Console:Spaceborne aliens

Version

This article may contain outdated information that is inaccurate for the current version of the game. It was last updated for 1.5.

Most of the time these will be the first aliens that new spacefarers will encounter, some of which may not even classify as ships or life in the common meaning of the words.

Meeting those space dwellers for the first time and researching past standard first contact procedure in Situation log will trigger their respective event chains.

Spaceborne aliens generally inhabit a certain area of space and are seldom seen away from it. The only exception are the passive Tiyanki.

Space amoeba

File:Space amoeba.jpg

The space amoeba.

These solitary space creatures appear surrounded by several flagella that act as disjointed limbs, periodically re-connecting to the host body to be re-programmed. Amoebas are able to warp between systems, even in games with restricted FTL methods. They can be found either solitary hunting Tyanki or in fleets of 3 units without FTL capability. While hostile, they are not outright aggressive and will only engage when approached.

• Observing them peacefully (the only option for , , and empires) will add permanent empire-wide modifier Cosmic Ray Catalysis (+5% output).

• More "proactive" research will require the player to hunt and kill one amoeba and then 5 more.
  • , , , and will get Amoeba Extirpator modifier (+20% damage to amoebas)
  • While other ethics will get Flagellating Movement (+5% evasion to ships)

They have 700 HP, 15 armor (20% mitigation), a carrier cruiser like layout and about 150 fleet power per unit making them somewhat hard to defeat early on. Their weapons are energy based. Surveying their remains will provide Amoeba Breeding Program (strike craft variant) and Regenerative Hull Tissue (hull regeneration ship modules) techs.

They operate in small Fleets of 10 Ships with about 880 Fleet Power. The fleets consist of 2-3 Mother (cruiser/carrier equivalent) and 7-8 Corvette sized beings, for a total of 10 units. The aggressive approach grants Flagellating Movement (+5% evasion to ships) after the first killed fleet. There are no more additional hunting quests. The fleet does not drop any salvageable technology. The peaceful approach on the other hand, nets you the Cosmic Ray Catalysis (+5% output) instead.

Crystalline entities

Crystalline entities.

Large, space-borne, semi-sentient, hostile crystals of yellow, red, green, or blue colors, that range from around 100 to 2200 fleet power. Usually they present in groups up to 4-7 fleets with passive stance, so they potentially could be picked one by one, but stronger variations can successfully block prospective systems in the early game. They do not have any FTL capacity.

• Observing them peacefully (the only option for ):
  • : an option to get Prismatic Lenses modifier (+10% output)
  • Other ethics will get special edict that, when a fleet enters a system they are present in, triggers an event that lets them survey the system instantly for 30 .

• More aggressive approach will require the player to hunt and kill one entity and then several more.
  • and will get Crystal Breaker modifier (+20% damage to Crystalline Entities)
  • and will get Greater Crystal Bounty edict available (100 from each Crystalline Entities fleet killed).
  • Other ethics will get smaller Crystal Bounty edict (50 from each Crystalline Entities fleet).

Surveying their debris unlocks 4 tiers of Shard Thrower (slightly different form of lasers, according to their colors), two unique types of Crystal Plating (on Elite Entities remains only), that greatly increases hull points instead of armor, as well as Regenerative Hull Tissue tech.

Crystal Prism

Crystal prism.

The home system of the crystalline entities contains the Crystal Nidus (4.9k Fleet Power) orbiting a pulsar. It is guarded by 4 fleets ranging from 2000 to 4000 fleet power and some kind of base with 4000 fleet power. Upon discovery (and if the player already researched the crystalline entities) you will get a research project which when completed will gift you 25% research progress with the crystal-forged plating tech.

Ancient mining drones

Ancient mining drones.

Ancient mining drones operate in pairs of one fleet and one station. Mineral and energy-rich systems may have quite a few of these stations.

Encountering mining drones and researching them provides the following options:

• Observing them peacefully:
  • : an option to get Droning Optimizations edict (+10% output)
  • Other ethics will get a list of mineral-rich planetoids, which can be quite far away.
• The more aggressive approach will require the player to "disassemble" one drone fleet. Rewards are the same for all: access to Drone Bounty edict (+50 from each drone fleet destroyed; every station counts as separate fleet for that).

Their stations have irrelevant weaponry only, but the fleet is a considerable danger early on. Each fleet consist of a bunch of ships totaling at or close to 500 fleet power. They consist of the following ship classes:

• Destroyers (900 HP, 22 Armor, 75 Fleet Power)
• Combat Drones (450 HP, 10 Armor, 53 Fleet Power)
• Mining Drones (200 HP, 10 Armor, 19 Fleet Power)

They use energy weapons and armor only, and possess no FTL capability. They drop salvage for the unique Cutting Lasers weapons.

