Apr 13, 2015 @ 9:07am. I think overall the easiest faction is the Drakken. The forced diplomacy ability is pretty op, the units are innately tanky due to their health pool, and their heroes add to that health pool while being able to heal. Vaulters are, imo, in second place. Get ready for a deep and nearly endless adventure. RAID: Shadow Legends takes players on an epic journey as they amass an army of Champions to rid the land of an unknown scourge and save the realm of Teleria. As we kick off this list of RAID: Shadow Legends tips, we must stress that all who heed the call should be ready for a tremendous adventure.
Endless Legend adds fantastic twists to familiar strategy. Resurrected Beginner's Guide Trials Rewards This Week. But the initial step toward conquest is the choice of faction to best.
© Provided by GamesRadar nullThe best 4X games are very much the backbone of the best PC games, as they are so synonymous with mouse and keyboard control schemes. The genre's name refers to what you can expect to get up to - 'eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate'. This translates to taking control over many different aspects of a sprawling civilization – it's no incident the Civilization series is formative to the genre.
Like real-time strategy, 4X has become somewhat of a hybrid genre – while there are still a few purely 4X games being released every year, you often find 4X elements mixed into other genres, like grand strategy, which are more about expanding and exterminating than exploring and exploiting, for example. 4X is an important part of the strategy umbrella, together with real-time titles and wargaming, and the best 4X games take elements from all the genres to make something new.
Endless Legend Best Faction For Beginners Guide
20. Aggressors - Ancient Rome
Many 4X games take their cues from Civilization, but by enhancing its bureaucracy and garnishing it with real history, Aggressors becomes the ultimate fantasy for Ancient Rome buffs. This realism makes Aggressors a deep simulation of leading an empire with all the rules that applied during its time.
That can be daunting in its complexity, but in reality, Aggressors stays well within the boundaries of the familiar to anyone who's ever played Civilization. Ultimately, Aggressors' downfall is also its biggest asset – it's in no way easily approachable, but all that effort leads to quite simplistic combat in the end.
Available on: PC
19. Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes
A sequel to developer Stardock Entertainment's 4X efforts that began with Elemental: War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes held the crown for fantasy 4X for a short time before it was barrelled over by Endless Legend. This is a wargame, first and foremost, intent on pushing you into battle rather than finding a diplomatic way out, with your territory expansion being a potent tool to growing your armies.
At the same time, having a hero lead the charge and needing to keep them happy in order to appease your best unit also paves the way for some excellent RP elements, including plenty of side quests. You can also customise units in meaningful ways that aid replayability. Even after several years, this is a literally magical title fantasy strategists shouldn't miss.
Available on: PC
18. Thea 2: the Shattering
No less than a hybrid of 4X, RPG and card game, Thea 2 clearly wants to be many things – and succeeds, thanks to the love developer MuHa Games put into its fantasy world. You take the role of a deity tasked with leading their flock. To do that, you appoint a hero, who has to deal with various RPG-style quests while exploring, and decide round by round how to deal with what you find. Since your fantasy party never grows the size of a 4X army, combat is resolved with cards, a unique and fun flourish.
Because the focus on a specific hero in an RPG setting doesn't leave much room for the grand manoeuvring of a people and the management of their relationship with others, Thea 2 is perfect for those who enjoy some of the genre's systems over others. On the other hand, it's perhaps a bit light on features for 4X veterans.
Available on: PC
17. Warhammer 40k: Gladius – Relics of War
If your favourite of the four elements of the best 4X games is 'exterminate', you can't really go wrong with Gladius. Its big draw is, of course, the 40k universe itself, offering units you simply won't find anywhere else, and translating their strengths and weaknesses into fun gameplay.
But Gladius misses the depth 4X players are usually looking for in all systems but warfare, which makes it great for beginners but a little too simple for genre veterans. As a 4X with a unique setting, and a game for 40k fans, this does a terrific job by focusing on the strengths of the material it adapts, but not much more.
Available on: PC
16. Oriental Empires
This is best 4X to go with if you're looking for a game focusing on Chinese history the way Aggressors does for Ancient Rome, especially with the Three Kingdoms and Genghis DLC. In a callback to 4X's board gaming roots, Oriental Empires uses the WEGO system, where all players resolve their turns simultaneously, offering some welcome suspense. Generally, Oriental Empires is one of the best games if you're looking to be surprised, even if a surprise could turn out frustrating.
