Practice area

Starting A New Campaign

• Fast Facts: A Crash Course On AI War

(in development)

AI War - Home World| My Home World has a lot of Structures -- What do they do?

• I'm Just Starting Out -- What Should I Do?
• How Do I Know What Difficulty Level To Play On?
  • Is The Difficulty Really Constant Throughout A Game Of AI War?
• What Difference Does The Map Size Make? (Hint: Tiny Maps Are Harder)
• What are suggestions for a good first AI opponent?
• Video Tutorials (See An Expert Play)

General Gameplay

• How Do I Get More Ships?
• What Do I Do With My Older Ships?
• What Technologies Should I Unlock If I'm New?
• How Do I Use The Priority Buttons In The Galaxy Map?
• Do Shots Miss Sometimes?
• Should I Micromanage Ships In Battle?
• Some Of My Ships Are Extra Slow, Or Won't Move At All. Why?
• Are There Cheats In The Game?
• When Should I Be Worried About The AI Progress Getting Too High?
• How Do I Minimize Micromanagement?
• Does The AI Progress Go Up When I Lose A Command Station?
• Like Chess, A Game Of AI War Has Three Abstract "Phases"

Multiplayer Co-Op

• What are the differences between solo and multiplayer?
• How To Manage Player Drop-In and Drop-Out In Co-Op?

Expansions

• Expansions Vs Free DLC -- What's The Difference?
• What exactly are the features in the base game of AI War?
• What exactly is added via The Zenith Remnant expansion?

(in development) What will be in the Children of Neinzul micro expansion?

• When will the third expansion for AI War be coming out?

Interface

• Keyboard: Where Are The Keyboard Controls For The Game Documented?
• Keyboard: What Exactly Does X + Right Click Do?
• What Does Flashing On The Galaxy Map Indicate?
• How Do the Quick Buttons At The Bottom Of The Screen Work?
• About The Planetary Summary

• The Stats Button -- What is Inside?

expanded detail on the objectives tab? other tabs?

• Is It Possible To Zoom All The Way Out?
• Why Is Clicking The Minimap Imprecise When I Am Zoomed In?
• Can I Queue Multiple Attack Orders And Movement Orders?
• What Are The Rules For Gifting Ships Between Players?
• Formation: How To Use Formation Move
• Formation: How To Use Arc Move
• How Do I Minimize Micromanagement?
• How To Use Preferred Targets To Make Up For Deficiencies In Your Ship Mix

Defense

• How Do I Barricade A Wormhole?
• Gate Raids: How Do I Prevent Enemies From Sending Waves Against A Planet?
• Gate Raids: What Does Gate Raiding Really Accomplish?
• How Do I Defend My Ever-Expanding Fronts?
• Why Would I Unlock Turrets Instead Of Mobile Ships?
• How Do I Secure The Area Around My Planets?
• How Do I Prepare For Cross-Planet Attacks?
• What Is The Risk Of Not Destroying A High-Level AI Planet Next To My Home Planet?
• Why Is There An Exo-Galaxy Wormhole On My Home Planet?
• How Do I Defend Against Astro Trains?
• How Do I Protect Myself While Expanding In The Early Game? (Whipping Boys)
• How Do I Keep The Number Of Ingress Points Into My Territory Low?
• Defending Against Border Aggression

Offense

• How Does Supply Work?
• How Do I Establish A Beachhead?
• What's The Best Way To Handle Scouting?
• Why Does An Enemy Planet Get Reinforcements After Its Warp Gate Is Gone?
• Are The Capturable Enemy Ships Always Away From My Starting Position?
• What Is The Risk Of Taking A Planet Next To High-Level AI Planets?
• How Do I Take A High-Level AI Planet?
• How Fast Should I Be Taking Planets?
• How Do I Protect Myself While Expanding In The Early Game? (Whipping Boys)
• Neutering AI Planets
• Creating False Alarm Distractions On AI Planets
• Why Not To Use FRD Mode Offensively

Economy

this may need to include other energy sources like grav drills, human colonies, cryo, Zenith power Now have 4 types of command station and 6 types of res nodes engineers and manufacturies now run at zero energy

• How Do I Get More Knowledge?
• What Do I Do About Reduced Energy Reactor Efficiency?
• Are There Resource Caps? What Happens When I Hit Them?
• What To Do With Too Much Of One Resource, But Not Enough Of The Other?

Ship-Specific Game Mechanics

• Cloaking: How Does Cloaking Work?
• Cloaking: How Do I Prevent My Cloaked Ships From Auto-Attacking Enemies?
• Cloaking: How Do Cloaking Boosters Work?
• Why Can't I Repair Some Ships (Such As Forts/Warheads)?
• Am I Ever Able To Build Core/Mark V Units?
• Why Do Some Ships (Such As The Fortress) Have Two Range Circles?

Ship Strategies & Errata

Raid engines other new structures?? CoN structures

• Advanced Research Stations: Does Losing One Of These Matter After I've Held It Once?
• Astro Trains: What Do These Do?
• Astro Trains: How Do I Defend Against Astro Trains?
• Captive Human Settlements: Do I Gain Anything From Holding These?
• Command Posts: What Do These Do?
• Counter-Dark-Matter Turrets: What Are These Good For?
• Electric Shuttles: How Do I Effectively Attack Them?
• Engineers: How Can I Best Use These?

