The default hotkeys are quite intuitive since they copy the same disposition in the keyboard as you see them on the screen. For example, buttons on the top left corner will use the Q button, therefore if you want to build a house you press Q Q and that's it. The ones that I personally find usefull changing are the "go to X building", since using ctrl + letter is not sometimes quite comfortable
You can change binding building keys to whichever letters that you like, can select all X buildings by pressing one key, I use for monastery, blacksmith, university for fast upgrade while attacking enemy base, Select all Markets and mass creating trade carts then right click on ally Market
I changed the "go to X building" keys to ctrl + the letter they are in the building menu it is easy to learn and also is mostly comfortable because all the letters are on the left. There is a little overlap between military and eco buildings but you would only need it for lumber/mining camp and mill wich you need like at most 10 times per game combined
@@mihailkondov4773 I use mouse scroll wheel down for next idle vill and scroll up for all idle vills. H for all towncenters. Y for all docks. So early on I can spam vills and fishing ships w H>A and Y>A.
Hotkeys are such a personal thing. I based mine of Nili's tutorial and haven't looked back. It's literally whatever feels comfortable and makes sense for you.
Regarding the dock techs "Maybe eventually I'll start playing with those when I get a little bit better as a player." 😂 you're always looking to improve
I am really enjoying shift-A/S/D/Z/X/C for my go to-economy buildings cycling Helps to hop between different mines and lumber camps to check on the homies and make sure they are working efficiently
I think just using a grid-based system is best when you start!!! Also dont forget on shift and control groups. H to cycle TCs Shift+H for all TCs I extended it to ctrl+qwert... select all baracks, ranges etc. makes it very easy to spam production. Then make control groups for the production buildings if i want to produce out of certain ones. and ctrl+asdf.. to switch through eco buildings and then grid for upgrades works great for me
Good stuff! Thank you! I've personally been using the WASD scrolling just because it feels natural coming from a lot of first- and third-person shooters. I definitely need to update all the rest though!
DE default hotkeys r great. Only changed garrison to G, go to last event to CAPS LOCK. Should have mentioned that holding shift while clicking makes 5 units, or with delete removes whole selection, holding ctrl while dragging selects only military, while holding shift just eco units
Can you teach us control groups? I've seen you use it and I know the advantage over "selecting all X," but you naturally make it look easy and I wonder how you keep them all straight. Do you use it mostly for buildings or units or both?
Cool video Hera! Personally, my favorite hotkeys to use are "P", "N", "-" (minus), "!" (exclamation point) and "$" (dollar symbol). However, I agree that it is highly subjective and personal thing.
Consider F1-F11 for select all barracks, lumbercamps etc., so you dont have to press two buttons for those commands and strech you hand. The default commands on those keys are not relevant for gameplay, so you dont need hotkeys for them.
Good call doing a hotkey guide before HC5, video gonna do well I bet. Coming back to the game myself due to the hype and had lost my previous ones. Thanks ;)
just started playing first thing i did was setup hotkeys if you're used to clicking make the change now it will take time to get the muscle memory but its well worth it for longterm skill I was already used to using hotkeys in most of the other games i play. Start with a few basic things like houses, return to tc and farms tbh.
What type of keyboaard do you use to play? TKL, 75%, 100%? This was great BTW, last year I picked up an offer on steam for AOE after not playing it in like 20 years or more, really getting into it now
About 6 months ago, I tried to improve my hotkeys to a better system. While doing that and playing around with saved templates, I managed to completely delete my old highly custom setup, and could not force myself to rebuild it since then. A video like this encourages me to do it, then I can finally play AoE2 again. But first, I still have to decide which system I want. Do I rebuild with the 'modern; AoE2:DE keys, with two sets of 'build' branches for the villager- one for eco and one for military buildings (and a grand annoyance of the game offering a building from another branch, if not aged-up or lack a prerequisite); or do I try to go for the classic system- but then I have to do a lot of work: creating, adjusting, and learning hotkeys anew :( Edit: I did it! remade the 'classic' hotkey setup to one similar to DE hotkeys, but with a single 'build' hotkey, and no annoying suggestions from the other branch, like DE version has. Had to rebind maybe a 100 hotkeys though, for example- every key inside every building, and more :) Now I have to teach my muscle memory to remember them, however, I already see that this new version is cleaner and better.
