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Hi everybody! I've played 4X Strategy games for over 20 years, spending more hours than I care to mention on games like Alpha Centauri, Birth of the Federation, Master of Orion and the Civilization series (1000 hours on Civ 5 alone according to Steam).

MATCHES COMPLETED AS FACTION (MCAF): 1
HOURS IN ENDLESS SPACE (HIES): 73hrs

If I update this guide I will include my MCAF and HIES numbers. Here's an example:

Originally posted by TheGillos (MCAF:10 | HIES: 410hrs):

UPDATE - 04/20/2018: The Sowers terraformed my baby!

Since there was no guide on The Sowers (maybe anywhere?) I'm here to give you my very casual, colloquial and hopefully useful take on The Sowers. These guys are a race of very dedicated terraforming robots (gone wild).

I’ve only completed one game as The Sowers at the time I’m typing this, but had a lot of fun and learned a few things.

Apparently this faction is considered one of the crappiest, but I didn’t really see that.

The Endless Space Wiki[endlessspace.wikia.com] (referred to here on out as “Wiki”) says this:

"A fan campaign called "Save the Sowers" has gained strength due to the perceived weakness of the faction."
- Source: Wiki Sowers Page[endlessspace.wikia.com]

Maybe the developers patched it, because I found them to be powerful enough to do well on the Hard Difficulty Setting (with a bit of help from my allies).

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The Sowers are a race of self-replicating, terraforming, robots created by the Virtual Endless… I haven’t read much on the lore so I’m not super familiar with the Virtual Endless yet. From what I do know; they are some ancient, long-dead, godlike progenitor race. A shame we’ll never get to see that DLC.

After 3D printing the Sowers, or however a god makes something (use a robot rib?) they plopped them down on a seemingly random rock with a mission:

<Terraform this dump! Make it into a really great tundra planet!>

Not sure WHY the Virtual Endless wanted a tundra class planet, but whatever... gods work in mysterious ways.

After finishing their mission (which, like most construction projects, fell a couple eons behind schedule) they contacted their creators.

No answer; not even an answering machine.

With their prayers unanswered, they decided: “Screw it, we’ll just keep terraforming. That will make mom and dad proud!”. You start the game with an almost fanatically religious mission known as “The Calling” - go forth and multiply!

They aren’t evil PER SE; the game classifies them as neutral. When you take over an entire civilization and turn its population into compost fertilizer you aren’t doing it with an evil intent afterall… those United Empire systems were in the way. The holy crusade must continue; you don’t want any lousy aliens taking up space when the Virtual Endless return!

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Free Tech(s):

• Xenobotany

Xenobotany (40 science points) allows you to work Tundra class planets without penalty (more on this in a second)

The Sowers home planet is Tundra, which is (apparently) the terraforming instructions their creators left them, and that’s what their little robot hoes and shovels went to work on. Their home planet is special because it has Metallic Waters which gives +1 production per population and +10 happiness for the planet. Which is nice - a happy robot is a productive robot.

Now, back to that penalty I mentioned before: The Sowers are special because they can colonize every class of planet and even asteroid fields right off the bat. This is incredibly useful because you can pick and choose exactly what planet you want and use it whenever you want… but there’s a downside.

The Sowers have the Tolerant trait, so while they CAN colonize all planet types right away they get a -25% penalty to food, production, dust (money), and science on that planet UNTIL they unlock the tech a normal faction would need to colonize that planet type.

So right off the bat the Sowers get Xenobotany, which allows a normal faction to colonize Tundra, with the Sowers it eliminates that -25% penalty for their homeworld (and every other Tundra planet in the universe). Make sense? So don’t ignore the planet colonization techs in the bottom science tree just because you can colonize to your pacemaker’s content.

NOTE: This also means you can’t trade your colonization techs with other factions, because they are unique to your race and unique technologies can’t be traded!

Just like a lot of us made of flesh and blood, the robotic Sowers have a weird relationship with food.

They receive 50% less food from their systems BUT 30% of production is added to food. What this means is: YEAH, that Terran class planet isn't going to be a food powerhouse because it's getting -50% food, but that Lava class hell hole with it's oodles of production? … The Sowers are happy as a demon in hell with that one! They’re going to turn 30% of its production into food.

