One might notice turrets do a good job early game, but the stack of cards eventually fails late game because of bombers and artillery. Both units are specialized for taking out static defenses. Additionally turrets can be twice as expensive as the military wielding the same weapon.

This doesn't mean that aggression always wins; rather aggression has it's advantages.

In many cases, players fail to consider the metal investment to build a power generator and the bonus yielded to income. See the Overdrive vs More Metal Extractors Section for a comparison between Overdrive and simply holding more Metal Extractors.

Terraforming should be considered an expensive building project with no direct rewards by itself. The higher volume of terrain to be terraformed, the more expensive it is to complete.

This usually has an effect of overestimating the enemy's defenses, and mispreparing against some general threats.

Friendly fire exists in this game, and units can not shoot through each other with certain weapons. Units generally should be assembled in line formation. Units that can be balled up are Shield bots i.e the shield sharing mechanic or any unit firing with an upward trajectory

Storages become useful if you are getting erratic jolts in metal income, e.g reclaiming wreckages from battles, and want to avoid waste (metal surplus goes to teammates, if there are no teammates, it's wasted). Or if you are sending your commander out of the base to support the front lines.

The economy in Zero-K should be considered a stream of income and expense rather than maximum capacity and hoarding. It's okay for the player to have minimal, or near empty metal in Storage; meanwhile having maximum and surplus power (this goes into overdrive).

This causes stalling on simultaneous productions. The common observation among players is that Caretakers cause the ETA of a build to lower; however it doesn't speed up production beyond the income available.

If you only had to build one giant turret to play a winning strategy, then it wouldn't be much of a strategy game.
Unless the enemy base is scouted and an area is manually targeted, chances are it's not going to hit anything important.

After the early phase, the battle tends to vary widely by specific circumstances, too much so to cover within this guide.

At the start of every battle you have a choice of commanders and the ability to queue up to 30 build commands for that commander.

The best places to spawn in general is an area dense with metal spots. Commanders are slow compared to most other units. To get the best possible start, one would prefer the shortest walking distances.

RECON - One of the most popular picks in competitive play because the jetpack grants extra routes over the other commanders and the ability to escape ambushes.

ENGINEER - Second most popular pick, each level up grants extra buildpower.

STRIKE - Can Dual-Wield Weapons.

GUARDIAN - Sturdier, Slower, and Can Dual-Wield Weapons.

The difference between Commanders is mainly the access to certain weapons. Most other upgrade modules are the same. Commanders are essentially customized units, so the usage of them is not set in stone. Assuming early levels, you generally want Engineer and Recon out of trouble, while Strike or Guardian can stand to be the front line builders.

The first thing to build at the start of the game is a factory. The first factory comes free with the commander (the factory coupon blinking over its head indicates this) and gives the opportunity to build early mobile defenses.

The second thing you want to build is a radar, metal extractors, and power generators- often concurrent with military production. You want to have the radar detect incoming threats and allow your mobile defenses some time to intercept it. Generally your first military unit is a raider or scout (if available) to help scout out the enemy base. Bonus points if your raiders or scouts manages to destroy things along the way. The most important information to obtain early game is which factory your opponent chose as it'll best influence early and midgame fights, and then which Commander is chosen.

The choice of factory primarily depends on the terrain on the map, with playstyle and personal preference as a side consideration.

If you are:

• On a map with a lot of cliffs, rugged terrain, mountains, and hills, you can expect the Spider and Jumpbots to have an advantage on the map, and vehicles (i.e Hovercrafts, Rovers, Tanks) to have limited routes.
  
  
• On a map with vast, flat grounds, you can expect vehicles to have an advantage on the map.
  
  
• On a map with pools of water, you can expect Hovercrafts and Amphibious bots to freely traverse those pools. Meanwhile Cloaked units decloak at said pools.
  
  
• On a map comprised of majority or entirely of water, you can expect Navy, Hovercrafts, or Amphibious bots, while not being able to build anything else.

