So, you want to know about Age of Empires 4 hotkeys and shortcuts? For better and for worse, RTS games often require a high ‘APM’ – actions per minute – especially when playing competitive multiplayer matches. As quick and accurate as a mouse can be, it’s still a lot easier to combine with a selection of keyboard shortcuts so you can do basic actions quickly.
These can range from selecting unit groups quickly, to cycling through buildings, and even queuing up build orders without having to click the button manually. These shortcuts can also be useful if you’re having trouble locating a specific unit, or just want a quick and easy way to tell everyone to charge that wall like there’s no tomorrow.
We’ve put together a quick guide to Age of Empires IV hotkeys. Credit to Microsoft for sharing a detailed list of hotkeys and control shortcuts on the official Xbox website. We haven’t copied everything – the more basic control functions will be taught to you in-game, and some of the more niche shortcuts are only really relevant for highly competitive multiplayer. The rest though should be useful to most people.
Age of Empires 4 hotkeys
Here is a list of important Age of Empires 4 keyboard shortcuts. Some functions have two different shortcuts. Where applicable, we’ve listed both.
Please also note that most of these hotkeys can be remapped, with only a couple of exceptions. You can also have multiple keyboard shortcut profiles, so that you can experiment to see what works best.
- Select all units on screen – Ctrl + A / Ctrl + K
- Access secondary UI panel – Y (with a unit selected) / Ctrl + Y
- Cancel / Deselect / Menu – ESC key
- Game menu – F10
- Quick save – F8
- Quick load – F9
- Focus on selected unit – F5
- Follow selected unit – HOME
- Cycle through selected units (forward) – Tab / Right arrow
- Cycle through selected units (backwards) – Ctrl + tab / Left arrow
- Control groups – Ctrl + 0-9 to set, then press 0-9 to select. Also works with the NUM key
- Select all Military buildings – F1 / M
- Select all Economic buildings – F2 / K
- Select all Research buildings – F3 / O
- Select all Landmarks, Wonders, and capital Town Centers – F4 / P
- Cycle through town centers – H / L
- Focus in capital Town Center – Ctrl + H / Ctrl + L
- Cycle through individual Monk units – ` (apostrophe) / ]
- Cycle through individual Scout units – / or [
- Cycle through Idle Economy units – . (period) / N
- Select all idle Villagers – Ctrl + . (period) / Ctrl + up arrow
- Select all Villagers – Ctrl + Shift + V / Up arrow
- Return all Villagers to work – Ctrl + Shift + R / PgUp
- Cycle through idle Military units – , (comma) / down arrow
- Select all idle Military units – Ctrl + , (comma) / Ctrl + down arrow
- Select all Military units – Ctrl + Shift + C / Ctrl + M
- Queue production of 5 units of that type – Shift + click button / Shift + [unit production hotkey]
- Delete unit or building – Delete (hold)
- Global chat [All] – Shift + Enter or \
- Team chat [Team] – Enter or /
We hope you find this list useful.