G'day FORTS fans!

If you are reading this we presume that you are wanting to improve your skills within the multiplayer experience. Maybe you've just finished the campaign and want to give multiplayer a shot, or generally play with gameplay changing mods on. Or, maybe you play vanilla forts but aren't very good at it. Well then, This is the guide for you! We, the contributors for this guide are all skilled forts players who have been playing the game for an extensive period of time. We hope you find this guide helpful to your general multiplayer forts experience.

This guide will follow a star system. The number of stars depicts how advanced a tip or trick is:

0 stars: Basic info everyone should know
1 star: Info advanced players should know
2 stars: Info pro players should know
3 stars: Info only madlads know

Starred information will be blocked behind a spoiler. Hover your mouse over it to read the text (actual spoilers will be marked {spoiler} before the spoiler).

For example: * Forts is the best game in the universe!

About the Author(s)

ma1kawa11

Hello, my name is ma1kawa11 (but most people call me M). I am the main contributor, author, and editor of this guide. I have been playing forts since the game came out, and currently have over 450 hours of experience at the time of writing. Most of those hours have gone to vanilla forts in 2v2-4v4 matches, however I've also had experience in mapmaking, and a little bit of modding.

42 Scientist

Greetings, I'm 42 scientist but you can call me 42. I am one of the side contributors of this guide. I have been playing forts since it came out, but mostly after Tons of Guns, with now more than 1500 hours played (and it's not going to stop anytime soon). Winner of a 2v2 tournament with Sgitkene (back when I was called Inixix_), I organized all the recent official tournaments as well as other smaller tournaments. I'm no modder nor mapper, but I have been optimizing all strats since Tons of Guns came out, with the help of others player to create those strats. I'm also studying in high-tier math, and play the piano when I get the time.

Cronkhinator

Hey, I'm Cronkhinator but feel free to call me Cronk! I am another one of the side contributors of this guide. I've been playing Forts since May 2018 and been enjoying it ever since. I have also taken part in multiple tournaments and won three official ones (XV, XIX, XX). I organized the first ever Map Making Tournament, won the second and organized all AI Tournaments. I'm currently studying Data Science and AI (1st term). In my free-time I'm either gaming or playing the piano.

What is Vanilla Forts?

Multiplayer Vanilla Forts is defined as a forts multiplayer lobby in which no gameplay changing modifications (mods) are added. A gameplay changing modification is a modification that changes the existing gameplay of multiplayer forts (such as weapons, devices, and material additions/changes, or conceptual changes). Or, it is a map that does not have balanced teams nor starts out with basic forts.

Some Examples of gameplay changing mods are:

• Tanya's Mod (Adds additional weapons and changes the balancing of pre-existing weapons and commanders
  
• Indefinitely Upgradeable ... (Changes the function of existing devices, weapons, and materials)
  
• Mine x10 ... (Changes the function of existing devices)
  
• Large Sandbags (adds additional devices)
  
• Battle of Jakku (A map which does not start off with equal or basic forts)
  
• Truce 6 minutes (A developer made mod that prevents the firing of weapons for 6 minutes)
  
• Fast Build (A developer made mod that creates near instant build times for all weapons/devices/materials)

Keep in mind that not all mods are gameplay changing mods. A mod is not gameplay changing if it is created by the developers of forts, changes a part of forts that is not gameplay related (such as the music or the map theme), or is a workshop map that starts out with balanced teams and equal, basic forts.

Some examples of non gameplay changing mods are:

• Tons of Guns (A free update to multiplayer created by the forts developers)
  
• Moonshot DLC (A DLC that adds new weapons and map themes to multiplayer)
  
• Repair Station (A device added as a part of tons of guns)
  
• Portals (A material type added as a part of the Moonshot DLC)
  
• Any music mod.
  
• Any mod that changes terrain themes.
  
• Boxed In (a map created by the developers which has balanced teams and equal forts)
  
• Improved Vanilla 4v4 (a map created by the user m4r0x which removes the wind ceiling of vanilla 4v4)
  
• Permafrost 4v4 (a map created by the user EndoRPY which has balanced teams and equal forts)

A lobby is not vanilla if it contains any game changing mods such as, but not limited to, the examples provided for gameplay changing mods above. A lobby is vanilla if it has non-gameplay changing mods such as, but not limited to, the examples given for non gameplay changing mods above. A lobby is vanilla if it contains no mods whatsoever.

"The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected."
-Sun Tzu

If you are new to the game you probably have some bad habits formed. Before we teach you how to play the right way, it is important to first break these bad habits. Otherwise it will be harder to learn the material presented later in this guide. For that reason we discussed some "Golden Rules" that you should follow in order to become a pro. These Golden Rules arose from common mistakes we've seen new players do in vanilla games.


The Golden Rules:

• #1 Try to avoid creating new foundations!
  The term "New foundations", is where one connects a strut to the ground when there isn't already a current strut (node) in place. By doing this, not only is a cost charged for the strut, but also an additional cost for the new foundation. Resources that could have gone towards more mines and turbines are lost, which ultimately delays the time when weapons can be built and fired.
  
  
• #2 Do not largely expand the Fort before building extra resource income!
  This is the most common mistake new players do. Before placing mines or turbines or tech, many new players largely expand their Fort which costs a lot of resources. This rule is connected to rule #1 for similar reasons.
  
  
• #3 Do not create huge boxes unless necessary!
  When expanding the Fort, the standard size is a 2x2 box. A 2-wide and 2-high box has enough space to support most devices and weapons, and are also more stable and more compact.
  Try to avoid building boxes that are 3 wide or 3 high, because they are unstable and occupy lots of space.
  
  *some weapons require at least 2.5 high boxes to be covered completely: cannons, emps/rockets, howitzers, magnabeams
  
  
• #4 Crossbrace the first few layers of the base!
  
  This is a safety measure so that a Fort won't collapse as easily. When crossbracing ( |X| ), add more stability to the Fort and also a little more protection from that extra strut.
  
  
• #5 Don't shoot the damned machine gunner!
  
  Instead of wasting your resources on shooting the pre-built machine gunner (that won't do any damage anyway), sell it to get additional resources. Shooting the machine gun will also signal to opponent that you are new to the game.
  
  
• #6 Double-door important weapons!
  
  This is something that will be discussed in more detail later in this guide.
  Since one door is not enough to secure an important weapon from late-game weapons, one should always put at least two doors on their most important weapons. The opponent will still able to hit a weapon through a single door using an AP-Sniper.
  
  
• #7 Hide doors!
  
  When one doesn't hide doors properly, the opponent will be able to see the exact position of a fort's weapons and target them. Additionally, they will be able to see whenever you open these doors and then effectively "door-snipe" the exposed weapons.
  In order to hide a door, just put some background bracing in front of it. The simplest way of doing this is shown in this picture:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Before we get into any in-depth material, it is imperative to set up some abbreviations and definitions for the names pros give to things, because it's either more efficient or because it sounds cooler.

"Victory usually goes to the army who has better trained officers and men."
-Sun Tzu


Now, before we get to the fancy stuff like core swinging and T3's, there needs to be a concrete understanding of the foundations of the forts experience. The main things covered in this section are an in-depth analysis on the function of:

• The Lobby
  
• Keyboard Shortcuts
  
• Materials
  
• Devices
  
• Technology
  
• Weapons
  
• The objective of a match
  
• Basic Match Structure Theory.

The source used for the statistics in the sections on Materials, Devices, Technology, Weapons, and Commanders (analyzed later in another section), is credit of 42 Scientist and can be viewed in full here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15JAVHcctK1rDe5MBDXIMMVNCrgaK4O4WyGzMf4ogw_w/edit#gid=0

Note that this document is updated constantly with each forts update.

This section gives an list of the different functions within the lobby menu.
















Key:

1. Player Name (The host will see a button that looks like an x on other player. Press this to kick them)
   
2. Rank: Shows the current Rank of a player in 1v1 if applicable
   
3. Team: Shows whether the player is on team 1, team 2, or an observer.
   
4. Wins: Shows the number of wins a player currently has in this lobby.
   
5. State: Shows whether the player is chatting, in game, or replaying.
   
6. Ready: Shows whether the player is ready.
   
7. Ping: Shows the player's ping.
   
8. Kick Player Option: Kicks Player (Only visible by the host).
   
9. Show Cursors: Allows teamates to show each other's cursors. Is known to cause lag.
   
10. Lock Teams: Prevents players from switching teams.
    
11. Force Start: Force starts the match and switches unready players to an observer state.
    
12. Chat: Shows the in game chat.
    
13. Mods: Shows a list of mods and a buttons to add or remove mods. (If a mod download is required a red download arrow shows up to the next of this button)
    
14. Map: Brings up a list of map options to select from (If a map download is required a red download arrow shows up to the next of this button)
    
15. Team AI: Enables/Disables auto AA fire.
    
16. AI: Changes difficulty of AI.
    
17. Commander: When selected allows players to choose which commander they would like to use.
    
18. Map Name: Shows selected map name.
    
19. Mode: Changes Mode between Team Death Match and Coop.
    
20. Exit Button: Exits Lobby. If the host exists the lobby it is deleted.
    
21. Invite Button: Allows a player to invite steam friends to the lobby.
    
22. Start Button/Ready Button: For a host it starts the match, and for any other player it is a ready selection button.

In forts Under Options > Input it is possible to view and edit all keybinds within the game. However, only the keybinds which are relevant to vanilla multiplayer gameplay will be discussed in this guide. The common keybinds for a QWERTY keyboard are:


Most of these keybinds are sufficient to use, however there are a couple that could be changed. To change a keybind click on the text for the action or key and type in a new key. A prompt will come up if that keybind is already in use, and then then that key can be rebound afterwards. This is mostly subjective and based on an individuals keyboard layout.

Recommended changes to keybinds are:


The reason behind this particular change is to prevent one's left or right hand from having to leave its original position on the mouse or wasd keys in order to delete a strut. Note that since Q is already in use it will have to be rebound.

Other optional changes to Keybinds:

In vanilla forts (including Moonshot DLC) there are seven different material types:

• Bracing
  
  
• Background Bracing
  
  
• Armour
  
  
• Doors
  
  
• Ropes
  
  
• Shields
  
  
• Portals

Bracing:

This is the standard building material. It is essential to expand a Fort and is used to support Weapons and Devices. One can also use this material in high amounts within small spaces to have a cost-effective means of protection. This strategy is called woodspam and is used commonly in pro-player matches.

* There are different types of woodspam. It is possible to either make lots of small cubes or bigger boxes. The small boxes help counter lasers or cannons while the bigger cubes are effective against AoE weapons such as warheads and rockets. There are countless types of woodspam out there. Feel free to customize it as you wish.

Background Bracing:

This material is also essential for fort expansion. When a weapon or a device is placed on background bracing, it turns into normal bracing. Background bracing can be used to cover up wind turbines, since it lets air pass through. In addition, most incoming projectiles will also pass through background bracing without destroying it. Exceptions are: the plasma laser, the buzzsaw, and the howitzer. Other projectiles, such as the incendiary mortar, can light background bracing on fire while passing through it.

* Use background bracing as a protection against buzzsaws or Howitzers. Put some big boxes of background bracing in the front of a fort to have buzzsaws and howitzers collide with those instead of important parts of the fort.

Armour:

Armour is a tough and expensive material used to protect a fort from incoming fire.
Use it to protect the core or other sensitive parts of a fort. However, don't spam it all over since it is expensive. Armour can also be used to stabilize a fort and prevent it from collapsing if it is too heavy.

Doors:

Unlike simple background bracing, doors can be opened and closed. When closed, they are as strong as armour, but when opened they let projectiles and wind pass through. Use doors to protect weapons, and make sure to double-door important weapons since one door often isn't enough to stop heavy projectiles.

*** Doors can be used to protect turbines from missiles, simply close the door if there are incoming missiles.

Ropes:

Use ropes to stabilize a fort by pulling it towards the ground in the place with which it is attached. A secondary usage is to support hanging extruding material, or to build out towards another buildable terrain. Ropes can also be used to swing a core or explosive device on teammates (keep in mind you might be kicked from the lobby) or an enemy. Ropes can light on fire and burn up. They also let most projectiles pass through: exceptions being the buzzsaw, the howitzer, and the plasma laser.

