Learn to play
The player handbook.
Learn to run a colony, understand its needs, and choose your next move.
Your first colony
Start with food, workers, and exploration. Then follow the chapters through colony management, development, and defense.
Read Your first colony →Start playing
Get a colony running and learn to read the game.
Your first colony
Play the first tutorial: build and supply an inn, give workers jobs, add a hospital, and send explorers into the unknown.
Read chapter →ChapterControls, HUD, and reading your colony
Find the information behind a busy colony: staffing, food, unit needs, statistics, and map controls.
Read chapter →Manage the colony
Keep workers, food, and production in balance.
Jobs, priorities, flags, and areas
Give the colony useful work without starving services or overcommitting its workers.
Read chapter →ChapterResources and hauling
Follow a worker's delivery route, read local building stocks, and fix the bottleneck before adding more jobs.
Read chapter →ChapterKeep the colony fed
Read food stocks and service demand, slow births when supply falls behind, and preserve the next harvest.
Read chapter →ChapterPopulation and swarm production
Choose a useful birth mix, support it with food and labor, and diagnose a swarm that stops producing.
Read chapter →Develop the colony
Build services, train units, and grow your options.
Buildings and services
Finish one useful building, supply its job, and keep meals available while adding healing and training.
Read chapter →ChapterTraining and upgrades
Give globs time to learn, distinguish building levels from unit abilities, and supply qualified builders for upgrades.
Read chapter →ChapterFruit, happiness and conversion
Keep orchards visible, supply fruit with meals, and use food advertisement without mistaking it for an automatic conversion effect.
Read chapter →ChapterExpand when the colony can support it
Choose a small expansion, fund its continuing supply, and check the outcome before adding another commitment.
Read chapter →Control the map
Explore, defend, and organize your forces.
Exploration, terrain, water, and movement
Reveal useful land, choose reachable destinations, and understand why units take their own routes.
Read chapter →ChapterDefend the colony, not just the frontline
Protect food and training, concentrate warriors, and keep defensive buildings supplied.
Read chapter →ChapterOrganize and supply an attack
Choose an objective, gather eligible warriors, and keep the force able to eat and recover.
Read chapter →Understand the match
Prepare your game and keep your progress.
Victory conditions and custom rules
Read the match contract before building: opponents, alliances, prestige, scenario goals, and optional rules.
Read chapter →ChapterBrowser play, saves, replays, and multiplayer
Keep useful practice states, export local progress, and prepare to join the online game.
Read chapter →Improve your play
Recognize trouble and make better decisions.
Face the AIs
Understand the opponents you can practice against.
Choosing an AI opponent
Set up a practice duel, understand the opponent labels, and choose a useful next challenge from the eight native AIs.
Read chapter →AI guideFacing Numbi: use the quiet opening
Read Numbi's developing colony, prepare food and trained defenders, and learn from a defense that began too late.
Read chapter →AI guideFacing Castor: scout before committing the army
Read Castor's growing services and defenses, prepare a supplied force, and learn from a costly probe against its training buildings.
Read chapter →AI guideFacing Econo: keep food and fruit working
Practice a supplied colony, scout Econo's economic expansion, and judge fruit access before committing workers or an army.
Read chapter →AI guideFacing Warrush: hold a supplied approach
Recognize Warrush's military pressure, release unnecessary production, and keep defenders fed near a compact guard area.
Read chapter →AI guideFacing Cortex: keep supply and scouting current
Recognize Cortex's changing development and pressure, keep a supplied defense, and inspect the opponent before choosing a counterattack.
Read chapter →AI guideFacing Nicowar: train before filling the defense flag
Match Nicowar's trained attack force with a qualified home defense, and keep that training connected to working food supply.
Read chapter →AI guideFacing Cabino: protect the services behind your army
Scout Cabino's developing town, replace a lost scout, and keep meals and healing available while defending your colony.
Read chapter →AI guideFacing Maxima: watch the economy behind the army
Keep a supplied defense, replace lost scouts and reassess Maxima's growing services before committing your force.
Read chapter →Quick reference
Look up buildings, units, resources, and controls.
Building and upgrade reference
Standard construction costs, builder requirements, service places, and the stocks that matter after completion.
Read chapter →ReferenceUnits and abilities
Worker, explorer and warrior roles, individual training, food and health, and the controls that assign useful work.
Read chapter →ReferenceResource reference
Identify Standard resource sources, distinguish harvesting from clearing, and understand what renews or stays in place.
Read chapter →ReferenceControl reference
A desktop cheat sheet for selection, camera movement, buildings, flags, areas, and local practice.
Read chapter →