This post is merely a compilation of information about common setups for the AoE II hotkeys. It should be considered supplementary information as it is always your call how to setup your hotkeys. It is meant for all players who aim to get better. First, few general notes:

  • Setup hotkeys so that you like them, if you don’t like them you will not use them and don’t get better.
  • all professionals say that their setup is by no means the best as they are already used to it and know about few things they would change – so don’t look for a perfect general setup
  • good hotkeys will not make you higher level player (only practice will do that); bad hotkeys will make it harder for you to advance to higher levels

We shall use shortcuts DE, TC.

Rising through the ELO

Few rules to always follow

  • build villagers all game long
  • build a house when you are 2 below population limit (or just build in advance)
  • lure the boars (whenever)

Part 1 (up to 800 ELO)

  • pick one or two civs and master them
  • master dark age - Starting buildorder (see above)
    • eco building placement
    • basic scouting
    • lure boars
  • upgrades for economy and units
  • basic game plan (e.g. make paladin as Franks)
  • add very basic hotkeys (house, farms)
  • have rough idea about unit counters

Part 2 (800-1000 ELO)

  • start using control groups
  • use select all TCs hotkey
  • use shift key to queue up work
  • have build-order in mind (e.g. 21 archers)
  • scouting opponent’s base safely (keep far from TC, keep scrout near resources and hills and far from stragler trees)
  • wall your base
  • use attack move / patrol
  • spend your resources (from end of the buildorder)
  • one TC on the gold, one TC on a woodline
  • make a house villager which will make houses after building third TC

Common

Some notions can be considered folklore. You should know these before focusing on hotkeys.

  • control groups – combination of keystrokes which can save/load groups of units; some professionals use these to bind production buildings (TCs, barracks/archery/stables, etc.), however this can be substituted with select all hotkeys which were introduced with DE.
    • Create: Ctrl + <num>
    • Select: <num>
    • Add units and select: Shift + <num>
  • queing 5 units at once can be done with Shift + <produce> – tries to equalize the load
  • selecting
    • normal selection selects military units
    • selecting with Alt selects non-military units
  • queue work to villagers using Shift
  • changing the selected group / ungarissoning units
    • Shift + Click selects only one type
    • Ctrl + Shift + Click removes one type from the group

Hotkeys

In short, it seems that players generaly use the following layouts.

  • low level - none / grid
  • mid level - grid / legacy
  • high level - legacy / custom
  • pro level - custom

You may edit the hotkeys using online editor ↗, or directly in-game.

Priority

Generally, we aim to have frequent hotkeys on ’easy to use’ keys, and move rarely used hotkeys out of the way. Shortcuts roughly sorted by the frequency of use:

  • Basic
    • select all TCs / goto TC
    • idle villager (very often remapped to either Tab or ~ (key above tab))
    • attack move / patrol
    • goto selected unit
    • make units from production buildings
  • Intermediate
    • goto last notification
    • go back to work
    • agressive / stand ground stances
    • select all barracks / archery / stables
    • select all siege
    • goto mill / mining camp / lumber camp
  • Micro
    • attack ground
    • line / split formations
    • rotate gate placement
  • Other
    • Ping - for team games (Alt + F by default)

Layouts

Grid layout

This layout is the default layout in DE. We describe it in few sentences and consider its advantages and disadvantages.

Keys on the left side of the keyboard represent the grid in the menus. More complex commands can be invoked by using Ctrl / Shift / Alt key combinations.

  • pros
    • very intuitive, easy to learn
  • cons
    • some of the main shortcuts are placed far from the default hand position and are not easy to use
    • even after a slight remapping (which is recommended) the keys to select production buildings will be quite hard to access

Legacy layout

AoE II has a big history with many editions and originally, the layout was quite counter-intuitive. As it was the default, many players used it and got used to it.

Custom layout

It is quite hard to adapt to entirely new layout, and around ~100 games are needed to get back to 99%.

Overlap

Meaning that you have the same key bound to more than one shorcut. AoE II allows you to do this and doesn’t give a warning, so plan the keys carfully. By tapping key which has more bindings only one action will take place. Sometimes the second action cannot be invoked at all, if the first action is available. (E.g., having select all barracks and build an archer in archery on one key disables you to build an archer using hotkeys if you have built at least one barracks.)

