recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Commanders

Commanders are extremely useful in Forts matches, as each one has a passive and active ability.

You can only use 1 commander at a time, so you need to choose wisely and play along with the commander, since there are strategies based on their abilities.

Commanders come up in 5 armies :

### The Eagle Empire

An army meant to represent America. It is composed of 3 commanders, all of which are animal-based characters, based on firepower :

Eagle eye

Warthog

Firebird

### The Dragon Army

An army meant to represent Asia. It is composed of 3 commanders, which are based on building speed :

Architect

Overdrive

Hurricane

### The Iron Bear Alliance

An army meant to represent Russia. It is composed of 3 commanders, which are based on Metal related things :

Pinchfist

Spook

Armourdillo

### The Black Penguin Oil

It is the Antagonist army in the Campaign. It is composed of 3 commanders, which change weapons' functionality :

Scattershot

Seep

Shockenaugh

### The Combined Forces

The Combined Forces or coalition is the combination of the forces in the Eagle Empire, Dragon Army, and Iron Bear Alliance. They serve as the protagonists of the Moonshot Campaign, and are composed of 3 futuristic commanders which alter structure :

Buster

Moonshine

Phantom
Pro Hud

The Pro HUD DLC is a paid addon for the game released on 24th of June 2020. This DLC features only a small client-side addition in the form of a new HUD skin for the user. Owners of this DLC also receive the "Pro HUD owner" badge next to their name.
Since there is no new content outside of the HUD skin and the badge, this DLC is mostly seen as a way for players to make a small donation to the developers.
Akademie Schwert und Stab

Die **Akademie Schwert und Stab** ist eine mittelreichstreue Reichsakademie, die Kampfmagier ausbildet. Die Abgänger sind als Offiziere in der Armee eingebunden. Die Akademie ist das Gegenstück zur Halle des Vollendeten Kampfes in Bethana. In Beilunk residiert die Akademie in einem Backsteinbau im Kasernenstil am Rande der Stadtmauer. Die Akademie nimmt vornehmlich adlige Schüler auf, der Lehrplan ist eher auf militärischen Drill als auf magische Forschung ausgerichtet.

Auch die Pfeile des Lichts haben hier ihren Sitz.

#### Weitere Akademieangehörige

Bolgur (Schmied), Bosper Sensendengler (Haushofmeister), Debrek Zornwald (Archivar), Kysira Engstrand (Handwerkerin), Larona von Schnattermoor (Heilerin), Olea Randersacker (Alchimistin)
Akademie der vereinten Künste von Schwert und Zauberstab - Kaiserlich Garethisches Lehrinstitut der angewandten kombattiven Magie, vom Schwert und Stabe zu Beilunk, der Herrin Rondra und der Herrin Hesinde zum Wohlgefallen
Chain

The **Chain** is a reskin of Ropes that is used in the High Seas campaign to make the maps more visually appealing. They are functionally near-identical, with the major differences being that chains have twice as much HP as ropes (100 HP), cannot be set on fire, and hold slightly more weight than ropes do.
Ironside Door

**Ironside Doors** (also known as "Door Ironside") is a variant of Ironside that acts much like Armoured Doors. They can be opened to allow wind and projectiles to pass through and are virtually indestructible. They are used in some enemy forts later in the High Seas campaign to make them immune to direct attacks.

It should be noted that Ironside doors will not protect from splash damage and will allow projectiles to pass when opened, making weapons behind them vulnerable when firing.

### Strategies

Since Ironside doors are indestructible, there are two ways to deal with them: doorsniping, and using area of effect weapons.

Doorsniping is relatively hard to do since the weapon options in the campaign are fairly limited, with the best doorsniping weapons, cannons and plasma laser removed, the only reliable options left being the sniper and the 20mm cannon. That being said, the AI will usually leave doors open long enough for a sniper to doorsnipe most lower-HP targets even behind an Ironside door.

The second way of dealing with Ironside doors by using splash damage weapons. Ironside doors block direct damage weapons effectively, but AOE weapons still deal their full damage. By firing lots of weapons with great splash (the marine warhead deals the highest AOE damage), you can destroy the bracing pieces that are holding the door and make it collapse. Its a decent way of dealing with them, but the AI can rebuild them since they have access to Ironside armour.

Its not necessary to use these tips, as every base that has this amour on them isn't fully covered and almost always has a vulnerable spot that will be pointed out that you can exploit to win the match, its the way you as a player are intended to do.
Archon Megalon

## Kurzbeschreibung

**Archon Megalon** ist ein Druide mit skrupellosem Forschungsdrang in Bezug auf menschliche Angstzustände, weshalb er in manchen Gegenden als Verbrecher gesucht wird. Für einen Druiden untypisch zieht er das Leben in Städten vor. Seine Forschungen finden Niederschlag in den von ihm geschriebenen Büchern *Überlegungen zum magischen Potential der Angst* und *Die Angst - Betrachtungen über den menschlichen Geisteszustand bei extremen Angstbedingungen*. Bisweilen lehrt und forscht er an der Halle der Macht.
Battery

Batteries are a storage device, which increase the maximum amount of Energy you can hold. They are the Energy counterpart to the Metal Store.

