Introduction: The World After Plague Inc. – A New Dawn for Humanity 🌅
After Inc. It’s been decades. That’s how long it’s been since the world ended. The world didn’t end with a 💥, but with a 🤧, a 🤒, and a… hunger. That nasty Necroa Virus 🦠, a name whispered in the ruins, did what bombs 💣 and politics never could: it brought humanity to its knees.
We, the last survivors, hid in dark, cold underground bunkers 🥶, listening to the silence of a dead world. But now, those bunkers are toast. 🪦 Supplies are gone. The darkness that kept us safe is about to become our tomb.
So… we’re coming out! ☀️ We’re stepping into a world that isn’t a grey wasteland, but one that’s been reclaimed by nature. The world is super green 🌳 and beautiful, but it’s also super dangerous. 🧟♂️ The echoes of the plague, those shambling leftovers… yeah, zombies. They’re still here, wandering the overgrown streets. 😬
We’re scattered 🤝, but we’re alive! 💪
And now, the real work begins. We’re not just trying to survive; we’re here to rebuild! 🔨 To start a settlement, to scavenge 📦, to explore 🗺️, and to build a new society from the ashes.
You’re not just a survivor, you’re a Leader! 👑 The choices you make will shape the future. Will you be a beacon of hope 😇 or a tough-love tyrant? 😈 Will you build a democracy 🤝 or an iron-fisted state? Will you decide if that dog is a friend 🐶… or food? 🍗 (Yikes!)
This ain’t your average tip list. This is a masterclass in leading 🧑🏫 in the world of After Inc. We’ll go from your first little fire pit 🔥 to a thriving, zombie-proof civilization. 🏙️ We’ll dig into every system, from your economy 💰 to split-second combat decisions 💥.
This guide is forged for you, the F2P (free-to-play) survivor! 💸🚫 The leader who knows the real challenge isn’t just winning, but winning with pure smarts 🧠 and strategy, not a credit card. We’ll explore why things work, not just what to do. The future of humanity is on your shoulders. No pressure! 😅 Let’s get you ready. 👇
Chapter 1: The F2P Survivor’s Manifesto – A Verdict on After Inc. 🧐
Hold up! ✋ Before we build anything, we gotta ask the big question every F2P gamer has: is After Inc. fair? ⚖️ We’ve all been burned by greedy, pay-to-win trash. 🤢 Skepticism is a good thing! This chapter is our full review of the game’s money model and our final verdict on its F2P-friendliness.
The F2P Philosophy 🧠
This guide is built on one core idea: playing F2P isn’t a “lesser” way to play—it’s the ultimate strategic challenge. 🏆 It forces you to rely on efficiency, smarts, and pure skill, not a credit card 💳. A truly great F2P game respects this. After Inc., from the creators of the legendary Plague Inc. ☣️, totally gets this. It’s in its DNA. 🧬
What’s the Catch? (Spoiler: There Isn’t One!) 🤑
The most telling thing about After Inc. is what it doesn’t have. You won’t find any “gem packs” 💎, “consumable speed-ups” ⏱️, or nasty loot boxes. 🎰 The developer, Ndemic Creations, makes a core promise: no ‘consumable microtransactions’ and ‘buy once, play forever’ expansions.
This is the cornerstone. You win with your brain 🧠, not your wallet. The community agrees! 🥳 People play for hours and never see an ad, even though “ad removal” is a paid feature. 🤯 That shows the devs are committed to a great experience for everyone.
What’s in the Free Version? (A LOT!) 🎁
The free version of After Inc. isn’t some tiny, frustrating demo. It’s a complete, robust, and challenging game. 🤩 The initial download gives you the full “Survival” campaign—that’s 8 whole levels! 🗺️
Just finishing these missions on Normal or Hard will give you hours of fun. Some players on Reddit spent seven hours on one level on Brutal difficulty 💀 and still hadn’t beaten the free content!
Best of all, you get ALL the core game mechanics. You’ll learn to manage your economy 💰, fight zombies 💥, shape your society with tough choices 🤔, and use the persistent “Rewards” system that helps you get stronger over time. The free game is a full-on strategy puzzle that will test your skills. 💯
So, What Can You Buy? 🤔
If you master the free stuff and want more, After Inc. offers paid expansions. These are content, not power-ups. They add new puzzles 🧩 and new challenges, not an “I Win” button. You can buy ’em one by one or in bundles.
Here’s a quick look at what they add:
- Premium Upgrade ⏩: Unlocks quality-of-life goodies like fast-forward, infinite mode, and re-picking campaign rewards.
- New Leaders, Cheats & Punishment ☠️: Unlocks all leaders 🧑✈️ right away and adds the punishing “Mega Brutal” difficulty.
- Critical Mass Campaign 🌍: A whole new 10-level campaign! It adds more complex problems and raises the tech/population caps.
- Beyond the Bunkers 📅: Unlocks “Expedition” mode. These are like daily challenges 🎯 with special rules, giving you a fresh challenge every day and more chances to earn permanent “Rewards.”
- Shadows of the Past Campaign 🏕️: The third campaign! It adds another 10 levels and two HUGE new systems: Outposts (forward bases) and Infested Borders 🚩 (a constant zombie threat from off-map… yikes!).
From a F2P view, these are true expansions. They add more to do, not more power. They’re for the player who’s mastered the base game and is asking, “What’s next?” 🙋
The Final Verdict: Is After Inc. F2P-Friendly? 🌟
YES! 💯 After Inc. isn’t just “F2P-friendly”; it’s a gold standard for how F2P strategy games should be. 🥇
The devs, Ndemic, have an awesome track record. They’re known for making great, complete games (like Plague Inc. ☣️) and supporting them for years.