You know those ‘production to food’ or ‘production to dust’ things you build when you have nothing better to build, well the Sowers get the ‘production to food’ perk all the time!


These guys are a faction based entirely on construction, their creators programed them like this:


To those of you unfamiliar with programing this means: while the universe exists keep terraforming everything! They never stop until they are destroyed, the universe ends, or (maybe) when their creators come back.

The have the trait Builders, which gives -30% on improvement costs empire wide. This is great because when you get a new building you can plow right through it and get the benefits that much faster. It also helps with new planets, captured planets, garbage planets… it helps in war, it helps in peace… it helps you throughout the WHOLE GAME.

The Sower ships are equipped with Dust Recyclers . Since dust is the gold of the galaxy, this is helpful for your dust account: for every command point ship you “recycle” (AKA blow up) you get 10 dust. It’s a tiny bonus, but I’ll take it.

These robotic greenthumbs are Optimistic little guys, which is +10 happiness on each system (not each planet). They must have an unwavering faith that their creators will come home and give them a pat on the head for terraforming everything to their exact specifications!


These robotic gardiners must not be built for speed - Slow Traveler guarantees their ships have -1 speed. These plodding, massive ships (more on ships in the next section) are not exactly exactly Tesla “ludicrous mode” fast.

The Space Cadet trait is arguably the most damning trait they have: -20% to science on every system empire-wide. Owch! It makes sense though - I can’t remember the last time my toaster invented a new type of bread.

To counter this, you’re going to want to find some alternative ways to catch up.

I found some nice planets that had massive science per population: 20 for Helium Gas Giants, 12 for Barren. My robots weren’t happy to have high voices or deal with barren wastelands, so they didn’t reproduce (0 food on gas giants and barren planets).

Also, since The Sowers have a 30% “Builders” bonus to improvement production, you can get that new building and benefit quicker after researching a “new” tech - even though that “new” tech was probably discovered by some other faction a while ago, you have the building first.

Even still, science is a challenge. You’re going to fall behind in tech without the help of allies. Hopefully your ability to out produce pretty much anyone will counteract that.


Image from: The Sowers Wiki entry[endlessspace.wikia.com]

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Leave a comment if you want me to take the time to upload images of the classes and my personal loadouts. I honestly don’t know if anyone is reading this, but if I get some positive feedback I would happily put in some more effort.

This section will go over my personal experiences and strategies for Sower shipbuilding. If you need an overview of the ships, their stats, and other stuff like that:

Check this wiki page on ships.[endlessspace.wikia.com]

NOTE: The AI usually attacks using the “Guillotine” or “Nose Breaker” targeting pattern so my fleets generally have some “blocker” ships with a lot of health and defense upfront and more attack focused ships in back. For more on the nuts and bolts of combat visit:

The wiki page on combat.[endlessspace.wikia.com]


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On turn 1, this spaceframe is the only functional one you get - it’s your scout, your warrior, your everything… at least at first.

But that’s no big deal because, like several Sower ships, this thing can be a damage sponge. With a -30% armor module cost you can add loads of hit points to the ship letting you survive where other lesser ships wouldn’t.

!!! Exclusive Sower Deal! Buy 3 armor, get 1 free !!!

Whenever you’re in a battle with one of these ships just repeat to yourself: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can” - as the enemy fires missiles, lasers and bullets against your reinforced hull.

You’re going to turn that filthy desert planet into a beautiful tundra gem no matter what they throw at you. The Calling must be answered!

In my most recent (only) game I had a few classes based off this Corvette spaceframe:

• A kinetic (bullets) damage ship (long range) with 1 armor module (just because they’re so cheap)
  
• A missile ship (long range missiles) with 1 armor
  
• A laser gun focused ship (set to medium range) - this one had 2 armor
  
• A blocker ship with no, or minimal weapons, 3-5 defensive modules against kinetic/laser/missile and as many armor as I could bolt to her!
  
• A repair ship, at least until you unlock the more repair friendly class (see "Destroyer" below)
  
• A scout (all speed and sensors, with a bit of weapons in case I encountered an unarmed colony ship, hehe)

I always kept 1/3rd of my fleet as the blocker ships because the guillotine targeting pattern hits the first 3rd of your fleet, and the nose breaker attacks your first ship. The AI never seems to use "Spread Fire" - which is the player default, and equally targets all enemy ships.

