Spaceborne aliens

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This article is for the PC version of Stellaris only.

Spaceborne Aliens are spacefaring forms of life which will likely be the first aliens that new spacefarers will encounter. Every difficulty level above Ensign increases the power of Leviathans and Marauder Empires, with the exact raised stats varying for each. Other Spaceborne Aliens are not affected by the difficulty level.

Space creatures

Space creatures are entities which may not even classify as ships or life in the common meaning of the words. They generally inhabit a certain area of space and are seldom seen away from it. Upon discovery a special project will be added to the situation log, which when completed will allow an empire to deal with them in three ways:

• Researching unlocks a special project for detailed research that will grant a choice between an empire modifier and a creature technology.
• Hunting will grant a +33% damage bonus empire modifier towards that type of Space Creature, and resources rewards upon killing them. This option is available to Militarist, Xenophobe or Genocidal Empires.
• Pacify will unlock a more expensive special project that allows an empire to turn the space creatures permanently non-hostile, allowing for co-existence as well as unlocking the ability to research special components or weapons that they use. Only 2 of the 5 Space Creatures can be pacified. Pacified space creatures will not attack even in retaliation. This option is available to Pacifist or Xenophile Empires.

If killed, space creatures will keep respawning in their home system unless an empire's sensor range covers the system.

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 pairs (3-5). The normal mining fleet consists of 3 Combat and 12 Mining drones.

When encountered the Drone Study special project will be given, costing 1000 Engineering research. Finishing it grants a choice between the Drone Mining Techniques empire modifier (+5% Minerals) and the Drone Destroyer empire modifier (+33% Damage to Ancient Mining Drones).

Fighting them can be a good idea for reasons besides the Questlines:

• They are equipped with Cutting Lasers, energy weapons which are about on par with T1 Plasma Weapons but deal more damage to hull and less to armor.
• The Systems they occupy tend to be rich in space resources
• They can also grant access to T2 Reactors and Thrusters

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. Each station is guarded by two fleets, one purely destroyers and one made of drones, summing together around 1200 fleet power. Still, compared to the crystalline entities they are by far the easier target.

Destroying the station grants a massive 12000 Minerals.

Tactical

Defensively: The cutting laster works similar to a Plasma weapon, so shields are a must. However, armor can still be somewhat effective, due to changed damage priorities. Against the Hub minimal Point Defense is advisable.

Offensively: The only defenses are hull and armor. The exact armor values vary drastically, from less than half the HP of hull to more then twice the HP. Energy weapons - including their own weapons - are effective against them.

Mining Drone	Combat Drone	Destroyer	Home Base Ore Grinder
2 Cutting Laser 1 Armor T1 1 Armor T1 Reactor T2 Thrusters T2 Sensor T1	1 Cutting Laser 2 Cutting Laser 1 Armor T1 2 Armor T1 Reactor T2 Thrusters T2 Sensor T1	2 Cutting Laser 2 Cutting Laser 1 Armor T1 3 Armor T1 Reactor T2 Thrusters T2 Sensor T1	2 Laser T5 3 Precision Drone 5 Armor T1 Reactor T2 Sensor T1

Crystalline Entities

Crystalline entities

Large, space-borne, semi-sentient crystals of yellow, red, green, or blue colors. All options can grant access to the Crystal-Infused Plating technology, unlocking the only hull-increasing ship component.

• Researching them costs 1000 Physics research. Finishing the special project grants a choice between the Crystal Focus empire modifier (+5% Energy) and the Crystal-Infused Plating technology option.
• Hunting them instantly grants the Crystal Hunter empire modifier, granting +33% Damage to Crystalline Entities and 500 Minerals for every destroyed fleet.
• Pacifying them costs 2000 Physics research. Finishing the special project renders them non-hostile, and grants the Crystal-Infused Plating technology option.

Crystalline Systems

Crystal prism

There are two special systems related to the crystalline entities.

The first one is the crystalline entities home system, containing Crystal Nidus, a large crystalline structure. It is guarded by 4 elite fleets, one of each color, ranging from 2000 to 3000 fleet power. The system can be safely explored and claimed if the crystalline entities have been pacified but does not contain more resources than the average system. As their home system has a pulsar, shields will be useless when attacking it.

The second one is the shardling system. It contains multiple asteroids with mineral deposits called Yormak's Belly, Eye, Fist, Snout, Tail, Tongue and Tusk. More importantly, one asteroid called Yamak's Heart contains the Orillium Ore Strategic Resource. The system is guarded by 4 shardling fleets of 522 Fleet Power, which are hostile even if the crystalline entities have been pacified.

Tactical

Crystalline entities come in 3 sizes, 4 colors, and normal and elite versions. The difference between colors is purely aesthetic.

Defensively: Crystalline entities use shard throwers which do considerable bonus damage to hull, but no bonus damage to anything else. Thus, shields and armor are effective against them. (However, as mentioned earlier, their home system has a pulsar so shields will be ineffective there.)

Offensively: Crystalline entities have only hull points and no armor, shields, or point defense. Thus, anything that does bonus damage to hull (e.g. plasma, autocannons) or a lot of raw damage (e.g. guided weapons) should be effective against them.

Space Amoebas

File:Space amoeba.jpg

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 travel through hyperlanes. They can be found either solitary hunting Tiyanki or in fleets of 3 units without FTL capability.

• Researching them costs 1000 Society research. Finishing the special project grants a choice between the Flagellating Movement empire modifier (+5% Evasion) and the Regenerative Hull Tissue technology option.
• Hunting them instantly grants the Amoeba Hunter empire modifier, granting +33% Damage to Space Amoebas and 1000 Energy for every destroyed fleet.
• Pacifying them costs 2000 Physics research. Finishing the special project renders them non-hostile, and grants the Amoeba Breeding Program and Regenerative Hull Tissue technology options.

They operate in small Fleets of 10 Ships with about 880 Fleet Power. The fleets consist of 2-3 Mothers (carrier cruiser equivalent) and 7-8 Corvette sized beings, for a total of 10 units. A rare variant are the red Space Amoeba Hunters, with around 1000 Fleet Power.

Tiyanki Space Whales

Tiyanki space whales

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 and give 25% Progress towards the Frequency Tuning technology. Which grants access to the anti-shield Energy Siphon weapon.

Tactical

Tiyanki are not inherently agressive. However it can still be beneficial to kill them: in order to prevent others for running into them, to get access to Regenerative Hull Tissue, to get additional progress towards the Energy Syphon or just to keep Space Amobeas from wandering into ones territory during a hunt.

Defensively: The Energy Siphon packs a punch on par with a T3 Railgun and has more polarized strengths and weaknesses. Armor is effective. Offensively: The Tiyanki have a 2:1 Ratio of Hull points to armor. That makes all energy weapons particularly effective against them.

