They Are Billions: Quick Tips & Tricks to Survive the Apocalypse

A Letter to the Last Survivor

To you, the newly appointed Commander,

If you are reading this, then the worst has happened, and the best is yet to come. The old world is gone, drowned beneath a tide of infected flesh. Now, only a few thousand of us remain, huddled behind the crater walls of Empire City, clinging to the embers of civilization. Emperor Quintus Crane has decreed that we will not merely survive; we will build a New Empire. He is sending you out to reclaim the wastelands, to build a new colony, and to push back the darkness. 🌆

Do not mistake this for a simple task. The world is full of the infected. They are billions, and they are hungry. They roam, they smell, and they listen. A single misstep, a moment of carelessness, and your fledgling colony will become just another ghost story whispered among the ruins. 🧟

This manual 📜 contains the sum of our hard-won knowledge. It is a collection of every strategy, every tactic, and every painful lesson learned from colonies that fell so that yours might stand. The challenge of They Are Billions is not just a matter of walls and soldiers; it is a test of will, planning, and resilience. Study these pages. Memorize them. Your life, and the future of humanity, depends on it.

Now, go. Build a colony that will endure. Show them that humanity is not so easily extinguished. 💪

—A Veteran Commander

Part 1: The Survivor’s Primer – Foundational Knowledge in They Are Billions

Before you lay your first foundation or fire your first arrow, you must master the fundamental laws of this new world. These are the core principles that separate the thriving colonies from the graveyards. Ignore them at your peril.

Your Greatest Weapon: The Pause Button ⏸️

Embrace the Pause. This is a real-time strategy game, but your greatest advantage is the ability to stop time. Hit the spacebar constantly. The game is a test of strategy, not your reflexes. Use the pause feature to think, plan, and issue orders without pressure. 🧠
Build While Paused. 🏗️ You can queue up all your construction orders while the game is paused. This allows you to plan your base layout meticulously. Better yet, if you place a building by mistake, you can cancel it for a full refund before you unpause.
Manage Your Army While Paused. 💥 When a horde attacks, your first instinct should be to pause. This gives you time to assess the threat, move your units into position, set targeting priorities, and queue up defensive structures without being overwhelmed.
Pause at Every Alert. 🚨 Any time you hear an attack warning or see red dots appear on your minimap, pause immediately. Investigate the source. A single zombie slipping past your patrols can end your entire colony if it infects a building.
Plan Your Research. 💡 Use the pause button to look through the technology trees in your workshops. Decide what you need next based on your current economic situation and upcoming threats. Don’t waste precious time making these decisions in real-time.

Understanding the Battlefield: Your Interface and Controls

Know Your Resources. 💰 You must manage eight resources: Gold, Food, Workers, Wood, Stone, Iron, Oil, and Energy. Gold, workers, and food are the bedrock of your economy. Wood and stone are for early- to mid-game. Iron and oil are for your most powerful units and defenses.
Watch Your Energy. ⚡ Every building requires energy. Keep a close eye on your available power. If you fall into negative energy, your buildings will shut down. Always build a new Mill or Tesla Tower before you hit your energy cap.
Master Control Groups. 🔢 Like any great RTS, using control groups is essential. Select a group of units and press CTRL + a number key (1-9) to assign them. A good practice is to put your main clearing army on ‘1’, your mobile reaction force on ‘2’, and your scouting rangers on ‘3’.
Use Attack-Move. ➡️ Never right-click to send your units into the fog of war. Instead, use the attack-move command (Q key + left-click). This orders your units to move but to stop and engage any enemies they encounter.
Learn the Patrol Command. patrol The patrol command (P key) is vital for securing your perimeter. Order a unit to patrol between two points, and it will automatically engage any infected it sees.
Hold, Don’t Stop. 🛡️ The ‘Hold’ command (H key) makes your units stand their ground. They will fire on enemies in range but will not move. This is far superior to the ‘Stop’ command.
Always Display Health Bars. ❤️ In the options, find the setting to always show health bars. This gives you crucial information and makes it much easier to spot a lone, sneaky zombie.

The Unseen Enemy: Noise and Infection ☣️

Respect the Noise Meter. 🔊 Every action your units and buildings take generates noise. Firing a gun or constructing a building all attract more infected. Noise is an invisible resource you must manage.
Know Your Unit’s Noise Profile. Rangers are quiet and stealthy 🤫, making them perfect for early-game scouting. Soldiers, with their rapid-fire rifles, are extremely loud and will attract a lot of attention.
The Infection Death Spiral. If a single zombie attacks a building, it will infect all the colonists inside. These newly turned infected will pour out and attack other nearby buildings. This event creates a massive amount of noise, attracting every zombie in the area and causing a catastrophic chain reaction. Preventing the first infection is the single most important rule of the game.

