tea.and.blues' Guides - The Unfallen

The Unfallen aim to peacefully outgrow and overtake their opponents using their unique vine-colony mechanic. Here I detail the main strengths and weakness of the faction, as well as some strategies and counter-strategies.

Introduction

This guide was made for game version 1.5.28. It is up-to-date as of July 2020. It assumes the reader has played the game previously, and has some knowledge of the game's overall mechanics.

It assumes the player owns all DLC and Add-ons released as of that date. Some players prefer the game without the Penumbra and Awakening DLC in their current form. This guide does include advice for managing systems introduced by these DLC, such as hacking and the Academy faction.

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.

A Note on icons in Endless Space 2

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 & FIDS

• 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.

Dust & Upkeep

• 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.

Manpower capacity, Manpower stock, & Manpower crew

• 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.

Section 1 - Faction Overview

Faction Leader: Arasch, First of the Seconds

The Unfallen are an arboreal race strongly associated with fire. They excel at peaceful, diplomatic games. While they are very capable of warfare, they can lose out on many of their greater strengths by engaging in it.

Use their unique colonising mechanics and massive growth, happiness, and influence buffs to spread a wide, populous empire that won't be easily felled. Build relationships and alliances so that even if war does happen, you have the alliance-based boosts to withstand it.

-1.1- Affinities: Unfallen & Celestial Vines

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

Visual Affinity: Unfallen

• Access to Unfallen ship hulls (see Section 2 of this guide)
  
• Access to Unfallen questline and rewards (see Section 3 of this guide)
  
• Access to Firekeeper-themed ship skins through registering on Amplitude's Games2Gether service[www.games2gether.com].
  
• Access to unique features listed in Section 1.8, Unique Affinity Technologies.

Gameplay Affinity: Celestial Vines

• Can colonise systems by spreading vines with vineships.
  
• Vines provide mild benefits to allies when spread throughout their systems.
  
• Access to unique features listed in Section 1.8, Unique Affinity Technologies.

You must spread vines manually using special vineships. All vines have to connect back to the Unfallen's home system. Vines are not restricted to star lanes, and can form de facto star lanes between worlds, making navigation slightly easier for the Unfallen.

Enemies can disentangle systems, making chokepoints a particular risk for the Unfallen. Sometimes losing one system that provides a crucial link to the homeworld can mean losing multiple systems.

-1.2- Traits: Guardians, Harmonius II, Mutual Understanding I, and Resilient

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.

Guardians

• Allows the discovery of Guardian population on non-sterile worlds. These create their own new population slot on planets, and cannot be moved.

Guardians are one of the more unique forms of population, providing buffs and debuffs depending on whether or not allies and enemies also have Guardians. Only factions with the Guardians trait can uncover them. Guardians apply +20 influence for every friendly faction that also owns Guardians. This buff applies to your own faction, meaning you start the game with a huge +20 influence income. For more information, see the population section below.

Harmonious II

• +16 per Alliance on systems, +8 per Peace on systems.

Mutual Understanding I

• +10% troop damage on empire per friendly faction, +10% ship damage on empire per friendly faction.

The game works hard to incentivise peaceful, allied action as the Unfallen, combined with strong defenses. Despite this, the Unfallen are capable of playing as warrior. This route does often fail to take full advantage of their pro-peace traits.

Resilient

• +System Shield on home system.

Trust that there won't be any Obliterators roaming around early in the game, but this is a very useful, high-level defense. It is normally only available for Tier 3 of the tech wheel, and exists principally because the Unfallen are nothing without their home system.

-1.3- Homeworld: Koyasil

Koyasil is a Unique Forest planet that produces the same base yield as a standard Medium Forest planet.



Koyasil has fantastic synergy with the Xeno-Industrial Infrastructure system improvement, which guarantees at least +30 industry and sometimes much more depending on the other planets in the system. Researching Xenolinguistics to unlock this improvement is a priority. Koyasil has a poor base science output, so prioritising the Public-private Partnership improvement from the Xenobiology tech may also be a priority.

Because of their slower start, a lot of the big bonuses enjoyed by the Unfallen do not kick in until the mid-game. The big challenge for the Unfallen is safely turtling on the first few systems for the early game, until they are industrious enough to push out and spread their vines aggressively.