## Characteristics

### Main use

By default, player can hold a maximum of **3000** units of Energy. Each constructed Battery increases this limit by **2000** units. Apart from making resource management easier by reducing the risk of floating resources, the increased Energy capacity is required for constructing many of the late-game structures and weapons. An example would be a Plasma Laser - because it requires 6000 Energy units in order to be built, you will need to place at least 2 Batteries in order to accommodate the required amount of resource.

Larger Energy capacity is also needed for support of weapons. As many heavy weapons require substantial amounts of Energy per shot, Batteries are required in order to use these weapons effectively, especially when fielding more than one. Some weapons - such as the Howitzer - cannot be fired without any Batteries at all (as the 4000 Energy required per shot exceeds the base capacity of 3000).

Caution must be exercised with Battery placement, as they will violently explode when destroyed, damaging all objects around. A single Battery explosion deals enough damage to destroy another Battery if placed next to each other, which often cascades into a deadly chain reaction when several of them are clustered together. Such cascades can also be triggered by a different exploding object, such as a Cannon.

Placing any Batteries in close proximity to the Reactor is particularly ill-advised, as a single exploding Battery deals enough damage to destroy it.

### Other info

Architect commander has a passive ability which increases the amount of Energy storage the Batteries provide by **+30%**.

In the old times, you could throw batteries at your teammates, and they would deal splash damage as they crashed on the ground. This has been patched so that batteries no longer deal splash damage when connected to neutral structure to help prevent TK (Team Killing).
Smoke Bomb

The smoke bomb (often simply called "smoke") is a Moonshot support weapon unlocked by the Armoury. It deals no damage on its own, but has the potential to greatly assist other weapons.

## Smoke Bomb

### Description

Blinds enemy anti-air defences, prevents enemy construction

## Characteristics

### Tech required

Armoury

The smoke bomb fires three projectiles that burst into smoke upon impact with structure. The smoke that is released will block enemy anti-air from firing for its duration (10 seconds), making it perfect for allowing destructible projectile types (eg. missiles, rockets) to reach the enemy forts. Multiple smoke bomb launchers will allow a wider area to be covered in smoke, making them even more useful for this purpose.

A strong counter to the smoke bomb is a sniper; the launcher has to keep its door open for a long time to fire three rounds, and is destroyed by two sniper shots. Additionally, it releases fire and smoke when it explodes, meaning it can cause serious damage to its surroundings.

Another counter to smoke which doesn't involve killing the launcher are repair stations. While active, they will rapidly clear any smoke within 2x the radius of the repair circle.

## Other Uses

Smoke will block any building, repairing, and fires from being extinguished in its radius. This makes it extremely powerful when combined with incendiary weapons (this is a potent mid-game strategy).

Smoke has the capability to block beams. Plasma lasers and Magnabeams are severely weakened by smoke, the former's damage being reduced by half and the latter's magnetic field strength being greatly reduced. If either go through two smoke clouds, their effect will be completely nullified. It is important to note that Firebeams, while still able to be blocked, will rapidly destroy smoke clouds they come into contact with.

Missiles that pass through smoke will have their target destination offset from the original destination, causing them to diverge. There is also a chance for missiles to start circling similarly to when they are hit by an EMP Rocket.

Firebird's active ability will cause smoke to create fire inside its radius. Combining this with a high penetration weapon can create a very deadly combo if used right.
Factory

The factory is a high tier tech building, which unlocks high tier Weapons. It is the equivalent tier tech of the munitions plant.

## Characteristics

### Cons

Takes a lot of time and resources to obtain

### Main use

The factory unlocks 2 beam-typed Weapons, the Firebeam and the Plasma Laser when Tons of Guns is enabled. Without Tons of Guns, the factory unlocks the Cannon and Plasma Laser instead.

Those two have the highest firepower potential in the game, but take a lot of time and energy to use.

In order to place down a factory, you need to posess either the Workshop or the Armoury.

### Other info

It takes lots of time to build this tech, since you need to wait for the previous tech to be built, meaning you can't have a munitions plant built before 2:30 in game time.

It also costs a lot of Resources, because you need to build the previous tech. Managing both your Resources and watching the time, you can get one by 2:30. This is called a Rush.
Hardpoint

The Hardpoint is a "weapon" added by the High Seas DLC, and unlocked by the Armoury. It does nothing on its own - its only use is upgrading it into either a Deck Gun (if a Munitions Plant is built) or an Orbital Laser (if a Factory is built). Both upgrades do not require an Upgrade Center - only their respective technology buildings.

The cost of the Hardpoint is 500 Metal and 2000 Energy, and the construction takes 60 seconds to complete.

The Hardpoint has the same amount of hitpoints as the Deck Gun or the Orbital Laser - 600 hp. Unlike these two weapons, when the Hardpoint is destroyed, it does *not* deal damage to surrounding objects.

Because it is considered a weapon and not a device, it takes 130 damage from a Sniper shot instead of 15.
Mine

Mines are the primary method of generating Metal, and are highly essential to maintaining a steady stream of resources.