Part 2: The First Days – Your Early Game Survival Plan for They Are Billions

The first 20 days are a delicate dance of survival and expansion. Your decisions now will set the stage for your entire game. A strong start creates an economic snowball that will carry you to victory.

The Perfect Start: Days 1-10

Pause and Assess Immediately. 🗺️ The moment the map loads, pause the game. Look at your immediate surroundings. Identify the best spots for wood, stone, and food. If your starting position is terrible (no food, no wood, wide-open plains), don’t be afraid to restart.
Initial Build Order. 🏗️ A solid opening is to immediately place a Fisherman’s Cottage or Hunter’s Lodge on the highest-yield spot. While that builds, place three Tents.
Secure Your Wood Supply. 🪵 After your initial food and tents, your next priority is a Sawmill. Place it where it can harvest the most wood (ideally 10+).
Push for the First Mayor. 🧑‍⚖️ Build Tents until you have seven. This will trigger the first Mayoral Election. These officials offer powerful bonuses that can dramatically shape your game.
Choose Your Mayor Wisely. The mayor’s bonus can be game-changing. An early offer of Farm technology or a free Ballista can solve major problems. Prioritize economic bonuses (like +80 gold).
Scout Aggressively but Safely. 🧭 Send your four starting Rangers in different directions to uncover as much of the map as possible. Pull them back the moment they encounter resistance.
Establish a Perimeter with Patrols. As you scout, use your Rangers to set up a loose perimeter around your starting area. Use the patrol command to have them cover any open entrances.
Save Your Starting Soldier. 💂 The starting Soldier is powerful but very loud. Keep him close to your base initially to deal with any zombies that get too close.
Collect Free Resources. 🎁 While scouting, keep an eye out for abandoned crates. Running over them provides a small cache of resources. Finding 20 free stone can be a massive economic boost.

Surviving the First Horde

Don’t Over-Prepare. The first horde, which arrives around day 11-16, is very small. Do not waste precious resources on massive walls. Your economy is more important.
The Ranger Kite. 🏹 The most efficient way to defeat the first wave is to use a single Ranger to “kite” the horde. Get the zombies to chase your Ranger, and run them back and forth in front of your other units.
Use a Sacrificial Wall. 🧱 Place a single piece of wooden wall out in front of your base. Wandering zombies will often attack this “scratching post” instead of more valuable buildings.
Build a Ballista Just in Time. 🗼 If you prefer a static defense, research the Great Ballista. When the wave is announced, pause the game and place one Ballista tower in its path.
Salvage Your Defenses. ♻️ After the wave is defeated, consider salvaging the Ballista. It has a gold upkeep cost, and in the early game, that gold is better spent on Tents.

Expanding Your Foothold: Days 10-20

Wall Off Your First Section. 🧱 By day 20, you should aim to have your core colony completely enclosed by a layer of wooden walls. This frees up your army.
Expand Towards Resources. ➡️ Your expansion should be deliberate. Push towards valuable resource deposits like stone, iron, or large fertile plains for farming.
Prioritize the Wood Workshop. 🔬 Your first major research building should be the Wood Workshop. This unlocks critical technologies like Farms, Cottages, and the Market.
Research Farms First (Usually). If you have good grassy areas, researching Farms is the top priority. They provide a massive and efficient food source.
Transition to Rangers. 🏹 Once you have a Soldier Center, focus on producing Rangers. They are cheap, fast, and quiet. A group of 12-20 Rangers is an excellent force for clearing.
Prepare for Mini-Waves. 🌊 After the second horde, small, random waves of infected will begin to attack your base from various directions. This is why having your perimeter walled off is so important.

Part 3: Forging an Empire – Mid-Game Expansion and Economic Dominance

The mid-game (roughly days 20-60) is where you transform your struggling outpost into an economic powerhouse. This is the phase of explosive growth.

