Disclaimer: This is an Early Access guide.
Developed by PlaySide, Age of Darkness: Final Stand reminds me a lot of 2019’s They Are Billions. It trades in the post-apocalyptic setting of Billions, it has much more of a fantasy backdrop. And instead of zombies, you’re facing off ghostly entities known as Nightmares.
Make no mistake about it, this is a tense game of desperate survival as hordes of Nightmares close in on you—the last bastion of humanity. The thought that the inevitable Death Nights are just around the corner, where hordes of creatures can swarm you, can easily be overwhelming and can freeze any player with terror. But don’t worry, we’ve compiled a handy Age of Darkness: Final Stand guide with some essential tips to increase your chances of survival amidst the darkness.
Scout…a Lot!
Knowledge is power on the dark battlefields in Age of Darkness. It’s vital to scout as quickly and actively as possible to find defensible terrain, resource areas, and points of interest that can provide a minor resource boost.
Scouting will also inevitably lead to some combat as there are pockets of Nightmares guarding treasures and valuable territory, which will in turn lead to heroes leveling up and units getting the emboldening trait that increases health and damage.
Kite Your Enemies
Nightmares are quite slow, especially during the day, and the most common Nightmare type is pretty weak. Two archers can usually knock one out in a single volley.
As such, archers can act as great scouts and damage dealers by moving into range of a group of enemies, attracting them, and then running circles around them all the while whittling them down. Take care however, this tactic requires good micromanagement, precision, and is far riskier at night when Nightmares get powered up.
Use Your Pause Control Often
Age of Darkness is a single-player focused survival real-time strategy game that includes a pause function, which is a godsend as it allows for any player to take a breather, analyze the situation, explore the UI, and compose themselves. There’s no real drawback to using the pause function as much as needed until you’re completely comfortable with the game’s systems.
Level Your Heroes Up Quickly
Heroes are an incredibly powerful and valuable combat resource. In fact, they are so capable that they can equal entire squads of troops with their area-of-effect attacks, damage, armor, and health. However, heroes really start coming into their own when they level up from whacking Nightmares and unlocking their own passive and active skills that can increase the power of heroes several times over.
Maximize Your Build Order
You’ll need to do your best to match the power of the incoming threat with your own speed and clever thinking. The early game is where the player’s decisions are most critical as it could mean losing several minutes of waiting around and doing nothing, all the while the countdown to the next Death Night keeps on going. This is where the pause function really comes in handy as it gives you sufficient time and space to explore what you really need to get up on your own two feet.
Defend Any Choke Points
In Age of Darkness: Final Stand, terrain can be the player’s best friend when it comes to defense. Geographic features, such as thick woods, cliffs, and large rocks are indestructible and create natural barriers that can be included in fortified frontier.
These barriers can create natural choke points that mitigate the horde’s biggest strength—numbers—by limiting the frontage in which the Nightmares can operate. Less frontage means fewer entities will be active and aggressive, while the rest will stand around doing nothing until more space is created or the ranks need filling.
Layer Defenses
It’s highly likely that a single wall or fortification will be able to hold off a horde forever and breaches will form, through which Nightmares will trickle through. The best way to mitigate potential breakthroughs is to create multiple lines of fortifications, ideally anchored on some prominent terrain features.
This tactic sets up a situation where the enemy will have to expend a good amount of force to break through the first line and by the time they get to subsequent lines, they might not have the force to punch through.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand is currently available on PC (Steam), so grab your copy now!
.
Visit CyberpowerPC’s website to check out all of the great deals!