Aliens

This page describes mechanics of Alien faction in game. For story spoilers, see Aliens/Lore

Logo of the alien faction

The Aliens, or Hydra as they're sometimes referred after the first autopsy, are a non-playable faction. They have their own set of missions separate from human factions.

Aliens usually start on a Kuiper Belt asteroid (such as Haumea, Makemake, Orcus, or Quaoar) with a tier 3 Base and a tier 3 Habitat. They have 1 councilor on Earth and 5 more on Gunships that will soon crash land on Earth. They also start with a Destroyer that will arrive in early 2024. Aliens will expand from the edge towards the core of the solar system but will generally avoid attacking human fleets or habs until they are provoked.

Alien ships bringing councilors to Earth will create an UFO Crashdown Site visible to everyone. Other alien phenomena are created by alien councilor missions and have the be surveyed. Investigating an alien phenomena site will increase Xenology research by 1%.

Alien agents

Alien councilors always have 25 loyalty, high security, respectable espionage and a set of unique missions. While powerful, these alien agents are usually unable to board a plane, forcing them to travel on foot, only moving between adjacent provinces. As the game progresses, regions that are owned or subverted by pro-alien groups may open up their airports, allowing alien councilors to fly between these regions.

Alien councilors are dangerous, and are notoriously difficult to deal with. Killing and detaining them is required to unlock certain research options, and to prevent the devastating outcomes of their activity.

Alien Threat Level

Alien threat meter

This panel represents our intelligence section's best estimate about the degree to which the aliens regard our faction as a threat. It is based on our monitoring of pro-alien groups and visible alien activity in the Solar System.

We believe hostile actions against the aliens or their proxies on Earth, and/or a large visible space presence, increases their concern about us, and we may expect the aliens to attack our interests on Earth and in space should the alert monitor reach the maximum level. We also suspect they may launch one-off retaliations in response to direct action by our operatives against them, but they may also lose interest if we avoid opposing them or their proxies on Earth directly for a time.

Our analysts emphasize this is an imperfect estimate. We will correct our estimates when the aliens take direct action against us or by speaking with one of them directly.

The estimate will turn entirely red if we conclude the aliens are in a total war footing against our interests.

~ Terra Invicta Codex, 0.4.85.

Alien Threat meter becomes visible in the Intel panel once the Alien Operations council engineering project has been completed. Alien threat is scored from 0 upwards, with every 10 points increasing the threat level by 1. Alien Threat Level caps at 5, at which point the aliens will start attacking a faction's habs and fleets. The points can go above 50, making it harder to lower it. Gaining threat via hostile actions will worsen relations with The Servants and The Protectorate as well.

See Diplomacy for more details on how threat is gained, reduced, and estimated.

Alien Administration

Flag of the Alien Administration

The Alien Administration is a nation that is created either when an Invader Army occupies a region or when The Servants transfer territory to the aliens. Through human politicians there, the new alien nation is presenting itself to the world as a unifying force capable of solving Earth's problems. The Alien Administration will accept alliance with Servants controlled nations.

With the aliens as the power behind the throne, the nation appears invulnerable to usual attempts to assume political control - Crackdowns, Purges and Coups simply will not succeed. Only an internal rebellion or an outright invasion has a chance to remove the aliens from power.

The Alien Administration will immediately annex any region conquered by an Invader Army.