Hard Mode Challenge SW USA

[Slowpokeking]

I beat it with ease. Seems like medium mode is not really hard other than a bit time consuming compare to easy.

Incidentally, I thought the SW Challenge park was actually one of the easiest hard difficulty challenge parks to do, at least up until the very end where I made the mistake of not slapping on more Viewing Towers to increase dino visibility and was stressing myself out trying to get the 5 stars until I realized I needed to increase dino visibility and got it after putting down an additional 4-5 Viewing Galleries and Towers

REALLY? I can't imagine how hard other maps would be.

 

[Persianking44]

I beat it with ease. Seems like medium mode is not really hard other than a bit time consuming compare to easy.




REALLY? I can't imagine how hard other maps would be.

I recall the Germany one being a little stifling simply because I hadn't yet figured out how best to work the attractions and amenities.

Both the UK and SW are made a little easier because you can dart the wild dinosaurs and move them into enclosures, so for the first few hours you don't have to send out expeditions for DNA and can just work on researching things that you do need. But UK's is a little more difficult as the one highly rated wild dinosaur you can dart, the Baryonyx, will never have higher than a 70% comfort rating because the fish feeder can't be researched until later on, so it's not even worth getting anyway, while in the SW park you can get the Chasmos, Nodos, and Gigantos all at the start, and they are decently rated dinos too!

The NW park on hard I honestly find to be the most difficult, simply because of how easily you can get screwed over before you even hit two stars. I've seen people on the forums do it legitimately, but tbh it just proved to be too stressful for me to do it any other way than using the trick I posted earlier.

 

[Skawt]

NW USA becomes infinitely easier (even on Jurassic difficulty) once you free yourself of using Struthies as food. Get concrete fences to turn your park into a fortress and 5 stars just comes to you by attrition lol. The challenge is the start.

I've played SW USA multiple times now looking for that perfect strategy. No luck. It's beatable sure, but it sure does like to dip its hand in your money and make it painful.

Germany on Jurassic is a joke. Get Lagoons - win.

 

[Persianking44]

NW USA becomes infinitely easier (even on Jurassic difficulty) once you free yourself of using Struthies as food. Get concrete fences to turn your park into a fortress and 5 stars just comes to you by attrition lol. The challenge is the start.

I've played SW USA multiple times now looking for that perfect strategy. No luck. It's beatable sure, but it sure does like to dip its hand in your money and make it painful.

Germany on Jurassic is a joke. Get Lagoons - win.

This is the park I ended up with on the SW hard challenge.

While I probably got a little lucky in not being slammed by bad PR events and whatnot (the sandstorms were little more than minor inconveniences for the most part), for me what worked, and maybe is the most viable, was:

1. Just dart the Nodosaurus, Gigantospinosaurus, and Chasmosaurus. The Compies aren't worth the time and effort it takes to dart them, while the Nodos and Chasmos like each other, so you'll only need two pens at the start, one just for the Chasmos and the Nodos and the other for the Giganto, but make the Giganto's big enough that two other species it tolerates can live with them.

2. Even though it needs not be said, obviously gets Scientists with Cheaper X or Altruistic Salary.

3. Mostly focus on researching Guest Comfort and Amenities at the start, since the three dinos above are more than enough to bring in the crowds.

4. Once you start needing to grow the park with more dinosaurs, focus on completing the dna for the Nodos, Chasmos, and Gigantos first just so you can easily replace them when they die.

5. Try to only stick with dinosaurs that have no negative physical traits as that brings down their lifespan, and only use the Long Lifespan gene alteration at full max.

6. Monorail and Tours are your best friends, just have them snake through every inch of the park (I had two separate Tours going to make sure visibility was always high).

7. Delete any pathways between you have between different areas of the park after you unlock the Monorail.

8. Mostly focus on herbivores, with only 3-4 carnivores at most.

9. Avoid using Lagoons and Aviaries, they take up too much space for this park.

10. Put Viewing Towers and Galleries EVERYWHERE

 

[Slowpokeking]

NW USA becomes infinitely easier (even on Jurassic difficulty) once you free yourself of using Struthies as food. Get concrete fences to turn your park into a fortress and 5 stars just comes to you by attrition lol. The challenge is the start.

