Right, the Purity one not the Unity. I keep mixing those two up.
Xenophobe Playstyle and Tips?
- Thread starter AxelinCG
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To be fair, I didn't even know a Purity one existed.
I rarely play Xenophobe, and the last time I did, I probably thought the Purity one WAS the Unity variant (and consequently ignored it as much as I ignore the Unity variant).
It's almost required to be built when you're playing non collectivist xenophobe.
Divergence is murdersome on xenophobic empires on larger galaxies. Having both unity and purity helps negate it slightly, though you can still get ethics flip on newly established colonies before you can build them sometimes, which leads to a host of issues
Divergence is murdersome on xenophobic empires on larger galaxies. Having both unity and purity helps negate it slightly, though you can still get ethics flip on newly established colonies before you can build them sometimes, which leads to a host of issues
Yes cleansing functions the same as purging except that it generates much less threat than if you were to take control of the planet and then purge it. Everyone will hate you for being genocidal, but they won't all love each other from your huge mutual threat bonus that you give them. That's what drives the big early federations that you need to avoid creating.
Don't take more than 1 planet at a time and only if it's a type that you can live on; put the rest to the torch. Secure new space by following up with colony ships quickly. Monitor your threat level with other empires and let it cool off before taking new planets, you can generally cleanse with impunity though.
Xenophobe empire is best suited for slaver-swarmer approach. Most players value collectivist more over xenophobe but both are fine.
Forget about cleansing and purging for most of game. If you want achievement then just conquer whole galaxy then purge everything.
For a learning i would propose for you:
Fanatic Militarist Xenophobe or Militarist F. Xenophobe.
start with indirect democracy and following race
industrious 2
thrifty 2
enduring 1
non-adaptive -2
repugnant -1
kinetic weapons(best starting and all-around weapon) and either warp or wormhole(hyperlane is terrible currently)
scout your neighbourhood (don't scout whole galaxy like xenophiles do) and look for valuable area to settle/cover with outpost.
especially look for primitives (habitable planets that are not colonizable) as you can conquer them with small amount of troops and rapidly expand powerbase of empire.
usually you should colonize guaranteed planets of your type, however you should also look for opportunity to steal planet from your neighbour. be aware that your fleet is unable to deal with his home planet starport however you can invade his colonies and build up score by attacking mines and research stations.
once you have any xenos in your empire enable xeno-slavery and enslave xenos. use xenos to produce minerals that fuel your warfleet and your own race to build energy to sustain upkeep. It's worth noting that by supressing slaves factions(malcontent slaves and docile slaves) you completely rid of any unrest issues in your empire for a maximum 4 influence per month.
just remember to allow sectors to enslave people.
Once you made first conquests build up startports and fleet to new max and keep looking for new targets for conquests. Once you get cruisers stuff them with armor and roll over galaxy. Only Fallen empires will be able to challenge you. However within 100 years you can conquer whole galaxy and simply overrun Fallen Empires with swarm of cruisers. (I did it on hard with Cruisers with Kinetic II L-L,M-M setup armor 3, reactor I). However usually you can get better weapons by researching your enemies post-battle debris.
Important techs to look up:
bigger spaceships/better starports. Cruisers are king of game currently and Cruisers with Kinetic weapons(even low level) can deal with everything in game.
better government techs, influence and advanced government are just great.
Border extension techs(they also decrease warscore cost to grab planets)
orbital solar panels
orbital farms.
better kinetic weapons(don't get auto-cannons nor missiles, they are useless)
Forget about cleansing and purging for most of game. If you want achievement then just conquer whole galaxy then purge everything.
For a learning i would propose for you:
Fanatic Militarist Xenophobe or Militarist F. Xenophobe.
start with indirect democracy and following race
industrious 2
thrifty 2
enduring 1
non-adaptive -2
repugnant -1
kinetic weapons(best starting and all-around weapon) and either warp or wormhole(hyperlane is terrible currently)
scout your neighbourhood (don't scout whole galaxy like xenophiles do) and look for valuable area to settle/cover with outpost.
especially look for primitives (habitable planets that are not colonizable) as you can conquer them with small amount of troops and rapidly expand powerbase of empire.
usually you should colonize guaranteed planets of your type, however you should also look for opportunity to steal planet from your neighbour. be aware that your fleet is unable to deal with his home planet starport however you can invade his colonies and build up score by attacking mines and research stations.
once you have any xenos in your empire enable xeno-slavery and enslave xenos. use xenos to produce minerals that fuel your warfleet and your own race to build energy to sustain upkeep. It's worth noting that by supressing slaves factions(malcontent slaves and docile slaves) you completely rid of any unrest issues in your empire for a maximum 4 influence per month.
just remember to allow sectors to enslave people.