The game trusts you. It gives you a full, deep game for free and just says, “Hey, if you like this and want more, here’s more.” 😊 It doesn’t try to trick you into spending money.
For the F2P strategist, this is the dream. You can be 100% sure that your success or failure depends on one thing: your leadership. Let’s go! 🚀
Chapter 2: The First 100 Days – Core Concepts of Command 🧑🏫
Your first town is like a tiny, flickering candle 🕯️ in a huge, dark room… super fragile. Many new leaders fail in the first year, not because of zombies, but because of starvation 😫, freezing 🥶, and despair 😭. To win, you’ve got to understand the fundamental rules of this new world.
The 3 Pillars of Survival: A Balancing Act ⚖️
Every choice you make is a trade-off between three main resources. Master this balance, and you’re on your way.
- Stamina 💪: This is your “action points.” Building 🔨, exploring 🗺️, researching 🔬, even taunting a zombie 🗣️… it all costs Stamina. You get it over time, and the more people you have, the faster you get it. In the early game, Stamina is your #1 most precious resource. Don’t waste it! 🚫
- Authority 👑: This is your settlement’s “health bar.” If it hits zero, it’s GAME OVER! 💀 It drops if your Morale is in the negative 😢 or if you take too long to complete mission goals (this is called the “Impatience” mechanic ⏳). You might think you have to protect this at all costs, but pro players learn to “spend” Authority to get ahead.
- Morale 😊/😢: This is how happy (or miserable) your people are. It’s always bouncing around. High Morale (usually above 70%) is needed for new settlers to arrive 🥳 (which means more Stamina! 📈). Low Morale stops growth. Negative Morale makes people leave 😥, and that makes your Authority drop. The main things that affect Morale are: Do people have Food 🍎, Water 💧, and Fuel 🔥? And have you built the “Services” (shelter ⛺, toilets 🚽, etc.) they want?
Your REAL Enemy: The Impatience Clock ⏳
Forget zombies 🧟 for a sec. Your biggest, most annoying enemy in After Inc. is “Impatience.”
When you get a major goal (like “Build a Farm”), a secret timer starts. ⏰ If you take too long, a bar shows up, and your Authority starts draining… 💧… 💧… 💧… until you finish the goal. Newbies panic. 😱 They find this super frustrating and rush all their decisions.
But a master leader knows a secret…
Authority is a resource you can spend. 💡
That’s right. Sometimes, the 100% correct strategic move is to deliberately ignore a goal and let your Authority drop. You use that precious time to do something way more important.
Think about it: The game tells you to “Claim 3 Wood Areas” FAST. 🌲🌲🌲 The novice panics. They spend all their Stamina running around the map. They get the goal and stop the drain… but they forgot to build a second Well 💧 or a Meat Ranch 🥩. Winter comes 🥶, their food and water run out, and the settlement collapses. 📉
A pro does the “Authority Calculus.” 🤓 They see the goal, but they know that securing food and fuel before the first winter is the real #1 objective. They’ll happily lose 5, 10, even 15 Authority to Impatience. Why? Because they used that time to build a rock-solid economy or to rush to Technology Level 3 (which gives a +40% buff to fighters! 💥). They take the small hit now because they know the strong foundation they built will let them crush all the future goals with ease. You can even use a “Festival” 🥳 later to get a bunch of that lost Authority back!
Don’t fear the clock! 🕰️ Understand its cost, and learn when to pay it for a bigger prize.
Reading the Map & Controlling Time 🗺️
To lead well, you need info. Get to know your user interface (UI). The most important screens are your resource tabs 📊. They show what you have, but more importantly, they show your monthly income vs. your monthly spending.
- A positive income (+) is good! You’re stable. 👍
- A negative income (-) means you’re on a timer to disaster. 📉
You also need to master time itself. USE THE PAUSE BUTTON! ⏸️
- Pause at the very start of a mission to look around and plan your first moves. 🧐
- Pause when a crisis hits (like a fire 🔥 or a zombie attack 🧟) to figure out your options without pressure.
- Use fast-forward ⏩ (if you have the Premium unlock) when your town is stable and you’re just waiting for research to finish.
And finally… RESPECT. THE. SEASONS. ❄️
A year goes by fast. Winter is the first big test that will wipe out most new players. During Winter:
- All your Crop Farms 🌾 stop working. Zero food. 🚫
- Your people use way more Fuel 🔥 to stay warm.
If you don’t stockpile enough Food and Fuel in your Storage 📦 during the summer and autumn, your people will starve and freeze. Your Morale will crash, your Authority will disappear, and you’ll be in a death spiral ☠️ you can’t escape. The threat of winter must shape every decision you make from Day 1.
Chapter 3: The New Leaders of Humanity – Character Builds & Starting Traits 🦸
Before you build your first hut 🛖, you gotta make two HUGE choices that will define your whole strategy: your Leader 🧑✈️ and your Population Trait 🧑🤝🧑. A great combo can make a tough mission feel easy, while a bad one can make you fail… fast.
Meet the 10 Leaders 🧑✈️
After Inc. has 10 unique leaders. Each one has a special power that totally changes how you play.
- Survivor 🧑: The “vanilla” leader. No bonuses, no penalties. Boring, but great for learning the basics! 👍
- Economist 👩💼: The Planner! Gets all their Stamina for the entire year at the start. 🤯 This is amazing! It lets you explode out of the gate! 🚀
- Soldier 🎖️: The General. Your Fighters are super strong 💥… but your people are grumpier and harder to please (a baseline Morale penalty 😒).
- Hoarder 📦: Builds storage for you automatically when you’re full… but it costs Stamina, and you can’t control when it happens. 😭 It often drains your Stamina right when you need it most. Can be a real pain.
- Arctic Explorer 🥶: Loves the cold! Cheaper to explore/claim land in winter ❄️… but more expensive in summer. ☀️ Forces a very different playstyle.