I've played SW USA multiple times now looking for that perfect strategy. No luck. It's beatable sure, but it sure does like to dip its hand in your money and make it painful.

Germany on Jurassic is a joke. Get Lagoons - win.

Yeah, NW USA is easy after you get the feeder unlocked.

 

[Slowpokeking]

This is the park I ended up with on the SW hard challenge.

View attachment 279414View attachment 279415View attachment 279416

While I probably got a little lucky in not being slammed by bad PR events and whatnot (the sandstorms were little more than minor inconveniences for the most part), for me what worked, and maybe is the most viable, was:

1. Just dart the Nodosaurus, Gigantospinosaurus, and Chasmosaurus. The Compies aren't worth the time and effort it takes to dart them, while the Nodos and Chasmos like each other, so you'll only need two pens at the start, one just for the Chasmos and the Nodos and the other for the Giganto, but make the Giganto's big enough that two other species it tolerates can live with them.

2. Even though it needs not be said, obviously gets Scientists with Cheaper X or Altruistic Salary.

3. Mostly focus on researching Guest Comfort and Amenities at the start, since the three dinos above are more than enough to bring in the crowds.

4. Once you start needing to grow the park with more dinosaurs, focus on completing the dna for the Nodos, Chasmos, and Gigantos first just so you can easily replace them when they die.

5. Try to only stick with dinosaurs that have no negative physical traits as that brings down their lifespan, and only use the Long Lifespan gene alteration at full max.

6. Monorail and Tours are your best friends, just have them snake through every inch of the park (I had two separate Tours going to make sure visibility was always high).

7. Delete any pathways between you have between different areas of the park after you unlock the Monorail.

8. Mostly focus on herbivores, with only 3-4 carnivores at most.

9. Avoid using Lagoons and Aviaries, they take up too much space for this park.

10. Put Viewing Towers and Galleries EVERYWHERE

I think it's hard because

1. the 90% lifespan decrease, and you have to unlock the research by releasing some of the negative traits dinos.

2. The terrain and map size.

3. Require 22 species to remove the penalty.

I almost ran out of money when got it to 5 stars, many dinos have dead due to old age. But luckily I got it done.

 

[WagonWheel]

I think it's hard because

1. the 90% lifespan decrease, and you have to unlock the research by releasing some of the negative traits dinos.

2. The terrain and map size.

3. Require 22 species to remove the penalty.

I almost ran out of money when got it to 5 stars, many dinos have dead due to old age. But luckily I got it done.

I said earlier that I thought the species penalty is constant then all goes away when you hit the target but that can't be right. I just played a UK challenge on Jurassic and the species penalty definitely went way down when i hit 12/13. I was losing something like 1500 or 2000 rating from the penalty - then it went down to 600. Noticed it because amenities became overcrowded even though I hadn't added any dinos near them.

I still think the SW USA map is worth ignoring it. I was trying to get 30/30 on jurassic and ended up at like 4.8 stars with 27 species and realized there's no way i needed any more species. But again maybe the penalty was getting smaller as i got closer to 30.

Would be easy to figure out exactly how it works i just have never really paid that much attention to it. I'm sure someone has written down the numbers as they played i just haven't seen any posts explaining it.

 

[Skawt]

I still think the SW USA map is worth ignoring it. I was trying to get 30/30 on jurassic and ended up at like 4.8 stars with 27 species and realized there's no way i needed any more species. But again maybe the penalty was getting smaller as i got closer to 30.

From my experience, I agree that SW - and also NW - are worth ignoring the penalty. You simply don't have enough space to work with. I suppose you could technically do it with precision planning, but SW just makes you want to end the torture asap. I've done it a few times on Jurassic difficulty (still cant get anywhere near par * wah wah* ) and by the late game (4.0 and higher), the constant death is absolutely crippling to meaningful expansion - and then there's the storms. Strategy-wise, I think you just want to get a few herbivore enclosures to get a base to dampen the penalty, but after that just beeline the big carnivores.

