One Day Away
We are one day from 1.0 and releasing a bunch of new content. If you have joined us for Early Access we thank you and we hope you enjoy all the latest additions.
On our side we have been busy fixing bugs. In fact, every bug that has more than 5 upvotes on Amplifiers has been fixed for release. But we certainly aren’t done, please continue to let us know if you see anything that is confusing or simply doesn’t work.
And please remember, release is an important milestone in the life of the game, but it isn’t the end. We look forward to continuing to update and improve the game well past release.
We will post a long change list of bug fixes, but for this State of the Game I wanted to talk about something we are so excited to see you play and get your feedback on, the three new playable factions.
And I will take you straight to the source for the best information, the game designers that own them.
Julien Gueguen is the Lead Designer for ENDLESS Legend 2 and the creator of the Sandshapers and the Order of Zelevas. He also owns the economic systems of the game, including city building.
Pierre Soriot is a Game Designer for EL2 and the owner of the Severed Claws (as well as other things like the Necrophage and Tactical Battles, basically anytime you are getting beaten up in the game, blame Pierre).
Sandshapers
Things they like: Pandora stores
Things they dislike: Vacuum Sweepers
The Sandshapers can be daunting to play, but powerful. Mostly because they need food to grow, but they don’t get it from fertile land. They also get no yields from any tiles adjacent to rivers or lakes. So, the world isn’t very suitable for them.
Their answer is to terraform the world into a form that works better for them. To do that they need to find Ruins that only they can see and restore them. After that they can terraform the regions around the ruins into sand tiles that provide them (and only them) with the food they need to grow).
They explore, expand and grow. leaving a changed world behind them.
Pro-Tips
Be careful around water. They can’t cross rivers or build bridges. That dam tech you have been ignoring for every other faction is not only better for the Sandshapers, but it is important both to make rivers passable and to return the yields to tiles by rivers.[JG1]
Water impacts sand tiles. Keep in mind that even if you Raise a Ruin and use the Wish of Awakening on it to transform the land around it into food-generating Sand, adjacent rivers and lakes will still remove these yields. So, a Ruin by a lake is less valuable, and one by a river will need that river blocked[JG2] before it provides food in all its tiles.
Consider the Ruin’s location when placing a Camp. Nearly every territory has a Ruin so remember that you will likely awaken the ruin and make food producing sand tiles before you decide where to place your camp. Typically, close to the Ruin is good so you can exploit the tiles with the food.
Look for all sources of Food. Extractors on Strategic and Luxury resources grant food for the Sandshapers, so value regions with resources of any type. Getting extractors provides food and if the extractors are upgraded these food bonuses get even better. Councilors and Improvements that provide food are also important for the Sandshapers.
What inspired the concept of the faction for you?
Julien: Very early in production, one line from the writing team's high-level pitch has stuck with us ever since: "In dust-filled dreams, long-submerged wonders call to us. Through wishes, we wake them..."
We loved it immediately. It evoked a past civilization that had fallen due to excess, immediately bringing to mind the myth of the Tower of Babel. From there, we wanted intriguing, immaterial beings who could bend the rules of physics.
This led us to the terraformer archetype, since their lore was map-centric. This quickly recalled the Kapaku from Endless Legend 1, one of my favorite factions. They wanted to recreate a volcanic paradise on Auriga. We combined that with the idea of vestiges that had to be reactivated, similar to the Necrons in Warhammer 40,000. And that was it! Our faction was born: they must rebuild from the ruins of their crumbling civilization, fueling the magic that sustains their people. Thus, raising new ones is a constant necessity. Their armies and population regenerate directly from the desert they're recreating on Saiadha.
What's your favorite part of the faction?
Julien: Without hesitation: Terraform everything! 😄
Our art team did incredible work on the visuals and VFX for a desert biome you spread across your territory tile by tile, around every ruin you find. You thrive where other factions would struggle!
It feels like climbing Maslow's hierarchy of needs, starting from a tough position and progressively building your desert paradise until you've maximized your power. Then you start casting increasingly hostile spells at the factions who'd love to tear down what you've built. Once they are weakened, you deliver the final blow by teleporting your armies to the ruins in their territory...
