Endless Space 2 is a 4X game (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) with a lot of variety. Each mechanic and faction in Endless Space 2 can involve a lot of depth, leaving new players overwhelmed and confused. Moreover, crucial aspects of a faction can be spread over a wide range of intertwined game systems, such as "affinities", "traits", "technologies", "faction quests", "population quests", and more. The aim of this series is to demystify the game, opening it up to a wider range of players who might struggle to make sense of its varied mechanics, branching questlines, and dense UI with many obscure and similar icons. Please enjoy, leave feedback, and check out the rest of this series.

Endless Space 2's user inferface has icons that are similar to each other. I have included tool tips on icons throughout the first few sections of this guide. You can mouse over the following examples of similar icons to get the idea.

• FIDSI - An acronym for the game's main resource currencies. It stands for Food, Industry, Dust, Science, and Influence. Note this icon has a purple square in the centre representing influence.
  
  
• FIDS - An acronym for the main resource currencies in Endless Space 2, it stands for Food, Industry, Dust, Science. Note this icon does NOT have a purple square in the centre.

• This icon represents the currency of dust, analogous to "gold" in many Civilization-type games.
  
  
• This icon represents the cost in dust that improvements and units incur each turn. Note it is identical to the dust icon, but has a chunk missing from the lower right portion.

• This icon represents manpower capacity, ie, the amount of manpower that a system can carry. Manpower is used to fill fleet crew, and to defend against ground invasions.
  
  
• This icon represents manpower stock, ie, the amount of manpower that presently exists that your ships and systems can use. Manpower is used to fill fleet crew, and to defend against ground invasions. Without improvements and technology, 10% of food production is turned into manpower stock per turn.
  
  
• This icon represents manpower held in a ship. This is a resource consumed in ground invasions, and replenishes over time. Crew provides a damage bonus to ships up to 20% when fulled stocked. Crew can be killed during fleet conflicts.

Faction Leader: Emperor Zelevas (pictured)

The United Empire thrives by spreading its influence, alongside powerful buffs to industry. An all-rounder faction, and capable of playing decently towards any victory condition, it is ideal for new players who want to learn basic mechanics.

Affinities are fundamental aspects of each faction. They provide unique bonuses, such as access to unique modules and system improvements.

• Access to United Empire ship hulls (see Section 2 of this guide).
  
• Access to United Empire questline and rewards (see Section 3 of this guide).
  
• Access to unique features listed in Section 1.8, Unique Affinity Technologies.

• Can spend influence to buy-out techs, improvements, and ships.
  
• 0.5 per spent.

Traits are also fundamental aspects of each faction, but less expansive and transformative than affinities. They provide unique bonuses, mostly as buffs or debuffs to various game mechanics.

• -25% overcolonisation penalty on empire

The United Empire can settle a wide empire without suffering the unhappiness penalties that usually come with lots of colonised systems.

• +25% on empire

Note that while U.E. has many bonuses to manpower capacity, it does not have any native bonuses to manpower stock production. By default manpower is replenished as a total of 10% your food production. If going down a warmongering route, large food surpluses will be essential for keeping military momentum.

Raia is a Unique Terran planet that produces a base yield of +1 and +2 more than other medium Terran planets.



Raia has fantastic synergy with a system improvement provided by one of this faction's starting technologies. This is Xeno-Industrial Infrastructure, which guarantees at least +10 industry per planet, then +10 more per fertile or temperate worlds. For Raia this means a guaranteed +30 industry boost in a mere 8 turns. In home systems with lots of fertile planets, the early-game benefits can be enormous.

The United Empire starts each game with two Imperial population, and one Yuusho population.



Imperial +1 per population


Political pressures from this population
Industrialists - More industrial faction pressure from industrial events.
Anti-ecologists - Less ecologist faction pressure from ecologist events.
Pragmatic - Scientist events support industrialist faction.

There is excellent synergy between the Imperial population’s +1 influence, and their faction affinity, Emperor’s Will. This combination lets them focus on buying out key building infrastructure to get new systems up and running quickly. Players should keep a careful eye on the dust upkeep they incur as they purchase fleets and infrastructure. This can quickly get out of hand in the early game.

