Many people can agree, building small and tough can be rather difficult when a volley of 6 cruise missiles can charge at you from a similar sized tech. So lets talk bubbles.

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With limited space to place batteries, energy efficiency is a god-send. When building very compact, Ven bubbles are the way to go! Their energy efficiency is INSAIN. The heal rate of the repair bubble is the fastest there is, yet costing the least energy to do so! The bubble may be small, but they require little power to have full effectiveness.

Then we have the GSO bubbles, although I don't recommend ever using the GSO battery, it IS the smallest battery around with full connection points, maybe you can make use of it when building SUPER small, if you are, VEN BUBBLES FOR THE WIN!
If you don't want to build as small as the Ven bubbles, look no further than the GSO bubbles! GSO is the best general purpose faction of TerraTech, having manufacturing, harvesting, crafting, combat, travel, and flight, you can expect some useful tools that work in all situations. The GSO bubbles are some of those tools, having great energy efficiency and size. A single bubble core using GSO is likely to cover the entire small tech along with some extra space for those pesky missiles to slam into before hitting your blocks!

With the bubbles to use in mind, we need to place them in the best positions.

For Ven bubbles, very small techs are ideal with the Ven bubbles at their core. Fully encasing the tech with a single pair of super efficient bubbles, you would be amazed at the level of endurance these bubbles can give small techs. If you build a bit larger, you can create a pair of bubbles at the front and back with the front pair being at the edge of the hull and the back pair in the tech's core, barely encasing the tech to minimize required bubbles. The front will act as an early explosive projectile trigger, causing explosive projectiles to detonate further from the tech's hull, the back pair keeps the rear shielded and repaired, a small tech is unlikely to be out-maneuvered and shot from behind, so you can get away with frontal reinforcement (and weapons).
A retrofit of a small tech I made can be seen using this idea above.

In the case of GSO bubbles, it is rather simple. The maximum size of a tech to still be considered small is the size of a single GSO bubble, a tech larger than the bubble approaches medium size status. It is best to place the bubbles in the core of the tech, fully encasing it. This may sound like a bad idea when against explosives, but with the internals protected by hull and armor, a volley of 6 cruise missiles should not one shot you, maybe on the third volley it will be too much but by then you should of easily detonated the missiles (this does not apply to enemy player techs). Very simple, effective, and safe.

Too many batteries can be determined if the tech experiences an RCE and is annihilated. Don't spam batteries, you can maybe get away with it on large techs, but on a small tech? You are a firework waiting to be lit. So please, refrain from spamming batteries and refer to rule #8 in the guide's info.

I HIGHLY recommend using HE Ion batteries! As with everything by good-old HE, everything can take a cannon shot face first. It's best to have the batteries remain only partially exposed at worst and spaced apart when possible, preferably by 2 blocks. Otherwise, create an Ion battery core in the tech's.. core. The batteries are unlikely to sustain enough damage to detonate before the cab is already destroyed at the core, we can get away with spamming a few Ion batteries in there, as long as they are in the core, surrounded by hull and armor. They will provide sufficient EPs for the efficient bubbles and weight is not a major concern.

Although weight is not a major concern for small combat techs, adding 4 Ion batteries vs a single GC Battery Pack is a significant weight difference. Small techs can have issues accelerating up slopes if they are too heavy with Ion batteries, using the GC battery reduces tech mass by 8, a single Ion battery's worth for similar EP storage. Just ensure the GC battery is embedded in the hull, surrounded by hull and armor and not exposed what-so-ever. The last thing you want mid-combat is to stall during acceleration when dodging a cannon volley. It just maybe will make a worthwhile difference and considering we are optimizer here, less mass for slightly different EP storage is very welcomed, as long as you can fit it of course!


When placing batteries, referring to what has been said earlier, all batteries are to be somewhat spaced apart, using battery cores for larger EP storage in safe locations. The image to the left displays an ideal battery location, the battery is surrounded by armor and hull, completely unexposed to direct fire. A single GC battery is likely more than enough EPs for a small tech, this makes the objective of protecting the battery very easy, just place a few Ion batteries or a single GC Battery Pack and surround it with hull and armor. Easy oporation.

Small techs can not rely fully on shields, they lack the volume to fit enough batteries. We have to rely on shields, armor, AND hull. Look no further than the HE faction.

The best around is the HE six and four blocks, wrap armor, armor plates, and fort armor.