(in development)

now that engineers have no energy cost

• Engineers: What Restrictions Are There On When An Engineer Can Repair Another Ship?
• Force Fields: How Do I Kill Them?
• Force Fields: How Much Of A Ship Needs To Be Covered By A Forcefield To Get Its Protection?
• Force Fields: What Uses Are There For The Mobile Nature Of Force Field Generators?
• Golems: What Are Golems?

(in development)

critical to know about AI supply chain or you could have a usless golem that cannot go anywhere esp on newer maps vines snake x

• Golems: What Are The Benefits And Risks Of Capturing Golems?
• Golems: How Do I Kill A Mining Golem?
• Golems: How Do I Work With A Zenith Trader?
• Golems: How Do I Survive A Zenith Devourer?
• Golems: How Do I Interact With A Dyson Sphere?

• Guard Posts: What Do These Do?

(in development)

probably needs to become the overview of the new types

• Guard Posts: Common Guard Post Types.

(in development)

• Guard Posts: AI Core World Guard Posts Types

(in development)

• Guardians: What Are Guardians?

(in development)

 major new section

• Guardians: What does type 1 do?

(in development)

might just cover one or 2 special ones or refer the player to the tool tips

• Guardians: What does type 2 do?

(in development)

• Ion Cannons: What Do I Do About Them?
• Lightning Turrets: How Do I Effectively Attack Them?

• Mines: Are Ships Supposed To Be Able To Slip Past Mines?
• Mines: How Do I Clear Enemy Mines?
• Mines: What Is The Best Way To Clear The Remains Of Enemy Mines?

(obsolete)

Mines: How To Kill PermaMines?

• Missile Frigates: Are These Overpowered?
• Orbital Mass Drivers: What Are Orbital Mass Drivers?
• Parasites: What's The Best Way To Use Them?
• Special Forces Guard Posts: What Do These Do?
• Special Forces Guard Posts: How Do I Destroy Them?
• Spiders And Weak Ships: What Are These(And Other Weaker Ships) Good For?
• Starships: How Do I Best Use Them?
• Starships: What Are Scout Starships Good For?
• Starships: How Do I Use Riot Starships?
• SuperFortresses: What Do I Do About Them?
• Tachyon Beams: Why Do Yellow Beams Come Out Of Nowhere And Hit My Ships?
• Warheads: How Do I Get EMPs, Nukes, And Other Warheads?
• Warheads: How Do I Use Nukes?
• Warheads: How Do I Use EMPs?
• Warheads: How Do I Use Lightning Warheads?
• Warheads: How Do I Use Armored Warheads?
• Warp Gates: How Does A Warp Gate Work?

AI

• AI Story: How Does The AI Think?
• AI Story: What Does AI Progress Really Represent?
• AI Story: Why Does The AI Progress Go Up When The AI Destroys Key Structures Of Mine?
• AI Tech: At What AI Progress Does The AI Tech Level Increase?
• AI Tech: What Does The Roman Numeral In Parentheses Next To The AI Progress Mean?
• AI Tech: What Bonus Ship Types Does The AI Get?
• AI Ship Behaviors: What Are The General Behaviors That AI Ships Can Have?
• AI Reinforcements: How Do Basic AI Reinforcements Work?
• AI Reinforcements: What Causes An AI Planet To Go On Alert?
• AI Reinforcements: How Does The AI Alert Level Affect Where The AI Reinforces?
• AI Reinforcements: How Do AI Reinforcements Work At An Individual Planet?
• AI Reinforcements: How Do Reinforcements Work After All The Planets "Fill Up?"
• AI Progress: What Happens If The AI Progress Is Lowered After Passing A Tech-Up Threshold?
• AI Progress: When Should I Be Worried About The AI Progress Getting Too High?
• AI Progress: What Causes AI Progress Changes?
• AI Progress: Does The AI Progress Go Up When I Lose A Command Station?
• Cross-Planet Attacks: How Do Cross-Planet Attacks Work?
• Border Aggression: How Does Border Aggression Work?
• AI Minor Factions: What Are Minor Factions?
• AI Design: What Makes The Design Of This AI Unique From An Under-The-Hood Perspective?

Higher Difficulties Only

• How Do I Defend Against The AI Destroying All My Resources?
• Why Are Waves Coming In Without Warning?
• How Do I Keep Astro Trains Off My Planets?
• Why Do The Enemy Waves Get So Large So Fast?

Design Philosophy

• Why The Complex Interrelation Of Ship Damage Mechanisms?
• Why Does The Game Force Variety On The Player?
• Why Doesn't The Game Automate Scouting or Reactor Management?
• Why The Emphasis On Taking Many Planets?
• Why Are Ships Not Upgradeable?
• What Makes The Design Of This AI Unique From An Under-The-Hood Perspective?
• How Does The Game Minimize Micromanagement?
• Why Does The Human Player Always Have The "Tempo?"

Story

• What Is My Overall Mission?
• How Does The AI Think?
• Who Are The Zenith Aliens?

Settings

• What Is TBS-Friendly Pause?
• How Do I Use altplanetnames.txt?
• How Do I Use disabledaitypes.txt?

Release History

Please note that there are generally prerelease beta versions available at any given time of the year, and there have been literally hundreds of those in between all of the official releases noted below.