Endless Space 2 - Ship design guide

[@pizza-incantation]

seven years later, thank you for this video!

[@DM_Interaction]

Funny to see how much the weapons have changed since this video.

[@Nazar_Melnyk]

Yeah, about that... Hi from 2024)

[@alvydasjokubauskas2587]

Focus on beams and shields. Assign three coordinators per lane, doubling up on mid if needed. Winning mid lets broadsided weapons target other lanes, boosting accuracy and damage by 10% and effectively doubling output if the enemy spreads across three lanes. Alternatively, tank the flanks and concentrate firepower mid for a faster victory. Equip coordinators with slugs to counter missiles, the main early-game threat. Ignore critical damage-it bypasses shields/armor but deals normal hull damage. Lasers and beams are excellent for debuffs, like a 20% accuracy reduction for six seconds, devastating first missile or slug salvos (slugs often miss entirely). Beams are superior as they hit instantly and guarantee damage, unlike missiles, slugs, or lasers, which rely on accuracy and travel time. Early beams are overpowered, especially for small fleets, though harder to access later. Initially, you can upgrade lasers, but they’re suboptimal despite doubling damage with reduced accuracy. Tier 3 lasers with -20% accuracy debuffs force a return to beams (100% accuracy) for flexibility. Keep some older beams or laser modules for their powerful debuffs, which cripple slugs, lasers, and missile swarms in the first phase. Missiles can add variety on long lanes with 1-3 ships, but their lack of debuffs and vulnerability to flak make them less appealing. Their high damage is situational and less effective in prolonged engagements. Finally, leverage the shadow fleet strategy. Cloak ships with level 3 tech and equip them with gatling guns for armor/shield penetration and 100% accuracy at short range. During battle, wait until phase 3-this triggers an ambush mechanic, skipping phases and putting you close to the enemy. Gatling guns shred through opponents instantly, while debuffs like -20% accuracy delay their response, turning many ships into debris before they can react. This tactic guarantees devastating results.

[@stevemorris3746]

The combat is far more complex that most people give it credit for. So much so that it can be a bit intimidating and feel kind of random. I find that scouting enemy fleets and positions with probes helps as it can tell you the power and composition of the enemy fleets so you don't get blind sided. I haven't played with the beams much either, but I do know they do an absurd amount of damage when they do get in range. I normally put them on my missile ships so they don't get caught out of position if the battle ends up in short range.

[@parkerchaddock2770]

I was planning on buying this game Saturday. You helped to reinforce that decision.

[@parkerchaddock2770]

@@mdraff yep

[@Thibaut_Guerquin]

@@parkerchaddock2770 Hey man, awesome to encounter someone who still plays ES2 ! I'm a beginner myself and I wonder what you might think of the evolution of the game until now ? Cheers !

[@UnknownRex]

I actually love that you make all the decision before the battle in Endless Space. Part of why I really liked the first game as well.

[@razorboy251]

I really like your Endless Space 2 videos, they've helped me a lot especially with the Vodyani and the tree factions. However, I think this video - while it's an excellent guide to ship building - ignores the elephant in the room - the costs of components. More advanced components require some pretty rare strategic resources, and it's quite easy to design a ship you can't actually build due to a shortage of Adamantine or Antimatter or something like that. Moreover, disabling the "hide obsolete modules" makes this problem worse as you sometimes forget that you might have a cheaper and more viable, albeit older, version of the module, as opposed to a shiner and newer model that you might not be able to actually build or that might be quite costly to build. Anyway, I look forward to more of your videos!

[@WaervynsWorld]

Thanks! That's indeed a very good point, thanks for sharing! :)

[@elichekable]

Lol get gud settle systems with actual resources

[@laurentiumiu751]

My God, the weapon modules were gravely changed from what they once were.