- Personal Trainer 🏋️♀️: The Gambler! Can go into Stamina “debt” (spend what you don’t have!) 💳… but your Morale drops the deeper in debt you go. 😬 High risk, high reward!
- Slumlord 🏚️: The “Challenge Mode” leader. People show up without you needing to build housing… which sounds good, but usually leads to a massive population boom you can’t feed, causing a resource collapse. 💀
- Cub Scout 🏕️: Explores nearby unknown tiles for free over time! 🗺️ Saves a bunch of Stamina… but targeted exploring (to reach a specific goal) costs more.
- Hermit 🧘: Gets production bonuses for buildings that are next to unexplored tiles. Kinda weird, forces a sprawling, inefficient layout. 😑
- Tyrant 👑: The Controller! Stops unhappy people from leaving 🚪, and the Authority drain from low Morale is stopped… as long as you have a Fighter in your main base. 🪖 Crucially, it also gives you more time before Impatience kicks in. ⏰
The F2P Master’s Tier List 🏆
For an F2P player trying to beat the hardest modes, efficiency is everything. Some leaders are just plain better. Here’s the community-agreed-upon tier list for After Inc.:
| Tier | Leader | Summary of Strategy & F2P Value |
| S-Tier 🌟 | Economist 👩💼 | The undisputed queen 👑 of efficiency. That massive starting Stamina lets you “snowball” 🌨️, getting a powerful economy and tech base so early that nothing can stop you. For F2P, this consistency is priceless. 📈 |
| S-Tier 🌟 | Personal Trainer 🏋️♀️ | The highest skill-ceiling leader. The ability to go into Stamina debt is the ultimate “get out of jail free” card. 🃏 Masters of this leader treat Morale as just another resource to spend. So flexible! |
| A-Tier 👍 | Soldier 🎖️ | The premier choice for combat-heavy maps. 💥 That Morale penalty needs careful management, but having super-strong Fighters can clear a map of threats, saving you tons of Authority you’d otherwise lose to “Kill Zombie” goals. |
| B-Tier 🙂 | Arctic Explorer 🥶 | Very situational, but amazing on maps with long winters. ❄️ The ability to expand cheaply in winter is a unique and powerful strategy. Not so great on maps with no winter. |
| B-Tier 🙂 | Tyrant 👑 | A powerful tool for learning to manage Impatience. ⏰ That extra time before your Authority drains lets you play a slower, more careful game. Great for players struggling with the time pressure. |
| C-Tier 😐 | Cub Scout 🏕️ | The free exploring is a nice little bonus, but the higher cost for targeted exploration is a real problem when a goal is on the other side of the map. 🗺️ |
| C-Tier 😐 | Hermit 🧘 | The bonus is interesting, but it forces you to build in a really awkward way. The combat penalty for fighting in “explored” areas is a big downside. 👎 |
| D-Tier 👎 | Survivor 🧑 | Not bad, just… bland. There’s no situation where having “no bonus” is better than the awesome abilities of the S- and A-tier leaders. |
| F-Tier ☠️ | Hoarder 📦 | A trap! 🪤 The auto-storage seems helpful, but the uncontrollable Stamina drain will constantly sabotage your plans, stopping you from saving up for that critical tech upgrade or fighter. 😭 |
| F-Tier ☠️ | Slumlord 🏚️ | Objectively the worst leader. 🤢 Forces you into a population boom your economy can’t handle, creating an almost un-winnable death spiral. Playing the Slumlord is a self-imposed challenge, not a real strategy. |
How to Rock the S-Tier Leaders 🌟
The Economist: The “Snowball” Strategy 🌨️
The Economist’s power is simple: you get your Stamina now, not later. 🤑 In a game where the first few minutes are the most important, this is a GIGANTIC advantage. Your goal is to use this burst of Stamina to create a snowball of growth. 📈
- Opening Moves: While other leaders are slowly saving up 3 Stamina for their first tech research, you can do it on day one! 🤯 Your opening should be a blur: build two Wells 💧, scavenge Wood 🌲, research Tech 2 🔬, and start building housing for Population 3 🧑🤝🧑, all in the first few months.
- The Philosophy: You’re front-loading your investment. By getting to Tech 2 and Pop 3 faster than anyone, you increase your passive Stamina generation way earlier. This early lead compounds over time. By the first winter 🥶, you’ll have a stable economy and be on your way to Tech 3, while other leaders are just trying not to die.
The Personal Trainer: The “Stamina Debt” Engine 💸
Playing the Personal Trainer is like playing a different game. Stamina isn’t a hard limit, and Morale isn’t just a happiness meter—it’s a resource to be spent. 💡 This is high-risk, high-reward, but it’s so flexible.
- Calculated Risks: Here’s the key: you can safely dip to around -9 Stamina before your Morale drops below 0% and starts draining your Authority. 📉 This gives you a “buffer” of 9 Stamina you can use any time.
- The Philosophy: You’re a crisis manager. 🧑🚒 Sudden zombie attack 🧟 with no fighters? Go into debt to train one. Boom! 💥 Fire breaks out 🔥 and you have no Stamina? Go into debt to send help. The Personal Trainer lets you solve problems immediately, at the cost of a new problem (low Morale 😒) that you can fix later. By balancing your debt with building new services, you can pull off moves that are impossible for anyone else.
Your Starting Bonus: Population Traits 🧑🤝🧑
Your last choice! These are powerful starting bonuses. But beware… what looks like a bonus can sometimes be a trap. 🪤
For example, the “+1 Population” trait seems great, right? Wrong! 🚫 It can be a death sentence. 💀 It immediately increases your food, water, and fuel consumption from the very first second. If you start on a map with few resources, you’ll be in a deficit before you can even move.
