Thorium Dynamo

Thorium Dynamo

Colorless unit

(see more)

As an additional cost to buy Thorium Dynamo, consume 3 Drones.
2 (takes 2 turns to construct)
(Fragile: does not heal)
At the start of your turn, gain 5
, and pay : gain 3

Supply:	4
Cost:	5
Build time:	2
Health:	8
Notes:	Fragile
Consumes:	Drone
Position:	Middle Left

[data page]

A Thorium Dynamo

Thorium Dynamo is a Colorless unit.

Panel

Strategy

Thorium Dynamo is an extremely strong economic unit which can almost never be ignored in a set. Because of its click ability, it is viable to get even in sets without units, since the excess can at least be converted to (albeit inefficiently). Thorium Dynamo is also a strong enabler of breachproof strategies, since it is not difficult to convert almost all of your Drones into Thorium Dynamos.

If you are buying Thorium Dynamos for value but are not going breachproof, you will want 1 to 3 Dynamos depending on how much economy you want before you start full attack production. Even with the faster economy start that Thorium Dynamo provides, with good defense in the set to discourage breachproof you don't always want to wait for 20 income before the switch. The sweet spot if you don't want many Green units is 3 Dynamos, giving you the option to click a Thorium Dynamo every turn without floating.

If you are going breachproof, you want to get 4 Dynamos if possible, because the best defense for your Thorium Dynamo is having more of them. Against aggressive openings, however, it is often better to only make 2-3 Dynamos because your Drones and Engineers can't be defended long enough to assemble the last one and you also need to put the pressure on earlier, so you should avoid overdroning.

Advanced Strategy

Compared to Trinity Drone, Thorium Dynamo generally provides better value, but is less breachproof (and therefore a higher priority target to kill).

If you are breaching an opponent, it will almost always be better to start damaging the Thorium Dynamos as opposed to attackers. This is because with the Thorium Dynamos alive, you can usually create breachproof attackers faster than they can be destroyed. This may however be less true if there are not many breachproof attackers in the set, or if supplies are running low.

Knowing this, an option for the breachproof player is to let their first Thorium Dynamo get damaged, but suddenly switch gear to a non-breachproof strategy by starting to absorb. This "fake breachproof" strategy lets you absorb damage on a Thorium Dynamo that will keep value the whole game with without actually being finished off. This is very telegraphed by the buying of the Blastforge. If the opponent can see it coming, they can instead get value by killing off something else (like a Gauss Cannon) or ensure the destruction of the Thorium Dynamo by creating too much pressure for 1 turn of defense via threat or chill.

With Thorium Dynamo in play, Conduits can be bought for a similar value as a Drone, as they provide one which can be turned to . However, this is very inefficient as you would basically never want to buy a Drone for 4.

Efficiency

You can think about Thorium Dynamo by comparing it to purchasing an equivalent amount of Drones and Conduits. Suppose you have six Drones and two Engineers. The following sequences result in identical economic outcomes:

Line A (Dynamo)

1. Dynamo (bank 1)
2. (bank 4)

Line B (DD+C)

1. DD (bank 0)
2. C (bank 4)

However, the Thorium Dynamo is buyable even if you only have 5, or only one , whereas you needed to play DD/C. This may free up to produce more Drones simultaneously. This provides a significant economic advantage in scenarios where you would otherwise have had to e.g. buy a single Drone and bank 2.

Openings

Standard opening

Both player 1 and player 2 have very efficient Thorium Dynamo openings that can be followed up easily with any tech.

Player 1:

1. DD
2. D + Dynamo
3. DD

Player 2:

1. DD
2. Dynamo + Dynamo
3. D

High economy

Both players also have builds to get a high economy going while delaying their third Engineer, without committing to more than one green:

Player 1 (starts with the line above):

1. DD
2. D + Dynamo
3. DD
4. Options: Dynamo + Dynamo, DDA, Dynamo + DB or DDBE

Player 2:

1. DD
2. D + Dynamo
3. DDE
4. Options: 3 Dynamos (Extreme follow up), DDDA or DDDB (More conventional)

Wild Drone (1)

1. Dynamo +1
2. 11
3. DDC
4. 2x Dynamo (4GGG left)

Change log

• December 9th, 2015
  • HP decreased from 10 to 8.
• July 11th, 2015
  • ability changed from pay , get 4 to pay , get 3.
• June 30th, 2015
  • Added to the game.

External Links

• Thorium Dynamo… the Craziest Prismata Econ Unit, a blog post by Elyot Grant. (July 10th, 2015)
• Reddit Thorium Dynamo Discussion (March 29th, 2018)

Unit types
Colorless