Early game tips in Age of Darkness: Final Stand

Age of Darkness: Final Stand has a steep learning curve—especially in the early game when you are learning and have fewer resources at your disposal. Death can come for you quickly, and it is easy to become overwhelmed and give up. Below you can find some tips that help you through your first night and those that follow.

Related: Should I buy Age of Darkness: Final Stand – Age of Darkness: Final Stand Review

Pause

Pause the game and take a breather as Age of Darkness: Final Stand can quickly become overwhelming. This allows you to scan the map, queue up buildings, troops, and upgrades. There is no punishment for using this system to collect your thoughts and plan, so use it often.

Scout

The day is not just for building. You should actively be sending your army out and exploring. This could lead to encountering groups of enemies for experience, finding much-needed resources, and great places for defense. During the day, nightmares move slowly, so a couple of archers and can take out more enemies if you kite them.

Manage Resources

This is one area that requires the most management. You need to monitor your production and output of gold, wood, stone, iron, population, and food. Each of these resources is vital to surviving, especially in the early game when you have a cap to how much your can store. Upgrade your keep or build storage buildings to increase this cap and constantly increase your production.

Build Your Army

It may be easy to kill nightmares during the day with small groups of soldiers and you champion, but the night will come, and you will realize that you aren't prepared. Having more soldiers means you can kill more nightmares but remember you will always be outnumbered. Your soldiers can die incredibly quickly, and the last thing you want is to have unchecked nightmares invading your city.

Prepare for Death Nights

You will inevitably die to one of these, whether it is your first, second, or way down the line. Death Nights see massive swarms of hundreds and thousands of nightmares trying to eat your soft human flesh. It is easy to think the game is simple until your first death night so ensure that you have proper defenses and troops to fend off these swarms. Doing so will grant you a blessing that will be crucial for your survival.

Level Up Your Champion

Your champion is your greatest weapon against nightmares and the dark. They have three abilities—a passive and two actives. These unlock as your champion gains experience and levels. These abilities can be the difference between life or death when you are facing massive swarms of enemies.

Learn the ins and outs of these abilities as you will need to use them in key moments if you want to survive. Champions are on par with an entire squad of troops, so they should be your spearhead against the dark.

Utilize Space Effectively

One of your greatest weapons is the terrain and building layout. You should be capitalizing on choke points and building layered defenses. Having multiple layers means that swarms have to work through several defenses, and each one allows you to kill many nightmares. Chokepoints reduce the effectiveness of their numbers.

When building the layout of your town, leave lanes between your buildings not only so you can move between quickly but also to slow down swarms from reaching your keep. If that fails, you will lose.

For more information on Age of Darkness: Final Stand, check out What are the Horrorified and Embolden effects in Age of Darkness: Final Stand? and What difficulty should I play on in Age of Darkness: Final Stand? on Pro Game Guides.