Random catastrophes and wilful citizens can net or cost you a win that seemed a given. While warfare here is a letdown due to obtuse AI, complex expansion systems and interesting tech tree options make up for it. While Total War has since produced a Three Kingdoms instalment, among true 4X games, Oriental Empires is still the only one offering this specific setting at such depth, and that dedication makes it one of the best of the genre.
Available on: PC
15. Star Wars Rebellion/Star Wars Supremacy
Not to be confused with the boardgame of the same name, Rebellion is the 4X for Star Wars fans, despite being over 20 years old. Play as the rebels or the Empire in a campaign set after the destruction of the Death Star, and help raise either faction to former glory with the help of characters from the expanded universe.
While of course the graphics in 3D battles and its pseudo-real time system, it's still fun to send familiar characters out on missions and build diplomatic ties with factions you recognise. This emulates the feeling of helping shape a familiar universe – central to 4X and a thrill every time.
Available on: PC
14. Master of Orion (2016)
The 2016 edition of Master of Orion is a remastering of sorts of the original Masters of Orion 1 and 2, complete with modern visuals and a boatload of celebrity voice actors. This is the game for people who want to know more about the beginning of the genre, but who think Simtex classic from 1996 may possibly be too dated.
If you've played many other 4X games set in space already, Master of Orion's impact as game that coined the term 4X may get lost on you, but MoO veterans will appreciate the love that went into the reboot. Beginners can appreciate having a similar starting point as many 4X players back in the day. And really, what more reason do we need to try a game than the option of meeting new fun alien races?
Available on: PC
13. Scythe: Digital Edition
The PC version of one of the most enduringly popular board games around, Scythe paints a picture of an exciting alternate WWI-era Eastern Europe, where mechs roam the open planes to fight for you. This is the ideal introduction into digital board gaming – beautiful to look at, easy enough to get started, with a wide variety of win conditions that don't all rely on battle.
The variety of win conditions especially sounds like a given but it's more likely you'll encounter the same conditions across franchises with little variety. Scythe tries not to overwhelm you and is fundamentally a game that you can quickly pick up and put down without too big an investment.
Available on: PC
12. Imperialism 2: The Age of Exploration
If you can forgive Imperialism 2 its 1999 graphics, then the only thing that aged badly about this 4X is its New World theme. Still, the idea of building up a nation and actually having to interact with your people like living beings instead of numbers and carefully allocating resources to their benefit is more in line with classic RTS games such as Age of Empires than Civ.
If you can forgive Imperialism 2 its 1999 graphics, then the only thing that aged badly about this 4X is its New World theme. Still, the idea of building up a nation and actually having to interact with your people like living beings instead of numbers and carefully allocating resources to their benefit is more in line with classic RTS games such as Age of Empires than Civ.
It helps add realism – wars are difficult and expensive, because they put a strain on your populace as well as your armies, proper exploration and trade are a necessity. Imperialism II is amazing because it achieves a great balance between all these systems, leading to many different outcomes.
Available on: PC
11. Distant Worlds: Universe
The word 'universe' in the title isn't for show – Distant Worlds: Universe is one big game, because it's asking you to do no less than to build an empire consisting of as much of space as possible, bringing imaginative alien races into the fold one way or another, until you rule over up to 1,400 randomly generated planets.
That doesn't have to be daunting: you can micromanage every aspect or leave it to the computer. Doing that will certainly be necessary at some point, as Distant Worlds: Universe is dedicated to each of the four exes and then some, offering a vast array of possible outcomes for each action, allowing you to really manage an empire rather than just prep for war and wait for the go sign.
Available on: PC
Turn to page two for our ultimate top 10 best 4X games...
10. Galactic Civilizations 3
The universe is your oyster – Galactic Civilizations 3, Galaxy Civ to friends, is a playground of epic proportions, which allows you to build your own alien race and your own fleet of ships, making the part of designing a civilisation as important as conquering others.
Distinctive factions and well-thought-through ideological traits, which influence every aspect of the game, really drive home that this is a game about civilisations as a whole. It's obvious developer Stardock Entertainment really enjoyed designing alien races with their own quirks, and that attention to detail leads to there being something new to discover with every game.
