They readily tampered with other races for their own ends, and almost destroyed the galaxy during their faction war.

Abusive Precursors: While many revere and honor the Endless, neither of the two Endless factions (Concrete and Virtual) were very good.

The game was released in Early Acess in October 6 2016, and received its full release in May 18 2017. In addition to the original, uhh, random events, each faction now has its own quest chain, and there is at least one Plot Arc, concerning the Academy whence Hero Units originate, which affects the entire galaxy.

The first game's Random Event system is expanded upon.

Luxury Resources also have a role in upgrading your systems' Modernization Level, which grants them bonuses according to which Luxuries were consumed.

Relatedly, there is now a galactic Marketplace in which you can convert sell off Strategic Resources, Luxury Resources and old Ships, and buy not only those things but Heroes.

While the first game merely required you to have access to them as a pass-fail check, Resources in the sequel are now quantified inventory which are refined at various rates, or found in small amount whilst exploring.

All Resources and Luxuries are gated behind this system, in addition to various bonuses: new Events, unique technologies, and even points of Population from random factions. Unlike in the first game, where Anomalies could only be investigated by the population of the planet they afflict, the sequel allows them to be investigated by scout ships.

While exploration is still performed by having a ship wander the game's starlanes, the game's Anomalies are now a major minigame.

You can manipulate which parties get into power to some extent: almost every in-game action (researching a topic, building an improvement, fighting a battle) increases the prominence of one of these six parties.

but the laws you may choose from are determined by which parties have supremacy after the election, and the parties are affected by your empire's ethnic makeup and the Planet of Hats each minority comes from. After elections, you get to pass laws, which give you various gameplay buffs.

There is a Government system in the game with several different government types and six major parties (Industrialists, Scientists, Pacifists, Ecologists, Religious, Militarists).

Endless space 2 over colonization