Oh I have my version of this, Z - idle vils cause they’re sleeping 💤 X - siege cause it deletes things S - smith but you thought it’d be for stables right? No H - stables cause h is for horse Everything else is pretty standard
new player guide, what do you mean? I am a gamer for 15+ years now and this is the first time I feel like I really understand how to approach this topic. Been struggling so long. Thanks for sharing your experience bro!
In the 2013 version of Age of Empire 2, the hotkey setup interface is different. However, when I want to modify a hotkey that already has a value elsewhere, three question marks will appear towards the hotkey with the same value. For example, in the villager construction domain, the barracks which is already on "A", I cannot give it the value "Q" without three question marks appearing on the farm. how can we give another value to a hotkey in a list that already contains this value without getting this error message? i don't know if i made myself understood...
hey hera, could you record and display the buttons and key presses in your games and display them synced in your video´s. that way us peasants can learn how to make use of the hotkeys like you . Keep up the great content, ive learned so much from you❤
This may be unpopular and I don't mean to be rude, but while there are some good points especially for newer players, your hotkeys seem really lacking for a player of your caliber, to the point I would say you would improve a lot if you fixed them if that didntt sound like a farce by you being the best player on the world and stuff. Personally i prefer to keep most stuff left of RFV but as correctly indicated what is convenient to everyone is completely personal so don't really mean to comment on that. However there is little reason to leave anything unbind, especially for stuff you are not starved for available hotkeys and you use every game. For example if you already have the select Lumber camps hotkey, it is an easy step to add for example A, a hotkey you use as your main production to reseach the wood upgrade. I would also argue that the best way to setup hotkeys is to give it a good thought and set them up all at once making use of the best keyboard real estate you can think of. This requires some experience with the game and what you need to click, how often and under what conditions, and it is gonna be absolutely dreadful at the begining but will let you have the best hotkey setup in the long run.
How do you add or remove stuff from a control group? If it hit Ctrl 1 on my scout and then on my tc it removes the scout and only has the tc for example. How do I make it so I can have both?
I use the default build/train etc then have select all, but im definitely not super efficient and some hot keys for other things would be great but i never know what's best
would be good if you showed your hotkeys using a diagram to better visualise how it works. Some websites to do stuff like that for you or editor can do it? thanks showing us your set up
my favorite hotkey setting has been the HD system where A and S keys split the buildings based on eco or military. I got so used to it I can't play DE well at all. And I can't find a way to make DE do that.
@@darthcabs just have your 2 keys that you need. Not sure if its the default but for me thats w+a on a villager Itll switch to 2nd page (defences) and build a palissade (or s for stone wall)
I stopped playing for a couple of years and when I came back I discovered that a recent update had deleted them. Ever since it's been a huge hustle to do them over, because there's always some clash and sometimes they aren't working. I now want to do an efficient grid, but I haven't settled on a system just yet.
