Humankind: 9 beginner tips for hobby strategists

With Humankind, Amplitude Studios has launched a turn-based 4X strategy game that looks like a Civilization clone at first glance. In order to avoid clicking haphazardly over the world map and sending your units blindly through the area, you can find out in this guide:

  • What you should pay attention to in the first rounds of Humankind
  • Where to place your first city
  • The meaning of epoch stars
  • How to bring your nomadic people into the modern era
  • What the cultures are all about

With Humankind, the gaming world has been enriched by a turn-based strategy game since August 17. Currently, you can only play it on PC or via Google Stadia; Humankind is not yet available for consoles. However, since comparable games like the popular Civilization series () are now also available for consoles, a console release at a later date is not out of the question.

General information about the gameplay of Humankind

Humankind is a turn-based 4X strategy game. 4X stands for the English terms explore, expand, exploit and exter minate. In short: you want nothing less than world domination.

You pursue this goal from round to round. Humankind plays like a classic board game, in which you only have one turn per round. In each turn you can move your units, place building orders, expand your city, place outposts or research technologies. All players do this at the same time. When all players have finished their turn, the round is considered to be over and the conditions on the game board or the world map change.

But what is the best way to start the game?

The first steps in Humankind

Since you want to get your people out of their nomadic existence as quickly as possible in Humankind, there are a few things you should keep in mind during your first turns.

Split units

First, split your tribe. Make two units out of one. This will allow you to explore the world map faster and, more importantly, in different directions.

Collect and hunt as much as possible

The faster your population grows, the more units you have. And how does a population grow best? Exactly, with enough food. So collect as much as you can and hunt mammoths or deer if you have doubts - but of course only if you outnumber them.

Scan the map and settle down

Once you have a first overview of the world map, choose a place to build your first outpost. Focus on food resources, because you want your population to grow quickly.

Tip: It can't hurt to find a suitable location near the sea. We will explain why below.

Loot whenever you can

Throughout the map, you will encounter refuges as you explore. At the beginning of your Humankind journey, you can and should loot them if they are on your way. You will be rewarded with food, curiosities or gold.

Split up your units and explore the map in different directions.

Outpost positioning

Possession is everything in Humankind. Only those who can call enough lands their own have enough influence and thus have the best chances of becoming a successful world ruler. So start building outposts early. In the course of the game, you can link the outposts to your city and thus steadily expand your empire. Therefore, don't leave too much space between the respective locations, so that none of your opponents gets in between.

Distribute several outposts on the map to gain more influence.

Where should you build your city?

Develop one of the outposts into your capital. It is even more important that at least one of them is well placed. Make sure you have some resources nearby that fall within your sphere of influence - such as frankincense. Once you get to the second and third ages, you'll have access to horses and iron. So make sure that you find all of them near you.

Also, as mentioned above, your city should be near the coast. At a later stage, you can trade and use sea routes. This way you can get more food or luxury goods without importing them by land.

Develop one of your outposts into an imposing city.

Gather influence and fame

Without influence and fame, you and your success in Humankind will look pretty bad. Collect as many influence points as possible to advance. You need them, for example, to build new outposts. The price increases the more cities you own. Attaching outposts to your cities also costs influence, as does choosing ordinances.

The fame value is also used to measure your success. The more fame you have, the higher you are in the ranking compared to your fellow players.

What race do you play? How much fame do you have? The overview will tell you - and much more.

Avoid wars as long as possible

As tempting as it is, hold back on wars for the time being - especially if your civilization is still in its infancy. The reason is simple: military costs are unnecessarily high. Since you have to manage your resources and focus on population growth, especially in the beginning, wars should be the least of your worries for the time being.

Instead, you should get on well with the other peoples. Maintain peaceful trade relations and you will be spared from attacks for the time being. Your military expenses will be reduced to a minimum and you will even earn money, since the other races will buy resources from you.

Wars are part of turn-based strategy games. However, wait with it if the genre is still new to you.

What is the added value of independent races?

Once you reach the second epoch, you will not only meet other (AI) players, but also neutral races. They also make themselves comfortable on the map, but do not compete with you for world domination.

You should get along with them and trade with them. Donate them some of your money and influenceto make them sympathetic to you. As soon as you interact with the independent peoples, you'll see a progress bar. If you manage to fill it up to the brim, you will have the opportunity to subjugate the people.

But be warned: The other players won't like this at all - at least if you play on the "Nation" difficulty level or higher. But at least you don't have to fear any warlike intentions from the independent nations.

Take advantage of any help that is offered to you

In Humankind, you can access all tutorials via the main menu at any time and read up on certain functions in the glossary. Do this as soon as something is unclear to you. Humankind is extremely complex, so there's a high chance that you won't understand everything at once as a newcomer.

Bonus tip for turn-based strategy beginners

If you've never played turn-based strategy games like Civilization or Humankind before, start at the lowest difficulty level. Alternatively, take a higher one, but deactivate the war mode. As a beginner, you should first concentrate on the game mechanics. You can always play war later.

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