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Rebel Inc Starting Guide

Rebel Inc. is a new came from Ndemic Creations who made the famous Plague Inc. ‘’virus’’ simulator. This strategy game is crafted in the best traditions of the studio’s debut game. Stylish graphics and original setting will allow you to quickly learn the role of the governor who must deal with a difficult task. Believe us, it’s hard to maintain peace in the region after the war.

One of the great things about Rebel, Inc. is that while gameplay is relatively light on interaction, its systems hide a surprising amount of depth. Later maps and higher difficulty levels can provide a huge challenge to even the most seasoned player.

On the surface, Rebel, Inc. looks a lot like a military strategy game, but the most important things are going on behind the scenes. It’s easy to get distracted by chasing insurgents around zones trying to trap them when your real mission is to build up support with the local population. Zones with high levels of support and especially those already secured are very difficult for rebels to pop up in. Make sure to take some time to pause the game and check on your levels of corruption and stability and make sure you are adding new developments continuously.

Game rules

  • To win, you need to fill the stability scale at 100%. This means that all areas on the map should be under the control of the local government (painted in green). You can also clear the entire map of the insurgents (or enter into a peace agreement with them).
  • You will lose if the governor’s reputation level drops to zero. The reputation level is mostly affected by Insurgents and corruption.

Game features

  • The game does not require internet connection and supports saves (although a single one). You can start the mission on the train and continue during lunch.
  • An average session lasts about 20 minutes. The first 5-10 minutes determine whether you win or lose.
  • AI is very smart, but your decisions have a major effect on the gameplay.
  • The game is free to play. However, several useful features including those who facilitate the walkthrough may only become available when you pay real money. Read more about this in the conclusion of this article.

Goal of the game

The game takes place in a small eastern country. The player’s task is to fully stabilize the region. To do this, you must establish contact with local residents, providing them with everything necessary to restore the country’s economy and infrastructure. However, you’ll have to face enemies – insurgents who oppose you in the battle for the territory and the minds of local citizens. Using limited resources, the governor will have to support the population and suppress the rebellion.

Start of the game

The game begins by choosing a map. Currently, the game has only five locations. The first one is available right from the start, while the remaining ones will gradually open after completing the missions on the normal (or brutal) level of difficulty.

For a start, try to complete the task on the casual level of difficulty. In the course of the game, you will understand how the insurgents act and which key locations should be in the center of your focus

After you have selected a map, choose the Governor and Advisors with whom you will play the mission. Each of them has certain characteristics and bonuses that will help you in battle or with the economy. The new characters become available once you complete the game on the normal or brutal level of difficulty. The most powerful governor becomes available after you have completed all locations at the maximum level of difficulty, while advisors can be used only by owners of the premium version of Rebel Inc.

Once you have chosen the governor, you get to the region map. This is your main screen through which you interact with the game world.

How to choose the starting area

  • Make sure the region is blocked from enemies at least on one side. This could be a river — the insurgents will have to pass over the bridge — or the edge of the map.
  • Mountains will also protect the region since troops are moving slowly over the rocky terrain.
  • City residents are more likely to be influenced by propaganda, so make sure there are residential sectors near you (urban zone). Also, your reputation is put under significant pressure if insurgents capture a large settlement, so such zones should be guarded very carefully.
  • Don’t forget about later stages of the game. What seems lucrative may be difficult to protect and control in the future. Besides, it will be more difficult to spread influence on the big territory

Operations

Go to the Operation menu in the lower-left corner of the screen. In total, there are three types of initiatives that you can carry out in the region:

  • Civilian initiatives are aimed at helping local residents, restoring infrastructure and reconnaissance. In most cases, the development of civilian initiatives boosts your reputation.
  • Government initiatives are aimed at supporting military and civilian initiatives, development of international relations, fighting corruption and inflation. We’ll discuss their influence below.
  • Military initiatives are required to counter the rebellion. You may use both Nationaltroops and Coalition soldiers (soldiers from friendly states). Also, this tab has many upgrades for your fighters that make your army stronger.

The starting budget is assigned based on the map and the governor that you have selected.

Governors

Currently, Rebel Inc. has six governors.

