One City Challenge - Purity; Tips and Tricks!

Been having some fun on my newest game, and I decided to start another and bump up the difficulty

I'll play through the game slowly using only 1 city to try and win a Promised Land Victory.

Share your tips with me and I'll share mine with you.

Experimenting with screenshots, it appears they are now freakishly large 8MB .tga files.

No matter how gorgeous, I simply must convert them to more reasonable 1MB .jpg.
Paint wouldn't open .tga so had to download another program.
Using IrfanView now.


Promised myself I wouldn't reroll the start.
Picked the settings I'd most like if I had only one city.



Earth looks kind of sickly in that top screenshot doesn't it?

Soyuz Difficulty (too chicken for Apollo just yet)
Small World
Franco-Iberia Free Technology every 10 Virtues
Artists +2 Culture and +1 Health
Fusion Reactor +100 Energy at start
Machinery Free Worker at start of game
Protean World - Nye637 b One single landmass surrounded by ocean
Civ: Beyond Earth, version 1.0.0.574



Spies seem really strong and so do +2 trade routes, but a Free Tech seems the strongest to me.

Was a bit torn on 2 production vs. 2 culture and 1 health,but culture is hard to get early on so went with that.
Health is always useful when making a big city.

Retrograde Thrusters is the obvious choice if not rerolling, but I love starting with the extra energy to buy that tile or two I really want!

Free worker is very solid. Costs more than a soldier and can start improving tiles right away.
Starting with the trade route tech is like a free 80 science, but you can't use it at the start.
2 population is basically 15 free food if you are only playing one city. Free worker can easily make then up by permanently being 2 improvements ahead of a city-built worker.

Pangaea is my best bet to avoid a dreaded mostly coastal start.
(I just hate water tiles because I can't improve them. Maybe they are good with buildings?)

And here is the start!
All Landmass



Looks like mostly Plains tiles.
Wish it had more rivers to give +1 energy to a lot of tiles.

Those forests on the river are a pain.
10 turns to chop down and they only give 20 I think.
6 more turns to put the farm down after that.
And they are covered in poison for added insult
4-5 more turns to heal from the poison damage.
So 20 turns instead of 6 to make a riverside farm ugh.

Will need 2 workers earlier than usual if I want to put those riverside tiles to work as farms.
Rest looks like plains and deserts. City will be slower growing than grasslands but should have higher production.

Best tiles appear to be those two Tubers up north in the desert.
Tubers are the best basic tile in my opinion.
They add +1 food and when you improve them they add +2 more food!
So a riverside grassland tuber would give +5 food and +1 energy if it was improved.

Gonna put the city dead center next to the river.
Does Fresh Water give any bonuses in Civ Beyond Earth?
I know the hilltop will give some defensive bonuses.


I've counted and a city has 36 maximum usable tiles.
Any higher than 36 pop will have to start using specialists.
1st ring has 6 tiles, 2nd ring has 12 tiles, and outer ring has 18 tiles

Settling on the hill might have been a mistake.
My city has 2 but also only 2.

In my last game, putting it on a grassland gave 1 and 4 I think, a much better city.

Would the river plain have given 1 and 3?





The hill made a difference in city strength at least
31 at the start instead of 26.
Goes up by 0.5 with each new population I think.
Should certainly make a difference if any AI attacks me early.

First improvement will be the Fruit just north of my city.
It will be my only 3+ tile until I can expand up north to the tubers.

3 Biomass and no Floatstone or Firaxian in my city boundaries.
Have to claim every tile before the city will expand beyond 3 hexes towards resources.

Not sure why all my tiles cost 100 energy.
Do tiles cost more on harder settings such as Soyuz?
My easier game they all seemed around 50-75 at the start.

Going to send the Scout out to look for goodie huts and Progenitor Artifacts.
Getting Purity to 1 from a Scout doing an excavation would be huge because it makes aliens never attack scouts.
It is also one or two less techs I have to research at the end of the game to get Purity up to 13.