They Are Billions: Building a Thriving Economy 💸

This is a House-Building Game. 🏘️ Your primary goal is to build as many Tents as you can. Tents are the most cost-effective way to generate gold.
Never Float Resources. Unspent resources are wasted potential. Every second you have more than 200 gold in the bank is a second that gold isn’t working for you.
Expand for Space, Upgrade for Density. It is always more cost-efficient to build new Tents in newly claimed territory than it is to research and upgrade existing Tents into Cottages. Only start upgrading when you run out of land.
Plan Your Housing Districts. When you build a large block of housing, leave a 3×3 tile gap in the center for a Bank and a Market.
Build Banks for a Gold Boom. 🏦 A Bank significantly increases the gold generated by all houses within its radius.
Build Markets to Reduce Food Costs. 🛒 A Market reduces the food consumption of all houses in its radius. This effectively creates “free” food.
Establish Multiple Housing Centers. You can only build three Bank/Market districts. Plan ahead and identify three large, open areas for dense housing.
Build Warehouses. 📦 Warehouses increase your global resource storage capacity and also increase resource production from all nearby collection buildings.
Sell Excess Resources. 💰 Once you have a Market, it will automatically sell any resource that hits your storage cap. This is a great way to turn a surplus into gold.
Research the Stone Workshop. After the Wood Workshop, your next goal is the Stone Workshop. This unlocks vital mid-game technologies like Stone Walls and the Bank.

Securing Your Empire’s Borders 🛡️

Double Your Walls. 🧱🧱 As the hordes get larger, a single wooden wall will not be enough. Upgrade to a double layer of walls.
Transition to Stone Walls. Stone Walls have significantly more health. Research them as soon as possible.
Use Chokepoints. Funnel the infected into narrow gaps. Defending a 3-tile wide chokepoint is infinitely easier than defending a 30-tile wide plain.
Never Build External Gates. ⛔ Gates are a defensive weak point. If you need to move your army out, simply delete a single piece of wall and rebuild it later.
Automate Your Defense with Ballistas. 🗼 By day 30-35, you should have your entire perimeter defended by Great Ballistas with overlapping ranges.

The Mid-Game Army: Rise of the Sniper 🎯

Switch to Sniper Production. Once your economy is generating a steady income (around +500 gold), stop producing Rangers and start building Snipers.
Snipers are Special Infected Killers. 💀 The mid-game introduces dangerous special infected. Snipers, with their massive damage and long range, are the perfect counter.
Set Snipers to Target “Highest Priority”. This is a crucial tip. It ensures they will focus on killing dangerous special infected first, instead of wasting shots on weak zombies.
Create a Sniper “Deathball”. A group of 20-40 Snipers is a formidable force that can clear large sections of the map.
Support Your Snipers with Soldiers. Keep a small group of 10-20 Soldiers in front of your Sniper ball. Their job is to act as a “meat shield.”
Begin Clearing Villages of Doom. 🧟‍♂️ With your Sniper army, you can now attack Infected Villages. The resources inside are well worth the risk.
Level Up Your Units. 🏅 Every kill a unit gets contributes to its experience. Once it has enough, it will become a “Veteran,” gaining significant combat bonuses.
Be Wary of Mutants. 🤢 If you see a massive, hulking Infected Giant, be extremely careful. Do not engage one unless you have a large force of Snipers.
Expand After a Horde. The safest time to expand is immediately after defeating a major horde. You will have a long period of peace.
Build a Foundry. 🏢 Towards the end of the mid-game, your next major tech goal is the Foundry. This unlocks the game’s most powerful units and defenses.

Part 4: The Final Stand – Late-Game Fortification and Army Composition in They Are Billions

The final phase is a race against time. The final horde is an apocalyptic wave of tens of thousands of infected that will attack from all sides.

The Unbreachable Fortress 🏰

Defense-in-Depth. 겹겹이 Do not rely on a single, thick wall. Your strategy must be based on layered defenses. The infected should have to breach at least three separate lines.
Executors are Your Best Friends. 🗼 The Executor is the upgraded Ballista. It is the single best defensive tower in the game. Your primary defensive line should be packed with them.
Use Shocking Towers for Crowd Control. ⚡ The Shocking Tower deals massive area-of-effect damage to large groups of weak infected. Place them behind your main wall.
Create Sniper Nests. Behind your main defensive line, build Stone Towers and fill them with Snipers. This elevates them, increasing their range and protecting them.
Protect Your Tesla Towers. 🔌 Your towers are useless without power. Protect your Tesla Towers as if they were Command Centers.
Clear the Entire Map. 🗺️ Before the final wave arrives, you must clear every single zombie from the map. Any infected left will join the assault.
Wall Off the Map Edges. The ideal late-game position is to have expanded to the very edges of the map. Build your final defensive line along the borders.
Use Traps to Thin the Herd. 🕸️ In front of your outermost wall, lay down fields of spike traps or wire fence traps. They will thin out the initial wave and slow them down.
Create Fallback Positions. ↩️ At key chokepoints inside your base, build secondary and even tertiary defensive lines. If an outer wall is breached, pull your troops back.
Use the “Repair All” Button. 🔧 During the final wave, your walls will take a beating. Use the “Repair All” button to quickly order repairs.
Sacrifice Buildings to Buy Time. 🏚️ If a breach is inevitable, start deleting buildings in the path of the infected. This denies them the ability to spread the infection and slows their advance.