Because empire borders grow through influence, the United Empire can use population growth combined with governor skills and system improvements to quickly spread their sphere of control, eventually passively absorbing nearby enemy systems with the Cultural Flexibility tech in tier 4 of the Empire Development tech quadrant.



Yuusho +20 , +30 on sterile


Political pressures from this population
Militarists - More militarist faction pressure from militarist events.
Anti-Pacifists - Less pacifist faction pressure from pacifist events.
Anti-Scientific - Less scientist faction pressure from scientist events.

The Yuusho can be underwhelming if you are not producing lots of manpower stock, not warring, or not defending. To get the most out of them, you can toss them onto some Sterile planets. If you are warring, make sure you are producing lots of food, which in turns provides more manpower per turn to fill out the extra capacity the Yuusho offer. It can be helpful to move a few Yuusho to your frontline systems where the extra manpower capacity can help mount successful defences.

The United Empire begins as a Federation. This government gives two senate seats (occupied by heroes of the ruling political parties). Federation is a strong, simple government that gives players lots of control relative to some of the others. It is a good government to stick with for beginners. At Tier 3 of the Empire Development quandrant of the tech wheel, you can research Xeno Anthropology, which allows you to switch governments.



The Industrials begin as the most influential party, represented by starting hero Dmitri Lenko. The second most influential party are the Militarists with no representative.

Dust is hard to come by in the early game, so this very small boost is welcome, although you will barely notice it. It can be worth aiming to flip the ruling parties to the Scientists or Militarists, as their early laws can be more useful than this one.

The U.E. starts with two of the strongest technologies in the early game, and it has the tools it needs to make the most of them.




This is among the best starting technologies, for the reasons listed when discussing Raia. If you are lucky enough to start in a system with a second (or third!) fertile and temperate planet, this building can provide +60, or even +90 cogs in the early game. The United Empire’s home system can swiftly become a productive powerhouse, pumping out infrastructure and military. Xeno-Industrial Infrastructure should almost always be the first item in the build queue.

Early access to Titanium is nice, if it is available, and provides potential early access to the Titanium A2S Slugs in Tier 2 of the Military tech quadrant, allowing for quick and brutal early game sieges on opposing systems.





Infinite Supermarkets is not particularly useful. Happiness is not usually stretched in the early game, and this improvement boasts a steep upkeep if you build it before it is needed.

Xenosynergy, however, is a big boost to UE's early game, allowing them to get the jump on other factions who are racing to assimilate minor factions. The Imperial boost to influence helps maintain sovereignty over minor factions, and can sometimes snowball to the point that you can assimilate them with an influence buy-out faster than you can complete their faction quest. It is more difficult to use this benefit with pirates, because they generally require dust, and dust is thin in the early game.

Each faction has an altered technology tree depending on their faction affinities.

The United Empire's unique technologies focus on empire expansion and forceful diplomacy. Note: the game also bestows a further range of unique technologies and abilities via faction and population quests detailed in Section 3 of this guide.

• Unique system improvement: Zelevas Incarnate.
  
  
• Unique support module: OpEx Gear

Tech Wheel - Empire Development Quadrant - Tier 4



Build this in your most influential system for a solid boost to gold and production.

Tech Wheel - Military Quadrant - Tier 3



Although it has the same name as this module on other factions, the United Empire's OpEx Gear Module is somewhat stronger, providing an extra 50 manpower, and 25 more manpower deployment.

• Unique defense module Juggernaut Plating.

Intended for carriers and behemoths, this cannot be applied to smaller ships.

Endless Space 2 has a dedicated ship and fleet building system. Each faction has its own set of hulls with unique characteristics, and that complement each other in fleets.


Each ship has a series of slots in which you can plug weapon, defence, or support modules. Each slot is dedicated to a certain range of module types.
This section uses the following icons to show module options to each available slot.

- Attack modules. These include lasers, beams, slugs, rockets, etc.
- Large attack modules. These apply 2X DPS and cost to slotted weapons.
- Squadron modules. These include bombers and fighters.
- Defense modules. These include shields and plating.
- Support modules. These include probes, colonizers, repairbots, etc.
- Special modules. These include massively destructive weapons like corecrackers.


