Totally Accurate Battle Simulator is Landfall's physics battle game, released in full on 1 April 2021 after two years in Early Access. You spend a gold budget on wobblers from 14 factions, place them on a battlefield, and then hand the whole thing over to an active ragdoll simulation that decides the outcome. A Halfling costs 50 gold and a Da Vinci Tank costs 4,000, and the interesting question is almost never which unit is better but which unit is better per gold against the army already sitting on the other side of the field.
Starting Totally Accurate Battle Simulator can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator is a strategy game built around Gold budget placement and Active ragdoll physics. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tribal | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Farmer | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Ancient | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Dynasty | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Renaissance | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Farmer. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Renaissance as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Gold budget placement
Campaign levels hand you a fixed pot of gold and an enemy army that is already placed and visible. Units are priced from the 50 gold Halfling up to the 4,000 gold Da Vinci Tank, and the budget is usually lower than the enemy's total value, so the level is a puzzle about cost efficiency rather than a fair fight.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Gold budget placement works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to The Introduction
The tutorial campaign, teaching placement, budget spending and the basics of what the physics does to a formation. Levels here are generous enough that almost any sensible army clears them.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Hoplite: it's the most accessible early upgrade. An Ancient melee unit at 180 gold with a shield and spear. It holds a line against cheap infantry without needing support, which makes it the standard front rank behind which everything else is placed.
Step 4: Understand Active ragdoll physics
Every wobbler is a physics driven ragdoll that balances, swings and falls over on its own. Nothing about a fight is scripted, so identical armies produce different outcomes, and knockback, height and momentum matter as much as listed damage. A Longship or a Mammoth wins fights by shoving bodies, not by out-damaging them.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to The Adventure
Mixed faction levels with light strategic pressure. Budgets loosen up and the enemy armies start combining melee walls with ranged backlines, which is where reading the enemy layout first starts to pay.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Gold budget placement
Campaign levels hand you a fixed pot of gold and an enemy army that is already placed and visible. Units are priced from the 50 gold Halfling up to the 4,000 gold Da Vinci Tank, and the budget is usually lower than the enemy's total value, so the level is a puzzle about cost efficiency rather than a fair fight.
Active ragdoll physics
Every wobbler is a physics driven ragdoll that balances, swings and falls over on its own. Nothing about a fight is scripted, so identical armies produce different outcomes, and knockback, height and momentum matter as much as listed damage. A Longship or a Mammoth wins fights by shoving bodies, not by out-damaging them.
Faction unlocks and campaigns
Ten themed factions cover Tribal, Farmer, Medieval, Ancient, Viking, Dynasty, Renaissance, Pirate, Spooky and Wild West, each with seven units. Four more are unlockable: Legacy with 16 units, Secret with 39, plus Good and Evil, which are reached through portals rather than bought.
Unit possession
You can drop into any wobbler on the field and control it directly in first or third person while the rest of the battle continues around you. Possessing a Da Vinci Tank or a Zeus turns a losing simulation into a fight you steer, and it is the fastest way to understand why a unit keeps failing.
Unit Creator and Workshop
The game ships with creators for units, maps, factions, campaigns and battles. Custom wobblers get their own weapons, stats and gold cost, and Steam Workshop carries other people's armies, so the roster is not limited to the 100 plus units Landfall shipped.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Spending the whole budget on one 4,000 gold Da Vinci Tank against an army with Ballistas
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
2. Placing archers and Musketeers with no melee line in front of them
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
3. Stacking cheap units in a tight block where one catapult shot clears them
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
4. Rebuilding an army after a loss that was actually within physics variance
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
5. Keeping an army to a single faction when mixing costs nothing
This is a common trap that costs new players significant time.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Gold budget placement and Active ragdoll physics
- Choose Farmer as starting build
- Clear The Introduction main content
- Acquire Hoplite or equivalent upgrade
- Reach The Adventure
- Look at the enemy army before you spend a single gold coin. Every campaign level shows the opposing placement up front, so buying a 900 gold Ballista against twenty cheap infantry wastes the entire budget on the wrong answer.
- Cost per body beats cost per unit in most levels. Twenty 50 gold Halflings surround and drag down a 2,200 gold Mammoth, because the physics lets several ragdolls grapple one large one while it swings at a single target.
Tips for New Players
- Look at the enemy army before you spend a single gold coin. Every campaign level shows the opposing placement up front, so buying a 900 gold Ballista against twenty cheap infantry wastes the entire budget on the wrong answer.
- Cost per body beats cost per unit in most levels. Twenty 50 gold Halflings surround and drag down a 2,200 gold Mammoth, because the physics lets several ragdolls grapple one large one while it swings at a single target.
- Ranged units need a line in front of them that can hold for real. A 250 gold Musketeer that gets reached in the first five seconds contributed nothing, so pair every gold spent on ranged with roughly equal gold in front of it.
- Spread cheap units laterally instead of stacking them. A 1,000 gold Catapult or Pumpkin Catapult clears a tight block of Halflings in one shot and misses most of a spread line entirely.
- Height is a real advantage because the physics is real. Units placed above the enemy get free reach on the approach, and ranged units on high ground fire longer before contact.
- Possess a unit when a level keeps failing and the reason is not visible. Steering the front rank for ten seconds usually reveals that the army is losing to terrain or to one specific enemy unit rather than to the composition.
- Watch the fight at normal speed at least once. The physics simulation resolves differently every run, so a formation that lost by a hair is often correct and simply needs to be replayed rather than rebuilt.
- Mixed factions are allowed and usually better. There is no bonus for keeping an army pure, so 100 gold Shield Bearers from Ancient in front of 100 gold Dynamite Throwers from Wild West is a legal and strong combination.
- Knockback units earn their price. Monks at 250 gold and Brawlers at 220 win fights by putting enemies on the ground, and a wobbler that is falling over is not attacking anything.
- Use the Unit Creator to test a hunch cheaply. Building a wobbler with the exact stat and cost you think is missing, then dropping it into a sandbox fight, answers a composition question faster than replaying a campaign level ten times.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many factions are there?
Fourteen. Ten standard factions of seven units each cover Tribal, Farmer, Medieval, Ancient, Viking, Dynasty, Renaissance, Pirate, Spooky and Wild West, and four more are unlockable: Legacy with 16 units, Secret with 39, plus Good and Evil which are reached through portals.
Can units from different factions be mixed?
Yes, and it is usually the right call. Nothing rewards a pure faction army, so the standard approach is to buy the cheapest adequate front line from whichever faction sells it, then spend the rest on ranged units from another.
Why does the same army win one battle and lose the next?
Because nothing is scripted. Every wobbler is an active ragdoll, so balance, momentum and collision resolve slightly differently each run. If an army loses narrowly, replay it before redesigning it.
What is the cheapest way to beat a giant unit?
Numbers or a Ballista. Twenty 50 gold Halflings will drag down a 2,200 gold Mammoth by attacking from angles it cannot swing at, and a single 900 gold Ballista handles a large slow target from range. Buying a bigger giant of your own is the expensive answer.
Is there multiplayer?
Yes, online player versus player alongside the campaigns and sandbox. There are also creators for units, maps, factions, campaigns and battles, and Steam Workshop support, so custom armies show up in both sandbox and multiplayer matches.
More Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Guides
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Overview
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Best Builds
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Tier List
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Walkthrough
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Tips & Tricks
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Weapons Guide
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Combat Guide
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Boss Guide
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Maps & Locations
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Crafting Guide
- Totally Accurate Battle Simulator Classes & Characters
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