  • The basic leader, Civil Servant, does not have special abilities but he also does not suffer from various fines.
  • Economist receives annual payment in advance so that you begin the game with twice the amount of money. You will have to wait 12 months for the next payment (you can see the current one in the upper right corner). Also, he has an ability to increase the reserve ratio ($1) which reduces inflation and can be applied twice during one game.
  • General gets two additional options on the Military tab and one option on the Government tab. Also, the governor can immediately finance military operations and starts the game with a free garrison (location depends on the headquarters, the bastion will be located in one of the neighboring sectors). Civil initiatives cost more but this is not that important.
  • Banker gets more funding every month. He has one additional option on the Military tab and two additional options on the Government tab. The latter can draw you $14 out of thin air but will significantly raise the level of inflation.
  • Smuggler gets extra money if he turns a blind eye to corruption. This causes a strong negative influence on the support level. When playing for this governor, you must invest points in anti-corruption operations, or the negative effect will grow rapidly.
  • The last governor, Warlord, is unlocked after you have completed all five missions at the brutal level of difficulty.

Effects of Inflation and corruption

Inflation

  • The higher inflation is, the greater the cost of all operations. The prices that are given in the article below are approximate and provide a general view of the cost of initiatives.
  • Inflation increases each time you spend money on civilian and government operations.
  • Inflation automatically decreases with time. Also, the economist has two ‘’charges’’ to dramatically reduce the level of inflation and prevent price increase for all operations.
  • Do not engage in multiple initiatives in one month, and you won’t have to worry about inflation. In all likelihood, you will be able to keep it an acceptable level.

Corruption

  • Corruption growth is detrimental to your reputation.
  • Corruption grows each time you spend money on civilian and government operations.
  • Corruption does not decrease with time. You must spend a lot of money to fight against this evil. In one game, you can explore two ‘’charges’’ that can materially reduce the level of corruption. However, you will need to upgrade Anti-Corruption to level 4. This is not a simple achievement, and it is not always necessary.
  • You should gradually resist corruption. Do not try to spend all the money on this task. In the long run, you won’t be able to invest in civilian and military initiatives. An important measure to slow down the growth of corruption is to use Effective Procurement ($2-4) after you have requested International Assistance ($7). If you agree to uncontrolled assistance, it could later turn into a disaster.

How to increase reputation

There are two ways to increase reputation:

  • Stabilization of zones (the more citizens are in the area, the higher your reputation will grow).
  • Making decisions during the course of the game (you can both increase and decrease your reputation level).

The main goal at the beginning of the game is to get as much intel as possible. It accelerates the introduction of civilian and political initiatives by increasing the growth of support from local population. The higher the level, the more supporters you have, and the faster regions stabilize.

What you should do at the beginning of the game

Civilian Initiatives

You will have almost two years before insurgents appear on the map. Start the game by picking several Civilian Initiatives.

The starting pack of civilian initiatives

Invest in Infrastructure Discussions ($4) and choose the road type ($8) of the roads that are located in the regions near the headquarters. This will allow you to faster deploy civilian initiatives, boosting your reputation. Also, roads provide bonuses to construction and battle.

On the second map, highways are present in the starting position and in two adjacent sectors. We advise you to choose the appropriate upgrade.

There are three types of roads:

  • Highways can be seen near big cities.
  • Main roads are found in rural areas.
  • Dirt roads are found in the mountains and challenging terrain.

Next, invest in Services Discussions ($4) and choose Water Supplies ($3). The cost of basic needs is very small, but the effect is powerful. From now on, the initiative will be gradually introduced to each zone (there are about 30 of them on the map) which contributes to reputation growth.

Government Initiatives

Now let’s turn to the Government tab. First, we need District Representatives ($10) that will collect intelligence about all sectors on the map.

After this, invest in the Outreach Office ($5). This branch opens upgrades for interacting with different types of zones (rural areas, urban regions, challenging terrains).

  • If you have enough money, invest in Urban Outreach ($5). As we mostly start the game from a densely populated city, this upgrade will accelerate the implementation of initiatives in such areas.
  • If you are short of money, start with International Assistance ($7). This initiative will allow you to get free upgrades from the civilian operations list. However, be careful not to give too much power to foreign organizations or you risk losing your reputation.

Budget

You receive money each month (the timer is in the upper right corner). The size of funding depends on the current reputation and the number of stabilized zones.

You can see how inflation and corruption will change before choosing an initiative by looking at the relevant indicators at the bottom of the screen.

Mid-game

After you have laid the foundations and started introducing your first initiatives, it’s time to think about fighting corruption and developing your army.

Go to the Government Initiatives and buy Anti-Corruption 1 ($9). This will be sufficient for the initial stage, but the further you move through the game, the more corruption affects your reputation. Try to periodically spend money on the following upgrades of these initiatives but do not increase it past the third level unless it is absolutely necessary.

Also, you need do develop Local Militia which will later transform into professional police. Study this initiative ($2) and then proceed to Local Police Recruitment ($15). These measures will increase your support in the regions and will restrain the rebels’ advance.