Void Clouds

Void Cloud

These wisp-like beings possess a hostile attitude and will aggressively engage anything entering their starsystem. They appear in two forms: solitary (approximately 1000 fleet power) in regular star systems and in a pair of 4 cloud groups (~4k per Group) 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.

Void clouds possess a form of natural shielding. It grants them 2000 shield points but the shield is not generated by any component and cannot be reverse-engineered.

When encountered the Cloud Study special project will be given, costing 1000 Physics research. Finishing it grants a choice between the Void Loops empire modifier (+10% Physics output) and the Cloud Destroyer empire modifier (+33% Damage to Void Clouds).

Surveying their remains unlocks a reverse-engineered technology: Cloud Lightning Conduits which is a T3 large Slot version of the Disruptor with tracking equivalent to the Medium Slot version.

Tactical

Even solitary clouds are easily the toughest Spaceborne alien one can find this side of home Systems. Early game they should not be engaged lightly.

Defensively neither shields nor armor helps, as Void Cloud attacks pierce both. Evasion is of limited use, so the only other option is to rely on Hull Points, which can be increased by Crystal Plating (given by reverse-engineering Crystalline Entities). Void Clouds' erratic damage output can destroy Corvettes in one hit before they have a chance to retreat.

Offensively they have a 1:1 ratio of shields and hull, which makes kinetic and missile weapons advisable.

Void Cloud Systems

Great Wound system

There are two special systems related to the void clouds.

The first one is the void cloud home system, a black hole cluster always called Great Wound. It is guarded by 3 Void Cloud fleets of 6k fleet power. Most black holes have deposits of 4 Physics and the central one contains the largest Dark Matter deposit in the galaxy. The system should be attacked with a highly superior force due to the effects of black holes on space battles.

The second one is a black hole system with ringworld debris and two Tomb World among other uninhabitable planets. It is guarded by a regular Void Cloud fleet. Only two pieces of the ringworld remain, neither containing Living Metal. The system has less resources than most, save for the black hole itself which is guaranteed to have Dark Matter.

Space pirates

Space Pirates

A pirate base

Once 10 years have passed, every empire that has a mining or research station outside its home system will get the The Birth of Space Piracy Event. This Event will spawn a pirate base and 4 Reaver-class ships in the closest unowned System. Systems with hostile Spaceborne aliens, Enclaves or an Outpost under construction are excluded. These pirates can be easily defeated but they mark the start of regular Pirate spawns, which will continue as long as a player has any unclaimed System near or inside their borders. The strength of theses fleets will increase over time.

The MTTH is 280 months, modified by these rules:

• x0.9 if > 9 Starbases
• x0.9 if > 19 Starbases
• x1.4 if > 0 Pirate bases
• x1.6 if > 1 Pirates bases
• x2 if > 2 Pirates bases
• x3 if > 3 Pirates bases
• x0 if > 4 Pirates bases
• x0.2 if the player has at least one isolated system (a system that only connects to the borders of one or more empires)

If the player has at least one isolated system, the Pirates will spawn in one of them. Otherwise, they will spawn in a random system adjacent to the player. Precursor anomaly locations, Enclaves, or systems where Pirates spawned within the last 5 years are excluded. Systems that contain outposts under construction or a fleet above 1k fleet power are also excluded.

If a pirate fleet is destroyed but the pirate base is not, the base will regularly spawn a new fleet with a MTTH of 100 months. Pirate ships spawn under the following rules:

Tier	Years passed	Raiding fleets composition
0	0-15	3 corvettes
1	10-30	5 corvettes
2	15-45	7 corvettes
3	30-60	8 corvettes
4	45-70	7 corvettes 4 destroyers
5	60-80	10 corvettes 4 destroyers

Tier	Years passed	Raiding fleets composition
6	70-90	10 corvettes 5 destroyers 1 cruisers
7	80-105	10 corvettes 5 destroyers 2 cruisers
8	90+	10 corvettes 5 destroyers 3 cruisers
9	105+	1 galleon

Pirate Home System

The pirate home system contains a Young Blood fleet (around 700 fleet power), the Scarred Veterans fleet (around 8k fleet power) and the Old Guard, a huge pirate galleon with 12k fleet power, possessing 40k health and massive amounts of armor. The system's only resources are two asteroids with higher Minerals deposits.

Tactical

Pirate corvettes are equipped only with kinetic weapons so armor is advised for the first 45 years. Beyond that, they use each type of weapon, excluding XL mounts but including point-defenses. Pirate ships are balanced offensively but their weapons never advance beyond T3, so the most effective defense is technological superiority.

Pirate ships are protected mostly by armor, with a few shield modules which are always a tier below armor. As such, weapons effective against armor are recommended.

Destroying a pirate station after discovering L-Gates has a 20% change of granting an L-Gate insight.

Nomads

The nomad fleet

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 number 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.

The chance if and when the nomads will appear in a game is rolled at game start, with the following weights:

• 20 to appear after 20 years + 100 days
• 25 to appear after 40 years + 200 days
• 25 to appear after 55 years + 275 days
• 30 for no nomads

All times are +/- 500 days.

When their time is due they will spawn in a random Rim System that has no ship in it and that no empire has a intel level better than low. Upon appearing, they will decide the mid point and endpoint of their journey. On their journey Nomads will perform an action when entering a system. Those actions depends on if the system has an owner and what the relationship with the owner is.

If the system is owned by an empire that has neither contact nor is hostile to them, they will start orbiting a random planet in the system until contact is established. The player is not capable of deciphering their communications but contact will always be established by them after 100 days. After contact is established they will send the owner a request. If they enter another system owned by the same empire they will roll for a request again. Each interaction has the following weights:

• 30 - Ask to leave some pops on an owned planet within your borders
  • x0 If not at least 4 free tiles on any dry planet or if the system owner is a Hive Mind
  • x0.75 if they already left pops before
  • x1.5 if any form of Xenophile, Egalitarian or Spiritualist Empire and not already left pops before
  • x0.3 if Slavery is allowed
    • Nomads traits are Desert Preference, Nomadic, Venerable and Natural Engineers.
• 30 - Ask for a planet to settle on, forming a new empire
  • x0 if there is no suitable free planet or if the system owner is a Hive Mind
  • x0.5 if they already settled one planet
  • x1.75 if any form of Xenophile, Egalitarian or Spiritualist Empire and did not already settle a planet
    • Nomads ethics are Egalitarian, Spiritualist and Xenophile.
• 30 - Sell 5 or 15 Cruisers
  • x0 if the system owner already got offered ships
  • x0.25 if system owner is Fanatic Militarist or Fanatic Xenophobe
  • x0.5 if already sold ships to an empire
  • x1.75 if any form of Xenophile, Egalitarian or Spiritualist Empire and not already sold ships to anyone
• 10 - Move on with no request