Note that this section does not include Behemoth class hulls as these are available to all factions.



U.E. has some excellent hulls, particularly its explorer hull, which can double as early-game offensive hull, its small protector class hull, which can tank lots of damage, and its medium coordinator and battleship hulls, which are both excellent.

Default United Empire Skin


Downloadable Mezari Skin

• Has a gun slot. It's best to replace it with a speed module early game.
  
• Inherently fast, and even faster with modules.
  
• A good hull for a cheap, fast early-game siege support ship with a weapon slot.

Default United Empire Skin


Downloadable Mezari Skin

• Has enough weapon and defense slots to be a pseudo-attacker in the early game.
  
• Allows you to delay researching the more aggressive military hulls.
  
• Power falls off due to low crew capacity and no 10% boost to damage modules.
  
• Inherently faster than military hulls.
  
• Gains extra support slot very late in the tech tree, but this can make it useful as a genuinely supportive addition to fleets.
  
• Builds support for Scientists political party, rather than Militarists.

Default United Empire Skin


Downloadable Mezari Skin

• A strong, small offensive hull, capable of fielding three guns with an upgrade.
  
• A great glass cannon when paired with U.E.'s super tanky small protector hull.
  
• Possibly worth skipping in order to concentrate of U.E.'s strong medium hull.

Default United Empire Skin


Downloadable Mezari Skin

• SO TANKY! Very good at its job, and cheaper than the coordinator.
  
• By stacking these on fleets you can win military games without ever researching your medium protector hull.
  
• Definitely upgrade it, and run highest quality mix of armour and shields.

Default United Empire Skin


Downloadable Mezari Skin

• Among the most hard-hitting medium attackers in the game.
  
• Pairs well with the very tanker small protector hulls.
  
• Build for pure damage output, and let other ships soak up hits.

Default United Empire Skin


Downloadable Mezari Skin

• Versatile support options, with 3 early squadron slots.
  
• Sponges damage well, and has lots of support slots..
  
• If researched, best upgraded further to get extra heavy weapon slot.
  
• Not always worth the investment if you are fielding lots of bulked out small protectors.

Default United Empire Skin


Downloadable Mezari Skin

• Very versatile due to so many multi-purpose slots.
  
• Has very high DPS when built for max damage.
  
• Two slots for special weapons once upgraded.
  
• Makes an intimidating pure carrier when maxed out with 6 squadrons.
  
• Not always worth the research investment when already successfully swarming opponents with small and medium U.E. military.

In ES2 many, but not all, unique modules, buildings, and units are accessed through a faction's unique questline. This section explains what you can expect from this quest.

This is a big choice, and you can only pick one, so pick the hero that is appropriate to your playstyle and circumstances.

• Gjallarfire is an extremely reliable early-game module.
  
• Makes your glass cannon offense very forceful.
  
• Does not require a strategic resource.
  
• Frees you up to research the Titanium Weapons.
  
• Best for early-war expansionists.

If using Gjallarfire make sure to unlock Unstable Isotopes in the tech tree for the Plasma Intensifier support module. If you can find somewhere to fit this (you will have to drop speed modules), it stacks an extra 20% damage onto energy weapons, making Gjallarfire extremely threatening. Combine this with the Get Lucky battle tactic for big critical hit damage that rips past enemy shielding.

• Simple and effective.
  
• Snowballs very fast when systems are upgraded with Jadonyx.
  
• Complements rushing economic infrastructure.
  
• Best for any victory not predicated on early war.

The safest choice by far, and useful no matter what your systems are like. Even for war, it can be more useful than Gjallarfire a lot of the time, because it simply makes it easier to build bigger fleets faster. Combined with U.E. ability to buy out ships with dust and influence, there is no excuse for not quickly fielding big offensive or defensive fleets.

It sometimes beats Who's Yuri for science victories as well, due to the weaknesses of that particular improvement.

• Potentially powerful, but much more conditional than other options.
  
• Can sometimes provide less utility than Sci-Fi Design School.
  
• Excellent when systems have lots of anomalies on medium and big planets.
  
• Synergises very well with unique Mezari population later in U.E.'s questline.

