Humans are The Defenders of Humanity in the Grey Goo story line. They are immobile and defensive by nature and have the most durable units in the game. However they are slow when it comes to movement speed.

Strengths: Strong Defenses, Building teleportation for base configuring and unit teleportation for the late game and has the strongest air units (as of this patch).

Weaknesses: Immobile (Unable to expand), Slow unit movement, Needs a conduit outline for flexibility in regards to base building, slightly expensive units, and the production speed of units is the slowest in comparison to all races.

Knowing your unit's and building's Tiers in the Human Faction:
The tiers the human faction has are 4 tiers for units and 3 for buildings. (4, if you add the building you need for producing an alpha)

Tier 1 Buildings and Units:

Buildings: conduits,small factory,anti heavy sentinel,walls and silo
Units: Trident and Revolver

Tier 2 Buildings and Units:

Buildings: Large Factory, Tank,Air,Artillery and Stealth Attachments as well as the Artilery Air and Stealth Sentinels and Air pads.
Units: Gladius,Valiant,Scimitars and Daggers

Tier 3 Buildings and Units:
Buildings: Telepoter
Units: Scythes,Howitzers,Lancers and Longbows

Tier 4 Buildings and Units:
Buildings: Large Factory with all 4 attachments on it
Units: Alpha

Its is crucial to know how many units and what type of units you can spend your resources on in your matches. Too many pauses in your production can place you behind by a significant amount.
1 Refinery can support 2 tier 1 units. In most cases, a substantial resource upkeep will consist of having no less then 6 refineries. For example top player Szalami during the GGReplay king of the hill event vs Romeo, did a Trident/Revolver with Howitzer support composition as
well as having teleporting lancers. This composition was done off of 6 Refineries, There are a number of compositions you can do
off of 6 refineries but depending on what you are making you can jeopardize your production if you make too many higher tier units at once with 6 refineries.

Your Upkeep is the + or - number near the amount of resources you have acquired. This tells you if you have money you can spend, if you are spending too much or if you spending the exact amount of your resource gain. Typically, you will need to budget an upkeep of around +10 to +15, until the later stages of the game. This will ensure you have money still growing so you can continue to produce units and refineries with out halting production.

In the topic (Knowing Your Economy), you were warned about jeopardizing your production when making too many higher tier units i.e (Lancers,Scythes,Howitzers,Long Bows and Alpha). You have to keep in mind, just like any other RTS, you never want to stop collecting resources. The more higher tier units you make the more resources are required. Also, Each resource point (catalyst location) do after some time expire and regenerate over time. Making more extractors will not only prevent you from halting your resource gathering but it will also give you enough room to make those higher tier units.

Floating your resources mean that you have a substantially high amount of resources in your resource pool that you haven't spent. Your goal should be to spend your resources as fast and as effective as your able to. Also, your goal should also be to have all catalyst locations with an
extractor on it and having a maxed Unit Cap with an army that counters the opponent's army.

Meta Game: The meta game for the human race in most cases with the exception of fighting vs Goo is to be defensive and exercise economic gameplay. Make sure you scout with your 1st Trident to see what the enemy is doing.

VS Goo You dont want to give the Goo too much breathing room. You want to keep some level of pressure on the goo so the Goo wont spiral out of control.

Mid Game: You should be in tier 2 pushing out with tier 1 and tier 2 units. Harassing harvester lines/mothers while having a monitor 2 out to pinpoint army positions as well as keeping an eye on the production of your enemy and what he is transitioning to.

Late Game: In this part of the game you will have some decisions to make. You can do the following transitions:

1.) Do the normal Air/Artillery transition i.e making your artillery unit (Howitzers) with air support.

2.) Transition to porting Lancers/Gladius for HQ harassment and map control.

3.) transition of going into all or mainly Air units (Scythes or Scimitars) depending on what you looking for.

4.) Transition into Alphas

The basic objective as humans is to have a strong wall of defense while surigically attacking the enemy in key areas. The key areas are:

Beta's Hub Harassment: Destroy hubs that are planted by the beta player. (Preferrably hubs that have Refineries attached to them),

Harvestor line Harassment: Have units near the harvester line and kill the outbound and inbound harvestors

Human's Core and Refinery harassment (teleporting Lancers perferably to take out the core and Refinery),

Shroud's Extractor harassment and kill the shrouds extractors with lancers or revolvers or both
Note: You want to take the Shroud's Mimic to ensure the shroud cant expand further or have a hard time doing so. The Mimic is the basic unit the shroud starts off with. It has the ability to assume the look of an enemy unit so keep your eyes peeled and watch your unit count .

