Game Docs

The five main actions

Select your units and choose a time on the timeline before giving orders. These are the actions you will use most:

1. Place buildings

   Select a constructor, press B, choose a building type, then click its location on the map. This places a blueprint. It does not give that constructor a build order.

2. Queue units

   Select a factory or its blueprint. Click a unit’s + button in the production panel to add it to the queue. Shift-click adds five. A blueprint’s queue starts once the factory is built.

3. Set units to attack

   Select combat units, press F for Attack-move, then click a destination. They move toward it and fight enemies they encounter.

4. Set a mining area

   Select miners or constructors, press M, then drag a rectangle over yellow ore. They collect ore inside that area and add matter to your bank.

5. Set a construction area

   Select constructors, press C, then drag a rectangle around your blueprints. They travel to reachable sites in that area and build them.

Review these changes in Planning, then press Commit to submit your turn.

Your first turn

Each round gives you a replay of the battle. The timeline below the map lets you move backward and forward through it. Choose a time, plan your changes, then press Commit. Once everyone commits, the game runs the battle again from the earliest change.

1. Find your units. You start with a miner, a constructor and a turret. Click a unit to select it, or drag a box around several. Their names and available commands appear below the map.
2. Choose the time. Click the timeline to inspect a moment in the battle. Your first order sets the time for this round’s plan. All other changes in that plan use the same time. Rebase draft here moves the plan to the moment you are viewing.
3. Give orders. Select the miner, choose Mine, then drag over yellow ore. Select the constructor and place a factory blueprint. Choose Construct and drag over that blueprint so the constructor will build it.
4. Check your plan and commit. The Planning panel lists your changes. You can undo them before committing. Committing an empty plan passes. While waiting for another player, Uncommit lets you edit again.

When the new replay is ready, inspect what worked and choose your next change. In the default game, the first player to win five timelines wins the match. Other game modes and win targets are shown in the lobby.

What commands do

Only commands your selection can use are shown. Choose a command below the map, then click a target or drag an area as prompted.

Attack-move

Move toward a point and fight enemies along the way.

Support

Follow a friendly unit and help using the selected unit’s abilities.

Mine

Collect matter from ore inside the rectangle you drag.

Construct

Assign constructors to an area. They work on your reachable blueprints inside it; blueprints belong to map locations, not to a particular constructor.

Idle

Stop the unit’s assigned task.

Production

Queue units at a factory or missiles at a silo. Queue items can repeat. Give a factory’s new units a starting order so they know what to do.

Matter priority

Choose which construction, production or repairs receive matter first. High goes before Medium and Low. Off pauses spending.

Missile targets

Choose a missile and click its destination. The preview shows the blast area and flight time. A launch waits until that missile is in stock.

Groups let you recall and command units together with keys 0–9. When rewriting an order, choose whether to keep or remove its later orders. The detailed rules below explain groups, future orders and keyboard shortcuts.

Read the interface

Top bar

Your identity, matter at the viewed tick, round and timeline-win totals. Scores stay current even when you inspect an older round. Switch / rejoin player changes your slot or spectator view; All games returns to the directory.

Battlefield and minimap

Recorded timelines show the full battlefield to every player, including enemy units. Click to select, drag to box-select, and hold Shift to add to your selection. Pan with WASD or the middle mouse button; zoom with the wheel. Click or drag the minimap to move the camera. Player colors show ownership; allies share a color and have owner numbers.

Timeline

Play, pause, step, or enter a tick directly. Each row is a player’s order history. White is the current playhead, dashed yellow is your draft’s time, purple marks orders for the selection, and hatched history cannot be changed. Open Timeline tools for zoom and pan controls.

Selection

Names, icons, health and available actions describe what you selected. All army and All units help select a larger force. Unit details and Unit reference show stats. Mixed values mean selected units have different settings.

Commands and Planning

The command panel changes with your selection. Planning contains undo/redo and the changes queued for this turn. Select an entry to inspect or remove it. The draft is not submitted until you press Commit.

Needs orders

An amber notice points out idle units, empty queues, new units without starting orders, or buildings without a constructor assigned nearby. Review next selects and centers one. A warning is a prompt to check your plan, not a guarantee that a route or enough matter exists.

Command groups

A command group is a numbered set of units you can select and order together. It also lets a factory’s future units join an existing plan.

1. Add units: select them, open Groups and choose Add to group, then press a number from 0–9. The shortcut is H, then the number.
2. Recall and command: press the number on its own to recall that group. Check the recipient label, then give an order. Recalling a group is only selection; it does not spend a command.
3. Keep it separate from a one-off selection: a group order is saved for the group; an order to selected units affects that selection. An individual order can override the group until another group order arrives.
4. Add future factory output: select a factory, choose Output group (J), then the group number. Its new units join that group. This is different from making the factory itself a group member. Press J, then Backspace to clear the output binding.
5. Empty a group: choose Clear group, then its number. This removes membership, not the units. Expand Groups 0–9 inside the Groups menu to inspect groups.

Factory queues and starting orders

Select a factory or its blueprint to see its active production, waiting queue, unit buttons and output settings. Click a unit’s + button to queue it; Shift-click adds five. The Loop new items switch affects new entries. Each queued item also has its own repeat toggle and remove button. Clear waiting queue removes pending entries.

With the factory selected, use Attack-move, Support, Mine, Construct or Idle to set its new units’ starting order. Use the same click or drag gestures as for mobile units. The New units summary shows that order. Set Matter priority to control how quickly the factory receives funding.

Selecting several factories opens one shared editor. If their settings differ, an inline warning explains that the next shared command clears their queues and settings at that tick, including active production and its spent matter. Undo restores the draft. Select one factory to edit it independently.

Meet your units

These are the same icons used in the game’s selection and command panels. Each card names the unit and describes its job. Blue is an example player color, not a unit category. Buildings stay in place; utility and combat units move; missiles are ammunition stored in a silo.

Buildings

Utility

Combat

Missiles

Unit stats

These values come from this server’s game settings. Costs are in matter; health is in HP. A tick is one step of the simulation. Ranges are measured in map tiles; ≈ marks a rounded value. Work and production can slow down when matter is short.

Survival: “Surviving building” means the completed building counts toward staying alive. “Keeps building ability” means the completed unit can preserve your ability to rebuild. The exact loss conditions depend on the selected game mode; see scoring and survival.