The less "splashable" option - meaning that it is not always reliable. You can't choose it casually and feel confident it is helping. If you do not have many anomalies, this is objectively less useful than using the Sci-Fi Design School to build standard science improvements.

If you want to use Who's Yuri, plan ahead for it. Settle systems with lots of anomalies, carefully managing the penalties of mixed and negative ones. Build moderately large populations so that Who's Yuri gives huge boosts immediately.

This quest branches from your previous one, and requires you run laws based on the faction choice you made in quest 2.1.

From here the quest branches dramatically. You need to choose whether the U.E. remains Imperial, or if it converts to Mezari (science) or the Sheredyn (military) faction. Choosing either of the later two options will replace all the Imperial population on your systems with the unique populations detailed below.






Simple and effective, although as U.E. it is often easiest just to buy ships.


Sheredyn - +20 , +30 on sterile.


Political pressures from this population
Militarists - More militarist faction pressure from militarist events.
Anti-Pacifists - Less pacifist faction pressure from pacifist events.
Xenophobic - Pacifist events support militarist faction.

The Sheredyn make systems extra defensive, with deep pools of manpower, provided you have the manpower reserves to stock them. Their 50 collection bonus is very powerful, giving you +5 per 100 manpower on your systems. Between the Sheredyn, Yuusho, and various system improvements, you should have tens of thousands of manpower capacity on systems, so this bonus can be very strong, providing lots of extra influence to use for buying out tech, ships, and buildings.






Simple and effective buff to U.E. strongest yield.

If this rewards seem unexciting compared with getting an entirely new population, know that in the next section of the quest the Imperials get a powerful system improvement that the Mezari and Sheredyn do not get to access.






A strong buff given your Mezari population will now +1 yield science each, and you should now have a strong, wide industrial infrastructure with which to pivot into a science victory.


Mezari - +1 , +0.5


Political pressures from this population
Scientific - More scientist faction pressure from scientist events.
Anti-religious - Less religious faction pressure from religious events.
Curious - Pacifist events support scientist faction.

The Mezari resemble a less scientifically powerful Sophon, lacking that population's bonus on Cold planets, and having a somewhat muted version of its other bonuses. Where the Mezari stand out is in the UE's ability to pivot from an incredibly powerful basic industrial infrastructure, into a scientific powerhouse. Shifting to the Mezari is by no means necessary, but it can help research key technologies faster. Chosing this road does mean taking a noticable hit to influence, so carefully assess the cost and benefits for your particular empire and victory condition before converting.

Imperial, Mezari, and Sheredyn now branch into a small end-game quest with slight variations for each faction.



1000 dust is useful. It is to rush this quest by quickly buying a new, cheap ship with nothing except the pretty useless "Emperor" module. Delete the ship once the quest updates.




This thing is just for flavour. It is not going to help you wage war. At all.


The main difference in the questline here is that the Imperials must build the Mount of Zelevas to continue. This is a very expensive, very powerful unique building, intended to give the Imperials an advantage in the wonder victory race.




This is an amazing improvement that will help immensely in securing a wonder victory. For a wonder victory you will need four very powerful industrial cities, so you might want to consider building it in a city that is your second or third strongest producer, rather than stacking it onto you home system.


Enjoy your 1000 gold. The Mezari have a pretty underwhelming last couple of rewards.

A perfectly useful tactics card, but it comes quite late, and is overshadowed by the strong, versatile cards provided early in the game, such as Turtle, Prudent Positions or Get Lucky.


This ground invasion tactic allows an additional 200 troops to join an invasion. Handy, but nothing to write home about unless you are invading against more advanced troops and need to overwhelm with sheer numbers.




An approval boost, at this point in the game, is usually useless. Useful if you are enormously overcolonised before unlocking certain techs, but even that is seldom an issue. A dud of a reward, but at least the Mezari get their nice ship skins.

This guide should help players recognise the United Empire's basic strategic strengths. It is not a step-by-step guide, and players should try to respond to each game's particular circumstances.

On the first turn there is always a lot for a player to do. Before ending your first turn you must:

• Set any laws your wish to run.
  