If the system has no owner, and neither hostile, mid- or endpoint of their journey, they will perform a peaceful action with the following weights:

• 10 - Build new Ships
  • x10 if under 3k Fleet Power
  • x5 if under 5k Fleet Power
  • x0 if over 10k or has the have the ship building lockout
• 80 - Pick a random planet and wait in orbit for 30–50 days. Afterwards, they have a 25% chance to move on and 75% chance to pick another planet in the system to repeat it
  • x0 if less than 1.5k Fleet Power
• 10 - Move on without doing anything

The nomad fleet consists of the following:

20 Protectors	3 Ark Ships
1 Laser T4 2 Point-Defense T2 2 Armor T3 1 Shield T3 Hyperdrive T3 Thruster T3 Sensor T3 Reactor T4 Combat Computer T3 (Picket)	Hyperdrive T3 Thruster T3 Sensor T3 Reactor T4

While the Nomads are inherently peaceful, a fight can be picked in order to get access to their technology. Nomads are easy prey but their technology is just average by midgame, making this rarely useful.

Enclaves

An enclave.

Enclaves are neutral NPC spawned factions. They do not own any planets but consist of large enclave stations. They primarily exist to be interacted with via Diplomacy Menu using the "Others" filter. There are 3 types of enclaves: Artisans, Curators and Traders. Each of them has between 2 or 3 basic interactions and one or two restricted interactions 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. The enclave Opinion is tracked wholly via the trust mechanic and no other Diplomacy bonuses or penalties apply.

Costs

The primary resource for interacting with Enclaves is energy. All actions are repeatable but some of the actions also have an increasing cost. The price increases as an empire's population goes past certain thresholds:

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

During the renewal request after a buff runs out, the player will be able to renew the deal for a [scales with population] energy credits, with an exception for Trader Enclaves, with a renewal cost of a fixed 3000 energy credits.

Curators

The Curators are an ancient order dedicated to preserving knowledge. Their primary resources is energy credits.All Stations make a single enclave and all other stations are marked on the Galaxy view upon making contact with any part. They give the following diplomatic options:

• Purchase Scientific Help. For [scales with population] Energy Credits grants the 10 year "Curator Insight" Buff to the empire, which increases all Science by +10%.
• Ask about the Mysteries of the Universe (Leviathans).
  • Ask for the position of a thus far not known leviathan. It costs 300 energy credits and a point of interest will be added to the situation log.
  • (free) Gives background information about each Specific leviathan, including an estimation of how your current fleets would fare against it.
  • Ask how to defeat a specific leviathan, providing a permanent +25% damage buff for 5000 energy credits. The only exception is the Enigmatic Fortress where you can ask for hints regarding exploring the fortress instead.
• (restricted to +50 opinion or higher) Ask to allow the construction of Curator Think Tanks in starbases sharing the system with a Curator enclave station.
• (restricted to +50 opinion or higher) Hire scientist for 5000 energy credits. Gives a level V Scientist with the "Curator" trait (+15% Research Speed, +25% Survey Speed; works like Maniacal for many rare/restricted techs). Only one curator scientist can be hired at any given time.
• Ask about the L-Gates, giving the option to buy an L-Gate Insight for 5000 energy credits every few years.
• If the Curators were talked to about the Infinity Machine beforehand, following completion of the Infinity Machine's tasks, they can be contacted for 500 Engineering Research.

Having a Curator leading Physics and/or the Curator Insight Bonus also will also unlock the curator archaeology and exploration lab technologies to be researched.

Curator strength opinion

Curator enclaves can always be asked how would the player's fleets fare against the leviathans. Depending on the total fleet power they will give the following replies:

• Below 5k: Poorly. Very poorly. Wait a second, you're not actually thinking of...? My goodness, with the ships you have? It... it would be a slaughter!
• Between 5k and 15k: I would strongly advise against it. Your attacks would likely be more of an annoyance than a threat.
• Between 15k and 30k: Hmmm... yes... yes, I suppose you might actually stand a chance. If you combined your entire fleet... it would not be an easy victory, mind you, but one that is at least within the realm of possibility.
• Over 30k: Yours is a mighty fleet, comparable to some of the greatest armadas recorded in the annals of the Curator Order. Victory is certainly within your reach.

Note that their advice are inaccurate on the highest difficulties and you require an even stronger fleet.

Artisans

The Artisan Troupe are artists and entertainers. Their main resource is energy as well. They can help boost Governing Ethics Attraction, Unity and Happiness.All Stations make a single enclave and all other stations are marked on the Galaxy view upon making contact with any part.

• Commission art piece. Buys a single instance of the Planet Unique Art Monument for 3000 energy credits.Can be bought up to 5 times.
• Become Patron. Costs [Pops Scaling] energy credits and lasts for 10 years, granting +10% yearly unity and steadily raising the enclave's opinion. There will be a automatic renewal request after the buff runs out, unless it was canceled by the Artisans. Becoming a patron also allows beneficial Patron Events to trigger, however one should earmark resources for those.
  • Newsletter events give the option to convert 500 energy credits into 50 influence. It can only happen up to 4 times.
  • Some of their equipment malfunctions and you can either salvage it to get 500 minerals or fix it and get 50 influence.
  • The more important one grants access to the Empire Unique Ministry of Culture for 5000 energy credits.
• (restricted to +50 opinion or higher) Ask to allow the construction of Art colleges in starbases sharing the system with an Artisan enclave station.
• (restricted to +50 opinion or higher) Hold Festival. For 5000 energy credits grants the "Festival of Worlds" Buff for 5 years which boosts Happiness and Growth. There is also a chance for one of the following to happen within the next year:
  • 10% base chance: A stampede breaks out and kills a pop. You can either divert the media's attention for 100 influence or suffer a negative modifier for two years. More likely for Materialist.
  • 10% base chance: Some artisans wish to settle on one of your planets. Accepting will add 2 artisan pops to one of your worlds. The climate preference will always match. More likely for Xenophile and Pacifist.
  • 5% base chance: The artisans steal 500 minerals and energy credits, end the festival modifier and refuse to communicate for 10 years. More likely for Materialist and Xenophobe.

Traders

Traders are merchants and as expected their only concern is profit. Unlike other Enclave types, there are three different Trader Enclaves and contact with each station must be done separately.

Traders have two options:

• Trade for Strategic Resource: Grants access to 1-5 units of a rare resource at the cost of 10-50 energy credits per month, which is equivalent to the baseline market offer without fee. The deal lasts for 10 years. There will be an automatic request to renew the deal after it runs its course. The higher the volume, the faster Opinion increases. Resources vary based on which specific trader Enclave is encountered and all 3 can be acquired at the same time:
  • XuraCorp gives access to Exotic Gases
  • Muutagan Merchant Guild gives access to Rare Crystals
  • Riggan Commerce Exchange gives access to Volatile Motes
• Seek expertize: Requires +50 Trader Opinion.

