Intro To Hotkeys - AoE2 New Player Guide

Learn to play Age of Empires: learnaoe.com
More hotkeys coming in the next videos! But first, practise that muscle memory and get used to using the Go to Town Center and Idle Villager hotkeys!
Hotkey Trainer: steamcommunity...
Hotkey Editor: aokhotkeys.app...
Discord: / discord
Hotkey Cheat Sheet: drive.google.c...
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This video was created under Microsoft's "Game Content Usage Rules" using assets from Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, © Microsoft Corporation.
Game Content Usage Rules: www.xbox.com/en...

[@combeechan]

When I first installed Age of Empires II on a Windows 98 machine in the glorious year of 1999, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be watching Guides on how to play nearly 20 years later.

[@artempokhilyuk]

great comment

[@OpusMagnoCards]

Exactly my thoughts!!

[@l.sandrin1156]

Same here

[@Lucinat0r]

ditto, even stranger when I watch age of empires videos, I was so young then

[@stressed4484]

I was just about to say this. i'm on twitch and thinking, people are still playing it? so of course i bought it and have been practicing . i suck. just like in the old days so i put it on slow. :)

[@najarvis]

I use the villager creation sound as my text tone. Helped me to react faster to it in game when I was first starting.

[@ZeroEmpires]

This is actually genius!

[@bluebladegermany]

lol. Well, I use the warning trumpet as my ringtone. And the aoe message sound as my messages sound

[@julian.castro18]

I met a guy while travelling in St. Petersburg who did the exact same thing. Wasn't that you by any chance? haha

[@elvis_mello]

30.

[@IntricationGaming]

H CCC - double click villagers B E ( My dad drilled this into me when teaching me how to play this game about 15 years ago). I'll never forget it! At least the H CCC part.

[@lalramdinavarte4987]

saaame it's been hardwired into me

[@Lurking.Shadow]

Your trying to train me? 😂😂

[@SimenRomstad]

Love that someone make quality content videos of AoE2 in 2018!

[@ZeroEmpires]

Hotkey Trainer: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1351393520 Hotkey Editor: aokhotkeys.appspot.com/presets/get/6538361661554688 Discord: discord.gg/pzpCCzm Printable Hotkey Cheat Sheet: drive.google.com/open?id=1Jtv9qup9nTyGYBKYUOz7RmqKboeWRrU1

[@StayAwayFromMyCat]

Thanks for creating the awesome hotkey scenario! I've been playing aoe2 casually (read: against AI) off and on since it was first released way back in the day, but recently I decided to try and learn to take my game up a notch. Your hotkey scenario was great for mastering all the hotkeys, played 3 or 4 times yesterday before maxing out at an A after almost no practice with the new HD hotkeys. Today I revisited it and got an A+ after only 2 attempts. Took no time at all to learn them all with this helpful practice tool. Now I have to just work on mastering the basic build order 😅

[@Bnelen]

I enjoy learning the game but I was taken by surprise when I realized he was demonstrating how to drill the hotkey series. I think I'll enjoy my casual game thank you very much.

[@StarXGFX]

In my opinion "find idle villagers" is still the most important hotkey, map it to the space bar and you're set. We did this in the early 2000's.

[@CalumHGaming]

No wonder I suck, I was doing everything with the mouse lmao

[@zoiuduu]

what about me with my touchpad? lol

[@glennoconnor1130]

@@zoiuduu 😂

[@kylephelps9296]

I've always heard about the aoe2 hotkeys but I have never bothered to learn any of them. This video showed me how useful they can be and know I am starting to use them. It will take some time to memorize though

[@DistrictHero13]

Thanks for the lesson. I just got into AoE 2 DE and your video made the hotkeys seem much easier to understand.

[@lanetomkow6885]

Favorite game. Never ever gets old.

[@mariusss95]

Haven't played Age of Empires 2 since 2017... I need to get in shape for the Definitive edition that I pre purchased.

[@Lynx_Melynx]

I don’t understand how you could get dislikes for this video. You’re doing a top job for the community Zac. Always love your videos

[@johangrostkerck6046]

GamingDownMemoryLane It's even more incomprehensable, because he clearly states in the title that this is meant for beginners. So unless they are beginners and cannot even understand this video, they're just disliking the video for the sake of it.

[@tabchanzero8229]

I get your point, but 1.4K vs 14 is pretty solid.

