Endless Legend 2 will let you play as refugees from the first game's coolest faction: a collection of vampire ghosts trapped in fancy armour

ENDLESS Legend 2 - Last Lords Faction Spotlight | Fantasy 4X - YouTube

Endless Legend 2's early access launch is fast approaching, but Amplitude still has some reveals hiding up its sleeve. Today we've got the news that the first game's Broken Lords faction will be showing up in the sequel, playable once more, but now known as the Last Lords.

As in the first game, this curse presents itself as a fundamental mechanic. The Last Lords don't consume food or procreate like other factions. Instead they need dust, the series' primary currency, to survive and expand.

Since there are only a few members of this faction awake at the start of the game, you'll need to harvest dust to wake up more of them, or assimilate minor factions, using other species to work in your cities.

The way the Last Lords interact with minor factions is particularly intriguing, as they can set up estates in their villages that generate tax income or force their denizens to work in the Last Lords' cities. Minor factions can even be treated like food—their life force drained to resurrect more Last Lords.

In fights, the Last Lords are a tough bunch, and with every unit that falls near a Last Lord, the Last Lord is healed. But Amplitude warns that, despite their resilience, the faction is going to be weak in the early game: "it's only when the oceans start receding and more opportunities emerge to awaken those who still slumber will they be able to dominate Saiadha".

The Broken Lords was my go-to faction in the original Endless Legend, so this is gonna be an easy pick for me. But there's still one more faction due to be revealed before the early access launch. While Amplitude had initially settled on four launch factions, it's since expanded that to five.

I'm hoping for something weird and new. So far, only one of the early access factions is properly brand new: the techno-organic Aspects. The Necrophage and Last Lords are from the first Endless Legend, and the Kin of Sheredyn are based on an Endless Space 2 faction. Given Amplitude's best-in-class faction design, I'm keen to see what it's holding onto for the final reveal.

Endless Legend 2 is hitting early access on August 7.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.

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