Map

MapMap Settings

The map is made up of hexagonal tiles. Every tile will have a specific terrain type that depends on its native Biome. Tiles can change their terrain type over the years through either natural phenomena or empire design. Tiles that are adjacent to Coastal or Ocean tiles receive a +1 bonus to their Food output.

A group of tiles contained together inside a closed border constitutes a territory. The edges of a territory are displayed with a line of dashes on the map. Each territory can only have one city or camp.

Campaign map user interface

1. Empire Management - The left sidebar contains overviews of the various aspects making up your empire. From the top button:
   1. Empire Summary - Hover to see a brief description of your faction and any unique powers/units it can use. Select this button to bring you to an in-depth Empire Summary screen, containing detailed information from faction traits, units, and empire bonuses, to characters, your council, and population bonuses.
   2. Victory Conditions - Select this button to see your progression towards any Narrative or other Victory types and any key beats you’ve unlocked.
   3. Quest Journal - Contains all of your ongoing and completed quests across Faction, Pacification, and World victory types. This screen also contains Deeds, various objectives that you can try to accomplish first during specific Tidefalls. These will add enticing bonuses to your empire that last throughout the entire game.
   4. Cities & Camps - Provides an in-depth overview of all cities and camps within your empire.
   5. Protectorates - Assign and manage your Minor Faction Protectorates.
2. Faction Features - Abilities and information unique to your faction are displayed here.
3. Primary Resources - The stock and income of your two primary resources, Dust and Influence. Dust is used to buy out constructions, pay for Army Upkeep, purchase Strategic or Luxury Resources, and more. Influence is used to expand your Cities by building Foundations, assimilating Minor Factions, and performing Diplomacy Actions.
4. Strategic & Luxury Resources - Strategic Resources are used to build Improvements and to specialize your Armies. Luxury Resources provide temporary boosts to Cities and armies. Click on any resource to buy and sell it (requires a Trading Post in your empire) or to activate luxury boosters.
5. Notifications - Provides a list of messages about events inside and outside of your empire.
6. Reminders & End Turn Sequences - A series of buttons to filter through needed actions before you end your turn.
   1. Reminders/End Turn Button - Initially shows you the actions you have to take before ending your turn. Once all actions are complete, click here to end your turn.
   2. Next Icons (Bottom Three Buttons) - These three bottom buttons allow you to filter through your Armies and Cities/Camps, while the “Finish Moves” button completes any pending Army actions.
7. Hero’s Circle - Manage all of your Heroes, including their equipment, profiles and skill trees.
8. Research - Opens the Research screen, allowing you to explore what technologies you want to research.
9. Diplomacy - Manage your diplomatic status with other Empires, including Treaties, Declarations, and Propositions.
10. Yield And Grid Toggles - Customization toggles for your campaign map. Toggling on Yields will show the Tile output resources you will generate inside your Cities/Camps. Grid toggles the hexagonal grid on the world map, which is purely an aesthetic feature.

Terrain

Cities and camps can perform Landscaping to change the terrain of a tile.

Terrain	Output	Movement cost	Description
Barren		1	This exhausted soil produces nothing, except an eerie stillness.
Botanical Ruins	1 Food 1 Science	1	The remnants of an ancient civilizations' agriculture, perhaps?
Bush	1 Food	1	Laden with fruit, plants grow happily in this soil.
Dense Bush	2 Food	1	Ripe berries hide behind every leaf in this inviting thicket.
Dense Duse Lode	2 Dust	1	The earth is rich with Dust, the ground illuminated with a faint golden light.
Dust Lode	1 Dust	1	Glimmers move in eddies and swirls on the ground's surface.
Golden Scrub	1 Food 1 Dust	1	The infiltration of Dust hasn't stopped the plantlife flourishing.
Reaping Wastes	1 Dust 1 Science	1	Broken mechanisms litter the ground, still glowing with Dust.
Forest	1 Industry	2	A thicket of sturdy trees reach skyward.
Dense Forest	2 Industry	2	Rooted so closely together, the trees' scent is almost overpowering.
Grove	1 Food 1 Industry	2	The trees offer strong timber and pungent nourishment.
Lattice Forest	1 Industry 1 Science	2	Strange formations lodge in the trunks of the trees, fascinating scholars.
Ridge	Impassable	Impassable	Craggy rock crops from the ground, making passage difficult.
Wasteland	Impassable	Impassable	A foreboding chill on the air tells you to turn back.
Coastal Water	Impassable until Tidefall	Impassable until Tidefall	Shores and rock line these brackish waters.
Ocean	Impassable	Impassable	These waters are dark and deep.

Anomaly

An Anomaly is a terrain that has a much greater output than regular terrain but does not allow Districts to be constructed on it.

Anomaly	Output	Movement cost	Description
Blaze Grapes	5 Food 5 Approval	1	A Saiadhan delicacy, the flesh of these gargantuan grapes is succulent and nourishing.
Giant Orchids	4 Food 4 Dust	1	Delicious fruits sit beneath the fronds of Dust.
Purple Leaf	3 Food 3 Science 5 Approval	1	Many Saiadhans find the raw leaf bitter, but cooked the taste is transformed.
Saiadhan Boars	6 Food	1	A proud sight, these thunderous beasts like to wallow in shallow ponds.
Spiral Crabs	6 Dust	1	Crustaceans that embed Dust in their distinctive shells.
Fiber Spines	6 Industry	2	Few native fauna come close to the manufacturing riches of this species.