Available on: PC
9. Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is an approachable game, its systems fitting snugly between there being so much to do that your only option is to give up some control to an automated system (Distant Worlds) and dealing with overwhelm simply by persistently pushing through (Stellaris).
The original Sins of a Solar System was squarely focused on combat, but this updated version balances the game in a way that doesn't forget about the other aspects of empire-building. It's a difficult balance to strike, always is with 4X games, and by sheer virtue of pulling that off and offering a manageable pace, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion stands out from the crowd.
Available on: PC
8. Dominions 5
Before there were high fantasy 4X games, before Warhammer 40k offered us mech units walking on spider legs, there was Dominion 5. Despite its dated visuals, Dominion 5 still boasts an imaginative, unique world, expressed through its fantasy factions, and a research system that deals in magic.
Making sacrifices so you can gain really powerful units and then let them loose on the battlefield is still thrilling, and even after all these years there's nothing quite like leading an army of zombies against merfolk warriors under the sea.
Available on: PC
7. Age of Wonders: Planetfall
With how synonymous the Age of Wonders franchise is with high fantasy 4X, Planetfall turned out to be a surprise, but Triumph Studios has proven there's more than enough… space for fantasy in sci-fi. Interesting races form intricate relationships with each other, which you can discover across several campaigns per faction.
The XCOM-style turn-based combat is great fun, but be warned - combat is about the only thing that doesn't have a steep learning curve. If you think you've seen it all, Planetfall's complexity and good looks will quickly draw you in, proving there's lots more to the 4X genre than Civilization.
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
6. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
It's got to be said that even more than 20 years later, there's no 4X with a better story out there. Because Alpha Centauri doesn't start you on the domination path for domination's sake. It's insanely good at dealing consequences to your actions and to drive home the fact that a bunch of humans in space generally have no idea what they're doing.
For a 4X to paint a dark version of our possible future is rare, and one where winning doesn't mean you're the best and most powerful even more so.
Available on: PC
5. Endless Space 2
There's probably no 4X out there that currently looks or sounds better than Endless Space 2. In a genre where looks often have to stand back behind the enormous mechanical undertaking of the available systems, Endless Space 2 really makes it its business to drive home the vastness of space.
RPG quests and events help keep you on your toes, and the route to the endgame is never straight. Thanks to its clear tutorials and good UI, this is also a great game for beginners who don't want to spend an afternoon reading a manual before they can begin playing.
Available on: PC
4. Endless Legend
Like Age of Wonders developers Triumph Studios, Endless Legend dev Amplitude Studios decided to pivot from the setting that had been good to them for a long time to the other popular 4X setting – with Endless Legend, they swapped space for a fantasy setting. But Amplitude uses just what makes spacefaring games so cool – maximum imagination.
Every faction comes with unique advantages and drawbacks, such as not being much for diplomacy because your zombie race tends to see people as food only, which also makes it easier to, er, have a steady food supply. Also, Endless Space somehow allows you even more freedom as usual in your decision making, not just on a grand scale – you can goad your opponents into war for example, but there's a multitude of ways to do that, a level of role-playing reminiscent of Crusader Kings.
Endless Legend is the best fantasy 4X currently available – deep, creative, and really beautiful to look at.
Available on: PC
3. Europa Universalis 4
Among players there's a lot of discussion whether Europa Universalis 4 isn't more of a grand strategy game, given the theme, but it's functionally a 4X, the best example of alternate history there is. The biggest complaints of any 4X game, the lack of accessibility and ugly UI, are basically non-existent here.
Giving you the whole world to play with, even if the scope is reduced, if you will, by the timeline, is no small feat. Europa Universalis 4 is one of the deepest, most realistic simulations of nation management.
Available on: PC
2. Civilization 6
Whenever there's talk of 4X, there's talk of Civilization. Civilization clones, systems taken from Civilization, and attempted improvements – there's simply no way to get past Civilization's influence. Yet, the franchise actually still manages to introduce quality of life changes to a rock solid formula. Choose your favourite nation and conquer the world against all other world leaders, no matter how personable (and in Civilization 6, they all are, in their own way). Plus there's still always something new to play, like the currently ongoing Frontier Pass.
