Game Guide

1. Game Goals & Characteristics
 

• Objective: Destroy all enemy Commander units and headquarters before they destroy yours
   
• Game Balance: A mix of RPS (rocket-paper-scissors) based on Command and Conquer hard-countering model, and Total Annihilation’s physics-based countering, where projectiles are affected by physics and may miss targets.
   
• Micro/Macro: Early game focus is heavy on micro, mid game is a bit of both while late game focuses on macro.
   
• Technology upgrades and morphs: You can unlock units and morphs after researching technology upgrades as well as boosting units globally or individually.

2. The Commander
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• Starting and main unit (“hero”) of the game, builds fast and produces a good amount of energy. Think of it as your in-game avatar. Try and keep it alive.
• Can assist (speed up production of) factories and build laser & missile defenses
• Can one-hit anything in the game with its d-gun (D key shortcut + click on unit/ground)
• Can be upgraded to Tiers 2, 3 and 4, with increasing range and resistance
• Gains a deflector shield on Tier 3, with enhanced size and self-repair rate on Tier 4
• When killed, the explosion range is smaller than its standard laser weapon's range
  • You can see the explosion radius by holding Shift and hovering over your commander
  • After the Commander explodes, the heavy-EMP aftershock lasts for a long time and its radius ​is twice as large as the regular explosion radius
  • HINT: Maintain appropriate distance from an enemy Commander to kill it with your laser and keep you Commander alive
• ​You can easily select and re-center your camera on the Commander by clicking Ctrl+Shift+C

3. Outpost
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• Key construction structure in the game
  • Able to build all defenses and structures
  • The only way to build a Tech Center
  • The only way to build combat-unit factories (Bot, Vehicle and Aircraft plants, Shipyards)
     
• Besides building, it can repair, assist (speed up the construction) factories and directly build mobile construction-assistance & scout units (Bow FARC and Kern Muskrat)
   
• Outposts start at Tier 1 and can be morphed up to Tier 5, when they're able to build the cutting edge Gantries, massive structures capable of building Behemoths and other super combat units
   
• Outposts spend energy for merely existing, so unless you're floating (wasting) energy it's usually not a great idea to "spam" (build many) of them to assist (speed up) construction. Initially FARCs are best suited for that role, at least until they start clumping and disturbing unit production due to their short synthgun range.

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• Besides building, Outposts can repair, assist factories and directly build builder units and mobile construction-assistance & scout units (Bow FARC and Kern Muskrat, generally called "FARCs")
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4. Building & Morphing

• All units have a certain cost in metal and energy to be built, and that's spent progressively per "tick" (game update, thirty per second)
• Energy cost per metal is fixed per tier, only air units cost more e (energy) per metal​
• A small set of units don't follow this formula:
  • Standard (Tier 1) solar Collectors cost zero energy to build
  • Wind Generators cost much less energy per metal than other units in the same tier
     

5. Morphing​

• It's the ability of certain mobile units and structures to change shape and functionality
• To start morph click on the button with the destination unit target picture. Morph usually has some tech requirement (researched on the Tech Center), which's shown in red on the unit info bar at the bottom of the UI.
• Some structures and units can only be obtained by morphing, others are also available to build directly from outposts and factories
  • Advanced Structures are 25% more expensive when morphed into 
  • Advanced Mobile Units are 33% more expensive when morphed into
• All units remain fully operational during a morph
• Morph times get faster after the “Tech Booster” upgrades are researched in the Tech Center
• Morphs can be paused, resumed and queued with UI button (shift+q is the shortcut for queue morph)
• Morphs can be de-queued by immediately starting their morph (M key shortcut).

6. Technology

• You start the game on Tier 1. Building a Tech Center (available in the outpost) unlocks Tech 2 units and technology (upgrades and morphs). Morphing up the starting Tech Center takes your army to Tier 3 (T3, for short), unlocking T3 technology. Morphing it again takes you to T4, and so on (up to T6)
• A T4 tech center is required to morph the outpost to T4 or morph standard factories into advanced factories
• A T4 outpost can build T4 factories and structures, including a T4 outpost directly (not requiring morphs)
• If all upgraded Tech Centers (nothing prevents you from building many) are destroyed, that locks out some of the advanced units from the advanced factories and outposts, but not all of them
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7. Upgrades
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• Tech Centers have upgrades which may be researched along the game
   
• Upgrades may be global (available for all target unit types at once) or per-unit
  • Upgrades researched in the Tech Center are always Global
  • Per-unit upgrades usually require a certain Tier to be reached in the Tech Center first
     
• Upgrades may unlock abilities on units (eg.: capture, resurrect) or provide some specific effect, like speeding up Morphs
   
• Per-unit Weapon upgrades are also called “abilities”, like the Samson’s Fire Rain. To use it, once researched and equipped to the unit, first click “D” then right-click on the target unit or ground position.