We can't wait to see your strategy unfold!
Was there something you tried with the faction that you had to drop because it didn't work?
Julien: We went back and forth a lot on the Ruins concept.
Early on, we imagined player-placed totems that gave bonuses to adjacent districts. But that made for very isolationist gameplay as it was enough to build a powerhouse in your capital and stop there. It echoed the Kin's turtle-builder archetype too closely, leaving little reason to interact with other factions through your desert.
That's when we shifted to making them POIs scattered across all territories. Buried at first and visible only to the Shapers which you raise and turn into a central hub for your cities, and from which you activate your powers. They are designed for survivor-type players who enjoy starting in a hostile world and reshaping it in their own image, thriving where other factions would struggle.
As the oldest native species to Saiadha the Sandshapers remember what the world looked like before the ocean came. And this memory allows them to see the outline of the land that has been revealed by Tidefall[CK6.1][DP6.2] in the fog of war.
Severed Claws
Things they like: Meeting new people (the people often feel differently)
Things they dislike: Mother’s day
The Necrophages made numerous forays to the surface. In one of those invasions a group was cut off, unable to return to the tunnels. Separated from the Matriarch they are nearly sterile and have little chance to grow and survive.
So, they opted for another path. Rather than consume their enemies, they enslaved them. They are without larva, but they will make soldiers and workers from the factions they encounter and defeat. As such their journey is the most unpredictable of all the playable factions, they have the strengths and weaknesses of the minor factions they encounter.
But this is enslavement. They gain free units and population from conquering minor factions, but they can’t create even a single protectorate until Era 3. There is little cultural exchange going on in the slave pits of the Claws.
With enough food their native population can grow, though it is slow. The more they have, the more enslaved population they can have in their single city. Giving them the ability to have more population than any other faction, and adapt their city quickly and easily.
Pro-Tips
Adapt to the world. The Minor Factions they have available impact them more than any other faction. If they defeat a minor faction village they get a free unit of that minor faction type. If they rebuild the minor faction village they get a free population of that type. Though they can build Severed Claw units, most of your armies will probably be minor factions so learning the strength of each is critical.
You need that free population. With their incredibly slow growth rate they will not survive unless you are bringing in the free population, so be sure to rebuild destroyed villages as quickly as possible. If you can level up the rebuilt villages you can get even more population from them.
Other players can get in your way. If other players pacify the Minor faction villages you won’t be able to conquer them. So, protect your lands and future lands. Territories with 3 villages are a gold mine, that’s 3 free units and 3 free population so claim them quickly and embrace your inner necrophage when dealing with other major factions that try to pacify the villages through quests or other means.
What inspired the concept of the faction for you?
Pierre: The base idea of the faction was to come back to a proto necrophage stage or an extension of the faction. Coming back to ES2 we had the cravers, planet eaters requiring conflict to expand their lead, very similar to the necrophage. They have a slaver theme heavily implied, Theme that definitively works the exploitation of smaller peoples that inhabit Saiadha.
The theme was set this Alternate necrophage faction was going to be the more "Civilized" bugs and instead of eating everyone in sight were going to exploit as many people as possible to guarantee their survival.
What is your favorite part of the faction?
Pierre: The opportunities created by their need of expansion. They are still a single city faction but have access to minor faction village and have to play around it to keep their economy alive. The mix of units and of populations created by this focus create games that don't look like to each other, as minor factions are randomly spread each game.
Was there something you tried with the faction that you had to drop because it didn't work?
Pierre: When designing the faction there was an idea of "creating" a population that was copying the yields and prerequisite of other population similar to what Horatio is doing in ES2. That became tedious and complex very soon in the game we moved to a simpler approach, making them create space for other to work instead of making them the best population of the game.
How did you approach having them share some DNA with their base faction but still feel different?
Pierre: When creating a rogue faction there is a need to define what is making a faction feel like this faction: this should never be touched. It can be dynamic or a very specific feel. For Necrophage we defined that these unique things were 2 elements :
They are a single city faction that allows fast travel through your own territories as well as deep burrows
They need to be rewarded if they kill something, these bugs have to feel like the bad guys when playing against them, but feel like a hungry pulsion when playing as them.