Use ropes when a fort is really heavy on one side. Just attach a rope on the other side and make it equal.

* Instead of using ropes to stabilize a fort, it is possible to put a counterweight built with bracing on the back of the fort (if it is leaning forward), simply build bracing on the top of the back of the fort, to counter the leaning.
** Using ropes, it is possible to move a core. This requires good practice and also means the core is no longer connected to the fort for a few moments, meaning it won't build/produce resources.
** Before portals were introduced, ropes were used to make cannons shoot upwards, leading to what is called a Tier 3 mortar (or T3). It takes some practice to achieve.

Shields:

The main purpose of shields is to reflect incoming laser fire. When any laser hits an energy shield, it gets reflected back at the same angle that it was hit by. Shields also reflect Sniper, Machinegun/Minigun, Shotgun, Flak and 20mm projectiles.
Energy Shields have enough HP to stop a cannon shot, however they get destroyed upon collision. When hit by an EMP, Energy Shields are disabled for a few seconds. Shields are one of the few materials that drain energy while activated. Depending on their length, shields lower a fort's energy production rate and will disable themselves if energy stock reaches 0.

When disabled, shields let every projectile pass through.
Use shields to protect wind turbines (they let air through) and other important parts of a Fort.

** They can be better doors for weapons:
Keep them activated until you want to shoot and then deactivate them. When done shooting, double click on the shield to reactivate it. If the Moonshot DLC is used, the commander Moonshine allows shields to open and close like doors.

Portals:

Portals are added by the Moonshot DLC. They transport projectiles between one another instantly.

They work in pairs: when two portals are linked (left click one and drag the cursor to another) there will be colors displayed on each side of the portals in the linked pair.

If a projectile touches the blue side of the 1st portal, it will be teleported to the blue side of the other portal with the same speed. However the angle varies depending on how the portals are angled between each other.

They can also be used alone: activate a portal using the context menu and both sides will turn orange, meaning projectiles will pass through as if nothing was in their path.

There are 3 buttons in the context menu:

• 1 Arrow going through a line: allows projectiles to pass through, just like BG.
  
• 2 Arrows: changes the orientation of the portal (changes colors)
  
• Cross: deactivates the portal.

Portals can be hit by swarm missiles and EMPs - the latter also deactivating the portals for a few seconds, like shields. Friendly swarms/EMPs don't destroy friendly portals.

Their main use is to teleport the projectiles of one's own weapons, meaning one can put a weapon inside a fort and place portals to give it a line of sight. Keep in mind that portals go both ways.

* Return to senders (R2S) are pairs of portals that are usually put on a front wall of a fort, linked for the purpose of returning enemy projectiles to the sender. They are effective if the wall covers most of the fort.

** Accelerators are a portal shenanigan that is used to store friendly projectiles, focus them in a single point and accelerate them through the use of gravity. It consists in an infinite portal loop, with the top portals being shorter than the bottom ones. This is because portals teleport according to relative positions (if a projectile hits the middle of a portal, it will come out from the middle of the other portal). Once the projectiles are fast enough, you use a final pair of portals to shoot all the projectiles at once. Usually this is done with 20mm cannons, as they deal huge amounts of damage when they all hit the same spot. An example of accelerator can be found in this video: https://youtu.be/m8aV8HyUELY
*** Concentratinators are another portal shenanigan that only works with beam-type weapons. It focuses up to 3 of them into a single beam, using relative positions of portals. This time, portals need to be parallel and connected as follows. An example of concentratinator can be found in this video: https://youtu.be/-WSQYJKdWMw

In Vanilla Forts there are eight different devices (including the repair station and upgraded devices):

• Mine
  
• Upgraded Mine
  
• Turbine
  
• Upgraded Turbine
  
• Metal Store
  
• Battery
  
• Sandbags
  
• Repair Station

Mine:












The basic metal production device: they can be placed where ore deposits can be seen, or in the ground. Most vanilla maps start with two mines and have a five mine cap. It is heavily advised to build a third one in the first ten seconds of any match, ensuring a good starting economy.

Mines are very vulnerable to any weapon, since repairing them is extremely expensive (and they stop working while repairing).

Mines also use energy to work, so having a lot of mines can decrease energy production by a bit.
Mines can be upgraded using an upgrade center.

** On vanilla, you can sell the bottom most metal piece to place a 6th mine. However, it means your mines and your fort are extremely vulnerable.

Upgraded Mine:












The Upgraded form of the Mine, this device produces more metal than its counterpart at a doubled energy upkeep. Upgrading mines is not advised if one doesn't already have the maximum number of mines possible, since it takes longer for the upgraded mine to pay for itself. Going for upgraded mines is generally done when all mines are built: either in the mid-game if going for heavy eco or in the late-game to be able to repair/step up.

Turbine:











The basic energy production device. Turbines need to be placed high to get more wind (depending on the map), as they have an efficiency based off of their height and the amount of obstructing structures nearby. One generally wants to place high efficiency turbines, since they produce more energy. Most maps don't have starting turbines, but it's advised to build one within the first ten seconds of any match to have a good starting economy. Turbines have a decent amount of HP, so they're not too vulnerable to MGs. However, they are vulnerable to miniguns and other weapons.
To defend turbines, either place down a shield or sandbags. Turbines can be upgraded using an upgrade center into Upgraded Turbines.

* Using sandbags is a cheap way to defend turbines. By splitting the height of usual BG bracing in half, two sandbags can be put on top of each other, which should defend any early weapon.
*** It is possible to T3 turbines. This is stupid, time-consuming, and not that useful, so just don't.











Upgraded Turbine:















The upgraded form of the Turbine, this device produces more energy than its counterpart. Like mines, build more turbines rather than upgrading existing ones if there is room for it. Only go for upgraded turbines if there isn't any more room to build new turbines and energy is still needed. This usually tends to happen if more weapons are needed to fire.

Metal Store:







Metal Stores are used to increase the maximum amount of metal that can possessed at once. Each one increases metal capacity by 300. Most maps start with a metal store, but another is needed in order to place a plasma laser or a howitzer.

Battery:











Batteries are the energy equivalent of metal stores. They increase maximum energy capacity by 2000 each. Most maps start with an energy store, but another is needed in order to place a plasma laser, and a total of three to place a howitzer.
Batteries blow up when destroyed, and can trigger a chain reaction. Avoid chaining batteries and, most importantly, avoid placing batteries near your core.

Sandbags:






Sandbags are a very cheap defense against most weapons, but are not very effective against rockets, warheads or miniguns. They don't cost any metal to build, but they do take up room and add some weight to your fort.

Sandbags block firebeams completely, which is one of their main uses, besides being a cheap defense when one doesn't have the metal to place armor.

* Using sandbags to protect turbines is very effective, as mentioned earlier.

** One can spam sandbags when the opponent has firebeams, since it will become very hard to get a shot through many sandbags. The issue with this is that fort deformation can prevent one from rebuilding sandbags properly.

Repair Station:











Repair Stations repair any damaged structures/buildings and automatically puts out fire in their radius at an increased speed. The price to repair will still be the same, just the resources will simply be used up faster. It also has an energy upkeep, and it will drain energy even when not repairing anything. Repair Stations also dissipate smoke, with a bigger radius than what is shown, meaning they are an efficient counter against smoke bombs.

* Since they put out fires relatively fast, they are a good counter against firebeams and other fire sources like firebird's active abbility.

In Vanilla Forts there are five different tech buildings:

• Workshop
  
• Armoury
  
• Upgrade Centre
  
• Munitions Plant
  
• Factory

Workshop:

• The Workshop is required to unlock mortars, missiles and buzzsaws.
  
• When built, it also grants access to the Munitions Plant and the Factory.

Armoury:

• When done constructing, the Armoury allows the player to build EMP Rockets, Flak, and Smoke Bombs.
  
• Upon construction, it also grants access to the Munitions Plant and the Factory.

Upgrade Centre:








Unlike other tech buildings, the Upgrade Center does not unlock specific new weaponry, but allows the player to upgrade their unlocked weaponry and devices.

• By upgrading a device, its production rate gets boosted.
  
• By upgrading a weapon, its behavior changes, not just the damage output.
  
• Heavy weapons, already upgraded weapons and moonshot weapons cannot be upgraded.

.
Munitions Plant:

• The Munitions Plant, when built, grants access to the Cannon, the 20mm Cannon and the Howitzer.

Factory:

• Upon construction, the Factory allows the player to build Plasma Lasers, Firebeams and Magnabeams.

In total, there are 20 unique weapons available:

• Machine Gun
  
• Minigun
  
• Sniper
  
• AP Sniper
  
• Incendiary Mortar
  
• Heavy Mortar
  
• Buzzsaw
  
• Swarm Missiles
  
• Warhead
  
• Smoke Bomb
  
• Flak
  
• Shotgun
  
• EMP
  
• Rockets
  
• 20mm Cannon
  
• Cannon
  
• Howitzer
  
• Firebeam
  
• Magnabeam
  
• Plasma Laser

Machine Gun:








The Machine Gun is the player's friend when it comes to shooting down incoming flying enemy projectiles such as Rockets, Swarms and Warheads. It's one of the few weapons that have an automatic AA (Anti air) system: it will target and shoot incoming projectiles automatically (although the precision is not that great and one should consider aiming manually).

Machine Guns are available at the start of the match and are pretty cheap to build. It is not recommended to put doors on Machine Gunners, as they take a long time to open and thus drastically reduce reaction time to shoot down incoming fire. The best way to use them as anti air is to put a few in the front of your fort. They can be sniped pretty easily, so keep up with rebuilding them.

The Machine Gun can be upgraded to a minigun if the Upgrade Center has been built.

* Machine Guns are a good way to get map control or keep it, by firing at the opponent's MGs or sniper.
** Use MGs to charge up the active ability by shooting constantly at the opponent. It's very slow though.

Minigun:








(requires upgrade center)
The upgraded version of the Machine Gun, the Minigun, has a lower projectile spread and therefore higher precision. Projectiles also fly with a higher speed and deal more damage.
Unlike the Machine Gun, the Minigun does not have an automatic AA system.

* However, it can be used manually to shoot down Rockets, Swarms etc.

Sniper:






The Sniper, also known as Snipey or Incursus' best friend is a great suppression weapon. It is mostly used to attack exposed weaponry, most often being enemy AA.

Just like the Machine Gun, the Sniper is available at the start of the match and is fairly cheap to build.

The Sniper has the unique ability to paint laser-targets for Swarms and Warheads in order to shoot them.

It can be upgraded to an AP Sniper using the Upgrade Center.

* Door-Sniping:
Wait for the enemy to open a door to shoot their weapon and then use the precision of the sniper to destroy said weapon. This requires a fair amount of skill and a decent APM.
Door-Sniping is often used to destroy enemy AA that is protected by a door such as Flak. Bait Flak to open the door by shooting a mortar or similar and then snipe it while the door is open.
** Using 2 snipers is an effective way to destroy more easily the opponent's weapons, either being AA or by door-sniping.
** In singleplayer matches, having an exposed sniper increases the size of the aiming arc for most of your weapons. Putting it higher also increases this effect.

AP Sniper:






(requires upgrade center)
The AP Sniper, formally Armor-Piercing Sniper, has the ability to penetrate through one piece of metal or bracing and damage what is behind it. This is really useful for destroying enemy weaponry that is protected by just one door, which is also one reason to always double-door. One thing to note is that it has increased deviation compared to the standard sniper.

** Using multiple AP-snipers can destroy metal if fired constantly at the same spot.

Incendiary Mortar:






In order to build an Incendiary Mortar, the Workshop is required.
The Incendiary Mortar can be shot upwards to hit enemy bases from above, unlike most vanilla weapons. Like the name says, the Incendiary Mortar deals little damage, but lights the place it hits on fire.
It can be upgraded to a Heavy Mortar if an Upgrade Center is present.

* Mortar Protection:
Since mortars shoot upwards, you can simply put a small strut of wood bracing in front of it to protect it from an enemy Sniper.







































** One can shoot mortars to distract the opponent's AA, either to doorsnipe it or to make some heavier air projectiles go through.
** By staggering the fire of many mortars, it is possible to overheat the opponent's MGs, letting air projectiles to get through for a few seconds.