On the other hand, “+1 Technology” is one of the best traits in the game. 🤩 It saves you the 3 Stamina, 2 Wood, and 3 Food cost of researching Tech 2, and more importantly, it saves you the time. A free “+1 Fighter” 🪖 is also amazing, saving you Stamina and letting you explore (to lower scavenge costs) or defend yourself right away.
Here’s a handy chart for picking the best trait for your leader:
| Population Trait | Economist Synergy | Personal Trainer Synergy | Soldier Synergy | Strategic Analysis |
| Wise (+1 Technology) 🔬 | 🤩 Excellent | 🤩 Excellent | 🤩 Excellent | The best all-around trait. Saves a ton of early resources and time, letting you push for Tech 3 or build services way faster. A massive head start. |
| Brave (+1 Fighter) 🪖 | 👍 Good | 🤩 Excellent | 👍 Good | A huge early-game power boost. Lets you explore immediately (to lower scavenge costs) or defend against early zombies. Great for the Trainer, who can then spend her Stamina on economy. |
| Handy (Building Discount) 🔨 | 👍 Good | 👍 Good | 👍 Good | This is basically free Stamina and resources. Saving 2 Wood is the same as saving the Stamina you would’ve spent to scavenge it. Gets your first farms/lumberyards online faster. |
| Resourceful (Scavenge Discount) 📦 | 🙂 Situational | 👍 Good | 🙂 Situational | Can be awesome on maps where you know you’ll be scavenging a lot at the start. It’s effectively free Stamina, but not as good as a direct building/tech discount. |
| Prepared (Storage Size) 🥡 | 👍 Good | 🙂 Situational | 👍 Good | This is underrated! Extra starting storage saves you the cost of building it and lets you stockpile more for that first winter. It’s a great safety net. 🦺 |
| Loving (+1 Population) 🧑🤝🧑 | 🚫 Avoid | 🚫 Avoid | 🚫 Avoid | A trap in 99% of situations. 🪤 The immediate drain on your resources is just too much to handle. Only maybe consider it on a map with super-abundant starting food/water. |
Chapter 4: The Post-Apocalyptic Economy – A Masterclass in Resource Management 💰
Your town is like a hungry, thirsty, cold baby. 👶 You gotta feed it 🍲, give it water 💧, and keep it warm. 🔥 Fail at this, and it’ll die long before a zombie even shows up. Your economy is the lifeblood of your settlement. Mastering it is the most important skill for survival.
The Scavenging Trap 🪤
When you first land, you have nothing. Your only income is scavenging 📦—sending people out to find junk. In these first desperate days, you have to scavenge. You need Wood 🌲 for buildings, Food 🍎 for… well, food, and Fuel 🔥 for winter.
But here’s the trap: this is not sustainable.
Here’s the brutal mechanic: every time you scavenge for a resource (like Wood), the Stamina cost for the next time you scavenge Wood goes up. 📈 What starts as a cheap 1-Stamina action can quickly become a 10- or 12-Stamina nightmare. 😱
If you rely on scavenging for too long, you’ll hit “Stamina bankruptcy,” where it costs so much to find resources that you can’t afford to build the farms 🌾 and lumberyards 🏭 you need to become self-sufficient. Your economy will grind to a halt, and you’ll fail. 📉
The key is knowing when to PIVOT. 🔄
Pro-tip: Exploring new areas 🗺️ (especially city tiles 🏙️) will reduce the cost of all future scavenging a little bit. So you have to balance spending Stamina on exploring (to keep scavenging cheap) with saving Stamina to build your production.
Here’s my hard rule: Once the base Stamina cost for scavenging Wood or Food hits 3, STOP. 🛑 Immediately. Prioritize building a sustainable production building (Lumberyard or Farm) instead. Continuing to scavenge beyond that point is a sign of a failing economy.
Building Your Economic Engine 🏭
The switch from scavenging to production needs to be fast and smart. Your build order should follow your basic needs:
- Water First: 💧 Water is the only basic need you can produce anywhere (by building Wells). You need it to live, and a lack of it can cause devastating Fire events. 🔥 Build two Small Wells. Right away. 👏
- Wood is Life: 🌲 Wood is the single most important building resource. You need it for almost everything. It’s also what you turn into Fuel! As soon as your water is set, find the nearest Forest 🌲, claim it, and build a Lumberyard. Do not delay this.
- Fuel for the Winter: 🔥 As soon as your Lumberyard is built, build a Firewood Splitter on the same tile. This building eats Wood and spits out Fuel. Without a steady supply of Fuel, you will not survive the first winter. 🥶
- Food for Growth: 🍎 With your core infrastructure (Water, Wood, Fuel) set, now you get food. Find a tile with Grain 🌾, Vegetables 🥦, or Animals 🐄, claim it, and build the right building (Crop Farm or Meat Ranch).
We’ll break down all the buildings, but here’s a huge tip: Meat Ranches 🥩 work in winter; Crop Farms 🌽 don’t! This makes Ranches way more reliable.
Surviving Winter 🥶 (and other disasters!)
Winter isn’t just pretty snow ❄️, it’s a recurring boss fight for your economy. All Crop Farms produce zero 🚫, and everyone eats way more Fuel. 🔥
You can’t react to this; you have to plan. You gotta do the math 🧮 before winter hits.
Here’s the magic formula: 🔮
$$(\text{Monthly Consumption}_{\text{Winter}} – \text{Monthly Production}_{\text{Winter}}) \times \text{Months of Winter} = \text{Required Stockpile}$$
Example:
- Your town of 3 people eats 7 Fuel/month in winter.
- Your one Firewood Splitter produces 2 Fuel/month.
- Your net deficit is -5 Fuel/month.
- Winter lasts for 3 months.
- 5 x 3 = 15. You need at least 15 Fuel in storage 📦 before the first snow falls, or your people will freeze.