• Check if there are easily colonisable planets in your home system.
  
• Set your home system's production queue.
  
• Decide what to do with your hero.
  
• Edit and optimise ships.
  
• Use your explorer ship to check non-atmospheric anomalies on home system.
  
• Set your initial research queue.

I always review and set laws first, because they are tucked away in the senate screen, and easily forgotten. You get a notification preventing you from moving to turn 2 if you forget to queue tech. You do not get a notification if you forget to pass laws.





The United Empire starts as a Federation, allowing it to cheaply upgrade systems, and spread its empire wider before suffering approval penalties.

They also start with the Industrialists political party in power, providing one fixed law, Dust Windfall. This just provides 10% of industry spent on construction as dust. It can be very powerful later in the game, when 10% of a construction can equal a lot of dust. Early on, its effects are negilible.

Gold is rare in the early game, and happiness is not stretched through overpopulation, so the United Empire always benefit greatly from immediately setting the Super Tax Act. It costs, -20, but gives +3 per population. This will help you manage the upkeep on essential infrastructure, and a modest early fleet.

We start with three population, so this is an important +9 per turn early on.




Above is an example of a strong starting home system, because it has another Temperate, Fertile planet open for colonisation immediately. It is also has a Mediterranean planet, which is open to colonisation from an early and useful tech, so there is room to expand the system easily once the population outgrows Raia and Muzis IV.

Xeno-Industrial Infrastructure is queued first above because it will immediately provide +30 industry to Raia, then a further +30 once Muzis IV is colonised. It will also speed up the colonisation of Muzis IV. With this strong industrial start, you can pump out other essentials - food for growth and ships for exploring and defense, followed by gold and science improvements as needed.

I recommend setting Dmitri Lenko as the admiral of your exploration fleet so he can gain XP for searching curiosities. Once assigned, he cannot be moved for 8 turns. Lenko has a slow ship, so to make this viable, go to the Hero Management screen, select "Inspect" on Dimitri Lenko, then select his ship.



Edit the ship to look as it does above. Minimal offense, minimal defense, and two speed modules. This allows Lenko's ship to keep up with the explorer. You may wish to add extra probes to the empty support module slots, but this will increase the upgrade cost. It can be worthwhile, just don't overdo it, or you can break even by removing a defense or offense module. This is usually safe, as you are very unlikely to encounter aggression in the first 8 turns.

Speaking of the lack of early aggression, your colony ship is, by default, slow and armed. You need to edit it.



In the top left of the screen select the Military Status tab, and look for Ship Designs. Select "Settler" and "Edit".

Here you should remove the gun from you colony ship design, and add an extra engine in the spare support slot. You then need to go to your fleet and spend 30 to upgrade the existing colony ship to your new, faster design.

You can explore cautiously with the colony ship in the first few turns, or you can disband the fleet until it is needed. As soon as you find a system you can colonise, move to it, and start the colonisation process.

Use your explorer fleet, led by Lenko, to scan curiosities and find new systems to settle.



When you mouse over curiosities, note that they are categorised. It is best not to scan atmospheric curiosities, because there is an early-game quest that gives you 100 dust, 50 influence, and some titanium or hyperium for scanning the most of these. Prioritise subterranean and life form curiosities, as they can reveal useful resources. Also note that scanning curiousities gives you a small amount of the resource you find, so it is essential for early economic accumulation. Explore and scan!

As Lenko levels up from curiosities, remember to choose upgrades that boost systems, and not fleets. On turn 9, unassign him from the fleet, and assign him to your home system.


The strongest choice is usually Xenobiology, which gives an improvement worth +10 science per planet, +10 science per fertile planet, and +10 science per temperate planet. Raia is all three of these, so you get an immediate +30 boost, without even factoring in other planets your system might have.

Your next priorities in the queue are any low-level technologies needed to exploit resources or colonise local planets.

Once you set out to explore, take note of your surroundings. A good starting area has lots of nodes with lots of planets, connected by shorter star lanes. A tough start has lots of sterile planets connected by long star lanes. If you have a tough start, concentrate on industry and science techs in the right and bottom quarters of the tech wheel, so that you can travel faster, and get more built on your planets to overcome the harsh environment.