Why have Purity start out at 0/11 points to advance to level 1 when you hover over it at the top left of the screen?
Earning points to level up an affinity would make more sense if you could see how many points you'd be earning when you research a tech.
Do the cheap techs give 10 Affinity Points and the expensive ones give 20?
Will certainly pay attention this play through

Since I will grow so slowly and progenitor artifacts are so good, will start a 2nd scout as my first city build.

What to tech 1st is always interesting.


I almost always go Pioneering 1st because trade routes are so overpowered, but I'm desperately needing food.
Ecology has the Vivarium building which gives +2 and +1 to deserts, which is perfect for those desert tubers up north.
Don't forget, each +1 population in a city gives +1 even though it isn't obvious.

So I'm thinking Ecology->Pioneering first.
That will take 95 and 80 to research.
Oddly, map size doesn't seem to affect research costs.

Genetics is health buildings I don't need yet.
Chemistry has 2 nice buildings and reveals Petroleum which is useful for satellites, but I don't need right now.
Physics is a ranged attack unit and a science building I don't need.
Engineering is an expensive melee attack unit and reveals Titanium.
Titanium is awesome because it gives around +6 when you mine it, but is a gamble whether it reveals or not.
Takes 1 Titanium to make a Purity 4 ServoMachinery BattleSuit with 40
This is the Purity Affinity's main assault troop near as I can tell.
Planetary Survey is right under Pioneering and involves water units so I won't tech that until way later when I want a scout to start swimming for islands.

I finished a 1CC ARC/Harmony game the other day. I wasn't expecting a 1CC, but I was completely boxed in by aliens. Brasilia and Polystralia (run away Civ. Wiped out PAC and dwarfed everyone on the scoreboard) declared war after I placed the Mind Flower, but none of their units dared approach my lone Xeno Titan guarding it.

Anyways, as for tips...

Spies are the key to out-teching the AI. The faster you get the spy agency up, the more time you have to run wild on the AI before their counter-intelligence shows up. I only had 70 beakers by the time I won on turn 360.

Energy is quite useful. The second Tier I synergy bonus is a must-have. Without internal trade routes, I had to purchase a lot of late game buildings because I was way behind in production (7 of my tiles were hills, too).

rune42 said:

I finished a 1CC ARC/Harmony game the other day. I wasn't expecting a 1CC, but I was completely boxed in by aliens. Brasilia and Polystralia (run away Civ. Wiped out PAC and dwarfed everyone on the scoreboard) declared war after I placed the Mind Flower, but none of their units dared approach my lone Xeno Titan guarding it.

Anyways, as for tips...

Spies are the key to out-teching the AI. The faster you get the spy agency up, the more time you have to run wild on the AI before their counter-intelligence shows up. I only had 70 beakers by the time I won on turn 360.

Energy is quite useful. The second Tier I synergy bonus is a must-have. Without internal trade routes, I had to purchase a lot of late game buildings because I was way behind in production (7 of my tiles were hills, too).

Click to expand...

Oh yes, I will be loving the spies

Energy is on my radar too.
Mainly the 1% interest and the +6 energy from trade routes to the little city states.

The second Tier I synergy is +10%Energy and +10% in the Capital isn't it?

I'm thinking of avoiding it so I can go down the Knowledge virtue path faster.
+2 to Academy's and +7 to Wonders is just so good.


I'm going to use this post to keep track of Building Reward choices and pop growth/culture virtue breakpoints.