* Mines
* Super Mines

## Main Use

Mines produce a steady income of 4 Metal per second, and are the only placeable device (besides Propellers) that do this. Due to this, they're one of the most critical devices to keep running in your base, besides the Reactor.

Most maps start with 1-2 Mines, and it's essential that the player tries to place as many additional Mines as possible in the early game, so that they can have enough Metal to build buildings such as Technology or Weapons.

While Mines have an average HP pool of 150, due to their extremely high repair cost (200 metal from 1hp), mines should be protected with the same amount of defense as one would cover their Reactor with. They should be especially defended from Firebeams or Buster's DU rounds using sandbags, as these pierce base defense and can damage multiple mines at the same time, leading to a catastrophic repair bill.

A player's heavy weapons collapsing onto their mines can also be catastrophic, as most weapons that come from either the Factory or Munitions Plant have very violent explosions; oftentimes, they will heavily damage the player's Mines.

Mines, similarly to the Repair Station, have a very slight passive Energy drain (-5 energy/s). While typically insignificant, if a very high amount of Mines are present and the energy production is destroyed, there is a possibility that the Energy income will fall into the negatives. Mines do not shut off like Shields or Portals when energy reserves reach zero, but it should be noted that one can be stunlocked if they cannot generate Energy. The player can either scrap Mines until their energy production is back in the green, or sell unnecessary Devices to gain Energy to place Turbines.

Mines can also be upgraded using the Upgrade Center into Super Mines, gaining a characteristic white band at the top of the Device.

## Super Mines

Super Mines are, essentially, Mines with all their stats increased. Metal production goes from +4 to +6, and energy drain increases from 5 to 10. It's also important to note that Super Mines now require 300 metal to repair from 1 HP, making it even more critical that Super Mines are defended.

Since a Mine takes 30 seconds to be built, and costs 300 metal, and produce 4 Metal/s, they take 105 seconds to pay for themselves.

Upgrading Mines to Super Mines takes 22 seconds; Since it doesn't produce for this duration, effectively 88 metal is lost. The upgrade itself costs 75 metal, totalling 163 metal; at 2 additional metal a second, a Super Mine will pay for itself after about 103 seconds.
Blast Door

The Blast Door is a door that is indestructible to damage. It was added by the Moonshot DLC. The Blast Door normally cannot be built or controlled by players.

The primary purpose of the Blast Door is to protect Reactors from enemy projectiles until a team's points have reached zero in the Capture Points game mode.

Blast door also make an appearance in the lastest High Seas campaign, various missions having forts armoured up with blast armour and blast doors.

### Strategies

A very important characteristic about the blast door is that it is equipped with alarms that ring whenever the door opens. Each time the door starts opening you will hear the alarms, which can be heard easier compared to doors. Use this as an indicator to know when to fire into blast doors. An important thing to note is that in the Moonshot campaign, reactors protected behind closed blast doors will be immune to splash damage until the door opens.

In capture point, when the doors start opening, the whole screen will start flashing red to indicate a team's cores are now vulnerable and the Blast Door's alarms will ring.
Architect

## Abilities - Passive

Bracing and Background Bracing construction cost reduced by 20%

Battery and Metal Store capacity increased by 30%

Structure build speed increased by 100%

Metal Store and Battery build speed is increased by 20%

## Abilities - Active

Build speed increased by 300%

The Architect is a commander from the Dragon Army faction.

## Overview

Architect is centered around build speed boosts. Among other things, her passive ability grants structure build speed boosts and cost reduction. This allows for quicker and easier base expansion. The boosts to Metal Store and Battery capacity - while not changing the amount of storage devices required for weapons rollouts (you still need 2 Metal Stores and 2 Batteries for the Plasma Laser, Architect or not) - it makes resource management slightly more convenient, and so does the shortened build time of these two devices.

## Playstyles

Architect is typically a defensive commander, boosting the effectiveness of damage tanking via her structure build boosts. On top of being able to replace destroyed structure quicker, Architect allows the player to react to potentially ruinous attacks by quickly building sacrificial bracing in front of the base. While normally very few attacks are slow enough to be able to complete the construction of the bracing wall in the short window before the attack strikes, Architect's structure build speed boosts allow her to build the barrier in time to absorb the damage, especially with the active ability.

The active ability not only affects building of the fort structure, but also the devices and weapons. While this isn't relevant for initial tech and weapons rollout (as during early game the ability will not be charged), it does allow for rapid replacement of lost weapons, as long as resources are available.

## Counters

Architect's build speed boosts are perhaps her greatest weakness, as in order to utilize these abilities, a heavy emphasis on economy is required. Architect player is particularly vulnerable to attacks targeting the resource production, or overwhelming the economy by distributing massive structure repair costs across the fort, such as with Rocket attacks - remember that both the passive and active abilities of Architect only increase the build speed, and reduce the resource cost of *newly built* structure. They do not reduce the *repair costs* (which instead is a trademark of Armourdillo).

On top of that, Architect's abilities do not interact with any weapons whatsoever.
Sandbags

Sandbags are a defensive device. Their purpose is to block and absorb incoming fire.

## Characteristics

### Pros

Extremely cheap to build. No cost to repair. Especially highly effective against Firebeams, Buzzsaws and 20mm Cannons.