Heavy Mortar:






(Requires upgrade center)
The upgraded version of the Incendiary Mortar: the Heavy Mortar works like the Incendiary Mortar. However, it deals a high amount of damage and does not light the enemy Fort on fire.
It's a powerful early game weapon, capable of ending a match quickly.

Buzzsaw:







The Buzzsaw is a weapon addition from the Moonshot DLC which requires the workshop. Its main purpose is to penetrate large amounts of bracing/background bracing. Use this to topple vulnerable parts of a fort. Buzzsaws do not damage armor or sandbags significantly and are deflected by shields. Some 1v1 vanilla maps don't have metal covering all load bearing struts which allows them to be one-shot by the Buzzsaw. Make sure to protect a fort like that early in game with sandbags, and if it is noticed that the opposing fort does not protect those spots, feel free to attempt the one-shot. Buzzsaws can only be fired three times before they explode.

* Use them on Capture mode matches to disconnect opponents from derricks.

Swarm Missiles:








Swarm Missiles are a silo placed in the ground in place of a mine, and require a sniper in order to be fired. In order to build a swarm missile silo the workshop is required. Swarms fire a group of missiles which launch over a base and proceed to fly directly to the point 'painted' by the sniper, exploding on impact. Although the damage they do is relatively small by itself, it is more effective in groups of two or three. Swarm Missiles can be shot down with AA such as a MGs or flak, as well as manually controlled miniguns/shotguns.

* Swarms are good at taking out turbines.
* Use Swarm Missiles to protect warheads from enemy AA to increase the likelihood of it reaching the enemy base. Place the swarm missiles closer to the core than the warhead to ensure they are launched in front of the warhead.
** Swarms are one of the only two weapons that can disable portals. If the enemy is using return to sender, swarms are probably the most effective means of destroying them.
*** With enough swarms, it it possible to topple a fort if fired early enough.

Warhead:








(requires upgrade center)
The Warhead, also known as a nuke, is the upgraded form of a Swarm Missile. It fires a single nuke which does significant damage and splash damage where it hits. Nukes are also able to be destroyed by AA, but have two health points. If they are damaged, they will have bigger deviation, and are thus called "drunk nukes".

* Protect a warhead with a missile silo placed in front of it, increases likely-hood of the warhead passing enemy AA.
** Placing two warheads down can deal critical damage to an enemy fort if both hit, however they are much more vulnerable to AA.
** Delaying the second warhead firing increases the likely-hood of one hitting, and decreases the likely-hood of dying to the plasma counter.

Smoke Bomb:









Smoke Bombs are a Moonshot DLC weapon placed with the Armoury. It shoots three projectiles that form puffs of smoke where they detonate. This smoke prevents the opponent from building, repairing, extinguishing fire, and blocks the line of sight of all AA-type weapons. If swarms or warheads pass through smoke, their targeting system is jammed. The same thing happens if a sniper paints a target on smoke. Smoke also blocks firebeams, and greatly decreases the damage done by a plasma laser. It can be dissipated by fire-related projectiles: rockets, firebeams, and repair stations. If the Smoke Bomb is destroyed, a puff of smoke will be spawned at its position, and a fire will start, meaning the fire will spread a bit before the player can put it out.

** Paired with rockets or other high damage projectiles, smoke is really strong since it prevents the opponent from rebuilding structure and prevents AA from working properly.

Flak:








Flak is a form of AA which requires the armoury. It is extremely effective against projectiles that are destroyed by AA. However, due to the fact that it fires all of its shots at once, it is easily baited. Flak costs much more than machine guns to build so it is recommended to always have at least one door in front of it to increase its lifespan. Flak can also be used offensively to cause mild harassment to enemy forts.

One can adjust the moment the flak projectile detonates by using the aiming mechanism. The closer the flak is aimed, the sooner it will detonate (the position is depicted by an arc)

* Manually firing flak is the best way to have good AA.
** Manually firing flak using the detonation system where the projectiles are is even better, but harder to perform.
**Flak can be used to offensively to destroy enemy AA, and even devices, to a degree. However it was recently nerfed in this area and is not nearly as good at it as it used to be.

Shotgun:








(requires upgrade center)
The Shotgun is the upgrade form of Flak. It fires a spread of bullets which gradually spread outwards. Shotguns are highly effective for destroying enemy AA and devices. It also does damage to non-slanted armor and doors, which makes it a good tool for diverting the enemy's attention and using up their economy.

* Shotguns work best in groups of two or three.
** A little known fact is that aiming Shotguns via the x axis actually allows one to control the spread of the bullets, the further away one aims from the weapon, the less spread it has.

EMP:








The EMP is a weapon that requires the armoury. It fires a single EMP projectile in roughly a straight line to the enemy base. It does minimal damage but disables all devices and weapons in a large radius for a fixed period of time. This puts a significant damper on the enemy base's economy. However due to an EMP's direction of velocity, and the fact that it can be one shot by AA, makes it an easy target for enemy MGs.

* Using 2 EMPs, one can permanently EMP a part of a fort if shots are staggered, which is particularly useful to harass.

Rockets:








(requires upgrade center)
Rockets are the upgraded form of the EMP. Instead of firing one projectile, they fire two, which on impact deals large amounts of splash damage. Rockets also fly in a roughly straight line and can be one-shot by AA, so they are quite vulnerable to machine guns.

* Use Rockets in groups of two or three to be more effective.
* Use Flak or Shotguns to destroy enemy AA.
** Rockets can be used in conjunction with EMPs to deal damage while preventing the enemy from having the economy to repair themselves.
** Use smoke to prevent the opponent's AA from working, or by preventing them to rebuild where the smoke hit.

20mm Cannon:






Also called 20's or 20 mils, 20mm cannons are built via the Munitions Plant. They shoot 9 small cannon-type projectiles which have a small AoE. They deal extra damage to weapons, which makes them quite good at destroying exposed weapons or AA. However, they have a very high deviation, meaning shots will be spread across the whole enemy fort. If it weren't for this devation they would be the most damaging weapon. Their long firing animation makes them easier to be doorsniped.

* them in groups of 2 or 3 to deal big amounts of damage to the whole enemy fort.
* It is best to fire them one at a time, to make sure that more projectiles land in the same spot.
** Use them in an accelerator to virtually remove all the deviation and cause huge amounts of damage.
** Use the Scattershot commander to reduce projectile spread, dealing lots of damage.

Cannon:






Cannons (regular cannons; not to be confused with 20's) are built with the Munitions Plant and shoot a single heavy projectile which has some penetration and does AoE when it expires. The penetration is enough to destroy a single doored-weapon and deal an AoE effect. Cannons have some spread, but nevertheless are relatively accurate, which makes them a good weapon to doorsnipe with. Although the AoE isn't very large, it will still drain an opponent's resources. They are also a good guaranteed source of damage.

* Use them in groups of 2 or 3, the spread sometimes make the shots go in the same spot, for extra penetration which is often deadly.
* Using portals, you can create what's called a Tier 3 mortar (or T3), which is a cannon shooting upwards. The first shot if landed, can catch your opponent off guard and deal good amounts of damage, as cannon shells can't be shot down by AA.
* Angle the cannons a bit upwards to be able to reach higher forts in 3v3 or 4v4 matches.
** Use Magnabeams to manually reduce the spread of the cannons to penetrate super deep. Also aim slightly higher to curve the shells and make them come down from above.
** Without the DLC, it is possible to T3 a cannon using ropes, and was the original way to do it. It also doesn't use energy to maintain.

Howitzer:






Howitzers, or Howies, are built with the Munitions Plant and are a super heavy mortar that deals huge amounts of damage to FG and BG bracing (and has some penetration). The Howitzer shell can be shot down, but has the highest amount of HP of all projectiles. Shotguns are extremely effective at destroying them however, as only 2 of its projectiles need to hit. The howitzer can be fired at the usual mortar angles, and has power levels like mortars.
Avoid firing howitzers in groups, as their shells can collide.

* other types of projectiles to distract the opponent's AA while you're shooting a howitzer. A howitzer landing is extremely crippling for your opponent, both on the eco side and that it can kill them.
** If put on fire with the firebeam, the howitzer looses all penetrative effect, but blows up in a bigger flaming area, so lighting a howitzer on fire isn't always the good option.

Firebeam:






Firebeams are built with the Factory, and are probably the most versatile weapon in the game.
They can light any projectile on fire, which makes them deal more damage, but can also cause them to burn out after a certain amount of time (depending on the projectile). The beam penetrates a bit into the fort and sets it on fire. The penetration distance is decreased if it hits metal, and the beam doesn't penetrate sandbags at all. The beam itself doesn't deal much damage though.

* Use it to light up your heavy projectiles right before they land, for example nukes or howitzer shells.
* Lighting opponent nukes on fire is dangerous, as they survive 4 full seconds while burning. 4 seconds isn't enough on small maps like vanilla, even if you light it on launch.
* Using a couple firebeams is enough to destroy any weapon behind doors, unless the doors are spaced by at least 2 grid squares, which only a few pros actually do when they see firebeams.
** If fired on wood, it will deal enough damage to put the wood at a very low health which allows a plasma laser to disintegrate that wood instantly, which gives it huge penetration even against woodspam. This is referred to as the firebeam/plasma combo.
** One can prevent AA from hitting projectiles using the firebeam, since MG projectiles don't last a second when lit on fire.
*** There used to be an exploit that allowed the firebeam to rotate, setting all enemy forts on fire. This has been patched though. (At least we think it has been patched, since there have been many patches toward this bug).

Magnabeam:






Magnabeams are a Moonshot-DLC weapon built with the Factory. They shoot a long lasting beam which creates a magnetic field at the point of impact. This field attracts any nearby ally projectile (without giving it more speed). It doesn't deal any damage by itself, which means it must be used with other weapons to be effective. It only applies the field at the point of impact, so reflections on a shield don't count. When destroyed it creates a Magnetic field which attracts all nearby weapons, so be careful.

* Using it with 20's is extremely powerful, as it focuses all the damage on a single spot.
** One can curve cannon shots around forts, to make them hit from above or even behind, which usually leads to critical damage.
*** Some accelerator designs use a magnabeam to focus the projectiles together before releasing them.

Plasma Laser:






Plasma Lasers are built with the Factory. They deal high penetrative damage to a single spot, doing no AoE damage. In fact, it is the weapon which does the most penetrative damage on its own, being able to destroy 2 doors and deal a bit of extra damage. It is often used to topple forts by hitting weak spots. Since the beam is a perfectly straight and has no deviation, it is the ideal weapon to doorsnipe with.

** If used with a firebeam, it can destroy an infinite amount of wood within 3 grid squares depth. Indeed, a plasma laser instantly destroys any low HP wood (due to how the damage is applied, and if the HP is low enough, it is applied on all struts at once). This is known as the firebeam/plasma combo.
** It can be used to counter nuke players. With precise enough timing and good accuracy, one can shoot the nuke (and swarms) when they launch. The drunk nuke will then turn back into the opponent's fort, which usually cripples them.
*** Plasma Lasers can destroy Howitzer shells, if they hit for a long enough time.
*** Using a concentratinator, one can combine three plasma lasers for devastating damage.

Match Objectives

During any given forts match in multiplayer there are several different objectives during a match. Most likely the one most thought of is:

Destroy all enemy forts

Although this is the primary objective to win a game, it is not the only objective within a given forts match. There are many other objectives that are equally important in order to ultimately complete the primary objective. A list of basic objectives in the order they should be accomplished is as follows:

1. Plan Desired Strategy
   
2. Technology
   
3. Economy
   
4. Structural Integrity
   
5. Awareness of Enemy Strategy
   
6. Sacrificial Bracing
   
7. Offensive Weaponry
   
8. Team Cooperation
   
9. Ensuring Survival of Team Forts
   
10. Destroying Enemy Forts

Notice that the primary objective is the last objective to be accomplished. That is because all the previous objectives are required in order to complete the primary objective. For instance, one cannot destroy an enemy fort without weapons, or place weapons without tech and economy. It is also impossible to survive an enemy attack without structural integrity and sacrificial bracing. Make sure that objectives higher on the list are completed before objectives lower on the list to ensure higher success rate. It is sometimes better to change the order of those objectives, or even do them in parallel.