Once you made first conquests build up startports and fleet to new max and keep looking for new targets for conquests. Once you get cruisers stuff them with armor and roll over galaxy. Only Fallen empires will be able to challenge you. However within 100 years you can conquer whole galaxy and simply overrun Fallen Empires with swarm of cruisers. (I did it on hard with Cruisers with Kinetic II L-L,M-M setup armor 3, reactor I). However usually you can get better weapons by researching your enemies post-battle debris.
Important techs to look up:
bigger spaceships/better starports. Cruisers are king of game currently and Cruisers with Kinetic weapons(even low level) can deal with everything in game.
better government techs, influence and advanced government are just great.
Border extension techs(they also decrease warscore cost to grab planets)
orbital solar panels
orbital farms.
better kinetic weapons(don't get auto-cannons nor missiles, they are useless)
The 2 issues I keep running into.. every.. single.. time...
a) by the time i'm strong enough to actually attack, everyone defensive pact'ed everyone else. gg (this happens even when i don't set rivals)
b) even if i spend lots of time/resources spamming out a fleet, the AI *always* keeps up. No matter how I play it, be it early buildup or slightly economic buildup, i simply cannot achieve military superiority over anyone else in the early game. Despite having an equal/superior navy to my own, they've also got me equalled/beat on world count/econ. gg.
By the mid-late game, the AI empires are easy to crush. In the early game, not so much. The big trouble with playing a true xenophobe style is 'good luck getting to the mid-late game'. Diplomacy is a non-option, and it's just a (short)matter of time before you're boxed in by empires who've all pacted up, even if you weren't antagonizing them in any way.
I'm going to keep trying, but that first conquest is eluding me. No matter what I do, they either match my strength, or pact up. (or both)
a) by the time i'm strong enough to actually attack, everyone defensive pact'ed everyone else. gg (this happens even when i don't set rivals)
b) even if i spend lots of time/resources spamming out a fleet, the AI *always* keeps up. No matter how I play it, be it early buildup or slightly economic buildup, i simply cannot achieve military superiority over anyone else in the early game. Despite having an equal/superior navy to my own, they've also got me equalled/beat on world count/econ. gg.
By the mid-late game, the AI empires are easy to crush. In the early game, not so much. The big trouble with playing a true xenophobe style is 'good luck getting to the mid-late game'. Diplomacy is a non-option, and it's just a (short)matter of time before you're boxed in by empires who've all pacted up, even if you weren't antagonizing them in any way.
I'm going to keep trying, but that first conquest is eluding me. No matter what I do, they either match my strength, or pact up. (or both)
Best way to break out of this is to swallow your pride and make temporary friends with one of your neighboring xenos until they're all that's left. Unless you manage to get nothing but Federation Builders in your cluster, odds are one of your neighbors will not like another, that's your in to take a side and gang up on whomever's left out.
Also, early game warfare, two things to keep in mind:
One, Kinetics are arguably the best starting weapons, with better average damage than lasers and missiles, and the +shield damage bonus is arguably more valuable than laser's accuracy and armor pierce early game since most ships will have only at best T2 computers and thrusters, and the AI pretty much never puts armor on corvettes, and rarely does for destroyers.
Second is that once your fleet enters enemy territory, odds are that unless another hostile fleet shows up in their space, they will chase your fleet to the ends of the galaxy... including right into your planetary space station, which at ~5k and under wars, is enough to make a sizable difference. I've handily won a couple of early space battles against larger fleets with mine being backed up by a planetary station, a FTL snare station just off to one side of it, and a 2nd defensive station with another aura effect (like Hull Regen or mines) on the other side as close to the FTl as I can get. Antagonize the enemy to chase me, Park my fleet on top of the planetary station and wait for them to fall into the trap.
Assuming normal difficulty, don't use rivalry as xenophobe except in order to secure mutual rival bonus with a third party. And be prepared to spend 500-1000 minerals/energy to secure a NAP with a bordering nation. But once you have at least one friend, you can usually conquer your neighbors without too much trouble.