Note that random events will periodically occur. As a result, your reputation can increase or decrease.

International Assistance will help you out with Civilian Initiatives. You should occasionally help your sponsors by giving orders to introduce cheap initiatives (medicines, water supply).

If you don’t lack money, you can consider Development Discussions ($6). After this, you can gradually introduce initiatives that have a serious impact on your support level. Start with Land Rights ($6) and continue with the following initiatives.

You will need plenty of funds to develop Military Initiatives.

How to prepare for rebellion

Anyway, you will have to fight, so prepare your troops in advance if you do not want to suffer material damage to your reputation. Below, we list the main stages and your actions that are required for a smooth military start:

  1. After a few months from the start of the game, a reputation scale will appear in the right part of the screen (the default value is 80 points).
  2. After a year – year and a half, you will be able to use Military Initiatives due to high risk of insurgents’ appearance. Be sure to have $17-21 in your coffers (depending on the inflation level). This should be sufficient enough to order the training of the first unit of Coalition soldiers as well as a regular army.

Then, you have several development options: develop your own army or rely on Coalition. Each option has its pros and cons.

Each zone can have no more than one unit.

Coalition soldiers (blue)

Pluses:

  • The combat potential initially exceeds that of your regular army materially. Only general bonuses (like drones) can impact the efficiency of Coalition soldiers.
  • Training of foreign soldiers does not take much time (a few months).

Minuses:

  • The presence of foreign troops can negatively impact your reputation in the region, but this effect can be reduced with the help of the initiative Interpreters & Guides ($4) and Human Terrain System ($5).
  • A year later, you will need to make a choice: extend the soldiers’ term or withdraw them home. Note: In the latter case, you won’t be able to re-hire the unit. If you choose an extension of one or two years, you will lose reputation points.

National soldiers (green)

Pluses:

  • The presence of troops may hurt your reputation in the region, but this effect is much weaker than that of Coalition soldiers.
  • The combat potential of the army can be materially enhanced with multiple improvements.
  • Creation of at least one unit of National soldiers is required to get access to garrisons which provide significant support in combat.
  • The time of the regular army service is not limited.

Minuses:

  • The initial efficiency of these units is rather low. The National soldiers’ unit needs support from other unit or garrison to win over insurgents.
  • The training of the regular army takes much time (one and a half years).
  • National soldiers are more expensive than Coalition soldiers.

How to deploy soldiers

  • When the unit is ready for deployment, the icon on the left will start to flash.
  • You can deploy soldiers in any part of the map, they will immediately show up in the chosen sector and start scouting or engage in the fight with insurgents.
  • Soldiers need time to move between zones.

What impacts the efficiency of soldiers

  • Terrain and road quality impact the speed of movement between regions, as well as the efficiency of soldiers in the battle.
  • Troops that are located in adjacent zones provide significant bonuses to each other.
  • Drones, airstrikes, garrisons in adjacent zones. All this improves your soldiers’ victory chances.

What impacts the outcome of the battle

Terrain, number of insurgents, support of residents.

How to prevent insurgents from fleeing

You need to cut off the ways to retreat in neighboring sectors. You can build garrisons there, send troops or use the edge of the map or a river.

One of the key priorities at this stage of the game is to find and destroy rebel training camps. This will significantly decrease their combat potential.

Bonuses

Surveillance Drones ($10) is a temporary bonus that is activated after you have completed a corresponding upgrade.

  • The main task of the drones is to gather intelligence and locate rebel training camps.
  • Airplanes are activated and follow your troops automatically, you cannot take them to the desired region.
  • Drones can be upgraded so that they quickly find enemies, provide bonuses to your soldiers and return after refueling faster.

Airstrikes ($16) is another temporary bonus. Periodically, bombing occurs in the regions where you fight with insurgents.

The effect of an airstrike is strong enough, but civilians might be hurt during the bombing. In this case, you will receive a notice and you will need to choose whether to admit the guilt or hide the facts. In most cases, it’s a good idea to choose the latter to avoid reputational damage. The chances to be caught are usually around 10%.

  • Once airstrikes are available to you, invest in Heavy Ordnance which will materially increase aircraft efficiency.
  • Rapid Air Rotation (reduces airplane turnaround times) can be studied if you have extra money
  • Precision Munitions is better avoided due to low chance of being caught in case of civilian casualties.

Garrisons ($9) are permanent bonuses that help you surround insurgents by blocking their retreat routes. However, there are certain peculiarities.

You cannot put garrisons anywhere you want. The system will automatically offer one of the sectors located near the area where fights occur. Putting a garrison there will cost you money ($4).

