Total Annihilation allows over 80 special codes to be entered within the game. These codes can do a variety of things, from changing the look and play of the game, all the way to giving you free resources!
To use most cheats, while in-game, press ENTER, type the cheat in the message bar (all start with +), and then press ENTER again. For some cheats, typing the same cheat again will usually deactivate it. Cheats are NOT case-sensitive.
Total Annihilation: The Core Contingency. Full Game Guides. Age of Empires is an epic real-time strategy game spanning 10,000 years, in which. Our friends in the Total Annihilation Escalation community have a tournament coming up - the ESC 2021 Championship Tourney!Some details have yet to be finalized but the tournament is scheduled to take place the weekends of August 7th/8th and 14th/15th, with games probably taking place on both the Gameranger and TA Forever platforms. Total Annihilation is a 90s real time strategy game that is a ton of fun. Cause or prevent annihilation in this old-school retro game. It is the perfect game to play if you love 90s strategy games. Create an empty text document with notepad, add the next two lines in to increase the maximum amount of units you can control (the default is 250) it and save it as 'totala.ini' in your Total Annihilation directory: Preferences UnitLimit = 500; NOTE: This works only with Total Annihilation patched to version 3.1.
To prevent confusion, please be aware that some cheat settings below go from 0-9, such as in the case of player ID. This means that player 1 = 0, player 2 = 1, player 10 = 9, etc.
More detailed information on all the cheats can be found on the forum in this thread. Very special thanks to Admiral_94, Lapio, Overspeedo, poosticks, Rime, and Ti_.
Level 1 Cheats
The following codes can be used in any game mode, including single player skirmishes, campaign missions, as well as in multiplayer mode. In multiplayer, cheats do not have to be enabled in order for these to work.
| Cheat | Description |
|---|---|
| +antialias | Toggles anti-aliasing on 3D models: on / off. |
| +bigbrother | Cycles through your units in order built. Type +bigbrother again to stop. |
| +bps | Displays network (transmit/receive) data statistics. |
+cdplay # | Plays a specific music track in-game, where # is the track number. |
| +cdstart | Starts playing CD music. |
| +cdstop | Stops playing CD music. |
| +clock | Shows elapsed playing time (in-game clock) at the bottom of the screen above the message bar. |
| +compression | Toggles compression on outgoing network traffic (multiplayer): on / off. |
+contour # | Shows the current map's 3D contour lines, where # = 0-255. Type +contour again to disable. |
| +dither | Changes the type of line of sight (LOS) shading, from standard greyscale to a dithered effect. Can be useful on Ice or Metal worlds to help better see where your units' LOS ends. |
+drop # | Prevents any future 'reject now' menus from appearing in multiplayer. # can be any number or letter, but must be used to enable. This will not close a 'reject now' menu that is already open. |
| +fshadow | Toggles feature shadows only: on / off. |
+gamma # | Changes screen gamma, where # = 0-255. Default is 12. |
+give # $ % | Gives any player a specific amount of energy OR metal, where # = 0-9 (player), $ = amount to be given, and % = energy OR metal. For example, +give 2 250 metal means give player 3 250 metal. |
| +honk | Units 'honk' when they stop. |
+iface # | Swaps the left/right mouse interface, where # is 0 OR 1. Do NOT use a number higher than 1 otherwise the mouse functions will not work as expected. |
+light # | Changes the lighting level. Only works with shading on. |
+logo # | Changes the colour of the side you are controlling (+control) or viewing (+view) currently, where # = 0-9. |
+logo # $ | Changes the colour of any player, where # = 0-9 (colour) and $ = 0-9 (player). |
| +lostype | Toggles type of LOS: circular / true. To disable LOS, use +los. |
+musicmode # | Changes the type of CD music, e.g. battle music and building music. Type +musicmode for building; type +musicmode 1 for battle music. |
