Wiki
Welcome to the Steel Tide wiki. Every unit, building and system in the game, with the numbers taken straight from the game itself. Start with a guide below, or look up whatever just killed you.
Guides
How the systems fit together: economy, counters, terrain, controls and servers.
Getting started
Your first ten minutes in Steel Tide: what to build, in what order, and why.
Economy and power
Metal, power, selling and refunds: the numbers that decide how fast your base runs.
The counter web
Armor classes, damage multipliers, and which unit answers which threat.
Tech tree and abilities
The War Lab, the three doctrines, Logistics, and the one-click abilities they unlock.
Maps
The curated maps: what each one is, how many seats it has and which modes it is played in.
Map editor and community maps
Create, import and resize maps in the Editor, test them, play them in Conquest, Breakthrough or multiplayer, and submit them to the community.
Terrain
What blocks, what slows and what speeds up ground vehicles; where ships and buildings can go; what a cliff does for the ground above it.
Weather and time
Rain, snow and the turning day: what each one takes off your sight and your speed, and how to fight in it.
Controls
Every key, click, touch gesture and controller button, on desktop and on a phone.
Console and chat commands
Open the shared desktop chat and console, run slash commands, manage a match, and understand who can use each command and how it affects rewards.
Making mods
New units, buildings and upgrade levels in one JSON file: the format, how to test a mod in the game, and how to publish it to the registry.
Conquest, Breakthrough and the Bots
The two open modes, match options, the random map generator, and the four AI difficulties.
Multiplayer server
Join a public server from the Browse page, install a dedicated server of your own in one command, add TLS, run a public room, and understand what it does.
Troubleshoot
Help when the game will not start.
Land units
Built at the War Factory. Ground vehicles need drivable terrain and a landing craft or transport helicopter to cross water; the Gator swims it.
Engineer
Constructs and repairs buildings. The backbone of any base.
Recon Buggy
Fast scout with a light machine gun. Great eyes, thin skin.
Wolf Light Tank
Cheap autocannon tank. Shreds light vehicles.
Bison Battle Tank
Reliable main battle tank. The core of any armored push.
Mammoth Heavy Tank
Twin cannons, massive armor. Slow, but it arrives like a verdict.
Viper Tank Destroyer
Long-range guided anti-tank missiles. Melts heavy armor, hates being rushed.
Flak Track
Mobile flak cannon. Its guns look to the sky first and the ground after.
Hawk SAM Launcher
Long-range surface-to-air missiles. Owns the sky above your army.
Thunder Howitzer
Long-range artillery. Cracks turtled defenses from beyond retaliation.
Tempest MLRS
Eight-rocket saturation barrage. Erases fortified positions and clumped armies.
Owl Radar Car
A radar on wheels: sees far by radio, through night and rain, and finds what hides. Unarmed, thin and slow.
Salamander Thermobaric Mortar
Lobs thermobaric shells: a wide blast that point defence cannot stop, and that burns your own units too.
Bulwark Mobile Interrupter
Point defence on tracks: shoots down rockets and guided missiles over the column it rides with. No gun of its own.
Drake Flame Tank
Pours fire in bursts, and the ground it washes over keeps burning under friend and foe alike. Paper-thin and short-armed: it is meant to be spent.
Gator Amphibious Combat Vehicle
An armoured car that swims, and lands itself.
Hercules Recovery Vehicle
An armoured recovery tank that mends the vehicles and ships around it. No gun.
Scorpion Ballistic Missile Launcher
Heavy ballistic missiles, thrown far beyond its own sight.
Nuclear Bomb
The Wraith's free-fall nuclear bomb: it lies where it lands for a while before it goes off.
Naval units
Built at a Naval Yard placed on the shoreline. Ships need water; submarines are invisible without sonar. The yard also builds the Gator, which swims and then drives.
Gunboat
Fast patrol boat with an autocannon that also fires at aircraft. Cheap naval eyes.
Missile Boat
Anti-ship missiles on a small hull. Punches far above its weight.
Aegis Frigate
Fleet escort with anti-aircraft missiles, sonar, anti-submarine torpedoes and a light deck gun.
Orca Destroyer
Dual-purpose naval gun, sonar and anti-submarine torpedoes: the submarine hunter.
Barracuda Submarine
Submerged torpedo ambusher, invisible except to sonar.
Sovereign Battleship
Triple heavy guns bombard land and sea from extreme range; secondaries keep helicopters off.
Aircraft Carrier
A floating flight deck that rearms embarked aircraft, with a light naval gun and short-range anti-aircraft missiles.
Landing Craft
An air-cushion landing craft with a broad open vehicle deck.
Engineer Boat
Builds and repairs from the water, anything within reach of the shore. No gun.
Kraken Cruise-Missile Submarine
Fires cruise missiles at the land from under the water, far beyond its own sight. Nothing for ships. It can arm a nuclear warhead of its own.
