How to Play

Step 2 · Orientation

Reading the Screen

The screen is three regions: a top bar of resources, a left dock that tells you what is happening, and a right dock that acts on whatever you have selected. Panels only appear when they have something to say — an empty Build Queue hides itself and comes back the moment you queue something, so anything on screen is there for a reason.

• Objectives — your current campaign phase and its checklist. When you are lost, read this first.
• Strategic Command — threat level, fleet readiness, and a NEXT COMMAND line that names the single most useful thing you could do right now.
• Minimap / Planet Nav — jump between worlds, and switch between the layers of the world you are on.
• The command card — the bar along the bottom. It always shows what your current selection can do; with nothing selected on a surface it becomes the build menu.
• Events and AI Council — what just happened, and an advisor you can ask for a hint.
• Planet / Surface Info — details of the selected world, plus the button that drops you to its surface.
• Surface Build — appears only on a surface. This is where you place districts.

Every panel can be dragged, resized, collapsed, or popped out. If you make a mess, Reset Layout in Context Tools puts it all back.

Step 3 · Controls

Moving the Camera

• Drag with the left mouse button to pan.
• Mouse wheel to zoom. In a surface view, zooming all the way out returns you to the Sol system.
• Q and E rotate the camera 15° at a time.
• R and F tilt it, anywhere from a flat top-down map to a low, oblique angle. Space and surface share the same tilt, so the system view is not locked overhead.
• H is the "where is my stuff" key — it snaps the camera to your headquarters, or failing that your nearest buildings or units.
• 1–9 recall a control group; Ctrl + a number assigns one.
• Esc backs out one step at a time — placement first, then targeting, then an open build category, then any armed command mode.

Step 3½ · The command card

One Bar, Everything You Can Do

The bar along the bottom of the screen is the command card, and it always answers one question: what can the thing I have selected do right now?

• Nothing selected on a surface — it becomes the build menu: seven categories (Infrastructure, Housing, Food, Industry, Energy, Military, Science), each opening a list of structures with their costs. Back or Esc returns.
• A production building selected — its title names the building and you get one Deploy button per unit it can train, cost included. (Right-clicking the building still works.)
• Units selected — their orders. Click any tile to move them; Stop holds position. Units that can shoot at orbit get Strike Orbital.
• An orbital asset selected — a Laser Satellite over your world offers Strike Surface (tap a tile to fire), Reposition (park it above any point), and Resume Orbit.
• Placing a building — the card shows what you are placing and a Cancel button; invalid tiles tell you exactly why they refused.

Step 4 · Your first ten minutes

Follow the Objective, Not Your Instincts

Gatewake opens on Program Phase 1 · Cislunar Foundation. Do not try to colonise Mars yet — it is deliberately gated behind the Ares Initiative. Instead:

1. Read the Objectives panel. Phase 1 wants Earth orbital logistics and a Luna colony.
2. Click Earth in Planet Nav, then Open Earth Surface in the Planet / Surface Info panel.
3. On the surface, look at the command card along the bottom: with nothing selected it shows build categories. Open Infrastructure and place a Service Road first — it is the cheapest thing in the game and most districts want road coverage.
4. Add a Mining District for materials, then a Reactor District for the power everything else consumes.
5. Add a Habitat District once you have power. Population is what turns industry into income.
6. Zoom out to return to orbit, and check Objectives again. The checklist advances as you go.

You do not need the other twenty-odd buildings yet. Anything greyed out is telling you it needs research, and the ones that need research are folded into a Locked group at the bottom of the build list so they stay out of your way.

Step 5 · Depth

Every World Has Four Layers

The tabs under the minimap switch between the theaters of the world you are on. They are real, separate maps that agree with each other — the seafloor is the true underside of the land above it, and the tunnels below follow both.

• Surface (or Atmosphere on a gas giant) — where you start.
• Ocean — the seafloor. Sealed until you build a Construction Submarine at a Shipyard / Wharf, which itself must sit on a coastline.
• Underground — the tunnel network. Sealed until you build a Mine Entrance on the surface; the first shaft opens directly beneath it. Down here you click rock beside a tunnel to dig.
• Space — back to orbit. Orbit is a battlefield of its own: satellites and platforms circle the globe in the surface view, a Laser Satellite can be aimed and fired at the ground, and only Orbital Defense Batteries, AA trucks, and missile launchers can shoot back up at it.

A padlock on a tab means you have not built its key yet — click it and the game tells you exactly what unlocks it. Worlds where you already have tunnels or a seafloor base keep them; nothing you have built is ever taken away.

Step 6 · Growth

Research, Fleets, and the Galaxy

Research in the top bar opens the tech web. Spending research is how Mars, better hulls, and the advanced districts open up. Early on, the Luna Initiative and the Ares Initiative are the two that matter — they gate the rest of the campaign.

Select ships and use Create Fleet to group them; a fleet gets stances (passive, defensive, aggressive), formations, and standing orders like Guard Earth or Patrol Belt from the Strategic Command panel. Watch fleet readiness — a fleet left at low readiness can be lost.

The Galaxy tab stays locked until the campaign opens it. When it does, you can survey nearby real star systems remotely — probes and sensors only, never travel.

Step 7 · Together

Playing Co-op

Choosing 2–4 commanders opens a real lobby at /lobby. One player hosts, others join a public room or a private one by code, everyone picks a commander colour and a capital site, and the expedition launches when the room is ready.

No commander outranks another. Roles are self-selected, high-impact operations need the consent of every connected human, and sharing units or resources is opt-in and starts switched off. The host administers the room; they do not command you.

Honest notes

This Is a Prototype

Gatewake: Frontiers is in active development and the demo is a vertical slice, not a finished game. Builds resolve instantly rather than through full construction queues, some systems are visibly further along than others, and things change week to week — the news page tracks what moved and when.

If something looks broken, it might be. Support is the place to say so, and that feedback genuinely steers what gets built next.