Destroying Enclaves

While enclaves will never become hostile to any empire except in retaliation, they can be attacked like any neutral entity. With around 7k fleet power and highest level weapons they are no easy prey but various rewards can be salvaged from their remnants, depending on the type of enclave destroyed. Each enclave station is equipped with the following:

	Curator station	Artisan station	Trader enclave
Loadout	1 Lance T2 4 Torpedo T3 6 Energy Torpedo T2 6 Disruptor T3 6 Disruptor T3 4 Point-Defense T3 10 Armor T5 10 Shield T5 2 Shield Capacitor Sensor T4	1 Arc Emitter T2 4 Missile T5 6 Laser T5 6 Plasma Cannon T3 6 Autocannon T3 4 Point-Defense T3 10 Armor T5 10 Shield T5 2 Shield Capacitor Sensor T4	1 Cannon T2 4 Multi-Missiles T2 6 Artillery T2 6 Kinetic T5 6 Autocannon T3 4 Flak T2 10 Armor T5 10 Shield T5 2 Shield Capacitor Sensor T4
Reward	1000 Engineering Research 1000 Physics Research 1000 Society Research	2000 Energy Credits 2000 Minerals	2000 Energy Credits 2000 Minerals

Enclave stations do not drop debris for salvage. Attacking a curator or artisan enclave will make every enclave station of the same type unavailable for trade.

Destroying a curator or trader enclave station brings a small and temporary opinion reduction towards most other empires. Destroying an artisan enclave will not due to their duplicitous reputation.

Leviathans

Leviathans are extremely powerful Spaceborne aliens found in specific, predetermined systems and even rivalling moons in size and mass. They are marked with a skull icon both in the fleet power box and on the galactic map. Each leviathan has a unique event chain. 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 and should only be engaged mid-late game. They all use various energy weapons.

AI empires will only attack leviathans if their fleet power is at least 40k.

Automated Dreadnought

Automated Dreadnought guarding the abandoned system

The Automated Dreadnought is a deadly capital ship with full firepower and solid armor. It rates around 40k in combat power.

Defeating the 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 (10000 Engineering Research), and the ship will spawn with either a jump drive or a psi jump drive, if the Empire has it. However, it cannot be retrofitted with other drives, so keeping off with repairing it might be advisable.
• Scrap it for a 5000 and , and 1-5k
• The system also contains two habitable planets of size 16 and 20

Weapons	Utility	Core
Neutron Launcher x2 Phased Disruptor x2 Guardian Point-Defense x2 Plasma Cannon x5 x3	Neutronium Armor x6 Hyper Shields x6 Shield Capacitors x3 Regenerative Hull Tissue x2	Tachyon Sensors (Psi) Jump Drive Sapient (Line tactics) Impulse Thrusters (+15)

Tactical: The Dreadnought's base stats are comparable to the titan, however it has innate 5000 ship armor, +300% ship shield and +200% ship damage modifiers, and a quite decent evasion for its weigth-class. Its main armament are large energy Weapons, with a token amount of small energy weapons.

Defensively: The reliance on Energy weapons makes shields a must-have. Evasion can be a suitable defense against the large slot weapons, but it is not completely helpless against small ships either.

Offensively: The Dreadnought's shields are stronger than twice its hull and armor combined. However due to it getting a lot of percentile bonuses, its regeneration is comparatively low. Shield skipping or breaking weapons are advised. Guided Weapons can be useful in large enough numbers.

Dimensional Horror

Dimensional Horror emerging in the current dimension

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

Location

It will only spawn in a Black Hole System. The Leviathan only appears after the system is first visited, meaning that the first empire to discover it cannot do so only through sensors.

Rewards

Defeating the Dimensional Horror will leave behind a dimensional rift, with a project that takes 140 days to be researched. Once examined, it will grant a total bonus of between 4000 and 6000 engineering and physics research points, increase the progress of Jump Drive tech by 50%, and permanently enable it as a research option if the player has not already completed it. If either Jump Drive tech or Psi Jump Drive has already been researched, examining the rift will only grant the aforementioned bonus research points.

Tactical

The Dimensional Horror has an exceptional reach 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 attrition period.

All its weapons, save for PDs, ignore armor completely, but deal only 25% damage to the shields, have a wide damage range (500-5000, 250-1000, 100-400, 50-200, 10-50), 80% accuracy, and mostly autocannon-grade fast (cooldowns in 2-3 range). It has 5 weapon types:

• Dimensional Beam, a capital weapon, it has 85% accuracy, zero tracking, and more than double of average cooldown of capital-class weapons, so it is only effective against low-evasion ships.
• 2 Large Dimensional Rippers. Have a quite high tracking for a large, high-damage weapons (75%).
• 2 Medium Dimensional Renders. Middle of the road. 50% tracking.
• 2 Small Dimensional Strikers. Only 25% tracking. Still quite high damage.
• 4 Dimensional Guard PDs. Despite being PDs, and the weakest of the Horror weapons, they are still comparable to tier 5 small weapons, although without any damage bonuses, doubly fast, and with enormous range, which makes them quite formidable even by themselves, since they will have no troubles with bigger targets either. They still can be overwhelmed with numerous targets, since their cooldowns are quite high for PDs (1.6 ). Note, that swarmer missiles will not do, since technically they are a single target with excessive hull, so they still can be one-shotted by the Horror, while dealing less damage.

Defensively the Horror has innate 10 thousands of Hull, Armor and Shields each, 3 Regenerative Hull Tissue modules, and forced 0% evasion.

Recommended Strategy

A fleet of shielded, high evasion ships, that can deal with equal health composition or bypass defenses (missiles/torpedoes/autocannons/plasma mixes, disruptors). Battleships and Titans are not recommended due to their vulnerability to all of the leviathans weapons, unless they provide enough firepower to end the Horror quickly. Cruisers with hangars can provide a viable distraction from corvettes, while not dying too fast themselves. Generally, some ships will be lost in any case, the Horror is very lethal, this fight is about minimization of inevitable losses, while maintaining sustainable damage. Around 40k+ fleet power should be enough, although expect to lose ~50% of the ships.

Enigmatic Fortress

Ancient Vault with all defenses

The Enigmatic Fortress guards various mysterious technologies. Its engagement ring is always visible. It has the longest and most complicated event chains among all leviathan. Once disabled, the player has different options to explore the fortress. Unlike other leviathans, 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 Enigmatic Encoder and Decoder (evasion and tracking auxiliary components).