** Doing all objectives in parallel is the ideal goal of all RTSs, since you're not wasting time at any point.

Basic Match Structure Theory

Basic Match Structure Theory is a more specified and customizable objective list that includes time markings for each objective. Match Structure theory differs from strategy to strategy, but the basic premise remains the same. Here is an example of a Basic Match Structure for the first portion of a Cannon Rush, using pinchfist on vanilla.


Keep in mind that this is a basic table which assumes ideal circumstances. In a lot of forts games this will not be the case, so it is important to be able adapt your Match Structure based on what is seen while scouting. This forms the basics of Advanced Match Structure Theory, which changes and evolves constantly. A player ultimately looses a game when they fail to be able to successfully Implement Match Structure so it is very important to understand and implement this concept.

Whew! You've made it through "The Basics", Congratulations!

Things tend to get more interesting from here. Next up is Commanders.

Commanders are a unique part of forts because they change buff statistics in different certain areas to provide an advantage to the player. Different commanders give different buffs. Buffs are divided into "Active" and "Passive" Categories. Active means that the buff is only in effect for a short period of time and then needs to be recharged. Passive means that the buff is always in effect.

There are currently 15 commanders in forts, split into 5 factions:

• Iron Bear Alliance
  
• Eagle Empire
  
• Dragon Army
  
• Combined Forces
  
• Black Penguin Oil

Each faction contains three commanders. Each faction also groups buffs by type.

Iron Bear Alliance (Buffs Economy):

• Pinchfist
  
• Spook
  
• Armourdillo

Eagle Empire (Buffs Weaponry):

• Eagle Eye
  
• Warthog
  
• Firebird

Dragon Army (Buffs Building):

• Hurricane
  
• Overdrive
  
• Architect

Combined Forces (Buffs Misc.):

• Buster
  
• Moonshine
  
• Phantom

Black Penguin Oil (Buffs 'Cheats'):

• Scattershot
  
• Seep
  
• Shockenaugh

Commanders apply to the whole team. The game picks a commander from the different ones players in the team chose, and then the game picks one at random. If 2 players chose the same commander, the probability for the commander is doubled.

The commander ability charges with damage dealt and received. It charges about 3 times faster with damage received.

* For abilities that boost projectiles' damage or add effects, fire the weapons at the very last moment of the active, so that when the projectiles hit and deal damage, it charges the next active faster.

The IBA consists of the 3 following commanders which all buffs some form of economy:


Pinchfist


















Passive:

Pinchfist's passive ability is to increase Mine and Turbine production by 10% and gives 100% metal reclaim when selling things.

Active:

His active ability halves the firing cost of all weapons for a short period of time.

Pinchfist is a very popular commander in the forts playerbase. Because of his abilities, Pinchfist has incredible rush potential, since he gives insane amount of resources through his 10% increased production. When playing with pinchfist, maximize efficiency in a well thought out build order. Use advantage of Pinchfist's active to be able to fire weapons consistently while still having resources to expand your arsenal.

* Selling starting structures and devices gives a lot of extra metal
* Pinchfist has been nerfed in the past, before the nerf he also gave 100% energy reclaim but this was considered overpowered
** Building devices with extra resources lets you sell those devices later, effectively making them temporary storages.
*** Using pinchfist is the only way to reliably do what can be called "composite rushes", which means going for multiple weapons that do not necessarily share the same branch of the tech tree.


Spook


















Passive:

Spook's passive ability is to show the last placed building of one's opponent, as well as their resources. Also, when one's fort is damaged, the holes that should form don't, effectively hiding its innards. Spook is also able to see the commander of the enemy team and when the enemy team is able to use their commander ability.

Active:

Her active ability is to remove Fog of War, which means the opponent forts' insides can be seen entirely. When using it, one's team will steal 200 metal and 2000 energy from the opposing team per opponent, which is evenly distributed between cores.

Spook is an extremely strong commander, capable of countering almost any rush which relies on a surprise, (such as any phantom rush). When playing spook, adapt to the enemy by rushing economy, and/or playing the direct counter to their strategy. Use the active whenever you can, especially at critical moments in their strategy, such as right before or after they fire their weapons, place a weapon down, or while they are repairing in order to severely damage their economy.


Armourdillo
















Passive:

His passive ability is to decrease the cost of armour, doors and shields. His doors open/close twice as fast and he increases the radius of the R (repair) area by 50% (this applies to repair stations too). Doors and bracing are lighter and cheaper. Miniguns can be upgraded to AP miniguns.

Active:

His active ability is to repair 8 times faster, with a 50% decreased cost overall. AP miniguns/snipers go through an extra door but take longer to reload

Armourdillo is a turtle commander, which has extreme defense potential. When playing Armourdillo it is common to rush eco and heavy weapons to play to Armourdillo's strengths. Generally speaking, the longer armourdillo is able to tank an early rush, the more the match will swing in his favor. Keep in mind however, When using the active, one pays 50% of the normal repair cost, but in 1/4th of the time. This means resources are drained 4 times as fast, so it's important to have enough storage to manage that. His active does come up fast though, which makes him good in Cannon vs Cannon games.

Other benefits to armourdillo are fast doors, which counter most attempts at door sniping. AP miniguns can be used in some situations to clear doored AA and weapons.

* AP miniguns still reflect off of slanted metal

The EE consists of the 3 following commanders which all buff offensive properties:


Eagle Eye

















Passive:

Eagle Eye's passive increases the size of the aiming arc by 25%, lessens sniper build time, decreases projectile drag, auto AA miniguns, increases the amount of rounds MGs and miniguns can shoot. Mortars and snipers reload snipers. Snipers can be grouped, and all weapons have laser sights except for lasers.

Active:

Eagle Eye's active ability is to make bullet projectiles explosive, while having a higher cost to fire.

Eagle Eye excels at small arms workshop rushes, such as Miniguns, Snipers, AP snipers, etc. Thus, he's most well known for the meme Minigun rush. However, Eagle eye can work very well in tandem with other earlier rushes, such as swarms, mortars, and sometimes nukes. However his weakness is very much apparent in the late game. When using eagle eye avoid prolonged matches at all costs.

* Using an AP-sniper can help charging up the active ability if the opponent uses slanted metal.
** Spamming AP-snipers is another effective way of winning against unprepared people, by shooting the same spot with all AP snipers (using at least 6) to topple the opponent.


Warthog

















Passive:

Warthog's passive gives 20% increased aim and faster reload for heavy weapons, and gives shotguns auto AA.

Active:

His active ability gives 25% extra damage to all heavy weapons and 25% additional speed to heavy missile projectiles. Heavy weapons reload immediately if they miss.

Warthog is one of the best heavy weapons commanders to pick from. The extra damage is often fatal to opponents, and the active isn't super hard to build either. The best weapons to pair with warthog are generally nukes, cannons, and howitzers, however lasers can be strong as well. When playing warthog play to the benefit of the extra damage you can get.

* The biggest ever seen damage output can be seen with nukes on fire under warthog's active ability
** This could be beaten by using an accelerator fed with cannons fired under warthog's active.
*** This could be countered using a return to sender

Firebird
















She is considered bad by a lot of players, but if played right she can do nice things.

Passive:

Her passive ability increases fire repair, decreases fire spread, increases the fire radius on mortars/firebeam. She also disables the opponents fire alarm. Firebeam is buffed in general, cannon gains incendiary radius, 20mm is incendiary.

Active:

Firebird's active ability gives all weapons incendiary properties, which sets everything on fire.

When playing with firebird use any weapon which works well with fire properties to harass your opponent. Most weapons work well with firebird, especially on her active, but probably the strongest to use are Incendiary Mortars, Swarms, Nukes, Cannons, 20mms, and Firebeams. Incendiary Nukes in particular are probably one of the strongest weapon buffs in the entire game!

The best part about firebird is the disabling of the enemy fire alarm, which makes fire super annoying to deal with!

* Firing MGs under the active can easily set the whole opponent on fire.
** Everything is on Fire!

The Dragon Army's main purpose is to buff Building things. The three Commanders for the dragon army are:


Architect:
















Architect can be useful for heavy weapons rushes to a degree. However, her skill in this area is generally surpassed by Pinchfist after a nerf on her passive abilities.

Passive:

Architect's passive ability reduces bracing build price by 20%, material build time by 50%, and increases storage capacity by 30% and increased structure build speed by 100%.

Active:

Architect's Active ability increases build speed by 300%.

The active ability gives the player great comeback potential when being harassed by an early rush, since one could build a plasma laser in 30 seconds using it.
The increased storage is no longer able to make rushing faster after a nerf (it used to be +50%) since extra storage is still needed to do a plasma laser rush or a howitzer rush.

Post Commander Update Architect is also very good at woodspamming, especially against nukes, with the addition of the structure increased build speed.

* Her passive lets you turtle easily by woodspamming cheap and quickly.
*** In a team fight, the team can sacrifice two of their members who make batteries blow up to charge up the active extremely fast, leading to the 2:15 laser rush. It has never been attempted since the nerf however.

Overdrive:
















Overdrive is used very often because of the eco part of his active ability, which gives him a great comeback potential, as well as great eco in the late-game.

Passive:

Overdrive's passive reduces upgrade time by 50%. This makes rushing upgraded weapons significantly faster. Overdrive can also downgrade upgraded weapons.

Active:

Overdrive's active increases metal/energy production by 100%.

The power of Overdrive compared to Pinchfist on the eco side is that his active ability scales with one's eco a lot more than Pinchfist, which generally leads to a stronger eco in the late-game. Pinchfist still is better in the early game though.
Overdrive is good to turtle because of this. However, the upgrade time reduction isn't as powerful as one might think. Nukes could perhaps come out slightly faster but if one goes nukes there are many better alternatives.

* Use the upgrade passive to upgrade your eco faster
* Use the upgrade passive to rush good heavy weapons: warheads, heavy mortars, rockets...

Hurricane:
















Hurricane isn't a super powerful commander, especially since a probably unneeded nerf, but is still useful for some rushes.

Passive:

Hurricane's passive reduces build time by 10%, sell time by 75%, and increases repair speed by 50%. Most people think the reduced build time by 10% is game changing. It happens to not be that incredible since one often lacks the resources to exploit it.

Active:

Hurricane's active reduces reload times by 50%. This can be useful if the main team's strategy is to overwhelm an opponent with quick, successive fire before they can respond.

The issue with Hurricane is that there often aren't enough resources to use the faster build speed.
However, his active ability is pretty devastating when one has enough weapons and energy to fire it fast enough.

** Use Hurricane on maps which lack enough starting metal to defend against buzzsaws, since it's the fastest possible strat to catch the opponent off guard.

The Combined Forces are a part of the Moonshot DLC which are literally the combined forces of the Dragon Army, Eagle Empire, and Iron Bear Alliance. The Combined Forces have various different buffs suited to a myriad of different situations.


Buster:

















Buster is a great commander for Capture Point mode and rushes using the workshop or munitions plant. When using buster to rush heavy weapons, it is recommended to use him in larger lobbies, as this helps balance out the time loss from not using Pinchfist.

Passive:

Buster's passive allows AP sniper to paint targets for missiles, and build free foundations. Free foundations makes him quite strong on Capture Maps.

Active

Buster's active causes the heavy mortar, rocket, warhead, 20mm, cannon, and howitzer to get AP properties. This allows projectiles to penetrate deeper into a fort which helps counter turtling and woodspam. Penetrating through the opponent's base also has a chance to blow up batteries inside of their fort, which can be very deadly.

The active acts as an AP sniper, which will penetrate into the fort and deal of directional damage. It's quite powerful with many projectiles, because all of the AP versions deal the same amount of damage anyway.

* Use grouped 20's with Buster's active for an increased damage output. This works well in team fights. The penetration distance of 20mms has been nerfed recently, so cannons penetrate deeper. 20mms are still more cost effective and make for a great meme, as their raw damage is disappointingly low due to the projectile spread.
* Use free foundations for capture maps, as it saves a lot of resources.

Moonshine

















Moonshine can be a good option in larger lobbies because any shield can contain weapons behind it. At the same time, this becomes relatively expensive. A useful feature is that since shields block an entire cannon shot, and are invulnerable to lasers, it counters many strategies from the laser/firebeam, to the magnabeam/cannon combo.

