Ships are the main units in Endless Space 2. Ships move in fleets along star-lanes, the white lines connecting systems, and have a limited number of movement points each turn. Once Baryonic Shielding is researched in Stage 2 of Science and Exploration, ships can move to any discovered system outside of star-lanes, but at a reduced speed.
Ships are outfitted and upgraded with Modules, which increase the cost of ship production but are necessary for the ships to be effective. More advanced ship designs have greatly increased military power, but are more expensive and require additional Strategic Resources.
This page is more oriented towards the statistical and logistical side of ships, for the page on Fleet military, see Combat.
For the page on Ship modules, see Modules/Weapon, Modules/Defense, Modules/Support and Modules/Squadron.
Fleets []
A limited number of ships can be grouped into a single fleet. While a lone ship is technically a fleet, they become more powerful when grouped together. Fleets can engage in Fleet Combat, where they enter into a battle with an enemy fleet.
The number of ships in a fleet is limited to the Empire's max Command Points, this is by default 4 , although the initial Tier-1 of Military (always unlocked) gives an additional 1 , making it 5 . These can be increased by technologies in the Military tree. Small ships require only 1 , but larger and more powerful ships will require more.
Movement []
Every fleet has a maximum amount of Movement they can spend per turn to reach their destinations.
This is by default 2 , although Colonizers and Explorers have an additional +1 and +2 , respectively. Seeker Heroes also have an increased +1 on their Ships.
If there are multiple ships with varying amount of in the fleet, the ship with the lowest amount of will be designated as the movement speed for the whole fleet.
When using Probes, the maximum will be decreased proportional to the maximum stock of the probes of the ship. So if you use 1 Probe while have 4 Probe Stock and 4 , it will be decreased by 1 . If you have 7 while the rest stay the same, it will be decreased by 1.75 .
Note that the shown is always rounded down, so it's possible to reach a System and still travel out despite it showing as 0 .
If the fleet in question was intercepted by an enemy (War, Cold-War) fleet using "Guard" action, they would lose all their .
Movement is modified by a variety of factors such as Engines, Heroes leading the Fleet, Faction Traits, Laws, Technology which affect the Ship-wise or Fleet-wise.
Vision and Probes []
Every fleet has a maximum amount of vision, that is, the range of circle they would see surrounding their areas and how big that circle is. This is by default 0.33? (by rough eye-estimate, equivalent of travelling 0.33 ), and is increased by Probes, Heroes and possibly (TODO: What other modifiers?) other stuff.
If there are multiple ships with varying amount of vision, the ship with the highest vision range will provide vision for the entire Fleet. It seems that if there is one ship in the fleet with an Anti-Cloaking module, they can assist the ship with the highest vision range at detecting cloaked fleets regardless if they are the same ship (Todo: Confirm this).
Fleets can probe by clicking on one of the icons on the left and sending it by clicking on a direction, to do so they must be at a system with at least 1 Probe module and 1 Probe available. Probes would also provide a vision extension apart from the fleet, they will travel for 6 (the first turn is automatically used the moment it's sent out) before they no longer provide vision. They have a vision range of 4, and a movement of 6 . Certain Technologies and Heroes can increase the lifespan or vision range of the probes. Probes by default don't have detecting-cloak ability, but Antimatter Channeling and Quadrinix Toroids increase the anti-Cloaking ability to 2 and 3, respectively.
The other notable usage of probes is to use them to Investigate Curiosities.
Fleet Repair Rate []
Fleets with at least one ship that isn't at 100% will perform repairs when viable. This appears to be +5%/ when stationed at a Neutral system, and +10%/ when at a Friendly system.
Some modules, system improvements, heroes and other things increase the fleet repair rate.
Fleets can also be repaired to 100% health at any friendly system instantly, at a significant cost.
