Starting Tips

• Build Sensor Towers. Many units can strike beyond visual sight if they have radar contacts to hit.
• Build Defenses. Smarties are cheap defenses fire rockets that can defend an area from ground and air attack. Sentinels are much more expensive but will annihilate most units in a single hit. Falcon AAs are good to prevent swarms of Hades bombers from devastating your bases. Drone bays are really good against large incursions of frigates.
• Seriously, keep an eye on the victory points. Stardock will be addressing the UI on this but victory points can sneak up on you if you’re not paying attention.
• Look for flanking options. A region must be contiguous with the player’s Nexus for it to receive resources. Make a note how the regions connect to each other and see if you can cut them off.
• Build Amplifiers on Generators to boost the production of all resources in that region.
• Only regions connected to your Nexus by controlled (or allied) regions give you their resource income.
• Too much metal? Build more Factories/Assemblies to pump out more Frigates.
• Build Quantum Relays to earn Quanta. Quanta can be spent on global upgrades or orbital calldowns.
• Don't neglect Logistics upgrades (through investing Quanta). A large army is a victorious army.
• Too much metal? Build Smarties (PHC) or Annihilator Cannons (Substrate).
• Build Cruiser Factories (PHC). Cruisers are awesome and the backbone of nearly every victorious army.
• Build Dread Launches (PHC) or Advanced Assemblies (Substrate). Dreadnoughts are crucial to victory.
• Dreadnoughts gain experience in combat. Don't throw away a high-level death machine.
• Build Sky Factories (PHC). A surprise bomber assault has ruined many a day.
• Air defenses around your Nexus have prevented many a surprise loss.
• Hold the spacebar for an overview of the entire map.
• Teams share victory points.
• You can increase or disable the victory points needed to win in the match setup screen.
• Press CTRL+(1-9) to assign the current selection to that number. Double-tap that number to jump to that group.
• Press [V] to combine the current selection into an army. Armies are commanded as single units and support each other in combat.
• Press [B] to break up an army. This can be useful if you want to retreat.
• Use armies [V] to your advantage. Controlling individual units is so 2009.
• Orbitals [C] are powerful single-shot abilities. Their cost increases with each use.
• Upgrades [X] are crucial to victory. Don't forget Logistics!
• Bring lots of firepower to take down an enemy Hercules...or at least some anti-drone firepower.
• Don't charge a Prometheus with a dreadnought of your own. That way lies madness.
• Beware the Cronus' range and skirmishing abilities. Engage it at close range for best results.
• The short-range Zeus is by far the toughest PHC cruiser to take down.
• The Apollo is a terrifying anti-air monstrosity...and helpless against ground targets.
• The Nemesis is amazingly powerful against single targets but weak on defense. Frigate swarms are not its friend.
• The Artemis is unbeatable at long range. Enemy bombers are trouble though.
• The Artemis has a specialized anti-building missile in addition to its primary barrage.
• Brutes are far tougher than Archers, but their damage output is limited. Great for early creep-sweeping and soaking damage.
• Archers' primary advantage is range. Swarming Archers are a danger to anything ground-bound.
• Hermes are weak in combat, but incredibly swift and equipped with useful radar.
• Hades bombers are devastating against buildings and grouped units.
• Fury air superiority fighters are nimble sky sweepers.
• Pan air scouts provide unparalleled info with their long sight ranges and radar capabilities.
• Medic frigates are unarmed but provide crucial mobile repairs to PHC forces.
• Smarties are cheap all-purpose defenses that make up for low damage with exceptional survivability.
• Sentinel cannons are expensive but incredibly powerful emplaced defenses.
• Drone Bays host devastating drone swarms that are vulnerable to anti-air weaponry.
• Repair Bays spawn powerful repair drones that can be shut down by anti-air weapons.
• Falcon AA turrets deal heavy area damage to any enemy air units in range.
• Unlock powerful Orbital calldowns by investing in buildings like the Orbital Relay.
• Invest in Metal and Radioactives Storage upgrades to increase the limits of what you can hold.
• Any resource income you can't store is lost - build more Factories/Assemblies!
• Hold SHIFT to queue multiple orders. This is exceptionally useful for Engineers/Constructors.
• The Empire tree in the upper-left part of the screen gives an overview of all your forces.
• Press F1 to cycle through any idle Engineers/Constructors.
• Press F2 to cycle through any idle Factories/Assemblies.
• Indirect weapons like Artemis missiles will engage radar contacts even if you can't see them.
• Drone swarms are extremely effective but vulnerable to many anti-air weapons.
• Substrate shields regenerate automatically.
• The Substrate lacks the ability to repair hull damage to buildings or units.
• Hover your mouse over any weapon (next to a unit/building portrait) to get more info.
• Elevation determines sightlines. Move onto hills and plateaus (or bring some air units) to get vision on them.
• Mountains and basins are impassable.
• Indirect-fire weapons will shoot over mountains and valleys if you have sight or radar on enemies in range.
• Destroying an enemy Nexus leaves a Turinium Generator in its place.
• Substrate build cruisers and aircraft from the basic Assembly structure.
• You can burn a level-up opportunity to instantly repair a Dreadnought and its army.
• Climb the ranks in multiplayer and view incredibly detailed stats online.
• You can hotkey buildings (CTRL + 1-9). This is massively helpful for updating rally points.
• Set Factory/Assembly rally points by right-clicking a location with the building(s) selected.
• Engineers can capture Generators.
• Neutral creeps spawn shortly after the match starts, but you have a small window to grab a region or two unopposed.
• Keep building Engineers/Constructors as your economy grows.
• Hold ALT to display effective ranges for units and buildings.
• Hold SHIFT with units selected to view their current destinations.
• Hold SHIFT with buildings selected to view their current rally points.
• CTRL+LEFT-CLICK issues an attack-move order.
• You can issue orders by clicking on the minimap.