Moray Infiltration Submarine
A submerged transport: unarmed, and hidden under the water.
Aircraft
Built at the Airbase. Aircraft ignore terrain and can only be hit by dedicated anti-air weapons.
Hornet Suicide Drone
A quadcopter with an anti-tank charge under it: sent at a target, it flies there and explodes.
Scout Drone
Unarmed, expendable, sees everything.
Falcon Fighter
Air-superiority fighter. Only targets aircraft, and deletes them.
Cobra Attack Helicopter
Hovering anti-tank missile platform. Terror of slow armor.
Thunderbolt Strike Jet
Rocket strafing runs against vehicles and light targets.
Albatross Naval Striker
Sea-skimming anti-ship missiles. Warships fear the horizon.
Vulture Bomber
Carpet bombs that level buildings and dug-in positions.
Pelican Transport Helicopter
Airlifts a light load anywhere.
Condor Cargo Plane
Four-engine jet transport with a broad cargo fuselage and high tail.
Spectre Gunship
Circling heavy gunship raining sustained cannon fire.
Wraith Stealth Bomber
Two heavy bombs on a hull no radar sees until it is nearly overhead. It can carry a nuclear bomb.
Cormorant ASW Helicopter
Dipping sonar and homing torpedoes: the aircraft that hunts submarines.
Nuclear Warhead
A warhead in flight: no gun, no orders, a straight line to the point it was sent to.
EMP Warhead
A missile with an electromagnetic pulse in place of the warhead: the vehicles, ships and buildings where it comes down go dead for a while. Aircraft are above it.
Economy
Metal in, power out. The buildings that decide how fast everything else happens.
Headquarters
Command center. Produces engineers and supports production lines: factories, airbases or naval yards, in any mix.
Metal Extractor
Mines metal from a deposit. Your economy lives here.
Advanced Extractor
Twin drills double the yield of the same deposit.
Deep-Core Extractor
A deep-core bore yields far more metal from the same deposit.
Power Plant
Generates power. Low power slows production and defenses.
Advanced Power Plant
Two and a half times the output from the same footprint.
Singularity Power Plant
A contained core triples the Advanced Plant's output.
Production
Factories for land, sea and air. Each upgrades once to unlock its Tier-2 roster; Tier 3 also needs a Radar Station.
War Factory
Produces engineers and ground vehicles.
Advanced War Factory
Unlocks advanced ground vehicles.
Arsenal
The Level-3 war factory: adds the Tempest, the Salamander and the Bulwark.
Airbase
Produces aircraft.
Advanced Airbase
Unlocks advanced aircraft.
Strategic Airbase
The Level-3 airbase: adds the Wraith and the Cormorant.
Naval Yard
Builds warships from the shoreline.
Advanced Naval Yard
Unlocks advanced warships.
Deepwater Yard
Deepwater quays for battleships, aircraft carriers and specialist submarines.
Defenses
Static defenses. Each turret line upgrades once; all of them slow down when power runs short.
MG Turret
Rapid-fire defense against light vehicles and aircraft.
Gatling Turret
A wall of lead. Triple the firepower.
Cannon Turret
Anti-armor cannon emplacement.
Bastion Cannon
Heavy twin cannons with extended range.
AA Turret
Flak battery. Air-only.
SAM Site
Long-range missiles that own the local airspace, and that will fire on a nuclear warhead.
Missile Interrupter
Point defence: shoots down incoming rockets and guided missiles. Nothing for shells, warheads or the ground.
Strategic Interrupter
Point defence with a longer reach, a deeper magazine and thicker walls.
Land Mine
A concealed pressure mine with a fragmentation charge against light vehicles.
Water Mine
A concealed floating contact mine with a blast charge against passing hulls.
Support
Repair and vision: the buildings that keep an army in the field.
Headquarters Lv.2
Fortified theater command center with a satellite communications tower.
Offshore Rig
Mines metal from a deposit at sea, on its own legs in the water.
Advanced Offshore Rig
Twin derricks double the yield of the same field at sea.
Deepwater Rig
A deepwater drilling complex yields far more metal from the same field at sea.
Sandbags
A tile of wall, cheap and quick. Tiles laid side by side join into one line.
Repair Tower
Mends damaged allies in range, worst hit first. Repairs cost metal.
Radar Station
Lifts the fog far around it, through night and rain, and unlocks the top tier of weapons.
War Lab
Researches the tech tree: the doctrine you fight by, the units and abilities it unlocks, and economy upgrades.
Veil EW Station
An antenna array above an armored control bunker, filling the air with electronic interference.
Nuclear Reactor
Breeds the cores that arm a warhead. Feeds the grid as well.
Nuclear Silo
Fabricates and stores nuclear warheads, and launches one only where you point it.