[@Joram647]

Every single video on youtube will always have at least a small handful of dislikes. The people doing it are usually trolls who just have to be different or edgy, or people who are literally never satisfied with anything. To understand the later group, go to a random review site and look through the 1 star reviews of an otherwise highly rated business. You'll understand these kinds of people after reading a few of these.

[@nathanfuzz6514]

haha i gave you a thumbs down , just to show you how easy it is. but for real it was an awesome video.

[@evanray8413]

unfortunately some ppl are poison and have nothing good in their lives.

[@vysearcadia522]

The Hotkey Trainer, in the span just a few minutes placed me from barely able to get down the hotkeys to getting them down near instantly. I didn't realize I was jumping straight into medium level but had no real problem getting down the buttons. Hard was where i started to mix up a few. It does have one problem and that is it never tells you to build a dock. If you had just an edge of water for both red and blue, they could do this. Other than that, it's simply perfect!

[@ikkkkkkke1]

I never bothered with hotkeys (except H and .) because i thought it would be more difficult. Really nice vid!

[@sebastienfriolet5773]

Started playing this game when I was 5 -6 ... I'm 21 and learning about all the background bonuses hills hotkeys 😂😂

[@NobodyAgeofEmpires2]

Thanks for making these guides! Although these guides are something that most content creators take for granted, most of the youtube base are probably unaware of these things or of where to get started. There are some guides that already cover a lot of this, but they are so interspersed or on small channels that they are inaccessible to most of us.

[@michaelwiesinger2643]

I can strongly recommend the following "trick": Set the TC at F (because F is the usual index-finger-position) + vil creation at F + idle vil at D + building menue at D and/or F + farms & houses at D and F those are the most often used actions & you cover them all with just 2 hotkeys!! (the "next TC" button is only in use as early as castle age, so I put that on G, making the trick go like only pressing G F G F G F to keep them busy) It helped me out like nothing else! Of course this trick is intended to help noobs, by me, the typical noob player. If you're a pro or just good with keys you can forget about it.

[@thewashh]

Second try was A+ :) As many said the hardest thing is to place the small buildings the correct place following a big building. One suggestion to improve the scenario would be to include walls, gates, palisade walls, towers, outposts and so on and make some building far more common than others. For instance u rarely do more than one university each game where as you will use houses, recource buildings and wall-hotkeys at least 10+ times each game on higher levels. I liked your old tutorials back in the day as well. Those got me from zero to hero in weeks. Btw if you wanna play some 1v1's I would be honored to challenge you. I'm about 2k on HD The_Night_Panda

[@matheodouillard8332]

this entire serie is very, very usefull, you are also speaking clearly so it's easy for "not english speakers" like me to understand, witch is great! thanks a lot ;)

[@ronaldh2979]

wow, that explanation really cleared things up around those hotkeys:D The trainer-mod really helps and maybe I'll be kicking that hard level AI without pausing the game:P

[@DorjeB0dh]

One suggestion I got from a video by rocket jump ninja was to use asdf keys as default for hotkeys as we use them for typing. So I think for team game players seems like a nice suggestion.

[@xSneakyOne]

This was super useful! Thanks for explaining it in an easy to understand way. Much appreciated!

[@IamAndrewT]

Great tips, I have been playing vs A.I to get used to the hot keys and trying to improve my eco dark & feudal ages. I was struggling to maintain a healthy population as I reached castle age but the hotkeys prompt me to keep creating villagers and army.... now I just need to work on remembering to build houses :P

[@QazwerDave]

Brilliant Scenario idea !!

[@miguelsuarez9058]

I personally use the original AoC hotkeys (voobly) because I already got used to them, but never realised how easy HD hotkeys are

[@Robert-vk7je]

I wasn't aware of the grid, so i made my own hotkeys. Like "F" for Farms and so on. For units i moved the grid to "QWER", because i come from Starcraft 2. It was a great experience to plan the hotkeys by myselfe and i made improvements over time for comfort. For example: I found "B+B" for "build palisade wall" way quicker, than "B+P".

[@syz88]

I have the same problem, I'm already used to press "E" for houses, "Z" for lumber camp and so on... should I really start to use HD hotkeys? :/

[@ReaperCH90]

stick to the hotkeys you know by heart, unless you feel like you are to slow with them or mix them up. i personally use the modified HD hotkeys (i have tc, ground attack and idle villagers on mouse buttons). If you think your hotkeys are a problem, it is better to switch them today and get used to new, better ones than wait until tomorrow.

