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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aiwarfleetcommandart.jpg]]
2->''You are outgunned. You are massively outnumbered. [[BackFromTheBrink You must win]].''
3-->-- The first words that you see on Arcen Games' '''A.I. War''' page
4
5'''AI War: Fleet Command''' is a 4x / RealTimeStrategy video game with TowerDefense and grand strategy elements created by Arcen Games. It features procedural generated campaigns with billions of possible initial states, huge battles between thousands of ships with dozens of unit types, and highly complex, emergent strategy challenges.
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7The story is simple enough: Two human factions, Greenhaven and the Kyr-Sun Empire, fought a centuries-long war against each other, which ended only with the development of AI to manage combat. The [[AIIsACrapShoot AI revolted]] and nearly annihilated the human species. With humanity on the edge of extinction, the AI has turned its attention to matters (and wars) outside the galaxy. This inattention is your only hope. As the last human commander left alive, you must carefully build your resistance, keeping under the AI's notice until you can surgically strike the AI's home system, ending its threat once and for all.
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9The game is a proud and intricate exhibition of asymmetric warfare. The AI not only starts off vastly stronger than you, the player, [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules but follows a different set of rules]]. How the AI plays is determined by the AI Progress (AIP) value, a measure of how much the AI perceives you to be a genuine threat. As you liberate AI-held worlds and secure dangerous weapons, the AIP will grow, and the AI will pull more and more of its forces back into the galaxy to deal with you. There are very few ways to reduce AIP, but many ways to increase it - and beyond a certain AIP level, the AI's forces will become too great to resist. In practice, you must choose your targets carefully, taking only worlds that will be worth the AIP cost, with the goal of building a war machine that can take out the AI's homeworld before you've provoked the AI into crushing you with one humiliating sweep.
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11The original ''AI War: Fleet Command'' was the title that [[BreakthroughHit put Arcen Games on the map]] in 2009. Almost a decade later, the developer returned to the well with ''AI War 2''. After a successful Kickstarter campaign and a year in Early Access, ''AI War 2'' officially launched on Steam on October 22, 2019.
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15!!This work provides examples of:
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17* TwoDSpace: Combat and movement is only present on the X and Y axis. The sequel has 3D models instead of 2D sprites, but ships still refuse to move on the Z axis.
18* AbusivePrecursors: As it turns out, [[spoiler:creating command & control AI out of studying a very powerful and ''pissed off'' ancient alien was a really bad idea, especially when said alien managed to convince more idiotic humans to unleash his full potential and end up taking control over said [=AIs=]. At least that alien's brother is [[BenevolentPrecursors a lot more benevolent]] and will help you defeat it]].
19* ActionBomb: The Zenith Autobomb (just Autobomb in the sequel) is simply an explosive strapped on to an engine. While it's generally poor to use against structures or high health targets, they can absolutely destroy groups of enemies and are pretty cheap to spam. There's also the Neinzul Nanoswarm (also renamed to just Nanoswarm in the sequel) which in addition to damaging groups of units, can also reclaim them (zombify in the sequel) for you to control! Just don't send either against missile frigates in ''Fleet Command'', [[KungFuProofMook which are immune to AOE damage]].
20* AfterTheEnd: The backstory is apocalyptic, with human civilization being extant through the Milky Way before the AI rebelled and exterminated almost everyone.
21* TheAgeless: Zenith and Spire, while still subject to physical destruction, are able to live forever.
22* AIIsACrapshoot: ''Duh.'' It wouldn't have murdered 99.9% of humanity and gone on to do horrible things to every alien species out there on principle if something hadn't gone '''absurdly''' wrong in the process of programming it.
23* AlternateUniverse: AI War Fleet Command and AI War 2 are separate universes, and both games have their ''own'' alternate universes, for example, the AIs could be at difficulty 1 in one universe, or at difficulty 10 in another. Perhaps the Spire might've never shown up in either games, or the neinzul for the first game. Maybe the nanocaust ate nearly everything in the second game. The only consistent thing between all the universes is that Humanity canonically wins.
24* ApocalypseHow: Of the Galactic/Physical Annihilation type with the [[SchmuckBait Nuclear Missile Mark III]]. The [[spoiler:Exodian Blade's]] final mission also ends in this on a different galaxy entirely, with a show of energy that according to your astronomers would make a Supernova look like a matchhead and most likely annihilated the whole place [[spoiler:including the CORE that gave the AI life, all thanks to the Exodian Blade's suicidal strike]].
25* ArbitraryWeaponRange: Radar dampening enforces this in classic. Certain units and all guardposts (barring wormhole guardposts) have a certain radar dampening range, which makes them immune to being shot at unless the enemy closes the distance specified, or the enemy is immune to radar dampening. Note that this doesn't make them immune to receiving damage from nearby area of effect attacks.
26* ArmorPiercingAttack: In ''Fleet Command'', certain units can pierce a certain amount of armor. The Zenith Polarizer is notable for dealing MORE damage to units with higher armor! The sequel has fusion attacks, which bypass a certain amount of [[DeflectorShields personal shielding.]] Bubble force fields are unaffected by fusion attacks, but have their own share of counters themselves, and specific units can fire through force fields, such as ''Fleet Command'''s Zenith Devastator, and 2's Exogalactic Poltergeist.
27* ArtificialStupidity: Downplayed. The AI starts out hideously underestimating your ability to entrench your first few worlds and has no real tactical acumen beyond "throw gradually stronger ships at the humans until they go away". On the other hand, it doesn't need anything more sophisticated...
28** ArtificialBrilliance: ...until you set the difficulty up to 7 (out of 10), at which point the [=AI's=] RestrainingBolt comes off. Suddenly the AI will use ''everything'' it knows about your forces in putting together its own forces, and even basic types will assemble raids from ship types strong against your defenses, counterattack the vital strategic asset you just stole, and time huge cross-planet attacks for when your main fleet is on the other side of the map.
29*** Special mention goes to the Hunter Fleet in ''2''. It will constantly probe your defenses, and will only pick fights it knows it can win, retreating from battles if its enemy can kill it. It will also always attempt to stay outside of your vision, so you don't know where it is or where it will strike, until it does come knocking.
30* ArtificialGravity: Gravity turrets and guardians will use this to slow down any nearby ship that is not immune or has a low engine power. Black hole machines use this to prevent units from escaping the planet gravity well that they're stationed on, And the Gravity Drill bores into the fabric of spacetime to generate enregy and metal, and in the process slows down EVERYTHING on the planet gravity well it's on.
31* AsteroidsMonster: All Hydras split into multiple copies of their parent ship upon death, just as capable but that attrition to death slowly and cannot be repaired. Certain units like Blitzkrieg turrets also split into Construction bots when they die.
32* AttackAttackAttack: The sequel's AI Hunter Fleet focuses on probing your defenses and attacking the weakest point. Especially when set to kamikaze, which will make the Hunter Fleet units to have extreme disregard for their own lives in an attempt to destroy your command stations...
33** AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: ...but the moment you set foot on an AI homeworld, that AI's Hunter Fleet immediately drops whatever it's doing and rushes back home to try and stop you from defeating the AI Overlord.
34*** AI Relentless Wave and Tsunami CPA units will constantly seek to do battle with you, with absolutely zero regard for their own lives.
35* AttackDrone: Counted separately from actual ships in the second game, as something the flagship can regenerate by itself at all times. They go from mere decoys laid out by mobile factories to the Hive Golem's powerful Yellowjackets.
36* AttackReflector: Zenith Mirrors specialize in this, receiving 10x damage from all sources. However, that damage amplification works to its ability to reflect all damage dealt to it back at its attacker. Unfortunately for the Zenith Mirror, it can't reflect shots that [[AchillesHeel exceed its own weapon range, splash damage from AOE weapons, or missiles.]]
37** 2 Expands upon this by dividing into 3 catagories.
38*** Units with Retribution shoot a shot with a ceratin % of the attack's damage back at them.
39*** Units with Reflex do the same, but is a flat number
40*** Electrotoxic directly damages the attacker with a % of the attack's damage, meaning it bypasses forcefields and attractant fields, unlike Retribution or Reflex.
41* AwesomeButImpractical: The Botnet Golem in Fleet Command. It can only target anything not immune to reclamation and mobile. So it is useless against any Guardians, sturctures, large targets (starships, astrotrains, golems, etc), neinzul, and a bunch of other stuff. The sequel lifts the restriction on non zombifiyable targets, but it still cannot target structures.
42* TooAwesomeToUse: Spirecraft in ''Fleet Command''. Since there is a limited supply of asteroids to create spirecraft, you can only afford to waste a few of them. It's very rare that you will ever get more than 6 titanite asteroids, which are used to create mark V spirecraft.
43* AwfulTruth: Ever wondered why the AI is so wary of the Spire resurfacing in the galaxy? Why does it turn so batshit aggressive as you progress along the Fallen Spire sidequest? Why it goes bananas when you start building their cities and amassing their fleet? It's not just wariness of the Spire's enormously advanced weaponry and powerful craft. It's because [[spoiler:the AI was created with technology from one member of beings that were once the Spire's masters, was exiled, and is extremely pissed off at them.]]
44* BackFromTheBrink: The Game. "Back from" is a relative term: even if you win the game, your forces are never more powerful than what the AI could theoretically field if it judged you enough of a nuisance. You win by staying under the radar and taking out only those enemies that either guard something valuable or threaten your position. Indeed, one of the times where you can easily lose is the endgame as the AI can come Back From The Brink itself: When you destroy the first of two enemy Home Stations, your threat rating gets a massive spike resulting in more and harder enemies. If you don't follow up with the second station rather soon, you may very well lose.
45** Also, if you're following the Fallen Spire campaign, [[spoiler:the Spire civilization. The AI destroyed the Spire intergalactic travel system to splinter the Spire main fleet so that they will have the chance to destroy the main Spire civilization. The final objective of the Fallen Spire campaign is to build and defend an exogalactic transceiver to reestablish the intergalactic travel system so that the Spire can regroup their fleet together. When the countdown finishes, that objective is successful, and the (now regrouped) Spire Warfleet shows up... with far more powerful versions of the already insanely powerful Spire ships you have gotten... and brings Spire Super Dreadnaughts which you can't get outside of this endgame and can engage combat planetoids that would be considered overkill against a GALAXY on roughly even terms]]
46* BackStab: In the sequel, Ambush turrets and raptors/velociraptors deal bonus damage to units that have been on their planet for less than a certain amount of time.
47* BeamSpam: Comes in three flavors. The sequel makes all beams behave like the Zenith version.