We’ll teach you to do this for all your resources. This is why you must build Storage buildings 🥡 to increase your stockpile limit. And this is why winter-proof food sources like Meat Ranches 🥩 are so valuable. It’s also why you should always have a good stockpile of water, just in case a “Drought” ☀️ event happens and all your Wells dry up!
Chapter 5: Blueprints for a New World – Base Building & Settlement Design 🏗️
In lots of games, base building is about making a pretty city. 🏘️ In After Inc., building isn’t about making things pretty. 💅 It’s about pure, functional survival. There’s no room for vanity. Your “base” isn’t just your main tile; it’s the shape of your whole territory, a fortress 🏰 designed to max out your economy and defense.
Your First 5 Minutes: The Build Order 👷
Your build order in the opening minutes will make or break your game. 🚧 Mess up your opening moves, and you’re toast. 🍞 Every map is different, but this flexible, priority-based order is a winner:
- Immediate Pause: ⏸️ The second the map loads, PAUSE. Don’t waste a single tick of time. Look at your starting tile and what’s around you. 🧐
- Water Security: 💧 Your first two actions: build two Small Wells. This stops early water shortages and the dreaded Fire event. 🔥
- Basic Services: 😊 Build a Makeshift Fire Pit and a Basic Toilet. 🚽 These are the cheapest ways to get Morale up so you can attract your first new settler.
- Push for Population 3: 🧑🤝🧑 Immediately start building Tents ⛺ to get your population cap to 3. This is a HUGE early milestone. Reaching Pop 3 increases your passive Stamina generation 📈 and lets you train your second Fighter! 🪖
- Establish Production: 🏭 While you wait for that third person to arrive, do the economic pivot. Claim your nearest Wood 🌲, build a Lumberyard and Firewood Splitter 🔥. Then, secure your food source. 🍎
This opening gets your basic needs met, your resource chains started, and your Stamina engine humming, all before the real challenges even begin. 🚀
A Big List of All Your Buildings 🏛️
As your town grows, your people will get… needier. 😅 They’ll demand more than just a fire and a latrine. They’ll want kitchens 🍳, bathhouses 🛀, taverns 🍻, and eventually even markets 🏪 and shrines 🛐.
These “Service” buildings give you Morale boosts and satisfy needs, but they all cost Stamina, resources, and have a monthly upkeep 💸.
It’s a balance. ⚖️
- Too few services = your Morale tanks, and your growth stops. 📉
- Too many services (or building them too early) = you’ll drain your resources and your economy will die. 💸
Here’s a directory of all the service buildings in After Inc. so you can make smart choices:
| Building | Tech Req. | Pop. Req. | Stamina Cost | Wood Cost | Other Cost | Monthly Consumption | Primary Benefit |
| Makeshift Fire Pit | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | 0.72 Fuel | +Warmth 🔥, satisfies 3 |
| Basic Toilet | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | 0.648 Water | +Toilets 🚽, satisfies 2 |
| Fire Pit | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | – | 1.44 Fuel | +Warmth 🔥, satisfies 6.6 |
| Toilet | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | – | 1.296 Water | +Toilets 🚽, satisfies 4.4 |
| Makeshift Kitchen | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | 0.78 Food | +Meals 🍲, satisfies 1.5 |
| Kitchen | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | – | 1.56 Food | +Meals 🍲, satisfies 3.3 |
| Small Town Square | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | – | None | +Sociability 🤝, +5% max morale |
| Small Tavern | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | – | 1.3 Water, 0.85 Food | +Gambling 🎲, satisfies 3 |
| Basic Bathhouse | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | – | 1.296 Water | +Cleanliness 🧼, satisfies 3 |
| Makeshift Carpenter | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | – | 0.72 Wood | +Repairs 🛠️, satisfies 3 |
| Small Healing Hut | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | – | 0.90 Medicine | +Healthcare 🩹, +100% Fighter healing |
| Small Marketplace | 5 | 8 | 3 | 3 | – | Mixed | +Bartering 🏪, satisfies 3 |
| Small Training Grounds | 5 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 1 Material | 0.85 Food, 1.3 Water | +Duels ⚔️, +20% Fighter strength |
| Basic Workshop | 5 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 Material | 1.08 Wood | +Tools 🔩, +1% all production |
| Tailor Shack | 6 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 4 Material | 1.2 Material | +Clothes 👕, satisfies 4 |
| Small Shrine | 6 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 5 Material | None | +Prayer 🛐, satisfies 3 |
| Brewery | 6 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 5 Material | 0.85 Food, 1.3 Water | +Beer 🍻, satisfies 3 |
| Improvised Hospital | 7 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 5 Material | 0.36 Medicine | +Cure 🧑⚕️, +50% population growth |
(Note: Data is based on community info! Costs & effects might change with game updates.)
Smart Layouts: Building Your Fortress 🏰
You can’t just build anywhere. Your service/housing buildings are all crammed into your main “Settlement Area” tile 🛖. Your production buildings (farms, lumberyards) must be built on the resource tiles 🌲🌽 you claim.
This means “base layout” isn’t about arranging buildings; it’s about the shape of your claimed territory on the world map. 🗺️
The main idea? Stick together! 🤝
A long, thin “snake” 🐍 of territory is weak and hard to defend. Each tile at the end is all alone. A compact, cohesive settlement, where every tile touches several other tiles, is strong. 💪
Why? Combat! 💥
Your Fighters 🪖 get a huge strength bonus when fighting on your territory. This bonus gets even bigger for each adjacent friendly tile. Your main settlement tile 🛖 gives the BIGGEST bonus of all.