| +noenergy | Sets the current energy level of the side you are controlling (+control) or viewing (+view) currently to 0. |
+noenergy # | Sets the current energy level of any player to 0, where # = 0-9 (player). This will NOT work in multiplayer, even with cheats enabled. |
| +nometal | Sets the current metal level of the side you are controlling (+control) or viewing (+view) currently to 0. |
+nometal # | Sets the current metal level of any player to 0, where # = 0-9 (player). This will NOT work in multiplayer, even with cheats enabled. |
| +noshake | Toggles screen shake effect for big explosions: on / off. |
| +screenchat | Toggles multiplayer chat text: on / off. |
+scrollspeed # | Changes the scrolling speed of the arrow keys, where # = 0-255. |
| +selectable | Toggles units that normally cannot be selected: on / off. Setting this to 'on' will also allow the AI to select units that it normally cannot, e.g. for campaign missions! |
| +seti | Toggles minimap: on / off. |
+setshareenergy # | Sets energy sharing level for allies, where # is minimum energy kept for yourself. Then use +shareenergy to activate. |
+setsharemetal # | Sets metal sharing level for allies, where # is minimum metal kept for yourself. Then use +sharemetal to activate. |
| +sfx | Toggles smoke and nanolathe particle effects (construction / capture / repair / reclaim): on / off. |
| +shading | Toggles shading on 3D models: on / off. |
| +shadow | Toggles all shadows: on / off. |
| +shareall | Single command to activate/deactivate +shareenergy, +sharemapping, +sharemetal, and +shareradar all at once. |
| +shareenergy | Toggles energy sharing with allies: on / off. |
| +sharemapping | Toggles map info sharing with allies in unmapped games: on / off. |
| +sharemetal | Toggles metal sharing with allies: on / off. |
| +shareradar | Toggles radar/sonar coverage sharing with allies: on / off. |
| +shootall | Units attack ALL enemy units automatically, instead of just mobile units or buildings with weapons. |
| +showranges | While holding SHIFT over a unit(s), shows area of effect and ranges for jamming / LOS / radar / sonar / weapons (etc.). |
| +sing | Units 'sing' when given orders. Jazz apparently. |
| +sing jersey | Try it yourself! |
| +sound3d | Toggles in-game music sound: 3D / mono. |
| +switchalt | Select assigned groups of units (using just 0-9 on your keyboard) without having to use the ALT key too. |
| +tshadow | Toggles mobile unit shadows only: on / off. |
Level 2 Cheats
The following cheat codes will only function in single player skirmishes or in multiplayer mode with cheats enabled. These cheats will NOT work in campaign missions.
| Cheat | Description |
|---|---|
| +atm | Instantly replenishes 1,000 energy and metal (some TA hacks and mods have increased this to 10,000 or to instantly replenish all energy and metal). |
| +doubleshot | Doubles the damage that ALL weapons do. |
| +halfshot | Halves the damage that ALL weapons do. |
| +los | Toggles permanent line of sight (LOS): on / off. |
| +makeposter | Creates a large 3200×2400px in-game screenshot without any GUI displays, which can be found in a folder within your TA directory. |
+makeposter # $ | Creates an in-game screenshot of the map without any GUI displays, which can be found in a folder within your TA directory, where # is the desired width of the screenshot (in pixels) and $ is the desired height (in pixels). |
| +makeposter all | Creates an in-game screenshot of the whole map without any GUI displays, which can be found in a folder within your TA directory. |
| +mapping | Toggles map visibility: completely visible / blacked-out for unexplored terrain. |
| +meteor | Causes a random meteor shower to occur at a random location. |
| +nowisee | Makes entire map completely visible and changes LOS to permanent (off). Equivalent of using both +los and +mapping. |
| +radar | Shows all game units on the minimap as 'radar hot'. |
+view # | See another player's resources and unit orders (etc.), where # = 0-9. Type +view to return to your own view. |
Level 3 Cheats
The following cheat codes will only function while in TA's special developer mode. This is activated by typing +now Film Chris Include Reload Assert (case-sensitive).
