Tier System

While every species and civilization in Endless Sky has different strengths and weaknesses, some are considered generally "more advanced" than others. The tier system is used to describe these relative technology levels and combat capabilities. The tier system in ES is not the same as the Kardashev scale. 
Higher-tier ships tend to have tougher shields and hulls than lower-tier ships, and may have more space for outfits, engines, and weapons. Alternatively, they have outfits, engines, and weapons that are just as or more effective than their low-tier counterparts with fewer drawbacks (i.e. they take up the same or less space, energy, and/or heat). 
One rule of thumb is that a heavy warship of one tier will be equally matched by a light warship of the next tier. However, the tier system is just an out of universe tool for the player to compare the relative strength of different factions. It isn't a perfect tool for comparing factions.
== Tier Ranking ==
=== Sub-Tier 1 ===
* Gegno - Tier <1
** Gegno have a slightly lower development level than humans, with no shields technology and primitive energy weapons.
*Incipias - Tier 0.5
** A young species that hasn't yet developed Hyperdrives and solely inhabit their home system.
=== Tier 1 ===
* Human
** Humans are used as the baseline for tier 1.
* Sheragi 
** The Sheragi were about tier 1 when they went extinct. 
==== Tier 1-2 ====
* Hai - Tier 1.2 - 1.5 
**Hai technology is described as being similar to but slightly better than their human counterparts. They originally just used human outfits until an update gave them their own variants.
*Coalition - Tier 1.5 
**The Coalition can produce Tier 2.5 technology (see below), but the Heliarch government restricts most of its use for the general public to prevent violent uprisings.
*Kor Efreti - Tier 1.5
**The Korath were once a solid Tier 2 civilization but were fractured by their Civil War and subsequent exile by the Drak. Both the Kor Efreti and Korath Exiles use the same technology, except that the Efreti have given up the ability to produce Jump Drives and only use their weapons in self-defense, having given up conquest.
==== Borderline Tier 2====
*Remnant - about Tier 1.8, but inconsistent due to reverse engineered tech. Their initial tech is around Tier 1.5.
*Successors - about Tier 1.9
**Aristocratic amphibians. They were formerly a Tier 2 civilization, but they lost some of their technology along with their home territories.
*Bunrodea - Tier <2
** Bunrodea have specialized technologies in which they have a high level of development.
===Tier 2===
*Wanderers - Tier 1.9 - 2.1
**The Wanderers begin the game with technology suited for peacetime trading and exploration, but having not had to deal with warfare for centuries, are caught flat-footed by the Unfettered Hai once the latter can reach them with Jump Drives. They quickly adapt to this by building more endgame powerful ships and outfits in the later game. However they cannot push back the invasion due to Unfettered still have an advantage in sheer numbers.
*Ka'het, Ka'mar and Ka'sei - Tier 2
**The creations of the extinct Builders, created for the purpose of defending them from invaders from outside their home systems.
*Korath Exiles - Tier 2
*Kor Sestor and Kor Mereti -Tier 2
** Remnants of the Korath Civil War, continuing the war of their makers.
====Borderline Tier 3====
*Heliarch - Tier 2.5
**The Coalition was previously capable of driving off the Quarg, a Tier 3 race, and their true technological level is much higher than what is available to the general public.
===Tier 3===
*Quarg - Tier 3
** Advanced humanoids that observe the galaxy's many inhabitants, subordinate to the Drak.
*Rulei - Tier 3
**The prior inhabitants of Acheron, wiped out by an unknown calamity. They developed Jump Drives before Hyperdrives and at their height, their technology rivaled the Quarg.
===Tier 4 and Beyond===
* Drak - Tier 4
** The most advanced surviving species in the galaxy, inventors of the Jump Drive and capable of altering hyperlane connections.
===Unknown/Variable Rank===
*Builders - Unknown due to their extinction, though probably close to Tier 2 in genetics and automation, considering they created the Ka'het. The rest of their tech was probably inferior to that, which would explain how the Ka'het were able to destroy them.
*Pug - The Pug deliberately use less advanced technology against less advanced races to give them a fighting chance, making them difficult to classify. During their invasion of human space, the Pug use Tier 1.1 technology, but the Pug encountered during the Wanderer storyline use Tier 3 technology, including the Pug Arfecta which is not seen until then. The Quarg imply that the Pug's true tech level is close to if not superior to their own, capable of destroying Quarg ringworlds which they previously thought was impossible.
*Zitchal Maudrakoi - The Remnant make extensive use of reverse-engineered Maudrakoi technology, but not quite to the point of having reached the full extent of their pre-extinction advancements. Given the Remnants' tech level, the Maudrakoi were probably at around Tier 2 at the time of their extinction.
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