- Modest Mouse, Florida

Ironically, this guide was born out of an intention of lazy efficiency, with a focus on making as few extra trips for upgrading towers as possible, or even worse, repositioning them after they've been built to better use the wider range. During the process of making this guide, that was far from the case.

As many will probably notice, carrying a single PCC module to set up a LV.1 zip-line is much easier than carrying the 72kg additional materials to upgrade it to LV.2. Using this to our advantage, we can set up a zip-line network during regular meandering pedestrian delivery-making, as the map opens up to us, and then have the network nearly intact when shelters join the UCA later. There are some LV.2 towers, generally, at junction points where the extra range has the most effect on neighboring towers, but also at locations to which it's easiest to carry the extra materials. The other large consideration here is a network that's most convenient for delivery-making, and advancing the story, and frequent traveling to destinations, with a little less focus on being as closely integrated with each shelter's doorstep.

Without a doubt, Lord Vampair and his legendary first continuous route deserve oodles and oodles of credit and commendations, without which this guide wouldn't have been possible. His is still the most efficient for overall chiral bandwidth usage, and travel to all shelters, but is a little difficult to coordinate until late into the late game.

Feb. 20 - Slight update! Zoom In!

The first few issues that will make building this route difficult from the beginning are these:

1. You don't have the zip-line construction technology unlocked
   
2. You don't have the chiral network expanded to a territory
   
3. You don't have enough chiral bandwidth

Most of these problems will be solved while you naturally progress through the game, but the design of this zip-line network takes that into account. If you are following this map from early game, ignore almost everything that is "low priority" until after the nearby Prepper has joined the UCA, and only if you'd really like that bit of the route for convenience. After you unlock the zip-line tech, you should do the best you can to build out the lines to these specs. At some key locations, the region won't be online yet, but do your best to lay down a zip-line, so that later it's easy to zip back to it, dismantle, and relocate the structure. If chiral bandwidth is an issue, either do more deliveries to increase your bandwidth, or use your cufflink map to remotely dismantle towers in far off locations you aren't traveling to often. If you are playing online, a lot of these locations benefit from using other porter's towers without using your own chiral bandwidth.

I'll describe later some of the details of the alternative routes and tower placement, but the first obvious oddity is that there is no route directly to Lake Knot City. This is because it's slow, inconvenient, and using a vehicle on the road is always better. I tend to leave a vehicle near the closest Prepper and just use that for the occasional delivery back to base. (Or with Peter Englert's House; just drive from the Craftsman) The likelihood that the roadway from the early game is built and well used is why some of the eastern route is the way it is. It's simply easier to drive to the destination, rather than incorporate it into the zip-line network.

Some other general helpful notes:

• The 2m Deploy Target towers have a location placement that is very very precise. If you don't put it in the exact correct spot, the route might not work. These towers should usually be placed first since they have such a large influence on the position of the neighboring towers.
  
• The 4m Deploy Target towers are less precise, and can usually be adjusted to account for obstacles or other Towers being slightly out of range, etc.
  
• The 8m Deploy Target towers are extremely forgiving. They often could be put in an entirely different location, and still have the network work, even if it'd just mean more distance traveled.
  
• Using one floating carrier to follow you on the zip-lines is a great way to make deliveries.
  
• You can't have two carriers following you on the zip-lines.
  
• Using the cufflink map, and setting Markers for a quick distance measurement is a great way to see if you're near the 300m range limit.
  
• The green "drop-off zones" are areas particularly tuned, so that while the tower might not be right next to a shelter, dropping off the zip-line early gets you a bit closer to the target.
  
• The alternate routes have various benefits, but near SKC, using Mama's zip-lines might be the better option. However, if they deteriorate, then you'll have a better option instead of recreate it.
  
• Usually, upgrading a tower is better than repairing it, but that's not an issue until late game.
  
• When dismounting a remote tower, rotate around and face the direction you want to stand next. Clicking in the wrong direction could send you falling down a cliff.

These location notes are not exhaustive and tend to focus on the trickiest locations where a graphic representation might help get the tower standing in the right spot. I will try to keep these notes as spoiler-free as possible, and use acronyms and notation for the locations that will be unusual, but it should be easy to follow once you visit that location. Most screenshots have an indication of nearby tower and it's distance, so that you can understand how important the distance is. I'll only be cherry picking some of the best images here, but maybe if you need some more, you can look through my Steam profile's images.

The most important thing is building the central continuous route from the En to the M (like in the video) is highest priority once you unlock the Zip-line tech. The sections in the mountain will save a lot of time and energy later.

The most outrageous exception to this network routing, is the several branches around the WNMKS because when you can't build them they would be useful, but when you can build them, they aren't particularly useful. The "improvised" routing is such, because it's distance and terrain don't really allow for an even spacing of the towers, so almost any reasonable placement of a few towers will work out. If you do build them, try upgrading them like Vampair did. The other thing being, that this shelter isn't used very often, and it's probably just as practical to commandeer a vehicle for any missions involving this section.

There's also a small conflict with the towers between the WS and the FP; if you build the roads here, you will likely need to be precise with the second tower, or add another LV.2 tower nearby to circumvent the asphalt that's now blocking your way through the sky.

The numbers under each image are coordinates you can see with the cufflink map. It's a little difficult to see, but there is a coordinate in the top right of the screen that can be used for precise locating.

DCSLKC > WS Tower 3
(148.95, 191.80)

R > MKC Tower 2
(-1077.00, -65.47)

MKC Tower
(-1137.63, 235.12)
handy chiral bridge!

MKC > M Tower 1
(-1292.15, 409.75)

MKC > M Tower 3
(-1021.06, 871.30)

M Tower
(-939.91, 1028.96)
very tricky positioning! look at the rock's texture!

M > S Tower 1
(-690.02, 864.28)

M > DCNMKC Tower 1
(-983.40, 1246.83)

M > DCNMKC Tower 2
(-1202.34, 1384.10)

M > DCNMKC Tower 3
(-1396.42, 1522.39)
tarzan!

Cos > JD Tower 1
(1117.96, 89.90)
very tricky positioning! look at the rock's texture!

JD Tower
(1578.11, -217.16)

HL > G Tower 1
(-1029.32, -150.18)

HL > G Tower 2
(-965.39, -678.75)

G Tower
(-908.51, -925.24)

G > VP Tower
(-675.55, -1065.55)

VP Tower
(-444.75, -1210.59)
handy chiral bridge!

The rest of the zip-line towers are either nearly identical with Lord Vampair's route, or they are so unspecific, and easy to place, that with a little careful navigation and scouting, they can be placed so they work with the rest of the network.