[@Vahe345]

how do you change them back to the old ones?

[@Vahe345]

man i forget how to get the old ones back. Is there a file or something. I got windows 10 and its driving me crazy can't even get into my game folder.

[@xavierduarte1883]

Congratulations, great video. Clear instructions, practical information, well organized.

[@ConcussedGaming]

I find it really helpful to set my extra side buttons on my mouse for palisade walls and gates/ Stone wall and gates.

[@LebronJahumes]

I'm glad I got a better idle and tc button on the side of my mouse

[@jonathanvermeul2261]

I remember BF for Build Farm from back in the day.

[@henrihell]

Man that trainer is so fun I could just play that all day! :D Managed to get a C on medium after 3 tries! Seems like it's pretty random how fast the next builing comes up, so it feels more like a trainer on reaction, rather than hotkeys. Sometimes I lose track on what's happening because it takes so long, and sometimes the next building comes up so fast I don't even notice and am still waiting for the next one.

[@ZeroEmpires]

You're right about that, I'm actually unsure why where can be a slight delay between building spawns (there shouldn't be), but it's probably due to quirks in the game engine/ triggers

[@LouisLeGros]

I just reinstalled the remastered edition and my muscle memory from long ago made the grid hotkeys seem very foreign. Good thing I can't actually remember the original hotkeys, so I was able to adapt fairly quickly. I did notice an inconsistency though! The Huskarl's hotkey is the G key, even though it is where the 4th column would be. I would have expected it to be on F, maybe D.

[@gordonshumway2532]

great video! the hotkey simulator is also very nice. I highly recommend using the mod "display hotkeys" which can be found on the steam workshop.

[@imadecoy.]

I've been holding off on hotkeys for so long because I didn't want to learn bad ones. Now I realize I should have just learned them.

[@안썰]

Thank you!! I got E-D-D-D-B on Lv.1st. I will try it more!!

[@genghisdingus]

Having side mouse buttons is pretty good too

[@extremeobservr1]

You should run AoE coaching institution and take exams and give certificate of qualification🤓. BTW nice video, as always!

[@hwinter3347]

lol

[@untitled55354]

Would def put that on my resume

[@stijndepuydt5644]

"When you have a thing like this, an 'azerty' keybord" Well yes mate we do have that xD

[@alwayskindasleepy69]

i've just started playing myself a month ago and didnt know hotkeys except for tc and idle villager, but i used your scenario and i feel like i'm instantly playing at double speed, thank you so much, there are very little resources for new players and you're doing gods work :D

[@alwayskindasleepy69]

after like an hour i got a+ on hard and the game is starting to feel so smooth, i even have time to really focus on my scouting and stuff like that

[@Wilhelm369]

"Liked" for the azerty keyboard consideration :)

[@hendrikbolet7978]

ZeroEmpires you are simply the best!!!

[@epicab2092]

This is the best Aoe 2 channel

[@firesheep9667]

Thanks you for this new serie of videos, i'll try to convert some friends and coworkers to AOEII and that will help a little to convince them...

[@Andy_the_X]

Jah Light Wololo!

[@berserkerbobby9777]

This series is so great, thank you

[@thepsyrat4453]

finally the hotkey for the town center . thanks!

[@tallahassZ]

you're smashing it with these noob videos, Zack!

[@t.e.fcastle1069]

Hey guys, for those who didn't know, there are some mods in Steam that would change the textures of the icons and show their hotkey

[@guik0968]

that's 100% better and more fun, thanks Zeroempires I really need that, for people with AZERTY keyboard...forget about it and learn them with your hands, not with your eyes ( I did a lot of hotkey trainer ) I add some bonus shortcuts for a mega noob like me : TAB for TC Mouswheel up for idle villager Mousewheel down for idle army F1 to F10 for creating group Space for center vision ² for showing time Like that, it's a damn good game to play now.

[@vincedonpsn9590]

Thank you age of empires nerd, now I will be able to crush my friends, like my father did to me 20 years ago

[@temoujinkhan1661]

Ty Zero .

[@magoyama]

Your content is amazing! thank you for this video!

