Hi!

I'm currently sitting on around 600 hrs and managed to master on endless difficulty Empire and Vodyani factions. With empire, I always go Mezari, just love to squeeze out all that wonderful science. I also have a lot of fun with the Vaulters, even though I can't say I know how to play really that well with them, matterfact I never went played them on Endless.

I was wondering if anyone could describe to me or point me out a Sophon general strategy, since I tried them a couple of times but just totally sucked and ragequit after 30 40 turns...

I really want to get that sweet juicy science bonus they have and win with scientific victory, but we can't deny they are super bad at industry and influence in the beginning, and we all know the first 100 turns or so are fundamental to proceed solid in mid and late game...

Thank you all!

They are ok at early military rush because their heroes are strong generals and their ships are fast and deadly. Omniscience for me is more about staying ahead in military while being on the same level with others in general development. It is not like all in into science which kinda sucks.

However if you want to push the boundaries of absurdity and play very science-focused game, you can try push ecologists turn 20 and then colonize all the planets you have, which allows you to skip all the colonization techs and save a lot of science. And then switch back to scientists at the point you can skip tier 4 entirely. Did it few times, really tricky and kinda weak, but a lot of fun.

Wow super cool strategy.

Yeah.. one thinks of the more "scientific" factions (Sophons and to an extent Vaulters) as the ones that just focus on science and nothing else. But even though i never finished a game with the sophons given my other playthroughs I know for sure you just can't move only in a science oriented direction on the tech tree. To achieve a scientific victory you must produce lots of science, and to do that you (mainly but not exclusively) need pop, and to have lots of pops you need planets, and to have lots of planets you need... war! So it's always a balance, for sure. I'm not mentioning boosting your population, which can make a difference. In this last case I think the Vodyani are just out of the roof: 8 FIDSI per pop?! So cool...