• Avoid searching any atmospheric curiosities until you get the first academy quest (usually somewhere between turns 10 and 17).
  
• Avoid searching signal curiosities until you get a small force of attack ships, because these can spawn pirates.

The cap on your ability to settle is known as "overcolonisation". You can find this number tucked away, unlabelled, at the bottom left of the Empire Summary tab. It has a tool tip, and another obscure icon that you will find throughout the tech-tree to signify over-colonisation. Going over this cap causes lowering approval rates, and can make systems rebel against you.



Aim to build settlers regularly, but be picky about your settles. The rules of thumb to follow are, when it is possible you should:

• Choose systems with fertile planets.
  
• Choose systems with useful resources.
  
• Settle to have a steady income from strategic resources deposits - Hyperium and Titanium first.
  
• Choose systems with larger planets, and more planets.
  
• Choose systems that form choke points.
  
• Avoid planets that require less useful research investment to settle (eg, Toxic).
  
• Avoid settling systems with only one or two planets.

The United Empire has a head start swallowing up minor factions. Some minor factions are more worth the assimilating than others. Minor factions each have a common and a rare trait that they can offer. A few to watch out for are:

Amblyr - A fraction of the time these offer the trait Industry Contacts which lowers buy-out costs, making your dual dust/influence economy even more economical.
Mavros - These are useful for -10% ship building costs, especially for a Sheredyn playthrough.
Sowers - These help if you are capturing systems from cravers, and want to reverse the FIDSI-reducing depletion points these zerg-like enemies cause on planets.
Pulsos - A fraction of the time, these offer the trait Thinkers and Tinkers II which decreases the research cost of technologies that benefit from "facilitating links (the lines connecting lower techs to higher techs in the tech tree).
Tikanan - Watch out for the rare trait Infinite Soldiers, which gives a free 100 manpower stock per turn, making it that much easier to fill out your huge manpower capacities.
Yuusho - While you start with one, you have not assimilated them at the start of the game. Once assimilated, they can provide +20% damage to weapons modules. A great addition alongside the 10% boost if you choose Punisher Drives during the faction quest.


Pirate bases begin to appear on turn 11. They can be enormously annoying. It pays to prepare by making a small force of heavily armed Zolya-class ships, and some cheap colony ships with siege modules slotted. Siege down pirate lairs quickly, before they spread out too many fleets.

Pirate manpower is always very weak, so a quick ground invasion with a force of tanks should make short work of them.

If you lack access to strategic resources, if can be worth keeping a pirate lair around and repeatedly hacking it. You will get lucky with titanium, gold, and hyperium reasonably often.


Hacking is a very poorly communicated feature. I recommend finding a guide on youtube.

The United Empire's hacking should prioritise befriending minor factions in the early game. Later it should transition over into stealing technologies from opposing major factions' capital systems. Put the Encrypt defensive program on your home system, and on nodes you suspect hacks might pass through.

Use longer hacking routes, not shorter. Longer routes that pass through neutral territory are harder for opponents to trace. Make good use of unoccupied systems and carefully positioned backdoor nodes to lengthen routes.


If you are going to war, and do not mind being cheap, prioritise the Spear of Isyander reward. It is, as many have complained, hilariously unbalanced in its present state. It is a late mid-game fleet, but available very early for a set period of turns. Worse still, you might want to take it even though you *don't* want to go to war, simply because if any enemy has it, they will be devastating. Tragically, the only consistent counterplay to the Spear of Isyander is to make sure you always have the Spear of Isyander.

If you do not want to use the Spear, or do not fear it, choose the reward that grants you additional laws from a political party not on your senate. There are some great options to choose from through this ability, and it does not feel nearly as game-breaking as the Spear.

A reliable early tech order for the United Empire is:

• 1. Xenobiology - for +30 science building.
  
• 2. One to two tier 1 techs that unlock Hyperium, or nearby planets with good resources.
  
• 3. Galactic Commodities - allows buying and selling resources.
  
• 4. Multi-Thread Management - allows dust buy-outs and powerful unique +dust system improvement.
  