Roles []
Each faction has access to the same set of ship Hulls/Roles, but each has slightly different module distributions, may have some bonus/fallacy to the general stats, and completely unique hull names and visual design.
note: currently the bonus/fallacy seems a little weird, as for example the riftborn attacker is calculated from HP with the upgrade, but the defender is calculated without the upgrade.
Explorer []
Players start with an Exploration ship. It is outfitted with an engine, Probes, and a basic weapon. It has multiple support modules, but limited room for weapon and defense modules. Only Exploration and Hero ships can equip Probe modules.
- 1,500-2,000 Health
- 50-67 Defense
- Base Cost: 50 + 25 per Military stage above stage one
- Upkeep: 2 /
- Small (1 )
- 30 Capacity(45 Capacity with Machine Bacteria)
- Bonuses
Colonizer []
Most factions begin with some form of Colonization ship. It is outfitted with an expansion support module, and typically no room for weapon modules. Only Colonization ships can equip colonization modules (and can only equip one at maximum).
If a colony ship launches a colonization probe onto the planet it wants to colonize, the ship will be consumed too, unless it could be recharged.
- 1,500 Health
- 50 Defense
- Base Cost: 50 + 25 per Military stage above stage one
- Upkeep: 2 /
- Small (1 )
- 30 Capacity
- Bonuses
- Mechanics may vary heavily between factions, see Colonization
- Riftborn's base cost is increased to 150 .
- Unfallen use Vineship as substitution; costs 400 .
- Vodyani use Leecher as substitution; uses Essence to build Arks.
- Vaulters use (to add: icon) Argosy as substitution; starts with one and cannot be built.
- Lumeris and Umbral Choir do not have Colony ships.
Ark []
Vodyani use Arks instead of outposts, occupying all planets you can on anchored System, their base stats are dependent on their modernization.
- 10,000-25,000 Health
- 333-833 Defense
- Base Cost: 600 +800 per active Ark above the first
- Upkeep: 1 /
- Ark (4 )
- 220-520 Capacity
the game incorrectly shows ark as needing 8 CP under size and 8 upkeep
Attacker []
Attacker-role ships are unlocked by researching the Empire 2 tech Efficient Shielding. Their slots tend mostly toward Weapon Modules.
- 2,000-2,500 Health
- 67-83 Defense
- Base Cost: 75 + 37.5 per Military stage above stage one
- Upkeep: 2 /
- Small (1 )
- 80 Capacity (120 Capacity with Extreme Composites)
- Bonuses
- Focus: Focuses fire with the flotilla to quickly eliminate ships
- Offensive: +10% damage on weapons
- Priorities
- Primary Targets: Protector and Coordinator ships
- Secondary Targets: Carrier Ships
Defender []
Protector-role ships are unlocked by researching Efficient Shielding in Empire Development Stage Two. Their slots tend mostly toward Defense and Support Modules.
- 3,500-4,000 Health
- 117-133 Defense
- Base Cost: 75 + 37.5 per Military stage above stage one
- Upkeep: 2 /
- Small (1 )
- 80 Capacity (120 Capacity with Agri Drugs)
- Bonuses
- Guardian: Attracts fire from the enemy to protect the other ships
- Defensive: +10% on Plating and Shields
- Priorities
- Primary Target: Attacker and Hunter ships
- Secondary Target: Protector and Coordinator hips
Hunter []
Hunter-role ships are unlocked by researching Applied Cryogenics in Empire Development Stage Three. Their slots tend mostly toward Weapon Modules.