48** Human Heavy Beams: The beam damages a target. If the beam overkills the target, the beam continues on until it either reaches its max range or delivers all its damage. Heavy Beams that have multiple beams fire in a fan shaped pattern and can hit the same target if said target is large enough.
49*** The mark 4 Heavy Beam turret is noted to have originally used a ''star'' as its power source, and fires 40 beams every 4 seconds, taking large chunks out of of AI fleet balls, if not outright wiping them out.
50** Zenith Heat Beams: The beam pierces a set amount of targets, doing their full damage across all targets hit. If more targets are hit by the beam than can be targeted, victims are chosen randomly.
51** Spire Photon Lances: The beam is sustained over a short duration, and does all its damage during that time, as well as having higher damage than the other beams. The sustained beam means it excels against big or stationary targets, but has trouble dealing with smaller, mobile ships, which can dodge the beam and waste lots of damage.
52*** The Imperial Spire looooooove their beam weapons. Most of their ships employ beams, and a large fallen spire fleet can be a laser light show. Especially if you slap on some Heavy Beam Cannon modules.
53* BeefGate: If you're playing Fallen Spire, the Dragons arrive and join the Praetorian Fleet to keep you away; one per Spire city, to be exact. They are ''nasty'', both immensely tough and packing a giant Coilbeam that can easily blast a hole in a Spire Cruiser and put the hurt on a Battleship, so you will need much more than that if you want to get to the overlord.
54** The strategic reserve in the sequel can warp in an absurdly large fleet to deal with you if you try to deepstrike targets far away from your territory.
55* BigBallOfViolence: Pretty much any massive assault (whether you're attacking or defending) turns into this, where you can barely keep track of every unit in combat.
56* BigDamnHeroes: So, you're playing the Fallen Spire sidequest. [[spoiler:You have the exogalactic transceiver about to finish its countdown, but the AI has you against the ropes... And then, when you thought all was lost, the transceiver's countdown reaches zero, in comes a LEGION of Spire ships, leaded by the biggest craft you have ever seen, and they start to rain fiery death on the AI and sweep through them like they were mere nuisances. Now if that is not Big Damn Heroes, then absolutely nothing is.]]
57* BigEater: The Devourer Golem will eat anything mobile. Given how powerful it is, generally the only way to deal with it is to simply not be anywhere near it.
58* BodyHorror: While nothing is shown directly due to the game's scale, the descriptions heavily imply there is a ''lot'' of awful experimentation and general bodily mutilation when it comes to Neinzul Hybrids and the Scourge. CyberneticsEatYourSoul is in full effect thanks to the nature of the AI controlling them, and the genetic manipulation involves a lot of horrible trial and error with zero care for anything other than a practical result. Even the Hybrid ships look heavily mutilated and spliced together like some abomination despite being only ships.
59* BoringButPractical: ''Fleet Command'' has the humble fighter. Fast, durable and cheap, while its DPS is average, it hard counters bombers which is vital for protecting all your buildings, and can serve as cheap chaff to distract AI units. In 2, the V-Wing is a [[SimpleYetAwesome pretty big upgrade over its predecessor]], boasting engine stun which can slow down even golems! Additionally, it can deal bonus damage to anything with a low gravitic exponent and with a relative increase in DPS, it is able to erase whole groups of corvettes (except concussion corvettes which in turn counter V-Wings).
60** The Armored Golem. It doesn't have any really neat gimmicks like the other Golems, just a massive, ''massive'' health pool and a ton of armor. It's probably the strongest all-around Golem, and almost certainly the cheapest to repair.
61* BossInMookClothing: The Hunter/Killer. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was just another [[KingMook Guardian]], but this beast is something else entirely. It has a mountain of health (and Command-Grade armor, which very few units have any damage bonus against). It's also immune to most of the counters you'd use on other big ships, like artillery and mass drivers. On the offensive side, not only can it deal horrifying damage to fleets quickly, it has damage bonuses against turrets, force fields, and Ultra-Heavy armor, letting it rip through static defenses and even put the hurt on Golems. About the only thing you can do to kill it is mob it with Bombers and pray. In the second game, it has two bigger siblings, the Hunter/Seeker and the Hunter/Annihilator, which the AI will only deploy as part of Extragalactic War forces.
62** If you get a high enough AIP or set the AI to a high difficulty in 2, Dire Guardians become a common sighting during late game hacks, or the hunter fleet.
63* {{Cap}}: Present in a couple of forms.
64** Each ship has a production limit, the maximum amount of that vessel that can be in service at one time. The "each ship" part is important, it means that unlocking the MK II type of a basic vessel doesn't just gives you a stronger one - it doubles the total number you can field. ''AI War 2'' doesn't have this due to the differences in fleet mechanics; instead, you need to make certain hacks to both acquire new fleets of a given ship and double their number.
65** Certain fixed defenses (mostly turrets) have a per-planet cap instead of galaxy-wide. These caps are fixed and can never be raised in the original game; certain captures in the sequel can raise the cap and grant you different sorts of defenses.
66** Everything the player builds uses Energy. Energy is a net balance resource, if you're about to use more than you're generating, production halts completely. Energy is produced by Generators, which are limited to one per planet (and the sequel has the command center itself be the generator), though in a pinch the hideously inefficient Matter-To-Energy converters can be used as well.
67** The AI team has [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules no caps whatsoever]], and knows it. Irritate it too much and it will happily roll over you with a fleet of 1000 tech-V ships.
68* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The AI doesn't "cheat", it plays by a different set of rules. It warps in ships instead of building them. It controls every star system you don't at the start of the game, and it can react to all fronts at the same time. It has ships that you never will, and ways to make sure you play on its terms.
69* ColonyDrop: In the first game, hacking a Nomad Beacon allows you to use the planet's connected to to destroy another planet and sever the wormhole connections with other worlds. DON'T try it with an AI Homeworld, [[spoiler:as it will reflect the planet's explosion, with disastrous galaxy-wide results. (The Nomad will explode with the force of a MK III Nuclear Missile, devastating every planet.)]] in 2, Nomad planets return in the Zenith Onslaught DLC, allowing you to once again become the Destroyer of Worlds. [[spoiler: this time, you CAN kill the AI Homeworlds with a nomad planet.]]
70* ACommanderIsYou: Depending on the AI type, it can be almost any of the archetypes.
71** The Player - ''Balanced/Guerrilla''. Usually the player starts off as ''Balanced'', but depending on what units they decide to grab, they can remain ''Balanced'', transition into ''Elitist'' with Golems and Spirecraft, or ''Spammer'' with Neinzul. The Guerrilla aspect comes into play when you remember: Humanity is just a small resistance, barely worthy of attention of the AI. Getting the AI's attention is a good way to die, so hit and run tactics as well as sniping High Value targets is encouraged.
72* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Inverted with harmonic turrets. For every harmonic turret on the same planet, ALL of them get stronger.
73* CoolShip: The AI get a few ships you don't. The Mothership is an asteroid the AI have wired engines into and filled with guns, and just one can duel with and destroy your ''Artillery Golems.'' The Galactic Control Ships are even more bastardly, they have bigger guns, and their self-destruct systems are Tier 2 Warheads.
74** The Exodian Blade, the strongest ship players have access to. [[spoiler:It's an ancient being, older than the Spire, and the brother of whatever is controlling the AI.]] It can wipe out an entire AI system in seconds and blast through exogalactic strikeforces with ease. It'll be doing that a lot, considering that the AI gets very, very nervous when you bring the Blade online.
75* CoresAndTurretsBoss: The AI can be considered this. On it's own it doesn't fight back much, and relies on spawning in units, it's powerful dire guardposts and (Fleet Command exclusive) ''EXTREMELY'' powerful ''brutal'' guardposts to deal with you. [[spoiler: That is until you reach it's second phase in 2]]
76* CounterAttack: In Fleet Command, lose to many ships on a planet controlled by an AI and the AI will begin building a force using the salvage of your destroyed units to launch a reprisal wave. In 2, this is renamed into counterattack, which scales quicker, but unlike reprisal waves, are able to be completley negated by destroying all guardposts on the planet.
77** AI Raid Engines are a more extreme version of this, launching MUCH more powerful waves against their own planets if there are human forces there in Fleet Command, or against a human planet in 2.
78** Exclusive to 2, Reconquest waves aim to recaptured territory the AI lost, and comes with a special Usurper ship. If there is no planetary controller on the planet, and the AI vastly outstrengths all hostile presence, the Usurper transforms into an AI command station and all guardposts that were on the planet.
79* CripplingOverspecialization: Some units or structures excel at dealing with one specific threat or unit type... and not much else, being inefficient against whatevery they don't counter at best or outright useless at worst.
80** Special mention goes to the Counter Spy. It can one hit kill anything cloaked, But anything that can be cloaked is either spammable, or immune to insta-kill. Not to mention that it doesn't actually detect cloaked units itself.
81** The Artillery Golem can effectively 1v1 any unit in both games. Key phrase, 1v1. Against swarms of units (which is what makes up the bulk of the AI's army) it's outmatched.
82*** The same problem can be applied to mass drivers and anti-arachnid starship/sabot guardposts.
83* DamageIncreasingDebuff: Classic has the Planetary Armor Inhibitor, which sets all hostile ships' armor to 0. There's also the Spire Armor Rotter which can reduce the amount of armor an enemy ship has, which comes in handy when dealing with the Galactic Control Ship. The sequel has acid turrets, which causes any damage done to the victim to take an extra 50 damage from anything that hits it.
84* DamnYouMuscleMemory: with the removal of traditional unit group hotkeys in the sequel, it can be tough adjusting to not controlling specific types of units.
85* DarkIsEvil: The Dark Spire are almost as powerful as their cousins, and hate you as much as the AI. Them waking up is all but guaranteed to turn a one-on-one war into a three way war.
86* DeflectorShields: A wide-area force field that blocks attacks. Prior to version 4, there was a second type used to describe individual ship's resistance to attacks, before it was renamed to armor.
87* DegradedBoss:
88** During prolonged games with Fallen Spire, especially with certain allies at your side, low-tier Extragalactic War units tend to be thrown around like candy, and eaten up the same way by your fleets if you've reached that point alive; having two Maugrims and a Hunter/Seeker brawling it out in a single one of your planets during an Exo becomes a common, recurring event.
89** Dire Guardians in the first game are very powerful and terrifying. A single classic Dire Guardian can wipe whole battlegroups out in a matter of seconds, and only spawned under specific circumstances. In 2, Dire guardians are relatively common, and always spawn on mk4+ worlds, as well as being a fairly common sight on high difficulties in Hunter fleets.
90* DoNotTauntCthulhu: If you poke the AI(s) to much, they will not hesitate to roll over you with tens of thousands of mark V ships, or other nasty things.