Slopes reduce the damage of kinetic and explosive weapons, the "deflection" description refers to this damage reduction, not physically deflecting shots. Explosives tend to penetrate past slopped blocks less efficiently than a normal surface, this is based on experience, not countless testing. A small tech is densely packed with parts that can easily break under direct fire, hull and armor must be sufficient to protect these sensitive components, whether by reducing contact damage, increasing explosion dampening, or just by being a wall in front of it, a small tech relies on this heavily.

Additionally, armor plating is ideal for small techs, effectively strengthening the hull wherever placed. Armor is effective against all weapons except lasers, having it on top of hull is simply adding reinforcement and quality to the tech's endurance capabilities. A small tech with armor plating is significantly more sturdy (and scary) than a tech with guns instead. Sure the tech has more guns, but guns are easy to pick off, especially with explosive AOE. A bed of machine guns can be instantly striped by a single battleship cannon, which you can easily fit onto your small tech. >:P
Armor however is just a solid roadblock for incoming shots to reach your cab and internals. I consider it the better option as opposed to adding more guns, a few big guns with armor at every possible connection point remaining I find to be optimal. Large guns can't be shot off easily, armor reinforce the hull, everything is extra sturdy!
Also: Don't forget to add armor under your tech! The RR Zero Point Energy Gun exists, or you could just be in a strange position.

In an ideal case, all sensitive parts are to be surrounded by hull and armor, making a proper internal. In order for these parts to sustain direct damage, the hull and armor needs to be stripped, and until that point, the tech is a damage sponge that shoots.
However, lasers specialize in this role, proceed with caution when under heavy laser fire from BF and are out of power, the lasers will tare through the hull and armor no matter how well built. Can't out-build a damage multiplier.

If this method is non-practical for what ever reason, I highly recommend compromising to place less important interior parts somewhat exterior, allowing more important parts to remain protected by the entire tech. Its just optimal to place all vitals as deep in the hull as possible all crammed together, maximizing explosion dampening before damaging the internals, if this is indeed non-practical, you can move some sensitive equipment into the open but armored up and in quantity. If you need two Gyros to operate but lack the internal space to place them, you can place four on/in the exterior hull with armor shielding, they still have some protection and redundancy ensures the tech keeps functioning upon inevitably loosing important parts.

Insert the Auto cannon, what I consider to be the best large weapon around. But what makes large weapons so important for small techs? The answer is simple, resilience and condensed firepower. A single large weapon is MUCH harder to pop off than a gun bed. This is VERY important for small techs which want to withstand 6 cruise missiles to the face. No point in fighting if all your weapons fly off. Besides, large weapons tend to fare better in damage than small weapons. Partially because they don't get blown off as easily, but with limited volume, you need all the space you can get to add more and more armor. Large weapons are ideal for having high DPS and hog few connection points, with the exception to 360* cannons.. I am looking at you HG1.... With all the DPS in a single weapon, you don't need to place as many small guns, leaving room for armor. I tend to never use small guns, always Auto cannon and Auto cannon and Auto cannon. Like I always say "you can never have too many Auto cannons."

Although you won't fit a Big Bertha, you can more than easily fit 2 Mk3 BS cannons in front of your tech. In fact, the Mk3 BS cannon is an IDEAL embedded weapon, it has tons of health and when embedded, the only clear shot onto the cannon is also a clear shot FROM the cannon! Just don't face directly towards the enemy when reloading, turn slightly to the side, it is not completely hull, it is still a bit frail in comparison. A piece of armor with a big gun really.

Be sure to not go gun-ho with large weapons like missiles, this is still a Tanky Combat 101 edition, we can't have a nuclear detonation ever happen on any tech. Instead, place one or two cruise missiles on the tech towards the rear, they will provide support DPS. Let the cannons do most of the damage, they won't explode violently and cause heavy damage. Maybe use a Ballistic missile silo, a large weapon that is not super explosive and does great damage. You can also embed it into the hull, just be wary that it is still quite explosive and you won't want to embed it all the way into the internals.

HOWEVER! Maybe you are not building super tanky with HE and recoil, traction, and other properties are an issue. In this case, I highly recommend using lighter weapons (mainly smaller ones) regarding Venture weapons and BF no-recoil weapons.

In all combat situations, if you can disable the enemy in some way, that is a massive advantage, no matter your size, cost, or weapons. (Also I swear, why are creative mode enemies tougher than campaign enemies? I would love to fight them in the campaign!)