| Cheat | Description |
|---|---|
+%# | Instantly create any desired unit at the mouse cursor's current position for any player (no energy/metal required), where % is the desired unit's internal code name, and # = 0-9 (player). For example, typing +ARMSOLAR will instantly create an Arm Solar Collector under your control. Typing +ARMSOLAR 4 will place the unit under player 5's control instead. A wild card is also accepted: typing +ARM*, will spawn ALL units with their internal code name prefixed with 'ARM' in alphabetical order from left to right across the map under the chosen player's control. |
| +ai | Enable / disable the computer's control over the side you are controlling (+control) or viewing (+view) currently. |
+ai # | Enable / disable the computer's control over a specific player, where # = 0-9. |
| +burnall | Removes and destroys all map features. Metal deposits and geothermal vents are made invisible but still functional. |
| +burnone | Removes and destroys a map feature under the mouse cursor's current position. Metal deposits that are removed with this cheat will still produce metal (they are just made invisible). Geothermal vents removed with this cheat are destroyed, but geothermal-based units that have already been built will continue to function normally. |
| +combustion | Kills all enemy units. |
+control # | Control a player, where # = 0-9. If the computer also has control over the same side, you can both give orders to units. Use +ai to disable the computer's control over the side that you wish to take over. Type +control to return to your own view. |
+edge # $ | View the normally hidden areas of the current map (usually a small strip on the right and bottom of each map), where # is the distance on the right to show, and $ is the distance from the bottom to show. Negative values will crash the game! |
+feature % | Instantly create any desired map feature at the mouse cursor's current position, where % is the desired map feature's internal identification. The desired map feature must already be loaded by the game, i.e. you cannot create a feature for a different world type. Metal deposits created with this cheat are not usable. |
+film % | Changes the default screenshot save directory, where % is the new directory path. The path cannot contain spaces. May also modify where +makeposter images are saved to as well. |
| +ilose | Causes you to lose instantly. |
| +iwin | Causes you to win instantly. |
| +kill | Kills all enemy AND friendly units. |
+kill # | Instantly kills a player, where # = 0-9. |
| +nanolathing | Building occurs at 2x normal speed. |
| +profile | Shows the performance manager overlay in the top-right of the screen, outlined by a white border. Shows statistics and information on network, units, logic, render stuff, render fog, SFX, weapons, and misc. Type +profile again to hide. |
+reload % | Forces the reloading of unit info and scripts for any unit, where % is the desired unit's internal code name. Any units currently built with the internal code name matching % will instantly disappear (be destroyed). Any new units of % will feature the updated unit info and scripts, as desired. Mainly useful for testing the unit without having to quit and restart the game. Will have no effect if the desired unit's information and/or script has not been updated externally since the current game began. If your game settings are Commander Death = Game Ends, and you type +reload ARMCOM (for example), you will lose the game! |
| +reloadaiprofiles | Forces the reloading of the AI's profile for the current map. Mainly useful for testing new AI techniques without having to quit and restart the game. Will have no effect if the AI profile has not been updated externally since the current game began. |
+save % | Saves a skirmish game, where % is the save name you wish to use. It can be viewed in the Load Game menu as 'Generic Game Description'. |
+sealevel # | Changes the sea level for the current map, where # = 0-255. Different map types have different default levels. |
| +selboxes | Toggles green unit selection boxes: on / off. |
| +treedeath | Toggles trees' resistance to weapons: on / off. They can still be reclaimed. |
Miscellaneous Cheats
While on TA's single player game selection screen (New Campaign, Skirmish, etc.), type DRDEATH. A small bone will appear at the bottom of the screen below the Load Game button. Click it to play any mission from either side regardless of your previous mission progress.
Total Annihilation Game Download
By default, TA only allows 4 players (you and 3 computer AI opponents) during a skirmish game. To change the number of players, on the single player skirmish set-up screen, type * (press SHIFT+8) followed by the Roman numeral of the desired number of total players you want. For example, typing *X will result in the maximum 10 players instead of the usual 4. For other combinations, type * and then:
Total Annihilation Game Speed
| Desired number of players | Roman numeral equivalent |
|---|---|
| 2 | II |
| 3 | III |
| 4 | IV |
| 5 | V |
| 6 | VI |
| 7 | VII |
| 8 | VIII |
| 9 | IX |
| 10 | X |