Passive:

Moonshine's passive allows shields to behave like doors and block AP snipers. This can be used in a wide variety of situations like countering lasers, however it can be rather expensive.

Active:
Moonshine's active gives splash weapons an EMP effect, the radius equal to splash maximum radius.

Moonshine's active can be devastating if used with a lot of projectiles, or ones that have a big AoE effect, as the EMP effect scales with it. It's quite good to drain the opponents' eco.

* Using a nuke with moonshine can shutdown an entire fort.
* Using grouped 20's can have a similar effect, and deal good amounts of damage.

Phantom

















Phantom is a great commander to use in 1v1s because of her ability to confuse the enemy into thinking they are using a different strategy then is really being used, and constantly keeps enemies on their toes for weapons placement and when weapons are firing.

Passive:

Phantom's passive allows dummy weapons/devices with no tech restriction to be placed, and cloaks weapons until fired. Devices and weapons can also move in 2 seconds, doors are silent, and damaged materials do not become partially transparent.

Active:

Phantom's active makes weapons almost silent when fired, and makes all forts vanish.

Phantom is amazing at confusing the enemy. When using phantom place dummy techs to make your opponent think you are going a rush that you are not, and capitalize on the time they waste countering you to make a counterattack. There are a lot of shenanigans which can be used with the passive movable weapons.

* Spook does a great job at spotting Phantom's shenanigans
** Move a weapon into a firing position, fire it, and then move it back to where it was during the active, protecting it again.

Black Penguin Oil is the {spoiler warning} antagonist of the forts campaign . They are the tricksters of the bunch and generally have actives that are considered 'cheats'. However, most of these commanders are generally considered to be quite bad by the community.


Scattershot:

















Scattershot is good to doorsnipe and to make good use of high spread weapons.

Passive:

His passive makes shields reflect non explosive bullets, gives weapons a 35% increased spread, gives burst weapons 2 extra projectiles (except 20mm), and allows snipers to shoot two bullets for each shot.

Something worth using is allowing snipers to shoot twice, since it allows the player to doorsnipe heavy weapons much more easily if both shots land.

Active:

His Active makes weapons have almost no spread (except for burst weapons which have 65% decreased spread And the 20mm shoots 3 projectiles 3 times. Projectile directory is shown.

Scattershot 20s is very powerful. 20s output more damage than a cannon does, but their main weakness is a large standard deviation, which scattershot alleviates. 20s can be spammed fairly cheaply, and the shorter firing time makes them harder to doorsnipe. Keep in mind that weapons such as shotguns, miniguns, etc. will be extremely unaffective when the active is not enabled.

* Going for Scattershot generally means going for 20's, as the active will make them have virtually no spread.
* Covering your entire fort with shields, although tempting, isn't quite that good especially since portals exist (return to senders)
** In a 4v4 lobby coordinate with teamates, everyone go three 20mm each and focus on one base at a time. A quick way to annoy the other team. This is also known as Dakka.


Seep



















Passive:

His passive is that Warheads split into 15 swarms when shot, EMPs send missiles back to sender, fire delay for silos is only 2 seconds instead of 5. Laser sights are invisible to the opponent, but can be viewed by allies. And you can see the aiming positions of your opponents. Smoke is larger and lasts longer.

Active:

His active makes Missiles and rockets fly 32% faster and gives EMPs/rockets/swarms ability to tank a second hit.

This gives missiles/rockets a better chance of hitting their targets.

Seep is extremely powerful with nuke or armoury rushes. A common strategy is to rush swarms, target the opponents turbines, upgrade to nukes, and then overwhelm any AA. Keep in mind, seep requires a very specific playstyle, and only works with specific lower-tier weapons, but if used correctly can counter heavy weapon rushes very effectively.

Shockenaugh

















Shockenaugh

Shockenaugh is good if a player knows how to use her active properly, although it relies a lot on RNG.

Passive:

Her passive allows shields to absorb lasers, and increases max group size to 4, can build barrels that keep your fort buildable if the core is destroyed, and can group buzzsaws.

The increase max group size can be really useful in many different situations.

Active:

Her active disables opponent turbines, 20mm fires a cannon projectile, firebeam fires a plasma beam projectile (to the new costs)

Shockenaugh is extremely good at getting overwhelming force out cheaply, so long as a team has a strong way to build up the active. Firebeam/laser combo can be rushed much quicker, and 3 20s on each base during the active creates an enormous amount of cannons to deal with. That combined with disabling enemy turbines, and the enemy will probably not be able to retaliate very well with good coordinated teammates. placing a barrel negates some of the drawbacks of loosing a core, the member might be able to still help out the team.

Within a multiplayer experience there are always other players. And thus, basic social principles do apply. Unlike some websites, steam is not anonymous. What you do can be traced back to you. The forts community is known for not having this problem, but just a disclaimer, don't say anything you wouldn't say in real life.

With the obvious being said here is a list of do's and don'ts:

• Don't Teamkill unless it is agreed upon before the match (The exception goes to pyro. He can teamkill whenever he wants except on Incursus' stream)
  
• At the beginning of the match let other team mates know what strategy you are going, and which base you are.
  
• Before the match, discuss with your team what strategy to do.
  
• Let your team know where enemy weapons are placed, and if you know an enemy opponent, where they could be located. If the enemy has missile silos placed, alert your team to place aa. If the enemy shows their tech, let your team know. In short, any information you can give to your team is valuable.
  
• Don't be mean to new players if they aren't performing well. Give them tips on how to improve.
  
• Always Download Mods or a third party map as quickly as possible if necessary.
  
• If a host wants to start a game, ready up as quickly as possible.
  
• Don't spam mod or map requests.
  
• Just save people pain and don't spam in chatl.
  
• Discuss which commander to choose before the match starts
  
• If you are the host kick trolls.
  
• Let people know if you go afk
  
• Use team chat when discussing plans with your teamates.
  
• Don't build in a way that blocks your teamates weapons.
  
• Use basic common sense.

A fort's structural integrity helps it hold weight, or survive high knockback weapons. This is why it is important to know and understand how to make a stable fort, both to be able to make higher forts and to fit more weapons and to survive nuke shots for example.

Note that the contents covered in this section are not up to date with the current meta and advanced stability techniques are yet to be added to this guide. However, the information provided here still applies on a fundamental level.

This section will cover:

• The Importance of a Good Fort Design
  
• What Constitutes a Bad Fort Design
  
• Foundation Structural Integrity
  
• Vertical and Horizontal Structural Integrity
  
• Upright Bases
  
• Hanging Bases
  
• Side Bases

As said above, a good fort design will let one achieve several main goals:

• Being able to place a good amount of defended weaponry
  
• Not collapsing under one's own weight
  
• Not collapsing because of a slight breeze
  
• Having a fort that doesn't wobble (especially good for lasers)
  
• Surviving big weapons hits
  
• Being defended in all aspects
  
• Fitting everything one needs inside their fort, well hidden.

Being able to achieve everything listed above greatly increases the likely-hood of not surviving, and maybe even winning the match if the right weaponry is used.

Bad forts can be spotted a mile away. Even average players can sometimes look at someone's fort and think "This dude doesn't know how to play".
The thing is, some forts look good but have important flaws, which can't be seen instantly. Here's a list of common signs of Bad Fort Designing:

• Building large boxes
  
• Making extra foundations early in the game
  
• Expanding too fast
  
• Not having good weight management
  
• Not crossbracing the bottom most levels of the fort
  
• Having too small boxes for weapons/too small doors
  
• Blocking your turbines' wind
  
• Exposed weaponry/Single-doored heavy weapons
  
• Explosives too close to the core
  
• Chain batteries
  
• Not having any defense on the starting metal
  
• Exposed eco
  
• Metal roof
  
• Useless shields
  
• Weapons without a line of sight

The list goes on. Of course, even some very good players still do things that are on this list (chaining batteries and having explosives right on top of your core isn't always noticed), but knowing you're doing things wrong and trying actively to fix them means you'll get better at building.

Now, let's get started on some tips for foundation structural integrity. Foundation Structural Integrity is defined as fort stability in regards to foundation nodes.

Obviously one should never build lots of foundations early in a match, since those cost a lot to build. But in the middle-late game, it is good to have a decent foundation pattern to be able to go higher.

The first thing to do is to crossbrace the first layer of a fort. Doing so will increase the general stability of it, making it less wobbly but also increases the weight distribution between the struts, meaning there is less weight on each individual strut.

The next step is to double the number of foundation nodes. This will make a fort even more stable, and will let one add even more struts to the first layer of crossbracing. Instead of the default 2 by 2 boxes, players can use smaller boxes: 2 by 1 boxes, or even 1 by 1 boxes. It is only recommended to do this at the very front of the fort however. Keep in mind that a time-effective strategy should be considered when determining a method to use for structural integrity.

Here is an over the top example of what good foundation structural integrity looks like. One will probably never have to use this in an actual match, but it helps show what good foundation structural integrity looks like:

Vertical and Horizontal Structural Integrity are forms of structural integrity to consider after creating acceptable foundation structural integrity.

Vertical Structural Integrity:

Vertical Structural Integrity is how high or low can a fort be build up while maintaining structural integrity. This is important because weapons and windmills are most often placed above the core of a fort, which often means building up higher.

Firstly, to accomplish Vertical Structural Integrity is by expanding a fort out slightly behind to increase stabilization before building up. Recommended box size is 2 by 2 if possible up to the core.

After building out, make sure that every box is crossbraced. This adds more support to the fort. There are also several different tricks to increase stability even more, such as crossbracing crossbraces, or creating boxes inside boxes. Time-Effectiveness must be considered when determining which option to use. Prioritize the area right under the core the highest.
Also, make sure that whenever one builds, to start on the bottom and proceed to the top. The only exception is when building counterweights, since one doesn't want to have them connected to foundations.

Finally, build the boxes needed to contain weapons. These may vary in size depending on the weapons used. Crossbracing those isn't needed, but it helps when something penetrates into that layer, so that everything doesn't crash down.

* to save resources there are different types of woodspam that can create enough vertical stability to delay the need to build out behind the fort longer, allowing for quicker weapon rushes. One example of this, created by m4rox, is described in the following picture:




























Horizontal Structural Integrity:

Horizontal Structural Integrity is the stability of a fort on its horizontal axis. This is important in order for a fort not to topple, as well as to be able to build sacrificial bracing out from the fort, protecting the core. One way to tell whether or not a fort has good horizontal structural integrity is whether it is leaning to one side or not. This can be alleviated using many different methods.

• On some maps like vanilla, forts start off leaning slightly forward. This can be fixed by deleting the front core armor.:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ropes are another effective tool of preventing leaning. Attach a rope in the opposite direction that a fort is leaning to create a tension force.
  
• Crossbrace everything.
  
• If a fort is leaning backwards, building bracing up from the back is an effective way of fixing the problem.

Keep in mind that front-leaning forts are much more dangerous and harder to fix than back-leaning forts. This is because there might be another fort in front that the leaning fort could topple onto. Also, on most maps there is little to no room to build foundation nodes in front of a fort, and adequate room behind it.

Standing Forts are considered the standard base within forts, since it's the vanilla map design. They tend to have the most problems with vertical and horizontal integrity. For instance using vanilla as an example:

• The starting fort is leaning slightly forward
  
• There are not enough foundation nodes to support effective woodspam
  
• None of the fort is crossbraced.
  
• Standing forts tend to have the least protected cores, and are the type most prone to toppling.

Keep in mind that all of these things can be fixed using the methods for Structural, Vertical, and Horizontal integrity.

When playing in an upright fort there are several things to consider:

• Weapons are almost always placed above the core, does the fort have enough structural integrity to build up high enough to place weapons?
  
• When building up higher, forts experience more swing. Horizontal integrity is needed to alleviate this. Does your fort have enough horizontal integrity to build upwards?
  
• Because standing forts tend to be the most vulnerable, they also tend to require more sacrificial bracing built in front of the fort than other types. This also requires horizontal integrity, since woodspam tends to be quite heavy.

Always remember to build from the bottom, to the top. This will prevent the fort to wobble too much when building. Crossbracing also helps against that, since it reinforces the structure.

