Gameplay

*For advanced mechanics, see: Advanced Gameplay*
**First Strike** is a real-time strategy game where you play as a global Superpower in the midst of a nuclear war. There are only 2 resources at your disposal: space and time.

The First War Training is a tutorial which goes through some of the basic mechanics here, but does not cover all of them.

## Superpowers

*Main article: Superpowers*
There are a total of 18 playable Superpowers in First Strike. Each Superpower has a number of allied nations which can be directly controlled by the player.

* Each Superpower has its own unlock condition.
* Every Superpower has an important nation known as its **Capital**, which is marked with the Superpower's icon and the capital icon shown on the right.
* The Capital has 1.5× the hitpoints of regular nations.

## Expansion

An allied nation can be tasked to expand into an adjacent unallied nation, which will convert them into an ally. Expansion is necessary to ensure progress.

* Expanding to a nation takes 30s, or 15s with Superior Diplomacy.
* When a nation becomes allied, it becomes able to perform any actions that other allied nations can perform.
* Due to the adjacencies and geometry of the nations, expanding into the right nations at the right time is an important strategic element.

## Missiles

**Missiles** are the main offensive and defensive means in First Strike. There are 3 types of missiles:

* **Cruise Missile**: Usable for short-range offense and defense.
* **Intermediate-range Ballistic Missile**: Usable for mid-range offense.
* **Intercontinental Ballistic Missile**: Usable for long-range offense.

Every allied nation of a Superpower has a silo that can store 3-5 missiles. The Capital can hold 1 more missile than other nations (up to 5). A nation can consume some time to build or debuild missiles, each missile type requiring a different amount of time.

## Research

*Main article: Research*
**Research** is an action nations can perform in order to unlock or upgrade mechanics or Missiles. Different Superpowers start off with different research progress. There are 4 branches in the research tree:

* **Efficiency**: Related to rate of actions.
* **Recon**: Related to intelligence of the playing field.
* **Missile**: Related to the abilities of missiles.
* **Nation**: Related to silo capacity, expansion rate, and hitpoints.

## Attacking

Attacking an enemy nation is performed by selecting the **Attack** action on an allied nation, followed by the target. This causes the allied nation to fire a missile towards the target.

* The "Attack" action is unavailable with an empty silo.
* The missile with the shortest range that can reach the target will be launched.
* Areas beyond the range of the silo's missiles cannot be targeted.
* Allied nations cannot be targeted directly, but may receive splash damage if the target is too close.

After launching a missile, the nation enters cooldown, with a duration depending on the missile used.

### First Strike

Aside from launching individual missiles, there is also an option to launch a **First Strike** at a target area. This causes all allied nations to launch all missiles with sufficient range from their silos towards the target area.

If none of a nation's missiles can reach the target, none of its missiles will be launched.

### Effects

Attacking a nation causes it to take damage, which reduces its hitpoints and consequently its silo size. This can be prevented by:

* Selecting a nation with a Cruise Missile, selecting "Attack", then manually targeting the incoming missile, or
* Selecting a nation with a Cruise Missile, then "Auto-Defend", or
* (Arcade Mode only) Selecting "Semi-auto Defense" on the left, or
* Letting the Automated Defence System intercept it, or
* Using the Air Defense Dome Superweapon.

Once a nation loses enough hitpoints, it becomes destroyed (orange markings) and its Superpower loses control over it. The Superpower can re-expand into it, but there will be a 50% penalty to its hitpoints. This also applies to the Capital, with the penalty reduced to 33.3%.

For technical details regarding targeting, see Targeting.

## Diplomacy

**Diplomacy** is an action a Superpower can perform to enter talks and sign a pact with another Superpower. Entering talks takes 20 seconds, and your nations cannot perform any manual actions during this time (e.g. defending against attacks without the Automated Defence System).

An allied Superpower will:

* Not launch any attacks at your nations.
* Intercept missiles about to hit your nations.

A pact between your Superpower and another is displayed as a blue chain connecting your capitals, and a pact between enemy Superpowers is displayed as a red chain.

* A pact will last for at least 60s.
* Up to 3 Superpowers may be in a pact.

Talks may fail for a variety of reasons, which is indicated by the message displayed:

* *"X thinks that peace is impossible among negotiating parties"* (grudge between members of pact)
* *"Pact does not accept new members!"* (maximum size exceeded)
* *"X considers us too weak"* (own superpower too weak)
* *"X refused to negotiate because of current military operation"* (other superpower currently in fight)
* *"X considers military action that renders pact useless"* (other superpower does not benefit)
* *"X focuses on other talks"* (self-explanatory)

A superpower may also commit treason against another member of a pact for one of the above reasons. Securing the right diplomatic relations early can make a large difference in the course of the game.

## Superweapons

*Main article: Superweapons*
**Superweapons** are late-game technologies that are researched at the end of the research tree. Superweapons can be offensive, defensive, or supportive. Every Superpower has a signature Superweapon which is unlocked with the Superpower.

* The player is required to select 2 Superweapons before the start of a round, which will be located at the end of the research tree.
* Each Superweapon has to be researched and built separately, each consuming some amount of time.
* Superweapons require the Capital to research, build and use; if the Capital is lost, they cannot be researched, built, nor used.
* Re-expanding into the Capital requires the Superweapon to be rebuilt.

Superweapons are incredibly powerful and have a large effect on enemy Superpowers. When a Superpower researches a Superweapon, a notification is produced to all players to inform them of such.

## Other Mechanics

### Fast Forward

**Fast Forward** is a toggle option in single player games.

* Activating it speeds time up by 3×.
* It is deactivated automatically when selecting a nation.

### Challenge

**Challenge** is a difficulty mechanic in First Strike. It determines how often the AI is allowed to perform an action.

See the table below for the possible settings:

 Survivor
 Challenge

In First Strike: Classic, there are only two settings, Standard and Hardcore, which correspond to Survivor and Challenge respectively.

### Modifiers

*Main article: Modifiers*
**Modifiers** are game-altering settings which players can select prior to starting a round. Each Modifier has a unique set of rules which requires players to employ different strategies to win.

### Multiplayer

**Multiplayer** is a game mode where you play against human-controlled instead of AI-controlled Superpowers.

* A Ticket is required to play a match.
* Time does not slow down in menus.
* Fast Forward is unavailable.
* Diplomacy is unavailable.
* The research task which slows time further in menus is replaced with a different task which increases rocket speed.
* The chat function allows players to broadcast an emoji once every 10 seconds.