### Cons

Takes up space. Relatively heavy. Weak to Miniguns and heavy weapons.

### Main use

Sandbags are used to defend valuable spots within the fort, by soaking up incoming damage. Their greatest strength is the extremely low cost to build - costing *no metal*, and just 300 energy to build. They also cost no resources to repair. They take 30 seconds to build. Notably however, Sandbags start blocking damage immediately, even before the construction finishes, albeit cannot be repaired before completely built.

Sandbags are quite sturdy, having 250HP, which is more than half of that of Armour.

The device is exceptionally effective against certain weapons. 20mm Cannon has a 0.6x damage modifier against Sandbags, making them a great counter to the weapon, and an option worth considering when dealing with Scattershot.

Firebeams and Buzzsaws are completely blocked by the Sandbags, absorbing the attack with little to no damage and preventing penetration into the bracing behind. A tight Sandbag wall can be used in lieu of expensive Armour or Energy Shield, and is just as effective at completely nullifying a Buzzsaw attack, or preventing the devastating Firebeam/Plasma Laser combo from delivering its full blow - since the Firebeam is unable to penetrate and weaken the structure before the Plasma Laser hits.

Sandbags are also effective at guarding the Wind Turbines, as by themselves they don't block wind (and their flat platform usually has a negligible impact on efficiency). In particular, Sandbags are an excellent option for defending the turbines from a Swarm Missile attack, as an Energy Shield instead would be easily destroyed in this situation.

Sandbags are highly vulnerable to Miniguns and AP Miniguns, which have a staggering x5 damage modifier against the device, making the weapon shred Sandbags with ease.

One of the downsides of using Sandbags is their weight, which is 45 points. This makes Sandbags nearly as heavy as a 2-grid Armour strut. While not significant in case of a single unit, the weight quickly adds up with extensive use, especially when building large Sandbag walls.

### Other use

Sandbags can stop Buster's depleted uranium rounds, preventing them from burrowing further into the fort.

Large quantities of Sandbags are sometimes capable of stopping fire from heavy weapons. It has to be noted however that it takes 3 Sandbags to stop a Cannon shell, and 4 Sandbags to stop a full Plasma Laser beam.
Ranked match

Ranked match is a special multiplayer mode in Forts.

It is a season-based mode, where players battle against each other, competing for the top place on the global leaderboard ladder. Matchmaking is generally skill-based, matching players based on their score.

## Overview

Ranked match leaderboard can be accessed by clicking the "Ranked match" button at the bottom of the Multiplayer screen. This screen allows players to check the current state of the leaderboard ladder. Button at the bottom of the screen allows queue'ing for a ranked match.

Upon entering a ranked match queue, player will be presented with a waiting screen, until the game finds a match for them. Player has the option to exit out of this screen until the match is found, without losing points for forfeiting. Once a match has been found, a random map from the ranked pool will be selected and presented to both players. At this point, players have 40 seconds to select a commander to use in the match. If either of the players quit during the commander selection or during the match, the match is forfeited and counted as a victory for the opposing player.

Once the match concludes, the game exits back to the ranked match leaderboard screen,

## Matchmaking and scoring mechanics

Forts' ranked score mechanics use the **Elo rating system**.

(Work in progress)
Magnabeam

The Magnabeam, added in the Moonshot expansion, is from the Factory. It fires a continuous beam which attracts friendly projectiles at its point of impact.

## Magnabeam

### Description

Use: Attracts projectiles to point of impact

## Characteristics

### Pros

Can focus damage from multiple other weapons on a single point. Allows for curving the shots into unexpected angles.

### Cons

No damage. Somewhat expensive. Does not affect any weapons from the Factory - requires weapons from a separate technology tree to synergize with. Explodes into a magnetic field on being destroyed.

### Special

Attracts nearby friendly projectiles to the point of impact. Creates a magnetic field on being destroyed, attracting all projectiles.

## Main Use

The weapon fires a continuous beam which all friendly projects are attracted to, focusing on a single point of the base to shred its defenses, but also allowing said projectiles to go around the defenses to hit exposed weapons and devices.

Generally, in 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4, the weapon is most effective. It allows for a teammate to build up their offensive weapons while another plays support, amplifying the damage that the other player can do to the enemy fort.

The main weakness of the laser is the firing duration which makes it weak against the sniper. This gives ample time for it to be destroyed, in turn not allowing friendly players to shoot due to their projectiles not being able to hurt the enemy fort and directing all of them to the location of the destroyed laser.

A popular use of the magnabeam is combined with the 20mm, which is cheaper and does more damage than a cannon. The only drawback that they possess is their long firing time and lack of accuracy, but with this laser it allows it to put its firepower to good use, shredding most defenses.

In 1v1 it is seen as a meme weapon due to the commitment to the Factory technology, where a firebeam and plasma laser are more effective and are not affected by the magnabeam in any way.
Weapons

Weapons are the most important part of Forts. Indeed, they let you attack your opponent, in order to kill them.

### Main info

All weapons need time and resources to be built, but also to be fired. Once fired, they need some time to reload before firing again.

Most weapons require Technology in order to be built. The better the weapon is, the more time and resources you need to build it, because of the tech tree.