Processing hub

Processing hub.

Similar to the crystalline entities, the mining drones possess a special home system. It consists of 2 normal mining stations and the Home Base Ore Grinder (2.2k fleet power; 40k HP; 24 drones and gamma laser). Each station is guarded by two fleets - one purely destroyers, one mining and combat drones easily summing up to 1000 Fleet power or more. Still, compared to the crystalline entities they are by far the easier target.

Upon reaching the system the player can choose to get the "The Processing Hub" special project (300 engineering), which grants on completion the Droning Optimizations edict (+10% output), or 2000 if you already have it. Destroying the station can yield Gamma Lasers on top of the normal salvaged technology, as well as adding a massive mineral income (+10 or more) to the asteroid next to the Processing Hub.

Void cloud

The Void Cloud.

These wisp-like beings possess a hostile attitude and will engage aggressively. They appear in two forms -- solitary (approximately 550 military power; generate shield when entering combat) in regular star systems, and in a pair of stronger groups (approximately 2200 fleet power per pair) in black hole systems. If a void cloud destroys two fleets, it will procreate a new void cloud. Void clouds do not possess FTL capability.

Encountering them and researching the event that appears in the situation log will create an event with the following options:

• Observing them peacefully:
  • : Grand Design modifier (+10% ) for 20 years.
  • Other ethics:
    • An option to get a reward of Physics research and Cloudbuster modifier (+10% damage to clouds).
    • An option to trace all systems where void clouds are present.

• Only and have an aggressive option
  • : -10% for three years.

Surveying their remains unlocks a reverse-engineered technology: Cloud Lightning Conduits.

Tiyanki

The "Tiyanki" gas grazers.

These passive creatures migrate in groups of three between star systems, grazing upon the local gas giants that they find. Even when provoked, they are unlikely to attack anyone they encounter, primarily gas giant stations will suffer their wrath. They do not possess an event chain, just lore description. As long as they are passive, they will not cause civilian ships with the Evasive stance to flee. Their entire species may turn hostile if you attack a Tiyanki group.

Completing their special project will unlock the Frequency Tuning technology.

Pirates

A space pirate base.

Space pirates will spawn for any default empire having a mining or research station outside their home system. According to the lore these are citizens of the players empire, that took to piracy. A random system close to the player will be marked as pirate system and a first fleet and a pirate base will spawn. They are equipped with the players weapon and FTL choice. If the player uses wormhole, they will also have a wormhole station. However, space pirates will not spawn if you are playing as a hive mind. The original and any further spawned fleet will immediately pick a system to "raid", which involves them going for one civil station in the system, killing it and going home.

The fleets consist of around 6 Raider class ships (corvette size). They carry a few basic technologies like shields and armor, as well as T2 weaponry. They will drop salvage to acquire those technologies. The station is equipped with point defense and a single small laser. If it is not destroyed, new pirate fleets will spawn eventually. If it is destroyed, the player will gain a considerable amount of resources via an Event. Haste in killing the pirate (base) may be necessary, as other empires can attack both the fleets and the station if they see them.

Privateers

Privateers

With the Leviathan DLC - in addition to the original space pirates - piracy is also a hazard in the galaxy at large. Known as privateers in this case, these pirates are organized into a number of fleets, with one system being its main base heavily garrisoned by powerful fleets, and a number of other stations in nearby systems garrisoned by Lookout fleets. These fleets are a serious danger to fledgling empires, but by late early game you should be able to at least destroy the Lookout fleets. However, destroying the combined fleet in the main pirate base will likely take longer, or at least several attempts. They field considerable laser and missile weaponry, but will not raid.

The privateer home system contains a Young Blood fleet (around 650 fleet power), the Scarred Veterans (almost 7k fleet power) and the Old Guard, a pirate galleon with a danger level on par with the processing hub, possessing 40k health and massive amounts of armor. The system has nothing but a single pulsar and no known resources. If the player somehow has not gotten the space pirate event when finding the Privateers, a special project will spawn to analyse them. However, no diplomacy will be possible with them. If the player already had space pirates, no special project will appear.

