Rogue Command Tips and Tricks
Each entry below is one mechanic, what it costs you, and the patch it was last checked against. Filter by category or difficulty to narrow the list, and use the anchor beside any heading to link straight to a single tip.
Engineers
#The Combat Engineer is the slowest one, not the most mobile
It also generates 2 crystals per second against the base Engineer's 4. What you actually buy is durability at 240 health with 3 armor and an out-of-combat self-heal, plus Combat Delivery, which spawns factory units at the Engineer and so drags your defenders forward with it.
Checked against 1.0.9
Objectives
#You cannot touch the objective while anything defends it
The Planetary Core Extractor takes no damage at all while any enemy unit or turret sits in range of it, and enemy bases block you from building near them. The EMP Wave hack that strips shields is a tier II unlock and is only offered to you after level 6.
Checked against 1.0.9
Shields
#One shield point cancels one attack, however large it was
Shields absorb whole hits and not damage, so an attack for 5 and an attack for 50 cost exactly the same to block. That blanks artillery, bombs, and slow-firing heavy weapons outright, and it is why stacking damage into a shielded target achieves nothing.
Checked against 1.0.9
Specialists
#Castle buffs your buildings and cannot move to follow a push
Its passive gives every building 20 percent more attack and skill damage plus 20 percent more health, and its skill drops six missiles anywhere on the map at global range. Being immobile means it anchors a position and cannot join an advance.
Checked against 1.0.9
Harvesters
#The Hover Harvester gains 50 percent rate with no Refinery in sight
That bonus deliberately pushes it out to distant fields, and it is the fastest moving unit in the entire game to get there. The trip is genuinely dangerous, since it carries no weapon and 40 health, and its base rate of 1.5 per second is poor without the bonus.
Checked against 1.0.9
Ascension
#Ascension modifiers stack and never replace each other
Ascension 1 spawns factories with units and raises PCX health, 2 adds starting factories and cuts enemy production times, enemy buildings toughen at 4 and 7, the PCX Scythe arrives at 11, and 15 lets Elite and Boss units cleanse negative status before the PCX Conquerer.
Checked against 1.0.9
Engineers
#The Reach Engineer is the only one exempt from Refinery build range
It can place structures anywhere it can see inside 30 cells, which is a completely different game from the other two. That freedom costs everything else: 20 health behind a 5-point shield, and only 2 crystals per second of income.
Checked against 1.0.9
Terrain
#Only surface obstacles are destructible, never the terrain
Trees and rocks come down and block both movement and shots until they do. Cliffs and elevation are permanent, and ground units cross between levels only via ramps. The enemy AI has been able to clear obstacles too since March 2025, so a treeline is not a wall.
Checked against 1.0.9
Crystal
#A crystal patch runs dry and then disappears permanently
Each holds a fixed amount somewhere between 150 and 10,000, and once drained the field is gone for the rest of the level. That is what eventually pushes you off your starting position, though some experienced players argue a well-run starting base carries a whole run.
Checked against 1.0.9
Engineers
#The Engineer you start with is the best economy pick of the three
It generates 4 crystals per second, the highest of any Engineer, deals 5x damage to obstacles for clearing build space, and moves fastest. Trading it away for a specialist costs you half your Engineer income before anything else in the run has happened.
Checked against 1.0.9
Harvesters
#The Armored Collector doubles its rate on a nearby kill
That lasts 20 seconds and it comes with 140 health, 3 armor, and an autocannon of its own. It is also the slowest-moving harvester with the most expensive ramp, so it pays on contested ground and wastes itself on quiet distant expansion.
Checked against 1.0.9
Drafting
#Rerolls are per-run charges capped at five, and they never bank
They come from the Reroll node in the Battle Archive and vanish when the run ends, with no way to earn more once they are gone. Spend them on the pieces your plan actually needs, not on saving them for a later level that will never see them.
Checked against 1.0.9
#The Battle Archive does not dilute your pool, profile levels do
The Archive adds blueprint choices, rerolls, and reward nodes, so investing in it improves your draft instead of watering it down. Dilution comes from profile XP levels adding cards. The developers answered that in June 2025 with themed pools, so draft the theme.
Checked against 1.0.9
Loadouts
#A loadout is one Engineer, one Harvester, and one Specialist
You mix them freely from whatever you have unlocked, and only the Specialist brings an exclusive hack with it. There are 15 in total across the three slots: 3 Engineers, 4 Harvesters, and 8 Specialists.
Checked against 1.0.9
Meta
#Profile level 50 unlocks everything, and levels keep paying anyway
Past 50 you receive only Archive Tokens, which used to be the end of the road entirely. The December 2025 update raised the cap to 500,000, so token income never stops even once there is nothing left in the pool to unlock.
Checked against 1.0.9
#A losing run still pays, because experience is per mission cleared
Starters open at fixed levels: Robo Recycler at 2, Hover Harvester at 5, Robo Rush Beacon at 6, Combat Engineer at 8, Armored Crystal Collector at 10, Swarm Walker at 12, Core Harvester at 15, Reach Engineer at 16, and Mantis Mech at 18.
Checked against 1.0.9
Runs
#Every level starts fresh, but not from nothing
A run is nine levels and there is no persistent base carrying between them. What does persist is your deck of blueprints, your hacks, and your upgrades, plus a starting crystal balance that begins at 3,000 and rises by 100 for every level you have cleared.
Checked against 1.0.9
Battle Archive
#Clicking a far Battle Archive node buys the whole path to it
You do not have to walk the tree by hand. Left-click assigns, right-click removes, and shift does the entire stack either way. Tokens come from profile levels at 5 each, first-time Ascension clears at 10 each, and new Heat levels at 5 each.
Checked against 1.0.9
Objectives
#The game draws a yellow line to whatever is holding the shield up
Follow it to each enemy keeping the objective invincible and clear those, instead of hunting blind. Since patch 1.0.9 the shield waits 10 seconds before returning, so one straggler wandering in no longer instantly undoes the work, and your units ignore invincible targets on their own.
Checked against 1.0.9
Maps
#The biome count you have read comes from a 2022 press release
The widely quoted 16 traces to a January 2022 announcement, years before release. The developers described 20 map types in early 2025, the store page now gives no count at all, and at least eleven biomes are documented by name. No current figure exists.
Checked against 1.0.9
What to Read Next
- Combat and Units. All 15 units, the three Engineers, and what each Specialist brings.
- Advanced Strategies and Meta. Shields, the objective, rerolls, and drafting themes.
- Buildings and Economy. Harvesters, refineries, and running a crystal field dry.
- Meta-Progression. The Battle Archive, profile levels, and every Ascension modifier.
- Map Generation and Biomes. What the terrain does and does not let you change.
- Getting Started. The nine-level run structure and your first victory.
- Achievements. The full list, and why the percentages keep moving.