Tips on earning keys in CIU?

hii im new to CIU and i need some tips on how to earn keys fast and upgrade my spacecraft since im extremely weak, thanks!

You need to find key rush mission in the game, it will give you lots of keys but you can only fly it once. Before fly the mission, make sure you ready first then fly it, surrender also no allow for fly again.

3 Likes

Here’s the tier requirement for all missions (from InterAction studios):

The base tier is determined by mission type. Current values:
Invasion 0
Boss Rush 5
Comet Chase 10
Supernova 15
Droid 20
Squawk Block 10
Retro 30
Darkness 3
Meteor Storm 10
Key Rush 25

On top of this, difficulty raises the tier as follows:

Difficulty <25%: +0 tiers
(…proportionately in between…)
Difficulty >100%: +12 tiers

So I will assume you can only realistically farm from Chicken Invasion and Darkness.

Tips to earn keys fast for beginners:

  • Do not sell your starting spacecraft (H&C 101 Hatchling), ever. They give +18% keys at the end of each mission (“Equipment perks” stat).

  • The first thing to upgrade is buy any weapon (except Absolver Beam, it is not good in normal Invasion missions) and max it out, costs about 4000-5000 keys in total. This allows you to start missions with 8 firepower, making high difficulty missions much easier.

  • Chicken Invasion (+300%) and Darkness (+400%) are some of the missions with the highest key “Base multiplier” (check at the end of each mission). Boss Rush (+30%) is also good because they drop guaranteed keys after every boss instead of just praying for keys to spawn in a chicken.

  • Practice flying missions bringing absolutely nothing, meaning single life and no help. How “Extra Lives” and mission slots work:

    • You start each mission with one life, plus the number of Extra Lives you bring in the mission slots. They are not free, you have to buy Extra Lives at the store for 50 keys per 10 items (but by default they give you 4, so you start with 5 lives).

    • Each time you lose a life, except for the last life, an “Extra Life” is used (disappears), allowing you to continue. “Extra Life” is second chance. Eventually you will run out of these “Extra Life” and have to buy again at the store.

    • If you lose your last life, you will not lose an “Extra Life” item. This also means you will not be given a second chance, the game is over. If you bring nothing, you will start with one life (no second chances), but you lose nothing for failure.

    • If a key or anything else falls in an impossible danger zone, it is better not to collect it.

    • There are special weapons in the store that will help you get through the waves (equivalent to Missiles in previous CI games, but there are more), but they are single-use and not cheap. Unlike previous CI games, you cannot get Extra Lives or Missiles in the middle of the mission.

  • There’s a multiplier at the end of each mission equal to the mission difficulty, from 0% to 100%. If you choose a very difficult mission, it’s recommended to bring Extra Lives to help you finish it, but not too much because losing too many lives may result in negative profit.

  • If you managed to max out one weapon (just one weapon), the best items to buy next are Always-On that will help you travel around the galaxy (except Color Theme, they are for decoration).

11 Likes

thank you!!

2 Likes

Play events (daily mission space race weekly challenge etc)

1 Like

thanks!

1 Like

thanks!!

2 Likes

Also the “skills” (difficulty modifier) can improve your key rate (SuperStar Hero have the highest key rate) or reduce it (only tourist do that) but i recommend to use only skill that you seems comfortable with (playing SuperStar hero 100% will not be fun for a beginner trust me)

If you still have no idea on what skill to take i recommend “Veteran” because it has a good key rate while still having wave zones and only increase difficulty by 20%

When you will remember waves names and their pattern you can start playing Virtuoso/SuperStar Hero (is also good to know that “SuperStar Hero” is most of the time abbreviated “SSH” )

1 Like

Sorry to sort of hijack this thread, but assuming someone has explored 100% of the galaxy getting most of everything they want along the way and now are in need of a steady income of keys, what should they look for?

For example I just sit near a worm hole spamming a high tier long duration retro invader mission in SSH. Takes me between 5:30 ~ 6 minutes to complete with an average of 20 keys per minute in the end. Is there anything better than this, or am I stuck looking at these green bastards until I buy everything in the shop which might take weeks or even months?

The most effective strategy I’ve been able to find is farming a max difficulty supernova mission with the Apple Core as the boss, with a bomber (preferably BX-9) and Absolver Beam. Can get you up to about 1.7k keys per hour going by the mission timer. Absolver and the bomber are used for the purpose of melting through the boss as quickly as possible.

3 Likes

thanks I’ll see if I can find one of those and give it a shot.

and I should buy lives or play with 1 life?

1 Like

If you want to get unprepared medal, play with one life, but I would recommend you to play with more than 1

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.