Endless Legend 2 Beginner Guide: How to Start Strong

Endless Legend 2 can feel overwhelming because several systems develop at the same time: your city needs districts, your armies need direction, your heroes need equipment, and Saiadha's changing coastline can open or close strategic routes. The safest way to begin is to choose a faction that matches your preferred playstyle, explore nearby territory before committing to expansion, and treat every Tidefall as a planned opportunity rather than a surprise.

This beginner guide covers the most important decisions during the opening turns. It applies to the full 1.0 release, which adds the Sandshapers, the Order of Zelavas, the Severed Claws, and the Mangrove of Harmony minor faction. Because faction abilities are deliberately asymmetric, the same opening will not work for every empire.

Choose a Faction That Fits Your First Campaign

Your faction changes how you approach combat, diplomacy, city development, population, and expansion. Do not choose only by appearance or story. Read the faction's affinity, starting bonuses, unique resources, and early objectives before beginning the game.

The Kin of Sheredyn are a practical choice for players who want a direct military opening. The Aspects suit players who prefer diplomacy, cooperation, and influence. The Necrophage reward aggressive play and unusual population management. The Last Lords focus on Dust and the economic advantages of their distinctive society. The 1.0 factions add further specialisation: the Sandshapers expand and terraform land, while the Order of Zelavas and Severed Claws are alternative versions of existing factions with different traits and strategies.

For a first campaign, choose a faction whose core objective is easy to understand. A straightforward military or expansion-focused faction can make it easier to learn the map, combat, and city systems before trying a more specialised economy.

What to Do During the First Turns

Scout Before You Expand

Move your starting army around the nearby territory before placing your second city or committing to a long march. Look for strategic and luxury resources, anomalies, minor-faction villages, defensible terrain, and routes that may become accessible when the sea recedes.

Exploration also reveals threats. A promising location may be next to an aggressive minor faction, exposed to an enemy capital, or separated from your starting city by terrain that is expensive to cross. Early information is valuable because city placement affects your economy for the rest of the campaign.

Build for a Clear Early Need

Do not queue buildings simply because they are available. Decide whether your opening problem is food, industry, influence, science, Dust, or military security, then build toward that problem. A city with strong industry can produce units and districts quickly, while a city with better science or influence may support a different long-term plan.

Population can be assigned to different yield categories, and each population group can provide faction-specific bonuses. Check your available slots regularly instead of leaving population on an unsuitable assignment. When your city grows, the new population is an opportunity to correct a weak output rather than an automatic reason to keep the same distribution.

How City Foundations and Districts Work

City development begins with Foundations. A Foundation claims a tile near the city by spending Influence and allows you to exploit the surrounding tile's yields, including anomalies. Districts are then built on Foundations to specialise the city in areas such as defence, trade, housing, or other economic functions.

Placement matters. Look at neighbouring terrain and resource icons before committing to a Foundation. Some districts receive positional benefits, so placing every district in the first available space can leave valuable bonuses unused. Keep enough room for the city's future shape and consider whether a district should strengthen the centre or protect an exposed edge.

Improvements provide stronger city-wide benefits but can require strategic resources. Avoid spending rare resources immediately if your faction has an upcoming military or district requirement that depends on them. A powerful improvement is only useful if your economy can support the rest of the city around it.

Prepare for Tidefalls and Monsoons

Tidefalls are one of the defining mechanics of Endless Legend 2. As water recedes, new land, resources, anomalies, routes, and threats can appear. The map is not static, so a location that is unreachable early in the game may become strategically important later.

Keep armies near likely expansion routes when a Tidefall is approaching, but do not move your entire military away from your cities. Newly revealed land can provide an opening for expansion, yet it can also expose your territory to an enemy army or uncover a dangerous encounter. A small scouting force can identify the opportunity while your main army remains available for defence.

Do not spend your entire economy before a major environmental change. Save enough movement, Influence, and production capacity to respond when new territory appears. Tidefalls reward players who can act quickly after the map changes.

Use Heroes as Commanders, Not Decorations

Heroes lead armies, gain traits, acquire equipment, and can take part directly in combat. Assigning a hero to an army gives you a stronger tool for exploration and battle, but the best hero depends on the army's role.

Use combat-focused heroes to support vulnerable troops or lead attacks. A hero with useful movement, exploration, or economic traits may be better placed in a small scouting army or a developing city. Check the hero's abilities before equipping items, because equipment should reinforce the role you expect that hero to perform.

Do not send a valuable hero alone into unknown territory unless you understand the risks. Heroes can help uncover secrets and claim new lands, but isolated units are easy targets for minor factions and rival empires.

Win Battles Through Positioning

Combat takes place on a battlefield created from the strategic map. One additional friendly army can join as reinforcements, and each side commands its units during alternating rounds. Battles can last for up to eight rounds within a single game turn.

Terrain is a major part of the system. Forests can provide cover, while high ground improves attacks. Once units are engaged, moving away can trigger attacks of opportunity, so avoid treating movement as free. Before attacking, identify which units can reach the target, which units can protect your front line, and whether retreating will expose a weaker unit.

Most units have special abilities, and each major faction has a battle affinity that changes how its forces operate. Use abilities with a purpose rather than activating them as soon as they are available. Defensive effects are valuable when holding a narrow approach, while movement or control abilities can isolate an enemy unit before it receives support.

Recent combat changes also make the first attack against a unit more costly because the defender can retaliate. This makes reckless attacks less effective and gives positioning, focus fire, and unit durability greater importance. If an attack will not eliminate or meaningfully disable its target, consider whether the retaliation is worth taking.

Manage Minor Factions Carefully

Minor factions are more than early enemies. You can fight them for resources, cultivate friendly relations, make them part of your empire, or use their units and heroes to complement your own faction. Before attacking a village, check what you gain from defeating it and what you would lose by preventing a diplomatic relationship.

Peaceful integration can be especially valuable when a minor faction provides a population type, unit, or strategic advantage that your main faction lacks. However, hostile minor factions near a new city may need to be dealt with before they interrupt production or threaten your economy.

Set a Simple Victory Plan

Endless Legend 2 supports different routes to victory, including conquest, diplomacy, technological progress, quests, and faction-driven objectives. You do not need to lock yourself into one route on turn one, but you should identify a direction before your empire becomes too large to manage.

Review your faction quests and the map together. A faction with strong military bonuses may still benefit from technology or diplomacy if the map is crowded. Likewise, an economic opening can become a military campaign when a Tidefall reveals a valuable region that another empire wants.

The best beginner habit is to reassess every few turns. Ask whether your current production, research, army placement, and diplomatic posture still support your intended victory. Saiadha changes over time, so a rigid plan is usually weaker than a clear plan that can adapt.

Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

• Expanding before scouting the surrounding territory.
• Building districts without checking terrain bonuses or future city space.
• Ignoring strategic resources until an army or improvement requires them.
• Starting battles without considering terrain, reinforcements, or retaliation.
• Keeping heroes idle instead of assigning them to a city, army, or exploration task.
• Spending all available Influence before a Tidefall reveals new land.
• Choosing a faction without reading its unique mechanics and objectives.

If you focus on information, adaptable city placement, and controlled engagements, the opening campaign becomes much easier to read. Explore first, build toward a specific need, keep a reserve for Tidefalls, and make every faction's unique rules part of your strategy from the beginning.

Sources

• ENDLESS Legend 2 - 1.0 Out Now!
• Combat (Dev Diary #2)
• Economy (Dev Diary #1)
• ENDLESS Legend 2 on Steam
• ENDLESS Legend 2 on Epic Games Store