A compact base creates a “kill zone” ☠️ of overlapping support fields. When zombies attack, you can lure them into this web and your Fighters will be super-buffed. A long, single-file line of tiles is a deathtrap where your Fighters will be isolated and destroyed. 💀
Think of your expansion not as painting the map, but as building a fortress. 🛡️ Sometimes, claiming a “useless” Grassland tile is the right move if it connects your northern forest to your southern farm, creating a unified, defensible front line.
Chapter 6: The Art of Un-War – Mastering Combat Against the Undead 🧟💥
The zombies 🧟♂️ in After Inc. aren’t super-fast, exploding, “special” infected. They’re the rotting remnants of the Necroa Virus. They’re dangerous not because they’re smart, but because there are SO MANY of them. 😱
Combat here isn’t about glorious charges. It’s about grim crowd control 🕹️, smart positioning 🧠, and manipulation. The best leaders win the fight before it even starts.
Know Your Enemy: Zombies & “Awareness” 🤫
There aren’t any “spitters” or “tanks.” There are just… lots… of ’em. 🧟♀️🧟🧟♂️ They can be sleeping on a tile or spawn from red “Infested Areas.” 🤢
The most crucial, hidden mechanic you need to know is “Zombie Awareness.”
This is a hidden value that goes up as you get more active. Claiming land 🗺️, moving Fighters 🪖, even just growing your population 🧑🤝🧑… it all makes the zombies more “aware” of you. As Awareness goes up, sleeping zombies are more likely to wake up and attack 😡, and they’ll join fights faster.
This turns every move into a risk/reward choice. Grabbing that juicy Forest tile 🌲 is great for your economy… but it will also raise your Awareness, and it might trigger an attack you’re not ready for. 😬 A smart leader expands slowly at first, keeping Awareness low while they build up defenses. 🛡️
Your Heroes: A Guide to Fighters 🦸
Your only military unit is the Fighter. 🪖 These are your defenders. You can train your first one at Population 1. You get to train more at the critical milestones of Pop 3, Pop 7, and Pop 10.
Your Fighters are not disposable! 🚫 They are part of your population. If a Fighter dies, a settler dies, and you lose Authority. 😥 You have to manage their health! They heal slowly just by standing on any of your claimed territory. They heal much faster if you have a Healing Hut 🩹 (from Tech 4).
The #1 most important military upgrade in the whole game is…
Technology Level 3! 🔬
This research gives a massive, passive +40% strength bonus to all of your Fighters. 💥 This is a huge power spike. Before Tech 3, your Fighters are just guards. After Tech 3, they’re an offensive army, ready to clear the map. Rushing Tech 3 is almost always the right move. 🚀
Advanced Tactics: Fight Smarter, Not Harder 🧠
Don’t just run in! 🏃♂️❌ A master tactician uses tricks to create an unfair fight. These are the three you must master:
- Chain Taunting: 🗣️ This is arguably the most important combat trick. Zombies are super strong when they’re sitting on their home turf (especially an Infested Area 🤢). Don’t fight them there! Instead, put your Fighter on a tile next to them and use the “Taunt” ability (it costs 1 Stamina). This forces the zombies to leave their comfy spot and attack your Fighter. The strategy is to pull them, tile by tile, back into the heart of your territory… back to your main base 🛖, where your Fighter is massively buffed by all your support bonuses. 💪 This turns a guaranteed loss into an easy win.
- Reinforcing: 🤝 Got a Fighter in a tough battle and losing health fast? 🤕 If you have other friendly Fighters in adjacent (next-to) tiles, you can spend Stamina to activate “Reinforce.” This action magically transfers health from the healthy supporting Fighters to the one in battle, letting them stay in the fight and win! ❤️🩹 It’s expensive, but it can save your Fighter’s life.
- Support & Flanking: 🤜🤛 A lone Fighter is a dead Fighter. ☠️ The entire combat system is built on support. As we said, Fighters are stronger on your land, and they get bonuses for each friendly Fighter in an adjacent tile. The core rule is: NEVER FIGHT ALONE. 🧑🤝🧑 Always bring a friend. Lure the enemy into a chokepoint surrounded by your tiles. Always fight on your terms.
How to Clean Out a Zombie Nest 💥
“Infested Areas” 🤢 are the zombie nests. They will keep spawning more zombies until you deal with them. You use the “Cleanse” action to destroy them… but starting the cleanse immediately spawns a big wave of zombies to defend it. 😱
Rushing in blindly is suicide. 💀
Here’s the patient, smart, pro-gamer way to cleanse an infestation:
- Isolate: 🧹 First, clear out any other little zombie groups wandering around the area. You want to fight one group at a time.
- Lure: 🗣️ The nest probably has a group of zombies just sitting on it. Do not attack them there. Use your Taunt trick! Lure that first group away from the nest and pull them back into your kill zone ☠️ (your supported territory).
- Annihilate: 💥 Now that they’re on your turf, destroy them with your super-buffed Fighters.
- Heal & Prepare: 🩹 After the fight, pull your Fighters back and let them heal to 100%. Then, position your entire team (ideally 2 or 3 Fighters) on the tiles adjacent to the now-empty infestation tile.
- Cleanse: ✅ Now, with the area clear and your army in position, send one Fighter onto the tile to start the “Cleanse” action. This will trigger that big, scary final wave. But… who cares? 🤷 Your whole team is right there, fully healed and buffed, ready to smash them instantly. Easy win! 🥳
This turns one impossible battle into a series of small, easy ones.
Chapter 7: The Blueprint for Tomorrow – Technology & Permanent Progression 📈
You’re not just playing one-off games. You’re building a whole new civilization, and your progress carries over! 🥳 There are two progression systems: the in-mission Tech Tree (which resets every game) and the permanent, account-wide “Rewards” system (which makes you stronger forever).
