The Space Ponies?! achievement for Sins of a Solar Empire 2 is a new iteration of the achievement/meme from the first game. As with the previous game, the achievement is rewarded when the player controls a planet with the Space Ponies! planet modifier. The biggest problem with the achievement is that this modifier is exceedingly rare, and many players will not encounter such a planet even after colonizing and conquering hundreds or even thousands of planets across dozens of games.

In Sins: Rebellion, it was possible to use the map creator to create a map where players started with control of any number of planets that were fully explored and guaranteed to have two modifiers; farming the achievement was as simple as building or downloading such a map, then simply starting and quitting out of new games on that map until the achievement popped. Unfortunately, the Sins 2 map editor does not currently allow users to set the exploration level of a given planet, so I can only get you two-thirds of the way there. The rest will require a little bit of time investment on your part, but will still be far faster than trying to get this achievement by playing normally, even on excessively large maps.

Step 1: Download the Map

The fastest and most convenient way to obtain my map is using the built-in Mod.io integration for Sins 2. Open the game, then select Modding at the top. Ensure that Mod.io is selected, then search for the map named Space Ponies Grinder and click the Subscribe button:



Alternatively, if for some reason you prefer to do things the hard way, you can manually download the map from Mod.io here:

https://mod.io/g/sins2/m/space-ponies-grinder

Install the mod at the following directory:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\sins2\mods

Note that you will need to create a root folder for the mod at this location into which you will extract the contents of the downloaded map. The mod that appears in-game will use the name of this root folder.


Step 2: Activate the Map

Now click Manage to view the mod management page. The screen should look like this:



Click the plus icon to the right of the name to activate the mod. The screen should now look like this:



Click the Apply Changes button to activate the map.


Step 3: Select the Map

Now click Single Player and select the Small (2 player) map size. Scroll down to locate the new map:



Click the Setup Game button.


Step 4: Set Up the Map

This map is intended to be played as Advent (either faction). No setup is required for the second player (note that this map is not intended for use in multiplayer). You can optionally adjust other map settings as you desire, but this is not required:



Once you have selected an Advent faction, click the Start Game button.

Step 5: Crank Up the Speed

We will require a significant amount of resources to survey all of the planets. The fastest way to increase our rate of resources over time? More time per time! Pressing your + key 5 times will increase game speed to its maximum of 10x:



Since this is only a 2-player map (and the other player has only 1 planet), most computers should be able to perform tolerably at this speed.


Step 6: Build Shrines of Revelation

While our goal is to survey all of the planets under our control, some key researches will help to expedite the process. We can facilitate this by queuing up 3 Shrines of Revelation on our planets.

At the top of the screen, click the planet icon to view a list of our 61 planets. Click on Surface to view planet development tracks (including Survey level) as well as planet items:



Queue up a Shrine of Revelation on three different planets to unlock our desired techs:




Step 7: Unlock Key Technologies

With our Shrines built, we can now research techs that will help us to more quickly generate the resources necessary to survey our planets. Here are the key technologies that will have the greatest impact on reaching our goal:

Divination

The primary reason we select Advent for this task. Faster and cheaper Survey development.



Commerce Adaptation and Thriving Desert Cities (plus prerequisites)

We will need a substantial volume of Credits and Crystal to fully Survey all planets. The additional levels of Commerce development unlocked by Commerce Adapation will be necessary to generate the required resources, while the resources and Pops added by Homeworld Prophecy and Thriving Desert Cities will improve all resource incomes.



Telekinetic Separation (plus prerequisites)

These techs will help to address our Crystal needs.



You can research more or fewer techs as you like; these are not hard and fast requirements, but instead offer the best compromise between investment and return given that we want reach our goal of surveying all planets as fast as possible.


Step 8: Increase Resource Incomes

Our last task before we begin upgrading Survey on every planet is to make sure we have enough resources to do so. To do this, we will want to upgrade the Commerce and Mining planetary development tracks on a number of planets.

Rather than keeping a strict count, my rule of thumb is to upgrade to max Mining on between one-third and one-half of all planets, and upgrading to max Commerce on between one-half and two-thirds of all planets.




Step 9: Survey

At last, what we are here for! With enough resource income, we can finally focus on upgrading the Survey track on each of our 61 planets without experiencing any shortages. Queue the upgrades on each planets, then cross your fingers.




Step 10: Get Lucky

If luck be with you, you'll end up with a planet with the Space Ponies! planet modifier:




Alternate Step 10: Try Again

If you survey all planets and your achievement didn't unlock, you'll need to return to Step 4 and try again.

Even with 61 Desert planets being rolled for our Space Ponies, there is no guarantee we'll see a planet with the desired modifier crop up, since it is that rare. It took me 4 playthroughs of surveying all planets on this map to finally unlock the achievement; another 5 playthroughs to get the above screenshot. I would suggest expecting no fewer than 10 runs to see the modifier, and being pleasantly surprised if it shows up sooner. If you're moving fast enough, you should be able to survey all planets in about 5 to 6 minutes of real time - 10 runs would then equate to around an hour of grinding. That may sound like a long time, but compare surveying over 300 planets in an hour to however many you might survey in a normal game over the same amount of time - the efficiency gain is massive using a map like this.

If you've been struggling to unlock the Space Ponies?! achievement, hopefully this will help you finally locate those damned horses.

Let me know if you encounter any issues with the map or this guide or have other feedback.

Thank you for reading, and good luck Commander!