91** In the sequel, you can hack Vengeance Generators which house the Dark Spire. Hacking them can be used to obtain their ship designs, or destroy the Vengeance Generators. Or, you can perform a hack designed ''specifically'' to piss the Dark Spire off. The latter two should not be done without proper preparation for the angry hordes of Dark Spire.
92* DifficultButAwesome: Hacking the Superterminal. If you attempt to hack it, it will reduce the AI progress but raise the AI Progress floor (only in ''Fleet Command'' will the AIP floor raise), allowing you to reduce AIP for as long as you can/have hack points. With proper preparation, it's possible to reduce AIP by over 100. However, the AI's response to this hack is exponential, and if you don't time the cutoff just right, you'll have a VERY large horde of angry ships beeline straight to your homeworld.
93* DittoFighter: The Mime AI type will attempt to mimic whatever units that you used against it if enough of said units die on an AI planet to form a reprisal wave. This can include Warheads and [[spoiler: the Exodian freakin' Blade!]]
94* DrawAggro: Some units in Fleet Command, such as the Attractor Drone or Neinzul Weasel can draw specific types of weapon fire to themseleves (lasers for the former, and missiles for the latter). In 2, units with the Attractant Field property will draw ALL shots aimed against nearby allies to themselves.
95** Decoy Drones in both games have a VERY high target priority. While they won't always get shot at, they usually draw enough fire for your other units to wail on the enemy.
96* TheDreaded: Quite a few notable ones. Most of them are AI units.
97** The infamous Hunter/Killer. It's ''only'' one of the highest dps dealing units in the game that has an attack multiplier against turrets and ultra heavy hulls, so using static-d or fortresses are a no go. It also has immunity to [[NoSell mass driver]] [[KungFuProofMook and Artillery Golem]] shots. To top it all off, it has command grade armor, meaning bombers are the only reliable counter against them. The only saving grace when fighting these things is that it doesn't have radar dampening, and it's relativley short ranged.
98** The Avenger is an AI ship that spawns after destroying an AI command station with the Avenger plot enabled. True to its name, it attempts to get revenge for it's AI master and it will beeline straight for your homeworld, all the while shooting at you with a ''mk4 beam cannon''. If you manage to kill it, it will explode and take any nearby ship down with it.
99** The Mothership is a planetoid that the AI armored up, strapped engines onto, and added on a ton of weapons with an orange paint job. It's weapon is already alarmingly strong, but what makes it terrifying is its (for all intents and purposes) infinite range letting it hit units from afar. Combined with an absurdly high armor rating of 10,000 and a healthpool of 8,000,000, have fun trying to take this beast down. Think you can just skip fighting it and go straight for an AI Homeworld? Nope. It comes equipped with a core shield generator, meaning as long as it lives, you can't harm any Dire Guardposts or AI Command stations.
100** The Galactic Control Ship. Take the mothership and turn it up to eleven. Additionally, if you manage to take down these titanic beasts, you will be rewarded with a mark 2 nuke detonating on the planet the Galactic Control Ship was slain on. 500+ AIP included.
101** Hive golems are this to the AI. Let them store up their wasps, go to an AI world (except for AI homeworlds), and press the shiny unload button. Watch the AI forces run for their lives. The game notes that you should be thankful that the AI doesn't get these. [[BrickJoke Guess what unit the AI can bring in the sequel?]]
102** Wrath Lance Guardposts. Whenever you step foot on whatever gravity well these structures are on, they will begin spinning and fire out a cross shape beam of destruction. These beams are long enough to cover the entire gravity well and boast enough damage to fry nearly anything instantly. Good luck getting in close without getting vaporized.
103** The Devourer Golem: in ''Fleet Command'' it straight up insta kills anything it can reach and eat. While it's weaker in 2, it's still very threatening.
104** The Botnet Golem is so powerful, it gets a whole minor faction dedicated to it alone. If a unit is mobile and not immune to reclamation, the Botnet golem can instantly kill it, and change them into allied zombies. Unlike the Hive Golem, the AI CAN use these.
105* DungeonBypass: One often-encouraged strategy is deep striking, where you load a transport or two with your fleet and skip past a high mark AI world to get to a lower mark AI world. ''Fleet Command'''s Assault transports come with cloaking and are plenty durable, while 2's transports are blazing fast, allowing you to almost always at least skip one planet. Be aware that [[GravityMaster Black Hole Machines]] are designed specifically to counter deepstriking. Furthermore, going too deep will cause the AI to start spawning ships directly into Threat status. In the sequel, deepstriking a world too far from your territory can also cause the AI to warp in massive reserve forces to that world.
106* DynamicDifficulty: A key feature of both this game and its sequel. At the beginning, every system belongs to the AI except your starting system, and every system you conquer raises the AI Progress, aggravating the AI and freeing more of its resources to attack you with. If you play like a normal 4X and expand into every territory you can, the AI ''will'' crush you.
107* EarlyGameHell: the higher the AI difficulty, the more higher mark planets you'll meet. Good luck defeating a mark IV world that's just 3 hops out from your homeworld.
108* EarthShatteringKaboom: Happens when you detonate a nuke in a system. Oh, and you don't get to collect resources or research from that location anymore. Zenith miners can also cause this.
109** It's implied offhandedly in Ancient Shadows that Earth suffered a shattering kaboom. "In Memorium Terra", indeed.
110** At the end of the Exodian Blade's sidequest, [[spoiler:the Blade enters the exogalactic wormhole in the AI Home system and self-destructs, destroying itself, its sibling and [=AI=] leader "The Core", whatever is on the other side of the wormhole as well as both the AI Homeworlds]].
111* EldritchAbomination: The Ravenous Shadow in ''Fleet Command''. Gameplay wise, it is basically a Devourer golem copy minus the vampirism and is killable, but story wise it is a... thing that has begun closing in on the Memorium Terra group, and is only being distracted by fleeing neinzul ships. [[spoiler: It makes a reappearance in 2 as an Astrotrain project at max intensity, replacing the nuke train.]]
112** The Zenith can be considered a heavily downplayed version, as their "technology" revolves around achieving the desired result from their own bodies, rather than using machine assistance.
113* EliteArmy: The AI's strategic reserve in ''Fleet Command''. The Strategic reserve is composed of a full battalion of mark V core ships, granting them immunity to being [[OneHitKill nuked]] and stunned by EMP warheads. The AI only deploys the strategic reserve for specific situations, such as reacting to the superterminal hack, cross planet attacks, or having their homeworld invaded.
114** The Core AI type as a whole is this. While it starts with less ships and has a lower budget to work with, ALL of its mobile ships (when applicable) are deadly mark 5 core ships, meaning unless you have an overwhelming fleet or are capable of replacing losses quickly, the AI will curbstomp you.
115* EliteMooks: Guardians of any kind take whatever armaments and armor they have above and beyond the usual ships you can field. And a step above ''that'' are Dire Guardians, which are practically boss fights in the early stages and still hurt like hell in later planets.
116** Core or mark 5 units in Fleet Command. Regardless of whatever unit type, Core units gain Immunity: Insta-Kill, Immunity: EMP and Immunity: Nuclear Explosions, meaning you will have trouble removing masses of mark 5 units.
117* EnemyCivilWar: An option in the sequel, in that two predetermined scenarios and an option for custom ones is for the AI factions to hate each other and go to war. While they're usually too distracted by that to deal with you, they will quickly force each other to snowball out of control with rising AIP (since they're equal threats, they get equally ready to kill each other), which puts you in a dangerous crossfire as they bring out big guns much faster.
118* EnemyMine: Later on in the nebula scenarios, the enemy factions start to team up to take out friendly sides. This is especially noticeable with the Dark Spire and Neinzul Astrid, since in one scenario the two and Shattered Pillar Zenith (the friendly side) are in free for all battle. The friendly sides you met did create more formal alliance so they don't fit this trope.
119* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: The Botnet Golem in both games is capable of turning large groups of ships into "zombies" that the player can't control, but are allied to you and attack the AI. In the second game, Parasite-like ships were reworked to do this instead of outright stealing ships. And the AI and other factions got the chance to zombify too, though the latter invariably generate zombies hostile to ''everyone''.
120* EvilTowerOfOminousness: Zoom in close to an AI Home Command Stations, they're clearly intimidatingly Evil fortresses, with a capital E.
121* ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: The AI has access to units that you won't ever have, like Guardians, or can only have in very limited quantities, like Golems.
122* ExpansionPack: Six of them for the first game: ''The Zenith Remnant'', ''Children of Neinzul'', ''Light of the Spire'', ''Ancient Shadows'',''Vengeance of the Machine'' and ''Destroyer of Worlds''. Each adds not only new ships but various features such as planet setups and AI types (and often completely new gameplay styles). Each one can be toggled on or off per campaign, and they don't have to be installed in any particular order. The sequel, in turn, received ''The Spire Rises'', ''Zenith Onslaught'' and the ''The Neinzul Abyss''.
123* ExtremeOmnivore: Some ships can swallow other ships. Swallowed ships suffer continuous damage as the ship that ate them 'digests'. The ultimate example of this is the Zenith Devourer Golem, a gargantuan robot ship that travels the galaxy, eating anything that stands in its way, with the only exception being Mk V ships.
124* FingerPokeOfDoom: Sabot guardposts shoot a very tiny blue projectile. If it hits anything with mass 5tx or greater, it's going to take a ton of damage, if it doesn't get outright killed. That tiny little projectile has a ''x100'' multiplier against anything that big, so you can expect anything of frigate size or bigger to get erased one at a time.
125* FlunkyBoss: The AI Overlords/Home Command Station don't actively fight much on their own; instead they either summon various strikecraft in the sequel or pull from the strategic reserve in Fleet Command. Additionally, Dire Guardposts will force you to engage them first before the AI itself can be targeted. [[spoiler: And then the AI Overlord enters phase 2, OR if the Avenger plot is enabled, the Avenger will hunt you down; in both cases, there is a significant concentration of power and suddenly the objective becomes quite capable of soloing an entire fleet]].
126* FragileSpeedster: The Raid frigate is absurdly fast, and absurdly fragile relative to its cost. However as you mark it up, it gains more abilities, such as immunity to missiles at MK 2, and immunity to gravity slowing effects at MK 4.
127** Anything in the Raid tech category for the sequel.
128* FogOfWar: Planets can be Unexplored, which means you know nothing but its location, Explored, which gives you a rough outline of what's there and lets you know if anything you saw there is still there, and Watched, which tells you exactly what is there and what it's doing. Destroying enemy Command Stations and capturing planets lets you Explore more planets, but only unit presence, special hacks and Logistical Stations in the vicinity will let you keep planets Watched. Scout and Spy units are specifically designed to Explore and Watch planets without the AI finding them easily.