The In-Game Tech Tree 🔬
Inside each mission, you spend Stamina and resources to research new Tech Levels. Each level unlocks new buildings and powerful bonuses. Your research priorities should match your needs.
- Technology 1 (Starting) 💡: Your basic, basic stuff. Toilets 🚽, fires. 🔥 Essential for getting your first population increase.
- Technology 2 (The Economic Foundation) 💰: This is your first research priority. It unlocks crucial economic buildings like Kitchens 🍳 and upgraded services.
- Technology 3 (The Military Turning Point) 💥: This is the BIG ONE. 🚀 The most important tech level, period. It grants that passive +40% strength bonus to all Fighters 🪖, turning them into real badasses. It also unlocks better Fuel sources (Charcoal Pits) and good Morale buildings (Taverns 🍻, Bathhouses 🛀). In almost every game, you want to RUSH. THIS. 👏
- Technology 4 (Advanced Survival) 🩹: Unlocks the Medicine 💊 resource and the super-important Healing Hut 🏥, which makes your Fighters heal way faster.
- Technology 5 and Beyond (Late Game Expansion) 🏛️: This is your endgame stuff. Unlocks Stone 🪨, Materials 🔩, Marketplaces 🏪, and the Training Grounds (another +20% Fighter strength! 🏋️). Powerful, but expensive.
Your Permanent Upgrades: The “Rewards” System 🎁
This is the heart of your “meta-progression” as a F2P player. 💖
Each time you successfully complete a campaign level for the first time, you get to pick one of three “Rewards”—permanent, account-wide upgrades that apply to all your future games! 🤩
This creates an awesome feedback loop:
- Beat a mission.
- Get a permanent Reward 🎁.
- Your next settlement is stronger.
- Beat a harder mission.
- Get an even better Reward! 🎁🎁
F2P Pro-Tip: Complete the entire “Survival” campaign on Casual or Normal difficulty first. 🤓 Your goal is to farm these rewards. Get a solid base of permanent upgrades before you even try the super-hard Brutal or Mega Brutal difficulties.
These rewards are your key to long-term power. Some are way better than others. Here are the BEST rewards you should always pick when you see them. 👇
| Priority | Reward Name | Category | Why It’s Essential |
| Must-Have 🌟 | Medium Well | Knowledge | This is the single BEST reward in the game. 💯 It replaces the terrible Small Well with a new version that produces more than double the water 💧 for the same space. It saves you so much Wood and Stamina in every single game forever. |
| Must-Have 🌟 | Charcoal Pits | Knowledge | A direct upgrade to the Firewood Splitter. It produces 30% more Fuel 🔥 from the same amount of Wood. Since Fuel shortages are what kill you in winter, this upgrade is absolutely critical. |
| High Priority 👍 | Confidence / Leadership | Knowledge | These give you bonus Stamina 💪 or Authority 👑 every time you complete a mission goal. This snowballs like crazy, rewarding you for playing well by giving you more resources to play even better! 📈 |
| High Priority 👍 | Pathfinders | Knowledge | This is so cool! It lets your idle Fighters 🪖 slowly reduce the exploration and claiming cost of adjacent tiles… for free! 🗺️ It’s basically free, passive Stamina over a long game. |
| Good Value 🙂 | Forestry Huts | Production | A simple but great +30% production boost to all your Lumberyards. 🌲 Since Wood is the most basic building block, this is a solid economic buff. |
| Good Value 🙂 | Pigeon Coops / Rain Catcher | Knowledge | These give you a small, passive income of Food 🍗 or Water 💧 based on your population. It’s not much, but it helps smooth out your early economy and gives you a tiny buffer. |
| Situational 🤔 | Diversity | Society | This one makes your starting Population Traits change every game and gives you a better chance of getting extra bonuses. 🧑🤝🧑 Once you have the “Must-Have” rewards, this one adds fun variety and power. |
Chapter 8: Shaping Society – Navigating Decisions & Politics 🏛️
Rebuilding civilization is about more than just food and zombies. It’s about people. 🧑🤝🧑 As a leader, you’ll be forced to make really tough choices that define what kind of society you’re building. After Inc. handles this with its “Situations” system.
Story Time: The ‘Situations’ System 🤔
Every so often, a pop-up window 💬 will appear. This is a “Situation,” and you have to make a choice. These aren’t just random events; they’re the heart of the game’s political and social story.
A Situation might be a crisis:
- “A fire broke out in the camp!” 🔥
- “Bad food! Everyone has food poisoning!” 🤢
Or it might be a social issue:
- “Your settlers want a say in how things are run!” 🏛️
- “What should we do with the children?” 👶
- “We found a bunch of old-world relics. What do they mean?” relics 💎
Each choice has real, immediate, and sometimes long-lasting consequences. Your decision can make you gain or lose resources 💰, Stamina 💪, or Authority 👑. It can change how much food your people eat. It can even unlock unique buildings (like a Nursery 🧸) or special military actions (like Conscription 🪖).
When a Situation pops up, it often gives you a temporary Morale penalty 😒 until you make a decision, so you can’t just ignore them!
The Toughest Choices 😬
You’ll see some of these key dilemmas pop up again and again, letting you build a consistent style of government.
- Settlers Interested in Politics: 🏛️ This is a big one. You’ll get to choose:
- Democracy: 🤝 Usually gives a Morale boost, but can have other consequences.
- Anarchy: 🤪 Often gives you a short-term gain but leads to long-term chaos.
- Dictatorship: 👑 Gives you more control and might boost efficiency, but it’ll cost you Morale.
- Child Labour & Conflict: 👶 You have to decide the role of kids in your town.
- Let them play: 🤸 Gives a nice Morale boost, but no “profit.”
- Let them help / Child Scavengers: 🧺 Provides a small economic boost, but might lower Morale.
