Age of Atoms

How to play

How to Play Age of Atoms

Build a working economy near the bunker before extending your attention across the wasteland.

1. 01

   Choose a difficulty and Leave Bunker.

2. 02

   Select a settler and right-click a nearby tree; check the gathering task and carried resource.

3. 03

   Read resource costs and plan drop-off routes before adding structures.

4. 04

   Inspect population, idle settlers, and bunker defenses between expansion orders.

About the game

Age of Atoms

Age of Atoms is a wasteland real-time strategy game built around a bunker, settlers, and the resources needed to support a growing base. You select units and give commands on the map while the world continues moving. The immediate challenge is to turn idle people into useful work without losing track of the base that keeps the run alive.

The player manual states the larger objective: destroy the Raider Stronghold in the northeastern ash hills. Losing the bunker ends the attempt. Those two conditions give expansion a purpose and a boundary. You need an economy and an army capable of reaching the stronghold, but a distant attack is not useful if the bunker falls while your attention is elsewhere.

For a first session, choose Easy and leave the bunker. Learn one complete command before building an elaborate plan. Select a settler, right-click a nearby tree, and check the unit's task. In the opening example, the selected settler changed from Idle to Gathering wood, the idle count fell from four to three, and the carried-wood display later reached one out of ten. That is a concrete economy action you can repeat.

Controls

Controls for Age of Atoms

Left-click / drag box / double-click

Select one unit, several units, or a visible unit type.

Right-click a target

Command the selected unit to move, gather, build, or attack as appropriate.

H / period

Jump to the bunker / cycle idle settlers.

Ctrl + 1–9 / 1–9

Assign / recall control groups.

A / P

Use attack move / pause.

Wheel, Q/E, arrows

Zoom, rotate, and scroll the map.

Useful strategy

Make your next move count

Select the worker before giving the order

Left-click selects a unit. A drag box selects several, and double-clicking a unit selects the same type on screen. Use a single settler for the first gathering instruction so you can identify who received the order. The selected-unit panel should show the worker you intend to command. Sending a right-click without checking the selection can move or retask the wrong group.

Right-click is the command input for movement, gathering, construction, and attacks, depending on the target. With a settler selected, right-click a tree to assign wood gathering. Watch the green destination marker, the worker's movement, and the task panel. Reaching the resource and beginning to carry wood are stronger signs of a useful order than merely seeing a marker appear.

The idle-settler shortcut cycles attention toward workers waiting for work. The manual lists the period key for this, and the interface also provides an idle-settler control. Use it when the base feels quiet or when a task has finished. Before issuing another order, check where that worker is and whether the nearby resource is appropriate. An idle count is a reminder to inspect, not a reason to send everyone to the same place.

Match resources to the next need

The manual separates Food, Wood, Scrap, and Uranium. Food comes from cactus fruit, bison, and farms; wood comes from trees. Car wrecks, junk, and rubble provide scrap, while glowing ore provides uranium. Learn those visual associations near the bunker before sending a worker into unfamiliar territory. A short, clear gathering route is easier to supervise than a distant trip whose target you cannot identify.

Do not treat all resource balances as interchangeable. If your intended structure or unit asks for wood, adding more food alone will not solve that requirement. Read the current cost before reassigning workers. The opening balances give you some room to learn, but spending without a purpose can make the next necessary purchase harder. Choose a specific next need and gather toward it.

Supply crates are a separate source of resources. The manual says the first unit to reach a crate collects it. In the opening wood-order example, the worker's route also reached a crate that awarded 150 wood, moving the top wood balance from 200 to 350. That large increase came from the crate, not from instantly delivering a full gathering load. Read the notification so you understand why the balance changed.

Make drop-off routes practical

Gathering involves more than placing a worker beside a resource. The manual identifies drop-off buildings: the bunker accepts all resources, the Lumber Mill accepts wood, the Salvage Yard accepts scrap and uranium, and the Grain Silo accepts food. Think about the journey between source and destination. A resource-rich area can be inefficient if every load requires a long trip back.