Without any Technology, you can build 2 weapons, that are relatively light :

Machine Gun => Minigun => AP Minigun (commander exclusive)

Sniper => AP Sniper

The vanilla Workshop then gives you access to 2 other weapons, that are incendiary-based:

Mortar => Heavy Mortar

Swarm Missiles => Warhead

Buzzsaw

Runway

Energy Dome

The vanilla Armoury gives access to 2 "support" weapons :

Flak => Shotgun

EMP Rocket => Heavy Rocket

Smoke Bomb

Harpoon

The vanilla Munitions Plant, which requires one of the 2 above tech, unlocks 2 cannon-based weapons :

20mm Cannon

Cannon

Howitzer

Deckgun

The vanilla Factory, which requires one of the 2 first tech, unlocks 2 beam-based weapons :

Firebeam

Plasma Laser

Magnabeam

Orbital Laser

The first 6 vanilla weapons can be upgraded into different weapons, that have the same style but fit a different purpose. The upgrades are written above next to the "=>" symbol.

### Other info

Weapons can be grouped, using the ctrl key and a digit to save the group, the digit you used being the hotkey to restore the group. Pressing twice the hotkey will put your camera back where the camera was when you saved the group, pressing it 3 times will also restore the position of your cursor when saved. Shockenaugh can make groups of 4 weapons.

In each of the weapons' pages, there will be an infobox referencing the damage that weapon deals. It is the amount of damage the weapon would deal if all rounds hit a single target. Know that each weapon has a damage bonus when shooting on another weapon. It also gets a damage bonus if it goes through a firebeam, and sets fire. Damage will be displayed as such : normal damage/weapon damage, and the same for flaming projectiles.

Cannons can be changed orientation via Ropes shenanigans, making it a "T3 mortar", which is basically a cannon shooting upwards.

Technically, any weapon can be T3d, using Ropes. But this tends to only be good with cannon-type weapons.

Each weapon has a strength, and a weak point. Learning how to use strengths and opponent's weakpoints is the best way to win.
Moonshot DLC

The Moonshot DLC was released in 2019 and served as a major expansion of Forts. It includes new weapons, a campaign, a new HUD, portals, and the capture point game type.

### Weapons

The DLC adds four new weapons to the game for each of the four major technologies:

* Buzzsaw: An anti-bracing weapon which excels at taking down specific weaknesses.
* Smoke Bomb: A support weapon which synergizes with destructible projectiles.
* Magnabeam: A support weapon which pulls projectiles to a specific point, useful with cannon weapons.
* Howitzer: A heavy-caliber projectile weapon which deals massive area damage.

### Portals

Portals are one of the main features of the Moonshot DLC. Two portals can be connected to allow projectiles to pass through. This opens the door for a wide variety of strategies, some of the most popular ones being Return to Sender, Accelerator, and Concentratinator. Portals are disabled by direct contact with enemy EMP rockets and swarm missiles, as well as any EMP effect that is applied to them. A single portal can be set to allow projectiles to go through itself; wind cannot travel through portals.

### Moonshot Campaign

The Moonshot campaign features 13 individual stages across 5 different themes, as well as 4 tutorial stages. It can be played on Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties and demonstrates the capabilities of the 4 new weapons and portals. The campaign is a step up in difficulty from the original Black Gold campaign, as some stages require strict timing and accuracy to complete. Completing the campaign on Normal or Hard will reward the player with the respective campaign badge, and there are 14 achievements that the player can earn through the campaign.

### Capture Point

The capture point game type involves opposing teams fighting for map control rather than to destroy the other's fort. In order to win, one team must be connected to more oil derricks than the other team until their counter at the top of the screen reaches 0. Once this happens, the enemy team's cores will be exposed and they can be defeated.

### MS HUD

The Moonshot HUD is a HUD option which may be selected if the player own this DLC.
Upgrading

Upgrading is a process in forts requiring an Upgrade Center, that allows you to upgrade an existing Devices or Weapons. Note that they don't have an upgrade.

### Upgradable things

The buildings that can be upgraded are the Mine, Turbine, and a good amount of Weapons (Machine Gunner, Sniper, Mortar, Swarm Missiles, Flak, EMP Rocket).

### Generalities

The process of upgrading needs ressources, and takes time to complete.

While a building is being upgraded, you cannot use it and it stops having any interactions with the game, despite existing and being possible to hit. This means a Mine will stop producing Metal when being upgraded, but it'll also stop consuming Energy.

Upgrading requires the possession of an Upgrade Center, which is pretty expensive (600 metal, 3000 energy) and takes time to build (60 seconds). This means you'll need to plan in advance if you want to go for upgrading stuff, or just sticking to not upgraded things.

When upgrading something, it generally becomes better at what it does. But on some cases, the upgraded building will lose something, like Mortar will lose the ability of putting things on Fire.

This means that sometimes, you don't want to upgrade what you have, because it's more useful how it currently is (mainly, you generally don't upgrade Machine Gunner nor Flak because it stops being automatic AA).

### Other

Upgrading is essential in eco Rush, as it gives +50% production on your Devices when they all are upgraded.