** A good trick used to reinforce structural integrity is to add some struts in a special way on the starting metal, since it's usually those struts that break first. Adding that small structure will help release a bit of the compression those struts have. But as for crossbracing, the earliest you build it, the best it is. It can also help have some early light woodspam. Although the following picture uses metal, wood works too.

Hanging Forts are generally the easiest to work with since they are the most structurally sound. The weakest part of a hanging base tends to be foundation structural integrity, as it is often very difficult to double the amount of foundation nodes due to the default top layer of boxing being 3 by 2. Hanging forts tend to have the best horizontal/vertical structural integrity of all fort types, and its core is usually the easiest to protect.

Some things to consider with Hanging Forts:

• Is the fort positioned directly above another fort? If so it is possible for the enemy team to get a 'double kill', by cutting the core off from the rest of the upper fort, dropping it onto the fort below.
  
• Sometimes if a hanging fort is positioned lowest it can be hard to gain a line of fire towards upper enemy forts.
  
• Weapons tend to be most often placed below the core of hanging forts, especially on maps with only hanging forts. Make sure those weapons have line of fire towards upper enemy forts.

Then, the same tricks for the Standing forts apply to the hanging forts, since you can just put it upside down mentally.

** The same trick with the starting metal applies.

Horizontal forts are generally the most hated type of fort within the multiplayer community. This is mainly because it is often very difficult to work with its design. Horizontal forts struggle the most with horizontal structural integrity, since they are literally 'hanging off the side of a wall'.

Some things that horizontal forts tend to struggle with the most:

• Protecting the core, and woodspamming in front of the core due to horizontal integrity issues.
  
• Less room to place tech or devices without exposing them.
  
• Less room to place windmills without going building another level.

Indeed, the struts that end up breaking first are the top foundation nodes. That's why it's very important to make more foundation nodes around that point.

Some things to consider when playing on a horizontal fort:

• Is your core adequately protected?
  
• Are your devices positioned in a safe place (make sure batteries are not positioned next to each other or behind the core to prevent a chain reaction).
  
• Weapons are generally built above side forts, does the fort have enough vertical integrity to support them?
  
• Crossbrace

* A way to improve the horizontal structural integrity of a horizontal fort is to increase foundation structural support by doubling the number of foundation nodes, as well as using boxes within boxes techniques.
** The structural reinforcement shown for the other two types isn't as handy, so it's not recommended.

"Quickness is the essence of the war."
-Sun Tzu


Now we have come to the fun part of this guide: The Rush

Rushing is essential in competitive vanilla Forts, but in order to implement rushes it is critical to first understand what a rush is, and eliminate common misconceptions about it.

Definition: The Rush
When a player tries to reach a specific state of design as fast as possible it's called a rush.
"Specific state of design" can be anything. For example, one can rush for heavy-eco where it is attempted to get a lot of mines and turbines really quickly. Or, one can rush for all kinds of weapons. The most effective rushes find a way to maximize both the economy of a base and number of weapons, while minimizing time taken. This often involves selling unneeded components of a fort.

The Rush can be paralleled to the German Strategy of Blitzkrieg during World War II. Just as the Germans attacked France Quickly and Swiftly, overrunning them with their entire army, so does The Rush overwhelm an opponent with sheer force, ideally before they have built weapons of their own.

Some objections that some players have about rushing is that it delegates the entire game to who can get weapons the fastest. Those players retort that they can't play the game in an eco-heavy playstyle since they always loose to those who do rush. This is not a legitimate argument. Although a rush does primarily aim to get weapons out quickly, the most effective way to do this is to maximize economy in the process'. Players who make this objection simply have a false understanding of what a rush is.

A rush is reliant upon a high APM, or "Actions per Minute". Actions per Minute is literally defined as the amount of actions a player can perform in one minute. The more actions able to be performed in a minute, the quicker a player is able to implement a rush and adapt to other players.

But a rush isn't always that easy:
One might have gotten the perfect time for a weapon-rush already, but that's just in theory. In a real online match their are opponents shooting, which could potentially mess up the rush. Therefore one must adapt to their opponents and teammates. If it is seen that an opponent is building rockets or something similar, get AA ready and also prepare defenses against other weapons.

Additionally, keep in mind that a rush isn't everything:
Assuming you've managed to build two cannons in 5 minutes, can you successfully hit the enemy fort on your first shot?. If not, then all that rushing was in vain and the enemy now has the upper hand again. Apart from having a great rush, one also needs to have a good aim. To practice aiming cannons or other weapons we suggest the multiplayer training missions or sandbox mode.

Likewise, perhaps you've gotten down your rush to the millisecond, but that match the enemy was expecting it and counters you. Your rush now is completely useless against your opponent. It is extremely important to have a good strategic sense. After all, forts is a real time strategy game. Strategy within forts will be covered more in detail in a later section.

This Section Contains information on:

• Heavy Weapons Rushes
  
• Early Rushes
  
• Support Rushes
  
• Meme Rushes
  
• How to Create a Rush.

Heavy weapons are usually what people think about when creating a rush. They are the hardest rushes to make viable, since early rushes often force the player to adapt and "break the rush": slowing it down a rush to be able to defend properly against an attack.

When doing a heavy weapons rush, a non-rush mortar strat can also counter heavy weapons, forcing the player to totally break the rush and transition into another strat.
This category will focus on 2nd tier weapon rushes, and not 1st tier upgraded weapons (such as nukes or rockets).

Tips for rushing heavy weapons:

• Always put tech as your first priority
  
• Sell the first tech when you put down the second one
  
• Make sure to scout regularly
  
• Build the proper defense for what the opponent is doing
  
• If you can't tell what your opponent is going for, do a generic defense (like standard woodspam and some AA)
  
• Unless playing against a heavy weapon rusher, you should win in the first few hits.

Although the rush's goal is to have the weapon ready an ideal time, it's very important to have strong eco when doing a heavy weapons rush, simply to give oneself a good margin to adapt.
Turtling up to get the weapon done is what heavy weapons rushers usually do. One needs to be very good at defending when doing this type of strat.

* If the first shot doesn't bring victory, you'll need some extra plans. Usually heavy weapons have a weakness against some type of defense (lasers and shields, cannons and metal), so Plan B should be a counter to that counter. When Plan B still isn't enough, you can have a Plan C, and so on.
** If you do have to totally break the rush, transition into a faster rush that your opponent didn't expect such as mortars or missiles./

The opposite of heavy weapons rushes are early rushes. Early rushes are harassment rushes that come out very fast. The point is generally not to win with the weapon rushed, but to give enough time to step up into something more deadly.

A good early rush example is a mortar rush. The point here is to make the opponent live in hell on earth, by weakening their structure and ruining their eco. Doing this will let one build more mortars, upgrade mortars, or get some missiles up to finish them off.
Although this category is meant for very early rushes, some of these tips still apply to nuke rushes.

Things to remember when doing such rush:

• Eco is not the main concern, the main concern is being able to fire all your weapons at all times
  
• In those regards, fire your weapons constantly, your opponent should not be able to breathe
  
• Timing is key, especially when discerning when to step up and get more weapons.
  
• Map control is very important, more about that later
  
• If the opponent is going for heavy weapons, an option is wait to fire until one gets stronger eco/weapons, since they won't be firing as soon.

Map Control

Having Map Control means one has AA while their opponent doesn't. All early-game rushes come down to shootable projectiles (except for shotguns and miniguns, but those usually aren't good enough on their own), which means you'll need to destroy any AA your opponent has.
Maintaining map control is the key for early game rushes, and will decide how likely it is to win.
Some tips regarding map control are:

• Always have some MGs up. Use them frequently to harass the opponent.
  
• Having good sniper aim helps, since it'll be the main way to destroy opponent AA and snipers.
  
• Using an armoury strat will help a lot for map control, since you can build flaks and shotguns which are insanely good to destroy MGs and light defense.
  
• If you lose map control, make sure to build your new MGs and snipers behind wood (or even doors if you can afford those)

If it's impossible to keep map control, transition into a new set of weapons which either don't require map control or let one regain it, like shotguns.

* Instead of keeping map control, if you have missiles and mortars, you can use mortars as bait for the opponent AA to shoot at while your missiles go through.
** Going for multiple techs is a dangerous path, but can be devastating if you can get both mortars/missiles and shotguns.

Supporting rushes are useful to help teammate(s) get their strat going and working. This type of rush is totally useless by itself though.
The goal of those rushes is to make sure teammate(s) don't have trouble to achieve their own goals. For example, the most common support is to destroy the other team's AA.
But, there are other ways to help out a team, like buying time. If the opponents focus another target, it'll buy time for the rest of the team to get strong weapons/eco and destroy them a bit later.
To some extent, early rushes can be supporting rushes since they buy time for the team.

Some tips for those rushes:

• Unless doing an early rush, go for the armoury, as it offers great support weapons
  
• Destroy the opponent's AA using any weapon you're planning to go for
  
• Although flaks are seen as an AA weapon, they can be used to either destroy the opponent's AA or harass them by destroying turbines or exposed stuff
  
• Using EMPs on smaller maps can delay the opponents quite a bit

Buying time by being focused isn't the only way to do it. Also use EMPs and other means (destroying turbines) to slow the opponents down in their strategy.

Meme Rushes are defined as a rush in which a player (in 1v1) or an entire team rushes just one type of weapon. This sometimes occurs in combination with a commander that can make that weapon ridiculously over-powered or funny (with a few exceptions). Meme rushes are generally only something to try do if the entire team is co-operating and coordinated enough to pull them off. A list of the current official meme rushes are as follows:

• Sniper only with Eagle Eye
  
• AP Sniper only with Eagle Eye
  
• Minigun only with Eagle Eye
  
• Incendiary mortars with Firebird
  
• 4 Missles for each fort in matches 3v3 or higher
  
• All double nuke rush in matches 2v2 or higher
  
• Shotgun only with Scattershot
  
• 20mm only with Scattershot or Buster (AKA Dakka)
  
• Firebeam only with Shockenaugh or Firebird
  
• Magnabeam/Dakka using buster
  
• All Howitzer in matches 2v2 or higher
  
• Several T3s for each fort
  
• Accelerator/concentratinator rush

All machine guns has not been tried and is not recommended.

Copying other players' rushes is lame. (isn't that right matteo?). For this reason we have created a cooking recipe with all the ingredients you need to create your own rush.

Requirements for this section:

• Advanced (1-star) knowledge
  
• Creativity
  When one has successfully understood this section, they will be able to start reading 2-star (Pro) hints.
  
  
  Creating a Rush - the Cooking Recipe:
  
  First, you should think of what your rush should accomplish:
  
  
• Do you want to annoy your opponent with miniguns?
  
• Do you want to make high amounts of resources?
  
• Or do you want to have rockets and nukes rain down on your opponent?
  
  Once you have figured out how you wish to molest your opponent, think of what you need to do to get to this point of design:
  
  
• If you have decided to go for a specific weapon or weapon combo, take a look at which technology(ies) is(are) required to build it. The first thing to do when rushing for this weapon is to place down the required tech. If you've chosen cannons or lasers then it is needed to build a temporary tech to get the actual required tech for the chosen weapon. In order to choose between the workshop and the armoury, think about how you would adapt if your rush didn't work quite as you expected.
  
• If you think an eco-rush is the best way, start off the match by placing mines and turbines. Maybe even build up to get higher turbine efficiency. You can't win a match with a high resource production, but it helps a lot. Once you have about 4 mines and 2 turbines, you can start rushing for your main-weapons. Doing an eco-rush is usually not the best choice though.
  
  Now you have a rough idea on how your rush should look.
  Next, you want to experiment in skirmish mode with these little steps:
  
  
• Start off your rush as described above - place your tech or make economy
  
• If you started off with a tech building, the next thing you want to do if get a mine and a turbine for additional eco.
  
  You might realize that there is always a short period of time where you're just watching and waiting for your devices to finish building. Use this time to scout on your opponent and see what he is doing. Depending on what the other team is building, try to adapt to that by building cheap defenses like MG as Anti-Air or woodspam. And there we come to the next big step:
  
  Choosing your woodspam
  
  As mentioned earlier in this guide, there are countless types of woodspam. You have the possibility to either create your own, or to choose the best one to counter what your opponent is doing,
  Here are some basic types of woodspam as an example:
  
  
• The common spam: 1x2 crossbraced boxes of wood, really cheap but also effective in early-game stages.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The dense woodspam: small 1x1 crossbraced boxes of wood, really close together. Not expensive, but also not really cheap. Effective to fight off lasers and cannons.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The large woodspam: big 2x3 or 3x3 boxes, not crossbraced. Cheap but really heavy, make sure your fort is stable (secure with rope). Really effective against nukes, rockets and lasers.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Use these woodspams to counter your opponent effectively while simultaneously performing your rush.
  