According to our observations, the proposal to establish a garrison appears at least once per year. Keep your funds ready or you will miss the opportunity to gain a foothold in the region.

Garrisons can be upgraded by the following bonuses:

  • Security Checkpoints ($7) improve security in the zone and make it difficult to capture. Using local police is advisable.
  • Civil Support ($4) increases the level of support in the regions where the garrison is located
  • Combat Reinforcements ($7) significantly increase the bonuses provided to soldiers who are in the sector and the areas adjacent to the garrison.

All these upgrades are useful and offer an attractive return on your investment.

Endgame

After you have stabilized enough regions, and the attacks of the insurgents are effectively suppressed, the final stage of the game begins.

You can understand that this has happened when you get a notice from insurgents in which they offer negotiations. Yes, this can also happen in the middle of the game, but chances for successful negotiations are low (about 90% chance of failure) in this case.

After you have agreed to negotiations, Peace scale will appear on the right. Once it fills up to 90%, you will be able to conclude negotiations and sign a peace plan which will quickly stabilize the remaining zones. You will win on the map!

However, the path to peace is not that simple. Periodically, you will be offered choices that put significant pressure on your reputation or negotiation progress.

For example, you can offer insurgents to hand in their weapons. There are three options:

  1. Insurgents keep all weapons (giving in to insurgents’ demands = penalty to governor’s reputation).
  2. Insurgents hand in heavy weapons (compromise = a small bonus to reputation and deterioration in relations with the rebels).
  3. Insurgents hand in all weapons (an ultimatum after which the Peace scale will decrease materially).

The choice here depends not only on your preferences but also on the remaining reputation. If it reaches 0, you will lose.

Before you sign the peace deal, make sure that the current reputation level is above 20-30 points. If it is lower, you risk losing the mission. The penalty for signing a truce will be very high. Your reputation can be reduced to almost zero, and any wrong move can lead to a loss at the moment when you were just a step away from the victory.

To protect yourself before signing the peace deal, start initiatives that may sharply raise your reputation like Democratic Transition ($4) or Равенство перед законом ($7). Together, they will add 5 points to your reputation and won’t allow it to drop to zero.

Tips

  • The choice of the starting position is very important. Avoid locations in the center of the map as insurgents may appear in various parts of the map. Thus, you’ll be better off placing the headquarters in a large city closer to one of the corners of the map. The presence of long roads also plays a big role when choosing where you will start.
  • Do not run multiple initiatives at the same time. This will cause inflation and corruption. Run two initiatives, wait two months, run a couple more, and so on.
  • Keep balance. Do not get carried away by a certain type of operations – this will lead to high inflation and corruption.
  • Do not hurry. Invest slowly and in different areas, preferring military spending. Remember that insurgents can have too much influence on the reputation.
  • Do not spend money up to the last penny. During the game, random events occur. They may have a material impact on your reputation or military position. Keep a balance of $10 to be able to choose the most profitable option.
  • You need a regular army. You may start the game by investing in Coalition soldiers, and this will be a correct decision in most cases. However, you won’t be able to gain sufficient reputation if you keep renewing mercenary contracts. To win the game, you need a well-trained National army which won’t leave anywhere and won’t reduce your support level.
  • Avoid protracted fights for a specific zone. This reduces reputation. It is better to suppress the threat in a decisive manner than keep the army on the territory for too long. The level of support among civilians will quickly fade, and the governor’s reputation will fall.
  • Retreat only in extreme cases. The withdrawal of troops from the sector before the victory is established results in loss of reputation. It’s better to crush the enemy with numbers than give him region after region.
  • Do not allow the enemy to control adjacent zones. The more such regions are under enemy control, the more powerful his army becomes. Do not let him fool you: three regions under the insurgents’ flags are already a very serious problem.
  • You do not need peace. You may say that a truce with insurgents greatly facilitates stabilization of the region. This is true, but this is not an obligatory condition. More, the game has an achievement in which you stabilize the region and do not sign a peace treaty with the rebels.

Donations

The game has cheats that will greatly facilitate your life. They become available after you have completed all maps at the brutal level of difficulty (a great joke by developers). The other option is to pay real money for them.

The same is true for the governors: the last one will become available only after you have completed all maps at the brutal level of difficulty which is hard to accomplish. Advisors whom you get for completing missions can be used only by owners of the premium version of the game. It can be bought only for real money. Premium also opens up some useful features: choosing a governor for the specific mission, time acceleration and advanced stats.

All these benefits make the gameplay easier, but the game remains interesting to play. The brutal level of difficulty will always be a tough challenge.

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