How to Play Dawn of Man

This guide will show how to methodically and systematically play the game to successes.

The Hotkeys

The author introduction:
After playing more than 3000 hours of Dawn of Man and had learned almost all the ins and outs of the game I decided to make this guide to help anyone to get through easily and enjoy the game. I have completed all the games’ achievements and finished the most difficult modded scenarios in hardcore like the EverWinter and Hard Reality Scotland, among the very few scenarios that are doable, challenging and fun to play.

The best way to play a game is familiarity and ease of playing. Hotkeys are very important in all pc games and in Dawn of Man the hotkeys are really very simple, useful and easy to understand before playing the game. Its very important to try using all available hotkeys and the very important ones are the F and Numbers hotkeys. WASD is very common in most pc games to move the screen laterally and vertically. Q and E to rotate the screen clockwise and counterclockwise, R and F to Zoom in/out, Z and C to rotate structure to build and X to return to default structure build position. V is to change structure variants. ENTER is to return to main base.

The more important ones are the F and Number keys.
From F1 to F8 then F12 for screenshot, most common F keys I use are:
F2 for welfare/Prestige/Dogs count/Animals/etc
F4 to set limits
F5 for milestones (milestones give knowledge points)
F8 for domestic animals composition
#1 to #4 is the game speed from lowest to highest
#6 to check for idle villager (very important when ordering new task)
#7 is the task/s panel which shows all the task/s present and future ones
#8 is the knowledge point panel to track and check which item needs to be had to gain a knowledge point
#9 is the structures panel in which you can locate where the structure you built are
#0 is the Spiritual structures which includes megalithic as well as megaliths you prepared and rolled/being rolled
The minus “-“ sign shows the work area placed.
Here is the 1st video of my Paleolithic Overpopulation shows these hotkeys as well as how to begin the game in normal difficulty.

https://youtu.be/GO3p1e_hpv8

The Game Mechanics

Introduction and Basic Information:

The game is about developing a settlement from the Stone Age up to Iron Age, from hunter-gatherer to agriculture, animals domestication and mining.

THE VILLAGERS:

The villagers in this game has attributes that must be taken cared of by themselves aided and guided by the player. They behave like humans who values their Health to survive in any conditions. Health is affected by 3 other attributes namely Nutrition, Hydration and Temperature. Rest and Morale affects their efficiency though don’t decrease health when low but “can help in recovery of health”. Therefore they must have food, water and clothing. Their health also is affected by getting wounded during fights with aggressive animals as well as inflicted by the raider/s, but can either regenerate back to maximum or will deteriorate due to infection. Therefore the villagers must provide themselves with necessities such as the few mentioned above as well as tools and weapons to thrive. Their numbers increase by birth or by immigrants. The villagers can age up to 70 years old, the children ages from 0 to before 20 y/o, adults from 20 to before 45 y/o and olds from 45 to before 70 y/o. Their ages can’t be shown anymore as compared to when the game was launched so you can only know them as children, adults, and olds.

The villagers have other attributes that affect or effect their performance, namely tiredness (rest) and morale. Tiredness results from being overworked and also includes (running/sprinting). Every action a villager do while moving results to tiredness but running has the fastest get them tired. Morale is affected by many things from all the other human attributes to storms, blizzards, and lack of spiritual needs.

Each low attributes will show an icon on their heads that if not attended to can cause severe situation/s than can lead to devastation.

THE WEATHER:

The environment has 4 seasons; winter, spring, summer and fall (James Taylor😀) per game year but each game year is equivalent to 5 years with respect to villagers age. Each season are also distributed equally every year.

The types of food the villagers can consume are meat (raw or dried), fish (raw or dried), fruits, berries bread and pulses (needs to be cooked).

THE RESOURCES:

The resources in this game are the following:
- sticks, used on most structures, tools, weapons, fuels and transports. They respawn but will deteriorate as there are activities nearby and might be a bottleneck as the settlement and population expands.
- logs, used on building structures past Paleolithic and for fueling hearths, huts and roundhouses, are needed on transports too.
- flints, used for making tools and are useful up to Copper Age.
- metals, such as copper, tin and iron will be used up to the end for tools and weapons and iron bars for building defense fortifications such as reinforced platforms/gates/guard towers.
- raw skins, used for building Stone Age structures, slings, bows and skins outfits when dried.
- dried skins, one of the most important resources that plays a major role up to Copper Age because it’s byproduct (skins outfits and bows) can trade very well.
- leather, are used on sledges, carts, towers and megaliths transport aside from being useful as trade goods.
- foods, coming from animals (meats from wild ones or domesticated), fruits (from fruit trees), berries (only wild ones), fish, nuts, bread (from grains processed into flour) and pulses.
- bones, from animals can be used as bone tools and still have good trade values up to Copper Age.
Most resources are infinite meaning trees can regrow (except when very close to a structure or been passed through many times), fish and animals can respawn as well as wild plants/fruits/berries and nuts including sticks if structures were not placed (“begun construction sometimes”) upon them. Stones and minerals such as flints and metals are finite but “traders” will bring infinite.