  Do not waste all your resources on the woodspam, because you will need them to still get the perfect rush done.
  
  Now you have completed the basic layout for your rush, congratulations!
  When trying your rush out in skirmish mode, you will stumble across resource shortages or other problems that can be easily fixed:
  
  Choosing the right Commander
  
  Every commander has unique abilities that help you perfect your rush. (Check Commander section)
  Depending on what you're planning for your rush, you need to choose the commander that buffs the strat you're going for. Miniguns, Eagle Eye. Eco, Overdrive or Pinchfist. Playing with counters, Spook etc...
  
  Once you have reached this point, your rush is ready for Multiplayer. Go hop into some vanilla lobbies and play with your new rush! Improve it as you go.
  
  ** You might have realized that your rush does not work sometimes because the opponent is adapting too well. For that reason you can lay out a plan b for your rush that you can initiate whenever something goes wrong or matches become too late-game. Always be prepared!

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”

"Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move."

-Sun Tzu

Now we've come to the most important section in this guide: Strategy. After all, forts is a real time strategy game. Each weapon and building material counters and is countered by other weapons and materials. Every match is determined by the strategy individuals choose before the start of the match and each individuals ability to adapt to their opponent. The person who cannot use strategy always looses to the person who does, and the person who cannot adapt looses to the person who does.

* Sometimes, double nuke rushes win even when not adapting against an opponent who adapts due to RNG. Don't use this an excuse though.

This Section Covers Information On:

• Match Awareness
  
• Defensive Counters
  
• Offensive Counters
  
• 1v1 Strategy
  
• 2v2 Strategy
  
• 3v3 - 4v4 Strategy
  
• Ranked
  
• Capture Point

"The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand."
-Sun Tzu


Match Awareness is the first step towards understanding strategy within forts. It is important to always take time to pay attention to one's surroundings. This allows one to determine the strategies of enemy forts and then subsequently counter it before they are implemented.

Scouting:

Scouting is the most basic form of match awareness and involves observing enemy forts to try and determine what they are doing. Always look to try and spot the enemy tech at the beginning of a match. It allows one to make reasonable assumptions on what they could be planning to do. For instance, if a missile silo is spotted, build Anti Air.

Build Styles:

Different types of rushes can use different building techniques based on the weapons used. here are some examples of common building styles on vanilla, vanilla large, or vanilla 4v4: [add pictures]

• Minigun rushes tend to build the miniguns in front of the base.
  
• Mortar rushes tend to build extruding boxes in front of the fort fort, or thin extrusions on top of the fort with the top open to air.
  
• Missile/Nuke rushes tend to have bases that do not expand fully out the back of the fort, or if they do only cover the bottom in one floor of bracing.
  
• Most other weapons are commonly build on top of the forts. However it can be guessed what type of weapon is being built by the size and number of the boxes used. Three large boxes could mean a shotgun/rocket or 20mm rush (and in some cases a triple cannon rush though this is less common). Two Large boxes generally indicates either a double cannon or double howitzer rush. One large box generally indicates a howitzer, a cannon, or a magnabeam. smaller boxes generally indicate a laser rush and 2 small boxes indicate a laser/firebeam combo rush.

** Of course, smarter opponents may try to fool you by building in some way, although they are doing another strategy.

Discerning Weapons Placement:

Knowing where a weapon could be before it is fired is essential to a match. Obviously exposed doors means a weapon is most likely behind it, however no player worth their salt leaves exposed doors. There are other ways to guess where a weapon is though.

When weapons are placed the bracing in front of it is (with the exception of mortars and missiles, on top instead of in front) automatically converted into background bracing. Be on the lookout for any background bracing on the edges of the top or the front of a fort as this can give a hint towards where the weapons are placed. However, pressing ctrl while placing a weapon disables this function, and most pro players keep the front wood on a fort as bracing until a weapon is ready to fire in order to hide where they are placed.












One of the most effective ways to determine where a weapon is placed is by looking for a small 1 by 2 strut in front of a larger box that could contain a weapon. This kind of strut is commonly placed to build multiple doors, with a better firing angle, for less resources.

























One final method is to know the common weapons placements for each map, in order to guess where weapons might be.

* Once you know where a weapon is, you can try to doorsnipe it using snipers for example when the opponent fires their weapons.

Know Your Enemy and Yourself:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

** Sun Tzu's words can be applied greatly to forts, especially in 1v1s. Learn your opponent's build styles and what they like to accomplish, that way it will be easier to counter them. Likewise know yourself. Know what your own common build styles are and change them up constantly in order to trick your enemy into thinking you are doing something you are not. /

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable."
-Sun Tzu

In Forts, each weapon and material counters and is countered by another weapon or material. This allows for players to adapt and change strategies mid game to constantly counter their opponent. The First of these counters are defense counters. A defensive counter is a material or device that counters a weapon, preventing it from doing significant damage. These defensive counters are also countered by different types of weapons. Here is a table listing materials/devices, what they counter, and what they are countered by:

"Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected .”

"The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself."
- Sun Tzu

An Offensive counter is an offensive means to counter other weapons. This generally involves destroying the weapon with some other kind of weapon, disabling the weapon for a short amount of time, or in some instances, destroying the weapon projectile.

Here is a table showing how weapons counter and are countered by each other. Keep in mind that not all weapons counter or are countered by everything. Weapons can be countered and counter other weapons at the same time. Counters are prioritized by weapon tier. High tier weapons do not counter lower tier weapons because it is more likely to use other lower tiered weapons to counter those.

When doing a 1v1, a player is one their own, alone. Everything has to be done by them, and they can't be carried by other people, which makes 1v1s both stressful and a good indicator of skill, although being skilled in 1v1 doesn't mean a person is skilled in team fights (nor does it work the other way around).

Now, for some actual 1v1 tips and strategies.

There are two ways to do 1v1s. Going for an early strategy or a mid/late strategy.

Early strategies

Since a player is on their own, going for any support strat makes absolutely no sense, since there is no one to support. It's best to go for a strategy that works without needing any exterior help.
When going for an early strategy, it is important to have plans on how to defeat the opponent, since early weapons aren't usually enough to actually kill someone. This is why it's extremely crucial to have an idea on how to step up.

Stepping up after having achieved a 1v1 strategy isn't always easy, as one will be spending resources to gather more fire power, while still firing the old weapons to keep delaying the opponent and preventing them to retaliate. This can be done either by upgrading one's current weapons (going from incendiary mortars to heavy mortars),by adding more of the same weapon tier (6 mortars good, 15 better), or by going for a higher tech. The important part is really to not let the opponent do anything while stepping up, or at least defend correctly if they do retaliate.

When stepping up, it's important to understand what is currently preventing one's strategy from killing the opponent. Either a person doesn't have the firepower, or the opponent is using a counter against the strategy to stay alive.

If it's the latter, choose the right weapon when stepping up. Some weapons combo well with others, because the 2nd one will destroy the counter of the 1st. At this point, counter the counter. 1v1s can go a long way through is process, until there is no more room or resources to add the right weapon.

Heavy strategies

When going for a heavy strategy, time is the counter. If the opponent goes for a faster strat, it could counter yours if done properly. This is why the important part about these strategies is to know how to defend against early rushes. Also, it is important to get the heavy weapons fast, to be able to retaliate.

A common rush that doesn't require that much turtling because of how fast it's achieved is the double nuke rush, slower than very early rushes but still faster than most heavy weapon rushes.
If going for an actual heavy weapon rush though, turtling will be a big part of the strategy, so here are some tips.

Scout a lot more, to be prepared to any assault. Whatever the strategy is though, it's best to have the proper defense at the right timestamps (for example having basic woodspam when mortars/swarms come out, and a shield on turbines by 4:00 when firebeams come out).
When weapons are ready, do heavy damage to the opponent. Either destroy their fort entirely, or destroy their weapons/eco. Find an edge whenever possible and use it to either kill the opponent, or step up as described above, to give them a finishing blow.

Unlike 1v1s, instead of being alone there is one handy dandy teammate by your side to help you out in life. With the addition of this teammate, the concept of roles are implemented. Whereas in a 1v1 everything must be done by 1 person, in a 2v2, tasks can be split between two individuals.

A role is a specific function that a person presents to their team. There are a number of different roles available to play, and roles can change over time. The most common roles present in a 2v2 match are:

• Early Strategy
  
• Heavy Strategy
  
• Support Strategy

With all the main strategies listed, here is a brief overview of how the strategies counter each other:

• Early Strategy counters Heavy Strategy
  
• Support Strategy counters Early Strategy
  
• Heavy Strategy counters Support Strategy

Early Rushes and Heavy Rushes maintain the same concepts as in a 1v1 match, with the addition of team cooperation. Let's talk for a moment about the new role:

Support Strategy:

The Support Strategy is most commonly used to support early rushes, which tend to include projectiles which can be shot down by AA such as EMPs or missiles. The ultimate Goal of a support strategy is to deny the enemy team the ability to position AA in order for one's teammate's weapons to successfully penetrate their target. However, a support role is not limited to just taking out enemy AA. It also includes building defensive AA of one's own, and harassing enemy weapons (for instance with a sniper). A support rusher should attempt to step up to a heavy weapon if their role is not sufficient to win.

Role Cooperation:

The addition of a teammate also means there are several different combinations roles which can be used as a valid strategy.

Common effective role combinations are:

• 2 Early Strategies (assuming one will step up)
  
• 1 Early Strategy, 1 Support Strategy
  
• 1 Early Strategy, 1 Heavy Strategy
  
• 1 Support Strategy, 1 Heavy Strategy

Before a match starts further specify which weapons each person uses for their role, in order to make sure that the weapons chosen both compliment each other and cover each other's weaknesses.

Role combinations to avoid:

• 2 Support Strategies (it just isn't a good idea)
  
• 2 Heavy Strategies (Weapons cannot be put out fast enough making the team vulnerable to early rushes).

Finally, a more in depth analysis of role combinations and rules concerning their usage:

2 Early Strategies:

In this role combination both forts rush early weapons such as mortars, EMPs, missiles, or miniguns to harass the enemy. This can be effective in delaying the enemy's rush, however, it tends to not be a valid option for the entire match. At some point, it will probably be necessary for one base to switch to either a Heavy or Support Role to end the match. Never stay on this role combination for two long as it is weak against a Heavy Rush. If played right this can counter 1 Early Strategy, 1 Support Strategy rushes. Overwhelm the support strategy base first.

1 Early Strategy, 1 Support Strategy:

In this role combination one fort rushes early weapons, while the other weapon supports the early rush by taking out any counter the enemy fort might have to make the rush ineffective. Again, if this role combination does not immediately end the match it is recommended the support base step up to a heavy role in order to finish off the remaining forts. This counters 1 Early Strategy, 1 Heavy Strategy rushes.

1 Early Strategy, 1 Heavy Strategy:

In this role combination one fort rushes early weapons, while the other fort rushes heavy weapons. The early rusher is meant to slow down and annoy the enemy long enough to divert their attention towards that fort. While they do this the heavy weapons fort can come out with large damage dealing weapons in order to end the match. Keep in mind that the heavy rusher is vulnerable to an early weapons rush, so try and divert enemy fire onto the early rusher. This can be used to counter a 1 Support Strategy, 1 Heavy Strategy rush if played correctly. Divert the attention of both bases onto the early role fort, and then have the heavy weapons fort take out the heavy weapons of the enemy.

1 Support Strategy, 1 Heavy Strategy

In this role combination one fort rushes support weapons, while the other fort rushes heavy weapons. This is a more defensive approach to a 2v2. In this case, the support rusher also operates differently from when supporting an early rusher. The primary objective of support, in this case, is to support the heavy rush from an early rush or another heavy rush. This includes the placement of AA, as well as trying to disable any weapons from the opposing team that could threaten the heavy weapons rush. The heavy rusher brings out heavy weapons as quickly as possible to end the game. This strategy is mainly used to counter a 2 early rush strategy.