Then again, my strategy pretty much drives me within an inch of having a stroke, so there's that.

I'm sure there's a correct way to do it. I just haven't found it lol

 

[Slowpokeking]

I said earlier that I thought the species penalty is constant then all goes away when you hit the target but that can't be right. I just played a UK challenge on Jurassic and the species penalty definitely went way down when i hit 12/13. I was losing something like 1500 or 2000 rating from the penalty - then it went down to 600. Noticed it because amenities became overcrowded even though I hadn't added any dinos near them.

I still think the SW USA map is worth ignoring it. I was trying to get 30/30 on jurassic and ended up at like 4.8 stars with 27 species and realized there's no way i needed any more species. But again maybe the penalty was getting smaller as i got closer to 30.

Would be easy to figure out exactly how it works i just have never really paid that much attention to it. I'm sure someone has written down the numbers as they played i just haven't seen any posts explaining it.

Not sure why but the penalty keep raising with my species number getting close, it went to like 3500+ when I finished it.

 

[WagonWheel]

I did Canada on Jurassic where the species target is only 11. Basically started out at 10% penalty, peaked around 27% at halfway, then dropped off quick for the last 2. It also increases as you improve your total rating at any given species count. So the closer you are to 50% of the species target the higher the penalty AND the higher your rating the higher the penalty. Seems like it's designed to not punish you as much early as the 1st game but make it worse mid-late game until you get really close to the target.

species	rating	appeal	penalty
1​	240​	217​	9.58​
2​	525​	455​	13.33​
2​	585​	502​	14.19​
2​	765​	641​	16.21​
3​	831​	699​	15.88​
3​	897​	749​	16.50​
3​	1029​	847​	17.69​
4​	1929​	1493​	22.60​
4​	2229​	1687​	24.32​
4​	2529​	1874​	25.90​
4​	2649​	1947​	26.50​
5​	3144​	2304​	26.72​
6​	3429​	2555​	25.49​
7​	3526​	2711​	23.11​
8​	3803​	3012​	20.80​
9​	4125​	3396​	17.67​
10​	4166​	3643​	12.55​
10​	4313​	3762​	12.78​
11​	4964​	4964​	0.00​

 

[Slowpokeking]

Beat Canada Hard today, there are some difficulties in the middle around 2-3 stars, but overall it's much easier than SW USA, Tylosaurus is awesome, 3 of them boosted my park from 3.6 to 4.8, and some minor works let me being able to finish it.

 

[DaveyNY]

I can't even get the Easy mode on this one completed.
I've tried 6 times now and every time I get to 4.7/4.8 stars the whole thing comes crashing down.
I start loosing money in buckets and then that final sandstorm hits and I'm done.

I'm not in any way shape or form a big-time gamer, so having the Easy mode be that complicated is rather frustrating/disappointing for me.
I'm also not happy with the fact that one has to do all this stuff in order to use many of the game items in the Sandbox mode.
I paid a lot of money for a game I can't successfully play 1/2 to 3/4 of.

 

[Slowpokeking]

Finished Germany Hard mode and UK Medium today, not much difficulty, Germany is annoying for the DNA high percentage unlock, but other than that it's piece of cake. The storm is also the weakest. It also got the biggest map so no space to worry.

 

[Slowpokeking]

I recall the Germany one being a little stifling simply because I hadn't yet figured out how best to work the attractions and amenities.

Both the UK and SW are made a little easier because you can dart the wild dinosaurs and move them into enclosures, so for the first few hours you don't have to send out expeditions for DNA and can just work on researching things that you do need. But UK's is a little more difficult as the one highly rated wild dinosaur you can dart, the Baryonyx, will never have higher than a 70% comfort rating because the fish feeder can't be researched until later on, so it's not even worth getting anyway, while in the SW park you can get the Chasmos, Nodos, and Gigantos all at the start, and they are decently rated dinos too!

The NW park on hard I honestly find to be the most difficult, simply because of how easily you can get screwed over before you even hit two stars. I've seen people on the forums do it legitimately, but tbh it just proved to be too stressful for me to do it any other way than using the trick I posted earlier.