Just don't go crazy with the rivaling until late game, and do spend some resources to acquire the first two defensive pacts.
Just don't go crazy with the rivaling until late game, and do spend some resources to acquire the first two defensive pacts.
If you're a xenophobe and not also spiritualist or collectivist, ethics divergence will be crippling. This can be offset with the conformist trait, strategic resources, and information quarantine.
That's what I've been doing, but they just warp out shortly after engaging. We need the FTL inhibitors back.
They still exist as a defense station aura. Sure, that station will get destroyed in .05 seconds, but you can use is to make sure you start the fight with everyone within firing range range, maximizing the amount of damage you do before they can Emergency FTL out. Do it a couple times and you should weather them down enough to finish them off in a straight fight.
Yeah, random Pops drifting into Individualist will absolutely hate you. There's not much you can do about it either. Some ethic divergence reduction definitely would not have gone amiss.
Imo the best xenophobe build is fanatic xenophobe/collectivist or fanatical xenophobe/spiritualist. For traits it's highly adaptive. Xenophobes weakness is ethics divergence. After conquering a planet, enslave it and resettle your pops to the power and research tiles. That's why highly adaptive is good. Unlike collectivist, you can't convert aliens to your ethos and use them for power and research, since your ethos is xenophobe conversion will just make them hate you more.
@Meneliki you definitely wait too long before first conquests.
You first conquests should target colonies instead of capital world.
If AI place 2 colonies you can invade both of them with troops and in peace deal demand capital(after some time).
All you need is just to have more corvettes than enemy do handle his fleet in orbit.
Note that if you restrain yourself from building every mining and research station before first conquest you can go few corvettes over cap with ease.
start with Warp as drive and F-Mil, xenphobe. And aim for stealing first colony from AI. Even if this mean that you don't build up space mines or research stations.
If you restart till you get decent leader then go with plutocratic oligarchy or military dictatorship, otherwise use indirect democracy.
do not rival anyone before you know your first targets. as soon as you deal with first AI go to war against second.
You first conquests should target colonies instead of capital world.
If AI place 2 colonies you can invade both of them with troops and in peace deal demand capital(after some time).
All you need is just to have more corvettes than enemy do handle his fleet in orbit.
Note that if you restrain yourself from building every mining and research station before first conquest you can go few corvettes over cap with ease.
start with Warp as drive and F-Mil, xenphobe. And aim for stealing first colony from AI. Even if this mean that you don't build up space mines or research stations.
If you restart till you get decent leader then go with plutocratic oligarchy or military dictatorship, otherwise use indirect democracy.
do not rival anyone before you know your first targets. as soon as you deal with first AI go to war against second.
1.5 should mostly solve that, luckily. Finally Ethics divergence is based on you playing according to your Ethos. Rather then picking some specific Ethos and getting the right techs.
Planets 1st, Fleet 2nd.
Also do not try to engange the Spaceports under 40 Covettes.
Consider what I described in the Tributry Rush Thread.
The Arachnoid Collective does not negotiate with it's food! (see "Arachnoid Diplomacy" in my signature!)
lol, jk. In all seriousness, I've figured out a good (if somewhat unsatisfying) solution. I reworked the Collective to start with kinetics rather than missiles. It makes me sad to have to do that, but it is what it is. Having better results now.
Missiles need a looking at. More dmg, faster flight speed(or both).. something.
Missiles have been bugged/broken for months now. They're vastly worse in tests (like missile tech 3 is about as good as kinetic or laser 1 if I remember correctly), don't think people know why since apparently all visual battle effects are separate from actual damage rolls, but there is speculation that they are outright bugged or maybe it's an issue with overkill targetting.
I feel like a lot of the problem stems from the slow flight speed of the missiles. If your loaded out with missiles, and your opponent is using lasers for example, and you both start shooting at the same time, due to the travel time of the missiles, he's probably gotten off 2 or 3 shots on you by the time your first missiles arrive.. which means you could've lost a bunch of corvettes by the time you even start DOING damage to him which puts him at an immediate advantage.
Now, Torpedoes are a different story. They're in a good spot. They have a very niche, very specific use, and they excel at that role. Missiles on the other hand... don't really have an identity just yet. Quicker flight speed combined with a bit more damage or some other usefull effect and they'd be fine. (imho)
Any ethics not your own are always the wrong ethics.
At least when you purge in the name of the god emperor.