Tactical: The Enigmatic Fortress consists of the following stations:

1 Ancient Vault	2 Ancient Guardian	2 Ancient Warden	4 Ancient Defender	8 Ancient Sentinel
7 Artillery T2 ~50 000 8 Shield T6 7 Armor T5 1 Enigmatic Decoder 1 Shield Capacitor Reactor T6 Sensor T4 Enigmatic Disruption Field -20% Fire Rate -0.1% Daily Shield Regeneration	1 Artillery T2 1 Autocannon T3 1 Point Defense T3 10 000 8 Shield T6 4 Armor T5 1 Enigmatic Decoder 1 Shield Capacitor Reactor T6 Sensor T4	1 Artillery T2 1 Autocannon T3 10 000 4 Shield T6 3 Armor T5 1 Shield Capacitor Reactor T6 Sensor T4	1 Autocannon T3 1 Point Defense T3 5 000 2 Shield T6 2 Shield T6 2 Armor T5 1 Shield Capacitor Reactor T6 Sensor T4	1 Autocannon T3 1 250 1 Armor T5 4 Shield T6 1 Shield Capacitor Reactor T6 Sensor T4

Additionally, they have weapon damage (high), weapons range, tracking modifiers with bonuses to every health type, and minor regeneration and armor bonuses. Exact numbers will depend on difficulty setting.

• Since offense is almost purely kinetic, armor-only ships are advisable.
• High-evasion ships will have problems from souped up autocannons. Low evasion - from artillery.
• Artillery is viable, staying out of range of auto-cannons will cut out a lot of damage.
• The stations have relatively low armor compared to shields, which makes them decent torpedo receivers.

The following table contains the outcome of every decision. Should the timer be left to expire at any point the vault will repower.

No.	Choice	Outcome
1	Demolitions Team	Expedition proceeds. Transport ship is destroyed.
1	Local Power Surge - Go with the higher estimate (-500 energy)	Vault repowers
1	Local Power Surge - Go with the lower estimate (-50 energy)	Expedition proceeds
2	Place metal rings around the remaining two poles	Vault repowers
2	Search for torus-shaped indentations on the bulkhead	Vault repowers
2	Rearrange the metal tori on the poles	Expedition proceeds
2	Remove center and rightmost poles from the pedestal	Vault repowers
3	Home System Research - The beginning	Vault repowers
3	Home System Research - The middle	Event success
3	Home System Research - The end	Vault repowers
3	Supply Dark Matter	Event success
3	Use Force (1 military ship)	Event failed - the vault and all ships in the system are destroyed, every habitable planet is turned into a Tomb world and every uninhabitable one into a Molten world.
3	Black Hole Research	Event success

Ether Drake

Ether Drake

The Ether Drake is a moon-sized leviathan appearing on the cover of the Leviathan Expansion. It can move extremely fast within a star system, with a max speed of 20 (in comparison, max speed of corvette is 5.25 without additional components). Its name is Avice, and is presumably either female or likewise as defeating it gives you the Egg (see the "Young Drake" subsection).

Defeating Ether Drake will have following benefits:

• 300 Influence
• The Admiral who leads the fleet defeating the Ether Drake will gain the Dragonslayer trait, giving +10% Combat Speed and Fire Rate.
• Xenophile and/or Spiritualists gain access to the Empire Unique Building Ether Drake Shrine whilst other Ethics gain access to the Empire Unique Building Dragonslayer Monument. Both grant +15 Unity.
• The planet it guarded, Dragon's Hoard, is a very wealthy planet with +30 Energy and Minerals. Putting a mining station on it will eventually provide two special rewards (MTTH 600 months):
  • Enable researching of Artificial Dragonscales, the only Level 6 Armor.
  • Discover a Dragon Egg and get the option to smash it for 300 Influence or issue a special project to incubate the egg and hatch a Young Drake. The Young Drake has between 14k and 16k fleet power.

Tactical: This leviathan has exceptional armour but no shields and should accordingly be engaged with energy weapons.

Both long-range bombardment and short-range engagements with small high evasion ships seems likely to succeed. The equipment includes: One Dragon's Breath (identical to the titan Perdition Beams), 8 secondary weapons, 4 tertiary/point-defense weapons, 4 Dragon Armor and 2 Regenerative Hull Tissues.

If the player deals at least 20% of its total HP in damage, the Ether Drake will become aggressive and start attacking the attacker's 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.

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

Young Drake

Choosing to incubate the egg will issue a special project that, upon completion, will yield a Young Ether Drake named Scile in an independent fleet named Ether Hatchling. The Young Drake has no shields, but will gain health based on any Ship Hull Point bonuses from research or strategic resources. Other empire-wide modifiers (e.g. armor, health regen) will also apply. The Young Drake has 10,000 base health, 172 base armor, and 34% base evasion. It uses a battleship combat computer with +5% fire rate, +10% damage, and artillery behavior. It has impulse thrusters, tachyon sensors, and the most advanced FTL available (this does not include Jump Drives). Its weapons are;

• One XL Energy "Dragon's Breath" (2k-3k damage, 120 range, 85% accuracy/0% tracking, 11.5s cooldown)
• Eight Medium Energy "Wing Skewer" (100-150 damage, 80 range, 80% accuracy/75% tracking, 2.1s cooldown)
• Four Energy Point Defense "Drake's Lightning" (10-12 damage, 10 range, 80% accuracy/50% tracking, 1.1s cooldown)

It also possesses four Large Dragonscale Armour ((18x4)=72) and two Regenerative Hull Tissue.

Asteroid Hives

One of the Asteroid Hives

Asteroid hives are lurkers living in crystal asteroid systems. They are the only leviathan 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 galaxy. The hive system contains five crystal asteroids, with the following yields: 2x6, 1x8,2x10 for a total of 40 Minerals. When the system is discovered you will receive a message mentioning that something is not alright there. If a mining station is built in the system the Hives will awaken in 100 years, the time being reduced by 66% with every additional mining station.

Tactical: They have 20k hull points and 10k armors, but no shields nor evasion points. 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 strike craft has 50% evasion, 100% accuracy, 0% tracking, 100% shield-penetration and 66% armor-penetration so the armors and shields are almost meaningless. 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.

Infinity Machine

Infinity Machine orbiting Gargantua

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

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. Depending on government ethics, some empires 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.

• 25% that the project fails but the Infinity Machine will acknowledge your effort and reward you with either the Positronic AI or the Zero Point Power technology. If you researched both it will grant your empire a +5% research bonus.
• 50% that the project succeeds and the Infinity Machine enters the black hole. A hull fragment will remain, granting you either the Positronic AI or the Zero Point Power technology as well as 150 . In addition the black hole will get a 4 research production.
• 25% that after the Infinity Machine enters the black hole, Gargantua will shrink to a smaller size, change name to Pantagruel and reveal what black holes actually are. This grants the achievement Infinite Creation if not already obtained. Building a starbase over the black hole will also add the Mirror of Knowledge modifier, ents|granting +10% Research Speed. In addition the black hole will get a 10 research production.