(Looks like 15 + 9+11+13+15+17..etc///increases by 2 each time)
Pop 1 - 15
Pop 2 - 24
Pop 3 - 35
Pop 4 - 48
Pop 5 - 63
Pop 6 - 80
Pop 7 - 99
Pop 8 - 120
Pop 9 - 143
Pop 10 - 168
Pop 11 - 195
Pop 12 - 224
Pop 13 - 255
Pop 14 - 288
Pop 15 - 323
Pop 16 - 360
Pop 17 - 399
Pop 18 - 440
Pop 19 - 483
Pop 20 - 528
Pop 21 - 575
Pop 22 - 624
Pop 23 - 675

(Looks like 20 + 4+12+20+28+36+44+52...etc///increases by 8 each time)
Free Virtues do NOT increase the you need for the next virtue.
Virtue 1 - 20
Virtue 2 - 24
Virtue 3 - 36
Virtue 4 - 56
Virtue 5 - 84
Virtue 6 - 120
Virtue 7 - 164 (in game I got this one for free)
Virtue 8 - 147 (with -10% Cohesive Values)
Virtue 9 - 194 (with -10% Cohesive Values)
Virtue 10 - 248 (with -10% Cohesive Values)
Virtue 11 - 309 (with -10%)
Virtue 12 - 378 (with -10%)
Virtue 13 - 453 (with -10%)
Virtue 14 - 536 (with -10%)
Virtue 15 - 626 (with -10%)
Virtue 16 - 723 (with -10%)
Virtue 17 - 828 (with -10%)
Virtue 18 - 939 (with -10%)
Virtue 19 - 1058 (with -10%)
Virtue 20 - 1184 (with -10%)
Virtue 21 - 1317 (with -10%)
Virtue 22 - 1458 (with -10%)

Wow, my Tier 1 Synergy bonus free Virtue didn't increase the Virtue amount
Virtue 8 is what Virtue 7 should cost, and -10% because of Cohesive Values Virtue.

To reach Affinity___, you need this many XP:
Affinity 1 - 11 points
Affinity 2 - 12 points
Affinity 3 - 13 points
Affinity 4 - 14 points
Affinity 5 - 16 points
Affinity 6 - ?? points
Affinity 7 - ?? points
Affinity 8 - 19 points
Affinity 9 - 20 points
Affinity 10 - 21 points
Affinity 11 - ?? points
Affinity 12 - 23 points
Affinity 13 - 24 points
Affinity 14 - 26 points
Affinity 15 - 27 points
Affinity 16 - 28 points

GGMoyang has a nice Building Quest Guide if you want to see what extra goodies a building can give you.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=534847

I tried an OCC contact victory, but lack of production really hurts.
I think I need a lucky progenitor ruin for this...

Hutama builds Mind flower while I'm building Beacon

The turn I lost, still need 21 more turns.


For affinity victories, I doubt if you can get them in decent time... even Deep space telescope wasn't fast enough.
My techs:

ggmoyang said:

I tried an OCC contact victory, but lack of production really hurts.
I think I need a lucky progenitor ruin for this...

Hutama builds Mind flower while I'm building Beacon

Spoiler :

The turn I lost, still need 21 more turns.

Spoiler :

For affinity victories, I doubt if you can get them in decent time... even Deep space telescope wasn't fast enough.
My techs:

Spoiler :

Click to expand...

Lost on Turn 245?
Heh, now I have a time to shoot for.
What difficulty was it?

Turn 6

Curses! My only 3 tile right now is under a stinking forest.
16 turns to improve it instead of 6.
I need food!


Scout is doing good.
Found the ocean up north and 2 Resource Pods.
Got a Solar Collector and +60 Energy.
That solar Collector satellite gives +1 energy to 7 tiles for 60 turns, so up to +420 Energy if I save it for when I have around 10 population.
Triggered a Quest called Gifts From Home with the 1st resource pod. I find 3 of them and I get a present.


Ran into a bit of a decision point.
My scout found an empty nest.
Do I try to capture it for +25 Energy when there might be enemies near it who will kill my scout?
Or do I ignore it and keep exploring for Progenitor Ruins?


I think I have to ignore it.
Without Purity Level 1, my scouts are just too vulnerable to the Aliens.