Nomads

We are on a journey down the river of the many voids-between. It has been millennia, but we sail on. The destination we seek being the ocean of the universe. - Nomads when asked about their destination

The Nomads, or Namarians as they call themselves, are a passive millennia old intergalactic race with no homeworld, forever traveling the void in their starships. Once they establish communications the nomads will act as a sort of "bridge" between the player and unknown alien empires, and the player is likely to soon be barraged by a large amount of "Communications Established" events as more and more alien empires are discovered by the nomads, and, by extension, the player. They travel from system to system and their stay in the galaxy is temporary and will eventually set sail for another one. Events related to them can take place during their stay. They trigger based on these percentages:

• 20% to appear after 25 years.
• 25%/40 years
• 25%/55 years
• 30% no nomads

There is little benefit from attacking the Nomads but advanced warp drives and antimatter reactors can be examined in the debris. They may also give you a few ships.

Guardians of Zanaam

A rare special system (special_init_06). Zanaam is a size 25 Gaia world with the Obelisk of Zanaam Unique building. It is guarded by a considerable standing force (4.4 k Fleetpower), which can drag out taking the system. Aside from the namegiving planet, the System has 3 destroyed barren worlds, a extensive asteroid ring and 6 shipwrecks. The planets can have random anomalies as usual.

The Fleet guarding it consits of 24 Guardian Class Destroyers - named from Alpha to Omega, - wich use the Mining Drone Shipset but with a totally different setup. The fleet does not drop debris and has a +100% Fire Rate and +2% Hull Regeneration Buff. Each guardian class crusier has the followign properties:

• 900 hull
• 32% Armor
• 210 Shield
• 2 Medium T3 Disruptors
• 2 Small T3 Plasma Guns
• 2 Medium T5 Armor
• 1 medium T5 Shield
• 1 Large Zeropoint Reactor
• They have no engine, computer sensor or FTL component listed. However their Shipsize (ancient_destroyer) grants Warp FTL, 30% Evasion and 1.5 Combat Speed (based values for a destroyer).

Upon entering the System, the player is given a message stating they will be destroyed. The Fleet is hostile, however it is not set to agressive, simply blocking any approach to the planet to colonise or even survey it. After they are defeated, the planet can be colonised as usual.

Enclaves

An enclave.

Enclaves are neutral NPC spawned factions. They do not own any planets but consist of a large enclave station. Depending on the map a 2nd and even 3rd Station might spawn. They primarily exist to be interacted with via Diplomacy Menu using the "Others" filter. There are 3 types of enclaves: Curators, Artisans and Traders. Each of them has between 1-2 basic interactions and one restricted interaction that can only be used after an Opinion of at least 50 is reached. Their maximum Opinion is 100 and an empire builds opinion with them by using their services or having them inside your borders. All actions are repeatable, but some of the actions also have an increasing cost every time they are chosen. The price increase is the same across all sub-enclaves of a certain kind, but the Opinion build is tied to one specific station.

Fanatic Purifiers cannot conduct diplomacy with the enclaves, their only reply being "Xeno Scum" to enclaves. As such their only profitable course of action is destroying the enclaves.

Curators

The Curators are an ancient order dedicated to preserving knowledge. Their primary resources is energy credits. They give the following diplomatic options:

• Purchase Star Charts. For 500/1000/1500 energy credits Survey Data for 5/10/15 Systems not yet explored by the player can be purchased. These systems do include Fallen Empires Space, but not necessarily ones protected by hostile Spaceborne entities (in particular bosses). Beware - as of 1.41, worlds revealed by star charts do not need surveying, rendering quests that require survey of a particular planet uncompletable, and also nullifying any potential anomalies that may have been discovered upon surveying.
• Purchase Scientific Help. For Energy Credits grants the 10 year "Curator Insight" Buff to the empire, which increases all Science by +15%. Also allows 2 Special Curator Labs for science Ships to be drawn as techcard. Cost depends on number of pops in empire:

Pops	Energy cost
0-60	1000
61-120	2000
121-180	3000
181-240	4000
241+	5000

• "Tell us about the Mysteries of the Universe". Allows gathering information regarding the Guardians on the map.
  • Adds the position of a thus far not known Guardian to the Situation Log, where it can be tracked from
  • (free) Gives Background information about each Specific Guardian.
  • Against most Guardians, they can provide a permanent +25% damage buff for 5000 Energy.
  • Against others they can give detail interactions. If those tie into the interactions with the (defeated) Guardian is not clear.
• (restricted to +50 opinion or higher) Hire scientist. Gives a Level 5 Scientist with the "Curator" trait (+15% Research Speed, +25% Survey Speed, -15% Anomaly Fail Risk; works like Maniacal for many rare/restricted techs). Only one curator scientist can be hired at any given time, even with multiple stations.