A few maps will have a mix of characteristics such as Adamsonia, while containing ledges and plateaus, in a way where non-spider units will have to walk around areas, but the ground is flat enough for vehicles to route around faster than a Cloak or Shield bot.

Caption: Spiders can crawl on cliffsides of any steepness, meanwhile vehicles and humanoids have to go around.

There are also maps with the style of water bordering the edges of the map e.g Akilon Wastelands or Ravaged. While possible, it generally isn't worth the effort of building a Navy because of the lack of routes to the points of interest.

All factories have a dedicated anti-air unit, and there is a class of turrets specialized to take down air units. Anti-air units are usually cheaper than air units as well.

This generally relegates Air forces to be supplementary, otherwise as a main strike force will encounter hard counters. Additionally, most airplanes are bombers and must retreat to restock after bombing making them less suitable for defending positions.

This doesn't mean there aren't any exotic strategies to be done with air units as the first factory. For example, an airforce as a first factory can be used for early fast expansion i.e sending out aerial constructors; however, a second factory must be built as soon as possible to make the main military force.

There are 3 choices of power generators in the early game.

Consider the Solar Collector as a "base" power generator:

• Can only be built on land.
  
• Provides stable +2 energy income
  
• Sturdy, will curl up and reduce incoming damage to a quarter when attacked

A Wind Generator is:

• Half of the cost of a Solar Collector
  
• Provides x - 2.5 energy income, depending on the elevation it was built on, and how much the wind is blowing at the current moment.
  
• Fragile, can topple like dominoes if put in a closely spaced line.

A Tidal Generator is essentially the same thing as a Wind Generator that is built in water, but it provides stable 1.2 energy income.

0 - 2.5 energy income is the worst case on a map, however the average power generated is 1.25; slightly more at half the cost, this isn't a bad deal. But having your base's power infrastructure heavily dependent on wind means reduced power output and stalled production once the wind stops blowing as much. Maps that represent high elevation have more generous ranges such as 0.8 - 2.5.

You'll very often find that players use chains of Wind Generators to establish a cheap early Overdive grid.

Each factory is organized in rows and columns with each unit assigned to a keybind. The first row is typically standard while the second row tends to have specialties and variants. Some factories lack certain types of units or have units that are a mix of characteristics.




Raider < Riot < Light Turrets < Skirmisher < Raider

Raider < Light Turrets < Skirmisher < Stinger (Turret) < Artillery (unsupported) < Raider

Turrets < Assaults < Skirmishers

In the early game, you'll often see Scouts and Raiders making their way across the map for reconnaissance. You don't see Skirmishers as reconnaissance often because they're slower, more expensive, and the mechanics of their weapons have them losing 1v1 against a Raider or Scout.

The common appearance of later entries of the list marks the progression to mid or later game. A decent way of building an army is to have one type of unit cover for the weaknesses of another. For example, a Riot + Skirmisher group will have the offensive capability of a Skirmisher, meanwhile their vulnerability to Raiders is taken care of by riots. Units such as Assault or Artillery should almost always be supported by other units. Otherwise, its a potential waste for a expensive unit to get destroyed by swarms of a cheap units.

Units can retreat automatically as opposed to being manually saved by micromanagement. If the unit was in a control group, it is automatically excluded until it has recuperated.

This functionality doesn't have a keybind by default. On the very top left bar, click the wrench icon to set a retreat zone. While you have units selected, click the matching wrench icon, near the rest of the unit settings, to enable retreating behavior.

After battle, it's in the players' best interests to reclaim wreckages for metal for both added income and denying it to the opposite side. Reclaiming can be done by any Constructor unit and the Caretaker.

To reclaim, press E and click on a wreckage. To reclaim an area of wreckages, click and drag to expand or shink the circle representing the area reclaiming is to be done.

Caption: 700 metal goes a long way.

An alternative to reclaiming is reviving. A wreckage must have more than 50% of its original metal for the resurrection process to start, 50% or below it's gone for good. For example, a wreckage degrades to having 50% of it's original metal if it is stepped on by a big unit, or caught in explosions and other sources of damage.


