Against The Storm: Best Tips & Tricks For Veteran & Viceroy

Against the Storm is hard even on lower difficulties, so you’ll need some tips and tricks if you wish to tackle Veteran and Viceroy difficulties.

Veteran is the game’s “Hard” mode and Viceroy is the “Very Hard” equivalent. Beating Viceroy will even unlock harder challenges, but it’s no easy feat to survive that difficulty!

If you’re ready to take on this challenge, read on and we’ll give you our best tips and tricks to help deal with these challenges.

Tips & Tricks For Veteran & Viceroy

Pay Close Attention To Forest Mysteries

The biggest difference between Veteran/Viceroy difficulties and lower difficulties are the Forest Mysteries. They’re the negative effects that start to trigger once you reach certain Hostility thresholds.

Forest Mysteries in Veteran and Viceroy are much harsher than on lower difficulties, so you should make extra sure to lower Hostility by any means necessary whenever possible.

Some effects can destroy resource nodes, while others can straight-up kill your population!

If you’re not used to paying attention to Hostility, you should make sure to start doing so when you dive into these higher difficulties.

You can decrease Hostility through various means, such as building more Hearths, sacrificing villagers and fuel, completing certain Glade Events, and building Monasteries.

Keep Hostility in check if you hope to win!

Explore Dangerous Glades

It’s a good idea to prepare yourself to explore Dangerous Glades instead of regular glades. They can be rough, but they yield much better resources in the long run!

You should open your first Dangerous Glade in the second or third year, depending on how comfortable you are.

It’s also a good idea to build a Trading Post shortly after opening the first Dangerous Glade, as it speeds up the trader’s arrival.

Besides your first Dangerous Glade, you should attempt to open a Glade every other year. Though sometimes it’s best to open them every year.

As before, though, try to focus on Dangerous Glades as much as possible instead of standard glades!

Avoid x3 Speed

This is a simple and quick tip: don’t overuse x3 speed. In fact, avoid it as much as possible.

Things can take a turn for the worst in seconds if you use x3 speed, and you won’t have the luxury of reacting in a timely manner. It’s a common mistake, but one that can snowball into defeat.

For the most part, you should stick to x1.0, x1.5, and x2 speeds.

Also, remember to pause time the moment you notice something going awry. It’ll give you a lot more breathing room to deal with issues.

Keep Tools & Parts In Mind

Tools and Parts are probably the most important resources you can have, but also the rarest.

You can make Tools yourself using various buildings such as Scribes, Carpenters, and Smithies. Try to produce as many Tools as possible, even if you have to resort to buying some of the materials for them.

Why? Well, because tools can almost guarantee a win on their own!

You see, tools can be used to easily gain Reputation and funds by opening Abandoned Caches found in the various glades. They’re also extremely useful in making Dangerous Glade events easier, so they always come in handy!

Parts, on the other hand, are extremely limited and rare but you need them to build most production buildings. You should avoid selling them and be smart with how you use them.

Thankfully, though, you can dismantle buildings to get a refund on Parts later. Still, this is hardly optimal, so make sure to be wise with how you spend Parts.

Produce & Sell

You should always try to overproduce the most common type of resources you find. This is going to vary each run, due to the game’s procedural generation, so you’ll need to figure out which resources are most common for you.

However, the general gist is the same: produce as many common goods as possible!

You can then use them to barter with traders, either for other resources or for Amber, which is the general currency in Against the Storm.

Overall, this is a pretty simple tip that can save your runs in these high difficulties. Trade common goods for resources you’re lacking and you’ll have a much easier time overall!

ALSO READ: Against The Storm: Complete Beginner’s Guide