Crisis

Version

This article has been verified for the current PC version (2.6) of the game.

A crisis is an End-Game event that can occur and threatens the entire galaxy, each having the ultimate goal of destroying all life. There is no diplomacy beyond exchanging menacing words with the invaders. Either they are stopped or they eradicate life in the galaxy. Each Crisis has a situation log entry that keeps count of the casualties on both sides and shows how close it is to being defeated and an audio cue that will play in the background and grow more nuanced the more of the galaxy is overrun. Only a single crisis can occur per game.

The Crisis Strength setting determines the stats of each Crisis' ships as well as their weapons damage, scaling from 0.25× to 5.0×. In addition higher difficulties will also make every Crisis more powerful.

When a Crisis starts all non-genocidal regular empires, even some Fallen Empires, will open their borders to facilitate fighting the said Crisis. Each time a Crisis conquers a planet it causes diplomatic Threat with all empires, making them more likely to cooperate against the Crisis. A Fallen Empires will send their fleets against a Crisis if it approaches their borders and may even awaken to help fight it.

The Defender of the Galaxy ascension perk grants +50% damage bonus against Crisis fleets, making it very useful at turning the tide if more conventional means are ineffective.

Crisis triggers

After 50 years into the End-Game the crisis trigger will roll once every 5 years until a crisis takes place, with the following weights

• 10 for the Prethoryn Scourge
  • x2 if more than 60 End-Game years passed
  • x3 if more than 80 End-Game years passed
  • x4 if more than 100 End-Game years passed
• 10 for the Extradimensional Invaders
  • x0 if no default empire has either version of the Jump Drive and the last Unchained Knowledge Resolution was not passed
  • x4 if any default empire has Psi Jump Drives
  • x1.5 if any empire completed the Wanderlust Event chain
  • x2 if the last Unchained Knowledge Resolution was passed
• 10 for the Contingency
  • x0 if no default empire has the Synthetics technology and Mechanical Pops
  • x2 if any default empire has the Synthetics technology and between 25% and 50% Mechanical Pops
  • x4 if any default empire has the Synthetics technology and more than 50% Mechanical Pops
  • x1.5 if the Ancient Caretakers exist
• 120 Nothing

Prethoryn Scourge

Prethoryn Scourge

The Prethoryn Scourge Crisis begins with a notice about subspace echoes beyond the galaxy that are approaching. Immediately a situation log notice called "The Coming Storm" is added.

On a MTTH (Mean Time To Happen) of 50 years, they will be close enough to get the general direction of the swarm. A system at the edge of the galaxy will be marked as the center of the Invasion. The system cannot be within or near a Fallen or Awakened Empire. It will not be an owned system either unless every rim system is claimed. The closest 5 systems are marked for the vanguard fleets. 120 months after that, a transmission will be received from the swarm.

30 months later the Vanguard will arrive with 12 fleets. 200–600 days after the vanguard the main invasion fleet will arrive at the center system. In each vanguard system 3 Star Brood and 3 Transport Fleets will spawn. At this point the Prethoryn Scourge appears in the contact log but cannot be communicated with. If an empire's primary species has the Hive Minded or Psionic traits it will be able to communicate with the crisis but diplomacy is still impossible. If the Galactic Community was formed a Galactic Priority to fight the Prethoryn Scourge becomes available.

The Prethoryn Scourge uses the following mechanics:

• The Prethoryn species itself is immortal so their gestalt pattern admirals will never die of old age.
• The Swarm gets fleets at regular intervals on any system with a spaceport.
  • (monthly) If they have no planet and army they get a fleet of 20 armies
  • (yearly) If their count of Infestors is under 4, they get a fleet of 5 Infestors
  • (yearly) If their count of Infestors is under 4 but they still have at least 10 ships total, they get a fleet of 3 constructors
• Prethoryn constructors will build starbases to expand their territory. Their starbases are as strong as citadels and modified by the Crisis Difficulty setting.
• The Prethoryn Scourge use infestors as colony ships. They will land on uncolonized habitable planets and when the colony development process is complete the planet is turned into an infested world. As with regular colony development and orbital bombardment will instantly interrupt the process.
• Prethoryn transports will invade inhabited planets using ground armies in order to occupy it and purge the Pops. During this phase the planet can be recaptured with ground armies. Once all Pops have been purged the planets will be turned into an infested world.
• Infested Planets cannot be invaded. In order to get rid of the infestation, infested planets must be bombarded until Devastation reaches 100, at which point they will turn into a barren planet that can be terraformed.
• If the Scourge overruns a ring world segment it will destroy it. Ring world segments destroyed by the swarm cannot be rebuilt. Overrun habitats are destroyed entirely and are likewise impossible to rebuild.

