See also: Keyboard Shortcuts
Main Menu[]
The Main Menu is your central access point to games and options. It is displayed whenever starting Anno 2070 (or in offline-mode, after logging in) or pressing Escape during a game. The songs played in the Main Menu are God Smiles and Earth Sleeps.
The current time and date is displayed in the lower-right corner of the screen. The upper-right corner displays links to current System messages and Patch notes. The Game Credits can also be viewed from here by clicking the Command HQ text right beside the top-left corner Options icon. During the Game Credits, God Smiles is played.
In the top-left corner you can find:
- Data Log - this is the in-game help Database (a reset of revealed entries is possible in the Options -> Interface screen)
- World Statistics - displays information regarding consumption, energy generation and more about the whole Anno 2070 World
- Game Options - The options screen is divided in two tabs on the top of the window. The first tab, 'Options' lists every customizable game option sorted in General, Graphics, Sound and Interface tabs. The second tab, 'Key assignment' allows for customizing available keyboard shortcuts (if this doesn't work, you are likely using the cracked version of Anno 2070).
In the bottom-left corner you can find:
- Mission Map - containing your Campaign progress, available Single Missions (also contains DLC missions), Continuous Game starting point, missions that are part of the current Global Event, Conquest Mode options and the option to join a Multiplayer game
- Load Game - this option is available only after saving at least one game, prior to that it is replaced by the Quickstart Campaign button
- World Events (online only) - displays the current Global Event and corresponding global progress and missions
- Current Events (online only) - displays the Daily Quest screen, allowing you to choose which Faction you want to complete the current daily quest for
- Senate Vote and Council Vote options (online only) - Your options to vote for your preferred Factions, see the Voting page for more information
Below these you will find your Contacts and Chat buttons. Finally in the lower-right corner you will find the Downloadable Content screen which displays multiple options for your avatar, player colour and title preferences, Ark customization, unlocked content and more. The Video Briefing button gives you access to the game intro video and the 'Exit Anno 2070' button allows for quitting the game without the use of a keyboard. The game may also be close with the standard Alt-F4 combination (Windows platform only) (Some computers may require you to also push the "Fn" button).
News Ticker[]
To the far left middle of your game screen is the News Ticker which tells you about past actions (above the midway) and pending items (below it). Unlike Anno 1404 the News Ticker expands automatically to show up to 6 past items and the same number of pending items, so there is no need or possibility to manually adjust the size of the News Ticker. It is possible however to filter what type of news are displayed as events by clicking the News Ticker button itself and unticking items you do not want to be shown in the future. By default, every type of event is displayed on the News Ticker.
Note: For Quests, mouseover the quest icon to highlight the objectives on the Mini-map
Resource Bar[]
The Resource Bar
is displayed to the right of your basic Island information. The first half shows your Island-wide Power, Ecobalance and Fertilities.
The second half shows up to 7 default-type of Goods stored on an island. By default this displays Goods which are present on the island, but this part of the Resource Bar is customizable, just drag & drop any type of Goods from any warehouse to the Resource Bar to monitor it whenever your camera is over or in the vicinity of your island. You may customize the display of up to 7 different Goods for each different island, this allows you to view at a glance the main Goods of interest produced or stored on an island.
Action Bar[]
The Action Bar allows for up to 18 shortcuts to be stored on it for quick and easy access. By default, only one bar is turned on but both bars may be used by setting "2 Action Bars" in the Options - > Interface screen. This works the same way as the Resource Bar, by drag & dropping any linkable items onto it, including buildings, game speed toggles, other icons, NPC Arks and more. Click and hold any icon on the Information Panel (see below) of any building, icon, Vehicle, any icon from the Command Console etc. and move it to the Action Bar to create a shortcut.
See the image to the right for an example. This Action Bar lists shortcuts for the following items, from top left to bottom right:
- an Eco City Center
- the Build Menu
- Demolish Mode
- the Diplomacy screen
- the Strategic Map
- Four links to different NPC Arks
- a T38 Ocean Glider, a Container Ship and a Commando Ship with their groups of 1, 2 and 3
- a Wind Park
- an Academy
- an island Warehouse
- player's Ark
- Slow-time and Speed-up time buttons
Remember, this is only an example of two fully filled Action Bars. You may use as many or as few shortcuts as you wish!
Context Menu[]
The Right Click menu (also known as the Context Menu for some Anno 1404 players) is also a handy option which provides quick access to up to 9 different shortcuts of your choice and is customizable in the same way as the Action Bar, by default it is turned off but it can also be turned on in the Options -> Interface screen.
The Right Click menu acts in the same way as the Action Bar, and is by default equipped with links to Demolish Mode, the Build Menu and the Pipette Tool (see Command Console below) on the first row, your default Residence-house type, Roads and Depot on the top row, with the bottom row being empty. All of these can be fully customized to suit your preference, or turned off altogether on the Options screen if you don't want to use it.
