It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn

Kin of Sheredyn - Faction Spotlight | ENDLESS™ Legend 2 - YouTube

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I am not a brave man. It's one of the reasons I have a ferocious cockapoo protecting me night and day. With that in mind, Endless Legend 2's first faction reveal is exactly my kinda thing. The Kin of Sheredyn is a faction for turtlers. "I think they are custom made for you," says game director Derek Paxton, who I spoke with recently to get the lowdown on the 4X's first empire.

"They are our turtle builder archetype. If you like big walls, you are going to love the Kin. They are based around the entrenchment mechanic, we call it, meaning the more fortified their cities are, the more bonuses they unlock and the more abilities they unlock. So it really encourages players that enjoy building up their cities, seeing these big military districts, seeing these large walls around their cities, and want to play very defensively."

If you're an Endless Space 2 player, you might recognise the name. The Kin's ancestors were the bodyguards of the Emperor of the United Empire, and a playable faction in the space 4X. This branch has been stranded on Saiadha for decades, digging in to protect themselves from foul weather and necrophage attacks.

"From the lore perspective, the personality of Sheredyn as the bodyguards of the United Empire was really important," says Paxton. "It seemed to fit so well with who they are. And I hope you see it's carried through into multiple aspects of the faction in Endless Legend 2."

This is definitely a more military-themed faction, but rather than using your military might to expand your borders, you're going to be protecting what you already control, growing tall rather than wide. Your city cap can be expanded, but generally you're going to want to keep it small (though you'll still be able to build camps to expand your control to different territories and exploit their resources), which will make your population happier.

"We want a Kin player to feel like, 'No, no, I'm going to take this one region that I want most, I'm going to fortify that, I'm going to build up here,' and the game is going to support that kind of playstyle."

Key to this is the aforementioned entrenchment system. You'll see a gauge at the top of your screen that represents all of the fortifications across all of your cities, and the higher the gauge is, the more economic bonuses you'll get. You'll also unlock special abilities. These are the Kin's holy commandments, emphasising Endless Legend's special mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

Holy commandments are essentially "the remnants of their technology," says Paxton, but "from our perspective as fantasy gamers, we see these as magical powers". These active abilities range from being able to target a resource and excavate it immediately, rather than getting a small amount of resources every turn, to commanding an orbital cannon to blast their enemies.

These are powerful abilities, but they have a significant limitation in that they can only be deployed within your borders. Unless you've fielded a Chosen—an elite warrior who, as well as boasting a range of abilities that can protect allies and weaken enemies, also serve as targeting beacons, allowing you to deploy holy commandments outside of the Kin's borders. You won't be recruiting an army of these Chosen, though—they're special troops you'll only have in limited numbers.

"One of the things I really love about fighting with the Kin on the tactical battle side is they get bonuses for sticking together," says Paxton. "So they pull their soldiers together and they get shield bonuses if they have other units adjacent to them. So I love to go into battles with them and to pull them together into tight formations and attack to give them those defensive bonuses, which feels very much in line with the spirit of them at the economic level and their faction war level."

Fighting the Kin, meanwhile, is all about trying to break those formations. Some units have the ability to push enemy units, which should prove very helpful in neutralising some of the Kin's inherent strengths. Similarly, area of effect attacks will work well against them, since they'll all be standing so close together in the tactical battles.

One of the things that sets Endless Legend apart from other 4Xs is the narrative focus, and for the Kin the starting point for their story is the unknown fate of Commander Garin, a legendary leader who's reached an almost mythical status. The Kin believes that they will return one day and make everything right again, echoing the myth of King Arthur.

"Garin has become lost when the game starts," says Paxton. "So she went out into the world, she came back with these amplified powers, reaching this almost demigod status, and then she's lost. And when the player starts, they don't get to play Garin. They are playing General Shaparenko, who's trying to keep everything together through the failing technology, through the loss of Garin."

Endless Legend 2 will hit early access this year with four factions, including the Kin, so you'll be able to start turtling and summoning death from above pretty soon.