Establishing contact with curators will also unlock the curator archaeology and exploration labs for science ships.

Artisans

The Artisan Troupe are artists and entertainers. Their main resources are minerals. They can help boost Governing Ethics Attraction, Unity and Happiness. Unlike other Enclaves, all Stations make a single enclave and all other stations are marked on the Galaxy view upon making contact with any part.

• Buy Monument. Buys a single instance of the Planet Unique "Art Monument" for 1000 Minerals (+10% Happiness, +10 Unity, and +50% Migration Attraction for the planet).
• Become Patron. Costs 5000 energy credits and lasts for 10 years, granting a +15% unity gain and steadily raising the enclave's opinion. In addition, it also allows Patron Events to trigger, however one should earmark resources for those.
  • The 4 newsletter events give the option to convert 500 Minerals into 50 Influence.
  • The more important one grants access to the Empire Unique "Ministry of Culture" (+10% Happiness and +6 Unity on Planet, +10% Governing Ethics Attraction and +10% Unity on Empire) for 1000 Energy and 1000 Minerals.
• (restricted)Hold Festival. For Energy, Minerals and Influence grants the "Festival of Worlds" Buff for 5 years which boosts Happiness and Growth. Also can trigger additional events like Artisans wanting to settle (the settled pops may later leave, stealing resources. This should lock out communication for 10 years, but might bug it out forever) or a stampeded breaking out.

Traders

Traders are merchants and as expected their only concern is profit. Traders grant the following options:

• Trade for Minerals. Turns Energy into Minerals at a ratio of 2:1
• Trade for Energy Credits: Turns Minerals into Energy Credits at a ratio of 2:1
• Trade for Strategic Resource: Requires +50 Trader Opinion. Grants access to a unique strategic resource for 10 years, at the cost of 1000 energy. There will be an automatic request to renew the deal after it runs its course. Resources vary based on which specific trader Enclave is encountered and all 3 can be acquired at the same time:
  • XuraCorp gives access to XuraGel (Habitability +5%)
  • Muutagan Merchant Guild gives access to Muutagan Crystal (Governing Ethics Attraction +10%)
  • Riggan Commerce Exchange gives Riggan Spice (Happiness +5%)

Every other empire offers more balanced trade deals so unless everyone has a negative attitude the trading options serve only to build up opinion enough to obtain the strategic resources.

Destroying Enclaves

While enclaves will never become hostile to any empire except in retaliation, they can be attacked like any neutral entity. With over 10k fleet power they are no easy prey but various rewards can be salvaged from their remnants, depending on the type of enclave destroyed. Their stations are equipped with at least the following weapons at top tier:

• 1 Titan Laser
• Large Slots: 1 of each Plasma, Disruptor, Missile, Gamma Laser and 2 Kinetic Artilleries
• Medium. 2 of each Disruptor, Flak and Swarmer Missiles
• 4 Point Defense guns
• Torpedoes: 2 Torpedoes and 1 Energy Torpedo
• Small: 3 of both Autocannons and Missiles
• 6 Large Zero-Point reactors, 6 Large Armor, 8 Large Shields, 3 Shield Recharges and T4 Sensors

Destroying an artist or trade enclave will let you salvage 2000 Energy Credits and Minerals. Destroying a curator enclave will let you salvage their databanks worth of 1000 research in all fields. Attacking a curator or artisan enclave will make every other enclave of the same type unavailable for trade.

Destroying a curator or trader enclave brings a small and temporary opinion reduction towards most other empires. Destroying an artisan enclave will not, likely due to their tendency to steal when they organize festivals.

Guardians

We are but motes of dust. - The reaction of most empires when they encounter a guardian for the first time

Guardians are extremely powerful hostile Spaceborne aliens found in specific, predetermined systems and even rivaling moons in size and mass. They can easily be identified by the Skull where normally the Military Power is shown. They are the namesake of the Leviathan Story pack, which is required to meet them. While one can just stumble over one during exploration, they can also be found with the help of the curator enclave. Leviathans have an immense amount of health (in the Millions) and should only be engaged mid-late game. They all use various energy weapons. There are eight types of guardians in game, each of them has a unique event chain. A specialised fleet of about 20k Fleet Power is needed to have a real chance against any guardian on normal difficulty. On higher they received +25% or +50% Weapon Damage and Hitpoint bonus. Note that sharing starmaps tends to break the proper marking of a leviathan on the map. Where applicable, tips for locating them have been added. Starclasses are given in the ingame file versions.