The Ultimate Army

Mass Produce Snipers. 🎯🎯 You can never have too many Snipers. For the final wave, an army of 150-400 Snipers is a good goal.
Recruit the Thanatos. 🚀 The Thanatos fires rockets with a huge splash damage radius. They are exceptional at vaporizing dense crowds. Place two or three behind each major chokepoint.
Deploy the Titan. 🤖 The Titan is the ultimate military unit. It is fast, durable, and deals area-of-effect damage. A group of 10-20 can act as a mobile “fire brigade,” rushing to any section of the wall that is about to break.
Reject the Lucifer. 🔥 The Lucifer is a short-range flamethrower unit. It is too slow and vulnerable to be effective during the chaos of the final wave.
Maintain a Quick Reaction Force (QRF). Keep a mobile group of Titans or veteran Soldiers in the center of your base. When a breach occurs, this QRF is your only hope of plugging the gap.
Research All Unit Upgrades. 📈 At the Engineering Center, you can research upgrades that improve the health and damage of your units.
Build the Academy of Immortals. 🏛️ If your economy can support it, build this Wonder. It instantly promotes all of your units to Veteran status.
Don’t Forget Your Economy. 💸 You will need a massive income to support the upkeep of hundreds of units and towers and to pay for constant repairs.
Pause and Re-deploy. ⏸️ During the final wave, constantly pause. If one side has defended its wave, immediately redeploy those units to a section that is struggling.

Part 5: The Commander’s Arsenal – A Deep Dive into They Are Billions: Units

Your army is the sword and shield of your colony. Knowing the precise role, strengths, and weaknesses of each unit is crucial.

Ranger: 🏹 These fast archers are your eyes and ears. Use them for early-game scouting and setting up a patrol perimeter.
Soldier: 💂 Tougher and with a higher rate of fire than Rangers, Soldiers are excellent mid-game brawlers. Their biggest weakness is the immense noise they make.
Sniper: 🎯 The backbone of any successful army. The Sniper’s high damage and long range make it the ultimate counter to all special infected. Always set them to “Target Highest Priority.”
Lucifer: 🔥 This heavily armored, short-range flamethrower unit is a niche tool. It can be effective at holding extremely narrow chokepoints.
Thanatos: 🚀 The king of area-of-effect damage. The Thanatos fires a rocket that devastates large, tightly packed groups of zombies.
Titan: 🤖 The pinnacle of military technology. The Titan is a fast, durable, and powerful mobile weapons platform. It excels in every role.

Imperial Army Unit Analysis

Unit Name	Production Building	Cost (Gold, Resources)	Upkeep (Gold, Food)	Primary Role	Key Strength	Critical Weakness
Ranger 🏹	Soldier Center	120 Gold, 2 Wood	2 Gold, 1 Food	Early Scout, Kiting	High speed, Low noise	Very low health and damage
Soldier 💂	Soldier Center	240 Gold, 2 Iron	5 Gold, 1 Food	Map Clearing, QRF	High rate of fire, Durable	Extremely loud, Short range
Sniper 🎯	Soldier Center	600 Gold, 5 Iron	20 Gold, 2 Food	Special Infected Killer	Very high damage, Long range	Very slow fire rate, Fragile
Lucifer 🔥	Engineering Center	1200 Gold, 10 Iron, 5 Oil	40 Gold, 2 Food	Chokepoint Defense	High AoE damage, High armor	Extremely slow, Short range
Thanatos 🚀	Engineering Center	2000 Gold, 10 Iron, 10 Oil	60 Gold, 4 Food	Anti-Horde Defense	Massive splash damage	Very slow fire rate and speed
Titan 🤖	Engineering Center	6000 Gold, 20 Iron, 20 Oil	100 Gold, 10 Food	Mobile Defense, Map Clearer	Fast, Durable, AoE damage	Extremely high cost