  Taking those last two techs also opens up your first system development slot, found on the Economy Screen. To develop systems you need to plug a luxury resource into this screen, then build the development in a system. The building will cost the chosen luxury, and each luxury gives differing rewards. Dustciduous Trees, Eden Incense, Jadonyx are all good choices for this, but you may need to use a less rewarding luxury if you don't have access to any good ones.
  
  
• 5. Shift into military technologies for defense, or offense, and/or the Behemoth unlock quest from Supremacy DLC.

• Baryonic Shielding - Allows travel outside starlanes and into other constellations.
  
• SLC (Supra-Light Content) Systems - For Edenisation, a planet specialisation that boosts influence. Always specialise planets once available.
  
• Commercial Frameworks - Unlocks trading companies and trade routes.
  
• Autonomous Materials - Reveals wormholes between constellations. Allows trade routes to pass between constellations.

If you have the Celestial Worlds DLC installed, then at turn 20 you will get the quest Unexpected Entropy. This features the best engine in the game, the Scavenged Ramscoop. This thing is ridiculous. Far better than high tier movement modules that require strategic resources. An essential in every playthrough, all you need to do to get it is discover four nodes from outside your starting constellation. You can use probes to do this pretty easily.

For more detailed advice about choosing your weapons for your ships, I strongly recommend the following guide:

Sonny228's Bang for your buck - A guide to weapon modules.

You should have a mixed role fleet. As tempting as it is to stack a fleet with Gjallarfire glass cannons, the most reliable fleet is the one that doesn't have an obvious Achille's heel. A core of mixed fleets, which work well at multiple distances, and offer multiple forms of damage, and tank multiple kinds of damage, can always be supplemented with smaller, highly specialised forces.

For a 20 cp fleet, you might try:

Hero ship - Seeker for movement/damage buffs. Petra is ideal.
[6cp] 2x Medium Protectors w/ Squadrons and Slugs for torpedo defence.
[6cp] 4X Medium Attackers w/Rockets or Lasers.
[4cp] 4X Small Protectors w/Support and Heavy Shielding.
[4cp] 4x Small Attackers w/Rockets or Lasers.

Look carefully at the bonuses your fleet admiral provides, and tailor your fleet to take advantage. Lots of hull penetration? Use torpedos, or heavily-armoured slugs builds.

Because the United Empire is an all-rounder faction, the strategies you can use when fighting against it are quite conventional ones.


Make them your ally. This is the safest and often cheapest counter-strategy to any big influential faction in Endless Space 2. It is not always possible, but if you can sacrifice some dust and technologies to join the United Empire team it may carry you toward victory. The easiest victories are the ones done in alliance with other factions, such as conquest or economic victories. An alliance also prevents peaceful conversion of your systems.


It is hard to ever truly drain the United Empire of influence, but by constantly warring them, and forcing situations where they have to spend influence, you can prevent them spending that influence on their economy.


If you become boxed in by the United Empire, a hard pivot to war is likely your best option. If you are never at cold war with the United Empire, they can never use the bonuses they have to peaceful conversion to suddenly pick off systems within their influence. Keeping them constantly at war and defending has the major advantage that it can massively drain their deep pools of manpower, and they tend not to have big bonuses for replenishing it.

• The Unfallen
  
• The United Empire

A great deal of credit must go to Zigzagzigal and their fantastic series of Civ IV guides. They have heavily informed the spirit of this series.

Thanks also to the editors of the Endless Space 2 Fandom Wiki[endless-space-2.fandom.com]. In making this guide, I shamelessly ripped many of the icons uploaded by CaptainCobbs to the wiki before I finally worked out to use the Unity Asset extractor. #nottechsavvy

Credit also to the guides provided a number of years ago by the guys at 4XAlchemist which helped me when I first began playing. Although some of them are quite out-of-date now, they give good overviews of an earlier build of the game.

Thanks to reddit user Knofbath for defending the Yuusho as a cheap defence on frontline systems. I have edited my initially very harsh assessment of them.

Thanks finally to the small and dedicated communty of ES2 players who have, over a number of years, struggled to gather together information on the game and its many parts. In some cases, I am simply collating and double-checking the hard work done already by others, so that it is finally all together in an accessible form.