Ether Drake

Ether Drake is the one appears on the cover of Leviathan Expansion. It can move extremely fast with planetary system with max speed of 20 (in comparison, max speed of corvette is 5.25 without additional components).

Defeating Ether Drake will have following benefits:

• Admiral who leads the fleet defeating the Ether Drake will gain Dragon Slayer trait, increasing +10% Fire Rate and +10% Combat Speed.
• Xenophile and/or Spiritualists gain access to the Empire Unique Building, Ether Drake Shrine (Planetary Happiness +10%)
• Its home world, Dragon Hoard, is a very wealthy planet with +30/+30. Putting a mining station on it will eventually provide two special rewards:
  • Enable researching of Artificial Dragonscales (Level 6 Armor, MTTH 1200 months).
  • Issue a special project to incubate Dragon Egg, a chance to get a Baby Drake (MTTH 2400 months).

Tactical: This guardian has exceptional armor but no shields and should accordingly be engaged with Armor-skipping weapons. Both long-range bombardment with lances and short-range engagements with small high evasion ships seems likely to succeed. The equipment includes: One Main Gun (the Titan Laser like Breathweapon), 8 secondary weapons, 4 tertiary weapons, 4 Dragon Armor and 2 Self-heal items. Some of the guns reportedly work as Point-Defense.

If the player deals at least 20% of its total HP in damage, the Dragon will become aggressive and start attacking the players territory. However it will return after wrecking all Stations in two random Systems. If the players does at least 85% damage the dragon will instead return home to hibernate. The Ether Drake's Military power is around 15K

Locating: Only spawns around Orange Dwarfs (K-Class). Searching for "Dragon's Hoard" should enable one to find it.

Stellarite Devourer

The Stellarite Devourer is a spaceborne entity that eats stars. The Stellarite Devourer is very aggressive and will attack any attacking empire if not killed or sufficiently damaged during a battle.

Defeating the Stellarite Devourer will have one of the following benefits:

• Randomly terraform one or more planets in the Stellarite Devourer's system to a mineral and energy rich Gaia world. This process is not guaranteed to succeed.
• Getting the Stellar Devourer Trophy, which grants +2.5% Happiness Empire wide and another +5% on the Planet (Militarist/Xenophobic only).

Tactical: The Stellarite Devourer has long Range Stellar Plasma weapon. On shorter ranges it will start using its Devourer Beam and eventually the Stellar Torpedo, but the Plasma will be the main danger. All weapons except the missiles have high Armor Penetration and they prefer large Ships like Cruisers and Battleships as targets:

• 4 Stellar Plasma, with a very high rate of fire, accuracy, tracking and damage. Also notably the greatest range.
• 1 Devourer Beam (Stellarite Beam), a Lance like weapon, which has long windup, making it appear to have a shorter range than the Plasma. It has noticeably high Shield Damage and Armor Penetration.
• 4 Stellar Torpedoes (Stellarite Missile) that skip right through Shields and can not be evaded, but have no armor penetration. They have the same long windup time as the Beam, but much lower cooldown.
• 8 Stellarite Lasers which operate as Point Defense weapons.

Defensively it seems to have about 50% armor mitigation (possibly from the Computer), 2 Autorepairs, but neither shields nor relevant dodge. It will give chase when between 99.5% and 33% remaining health. A Stellarite Devourer on the move will have a negative effect on every colonized planet in systems it visits (-25% Happiness and Habitability), since it effectively adds a second sun. It will return if healed above or damaged below the chase thresholds. Or left for 90 days.

Locating: It can be located at any F, G, K or M class Star. It will only spawn slightly after the first ship entered its systems.

Automated Dreadnought

Automated Dreadnought is a deadly capital ship with full firepower and solid armor. It can even outperform the best fortress a player empire could design.

Defeating Automated Dreadnought will have following benefits:

• Issue a special project to repair the disabled dreadnought, a chance to get the most powerful battleship in the game. The project is extremely expensive (several thousand Engineering Research), and as of 1.3.1, the ship will spawn with a Top Tier version of the Empire's current FTL technology. However, it cannot be retrofitted with other drives, so keeping off with repairing it might be necessary.
• Scrap it for a massive income in Minerals

Tactical: The Dreadnought has decent shields, but comparatively weak armor. The main weapons are 2 Large Disruptors and 4 Large Plasma Cannons. Its secondary armament consist of 2 Small disruptors, 3 Point Defenses, and 3 Small Plasma Cannons. Its defenses are 6 Large Neutronium Armor, 7 Large Shields, 3 Shield Capacitors, 2 Auto-Repairs, and a Cruiser Combat Computer 4. Shield breaking or skipping attacks are absolutely necessary to fight it.