Almost have the 200 Energy I need to purchase an Old Earth Relic for +2.
I think it also gives a quest to upgrade it to +3.
Should help my borders expand faster to get those tubers.
115 energy is an awful lot to just buy the desert hilltop. Will check to see what my next border expansion tile will be.

Kaitzilla said:

Lost on Turn 245?
Heh, now I have a time to shoot for.
What difficulty was it?

Click to expand...

Apollo.
And next time I'm gonna reroll until I get some production.
And maybe quick speed for faster spies.

I'm not playing Apollo so maybe I'll have a chance.

Turn 7
Good news!
The prices to buy tiles came down for some reason.


I'm going to buy one of those desert hills (way better than plains hills), and then a tuber tile.
Forget buying an Old Earth Relic.
Can slow build that later.
Now that my 2nd Scout is done, gonna build a 2nd worker.
It can finish chopping down that forest which will put 20/40 into the Old Earth Relic.

Gonna stop trying to cut down that forest and go improve some good food right now!

1st scout found no Aliens at all and took the alien nest for +25 Energy.
No Aliens were in the fog to the north.


Chose the Frugality Virtue in the Prosperity tree.
+10% kept after each growth is great and I'm going to grow to 2pop next turn.


2 AI have already landed
They must land faster on the harder settings?
I don't think it matters who they are since the AI is so weak in this game.
They are decently far away to the southwest.


Here is the Economy currently:
Each of my 4 units costs 0.5 Energy Upkeep.
That will grow as time goes on.
It seems city connections might give energy too according to the screenshot, but I don't know how much and won't be finding out this game with only 1 city.




**Edit**
Bought a Desert Hill and both Tuber Tiles for 80, 55, and 60 Energy.
Tiles must go up in price by 5 every time you buy one?

Turn 10

Having great luck with pods and artifacts so far.
3rd pod gave me 15
This completed the Gift From Home quest which gave 10
4th pod gave me 18!

Got my 2nd virtue already.
Picked for 10% more science while healthy.

Need science badly right now. It shaved 2 turns off my next tech
Capital is Size 2 and 20+ turns to grow again until tubers are improved.
Will pick 10% more production for buildings for my 3rd virtue right around the time I start to need buildings.

And finally, there are TWO artifacts just east of my Capital that my 2nd scout found.
A crashed satellite and a progenitor ruin.


One gives 80 I think and the other gives +1 Affinity. Both are huge.
Thinking I'll have the scout wait 2 turns on top of the satellite until I'm 5 turns from Ecology to start excavating it.
That way I'll get 80 production and just about instantly build my desperately needed Vivarium for my desert tubers.(+2 and +1 on desert tiles)

Not sure how production overflow works in this game.
I know it carries over, but when I tried to store it last game by building food a turn it vanished after the 2nd turn.

So 3rd explorer after my 2nd worker to get the progenitor ruins as fast as possible.
2nd worker can finish chopping(20) and improve my fruit.
Explorers have to return to a city to get another excavation point and I don't want to leave a progen ruin lying around too long.

Turn 17

5th, 6th, and 7th resource pods gave me 60, 60, and 40 energy.
Used it to buy my 3rd scout for 200.
Are there more goodies on the giant single continent map than other maps?

Decided to put the Old Earth Relic off one more time and build Vasarium and Clinic first.
The +1 is more important right now than doubling my culture output.

Found two Derelict Settlements to the southwest, but they are both infested with bugs.
On them, around them, I have no chance to excavate them without dying until I obtain Purity 1.


The capital city is doing much better now with 2 workers and the tubers coming online.
Will grow again on Turn 19.


Out west of the city, got the quest "Cultural Burden"
Don't remember what the reward is.
Will investigate it after the Satellite and Ruins are excavated.

Turn 19

Ya, that 1st explorer died.
Alien ran two tiles westward and murdered him.
Guess I should have went 1NW instead of 1NE once I spotted them.
Forgot they can move 2 tiles.

