A sane first-hour order
This order follows visible launch-build objectives and systems confirmed by official material.
- 01
Read the clock, not every menu
The colony HUD separates work time from the rest of the day. Check who is exhausted or overworked before chasing another construction order.
- 02
Repair Victory Square
The official launch screenshot shows this as the first building directive. Victory Square is also where adulthood and enlistment are surfaced in the June 30 update.
- 03
Finish the first policy research
High-Pressure Labor is the visible opening research objective. Treat it as an onboarding task, not an automatic recommendation for every colony.
- 04
Assign by the job stat
Construction, research, production, mining, logging, gathering, cooking, planting and breeding appear as separate worker stats. The game now prioritizes the relevant stat when auto-assigning.
- 05
Prepare before leaving
Craft the weapon you actually plan to use, check your squad, and make sure food and basic production do not depend on your manual presence.
- 06
Use the first expedition to learn capture
Humanoid enemies enter a stunned state the first time they drop below 25% health. Soldiers stop attacking a target marked for capture; elite and boss targets are harder to capture.
Mechanics worth knowing early
Melee kills
Confirmed to drop ammunition
Full-screen UI
Automatically pauses the game
Transport Hub
Moves backpack materials home and adjusts deployed soldiers
Long expeditions
Officially supported by colony automation
Co-op
Planned after Early Access launch; not in the current Steam feature list
Read the interface before it reads you
New ruler questions
Is Pax Autocratica free to play?
No. The current Steam app is a paid game. A separate Prologue exists and is free.
Does the colony stop while I am in a mission?
No. The developers explicitly discuss automation for gathering, production and food so longer expeditions do not starve the colony.
Can I save?
Steam lists Save Anytime and Steam Cloud. Early forum threads asking for manual save predate the current launch listing, so use the current store feature list as the stronger source.
First-session checklist after AG-12
Do these before you spend an hour tuning every building. They are recent quality-of-life and management changes, not a substitute for learning the opening directives.
- 01
Choose a Soldier Aging policy deliberately
AG-12 added a Soldier Aging toggle. Check its current setting before you judge an enlistment or staffing plan; this page does not infer a best setting without a live-save comparison.
- 02
Use Exile as roster maintenance
AG-12 added Exile. Treat it as a deliberate way to remove a redundant or low-contribution soldier, not as a claimed optimal economy exploit.
- 03
Protect the session, then still save manually
Automatic save backups were added for interrupted saves. They are recovery help, not a guarantee against every loss; make a manual save before a risky expedition or major policy change.
- 04
Set the deposit quantity instead of over-feeding a building
Manual deposit quantity is now available. Move only the input you intend to commit, then recheck the production chain before leaving the colony.
A practical 12-minute watch guide
Select play to load the private YouTube player.
Official Pax Autocratica gameplay video (12:23)
Watch once for the colony-to-expedition handoff, then pause on the roster, construction and squad-command moments. It is official footage for interface and loop context, not evidence for hidden values, performance, or an optimal build.
Open on YouTube ↗Where these claims came from
Sources support the specific claims above; community posts are never silently upgraded into official facts.
- StorePax Autocratica on Steam ↗
- OfficialDirective AG-12 official Steam news ↗
- OfficialAug 11 State Maintenance Directive ↗
- VideoOfficial 12:23 gameplay video ↗
- Developer AMADeveloper launch-day AMA ↗