Because of its use of Cruiser AI, a repaired Dreadnaught will typically move ahead of your battleships and draw a lot of fire from enemy long range weapons (which seem to prefer the biggest target in the fleet). The Dreadnaught can become a damage soak in this role, as it typically is sturdy enough to survive the first 30 days of combat, and can then emergency retreat when it becomes too damaged. Keep it in a separate fleet, preferably with a Trickster or Unyielding admiral assigned to it. Doing so can prevent a significant amount of punishment on your own fleet and gives you a tactical advantage.

Location: It can spawn around any A, B, F, G, K or M class star. The System always contains a Size 16 and a Size 20 Colonizable Planet.

Dimensional Horror

The Dimensional Horror exists only halfway within the known universe and looks like monsters from Cthulhu Mythos. It never moves but is capable of attacking anything in the system.

Defeating the Dimensional Horror will leave behind a dimensional rift that once examined will increase progress of jump drive by 50%, and permanently enable its research if the player hasn't completed it. If jump drives are already researched examining the rift will grant several thousand engineering and physics research.

Tactical: The Dimensional Horror has exceptional range and is able to use all of its weapons against anything that enters the system. It is highly advised to jump in as close to the Horror's physical position as possible to shorten the time to come into weapon range. It has 5 weapon types:

• 1 Dimensional Beam, a weapon that seems to operate like a Lance. It skips right through Shields and Armor. It seems to have a low Accuracy and Tracking and its damage contribution is marginal at best
• 2 large Dimensional Strikers. These Weapons have a very high shield drain.
• 2 Medium Ripper. Usually dealing the bulk of the Damage. Has good Accuracy, Tracking and Shield breaking effect.
• 2 Small Render. Exceptional Accuracy/Tracking. 2nd highest damaging weapon.
• 4 Dimensional Guard PD. Extremely low damage and weakness against Shields and Armor.

Defensively it has 3 Auto Repair and 80% Armor Mitigation. It has about Destroyer-level Evasion, but accuracy and armor penetration seems more important in weapon selection. It seems to prefer attacking Battleships and Corvettes/Destroyers, and seem to hit Cruisers last. Armored cruisers with small-medium plasma Weapons should be most effective.

Given the massive range of its arsenal, positioning your fleet in a system that is oriented as close to the Horror as possible can be advantageous, allowing you to attack sooner by jumping in right on top of it.

Location: It will only spawn in a Black Hole System. The high range makes it possible for a science ship to be killed before it can even send the first day scan home, meaning it is not marked on the map.

Spectral Wraith

Spectral Wraith is special kind of life born near pulsars. It is by far the most mobile guardian and players may encounter it without being the ones to trigger it. At the same time, a player may never see it as it wanders indiscriminately and may blunder into a Fallen Empire where it will meet with a swift and untimely demise. It has three different colors: red, yellow and blue. Each color is weakened when in the proximity of a certain kind of star (Frequency Sync, -50 Armor and Evasion Multiplied by -1) and uses a specific spectrum emitter. As such combat should be contained to systems with the proper star and the weapontypes can be predicted. The Wraith does not spawn directly upon entering the System, but will instead spawn about 40 years after anyone scanned the Pulsar in its spawn system.

The colors and star classes are:

• Red: M Class/Red Dwarfs; 450THz
• Yellow: G Class/Yellow Dwarfs; 520THz
• Blue: A or B Class/blue and blue-whtisch Stars; 650THz

Defeating Spectral Wraith will have following benefits:

• +5% physics research speed, +5% energy weapon damage and +10% energy production on surface.

Tactical All Wraiths have 6 Large Guns, 2 Auto Repairs, Guardian Warp, Cruiser Computer 4, Thrusters and Sensors 3. However which type of gun it has in those slots depends on the Wraith. Also actually catching the Wraith might be harder than defeating it.

Infinity Machine

The Infinity Machine is a smooth spherical object orbiting a black hole called Gargantua. It is the only neutral guardian.