[@TheBigBus111]

The best tactic I found is an end game monster. I developed it when I started to notice that the AI has a tendency of spamming carriers against you. The tactic is that when you have max command points, you build a fleet of 5 carriers and 1 small attack ship. Every weapon modules are railguns (railguns ignore all defense, and I still have to find what critical hits with railguns do). You put at least 2 projectile damage boosts (the ones I use are +25% damage +10% critical chance) and you use a 100% close range tactic. Every carrier has a monstrous 118000 attack points and the whole fleet is at 500K ish. With this tactic, I managed to destroy any fleet the AI could throw at me in one salvo. However, if one enemy carrier survives and it has many bombers, it might cause a fair bit of damage due to the slow reload times of railguns, that's why I put a 25% repair module onto my ships.

[@a-blivvy-yus]

Wow, it's crazy seeing how much the balance of weapon stats has been changed since the game launched. Kinetics are heavily focused on short range, with barely any damage at long range, torpedoes have regained short range damage (more than kinetics have at long range) and beams are 100% at all ranges. Lasers are interesting, with 50% at short and long ranges, and 100% at medium. Also the damage values are way different now, with kinetic having higher damage than equal-tier energy weapons.

[@RurouniKalainGaming]

Indeed quite the changes.

[@therealbahamut]

Seems like the devs need to learn simpler language for their UI. "Hull weakness" is really just a damage absorption formula, so why is it "weakness?" I notice this trend even as far back as Endless legend, where you'll see things like "+20% cost reduction" or the like, when it would remove a mental step to just say "-20% cost," or in this case something like "10% damage reduction." It almost feels like they're using double negatives in their game language or something. Nitpicky, perhaps, but it's a little thing that could be easily changed and would remove some of the initial learning curve.

[@Fusselwurmify]

not nitpicking at all. they should know better.

[@nightyonetwothree]

+20% cost reduction and -20% cost are different things. In first scenario multiple cost reductions effects like 20%+20%+20% will be 100%+60% total = 1/1,6 = 62,25% = reduced by 37,75%. In second scenario -cost will be reduced directly by -(20%+20%+20%) = -60%.

[@denrothsan836]

man, this guide literally saved my life XD I'm using the Vodyani and every time in the first rounds (20+) I had to face the enemy ... I was in numerical superiority but I lost all my fleet against 2 ships (last time 2 empire corvettes). This guide made me understand when the use of modules and the design of ships is important. unfortunately my English is bad and ES 2 is not translated in my language ... it is the first time I approach this kind of space games .. so for me the learning curve is steeper than normal>.> ty man

[@AitorMorgado]

Thank you for the video! Even though I've been playing Endless Space 2 for some hours, there are still some things I don't fully understand. This helped me to understand the mechanics and the big picture of the ship design a bit more.

[@TheBoagboy]

Came into the video thinking "well this will be short there is no combat!" Came out exited to try out some fleet ideas. Thanks for amazing tutorial!

[@WaervynsWorld]

TheBoagboy glad you liked it! :)

[@christopherwebber3804]

Note that you can build a ship without an engine module, but then its speed is reduced to 2 between star systems and it takes forever to get anywhere. Having the extra module could still be worthwhile if you don't have to move the ship very far, though. Also if you have two engine modules the ship goes faster. Don't know if this makes any difference in a battle but I suspect it doesn't. So the first thing you do is give your colonisers 2 engines.

[@a-blivvy-yus]

The ship's speed rating isn't used for combat, but a lot of specialised engine upgrades provide combat bonuses in addition to the speed they provide for inter-system travel. (Might have just picked the game back up after a long time without playing, Valve effectively stole the game from me 4 years ago and I just got around to grabbing the definitive edition on GOG)

[@ilyantresong]

OMG thank you so much the guides are fantastic for myself, who used to love games like this and just found this gem recently

[@skyeplus]

The game has been completely rebalanced lately. Now projectile weapons are high-risk-high-reward short range weapons, and beam weapons are equally effective at any range.

