Age of Empires 2 Cheats and Command Line Codes

Age of Empires 2 was originally published in 1999, and its legacy was so great that in 2019, the game was completely rebuilt as a ‘Definitive Edition’. It’s an age-old franchise and a fan-favourite title that gives players the opportunity to quite literally build an empire from the ground up. However, it can be quite a challenging game, so it comes as no surprise to learn that Age of Empires 2 cheats are a popular way to manipulate the game to make things easier.

There are countless ways to mess with your game through the use of some relatively bizarre Age of Empires 2 cheat codes. It’s a mixed bag, with some cheats being implemented solely for entertainment value, while others genuinely make your AoE 2 experience much simpler. With this guide in hand, you’ll learn everything you could possibly need to know about using Age of Empires 2 cheats.

Read on to secure the full list of cheat codes and tricks.

How to Use Age of Empires 2 Cheats

There are two ways to use Age of Empires 2 cheat codes, and one way is much simpler than the other. If you’re not a technical player, you may have a little difficulty with the tougher method, so in this guide, we’ll give you the full walkthrough on how to use Age of Empires 2 cheats.

Fortunately, it’ll help you out if you wanted to use Age of Empire 4 cheats, for example. It’s the latest game in the series and it boasts a similar setup to the twenty-year-old Age of Empires 2.

Here are the two methods that you’ll need to use to enter all the cheat codes for Age of Empires 2.

Command Line Cheats

To activate Command Line Cheats in Age of Empires, you’ll need to:

• Create a shortcut on your desktop for the game
• Right-click the shortcut and click on ‘Properties’
• Navigate to the ‘Target’ box, and after the final quotation marks in the text field, enter a space and then add a hyphen
• Then, without using another space after the hyphen, type in the Age of Empires 2 cheat code that you wish to activate
• Click on ‘Apply’ and then hit ‘OK’
• To remove the cheat, simply open the menu back up again and delete the added text in the box.

However, if you want to use the simpler, in-game cheat codes for Age of Empires 2, then you’ll need to follow far fewer steps:

• When playing, press “Enter”, and a text box should appear.
• Enter your code into the text box. If you’re using more than one code, we’d recommend entering them one by one.
• Press “Enter” again and the cheats should activate.

It’s a relatively simple game by nature, even if succeeding at it can be complex. Even the cheats menu is quite basic and easy to understand, even if the codes themselves are a little bizarre. We’ll expand on them in the next section.

Read More: Find out about the Age of Empires 2 requirements.

Full List of Age of Empires 2 Cheats

Here are the hottest Age of Empires 2 cheat codes – and command line codes, of course. It’s time to start experimenting with your game, as these cheats span several different categories, from the most helpful to the downright strange. It’s a learning process – feel free to experiment with all the cheat codes for AoE 2.

Note: Codes are not case-sensitive

Units-based Cheats

Note: Unit-based cheats will spawn a unit from the player’s Town Centre. If there isn’t a town centre, then the cheat units will simply not appear.

• i don’t exist – Summons a high armour, high damage unit (a Penguin)
• how do you turn this on – Summons a powerful ranged unit with high damage (a Shelby Cobra)
• alpaca simulator – Summon a slow but strong unit that is great for melee fights (a literal Alpaca
• photon man – Summon a… Well, a Photon Man
• put on your capes – Turns all infantry units into Elite Teutonic Knights

Resource-based Cheats

• ninjalui or ninjaconnor – Gives 100,000 of each resource
• cheese steak jimmy’s – Gives 10,000 food resources
• lumberjack – Gives 10,000 wood resources
• rock on – Gives 10,000 stone resources
• robin hood – Grants 10,000 gold to the player

Map-based Cheats

• marco – this will uncover the entire map
• polo – enable or disable the Fog of War with this cheat code

Miscellaneous Cheats

These are the most bizarre Age of Empires 2 cheats, and while they’re hilarious or entertaining, they might not add much to the game.

• woof woof – Turns birds into flying dogs
• black death – Kills all other players, even allies
• i r winner – Instantly win the game
• wimpywimpywimpy or resign – Lose the game instantly
• aegis – Adds instant building, researching, resource gathering, and training
• grab your pitchforks (Definitive Edition) – Turns your Villagers into Flemish Militia
• my cpu can handle it (Definitive Edition) – Increases population cap to 1,000

Read More: Learn about the entire game with our Age of Empires 2 walkthrough.

Age of Empires 2 Command Line Codes

Here are some unique codes that you can use to alter your game before you’ve even loaded it. This is a feature that makes Age of Empires 2 more customisable, and it helps to stand it apart from how cheat codes for Age of Empires 3 (for example) work. If you follow the short guide above, these are the codes that you’ll need to use:

• AutoMPsave – Enables auto-save
• FASTVALIDATE – Increases processing speed
• NOMODS – Turns off every installed mod and skips over the intro cutscene
• NoMusic – Switches off all music in the game
• OLD_SCHOOL – Changes the in-game font to a more retro one
• Mfill – Fixes some display issues
• Msync – Fixes some sound problems

Conclusion

So, that’s our complete breakdown of all the Age of Empires 2 cheats you’ll need to succeed at the game with ease. It’s quite a collection, and it can turn a complex game into a hilarious, highly entertaining one in absolutely no time at all.

We hope that you’ll put these codes to good use and that you’ll check out our full list of gaming guides, just in case you need more cheats and tips on any other game.