Know Your Enemy - Part 1
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This is the first of two Developer Blogs we’ll be doing as we get close to releasing the first official update after the release of Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi. We’ve seen feedback after the release that you are all enjoying the new Shakturi endgame crisis. As most Distant Worlds players know, the Shakturi are an ancient and terrible threat which was responsible for the last cataclysmic galactic war, the scars and remains of which are visible throughout the current galaxy.
A few of you have already managed to defeat the Shakturi, many others are still trying and some have found them to be too much of a challenge. The goal of these blogs will be to pull back the curtain a bit on the Shakturi crisis and help you figure out how to defeat these terrifying arch-enemies.
If you don’t want any spoilers regarding the story, you should stop here. If you’d rather try for one of the other two endings, either joining the Shakturi and helping them win or staying out of both the Shakturi Axis and the Freedom Alliance, we’ll mention those only briefly. Our focus will be on how to stop the Shakturi conquering the galaxy.
Shakturi Appearance Timing
We’ll start with the most straightforward advice. If you are finding the Shakturi to be too challenging, the first step is to adjust their entry time. The Shakturi entry is primarily based on the tech progress of the galaxy as well as the player’s tech progress. In either case, if you or the galaxy have advanced far enough, the Shakturi crisis will begin. For each step you delay their entry, you’ll gain more time to prepare for them. Keep mind that there is also a good amount of time (many years) between the beginning of the crisis and the full Shaktur Axis vs. Freedom Alliance war.
Rifts Destabilize
When the rifts first destabilize, you are given the opportunity to research the first two Psychic techs – Paranormal Studies and Psychic Energy Detection. Completing these before the story advances further can buy you on average 5 more years to prepare for the arrival of the Shakturi as you slow down their attempt to fully open the rifts. I recommend you always research these two when they become available.
Rift Striders Emerge
The first things to actually come out of the rifts are the Rift Striders. There is a massive initial wave, then a smaller amount over time until the rifts fully open and the Shakturi emerge. Once the Shakturi emerge, no further Rift Striders will come through the rifts. Fighting and destroying the Rift Striders will give you two new resources required to begin progressing the Genetic Research and Biowarfare tech trees immediately but be careful about fighting them at the rift unless your fleets are very strong as they initially arrive in large numbers.
Researching these initial Genetic Engineering and Biowarfare technologies will give you some information about what you’re dealing with and also a head start on the later techs you will need to get an edge, but the main priority with the Rift Striders is to destroy as many as you can. The Rift Striders act as eyes for the Shakturi who are still trapped in Riftspace. All locations the Rift Striders visit, the Shakturi will have knowledge of once they emerge. If you can keep the Rift Striders relatively contained, it will slow down the Shakturi when they seek the beacons (more on that below).
At this time, the other space creatures, under Shakturi influence, will also start to focus on attacking non-Shakturi systems and stations. Interstellar Biology Studies will lead you to the necessary techs to reverse this Shakturi influence and return the creatures to their normal migration and attack patterns, which will make them less of a nuisance.
Loosening the Shakturi control over the Rift Striders will take multiple projects, but as the Shakturi can manufacture these once they are established, it may be worth your while if you are finding them a nuisance. Even one level of counter-influence can lead to some of the Rift Striders resisting Shakturi influence and attacking the Shakturi themselves.
Shakturi Psionic Virus
The Rift Striders also spread the Shakturi Psionic Virus in all systems they visit with inhabited worlds. There is initially no cure for the Shakturi Psionic Virus and it can greatly disrupt the happiness of worlds as well as cause casualties. Moreover, the Shakturi Psionic Virus, if active on a world, makes it more susceptible to Shakturi psychic abilities.
The best way to prepare your empire for this is to research enough general Medical and Happiness technologies to mitigate the effects. If you get those early Xenobiological Studies and Xenobiological Investigations techs research before the Shakturi arrive, then you will only need Biowarfare and Plague Curing to get access to the cure for the basic Shakturi Psionic Virus which will greatly decrease its overall effectiveness. Note that the Shakturi can also research more advanced versions of the Psionic Virus, but you can also research new cures to match the new variants.
