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Whether you have logged thousands of hours in real-time strategy (RTS) games or not, you've never seen anything like Impossible Creatures. You select and customize the units for your army from a DNA data pool comprised of dozens of animals; you can build an army from tens of thousands of combinations. You'll attack on land, sea, and air, with range, artillery, and special abilities available.

You'll also find that rapid comebacks are very possible, so, no matter your level of experience, you can stay competitive as you learn. We'll start with vocabulary for those new to RTS play.

We'll add the Animal Bible soon. Check back for a complete breakdown of all the stats on all 60 animals in the game.

A few basic terms define the RTS genre – the jargon is even recognizable between perfect strangers. We’ll use just a few of the most widely accepted terms to organize this guide, and include them here at the start:

Build Order

Roughly, the build order is the queue of tasks you delineate when organizing your strategy. Build orders are important to match the speed and efficiency of your opponent. The choices you make early on have a compounding effect on what happens later on in the game. Generally when referring to a build order you are talking about the initial stages of the game to get your economy going so you can execute your first attack as quickly as possible. Generally after the initial build order has been completed no more set build orders can be executed. This is because you need to adapt and change your strategy and tactics based on what your enemy is doing an since there are so many variables you should react in a different way each time. Build orders are really important to execute for the initial stages of the game but cannot substitute for choosing the right strategies and tactics after the initial encounters.

A build order can also refer to creating a unit. When you click on your creature chamber and begin the production of a creature you have executed a build order. You are definitely going to be doing this a lot if you want to have an army!

Gather Rate

To build an army in Impossible Creatures, you’ll need to gather Resources – Coal and Electricity. You’ll “spend” these resources to build structures and military units. Collecting them happens more quickly the more units you devote to the task. The different speeds of collection are known as your gather rate.

Also called “intake.”

Rush

“Rush” can describe many parts of an early attack strategy, but usually refers to building just enough army right off the bat to clobber the infant economy across the map.

Also called “fast attack” or “early attack.”

Balance

A balanced army has creatures distributed through out all the research levels without any gaping holes that can be exploited at specific research levels. Creating this army can be very difficult and there is no one balanced army but it should be the goal of every IC alumnus.

Balance can also refer to your play style, If you don’t prefer rushing or booming over the other, a balanced approach can give you a slight probability advantage toward victory, especially against multiple players whose style you don’t know.

Boom

The reverse of the “rush” coin. Boom strategists wait until their economies thrive so they can fund massive high level research, holding off small attacks as best they can until they can deploy a juggernaut.

To Rush, Boom, or Balance?

We'll cover this in more detail later, but to start, know that each strategy has its vulnerabilities against the other – in a three person game that the rush, balance, and boom player will each get the perfect opportunity to attack:

• The rush player can be spent and vulnerable if that first assault fails.
• Balance players sometimes win only one battle at a time in the early going; they can be known to tend toward a defensive style until they establish their war machines.
• The boom player can be wide open at first, sometimes focusing overmuch attention on resources and leaving little for camp defense.

There are several factors to consider when first getting up and running. Regardless of anything else you need to get your economy going, and build a military force. How you do those things is dependent on many factors: What style of army do you have? Do you need to reach higher tech levels quicker, or do you want to mount a fast attack? Do you play a defensive or an offensive game? The most important thing is to always keep the goal in mind, which is generally to defeat your opponent. Focus all your building and decisions towards that goal.

The opening build orders may not seem to vary all that much from strategy to strategy at first glance, but small adjustments early in the game can make all the difference in executing your strategy.

Starting your economy will tend to follow one of three paths early in the game. Starting your economy again is sometimes necessary, and you may follow a different path at the re-start. But at first you'll emphasize balance, boom, or rush.

• Have two Henchmen collecting Coal for every Coal pile.
• Build Lightning Rods early to quickly advance to the second research level.
• Get a military going in level two for early defense/offense.

A fast attack or “rush” army needs to have very low Electricity requirements, especially in the low research levels. With this army type you can put off spending Coal on Lightning Rods, or at least reduce it. The goal with this tactic should be to get creatures up and running as soon as possible. Build up your Coal reserve in the same manner as stated above, but create a Creature Chamber as soon as possible.

