Here my speed of play picked up again, not because I was comfortable with the area but because I was no longer willing to post any screenshots in the spoiler-free Discord channel to seek advice. (I have been avoiding the spoiler channel.) Research main map screenshots can be okay if they show no spoilery parts or unusual robots, but Access is sacrosanct, a place unspoiled players should see at all for the first time by reaching it themselves. I was pleasantly surprised by the special tiles for walls and doors in Access, which help sell the area as especially guarded against surface intrusion despite the map being even more open than Factory. The last evolution screen is also... ominous.
I emerged in the NE corner of the map, and after putting the terrain scanner into one of my fresh utility slots set to exploring the local area for any help in finding the single surface exit (I knew from Zion that there is only one). I promptly found a stockpile of Impulse Thruster Arrays, making my earlier repair failure moot, and then sealed off a Garrison to give myself more time.
(https://imgur.com/cQfftZa.png)
The saying is that Materials teaches you tactics, Factory tells you to get a build, and Research breaks your build. While I had kept Research from breaking my build, I strongly (and correctly) suspected that Access would do so given my skill level. Indeed, that image shows my peak state as on my scoresheet. But my
build didn't need to survive to the exit, only my little AI core.
I set off towards the center of the map, trying to avoid notice and hoping to find terminals that would tell me where that elusive last exit was. I was once again willing to push terminals until they locked out for that key hack, since I could fly away from the investigation and wouldn't be dealing with the alert level much longer. Eventually, after a swift retreat from a Behemoth, I found a single-tile terminal next to a small set of closed orange heavy doors and another Behemoth nearby behind them.
(https://imgur.com/ZQpsed8.png)
Having seen Extension and Recycling, I knew that there was very likely an exit there, but I was unsure whether it led to the surface or elsewhere. So instead of opening the door, I tried to hack for main exit locations, and finally succeeded - only to discover that the surface exit was much further away, almost in the SW corner of the map. I'd almost certainly found the hacker's entrance to Command, seeing as that's the only Access branch I've heard of and I know of no lore reason for there to be other Access branches.
I did
not want to be in Command. I was already losing parts faster than I could find replacements in Access, and I figured that MAIN.C would guard its own AI hardware even more thoroughly than Access and with fewer spare parts lying around. Having approached Command from the north, I tried to proceed westward around the Command exit to the surface exit, since that was the only direction not involving backtracking... and found a dead-end that digging probes didn't break through. After my pursuers had shot up an Energy Cycler and attracted more attention. (MAIN.C, please, if you want to preserve key machinery then program your combat robots
not to shoot on trajectories near it with weapons powerful enough to break it.)
(https://imgur.com/qCieaTn.png)
Now I had to backtrack through pursuit, and shortly thereafter the last of the sensor arrays I picked up all the way back in -9 was finally destroyed, followed by its backup buddy 21 turns later. Not having sensors made the rest of Access quite noticeably harder. I aimed to get into new territory as quickly as possible and route south of Command... and then found my helpful corridor turning and leading me right into another side of the Command exit. (That exit must have a very large prefab for all its various means of being guarded.) So I had to backtrack
again to get into a useful position for going even further south.
Having lost my power sources along the way, on my way back I took advantage of a Swarmer's core being hit by friendly fire to finish it off and take its reactor:
(https://imgur.com/oKdCNf3.png)
Finally I managed to close on the surface exit without running into Command, but I was unsure what sorts of guards would be there beyond the Access shell. Since I'd lost my hackware, I knew I didn't want the hacker's entrance, but there would logically also be ways for other builds to get in. I decided to aim for approaching the exit from the north instead of attempting to dig through from the east, because I wanted to see the obstacles I would deal with and because logically the entrance for authorized Complex 0b10 robots moving to and from the surface would be towards the center of the map for their convenience.
My reasoning paid off: I found the approach guarded by two Behemoths and some blue sealed heavy doors. This was fine by me, as I still had over half my core integrity and several Lances with which to break through the Access shell. I lanced through the barrier cleanly on the first try, only to find a second layer. The second layer required me to back up and use momentum to break it, as did the third. The fourth layer, however, would not break even after multiple attempts at maximum momentum. Closer examination revealed that it had been shot up repeatedly by pursuing Hunters, and was now in a "breached" state.
(https://imgur.com/DmRUKX1.png)
I still don't know what that state means, but it didn't seem good for getting that barrier open. I was out of power sources (despite picking another one up from a stockpile), running low on propulsion and energy, and backtracking
again seemed ill-advised. Instead I broke out the big guns - or more accurately, the Micro-Nuke Launcher I had picked up earlier on the same floor, which conveniently only takes matter to fire. Bracing myself with my two remaining treads between my key parts and the barrier, I fired point-blank but succeeded only in widening the open area sideways.
Moving to the side allowed the barriers to protect me from more fire, but I still couldn't break through with melee diagonally and was now being pinned by my faster pursuers. (Including a Programmer, which was only the second to land a hit on me through the whole run.) So I put the launcher back on and fired point-blank a second time. The nuclear explosion destroyed the last of my propulsion armor, the nearby pursuers,
and the launcher itself... but also part of the fourth and final layer of sealed barrier! I could see the comparatively flimsy Access shell!
Moving diagonally as much as possible to use the Complex's own barriers as cover, I pierced through the Access shell to glorious freedom, leaving behind a Programmer to report my escape to all the other pursuing robots.
(https://imgur.com/tm4bY7m.png)