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. This removes any bonus awarded thus far.

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

• Spiritualist empires can declare the Infinity Machine a divine object, granting a +5% happiness empire unique modifier.
• Militarist empires can destroy the Infinity Machine with an army without fighting it to gain massive and or instantly gain 50% progress on Droids or Synthetics.
• Materialist and Gestalt Consciousness empires can attempt to hack the Infinity Machine. Chance is 5% but if successful, it permanently grants a +3% research bonus as well as either the Positronic AI or the Zero Point Power technology. If you have both you will gain between 1000 and 2000 research points. For empires this is the only option. This approach destroys the Infinity Machine.

Tactical: The Infinity Machine is equipped with the following Equipment:

• 4 Advanced Strike Craft.
• 1 Lance Weapon.
• 3 Large, 3 Medium and 9 small Gamma Lasers.
• 6 Point Defenses.
• 20 Large Hyper Shields.
• 2 Shield Capacitors and Regenerative Hull Tissues.
• T4 Thruster, Sensor, and Battleship Computer.

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

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.

Spectral Wraith

650THz Spectral Wraith

The Spectral Wraith is special kind of life born near pulsars. It is by far the most mobile leviathan 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. The Wraith does not spawn directly upon entering the System, but will instead spawn once the Mid-Game years starts if anyone scanned the Pulsar in its spawn system. If a player empire is the first to scan the pulsar an event message will notify them.

The Wraith will now spawn at the mid-game date set in the galaxy settings and will not spawn if its star has not been surveyed before the mid-game date, which means you will never see a wraith if you haven't searched its star before the mid-game date.

The Spectral Wraith 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 weapon types can be predicted.

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-whitish 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 emitters with 150-250 damage (-50% to shields, +100% to armor), 1.85 cooldown, 80% accuracy, 75% tracking, and 150 range. Defensively Wraiths have innate 20 thousands of hull, and 10 thousands of armor, 2 Regenerative Hull Tissue module, and 75% evasion. So even with relatively low hitpoints, fighting unweakened wraith might be troublesome.

Additionally they may have bonuses to damage and all health categories, with numbers depending on the game difficulty.

Actually catching the Wraith might be harder than defeating it.

Stellarite Devourer

Real scale of the Stellarite Devourer

The Stellarite Devourer is a spaceborne entity the size of a gas giant that feeds itself upon 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:

• A project to Analyse the Remains. Upon completion the choice is:
  • Scrap the remains. Gives large Energy and moderate influence and mineral income.
  • Try to reignite the Sun in the Stellar Devourers home System. The Project has a 30% chance to kill the scientist and his ship, but is guaranteed to turn the whole System more habitable: All Frozen Planets will become Arctic planets, with one Guaranteed Gaia World. All other planets undergo a temperature increase as well, rerolling them completely. This Project can be completed with an unmanned science ship.
• Militarist or Xenophobe only. Getting the Stellar Devourer Trophy. This grants the Stellar Performance achievement.

Tactical

As it can be guessed, the Stellarite Devourer uses exclusively energy weapons. It includes Devourer Beam, which is effectively a lance more powerful than a titan weapon, and Stellar Torpedoes, that are souped up Neutron Launchers with shield penetration and soft retargetting, while missiles count as PD-targets they pretty much cannot be shot down. All weapons have long range, high accuracy and tracking (except Devourer Beam, which has no tracking).

Defensively the Stellarite is pure 200 000 of Hull, with 2 Regenerative Hull Tissue modules, and nice 40% evasion. It may have additional weapon damage, and health modifiers depending on difficulty.

It will give chase to any attacker 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.

Recommended Strategy

A fleet of shielded, high evasion ships, with pure anti-hull weaponry. Battleships and Titans are not recommended due to their vulnerability to all of the leviathans weapons, unless they provide enough firepower to end the Leviathan quickly (which is unlikely). Due to overpowered torpedoes heavy losses are still inevitable.

Scavenger Bot

Scavenger Bot in the starship graveyard

The Scavenger Bot is an automaton jury-rigged from the scraps of thousands of shipwrecks, constantly scavenging a massive ship graveyard. Defeating it grants access to the Nanite Repair System technology, as well as two random Tier V component techs or a large amount of Engineering research if all techs were already researched. The graveyard system also contains two broken planets with high Minerals deposits.

Setup

• It receives 50k Armor, 50k Shields and 100k Health from its Shipsize
• 11 Large T5 Armors
• 9 Large T5 Shields
• 2 Shield Capacitors
• 1 Nanite Repair System (improved Regenerative Tissue)
• 1 "Scavenger Beam" Weapon. Counts as Kinetic 5k-10k Damage. x2 Shield, x2 Hull, x0.8 Armor, 180 CD, 150 Range, 85% Accuracy, 0% Tracking,
• 7 "Our Scientists can make no sense of these". Counts as Missile (destructible). 100-150 damage, x1.5 Hull, x1 Shield Penetration, x1 Shield Damage, x0.8 Armor, 10 CD, 80 Range, 80% Accuracy, 75% Tracking, 350 Missiles Speed, 10 Missile Armor, 100 Missile Health.

Tactical: The perfect offense is hard to predict due to the abundance of components and difficulty modifiers, but it is safe to say that skipping shields and even armor is advisable. As the Scavenger Bot has no point defenses, Torpedoes are a good bet against it. Disruptors work for the remaining slots.

Defensively the Secondary weapon deals the most damage due to the extremely high rate of fire. While it is nominally a Missile, the projectiles speed and durability harden it against point defense. Only massed Point Defense has any chance to stop relevant numbers of projectiles. Shields, Hull and Evasion (unless the missiles can be negated) are equally poor defenses, leaving Armor as the primary defense.

Armored Carriers can be viable: Fighters counter the Scavenger Bot's defenses and work as PD, while the mandatory Point Defenses will blunt the damage output of the secondary weapon.

Tiyanki Matriarch

Tiyanki Matriarch

A giant Tiyanki whose hide has been hardened by the years and unknown biological processes. It is neither harmless nor docile. Defeating it will have a devoured ship emerge from the leviathan. Its grateful captain, Reth Unddol, will offer his services, as well as his ship which is perfectly balanced between all weapon and defense types with the latest technologies. Alternatively the ship can be scrapped for 1500 Minerals. Genocidal empires only have the option of keeping the ship while killing Reth Unddol for 120 Unity.

Tactical

Matriarch has only two unnamed weapons, but both of them deal enormous single target damage:

• XL-weapon, around 5k-12k damage (+100% to shields and armor), 150 range, 21.75 cooldown, 85% accuracy, zero tracking.
• L-weapon, 250-1000 damage (-75% to shields, 100% armor-penetration), 250 range, 2.7 cooldown, 80% accuracy, 75% tracking.

