NOTE: If you are using Proton you may need to set the launch options to: PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command% General Control of the Game SHIFT+L: Load Game SHIFT+S: Save Game Ctrl+C / Pause Key: Pause Game/Exit Level Left Click: Select Unit or Building SHIFT+Left Click: Select Multiple Units Double Left Click: Select all similar units in view Right Click on Map: Tell unit(s) to go there. Right Click on Enemy: Tell unit(s) to attack unit or building Escape: Abort whatever unit/building is doing A: Attack unit, building, or terrain Left Click Mini-map: Change view area to that part of map Right Click Mini-Map: Send selected unit(s) to that area Mouse at Screen Edge: Scroll Viewing Area Cursor Keys: Scroll Viewing Area First Priorities You have between 9 and 10 minutes before the enemy will attack. Use that time to start harvesting resources and building up defenses. Minerals - You will need to build a smelter (Hotkey T) near where you see rocks and crystals. Use the builder to pick up minerals and drop them along sides of the smelter building. The smelter will automatically pick them up and process them as it needs. Start with the crystals first, as they are the highest value resources. When those run out, you can process the rocks, starting from the largest to the smallest. Solar Power - You will first need to build a power station (hotkey A) somewhere on the map. Once it is finished, you can build up to 8 solar panels around the power station. If you need more than 8 panels (which you probably will) then build an additional power station. Gas Refinery - Build the refinery (hotkey G) on top of volcanos. The more volcanoes you tap, the more gas you'll have available. Setup Defenses You can move rocks or build walls to fortify the areas most vulnerable to attack. Then build sentry tanks at the factory and move then a few spaces behind your wall, as they have a very long firing range. Be sure to set them to sentry mode (hotkey S). If they aren't spinning, then they aren't going to defend! Build A Radar Station This game does not employ a fog of war, and you can always see anything in the main view area. However, if you want to be able to see both player and enemy mobile units live on the mini-map, a radar station must be present. Player units show up in white, while Protoid units are yellow. Balance Of Units Obviously not all units are equal. Some are slow, some are fast. Some are cheap, and some are expensive. A small group of heavy tanks, for example, could decimate your opponent's base. However, they are expensive, take a long time to build, and they are slow to move. On the flip side of that, ATVs are cheap and fast, but not very powerful. In time, you will learn which units are best suited for different strategies. Missile Silo Missiles can devestate your opponents base easily. But be warned, they are expensive and slow to build. You must also build a new missile for each launch. The coordinate system used is based on how many spaces relative to the silo the target is. So, if you have more than one missile silo, the coordinates will not be the same for each one. Also the coordinates are shown in hexa- decimal. The Protoids It is good to know your enemy. The Protoids will typically not attack your base until their army has reached a certain size. However, they will always rush to defend the base if you attack them. They aren't too bright when it comes to navigating the map to attack your base. However, their tanks will blast through terrain objects that are in the way, or even build bridges over water, thus allowing the rest of the units a path to your base. Protoids do rebuild their base if pieces of it are destroyed. So don't wait too long after a partially sucessful attack, or you may have to start all over again. Difficulty Levels There are three difficulty levels: easy, normal, and hard. There are numerous things that change with each level. Some things are small, such as the ratio of tanks vs soldiers that are built. Also the number of sentry pods that the Protoids build varies. It is as little as 4 pods per base in easy mode, to 12 pods in hard mode. In easy mode, the protoids will not even build a factory, hence no tanks will be made. And with no tanks, the Protoids will not cross water or create paths through forest or rocks. In hard mode, the Protoids will build two bases at the start of the game.
