The commander’s guide
Engineers and buildings
Build, assist, repair and reclaim with engineers. Compare every structure’s cost and role, and use adjacency bonuses.
Browse the guide
Engineers and building
- A placement is a plan. It costs nothing until an engineer of its tier arrives and starts building. Delete or Backspace cancels unfinished sites.
- Demolish. Select finished buildings and press Delete or Backspace twice within three seconds, or use Demolish in the command card: you get half the tier’s price back, as far as your stores have room, and no wreck is left. The Heartbloom and its petals cannot be demolished.
- Repair. Select engineers and right-click a damaged building of yours, or press G on it; the cursor shows a spanner. Each engineer mends at its full build power from within 45 metres, and the side pays for the health it restores as it goes, the same share of the building’s price. Shift queues a repair.
- Queue it. Shift-click queues another building on the same engineers, and Shift-drag lays out a line of up to 32.
- Assist. Select engineers, press G or right-click a building site or factory, and they help. Each helper adds half its build power, up to +2. While you have full power, an idle engineer joins nearby work within 80 metres by itself after four seconds, until that job has four helpers.
- Anywhere level. You can build on any open, level ground. Only the petal rings and factory doors are kept clear. Naval yards and water defences are the exception: they stand on open water, clear of banks and bridges, and your engineers build them from the shore.
- Reach. Engineers work within 45 metres of what they build. An engineer that finds no way to a job (a site walled in on every side, a water site with no shore) gives it up, and idle engineers leave that job alone for a minute; your own order still sends them.
- Engineer tiers. An engineer builds up to its own tier. Only the ground factory trains engineers.
| Engineer | Matter / energy / time | Health | Build power |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 55 / 100 / 8 s | 320 | 1 |
| T2 | 140 / 260 / 14 s | 650 | 2 |
| T3 | 300 / 600 / 22 s | 1,100 | 4 |
Adjacency. Buildings whose foundations stand within six metres help each other, 12.5% per neighbour for up to four neighbours: a matter storage next to an extractor raises its matter, an energy storage next to a generator raises its energy, a generator next to anything that uses energy lowers its upkeep, and a generator next to a factory of any kind speeds up production.
Every structure
Learn them by sight. Explore the building field guide: every faction’s buildings in 4K, intact and after battle.
Costs are matter / energy / build time at tier one, or at tier two for the last four, which cannot be built lower. Each tier up costs four times (tier two) or twelve times (tier three) as much, and build time grows with the tier. Factories have 1,800 health per tier.
| Structure | Cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Extractor | 80 / 160 / 10 s | +4 matter a second on a crystal deposit, −3 energy |
| Generator | 60 / 0 / 8 s | +20 energy a second |
| Matter storage | 100 / 120 / 10 s | +500 matter capacity |
| Energy storage | 80 / 100 / 10 s | +1,500 energy capacity |
| Factory | 220 / 400 / 18 s | builds engineers, tanks and batteries, up to its own tier |
| Air factory | 240 / 440 / 20 s | launches aircraft, up to its own tier; it has no door to keep clear |
| Naval yard | 260 / 460 / 22 s | builds ships, up to its own tier; it floats on open water and needs a clear launch lane |
| Radar | 90 / 200 / 12 s | lifts the fog within 900, 2,000 or 3,300 metres by tier |
| Shield | 180 / 500 / 15 s | a dome of 45, 90 or 135 metres over friendly units and buildings |
| Repair depot | 140 / 240 / 14 s | repairs vehicles that dock, with an aura of 90 to 270 metres |
| Point defence | 120 / 180 / 12 s | a turret with a range of 260 to 380 metres |
| Anti-air | 100 / 200 / 12 s | tracks aircraft only, at 280 to 400 metres |
| Water defence | 140 / 220 / 14 stier one only | a floating torpedo turret: 300 metres, ships only, full power needed |
| Drone catcher | 90 / 180 / 12 stier one only | a pulse every six seconds that stops an airborne drone within 160 metres, moving and firing, for three seconds; drones only, full power needed |
| Barricade | 12 / 18 / 3 s | a wall of 1,500 health per tier |
| Refuelling station | 180 / 320 / 18 s | refuels idle aircraft parked over it: 2, 4 or 6 landing bays by tier, full power needed |
| Fabricator | 200 / 500 / 20 s | turns energy into matter |
| Command relay | 160 / 300 / 16 s | nearby weapons reload 10, 20 or 30% faster |
| Artillery | 320 / 640 / 24 sat tier 2 | fires across 650 metres, 950 at tier three with siege rockets |
| Engineering hub | 480 / 720 / 28 sat tier 2 | helps build one nearby job |
| Interceptor | 560 / 1,040 / 30 sat tier 2 | shoots down rockets and missiles |
| Radar disruptor | 500 / 800 / 60 stier two only | Jam radar blanks enemy radar within 500 metres for five minutes, then it recharges for five; 30 energy a second |
In the build menu the fabricator sits beside the extractor, the air factory and naval yard beside the factory, the water defence and drone catcher with the defences, the refuelling station first in the SUPPORT tab and the radar disruptor beside the radar. A refuelling station keeps a wide square of open, level ground for itself, whatever its tier. Water cards appear on maps with water; Amber Hollow is a dry valley. You can have up to 512 structures and 3,000 units, and a factory queues up to 30 orders.
All guide topicsBuilding field guide
Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance are trademarks of their respective owners. Petalwar is an independent game and is not affiliated with or endorsed by their makers or the Forged Alliance Forever project.