- Child fighters: 🪖 A very dark and desperate choice. You get weak fighters, but if they die, you take a massive Authority penalty. 😥
- Resource Security (Food, Water, Fuel): 📉 When you’re running low, you’ll be asked how to handle it.
- Ration: 🥣 The logical choice. Reduces consumption, but also lowers Morale.
- Make Promises: 🤞 Costs you nothing now, but if you fail to get the resource soon, you’ll take a big Authority hit later.
- Drastic Measures: 🐞 These are the extreme options. “We should eat the bugs.” “Burn personal belongings for fuel.” These give you a tiny bit of the resource but cause a HUGE, immediate drop in Morale. 😱
Your choices should match your strategy! If you’re playing the Soldier 🎖️ and are about to attack a big zombie nest, choosing “Conscription” to get free fighters (at a Morale cost) might be a brilliant move! If you’re struggling to keep Morale up, it would be a disaster.
Who Do You Want to Be? 😇/😈
This is your chance to roleplay! 🧑🎨 By making consistent choices, you can craft a real story for your settlement.
Are you building a hopeful, democratic society 💖 where every life matters, you always protect the kids, and you share everything?
Or are you a pragmatic, iron-fisted survivalist 🧠 who will make any hard choice—child labor, eating dogs 🐶, a total dictatorship—just to make sure humanity survives?
The game’s smart narrative system remembers your choices, creating a unique story 📖 for every single playthrough. Your choices really matter.
Chapter 9: Beyond the Horizon – A Guide to All DLC Content 🗺️
The free base game in After Inc. is HUGE and 100% complete. 🤩 But if you’ve beaten it all and you’re still hungry for more, the paid expansions add amazing new campaigns and mechanics. Here’s a quick look at what they are.
Critical Mass Campaign 🌍
This is the direct follow-up to the base game’s “Survival” campaign. It’s 10 new, harder levels 💀 that assume you already know what you’re doing. These missions have more aggressive zombies 🧟, tighter Impatience timers ⏳, and trickier resource layouts.
This is a “more of what you love” kind of expansion. If you just want more classic After Inc. puzzles to solve, this is for you. 🧩
Beyond the Bunkers & The Expedition Mode 📅
This expansion is awesome! It adds “Expedition” mode, which is basically the game’s endgame and replayable content. 🏆
Each day, the game creates new, time-limited missions. ⏰ These missions have unique maps and, most importantly, “Modifiers” that change the rules. You might get “Gluttons” 🍔 (everyone eats 50% more food) or “Warrior Ethos” (your Fighters are stronger 💪 but cost more).
Completing these Expeditions lets you keep unlocking those permanent “Rewards” 🎁 from the tech trees, even after you’ve 100%-ed all the campaigns. For the player who wants to just… keep… playing… this offers near-infinite replayability. 🔁
Shadows of the Past: Mastering New Mechanics 🏕️
This is the most ambitious and complex expansion. It doesn’t just add a new 10-level campaign; it adds two game-changing new mechanics that require totally new strategies. 🤯
- Outposts, Logistics Posts, & Forts: 🏕️ This lets you build a new “Outpost” building on any tile outside your main base (at Tech 5). You can then upgrade it:
- Logistics Post: 📈 An economic upgrade. It massively boosts the resource production of all neighboring tiles! 💰 It’s how you create specialized economic zones.
- Fort: 🛡️ A military upgrade. It gives a GIGANTIC strength bonus to any Fighter on its tile and supports Fighters in adjacent tiles. This is your ultimate defensive tool. 💥
- Infested Borders: 🚩 This is a new persistent threat! 😱 Certain edges of the map will be marked as “Infested,” and these borders will periodically spawn waves of zombies 🧟♂️🧟♀️ that march toward your base. This changes the game from “clear the map” to a more defensive game of managing a constant, incoming threat. This mechanic works perfectly with Forts, encouraging you to build and hold defensive lines.
This expansion is for players who have mastered everything else and are ready for a major new challenge.
Conclusion: The Dawn of a New Civilization 🌅
Wow, we’ve come a long way! 🏃♀️ From desperately scavenging for one piece of wood 🌲 to commanding a sprawling, zombie-proof settlement. 🏙️ We’ve learned that leadership in After Inc. is a complex, smart game of risks, rewards, patience, and aggression.
You haven’t just learned a build order; you’ve learned the core philosophies of a master leader.
You’ve learned:
- Impatience as a Resource: ⏳ You know the ticking clock isn’t just a threat; it’s a tool you can use, spending Authority 👑 to gain a bigger advantage.
- Morale Efficiency: 😊 You know 100% happiness isn’t the goal. Morale is a resource to be managed—kept just high enough for growth, and (with the Personal Trainer 🏋️♀️) even spent.
- The Scavenging Trap: 🪤 You know the danger of short-term thinking. You know that critical moment when you must stop scavenging 📦 and start building a real economy. 🏭
- Combat as Manipulation: 🧠 You know that a fair fight is a fight you’ve already lost. You use taunts 🗣️, support 🤝, and positioning to make every fight an unfair slaughter in your favor. 🏆
- The Progression Feedback Loop: 📈 You know that true strength comes from the permanent, compounding Rewards 🎁 you earn, making every new settlement stronger than the last.
After Inc. is just an awesome F2P game. 🤩 It’s a game that respects your intelligence 🧠, rewards your skill, and trusts you to make your own story. And the devs are still working on it! 🧑💻 More stuff is coming! 🥳
The world after the Necroa Virus is a tough and unforgiving place 😥, but it’s not without hope.
You have the knowledge. You have the strategy. 💡 You’ve got this. 💪
Go forth, Leader! 👑 The dawn of a new civilization awaits.
Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for After Inc. belong to the developer Ndemic Creations & publisher Ndemic Creations.
Find the game here! Android Apps by Ndemic Creations on Google Play
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