Maybe im a bit arogant now but i thought you would have ALOT better hotkeys then this :P Would say my hotkeys are like x10 better. Sadly i play x1000 worse so hotkeys dont rly matter that much then XD
wtf dude. yesturday i setup hotkeys using your 3 y old video. and maybe some cool thing for myself. i spend like almost 3 hours to do this and try all for myself. now i got brand new video that i afraid to watch couz it may change some stuff
![10 Tricks I use to play faster [AoE2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DGUGkEfQjKE/mqdefault.jpg)
![Chino Pacas - Modo Capone (with Drake & JOP) [Video Visualizador Oficial]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Zoc75M8Swhc/mqdefault.jpg)
The default hotkeys are quite intuitive since they copy the same disposition in the keyboard as you see them on the screen. For example, buttons on the top left corner will use the Q button, therefore if you want to build a house you press Q Q and that's it. The ones that I personally find usefull changing are the "go to X building", since using ctrl + letter is not sometimes quite comfortable
I wonder if you can bind space+letters to military buildings, could be really nice for hand strain 🤔
@@mabster314 i think u actually can, i had a mouse button for shift that i had to set up manuallt
I use this one, lol
You can change binding building keys to whichever letters that you like, can select all X buildings by pressing one key, I use for monastery, blacksmith, university for fast upgrade while attacking enemy base, Select all Markets and mass creating trade carts then right click on ally Market
I changed the "go to X building" keys to ctrl + the letter they are in the building menu it is easy to learn and also is mostly comfortable because all the letters are on the left. There is a little overlap between military and eco buildings but you would only need it for lumber/mining camp and mill wich you need like at most 10 times per game combined
This is how I spam units with my hotkeys:
I setup all military building SELECT-ALLs as CTRL +
Great layout! What do you use for idle vills? I like Tab for that, but the select idle military units button I have no idea.
@@mihailkondov4773 I use mouse scroll wheel down for next idle vill and scroll up for all idle vills. H for all towncenters. Y for all docks. So early on I can spam vills and fishing ships w H>A and Y>A.
Wow, this is so useful.
I literally just got into AoE2 like 2 weeks ago. This came at the perfect time. Thanks Hera!
look for a hotkey trainer in the "mods" tab so you can learn to build faster
Hotkeys are such a personal thing. I based mine of Nili's tutorial and haven't looked back. It's literally whatever feels comfortable and makes sense for you.
Regarding the dock techs "Maybe eventually I'll start playing with those when I get a little bit better as a player." 😂 you're always looking to improve
There's a hotkey trainer in the "mods" tab so you can learn to build faster
Yeah i tried this but the mod is broken, the siegeworkshop button doesn't work it seems.
There should be a tournament only with the MOUSE. it would be crazy!
Yes. Also, Hera vs 10 beginners and he can’t use hot keys, how about that
I am really enjoying shift-A/S/D/Z/X/C
for my go to-economy buildings cycling
Helps to hop between different mines and lumber camps to check on the homies and make sure they are working efficiently
haha solid bro, gotta check on those homies aye
@@XEN0-M0RPH lol yes sir
I think just using a grid-based system is best when you start!!!
Also dont forget on shift and control groups.
H to cycle TCs
Shift+H for all TCs
I extended it to
ctrl+qwert... select all baracks, ranges etc.
makes it very easy to spam production. Then make control groups for the production buildings if i want to produce out of certain ones.
and ctrl+asdf.. to switch through eco buildings and then grid for upgrades
works great for me
Good stuff! Thank you! I've personally been using the WASD scrolling just because it feels natural coming from a lot of first- and third-person shooters. I definitely need to update all the rest though!
Haven't watched the video yet but I can already say THAANK YOU for doing this I think the aoe2 community really needed a video like this.
Thank you Hera, this is the guide I needed the most, as 1.1k I've been stuck for more than a year
DE default hotkeys r great. Only changed garrison to G, go to last event to CAPS LOCK. Should have mentioned that holding shift while clicking makes 5 units, or with delete removes whole selection, holding ctrl while dragging selects only military, while holding shift just eco units
Can you teach us control groups? I've seen you use it and I know the advantage over "selecting all X," but you naturally make it look easy and I wonder how you keep them all straight. Do you use it mostly for buildings or units or both?
Cool video Hera! Personally, my favorite hotkeys to use are "P", "N", "-" (minus), "!" (exclamation point) and "$" (dollar symbol). However, I agree that it is highly subjective and personal thing.
Consider F1-F11 for select all barracks, lumbercamps etc., so you dont have to press two buttons for those commands and strech you hand. The default commands on those keys are not relevant for gameplay, so you dont need hotkeys for them.