A year or two after discovering it the Infinity Machine will send out a transmission and starting a special project to contact it. After the project is completed a peaceful contact will be established, revealing that the Infinity Machine is surprisingly talkative although it perceives time non-linearly. Some ethos can try saying the liar paradox although the technosphere immediately recognizes it and finds it boring. You can offer to help it in its quest to understand infinity and start a very lengthy special project at the black hole that can only be done by a level 5 scientist. Finishing the project will have one of the following outcomes.

• The project fails but the Infinity Machine will acknowledge your effort and reward you with either the Sentient AI or the Zero Point Power technology. If you researched both it will grant your empire a +5% research bonus.
• The project succeeds and the Infinity Machine enters the black hole. A hull fragment will remain, granting you either the Sentient AI or the Zero Point Power technology as well as 150 . In addition the black hole will get a 4 research production.
• Very rarely after the Infinity Machine enters the black hole, Gargantua will shrink to a smaller size, changing name to Pantagruel. The events describe this as a micro-universe, but functionally it is a black hole with a 10 research production. This grants the achievement Infinite Creation if not already obtained. Building a research station or frontier outpost over the black hole will also add the Mirror of Knowledge modifier, granting +10% research across all fields.

Alternatively the Infinity Machine can be attacked, forcing it to open and become aggressive. Destroying it will allow the Infinity Machine to be broken down for a large bonus of minerals and influence, or study its nature for advances in robotics.

Depending on empire ethos, another non-aggressive option can be available after the investigation project is completed.

• and empires can declare the Infinity Sphere a divine object, granting a +5% happiness empire unique modifier.
• and empires can attempt to destroy the Infinity Sphere to either gain massive and or instantly gain 50% progress on Synthetics.
• and empires can attempt to hack the Infinity Sphere. Chance is 5% but if successful, it permanently grants a +3% research bonus as well as either the Sentient AI or the Zero Point Power technology. If you have both you will gain between 1000 and 2000 research points.

Tactical: The Infinite machine is equipped with the following Equipment:

• 2 Bomber and 2 Fighter Hangars.
• 1 Lance Weapon
• 3 Large, 3 Medium and 9 small Gamma Lasers
• 6 Point Defenses
• 20(twenty) Large Shield Generators
• 2 Rechargers, 2 Auto Repairs, T4 Battleship Computer.
• Oddly only T3 Thrusters and Sensors

Location: It always spawns in a Blackhole System called "Gargantua", making it the most predictable and easy to find guardian.

Horizon Signal

If the Horizon Signal event chain has been started entering the Gargantua system, whether it's the first time or not, will have the Infinity Machine will contact you surprisingly not in a non-linear tone and will ask you for 800 energy and minerals. Refusing with either of the two options will have the technosphere ask you again next time you enter the system. If you accept it will absorb the resources and disappear into the black hole the same way your ships did and add it a permanent +20 society research points.

Enigmatic Fortress

The Enigmatic Fortress guards various mysterious technologies. Its engagement ring is always visible. It has the longest and most complicated event chains among all guardians. Once disabled, player has different options to explore the fortress. Unlike other guardians, curators do not have any advice regarding fighting it so there is no damage bonus against it.

Successfully investigating the Enigmatic Fortress will have following benefits:

• Gain 24x engineering output (potential yield gain of 2000 - 4000)
• Gain 24x physics output (potential yield gain of 1600 - 3200)
• Gain 24x society output (potential yield gain of 1000 - 2000)
• Unlocks the tech option for one of the following technologies: Enigmatic Power Generation (level 6 reactor), Enigmatic Deflectors (level 6 shield), Enigmatic Encoder (evasion auxiliary component), Enigmatic Decoder (tracking auxiliary component) or Enigmatic Disruption Field (offensive aura for fortress; disrupts both shields and fire rate).

Tactical: The Enigmatic Fortress consists of the following Stations:

• 1 Main Vault: 7 Kinetic Artillery, 1 Enigmatic Decoder, 4 Large Shields, 1 Recharger, 7 Large Armor, 1 Enigmatic Disruption Field; Counts as an extra Large Station
• 2 Guardian: 1 Small Autocannon, 1 Point Defense, 1 Kinetic Artillery, 1 Enigmatic Decoder, 4 large Shields, 1 Recharger, 4 large Armor; Counts as Large Station
• 2 Warden: 1 Small Autocannon, 1 Point Defense, 1 Large and 1 Medium Shield, 3 Recharge, 2 large Armor. Counts as small Station
• 4 Defenders: 1 medium Autocannon, 2 Medium Shields, 1 Shield Recharger, 1 medium Armor; Counts as small Station
• 8 Sentinels: 1 Small Autocanon, 2 small Shields, 1 Shield Recharged, 1 small Armor; They count as extra Small Station

All Weapons and armor are top reserachable Tier, with the Shields and Powersources being of the special "Enigmatic" Tier (effectively T6). The main vault can revive based on poor quest decisions, but is exclusively equipped with Kinetic Artillery - which is also the main weapon of this fight - and carries the Enigmatic Disruption Field. After the Guardian and Warden are removed, it becomes quite Vulnerable to 1.4 or later Torpedoes.

