Lifeforms FAQ
Q: What are Lifeforms?
A: Lifeforms is an expansion of the original game. They have their own buildings and researches. There are 4 races: Humans, Rocktal, Kaelesh and Mecha. You can select one race on each planet. The races on its own do not give any bonuses even though the text ingame might suggest that.
You build population buildings in order to unlock Lifeform research slots. Population needs food. Check the tables below for a guide on how to unlock each slot at lowest cost for each lifeform.
Each planet has 18 Lifeform tech slots (Lifeform research). Each slot has 4 possible techs that each corresponds to a race. You need to have found the race to be able to pick their techs.
Q: Is there any other benefit to population?
A: Other than unlocking research slots, there is no other use for population. You don't need population or food to play "the rest of the game".
Q: Are lifeform techs account-wide like normal research?
A: No and yes. They aren't account-wide as in you can pick the same tech on all planets and you need to level them individually on all planets. But the bonuses provided by lifeform techs stack across all planets and are applied account-wide.
Q: Do I need to have a race picked on one planet at least to be able to select their techs?
A: No. You just need to have the race found.
Q: I only have Humans. How do I find other races?
A: You need to unlock the first tech slot with Humans and upgrade the Intergalactic Envoys tech to level 1. After that, you fly discovery missions from the Galaxy view (the purple DNA icons). These cost a small amount of resources but if you're just starting out this might be too expensive.
Q: Do I need to keep Humans on one planet to fly discoveries?
A: No. You only need to have the Intergalactic Envoys tech on one planet at level 1. You can get that tech with every race.
Q: Which race should I pick?
A: You can mix lifeform techs from all races so which race you pick doesn't matter for lifeform techs. However, each race has different lifeform buildings. Pick a race based on the buildings they provide. Generally, pick one race and put it on all planets, don't mix.
Q: No, really, which race should I pick?
A: If you're Collector, pick Rocktal.
If you're Discoverer and you have no life, pick Mecha.
If you're Discoverer and do 100+ Expeditions per day, pick Humans.
If you're Discoverer and do less than 100 Expos per day, pick Rocktal.
If you're General, pick Mecha if you have low economy or have slot 15 planets; pick Humans if you have solid economy and have slot 8 planets.
Q: When should I start investing in Lifeforms?
A: It depends. If you're Discoverer and are flying a lot of expeditions you'll be making more resources than you can spend anyway, so you might as well start upgrading Lifeform buildings and fly discoveries. Don't invest into Lifeforms until you can fly expeditions. If you're Collector, you need a solid economy before investing in Lifeforms. Start thinking about Lifeforms after you have a few colonies up and running, off the top of my head I'd say after Astro level 9.
Q: How do I pick techs from other races?
A: When you unlock a tech slot you're presented a choice. You can either:
- pick the tech of your local race (the race you picked on the planet)
- gamble for a random tech out of the races you have unlocked
- pay with artifacts to choose the tech of your choice
Q: What are artifacts and how do I find them?
A: When flying discoveries you occasionally find a currency named artifacts. This currency is used to pick a tech of your choice for a slot. For a tech in tier 1, you pay 200 artifacts. Tier 2, 400 and Tier 3 600 artifacts. You can have a total of 3600 artifacts in your inventory.
Q: Can I change single techs with artifacts?
A: No, you can't "change" single slots. You need to reset the whole tier and pick all techs in that tier again.
Q: Do I lose my techs and buildings if I switch from one race to another on a planet?
A: You don't lose anything permanently. Your building levels are preserved and restored when you switch back to the race you switched away from. The techs you picked are preserved as well and are restored when you switch back. The tech levels are preserved as well, you will still have the same level if you pick the same tech on a different race. If you switch to a race you haven't built any buildings on yet, you need to unlock the tech slots anew and pick the techs again, possibly spending artifacts again.
Q: What happens when I reset a tier?
A: When you reset a tier the tech selection is reset, meaning you have to pick the techs again. The tech levels are preserved. Depending on how many techs you had active, a cooldown for the next free reset is applied. After resetting a tier, you have 60 minutes to restore the previous selection.
Q: I have Kaelesh and I built the Bio Modifier. What happens to the planet fields when I switch to another race?
A: You will lose the bonus planet fields. If your used fields number exceeds your new max. fields number, you won't be able to build anything until you're fields positive again. You don't lose any buildings or production, buildings are not disabled or anything like that.
Q: Do higher levels of Intergalactic Envoys increase the chance of finding artifacts/lifeforms?
A: No. You only need Intergalactic Envoys on level 1 on 1 planet. Don't invest more resources in this tech, it's a waste.
Q: Is there a limit to discovery flights?
A: Yes, there is a limit to how many flights you can make in total. You can see this limit in the galaxy view. The limit starts at 50 and increases by 50 every day, which means you can make an average of 50 discovery flights per day.
Q: What are Lifeform-Levels and how do they work?
A: Each race has a level and you level it up by gaining experience when you find them again in Discovery missions. The level grants a bonus by which Lifeform techs are increased. For example if you have a race at level 10, Lifeform techs are increased by 1%. At level 50, the bonus is 5%; and at level 100, it's 10%. Levels are capped at 100.
For example, if you have Rocktal at level 50, all bonuses provided by all lifeform techs on Rocktal planets are increased by 5%.
For instance, if you have Rocktal on a planet, and your Rocktal level is 50, and you have a total of 10% bonus to Metal production from the lifeform techs of this planet, this bonus is increased by 5% to 10,5% (10% * 1,05).
If you have Humans or Mecha on a planet, and you have buildings that increase bonuses granted from lifeform techs (i.e., Metropolis, High-Performance Transformer, Chip Mass Production), the bonus from these buildings and the lifeform level are summed together.
For example, if you have Humans on a planet, and your Human level is 50, and you have Metropolis at level 10 on that planet, the total bonus granted to the lifeform techs on that planet is 10% (5% from lifeform level, 5% from Metropolis).
