The Solo Raider’s Boom Math
Before you swing a single tool, you should already know the explosive cost of every wall between you and the loot. Here is how to count it.
Most failed solo raids fail before they start — the raider just did not count the boom. Know the numbers cold: a sheet metal wall is 4 satchels or 2 C4; a stone wall soft side is 2 C4, hard side is much more. Doors and the soft side of a wall are always cheaper than punching the hard side, so the first job of any raid is finding the soft side.
Plan the cheapest path to the loot room, not the shortest. Bring 15% more than your count to cover misthrows and a defender repairing. If the base out-costs the loot it protects, walk away — a raid that loses you more than you gain is a loss even when you get in.
This is knowledge, not an exploit: the goal is for YOU to internalise the costs so you stop wasting a wipe’s worth of sulfur on the wrong wall.
Build the habit off the raid, too. Every time you pass a base, read it: where is the soft side, how many walls to the likely loot room, what would it cost you. Do that fifty times and the count becomes instant, which is the actual skill — not memorising a table, but looking at a shape and knowing the price. Keep a note of the raids you walked away from and what they would have cost; over a wipe that list is usually worth more sulfur than the ones you ran.