Tomato Factory
Your first few minutes
Shock Harnesser is about building a little base, powering it with lightning, and holding off waves of monsters. Tap Play, make a New World and give it a name. You start with a Starter Pistol, 16 ammo, and just enough to build your first two machines: 10 copper, 3 fabric and 3 circuits.
You have a few minutes of peace before the first wave (the box at the top of the screen counts down), so use them:
- Craft a Lightning Rod (3 copper). The game itself says it should be the first thing you make.
- Craft a Digger (7 copper, 3 circuits) and place it close to the rod. Right away it starts earning 1 copper and 1 fabric every 5 seconds.
- Turn copper and fabric into circuits (1 of each makes 1 circuit), and build more Diggers around the same rod.
Everything in the game grows from that loop: more Diggers means more copper and fabric, and that pays for everything else.
Controls on iPhone and iPad
| Do this | How |
|---|---|
| Walk | Left joystick, or hold your finger on the screen and you walk toward it |
| Aim | Right joystick |
| Shoot or throw | Hold the big fire button, or tap anywhere on the screen to shoot at that spot |
| Place a machine | Place button. It goes down a few steps away in the direction you're aiming (up, down, left or right). |
| Pick a machine back up | Stand near it and hold the Break button for a second and a half. It goes back into your hotbar. |
| Choose an item | The arrow buttons on either side of the hotbar |
| Crafting | The craft button near the top left |
| Open a chest | Walk up to it and tap Open |
| Save and leave | The button in the top left corner saves your world and goes back to the menu |
Your hotbar has three slots, and the same item stacks in one slot, so ten mines take up a single space.
Resources and power
There are six resources, shown at the top right:
- Copper and fabric come from Diggers. Copper goes into almost everything; fabric goes into circuits, bandages, chests and factories.
- Circuits: craft 1 from 1 copper and 1 fabric.
- Scraps: every monster you defeat drops one (walk near it to pick it up), or craft 5 from 10 copper.
- Ammo: craft 2 from 1 copper and 1 scrap, or let an Ammo Factory make it.
- Rockets: craft 1 from 10 copper, or let a Rocket Factory make them.
There are two kinds of power. A Lightning Rod powers Diggers: a Digger only works with a rod nearby, and one rod can power several Diggers around it. A Power Pulser powers factories: an Ammo Factory makes 2 ammo every 5 seconds and a Rocket Factory makes 1 rocket every 7 seconds, but only with a Pulser close by. Walls, sentries and bombers don't need power at all.
Everything you can craft
| Item | Cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning Rod | 3 copper | Powers nearby Diggers |
| Digger | 7 copper, 3 circuits | +1 copper and +1 fabric every 5 seconds, next to a rod |
| Copper Fence | 2 copper | Blocks monsters; your bullets fly through it |
| Copper Wall | 5 copper | Twice as tough as a fence, but it stops bullets too |
| Sentry | 5 copper, 3 circuits | Fires a bullet every second in the direction you placed it |
| Bomber | 50 copper, 3 fabric, 2 scraps, 2 circuits | Fires a bomb every 3 seconds in the direction you placed it |
| Mine | 10 copper, 2 circuits | Goes off when a monster steps on it |
| Bomb | 10 copper, 2 scraps, 1 circuit | Throw it; it blows up on contact and hurts everything nearby |
| Bandage | 1 copper, 10 fabric, 1 scrap | Heals 25 health (select it and tap Place) |
| Chest | 10 copper, 3 fabric | Six slots of storage |
| Assault Rifle | 50 copper, 5 circuits | Fires five times as fast as the pistol, using the same ammo |
| Bazooka | 100 copper, 40 circuits | One rocket a second, each hitting 15 times harder than a bullet |
| Power Pulser | 10 copper, 3 circuits | Powers nearby factories |
| Ammo Factory | 50 copper, 3 fabric, 3 circuits, 5 ammo | 2 ammo every 5 seconds, next to a Pulser |
| Rocket Factory | 100 copper, 10 fabric, 5 circuits, 1 rocket | 1 rocket every 7 seconds, next to a Pulser |
Sentries and Bombers face whichever way you're aiming when you place them, so point the right joystick where the monsters will come from first.
Waves and monsters
Waves come on a timer: three minutes between waves to start with (you can change it in Settings, from one minute up to an hour). The box at the top shows the next wave and the countdown, then how many monsters are left. The next countdown only starts once every monster in the wave is gone.
Monsters appear in a ring around you, wherever you're standing, and walk straight at you. They hurt you when they get close, and anything of yours they brush past on the way (walls, fences, sentries, factories) takes damage too. There are two kinds in the regular waves:
- Moles, the most common: steady and stubborn.
- Tyrants, about three times as fast. Deal with these first.
Wave 1 has five monsters, and every wave after that brings one more. Each wave also makes them a little faster, a little tougher and a little harder-hitting, so a monster that takes two pistol shots early on takes a dozen later.
Boss waves
Every fifth wave, from wave 5 to wave 25, is a boss fight: one big monster and nothing else, with "BOSS FIGHT!" at the top of the screen. Bosses have 180 to 230 health (a bullet does 2 and a rocket does 30), and they can hurt you from much farther away than the small monsters. Keep moving, keep your distance, and bring your best gun. After wave 25 the waves just keep coming, bigger every time.
Staying alive
You have 100 health, shown at the top left. Each hit takes a chunk, and early monsters hit for about 10. Craft bandages before a hard wave: each one heals 25, and they only get used up when you're hurt.
If your health runs out, the game starts you over with the starting kit at wave 1, so don't let it get that far. Bandages, walls and a run away from the crowd will all save you.
Saving
Your world saves when you tap the save button in the top left corner, which also takes you back to the menu. It doesn't save by itself, so tap it before you close the game. You can keep several worlds and load any of them from the Worlds screen.
Skins
Tap Skins on the main menu to change how your character looks. Skins are paid for with resources from your most recently played world, and some can be unlocked by watching a short video instead:
- Default: free
- Inverted Man: 3 copper and 7 circuits, or watch a video
- Cool Guy: 100 copper, or watch a video
- Robot: 1,000 copper and 10 circuits, or watch a video
- Copper Caller: 10,000 copper
Skins only change your look. They don't make you stronger.
Ten tips
- Rod first, Digger second, then as many Diggers around that rod as you can afford. Copper is everything.
- Keep some fabric back for circuits. Almost every machine needs them.
- Build your base around the spot where you like to stand. Monsters appear around you, not around your base.
- Put Copper Fences in front of your Sentries. Bullets go straight through fences, so the sentries keep firing while the monsters are held up.
- Walls are tougher but block your own bullets. Use them where nothing needs to shoot through.
- Keep the space in front of a Bomber clear. Its bombs blow up on the first thing they touch and can damage your own fences and machines.
- The same goes for thrown bombs: don't throw them at monsters standing right next to your own machines.
- Pick up the scraps monsters drop. You need them for ammo, bombs and bandages.
- Your hotbar has three slots. Build a Chest to keep spare items in, and pick machines back up with Break if you want to move them.
- Before a boss wave, stock up: the Assault Rifle with plenty of ammo, or the Bazooka with rockets, plus a few bandages.
Ready? Shock Harnesser is free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad: get Shock Harnesser.