Overdrive upgrades everything twice as fast, making it really strong when doing a strat which involves lots of upgrading.

Upgrading makes a unique sound effect, that makes it very noticeable if you opponent is upgrading things, if you're paying enough attention.
Building Materials

Materials are the things you will use to expand your fort, and protect yourself from your opponent.
They each have their own use, pros and cons. Use them wisely in order to win the battle.

Some of those materials offer some nice strategies, possibilities, and also some shenanigans.

## List of materials

### Vanilla Materials:

* Bracing
* Background Bracing
* Armour
* Door
* Shield
* Rope
* Fuse

### Moonshot Materials:

* Portal
* Barrier
* Background Barrier
* Blast Door

### High Seas Materials:

* Ironside
* Background Ironside
* Ironside Door
* Subskin
* Chain

### Unused Materials:

* Solar Panel
* Camo
* Reinforced Bracing
* Barrier Door
Wind Turbine

Wind turbines are the main Energy production device in the game, others being the Core or some modded devices.

## Characteristics

### Cons

Needs to be placed in a spot with access to strong wind. Cannot be obstructed with solid materials - can only be protected with Energy Shields and/or Sandbags.

### Main use

Turbines produce Energy, an essential ressource in all matches. In a match, you end up having between 2 and 10 turbines, depending on match length and your needs.

If you want a turbine to produce energy, it needs to be high so it has most wind, and you need to use materials that don't block wind, such as BG Bracing or Shield (Rope doesn't block wind either but you won't defend yourself with those) if you want it to run at all.

### Other info

Turbines' maximum energy production is 45 per second, if you have 100% wind efficiency. If you don't, it'll be X% of 45, depending on the height relative to the wind floor (determined by the map).

This means that a turbine will take a minimum of 38 seconds to pay for itself, more if you don't have 100% wind efficiency.

Turbines can be upgraded for 100 metal and 1000 energy, and produce about 1.5x as much as a normal turbine.

Upgrading a turbine takes 15 seconds, which means you'll lose 660 energy, plus 1000 for the upgrade, and produces 67.5 energy at 100%. This means it'll pay for itself 87 seconds after you start the upgrade.

Turbines are one common target for your opponents to shoot, since they'll have a Resources advantage if they manage to destroy some.

That's why, there are several ways of defending your turbines, the most common is using a Shield in front, since it'll protect them from some weapons.

Another common way of defending is using Sandbags, since they don't block wind by themselves. You need to put one sandbag at the floor where your turbines are, and put a platform at mid-height in order to place a 2nd sandbag, which is some decent defense.

Some players use both Shield and Sandbags to defend their turbines, and some use FG Bracing, which they convert from BG Bracing when there are shots coming, and convert it back afterwards.

## Characteristics

### Cons

Requires an upgrade center. Upgrading a turbine is less cost effective than placing a new turbine, provided there's space available.

### Special

Pinchfist : +5% energy production | Overdrive : builds twice as fast
20mm Cannon

The 20mm Cannon is a heavy weapon unlocked via the Munitions Plant. It is a light caliber burst-fire cannon emplacement.

### Overview

The 20mm Cannon fires a volley of 9 shells, with the burst lasting 3 seconds. Each shot inflicts 90 direct damage, with 20 additional splash damage in a small radius (totalling for 810 direct damage + 180 splash damage). The weapon is quite inaccurate, and its shots scatter across a large area during a volley.

Unlike with the Cannon, the rounds fired by the 20mm Cannon will bounce off an Energy Shield, and are easily stopped by Sandbags, due to the damage modifier of 0.6x that the 20mm Cannon has against them.

Among heavy weapons, 20mm Cannon is on the lower spectrum in terms of durability. With 200 hitpoints, it is only slightly more resilient than the Firebeam, and likewise can be destroyed by a Sniper in two shots.

### Strategies

While on the surface 20mm Cannon deals tremendous damage - with a single salvo of 810 direct damage and 180 splash damage easily outclassing even the 875 damage of the Plasma Laser - this damage potential is typically distributed all over the opponent's fort, due to the inherent inaccuracy of the weapon. While this makes it mostly unfeasible for door sniping, or striking small critical spots, it makes up for it by putting a strain on the opponent's economy with sheer damage.

The high overall damage dealt also works well in charging the active ability. It also needs to be kept in mind that this will also charge the *opponent's* ability faster than other weapons.

20mm Cannon sometimes excells at removing the opponent's anti-air defenses, rapidly clearing Machine Gun walls (on top of often destroying their platforms, forcing the opponent to rebuild), and - unlike the Sniper or the Shotgun - being able to destroy defenses protected with trenches.

The inaccuracy of the weapon can sometimes be used to its advantage as a haphazard form of anti-air, as its volley is capable of intercepting incoming Howitzer shells and Warheads. The high spread means that aiming in the general direction of incoming projectiles is likely to shoot them down.

### Counters

Vulnerable spots of the base can be defended against a 20mm Cannon with an Energy Shield, as the shots are deflected without causing any damage to the shield. Sandbags are a cheaper, yet still highly effective defensive measure, as due to the low damage modifier, they can soak the 20mm barrage exceptionally well. A wall of Sandbags and Energy Shields placed around critical spots of the fort can render a 20mm Cannon mostly harmless.

