This is less of a traditional guide, and more of a discussion group for mechanics, since the only other guide on steam (and pretty much on the web) is the official guide by the devs, and that one only covers technical issues. Here you’ll find some guides to optimize your runs. No game mechanics will be explained as the in-game tutorial does a good job already, only optimizations. Check out our guide to The Oil Blue Mechanics, Tips and Tricks without wasting time.
The Oil Blue Mechanics, Tips and Tricks
Welcome to our The Oil Blue Mechanics, Tips and Tricks guide. This is less of a traditional guide, and more of a discussion group for mechanics, since the only other guide on steam (and pretty much on the web) is the official guide by the devs, and that one only covers technical issues.
Managing your Economy
Always do your licences as soon as you can. They add to your rank, and levelling your ranks gives you many useful bonuses! For example:
- Adding time to zero hour to repair machines. A must!
- Unlocking better machines and improving your chances of finding the better machines instead of the starting ones in the next islands.
- Unlocking manual upgrades for your machines that can be purchased
- Increasing your total barrel storage capacity so that you don’t waste oil when transferring from multiple machines.
- Unlocking more licences!
- Unlocking more difficult islands! (no idea how this works)
- Unlocking concept art and design pages! (no impact on gameplay).
It’s a great idea to spend a lot of your money on upgrades at the start of each run, since getting your production optimized and running early can get you much closer to your goals.
It seems that failing to achieve the objective on an island is bugged: you’ll often (if not always) still get comissions from islands even when you didn’t meet your quota. In any case, it’s better to meet or exceed that quota to receive even higher passive incomes.
If you have a second to spare during zero hour, it’s a good idea to check your stats to see how much you’re getting from each machine. I find that the first and last machines (the battery-powered one and the one with the touch-control panel) give produce most of my barrels. From looking at my performance with those machines, and considering how time-consuming it is to manage each, here’s my ranking (currently in the mid-game, I can only upgrade the first two machines):
- Touch-controlled “Drill Rigs” (4th unlock): very effective even when not levelled, but a bit inconsistent you might find an oil pocket early on, or really late into a day. It doesn’t take a lot of attention to control, but when you do find an oil pocket, you need to baby-sit it a bit, refreshing the waypoints and releasing the pressure. When levelled up, remember to use the extra waypoints around oil pockets.
- Fast drop-down “Pumpjacks” (the one with the buttons next to air pockets, 3rd unlock): very effective, even at low levels (not as much as the previous machine though), and it only requires attention when it drops down, and after the second of the two drops, you get 20-30 seconds of downtime. It can transfer oil while working. The only drawback is that it breaks down a bit faster than the other machines, even if you don’t select the incorrect pockets.
TIP: If you have many of these, try to activate them with a delay between each one. When you start the day, turn both on, but only press the “start” button on one of them. Wait two or more seconds, then press the start button for the other one, and so on. That way, you’ll have some between drops to check each one of them and not miss any pockets.
- (lvl 10 or above) Battery-powered “Groundwells” (1st machine): They produce passively, don’t need to stop to transfer oil, and they don’t break down. They don’t even take that much attention if you nail the timing with the battery using the correct production speed, but that is a bit stressing as the timing changes a bit every time you level it up, and you should try to partially deplete all the batteries at first so that all of them are either recharging or in use. The other drawback is that, of course, this one produces less barrels, but for the amount of attention it requires, these are okay, and are worth upgrading when you unlock the ability to.
- (huge gap)
- Constant-drilling “Oil Derricks” (2nd unlock): I hate these. They don’t produce a lot, they have as much RNG as the most productive machines, but need A LOT more babysitting. You need to release pressure very often, regardless of whether they’re extracting anything or not. Pressure build-up depends on whether it is slowed down or not and whether it’s exctracting or not. The breakdown meter fills up when moving the drll from laterally (and when drilling or slowing down, I don’t remember which). Unless levelled up, I don’t even bother too much with this one. I always repair it last, if at all. Also, one of the least enjoyable to use.
That’s my priority list when upgrading, repairing, and choosing which ones to baby-sit when multitasking.
During zero hour:
- Buy upgrades for some machines (especially on your first day on any island)
- Repair machines (see priority list above).
- Prepare to sell your barrels.
- Check your stats to see which machines are getting you closer to your objective, and which are taking too much baby-sitting with little payoff.
Taking Advantage of Game Mechanics
- After a successful repair, you’re locked for a few seconds. If you click the bottom-left button to go underwater and check the machines, you’ll skip this delay.
- Long-press the up and down keys on the barrel trading menu to quickly adjust how many barrels you want to sell.
- During zero hour, you can’t sell anything, but you can set how many barrels you want to sell, then go repair or do something else, and next time you open the trading menu, the number of barrels you selected will be ready for selling-
- Always start depleting your batteries for oil wells. If they are 100 or more, they’re not recharging, and you’re losing on potential production!
Upgrade Tiers
Groundwells:
- Lvl 2:
-Oil depletion rate with no charge
+Charge rate
PRICE: - Lvl 3:
-Oil depletion rate with no charge
+1 max speed
PRICE: - Lvl 4:
-Oil depletion rate with no charge
+Charge rate
PRICE: - Lvl 5:
>4 cell battieres
+Charge rate
+1 max speed
PRICE: - Lvl 6:
-Oil depletion rate with no charge
+1 max speed
PRICE: - Lvl 7:
++Charge rate (“greatly incresed”)
PRICE: - Lvl 8:
-Oil depletion rate with no charge
+Charge rate
PRICE: - Lvl 9:
+1 max speed
PRICE: - Lvl 10:
>6 cell battieres
-Oil depletion rate with no charge
+2 max speed
PRICE:
Oil Derricks:
- Lvl 2:
+100ft starting depth for drilling
+20ft drilling visibility
PRICE: - Lvl 3:
+100ft starting depth for drilling
+20ft drilling visibility
-Pressure build-up rate
PRICE:
Pumpjacks:
- Lvl 2:
-Calibration time (time between drops)
-Startup time
PRICE: - Lvl 3:
??
PRICE: - Lvl 4:
-Calibration time
-Stress caused by mistakes
PRICE:
Oil Rigs:
- Lvl 2:
PRICE:
RANK:
- 50: (to do)