Structures (most), tools, weapons, food, sledges, carts, raw and finished materials and clothings decay, whether you use or consume it or not.

THE ANIMALS:

The animals produce meat, raw skins and bones.
Domestic animals needs to be fed (with either straws or grains) and needs water for hydration, they need to be fed when sheltered (during winter) and on their own from spring to fall. Domestic animals that can be attached to carts don’t need feeding and can withstand cold weather.Wild animals have their own attributes also almost similar to the villagers but they can survive to infinity even if they are hungry or thirsty.

Wild plants aren’t affected by diseases.

THE SCENARIOS:

There are 3 basic scenarios you can play the game in vanilla but you need some minimum requirements if achievements beginning from the easiest scenario which is the Continental Dawn before you can play the next harder one (Northlands) then thereafter the hardest (as stated by the developers) which is the Ancient Warriors.

Continental Dawn Scenario:
- has quite good and fair weather with fewer calamities such as blizzards and storms. Blizzards are more fatal if the villagers are doing task/s farther from the settlement such as hunting, mining or gathering resources including megaliths. Storms produce lightning that can sometimes hit villagers or domestic animals. The game starts during spring and during Paleolithic era. The maps have include beech and oak (oaks produce tannin too) trees that gives more logs and sticks when felled down (4 logs and 4 sticks).

Northlands Scenario:
- has colder weather and starts during winter.
- has only spruce, pine and fir (produce tannin too) trees. These trees produce 3 logs and 3 sticks.
- there are more animals
- has more raiders numbers than Continental Dawn

Ancient Warriors:
- starts in Neolithic during fall.
- has almost the same weather with Northlands but blizzards are more prevalent.
- has almost the same or a bit lesser and harder animals near the starting location than Continental Dawn
- has the highest number of raiders.

Scenario/s can either start/s “settled” meaning you have structures built-in already or “nomad” meaning you have no built-in structures but have partial resources to build “some” structures.

The game can be played in either normal or hardcore difficulties. Normal difficulty has no human raiders from Paleolithic to Mesolithic eras and will be at par with the players era technology which means that their weapons will match with the players era weaponry. In hardcore difficulty the raiders will advance their technological weaponry according to a predetermined time frame, this means that there is a possibility of the raiders to be more superior in weaponry than the villagers. Raiders are immune to any temperature.

Dawn of Man has Steam workshop where you can play modded scenarios for free. All you need is subscribe and it will appear in the “New Game” menu then “Community”.

The Eras: PALEOLITHIC ERA

The game starts in the pre-historic or Stone Age and progresses to Metal Age (up to Iron Age only). This section will describe more details about the game mechanics from the very start up to the finish, finish means reaching the Iron Age and completing all the milestones.

As previously mentioned you can play either settled or nomad and I suggest new players play the settled game as it will save time and also efforts on the part of the villagers. Each type of start will have advantage/s and disadvantage/s so it’s up to the players to decide. I will mention a few advantage and disadvantage I’ve known.

For Settled:
- you will have tents, hearths and crafter and initial food. This setup can ensure you have initial dwellings which can provide villagers sanctuary when tired, injured or feeling cold. The hearths will provide immediate access to cooking meats, fish and (in the later part) pulses; hearths can be used for baking bread too. Crafter will provide immediate access to making tools, weapons and clothings.
- a slight disadvantage is that the location and setup might not be a favorable choice.

For Nomad:
- the start has no structures built but you will be provided with partial resources and food to start your settlement. It has enough numbers of resources to build tents or huts ( Ancient Warriors scenario), etc.
- it has more disadvantage as it starts without stones (for hearths) and will exert more time and effort to build the dwelling for the initial villagers.
- it has advantage of accumulating a couple of knowledge points once the initial structures are built and a preferred location by the player. Though restructuring in the later part is much easier.

Each era has technologies that can be unlocked to increase capabilities and efficiencies all throughout the game. Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras cover the Stone Age ( noting that these 3 eras will be used for Stone Age Prestige achievement). Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages are obviously metal Ages. As previously discussed each technology requires KNOWLEDGE POINTS (or KP in short) to unlock and they become more expensive as you progress into another era, each technology in every cost the same amount of KP. The players/s must consider getting technology based on the prevailing circumstances and needs.

