WASD / arrows pan · right or middle drag pan · wheel zoom · Q / E rotate · click the minimap to jump · Home capital · Tab next settlement · G diplomacy
Select one of your armies or fleets, then right-click: a place to move there, an enemy town to attack it (click twice if it means war), your own town to defend or return to it.
Pick a power (1–0 keys or the left bar), then click the world. Hold the button with Raise/Lower to keep sculpting. Right click / Esc cancels. Terrain powers only work near your people; Lightning and Earthquake need you to see the target.
Space pause · + / − speed
Buildings need flat land. Flatten terrain near crowded settlements. Farms want fertile soil near rivers. Mines appear on deposits inside your territory. Technology is local: each settlement researches on its own and ideas spread along roads.
Priorities (left panel) bias how every settlement allocates workers. Select a settlement to override locally.
Muster gathers soldiers at a point, Attack sends them against an enemy settlement, Retreat brings them home. Soldiers are workers taken from the economy. Better weapons need research, materials and workshops.
Open Diplomacy (G) to propose peace, trade or alliance, declare war or send tribute. Trade agreements let caravans run between your towns and theirs: goods, prosperity, ideas and faith travel with them. Mass Conversion turns a town's people to you — a town that mostly worships you may defect. Doctrines (left panel) set your people's creed; changing them causes unrest.
Factories pollute: health, harvests and forests suffer (Purify cleans). Oil fuels tanks; uranium in a silo becomes warheads. Nuclear Strike launches one — missile defence may intercept it, deterrence retaliates automatically, and the crater stays forever.
Droughts, wildfires, plague (it follows trade routes), storms, eruptions, meteors and tsunamis strike at random — Healing Rain helps. Later miracles: Plague, Firestorm, Storm, Mass Inspiration, EMP, Meteor, Avatar, Reality Rift (keys Shift+1…0, Alt+1…3). Satellites reveal every enemy town; drones and mechs replace tanks; crystal fuels nanotech.
With Espionage, select a foreign settlement to send a spy: scout it, steal a technology, sabotage silos and factories, or incite unrest — but spies get caught. Flight brings airfields and bombers: Air Raid sends every bomber in range; anti-aircraft, interceptor sites and storms shoot them down. New miracles: Sacred Ground, Flood, Divine Inspiration, Resource Revelation, Communications Blackout, Matter Fabrication, Time Dilation. The ⚠ overlay shows military threats. Options in the menu: music, slow down on attacks, pause on disasters.
Multiplayer (title screen): up to four gods on one world, over the network or in several tabs; orders are shared in lockstep, chat with Enter. Unhappy, faithless, far-away towns may declare independence: free states still pray to you but ignore you — reconquer them or keep them content until they return. Shipbuilding brings harbours (fishing, sea trade routes) and warships: Naval Strike sends your fleets to bombard and blockade an enemy coast; harbours scramble ships against raiders, Retreat brings fleets home. Combustion upgrades rail links to highways.
Be the last god with worshippers, be worshipped by three quarters of the world for three minutes, complete the Ascension Project, or have the best score when the time limit runs out. The Campaign links seven worlds: survivors you take on the Ark start the next one with you.
Your followers can board the Ark and follow you to the next world. Every soul you take is one fewer left behind.