When the Prethoryn Scourge is defeated every empire will gain +20 Happiness for 10 years and 700-4000 Unity.

Audio Cue: As the Prethoryn Scourge infests more of the galaxy faint chittering sounds will start to be heard in the background.

Prethoryn Fleets

Vanguard fleets consist of 30 Swarmlings led by an admiral with the Void Swimmer Trait. Star Brood fleets consist of 1 Queen, 8 Brood Mothers, 10 Warriors, and 35 Swarmlings led by an admiral that has a 25% chance to have the unique Hive Affinity Trait. Every 2 years if the Prethoryn Scourge has below 2000 ships and at least 1 infested planet it will get 2 Star Brood fleets, with a third fleet at 20% galactic border coverage, a fourth fleet at 40% border coverage. They may also get Constructors and Infestors with this reinforcement.

Prethoryn Ships have natural armor despite not using armor components. The stats of their weapons are determined by the Crisis Strength setting. Scourge Missiles and Swarm Strikers can be reverse-engineered.

Swarmling	Warrior	Brood Mother	Queen	Starbase
1 Scourge Missile 2 Acid Blast 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Bio Drive Bio Sensor Picket tactics	3 Scourge Missile 2 Acid Blast 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Bio Drive Bio Thrusters Bio Sensor Line tactics	4 Swarm Strikers 2 Acid Blast 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Bio Drive Bio Thrusters Bio Sensor Artillery tactics	4 Scourge Missile 3 Acid Blast 3 Swarm Strikers 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Bio Drive Bio Thrusters Bio Sensor Artillery tactics	5 Scourge Missile 5 Acid Blast 3 Swarm Strikers 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Bio Sensor

Prethoryn Scourge uses unique Prethoryn Army to invade planets. Each transport fleet consist of 20 Armies and do not have a general. Prethoryn Army has 400 health, inflicts 3-6 damage and 6-12 morale damage per day. They deal 100% collateral damage.

Sentinel Order

Sentinel Fleet

If the Prethoryn Scourge covers at least 20% of the galaxy, the Sentinel empire will spawn. If a Fallen or Awakened Empire is present it will spawn next to its borders, otherwise it will spawn next to the borders of a random empire. A new black hole system will be spawned for them and they have Fallen Empire level tech although their fleets will lack strength from repeatable technologies. Every few years the Sentinels will create a fleet as long as they have below 200 ships. Sentinel fleets use the ship appearance of all species archetypes except DLC ones and use top-tier components. Their initial fleet also includes a Fallen Empire titan. Sentinel admirals have the Sentinel Training trait, giving them +20% damage against the Prethoryn Scourge.

If the Prethoryn Scourge covers at least 50% of the galaxy the Sentinels will make a breakthrough in swarm anatomy, giving every empire +20% damage against the Prethoryn Scourge.

Every few years, as long as the Sentinels have more than 30 ships they will offer a one time donation of ships to an empire that destroyed at least 7 Prethoryn fleets and did not attack the Sentinels. Those fleets do not use Naval Capacity and cannot be upgraded. Each fleets consist of the following:

1 battlecruiser	1 battleship	1 cruiser	4 escorts	4 destroyers	8 corvettes
1 Lance T2 2 Laser T5 4 Disruptor T3 2 Strike Craft T3 4 Shield T6 4 Armor T5 2 Shield Capacitor	1 Artillery T2 2 Plasma T3 5 Plasma T3 2 Point-Defense T3 1 Shield T5 5 Armor T5	5 Plasma T3 2 Point-Defense T3 3 Shield T5 3 Armor T5	1 Launcher T2 4 Plasma T3 4 Point-Defense T3 3 Shield T6 3 Armor T5 1 Shield Capacitor	1 Plasma T3 2 Plasma T3 2 Point-Defense T3 3 Shield T5 3 Armor T5	1 Torpedo T2 1 Autocannon T3 1 Shield T5 1 Armor T5

The sentinels do not expand. A few weeks after the Prethoryn Scourge has been defeated their Grand Master will disband the Sentinels.