Categories

Type	Forest
Size	Medium
Climate	Temperate
Biodiversity	Fertile

Base Yields

Icon	FIDSI	yield
	Happiness	0
	Food	8
	Industry	4
	Dust	4
	Science	3
	Influence	0

-1.4- Populations: Unfallen, Guardian, & Guardian Guide

The Unfallen starts each game with two Unfallen population, one Guardian population, and no representatives from a minor factions.

Base population:

Unfallen

Unfallen +2 per population, +5 per population on Fertile.

# of pop. in empire	bonus
10	Increase Pacifists faction.
20	+15% on systems with this pop.
50	+50% ownership recovery rate on systems.

Political pressures from this population
Pacifists - More pacifist faction pressure from pacifist events.
Anti-industrialists - Less industrialist faction pressure from industrial events.
Hedonistic- Ecological events support pacifist faction.

There are many advantages to the huge growth that Unfallen provide on Fertile planets. A principal advantage is how quickly they can colonise (and populate) other systems and planets. Another is the raw strength provided by all the per-population FIDSI bonuses on heroes and system improvements. Given how quickly Unfallen can grow, it is comparatively easy to get to their population bonuses.

Base manpower per turn replenishment scales from food output, so the Unfallen also produce ample manpower for defence and offense.

Guardian

Guardian +200 damage to attackers during ground invasion
+5 on system.
+20 if owner is friendly with factions that own Guardians (including own faction).
-20 if owner is enemies with factions that own Guardians.

# of pop. in empire	bonus
5	Increase Pacifists faction.
10	+10 on systems with Guardians.
20	Guardian Law unlocked. -50% on peaceful treaty costs. No upkeep.

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

Guardians cannot grow, or be removed by starvation. They are instead revealed when the Unfallen (or a custom faction with the Guardians trait) searches certain curiousities on Boreal, Terran, Forest, Monsoon, Jungle, or Toxic planets. When you find a Guardian it creates a new population slot on the planet with a Guardian fixed to it. You cannot move Guardians to other planets, but you can empty the slot with a special build queue project that gives a short-term boost to happiness.

To get the most out of Guardians, you want to search curiousities on planets owned by friendly factions. You have to be proactive about revealing them, and keep borders open with friendly neighbours.

Because Guardians provide a -20 cut to influence when you are enemies with another faction, it is sensible to avoid searching Guardian curiousities in the territories of factions likely to start a war with you, such as Cravers or Hissho.

-1.5- Hero: Lunabarxes

Unique Hero

Lunabarxes

Political Party: Pacifists
Faction: Unfallen - Focuses on
Hero Class: Seeker - Has a ship focused on movement and exploration.
Seekers are relatively weak as governors, but this is offset well by the Unfallen skill tree's boosts to growth and influence.

Starting skills

On fleet	+5% health regeneration on fleet
On system	+15 on system.

Recommended role

Assign her to fleet for XP, or to system for immediate gold.

Most heroes should be assigned to a fleet of explorers for the first 9 turns. Lunabarxes complicates that because she offers +15 dust per turn immediately. If she is on your fleet for 9 turns, that is a loss of 135 dust, and dust is a hard resource to secure early in ES2. 15 dust per turn comfortably covers the costs of two early ships with 7 dust upkeep, for example. It will seem pitiful later on, but you're not just putting Lunabarxes on your home system to boost gold, you're also putting her on there to boost per population influence. You can place her on you fleet too, and she will be a higher level, yielding more food and industry, when you switch her to your system on turn 9. It really is your call whether you value the gold or the per population industry. I tend to put her on my fleet at first, but there are rare times where early-game gold gets extra-tight and I regret the decision.

The influence boost that Guardians provide is strong in the early game, but it tends to fall off, and if the Unfallen get embroiled in a war, Guardians in the wrong places can actually start hurting influence production. Lunabarxes has a set of skills that can stabilise influence production, though it takes some investment to get to them.

As a Seeker class hero, Lunabarxes can also be useful as a ship admiral, but it will mean investing many more cogs and more tech into influence-producing system improvements and specialisations. You really need to be investing that industry into more industry, more science, more defence, and more vineships. Unfallen heroes also don't have much to offer as admirals except stronger ship health regeneration.