Had to stop the excavation of the Crashed Satellite on Turn 17 with 1 turn left to go.
Timed it wrong back on turn 13.
It was going to finish in between Turn 17 and Turn 18 and put all 80 into my Clinic and produce it before I could switch to the Vivarium.
Thankfully, the "Stop Last Mission" button on the explorer keeps the 1 excavation ability(didn't have to return to a city) and I finished the excavation instantly on Turn 18.

Check out the huge difference between turn 18 and turn 19:


The Crashed Satellite let me finish the Vivarium 12 turns sooner than I could have regularly.
That is +48 in addition to the +80!
So good.

The two screenshots also demonstrate food overflow.
There was 1.5 overflowing into Turn 19.
There was also 10% of 24 being carried over.
1.5+2.4 = 3.9 which is precisely how much is currently in the city

Turn 23

A 3rd AI has landed close to my civ.
He is 2 fogged tiles deep beyond where I've explored.
I'll have to scout up that way and find a path without miasma if I want a trade route to be able to reach that foreign city.

I also signed a Cooperation Treaty with a civ!
Never managed to get one in my last game.
No idea what it is good for.
Maybe I can trade some Energy per turn for some per turn?



A station also landed very close to my City!
It gave me a choice which charter to sign, and I of course picked +4 over the +4 Energy.
At tier 3 the little city states always give 10 goodies total so I think it will manage +10 per turn at Tier 3 with a trade route in the far future.



Picked up my 3rd Virtue too.
Chose Labor Logistics for +10% to buildings.

There was the temptation to pick +30 for each completed excavation, but I want only long term virtues and am only planning on getting 6 Tier 1 virtues (for the synergy bonus) before going down into the Tier 2 Knowledge tree.


My 2nd scout also came under some pressure.
Walked 2 tiles onto the Progenitor Ruins and there was an alien 2 tiles away.
Figured I couldn't move anymore so pressed next turn and prayed.
He dies, then I'd have to build a military to escort my last scout over there which I really didn't want to do.


The alien stayed put!
Now I have the option to run.
Is it being within 2 tiles of a nest that makes them attack a scout?
I'm tempted to back off and waste some turns moving onto the ruins and off until the Alien leaves, but decide to just stay put and keep excavating.

Next turn he leaves!
So I smile at my boldness.

Then the next turn, I get a new quest.
Kill the alien worm!
I look around for it because it must have shown up somewhere for that quest to appear.
Annnnd he's next to my Progenitor Ruin scout.



I think I'm going to run away this time. Sneak back in when it is safe...

Turn 28

GGMoyang has a nice Building Quest Guide if you want to see what extra goodies a building can give you.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=534847

Institute gives +1 Free Tech if you get the quest.
Might be useful
What are odds each turn that a building quest comes up after you build it anyway?


Mmm, I've played a few turns so back to the game now

First, I made my best trade deal with an AI in Civ: Beyond Earth so far.


My Energy for her !

I'm not sure of the exact ratio of energy per turn for science per turn, but I will definitely be investigating this trade possibility!

A shame the gained through trading isn't affected by multipliers. (As seen in top right)


I gained +1 from my Clinic which is better than city hit points.

A 4th AI landed to the Southeast and an AI scout came down to my city from the northwest.
I just know that scout is going to steal something good from me towards my southeast.
Guess I'll explore south with 1 scout while my 2nd scout unfogs a trade route around the miasma to the nearest AI.

Sand Worm left the area after 2 turns so I was able to complete the excavation at the Progenitor Ruins.
The Crashed Satellite to the west for the Cultural Burden Quest was also excavated.
Progenitor Ruins gave 496/2480 for Hypercomputing.
Cultural Burden gave 192/770 for Artificial Intelligence.
Those would be awesome if I was going Supremacy, but I'm going Purity.