129* ForeverWar: In both games, before the AI reared its ugly head, there were two human factions who were fighting each other for approximately 800 years, and it both sides never gained any ground on each other.
130* FunSize: Mini Fortresses are the smaller brothers of Fortresses. Unlike their big brothers, they are not limited by a galaxy cap, and have no attack penalties against polycrystal hull. In the sequel, they trade their mobility and repair beams for even more firepower.
131* TheGhost: Whatever it is that the AI is battling outside the galaxy. It's implied to be a concrete threat rather than something vague, something that can actually be fought in space battles, and more specifically something so incredibly threatening that even the bunch of game-ender ships that the AI unleashes on you if you piss it off aren't enough to defeat the threat.
132* GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Want to know why the AI has such an advantage and is a cheating bastard? All explained in the background.
133* GameMod: 2 already has two big mods, Civ Industries which adds in a player friendly faction that assists you in defeating foes and has an emphasis on taking territory to boost their production and Galactic Conquest, which VASTLY changes the scale of power.
134* GeneticMemory: The Neinzul use this to work around their short lifespans. Each Neinzul Enclave contains all the memories of that particular group, and Neinzul put their memories into the Enclave, so when they die, the next generation can pick up where the previous left off. This is why some roaming Enclaves are either hostile or friendly to you, as different Enclaves had different experiences.
135* GetBackHereBoss: The Kite Flier AI. All their units will automatically attempt to run away if their target approaches them. This can get ''really'' annoying with infinite range or fast units.
136** Astrotrains. While they have guns, they won't activley go out of their way to attack you, and will instead follow a predetermined path, meaning you have to catch up to them if you want to kill them.
137* GlassCannon: Several.
138** The Cursed Golem pays for its infinite range/paralyzing capabilities with a hit to its hull and shielding. Compared to most flagships, it's somewhat frail; compared to other Golems, it's utterly brittle.
139** Generally, Neinzul ships deal high damage, but have quite low health. They're cheap to spam though to make up for their squishiness.
140** Plasma Siege starships can hammer fortifications from afar and paralyze masses of units, but compared to other starships/frigates, they're about as durable as an overcooked noodle.
141** Bombers in ''Fleet Command'', despite having a relatively generous health pool, are one of the first things targeted by both sides. Their polycrystal armor type makes them easy pickings for many other ships as well.
142** Many things under Raider tech tend to be frail, but quick and very painful. Even the turrets, with quick construction and a ton of damage, but are fragile compared to other turrets; Scrap turrets even take damage with every shot ''they'' take. Some of them also regularly summon attack drones in addition to their damage whenever there's enemies in the planet.
143* GodzillaThreshold: Anything that makes you use a nuke. Also, in several of the alternate victory scenarios, the AI can decide to take you seriously and turn the full force of its attention on you:
144** Fallen Spire: [[spoiler:When you construct the exogalactic transceiver, the AI goes bananas and throws everything it has at you, since it knows that if the transceiver is completed, the splintered Spire fleets will be able to regroup, and they don't have enough firepower to take the whole fleet head-on]]
145** Showdown Device: [[spoiler:When you've captured all the devices and start charging, the AI will throw everything it has at you, because if the devices fully power up, they'll permanently shut down the AI Warp Grid, rendering it unable to travel through that anymore; it would render it unable to maintain its dominance on this galaxy or any other, and utterly vulnerable to getting destroyed piece by piece. And if the Device goes off, it'll unplug both Home Command Stations and throw them at you after converting them into [[FinalBoss Galctic Control Ships]], out of sheer spite for delivering the crippling blow]].
146** Exodian Blade: [[spoiler:When the Exodian Blade is being repaired, the AI will send large exogalactic strikes every half hour to stop you. Once it's brought online, the AI will send larger strike forces at it every five minutes. Should the Exodian Blade reach an AI Core World, it'll send a strikeforce every minute. Should the Blade reach a AI Homeworld, the AI will send every single ship it possibly has at it, resulting in overwhelming forces deploying to the homeworld every ten seconds. It does this since it knows if the Blade reaches the wormhole in the AI Homeworld, the Blade will destroy not only the [=AIs=], but the Core that controls them both and possibly the entire region of space it resides in]].
147** A Mark III Nuclear Warhead is another one for the AI. Set it off, and the AI progress jumps up by ''5000''. For reference, taking a planet increases AI progress by 20. Amusingly, there's an achievement for winning the game after setting one off. [[spoiler:(Tip: ''immediately'' after.)]]
148** In the sequel, the various scattered beacons you can hack, if you know exactly what they do. As the How to Play states, sometimes there's situations where having the Devourer Golem, a giant, indestructible vessel that can blow up and eat anything short of a whole planet and ''will'' roaming around at random won't make things worse for you; after all, the AI has way more planets than you, right? And it's not just the Devourer Golem; [[SpacePirates Marauders]], [[AbusivePrecursors the Dark Spire]] and even [[GreyGoo the Nanocaust]] can have suppression devices you can hack and destroy if you ''really'' think having them run around won't make things worse. After all, [[InstantWinCondition you only need to kill the AI]].
149** Also in the sequel, Extragalactic War response teams were added for when someone has gotten way too strong; usually a terminally unsupervised minor faction or an alliance of them, but you alone can reach that point with a little difficulty. The units packed in these responses are things the AI normally reserves only for the exogalactic threats it's always at war with, like the Spire and the Nanocaust; bringing any of these back to the Milky Way means the AI has decided you're nearly an equal threat, and that it's time for an open, all-out war.
150*** Even further, the second game has five tiers of Exogalactic forces, each being a threshold on its own. If all are crossed, [[spoiler:the [=AI=] will deploy an [[MechanicalAbomination Extragalactic War Flenser]], a starfish-shaped metallic abomination. According to the devs, the player should ''never'' see it normally; it takes stacking [[EnemyCivilWar every]] [[EnemyMine possible]] [[VestigialEmpire irritant]] in the AI's face to even approach this threshold. If you do, the AI has basically had [[VillainousBreakdown the mother of all apoplectic fits]] and decided to kill not only you, but everyone and everything else in the region of the galaxy you're in, even if it means letting the threat outside the galaxy gain a foothold in the meantime.]]
151* GoneHorriblyRight: Humanity was at an 800 year stalemate between two warring factions. Both had the brilliant idea to create a combat capable AI that was smarter than any human general could be to break the stalemate. A couple of weeks later and suddenly humanity is reduced to a single (or couple) planet(s) and both AIs control the rest of the galaxy.
152* GratuitousIambicPentameter: The Zenith seems to communicate in poetry only.
153* GreyGoo: The sequel adds the Nanocaust as one of the third-party factions that can hinder things. Usually opposed to everyone, it infects planets, consumes them, then assimilates ships and sends them out to infect even more, becoming an interplanetary menace quite quickly; at high intensities, they can start giving the AI trouble. In fact, it's explicitly mentioned the Nanocaust is one the sorts of things that has the AI's attention occupied outside the galaxy.
154* GuileHero: The player, by default. Unless you plan to go down the Spire route, you cannot match the AI blow for blow. You have to resort to skirting around the AI's defenses, picking fights you can actually win, and weighing every single asset you obtain against how much attention it's going to bring from the AI. Going full brawn and capturing territory all nilly willy is sure to make the AI angry enough to crush you.
155* HarderThanHard: The AI skill level can be increased to 10. There's an [[BraggingRightsReward achievement]] if you defeat them without handicaps.
156** The design goal for difficulty 10 is for it to be nigh unbeatable. [[http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=8373 Anything that lets you win without massive cheese against 10/10 AI's is considered a bug or imbalance]]. Any cheap tricks the AI pulls on 10/10 that make the game unwinnable are a feature as long as they stay off of lower difficulty levels.
157** In addition to the skill levels, the AI Types are sorted according to difficulty. They come in four categories; Easier, Moderate, Harder, and [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Red]]. As you can imagine, Red AI types are ''nasty'', including the Crafty Spire, which spawns with lots of Spirecraft, and The Core, whose ships are all ''Mark V''. Have fun. The sequel is more upfront and calls the last AI difficulty ''Brutal'' instead of Red, and has more flavors of death for you, including [[ZergRush Swarmer]] and [[BossInMookClothing Golemite]].
158* HatePlague: The second game's Scourge Neinzul ships have a different form of Zombification weapons compared to other ships, in that the Zombies are hostile to all ships, not just to the player or the AI.
159* HerdHittingAttack: Ships that use major electric ammo in ''Fleet Command'' can hit many targets, but loose their effectiveness against smaller groups and are downright useless against single targets. (A Major Electric "shot" is actually a high amount of regular shots, that has a limit on how many times each shot can attack a single target.)
160* HeroUnit: ''Fleet Command'' has shadow champions, which play like a typical RPG, starting out as a frigate and leveling up to battleship, and choosing between Human, Zenith, Spire and Neinzul forms. Their weapons are also modular, allowing you to swap gear as long as there is an engineer nearby to build said modules. The Exodian Blade may also count.
161* HiddenArmyReveal: Can happen in normal gameplay, when you let threat build up and don't have vision everywhere. One moment the AI could have nothing on nearby planets, and the next moment, a giant threat ball is knocking on your front door.
162** Shadow Master AI type can be this, since nearly all their planets have a planetary cloaking device. The moment you destroy it, you'll see just how many units the AI has on that planet, which can range from a small group to the thousands stacked in carriers.
163* HomefieldAdvantage: An important feature when defending is that command stations provide various beneficial effects to your units, in addition to being able to place down defensive structures.
164** Eco stations give a minor but noticeable speedboost.
165** Logistic stations give a major speedboost to your units. In ''Fleet Command'', in addition to slowing down hostile units, at mark 3 they also stop hostile units from teleporting.
166** Military stations give a minor speedboost and amplify all damage your units (both mobile and stationary) deal.
167** Very prevalent with the AI, while their Command stations (usually) don't do anything impactful, the AI can seed specialized structures that give it a bonus while defending
168*** Eyes are powerful structures that while killable (invulnerable in the sequel), the four million health they have makes it impractical. Initially they are dormant, but if you outnumber the AI 2-1 on the planet, the Eye will activate and unleash devestating weaponry upon your forces, ranging from massive translocator arrays, a plasma siege cannon ''machine gun'', to a freakin' nuclear bomb!
169*** Black Hole machines prevent you and your forces from escaping unless it is destroyed, preventing hit and run tactics.
170*** Attritioners slowly damage anything hostile without Immunity: Attrition on the planet until it dies.
