Numantian Games left Early Access on 18 June 2019 with The New Empire, a 48 mission campaign carrying more than 60 hours on top of the existing Survival mode. The custom engine pushes up to 20,000 infected on screen at once, and a single one reaching an unwalled house can end a four hour colony in about 90 seconds. Everything hinges on wall placement, noise discipline and the score factor you set before the map generates.
This guide covers everything you need: core mechanics, the best builds, equipment worth investing in, location progression, and the tips that actually make a difference.
Core Mechanics
One infected can end a run
Infection spreads building to building. A single zombie that reaches an unprotected house converts it, the occupants become infected, and within seconds a chain reaction eats a district that took an hour to build. There is no partial loss in Survival, only a colony that holds or a colony that does not.
Noise attracts the horde
Every action has a noise radius. Soldier rifles are loud, Ranger bows are near silent, and buildings such as sawmills and quarries broadcast constantly. Infected Harpies are the most sensitive and can be provoked from 36 tiles away, so a single careless engagement can pull a wandering group into your wall.
Score factor sets difficulty and reward
Before generating a Survival map you set swarm size, map type and duration, and the game converts those into a percentage score factor. Each Survival map unlocks the next by clearing it at a minimum factor, rising from 20 percent for Dark Moorland up to 100 percent for Caustic Lands.
Villages of Doom seeded on the map
These clusters hold dense packs of infected including Chubbies and other specials. Provoking one before you have towers means the entire village walks at you at once, so they are cleared deliberately with Snipers or left alone until stone walls are up.
Tesla Tower energy grid
Tesla Towers extend energy coverage across the colony, and defensive buildings need power to fire. If a Tesla Tower is destroyed or infected, every Great Ballista, Shocking Tower and Executor inside its radius goes dark at once, which is how well-walled colonies still collapse.
For a deeper dive into how these systems interact, see our They Are Billions combat guide.
Builds Overview
| Build | Tier | Playstyle | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranger | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Soldier | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Sniper | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Thanatos | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
| Titan | A | Versatile approach | Balanced stats |
For full build breakdowns with gear and stat priorities, see our They Are Billions builds guide. For rankings, check the tier list.
Equipment Guide
| Equipment | Why It Matters | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Wooden Wall | Cheap, fast and made of the resource you have most of on day one. | Sealing chokes in the opening 20 days |
| Stone Wall | The real defensive line. | Permanent perimeter once the Stone Workshop is running |
| Great Ballista | Fires heavy bolts with very little noise and often skewers several infected in a line. | Early to mid game walls where noise still matters |
| Shocking Tower | The first tower that genuinely deletes crowds, using electricity to vaporise packs of weak infected at once. | Choke points where the horde arrives densely packed |
| Executor | The Great Ballista upgraded into an automated gatling cannon, and the strongest static defence available. | Late game walls holding the final wave |
Wooden Wall: Cheap, fast and made of the resource you have most of on day one. It buys time and nothing more, and it will not survive a serious wave past the first third of the run.
Stone Wall: The real defensive line. Far more health than wood and the minimum requirement before any wave that includes specials arrives at your gate.
Great Ballista: Fires heavy bolts with very little noise and often skewers several infected in a line. It is the quiet defensive tower, which matters because loud defences pull more attention.
Shocking Tower: The first tower that genuinely deletes crowds, using electricity to vaporise packs of weak infected at once. It needs energy, so it dies the instant its Tesla Tower does.
Executor: The Great Ballista upgraded into an automated gatling cannon, and the strongest static defence available. Expensive in iron and energy, and worth every unit of both.
Full breakdowns in our They Are Billions weapons guide.
Location Progression
| Location | Level Range | Key Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| The Deep Forest | Available from the start | Safe learning ground, forest chokes, unlocks Dark Moorland at 20 percent |
| The Dark Moorland | Unlocks at 20 percent score factor | Cheap terrain chokes, first special infected experience, unlocks Peaceful Lowlands at 40 percent |
| The Peaceful Lowlands | Unlocks at 40 percent score factor | High resource ceiling, multi-front defence practice, unlocks Frozen Highlands at 60 percent |
| The Frozen Highlands | Unlocks at 60 percent score factor | Energy management practice, slower waves, unlocks Desolated Wasteland at 80 percent |
| Caustic Lands | Unlocks at 100 percent score factor | Highest score multipliers, dense special infected, the top of the Survival ladder |
The Deep Forest: The starting Survival map, available immediately. Plenty of pockets and natural choke points, and no special infected anywhere on the map, which makes it the place to learn wall economy.
The Dark Moorland: Gorges and rivers carve the terrain into narrow lanes, so fortification is cheaper than it looks. This is the first map that introduces special and giant infected.
