How to play AFTERBLOOM: how a match goes, the controls, Sunresin, building a base with drones, every Vanguard unit and building, and the Crownwild you fight.
Every number here is read from the game’s own rules (sim version 17, art version 12). What changed, and when, is in the changelog.
You start with an MCV and a handful of soldiers on unexplored land, blacked out until your units see it. Everything else you build. The first mission, The Meadow, walks you through it.
Red Alert style: select with the left button, order with the right. The construction panel on the right of the console is always there, whatever is selected.
| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| Left-click, or drag a box | Select (Shift adds). Double-click selects that type on screen. |
| Right-click | Move, attack, harvest or dock, whatever is under the cursor; and the order chosen on the command card (left-click selects, right-click orders). On a move, units fire at what comes within reach as they go (where their weapons allow) and never stop or give chase. |
| A, then right-click | Attack-move: fight anything met on the way, then march on. Units that fire on the move keep advancing while their target stays within reach. |
| S / H | Stop (guard where they stand) / hold position (fire at what comes within reach, never move). |
| Construction panel, or its key | Take a building in hand, or train a unit at the least busy factory. Right-click a cameo to cancel, with a full refund. |
| Building in hand, then click | Lay its site for the drones to print. It stays in hand to lay another; right-click or Esc puts it down. |
| Wall in hand, then click | As in RA2, the segment and the gap from it to your walls in line with it. Drag for a line of its own. |
| G | MCV: deploy into a Fabricator Core. Fabricator Core: pack up into an MCV again. |
| R | Fabricator Core: upgrade its drones a level. Refinery, Energy Core, turrets, Shield Generator: buy its upgrade. A site: priority for drones. A factory: set its rally point (then right-click the map). |
| W / L / X | Repair / sell (press twice) / cancel a site for its full price. |
| Backspace | Select the Fabricator Core. |
| Ctrl+1–9, then 1–9 | Assign and recall control groups; double-tap to jump to one. |
| P or Esc | Pause. F5 and F9 quicksave and quickload. |
Sunresin is the one resource: the golden resin of living fungal fields, which Gleaners tap and Refineries turn into credits.
A Gleaner fills its hopper of 600 at 50 a second, drives to the nearest Refinery and unloads at 300 a second, while the Refinery’s dock crew repairs it. Then it goes back for more on its own. Its twin pulse gun fires at whatever comes close while it works, but it never stops to fight or gives chase, so a field near the Crownwild still wants guarding. Each Refinery comes with a Gleaner; a second Gleaner on the same field nearly doubles your income.
Fields regrow slowly where they were harvested. Harvesting near a nest angers it: the Crownwild will come for your Gleaners, so guard the fields you work.
Units are paid for when you queue them, and a factory takes as many as you can pay for (up to 99). Sunresin is the only limit.
The Vanguard print their buildings. The Fabricator Core’s construction drones fly to each site and print it where it stands, layer by layer.
Placing. Pick a building in the construction panel and click the map: it is paid for at once and its site goes down. A building must stand within 3 tiles of one of your others, as in RA2. The ground that qualifies is tinted turquoise while a building is in hand. Walls and gates count too, so a wall line carries the build area out with it. The MCV can deploy anywhere, to start a base far from your first.
Drones. A site needs at least 4 drones working on it to print at all. The Fabricator Core starts with 4, so at first it prints one building at a time. Upgrade it (select the Core, press R) for 4 more drones a level, up to 32. Each level costs more than the last and takes 8 s to fit. With more drones you print several buildings at once, and more drones on one building print it faster, up to 32 on a site.
Drones can be shot down on the way or at work; the Core builds replacements, one at a time, at 75 Sunresin and 3 s each. Give a site priority (R) to send drones there first.
| Level | Drones | Price | Spent in all |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | start | 0 |
| 2 | 8 | 600 | 600 |
| 3 | 12 | 800 | 1,400 |
| 4 | 16 | 1,000 | 2,400 |
| 5 | 20 | 1,300 | 3,700 |
| 6 | 24 | 1,700 | 5,400 |
| 7 | 28 | 2,250 | 7,650 |
| 8 | 32 | 2,900 | 10,550 |
| Drones on it | Speed | A 12 s building |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 0.35× | 34.3 s |
| 8 | 0.99× | 12.1 s |
| 12 | 1.82× | 6.6 s |
| 16 | 2.80× | 4.3 s |
| 24 | 5.14× | 2.3 s |
| 32 | 7.92× | 1.5 s |
Walls. With a wall in hand, click in line with your walls and the gap fills itself, up to 12 segments at once; or drag a line of its own. The wall stays in hand for the next run.