In 3v3-4v4 strategy there are two noticeable differences from 1v1-2v2 strategy.

1) Heavy weapons serve an increasing role while early rushes generally only serve as minor harassment.

2) AA destroyable projectiles are less effective due to easier aa spam.

3v3-4v4 strategy includes all of the roles within 1v1 and 2v2 strategy but has an additional pseudo-role.

• Early Strategy
  
• Heavy Strategy
  
• Support Strategy
  
• The Turtle (pseudo-role).

The Turtle:
In a 3v3 or 4v4 match a common occurrence is for all team members to focus one single base to attempt to quickly knock it out of the game. Generally speaking the closest base to the enemy fort is the most likely to be targeted first. However in a match with good players, the highest threat will always be targeted first. The targeted fort then becomes the turtle, attempting to survive the onslaught while diverting enemy fire onto it instead of other forts. This allows the rest of the team to build up their resources and retaliate. It also gives them information on the strategy the enemy is using, and time to counter it. The turtle is a pseudo-role because it is not a role that any player wishes to be in, and yet sometimes finds themselves in anyway. It can change multiple times during the game, or not appear at all, but there will always only be one turtle.

3v3 Strategy:

In 3v3 strategy there are several different role combinations that can be used. Here are the most common ones used:

• 2 Early Rushes, 1 Support Rush.
  
• 2 Early Rushes, 1 Heavy Rush.
  
• 1 Early Rush, 1 Support Rush, 1 Heavy Rush.
  
• 1 Early Rush, 2 Heavy Rushes
  
• 1 Support Rush, 2 Heavy Rushes.

2 Early Rushes, 1 Support Rush
the two early rushes must concentrate on one base. The goal is to quickly overwhelm individual opponents to end the game quickly. The support rush takes out enemy aa and counters any other early rush the enemy has. If this rush fails then the support rush must switch to heavy weapons.

2 Early Rushes, 1 Heavy Rush:
This strategy attempts to overwhelm opponents with an early rush which distracts the enemy enough for heavy weapons to be built. This should be done before the early rush is countered by a support rush.

1 Early Rush, 1 Support Rush, 1 Heavy Rush:
This is the most balanced strategy option for most scenarios. 1 early rusher to harass the enemy and divert their attention from the heavy base, 1 support base to take out enemy aa and counter any strategy from the enemy, and 1 heavy base to bring out heavy, endgame options.

1 Early Rush, 2 Heavy Rushes:
This strategy can be used as an attempt to force the game into late-game and if done well can be used to overwhelm the opponent with heavy weapons fire. 1 Early rusher harasses the enemy enough to divert all enemy fire onto it, while the two heavy rushers bring out big guns in order overwhelm the other team.

1 Support Rush, 2 Heavy Rushes:
This is a more defensive version of the previous strategy. This rush expects an early rush from the other team. The support rush puts up defensive aa, as well as attempts to destroy the offensive weaponry of the enemy early rushers and support rushers long enough for the other bases to build heavy weapons.

Some role combinations that are not recommended:

• 3 support rushes (just don't.... why even try...)
  
• 3 early rushes (Not good against any rush with a support role)
  
• 3 heavy rushes (extremely vulnernable against early rushes).
  
• 1 early rush, 2 support rushes (not enough firepower to take out the enemy)
  
• 1 heavy rush, 2 support rushes (not enough firepower to take out a good enemy)

4v4 Strategy:

4v4 Strategy is the same as 3v3 strategy with the addition of another base. Some common role combinations are:

• 2 Early Rushes, 2 Support Rushes
  
• 2 Early Rushes, 1 Support Rush, 1 Heavy Rush
  
• 1 Early Rush, 2 Support Rushes, 1 Heavy Rush
  
• 1 Early Rush, 1 Support Rush, 2 Heavy Rushes
  
• 2 Early Rushes, 2 Heavy Rushes
  
• 2 Support Rushes, 2 Heavy Rushes

2 Early Rushes, 2 Support Rushes:
2 Early Rushers overwhelm the enemy, 2 support rushes prevent aa from being built and defend against other early rushes. Is weak against heavy rushes.

2 Early Rushes, 1 Support Rush, 1 Heavy Rush:
2 Early Rushes to harass the enemy, 1 support rush to defend from early rushes and take out aa, and 1 heavy rush to finish off bases.

1 Early Rush, 2 Support Rushes, 1 Heavy Rush:
A more defensive strategy, 2 support rushes to counter enemy early rushes. 1 early rush to divert the attention of the enemy, and a heavy rush to finish off the enemy.

1 Early Rush, 1 Support Rush, 2 Heavy Rushes:
An early rush to harass the enemy, a support rush to build defenses and counter enemy early rushes, and 2 heavy rushes to finish the enemy off.

2 Early Rushes, 2 Heavy Rushes:
Two early rushes to harass the enemy and divert their attention long enough for heavy weapons to finish the enemy off.

2 Support Rushes, 2 Heavy Rushes:
The Ideal defensive strategy. Two support rushes to counter any early rush from the enemy long enough for 2 heavy rushes to finish the enemy off.

Some role combinations to avoid:

• 4 support rushes (not a good idea. Just don't.)
  
• 4 early rushes (great as a meme but not much else)
  
• 4 heavy rushes (extremely vulnerable to early rushes
  
• 3 early rushes, 1 support rush (not enough support to take out aa to make early rushes effective)
  
• 3 heavy rushes, 1 support rush (not enough support to counter the enemies early rushes)
  
• 3 support rushes, 1 early rush (not enough firepower)
  
• 3 support rushes, 1 heavy rush (not enough firepower)

Since April 2020, 2v2 ranked has been deleted from the game since it wasn't played enough. Thus, only 1v1 ranked will be covered.

When playing ranked, the opponents you'll be faced with will have roughly the same rank. This doesn't mean they have the same skill. They could have a low rank since they just started (while being a very good player), or they could have been propelled (boosted) to the top of the leaderboard using other accounts (while being a bad player).

Anyway, it is best to play when you're good at the game, so that it is possible to reach a good rank. It can also be interesting to play if you're good and are seeking a challenge, since you can play against good players (hopefuly).

When playing ranked at a high level, it's important to know what strats are good at the moment (aka the "meta"). As this guide is being written, the meta is to use pinchfist, and playing a double nuke rush. Firebeams are also quite strong, very powerful when multiple are used.

Once you know what's currently good in the meta, consider learning how to do these strats, or innovate a strat by yourself that uses those weapons.

The issue though, is that the map is randomly chosen from the map pool. This is why it is crucial to learn good strats for each of the maps (some maps are trivialized by buzzsaw rushes for example).

It is also possible to play Capture mode ranked matches, but to be honest the game-mode isn't that popular among the community, so it isn't played at all in ranked.

To prevent boosting, it's impossible to play more than 3 times with the same opponent in the last 10 matches.

At the end of a ranked season (which lasts for a couple months), medals are given to the 3 top ranked players (each medal is different), as well as a medal for the 20 top ranked players (which appears red).

Capture point mode is distinct from Team Death Match and Coop, since the goal is to keep derricks under control until the opponent's blast door opens, making their core vulnerable.

At the start of the game, it is impossible to attack the opponent core, since it is protected by an invulnerable Blast door as well as Barrier materials. There are some no build zones preventing anyone to build in front of the blast door to protect their core.

There are also some derricks placed throughout the map, which let both teams reduce the amount of points they have. Once the points on one team reach 0, the opponent blast door opens.

It is an unplayed game mode for some players, simply because the strategical aspect is quite low, and the stress is real throughout games.

Most of the capture point mode is based around bridge building. As a result, pro players usually build primarily out of BG, since it can only be interacted with few weapons (plasma, buzzsaw and howitzer). This means that most likely the only weapons you'll be seeing are those three, with some exceptions.

Some players go for rockets to destroy the foundation nodes of the opponent, to disconnect them completely from their whole structure. As a result, AA is also a valid option, especially since nukes are extremely strong in this mode. Indeed, the very short distances involved in most maps make nukes very hard to counter, and the splash damage they do to BG is often enough to disconnect the opponent.

Since all strats are about the same, there is no real strategical aspect to this mode. This means that the games will be decided on both pure APM (how fast you can act and bridge) and/or luck (because of some RNG on critical shots (nuke shots or AA)).

To be honest, capture can be fun on anything but 1v1, because team cooperation can be exciting. But besides that, everything said above stands.

This section is filled with a list of random facts about forts and forts lore you might find interesting:

• The Forts Campaign is a parody of the three global superpowers going to war. Eagle Empire is the United States, Dragon Army is China, and the Bear Alliance is Russia. Black Penguin Oil is most likely representative of all of the worlds oil companies.
  
• The portal was created by a person named Fred, who tried combining a laser and a shield. The experiment succeeded, but Fred was lost in the portals. Later on, Fred was found back and he upgraded portals, to be able to be placed.
  
• The Commanders Spook and Firebird are canonically female as stated by the developers. In a video on the forts homepage, the two commanders have voice lines voiced by male actors but with female sprites. Although not confirmed, this could mean that spook and firebird give transgender representation to the Commander roster.
  
• It used to be possible to make horizontal mortars before portals were a thing, but that was patched long ago. Using portals this effect can be recreated.
  
• There was a time long ago when neither moonshot or tons of guns were a thing. Both the cannon and laser were able to be accessed by the factory. Cannons/Lasers were split between the factory and the munitions plant with the tons of guns update. However, in the forts campaign, the old method is still used.
  
• Less than 1% of forts players have beaten the original campaign on hard.
  
• The cute little dude that shoots your weapons changes appearance based on the commander faction chosen, and if commanders are disabled, defaults to eagle empire.

Here is a list of extra resources that might be helpful to improve your knowlege or answer any questions you might have. This list includes youtube channels, additional guides, and information/data.

(Forts Variables by 42 scientist)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15JAVHcctK1rDe5MBDXIMMVNCrgaK4O4WyGzMf4ogw_w/edit#gid=1536769234

(Base Building Guide by Joepocalypse)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1308699887

(Surviving the Rush Guide by Romerolagus)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1260542687

(Upgrading Mines and Turbines Guide by Romerolagus)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1396766019

(Forts Glossary Guide by Romeralagus)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1380793614

(Commander Overview Guide by [DEV] Blammo and [DEV] Nozehed)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=914462469

(FAQ Guide by [DEV] Blammo, [DEV] Nozehed, and [DEV] BeeMan)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=916759602

(Common Issues Guide by [DEV] Nozehed and [DEV] BeeMan)
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1373894256

(Project Incursus Gaming Youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLt1h4r2RaDFc4J1fujvCGg

(Cronkhinator Youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgrk3nWYbdcbm12zDO-AymQ

(42 Scientist Youtube)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNfNDTH4gdy2c5kOJummrIw

(Forts Wiki)
https://forts.fandom.com/wiki/Forts_Wiki

(Forts Steam Page)
https://steamhost.cn/app/410900/Forts/

Congratulations! You've made it through this entire guide! Phew, that was a lot of reading! Actually, if you've read this from start to finish you've read almost 20,000 words and over 100,000 individual characters!

I can assure you that all this reading has not gone to waste. Most of the knowledge contained within this guide is essential to understand and learn to play forts. After all, knowing is half the battle.

But keep in mind that it is only half the battle. You'll still have to practice in order to accomplish those things. So, we encourage you to try and apply the knowledge learned here in the future matches you play. Don't be frustrated if you don't immediately get better. This kind of stuff takes time. Most pros have been playing forts for at least a year.

Keep practicing, but most importantly, Have fun!

"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved."
-Sun Tzu

In conclusion, this guide covers all relevant aspects of Multiplayer Vanilla Forts. The ultimate goal here was to help new and even intermediate players increase their skills. It's always more fun to play with and against experienced players than those new to the game. Hopefully we reach our goal, and hopefully this guide helps you :)

Also, if there are any errors or topics not covered in this guide, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to fill out this form so that we can make sure that we have covered everything:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfztBwhxG7VgcxNEDaYMAUeNBISmK6je1Cm9m5vkdiyeBhbPg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Happy Forts Playing!