Priority skills

Tier 1:

• Optimal Operations Expert
  Level 1 - +1 & +1 per pop. per pop.
  Level 2 - +2 & +2 per pop.
  
• Blue Sky Speculator
  Level 1 - +15 on system.
  Level 2 - +30 on system.

These are standard and strong boosts that will get you far enough to open Tier 2, where you will find some really useful per population boosts to influence.

Tier 2:

• Common Touch
  Level 1 - +10 , +2 per hero level.
  Level 2 - +20 , +4 per hero level.
  
• Personal Militia
  Level 1 - +1 per pop., 10% defending troop health.
  Level 2 - +2 per pop., 20% defending troop health.

Focus Lunabarxes on producing lots of influence to manage relationships with nearby factions. Take all the skill levels in Common Touch, which is likely to get you much more influence in the earlier game than Personal Militia. In the unlikely case that you already have a huge home system with more than 16 population, or if you think your systems will be invaded soon, it might be worth investing into Personal Militia first for the home troop boost. Follow these up with Tier 3's Rousing Orator.

-1.6- Government & Laws: Democracy & Right Thing Rule

Starting Government

Government	Effects
Democracy	3 political parties on senate. -10% costs on law upkeep per party on senate. +1 law slot. +1 per population. -50% cost to pass a new law.

The Unfallen begin as a Democracy. This government gives three senate seats (occupied by heroes of the ruling political parties). In Endless Space 2 a Democracy tallies the political alignments of all the populations of your systems, and then places three senators representing the biggest majorities. This means you can have more senator buffs on your empire, and also have three political parties gaining experience at the same time. More experienced political parties unlock stronger laws. However, you have much less control over which parties are in power, and cannot use dust or influence to lobby for preferred parties. On top of this, most of your population is likely to be Unfallen, and they heavily favour the Pacifists party, which has some of the weaker laws compared with the Industrialists, Scientists, and Militarists. Shifting to Republic or Federation eventually will give you more control, and it is wise if you plan to go down a warfare route.

Starting Law:

Law	Effects
Right Thing Rule	Requires Pacifist political party on senate. Allows player to force peace using influence when in a cold war.

Right Thing Rule is a useful law to have starting out, allowing you to force peace onto big, menacing factions. This can help keep you alive as you build the power to retaliate, and eventually dominate. However, the AI do consider enforcing peace a hostile action. The long-term ramifications of forced peace can be a worsening relationship with other factions.

-1.7- Starting Technologies: Planetary Landscape & Off-world Agribusiness.

The Unfallen start with two strong technologies in the early game, allowing them to grow quickly. They have a head start in terms of befriending minor factions, or pirate bases.

Planetary Landscaping

The Unfallen can grow fast, filling out systems with population. You will outgrow systems very quickly as the Unfallen, and once you have spaceports you can shift population to new systems quickly. Investing precious cogs into additional growth can feel like overkill. In some ways, the true advantage of having both techs unlocked in the Empire Development quandrant is that you can begin researching your small attack and protector ships from turn one if you wish to, although that would be a risky route to take, as it means neglecting industrial and scientific infrastructure.

Off-world Agribusiness

Infinite Supermarkets is not particularly useful this early in the game. 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, is a more useful starter tech. That extra +20 influence from your Guardian population at the start of the game goes a long way to helping you become sovereign of, and assimilate, nearby minor factions. Note, however, that you have to put vines on minor faction systems before they can be assimilated, which can be very frustrating if they are not close to your vine network, or if you are competing for control with someone else.

-1.8- Unique Affinity Technologies

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

The Unfallen's unique technologies focus on system defences and rewarding peaceful 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.

Visual Affinity: Unfallen

• Unique system improvement Planetary Guard.
  
• Unique system improvement Integrated Weaponry.
  
• Unique system improvement Mantle of Unity.
  
• Unique system improvement Extreme Agrarians.
  
  
• Unique empire improvement Vessels of the Heart.

Unique System Improvement: Planetary Guard

Tech Wheel - Miltary Quadrant - Tier 2



This replaces Electromagnetic Shields and gives twice the manpower capacity, and lowers chance of damage from invasions by 30% rather than 20%. Helps T.U. turtle with defenses before they start spreading vines aggressively.