[@ROYBGP]

Bryce Lawrence you are so obviously the same person and scamming. Stop

[@clementine2718]

@@ROYBGP WOW This app "Instaportal" is really GOOD :D

[@alvydasjokubauskas2587]

Build bear bones or carcass ships, have cash and upgrade with beams and shields. Production costs are very low, and dust is very well used too. You can spam fleets in underveloped systems, close to your enemy just in few turns...

[@Shinypally]

I actually like very much the way combat is. I used to be diehard fan of controlling all units separately (MoO 2, Space Empires II and IV) but now love ES2 approach way more. Not so prone to exploits, it's fast and you still have to / can outsmart your opponent.

[@TheCompanyVideoLog]

Thanks for the work you put into this. Glad to see some numbers crunching going on. :D

[@j.d.4697]

The ship customization of this game makes EVE's ship customization look like a masterpiece.

[@snakethefox9586]

I would make mention of the fact that "outdated" modules is actually very important for designing more focused or "min/max" ships. For example, I usually have "defensive" and "offensive" fleets; defensive are just meant to guard a specific system and so warp drives aren't important, whereas offensive have the best warp drives. Omitting the warp drive, for example, reduces the industry cost of the ship by a good chunk, making it faster to produce/cheaper to buyout.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Good point! Thanks for sharing :)

[@adityam7866]

Very informative as always. Like I've already said on reddit, you've helped a lot in helping me grasp mechanics under the hood. Keep it up! Looking forward to more.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@ares106]

Wow they changed the way weapons work a LOT

[@keesm307]

I like to design 2 kinds of ships that have (almost) no offensive and defensive capabilities. They need to be able to take as much support modules as possible. Type 1 (sieger) is filled with modules (forgot the name) that decrease the defending manpower of starsystems faster when you are sieging it. Type 2 (invader) is filled with manpower modules. In both cases I send an offensive fleet with maximum commandpoints filled to orbit an enemy starsytem first, and if necessary clear it of enemy fleets, immediately followed by a smeller fleetof type 1 or 2 ships. these don't have to be merged with the larger fleet, just be in orbit with them, to have their effect on breaking the defense. These latecomers don't need defensive or offensive capabilities, since they don't join the fights. If this fleet is smaller than the main offensive fleet, they won't be tageted, even if they would arrive in orbit simultanously with the offensive fleet

[@10000StepTherapy]

Than you very much for this series of videos. Very informative and helpful.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Glad you find it helpful! :)

[@HackNow2025]

very nice guide

[@Arthounot]

Perfect, this video helped me a lot. Thanks again Waervyn!

[@WaervynsWorld]

Glad it was useful!

[@niceone1456]

what are you talking about not worrying about the roles of target they attack, it is very very important. because it applies to your enemy as well, if the enemy have all attacker, they will focus on attacking your defender, you can use this strategy to win the battles.

[@gobbowarboss2914]

You are awesome. Thanks for the good training.

[@RoupMcgee]

Wow this is actually really awesome and detailed. I was afraid there wasn’t much to the combat. There actually is quite a bit. It would be cool to control the ships and they could have done that but they chose a more macro design. I actually like it a lot.

[@daniilpashuk6017]

Thx for this video. I was struggling with the war aspect but this heped me out

[@0thPAg]

It's basically, don't have a crap economy and always refit your ships after your enemy. Computer seems to design fleet to match your weaknesses, but if you change the design a turn or two before battle it doesn't fix it.

[@Laffen47]

Christ on a bike I would be lost without you

[@DmytroBogdan]

Very informative video but for me it raised even more questions.

[@VKspanish]

Thank you!! Subscribed and with notifications on! you are really helpful :D

[@joethesheep4675]

04:15 - I heard that "Role" tells you the "target"-priority. So if there is "Primary Target: Protector and Coordinator ships" your ship will priorize those ships. But i havent tested it... just heard. Makes sence though.