Begin with the bunker as the central reference point. Assign nearby work, watch the route, and identify which trips appear long enough to justify a specialized drop-off building later. Read the current construction cost before building one. Do not assume that placing every available structure immediately is a useful opening; the benefit depends on the resources you are actually gathering and the routes your settlers are using.

Keep construction and gathering selections distinct. A worker with a building command is no longer simply the same worker continuing its previous task. After placing an intended structure, return to the idle count and selected-unit panel to see what still needs an order. This small check helps avoid an economy that looks busy but contains several settlers waiting beside completed work.

Population and the first base plan

The opening session displays five population out of ten capacity. Shacks raise the cap according to the manual. Use the current population display when deciding whether capacity is a near-term problem. Extra housing can support growth, but it is not the same as producing a worker or defender. Read the next recruitment requirement and leave enough resources for the action that will consume the new space.

A manageable first plan is to establish nearby gathering, understand one drop-off route, and inspect the buildings available to the settler. The command panel includes structures such as a Farm Plot, Lumber Mill, Salvage Yard, Grain Silo, Barracks, Motor Pool, Watchtower, Robotics Lab, and bunker-related construction. Their presence on the panel does not prove that every option is currently affordable or unlocked.

Prioritize a building because it solves a current problem: a long wood route, a food requirement, a population limit, or a defensive gap. This gives you a clear way to judge whether the expenditure helped. Constructing everything because it is visible makes the economy harder to understand and can delay the unit or structure you actually need next.

Keep the bunker in your attention loop

Raiders build larger war parties over time, according to the player manual. That gives you a reason to improve the base before wandering far from it. Check the area around the bunker between economy orders and scouting moves. An expanding resource network should support survival, rather than making the center of your base disappear from your attention.

Use the H shortcut to return attention to the bunker. The minimap also supports clicking or dragging to jump the view. These tools help you alternate between an outlying worker and the base quickly. Before sending units toward the northeastern objective, confirm that you know how to return the camera and select your local defenders. A long scroll back can be awkward when several tasks demand attention.

Monster lairs guard rich areas and provide bounties when cleared, as described by the manual. Treat that as an expansion decision with a possible fight, not as free gathering terrain. Inspect your current army and the route before moving into a guarded area. The stronghold objective does not require you to attack every visible threat immediately; choose encounters that your current position can support.

Use groups and camera controls deliberately

Control groups help separate workers from an army. The manual gives Ctrl plus one through nine to assign a group, then the corresponding number to recall it. Start with a small number of useful groups rather than assigning every unit a different key. For example, a main fighting group and a separate economy selection make it easier to avoid sending settlers along with an attack order.

A is the displayed attack-move command. Read the current selection before using it, and choose a route that makes sense for those units. Buildings can also receive a rally point through right-click when selected. Set that destination deliberately so newly produced units do not appear somewhere you have forgotten to inspect. Neither command replaces watching the resulting movement on the map.

The wheel or plus and minus keys change zoom, Q and E rotate, and arrows, screen edges, or middle dragging scroll the map. Adjust the view to answer a question: a closer look for selecting a settler, or a broader view for following routes and threats. The manual lists touch selection, dragging, pinch zoom, and long-press box selection; those prompts describe the touch interface, while a mouse is a clear starting point for precise orders.

Recover from confusing orders

If a worker does not appear to gather, inspect the selected unit's task and destination before clicking again. The order may be movement toward a nearby point rather than a resource command, or a different unit may still be selected. Retask one worker clearly and verify the task label. Reissuing orders to several units at once makes the cause harder to isolate.

If you lose your bearings, return to the bunker, check resource balances and population, then cycle idle settlers. This restores a useful overview without requiring you to remember every camera movement. Use P to pause when you need time to read the interface. A clear next order is more valuable than maintaining motion while you are unsure what the base needs.