the first four minutes
RTS build orders explained
A build order is a script for the opening of a match. Having one is worth more than being good at fighting, because it removes the decisions you are worst at making — the ones you make while distracted.
A build order is exactly what it sounds like: the list of things you build, in the order you build them, for the first few minutes of a match. That is all it is. The reason every serious player has one is not that the optimal order is hard to find — it is that the opening is when you have the most decisions and the least attention, and a script removes them.
Why the first four minutes matter so much
RTS economies compound. A harvester bought at 0:30 has made eight trips by the four-minute mark. The same harvester bought at 2:00 has made three. That gap is not a small advantage that you can out-fight later — it grows every second, and by ten minutes it is decisive.
This is why matches are so often already decided by the time the first real fight happens, and why experienced players can tell you who is winning by looking at two income numbers rather than at the battle.
The three shapes an opening can take
Every build order in every RTS is a position on one slider: how much do I spend on income before I spend on army?
| Opening | What it does | Loses to |
|---|---|---|
| Greedy — economy first, army as late as possible | Enormous income by minute six. Wins any game that goes long. | Any early attack at all. You have nothing to stop it with. |
| Standard — income, then a small defensive force, then army | Survives a rush, is not far behind a greedy player by minute eight. | Nothing badly. It is the correct default. |
| Rush — minimum economy, army immediately | Kills a greedy opponent outright before their economy pays off. | Anyone who scouts it and puts up two defences. Then you have lost. |
Play standard until you can see what your opponent is doing. Rushing is a read, not a strategy — it is a bet that they went greedy, and if you are wrong you have spent your whole opening on units that accomplished nothing.
A standard opening for TANKS
Copy this one. The reasoning is underneath each step so you can adapt it when the map or the opponent demands something else.
- Power plant. Immediately, before anything. Every building you own draws power, and if you are in deficit everything you build comes out at as little as quarter speed. Building the refinery first and the plant second means paying for that refinery at a discount to your own future.
- Refinery. Your starting harvester now has somewhere to unload, and your income begins. Place it toward the nearest ore field, not toward the middle of your base — every second of driving is money.
- Second harvester. 700 credits, pays for itself in about thirty seconds, doubles your income for the rest of the match. If you only remember one line of this page, remember this one.
- Barracks, then three riflemen. 400 plus 300 credits. Set them to guard and park them on the refinery. They are not an army — they exist so that a single enemy scout or a lone early tank cannot walk in and kill a harvester while you are looking somewhere else.
- Tank factory. 800 credits, and the point of the whole opening. From here on your money has somewhere useful to go.
- Second power plant. The factory draws 40 and the radar will draw another 40. Put the plant up before you need it, not after — the moment you go into deficit is the moment your factory slows down.
- Third harvester, if the field is far. Judge it by watching: if a harvester is ever waiting to unload you have enough, and if the refinery sits empty you do not.
- Tanks, continuously, forever. The factory should not stop. Gather them out of sight at a rally point and do not attack until you have about twelve.
That is roughly four minutes of play. Everything after it is judgement.
How to adapt it
- They rushed you. Skip the tank factory, buy rocket soldiers from the barracks instead — they do double damage to vehicles and cost 200. Rebuild economy the moment the attack breaks. See how to beat a tank rush.
- You scouted an undefended base. Skip the second power plant, build tanks out of the factory immediately and go. Windows close.
- The ore near you is thin. Build the refinery toward the contested middle field instead and accept that you will have to defend it. Fields run dry; whoever runs dry first loses.
- A campaign mission with no construction yard. There is no build order — you have what you were given. Missions 2, 8 and 9 in The Margin Wars are all this, deliberately.
Practising it
Play three skirmishes where your only goal is to execute the eight steps above without looking them up, and ignore whether you win. Once the opening is automatic you will discover you suddenly have attention spare during fights — that attention is what people mistake for skill.
Reading about it is slower than playing it.
TANKS runs in this browser tab. No download, no account, no launcher.
Questions people actually ask
What is a build order in an RTS?
A fixed sequence of what to build and in what order for the opening minutes of a match, worked out in advance so you are not improvising while also managing a fight. Every competitive RTS player uses one.
Do I need to memorise build orders to enjoy an RTS?
No. You need one loose opening you repeat, so the first three minutes are automatic. Memorising many optimised orders is a competitive-multiplayer activity, not a requirement for enjoying the game.
What is the best build order in TANKS?
Power plant, refinery, second harvester, barracks, three riflemen on guard, tank factory, second power plant, then continuous tanks. It is not the fastest possible opening but it never dies to an early raid, which is what actually matters when you are learning.
Read next
A beginner’s guide to real-time strategy
Starting from nothing: economy first, what to build, when to attack, and the five mistakes everybody makes.
The RTS economy guide
How many harvesters, when to expand, how to protect income, and why the richer player usually wins.
How to play TANKS
Every control, the economy, the power rule and the full tech tree for TANKS, the free browser RTS. If you have played Command & Conquer this will take two minutes.