Honestly I haven’t played with the fleet formations much yet, but I basically just tried to use whatever would keep my fleet safe.

More on fleet formations in that aforementioned wiki page.[endlessspace.wikia.com]


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It’s a colony ship…

… cough.

That’s basically it. In the Disharmony Expansion only factions with the Optimal Structure trait can strap engines on them to make a speedy expansion ship. The Sowers can’t do that, and it’s even worse because thanks to their Slow Traveler faction trait you won’t be able to race to colonize far flung colonies.

But since you can colonize ANYWHERE, once you DO get to a system you have your pick of the planetary litter! This is especially nice for planets with wonders. I bet the Virtual Endless will especially appreciate those when they come back. They’re coming back. Any century now… They are.

… cough.


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While this type of space frame is CALLED the Destroyer I never used it as my primary combat ship nor did I use it for any sort of defensive blocker type ship. Nope.

The Sower Destroyer has a -30% cost for the repair module!

I used this as a support ship: providing cheap repairs, a little fire support, and it was the backbone of my invasion fleet for a time. I enjoyed having them with my forces, providing their bountify health bonuses, and helping out in battle.

As I mentioned before, because of the way the AI attacks I try to keep most ships behind my high health blocker-type tanking ships, the lack of armor insures these repair “destroyers” are always in back.

NOTE: Beware of bombers! They attack the rear ships. If the enemy starts up with that nonsense mix in some point-defense and/or fighters!


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I mentioned the “blocker” idea above… but if you want a ship that can take a massive pounding and come back asking for more, you want the Cruiser... or maybe some very specialty erotica.

-30% armor module cost, 200 base tonnage, which is double that of the corvette.

I loved this ship. If the AI wanted to get to my juicy attack ships they’d have to come through the Cruiser family I affectionately called “Shield”. And Shield it did.

No matter the fleet size, composition or power I never lost a Shield!

The Shield Cruiser flew through the inky void of space, in its glimmering armored glory, loaded up with as much armor as I could ft. Its 3+ defense modules for kinetic/beam/missile laughed an auto-tuned laugh while the sad meat bags (and crystal Harmony things) fruitlessly swatted at my ship’s thick hide.

This ship class was the equivalent of a titanium steel wall, and it made all but the most imposing enemy fleets look like the eggs of a malnourished chicken.

These are also dependable ships for invasion, if you want an all around attack ship, it’s very versatile because it can stand up to so much damage!

Sometimes I even replaced the offensive kinetic/beam/missile ships I mentioned in the Corvette section with heartier, more impressive, Cruiser versions. Although I generally found keeping those older Corvettes was more cost effective... But sometimes you want to show off, cost be damned, those systems aren’t going to colonize themselves!

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Not a whole lot to say here. It’s not so great for BATTLE, but thanks to its -30% repair module cost you can use it as a Destroyer replacement.


I don’t recall finding much use for this type of ship. Destroyer 2 just didn’t live up to the original for me, just like most sequels.

If you find a use for this Battlepoop let me know in the comments.


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Ok, this space frame is ridiculous.

As the Sowers programming looped over and over I think some paranoia subroutines got mixed in there. They always had amazingly armored ships, but the Dreadnought takes that idea and turns it up to 11.

It’s used tonnage is added to its health, and when Dreadnoughts gain levels (by getting experience in battle) they get even more health! Even at the start 400 extra health on the already healthy 3000 base makes for a nice base for your armor to build on! Plus don't forget you can add "tonnage modules" to increase the space on ships, and the health on this ship.

With a good amount of armor, fully loaded to maximum tonnage, I was a robotic MC Hammer, I felt like nothing could touch me.

You have enough room to install maximum point defense (to counter those pathetic bombers) and build a beautiful, unstoppable vanguard so you can finally crush the last challenges to The Calling!

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Hopefully this information gives you an idea of what the different ship classes are special. I enjoyed the way I configured my fleet, and feel free to experiment. The production is so great with the Sowers I sometimes found myself just scrapping ships and rebuilding whole fleets since it was much cheaper than upgrading!

With the Sowers is all about expansion, construction, expansion, construction, until everything is tundra! Beautiful beautiful tundra!


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