It also has 115% weapon damage modifier.

Defensively Matriarch has innate 125 thousands of hull, and 14.5 thousands of armor (+ both are augmented with 15% modifiers), 1 Regenerative Hull Tissue module, and 15% evasion.

Tactical: This leviathan has exceptional hull and armor but no shields and should accordingly be engaged with energy weapons. Defensively ships should rely on evasion, shields or pure hull (in the case of cruisers and battleships that cannot evade its main weapon).

Voidspawn

Voidspawn

The Voidspawn is an unborn leviathan, hidden within a size 20 Dry world orbiting a class G star. Within a year after surveying the planet, you will be notified that it has some sort of pulse. Within the next half a year the planet will suddenly change its appearance and destroy up to three buildings on the planet and create Rifts Tile Blockers. Within another half a year the event will end in two ways. Either the pulse will stop or the Voidspawn will hatch from the planet, destroying it in the process.

The Voidspawn becomes hostile a month after hatching, destroying all but the most heavily fortified Starbases around the system's star. Defeating it grants a large amount of Unity as well as the option to start a special project to research what was left of the egg planet in order to gain the Gargantuan Evolution technology option. The egg planet will also gain a deposit of 20 Society as soon as the Voidspawn hatches.

Tactical: Like its Ether Drake cousin, the Voidspawn has exceptional armor but no shields and should accordingly be engaged with energy weapons. Its only weapons are guided organic projectiles that have 100% Shield Penetration and 200% Hull Damage, making Armor the only viable defense. If the system is correctly deduced or a save is loaded outside Ironman mode the system's Starbase can also be upgraded. A Citadel built completely with defense modules can fight the Voidspawn on equal footing, with ships or defense platforms giving it the edge necessary to win.

Location: The egg planet is always a Dry world in the second or third orbit of a class G star.

Enigmatic Cache

Enigmatic Cache

The Enigmatic Cache, or BALDOR as it calls itself, is a tubular entity that has a chance of eventually emerging from any Gateway or L-Gate and setting course for the nearest colonized system. If it's attacked it will instantly teleport away from the system.

Once the Enigmatic Cache enters the nearest colonized system it will remain there and move between all colonized planets, adding +30% Research Output to the planet as long as it's in orbit, and -10% Happiness to all Xenophobe pops. The first time it happens the empire will get the option of issuing a special project to study it or leave it alone for 50 Influence. The special project costs 900 Engineering research and finishing it refunds 250 research and grants an L-Gate insight.

If the empire's Technology Level is not rated as Superior to that of other empires and the empire is not a Machine Intelligence, two years later the Enigmatic Cache will attempt to communicate. Accepting will have the Enigmatic Cache request to uplift the main species via a special project that takes 2 years.

If the primary species does not have the Intelligent or Quick Learners trait there is a 50% chance they'll get -30% Pop Resource Output until the uplift ends.

Around 4 months into the project is started you will be notified that the Enigmatic Cache is deteriorating and bring the following options:

• Abort the uplift, causing the Enigmatic Cache to teleport away.
• Ignore it, causing 4 pops to get -80% Pop Resource Output until the uplift ends. Once the uplift is complete the main species will gain either the Somewhat Uplifted trait and -20% Happiness for 10 years or the Uplifted trait and -10% Happiness for 10 years
• Issue a special project to repair BALDOR with a construction ship. Once the uplift is complete the main species will gain the Uplifted trait.

Marauder empires

Marauder Home System

Marauders are nomadic FTL societies that have eschewed planetary dwelling in favor of living on ships and stations, subsisting largely on raiding each other and extorting tribute from settled empires. Marauders are always hostile but will generally not attack empires unless they enter their systems or they are in the process of raiding them. A Marauder empire can be eradicated by destroying all stations and void dwellings in their home systems, but these are well defended and will take a powerful mid to late-game navy to deal with them. Each Marauder empire holds 3 systems, with the home system having very large deposits of Energy or Minerals.

Marauders will occasionally set out to raid settled empires they have established contact with. Before raiding, they will offer said empire a chance to pay them off with a hefty tribute (the targeted empires can choose to tribute minerals, energy or food). If they are not paid, the pillaging will begin. While in the process of raiding, they can still be bought off with tribute, but the price is doubled.

Settled empires can also pay the Marauders to conduct a raid on one of their Rivals for 3000 energy credits, both diverting their attention and potentially weakening that rival's military and economy. While raiding on behalf of an empire, Marauders are treated as allied and their systems can be traveled through. This form of raid cannot be bought off and while they will always reveal they were paid to raid, they will never tell by which empire. Marauders can only raid one empire at a time but multiple Marauder empires can raid the same target. Marauders will never raid Fallen Empires and will always refuse to do so if asked.

Both forms of raiding involve the Marauders sending a fleet to that empire's territory. The Fleet will attack the nearest colonised Planet, destroying all outposts and mining stations along their path. A fleet on Marauding will go into the orbit of the target planet and stay there for a while, then abducting (killing) 3 Pops and ruining 2 buildings. They will still be hostile on their way back. Fleet strength depends on the number of years passed and can thus facing them can result in a considerable challenge.

Empires can also permanently hire a Marauder Admiral or General for 2000 energy credits. Their Leaders start at level 3 and have the Mercenary Warrior trait, granting the following:

• Admiral: +10% Evasion and Fire Rate
• General: +10% Army Damage

Once the mid-game year has been reached, the option to hire mercenary fleets of varying sizes will be unlocked. All players will be informed of this change. The chance for one Marauder empire to have mercenaries is rolled yearly and 30 for each Empire/80 for nothing. Mercenary fleets cost a large energy up-front payment, and consist of a fixed-size fleet that cannot be split, merged or disbanded, with a leader that cannot be reassigned. The fleet does not count towards naval capacity and will not cost any maintenance, but will only serve for a period of 5 years, after which the empire will have to renew their contract by paying the full cost again.

Years passed	Raiding fleets composition
0-40	6 corvettes 4 destroyers 1 cruisers
40-60	12 corvettes 6 destroyers 2 cruisers
60-80	18 corvettes 10 destroyers 3 cruisers
80+	24 corvettes 14 destroyers 4 cruisers

Mercenary Fleet	Ships	Hire Cost
234th Dwamak-Bashers Armada of the Voidborn Her Chosen Champions	6 cruisers 8 Destroyers 16 corvettes	9000
Unhinged Screamer Flotilla Star Rider Flotilla Order of Eternal Night	4 cruisers 6 Destroyers 12 corvettes	6500
Frenzied Volunteer Squadron First Storm Wing Twilight Congregation	2 cruisers 4 Destroyers 8 corvettes	4000

If a Marauder Empire is destroyed while an empire is hiring their fleet, all mercenary fleets will cancel their contracts and join together to attack the vanquisher empire within 5 months. Marauder Refugees will also settle on the planets of the closest empire that has the Refugees Welcome policy.