 

8. Building Costs

• All units have a certain cost in metal and energy to be built, and that's spent progressively per "tick" (game update, thirty per second)
• Energy cost per metal is fixed per tier, only air units cost more e (energy) per metal​
• A small set of units don't follow this formula:
  • Standard (Tier 1) solar Collectors cost zero energy to build
  • Wind Generators cost much less energy per metal than other units in the same tier
     

9. Morphing​

• It's the ability of certain mobile units and structures to change shape and functionality
• To start morph click on the button with the destination unit target picture. Morph usually has some tech requirement (researched on the Tech Center), which's shown in red on the unit info bar at the bottom of the UI.
• Some structures and units can only be obtained by morphing, others are also available to build directly from outposts and factories
  • Advanced Structures are 25% more expensive when morphed into 
  • Advanced Mobile Units are 33% more expensive when morphed into
• All units remain fully operational during a morph
• Morph times get faster after the “Tech Booster” upgrades are researched in the Tech Center
• Morphs can be paused, resumed and queued with UI button (shift+q is the shortcut for queue morph)
• Morphs can be de-queued by immediately starting their morph (M key shortcut).
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10. Technology

• You start the game on Tier 1. Building a Tech Center (available in the outpost) unlocks Tech 2 units and technology (upgrades and morphs). Morphing up the starting Tech Center takes your army to Tier 3 (T3, for short), unlocking T3 technology. Morphing it again takes you to T4, and so on (up to T6)
• A T4 tech center is required to morph the outpost to T4 or morph standard factories into advanced factories
• A T4 outpost can build T4 factories and structures, including a T4 outpost directly (not requiring morphs)
• If all upgraded Tech Centers (nothing prevents you from building many) are destroyed, that locks out some of the advanced units from the advanced factories and outposts, but not all of them.
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11. Upgrades
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• Tech Centers have upgrades which may be researched along the game
   
• Upgrades may be global (available for all target unit types at once) or per-unit
  • Upgrades researched in the Tech Center are always Global
  • Per-unit upgrades usually require a certain Tier to be reached in the Tech Center first
     
• Upgrades may unlock abilities on units (eg.: capture, resurrect) or provide some specific effect, like speeding up Morphs
   
• Per-unit Weapon upgrades are also called “abilities”, like the Samson’s Fire Rain. To use it once researched, first click “D” then right-click on the unit or ground target.
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12. Builders & FARCs
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12.1. Builders

• In their respective factories you can build bot (builder), vehicle (dozer) and air builders
  • Builders (construction robots) can only build missile (anti-vehicle) defenses
  • Dozers may only build laser (anti-bot) defenses. They cost more, but move and build faster than builders. They may also run over lighter bots​
  • Air builders cost more and build a bit slower than the others, but have unmatched mobility and can build both laser and missile defenses
    • Outposts and the commander can also build both laser and missile defenses
  • ​No standard (Tier 1) builder can assist (speed up unit construction of) factories, only their advanced versions
  • All builders can morph to their T4+ (advanced) counterparts​

12.2. FARCs - Fast Assist and Repair Construction units

• FARCS move and repair really fast, but are slow reclaimers (harvest resources from trees, rocks and wreckages in the battlefield) compared to the builders and outposts
• All FARCs can assist factories, in fact they're the best early option to speed up combat unit production
• FARCs may also build cheap dragon eyes (remote spy cameras)
• Basic builders and FARCs can morph into Advanced versions (requires an Advanced, Tier 4 headquarters)

 

13. Resources​​
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13.1. Ore

• Most important and scarce resource in the game, can only be obtained by harvesting and transporting, with builders or dozers, the alien mineral "pandore" present on map-specific spots ("ore spots" or craters), or through ore makers (highly energy-draining). You can find the ore spots in the map easily by hitting F4 in-game
• Pandore self-replicates, faster or slower depending on its density around each spot, in a process called 'sprawling'
• Although totally draining the ore around a spot (called "getting greedy") is ill-advised, it's possible to boost its sprawling by building sprawler structures on top of the spot/crater. Those structures can be morphed up according to your tech tier
• Tier 1 sprawlers produce small chunks, but reduce the decay of the sprawling rate by 50%
• Tier 3 sprawlers (“Large”) produce chunks with 50% more ore (morph-only, requires a T3 tech center)
• Tier 4 sprawlers ("Mohos") produce chunks with about 2x more ore than a large chunk
• Tier 5 sprawlers ("Mantle") produce about 3x as much as mohos (morph-only, requires a T5 tech center)
   