Information Panels[]
Information Panels are the specific panels which are displayed when selecting any vehicle, building, Ark etc. The top-most left corner of any Panel is equipped with an Icon for the corresponding object etc, which may be double-clicked to center the camera on the object, or click & dragged to the Action Bar for easy access. See some examples to the right for some common Information Panels.
Every object selected will have a different information panel containing specific information to that object. The bottom row however always displays any relevant numerical information. Buildings display their upkeep, power, ecobalance and hitpoint information, vehicles display their upkeep, offensive powers and hitpoints, warehouses display stored Goods, City Centers display population information on multiple tabs, and so on.
The Information Panel of Production buildings has the button for pausing production, as explained on the Production page.
Strategic Map[]
The Strategic Map
is a very useful tool for managing your islands and logistics and provides an overview to details you specify. In the top-left corner you will see icons to Filter display, from the left to right:
- Toggle display of islands, underwater plateaus or both
- Toggle icons of military structures such as Missile Launch Pads, Shield Generators or Harbor Defense Turrets
- Toggle display of Ships
- Toggle display of ownership of each island denoted by player colour
- Toggle Ecobalance display, indicated by different shades of light or dark green
- Toggle display of NPC Arks and the goods they buy or sell (see Trade for more information)
- Toggle Resource display of every type of Fertility on or off, this indicates fertilites by highlighting islands in bright green for a selected fertility. By default the Fertility filter is turned off.
- Toggle Energy Transfer display, showing every island's active Energy Transmitter and it's recieved or sent amount of Power
- Toggle the Island Shares of every settled island on the map
Note: In each filtered display mode, move your mouse over islands and map objects for more details
The right side of the map shows your active trading routes, the goods to be on- or offloaded at each trading route station, and the ships assigned to the currently selected trading route. You may also rename your routes here, by clicking on the name bar of a trading route. A maximum of 6 different type of Goods may be selected for transport on a single trading route. The type of trading route may be set by clicking the route icon to the left of the route's name. Available options are: Persistant Route, Intelligent Route, and Single Route.
Command Console[]
Game commands and the Command Console is always shown in-game on the bottom-right corner of the screen. Remember, every icon may be dragged and dropped onto the Action Bar.
- The first button opens the Build Menu (Default: B). The Build Menu is divided into up to 3 tabs (when all three Factions are accessible) and up to 6 Population-specific tabs which include: Infrastructure Buildings, up to 4 tabs for buildings unlocked by reaching each of the 4 population-groups, and an Ornamental Buildings tab. Whenever new buildings are unlocked in any of the 6 building types, the Build Menu icon as well as the icon of the newly-unlocked level of buildings will be highlighted for your attention and flash until it is opened for the first time.
- The second button selects Demolish Mode (Default: V). Demolishing objects can be done by clicking objects individually or - just like when placing buildings - clicking and dragging the Demolish tool will erase objects on a context sensitive basis, which means that whenever you click on the map to demolish something and drag to select an area, Demolish will only delete the type of object which you clicked on but nothing else in between. Using this smart behaviour, you can remove any object you want selectively, such as demolishing only roads from between buildings, only a certain type of houses from an entire settlement, or only the individual farms of select production plants. Note: dragging the Demolish tool over an empty area will only demolish trees (this is a useful function for clearing an area over a settlement for better view of roads)
- The third button opens the Diplomacy screen (Default: F7)
- The fourth button opens the Strategic Map (Default: F6)
- The fifth button opens the Command console, and the last button opens the Main Menu (same as Escape)
The Command Console contains powerful tools to enhance your gameplay, from right to left: the Options screen (Default: F10), Mission Rankings (Default: F8) which displays scores for every human player for the current map, the Vehicle Fleet and Buildings screen (Default: F12) which lists an overview of said items, and most important of all:
The Functions Database[]
Here you will find several functions not available elsewhere, divided into three categories: Object functions, System functions and Camera functions.
The Pipette Tool (Default: N) allows for selecting any object such as roads or buildings to copy and build on-the-fly, without having to navigate to their section of the Build Menu. The Destroy tool (Default: Delete) acts the same way as Demolish mode, however it allows the destruction of any object selected as opposed to first selecting Demolish mode and then clicking on an unwanted object. The Idle Vehicles button (Default: Insert) (also found below the minimap) lets you navigate between your vehicles in a number of ways. System Functions contain shortcuts to toggle game speeds to fast, slow, or paused, save or load your game, and take Screenshots (Default: Printscreen). Finally, the Camera Functions tab lets you control camera angles, height, switch to underwater view or enter Postcard Mode (Default: F1) and take splendid screenshots of your game. When a vehicle or buliding is selected and on screen when you enter Postcard view, the camera will automatically center on and follow them until cancelled.