[@generalhyde007]

My hand naturally hangs around the WASD keys on my keyboard. So when I have to change to a new task, like idle villager, there is a lot of distance to travel to get to the exact key. Or I have to move my mouse hand and physically find the particular button.

[@Ryuichiro13]

I'm very happy with my mouse thumb button as idle villager button. I don't have to move my hands at all to reach it and in AoE2 it isn't needed for any unit abilities.

[@freespeech7747]

I’ve been playing pc gaming since my first dragon 32, how did I miss this game😢

[@Gus.JSegovia]

Muchas gracias por los videos Zack! Sos genial!

[@HazmanFTW]

I could never learn those HD hotkeys lol I'm stuck on the old AoC ones, but they work good for me.

[@Afzal_EightySix]

My eyes have been opened!!

[@donovanmckenzie5608]

This has been really helpful!

[@prajwalsood1350]

I use viper's hotkeys, (said in title) they are pretty awsome

[@0Tirano]

One of the biggest problems I found in the hotkeys was the dock, since I didn't like that I had to go to the other page to create the other naval war units, in addition to the conflict that was also generated with the single naval units like the turtle boat, the Viking ship or the caravels of the Portuguese, but I arranged everything to accommodate without changing the page. XD Another problem is to change the page for the military buildings, but there I already know how they are too demaciated and I could not do anything, but if I fixed them because of the discomfort of creating the miliatar building, creating the military unit and going to the building, and I I accommodated the best I could with one hand and it turned out, but I had a hard time getting used to it since I had become accustomed to HD hotkeys

[@TheZeagon]

My mouse extra buttons were auto bound to TC and idel vill lmao

[@zanoth13]

Is there a version of the Hotkey Trainer for DE?

[@drbingogh]

Are you going to do another series or perhaps a Hot Key Trainer Scenario for AOE II Def Ed?

[@feliyoosteam]

Hello! In the minute 6:46 you explain how to use your own custom hotkeys, but in my AEO2 I don't have this folder 'Profile', hence I can't use my player0.hki file.. its so frustrating! Could you help me out, please? Any alternatives

[@smarttoaster9552]

This Video is really good!

[@beethekay]

My Hotkey trainer does not work right, the villager needs the same amount of time as normal to build something, which leads to a bad outcome. Is there any way to fix this?

[@micahtritscher951]

I'm still laying original AOE2 conquerers one. Should I switch my hot keys to the HD ones or leave them as be and just learn them like they are?

[@asktheraccoon]

And to think I was about to unsub… You really shine doing this kind of video instead of just casting !

[@ThienNguyen-ef2kg]

learning shortcuts to extend my mouse lifespan.

[@Dadmagic]

For some reason my vils have always built with B as the hotkey, guess it makes more sense to change it to A

[@swankyj501]

I know the Conqueror’s hotkeys by heart already

[@blankets1453]

How do I get the hotkey trainer On DEFINITIFE EDİTİON?

[@marcuspontius3967]

I like that scenario, thanks and where do I pay for it :p Btw I don't think you added palisade walls to that scenario, which might be usefull to train for quick-walling.

[@nollie360]

Hey, but there is a strange bug, when I want to create a pallisade wall, I press S and then S and it will select blacksmith, the same happens with stone gate...

[@michaeljoynt2836]

they aparently changed a lot since steam definitive edition came out, you can hot key all building and tech upgrades with keys in the q-r, a-f, z-v grid, and its its H then Q now to create villagers in the TC. I want to know how to jump to achery ranges castles and so forth, how to select all archers then all mounted archers, then all foot soldiers and so on to be able to better micro manage the army, I obviously want to advance with my fastest mounted then pull the enemy back to my crossbowmen for a nice slaughter. but I cant do that as selecting a cluster of military then click a target they all move at the slowest selected units speed. Which if you have a ram in there everyone moves at a snales pace.

[@jamieee_taylor]

FL12 installed 🔥🔥🔥♥️

[@bradjohnson918]

the "hotkey trainer" on steam is broken. Villager constantly tries to run to spawn point and won't build. Is there a fix on this?

[@KinnetMontana]

thanks

[@boanergesjunior5404]

Hi. About the hotkey training, How to make the correct building quickly destroy like in this video? I`m having to finish the construction with the villager to build another

[@Freduanovic]

Heym thanx for the great video :) ..is there a version of the trainer for the definitive edition?