As a consolation prize though, Cultural Burden level up my Purity to 1!
So now my scouts won't be attacked by Aliens anymore
And I also have 14 Marines now.


Finished the Laboratory and am almost finished with the Old Earth Monument.
Will start a Trade Depot next.
Pioneering will be finished in 1 more turn.

Here is my city currently on Turn 28:


When Purity was Level 0, it said 0/11 towards next upgrade.
But I got 12 Purity points from the quest and now it says 0/12 until the next upgrade.
Shouldn't it be 1/12?

Turn 36

Now that the start is maturing it is time to really think about what to tech next.



I really liked Chemistry next as it unlocks 2 buildings I want.
The Recycler is +2 and +1 for each trade route, so very strong for building things!
The Laboratory is a solid +2

What to tech after that is a bit murkier.
Do I go for the growth wonders in Genetic Mapping and Genetic Design?
Or do I go for the spies available from teching Computers?
Or take a few turns and tech Engineering to maybe get some Titanium for a strong production boost?

Spies are great for crazy fast teching.
I've been informed from another ggmoyang thread that they give up to 25% of the tech you are currently researching when you "Steal Science".
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=537177

I might tech faster if I go spies first, but what good is that if my population is too small to build anything?
Rather than gamble on stupid Titanium I'm going to go Chemistry->Genetics->Genetic Mapping->Genetic Design!
Then maybe Engineering->Computers.


While playing to Turn 36, I found another Crashed Satellite.
10 turns to excavate it this time instead of 5, but it should be another large production/science boost when it finishes.
A 5th Civ China landed next to all those Derelict Settlements too.


Picked up my 4th Virtue Social Mores.
Will be aiming for 25% to building wonders and one more Tier 1 science perk before going down the Knowledge tree for +5 academies and +7 for wonders.


Finished the Trade Depot.
Gonna make 2 Trade Route units next.

Here's my city on Turn 36.
Spent my last bit of gold on another desert hill even though the city appears to have a worm problem...
Hope siege worms can't raze cities.


Why is my city attack here only 25 and not 32?

Turn 47

Finished Chemistry and Genetics.
Discovered 3 oil just north of my city.

Built a Trade Depot, Trade Convoy, Recycler, and started another Trade Convoy.
Quest popped up right after giving Trade Depot +1

Rather than 2 trade convoys back to back, I realized I made a mistake when the 1st Trade Convoy wouldn't connect to the foreign civ I wanted. (Close civ to the northwest)
Apparently you have to defog to the actual city instead of the civ boundaries.
So I built the Recycler for a huge boost while my scout got up there and sorted it out.
Could have connected to China, but I'm sure Aliens would have killed that Trade Route!
So 1st trade route went to the +4 per turn Station.
Will be making an Ultrasonic Fence before I start building wonders so I can hopefully get the Reverse the Polarity Building Quest and not have to worry about Trade Convoys dying to Aliens.


My 10 turn expedition to the Crashed Satellite didn't give me the 80 I wanted. Gave me a chunk of an advanced tech.

Wait, that's Genetic Design!
I was going for that tech next after my current one.
Time to go play the Powerball Lottery!

A 2nd Civ agreed to Cooperate with me out of the blue.
No Idea why.
Probably because I haven't built a military unit yet?
Another civ to trade energy to for for sure.


As a matter of fact, I might as well launch my Solar Collector next turn on Turn48.
It will shine on 5 tiles I work for 6 turns and then 6 tiles I work after that.
Can use the energy to buy some per turn.


Picked my 5th Virtue Laboratory Apprenticeship for extra
Will pick the 15% Wonder Production next.

Will be going down the left side briefly on the Knowledge tree instead of the right even though it takes 1 extra virtue to open up the good stuff.
I like them better, and it opens up -10% for tech branches and +1 covert agent for later.

Here is my city currently on Turn 47:
That Siege Worm keeps coming back over and over and I'm ONE shot away from killing it