Marauder Empires are unable to interact with genocidal empires, meaning they cannot make use of their mercenary or raiding services.

Events

While bordering the Marauder Empires is dangerous, some beneficial events might trigger at regular intervals:

• An abandoned habitat is discovered (+400 Minerals)
• Border guards secure a Marauder Shuttle (+400 Energy)
• Patrols discover a resource cache (+300 Energy and Minerals)
• Border skirmishes give the empire the Marauder Whetstone modifier (+10% Fire Rate for 10 years)
• Border patrols save a Marauder admiral (permanent level 4 admiral with the Mercenary Warrior trait or +50 Influence if genocidal)
• A derelict fleet is discovered. It can either be crewed (1 cruiser, 2 destroyer, 4 corvettes) or scrapped (+200 Minerals)
• Some Marauder pops are expelled from the void dwellings (generates 1 Pop of refugees, if current empire policy allows to accept them). Marauder pops have the Extremely Adaptive, Rapid Breeders, Nomadic, Quarrelsome, and Deviants traits and the Militarist ethic.

The Horde

The Great Khan

After the Mid-Game year starts, one of the Marauder empires might unify under a Great Khan, an expansionist but ultimately benevolent leader. It can happen on its own at any point but there's also a 5% chance for the event to be triggered each time a Void Dwelling is destroyed. Once this happens, the Marauder empire becomes a Horde and will begin expanding in all directions, invading the systems of any empire that will not submit to the Khan, including other Marauder empires. At any time, it possible for an empire to submit to the Khan and become a Satrapy, a type of subject that has to pay part of its income and naval capacity in tribute to the Horde and house a Void Dwelling for both protection and submission, but is otherwise left to do as they please.

AI empires that lost more than two planets to the Horde have a chance to submit every year, the chance increasing the more planets are lost.

When the Horde forms, all mercenaries hired from that Marauder empire will cancel their contracts and return back home to join it. The Horde will also create a new fleet every few years, the size of the fleet depending on the Naval Capacity provided by Satrapies.

The main Horde fleet, called "Chosen of the Great Khan", is led by the Great Khan personally. It starts at level 10 and has the unique The Great Khan trait, which gives large bonuses to every fleet stat. When the Khan's fleet is destroyed for the first time, they will escape the battle. Within a year the Khan will return with a second fleet. If the fleet is defeated again the Khan will make no attempt to escape and will therefore die in battle. After 20 years have passed since the rise of the Horde the Khan, the leader may also die by disease or assassination. Alternatively, the Khan will die a natural death between 15 and 45 years after the Horde was created.

Once the Great Khan dies the Horde will become unreachable, leaving an automatic message if diplomatic contact is attempted. Within a year the Horde will change into the following:

• If the Horde owns no planets it will turn back into a Marauder Empire.
• If the Horde owns between 1 and 5 planets it will turn into a strong regular empire.
• If the Horde owns between 6 and 9 planets it will split into two regular empires that will constantly war with each other.
• If the Horde owns at least 10 planets it will fracture into four regular empires that will constantly war with each other
  • Regular empires created from the Horde are Fanatic Militarist and Xenophobe Hegemonic Imperialists.
• If the Horde had at least two Satrapies there is a 10% chance it will instead turn into a Federation Builders regular empire. Every former Satrapy will be offered the chance to join a Federation with the former Horde, which will also be its first president.

The number of ships the Horde will have depends on the game difficulty setting.

As with Marauder Empires, the Great Khan has no intention of coexisting with genocidal empires and will not offer them to become a Satrapy.

Tactical

Marauder designs may look similar to Pirate ships but they have much better technology around T3.

Corvette	Destroyer	Cruiser	Galleon	Asteroid Outpost	Void Dwelling
3 Autocannon T2 1 Shield T2 2 Armor T3 Afterburners T1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Hyperdrive T2 Sensor T2 Thrusters T3 Reactor T3 Combat Computer T2 (Swarm)	1 Kinetic T3 2 Laser T3 1 Shield T3 2 Armor T3 Afterburners T1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Hyperdrive T2 Sensor T2 Thrusters T3 Reactor T3 Combat Computer T2 (Picket)	1 Laser T3 2 Kinetic T3 2 Autocannon T2 3 Shield T3 3 Armor T3 Afterburners T1 Regenerative Hull Tissue Hyperdrive T2 Sensor T2 Thrusters T3 Reactor T3 Combat Computer T2 (Line)	1 Missile T3 4 Laser T3 4 Kinetic T3 1 Autocannon T2 3 Flak T1 4 Shield T3 6 Armor T3 Regenerative Hull Tissue Hyperdrive T2 Sensor T2 Thrusters T3 Reactor T3 Combat Computer T2 (Artillery)	3 Kinetic T2 2 Shield T2 1 Armor T3 Regenerative Hull Tissue Sensor T2	4 Missile T3 3 Plasma Cannon T2 3 Artillery T1 3 Kinetic T3 3 Plasma Cannon T2 6 Autocannon T2 4 Flak T1 4 Shield T3 6 Armor T3 Regenerative Hull Tissue Sensor T2

Stations have around 4k Fleet Power, the primary Fleets around 11k with 8k Galleons. Raiding fleet vary in size based on gameyear, with 4 Tiers (<40, <60, <80, >80) being available.

Defensively: Excluding a few odd Energy weapons, Marauders focus almost entirely on kinetic and missile weaponry. Accordingly, shields are practically useless.

Offensively: They rely primarily on their Hull points, then their Armor. A few models have shields on par with their armor, but mostly these can be ignored. There is very limited Point Defense, with a focus to countering strikecraft. Due to their low values, it might be best to just punch through shields and armor even with unfavorable weapons to maximize hull damage.

If the Horde formed nearby and an empire has resources and naval capacity to spare but not enough to fight the Horde then becoming a Satrapy is recommended, as it's only temporary until the Great Khan dies 15 to 45 years later.

Caravaneers

The Caravaneers are space-based coalition of traders who send out fleets across the galaxy to offer every empire great deals. The Caravaneers start in a unique system called Chor’s Compass. From their coalition station they send three fleets through the galaxy: Racket Industrial Enterprise, the Numistic Order, and the Vengralian Trium.

Every time a Caravaneer fleet enters an empire's borders it will offer a rare and highly profitable trade deal. The offer can be accepted immediately or at any point as long as the fleet remains within borders. If the offer hasn't been accepted until then the fleet will offer the deal one last time. Alternatively the trade can be refused as soon as it's sent the first time.

• Racket Industrial Enterprise offers unique ship module that increases bombardment damage by 25%

The Caravaneer coalition base can exchange Energy Credits for CaravanCoinz. Those can be used to either play Slots or open a Reliquary.

References

Game concepts