Haven't tried UK and NW USA hard yet but I found Germany being the easiest among the 3 hard challenges I've finished.

Big map, smooth storm and not much penalty on dinosaur age/terrain editing. It's also easy to start.

 

[Skawt]

I can't even get the Easy mode on this one completed.
I've tried 6 times now and every time I get to 4.7/4.8 stars the whole thing comes crashing down.

That's the challenge of the map I'm afraid.

NW USA - tough to get started. Start broke, end rich.
SW USA - tough to finish. Start rich, end broke.

SW USA is far more infuriating due to the fact that you don't know if you've lost until the very end. This is after you put so much work and effort into your design. That, and because by mid game, you've probably got a good profit and 40 million in the bank, you're feeling good about it.

Then, like you said, it all comes crashing down.

Check the other thread, I've posted my strategy on winning Jurassic difficulty there. I by no means claim its the right strategy, but it worked for me.

 

[WagonWheel]

On SW I didn't build anything on the narrow spots other than ranger stations, power plants, and medical facilities. Put them in places to cover 2 or 3 open areas. I played this essentially by building mini-park after mini-park. Built 2 enclosures to fit starting dinos, then moved up and built 2 more and added monorail. Then went counter-clockwise basically. Monorail, enclosure, bathroom, shelter, hotel, all 3 amenities. Fit as many species and dinos as the enclosure can hold. Then monorail to the next area and repeat. Definitely don't need large amenities in most places because you end up building so many. Didn't build any tours or attractions and built nothing on the narrow areas other than power plants, monorail, power lines and ranger stations. (don't even need paths)

Ended up at 5 stars on Jurassic with 27 species and time was 7:10. Didn't have any issues late game other than having to get genome and replace the starting dinos as they died of old age. Aviary ended up top right, lagoon was top middle i think in the larger spot. Last place my monorail went was middle left for the last 2 enclosures.

I don't have the saved game. From memory it was something like the starting Chasmos, and nodos in 1 pen, Gigantos in another. Moved up to the big open area and made 2 enclosures for Amarga, Kent, Mutta and cerato/compy. Added something else to Chasmo/Nodo, and added Dracorex to Giganto. Monorail bottom right and made Dilos. Went up right side and added Carnos. Don't remember exactly after that other than aviary was top right - then monorail goes towards the middle, then top center, top left, middle left.

Not sure if it matters that much but the build order in each new spot was monorail station then track to last station as close as it can get without connection. Then build viewing gallery and enclosure and run power there. Build hotel, bathroom, shelter leaving room for 1 of each medium amenity. When dinos are in the air on the way connect the last monorail track. This way your transportation rating only tanks for like 30 seconds instead of the whole time the extension is building. Then as dinos are landing in there build amenities so they can make money right away. Then assign ranger team if they are reasonably close, or build new station in between your new enclosure and the place you will go next.

The other thing i remember doing is balancing adding new species as fast as possible, and filling up enclosures. If my profit was ever below 200k/min i'd add more current species where i could fit them to get amenity profit up. If profit was high and i had a couple million in the bank i'd be doing additional species research/expedition/extraction as fast as possible.

I didn't keep track but it definitely seemed like 26 and 27 species the penalty started dropping a decent amount. I was going for 30 but didn't need the last few. I'd guess that on hard you want to aim for 19 or 20 species.

You can get something like Drac, Pachy, Edmont, Mutta, Amarg, Nodo, Pola, Chasmo, Nasuto, Giganoto, Kent, Cerato, Compy, Carn and 3 flying reptiles. 17 species in probably about half the map (7 or 8 enclosures plus aviary). Don't remember if all these are available on this map for sure but something like this. Also you may need to only release tolerant flying reptiles to fit in 3 - not sure. I may have had only 2 species in there. I also try to get either none or only 1 dino in any species with anything that adds dominance and never use aggressive. If there's a species that's naturally 50% social - depending on how the eggs come out i'll either pick all the social ones or none of them. Makes a huge difference - you can have an enclosure of 8 Ceratosaurus, or 8 Nodosaurus that have 20 fights during the game where you have to constantly heal them at the medical center - or if none have any traits that give dominance you won't hear from that enclosure the entire game. (unless they get sick)

On hard or lower you won't even need all the species i named. Later game add Stegasaurus, and Euoploc for tons of rating, Allosaurus and Megalosaurus, and lagoon with Tylo and you should be at around 20 species and right about 5 stars. At this point you'd either have to finish out the 22 species (on hard) or fill in more big carnos or a 2nd Tylo.

