AoE4 Analyzer

Hotkey Guide

Defaults, the grid layout, and the control groups top players actually use in Age of Empires IV.

Last updated:

Hotkey TrainerPractice the default hotkeys or a professional player’s layout against the clock.Practice them

The basics

Grid layout defaults. Check them under Settings › Hotkeys once — a patch can move a key, and your profile may already differ.

Selection & control groups

Ctrl+1
Bind selection to group 1 (any of 0–9)
1
Select group 1 — press twice to jump the camera to it
Shift+1
Add selection to group 1
Ctrl+A
Select all units on screen
Ctrl+Shift+A
Select all units
Tab
Cycle unit types inside the selection

Villagers

.
Cycle idle villagers
Ctrl+.
Select all idle villagers
Ctrl+Shift+V
Select all villagers
Ctrl+F
Cycle villagers on food
Ctrl+W
Cycle villagers on wood
Ctrl+G
Cycle villagers on gold
Ctrl+S
Cycle villagers on stone
Ctrl+Shift+R
Send villagers back to work

Buildings

H
Cycle town centers
Ctrl+H
Capital town center
F1
All military buildings — Tab cycles the types
F2
All economy buildings
F3
All technology buildings
F4
Landmarks, wonders and the capital
Shift+Q
Queue five of the unit on Q

Army & scouting

,
Cycle idle military units
Ctrl+,
Select all idle military units
Ctrl+Shift+C
Select all military units
/
Cycle scouts
'
Cycle religious units
Shift+Right-click
Queue a move or command after the current one

Camera & communication

Space
Jump to the last event
F5
Center on the selection
Backspace
Reset camera rotation
Ctrl+F1
Save a camera position (F1–F8)
Shift+F1
Jump to a saved camera position
Ctrl+R
Attack ping on the minimap
Ctrl+T
Defend ping on the minimap
F11
Show the game clock

How the grid works

With a villager selected, the first key opens an age tab and the second picks the slot. Q Q is a house, W A an archery range. Every command card follows the same Q W E R / A S D F / Z X C V shape, so a building you have never used still has guessable keys.

Age I buildings

Menu key Q
QHouse
WMill
ELumber Camp
R
T
AFarm
SBarracks
DDock
F
G
ZOutpost
XPalisade
CPalisade Gate
V
  • Q QHouse
  • Q WMill
  • Q ELumber Camp
  • Q AFarm
  • Q SBarracks
  • Q DDock
  • Q ZOutpost
  • Q XPalisade
  • Q CPalisade Gate

Age II buildings

Menu key W
QBlacksmith
WMarket
ETown Center
R
T
AArchery Range
SStable
D
F
G
ZStone Wall Tower
XStone Wall
CStone Wall Gate
V
  • W QBlacksmith
  • W WMarket
  • W ETown Center
  • W AArchery Range
  • W SStable
  • W ZStone Wall Tower
  • W XStone Wall
  • W CStone Wall Gate

What the pros do

Taken from each player's own hotkey video. Setups change; the year shows when it was recorded. Empty number slots are ones the player did not mention.

ArmyProductionOtherTown center
US

Beastyqt

Grid layout, a fixed home for every building type, and army groups split by where on the map they fight.

Watch the video · 2025

Control groups

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
  • 1Main army (archers in Feudal)
  • 2Spears / horsemen, later mangonels
  • 3Rams, later springalds
  • 4Town centers
  • 5Barracks
  • 6Archery ranges
  • 7Workshop (monastery for relics)
  • 8Stables

Custom keys

F1
Cycle idle villagers
Ctrl+F1
All idle villagers
`
All idle military
B
Cancel the last queued unit
N
Cancel the whole queue

Siege stays out of the main group: a group walks at the speed of its slowest unit. Group 1 also makes focusing fire a short sequence: press 1, then use A on the target.

DK

Valdemar1902

Army split by unit role, every production building type on its own number, and the mouse side buttons doing camera work.

Watch the video · 2024

Control groups

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
  • 1Melee
  • 2Ranged
  • 3Scouts / siege
  • 4Cavalry
  • 5Town centers
  • 6Barracks
  • 7Archery ranges
  • 8Stables
  • 9Siege workshops
  • 0Market

Custom keys

F1›Right-click
One rally point for every military building
`
Cycle idle villagers
Mouse 4
Center on the selection
Mouse 5
Cycle scouts
Caps Lock
Cycle religious units (relics)
Ctrl+W›Q
Pull one villager off wood to build a house

Building-cycle keys are set to select only, so the camera stays on the fight while production is queued.

GB

DeMu

Mostly defaults on the grid, with idle villagers moved under F1 and exclusive control groups switched on.

Watch the video · 2024

Control groups

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
  • 1Army
  • 2Army
  • 3Army
  • 4Archery ranges
  • 5Other production
  • 6Town centers
  • 0Blacksmiths

Custom keys

F1
Cycle idle villagers
Ctrl+F1
All idle villagers
`
All military units
F4
Monasteries
F5
Religious units
Caps Lock
Delete

With exclusive groups on, assigning raiders from the main army to a new group removes them from the old one, so selecting the main army does not pull the raiders back.

