Age of Empires II, the classic real-time strategy (RTS) game, has been remade and released in a Definitive Edition for its 20th anniversary. New artwork, new animations, and new civilizations are. Focus on mostly food and some wood first so you can age up asap. More on wood if you have a water map and can build docks. Fishing boats allow you to expand your population and gather food faster than all other methods, if available. The AI on a water map will always place a dock about every 7 min up to about 3 docks.
A comprehensive guide to all the cheat codes in the game. Just like all the others, never load up the game without your trusted notepad (urrr, guide I mean), with all your cheat codes written down. Ahhh, it feels like the 90’s again!
How to Activate Cheats
Just hit the Enter button or click the Chat icon in the top-right. That should bring up a text box. Type in one of the cheat codes listed below and then hit Enter button again. The cheat codes aren’t case sensitive, so all you’ve to do is spell them right.
Cheat Codes
- marco: Reveals the entire map. It works as a switch — on or off — so entering it again will hide the map.
- polo: Removes the fog of war. This too works as a switch, like so entering it again will restore the fog of war.
- alpaca simulator: Creates an “Alfred the Alpaca”, which looks like a Llama. Very high armour value, trample damage, and attacks with headbutts. Strong in melee combat, weak against speed, ranged attack.
- catzor: Creates an “Sharkatzor”, which resembled a flying shark with rockets launches on its back. Has a very high damage capacity, and has a 10 square firing sight line.
- furious the monkey boy: Creates a “Furious the Monkey Boy”. Destroys buildings easily, but slow and dies after taking nine hits.
- how do you turn this on: Creates an “AC Cobra”. Fires rounds of bullets, impressive long range, and high hit points, armour, and damage. Poor AI, bullets harm friendly units.
- i don’t exist: Creates a “Penguin”. High armour and damage.
- i love the monkey head: Creates a “VMDL”. Quick and good for exploring. Cannot attack but grant attack bonus to buildings if garrisoned. Fun fact: VMDL stands for Villager Male David Lewis and in case you’re wondering, David Lewis was in the team that made the game.
- to smithereens: Creates a Saboteur. More effective and faster than a Petard, the only non-cheat suicide unit on land.
- cheese steak jimmy’s: Increases Food by 10,000.
- lumberjack: Increases Wood by 10,000.
- robin hood: Increases Gold by 10,000.
- rock on: Increases Stone by 10,000.
- ninjaconnor / ninjalui / rowshep: Increases all resources by 1,00,000 (You only have to input ONE of the three codes here, not all 3. I have no idea why they did this).
- !mute: Silences taunts. That’s it.
- !nomute: Reverses !mute.
- aegis: Building, researching, resource gathering, and training is done instantly — for everyone including the AI. Works like a switch, so can be turned off.
- black death: Kills all other civilisations, except yours. Yes, even your allies.
- i r winner: Declares your civilisation as the winner.
- natural wonders: Transfers player control to nature, in lieu of losing control of your civilisation. It is irreversible — there’s no way to regain control of your civilisation other than starting a new game.
- resign: You lose the game.
- torpedo XXXXX: Kills the specified civilisation, where “X” is civilisation number from 1 – 8.
- wimpywimpywimpy: Kills all of your units, resulting in the same outcome as resign.
- woof woof: Transforms birds into “Stormy Dogs”. They are flying dogs with red capes. No gameplay change.
Hi there Age fans!
We’ve been watching some of your wonderful beta streams, and come to realize that no matter how good you are at the other Age games Age of Empires: Definitive Edition might take a little bit of getting used to! To help with that the best Age player on our team here at Microsoft Studios, Will McCahill, wrote up this list for you!
Good luck everyone, and have fun playing!!
A Quick Reference for Age II HD Players Who Want to Play AoE: DE
Key differences:
No starting scout – you only get 3 villagers. Use one of your villagers to scout at the start
No garrisoning – you can’t hide your villagers in the event of an attack
Loom – No equivalent early game upgrade in Age:DE, villagers are a little stronger though
Houses support only four population – Unlike Age 2’s five
No Palisade walls or equivalent – Walls cannot be made until they are researched at the granary starting in the Tool Age
Resources –
- Granary: can only accept food from Berries and farms
- Storage Pit: Accepts all wood, gold, and stone. Can only accept food from elephant, shore fish, crocodiles, lions and antelope.
- Town Center: Any resource can be dropped off at the Town Center
- Hunting: Gazelle (deer equivalent) spawn in larger groups and can be hunted efficiently
- Farms: Aren’t available until a market is built. A market can’t be built until the tool age. Cost 75 wood each (compare to Age 2’s 60 wood each)
- No Sheep or equivalent
- Berries – Are the same!
- Wolves – Replaced with lions and alligators. Villagers can kill lions and alligators 1 on 1 without upgrades if they throw the first spear (alligators are slow so you might want to micro your villager back a bit)
- Boar – Replaced with elephants. Elephants have high DPS but are slower than a villager enabling you to kite.
- Trees – Have a variable amount of wood. Generally, 40 wood per tree (compare to Age 2’s 100 wood)
- Blacksmith upgrades are at the Storage pit – Upgrades are available starting in the Tool Age
Stone Age – Dark Age
- Drush – Clubmen are only slightly stronger than villagers. It is rare to be able to do any real damage to your enemy until the tool age
Tool Age – Feudal Age
- UpgradeCost – 500 food, same as AOE2
- Market – Unlocked in the Tool Age (requires granary).
- Required for farms
- Has villager efficiency upgrades by resource type
- Wood efficiency upgrade also improves archer range
- Slingers – Strong anti-archer/anti-fortification unit that costs food and stone. Created at the barracks. Has no upgrade path meaning it’s strength peaks in the Tool Age. Generally used for rushes
Bronze Age – Castle Age
- UpgradeCost – 800 food (no gold!)
- Wheel – Critical upgrade from the Market that improves villager movement speed by 30% and unlocks chariots
- Chariots/chariot archers – Very strong “trash” units in that they only cost food and wood to create. Chariots are created at the Stable. Chariot Archers at the Archery range
- Chariot archers – upgrades for wood improve chariot archer range, other upgrades are at the storage pit
- Chariots – Can be upgraded to scythe chariots (which are basically paladins with splash damage) in the Iron age
- Swordsmen – Prior to Bronze, players have access to Clubmen and Axemen. Those units cannot be upgraded to Swordsmen. Short Swordsmen can be created at the Barracks starting in the Bronze age and have an upgrade path similar to AOE2 Militia.
- Academy – Requires a stable. Strong and expensive infantry (Hoplite, Phalanx, Centurion) can be made at the academy
- Government Center
- If you are booming – this should be your first building in the Bronze age
- Town Center – Government center is required to build a second town center (You can build them for just 200 wood! Much cheaper than AOE2)
- Functions similar to a University
- Logistics – Key upgrade for infantry focused civilizations. Makes barracks units cost only ½ of a population slot
- Nobility – key upgrade for cavalry focused civilizations. Prerequisite to upgrade for scythe chariots
Iron Age – Imperial Age
- Upgrade Cost – 1000 food, 800 gold, same as AOE2
- Zealotry – Similar to the Spanish Supremacy unique upgrade and Loom, Zealotry greatly increases villager strength/combat capabilities. It also provides a speed bonus but reduces resource collection by 50%
And for those of you who learn best by watching, here are some good AoE Youtube channels to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6gvgy0LRMx_OF6yi6ccTtA
Age Of Empires 2 Strategy Tips
https://www.youtube.com/user/Resonance22Channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/ZeroEmpires