171*** Core Warhead Interceptors prevent you from simply throwing a warhead at the planet to solve your problems
172*** Planetary armor boosters and inhibitors either double or remove armor of friendlies and hostiles respectivley
173*** Alarm posts trigger if you have to many forces on the planet, which draws nearby AI forces to the planet to eliminate you swiftly and brutally.
174* HomingBoulders: All projectiles track and follow their targets. They ''can'' be outrun until they disappear, but very few ships are fast enough to do so.
175* ImmuneToBullets: Some vessels have an immunity to certain attacks (e.g. Bulletproof fighters are immune to shell weapons, Leech starships are immune to missiles, and some are immune to nukes.) The Dark Spire's Vengeance Generators are also immune to weapons fire, but in the second game, they can be hacked to remove their invulnerability.
176* ImmunityDisability: In the sequel, the various stats (engine gx, mass, armor, etc) may make you immune to something, but excedingly weak to other things.
177** Having a high albedo makes ships immune to being caught in tractor beams or being hit by ion attacks, but it also renders them vulnerable to ablative units.
178** Higher mass makes you immune to the terrifying [[TheDreaded Botnet Golem]], but makes you vulnerable to Sabots, Mass Drivers and Seeker Turrets.
179** Higher armor makes you immune to most weapon jamming weapons, but several units deal bonus damage to high armor units.
180** Higher engine gx will let you soar through Gravity Generator fields and escape Black Hole Machines, but Agravic Pods will bust you up.
181* ImplacableMan: The Devourer Golem. In ''Fleet Command'', it's completely invulnerable to all forms of attack. In the sequel, it's technically killable, but even if you manage to assemble the massive firepower needed to take it down, it will respawn after a couple of minutes.
182* InfiniteSupplies: There are a finite number of sources for energy and metal that you can acquire, but once acquired, they are never exhausted. You can generate a billion ships over time and make even more after they all explode... the only question is whether you can ''produce'' enough to replace your losses (or build up a new planet) before the AI hits you ''again''.
183* InfinityPlusOneSword: The ships you get from Fleet Research Stations. FRS can only be found at the back of the galaxy furthest from where you are, with all the AIP costs, deep-striking and other such messiness that implies, their hack will have all the costs that implies despite lasting as much as a regular ARS, and the AIP cost is on par with a planet, but the ships you get are powerful at what they do, and they grant a strong bonus to ''every vessel within the same fleet'' (up to a limit) and the flagship itself (putting it in a Golem is a recipe for a good time). A successful FRS hack is a gigantic power boost; and, knowing the AI, it can often be worth the trouble if you're having a rough time.
184* InjuredVulnerability: Ships with Doom Accelerator weapons deal increasing damage based on how much % of HP is missing from the target, dealing almost nothing against ships with full health, while dealing absurd damage to anything at 10% or lower HP.
185** Ships with Implosion weapons invert this, dealing absurd damage to targets with full health, while dealing negligible damage to almost dead targets.
186* InstantWinCondition[=/=]WeWinBecauseYouDidNot: Destroying all Home Command Centers, even if the AI happens to have a much stronger presence and is about to kill you outright, or even if a massive plague of GreyGoo[=/=]metal-eating MegaMicrobes[==]space pirates is still raging and about to crush the whole galaxy.
187* IShallTauntYou: When one of your command stations is destroyed, the AI taunts you with a derisive voice clip mocking you and your skills. In the sequel, it taunts you over ''everything'', even its own minor defeats - it just phrases its narrative to downplay your feat even when you acquire genuinely dangerous things.
188* ISOStandardHumanSpaceship: The more basic strikecraft and frigates tend to take these looks. More esoteric designs are out there, however, and as soon as the Guardians come out this goes out the window; the AI clearly doesn't take shipwright advice from humanity.
189* JackOfAllTrades: Vanilla/Full Ensamble AI type. It's nowhere near as nasty as some of the other AI types, but due to having a much larger palet of untis to pick from, rather than a limited pool, it will have a much easier time countering your unit compositions. Taken up a level with the Everything AI type in ''Fleet Command''. It literally has [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin every]] (non minor faction and VERY specific units like warheads and mercs)unit available to it to use.
190* KingIncognito: [[spoiler: The leader of the Spire refugee group turns out to be the Emperor of the Spire civilization, Exaron The Seventh.]]
191* KeystoneArmy: Downplayed in ''Fleet Command''. Killing both AIs still lets the AIs send waves and responds to hacking, but AIP never increases from that point forward. Played straight in the sequel, once the AI(s) are dead, the AI forces stop attempting to attack you and will sit idly about on whatever planets they're on. They can still shoot back at you. If there are multiple AIs, a dead AI will become a "rogue" wildcard and will attack other AIs as well as you.
192* KungFuProofMook: In ''Fleet Command'', there are various immunities to certain things and ships can have multiple of them. One of the best examples is the Hunter/Killer, which is immune to both [[{{BFG}} Mass Driver AND Artillery Golem]] shots, which are the usual go to counters for dealing with big targets, as well as a wide array of other effects.
193** Immunity: Being Insta-Killed is exactly what it says, stopping ships from dying to things like ion cannons or counterspies. Note, this does not stop ships from instantly dying via high damage values.
194** Immunity: Area Damage prevents the unit from being damaged by [[SplashDamage splash damage.]] An infuriating example are groups of missile frigates not getting stunned by plasma siege starships.
195** Immunity: Reclamation renders units unable to be turned into zombies when they die. Ideal for fighting parasites or leech starships.
196** Immunity: Swallow makes units unable to be eaten by other units such as the Spire Maw or Disassembler Guardpost.
197** Immunity: Tractor Beams allows units to slip by tractor arrays to target whatever they're protecting.
198** Immunity: Nuclear Explosions prevents units from being wiped out whenever a nuke explodes.
199** Immunity: Radar Dampening will let the unit in question ignore the enforced [[ArbitraryWeaponRange maximum range]] that several units have.
200** Immunity: Force Fields lets the unit completley ignore forcefields, able to move through them and fire on units that would otherwise be protected by a force field.
201* LetsYouAndHimFight: If you enable some hostile minor factions, they will take some pressure off of you and force the AI to react to their presence, making it send wardens and hunters to defend elsewhere instead of wherever you are. Just make sure that you either A) have a contingency plan to destroy said minor faction [[TooPowerfulToLive once they become to much of a threat for both you and the AI]], B) [[InstantWinCondition Win the game before they snowball out of control]] or C)Ignore A and B and bank on the fact that the AI will purge the threat with Exo galactic war units. And stay well away from them.
202* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: The AI(s) generaly gain much more than you do every time the AIP is raised. Especially if enough AIP is accumulated to trigger the AI tech level to go up a notch.
203* LivingShip: Most of the alien races not only make use of them, they ARE the ships, specially the Zenith, who are an entire race of Living Ships. Spire ships are cybernetically enhanced Spire soldiers, and the Neinzul brave exposure to the void of space to defend their Enclaves. The AI have the Neinzul Hybrids, created by combining the Enclaves with their technology, creating formidable foes for you to face.
204** The second game adds the SpiritualSuccessor of the Neinzul Hybrids, the Scourge, an experimental breed of [[LivingWeapon living weapons]] created by the AI by mixing the DNA of other races they've encountered alongside the aforementioned [[HatePlague Neinzul]], like the [[CrazySurvivalist Evucks]], the [[ProudWarriorRace Burlusts]], the [[DeathFromAbove Peltians]], the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Thoraxians]], [[spoiler:and if things go horribly, horribly wrong, the [[BenevolentPrecursors Spire]].]]
205* MacrossMissileMassacre: Some units can spew out a constant stream of rockets in both game, most notably the MLRS units. Special mention goes to the dire MLRS guardian, which can spit out 150 missiles every 4 seconds in both games!
206* MarathonLevel: More like Marathon Game. A single map is referred to as a "Campaign" for good reason - you'll be there for 7-12 hours. Even the tutorial, which takes place on a tiny 10-planet map[[note]]And is heavily scripted in order to properly emulate a normal game - normally, anything less than 40 planets or so is giving the AI a massive advantage[[/note]] can take 2-4 hours.
207* MegaMicrobes: The aptly-named Macrophages from ''AI War 2'', who will attack and eat ships for their metal content and spread to other planets for more. The AI has a very difficult time handling them since it's curiously blind to their planetary hives, but they'll attack you too.
208* MeleeATrois: Several 'minor factions' are hostile to both the player and the AI. These are the Dyson Sphere, Marauders, Dark Spire, and a portion of the Neinzul roaming enclaves in the first game, as well as the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Macrophages]] and [[GreyGoo the Nanocaust]] in the second game. (Although the Dyson Sphere can be brought around to fight for you, and with an ''extremely'' difficult hack so can the Nanocaust and some Macrophage subfactions.)
209* MobileCity: Gryn the Voidhome in ''2'' is basically a domed city. It also doubles as a [[BaseOnWheels factory with engines on it.]]
210* MoneySpider: Any player unit that deals metabolism or greater metabolism damage in 2 makes their victims give a portion of their metal cost to the player.
211* MightyGlacier: Golems in ''Fleet Command''. They are very slow, but they all bring either massive firepower, or some insane utility to the field. Not many things can withstand a golem assault. In the sequel, they become more akin to LightningBruisers, being as fast as most strikecraft, and are able to outrun most guardians and frigates.
212** Spire ships in ''2'' are also quite slow, but anything (barring [[spoiler: the Planet Cracker and Flenser]] )that stands in front of their coil beams are turned to slag near instantly. In a sort of foil to the Zenith, in ''Fleet Command'' Spire ships were fairly swift, able to kite easily.
213* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: Averted. Humans remain in the Milky Way (as do all the star systems you can interact with), but the aliens - and the AI - are not so constrained. The AI has production facilities outside the Milky Way, and [[spoiler:the main Spire civilization is based in the NGC 224/Andromeda galaxy, though its fleet is scattered across several other galaxies]].
214* MobileFactory: The mobile space dock in classic or mobile factory in 2 serve as this, constructing ships for you on the go.
215* MookMaker: There are many different mook makers throughout both games.
216** ''Fleet Command'' has Neinzul Enclave Starships, which constantly spawn drones to attack the enemy. There's also the AI Enclave Guardian which pretty much does the same thing. Shadow Champions with the correct equipment can also spawn fighters, bombers, or sawblades during combat. There's also the infamously powerful Hive Golem, which generates wasps to murder anything AI related.
217** The sequel has AI carrier guardians, which unleash [[FragileSpeedster Raider,]] [[MacrossMissileMassacre MLRS]] and [[StoneWall Vanguard]] drones to fight you.