Only the Athena or a Commander equipped with the Lazarus Device can revive. Resurrect is bound to T and can be applied in an area.

Overdrive is the mechanism where metal extractors output more metal. In many contexts it is far more economical to claim another metal spot than it is to boost extras per metal spot.

To illustrate, assume you are at base with three metal spots, each granting +1.84 metal income. Meanwhile the area outside spawn has two extra spots that will grant the same income. For simplicity, the power grid connections are not considered.

This is with in-game tested values, as the equation from the Wiki doesn't match current in-game values.
Note: Commanders spawn with a Vanguard Economy Pack which grants +4 Metal and +6 Energy, hence the values being higher than they would be by that amount.

Base only:

• With no Overdrive, income is 5.52.
  
• With Overdrive, and 8 Solar Collectors (16 Energy), your Overdrive bonus is +3.2, for a total of 8.74 incoming metal.

Caption: 3 Metal Extractors - Economy Pane: Energy.

Expanded:

• With no Overdrive, income is 9.2.
  
• With Overdrive, and 8 Solar Collectors, your Overdrive bonus is +4.1, for a total of 13.3 incoming metal.

Caption: 5 Metal Extractors - Economy Pane: Energy


Caption: 5 Metal Extractors - Economy Pane: Metal

Each Solar Collector is +2 energy income and costs 70 metal to build; thus being at base only and Overdriving costs 560 metal for the power generators plus 225 to build the 3 metal extractors. Thus, 8.74 metal income at the cost of 785 metal.

Expanding to grab 2 more metal spots, but not investing yet into Overdrive costs 375 for the 5 metal extractors. Thus, 9.2 metal income at the cost of 375 metal.

Partial listing.

Spawning Position
If you scouted, you'll often find the AI team has packed themselves together near one set of metal spots. This sometimes does not work out well for them.
https://cs2bus.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1410786368

Lotus and Pickets on Outposts
The AI prefers to build a scattered group of Lotus and Pickets as opposed to a single 'big' turret like the Stinger. This is probably so defense is comprised of multiple targets as opposed to a single one that can focused on.

Nanoframe Reclaim
If you are building near some enemy Constructors, the AI will send them in to "reclaim" it, both stealing your metal and stalling construction.

Infrastructure Raids by Scythe[zero-k.info]
The AI uses the unit as it's meant to be used. The Scythe is a cloaked unit and is often used to sneak behind front lines and take out Metal Extractors, Solar Collectors, or Energy Pylons.

Commander Assassinations by Revenants[zero-k.info]
The AI will eventually build air units almost regardless of difficulty. They often will bring one or two Revenants to sneak past the front line if there aren't any anti-air defenses, and try to kill your Commander. The higher the difficulty, the more may be sent to make sure your Commander dies.

Commander Assassinations by Widows[zero-k.info]
If the AI has built a Spider Factory, it will send out Widows (Cloaked Scout & Anti-Heavy) to stun your Commander, then send in a few units to land the killing blows. The Widow's stun lasts for 30 seconds.

Crab [zero-k.info]Parking on a Cliff
For example, if you play as vehicles on a map with both flat ground and cliffs/mountains, you can be sure the AI will park a Crab on the mountain ranges and attack from there.

A Strider and a pack of Constructors as Healers
The AI will pull back an injured Strider and send Constructors to repair it. After it's healed enough, it sometimes re-engages with an entourage repairing incoming damage.

Ultimatum[zero-k.info] and a Scorpion[zero-k.info]
The AI may partner two cloaked Striders, an Ultimatum and a Scorpion, for the Scorpion AoE stun and Ultimatum Disintegrator Gun (1-hit kill) combo.

There's more scattered around the wiki and YouTube videos.

When units are selected


When units are selected and the Guard Command has been chosen

Applicable to both combat and building.

When a building has been selected and a transparent image is attached to the cursor as a preview.

• Zero-K Manual and Wiki, https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Manual
  
  
• Zero-K Circle Guard Tutorial (YouTube), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Nl5bRJNyc