[@joethesheep4675]

ok... nvm ^^

[@WaervynsWorld]

Watch 30 seconds more and I go into that ;)

[@joethesheep4675]

but i got 1 more. This time seen whole vid.: Atm united empire has a unique manpower-module that is better than the last manpower-module in the research-tree. => The game will set the better module to "outdated". So for manpower-modules with united empire one should tick on "outdated modules"

[@joethesheep4675]

btw. I am not trying to like nitpick on you until i find a "mistake" or something. I enjoy your vids and maybe (just maybe) i can give something back ;-)

[@WaervynsWorld]

Oeeeh, interesting! Thanks for sharing! Unfortunately KZbin recently removed the option to annotate videos so I can't add it there, but thanks again! :)

[@abcdef-ln9lu]

if you have 20 defense from modules, and you have 100 weakness your ship will last 20% longer, it will be 20% harder to take damage, repairs will be 20% easier. If you halve the weakness, it's twice as strong, and 20 defense means 40% hp value. if you have 0 defense, it doesn't matter how strong or weak your hull is if you are taking unmitigated damage. it's a percent of a percent. and likewise penetration is a percent of that as well. So while viewing your ships mitigation is nice for checking stats. The thing to use for theory crafting is how much is each hp worth. Again if hull weakness is 100 and you add 20 shields vs no penetration your hps will be worth 20% more. they'll last 20% longer and it will be 20% easier to repair because you just didn't didn't lose as many, but the key is we know that the 20 defense correlates identically with how much your hps are worth. After that it's hull weakness and penetration, which is percents on percents on percents.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Thanks for sharing the info!

[@jvt_redbaronspeaks4831]

This is a very helpful video. Thank you for sharing.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Glad you liked it!

[@stupid_tree7158]

I tend to keep my ship designs more balanced between energy and kinetic

[@Pozer714]

Thanks, good video! Very helpful.

[@highstricker]

Can you do a guide on trade routes next i still don't understand how they work.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Sure thing! Hopefully within the next week or two. I am traveling for work now, and 3 days after I come back I have to leave again, but I hope to get some stuff done in those three days :)

[@SuperGbip]

Yeah I don't understand trade routes too. If you can point where you find informations too that would be cool !

[@WaervynsWorld]

I spent a couple of hours this weekend trying to figure them out, but to no avail. I learned a bit more, but lots of stuff is still confusing. I'll be trying out more stuff to tease the mechanics apart, so hopefully I can make a video soon! :)

[@TheReaper569]

Game has a bug, see if you have only short range weapons and try to watch, you lose the war. if you auto resolve, game actually counts your damage, rather than your time to get into short range. You beat them easily.

[@matthewoneill8100]

Can you give a technology guide what technologies should you be researching in the beginning

[@waervynplays8448]

It really depends on which faction and which path you want to take (i.e. do you want to go for a science victory or military etc.)

[@lucasbi]

On the first time when I had pleasure managing this battle system I wasn’t very convinced to it, but now I see it’s high potential and think that battles in games like ES should look in this way. We shouldn’t be distracted by micromanaging when battle is in play. Instead of it only observe how our decisions made our victories or huge ships explosions with cry 😉

[@carnivoriousleaf]

Can I get some explanation on the how of the combat. The flotilla paths and battle tactics seem interesting, if a little obtuse as to how much effect they'd have.

[@WaervynsWorld]

carnivoriousleaf I hope to do that, but I'm also still trying to figure it out as sometimes it does things that I still don't quite understand!

[@tyloraustad9431]

The Auto-Upgrade is a nice feature I didn't know about. Do you know if it applies to existing ships, or just future ships being built?

[@WaervynsWorld]

Just future ships. There's a seperate button to upgrade existing ships to the newest version :)

[@crushingit5128]

Thank you so much. Its so easy to overlook all these stats, and miss the strategy value in it. Any way you can do a video of how to use the battle system in conjunction with the ship design? You started to do that around the 10 minute mark, and thats when i realized i had no idea how to use the battlesystem correctly.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Yeah, it's something I*m still trying to figure out myself. I'm getting a better grasp on it, but I don't feel comfortable enough with it yet to make a video.