Thank you for this video. My cousin has a hatred for hotkeys but I think you can change his mind!
Thanks for the content mate!! Good stuff
Good call doing a hotkey guide before HC5, video gonna do well I bet. Coming back to the game myself due to the hype and had lost my previous ones. Thanks ;)
just started playing first thing i did was setup hotkeys if you're used to clicking make the change now it will take time to get the muscle memory but its well worth it for longterm skill
I was already used to using hotkeys in most of the other games i play.
Start with a few basic things like houses, return to tc and farms tbh.
woohoo! I've been wanting to see this update from you for a while. thank you
What type of keyboaard do you use to play? TKL, 75%, 100%? This was great BTW, last year I picked up an offer on steam for AOE after not playing it in like 20 years or more, really getting into it now
About 6 months ago, I tried to improve my hotkeys to a better system. While doing that and playing around with saved templates, I managed to completely delete my old highly custom setup, and could not force myself to rebuild it since then. A video like this encourages me to do it, then I can finally play AoE2 again. But first, I still have to decide which system I want. Do I rebuild with the 'modern; AoE2:DE keys, with two sets of 'build' branches for the villager- one for eco and one for military buildings (and a grand annoyance of the game offering a building from another branch, if not aged-up or lack a prerequisite); or do I try to go for the classic system- but then I have to do a lot of work: creating, adjusting, and learning hotkeys anew :(
Edit: I did it! remade the 'classic' hotkey setup to one similar to DE hotkeys, but with a single 'build' hotkey, and no annoying suggestions from the other branch, like DE version has. Had to rebind maybe a 100 hotkeys though, for example- every key inside every building, and more :) Now I have to teach my muscle memory to remember them, however, I already see that this new version is cleaner and better.
Today I learned. This video is perfect! Thank you so much.
Icredible video!! thanks a lot for share this so openly with us!! This information is very important for enyoi the game!!
Oh I have my version of this,
Z - idle vils cause they’re sleeping 💤
X - siege cause it deletes things
S - smith but you thought it’d be for stables right? No
H - stables cause h is for horse
Everything else is pretty standard
VIdeo Came Exactly at the right Time, Thank You hera for uploading this educational tutorial!!! :D:D:D:
Been playing for like six months, Hera just showed me how to rotate the gates lmao
new player guide, what do you mean? I am a gamer for 15+ years now and this is the first time I feel like I really understand how to approach this topic. Been struggling so long. Thanks for sharing your experience bro!
10:03 what do you mean by that? how do you scroll across the map than? all by rightclick?
In the 2013 version of Age of Empire 2, the hotkey setup interface is different. However, when I want to modify a hotkey that already has a value elsewhere, three question marks will appear towards the hotkey with the same value.
For example, in the villager construction domain, the barracks which is already on "A", I cannot give it the value "Q" without three question marks appearing on the farm.
how can we give another value to a hotkey in a list that already contains this value without getting this error message?
i don't know if i made myself understood...
I think shift might be even more important than farm. Probably the hotkey I use most
How is ur opinion about nilis hotkey video before 3 yrs . It helped me a lot to play faster.
hey hera, could you record and display the buttons and key presses in your games and display them synced in your video´s. that way us peasants can learn how to make use of the hotkeys like you . Keep up the great content, ive learned so much from you❤
he's done this before... maybe just on his twitch stream... but it's quite impressive to see his left hand move too.
Thanks forthe help. I need to start using hotkeys
This may be unpopular and I don't mean to be rude, but while there are some good points especially for newer players, your hotkeys seem really lacking for a player of your caliber, to the point I would say you would improve a lot if you fixed them if that didntt sound like a farce by you being the best player on the world and stuff. Personally i prefer to keep most stuff left of RFV but as correctly indicated what is convenient to everyone is completely personal so don't really mean to comment on that. However there is little reason to leave anything unbind, especially for stuff you are not starved for available hotkeys and you use every game. For example if you already have the select Lumber camps hotkey, it is an easy step to add for example A, a hotkey you use as your main production to reseach the wood upgrade.