Once you have four to six creatures, don’t hesitate! Send them to attack your enemy straight away. If this initial attack fails then you’ll need to re-focus your economy towards more military or higher research levels, as your enemy will likely have the advantage in terms of creature power.

You can slightly delay an early attack and still pursue a similar rush strategy. “Late rush” is less common and sometimes more of a surprise to your foe. Postponing the rush gives preparation time to both you and to your opponents, though, so you’ll need to attack with a slightly stronger army. Gather Electricity so you can gain research level two – build your second Lightning Rod a bit earlier to boost your gather rate. To leave more resources for your army, cut to ten the number of Henchmen you build before research level two.

When you build a guerilla force like this, be creative about upsetting the ice cream cart. Instead of a third Lightning Rod, build a Creature Chamber near your opponent’s base and send in raiding parties. Use these commando teams to relieve any base guards of their duties. Unplug any part of the economy you can as well. You’ll stifle his development. Keep this up until you have six to ten durable attack units ready to deploy, and march in victorious.

When you build research boom armies, you’ll want to forego your Creature Chamber in favor of more Lightning Rods and an Electrical Generator. The goal is to get your Electricity up and running so you can quickly advance in research levels. Don’t neglect your military for too long, though, or you’ll become vulnerable – you’ll have to build a Creature Chamber at some point.

Variations on the boom include placing a heavy emphasis on Coal in the early game as well – you can build a workshop and expand more quickly than your opponent would expect. If you feel reasonably confident that no rushes are coming your way, you can build as many as 18 Henchmen before research level two, and accelerate your gather rate before you start spending heavily.

• Creatures are your best defense.
• Sound Beam Towers provide excellent early defense.
• Bramble Fences can provide valuable time to react to an attack.
• Once your enemy reaches research level 3 begin thinking about Anti-Air Towers.

Creatures

Before you build a vast base with elaborate defenses the most important thing to keep in mind is that creatures are by far your most effective form of defense, primarily because they’re mobile. They can avoid attacks they aren’t suited to counter, and move to defend the location where you’re being attacked. They can also be used to attack the enemy, whereas your emplaced defenses are only useful if your enemy decides to attack them.

Some good defensive creatures to use:

• Tough melee creatures that focus on health and defense over attack can be very effective when used in conjunction with a ranged unit or Sound Beam Towers.
• Ranged units are very effective, especially if placed in a location that makes them hard to reach, and if they have a height advantage on their foe.
• Artillery creatures make for poor defenders, as they can do as much damage to your base as they do to the enemy.

Sound Beam Towers

Emphasizing creatures for defense doesn’t mean your emplaced defenses are useless. If you get attacked before your creatures are built then Sound Beam Towers can be an effective option. Use three Henchmen to create two Sound Beam Towers very near where your Henchmen are collecting Coal, and have your Henchmen repair these towers as they take damage. This should be able to easily counter any early attack. Make sure you replace any lost Henchmen.

Know your map – you can also place Sound Beam Towers at a chokepoint that you know the enemy will have to cross to reach you.

Towers should be considered a delaying tactic, though, nothing more. Don’t expect towers to ensnare your enemy’s entire army.

Bramble Fences

Bramble Fences can also provide valuable delaying time to prepare for an attack. You can use this time to see what kind of units your enemy is employing so you can better counter them. Fences are cheap and easy to build, and when used with Towers they add more strength to your defense.

It is possible to completely “wall out” any attacking armies but this is quite a gamble since the Henchmen you use to build the wall can’t gather resources while they build. Some boom players find themselves with little other than Henchmen staring down the barrel of a rush brigade, however, and can spare five of them to build a wall and play for a bit of time.

Anti-Air Towers

Keep an eye on your enemy’s research level progression. The event cue icons on the left side of the screen will alert you; a bell sound accompanies this message. When your enemy reaches research level three you’ll want to consider upgrading to Anti-Air Towers. Flying units arrive in level three, and though flying units are fragile units, their ability to move quickly across the map and attack anywhere makes them very dangerous.

This guide would not be what it is without the help of Relic folk -- Jay Wilson, Impossible Creatures Lead Designer; Quinn Duffy, Impossible Creatures Designer; Damon Gauthier, Impossible Creatures Designer; and Jennifer Hawke. Microsoft folk, especially Dennis Stone and Jeff Goetz, helped, too.