The RR Zero Point Energy Gun is a disruption weapon, if you can get it stuck on the enemy... TO SPACE!!! The enemy is hapless! Exploit at once! I honestly do not understand why the Developers refer to RR as a faction with weapons that sound good on paper, but in execution the weapons aren't practical, I BEG TO DIFFER!.. For most weapons at least.
This weapon is the ideal David vs Goliath weapon, the larger the enemy tech, the more disrupted it will be, and easier to hit! There is a size limit however, if the enemy is larger than the bubble, things will get weird and a single shot may not be enough to disrupt the enemy. Also, be sure to bring some AA cruise missiles in case it goes a bit too high in the air. Maybe call in a fighter too...

The Mk3 Battleship cannon is also a great disruption weapon, stripping any vulnerable blocks with great ease. Though it is a destruction weapon, it is so destructive, it can reliably disrupt the enemy, by disabling some blocks via-destruction or taking out something important and causing an awful circumstance (for the victim of course) like taking out a few venture wheels.

Mobility is very important in this category, being able to position yourself in a way to ensure the disruption and disabling of the enemy is key. Whether its by going behind them where they lack as many guns or front facing weapons, getting a clear shot with the Zero Point gun, or impaling the enemies shields with a Mk3 BS cannon to bypass the shield bubbles, you need to get in the right position first to do these tactics. I recommend using Venture F1 wheels for speed and another type of wheel too to increase grip and reduce drifting from 100% by the F1 wheels.

I don't think I have to describe drones with this photo around..

Maybe you want to build so small that you essentially make a drone. Well no worries, it is being covered RIGHT NOW!

Drones are techs that are absolutely tiny, preferably flying too. So how do we make one tanky when there so small?!

1) ARMOR: Specifically GSO slope armor, even if armor blocks are merely normal blocks with more HP (which they are not), a block with more HP is good enough for drones.
2) Don't worry about withstanding a cruise missile, it ain't happening when this small. Just hope you can dodge it.
3) If you are building a large drone, be sure to use Ven bubbles and the normal HE Ion batteries. If they are too heavy and or explosive, use Ven batteries, they are next to harmless upon detonation and extremely light.
4) Don't use shields and batteries. The drone is so small, just invest in more armor. It will fare better in most situations as opposed to volatile and heavy batteries.

When building a tanky drone, it is best to have all vital parts like gyros near the cab, if the cab is destroyed, then you are dead. If the gyros are destroyed, then you are dead. Protect these parts at all costs, place sloped armor, some hull, maybe a Ven shield and you are good to go. Not much more you can do.

Dodging however is much more viable for drones. I highly recommend using the GSO horn adjustment thruster. This hover thruster limits the direction the AI can move, if the AI attempts to turn, it moves forward too, that makes it easier for the AI to fallow and dodge as a drone. The Zero-G (ZG) hover from venture is also very useful for hover drones, providing great thrust and mobility, just please, do not forget the BF stabilizing computer.
Also: Do not use the Ven cabs, they are VERY frail.

Ahhhh TerraTech AI.. The most frustrating thing in TT. Sometimes its nice to have assistance when using a small tech. Size matters in this world, there is only so much you can do to offset that, a 2nd small tech could really make the difference.

In order to get the AI to reliably fallow you, you need GSO horn adjustment thrusters. Iv learned from a campaign tech that these hover thrusters that they are IDEAL for the AI. Due to their limited directions of force, the thruster can force AI piloted techs to move forward when attempting to turn, finally TOWARDS YOU! This also makes the tech very maneuverable, so although the AI still refuses to go at max speed, it at least fallows you at a decent pace, and when you take control, its mad fast. Two is still better than one... Even if one is a derp.

You can also make a flying AI drone. Using the same tactic as above to ensure it moves correctly. You can also set the BF Hover Power Controller to different settings, allowing multiple flying AI techs to fly at different levels, preventing collision between them. I regard mother ships and carriers very highly, sometimes being a tank for a group is an optimal approach for a combat situation.

