A Return from Exile: The Advent's Vengeance in Sins of a Solar Empire II
In the vast expanse of the cosmos, few tales are as compelling as the return of the Advent in Sins of a Solar Empire II. Exiled for their taboo practices, this highly advanced civilization has honed their technology and spiritual prowess over a millennium, waiting for the perfect moment to strike back. Now, they return, burning with vengeance, ready to reclaim their homeworld and fulfill their prophecies of dominion.
The Lore of the Advent
The Advent, also known as "The Unity," are a civilization driven by spiritualism, psychic abilities, and cybernetic technologies. Exiled by the Trade Order, they evolved into a society that places immense value on psionic abilities. Their PsiTech technology amplifies mental powers, granting them superior firepower and defenses. Despite their sleek, lightly armored ships, the Advent’s advanced shields and directed energy weapons give them a formidable edge.
For a thousand years, the Advent honed their technology and waited for revenge. This powerful drive pushed their advancements far beyond anything the Trade Order could imagine. They returned to Trader space with a formidable fleet, seeking to reclaim their original homeworld and fulfill their prophecies of dominion. Now, internal strife divides them between the Advent Reborn, who seek to purify the Unity by purging corruptive elements within it, and the Advent Wrath and their endless quest to forcefully assimilate the Traders, and others who stand in their way, into the Unity.
The enigmatic Advent, scarred by their exile and thirsty for retribution, are an exotic and formidable force in the galaxy.
Special Mechanics: The Power of Unity
The Advent wield their mysterious psycho-spiritual powers to great advantage, granting them access to five game-changing strategic abilities. These Unity Abilities have three levels of power and are unlocked by spending Unity points, which are generated by building the Temple of Unity orbital structure around your colonies. Each level of power increases the ability’s effect while reducing its cooldown timer.
Clairvoyance grants Advent Scryers full vision over a targeted gravity well for a short duration, the limit of which increases depending on the Unity points invested. This powerful ability cements their position as the paragon of information warfare, allowing them to gather tactical data to fine-tune their invasion plans or sell to other interested parties.
Recall teleports all friendly ships around a gravity well back to the Advent’s homeworld after a lengthy charging period, partially healing them in the process. This rapid tactical redeployment can be used to dramatically cut down on travel time, quickly bring a fleet to the defense of the homeworld, or allow daring raids that look suicidal to their foes.
Sanctify renders your colony invulnerable and increases its health regeneration, turning a beleaguered colony into a bulwark defensive position. This ability is a must when playing defensively, buying time to rally nearby forces and mount a counter-attack.
Proselytize rapidly propagates your culture into and around a colony. The Advent’s gameplay is tied strongly to culture, where cultural dominance brings powerful effects such as increased resource mining rates and experience gain for ship crews. This ability helps fully leverage these bonuses quickly.
Conversion works to convert the population of an enemy colony over to your faction, gradually reducing the planet’s health over time. If the planet’s health is completely depleted, the colony will instantly join your empire. Rivals can counter this ability with rapid cultural output, build cultural resistance scores, or increase colony health points.
With limited orbital structure slots available, players must decide which powers are most useful to their situation and playstyle. Unity abilities use a new resource called Focus to activate, and various technologies and items can increase the generation rates of Focus, allowing a canny Advent player to wield these powerful abilities more often.
The Advent’s advanced PsiTech abilities are manifest in unique defensive and offensive orbital structures. The **Temple of Renewal** can recharge the Antimatter of nearby ships, allowing rapid deployment of powerful abilities, and can be upgraded to recharge shields. The **Deliverance Engine**, available in the late game, has different effects depending on the faction. The Advent Reborn can resurrect destroyed vessels, while the Advent Wrath can convert enemy ships to their side.
The Advent’s Combat Capabilities
The Advent build their warships in accordance with their spiritual aims, blending aesthetics with high technology. They forgo armor and hull density in favor of advanced shielding and PsiTech-enhanced weapons systems. This gives them a style of play based around highly synergistic ship types which complement and support one another with advanced combat abilities and unique weapons systems.
They’re not as tough as the Traders, and not as fast as the Vasari, but with their advanced technology and unusual abilities, the Advent can go toe-to-toe with the best and come out on top. The Advent make heavy use of beam weaponry, from point defense to long-range death-rays, and their shield technology is the best in the game.
The Advent’s roster of specialized ship types are designed to work in tandem, and their true strength lies in the variety of special combat abilities they can bring to bear. For example, Acolyte Corvettes can engage slower enemy warships with their rapid maneuverability and Harmonic Reactor ability, generating Antimatter with each shot landed. They can then transfer this stored Antimatter to recharge the Iconius Guardian’s Shield Projection ability, creating a synergistic relationship that makes these two vessels a fantastic combination.
The Advent Reborn and Advent Wrath factions are further distinguished by unique titans, planet items, and abilities. The Advent Reborn’s Soul Reclamation can replenish Focus with the spirits of defeated ship crews, while the Advent Wrath can build the Temple of Assimilation to convert enemy ships entering the gravity well.
The Advent have returned with a vengeance, wielding exotic and deadly technological advancements, delivered with a cold, calculated fury that can only be sated by the destruction of the TEC and anybody else who gets in their way. With their advanced PsiTech abilities, unique combat mechanics, and powerful strategic options, the Advent are a force to be reckoned with in Sins of a Solar Empire II.