Endless Legend Best Faction For Beginners Guide
If you're a beginner, you're going to want to start here. If you're a seasoned 4X-er, you're already playing this.
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
1. Stellaris
If you're new to Stellaris it can be overwhelming. With more DLC than is possible to comprehend, it can be tempting to just jump straight into the rabbit hole. But, it's best to watch Stellaris evolve. It's a game that feels incredibly open, so that more often than not, you find yourself on the way to attaining victory conditions while you're having fun resolving an exciting event.
Stellaris has taken a lot from Paradox' other smash hit Europa Universalis 4, and came out combining the breadth and depth of a close simulation of real-world nation leadership with stunning space battles. With its patches and DLC, Paradox also closely listened to player feedback to resolve issues like a boring late-game stage. This is simply the culmination of many years of work across different strategy games, taking the best of each, from a developer that understands what makes its work fun and building on that. This is the best 4X game around.
Available on: PC, PS4, Xbox One
- 8bawl
Great guide, even better tables! A very good start for those that are new.
Excellent guide. Vastly superior to the weak one stickied at the official forums.
- Andrew Rusling
Thank you for the guide, it was helped to kick start my time with Endless Space which I am really enjoying.
I am a confused by your notes around terraforming.
For example to target Science you recommend ending up with an Ocean planet for the best Science output. However the first table has these values for Science output by planet type: Barren 6, Arctic 9, Tundra 10, Ocean 8. Which seems to indicate the Tundra would be the best planet type. If I look at the exploits, then Arctic (9 + 5 = 14) would be the best over Ocean (8 + 5 = 13).
Can you please explain the reasoning behind the recommendations by output type?
Nice guide. One thing I'd add is that the system you choose to make your ship building one – make sure it has lots of raw materials related to ship building.
1) Those resources increase production per citizen.
2) Otherwise, it's too easy for a couple enemy fleets to blockade your resources on other planets from reaching the production planet; then you can't make ships.One last tip to call out for beginners is to remove victory conditions that you aren't pursuing while you're learning the ropes. If you know you aren't going to go Wonder victory, remove it so that the AI doesn't sneak a win in before you can develop your endgame strategies and close out a game.
Thank you for all the effort you put in to this guide. I have found it immensely useful in the early and mid-periods of my games so far.
The two area's which remain a confusion for me at present and which I feel would be a yseful addition to the text are:
1. Something about Trade, and the best strategy for exploiting it. At the moment I really don't understand it and so tend to ignore it, giving any trade developments very low priority. But I'm not sure if that's the best strategy.
2. The other aspect relates to the military/naval strategy for the end game phase. I've read various idea's on how best to deploy fleets but nothing which i would call a considered strategy. The ‘Blockade strategy' (e.g. leaving fleets at the exits to warp lanes) only seems to work well during the early game when enemy fleets can't warp across voids in space. It would interestng to hear your view on this tricky subject.
Andrew, I did not do the math, but you can't just look at this table and forget other elements. For instance, many upgrades give a bonus proportional to the population size. And Type I planets such as terran or ocean can have the largest population.
Moreover, in the late game, you can turn all your food surplus into production, and food output can be huge on Type I planets.
I don't know exactly what's the best possible planet for each type of output considering all the possible upgrades, but a big type I planet with a large population and upgrades can do wonder
Thank you yog-sothot, that helps. I posted my question on the Endless Space forums and received plenty of guidance on the matter: http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/showthread.php?15203-Terraforming-is-it-worth-it.
Didz:
Trade is measured in trade routes only; it's all exposed on the top right of the system screen. Overall, routes can be a huge benefit if you keep some things in mind. Few things I've figured out about it:
1) It's one to one with foreign systems. If you have 10 systems, and there are only 4 other occupied systems, you will only have 4 trade routes, depending on the other empire's tech/buildings.
2) They automatically get up and shift around, I assume for the best profit.
3) If you are at war, you cannot have trade routes with that empire. This can be shocking sometimes when you declare war on an empire and your economy takes a hit; you need to prep and usually want to avoid war with multiple factions at once.
4) The buildings for trade routes can be a huge money sink if you aren't filling the routes up. If your systems say the routes are 1 active out of 4 possible, sell some buildings.