ES

VortiX

Nothing past 6 on the number row, so the hand never leaves home. Everything else sits on F-keys and Ctrl combos.

Watch the video · 2025 · Spanish

Control groups

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
  • 1Army
  • 2Army
  • 3Army
  • 4Barracks (double-tap = base)
  • 5Archery ranges
  • 6Stables

Custom keys

Space
All town centers
F1
All idle villagers
F2
All idle military
F3
Economy buildings (Tab for upgrades)
Ctrl+Q
All siege — a fourth army group
Ctrl+W
Cycle scouts

Unbound “select all units” and “select all military” on purpose and calls them a huge handicap: one key that grabs everything makes the whole army move as one blob.

DE

LaSh

Every production building type on an F-key, one economy panic button, and the camera on the middle mouse button.

Watch the video · 2026 · German

Control groups

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
  • 1Army
  • 2Army
  • 3Army
  • 4Main town center
  • 7Raid group (on ^)
  • 8Mouse thumb button

Custom keys

F2
Stables
F3
Archery ranges
F4
Barracks
F5
Siege workshops
F9
Economy buildings — the panic button

Edge scrolling is off; the camera moves only with the middle mouse button, so it never drifts while the cursor rests on the minimap.

What most of them agree on

  1. Keep the Grid layout and change only a handful of keys. Nobody rebuilt the whole layout from scratch.
  2. Numbers 1–3 are the army. Siege gets its own group, because a group walks at its slowest unit's speed.
  3. The town center sits on 4, 5 or 6, and production buildings take the next numbers or the F-keys.
  4. Idle villagers go on the best key you have — F1, the key left of 1, or a mouse thumb button — with Ctrl on the same key selecting all of them.
  5. Avoid “select all army”. It turns micro into one blob; control groups do the same job with control.
  6. Have a cancel-queue key. Freeing resources mid-fight is as important as spending them.
  7. Turn pan acceleration off so the camera moves the same distance every time.

Techniques worth learning

Groups are camera anchors

1›1

Pressing a group key twice jumps the camera to it. With the army on 1–3 and the town center on 4, you can move around the map without touching the minimap.

Produce without looking at your base

5›Q

Put every barracks on one key (or use select-all-of-type) and queue from anywhere: the key, then the unit. The camera stays on the fight.

Shift chains everything

Shift+Right-click

Hold Shift to chain waypoints for a scout route, buildings for one villager, a ring of farms around a mill, or relic pickups for a monk.

Pull exactly the villagers you need

Ctrl+W›Q›Q

The cycle-by-resource keys pick villagers one at a time: grab one woodcutter for a house mid-fight, or exactly four for a landmark, without touching the rest.

One villager per sheep

Ctrl+F

Beastyqt's trick: press Ctrl+F, right-click a new sheep, repeat. Each press picks the next villager on food, so each one takes its own sheep.

One rally point for all of production

F1›Right-click

Select every military building with F1 and right-click once: the whole army reinforces to the same spot.

Trim a selection by unit type

Ctrl+Click

In the selection panel, Ctrl-click a unit type to keep only that type, Shift-click to drop it. Fast way to send only the archers into a fight.

Saved camera spots

Ctrl+F1

Ctrl+F1–F8 saves a camera position, Shift+F1–F8 jumps back. Useful for a forward gold or a second base you check every minute.

Settings and your profile

Pan acceleration: off

DeMu and Valdemar both turn it off. Without it the camera always travels the same distance, so muscle memory works.

Exclusive control groups: pick a side

On, a unit belongs to one group only — adding it to a new group removes it from the old one (DeMu). Off, a unit can sit in several groups (Valdemar, Beastyqt). Pros are split; try both against the AI.

Cycle keys that do not move the camera

Building-cycle keys can select without jumping the camera. Valdemar runs them this way so the screen stays on the fight while production is queued.

Grid vs Fully Remappable

Grid binds keys by position on the command card: the same slot is the same key in every building. Fully Remappable starts from those defaults and lets you change any single binding. Remap only what you need and keep the grid underneath.

Back up your profile

Hotkey profiles live in Documents\My Games\Age of Empires IV\keyBindingProfiles as .rkp files. Steam Cloud does not sync them: copy the file to move it to another PC, and restart the game to see it. VortiX copies his profile before every experiment.

How to switch without losing games

Change one key at a time and play a few games against the AI before the next. Copy your profile file before you start, so you can undo an unsuccessful change by restoring the copy.

Added by patches

  1. 16.2
    The idle religious unit key now selects idle monks.
  2. 16.1
    New drop-off key for villagers and fishing boats.
  3. 15.2
    Select and cycle keys for Yatai, Daimyo Estate and the worker elephant; idle keys skip units on Hold Position.
  4. 9.2
    Fully Remappable defaults realigned to grid positions.
  5. Season Two
    Fully Remappable layout; selection keys stop picking up monks and packed Mongol buildings.
  6. Season One
    Mouse buttons bindable, saved camera positions, select-all by building type, cancel-queue keys and the exclusive control groups option.

Sources

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