Planning sources

Sources

Videos with bullet points of mentioined notions, sorted from the newest.

15.11.2020: Spirit Of The Law – 10 Tricks I use to play faster [AoE2]

  • set select all TCs hotkey to extra mouse button, build many villagers with Shift + C
  • move idle villager from dot to Tab (or something close)
  • move frequent actions to simple bindings
  • use goto last notification command
  • use Alt to select only villagers or sheep when military units are close; use on first sheeps and to garrison villagers when raided; using G to garrison so a move-misclick doesn’t happen
  • use all stables/barracks/ranges/etc.
  • use Shift to queue up work
  • know how to modify control groups – add, select, remove, etc.
  • farm placement is not important late-game
  • use market instead of waiting for resources
  • make more military buildings and reserach conscription in castle in the late game

1.8.2020: Hera – My Hotkeys & Advice

  • don’t just copy his hotkeys, but you may utilize some of the ideas
  • ungarrison and stop can overlap
  • good idea to use select all; use select all TCs
  • clear hotkeys which you may mislick, but don’t use
  • don’t design hotkeys so you would have to take your hand off the mouse
  • use goto mill, mining camp, and lumber camp hotkeys
  • you can hotkey techs, beware of misclicking
  • use goto idle villager, TC – one of the most important
  • don’t use the scroll commands
  • he uses agressive and stand ground stances
  • uses line and split; box for small groups (advanced players)
  • use attack-move or patrol when moving units
  • remove town bell hotkey
  • important go back to work hotkey
  • order the hotkeys by improtance; order E, R, T, C, V, G, W
  • can conflict: battle elephant, camel rider, tarkan
  • uses S, A for very important techs
  • remap gate rotation to simple Wheel Up and Wheel Down

24.3.2020: Happy To Game – Beginner Hotkey and Control Group Set Up - Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Beginner Guide

  • grid layout hotkeys
  • use control groups (fast 1, slower 2, siege 3)
  • all town centers on control group 4
  • upgrade buildings on control group 5; using as a menu to choose upgrades
  • remap idle villager to ~ key
  • Ctrl + Shift + Space to select all military including monastery to assign target location
  • use select all instead of goto
  • change hotkeys to be closer to default left-hand position (e.g. Y instead of K)
  • clear hotkey when hotkey is not used

13.3.2020: Nili_AoE – How to set up your Hotkeys in AoE2?!

  • you have to like your hotkeys; use easy to access keys; prioritize often-used hotkeys; you will need many games to get used to the hotkeys (or major changes in hotkeys)
  • make all TCs, idle vilagers on easily accessible keys
  • have no overlapping commands
  • use some keys to select a group of buildings – tc, all TCs, archery, barracks, stable, dock, castle, siege; some Ctrl + <key> to select not-often used buildings
  • remaining keys are used in context menus – building with villager, control units, building with production buildings, formations, stances
  • can overlap (no civ has both)
    • eagle warriors - huskarls
    • hand canoneer - slinger
  • producing unit should be using different fingers as a one-movement thing
  • remap keys you confuse often to mitigate the confusion

10.4.2018: ZeroEmpires – Intro To Hotkeys - AoE2 New Player Guide

  • learn to use HD edition default hotkeys with few alterations
  • targeted towards beginners
  • grid layout hotkeys
  • hotkey trainer scenario on steam workshop – train villager hotkeys
  • get used to deafaults, make small changes when something botheres you
  • use online editor ↗ to edit hotkeys comfortably

2.4.2017: Spirit Of The Law – Shortcuts to Select and Deselect Units in AoE2

  • in-depth view on how selection works for older version of the game
  • select one type on a screen – Double Click
  • select one type in a group – Shift + Click
  • remove one type from a group – Ctrl + Shift + Click
  • ungarisson a type – Shift + Click
  • ungarisson all but one type – Ctrl + Shift + Click
  • use at your own pace, you’ll find when you need it

2.3.2015: T90Official – AOE2: Hotkey Tips!

  • use hotkeys (buildings, production, formations, stances)
  • use control groups with <num>, space as goto
  • use attack ground hotkey
  • where to edit hotkeys