218** Dire Tethuida and Shredder Guardians both spawn drones which will either explode to zombify groups of your ships, or simply rip them apart.
219** There are also Swarmer Guard Post variants, which are just regular guardposts, only they spawn a constant stream of drone units at you.
220** Frigates such as Tesla Torpedo frigates and Tackle Drone Launchers count, in a lesser way; torpedoes and drones generated and launched are perfectly targetable, but attrition to death eventually.
221* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: The AI uses a separate resource system, and warps vessels in rather than building them locally. It also never needs to worry about Energy or (more bitterly) raising any kind of "Human Progress" value.
222* NeutralsCrittersAndCreeps: Both games can have entire factions of these, depending on the settings. Be it the piratical, extragalactic [[SpacePirates Marauders]], the all-consuming [[GreyGoo Nanocaust]], the opportunistic Zenith Trader, the dormant [[AbusivePrecursors Dark Spire]], the metal-eating [[MegaMicrobes Macrophages]], the migratory Neinzul Roaming Enclaves, the isolationist and easily angered [[HiddenElfVillage Dyson Sphere fleets]] or the merely omnicidal [[TheJuggernaut Devourer Golem]], they're considered just another factor in the mutual war between you and the AI, rather than groups that can win or lose.
223* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Averted. Melee ships have either powerful stats or effects to make up for their range (or rather their lack theroff), from the swift and high damage Vorticular Cutlass, the metal generating Gangsaw, to the lifestealing Vampire Claw, and the instant burst damage of Spire Mini-Rams, Melee combat is pretty viable. Just beware of any slowing effects, such as gravity turrets.
224* NoFairCheating: Golems are immensely powerful. A fully loaded Hive Golem can clear a rank IV system in minutes. Using one at an AI Core Homeworld results in the AI using ''bug spray'' to wipe out the drones and begin building a reprisal wave.
225** Everything in an AI Homeworld is immune to artillery ammo, so you can't just cheese it by sniping at them with an Artillery Golem.
226* NoRecycling: Downplayed in ''Fleet Command''. When you scrap a unit or building, you either get 10% or .1% (depending on the cost) of its original cost. Played straight in the sequel, where scrapping anything gives you nothing but whatever Energy you were using to power it.
227* NoSell: In ''Fleet Command'', units can have immunities, rendering them invulnerable to specific things (see KungFuProofMook). A particularly strong example is the Hunter/Killer which can ignore Mass Drivers and the Artillery Golem, both of which are usually counters to high threat targets.
228* NukeEm: [[NuclearOption Using a nuke]] practically eliminates all enemy presence in a planet system, short of command stations. It also makes the AI more nervous, increasing its progress. In addition to the Mark I, the Mark II also destroys all adjacent planets, and the Mark III [[TooDumbToLive destroys all planets at once]].
229** Scorched Earth AI type will deny you planets by nuking them whenever it's command stations die. Units will survive, but the planet won't, meaning no science or metal for you.
230** Intensity 10 Astro Trains in ''Fleet Command'' resulted in the AI sending nuclear trains between stations. If these nuke trains ever went onto a human world, it nuked the planet, 50 AIP included.
231* OhCrap: Several things can cause both you and the AI to have this reaction. Since [[CorneredRattlesnake a terrified AI is a tremendously hostile AI]], one often leads to the other.
232** In the first game, if you hack so carelessly that the AI response ends up at "Forest Fire" levels (going too deeply into the negatives by hacking too many things at once will quickly trigger this), it will get so angry it will summon dozens or even HUNDREDS of [[BossInMookClothing Avengers]] to crush you.
233** Whenever you are on an AI Core World, the AI will start sending the [[EliteArmy strategic reserve]] to deal with you, and once you reach the AI homeworld, it deploys all of it to fight you at once. In the sequel, it sends its Praetorian Guard after you, and in addition to dealing with the Praetorian Guard, the AI will immediately begin recalling all ships in the Warden fleet AND [[AttackAttackAttack Hunter fleet]] back to the AI homeworld. And if that isn't enough, the AI starts dumping Wave and Wormhole Invasion budget into Warden and Praetorian budget to spam units faster at you as a last ditch effort to kick you out.
234** Making yourself friends with the [[BenevolentPrecursors Imperial Spire]] in both games will greatly panic the AI, causing it to send [[PlanetSpaceship Motherships]] at you. Keep in mind, each individual Mothership is considered overkill against the entirety of the Milky Way galaxy.
235** Using the Mark III Nuclear Warhead is just as bad if not worse than allying with the Spire, causing a jump in AIP in the multiple thousands.
236** Controlling all the Showdown Devices will make the AI send armadas of ships your way in an attempt to prevent you from firing them off, since if the AI's warp grid is depowered, that will make them sitting ducks. If the Showdown Devices ''do'' succeed, the AI's Home Command Stations will turn into Galactic Control Ships and go on a FoeTossingCharge towards your homeworld(s).
237** The [[ThatsNoMoon Exodian Blade]]. Scanning for it will get the AI's attention very, very quickly. [[spoiler:If you bring it online, the AI will target it with an exogalactic strikeforce every five minutes. Bring it to a Core World, and it'll send a strikeforce every minute. Actually put it on an AI Homeworld, and the AI will go berserk and throw a strikeforce through the exogalactic wormhole every ten seconds]].
238** Whatever makes the AI deploy Extragalactic War units, since normally those units are used exclusively to fight an even more menacing threat outside the galaxy. The higher the tier, the more worried the AI is about things; making it past Tier 3 means it's actively terrified the local menaces are becoming just as bad as the Exogalactic threat. If you somehow make it all the way to Tier 5, [[spoiler:The Extragalactic War Flenser will make you regret ever doing so. So horrendously strong it can fight entire Spire fleets on its own and win.]]
239** The Dark Zenith invasion causes all AIs to immedietly spawn Zenith Dragons porporitonal to the Dark Zenith intensity, which are ''very'' capable of mulching the Dark Zenith -and you-.
240* OneHitKill: Ion Cannons in ''Fleet Command'' can instantly destroy any ship that does not have immunity: being insta-killed, and are of equal or lower mark. Warhead Interceptors also do this to warheads without setting them off, making them useful for disposing of accidentally created warheads. The Counterspy is also able to instantly kill anything that is cloaked, but oddly doesn't detect cloaked units.
241** Mass Drivers can do this to big targets of lower mark.
242** Nukes bypass the immunity: being insta-killed but in turn, they cannot destroy anything with immunity: nuclear explosions.
243** The Botnet Golem is able to do this to anything not immune to its insanity inducer. In the sequel though, it's been nerfed.
244* OneSizeFitsAll: Shadow champion modules are generally restricted to certain races, such as the Neinzul exclusive insanity inducer, or the spire exclusive photon lance. However, all races can equip the basic needler, laser, MLRS and shield module.
245* OrganicTechnology: The Zenith create everything that they use out of their LivingShip bodies.
246** The Spire, to a certain degree. While they themselves can grow and change forms, most of their weapons are more like cybernatic enhancements, compared to the Zenith's ability to shape their own bodies and weapons.
247* TheParalyzer: Warbird frigates are designed specifically to paralyze masses of ships to make them easy pickings for their friends.
248** To a lesser degree, Riot Starships are able to slowdown or paralyze units as well.
249** The Black Widow Golem can trap whole armies in tractor beams while paralyzing (engine stunning in the sequel)those who aren't caught by the tractors.
250** Paralyzers in the sequel, which are a variant of the Stingray, in addition to doing bonus damage to bubble forcefields can paralyze strikecraft.
251* PinataEnemy: Astro Trains in the sequel will all drop Metal, Science and Hacking Points when destroyed, to add further encouragement (on top of being heavily armed and carrying dangerous cargo the AI should not have). Some of them also carry Spire Relics if ''The Spire Rises'' is installed.
252* PlayableEpilogue: The first game still continues after you complete it, with the AI still sending in waves unless[[spoiler: you shut down the AI's Warp network with the Showdown Devices or sent the Exodian Blade to destroy its sibling via TakingYouWithMe]].
253* PlanetEater: The Zenith Miners will happily eat any planets they orbit after a certain amount of time, removing supply, energy and science found at that planet. The AI, who doesn't rely much on the former and doesn't need the latter two ignores Zenith Miners.
254* PortalNetwork: The galaxy is networked through various wormholes, which can vary from organized patterns(X, Grid, Crosshatch, Honeycomb), irregular and seemingly random paths (Realistic, Simple, Lattice)to downright unreadable without untangling (Vines, Tree).
255** Interestingly, in ''Fleet Command'' both you and the AI have shortcut warpgates, which allow newley created units to warp in to a specific location. Your forces will be paralyzed for a minute (or two if the warp gate is on a hostile/neutral world) before they can move and shoot, while the AI doesn't have a paralyzing restriction, but you are warned in advanced before they arrive.
256** ''2'' removes human warp gates, so only the AI can use warp gates. If your AIP is high enough, then the AI can outright create exogalactic wormholes on any one of your planets (most often a lightly defended economic one)except your homeworld to invade and bypass any chokepoints you created to block the AI from using the galaxy's wormhole network.
257* {{Precursors}}: Found in the DLC, ''The Zenith Remnant'', ''Children of Neinzul'', and ''Light of the Spire''. To varying degrees, they are still present and active (though the Zenith civilization is no more due to the AI, individual Zenith are still power players in this galaxy, the Neinzul are, for the most part, {{Absolute Xenophobe}}s, and the Spire [[spoiler:are mostly/not quite fine. The Spire forces in the Milky Way are refugees, the AI is devoting the majority of its resources and attention to obliterating the main Spire civilization. Should you survive the Fallen Spire campaign, the main fleet will be regrouped and they'll come in to blow the AI up.]] Finally, the last expansion has [[spoiler:the Exodian Blade and the Core, who were guards of the Emperor of the species that were once the master of the Spire, before they were exiled.]]
258* PrecursorKillers: In the second game, the AI boasts of how it destroyed the Zenith civilization if it defeats a Golem, which has room for debate (it seems to have fallen apart on its own due to sheer age). The lore ''does'' however make it explicit that the AI fought (and was in the process of destroying) the Imperial Spire in ''Fleet Command'', and straight up succeeded in destroying the Spire civilization in the sequel, so that's one confirmed Precursor-tier civ to their name, plus one that may or may not be.
259* PunyEarthlings: The AI certainly thinks so. It has such a low opinion of humanity that (barring one off-hand mention of AI-allied Marauders) there are no human elements in the Scourge, even after adding ''[[ButtMonkey Peltians]]'' to the mix, a race from ''Videogame/TheLastFederation'' that is the polar opposite of what you want on the front lines.