The weapon is highly vulnerable to door snipes, as it remains open to attacks during the entirety of its firing burst. Its low health means that at a high risk of being destroyed at any time when the opponent has an active Sniper.

20mm barrage can be burned out of the air by a Firebeam, providing yet another option of countering.

### Trivia

* The cannon resembles the Oerlikon 20mm with a vented barrel and a Pak 40 muzzle.
Metal

Metal is one of the two resources in Forts. It is primarily used for construction of fort structure, devices and weapons (as opposed to Energy, which is mainly used for firing weapons), as well as upgrades and repairs.

Metal is generated by the Reactor, Mines, and Propellers (ships only). Once all available space for placing Mines or Propellers is taken, resource generation can be further increased by upgrading those devices.

There is a limit on how much Metal the player can store at the moment. By default, this limit is 600 units. Metal Stores can be built in order to expand metal capacity, with each constructed Metal Store increasing the cap by 300 units.

A strong influx of Metal is important when playing in later stages of the match, both for continued expansion, and repairing the tremendous damage that can be dealt by heavy weapons.

### Notes:

* Overdrive's active ability increases the rate of resource generation by 100% for the duration of the ability.
* Pinchfist's passive ability increases the rate of resource generation by 5%.
* Pinchfist's passive ability increases the amount of Metal reclaimed from scrapped structure, devices and weapons up to 100%.
* Armourdillo's passive ability decreases the Metal cost of Armour, Door and Shield by 20%, both to build and repair.
Firebird

## Abilities - Passive

Incendiary Mortars ignite structure within 1.4 grid squares.

Cannons ignite structure within 1 grid square.

20mm Cannons ignite structure.

Fire is extinguished at 100% increased rate.

Fire spreads at a 50% decreased rate.

Firebeam minimum penetration is increased by 12.5%.

Firebeam duration is increased by 28%.

Armour reduces enemy Firebeam penetration to 50% shorter distance.

Flaming missiles, mortars, and rockets don't expire.

The enemy's fire alarm is disabled.

## Abilities - Active

All projectiles are incendiary.

Warheads ignite structure within 5 grid squares.

Firebird is a commander from the Eagle Empire faction. Her theme revolves around fire - notably, incendiary weapons.

## Overview

Firebird's ability kit affects nearly every weapon in the game. Heavy weapons, as well as some early game weapons like Incendiary Mortars, gain a considerable amount of firepower.

Firebird's first set of passives boost the Incendiary Mortar, Cannon, and 20mm Cannon by giving them an extra incendiary effect. Her Incendiary Mortars can ignite raging infernos en masse instead of the typical spot fires - Cannons and 20mm Cannons gain an effect similar to this, igniting fires on contact with enemy structure.

In addition to the prior buffs, Firebird's Firebeams gain a noticeable buff to their penetration as well as duration. Her firebeams trade a small amount of damage for about a quarter more duration, meaning that the beam's projectile-blocking effects can be used to greater advantage. Note that the Firebeam still consumes energy at the same rate, meaning the extra duration of fire costs an extra ~600 energy.

To aid volatile projectiles' odds at connecting with the enemy fort, Firebird's missiles, mortars, and rockets don't burn out once ignited by a Firebeam. This means that they can be rapidly ignited after fired, without prematurely detonating in the air.

Firebird also augments her team's fire suppression system; fire on friendly forts not only is extinguished at twice the rate, but also spreads at half the typical rate.

Armour is also granted extra utility, being able to stop half the penetration from enemy Firebeams.

One of Firebird's most notable, feared perks is her passive ability which disables the enemy fire alarm; typically, the fire alarm goes off after a fire has been roaring unhampered for a few seconds. Since Firebird disables this alarm, opponents must be extra observant (especially on the active ability) of their base, to ensure that there are no hidden blazes off-screen. This passive is especially apparent on expansive maps such as Skylands or Abyss, where there is a wide area to consistently monitor.

During the active ability, all of Firebird's arsenal becomes incendiary. Weapons that do more than ~30 damage kindle fires similar to the Cannon on passive, and weaker weapons (such as the Machine Gunner), while not as significant, still ignite spot fires across the enemy fort and can be used to great effect in clearing enemy anti-air or surface emplacements.
Campaign

## Generalities

Forts' campaign is a set of levels organized in 3 different "theaters", which are major parts of the campaign.

Each part is composed of a few levels, that each offer 3 "achievements", displayed as oil drops that are full when the achievement is unlocked.

You need a minimum of those oil drops in one part in order to access the next one, until the 3rd part which then lets you play the final level, the "Motherlode"

The campaign is playable in 3 difficulties, easy, normal and hard, which correspond to AI's difficulty. Hard difficulty used to disable auto-AA, but it no longer does because only a few players finished the hard campaign.

## Major parts

As said above, the campaign is composed of 3 major parts:

### Part 1

The first part of the campaign follows the Eagle Empire through Africa, the Middle East, and Europe before arriving at the Motherlode. It teaches the player how to use the basic weapons such as Machine Gunners and Snipers as well as some upgraded weapons. It also features Workshop weapons such as Mortars and Swarm Missiles. Additionally, it demonstrates some basic concepts such as building over large gaps and doorsniping.