Unique System Improvement: Integrated Weaponry

Tech Wheel - Miltary Quadrant - Tier 2



Identical to the building it replaces, except for +250 manpower capacity. Big food yields mean the Unfallen can make good use of that extra capacity so their systems are extra bulky.

Unique Empire Improvement: Mantle of Unity

Tech Wheel - Empire Development Quadrant - Tier 4



More incentive to maintain a strong, four-faction alliance, and a good source of influence for law and agreement upkeeps.

Unique Empire Improvement: Extreme Agrarians

Tech Wheel - Empire Development Quadrant - Tier 5



A straightforward +10 food yields over Cloud Seeding Swarms, which it replaces.

Unique Empire Improvement: Vessels of the Heart

Tech Wheel - Empire Development Quadrant - Tier 4



Another reward for investing into friendly diplomacy. Note that you can still wage war and benefit from this improvement, so long as you have a sufficient number of allies to get good use from peace and alliance benefits.

Gameplay Affinity: Celestial Vines

• Access to unique Vine Beacon support module.
  
• Access to unique Elder Bark Armor juggernaut module.

Unique Support Module: Vine Beacon

Available at start of game - Ship-building menu



This unique module facilitates the Unfallen to spread colonies by first "entwining" star systems. All systems in Unfallen empire must be connected back to their home system. "Vined" systems also provide boosts of approval to allied systems, incentivising peaceful play and lots of alliances.

Unique Juggernaut Module: Elder Bark Armor

Tech Wheel - Miltary Quadrant - Tier 4



This Behemoth plating regenerates health throughout encounters.

Section 2 - Hulls

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.

Note: Using this section

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.

Unfallen Hulls Summary

The Unfallen's hulls emphasize defense over offense.

-2.1- Entwiner: Vine-class

Default Unfallen Skin


Downloadable Firekeepers Skin

Stats	Role	Size	Command Points	Base Health	Base Crew	Base Speed	Bonuses	Base	Base	Build Influence
	Entwiner	Small	1	1500	40	3	+1 Speed	400	2

Slots
Base	2	2

Comments

• Only ship capable of slotting unique Vine Beacon module.
  
• Moderately fast.
  
• Significantly more expensive to build than normal coloniser ships.
  
• A fleet of 6-9 vineships, guarded by military ships, will make vining systems much faster and safer.

-2.2- Explorer: Heart-class

Default Unfallen Skin


Downloadable Firekeepers Skin

Stats	Role	Size	Command Points	Base Health	Base Defence	Base Crew	Base Speed	Bonuses	Base	Base	Build Influence
	Explorer	Small	1	1500	50	40	4	+2 Speed 100% probe recovery	50	2

Slots				/
Base	1	2	1	1
Upgraded	1	2	2 (+1)	1

Comments

• Can be a bulky early game attacker with three shield modules.
  
• Not great damage output, so falls off fast.
  
• Solid shielded explorer.
  
• Inherently faster than military hulls.
  
• Gains extra support slot very late in the tech wheel.
  
• Builds support for Scientists political party, rather than Militarists.

-2.3- Attacker: Thorn-class

Default Unfallen Skin


Downloadable Firekeepers Skin

Stats	Role	Size	Command Points	Base Health	Base Defence	Base Crew	Base Speed	Bonuses	Base	Base	Build Influence
	Attacker	Small	1	2000	67	100	2	Focuses fire with other attackers 10% to damage modules	75	2

Slots		/			/
Base	1	1	2	1	0
Upgraded	2 (+1)	1	3 (+1)	1	1 (+1)

Comments

• Extra shielding can feel frustrating on an attacker, but makes close range weapons more viable.
  
  

-2.4- Protector: Loam-class

Default Unfallen Skin


Downloadable Firekeepers Skin

Stats	Role	Size	Command Points	Base Health	Base Defence	Base Crew	Base Speed	Bonuses	Base	Base	Build Influence
	Protector	Small	1	2500	83	100	2	Draws fire. +10% on plating/shields.	75	2

Slots				/
Base	1	2	2	0
Upgraded	1	3 (+1)	2	1 (+1)

Comments

• A potential four shields makes this a very bulky ship.
  
• Can run fewer shields for more engines or support.
  
• Restricted to one weapon.