Promote Veterans. 🏅 Units that survive combat and get kills will become Veterans, receiving a significant boost to their stats.
Combine Your Forces. 🤝 Don’t rely on a single unit type. Use Soldiers to tank, Snipers to kill specials, and Thanatos to clear the chaff.
Don’t Queue Units. ⏳ When you order units, don’t queue up several at once. The resources for all queued units are spent immediately, but they are built one at a time.
Build Multiple Production Centers. 🏭 In the late game, you will need to produce units at a massive scale. Build multiple Soldier Centers and Engineering Centers.
Use Towers to Boost Range. Placing any unit inside a tower increases its attack range. This is especially effective for Snipers.
Stagger Your Clearing Army. When clearing the map, spread your units out slightly. A tightly packed ball of units makes a single, massive source of noise.
Leapfrog Your Units. 🐸 When advancing a large army, split it into two groups. Move one group forward while the other provides covering fire.
Know When to Retreat. 🏃 There is no shame in pulling back. If your clearing force attracts a larger horde than it can handle, retreat immediately.
The Chase Command is Risky. ⚠️ The ‘Chase’ command will cause your units to seek out nearby infected. It can cause your units to separate and get picked off.

Part 6: The Unbreachable Fortress – Mastering Defense in They Are Billions

A colony is only as strong as its walls. Your defensive structures are not just barriers; they are complex weapon systems designed to slaughter the infected by the thousand.

Walls Buy Time. ⏳ Remember that the purpose of a wall is not to be indestructible. Its purpose is to slow the horde down, buying time for your towers and units to destroy them.
Create Kill Zones. 🎯 The area in front of your walls should be a kill zone: flat, open, and completely covered by the overlapping fire from your towers.
Double or Triple Layer Your Walls. 🧱🧱 For the final wave, a single wall is not enough. A double layer of stone walls is the minimum. A triple layer is better.
Upgrade Ballistas to Executors. 🗼 Do not leave your defenses with basic Ballistas. The upgrade to an Executor is expensive, but the massive increase in damage is non-negotiable.
Specialize Your Towers. ⚡ Use a mix of towers. Shocking Towers kill the weak, Executors kill the strong, and Snipers in Stone Towers kill the specials.
The “Wasp” Harpy Trap. 🕷️ Harpies are fast infected that can jump over walls. To counter them, build two parallel walls with a one-tile gap. Fill that gap with wire fence traps (“Wasps”). The Harpies will jump the first wall and get stuck.
Space Your Towers Correctly. Don’t pack your towers right next to each other. If one is destroyed, the explosion could damage adjacent towers.
Build Redundancy. Don’t rely on a single line of defense. Assume the first line will fail and have a backup ready.
Spike Traps are for the Early Game. Wooden spike traps are cheap and excellent for the first few waves. They are not cost-effective against late-game hordes.
Wire Fence Traps are for the Late Game. 🕸️ These traps do less damage, but they slow enemies and can be placed on top of each other. A dense field can significantly hinder the final horde.
Focus Fire with Your Towers. Set your Executors and Sniper Towers to “Target Highest Priority” to ensure they focus on the biggest threats first.
Lookout Towers Give Critical Intel. 👁️ A simple wooden Lookout Tower provides a massive vision radius, giving you an early warning of approaching waves.
The Silent Beholder Wonder. This late-game Wonder reveals the entire map and all enemy units permanently. The perfect information it provides is an incredible strategic advantage.
The Victorious as a Super Wall. 🏛️ The Victorious Wonder has an enormous amount of health. It can be used strategically as an unbreakable anchor in a critical chokepoint.
Micromanage Your Repairs. 🔧 While the “Repair All” button is useful, it can drain your resources. In a tight spot, pause and manually order repairs on only the most critical structures.
Don’t Forget the Railroads. 🚂 On maps with train tracks, remember that infected can walk along them. You must wall off or place a gate on the tracks.

Conclusion: The Dawn of a New Empire 🌅

You have the knowledge now. You have the strategies. From the desperate scramble of the first few days to the epic final stand against a sea of infected, you now hold the blueprint for survival. You know to pause, to plan, to expand your economy with relentless efficiency, and to build a fortress of layered stone and steel. You understand the deadly dance of kiting Rangers, the overwhelming power of a Sniper deathball, and the apocalyptic symphony of Executors and Thanatos rockets.

The path ahead is not easy. You will make mistakes. Colonies will fall. You will watch your hard-built empire crumble to a single, overlooked zombie. This is the nature of They Are Billions. It is a brutal, unforgiving teacher.

But do not despair. The biggest wave is not the one on the final day, but the wave of frustration after a colony falls. Your most important resource is resilience. With each defeat comes a lesson. With each fallen colony, a stronger commander is forged. 💪

Take this manual, Commander. Go out into the wasteland. Build, expand, and fight. Build an empire that will not only survive the billions but will stand as a beacon of hope in the darkness. The future of humanity is in your hands. Prevail. 🔥

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for They Are Billions belong to the developer Numantian Games

Find the game here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/644930/They_Are_Billions/