260* QualityOverQuantity: The Starship Commander and Starship Fanatic AI seem to think so. Rather than using Fleetships for most purposes, it replaces them with MUCH more durable and deadly Starships.
261* RecurringRiff: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkjgPwbl2lw The title theme]] is heard in other songs, such as the begining of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufUlILnP-yY Voyage to Zenith]], the end of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuLIRFodowM AI Revolution]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7_iieOAAM4 The Hurricane]] as well as a few other songs.
262* RedAlert: Alarm Posts are special structures that the AI has seeded across it's planets. In both games, if the player trips the alarm, then ALL non guardian guards (Units inside guardposts) on the Alarm Post's planet and adjacent planets will immedietly go on the attack, skyrocketing threat if nearby planets haven't been taken care of. In classic, the Alarm Post will trigger if you destroy the AI command station on the same planet as the Alarm Post. Destroying the Alarm Post directly will reduce the chance of the Alarm Post triggering by 50%. In 2, the Alarm Post will trip if you have half the strength of the AI forces on the planet the Alarm Post resides on, However in this game killing the alarm post directly will gurantee it will not sound an alert.
263* RobotWar: The name of the game.
264* RubberbandAI: The game's core mechanic, with careful manipulation being the player's best strategy. The AI is content to ignore you and only send small raiding parties into your systems as long as you don't attack crucial AI installations like their command centers. If you go and make a nuisance of yourself by methodically conquering every AI system like you would in other RTS / 4X games, you'll make great progress... [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown right until the AI sends an unstoppable wave of doom your way, swats your fleet and stations aside with minimal effort, and you lose]]. More adept players try and obfuscate their progress by leaving any planet alone that neither threatens them nor contains something truly valuable. In many games of 80 planets, only 20 or so are ever conquered by the player while they build up their forces for a lightning-quick attack on the two AI home stations to win the game.
265* SaltTheEarth: The ''Scorched Earth'' AI has command centers that will cause a nuclear explosion, destroying all resources and ships within the system. Don't ever play against two of them. Or with one and the other AI is just as dastardly in other ways.
266* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In the sequel, an AI planet's defenders who are badly outmatched will attempt to flee. If they succeed in escaping, they can become threat or even join the Hunter Fleet to come back at you later.
267* SealedArmyInACan: Zenith Reserves are structures you can blow up, which provides you with a squad of Zenith units at a small AIP cost.
268* SealedEvilInACan: The Dark Spire, which were stuffed into their Vengeance Generators by the rest of the Spire civilization upon rebellion. If they could willingly leave in order to scour the galaxy clean of everything that moves, they would, but all they can do is stockpile energy from nearby death and use ''that'' to express their particular wish.
269* SeriesContinuityError: The Spire in the Fallen Spire campaign are a completely alien, never-before-seen race and the first aliens that humanity has established a diplomatic relationship with. Ancient Shadows has several Spire factions that humanity seems familiar with, in particular the Gray Spire.
270* ShoutOut: In 'The Zenith Remnant' expansion, there is a cheat code that spawns a [[PlanetEater Zenith Devourer]] on a planet of your choice. The code? "Invoke [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Unicron]]"
271** There's a couple of cheat codes like this. "[[WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove Pull The Lever]]" is another well known one.
272** Some achievements are also shout outs, including:
273*** [[Film/IHeartHuckabees I Heart Parasites]]
274*** [[Film/{{Spaceballs}} I Hate Raspberry!]][[note]]You get this by beating Radar Jammer AI.[[/note]]
275*** [[Film/{{Aliens}} It Was The Only Way To Be Sure]]
276*** [[Film/WarGames Would You Like To Play A Game?]]
277*** [[Franchise/StarWars I Have A Bad Feeling About This, The Empire Struck Back]]
278*** [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Meddling Kids]]
279*** [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail I Didn't Vote For You!, The Violence Inherent In The System]]
280** The sequel also refrences various other works in their achievements
281*** [[VideoGame/HomeWorld Cataclysm Averted]]
282*** [[Franchise/StarTrek Resistance Was Not Futile]]
283*** [[Franchise/GhostBusters Ghostbusters!]]
284** One option in the sequel names all planets in the game after [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] ships; the setting's even called [[RunningGag No Gravitas]]. There's also the Variousweapons name setting for fleets which names several weapons from other games.
285* SideQuest: Depending on how many expansion packs you have installed you may have several open to you. The biggest example are the Nebula scenarios introduced in the Ancient Shadows expansion, which unlock some nifty production facilities that the AI can't get at as well as a handful of ship types.
286* SpaceMines: Defensive weapons you can build in order to hinder or destroy AI forces. The AI can also build these, so be wary of running into a paralyzing minefield.
287* SpacePirates: One customizable setting lets you add them to the game. In-universe they represent those humans who prefer looting everything in sight to joining up with LaResistance.
288* SpacePlane: A literal unit in both games. In both games they possess radar dampening, allowing them to kite units easily. The sequel adds a variant called the Mirage.
289* SpaceStation: In game, they're referred to as a Fortress, but they're mobile instead of stationary. In ''AI War 2'', the enemy AI recommends adding a moat to the fortress.
290* SplashDamage: Units like Grenade Launchers or Plasma Siege Starships damage units in tight clusters. There are also beam weapons which are able to hit multiple targets at once.
291* StarfishAliens
292** No human has ever met a Zenith in person but their ships are organic. Eventually it's all but stated (and confirmed by WordOfGod) that the Zenith ships ARE individual Zenith.
293--->''For all we know, when we are using their blueprints to create new ships for our own use, we are actually helping them reproduce -- and then enslaving their "offspring." This is just one theory, though.''
294** The Neinzul are an extremely short-lived insectoid race (Most Neinzul live only for an Earth day). Their Enclaves form [[MindHive mini-collectives]] with their own personalities, goals, and desires, and a few of the Younglings can "mature" and overcome the short lives that afflict most of their race.
295** The Spire are ''rocks'', and their ships are cybernetically modified Spires.
296--->'''Dr. Michael Davidson:''' Er, perhaps that's not very diplomatic. To put it another way, their bodies are crystalline formations. Exact composition unknown, for reasons you can deduce.
297* StealthInSpace: Working differently between the two games, as well as within the first game. In ''Fleet Command'', it's a fairly simple "either cloaked or not" affair where firing or being lit by Tachyon systems decloaks for a time. ''Fleet Command'' also has a special obstacle that grants invisibility to all other units in the system that even resists tachyons. In ''2'' there's actual Cloaking Points, that get 20% subtracted whenever the vessel fires and are worn down at varying (numerical) speeds by any Tachyon systems in the area, or other decloakers. As a result, attacking while cloaked isn't something that lasts, but it's ''very'' useful for deep strikes and assassinating particulars.
298* StoneWall: There are quite a few of these.
299** The best example is the Wormhole Guardposts in ''Fleet Command''. They have a whopping four million health, but their attack deals a measly, nearly unnoticeable 2 points of damage in a game where the piddliest fleet ship has hundreds.
300** The Armored Golem, compared to other Golems. While it's not as flashy as the Cursed Golem's infinite range/mass paralyzing abilities, the Artillery Golem's long-range potency and ability to ignore radar dampening, or the sheer swarm the Hive Golem brings, it has an absurdly high hp pool to make up for it. [[MightyGlacier It's also by no means lacking in weapons]]; they're weak for a Golem, but they're ''still'' [[NormalFishInATinyPond golem-tier weapons]].
301** Vanguards in the sequel. They don't hit hard, but they can tank tons of hits for a strikecraft, while applying damage amplifcation to allow its allies to hit harder.
302** The Botnet Golem is generally a poor attack option, since the Botnet can't subvert anything stationary, immune to reclamation or big enough. However, they can perform exceptionally well when defending your planets, turning AI waves into energy free, auto roaming killers for you, and outright inhaling cross planet attacks and coughing out hundreds if not thousands of zombies. It helps that most attacking waves are about 80% strikecraft and 20% everything else, with the former all vulnerable to the Botnet's capabilities
303** The sequel's Macrophage faction are this. Macrophage harvesters are pretty weak in terms of damage output, but their ability to heal whenever they damage enemies and their already high HP pool means taking Macrophage harvesters down is a very long process early to midgame.
304** The [[AbusivePrecursors Dark Spire]] ships in the sequel are generally pretty durable, but their weapons are rather weak. Special mention to the Dark Spire Eidolon, which has a weapon jamming Tesla coil, enabling it to survive longer against low armor ships.
305* SubsystemDamage: Engine health in the first game determines how much engine damage a ship can take (from engine damage weapons) before it stops moving completely. The sequel adds in weapon jamming which slows down a unit's rate of fire, but otherwise subscribes to CriticalExistenceFailure.
306* SuicideAttack: In addition to the already mentioned Zenith Autobombs and Neinzul Nanoswarms, there's a few other units that kill themselves to attack
307** Spirecraft Rams can only hit one target and destroy themselves in the process. It's very likely that unless the target is a superfortress or Hunter/Killer, it's not gonna survive. There's also the Spire mini-rams, which are not as devastating, but are not reliant on the rare asteroids necessary to manufacture spirecraft ships.
308** Spire Bladespawners themselves don't suicide into the enemy, but as their name implies, they spawn "blade" ships to do so.
309** Spirecraft Martyrs can only drag units around in tractor beams, but upon death explode violently, heavily damaging if not outright killing nearby units, and can bypass the area damage immunity.
310** The [[spoiler: exodian blade performs one when it reaches an exogalactic wormhole in order to utterly obliterate it's [[EvilTwin evil twin]] and subsequently, the AIs.]]
311* SuicidalOverconfidence: Almost as common a cause for defeat in this game as it is in most {{roguelike}}s.
312** The hunter fleet in the sequel can be set to "kamikaze", which makes them much more aggressive, charging defenses lines that are more than double their strength. This makes them easier to kill generally, but can result in surprise attacks on worlds that are weak relative to their strength value.
313* SupportPartyMember: The Support Corps AI type from ''Fleet Command'' is this. By itself, it doesn't send waves (unless it is a dual type AI), but it augments the waves of the other AI with supportive units, such as damage amplifying Munitions Boosters, protective Shield Bearers and distracting Decoy Drones. [[LethalJokeCharacter If provoked enough however, nothing is stopping them from rolling over your fleets with hundreds of surprisingly durable Decloaker starships whenever its ally sends a wave.]]
314* SurprisinglySuperToughThing: Inhibiting Tesla Corvettes can be this, as their ability to jam enemy weapons combined with their already innate high total HP makes them pretty tough to kill in large numbers.