-2.4- Hunter: Fire-class

Default Unfallen Skin


Downloadable Firekeepers Skin

Stats	Role	Size	Command Points	Base Health	Base Defence	Base Crew	Base Speed	Bonuses	Base	Base	Build Influence
	Hunter	Medium	3	7500	250	300	2	Focuses fire +20% damage on weapon modules	300 +5	6

Slots		/ /
Base	2	1	0	4	1
Upgraded	3 (+1)	1	1 (+1)	5 (+1)	1

Comments

• Up to six shields for heavy bulk.
  
• Barely enough slots for engines or enhancers.
  
• As an attacker, would benefit from more damage rather than so much shielding.
  
• Good for close range weapons - slugs and railguns - as it can survive long enough to get in range.

-2.6- Coordinator: Light-class

Default Unfallen Skin


Downloadable Firekeepers Skin

Stats	Role	Size	Command Points	Base Health	Base Defence	Base Crew	Base Speed	Bonuses	Base	Base	Build Influence
	Coordinator	Medium	3	9500	317	300	2	Draws fire +10% to shields	300 + 5	6

Slots	/	/ / /
Base	1	1	0	3	3
Upgraded	2 (+1)	1	1 (+1)	4 (+1)	3

Comments

• Bulky, okay at sponging fire.
  
• Relatively few squadron slots.
  
• Has one fewer shield module than medium attacker, but +10% modifier to them.

-2.7- Carrier: Forest-class

Default Unfallen Skin


Downloadable Firekeepers Skin

Stats	Role	Size	Command Points	Base Health	Base Defence	Base Crew	Base Speed	Bonuses	Base	Base	Build Influence
	Carrier	Large	6	30000	1000	900	2	+10% attack on squadrons. +10% damage on squadrons.	250 + 5 5	12

Slots	/	/	/ /	/
Base	1	1	1	1	4	1
Upgraded	2 (+1)	2 (+1)	2 (+1)	2 (+1)	5 (+1)	2 (+1)

Comments

• Low number of squadron slots makes somewhat vulnerable to other carriers.
  
• High defence, up to nine slots.
  
• Pretty even spread, although like other Unfallen ships it lacks lots of room for support modules.

Section 3 - Quest & Rewards

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.

-3.1- Quest 1.1: Technology or Transvine.

Chapter 1, Quest 1 - Triggers on turn 5.

Scientists	Possess two anomalies in your empire.	Random technology
Ecologists	Possess 3 star systems.	60 Transvine luxury

The first choice is invariably the best one. Happiness is not in short supply early in the game, even with the massive overpopulation that may happen thanks to the Unfallen's growth potential. Technology, on the other hand, can be slow going, a free tech is amazing, and anomalies are pretty common.

A major issue with this first quest is that it pairs poorly with the Unfallen's slow initial colonising abilities. If you cannot get through this quest swiftly, you will likely find some of the ship module rewards in the questline are no longer relevant by the time they unlock.

-3.2- Quest 1.2: Renewal System, or Koyasil Kinetics.

Chapter 1, Quest 2 - Triggers after Quest 1.1.

Pacifists	Stockpile scaled to >current amount.	Renewal System , unique support module.
Militarists	Destroy spawned pirates.	Koyasil Kinetics , unique weapon module.

Unique Support Module: Renewal System

• Hard to get good use out of this because of Unfallen's more passive fleets.
  
• Slightly weaker, much earlier version of OCX R/R Unit that does not cost .
  
• Hard to justify using a support slot for this.

The amount of influence you earn from slotting this is unlikely to make up for losing a support slot. Engines, enhancers, and manpower boosters are just far more useful.

Unique Weapon Module (Kinetic): Koyasil Kinetics

• Significantly strong than the first two tiers of basic slugs.
  
• Allows delaying the military tech tree.
  
• Significantly weaker than slugs.
  
• Short range makes it less potent than beam weapons.

This is a useful module if you plan to research your military ships, but otherwise delay teching into the military quadrant of the tech wheel. It allows your ships to do some respectable early-game damage, however you might find that beam weapons outperform it as they can do accurate damage throughout engagements. Respectable flak defense against missiles. A caution, though, that this weapon does quickly become obsolete, and sometimes is already obsolete by the time it is unlocked.

-3.3- Quest 2: Centre of Life and Light, or Harmony of the Heart.

Chapter 2, Quest 1 - Triggers after Quest 1.2.