Shakturi Emerge
Once the Shakturi emerge from the Rifts, they will head to their buried Beacon worlds at the rim of the galaxy. Usually there are 2-4 of these and once they find them, they will start repairing them and eventually open new wormholes to their home galaxy to bring in reinforcements. The Shakturi at this point are strong, but not as strong as they will become and if you can manage to destroy their beacons you will be able to achieve an early victory before they become a larger threat.
The beacons themselves are almost immune to bombardment. You can try to destroy them with spies (very low chance) or invade and conquer the beacon worlds, which triggers an event chain allowing you to figure out how to destroy them from the surface. Finally, if you’ve actually managed to repair and control the one ancient planet destroyer that’s available in the pre-crisis galaxy, you could also use that to destroy the beacon planets.
Shakturi Archives
Assuming the Shakturi repair and activate the beacons, there will be a brief opportunity to get access to the Shakturi Archives. When the beacons activate there will be an echo of sorts back to them from three nearby locations. If you can explore these before the Shakturi gain control of them, you can recover some additional knowledge which will be useful against the Shakturi. If you don’t move quickly, this opportunity will be lost as the Archives are also of interest to the Shakturi.
Shakturi Supremacy
Once the beacons are repaired and the wormholes form, a few more years will pass until the first Shakturi vanguard fleet arrives with massive worldships and more warships. At this point, the Shakturi will establish themselves as a full empire and start using psychically-enhanced diplomacy and intelligence missions to sway other empires to their side, which will lead to the formation of the Shaktur Axis.
This is a good time to make sure you’ve researched Psychic Defense Fields, Psychic Resistance Training and Mind Shields to reduce the effects of the Shakturi Psychic capabilities against you in both space and ground combat and diplomacy and espionage. It’s especially important to have those Psychic Shields on all your combat ships and some resistance to psychic attacks for your ground troops.
Note that the more Shakturi there are in the galaxy, the more psychic energy they will have to spend on these abilities. That means keeping the Shakturi population under control is helpful in and of itself.
Keep working on diplomacy with the other empires and trying to get what successes you can against the Shakturi designs. It will help with the next stage.
Shaktur Axis and Freedom Alliance
At some point, the Shakturi will form the Shaktur Axis. They always approach the Boskara first and there’s an opportunity for you to disrupt that, but at a great cost. Even if you invest in this, it will only delay the inevitable. Eventually the Shaktur Axis will form, with the strongest factions the Shakturi were able to influence to their side. If you were successful in thwarting the Shakturi diplomatic and intelligence efforts, you may be fortunate to get a weaker Shaktur Axis (though they can add more empires later as well).
The Freedom Alliance will form a bit later in response. If you want to make sure you are part of it, try to maintain close relationships with as many of the less warlike empires as possible, especially any Humans, Ackdarians and Zenox who tend to be the alliance organizers. Then be sure to respond affirmatively to the story events that give you the opportunity to be part of its formation.
The more positive relationships you have, the better the chance you’ll form a strong Freedom Alliance. As with the Shaktur Axis, you can continue to work to bring more empires onboard after the initial formation.
The Final War
Shortly after this, the final war against the Shakturi will start, which involves a switch in victory conditions. Note that for the Freedom Alliance, you now have two main goals. The first is to preserve your own worlds, population and economy to keep a high baseline contribution to your victory. The second is to pursue as many War Missions as possible to generate additional contributions to your victory score so that you can get to 100%.
The most rewarding War Missions to convince the Shakturi they cannot win and must leave the galaxy are as follows:
- Destroy a Shakturi Beacon: +15%
- Destroy or Capture a Shakturi Planet Destroyer: +10%
- Capture a Shakturi character: +5%
- Research a key counter-tech against the Shakturi: +5%
You’ll need to balance defense and offense to accomplish these before the Shakturi weaken your alliance enough to make the goal impossible.
In the next blog, we’ll discuss the Ancient Guardians and their special Vaults, Planet Destroyers, Genetic Engineering, the Xaraktor Virus and the option of joining the Shakturi or remaining non-aligned.
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