River

River is a terrain type that cannot be passed through. Instead, ordering an army to move on a tile with River terrain will bring the option to spend one turn building build one of the following:

• Temporary Bridge allows armies to move on the tile. The Temporary Bridge lasts for a limited number of turns and if an army is on it when it collapses the army will be destroyed. Temporary Bridges cannot be constructed during a Monsoon.
• Dam costs 50 Dust and requires the Keystones technology to be researched. It can be attacked by enemy armies.

Curiosities

Curiosities are atypical sites that can be explored by armies by placing an army or foundation on them. When explored curiosities give a one-time reward such as Dust, Influence, Strategic Resources, Luxury Resources, and many others. Most curiosities remain on the map until they are explored.

Unless Monsoon Curiosities have been disabled at game creation, Levitations curiosities will appear when the Monsoon starts and disappear when the Monsoon ends. Exploring them gives 50 Dust and restores 2 Movement Points to the army that visited them.

Seasons

Saiadha goes through three cyclical seasons: Clear Skies, Monsoon and Tidefall. The turn wheel will indicate the current season and a rough approximation of how long it lasts. The approximation can be improved by certain technologies.

The Monsoon is a season of intense rainfall. During the Monsoon Brambles thrust from the ground and creatures rise from Rifts and Fortresses. When a Monsoon starts empires can reorganize their Council. During a Monsoon the following effects take place:

• +20 Health Regeneration on units starting their turn in a non-allied territory
• +100% gains on Battle Spoils
• -1 Vision Range on units
• Levitations curiosities appear on the map
• Villages that aren't pacified will become hostile

Tidefall is a season when Coastal Waters recede, exposing additional land. This unique mechanic allows the vast oceans to recede, revealing new parts of the map and continuing the exploration phase throughout the game, rather than ending it early.

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World settings

World settings determine the generation of the world map.

• World Size determines how large the map will be. It has the following options:
  • Tiny: Recommended for 2 players. The number of luxury resource types will be limited to 6.
  • Small: Recommended for 3 players. The number of luxury resource types will be limited to 10.
  • Medium: Recommended for 4 players. The number of luxury resource types will be limited to 13.
  • Large: Recommended for 6 players. All luxury resource types will be present.
  • Huge: Recommended for 6 players. All luxury resource types will be present.
• Map Archetype determines the shape of the world. It has the following options:
  • Archipelago: World is made of small islands. Each empire starts on their own island. Tidefall will happen quickly.
  • Pangaea: World is made of one large continent. Tidefall will be delayed.
  • Continents: World is made of large islands. Each empire starts on the same island. Tidefall will be slightly delayed.
• World Wrap determines if the map is continuous or not. It has the following options:
  • No: Side edges of the map have impassable terrain.
  • Yes: Side edges of the map loop back to the other side.
• World Generation Seed is used for world generation. Using the same seed will result in the same map being generated. Seed will be random if the setting is left empty.
• Lake Odds determines the number of lakes that will be present on the map. It has the following options:
  • None
  • Few
  • Average
  • Many
• Lake Size determines the size of lakes. It has the following options:
  • Small
  • Average
  • Big
• Rivers determines the number of rivers that will be present on the map. It has the following options:
  • None
  • Few
  • Some
  • Many
• Ridges and Cliffs determines the number of ridges and cliffs that will be present on the map. It has the following options:
  • Few
  • Average
  • Many
• Strategic Resource Amount determines the number of strategic resource deposits that will be present on the map. It has the following options:
  • Scarce
  • Normal
  • Abundant
• Monsoon Curiosities determines whether or not Monsoon curiosities can appear. It has the following options:
  • Default
  • None

Pace settings

• Game Speed
• End Turn Timer Mode
• Turn Timer Duration
• Extra Turn Time per City
• Battle Timer Mode
• Pre-Founding Scouting Bonus
• No Rush Mode

Victory settings

Victory settings decide which victory conditions will be available in the game and how difficult they are.

• Victory Conditions Difficulty
• Score Victory: Be the empire with the highest score when the turn timer ends.
• Conquest Victory: Be the last empire standing.
• Population Victory: Have enough types of population. Unlocks late in the game.
• Industry Victory: Build wonders. Unlocks late in the game.
• Science Victory: Research enough late game technologies. Unlocks late in the game.
• Economic Victory: Store enough resources. Unlocks late in the game.
• Diplomacy Victory: Maintain a high Public Opinion from other empires. Unlocks late in the game.
• Supremacy Victory: Control enough territories. Unlocks late in the game.
• Exploration Victory: Close enough Rifts. Unlocks late in the game.

Difficulty settings

Difficulty settings determine how hard the game is going to be.

• Difficulty determines how the AI will act and what bonuses it receives. It has the following options:
  • Initiate: AI will not declare war or attack players and receives major penalties.
  • Novice: AI will not betray players and receives minor penalties.
  • Explorer: AI behaves normally.
  • Adept: AI receives small economic bonuses.
  • Hero: AI receives moderate bonuses.
  • Stellar: AI receives large bonuses.
  • Endless: AI receives massive bonuses.
• Peaceful Mode: If turned on AI empires will never declare war or initiate attacks but will fight according to the difficulty level if they are declared war upon.
• Iron Man: If turned on the game will only have a single save which is overwritten each turn.
• Mortal Heroes: If turned on heroes will die if they run out of Health.