The Battle of Polytopia Guide - Tips for Taking Over the World

The addition of multiplayer to The Battle of Polytopia has catapulted the game from a fun enough time waster to a fully-fledged 4X experience on your phone. We've been playing quite a few matches over the past week or so, and we've put together a list of tips to help you get a leg up against your fellow human players.

Pick the right civilization

The Battle of Polytopia presents a pretty simplified version of something like Civilization, but that doesn't mean strategic nuances aren't still important. Before you even start a match of Polytopia, consider who to play as to give yourself a leg up. Are you playing against a ton of opponents? Choose the Vengir for a quick military leg up. Want a slower start to your empire? Take advantage of the mountains usually afforded to the Xin-Xi.

Keep it cheap

The ultimate resource in Polytopia is your stars, which are produced by your cities. As your cities grow and you take over new villages, your production of stars increases, but that doesn't mean you should just spend your stars willy-nilly. The key to being effective in Polytopia is to develop an effective strategy while keeping your costs down as much as possible. Technologies increase in price as you research them, so be sure to only research things you truly need to disrupt your opponent quickly while saving your precious resources for units.

Don't attack defenders too early

If you're thinking of going on the offensive early, think twice before trying to capture a city with a Defender in it. Although these units are slow and have weak attacks, they can take quite a beating and hit back hard enough to have your offensive units limping away if you strike too early. If you see Defenders in a city, it's better to try and attack at range or try to capture another city before visiting that one.

Keep an eye on your population counter

Winning in Polytopia usually revolves around some amount of military conflict, so it's important to make sure your cities can sustain fighters for you. Each city is limited to how many units it can produce though, so be careful when producing units at a city, especially if they are close to an enemy. Sometimes, you'll need to produce a military units quickly on your front lines, but there are others where it might be more useful to wait before you unlock a new technology to create an even more powerful unit in a subsequent turn.