• Ore Makers
  • Can be built anywhere, T2 version produces +1 metal / 200 energy
    • ie.: 4 solar collectors worth of energy production to run
  • A Moho Ore Maker (MOM) requires up to two fusion generators to provide full output (~ +10 ore)

13.2. Energy

• Solars, WindGens and Fusions
  • Wind Generators are usually only cost effective when wind speed > 9
  • Advanced Solars becomes available with a T1 tech center (morph-only)
  • Advanced Wind Generators and Fusion Generators are available on Tier 3
  • Advanced Fusion (AFUS) is available on Tier 6, produces ~3k energy
     
• Geothermals ("Geos")
  • Neutral, abandoned Geothermals can be found as pre-built structures on top of all map thermal vents
    • Each basic Geothermal provides +100 energy
    • Geothermals can be morphed into T4, T5 & T6 versions, providing progressively more energy
  • Geos can be captured by Commanders, daemons and capture-equipped builders
  • Geos wreckage can’t be reclaimed or destroyed, only resurrected
  • You can search for thermal vents on the map by hitting F4, they show up as yellow columns of light
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14. Reclaiming

• To obtain extra resources, you can reclaim map features and destroyed units wreckage with most construction-enabled units. Reclaiming is progressive, meaning the feature or wreckage can be harvested partially.​
  • Mouse-hover on the wreckage or feature to learn how much it provides.
• Metal
  • Unit wreckage gives off 50% of the original unit ore cost
  • In some maps, rocks and abandoned structure features provide metal
• Energy
  • In some maps, trees, plants and other vegetation features provide energy when reclaimed

15. Units​

15.1. Production Speed and Grouping

• Some units like Peevees and UZIs, are built in groups (of 2 or 3 units), but the player has individual control of them
   
• Certain units can only be achieved through morph (eg.: Hunchback from Mortar, Hellion from C.A.N., Tyrant from Bull)
• To produce units faster, try to stay positive on both metal and energy resources. Use storages to maximize your effectiveness.
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15.2. Unit Behavior

• Some units (Gunner, Glint, Mortar) lose accuracy when moving
• Some ranged and artillery units (like Plasma bots, Samson and Morty) have a minimum attack range, ie. won’t fire at units very close to them. Holding Shift while mouse-hovering a unit will show a green circle around it, if the unit has min-range
• Certain vehicles like tanks and artillery are able to retreat-move by holding Ctrl and right-clicking behind them. Useful to keep them firing while you retreat
• Missiles accelerate a lot after being fired and have different turn rates, allowing fast-moving targets to dodge them
• Fighter anti-air weapons, bombers and missile gunships have limited ammo, and require re-arming in a landing pad
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16. Unit Countering

16.1. Basics

• Hard counters you should know by heart:
  • Missile bots >> tanks >> anti-bot vehicles >> rifle bots >> missile bots
• Basic Bot Countering:
  • Rifle bots (Peevee, Uzi) > Missile bots > Plasma bots *> Rifle bots
    • * ​Plasma bots have min-range, and when rifle bots get really close they have the upper hand
• Plasma bots are quite resistant to defenses (due to their heavybot armor-type)
  • On the other hand, plasma damage type doesn’t do much to defenses, requiring other units to deal damage to the defenses (missile bots are good matches here)
• Bullets and lasers are strong against rifle bots
• Missiles are strong against vehicles, including tanks, and Bombers
• ABVs (Anti-Bot Vehicles, like the Glint and the Gatling) are weak against tanks but very strong against most bots - beware plasma bots though

16.2. Advanced

• Flak damage (Claw, Rogue) is strong against heavy bots and fighters
• Neutron damage (Disruptor, C.A.N., Doomsday) is very strong against heavy vehicles (like tanks)
• Explosive damage (Bombers, Immolator) has area-of-effect splash and it's good against vehicles
• Plasma damage (Ogre, Evictor) has splash and it's good against kbots

 

17. Icons & Color Codes

17.1. Icons

In-game, the minimap shows icons which reflect the unit and weapon types, in the color of the player's team color and according to the following chart:

17.2. Color Codes

At the top of each unit build-picture there's a color-coded bar according to the unit category. This allows you to quickly identify the unit type in the bottom selection bar, when different units are selected (eg.: Ctrl+Shift+A to select all units).

