They Are Billions is a Steampunk strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic world where you have to build colonies and defend them against zombies. The game features an extensive simulation world to build up colonies by building everything from scratch including tents, mills, command center, and more. There are waves of enemies that will attack you and if your colony is not strong enough to withstand the wave it will be destroyed by zombies. In this They Are Billions beginners guide you will learn how to play the They Are Billions and how to build your first colonies, basic They Are Billions controls and tutorials are covered in this article and later once you know the game mechanism you can build up a strong colony to survive every wave.
Table of Contents
How To Play They Are Billions
If you are a new start with Campaign and pick The Hidden Valley from the map. It is a decent area to start with, you have to first choose a Campaign Hero between Caelus and Calliope. Below is the description of each Hero.
Next, you will unlock the Mission Map, where you can see the global vision of the state of your current campaign. You can advance from here after securing one colony you can move further with the second one. Every new mission will have a Difficulty Level between 1 to 5, the first one Hidden Valley will be difficulty 1 mission. So pick and here you will learn all the basic tutorial of They Are Billions.
After clicking on the Hidden Valley you will see the conditions for victory and defeat. To win you have to fulfill three conditions, first Destroy all infected second get 400 colony population and last resist the zombie’s swarm. There are also defeat conditions, focus more on fulfilling the victory part and you will be able to progress to the next level. Every new mission you pick will give you the conditions before you start. Don’t forget to pause the game while construction this will give you some time to think. Sometime it will happen that a swarm of zombies will attack, you can pause and think out a strategy.
Understand The HUD:
After clicking on Start Game, you will see your first command center, the HUD is simple to understand. Everything is placed on the bottom of the screen. On the left side if the Map, next that lies the Clock, and a button to pause the game. The next big window will give you details on your colony, resources, and a menu on the right for construction. You can build tents, mills, energy resources, etc depending on the number of resources you have. The last section on the extreme right will give you your colony stats, the number of workers, wood, gold, food, etc you have right now. Below are some tips you can try out to build a successful colony. The stats section on the bottom right will tell what you are short off, like workers, energy, etc. You have to fill up that meter to the max to make your colony stronger.
Build Houses:
Build tents first, you have to click on the Command Center on the lower bottom and click on the house icon and select Tent. You will see the requirements to build a tent and what it provides. At the beginning, you will have some resources so first build three tents around the command center. This will attract the colonist. They will provide workers and also pay tribute, the more tents you have the more workers and income you can generate. A tent can provide you 2 workers and 8 Gold income.
Explore Nearby Regions:
Try exploring the new region, don’t send your soldier too far, stay around the command center and explore the nearby dark regions. There are few zombies, your soldiers can easily kill them. Don’t send them to attack a pack, the zombies are attracted by the noise and if they spot you they will start attacking in a group. Just slowly explore the region around and if you spot zombies send a single or a group of two to clear them. You have to build a Soldier Center, this will allow you to get stronger soldiers you can send them to distant regions to explore and unlock more land. Check our Building Requirements guide to know about the requirements to build a Soldier Center. In the beginning, only Rangers will be available as you progress you can unlock Sniper and other stronger soldiers.
Arrange Food:
Now it’s time to arrange some food you will need to construct Fisherman and Hunter cottages. From the Command Center click on Resource and select the building. Remember the place of placement for Fisherman and Hunter Cottages matters, Fisherman gets food from rivers and lakes while Hunters arrange food from the forest so place the cottages to increase your chance of getting food easily. In the Hidden Valley region on the left side you see the forest, place the Hunter Cottage to get max food. When you move the structure you will see a green set of a square with a pocket icon with a number on it. Place where you have a max number which indicates the amount of food you can get. The lake is on the backside of the command center where you can place Fishermen Cottages.
Energy Building:
Colony needs power and to generate the energy you will need to construct Mills. To extend the energy range place Tesla Towers. Go to the Command Center and click on Energy Category to see the buildings. You can set up one Mill and add multiple Tesla Towers around the colony to provide enough power to the houses to survive.
Mineral Mining:
Some places near the rocks are minerals like stone, iron, and gold. To extract the minerals you will need to construct Quarry. Place them next to the land of the resources. Quarry extraction radius is 2 cells, you have to place them in a range where you can get max coverage. You can find Quarry in the Resources category of Command Center.
Build Walls:
Build single walls during the start if you don’t see a lot of zombies. It is not necessary to cover everything, best expand your region and add a single wall to block a smaller group of zombies. It will consume lesser resources.
PC Controls:
Go to the setting and set the controls on WASD, that is a lot easier because you cannot rotate the map you can navigate left right up and down.
- Camera Up – W, Up Arrow Key
- Camera Down – S, Down Arrow key
- Camera Left – A, Left Arrow Key
- Camera Right – D, Right Arrow Key
- Camera Zoom in – +, Prior, +
- Camera Zoom Out – -, Pagedown, –
- Command Center – Enter
- Repair All – X
- Show Life Bars – Menu
- Flat Mode – F4
- Select Army – F2
- Show/Hide Interface – Tab
- Energy Supply – E
- Pause – Space
- Game Menu – Escape
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