Captured Queens

There are two queens who can be captured. The first is the Prethoryn Brood-Queen Relic, which can be obtained by one of the empires in the galaxy after winning a random space battles against Prethoryn fleets. The second is an incapacitated queen that can appear in a random system inside the Prethoryn Space if the Prethoryn Scourge is not defeated within a number of decades. A special project will become available there to every empire to tame the queen and the first empire that completes it will gain the domesticated queen as a fleet led by an unchangeable level 8 Fleet Consciousness admiral. Roughly every two months the queen has a 33% chance to add a Warrior to the fleet and a 66% chance to add a Swarmling to the fleet, until the fleet has 30 ships. In addition roughly 100 later if the queen is still alive and the main species is Psionic the queen will reveal that the galaxy the Prethoryn species came from has been extinguished or eclipsed by something and the empire will gain 1000-5000 Physics Research..

Feral Prethoryn

For 15 years after the Prethoryn Scourge has been defeated, every year there is a 10% chance that on a system with a previously infested planet a Feral Prethoryn starbase and 3 Feral Prethoryn fleets will appear. They will not expand but may roam the surrounding systems and fight other Feral Prethoryn swarms. Roaming fleets are made up of 56 Swarmlings.

Successfully repelling the Prethoryn Swarm

Prethoryn swarm entities are heavily armored, attack enemies with missiles and strike craft, along with some acid bursts. Swarmlings possess corvette-level evasion.

Since all their weapons either ignore or cause major damage to shields, and work equally well against armor and hull, combat fleets should protect themselves with point defense, armor, and plating. Use energy weapons that deal bonus damage against both armor and hull to attack.

Empires which lack the means to directly counter the Prethoryn Swarm's fleets should immediately focus on containing its expansion instead. Keeping multiple small fleets of corvettes or destroyers to hunt down their civilian ships and stopping infestations is a viable strategy to limit the spread of the Prethoryn.

If an important planet falls to a Prethoryn invasion, it will take much longer for them to infest it compared to uninhabited planets, as purging takes much longer than infestation.

Prethoryn "Star Brood" fleets are composed of at least one Queen, escorted by Warrior and Brood Mother battleship equivalents, with Spawnling corvettes making up the bulk of the fleet combat strength. A fleet equipped with long-range weapons can expect to destroy a number of Spawnlings before the Prethoryn units are able to return fire, at which point emergency FTL can be used to avoid casualties altogether. By repairing and repeating, this guerrilla tactic can wear down Prethoryn fleets until they are small enough to defeat in a full confrontation.

Salvage should not be forgotten as it unlocks their bio-weaponry, which is most useful against themselves. The starbases are equally good sources of technology as the fleets while being much easier targets.

Infested planets are immediately turned into barren planets once they take enough planet damage. Since the Swarm only can infest habitable worlds, it is possible to starve the Swarm by cornering them and launching surgical strikes toward their planets to render them uninhabitable, thus widening the berth between them and any infestable territory. The Prethoryn will pull any fleets from surrounding systems to defend their planets, so fleets targeting Prethoryn planets must be prepared to face multiple swarm fleets if those have not been dealt with already. AI Empires in particular will use such hit-and-run tactics against infested planets.

Another feasible strategy is to get a Colossus into the area where the Crisis will spawn and breaking all of the planets to starve them, putting your best fleets near the edge of the invasion zone is also helpful, stationing them at the ending for any wormholes leading out of the invasion zone is a must.

Extradimensional Invaders

Extradimensional Unbidden

The Extradimensional Invaders Crisis begins with a note about a massive power surge somewhere in the galaxy. Immediately somewhere in the galaxy a Dimensional Portal, a portal starbase and the main Unbidden fleet will emerge. If the system lies within the borders of an empire the starbase is instantly destroyed. If the Galactic Community was formed a Galactic Priority to fight the Extradimensional Invaders becomes available. 15 days later a second fleet will emerge. Another 15 days later a third fleet will emerge, contact with the Unbidden will open and the location of the Dimensional Portal will be added to the Situation Log. Extradimensional construction ships will start creating starbases in any available system, which expand their territory, reduce their reinforcement arrival time and make the portal invulnerable.

