Robotic HQ

Basic Benefits

 * HQ does not consume life support
 * Units use Power instead of Fuel
 * Double bonus from tiles under the HQ
 * Buildings receive adjacency bonus for being next to buildings that supply an input resource, including power (Ex. Steel Mill next to an Metal Mine)
 * When upgrading HQ, uses electronics instead of glass, and needs less aluminum.

Upgrade Costs
Robotic buildings and HQ upgrades need only half the Aluminum normally required.

Overview
Of the gameplay changes given to the robotic player, the need for more power in exchange for less fuel is the most notable. The adjacency bonus also encourages power production at the HQ instead of spread out at optimum spots.

Less important is the lack of life support as a source of debt on some maps with very scarce or difficult-to-access water. The halved aluminum costs for upgrading and replacing glass with electronics (and in lesser quantities) make robotic players a little less reliant on aluminum and silicon, though both resources are still important for upgrading and high-income production so that in sum nothing changes about basic strategy.

Robotics players have a small HQ, but resources they cover upon founding are doubled, and provide a necessary boost to the early game of robotics players.

Openings
Typical robotics openings involve landing adjacent and on top of as many resource tiles as possible, then selling those resources not needed directly for upgrading and using them to acquire a fast level 2.

Robotics players have many options on how to begin, being less constrained than other HQs. Options include:


 * 1) (Standard) -- Place a Metal Mine on a high iron deposit and two Steel Mills next to it for the adjacency bonuses. This option is best if aluminum is plentiful and other players look as if they will be bringing the price of aluminum down. Also, aluminum is usually more common and Robotic HQs require half as much of it to upgrade, meaning that an early non-adjacent aluminum claim is likely to become a dead tile or a Solar Panel by the middle of the game.
 * 2) (Somewhat Risky) -- Found on as many silicon tiles as possible while making sure there is a high silicon and high/medium aluminum nearby. Claim the silicon tile and use the extra silicon from founding to put down two Solar Panels.
 * 3) (Risky) -- Place an Elemental Quarry on a high silicon tile, and two Glass Kilns or Electronics Factories next to it for the adjacency bonuses. Choose the glass option if other players have gone into early farms or upgraded without placing Glass Kilns. Choose the electronics option if there are numerous other robotic players who will rely on buying electronics to upgrade. Mostly only go for this play if glass or electronics started at double price and you plan on moving into solar panels later.

Useful Patents
Superconductor - Since power is an input for many buildings, power buildings will give adjacency bonuses to almost any building. This means that, even if you don't go for a Power Robo opening, you can still get good adjacency bonuses by having your power adjacent to production buildings at your HQ.

Carbon Scrubbing- Robots are very limited to claims, and Carbon Scrubbing can allow them to enter the electronics or chemicals markets without needing to spend claims on carbon.

Thinking Machines- As is the case for all HQs, Thinking Machines is incredibly useful for protecting Offworld Markets from sabotage.

Teleportation- If power costs are high, flying blimps to and from your resource buildings can get very costly. Teleportation gives instant access to the production facilities you may have built next to raw resource extraction sites, and drastically cuts power costs for robotics players with long transport lines. Because you cannot stockpile power and power is so volatile in the late game, Teleportation can do wonders to keep your debt under control.

Water Engine- If power costs are high, as they often would under a Robotic HQ, water can be a nice substitute for Freighters and Offworld Markets, allowing power to be focused on other things such as lowering debt. However, freighters and Offworld Markets use power if the costs are lower than water, but until then, the price of power will drop.

Weaknesses
Robots' heavy reliance on power can lead to debt rising rapidly, possibly without you noticing. Without patents to help keep power costs down, it is possible you will be forced to spend several of your limited claims on power to stay afloat. Optimize your power production any way you can.