- 6,000 Health
- 200 Defense
- Base Cost: 5 , 300 + 150 per Military stage above stage two
- Upkeep: 6 /
- Medium (3 , x2)
- 200 Capacity (300 Capacity with Low Temperature Construction)
- Bonuses
- Focus: Focuses fire with the flotilla to quickly eliminate ships
- Targeting Systems: +20% damage on weapons
- Priorities
- Primary Targets: Protector and Coordinator ships
- Secondary Targets: Carrier ships
Coordinator []
Coordinator-role ships are unlocked by researching Split-second Ablatives in Empire Development Stage Three
- 8,500 Health
- 283 Defense
- Base Cost: 5 , 300 + 150 per Military stage above stage two
- Medium (3, x2)
- Upkeep: 6 /
- 200 Capacity (300 Capacity with Dependency Algorithms)
- Bonuses
- Guardian: Attracts fire from the enemy to protect the other ships
- Defensive: +10% on Plating and Shields
- Priorities
- Primary Targets: Attacker and Hunter ships
- Secondary Targets: Protector and Coordinator ships
Carrier []
Carrier-role ships are unlocked by researching Liquid Composites in Empire Development Stage Four
- 14,000 Health
- 467 Defense
- Base Cost: 5 , 5 , 1250 + 625 per Military stage above stage three
- Upkeep: 12 /
- Large (6 , x4)
- 400 Capacity (600 Capacity with Far Halo Shipyard)
- Bonuses
- Priorities
- Primary Targets: Carrier ships
- Secondary Targets: Attacker and Hunter ships
Behemoth []
(Requires the Supremacy DLC.)
Behemoth ships are identical for all factions. They're massive platforms capable of filling many different roles.
Their technologies are not unlocked at the start of the game; instead, a cooperative quest (Words In Private) will trigger fairly early (Turn 10?) that requires the galaxy to research military technologies. As long as you research at least one for the quest, the Behemoth techs will unlock. The starting Hull technology is in Empire Development level 2 (Behemoth Blueprints), and the rest are scattered around all quadrants of the tech tree.
You can only build a single Behemoth at a time across your entire empire, and by default you can only own a single Behemoth. Every three Behemoth techs you research allows you to build another; each Behemoth C3 Center System Improvement you build also lets you build another, but increases the maintenance cost of all current and future Behemoths significantly (x1.5 cost).
- Base Cost increases with each subsequent Behemoth
- 10
- 2 (initial) increased by another 2 (Behemoth Generators) which also increases vision range by +4.
- X2 (initial) increased to x2 (Efficient Shielding?) x4 with Split-Second Ablatives OR Applied Cryogenics?, x8 with Liquid Composites (TODO: Check if additive, multiplicative or something else)
- 33,000 (initial)
- Increased by ship technology such as +14,000 (Efficient Shielding), +7,000 (Split-Second Ablatives), +7,000 (Applied Cryogenics), +14,000 (Liquid Composites)
- Increased by Behemoth-specific technology such as +14,000 (Behemoth Weaponization).
- Upkeep: 20 / (initially, each Behemoth C3 Center improvement increases the cost)
Behemoth Types[]
Standard Behemoth []
(initial game set designs give both 'Economical' and 'Scientific' Behemoth design that have different modules, but are otherwise the same)
Military Behemoth []
Has more slots for weaponry than Standard Behemoth, but less Utility slots.
Juggernaut - Specialization unlocked by Juggernaut Blueprints (Military IV)[]
Massive Behemoth Specialized for Fleet annihilation.
Obliterator - Specialization unlocked by Obliterator Blueprints (Military IV)[]
Behemoth Specialized to obliterate entire Star Systems and all planets within it.
Citadel - Specialization unlocked by Citadel Blueprints (Empire Development III)[]
Behemoth Specialized for Star System Defense against Obliterators and standard fleets, as well as dramatically improving system defense and production.
Logistics[]
Three types of civilian, or NPC ships may be found moving across Star-lanes in your galaxy. These include automated ships moving food to newly-founded colonies, passengers moving between Spaceports, and ships moving between Trade Companies.
Ships for colonization and passenger transportation function like the Colonizer (they even use the same outview as it, typically looking like a smaller version of the default one), they have +1 movement and is affected by all modifiers that increase the speed of "usual" ships and "civilian" ships. (Todo: Check if trading ships also count as "Civilian" ships)
These ships cannot be manually controlled, and will automatically route across the galaxy. They can, however, be intercepted by enemy military ships who are defending a system. Destroying food and passenger ships denies the empire use of those resources (and grants proportional to lost), but destroying trade ships nets the attacker significantly more amounts of Dust.