Power. The Fabricator Core and every Energy Core supply power; everything else draws it. When demand outruns supply, production and printing slow in proportion (down to 25%), Pulse Turrets fall silent, the radar goes dark and the Uplink goes offline.
Uplink. Once you have a Vehicle Factory you can print an Uplink. While it stands and the base has power, the whole map is in sight: the fog of war lifts, and every nest and creature shows. Lose it, or the power, and you see only what your units see again; the ground you saw meanwhile stays explored.
Repair and sell. Select a building to repair it (paid as it goes, W) or sell it (L, twice) for 50% of its worth, less for damage. Engineers repair buildings and vehicles for free.
Upgrades. Some buildings have upgrades: one level each, the Refinery three (more Sunresin a load, a second dock, its dock guns). Select the building once it stands and press R: it is paid at once, and the Fabricator Core’s drones fly out and print the new level, as fast as their numbers allow (slower on low power), while the building works on. It stays with the building; a sale returns only the building’s own worth.
| Building | Upgrade | What it does | Price | Printing with 4 drones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy Core | Plasma intensifier | gives 50% more power | 600 | 23 s |
| Infantry Complex | Engineer training | trains Engineers | 500 | 23 s |
| Infantry Complex, level 3 | Advanced training | trains 40% faster and its troops 20% tougher | 750 | 23 s |
| Infantry Complex, level 4 | Elite training | trains 80% faster and its troops 40% tougher | 1,150 | 23 s |
| Refinery | Refined process | pays 50% more a load and unloads 25% faster | 1,000 | 23 s |
| Refinery, level 3 | Second dock | pays 100% more a load, unloads 50% faster and with a second dock | 1,500 | 23 s |
| Refinery, level 4 | Dock guns | pays 150% more a load, unloads 75% faster and with dock guns | 2,250 | 23 s |
| Pulse Turret | Overcharged emitters | hits 35% harder and reaches 1 tile further | 600 | 23 s |
| Dual Plasma Cannon | Focused plasma chambers | hits 35% harder and reaches 1 tile further | 800 | 23 s |
| Shield Generator | Reinforced dome | holds 50% more charge and recharges 50% faster | 900 | 23 s |
Riflemen and Engineers train at the Infantry Complex; everything else at the Vehicle Factory. Units go to a spot of their own by the rally point and step aside for each other.
Trained at the Infantry Complex.
Standard Vanguard infantry in white ceramic armor. Its laser rifle fires quick bursts of precise pulses; steady under pressure.
Laser rifle · 5 × 3 damage every 1.3 s · reach 4.8 tiles
Trained at the Infantry Complex.
Vanguard field technician in light armor, a feedstock pack on the back and a plasma tool in hand. Unarmed: it prints damaged plating back onto buildings and vehicles. Left idle near damage, it gets to work on its own.
Trained at the Vehicle Factory.
Six-wheeled Sunresin harvester. Parks beside a patch of a Sunresin field, pierces its bladders with its arm and pumps the resin into its tank, then hauls it to a Refinery automatically; a twin pulse gun on its roof fires at whatever comes close while it works.
Twin pulse gun · 7 × 2 damage every 0.8 s · reach 4 tiles
Trained at the Vehicle Factory.
Fast four-wheeled scout with a small laser turret. Light plating: it finds the enemy first and outruns what it cannot fight.
Laser turret · 8 × 2 damage every 0.9 s · reach 5 tiles
Trained at the Vehicle Factory.
Vanguard main battle tank. A plasma cannon on a turret; its bolts burst where they land, so quick targets can slip them.
Plasma cannon · 48 damage every 2.4 s · reach 5.6 tiles · splash 0.95 tiles
Trained at the Vehicle Factory.
Quad-rotor recon drone with a big sensor eye. Flies over cliffs, water, woods and walls, sees far, and carries a weak chin laser. Fragile: anything that can reach it can bring it down.