Scientists	Increase non-Unfallen population in empire to 11.	Centre of Life and Light , unique system improvement.
Ecologists	Upgrade two systems to level 2.	Harmony of the Heart , unique system improvement.

Unique System Improvement: Centre of Life and Light

• A very powerful boost to technology.
  
• Especially viable if assimilating minor factions.

More science is always welcome, and usually more welcome than happiness modifiers. If you shift population around carefully, this can potentially provide enormous boosts to overall science relative to when it can be gained. It is, however, never worth building on systems that are overrun entirely by Unfallen population, due to only providing +10 science, while costing a whole 16 upkeep.

This reward directly adds benefits towards the varied population spread you build to gain it.

Unique System Improvement Harmony of the Heart

• Underwhelming unless you are truly starved for happiness.
  
• Often the faster, but less rewarding, route through the questline.

Happiness modifiers are relatively accessible and cheap. This is expensive, and so seldom worth building. Centre of Life and Light may be situational, but it has far more use cases over this. The only case for taking this is if you are rushing the questline, in which case you will probably complete the requirements for this selection first.

-3.4- Quest 3.1: Influence or luxury resource.

Chapter 3, Quest 1 - Triggers after Quest 2.

Scientists	Increase empire science output to scaled amound >current output.	300
Ecologists	Maintain 70 in empire for 16 turns.	Luxury resource.

The more reliable option is usually the flat influence boost, as your science will rise naturally, and the range of luxuries is so wide that it is hard to predict if/when any particular one will be useful. You might get lucky with the luxury, though. Can be worth the gamble.

-3.5- Quest 3.2: Heart's Ward, or Heart's Hammer

Chapter 3, Quest 2 - Triggers after Quest 3.1.

Pacifists	Reach 40 positive diplomatic pressure with another empire.	Heart's Ward , unique defence module.
Militarists	Reach 700 in empire.	Heart's Hammer , unique weapon module (beam).

Unique Defense Module: Heart's Ward

• Useful if you are building a big defence against energy weapons.
  
• Sits in an odd position between Hyperium and Antimatter shielding modules.
  
• Can act as a poor man's Advanced Transformative Shielding in a pinch.

Unique Weapon Module (Beam) Heart's Hammer

• Beams are usually falling behind in DPS by the time it unlocks.
  
• You generally have stronger beams than this anyway by the time it unlocks.
  
• More crit chance, and lower cost in Hyperium, compared with Improved Pinch Beam, but weaker damage upfront.

-3.6- Quest 4: Fireforming, or Heart's Embrace

Chapter 3, Quest 2 - Triggers after Quest 3.5.

Scientists	Reach Tier 4 in a quadrant of the tech wheel.	Fireforming , unique empire improvement.
Ecologists	Terraform nearby planet to Jungle or Monsoon	Heart's Embrace , unique empire improvement.

Which of these you choose depends on what planets you have in your empire at this point in the game.

Unique Empire Improvement: Fireforming

• More barren, snow, and ice? Choose Fireforming.

Unique Empire Improvement: Heart's Embrace

• More lava, ash, and desert? Heart's Embrace.

There is a lot one could say about Fireforming and Heart's Embrace. From the perspective of cogs saved, they are a huge advantage over terraforming normally. However, Forest planets are not always ideal. Boreal (cold) planets can yield more science combined with certain heroes and improvements, while Jungle (hot) planets can be better for industry. These abilities are both useful to have, but do not take them as a reason to terraform every affected planet to forest just because it is now quick and easy. Give each some thought.

Section 4 - Strategy

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

-4.1- First Turn Overview

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.

Senate Screen & Laws:

The Unfallen start as a Democracy, giving them a potential 3 senators, and potential access to a wider range of laws compared with other governments. Senators on a Democracy lower law upkeep by 10%. The Unfallen can cut law upkeep by 30% if they recruit a range of heroes representing each political party. Combined with the Unfallen's healthy influence output, this means they can often run a wide range of more expensive, high-value laws.

They also start with the Pacifists political party in power, providing one fixed law, Right Thing Rule. This allows the Unfallen to enforce peace on factions it is in cold war with. If concerned about a war declaration, this is a powerful defensive move. Note, however, that this will not work on the Cravers factions unless you also hack their home system and force them to follow the Pacifists political party.