The Peaceful Lowlands: The name is a lie. Wide open terrain means enormous wall spending, large lakes block a fifth to two fifths of the buildable area, and multiple Villages of Doom threaten from different directions at once.
The Frozen Highlands: Cold changes the maths rather than the enemy. Buildings burn extra energy staying warm and units move more slowly, though the infected are less aggressive to compensate.
Caustic Lands: The final Survival map and the hardest score modifier, with the densest special infected population and one giant Doom Village. It tends to generate with more chokes, which is the only mercy it offers.
See our maps & locations guide for detailed area breakdowns and our walkthrough for the optimal progression path.
Tips That Actually Matter
- Use the pause key as a core mechanic, not an emergency button. The game is built around pausing to issue orders, and no amount of mechanical speed will replace stopping the clock during a wave to retarget six units individually.
- Scout with exactly one Ranger. Sending a pair doubles the noise footprint for no extra map coverage, and one Ranger can outrun almost everything on the map if it wakes something it should not have.
- Identify the two or three chokes the map gives you before day 15 and commit everything to them. Colonies fail because they wall a large perimeter thinly rather than a small one properly.
- Convert wooden walls to stone before the wave that first includes specials. Wood buys you the opening third of the run, and rebuilding under pressure costs more stone than upgrading calmly ever would.
- Place every Tesla Tower well inside the perimeter. Defensive buildings need power, so a tower destroyed on the edge silences an entire section of wall at the exact moment it matters most.
- Clear Villages of Doom deliberately with Snipers and a Titan escort between waves, never accidentally with a Soldier's rifle noise. The choice of when to wake them is the largest single decision in a Survival run.
- Research through the Wood Workshop into the Stone Workshop and then the Foundry in that order. Skipping the middle tier delays Assault Rifle and Telescopic Sight, which are what unlock Soldiers and Snipers.
- Budget oil from the moment your first Oil Platform goes up. Titans and Thanatos both draw on it, and arriving at the final wave with the research done but no oil to field the units is a common way to lose a good run.
- Watch the wave direction arrows and reinforce asymmetrically. Early waves usually come from one or two directions, which lets you spend on those sides only, but the final wave arrives from everywhere and needs a complete perimeter.
- In the campaign, spend tech points on colony economy before combat upgrades for the first several missions. The New Empire's 48 missions get harder faster than your unit roster improves, and gold throughput solves more problems than damage does.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Walling the entire buildable area thinly instead of sealing two chokes properly, which leaves nothing to spend on towers.
- Firing on a wandering group with Soldiers near a Village of Doom and pulling the whole village into a colony with wooden walls.
- Placing Tesla Towers near the perimeter, so the first breach depowers a whole bank of Ballistas and Shocking Towers.
- Expanding housing for gold income without expanding food and energy first, then watching the colony stall at negative income.
- Treating the final wave like the previous ones. It arrives from every direction, so a colony fortified on two sides only is already lost when the timer starts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does They Are Billions have a campaign?
Yes. The New Empire shipped with version 1.0 on 18 June 2019 and contains 48 missions with more than 60 hours of play, set under Quintus Crane's orders to retake territory from the infected.
Why did my colony die in seconds?
Infection chains between buildings. One infected reaching an unprotected house converts it, its occupants spread outward, and a district can fall before you finish reacting. There is no partial failure state in Survival.
Which Survival map should I start on?
The Deep Forest. It is unlocked from the beginning, has natural choke points to work with, and contains no special infected at all, so you can learn wall and economy pacing without Harpies jumping the line.
How do I unlock the harder maps?
Clear the previous map at a minimum score factor: 20 percent for The Dark Moorland, 40 for The Peaceful Lowlands, 60 for The Frozen Highlands, 80 for The Desolated Wasteland and 100 for Caustic Lands.
Which unit should I build most of?
Rangers early, because they are cheap and quiet, then Snipers once Telescopic Sight is researched. Thanatos and Titan are specialist tools that need oil, so they come after the economy supports them.
More They Are Billions Guides
- They Are Billions Best Builds
- They Are Billions Tier List
- They Are Billions Walkthrough
- They Are Billions Beginner's Guide
- They Are Billions Tips & Tricks
- They Are Billions Weapons Guide
- They Are Billions Combat Guide
- They Are Billions Boss Guide
- They Are Billions Maps & Locations
- They Are Billions Crafting Guide
- They Are Billions Classes & Characters
Similar Games
If you enjoy They Are Billions, check out these related guides:
- Sid Meier's Civilization V Guide: strategy game with similar mechanics
- Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Guide: strategy game with similar mechanics
- RimWorld Guide: strategy game with similar mechanics
