Build orders
22 guides, generic and map-specific, tagged so you can find the one you need. They are scattered across YouTube, two wikis, both forums and a Google Doc, and nowhere collects them — so this does. Each links out to its author; nothing is reproduced here.
Worth knowing before you start: a build order is tied to one map, and the ladder pool rotates monthly, so map-specific material goes stale by design. The generic openings and the faction guides age far better. 5 maps are covered below.
The first five minutes
The generic openings, transcribed from the guides that teach them and then played out against the current patch. Pick what you are opening into and every number below is computed rather than quoted: build points divided by build power, with the economy stepped forward tick by tick so you can watch the reserves drain and see where the build would stall. There is no faction to pick, because every building an opening touches costs exactly the same in all four.
Triple land
Three land factories before the ACU leaves the base. The straightforward opening: everything goes into putting tanks on the ground and taking your half of the map.
- ACU busy until
- 3:09
- Income at the end
- 9m/s132 e/s
- Stalled
- Never
More early engineers plus a few units, then the factory can go over to engineers once later factories cover the army.
- One scout, then tanks. This is the one place the factions genuinely differ: T1 land scouts and tanks are not the same cost in each, so the factory has no single clock the way the air factory does.
- Two engineers on factories, one on power generators. A land factory is 60 seconds for one engineer and 30 for two; a generator is 25 seconds for one. So the pair finishing a factory and the single finishing a generator land together, and the economy stays balanced on its own.
- Expand along linear routes rather than jumping between mass points, picking up reclaim on the way, and queue something for the engineer to do when it runs out of expansion.
Sequence from Heaven, Generic Build Orders (FAF Tutorial 1), also taught in prose on the FAF wiki, Beginner's Guide to Forged Alliance Forever. Every time, cost and reserve here is computed from the current patch’s blueprints rather than copied from the guide: build points divided by build power, with the economy stepped forward tick by tick so a stall shows up where it would happen. Costs are identical in all four factions, so there is no faction to choose. Three things it assumes. You start with the ACU’s storage full, 650 mass and 3900 energy, read off its blueprint. Reclaim is off, so every time here is pessimistic on a map with rocks near your spawn. The reclaim buttons show what it buys. And nothing is lost, so no engineer here ever walks into a raid. The wiki teaches a two-factory version of the same shape, which is a gentler place to start. Everything below the second factory is identical.
Guides, by map and focus
Openings for specific maps and team positions are not transcribed above, because they exist as videos and a build order rebuilt from memory of a video has invented steps in it. They are linked here instead, tagged so you can find yours.
The most-watched build order video in the game. Openings that work anywhere, which is what you want before you start learning maps.
Eight years old. Openings have aged better than anything map-specific, but check costs against this site.
The economy half of an opening: what to build when income, not the build order, is the constraint.
Openings that lean on energy first. The counterpart to the mass-boosted set below.
The mass-first openings, and when taking that side of the trade is right.
Five minutes on the opening a hydrocarbon plant changes. Short, and only relevant where there is a hydro to take.
Openings outside the standard set, for when the standard one is being read and countered.
What a build order is for, before which one to use. Start here if the concept itself is new.
The most recent map-specific build order I could find, on the game’s most played map.
A worked opening on one of the standard ladder maps.
Per-slot strategy for Seton’s, which is the map where the slot decides your whole game.
Sandboxed build orders for nine maps with replay ids and cheat sheets, aimed above 1300 rating. Links out to a Google Doc.
Written for one month’s pool in 2022. Worked examples rather than a current list.
Opening and follow-up on water, where the land build orders stop applying.
Carries the basic build orders in writing, which is easier to follow along with than a video.
What to do after the opening: the part a build order stops telling you.
Openings by map size for UEF, which is why it keeps working when a map pool rotates.
The longest and most recently edited of the four. Openings for small, medium, naval and large maps, each with a summary.
Openings by map size for Aeon.
Openings by map size for Seraphim.
Two written openings — a standard one and a Seraphim "Steamroller" — with the reasoning spelled out at beginner pace.
A long thread organised by level, covering what to work on rather than one sequence to memorise.
The old forum’s collection thread. Many openings, many authors, no curation.
On the read-only phpBB archive, so it is a snapshot rather than a live discussion.
Notes taken from a top player’s games, on the old forum. Reasoning rather than sequences.
Marked a work in progress by its author, and on the read-only archive.