Fleet Targeting Priorities[]
According to one reddit post, every ships are designated to 3 groups, Carrier, Offense, and Support, and then they target the following ships with the following weights.
Arks count as Carriers for targeting purposes.
Target Weight | Carrier | Offense | Support |
---|---|---|---|
Carrier | 20 | 14 | 8 |
Hunter | 8 | 4 | 12 |
Attacker | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Coordinator | 7 | 16 | 9 |
Protector | 2 | 4 | 2 |
Hero | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Explorer | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Ship Level[]
Ship level increases the amount of HP it has, every next level requires more XP to unlock. Base experience is increased by Military tech levels and System Improvements.
The HP bonus does not account for the bonuses/penalties of faction traits, such as +10% for Horatio or -10% for Riftborn and Cravers. However, it is applicable towards modules added on the ships.
Level | Health Bonus | Experience for next level | Total |
---|---|---|---|
Rookie | 0% | 20 | 0 |
Rookie II | 5% | 40 | 20 |
Rookie III | 10% | 60 | 60 |
Veteran | 15% | 80 | 120 |
Veteran II | 20% | 100 | 200 |
Veteran III | 25% | 120 | 300 |
Elite | 30% | 140 | 420 |
Elite II | 35% | 160 | 560 |
Elite III | 40% | 180 | 720 |
Legendary | 45% | 200 (N/A)* | 900 |
*Legendary ships will show 200 xp to the next level, though it's impossible to advance beyond that.
Hull-Upgrade[]
Attacker, Protector, Hunter, Coordinator, and Carrier-role Hulls can be upgraded by researching the relevant facilitating tech in the Empire Development Tree, connected to the tech that unlocked the Hull. When upgraded, Hulls receive additional module slots, but these slots require additional Strategic Resources.
Retreat[]
When a fleet engages or is engaged by an enemy fleet, there is an option to retreat in the lower-right corner. Doing so will automatically route the fleet backwards towards a starlane that connects towards a non-Hostile system, while simultaneously incurring a hefty -60% maximum health penalty to all ships in the fleet, destroying those ships with and below the amount of 60% (TODO: Check if Hero ships are an exception).
If there are no starlanes at the back available that connects to a non-Hostile System, the entire fleet will be destroyed. This is sometimes warned by the notification on the retreat button.
The Hissho in particular sees retreating as extremely dishonorable, and will incur a significant Keii penalty for doing so.
Guard[]
Fleets with at least one ship that has a Weapon Module can be assigned to "Guard" a system. Doing so prevents enemy fleets from passing through the system to another starlane adjacent by removing all their Movements for 1 turn.
Fleets that are cloaked can bypass the guarding fleet unless they are detected.
In the case of "Guarding" Cold-War opponents systems, this will also cause them to suffer -50% , and on the "Guarded" systems. This will also incur a strong negative response from AI opponents.
"Guarding" a system directly adjacent to a cold-war opponent's system, would also incur a negative response from AI.
Refit/Retrofit[]
Ships can be refitted/retrofitted by changing the design of the ship then clicking the icon on the fleet to refit. The ships in question must be in a "Friendly" system (i.e Your own systems, Allied systems, Minor Civilizations with at least a certain relationship level) to be able to do this action.
The cost of refitting a ship has a 30 base with +1 / for every increased cost on the newer designs compared to the current ones, both of these values are adjusted by inflation. They will also require Strategic Resources if the new ones need it (TODO: If previous ship designs have the same strategic resource but the newer ones have more of the same type, would the cost of Strategic Resources decrease?).
If the ships are damaged, they would have to be repaired first before they can be refitted, usually incurring a much bigger cost than otherwise.
Ships By Race[]
Due to hybrid slots, usually (# Slots < + + )