I'm confident necrophage players will find similarities in the faction and that they could swap between both if they like to play as killing machine feeding off opponents.
Order of Zelevas
Things they like: Nights out (conquering)
Things they dislike: All colors except black and red
The Order of Zelevas was our first take on a rogue faction. We weren’t sure if we liked the idea of a playable faction that shared DNA with a base faction but was different enough to change the way a player played the game. We didn’t want a Kin with +20% attack.
When Julien had the idea of allowing them to keep the Faction Gauge, but to have it based on the number of territories they controlled instead of fortifications we knew we were on to something.
Imperator Vecc is dismissive of Shaparenko’s cautious defense. And his claims that he is speaking directly to Zelevas are leading many to question his sanity. But, regardless of mental state, his effectiveness can’t be questioned. The Order of Zelevas belongs on the battlefield, not behind walls. They have no time for rest, or even training, and all their units are bought with Dust, not with Industry. They live on Battle spoils to pay for new units and continue their crusade.
They also have less reliance on the Holy Commandments of the kin, taking only those that help them in war and receiving passive bonuses for the rest. Including, if they fill their Loyalty gauge, removing the City Cap from their empire entirely.
Pro-Tips
Play like a Necrophage, plan like a Last Lord. The charge of the Order of Zelevas is powered by Dust since they use Dust instead of Industry to create their units. Look for techs and councilors that improve your battle spoils (note that the Consortium provide better battle spoils than any other minor faction…) so you can keep feeding your army.
Army wipes are dangerous for the unprepared. You are at risk if their army gets wiped and you don’t have enough dust to rebuild them. But that’s why the Merchant House district is unlocked from the start, start working on keeping your Dust reserves high, you will need it. And it should be easier since you don’t need to spend any of your precious Industry producing units.
Don’t ignore the Loyalty gauge. The passive benefits that are unlocked on the Loyalty to the Emperor gauge are huge, reducing camp costs, increasing battle spoils and removing the city limit. But you need to hold territories to have them. It doesn’t matter how good the territory is, so territories you may have ignored as other factions are valuable here.
What inspired the concept of the faction for you?
Julien: In the Design team, we love drawing inspiration from pop culture. When designing the Kin of Sheredyn, tasked with building an immense citadel, we immediately thought of Gondor and the iconic Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings. So when we started imagining a rogue faction born from the Kin of Sheredyn, Rohan and its cavalry charges felt like the natural counterpoint. The idea took shape from there: a faction always in motion, built to expand fast and never stay still.
What is your favorite part of the faction?
Julien: The intuitiveness of its game loop built around a war economy. Combat feeds their expansion through the influence it generates, which creates a natural mid-term goal: seek out conflict to keep growing. Everything about how they play reinforces that loop which is very satisfying! (When everything works according to plan, of course... ) 🙃
Was there something you tried with the faction that you had to drop because it didn't work?
Julien: I would have liked to explore their relationship with the Chosen and their powers more deeply. We tried several variations and debated the role and place of the Chosen at length. In the end, however, it was clearer to leave the Chosen's core rules untouched and remove certain powers in favor of passive abilities. Those fit the expansion-centered gameplay loop much better.
How did you approach having them share some DNA with their base faction but still feel different?
Julien: First, we identified the core elements that define the original faction's identity, mainly its gauge and powers, and made sure not to change them too much so that players wouldn't have to relearn the structure when playing the faction or against it. Once that foundation was secure, we iterated on traits, populations, and battle affinity until the archetype clicked into place quickly during playtesting. From there, the team naturally found what made the faction unique and fun. It took us just a few days to capture the essence of the faction. I believe the Emperor Zelevas would be proud of the results we achieved with such speed 😉
You must gather your party before venturing forth
Early Access was never just about playing the game early. It was about building a better game together with the community. Over the past months, we have added new features, improved existing systems, balanced gameplay, and introduced new content based on your feedback. We can't wait to put the game in your hands and hear what you think.
Your support has been incredible and appreciated. Enjoy playing tomorrow. And please tell your friends and leave a review. It makes a huge difference in helping other players discover the game and to the whole team here working to make ENDLESS Legend 2 great.
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