So yeah. I really like Riftborn. To the point where I will probably never play any other race in this game, because I will just miss Riftborn.

But, there is a problem, and quite a serious one - I'm a noob (and, possibly, also a scrub in general).

Recently I played a game with my friends, and while I was able to keep up with two of them and AIs, one of my friends was literally always ahead of me - building miracles faster, doing all the group quests, ahead in points, etc. And while there is a possibility that points are completely pointless (BADUM-TSSSS) in showing empire's real power, all the other things still obviously tell that his play was purely superior (he played Vaulters, dunno if it's even relevant).

So, I obviously made some poor choices, especially in early game, and ended up behind. And now I seek help here, on this fancy forum!

How should I play Riftborn, especially early/mid-game? I was focusing on getting as much Nice and Hot© planets as possbile, expanding quite fast. Then, I was trying to get main faction quest's stage 3 done as fast as possible, since it gives -50% pop build cost, which allowed to stop using dumb "pop factory planet" tactic and build pops in one turn on all the planets and get high Riftborn numbers across the empire. Was also mainly focused on Industry over dust and science, maybe it was also a bad idea.

Maybe some of this decisions were wrong? Or just my timing was bad?

Anyway, I would like to hear what veteran Riftborn players usually do for a solid early and mid-game, what tech choice they pick, which build order for planets they use, etc., to try and improve my own Riftborn play!

Any general advice would be cool too! I just couldn't find up-to-date guides for my favorite race anywhere really, all of the guides were at least, like, 10 months old, and had a lot of things done differently because of that (there was no colony limit then, I believe, probe replenish bug was still there, singularities costed much less, starting structures had different stats, etc.)

And to anyone who answers - thank you!

Hmmm, looks like I was already trying to do most of this stuff... but maybe I wasn't doing it aggressively enough? Should I, like, literally spam colony ships like a madman and get as much colonies as possible as early as possible? I was quite scared about the colony limit, after which the approval would start dropping for every new colony... Also, I started using the +30 approval -10% industry law quite early, but maybe this isn't worth if for Riftborn anyway? But high approval in the empire gives fairly big bonuses to dust and science... hmmm...

Also, I was somewhat worried about building a lot of pops before getting the -50% pop cost reduction in the midgame, since it could take a lot of turns sometimes, and I was thinking about it as ineffective - this could also be a big mistake on my part. Maybe I should've ignored some buildings and kept spamming Riftborn - after all, they are the best type of population in the game, as far as I know, and would also give valuable boost to science - something that I was certainly lacking in that MP game.

And one more thing - I was mostly focused on getting hot type planets with lots of industry, and was not really paying much attention to bad planets with strategic/luxury resources, since Riftborn rely so heavily on industry, and building them up on the ice planet is a literal ass. But maybe those resources were worth it though?

What do you think about it?

And thanks for the reply by the way :V

Hmmm, looks like I was already trying to do most of this stuff... but maybe I wasn't doing it aggressively enough? Should I, like, literally spam colony ships like a madman and get as much colonies as possible as early as possible? I was quite scared about the colony limit, after which the approval would start dropping for every new colony...

Your Biophobic trait should help here. Every pop you then build on your systems will result into net +2 approval on lavas and +5 approval on ashes, so prioritize ashes over lavas if you play on a small map (size affects overcolonization cap). So your expansion path should look smth like: 1. create bottlenecks - 2. fill backwards until you are about to hit unhappy - 2. grow your pops to raise approval - return to step 2 once again - ... and so on.

Also, I started using the +30 approval -10% industry law quite early, but maybe this isn't worth if for Riftborn anyway? But high approval in the empire gives fairly big bonuses to dust and science... hmmm...

I am not sure about that law, I guess you can pass it if you go straight from content to exstatic with it and if you are about to run out of things to build and need extra science. Usually you should have enough science to lead you through first eras just from a cerebrial and public privates on every system.

Also, I was somewhat worried about building a lot of pops before getting the -50% pop cost reduction in the midgame, since it could take a lot of turns sometimes, and I was thinking about it as ineffective - this could also be a big mistake on my part. Maybe I should've ignored some buildings and kept spamming Riftborn - after all, they are the best type of population in the game, as far as I know, and would also give valuable boost to science - something that I was certainly lacking in that MP game.

Yeah thats basically it, riftborn pops are just so good. Remember that they don't only give you their own bonuses but also extra FIDSI from the planet you build them on. So on Lava planet every guy will give a total of 21 industry 7 dust and 5 science and on Ash planet every guy will give 17 industry 9 dust 5 science. 

And one more thing - I was mostly focused on getting hot type planets with lots of industry, and was not really paying much attention to bad planets with strategic/luxury resources, since Riftborn rely so heavily on industry, and building them up on the ice planet is a literal ass. But maybe those resources were worth it though?

That shouldn't be your main focus early. You only have 1 hero early so you only need 1 time bubble that badly. You don't want to spend them on wonders either. You can get those planets with strategics after you transition to science later and grab those colonization techs. +3/+3 from your main should be good enough early I think, but I might be wrong still, haven't played them in a while. So don't hesitate to try your own ways to play.

Alright, I'll try all that in the next game, thank you.

Maybe someone else here also has something to add? Some additional Tips and Tricks©?

I could really use any advice at this point, since I'm a noob anyway.