[@HolyKhaaaaan]

What do you make of Richie's "Displayed Hotkeys" mod? Looks very useful to me.

[@thiagosantanna5984]

Thx, nice video

[@kukumarro]

Hey dude. Is there a hotkey/mod/something to rotate gates without having to rely on the standard way of hovering around wall sections?

[@McMedicful]

So I have a problem. Basicly both barracks and house meant to be Q. But since I'm an azerty user I wanted to change them, but when i try to give them both the A hotkey it doesn't work. It automatically unbounds the doubled hotkey.. What can I do?

[@100toeface]

I don't understand how good players are using groups and hotkeys and moving their military. I have watched Viper and Resonance videos and tried to figure it out watching the mouse movements, but I still couldn't figure it out. Anyone know? BUILDING PRODUCTION: In another video it was mentioned that he was adding castles to group 2. Is that so he can quickly move the gather point for all of his castles? When he wants to create move military units, does he type control+b, then the hotkey for the unit he wants to produce, then control+b then unit hotkey, etc for each building? Or does he press control+b then click on each building with his mouse and press the hotkey for the unit he wants to produce? Or does he press 2 twice to jump to where his castles are (but then he cannot use hotkeys to que units, so he must then manually click on each castle then press the unit hotkey to build?) UNIT CONTROL: how do the pros make their armies move so orderly? My armies just run off in all different directions instantly unless I manually put them into stand ground (is there a way to set army stance to defensive as the default stance instead of aggressive?) Is he constantly spam clicking the attack move hotkey behind the units he wants to attack? I cant figure out how to actually control my units the way the good players do. I'm looking for as detailed help about specifics as possible, anyone know?

[@Icenaryhr]

Wew this is amazing

[@alikaostermiller]

great video

[@Kees-j5z]

Does anyone know why my worker is building so slow? Looks like building should happen instantly

[@nishkamsharma8820]

Good Video : )

[@Gab1Bv]

Shift+Click orders don't work for me. Any one know why? I see streamers do it but for my game it doens't work. Also a lot of the times when I order a unit, it like stops and then goes. Like there's lag as soon as I give the command.

[@warriormouse3005]

@Alptraum If you guys haven't got the answer yet, you have to queue the movement orders with the shift-click, and then normal click to set it going.

[@atreyukicks]

What's the hot key you keep using to jump to your scout? I have a hard time scouting the map because I keep having to find him and half the time he's idle...

[@catnip8763]

Hover your scout and hold down CTRL-1, This will put your scout in a control group so you just have to double tap number 1 to jump to the scout. You can have multiple control groups even up to 10 but nobody uses that many. Just get used to jumping between your scout and the town center. You can even add buildings to a control group, for example if you double click your barracks (let's assume you have more than one for better army production) and add them to let's say control group 3 (by using CTRL-3). This means that you don't have to jump inbetween every individual building when making units, giving you more time to focus on other things. Sorry if this was a bit long and confusing for a newer player :p Anyway start off with the first one and add the other one to your arsenal later.

[@MrHeorhe]

@@catnip8763 so it's completely awful but Ctrl-Shft- B(barracks) selects all barracks. This makes it so you dont need control groups for production buildings and if you only want barracks in a small area you can double click it to select all on screen

[@Zuerox]

What is the hot key for traveling to the scout Calvary in the beginning

[@Jate0000]

You press Ctrl + 1 That way you number your armies (you can choose to number any amount of units), and every time you press 1 you go to it. Of course you can choose to number from 1 to 9 (never tried 0).

[@Zuerox]

Thanks

[@MNhvacPRO]

I use the scroll wheel down for idle vill.. and up for military

[@kooroshrostami27]

My hotkeys do not change after I replace the hki files. please help. I replaced player0 as you instructed but in game i still have the old hotkeys

[@twoshedsjackson6478]

I hope you're still monitoring comments. I have installed the Hotkey Trainer on AoE II DE but cannot work out how to run it? Can you give me a clue?

[@WereAlreadyHere]

so do pro players not used w-a-s-d as the arrow keys to move the screen around...?

[@kevikuk]

How do I put the number 1 under the scout and jump to it at anytime? Or how to I put that under 1,2,3 under any units?

[@zanabria_spm]

I've got a question, what's the name of the font you used for "Qwerty is the most common" on the 5:53. Thanks beforehand!

[@eyadghatfan7287]

#Respect to you Sir