The Dimensional Portal cannot be destroyed until all extradimensional starbases are destroyed. The portal will remain guarded by the main Extradimensional fleet. If the portal system is attacked, then the invaders will recall all of their ships to aid in its defense. If the starbase in the portal system is destroyed, all fleets will remain to guard the system until it is rebuilt, halting their expansion. The empire that destroys the last Dimensional Portal will gain the Extradimensional Warlock Relic as well as a temporary Opinion bonus from everyone.

If an Extradimensional fleet reaches an undefended planet it will drain life from orbit. When the planet reaches 100 Devastation it is turned into a barren world with the Terraforming Candidate modifier. Ring world segments are destroyed by them cannot be rebuilt. Overrun habitats are destroyed entirely and cannot be rebuilt.

The Extradimensional Invaders get additional fleets on 55th, 90th, 180th, 265th, 340th, 425th and 550th days after the portal spawns. Afterwards, unless they have more than 2000 ships, they will receive smaller reinforcement fleets through the portal at regular intervals:

• 0: 1500 days, ±200
• 1: 1300 days, ±200
• 2: 1100 days, 200
• 3: 900 days, ±200
• 4: 600 days, ±200
• 5: 400 days, ±200
• 6: 400 days, ±200
• 7: 300 days, ±100
• 8: 250 days, ±50
• 9: 200 days, ±50
• 10 or more: 150 days, ±50

It should be noted that unlike the other Crises, which provide warning several years in advance, the Extradimensional Invaders will arrive instantly and with no indication where the portal will open.

Audio Cue: As the Extradimensional Invaders consume more of the galaxy a faint wind will start to be heard in the background.

Extradimensional Ships

Extradimensional Aberrant

Extradimensional Vehement

Unbidden, Aberrant and Vehement ships use different names but are identical save for color. All components can be reverse-engineered, including their unique weapons.

Initial fleets consist of 8 battleships, 12 cruisers and 20 escorts led by an Admiral which may get the Dimensional Stutter or Ethereal traits.

Reinforcement fleets consist of 5 battleships, 8 cruisers and 15 escorts led by an Admiral which may get the Dimensional Stutter or Ethereal traits.

Portal Fleets consist of 20 battleships, 30 cruisers and 45 escorts led by an Admiral with the Ethereal trait.

Destroyer	Cruiser	Battleship	Starbase	Portal Starbase
3 Matter Disintegrator 5 Psionic Shield Psi Jump Drive Sensor T4 Line tactics	1 Matter Disintegrator 3 Matter Disintegrator 2 Matter Disintegrator 5 Psionic Shield Psi Jump Drive Sensor T4 Line tactics	3 Matter Disintegrator 4 Matter Disintegrator 2 Matter Disintegrator 5 Psionic Shield Psi Jump Drive Sensor T4 Line tactics	4 Matter Disintegrator 2 Matter Disintegrator 10 Psionic Shield 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Sensor T4	6 Matter Disintegrator 6 Matter Disintegrator 6 Matter Disintegrator 10 Psionic Shield Sensor T4

The Aberrant and the Vehement

When the Unbidden border covers at least 15% of the galaxy a second extradimensional portal will open, bringing up another faction called the Aberrant. A few years later a third portal bringing a third faction called the Vehement will open. While all three factions will be hostile towards life, they are also hostile towards each other.

The new factions have a far shorter delay for the Initial Fleet spawns (1, 5, 15, 30, 45, 60, 150, 350) in order to bring them on even ground with the Unbidden.

Successfully repelling the Extradimensional Invaders

The most efficient fleets are those heavily shielded, and equipped with kinetic weapons to quickly bring down shields and guided weapons to ignore them. Their ships have poor evasion, even when led by an Ethereal admiral.

