Anno 2205 - keyboard shortcuts, tips, factories, upgrades

Factories and production lines drive pretty much everything in the development of your corporation, and getting things right first time can make life a lot easier down the road. Try to keep the following considerations in mind as you develop the infrastructures of each region you manage.

The most important factory upgrades and their impact

• The most important upgrades are always the production modules. They increase the output of a facility often times more than a new one would produce, cost a fraction of a new facility, cost half as much upkeep and are always more space efficient.

• The smaller modules are for fine tuning and are best used on facilities fully expanded with production modules as they affect the overall upkeep costs.
• Finance Calculators: For energy facilities only! They reduce the overall credit upkeep cost and are thus very powerful. They are even more effective if used on higher tier energy facilities, as they reduce the upkeep by 10%.

• Drone Hives: Reduce the Workforce needed for facilities. Interesting for Arctic, Moon and Temperate supply sectors with low workforce.
• Accumulator Units: Useful for buildings that need a lot of energy and even more useful if they have production modules.

• Storage Depots: Probably the weakest of them all but sometimes you just lack one or two transporters. Also these are much cheaper than Transportation Centers and cost no upkeep at all.
• When you play online visit the council and vote! If you vote you get branded versions of the smaller modules at the end of the election cycle. These branded modules have better stats than their regular counterparts.

Useful keyboard shortcuts and micro-management tips

There are quite a few useful shortcuts in the game that will not only let you expand your infrastructure with the minimum of micro-management, but also save you having to listen to the same snippets of voicework over and over again!

Here are some of the most important ones to start using from the off, so it all becomes second nature as you dig deeper into the game.

• When building houses hold down the left mouse button [LMB] and drag an area to build multiple structures at once.
• Select a house and press [Shift + U] to promote all houses of the selected level.
• Press [A] or [U] to activate the promotion tool. You can either click single houses to promote them, or promote all houses in an area by holding [LMB] and drawing a rectangle. To do this, draw a rectangle starting from the house you want to upgrade while holding [LMB], and all other houses of that type in the marked area will be upgraded as well.
• Press [C] to enter Copy mode, which allows you to clone buildings by clicking on existing ones without having to use the build menu.
• Press [S] to quickly enter Street Build mode.
• Press [D] to enter Demolish mode. While holding [LMB], draw a rectangle starting from the building you want to destroy, and all other buildings of that type in the marked area will be destroyed. This works for streets as well.
• Press [M] to enter the Move mode. With this you can rearrange single buildings. Facilities will be moved with all their modules attached. You can even move whole mines to other Mountain Building Sites.

A handful of useful new player tips

You'll learn a lot of the fundamentals as you work your way through the campaign, but there are a few other assorted tips that will help you manage your money and avoid making expensive mistakes!

• Always watch your Credit balance and check the upkeep costs of whatever you choose to build first.
• Keep an eye on your employees' needs and your storage balance.
• Pause buildings of incomplete production chains if you do not have enough Credits to finish the chains. That will save you some cash.
• Avoid too much over-production.
• Collect crates that spawn randomly on the islands, as they contain Credits and building materials.
• Buy building materials at the trade posts in your sectors to speed up construction.
• A tip when you are in dire need for Credits: The Global Union will provide some cash if you level up. Level-ups are achieved by reaching population milestones. Sometimes it just needs a few more houses or upgrades to reach the next level.
• When you make it to the moon, watch your Credits. Even housing costs Credits up there!

- Return to the first page for the rest of our Anno 2205 guide.