5) As you advance, if you only have a few routes you can take advantage of, sell off other buildings in other systems and focus on getting the best buildings for trade in only the systems that have (preferably with a hero for even more bonuses).
6) You need to discover the other systems to have trade with them. That shouldn't be a problem since you should always explore the entire map as standard procedure, anyway.
7) Alliances and Co-Op pacts help trade, but they are just nice additions, not vital for trade to work at all.Overall, the concept of trade itself is easy once you start seeing the pattern, but it does add to the micromanagement you have to do end game. If you declare war on a faction and lose trade routes, you are much better off selling buildings and saving the cash rather than having them sit there doing nothing. And then, of course, if you declare peace you'll want to rebuild to make sure you are maxxing trade routes out.
Can you trust the A.I. or is it really better to manage your systems manually?
Thank you for this great guide. I have a question. I have the v1.0.3 but theres no 'Automatons' to be selected. Is this something you have to creat or what am I missing out on?
I got 9 different factions but theres no Automatons. Im a bit confused. Thanks again for this great guide it really made my day :)
Useless guide. You need to fcous EVERY game, dont care what race are you playing, in militar technology tree cause ever pirates or anothes races go fight you at the end o fgame.
Its completely useless have all systems happy, good dust per round, good technology points or so if you cant defend or attack.
Its sad but military is a priorityt every game no matter what.
First, great guide. Thanks. Has shed much light on dark corners of the game for me. A few questions. Any idea if the computer cheats based on skill level? My friends and I get together and play some matches against the computer. The higher the skill level we set, it seems the computer excels far faster on the tech tree and outputs way more ships. Do you know if the skill level determines how much faster the computer can build stuff?
Second, Is there any way to get the game to register a win while you are allied or will you always have to disband your alliance and fight each other to the death?
Excellent guide, man! Though, I think everybody'd like to see the most optimal way to queue science research at the beginning. Because as for me, I always hesitate what to research next and i think it affects my system development in a great way. So, it will be great to see the optimal science queue.
Hi Pete, Many thanks for this guide. I've played several games now, won some, lost some.
Among the several advices I found your website as been the one I found the post useful, it helps beginners.I'll still try to play Cravers.
I found very interesting playing Sowers, although it became micromanaging at some point.
Thanks again,
Tha's a very good job!I'm confused.. but in Harmony, there is no way you can have 10x Armor on a ddn class ship.. that would be 660 weight, while the total ship only has about 440 (at the relevant tech lvl)…
Are your ideas based on the classic model or am I missing something?
Really appreciate this guide, I picked up the Endless Legend Early Access, and then used the 50% off coupon to get Endless Space. I was pretty much completely lost, losing even to the newbie AI, but this guide is really well put together and I think it helped me get over the initial 'what the hell do I do' phase.
Thanks for the feedback, John! Glad it was of use to you :-)
Hey I did the same thing, can't wait till Endless Legend is more polished and I'll spend more time there, in the mean time I really like Endless Space.
I've got a copy of Endless Legend from Amplitude, once I have time to seriously sink my teeth into that, I'll see about creating a guide for that as well.
I've recently begun playing Endless Space thanks to a good sale on Steam. It's been a lot of fun so far playing it, and I think this guide is great, however I was wondering if you'd ever consider Race specific guides since each one has it's own pros, cons, and style of play.
Thank you for the suggestion, J2G. We'll take this into consideration for the future :)
Wow Ty so much for this guide. Now I know why I was noobing so much.
I played Hissho for 2 times. Lost it (2 times) on easy difficulty -,- before reading this guide. I just wonder, shall i just change the race, cose it's too difficult or just play another since I know the ropes.
Well, now that you played twice, hopefully you have an idea of your play style, so you can make a custom race.
- Salvettic
Really wonderfull guide, hope you get time to do an Endless Legend guide similar to this one!
A really good combo that I found for custom faction is Amoeba and the trait that reveals all resources from turn 1. (I forgot the name.) Being able to see a lot of systems and the resources they have helps a lot, especially on small maps. (I played my first game on small, so I could see exactly where everyone else was and what resources they could grab, as well as what ones I could get for early monopolies.) It works really well and makes it really easy to spot the best systems and planets as soon as possible.