The player has multiple strategic choices when faced with these Extradimensional Invaders:

• A quick rush after the portal opening might be possible. However, one needs to be able to quickly dispatch the portal guards and initial fleets as they spawn, which requires very powerful fleets.
• Unlike other crises, their initial invasion fleets are much stronger than reinforcements. If the player can effectively clear their initial fleets, reinforcements shouldn't be a problem since they're much weaker than initial ones.
• Salvage should not be forgotten as it unlocks their unique weapons. The starbases are equally good sources of technology as the fleets while being much easier targets. However, the Matter Disintegrator weapons are anti-armour and hull, and the extradimensionals use no armor on their ships, so replacing your weaponry with these is generally a bad idea to fight the invaders.
• If extradimensional invaders claimed lots of systems before normal empires can strike back, player should focus on destroying their starbases and construction ships, since starbases will reduce reinforcement interval.

The arrival of the other extradimensionals are a mixed blessing. On one hand, they might appear in the rear of a large empire or alliance, threatening important worlds and thus the defense against the existing Factions. On the other, all extradimensional factions will begin to fight each other, potentially causing major damage to one another. Once engaged in combat there, the enemy fleets will have difficulty defending any of their starbases and even the portal itself making this a crucial opening to strike at such critical targets.

The Contingency

The Contingency

The Contingency Crisis begins with a signal dubbed the Ghost Signal bouncing across every empire. Every year each empire will be affected by an event, in the following order:

1. Every organic empire that uses them will lose one synthetic pop and every machine empire will lose a machine pop in one of two special events.
2. Every organic empire that uses them will lose another synthetic pop mysteriously.
3. Every empire will get a notification about galaxy-wide synthetic disappearances.
4. Every empire will get a notification about the Ghost Signal growing stronger and how it affects machines and synthetic pops differently.

A year after the final event the Contingency will activate. Every 50 days one of 4 random uninhabitable planets located in systems with Strategic Resources will transform into Sterilization Hub AI world and spawn a defense station, 3 attack fleets, and 3 construction ships and an army fleet. The planets are determined at galaxy generation so reloading a save will not alter the result. If the Galactic Community was formed a Galactic Priority to fight the Contingency becomes available. The hubs can not be invaded and must instead be bombed until they reach 50 Devastation, at which point they turn into broken planets with a deposit of Energy, Minerals and Living Metal and may unlock the technology to harvest it. Colossus owners can also use a World Cracker, Global Pacifier or Divine Enforcer on sterilization hubs but the worlds will not gain a deposit that way.

When a planet is captured by the Contingency it immediately starts the process by purging all pops - organic, synthetic and machine alike. If the planet is recaptured the purges will stop and the planet returns to the original owner. If the purge is completed the planet changes control over to the Contingency. 3 Mechanical pops called Custodian Bots are spawned but the planets will not reinforce the Contingency. Unlike Sterilization Hubs, purged planets can be captured in ground combat. Unlike other crises the Contingency does not ruin ring world segments or habitats.

After all Sterilization Hubs are destroyed a new system will appear at the ends of the galaxy. The system contains a 5th and final AI world, Nexus Zero-One, guarded by 1 Final Core and 4 AI Core Stations. When Nexus Zero-One is destroyed, the Contingency deactivates, all its ships self-destruct, infiltration events and special projects end and the Ghost Signal is removed. The empire that destroys Nexus Zero-One will gain the Isolated Contingency Core Relic. The planet does not create any deposit when destroyed.

Audio Cue: As the Contingency sterilizes more of the galaxy a mainframe will start to be heard in the background.

The Ghost Signal

After the Contingency activates, the Ghost Signal will start to affect every synthetic pop and even ships with the Sapient Combat Computer. It is measured in 5 levels and starts at 5. The Ghost Signal will lose strength each time a Sterilization Hub is destroyed, lessening its effects.

Autonomous Ship Intellects used by Gestalt Consciousness are immune to the ghost signal.

Synthetically Ascended species are also immune to the Ghost Signal.

Machine Intelligence Empires are affected differently as the Contingency attempts to breach their core and take over the central AI. And as such the bulk of processing resources is redirected to the Firewall to prevent that, significantly reducing the efficiency of their drone workers. While a lower penalty per pop, given the demographic nature of these Empires it might be a much bigger penalty. As they are much more heavily affected, Machine Intelligence Empires will get the special project "Blocking the Ghost Signal". The cost is 600 + 100 * Pop count Engineering. Finishing it will remove its effects.