Location: It always spawn around a A Class star (White/Blue Star), possibly with habitable planets.

The following table contains the outcome of every decision:

No.	Choice	Outcome
1	Demolitions Team	Transport ship is destroyed but the explorers enter the fortress
1	Local Power Surge - Go with the higher estimate (-500 energy)	Fortress repowers
1	Local Power Surge - Go with the lower estimate (-50 energy)	The explorers enter the fortress
2	Place metal rings around the remaining two poles	Fortress repowers
2	Search for torus-shaped indentations on the bulkhead	Fortress repowers
2	Rearrange the metal tori on the poles	Expedition proceeds
2	Remove center and rightmost poles from the pedestal	Fortress repowers
3	Home System Research - The beginning	Fortress repowers
3	Home System Research - The middle	Event success
3	Home System Research - The end	Fortress repowers
3	Supply Dark Matter	Event success
3	Use Force (1 military ship)	Catastrophic explosion. The fortress and all ships in the system are destroyed and all the solid planets are turned into molten worlds.
3	Black Hole Research	Event success

Should the timer be left to expire at any point the fortress will repower.

Hive Asteroid

Asteroid hives are lurkers living in crystal asteroid systems. They are the only guardian that doesn't have any unique benefits when defeated, except for some energy and a large amount of society research points. However, their home system itself is one of the biggest treasures in the universe. The hive system contains five crystal asteroids, with 3 having 6 and 2 having 8 for a total of 34 . When the system is discovered you will receive a message mentioning that something is not alright there. Attempting to mine the crystalline asteroids will prompt the hivers to attack shortly after finishing the station.

Tactical: Their only equipment is 3 Unique "Hive Strike Craft" Hangars (for 60 Strike Craft) and an Auto repair per Asteroid. The asteroids belong to a unique station Size class. Accordingly, point defense is the most important weapon to bring to this fight. The MTTH is 100 years, times 0.3 for every mine built on a crystalline asteroid. As such it might be possible to mine a few of the asteroids and still break even when the hivers appear.

A Fleet of about 50 Destroyers with Point Defense Focus is well enough capable of killing the hives, by engaging them one after the other. However the proximity of the Hives means that quite often going into Firing position on one of them will draw in the fighters from the next. The swarmers operate like bombers (Skip Shields, Problem hitting corvettes) making armor most advisable as defense.

Location: It can spawn around any A, B, F, G, K and M class star. If the system is surveyed, the amount of 30+ Minerals should easily allow one to identify the system.

Tips

• Besides special rewards, there are also options to get mineral, energy, influence or research bonuses. However, in most cases, choosing these rewards means unique guardian techs are no longer available.

• As they defend the most valuable treasures in the universe, fighting the guardians is unimaginably difficult. They have incredibly high HP, armor and shield, as well as HP and shield regen speed. Without a proper fleet, it is impossible to even to breach their defenses and deal effective damage to their hull. If you are finding it difficult to deal damage, try to use weapons that have armor or shield penetration.

• Ether Drake, Stellarite and Dimensional Horror have a very powerful beam attack, dealing massive area damage at long range. Such attacks can easily destroy the player's ships in clusters with only one shot. However, they are not able to attack targets at short ranges. Choosing weapons and fighting range wisely is the first step to slaying these enemies!

• The vault of the Enigmatic Fortress can be repowered accidentally during investigation. Once rebooted, any science ship or boarding troops on it will be killed immediately, and the fortress will attack any remaining fleets within its range. The player has to disable the fortress again before restarting any research on it. Moreover, inappropriate action may result in complete eradication of the star system. In Ironman mode, it is advised to purchase intel from the Curators before starting a campaign against the Enigmatic Fortress.

• The Curator will provide lots of intelligence about the guardians. If some guardians are still undiscovered when communicating with the Curator, their locations can be purchased at cost of 300. The Curator also provides three specific intels about the Spectral Wraith and Enigmatic Fortress, and each of them requires 1000. As for the others, the player may use 5000 to buy a +25% damage buff for corresponding type of guardian.

References

Game concepts