 

[Platinasm]

I did this on Jurassic, and I found the most annoying thing was the lack of building upgrades. Not being able to up your Expedition yield or your Extraction capacity to 17 is the most painful experience I had in the entire game. Otherwise, it was a cool map and I enjoyed unlocking it.

If I could give advice, the thing I see most common is the lack of dinosaur diversity in an enclosure. You'd be SURPRISED what you can mix. Making Humble and Tolerant alphas will allow you to put a lot of different dinosaurs in small enclosures. Just make sure all of them herbivores have small appetites. An example would be an enclosure with Stegs, Edmonts, Dreadnoughts, Compies, and Archeos topped off with an Iguana. This enclosure can be rather small with Humble alphas and Small Appetites topping out at 3000ish appeal for your galleries with all dinosaurs at 100% comfort.

A 3-pod lagoon can hold about 20 Ichies, a Krono, and an Attenborough with over 4500 appeal and 100% dino comfort.

I forget which dinos you have access to in SW challenge, and it might vary by difficulty, but these are just examples. Cram those cages. Just because a dinosaur isn't on the "LIKE" list doesn't mean you can't use it. Just make sure it is't on the DISLIKE list. Then watch that cohabitation meter as you introduce Neutral dinosaurs together

 

[WagonWheel]

There are no big sauropods or iguanodon on this map. It's just Amargasaurus. This is really the only map (and only on Jurassic) that you NEED to cohabitate i think. Although it makes other maps easier too.

On this map I did
1: Chasmo + Nodo and later added Pachy
2: Giganto and later added Dracorex
3: Mutta + Amarg + Kent + Dryo
4: Cerato + Compy when i finally went and rounded them up

That's in 2 small enclosures in starting area, and 2 enclosures in the spot to the north. That's 11 out of 22 species (on hard) in 4 enclosures before you even start expanding really. This should mean you are about at peak species penalty already (probably around 27%) and it's all downhill from there.

I've made humble alpha carnivores early which seems to help a lot - fitting 30% more in the same space. Haven't tried small appetite but that sounds like it would work well - i just really try to match up food types as best as possible. It's just harder on this map because you can't use any traits early. You need sacrifice 2 dinos to unlock every trait. Something like 2 needy (who die fast on this map) so you can research humble, 2 large appetite to research small appetite, 2 weak to get strong etc... It's definitely worth doing though. At least having a few die of old age to unlock the other traits automatically lets you unlock the long life trait. I think they even make you have one starve to unlock small appetite. Maybe that was only on Jurassic though - not sure.

 

[Slowpokeking]

NW USA done, I found it to be very easy, just build some innovation centers and you will reach 1.5 stars easily without using dinos as prey, the only thing that troubled me was the ending part, which it cannot go up and keep bumping from 4.0 to 4.7. I didn't realize the problem came from the path capacity, once I expanded it boosted to 5 stars.

 

[Slowpokeking]

That's the challenge of the map I'm afraid.

NW USA - tough to get started. Start broke, end rich.
SW USA - tough to finish. Start rich, end broke.

SW USA is far more infuriating due to the fact that you don't know if you've lost until the very end. This is after you put so much work and effort into your design. That, and because by mid game, you've probably got a good profit and 40 million in the bank, you're feeling good about it.

Then, like you said, it all comes crashing down.

Check the other thread, I've posted my strategy on winning Jurassic difficulty there. I by no means claim its the right strategy, but it worked for me.

SW USA is also tough to start in my opinion, I failed twice to get it going.