Ghost Signal Strength	Mechanical Pop penalty	Sapient Computer penalty	Machine Drone penalty	Contingency fleet reinforcements (per hub)	Contingency army reinforcements (per hub)
5	−70% Job Resources and Government Ethics Attraction	−50% Fire Rate and Tracking	−40% Minerals, Energy and Science	one fleet every 1600 days +/- 200	one army every 700 days +/- 200
4	−55% Job Resources and Government Ethics Attraction	−40% Fire Rate and Tracking	−25% Minerals, Energy and Science	one fleet every 1500 days +/- 200	one army every 1000 days +/- 200
3	−40% Job Resources and Government Ethics Attraction	−30% Fire Rate and Tracking	no effect	one fleet every 1400 days +/- 200	one army every 1300 days +/- 200
2	−25% Job Resources and Government Ethics Attraction	−20% Fire Rate and Tracking	no effect	one fleet every 1300 days +/- 200	one army every 1600 days +/- 200
1	−10% Job Resources and Government Ethics Attraction	−10% Fire Rate and Tracking	no effect	no reinforcements	no reinforcements

Synthetic Infiltration

While the war rages among the stars, organic, machine and syntheticallly-ascended empires might have issues at home as well.

The first infiltration attempt will invariably fail. The second infiltration will happen 120 days afterwards and will make every organic and synthetic empire targetable for infiltration events. It will also grant the Synth Detection project within a year. Completing this project grants the Voight-Kampff achievement and a large amount of unity. Until completed every year each organic and synthetic empire has a 30% chance to get the Terror Gatekeeper event, which will trigger a damaging infiltration event. Aside from Synth Bombing each event can only happen once. The weights are the following:

• 40% Synth Bombing: On a random planet three worked buildings are ruined and the pops working them killed. The empire will then get -10% Unity for 6 years.
• 10% Spaceport Scuttled: A random starbase is destroyed.
• 10% Fear and Suspicion: A random planet gets -20 Stability for 20 years.
• 10% Ruler Assassination Attempt: 70% chance the ruler escapes and gain some Influence, 30% chance the ruler is killed.
• 10% Scientist Exposed as Synth: A scientist leader is killed.
• 10% Admiral Exposed as Synth: An admiral leader is killed.

Hive Mind and Psionic empires cannot be infiltrated. Instead, the first infiltration event will describe how their population cannot be infiltrated and how the Contingency will not try further infiltration on them. Infiltrated empires that take the Transcendence ascension perk will also become immune to infiltration.

Warning Signs

Instead of infiltrations, Machine Intelligences are attacked more directly by the Ghost Signal. They will get a security breach event that will make every machine empire targetable. Until the "Blocking the Ghost Signal" project is completed or the Ghost Signal strength drops below 4 each year every machine empire has a 30% chance to get the Terror Gatekeeper event, which will trigger a damaging subversion event. Aside from Unit Stack Error each event can only happen once. Chances are equal for each event.

• Spaceport Scuttled: A random starbase is destroyed.
• Science Unit Terminated: A scientist leader is terminated.
• Military Unit Terminated: An admiral leader is terminated.
• Power Grid Malfunction: Three Power Plants or Power Hubs and the pops working them are destroyed.
• Contingency Intrusion Averted: Contingency sabotage fails, no effect.
• Unit Stack Error: Errors are detected in a unit stack, which may be caused by the Ghost Signal. You are given the option to either terminate the units (no pop is actually terminated) or wait. If you choose the latter after 120 it will turn out to be either:
  • 65% A false alarm. Nothing happens.
  • 35% A true alarm. A random planet gets +10% Devastation and loses 4 Pops.

The Cybrex

Originally one of the Precursor empires, the Cybrex will resurface to help fight the Contingency if it sterilizes over 20% of the Galaxy. At the edge of the galaxy the Cybrex Beta ringworld system will spawn. All Empires will be contacted immediately. The Cybrex will construct a new fleet every few years as long as they have below 300 ships. The Cybrex function analogous to the Sentinels of the Swarm Crisis, except they will only donate ships after 100 destroyed fleets and will take them back a month after the crisis ends.

