Getting started
What you need to play, how to join your first match, play offline against bots or host for friends, and the default keyboard and gamepad controls.
01Your first match
The quickest way in is the Play page: pick a server and the game opens in your browser, nothing to install. For the full game, download the build for Linux, macOS or Windows (or the Flatpak), unpack it and run client.
- Quick match, the first button of the main menu, joins the server with the lowest ping and a free slot, puts you on the team with fewer players and hands you the weapon you picked last time.
- Server browser lists our servers and the public Ace of Spades 0.75 and 0.76 ones: the client plays on both.
- Your name: a fresh install gets a random one. Settings > Name has a Random name button, so no keyboard is needed.
02Singleplayer and bots
Singleplayer is a real server: the game starts the dedicated server on your own machine and joins it, so it needs no internet and plays exactly like online. Pick the mode and the map, and bots fill both teams.
You are the host, so the ESC menu has a Bots section: add or remove bots, fill the teams and choose their difficulty.
| Difficulty | How they play |
|---|---|
| Easy | rookies: they barely hit anything beyond 10 blocks |
| Normal | poor shots: about half their shots land at 10 blocks, a quarter at 20 |
| Hard | good players, but never aimbots |
Bots are ordinary players to the server, named Bot_ plus a name. They plan their way to the objective (digging, bridging, swimming), take cover, hear you digging, and in capture the flag they split into defenders, infiltrators and attackers.
03Hosting for friends
./client --host starts a server and joins it, with --gamemode and --map to choose what it plays. Friends connect to your address, and LAN games are found on their own. A dedicated server runs with ./client --server; every rule it plays by is in its config.toml.
04Keyboard and mouse
| Key | Action | Key | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| W A S D | move | Space | jump (and fly, with a jetpack) |
| Left Shift | sprint | Left Ctrl | crouch |
| V | sneak | R | reload |
| 1 | spade | 2 | block |
| 3 | gun (again: the second gun) | 4 | grenade, drill |
| 5 | sentry or placed perk | Q | last tool |
| Left click | fire, dig, place | Right click | aim, dig wide |
| Arrow keys | block colour | E | pick a block's colour |
| Left Alt | ping (twice: danger) | T | chat |
| Tab | score | M | map |
| , | change team | . | change gun or class |
| F11 | fullscreen | F5 | screenshot |
Every key can be rebound in Controls.
05Gamepad
Nothing in a match needs a keyboard. Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo controllers work out of the box, with rumble and gyro aiming; on-screen hints switch to your controller’s buttons.
| Button | Action | Button | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| RT | fire, use the tool | LT | aim, secondary |
| A | jump | B | crouch |
| X | reload | Y | ping (twice: danger) |
| LB / RB | previous / next tool | D-pad | spade, block, gun, grenade |
| L3 | sprint | R3 | map |
| Back | score | Start | menu |
Settings > Controller has sensitivity, dead zone, response curve, vibration, gyro and aim assist (off, low or normal; a server may forbid it).