315** Attempting to shoot at anything with the fortified property outside their range.
316* ThatsNoMoon: The Exodian Blade is initially assumed to be a spire relic. [[spoiler: It's actually one of the Spire Emperor's personal bodyguards exiled to the Milky Way galaxy and the brother of The Core.]]
317* TheSwarm: Hive Golems, natch. In ''Fleet Command'', they can store up to 500 wasps each, which are [[LightningBruiser fast, powerful and can clear out any system that's not an AI homeworld if they are allowed to hit critical mass.]] The sequel's Hive Golem is not as powerful in raw damage or swarm amount, but make up for this with an even faster spawn rate, being ranged and metabolizing their victims, giving you metal for each kill they score.
318** ''Fleet Command'' also has the Neinzul enclave starships, which spawn a constant stream of drones. If you build all the MK 1 to MK 5 enclave starships, you'll have a neverending swarm of drones with which to bury the AI
319** The Neinzul are no slouch in this regard either, with their ships having an extremley high cap and very low costs, encouraging you to throw them in the thousands at the AI. The Neinzul Enclave ships, both player controlled and NPC controlled will release additional ships to fight.
320* TacticalRockPaperScissors: In ''Fleet Command'', regardless of where you start or what type the AI is, both of you will always have access to the three triangle ships: Fighters, Bombers and Missile Frigates.
321** The Fighter hard counters the Bomber, able to quickly close the distance and swarm over them before the bombers can reach their target.
322** The Bomber hard counters the Missile Frigate, able to shrug off the missiles easily before simply smashing the missile frigates with ease.
323** The Missile Frigate hard coutners the Fighter, able to annihilate an incoming fighter wave with an alpha strike of missiles before the fighters can get the jump on the missile frigates.
324** In general, hard counters are very prevalent, and [[KungFuProofMook immunities]] also play a role in a much bigger tactical [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock]].
325* TakingYouWithMe: The Avenger plot grants the AI powerful ships that will go straight to your homeworld, and cause nuclear explosions upon death if an enemy home command station is destroyed. [[spoiler: Taken further with the AI Galactic Control Ship, where after you taken down the AI Warp Grid in Showdown Device plot, it sends that ship down as the last "Fuck You" gesture to destroy everything you have. There's 2 of them. If it dies it'll cause nuclear explosion on the current system and surrounding systems. Then there's the fact that just one of that is basically ''the most powerful unit in the game'', even more powerful than the AI Motherships that you'll face in the Fallen Spire campaign. Good luck!]]
326** If you're following along with the Exodian Blade, [[spoiler:the Blade blows itself up to destroy its sibling, The Core, who controls the AI]].
327** Spirecraft Martyrs can't attack directly. They can only grab other ships in their tractor beams but when they die, they explode and heavily damage nearby units, even units normally immune to area damage.
328* TeleportersAndTransporters: Certain units such as the Engineer mark III, Spire Teleporting Leech, Teleporting Battlestation and a few others can instantly teleport from one point of a gravity well to the other, making them extremely mobile combatants/support units. However, certain structures such as [[GravityMaster Gravity Drills]] and Logistical Command Station mark III can prevent units from teleporting, forcing them to move normally.
329** Translocation weapons causes TeleportationMisfire in enemies, generally knocking them away from the source of the translocation. In the sequel, translocation is renamed to knockback, and isn't as random as certain translocation weapons from ''Fleet Command''.
330* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The AI initially averts this, content to letting you live as long as you don't go beyond your homeworld, but as you start to take more territory, the AI will start to ramp up its response to you exponentially, leading it to deploy exogalactic units if you start getting powerful enough. Ally yourself with the Spire and suddenly the AI will pull out all the stops to exterminate the both of you, spawning in countless fleet ships/strikecraft, hundreds upon hundreds of guardians, and either plenty of Golems escorted by hunter/killers (''Fleet Command'') or spawning in Exogalactic Units, 3 of which are noted to be overkill against an entire galaxy.
331* TimeAbyss: The Zenith are an entire species of [[TheAgeless biologically immortal]] [[LivingShip living ships]], and some of them are billions of years old. Only external things like violence can kill them.
332* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Some units in the AI's hands are uber specific in what they do, but in the right situation, can easily hinder you.
333** Core Warhead Interceptors instantly kill any warhead on the same planet and nothing else, but the ability to instantly shut down any warheads prevents you from getting in any massive alpha strikes.
334** Counterspies instantly kill any cloaked unit, which isn't really that useful considering it only kills one at a time, but it is exceptional in catching your scout drones, including the normally undetectable mark 4 scout.
335* ThoseWereOnlyTheirScouts: The AI has what is basically the equivalent of a skeleton crew watching the galaxy, even if they number in the tens of thousands, and reinforcements are the equivalent to a single mall cop showing up. Be thankful that the full ire of the AI is focused on something else.
336* TractorBeam: Dedicated turrets that hold other ships in place, but they can also be found on other ships. Tractoring ships can drag around others as they move with more or less difficulty, possibly even shoving them through wormholes. Or, in the case of Tackle Drones fired out of certain frigates, just bumrush them into the "walls".
337* TrashTalk: The AI is the snarkiest genocidal machine to grace a video game since [[VideoGame/SystemShock SHODAN]]. Particularly in ''AI War 2'', the AI will routinely gloat whenever it wrecks one of your assets, and when you manage to strike a notable blow against ''it'', it will just as routinely offer a sardonic comment downplaying your feat.
338--> '''AI Overlord:''' We can predict your every move. Want to know what happens next? We will give you a hint: it involves poor decision-making.
339* TruceZone: The second game gives this to the Zenith Trader as a ''power''. No units (player or AI) are able to launch any attacks while a Zenith Trader is at their planet. The Devourer Golem violates and automatically nulls this if it enters the same system, however, allowing for mutual fire again and usually killing the Trader shortly after.
340* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The AI was created by warring human nations as an attempted solution to their ForeverWar. Instead, the AIs cooperated to [[GoneHorriblyRight wipe out humanity's civilization]]. [[spoiler: [[AIIsACrapshoot Because they were hijacked by extragalactic aliens.]]]]
341* TurnsRed: The AI Overlord in the sequel has a second phase in which it's significantly more dangerous, gaining new armaments and higher HP. [[spoiler:And [[TheJuggernaut implacable]] mobility along with a route straight to your Homeworld, which it'll immediately head for in one last dash to kill you. It's recommended to have at least one chokepoint planet that'd make [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Cadia]] look like a torn chainlink fence to finish it off]].
342* UnskilledButStrong: The Nanocaust doesn't really split up its armies into different fireteams, or ever really does more than one or '''maybe''' two things at once, and one of those is always [[AttackAttackAttack to attack relentlessly]] as one monstrously huge doomstack of ships. But when that doomstack is bigger than any singular fleet you have - or, for that matter, all your fleets put together - and can suck up anything that isn't unique into its endless mass of hostile metal, it doesn't ''need'' a complex strategy to be terrifying.
343* UselessUsefulSpell: The Counter Spy in ''Fleet Command'' is a structure that can instantly kill any (non immune) cloaked ship. However, it's limited to only one target at a time, and it can't actually ''detect'' cloaked units unlike decloakers or tachyon drones. Anything that can be killed by it is usually able to be replaced near instantly, or is immune to being instant killed. The only real time it's actually somewhat annoying is when it catches your mk4 scout off guard.
344* VideoGame3DLeap: The sequel used the Unity engine, enabling 3D graphics for the ships and other objects (even if TwoDSpace is still in effect).
345* ViolationOfCommonSense: In ''2'', any unit caught in a tractor beam can attack whatever's holding them, regardless of distance. This includes ''melee'' units. If the AI sends a widow golem your way, it's perfectly viable to send your melee units into its tractor beams, so that they can A) clog up the tractors, preventing other units from being caught, B) attack the widow golem from an extended range, so other AI units will likely not be in range to shoot back and C) not have to worry about getting kited around.
346* WaveMotionGun: A few. The Exodian Blade's main gun definitely qualifies, and the Mark IV Heavy Beam Turret probably counts as well. And Ion Cannons, of course, which can eliminate any ship they can touch in two shots, tops. The Spire ''love'' these, too, with even their resource gathering structures packing enough heat to evaporate a mountain. And some of the Extragalactic War units have these; the Flenser packs the topmost, and can erase everything in a sector with a decent sweep. The Flenser was designed to take on a Spire Fleet enhanced by 13 cities, which is itself immensely overpowered.
347* WeaksauceWeakness: In ''Fleet Command'', Fortresses and Super Fortresses are exceedingly powerful defensive structures, able to battle whole fleets and armadas on their own respectively. However, they have a damage multiplier of .01 against polycrystal hull, meaning the common bomber will only feel a slight tickle when they're attacked by a Super Fortress. Units with a radar dampening value lower than their range value are also able to take down Fortresses given enough time, such as the [[SpacePlane space plane]]
348* WeaponOfXSlaying: Many, ''many'' vessels have particular targets against which they're especially good, and it's a good idea to get some armaments against enemies you know you'll see. Dark, low-albedo targets? Tritium is your friend. ''High'' albedo targets whose shine deflects energy weapons? Ablative armaments will take care of that. Thick armor? Gunbots are your friend. Thin armor? Concussion will help against that. High energy usage? Nucleophilic armaments have you covered. And so on and so forth. Every vessel has a weapon that will mess it right up.
349* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The Marauders are human pirates who, like you, managed to escape extermination at the hands of the AI. They'll attack you and the AI both.
350* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: The AI is busy dealing with unspecified (but horrific) threats outside the galaxy, and - having already reduced you to a single lonely planet - is content to turn its back on you... until you make the mistake of revealing you're ''still'' a threat. If you cross that line too fast and too hard, the AI's complacence towards humanity will come to an abrupt and utterly genocidal end.
351* WeHaveReserves: The AI definitely has reserves. You can have your own reserves if you plan your production well, but you'll never match the AI's reserves. In the first game, some of your most valuable units are irreplaceable.
352** The human side is a lot more adept at replacing losses in the sequel. Bring along mobile factories to the front line or just fight one planet beyond, and your semi-indestructible (still perfectly crippleable) flagships will automatically be filled up as your ships go down, which is ''very'' effective for swarming fleets. You just have to make sure you don't run out of metal.
353* ZergRush: The AI attempts to attack your systems by launching large waves. While your starting forces are strong enough to defeat them, they can sometimes take out a command center if you don't have secondary defenses. Or they use those waves as distraction while they launch attacks in less defended systems using ships that aren't on guard duty.
354** Neinzul Youngster AI type will send hundreds if not outright thousands of Neinzul units your way in each wave.
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