PALEOLITHIC ERA:
This is the era in which the villagers hunt animals (for meat, raw skins & bones), forage (berries), gatheri fruits/nuts, and fish (on rivers and lakes) to survive. The materials that can be gathered are sticks, flints, stones which can be picked up (then using pick one stone mines) and later logs when axe becomes available. The villagers are initially equipped with wooden spears (fir hunting) and wooden harpoon (fir fishing).

Basic Information:
- all storage (tents) or shelter (tents)structures are built from dried skins and sticks only, they decay and needs the same materials during repair.
- crafter/s which is used to make tools, weapons and clothings is also built using dried skins and sticks, and will not decay.
- hearths which is used for cooking and baking bread too althroughout the game is built using stones and slightly warming can be fueled by either sticks or logs.
- most if not all adult/old villagers are equipped (or will be equipped) with wooden/bone spears/harpoons and biface for slaughtering dead or killed animals.

The TECHNOLOGIES that can be acquired in Paleolithic era are as follows:
- Food Drying, the best technology to get so that raw meat and fish can be dried to last longer. Once gotten you can make a non-decaying food dryer using sticks only.
- Bone Technology, the 2nd best technology to acquire to increase hunting and fishing efficiency and capabilities. This can enhance hunting big aggressive animals such as mammoth, wholly rhino, elastomerium (if scenario has it) cave bears, ancient bison, aurochs, and muskox (if scenario has it).
- Dog Domestication, my 3rd choice especially in hardcore. This allows you to have extra defenders and can easily and early multiply them.
- Tanning, this allows your villagers to make summer clothing which increase comforts and boots welfare. Raw skins can be made into leather from the “tanner/s” using tannin (from oak and fir trees , use work area or gather manually) which can be gathrered during spring only. Tanners can be built using logs and they don’t decay. TIP, make sure to buy the logs from the 1st trader and get this technology on or before spring.
- Composite Tools, this allows the villagers to craft flint weapons (spears) and tools (axe for chopping down trees for logs/sticks & picks to gather stones/flints from stone/flint mines.
- Burial Spirituality , this allows the villagers make burial mound/s to bury their dead, needs 3 stones and gives prestige point and recover morale. Can only be used once a dead villager was buried onto each burial mound/s.
- Slingmaking, this allows the villagers to craft longer range weapon, ideal for non aggressive animals hunting; 1 dried skin makes 2 slings. I normally buy this technology since I’m comfortable or I found spears to be useful on both range and melee fights with aggressive animals.
- Dog Training, dogs accompany hunter/s and can sprint to kil fast moving targets. I normally buy this technology from the trader when playing hardcore because I want them to stay in the settlement to protect from predators.

TIPs on this era:
- use manual hunting and never place any hunting area. When there are hunts crossing over your settlement or approaching nearby gather hunters within the area pressing “H key” and hunt manually, you can use double click to the vacant ground to make the villagers sprint into position. Using this approach will select all villagers equipped with range weapons “but” not necessarily with knives/biface. The sole intent is just to kill any target when opportunity arises.
- hunt targets by highlighting on the target/s then click the hunt button only when there are available (idle adult/old villagers), this way all hunters will be equipped with range weapons and knives (or biface). Idle villagers can be checked using #6 key.
- prioritize hunting the predators especially the adults and old ones to clear the area for a very safe movement if all villagers doing any other task/s.
- hunt the young carnivores before they get killed and eaten by the predators, this will make hungry predators to come to your settlement for easy picking. Dont slaughter dog/dogs because the hungry predators (wolves and cave lions/hayenas) will try to eat its meat so another easy picking.
- fish only on 1 spot after accumulating 10 raw and dried fish and continue on hunting animals.

https://youtu.be/GO3p1e_hpv8 video by PC Gamer_buds

The ERA: MESOLITHIC

If you’re playing normal game I suggest you accumulate more knowledge points through completing needed items on “number 8 chart”.and buy technology/if necessary while in Paleolithic. Buying technology can be done by acquiring more resources like skins, and tools/weapons products. Accumulating enough points for 4 technologies before advancing to Mesolithic is the best, but 2 is just fine. When you buy or can buy a technology saves you more knowledge points. If you’re playing hardcore the faster you get to Mesolithic the better. Also remember to keep your settlement stable with your current population.

[Marcskimo]

Hey Buds. Thanks for the awesome guide. I've just recently started playing this and whilst it is fairly easy to get the hang of, this has taught me a few pointers which will be a great help. Kudos to you!

[BR0TH3R_TUB3]

when will you update this

[pgames-food]

very nice

[buds]

One of the highest population I have/had.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2181958813

[buds]

A work in progress, will update, edit asap