When it comes to games where you're in charge of a lot of resources, people, and expeditions, it can be hard to know where to go and what to do. For this reason, we've conjured up a list of five Cantata tips that should hopefully get you off on the right foot in this strategy simulator that sits somewhere between Factorio and Advance Wars according to early impressions.
Cantata is a brand-new tactical strategy game where you have to choose a Commanding Officer and expand, explore and campaign across the planet. It's a very vibrant game, and to new players it may be very daunting.
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Fives Cantata Tips for Your First Few Games
The following few tips come courtesy of a longer list made available by the Cantata developers on the Steam community forums. We picked a few choice pieces of advice, stuffed a few tips until one larger one, and expanded on a few as well.
Play the Tutorial(s)!
Strategy games like Cantata can be very particular, and you're bound to get frustrated if you don't really know what's going on.
The developers recommend you play both the standard and advanced tutorials, but we'll understand if you skip. Just like a piece of flat-packed furniture, however, you'll likely regret it.
Don't sleep on the healer!
The Healer unit has both a single-target heal and an AoE heal, making them infinitely useful to your squad. Better yet, it's a mobile unit, meaning it can be moved to unexplored regions to grab supplies. Even if you don't need triage in the moment, you'll almost certainly need the materials.
You can even get a quick area heal from Tower transports if your squad needs a pick-me-up.
Value the Radio Towers
Information is key, and vision plays a major part in that. If you have some land and resources going spare, consider building a Radio Tower to increase how far you can see through the fog of war.
Hotkeys are your friend
From holding V on a unit to see their line of vision to using Tab to cycle between movable units, using hotkeys will really increase your efficiency. StarCraft pros have been racking up inhuman levels of input for decades, and there's a reason why they crush anyone who thinks they just need a mouse.
Back on the topic of your mouse, though, hover over or click on objectives to see their corresponding locations and/or units that are relevant to completing them.
Ghosts aren't scary (or useless)
Whether you're short on funds or not, getting a unit's ghost back to a production building is well worth the effort. Reincarnating them is far cheaper than training up a new one, so don't ignore those little wisps at the end of a battle.
If you find these tips helpful, let us know! If you have liked these Cantata tips, you might like our Lord of the Rings: Rise of War commanders tier list. It's strategy on the go if you don't have a Steam Deck to play Cantata on the move. If that's not for you, check out our best strategy games of 2021 instead.