This is a HAT. The Heavily Armored Tank unit from the LDA. 600k BB (mostly from nanite armor), lasts a lot longer than you think. So.. how does such a small tank survive so much with 4 BF, 1 HE, 4 Ven batteries and a single Ven shield and keeps fighting on?
Well be warned. This is gonna be a rather long category here.
Also this heavily applies to Darvin's Adaptive Armors 2.0 block mod, providing super sturdy armor types by the power of nanites! If you don't plan to use mods with heavy armor, this category applies less but still somewhat relevant!
See the end category for links.
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#1: Venture bubbles are the best bubbles around.
When building very small, (the HAT boarders on a medium craft), AOE damage can be very deadly so you must repair as much and efficiently as possible. Repairing requires less energy than absorbing. If you have a heavy armor (such as nanite armor), repair bubbles can effectively increase the HPs of the armor SUBSTANTIALLY. Lets say the armor has 6,000 HPs and a repair bubble heals 200 HPs a sec. It takes 10 seconds to burn the 6k HPs normally (600 DPS), but while healing it takes 15 seconds (basically 400 DPS instead of 600), and it costs little energy to cause this extension. That is a significant increase in the block's lifespan and its unlikely that one block will experience so much fire for so long even for its size! For a small tech, maneuverability can ensure not one block gets super focused on, extending the life of the armor even more!
With all of this in mind, the tech's durability SKYROCKETS for its small size! It can possibly stand up tall against something 15x its size! It will probably loose but it will still put up a fight!
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#2: Shielded main weapon.
With small techs, having a single, large, primary weapon is almost essential. Remember, its not the size of the tech that truly matters, its the weapons used. A large weapon on a small tech can easily be focused down on and popped off. Mostly by kinetic weapons and lasers. So, although kinetic weapons do bonus damage to shields, adding a single Ven shield bubble to cover the main weapon helps significantly! It ensures the main weapon isn't easily taken out, enabling the small tech to remain deadly during combat! This applies to armor tech builds looking to use armor more than shields. Keeping weapons protected is a higher priority for a armor and/or small based tech than a shield based tech!
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#3: Keeping wheels heavily protected.
Unlike a very large tank which has many wheels and can cope with loosing a few, a small tech can't bare to loose even one wheel! So.... lets put it inside the hull! Much like large weapons, wheels on a small tech are easily picked off. Protecting them is a much higher priority than normal. Instead of dedicating energy to shielding, having the wheels attached to the nanite armor (or any super sturdy block) while the wheel is facing inwards (towards the insides of the tech rather than outside), the sturdy block provides protection and structural integrity (the sturdy block won't pop-off as easily compared to wheels!)
I highly recommend using wrap armor and or sloped armor connected from the above hull down to the side of the wheel to provide protection without allocating hull lower down the tech. This might increase the chance of being beached, but at least you can still try moving around rather than being stranded!
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#4: Having a lot of guns.
On a small tech, you are likely to loose some guns, so add more! Although having more armor helps, being disarmed is the same thing as being dead in combat! Unless you plan to retreat. So having more guns that need to be shot off helps. It also helps keep the tech deadly, its hard to be super threatening when small, a few extra guns go a long way.
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#5, Don't use too many volatile weapons.
Although this was said before, I want to go a bit deeper. Unless you plan on being shield dependent, a small tech experiences more harm from detonating weapons and parts than a larger tech. Simply having less things that explode significantly goes a long way. Parts like Ven batteries, Ven cluster missiles, railguns, and seeker missiles have too weak of an explosion to be a major threat to small techs. Weapons like the cruise missile however are best refrained and limited to one or spaced throughout the tech. Using a swarm missile launcher instead of a BMB is a prime example of this. The idea is reliable damage for little risk.
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#6: Limited battery drain.
Somewhat referring to the first section. A tiny tech can benefit greatly from limited battery drain. Having a 2x1x2 Ven repair bubble core is VERY effective, but when building so small, your tech does not have the battery capacity to support such insane repair rates, so instead, having a compromise of 2 Ven repair bubbles is the way to go. Although you might not survive as long under heavy fire, it will greatly increase endurance far more than having more. Keep your bubbles optimized and nonexcessive when building small!
This also applies to how the HAT has only a single shield. Repairing is cheaper than absorbing, but absorbing provides guaranteed protection from certain harms, having only one shield protecting a limited space ensures the bubble drains more power being active than actually absorbing (while being a Ven efficient bubble). This is an optimal scenario for a shield bubble on a small tech looking to primarily rely on healing instead of absorbing.

I very much hope this satisfies the demands of those who comment on my guides... Well specifically the common mistakes one.. (How is that already in the hundreds?!)
If there are any concerns, ideas, or missed topics, feel free to inform me.

Darvin's Adaptive Armors 2.0 link:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2233166120&searchtext=