I would also argue that the best way to setup hotkeys is to give it a good thought and set them up all at once making use of the best keyboard real estate you can think of. This requires some experience with the game and what you need to click, how often and under what conditions, and it is gonna be absolutely dreadful at the begining but will let you have the best hotkey setup in the long run.
thanks for this hera, this and more will help me win some 1vX's against you ;)
How do you add or remove stuff from a control group? If it hit Ctrl 1 on my scout and then on my tc it removes the scout and only has the tc for example. How do I make it so I can have both?
Both have to be selected at once, so crtl+click could do (or shift select)
But if youre not using the hotkeys for scroll commands, how you use it in the game? :)
I use the default build/train etc then have select all, but im definitely not super efficient and some hot keys for other things would be great but i never know what's best
Nice Video bro
would be good if you showed your hotkeys using a diagram to better visualise how it works. Some websites to do stuff like that for you or editor can do it? thanks showing us your set up
my favorite hotkey setting has been the HD system where A and S keys split the buildings based on eco or military. I got so used to it I can't play DE well at all. And I can't find a way to make DE do that.
@2:43 bottom right there's a drop down menu that will change it to HD settings like Hera has shown in the vid.
How to create units from multiple building without going to them individually?
my goat has posted
Wtf there is no way, yesterday I was looking a really old video of your hotkeys 😂
I always asked what bindings you use thanks for this video 😮
thx Hera, im still working whit your Hera_buildorder.pdf really usefull man!!!!
How do i unbind a hotkey in the settings? I see no option to clear a binding.
As a new player I am only interested in how to quick wall, @hera please show me
True, it's one of the few things I'd add to the standard hotkeys
@@darthcabs just have your 2 keys that you need. Not sure if its the default but for me thats w+a on a villager
Itll switch to 2nd page (defences) and build a palissade (or s for stone wall)
I have a video on that look for it!
Thanks for the response man! Will do
@@HeraAgeofEmpires2
this vid may actually make me go from a casual 800 elo to a sweaty 1200 elo, who knows 11
The thumbnail should have had arrow keys on wasd for the throwback 11
I stopped playing for a couple of years and when I came back I discovered that a recent update had deleted them. Ever since it's been a huge hustle to do them over, because there's always some clash and sometimes they aren't working. I now want to do an efficient grid, but I haven't settled on a system just yet.
this was your secret for years, never told about them nowhere, now its exposed. we can defeat you :)
Very Informative vieo!!!!
i am professional in hotkey but weak at micro, help in micro please.
Macro is strategy is key
Why would you not use grid hotkeys? This is madness.
Helll yes
what key is to select the villaager thtat is not working?
He did this for me
is there a link to ur hotkey folder?
"So if you copy my hotkeys you won't play like me"
Bruuuh 😂😂😂
We have two hands, but we also have two feet HERA! why not make use of our feet as well to speed up our game HMMM?
-> Villager Build
You have 'Castle' and 'University' on 'R'. It should not work...
Maybe im a bit arogant now but i thought you would have ALOT better hotkeys then this :P Would say my hotkeys are like x10 better. Sadly i play x1000 worse so hotkeys dont rly matter that much then XD
My Tipp is you should have a hotkey for quiting because the game can make me insane sometime.
"We only have 2 hands"
But what if we play with 2 mice..? 11
2:10 I have 6.5
wtf dude. yesturday i setup hotkeys using your 3 y old video. and maybe some cool thing for myself. i spend like almost 3 hours to do this and try all for myself. now i got brand new video that i afraid to watch couz it may change some stuff
and now i learning to lure boar and do good dark age into feodal. btw will be perfect if 2024 guide will include staff about this.
We wont play as you with your hotkeys, this is an scam of a video.