Selection

You can select your units with your mouse, with your keyboard, or both.

Selection Commands

• Simple click, select what you click on.
• Double-click, select all same units/buildings on screen.
• Box select (click and drag to draw a rectangle), select all inside the box with the highest selection rank.

To manage your selection you can

• right-click a unit in the selection window to remove it from the current selection,
• Shift and right-click to remove all units that are like the one you click on;
• Shift + selection command will add newly selected units to the current selection.

Selection Rank

Selection rank determines which units are selected when dragging a selection box around units with different ranks. Only the units in the selection box with the highest rank are selected. This is what keeps buildings and construction units from being selected with combat units.

By default, most buildings have selection rank 1, factories and constructors have rank 2, and all combat units have rank 3. Selection rank can be changed for selected units, or it may be changed globally in the options menu. For example, if you don't want your Commander or anti-air units to be selected with the rest of your combat units, reduce their selection rank.

The default selection rank of units is customizable through Default Unit States in the Ingame Menu.

You can bypass selection rank by holding Shift while dragging. You will select all units/buildings in the box.

A selection rank of 0 is an exception. Units that are set to 0 will ignore many catch-all selections such as ‎Ctrl + A‎ and ‎Ctrl + Z‎

Hotkeys

There are multiple hotkeys to help with selection. The default bindings allow you to select:

• ‎Ctrl + A‎: Everything.
• ‎Ctrl + F‎: All mobile non-builder units.
• Z: An idle builder; press repeatedly to cycle trough idle builders.
• ‎Ctrl + B‎: All idle constructors.
• ‎Ctrl + C‎: Commander.
• ‎Ctrl + Z‎: All units that are the same as the one you are currently selecting.
• ‎Ctrl + X‎: All units that are the same as the one you are currently selecting that are currently visible on the screen.
• ‎Ctrl + T‎: Transports.
• ‎Ctrl + S‎: Owls.
• ‎Ctrl + G‎: Raptors.
• ‎Ctrl + I‎: Removes non-idle units from your selection.
• ‎Ctrl + E‎: Removes all units that are above 30% HP from your selection.

Factories can also be selected using hotkeys. Your first factory will be on ‎Alt + Q‎, the second factory you build will be on ‎Alt + W‎ and the next one on ‎Alt + E‎, and so on. This assumes that you have the QWERTY keyboard layout.

You can select missiles from the Missile Silo by either clicking on them or by selecting the Silo and pressing D.

All hotkeys are editable in the settings menu at Menu→Hotkeys→Selection. There are many ways to select your units that do not have default hotkeys.

Autogroups

Autogroups are custom selection hotkeys that you can set up on the go. They allow units to be automatically added to a control group.

Ever wished to have all fighters in group 7, all gunships in group 8, all raiders in 4, etc.? "Autogroup" achieves just that.

Auto grouping is a feature of Zero-K (widget).

• ‎Alt + number‎: Makes permanent autogroup out of currently selected unit types. New units then join that group when they first become idle.
• ‎Alt + ~‎: Removes currently selected unit types from the autogroup.
• ‎Ctrl + ~‎: Selects one unit out of currently selected units (closest to your mouse cursor) and removes it from any groups (not removing type from autogroup, just current unit from group).

Autogroup settings can be modified from the in-game menu: Menu→Settings→Interface→Control Groups.

Example use:

• Select a Glaive and a Reaver and press ‎Alt + 1‎.
• From then on, new Glaives and Reavers will join group 1 when they first become idle (after reaching factory waypoint). You can press 1 to select them.
• If you then want to add Knights to autogroup 1, select one of them and press ‎Alt + 1‎.
• If you then want to remove Glaives from autogroup 1, select one and press ‎Alt + ~‎.