Mother Goo harassment. Teleport, push or both Gladius, or a mobile unit to push the mothers off the spigot location or kill them or both

These tactics is really to harass and cripple the effectiveness of the enemy please make sure you dont fully dedicate harassments and forget about expanding and army production. Scouting and expanding is still required as well as harassing. Upon Scouting your foe make sure your army comp and defenses are countering what you've detected with your Monitor or any scouting tool you mightve used

Here are typical build orders that you would want to practice and use for standard gameplay

1.) 2 Refinery Opening: The 2 Refinery Opening is a economy opening that is practiced on maps that are large (Barricade Run and Grasslands) or when fighting beta and human you dont detect any form of early aggression.

2.) 1 Refinery 1 Factory: This is a standard universal opening that you can use to get some units out to defend your economy from early aggression with the flexibility to transition into a fast gladius or valiant or add some defenses to your base.


3.) 1 refinery 2 factory: The Purpose of this opening is to catch the opponent off guard by crippling his production or ending the game. Due to the pressure from 2 factories early on. Hint: Make sure you push out with at 7 units to prevent an all-in.

4.)2 Refinery 2 Factory: This Opening is a balanced opening this opening is a bread and butter Opening that is used by the Beta

5.) 2 Refinery 3 Factory: Just like the 2 refinery 2 factory opening, this one is also balanced but its a opening that alot of the human players used During the King Of The Hill event by GGReplays and The Violent Ends event By Grey Goo player, Romeo.

6.) 3 Refiney 5 Factory Opening: This opening is really greedy and some cases risky. If you are using this opening make sure you have vision of your resource location as well trying to deny vision of your base. You are very vulnerable early on because you have only 1 trident and unable to make defenses or spawn units until your 3 refineries and at least 1 factory out of the 5 spawning factories are completed. So be defensive with your trident and deny the enemies scout.

7:) 3 Refinery 3 Factory+Addons: This openings is an alternative to the 3 Ref 5 Factory if by chance you want to move down the tech tree and have some tier 2 and tier 3 units with some scouting avaible. You can also opt to getting some upgrades to further help you turn the tides of battle. As of recently I have been using this opening when I play as humans.

Just like in the video introduction to the Human Faction. The Conduit outline allows people to reconfigure thier base and also minimize the distance from the extractor and refinery with the intent to negate possible harvestor harassment. it also allows flexiblity with base making and allow you to make defenses (sentinels) around the permiter of your base.

A trick you can do is port your refs or building from one place to another. this allows you to have some free conduits but it also can cripple your produtcion upkeep as well as your unit upkeep. Due to the building/s you port becomes inactive until it resets. So do this wisely.

The Upgrades for humans are pretty straight foward some are situational and some arent. Lets review the primary ones you will be getting based off the playstyle of humans.

1.) Power Generator Upgrade:
This upgrade is found in the tank attachment and is a needed upgrade to maintain base defenses. The strength of the human race is its base defense and we need to excercise that properly.

2.) Harvestor Camoflauge Upgrade:
This one is found in your silo building and is needed so you can mine minerals in peace for the most part. In higher leagues players will get stealth detection to pin point your harvesters and goo has detection as well but its always best to have something to negate harvestor harassment early to mid game and this is a pretty solid choice.

Now the rest are situational you can go for the heavy defensive gameplay by utilizing turrent based upgrades or you can go for unit based upgrades but the main 2 you need is HArvestor Camoflauge and Power Generator Upgrade.

If you are going for Heavy defenses then I reccommend:
Power Generator Upgrade (Tank Attachment Upgrade)
Harvestor Camofluge Upgrade (Silo Upgrade)
Catalyst Mine Upgrade (Stealth Attachement Upgrade)
AirCraft Repair Upgrade (Air Attachment Upgrade)
Power Systems Upgrade (Artilery Attachment Upgrade)

If you are going for a balanced approcah than get the following:
Power Generator Upgrade (Tank Attachment Upgrade)
Harvestor Camoflague Upgrade (Silo Upgrade)
Aircraft Repair Upgrade (Air Attachment Upgrade)
Cloak and Dagger Upgrade (Stealth Attachemen Upgrade)
Ground Battery Upgrade (Artillery Attachment Upgrade)

Thank you for reading this guide and I hope this helps you throughout your journey in climbing The Multiplayer Ladder in Grey Goo. Special thanks to the Grey Goo Community for their continuous counsel and support I received and the developers for making a very good game.

Note: This Guide is based off of my own experience, counsel from other players and research that I have done for Grey Goo. The things mentioned may not be 100% accurate but it can lead you into the right direction and give you a better understanding of the Humans mechanics