Gold is rare in the early game, and happiness is not stretched through overpopulation, so the Unfallen 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.

Home System & Colonisation

Above is an example of a middling, but very playable, start for the Unfallen. A nearby system on a short star lane allows your vineships to get started on turn one or two. Vining takes a very long time early in the game, so the sooner you can start, the better. The Unfallen do not begin with guaranteed access to any strategic resources, so this is also a comfortable starting position due to the nearby Titanium.

Construction Queue

Build Drone Networks while you wait for technology to unlock Xeno-Industrial Infrastructure. After that you should choose between building more vineships, or building some rudimentary defence forces to deal with stray pirates or aggressive neighbours.

Hero & Exploration

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



Above is a cheap and minimal upgrade to Lunabarxes ship that allows her to be fast, to contribute probes for exploration, while having extremely cheap defences and weaponry for emergency encounters.

Fleet Management

There is not much you need to change on Unfallen ships early in the game. For newcomers, you edit your basic ship designs as follows:



In the top left of the screen select the Military Status tab, and look for Ship Designs. Select Create under the ship designs. Select Heart-class from the drop-down menu, and slot the ship with the modules below.



A ship like this is much weaker than one made with an attack hull, and it has much less manpower, so is almost useless for ground invasions, but can serve as an important early-game defense against pirates and enemy explorers.

Exploring

Use your explorer fleet, led by Lunabarxes, 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 Lunabarxes levels up from curiosities, remember to choose upgrades that boost systems, and not fleets. On turn 9, unassign her from the fleet, and assign her to your home system.

Research Queue

The strongest choice is Xenolinguistics, which gives an improvement worth +10 industry per planet, +10 industry per fertile planet, and +10 industry per temperate planet. Koyasil is all three of these, so you get an immediate +30 boost, without even factoring in other planets your system might have. Follow this up with Xenobiology which gives a science-based improvement with similar effects.

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

-4.2- Expansion & Accumulation

Exploring

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.

Settling

As mentioned, the Unfallen go about settling somewhat differently, by vining systems. One of the advantages of vining is that, once a system is vined, you can instantly colonise a planet you have the technology for. You skip the "outpost" stage. This means that once you have a fleet of vineships that can vine a system in one turn, you can own planets in that system almost instantly. You shift suddenly from being a slow coloniser to being the fastest coloniser there is.

Vines come with their own set of vulnerabilities. All your vines die if they are not connected to your home system. This means it is safer to have as many connections across you empire as possible, so that if one system is lost, other systems do not get disconnected. For other factions, holding a system on a natural chokepoint can be an advantage. For the Unfallen, some chokepoints - ones that act as the only link to a large section of your empire - are major vulnerabilities. Be sure to protect such systems at all times, and build strong defences, to avoid suddenly losing a large swath of your systems.

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 spread vines throughout your territorities, but also any friendly territories. The rules of thumb to follow as you vine systems are:

• 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.
  
• Avoid planets that require less useful research investment to settle (eg, Toxic).
  
• Avoid settling systems with only one or two planets.

Minor Factions

The Unfallen have plenty of influence to befriend minor factions, but the requirement to vine systems before assimilation seriously hurts their ability to compete against other factions trying to absorb minor systems. 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:

Amoeba - Their Groupthink trait offers extra influence for peace and alliances, which is a playstyle the Unfallen are built for.
Mavros - These are useful for -10% ship building costs, or -10% building costs, depending which trait they carry. Their unique law lowers overcolonisation penalties, allowing more vining of systems.
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.
Deuyivans - Their Research Experts trait can be helpful if you have made use of Fireforming or Heart's Embrace to create lots of Forest planets. By default forest planets give you 3 science per population. This bumps that up to 5, helping out your research quite a bit. At 50 population, they also offer a law that cheapens research in the Empire Development quadrant, which is an important quadrant for the Unfallen.

Pirates

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 Heart-class ships. You can bribe pirates, but your dust is better spent elsewhere.

Hacking (Penumbra DLC)

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

The Unfallen'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.

Academy Faction (Awakening DLC)

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.

-4.3- Priority Technologies

Suggested Early Tech Queue

A reliable early tech order for the Unfallen is:

• 1. Xenolinguistics - for +30 industry building.
  
• 2. Xenobiology - for +30 science building.
  
