Planets and anomalies in Endless Space 2 Endless Space 2 Guide

Choosing the right planet is very important. Your people will work and live there, after all. Every planet has a couple of coefficients. The most important of those is the amount of FIDSI points output. FIDSI stands for: Food, Industry, Dust, Science, Influence. Apart from that, hazardous habitats of some planet will naturally have a negative impact on the happiness of the given population. Some of the planets also have strategic or luxury resource deposits and may have some anomalies. The resource deposits influence the FIDSI output and sometimes the happiness. The abundance of these resources, on the other hand, influences only some improvements. Some population units bonuses are related to the right climate of a planet. Sometimes you will have to decide whether the priority will be the bonus to production or higher habitability.

The anomalies have various effects.

You can often encounter anomalies in new systems or when investigating curiosities found on planets. The anomalies can be divided into: positive (green), negative (red) or the effects that have both up and down sides (gray) - those can be worked on to be more on the positive side (cobalt). In order to do that, you will need some advancements in the fields of Science and Exploration. For example, a positive anomaly is Low Gravity, and it grants +20 to happiness and +2 to industry and per capita. On the other hand, Strong Magnetic Field takes -10 from happiness and -1 per capita from production and science. These are just a couple examples, but they may often determine the planet to colonize.

An unexplored moon usually has more population slots, but in order to extract the most resources, it needs to be investigated just like an anomaly.

Moons. These fall into the category of anomalies. Usually, a bonus of a slot population is provided for the given planet, sometimes a bonus to different branches of industry occurs. In time, you'll be able to build a research station and research the moons. This may in turn provide some bonuses that will further enhance production or population. Planets also have climate features (gas, cold, hot, temperate). The other set of characteristics is biodiversity: fertile and sterile. These influence the construction of some buildings, and can provide different bonuses to population as well.

Types of planets

The planets can be divided according to the habitability factor. Sometimes, however, the less habitable planets will provide a bonus to FIDSI output. On the other hand, these usually have limited population capacity. You may also encounter unique planets that provide specific bonuses regardless of the climate. In time, you will also be able to terraform planets, i.e. convert them into a different climate. However, you can't back-terraform planets. The other characteristics of planets include size and type.

The planets can be terraformed from the least habitable, to more habitable. The exception are planets which don't allow any terraforming.

The chart below shows all planet types that can be generated during a playthrough. Gas giants and unique planets are not included on the list. They cannot be terraformed, can contain only 1-2 population units, always subtract -10 from happiness and, depending on their type, yield only 26 units of Dust, Industry or Science..

Table:

When you look at the table above you can notice a some kind of division. Planets can be divided into groups that grant you similar bonuses to Approval, production or possibilities for terraforming. Most of the times you will want to have as many top tier planets as you can but sometimes it is worth to have those less favorable planets because of their bonuses to particular fields of production. On the other hand the less favorable environments give you less space that can be inhabited whereas bigger assemblies of citizens can give you comparable profits. Usually, hot planets have a bigger bonus to Industry and cold ones to Science. Worlds that are difficult to inhabit are sterile and those that are more pleasant and allow you to produce Food easier have fertile trait. Here, you can also find the rule that the more pleasant environment, the more citizens you can accommodate although your profits will be averaged. However, the least pleasant worlds not only have penalties to Approval but they also won't have a lot of space for your population, although they can offer you good bonuses to specific fields.

Below you can find the groups of planets from most pleasant to those that have the most harsh environment:

1. Ocean, Atoll, Terran and Forest. The most capacious types of planets, they also give you Approval bonuses. They offer the biggest bonuses to Food production and a balanced production of other resources. Those planets are temperate and fertile. A lot of upgrades use planets that have those traits. They are the easiest ones to inhabit so they don't need any additional technologies in order to do that.

2. Boreal, Jungle, Meditterrean, Monsoon and Tundra. Most of these planets can be terrafromed into one of the planets from the first group but not into all types. They have a considerable bonus to Food production but sometimes they won't produce, e.g. Science or Industry. After some time you can obtain technologies that will allow you to inhabit these systems. All planets have different climate. They are also very capacious and pleasant, at least to the point that they are tolerable for your citizens.

3. Arid, Savannah, Steppes and Snow. They are medium quality worlds, although they are closer to the bottom of the list. Some have more negative impact on Approval and a weaker production of Food and other resources. However, a few of these planets have better bonuses than those with more pleasant environments. For example, Snow planet gives you a better Science bonus while Arid grants you better income in Industry. Thanks to science researches you can get the access to those worlds. This group often offers you medium class strategic resources.

4. Arctic, Desert and Toxic. One of the least pleasant worlds but they are still capacious enough for your people. Very low Food production. However, each one of these planets exceeds in producing one resource. This is a group of sterile worlds and, because of that, some of the buildings can offer you bonuses. Those planets can be terraformed into some worlds from the third group.

5. Ash, Lava, Ice and Barren. These worlds are either hot or cold and all of them are sterile. Many upgrades and buildings, for example those that can increase number of population, can only be used on these planets. Although the fourth group is very similar those planets are in a separate group because they can be changed into arctic (if they are cold planets) or desert (hot). Ash and Ice planets are a little bit more pleasant although less productive versions of Lava and Barren worlds. The second group gives you even more bonuses to Industry/Science. Here, you have no Food production and a very low Dust income per capita. They are the least pleasant worlds and the hardest ones to inhabit and because of that the maximum population is very small. You must also spend some time on developing colonization technologies. On the other hand they can be used as perfect worlds for being Industry or Science centers. It is worth to leave one or two of those planets in a system to have better FIDSI bonuses.

6. Gas giants. They are not planets and can't be terraformed. As it was said earlier they offer a very big production but only in one field. They can often be found as the only object in a system, especially when a system has no star. They can accommodate a minimal number of population but they often have the rarest strategic resources in a galaxy.