Cybrex ships are identical to the Contingency's save for the color. Each fleet is led by an admiral with the Cybrex Databases trait, giving it +10% Evasion and Fire Rate and +20% Damage to the Contingency.

The Cybrex do not expand. A few weeks after the Contingency was defeated they will depart from the galaxy, leaving Cybrex Beta free for the taking.

Ancient Caretakers

A few days after the first sterilization hub is revealed if the Ancient Caretakers are present in the galaxy they will awaken and the Contingency will attempt to corrupt their civic. The Ancient Caretakers have a 66% chance of gaining the Final Defense Directives civic (Guardians of the Galaxy awakening) and a 33% chance of gaining the Corrupted Defense Directives civic and start attacking every other empire (Berserkers). The chance to awaken as Custodians or Berserkers is rolled at the start of the game so reloading a previous save will not alter the result.

5 years later other Fallen Empire may awaken as a Guardians of the Galaxy as usual, allowing up to 3 Guardian empires against the Crisis.

Once the Contingency is defeated if the Ancient Caretakers awakened as Guardians they will shut down, leaving their ringworlds free for the taking.

Contingency Ships

Sterilizer	Euthanizer	AI Core	Master Core	Starbase
1 Launcher T2 1 Plasma Cannon T3 2 Laser T5 4 Shield T5 4 Armor T5 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Hyperdrive T3 Thrusters T4 Sensor T4 Sapient Computer (Picket)	1 Lance T1 2 Plasma Cannon T3 3 Laser T5 1 Point Defense T2 4 Shield T5 4 Armor T5 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Hyperdrive T3 Thrusters T4 Sensor T4 Sapient Computer (Line)	1 Titan Lance 4 Lance T1 2 Plasma Cannon T3 4 Laser T5 4 Plasma Cannon T3 2 Point Defense T3 8 Seeker Drones 10 Shield T5 10 Armor T5 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Sensor T4	4 Titan Lance 4 Lance T1 2 Plasma Cannon T3 4 Laser T5 4 Plasma Cannon T3 2 Point Defense T3 16 Seeker Drones 10 Shield T5 10 Armor T5 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Sensor T4	1 Lance T1 1 Laser T5 4 Plasma Cannon T3 2 Point Defense T3 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Sensor T4

Roaming fleets consist of 10 euthanizers and 20 sterilizers led by an Admiral with random skill.

Hub fleets consist of 25 euthanizers and 50 sterilizers led by an Admiral with random skill.

Special Weapons: The Contingency uses stock weapons, with only one exception - Seeker Drones:

• 10 Units per Hangar
• 100 HP, 50 Armor, 50 Shield, 80% Evasion per Unit
• 19-21 Damage with 100% accuracy and no tracking, 20 Range, 8 CD, 100% Shield Penetration, 66% Armor Penetration

Contingency uses Android Assault Army to invade worlds. Each transport fleet consist of 20 Android Assault Army and do not have a general.

Successfully repelling the Contingency

Contingency warforms use lots of shield and armor to protect their relatively fragile hull, so penetrating weapons (Arc Emitter, Disruptor etc.) work best against them. Defensively, attackers should stack as many shields as they can to counter their pure energy weaponry.

The initial Fleet spawned with the hub systems is considerable and planets in the Hub Systems will often have fallen before the first fleet has mobilised. Colonies in the Hub Systems are generally a writeoff until the roaming fleets have been dealt with.

Even if identified beforehand, hubs normally cannot be prevented from awakening. If the planet is destroyed through the World Cracker Colossus, the shattered world will simply reform into the sterilization hub. Military starbases on the star will be abandoned if there are no colonies there, rendering any resources spent moot. If fleets are parked in the system, the Contingency will spawn an armada of much greater power than standard. The only known method of preempting them is to build at least a ringworld frame in the system, although this also eliminates all other planets.

The first order is generally to destroy any roaming fleets (if they attack one's planets). The Contingency fleets already spawned are generally not likely to rush to the aid of a planet or hub. They are more likely to attack another target than defend.

Destroying the hubs is the ultimate goal. Their hub fleets will always stay with the Hub, making it a hard target together with the AI Core and the starbase. While destroying one of the hubs does reduce the reinforcement intervals, the reduction in spawn cycles running in parallel should be a net advantage.

