Cactus Tycoon Season #4

The development of this new season took a little longer than usual. We’ve made a conscious decision to release fewer seasons moving forward, focusing instead on providing each one with significantly more depth and content. Our goal is for every Cactus Tycoon season to feel like a brand-new experience.

This season brings plenty of changes, primarily focusing on the midgame where the new world is set. Additionally, we’ve added a fresh grind to the endgame with new mechanics like armor trims, new machine parts, and optimized balancing.

Explore the Rustwood

The Rustwood tells a story of past industry and nature’s recovery. Old, overgrown factory buildings stand as silent witnesses to a bygone era among moss-covered trees and gnarled roots. A hint of lubricating oil and metal still lingers in the air. Water has carved its way through the ruins, creating a massive lake at the center. Although remnants of scrap and waste still lie at the bottom, nature is reclaiming the area, giving the Rustwood an almost idyllic feel.

The Rustwood introduces a fourth world to Cactus Tycoon and is the first world you unlock after the Cactus Desert. The primary resource here is wood, which can be found throughout the forests and harvested with an axe. You will find fishing spots all over that invite you to cast a line, while the spawn features the brand-new Fishmonger and the Scrap Press alongside the usual NPCs. But stay alert: despite its idyllic appearance, plenty of monsters are waiting for you.

Wood as an Energy Source

Before gaining access to the mine to collect proper coal, you will first rely on wood. Gather wood in the Rustwood forests and use the brand-new wood-fired furnace to generate your first energy. This energy can be used as usual to power your cactus factory. Since there is no way to store wood or automate its collection, you’ll have to swing your axe yourself to keep those cacti producing!

Grab Your Fishing Rod

Fishing plays a major role in the new Rustwood. The large lake is the perfect spot to cast the fishing rod available from the Rustwood merchant. Small fishing spots are scattered throughout the world where you can try your luck. You will catch fish, of course, but also various scrap parts that can be processed in the Scrap Press.

You can now find fishing bait and pearls in chests and within the new sand, gravel, and pots. Using bait gives you the chance to pull special fish from the water. In total, we have added over 20 new fish. The bait itself indicates which fish you can catch with it.

What to do with the fish? Visit the Fishmonger! He offers a daily rotating selection of trades. You can use your pearls to get new bait or exchange fish for various machine parts. If you ever need a break from fighting monsters and hunting for chests, fishing is a fantastic alternative.

The Scrap Press

Located in the Rustwood, the Scrap Press is a relic of the area’s former industrial glory. You can use it to recycle the scrap parts you catch while fishing into machine parts. Each piece of scrap can yield different machine parts in varying amounts.

Machine Parts Recycling

The Scrap Press is capable of even more. You can also use it to turn existing machine parts you no longer need into new ones. This requires a bit of gold and time. While wait times and costs depend on the quantity and rarity, you can always skip the wait using rubies. The specific machine parts you receive are determined by chance. Usually, you will get parts of the same rarity, but if you’re lucky, you might even receive something better!

Discover Armor Trims

In addition to chests, you will now find pots to smash as well as suspicious sand and gravel for excavations in all worlds. Much like chests, these can contain components and items, but with some luck, you might uncover ancient armor trims. You can take these to the new Archaeologist in the desert for identification in exchange for a little gold to receive random armor trims.

Armor trims come in various shapes, and each trim features a specific Blessing. You might even find legendary armor trims, which are much rarer but can hold up to three Blessings at once.

What are Blessings?

Armor trims don’t just look great on your gear; they also provide gameplay advantages. The blessing of an armor trim can trigger various bonuses when equipped:

• Thirst for Experience: Increases the chance for 10x experience when killing a monster.
• Cactus Instinct: Increases the chance for 100x cacti when killing a monster.
• Rare Blessing: Increases the chance of finding rare machine parts.
• Epic Blessing: Increases the chance of finding epic machine parts.
• Gold Rush: Increases the chance for a 10x gold reward.
• Lucky Catch: Increases the chance for a 10x catch while fishing.
• Wrench Talent: Increases the chance of finding wrenches.

The specific Blessing and the strength of its effect are determined by chance. Best of all, you can equip up to four armor trims simultaneously across your armor set. If you wear all trims of the same type, you receive an additional set bonus.

Melting Down Armor Trims

Over time, you may accumulate armor trims you don’t need. These can be melted down at the Archaeologist in exchange for rubies, giving you the chance to receive a different or even better armor trim. You can merge up to three trims. The quality of the result depends on the quantity and average level of the trims provided.

Further Adjustments

Alongside these major features, we have made numerous smaller adjustments. Behind the scenes, we’ve worked hard to make Cactus Tycoon fairer, especially regarding leaderboards, and to make the overall experience much smoother.

Collecting Wrenches

Wrenches can be found in chests, the new pots, or directly in the sand. They possess repair power that shortens the duration of machine upgrades. The strength of this effect depends on the specific wrench. In higher worlds, you will find wrenches with even greater repair power.

New Research Skill

Previously, boosters at the Professor grew stronger automatically based on the total number of boosters researched. While limited by gold, this allowed players with many rubies and large gold reserves to gain advantages very quickly. From now on, boosters must be specifically upgraded via the new Research skill at the Witch.

Fast Travel

The Cactus Desert now serves as the central hub for Cactus Tycoon. This is where you start your adventures and gradually unlock functions and NPCs in other worlds. To make traveling between worlds easier, Premium players now have access to the /warp command, allowing direct travel between unlocked worlds.

Changes to Season Rewards

Starting next season, gold will no longer carry over between seasons. Since seasons will now run longer and offer more variety and less repetition, carrying over gold is no longer necessary. Instead, players will be rewarded based on their performance in the previous season. Reaching milestones will be rewarded with gold boosters and other items.

Missions in Every World

Missions have been expanded. Zyklos’ new mission line offers fresh tasks and rewards. You will find him not just in the Cactus Desert, as every world now features a small mission series. These missions guide you through the specific mechanics of each world and support your exploration.

Previously, missions could only be completed once and were not linked to the profile. This has been changed: if you switch your profile, you can play through the missions again.

Resource Overhaul

Resources in Cactus Tycoon have been fundamentally redesigned. Deposits can no longer be mined with a single hit. Instead, multiple hits are required depending on the size of the deposit. By upgrading your tools at the Blacksmith, you can increase your mining speed, eventually allowing you to destroy resources with a single hit again at the highest level.

Visiting Other Players

You can now set your island to public. This allows other players to visit your island directly via the leaderboards. Use it to showcase your island, get inspired, or check out the progress of others.

More Creative Freedom

Merchants now offer a variety of new building blocks, and we have unlocked even more crafting recipes. This gives you more options to make your island colorful and unique.

Balancing

We have also made extensive balancing adjustments. Prices, monsters, and other values have been revised to better suit the new season.

• 15+ new machine parts.
• Reaching higher machine levels now requires significantly more machine parts.
• Copper tools and armor have been added.
• The City now has its own tool: the drill.

Additionally, some values now distinguish between single-player and multi-player. For example, in multi-player, you will need more cacti to unlock the first world and twice as many machine parts to upgrade your machines.