs on, is tocatch it in a Rain Collector or Advanced Rain Collector. Each type of Infused Rainwater you can acquire corresponds to and shares a name with each of the seasons:Drizzle Water(Green),Clearance Water(Gold), andStorm Water(Blue).
As long as Rain Collectors are manned, you collect Infused Rainwater which corresponds to the current season, until you reach the capacity of the building. Eachtype of Infused Rainwater is stored separatelyand doesn’t affect the capacities of the other types of Infused Rainwater.
The geysers you find in the Glades are a more abundant source of Infused Rainwater.Each geyser produces one type of Infused Rainwater and is random to every map in both type and placement. To harness these, you mustbuild a Geyser Pump on top of themand assign at least one villager to it, which will gain you that type of Infused Rainwater until the Geyser Pump’s tanks are full.
What Do The Different Types Of Rain Do?
Each type of Infused Rainwater tends to correlate to the production of a different type of resource. Generally,Drizzle Water boosts the production of Food products, mostly complex foods like Jerky or Biscuits.Clearance Water boosts the production of artisan products, like Incense or Tea, and products used in other crafts, like Barrels or Flour.Storm Water boosts the production of basic industrial and infrastructure building blockslike Planks or Bricks.
However, since the Rain Engines are tied to buildings, and some buildings produce multiple types of resources, there’s some crossover.For example, the Smokehouse runs on Drizzle Water and produces Jerky (food) but also produces Pottery (craft) and Incense (artisan).
Artisan and Crafting Goods
Related:Against The storm - Complete Guide To Food
How Do Rain Engines Affect Buildings?
In every building that has been upgraded with a Rain Engine (this costs four Pipes per building), there aretwo engines that you’re able to toggleto various degrees of effectiveness.
Engine I has three stages of power: the first gives a 50 percent production speed boost, the second gives a 25 percent chance of a bonus production yield, and the last gives an additional 50 percent speed boost, for a total of a 100 percent speed boost.Engine II has two stages of power,and each stage gives workers in the building a +5 to their Resolve, for a total of a +10 to their resolve when working at max power.
On Pioneer difficulty and lower, using Rain Engines is a straight boost with no drawbacks. However,on Veteran or higher difficulties, they generate Blightrot.For each level of power per building, you generate between one and three stacks of Blightrot per worker per minute.
How To Manage Blightrot
Blightrot on its own does nothing, butfor every 32 stacks of Blightrot generated, you’ll spawn a Blightrot Cyst in the affected buildings, up to three. After reaching that limit, Blightrot Cysts will spread to other buildings. To combat this threat, you’ll want tobuild Blight Posts, where you’re able to make Purging Fire to eliminate Blightrot Cysts when they bloom.
All Blightrot Cysts remain dormant until the Storm season, after which they activate and corrupt your Ancient Hearth. This is also the only time you can combat them. When the Storm starts, Blightrot Cysts bloom, corrupting the Ancient Hearth.Units assigned to a Blight Post will burn Cysts one at a time per unit, using Purging Fire over a short period of time.
At Veteran or higher difficulties, Blight Cysts can also appearbecause of Glade Eventsand Forest Mysteries, so even if you don’t plan to engage in Rain Engine usage, you shouldkeep a Blight Post and some Purging Fire on handjust in case.
How To Manage Corruption
Corruption results fromletting Blightrot Cysts spawnand is the ultimate cost of interacting with Rainpunk Technology. It accumulates on your Ancient Hearth, and when you reach a certain threshold, it will kill three random villagers. This process will repeat until the Storm ends or you destroy all the Cysts.
Destroying Blightrot Cysts will slow down the corruption and remove some of the accumulated corruption.Once the Cysts are all gone, the corruption ends.Having multiple Hearths and increasing their levels increase your Ancient Hearth’s resistance to corruption, buying your Blight Fighters time to eradicate the infestation.
If you’re having trouble controlling Blightrot Cyst infestations,put down Hydrants near buildings that have Rain Enginesto reduce travel time when they need to load up on Purging Fire. Also, consider building an extra Blight Post to assign more units to fight Cysts.