The End of the Cycle

This crisis is not an official crisis, meaning it can still occur even if the game doesn't allow an endgame crisis to happen. It is the most threatening crisis in the game so far. Due to not being an official crisis, the other empires won't rally to face it, nor will any fallen empire awaken as guardians, all due to every AI empire considering it to be the unstoppable end.

The End of the Cycle can only be caused by an empire that has chosen the Transcendence Ascension Perk. Extremely rarely upon entering the Shroud, the empire is offered the option to form a Covenant with an entity known as "The End of the Cycle." If the offer is accepted, the empire will gain an empire-wide modifier - "Covenant: End of the Cycle", which provides a massive +100% boost to Resource Output and Naval Capacity for 50 years. Hovering over it will end with There will be a reckoning. Every planet belonging to that empire and any of its vassals gains the Shroud-Marked modifier, which warns Something very bad is going to happen here.

As soon as the 50 years have elapsed and the Covenant: End of the Cycle modifier has expired, the Reckoning occurs.

The Reckoning

The Reckoning will all but end the empire that benefited from the covenant and instantly destroy all its vassals. When the Reckoning occurs, all Shroud-Marked planets will be depopulated and turned into 'Shrouded Worlds', which become uninhabitable forever. All fleets and ships under the Shroud-Marked empire's command will be instantly destroyed, all leaders are killed, and all resources from that empire's store will be drained almost completely. Having lost everything, the Shroud-Marked empire will survive only in the form of a newly colonized planet of survivors, which will start with the default name of 'Exile'. The game will pick any planet with 40% habitability or more, even if it is located within another empire's borders. If that planet is somehow Shroud-Marked, or no planet is otherwise possible, the game is instantly lost.

Every regular empire will gain a −1000 Opinion modifier with the remnant of the Shroud-Marked empire for "bringing the end", with a decay rate of 5.

Every Shroud-Marked colony will spawn a shroud manifestation. Finally, an immensely powerful Shroud entity known as "The Reckoning" - representing the combined essence of all deceased psionic individuals in the former empire that summoned it – will appear over the empire's former homeworld, and proceed to seek out the remaining life in the galaxy. It normally leaves the exiles for last, and therefore the exile empire should first prioritize surviving against other empires instead and trying to expand if possible.

In this state, one might benefit from the Reckoning, depending on the circumstances. If all the other empires are destroyed by the Reckoning before they defeat the player, one can simply win the conquest victory by virtue of being the last one left.

As the Reckoning randomly targets worlds to destroy, its power will increase as it consumes more pops (up to 5000 pops). It gains bonuses to hull, shield, fire-rate, damage, and shield regeneration as follows:

Devoured pops	Health	Shield	Shield regen bonus	Attack cooldown	Damage	Other stats
<500	60,000	150,000	100	2.17	4x 600–1400	5x Jumpdrive Range 30% Evasion
<1000	110,000	250,000	200	1.45	4x 900–2100
<2500	160,000	350,000	300	1.08	4x 1200–2800
<5000	210,000	450,000	400	0.87	4x 1500–3500
>5000	260,000	550,000	500	0.72	4x 1800–4200

There are only two courses of action that have the slightest chance of defeating The Reckoning. One is to wait for it to target an Awakened- or Fallen Empire, another crisis or any strong empire with tough fleets to weaken it. The other option is to keep building up for the eventual encounter alone since The Reckoning will usually leave the exiles for last. The Reckoning has relatively low tracking, as it is a single entity, but its range, firepower, fire rate, health, shields and shield regeneration are massive.

For all its might, if an empire (including the exiles) is powerful enough to do it, the Reckoning can be defeated conventionally. One strategy is to dodge its attacks using swarms of corvettes and use weapons that can pierce/ignore shields. The Reckoning targets random planets in its destructive spree, so the player will have several chances to retreat, rebuild, and come back. During battle the Reckoning will tend to target small ships first and only engage larger ships when all smaller classes are defeated. A combination of two to three dozen carrier battleships with bombers – whose weapons bypass shields – and a large swarm of several hundred corvettes with regular torpedoes (who likewise ignore shields) with about 5 repeatable technologies that boost damage output of both systems have a good chance of greatly weakening or even defeating the Reckoning in a single battle.

References

Game concepts