[@crushingit5128]

I have a feeling the devs are going to keep adjusting and adding more options to the combat in the very soon to be future.

[@HiphopPosse]

Very good vid. Thx!

[@Kater123bln]

Why would you bring a defense ship into a space fight? Looks like it cannot do anything but die, because the effects to the attacker ships cancel out.

[@SendInTheCriton]

awesome video. :D

[@KonwTheTrut]

So....before any given battle, can you just modify your ships and they're automatically applied? Or do the applications only apply to the ships that you build thereafter?

[@MarcoWulur]

U D GODDAMN MAN

[@ramonchristophermanero57]

hmm the target priority and battle style is like infinite lagrange

[@WellBeSerious12]

How do I destroy a pirate station? I can send a fleet to the same system, but can't select that station to attack. Also, you didn't go over slugs and other things that destroy enemy ammo.

[@UKPhoto111]

You have to fight a battle on the planet itself.

[@daveoconnor1658]

Nice vid. Very informative. I've been playing the game now for some time and one thing I'm trying to work out is the module slot resource types. When a ship gets enhanced through one of the enhancement techs it adds various module slots to the appropriate ship. But these require the expenditure of a strategic resource. I'm not sure exactly why it chooses a particular resource type for each ship. Is there anyway this can be changed? Eg instaead of anti-matter use titanium.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Glad you liked it! The resources used are set in stone unfortunately! You can try to trade for a resource if you have unlocked the marketplace.

[@FiabaVade]

Any plan to do some guides for 1.1? Kinda messy now

[@qubix8327]

Any way to make a copy of an existing ship design template to use as the starting point for a new design variation? I can’t seem to find a way to do that. Also, any chance you’ll be making any new guides for the recently released Supremacy and Inferno DLC’s? (Hint, hint ;-)

[@Captaincodeine]

There's no way. Also it's unfortunate that you can't cross upgrade ships of the same class.

[@miracanil5490]

Does placing weapon modules on top of the rather than pacing them in broadsides affect anything?

[@alvydasjokubauskas2587]

Well it does, if your mid Lane wins you shot other lanes with broadside weapons. Meaning you are using all of them. If not you: are using 50% of your broadside weapons. But your mid lane has to go straight line to the enemy, if your mid lane path goes north or south, than it might get a blind spot, because weapons cannot shoot behind enemies.

[@miracanil5490]

@@alvydasjokubauskas2587 I think top weapons have 360 degree of shooting

[@lloydrasmussen554]

In the original Endless Space there was a button in the ship designer that would upgrade the build list with your new ship design, is there something like that in Endless Space 2 that I can't find, or do you have to update every systems build list every time you update your ship designs?

[@WaervynsWorld]

Good question, I don't think that such a button exist. There's an auto-update button, but that just updates your ships to the latest/best equipment you have. Would be good addition!

[@MegaRedsword1]

does someone know if you can stack the flotilla movement speed? or how i can speed up my entire fleets?

[@danadi3898]

Great tutorial.I wonder if is a way to test combat mechanics without entering in campaign (unlock all ships and module and test them in separate combats). Something like this is in STELLARIS using cheats.

[@WaervynsWorld]

I'm planning on setting up a situation where I have a fleet going to fight another one, but in my own system. This way I can save the game, and then retrofit as I see fit, change tactics around etc., in order to hopefully be able to draw some conclusions :)

[@Crimethoughtfull]

The math they put into this is weird. (10/(100+10))*100 ?? I'm probably too dense to realize why this is a really great way of doing things, but it seems needlessly complex. But it works! :-)

[@Trog16]

Are the bonuses different for different races? Or does the hunter class have the same bonus for all the races? Just got the game and have only played tutorial and started one game, as the empire.

