Age of Darkness is all about exploration, expansion, and base defense. If your hero and his band of soldiers are busy exploring the desolate, Nightmare-infested wastelands, you'll need to keep your town secure. A line of walls with a gate is a good start, but since the enemy can come from any direction, you'll have to make sure all your bases are covered.

Base building plays an integral part in Age of Darkness, and that means you'll need to learn all the fundamentals related to it. Rotating gates is a simple yet crucial mechanic that every player should know how to do.

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How to Rotate Gates in Age of Darkness

Rotating a gate in Age of Darkness
Age of Darkness Gate rotation view

You can customize your keybindings however you want, but the default button for rotating gates is Tab. Select the gate you want to place from the build menu, and as you're hovering over a patch of land, press Tab to change the direction it's facing. You cannot rotate gates that have already been built.

Players can place gates on any piece of buildable land, and they can even be built on top of existing walls. However, if you're stacking three or more layers of walls next to each other, then you might need to space them out by at least one cell. Otherwise, the game will prevent you from placing them altogether.

General Building Tip

It's worth noting that gates are fairly resilient, and it'll take a while before Nightmares can break them down. Stacking two gates in front of each other can be a viable tactic, especially early on when you don't have many resources to work with. This way, you can use melee hero units to great effect by weaving them in and out of Nightmare hordes.

However, since gates have less health than a regular wall, it might be worth replacing gates with walls during Death Nights. This tactic is especially effective if you rely on towers, traps, and siege weapons as your main forms of defense, as melee troops would otherwise have no way to retreat to safety.

Can You Rotate Buildings?

Early game town in Age of Darkness
Age of Darkness early town

Unfortunately, as of writing, rotating buildings in Age of Darkness is not an option. All buildings are placed in fixed orientation, and you won't be able to change where they face. However, for unit production buildings like Training Halls and Siege Factories, you can still set which direction your units come out of by selecting the building and right-clicking on a chosen location. This will set a Rally Point for your new recruits, a feature commonly found in other RTS games.

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Age of Darkness: Final Stand Tag Page Cover Art
Age of Darkness: Final Stand
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Real-Time Strategy
Survival
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Systems
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Released
January 15, 2025
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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Developer(s)
PlaySide Studios
Publisher(s)
PlaySide Studios
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op
Steam Deck Compatibility
Playable
Early Access Release
October 7, 2021
PC Release Date
January 15, 2025
Platform(s)
PC
Genre(s)
Real-Time Strategy, Survival
How Long To Beat
9 hours
Age of Darkness Final Stand steam image 5 select faction and hero