Chin laser · 4 damage every 1 s · reach 4 tiles
Trained at the Vehicle Factory.
Mobile Command Vehicle: a heavy, many-wheeled carrier of a Fabricator Core and its drones. Deploy it to unfold a Fabricator Core where it stands, anywhere, far from the rest of the base too.
Printed by drones near your other buildings. Build times are with the minimum crew of four drones; more drones print faster.
Unfolded from an MCV (Deploy, G); packs up again into one.
Vanguard headquarters: a domed core whose construction drones print every other building where it is placed, layer by layer. It holds a round 4 × 4 lot from the start and grows over it: it starts with four drones, each on a helipad of its own, and is upgraded, level by level, to as many as thirty-two: the more drones, the faster buildings print. It also feeds a little power into the grid.
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones.
Clean power from a contained plasma column, fed to the base through glowing conduits. Output falls as it takes damage.
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones.
Trains and equips Vanguard infantry.
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones.
Prints Vanguard vehicles in golden light in its round bay, layer by layer, then rolls them out of its tunnel.
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones once you have a Vehicle Factory.
Satellite uplink: a great dish beaming to the orbital grid. While it stands and the base has power, the whole map shows and the fog of war lifts. Lose it, or the power, and only the ground already explored stays uncovered.
Turrets, the shield dome and walls. Turrets need power to fire.
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones.
Refines the Sunresin that Gleaners deliver into feedstock and usable credits. Its dock crew services each Gleaner while it unloads.
Dock guns · 7 × 2 damage every 0.6 s · reach 5.5 tiles
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones.
Rapid-fire energy turret: twin emitters spit pulses, deadly against swarms. Falls silent when the base runs short of power.
Pulse emitter · 7 × 2 damage every 0.6 s · reach 5.6 tiles
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones once you have a Vehicle Factory.
Heavy defensive turret: twin plasma emitters on an armored base lob paired bolts that burst where they land, cracking carapace and vehicle plating. Needs power to fire.
Twin plasma cannon · 36 × 2 damage every 2.2 s · reach 6.5 tiles · splash 0.85 tiles
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones once you have an Energy Core.
Projects an energy dome over the buildings around it. Hits on anything under the dome drain its shared charge instead; it falls when the charge runs out or the base runs short of power, then recharges.
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones.
Smooth white panels with lines of light, printed a tile at a time. Drag to lay a line; corners join themselves. Stops everything on the ground, and takes the hits meant for what stands behind it.
Printed by the Fabricator Core’s drones.
Two amber-striped pylons and grille leaves that sink into a lit slot to let your units through, and stay shut to everything else. Placed in a wall line, it turns to run with it.
Engineered life gone feral. Nests breed creatures, defend their ground, and grow angrier the more you disturb them.
A nest’s mood rises when you harvest near it, attack it or kill its brood, and as it matures. The angrier it is, the faster it breeds and the further it hunts. Under siege it releases a burst of brood at once. In longer missions nests send attack waves at your base, warned a few seconds ahead with the direction they come from. Destroy a nest and its brood withers away.
| Mood | Breeds every | At a time | Keeps up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| dormant | 13 s | 1 | 5 |
| foraging | 11 s | 2 | 8 |
| territorial | 9 s | 2 | 11 |
| aggressive | 7 s | 3 | 14 |
| besieged | 3 s | 2 | 20 |
Bred at Crownwild nests.
Small, frighteningly fast pack hunter grown by Crownwild nests.
Serrated mandibles · 9 damage every 0.7 s · reach 0.3 tiles
Bred at Crownwild nests.
A hulking Crownwild organism grown in old, angry nests. Fungal plates shrug off small arms, it lumbers rather than runs, and one smash cracks walls and scatters a squad.
Crushing smash · 70 damage every 1.9 s · reach 0.5 tiles · splash 1.2 tiles
Breeds Skitterlings, and later Brutes.
A young Crownwild nest. Breeds Skitterlings and grows bolder the more it is disturbed.
Breeds Skitterlings, and later Brutes.
A colossal Crownwild hive grown over old ruins. Breeds Skitterlings and Brutes at a frightening pace, lobs spore pods at anything that comes close and sends the biggest raids.
Spore launcher · 20 damage every 3.5 s · reach 6 tiles · splash 1.3 tiles