In this part of the story, the player is first introduced to the Eagle Empire as it faces off against its adversary from the Dragon Army. Drill instructor Shockenaugh is also introduced for the first time helping the Eagle Empire defeat its enemies. At the Motherlode, the Eagle Empire loses contact with the forces it sent to there and the player is introduced to the Iron Bear Alliance, another faction who wants to take advantage of the Eagle Empire's misfortune at the Motherlode.

It should be noted that this section of the campaign is preceded by a short two-stage tutorial segment located in the United States. It teaches the player the basics of base building and weapon usage.
Jordin Sparks

**Jordin Brianna Sparks Thomas** (born: **Jordin Brianna Sparks**; December 22, 1989) is an English-American/German-American/Scottish-American/Norwegian-American/African-American singer-songwriter & actress.

### Trivia

* Jordin's English-American, German-American, Scottish-American & Norwegian-American on Jodi's side and African-American on Phillippi's side.
* Jordin was 3 when PJ was born.
* Jordin was 27 when she married Dana.
* Jordin was 28 when she gave birth to DJ.
Munitions Plant

The munitions plant is a high tier tech building, which unlocks high tier Weapons. It is the equivalent tier tech of the Factory

## Characteristics

### Cons

Takes lots of time and resources to obtain

### Main use

The munitions plant unlocks 2 cannon-based Weapons, the 20mm Cannon and the regular Cannon.

Those two have a high firepower, but take a lot of energy and time to use.

In order to place down a munitions plant, you need to posess either the Workshop or the Armoury.

### Other info

It takes lots of time to build this tech, since you need to wait for the previous tech to be built, meaning you can't have a munitions plant built before 2:30 in game time.

It also costs a lot of Resources, because you need to build the previous tech. Managing both your Resources and watching the time, you can get one by 2:30. This is called a Rush.
Barrier Door

The **Barrier Door** is an unused variant of Barriers added in the Moonshot DLC that acts much like Armoured Doors. They can be opened to allow wind and projectiles to pass through and are impervious to damage.

Barrier Doors likely would have been used to create armed bases that were immune to damage in the Moonshot campaign. However, weapons were never put on forts that use barriers in the campaign, so they went unused.

This material can still be accessed and put on forts in the Map Editor as it is fully functional. To do this, own the Moonshot DLC and add the 'dlc1' mod to a map's .lua file. This will make the barrier door along with other Moonshot materials accessible. Any map uploaded to the Steam Workshop with these materials allows the player to use them.
Propeller

The Propeller is a metal generating device added in the High Seas DLC. It can only be built in water. This device replaces the Mine for boats because they have no foundations for them. The Propeller has a production of 2 metal per second at 100% efficiency. It drains 5 energy per second. Its efficiency is calculated similarly to the Wind Turbine, except the wind cone has a maximum angle of 2 degrees and minimum angle of -45 degrees. It will also only operate while underwater.

It takes roughly 95 seconds for a propeller to pay itself back after placing it, given that it's 100% efficient.

The Propeller costs half of a mine and produces half the metal of a mine. However, the energy drain is the same. This causes the amount of energy drain to be double that of a mine for equivalent metal production. This means that getting additional energy production early on is more crucial for boats than it is for forts using mines.

## Stats

### Production Rate

3 metal per second @ 100% efficiency, -7 energy per second @ 100% efficiency.

## Characteristics

### Special

Must be placed in water. Only operates underwater.

The Propeller can be upgraded to the Super Propeller for 100 metal and 1000 energy.

The Super Propeller takes 15 seconds to complete upgrading and increases metal production to 3 metal per second while also increasing energy drain to 7 energy per second.

Including downtime, it takes roughly 130 seconds for the upgrade on a fully efficient propeller to pay itself back.
Explosive Barrel

The Explosive Barrel is a device primarily used in the campaign to create explosive weak spots in the enemy fort.

The Explosive Barrel can claim forts.

Upon destruction the barrel deals 200 splash damage to devices within a 250cm radius, 200 splash damage to structure within a 150cm radius, and has an incendiary splash radius of 120cm while heating 150cm.

The player cannot normally place them unless the Shockenaugh commander is selected.
Armoury

The Armoury is a ToG (Tons of Guns) tech building, which is an equivalent of the Workshop tier-wise.

## Characteristics

### Pros

Unlocks lots of possibilities, tech and weapons

### Cons

Doens't give access to mortar and swarm missiles

### Main use

Once the Armoury is built, it gives you access to Weapons, Flak and EMP Rocket, to the Munitions Plant and the Factory.

You generally want to place it at the start of the game, to get some Weapons or next tier tech fast.

### Other info

Tech buildings are some of the most expensive buildings, but also the most expensive to repair. Because of their high HP, it takes a long time to repair, and because of their high cost, it takes a lot of metal/second to repair. In the end, it's extremely expensive.

Armoury is less used in forts games, because of its vertical shape, it's harder to fit in a fort. Some players even called this "tetris", trying to fit everything correctly.

As all tech buildings, it takes a lot of time to build so you can make defenses before your opponent has weapons.