[@Sigrid_Von_Sincluster]

no the bonuses are the same however a lot of the weppons part are no longer valid since there have been changes made to them regarding range

[@Exoduss23]

Any chance you could do a vid about terraforming? Im having trouble figuring it out.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Dog Gone Gamer sure thing! I'm currently at the airport for a work trip but I'm back next weekend so then I can have a look at making it :)

[@Exoduss23]

Thanks whenever is fine. great video's by the way been helpful. Cant wait to they add fights and bombers

[@WaervynsWorld]

Yeah, it's kind of sad to see a carrier open it's ship to let fighters out, yet there are no fighters!

[@Exoduss23]

Iv read they are gona release fighters and bombers as a free dlc. When that be who knows but i doubt it be to long hopefully

[@samkim3923]

You need to branch out. Make some vines by doing more let's plays. You have a clear voice, engaging voice. Just a thought mate.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Sam Kim thanks for the kind words. I actually have a small let's play channel as people have been requesting it. Look for 'Waervyn plays'. be aware that I'm terrible though! I love figuring out mechanics but unfortunately that doesn't translate to a good sense of strategy ^^

[@dicktracy9473]

dude before this comment I didn't even know you had a LP channel, you should really advertise it more, or at least merge the content on the channel.

[@WaervynsWorld]

Thanks for your comment! Splitting the content was a conscious decision on my part actually! I did a couple of let's plays on this channel after some people asked for it, but then decided to split it to continue only doing guides and tutorials on this channel. This way people that subscribe to this channel won't get spammed with content they might not be interested in, and the other way around. Also I always feel bad about advertising let's plays for some reason, so I never do it. I do post guides on Reddit and Steam though! :)

[@perrisneuman4896]

Are you saying there's a separate channel for ES2 Let's plays? May I have a link please?

[@samkim3923]

There is a link under related channels on his Home.

[@danillugumanov9586]

Really nice video.thank you for your work,but when i try use modules for +1 move on fleet it doesnt work=( maybe now it fixed(i try on release) sorry for my bad english=)

[@ripsterhipster5948]

i think some mechanics have changed since then. can you make some videos on the game please? sseths guide isnt helping much

[@mememetal6631]

Flak on your ship as sole weapontype does do well, Turtle tactic is pretty good too since it puts your fleet at its potential. However i like using Shrapnel munition tactic and then Take thropies one if there are enemies remaining. And if you are imperial go down kinetic since you get kinetic enhancer adamantium. But if you catch the red ant shipbuilders, you get light crafts which are pretty awesome. But as generally, Beam every range low damage, Laser medium okey output, Torpedo long range big damage, Flak short range but counters torp/craft. Ai is bit responsive so they will try to counter you. As for endgame AI i only saw carrier/attacker deathstacks which crumble at a well made fleets. Try to get 3 defender, 3 attacker, 3 carrier and then fill out with medium crafts the remaining commandpoints. If you use more crafts then coordinators are pretty good packed with their own support and crafts. Killers tho be powerful glasscannons. I keep 10 movementpoint fleet and 16 ones and give the 16 fleet movement increase support modules and so on to make it a hard to catch menace or always everywhere one. 10 is just the shreaders. No engine can be "orbital defense stations" if you want to do that, they move slow tho.

[@crystallkingh3048]

what difficulty do you play on?

[@WaervynsWorld]

Normally on normal. I actually have 0 sense of strategy so I'm pretty bad at playing 4x games (and chess :P). I love figuring out mechanics and making tutorials though, but that's the reason why I haven't made any 'how to win with X race videos'.

[@crystallkingh3048]

that's funny because I just beat the game on max difficulty not 5 min ago >:) I used Horatio vs The Vodiani, never went to war (so i didn't have to research military or spen resources building ships), allways kept them happy and got an economic victory at turn 133. Id say that's the most relieable way to win at higher difficulties, just a tip :)

[@WaervynsWorld]

Nice, thanks! I haven't actually tried the higher difficulties yet. I once tried to go without researching any military tech, but the Lumeris got super aggressive on me so that didn't work out :(

[@matthewoneill8100]

Military victory

[@nicolinrucker5181]

...oh wow the weapon info is hilariously outdated :D