• 3. One to two tier 1 techs that unlock Hyperium, or nearby planets with good resources.
  
• 4. Galactic Commodities - allows buying and selling resources.
  
• 5. 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.
  
  
• 6. Shift into military technologies for defense, or offense, and/or the Behemoth unlock quest from Supremacy DLC.

Other Priority Technologies

• 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.

• Chlorophyll Chemistry - This is always a good tech, but for the Unfallen's massive food yields, it is amazing. Unlocks Super Biofuel Factory, a system improvement that converts spare food on full systems into industry. It is a late tech, but worth prioritising.
  
• Resonator of the Heart - Gives a unique building that is a valuable source of influence if you have a large alliance, allowing more treaties, agreements, and laws.
  
  

-4.4- Other Noteworthy Quest Rewards

Solo Quest Reward: Scavenged Ramscoop

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.

Population Quest: Guardian Guides, Regenerative Bark, Guardian Arcology.

The Guardians and the Galaxy quest is available to all factions that acquire 5 Unfallen population and one Guardian. These are trivial requirements for the Unfallen faction, so they will always trigger this quest and its rewards.

Quest 1 - Triggers when you have five Unfallen population and one Guardian.

Ecologists	Reach home system output scaled to >current output.	Guardian Guide , unique population.
Industrialists	Reach home system output scaled to >current output.	Regenerative Bark , unique defence module.
Pacifists.	Search anomaly on Koyasil with 150 , 15 , and 15 .	Guardian Arcology , empire improvement.

Unique Population: Guardian Guide

• A singular, mildly more powerful Guardian population.
  
• Not really worth it for the Unfallen.

Unique Defence Module: Regenerative Bark

• Costs 1 strategic. Others cost 2.
  
• Slightly stronger than Titanium plating.
  
• Somewhat weaker than Adamantium, but more crew protection.
  
• Great if you are short on Adamantium, but rolling in Antimatter.

A cheap and accessible plating that is worth working into any Unfallen warship in the mid-game.

Unique Empire Improvement: Guardian Arcology

• Good if you have settled widely and want to ensure a strong ground defence.

-4.5- Recommended Fleet Composition

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. 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. It is easiest to buy one from the marketplace.
[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.

-4.6- Counter-Strategies

The Unfallen have lots of defences, but no matter how large their empire, they are nothing without their home system.

Declare War Early

If you are planning war with the Unfallen, bear in mind that they can use Right Thing Rule to delay your attack. Declare war early, because they can only force peace with Right Thing Rule during cold war. With the Penumbra DLC you can also hack their home system to ensure the Pacifists are not in power. This nullifies their ability to force peace on you.

Dismantle their Webbing

If attacking the Unfallen, prioritise your attacks on chokepoint systems that, if de-vined, will disconnect other systems from the Unfallen home world. As soon as systems are detached, they naturally begin to decay until they are reattached. There will be games where you can take five or six Unfallen systems down with just one powerful ground invasion.

Capture Koyasil

If you manage to take the Unfallen's home system, it is all over for them. Just bear in mind that between Guardians and growth, the Unfallen can mount a strong defense.

Section 5 - Credits & Misc

-5.1- Guide Series

Faction Guides

• The Unfallen
  
• The United Empire

-5.2- Credits & Thanks

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 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.

[Spectral B4dger]

Wonderful guide!

[tea.and.blues]

Just an update: My gaming machine died late last year, so I'm confined to a machine that can barely run Endless Space 2 at all. I have two guides in progress, one for Cravers, one for Umbral Choir, but can't give an eta for either until I earn some money and replace my computer. Apologies.

[Wappaw_CptBlack13]

Another fantastic guide. I love you even more. 11/10.

I agree with Tager321 below, hope for one for cravers as I find them the hardest for me to play.

[SelectClay]

Really loved this and the United Empire guide, but playing Empire and Unfallen back to back made me realize how similar they can be in terms of gaining influence and building wide. (UE through Federation & Development vs Unfallen through Peace & Approval) Would love to read a guide from you on another faction that relies more on different Hero skills or amassing a specific resource.

[sadglitterbunny]

Your guide really helped me to learn to love this faction

[TAGER321]

Good guides Can you make one for cravers?

[Mason]

Absolutely great guide man hope you make one on the other races