Civilization: Beyond Earth created by Firaxis Games.
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Civilization: Beyond Earth Walkthrough Listing

Humanity has come across a set of Aliens who are more than happy to interact, but we want more. We want to know whether there are any truly intelligent life forms amongst the stars. In Civilization: Beyond Earth’s Contact Victory, we will explore what it means to reach out to these beings - or to fail in the process.

Setting Up

Contact is a bit long-winded of a Victory, like most of the others, but it’s a little less straightforward. There are options for getting it done. Consequently, setting up can be a little tricky. Some suggestions:
  • Invest in a fair number of Explorers early on. One of the conditions for Victory requires setting up an Expedition, and if you get lucky (or explore a lot) you can get it out of the way in very little time. 
  • Choose an Affinity and stick with it throughout. All three are equally good in this case, so long as there’s an emphasis on Science.
  • Set up some decent defences. You probably won’t want to go to war over this Victory unless you absolutely have to, but you’ll need to protect your assets later. 
  • Leave an empty space near your capital, preferably away from water, away from your borders, and on land that’s not terribly valuable. You’ll understand why near the end of the Victory.
  • Last, emphasize Energy production when setting up your colony. This will be very important for the end game.
A Deep Space Telescope orbits over a city. The Telescope is one of the key components in a Contact Victory.
A Deep Space Telescope orbits over a city.
The Telescope is one of the key components in a Contact Victory.

Step One: Three Paths

Contact is a bit unusual in that your first leap towards Victory gives you three options, and you only need to complete two. They are as follows:
  • Create an Expedition on Progenitor Ruins. Progenitor Ruins can be quite rare, and you may go entire games without finding one, but if you’re lucky (or persistent) your Explorers can find one early in a match and scratch this requirement off the list. Because Progenitor Ruins are unreliable, however, you may want to pursue the other two options instead.
  • Launch a Deep Space Telescope orbital unit. You can purchase these after researching the fourth-tier tech Orbital Automation, found down and to the left of the centre of the Technology Web. The satellite will require a few turns in orbit to lock on to the Signal in the mission, so just sending it up isn’t enough. Nothing more than raw Science is required here, though getting Deep Space Telescopes will probably take the longest of the three requirements.
  • Construct the Transcendental Equation. A Wonder, the Transcendental Equation is created by researching Transcendental Math on the Technology Web. It’s located on the second tier, just below the centre, and thus doesn’t take long at all to complete. I highly recommend going for this one in just about every scenario.
Once you’ve completed two of the three tasks, a new one will pop up.

Step Two: Decode Signal

Easy peasy. Decode Signal will appear in your cities as a Wonder. ‘Construct’ it to proceed to the next phase.

The Beacon, under construction at the edge of a city. You must protect this to achieve a Contact Victory.
The Beacon, under construction at the edge of a city.
You must protect this to achieve a Contact Victory.
Step Three: Construct the Beacon

Now it gets difficult. Like several other Victories, you must build a Planetary Wonder in Contact to get things done. In this case, you need to set up a massive Beacon. The Beacon takes up a space adjacent to one of your cities, requires a fairly long time to build (varying based on the city where it’s built), and is quite frail. A single enemy unit stepping onto the Beacon will take it down, forcing you to rebuild the stupid thing. Sigh. Here are some tips for both constructing and protecting the Beacon:
  • As mentioned earlier, build away from sea. Enemy units will happily debark right beside the thing. Try to keep it near the middle of your territory, and surrounded by soldiers.
  • Wrangle somebody into an alliance, if you can. Even better if you can do this before you start building the Beacon, as they’ll be forced to help you should you enter a defensive war.
  • If you have a choice, don’t erect the beacon on any space that provides you with Power. You’ll need every bit of Power you can get by the end.
The completed Beacon, sending out a Signal to the unknown. You must power the Beacon for twenty turns to win a Contact Victory.
The completed Beacon, sending out a Signal to the unknown.
You must power the Beacon for twenty turns to win a Contact Victory.
Step Four: Activate the Beacon

Once you have a completed Beacon you must set it to work, though you need a ton of juice to make it go - namely, 1,000 Energy. Yes, you need to blow 1,000 units of Energy to turn the Beacon on, done by clicking the icon above the Beacon’s status window in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Even worse, you’ll get no Energy from normal sources (cities, improvements, that sorta thing) while the Beacon is activated. For the last twenty turns of the game, you will be utterly bereft of Energy accumulation, save through finding it on the map, killing enemy units, or stealing it from other colonies. Hopefully you have a hefty army waiting, as twenty turns is a long time to stall. Once the twenty turns are up, the game is yours.

Civilization: Beyond Earth Walkthrough Listing