Dino Cataclysm Survival beginner's guide - 7 tips for your journey into the past

Dino Cataclysm is a city builder with elements of 4X strategy. Your main focus is on growing your core base in the distant past, recruiting 'dinocitizens' that will work the various buildings, and then venturing out to battle infected dinosaurs while searching for rewards.

Missions will be provided to guide you along, but most of the gameplay boils down to managing your resource output and ensuring that your buildings are constantly upgraded. Since the distant past is a mid-extinction event, so your shielded base is the sole safe-haven, and one you'll be focusing on. Eventually, you'll expand the perspective to a wider world map where other 'time travellers' (players) have landed.

Outside of that, there are other mechanics such as incubating (summoning) and exploration, but we'll get into that in the relevant sections. Ultimately, expect this to be a good mix of strategy and idle AFK elements to balance out throughout your playtime.

As interesting as the gameplay may be, its story and characters are not a strong point. I'd basically consider them as placeholders, and you won't really miss much if you skip the cutscenes and get right into the action. Plus, it'll save you a few minutes of pain to get right into the grind.

Admittedly, it's not an egregiously bad story for what it is. So if you can stand some simple, pulpy sci-fi nonsense, it might be worth a skim-read if you've got the time. However, you won't be missing out on any crucial gameplay points that aren't explained via tooltips or actually shown onscreen.

Yes, this is another citybuilder that cribs the expanding/shrinking dome of safety idea from Frostpunk. Although, as with Frostpunk, it's a little less unforgiving than the original, your main focus for expansion will be on growing the shield itself - something which will guide you along by requiring certain buildings or resources to upgrade.

Usually, that means following the lead and the various missions, which will point out which buildings you need to upgrade. From there, you'll also have to upgrade the central core itself. Unless you're playing premium, things will need to be done one at a time. The shield also possesses an overdrive button, although aside from using it in the tutorial, I couldn't find a feasible use for it, perhaps outside of during eruptions.

Aside from growing your home base, the main gameplay comes in the form of recruiting (or 'incubating' the eggs of) new Mutabeasts that serve as your heroes on the battlefield. If you've played an auto-battler before, then you know what to expect as you send them out to battle their way through enemies and bring back rewards.

The exploration mechanic initially starts off as a portion of the map on which your base is. But I found that once you clear this initial area, it switches to a more traditional interface that you can use to send expeditions out into the wilds. By the time you reach level 30, you'll unlock full automation of this task.

Mutabeasts can be summoned by the incubation method, but you'll need to collect multiple fragments in order to recruit them once you get the first two added to your roster. Fortunately, exploration will net you eggs, and you also get some free ones when you check in.

It's worth mentioning in this Dino Cataclysm Survival beginner's guide that, unlike a traditional citybuilder, you won't be waiting for dinocitizens to arrive; instead, you'll need to seek them out in the wild. They offer a simple multiple-choice issue to solve, where you'll need to pick the correct option to add to your base, and to your Genodex, which provides rewards for the more dinocitizens you successfully discover and recruit. Eventually, more will arrive that pop up as a banner on the top left side.

As you might expect, there are a lot of ways to automate the minutiae of running your base. For example, you can simply hold an upgrade button to assign as many resources as necessary until they run out or you successfully upgrade. You can also manage the individual assignments of your Dinocitizens from a simple interface that also allows you to quickly assign them to buildings that need workers.

While most of Dino Cataclysm is quite laid-back, one of the major disasters you can face is that of an eruption. Given your time machine lands midway through the extinction of the dinosaurs, the occasional eruption is inevitable, and these events challenge you to upgrade your shield core and gather enough resources to weather the storm.

This is a good opportunity not just to test the limits of your city but also to nab some rewards, as not only will you avoid damage to your base, but you'll also net a variety of goodies for successfully making it through the eruption without any damage.

With judicious use of your speed-ups and other items (don't use them for anything that takes less than 15 minutes), you'll be able to reach reactor core 6. From here is where the rest of the game opens up with options such as joining clans, exploring the world map and sending out your mutabeasts to battle it out with infected dinosaurs.

By this time, you'll likely have a grasp of the relevant mechanics and whether or not you want to stick with Dino Cataclysm. From here, it's up to you to decide how you progress and where your focus is. But joining a clan and starting to send out expeditions is definitely a good stepping stone, as you'll continue to unlock new elements, such as the Protector Camp to clone sentinel dinos to send out on expeditions.

Ultimately, this is where you'll know if you want to keep playing. But it's also where all the core mechanics have been introduced and explained. Albeit in a bit of a shorter way than I'm doing. Just make judicious use of your speed-ups, as mentioned before, keep sending out expeditions, and you'll have a firm grasp on the core gameplay.

While it could be better, Dino Cataclysm could be worse, too. And I can certainly see a potential favourite for strategy fans beneath the surface. Just be aware that there's a heavy emphasis on resource gathering, timers and auto-battles. But if you're a fan of that and the Jurassic period, then this is definitely for you!

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Dino Cataclysm: Survival