 

18. Defenses and Blockers

• Missile defenses can fire at ground and air, except for the T4 version (AA-only)
  • For all mobile and static missile units, the weapon's ground range is shorter than the AA (anti-air) range 
• Laser defenses can't fire at air targets
• Arm DEVAs and Core Shredders are mid-range T4 flak-damage defenses (ie. great vs heavy bots)
  • All T4 defenses can shoot over forts (T4 walls)
• Dragon Teeth blocks missiles, bullets and lasers on a parallel-to-ground path, but plasma shells go over it

19. Stealth and Detection

• Some units in TAP can become cloaked (invisible to sight), including the Commander (keyboard shortcut: K)
• Cloak-able units become stealth (radar-invisible) while cloaked
  • Exception: Mines
• Getting near a cloaked enemy unit triggers ‘cloak breaking’ - makes it visible
• Mobile cloaked units can be detected with Radar units and structures
  • Cloak detection range is sensibly shorter than the unit’s radar range
  • A ‘seismic ping’ (concentric red circles) will pulse in the approximate position of the invader
    • Seismic pings won’t show if the enemy cloaked unit is not moving
    • Seismic pings don’t break cloak
• ​​There are stationary and mobile Radar Jammer units in the game, which hide nearby units from enemy radar
  • ​Radar Jammer Towers can only be built by builders
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20. Radar and Line of Sight (LOS)

• Avatars & outposts have very good line of sight (LOS or visibility range)
• Radars have worse line of sight than outposts
  • That said, radars can indirectly detect units from much further away, through their large radar range
• ​Radar-detected units initially show as blips under the shroud (area out of visual range) and in the minimap
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• Outposts gain more line of sight on each level
• Some mobile units provide great line of sight: Air scouts, Bow Poker, Kern Sage
   
• The higher the unit is, relative to the lowest height in the map, the larger its line of sight becomes

 

21. Air Combat

• Drones are cheap early game air units which pack a punch when in numbers, but can be hit by any ground unit
• Fighters fire at both ground and air targets (AA ammo is limited), while Gunships can only attack ground targets
• Bombers are outstanding against structures, and very good against defenses - even missile defenses!
• Fighter and Gunship missiles are excellent vs vehicles
• Fighter and Gunship bullets are great vs bots
   
• Bombers and some fighters require available AirPads to be built
  • Air plants (factories) already have two airpad slots in them
  • Check the “PlaneCap” UI indicator, next to the commander counter
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• ​The "plane freeze" ability allows you to halt mid-air a flying bomber (set to "Fly" mode)
  • ​To use it, click on a destination (to move) and then click Stop (S key shortcut)
  • Unit(s) will turn around to aim at the destination(s) and grind to a halt, then hover on the spot
  • Practice it to, for instance, make tight curves with your fighters and easily group bombers to make sure they reach their target at the same time
     
• Air-to-ground Missiles are excellent vs Bombers
  • Flak & Laser weapons don’t do so great vs them
• Air-to-ground Flak shells (from, eg. Claw) are great vs Fighters
  • Missiles are only okay vs fighters, especially due to the fighters speed
• Gunships are vulnerable to (especially) Missiles and Flak damage types
• Gunships and bombers are very vulnerable to fighters
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• The Krow (Kern’s Tier 5 Gunship) is very resilient and fires at both air and ground
• Lamina (Blow’s Tier 3 Gunship) is not super resistant but moves fast and fires cannon shells at ground targets, being a great Avatar-assassin and hard to stop with mobile AA flak vehicles
  • Besides stationary AA towers, use fighters against laminas (or any other gunship, for the matter)
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22. Naval Combat (WIP)

• Light / Assault Ships 
  • Cheapest ships, excellent vs Support Ships, good vs structures
  • More resistant in their front area
• Support / Missile Ships
  • Move slow and are weak vs light ships, but very strong vs heavy ships
  • More resistant in their rear area
• Heavy Ships
  • Weapons with great range and splash damage
  • Very resistant at their front, yet vulnerable to missile/support ships
• Submarines
  • Similar to Heavy Ships but even stronger at their front region compared to their rear area
  • Watch out for Destroyers and T2 Cruisers, their torpedos do quick work of subs
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