Aliens (CivBE)

Aliens are the native lifeforms of the planet you are colonizing in Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth. Aliens add considerable realism to the game, and a fun additional challenge.
== What Are the Aliens? ==
Aliens are practically an additional, neutral faction in the game. They bear some similarities to the Barbarians of Civilization V, in that they spawn constantly from fixed bases called Alien Nests (see below) and can harass all colonies. However, there are several differences:
* Alien units won't wander too far from their nests (unless they're sea-based, in which case they will roam freely).
* Aliens are initially neutral, not hostile, to all colonies. They won't attack unless they feel that they or their nests are being directly threatened, or if they're consistently antagonized.
* Aliens won't normally attack cities or tile improvements, again unless antagonized. The Siege Worm and Kraken are exceptions, since even though they're not attacking, their mere movement through a tile wreaks havoc on all land-based and aquatic structures.
* Aliens can't capture civilian units, but they can attack and destroy them. Aliens can also destroy Trade Convoys and Trade Vessels.
=== Relations with Aliens ===
Unlike barbarians, aliens start neutral to everybody. You can't negotiate with them, because they don't seem to have conventional intelligence as we know it. However, Aliens across the planet seem to maintain some sort of connection, and they can react to long-term attitudes of a certain colony. For example, if you attack them consistently, aliens will become aggressive and start attacking you instead of merely keeping to themselves. On the other hand, if you coexist with them peacefully for prolonged periods of time, they may even turn friendly.
The icon of the aliens will change color as you interact with them. Originally it is green, but it can turn cyan, yellow, or red.
* While green, aliens will ignore you and your military unless they are in close proximity to a nest.
* While yellow, aliens may openly attack your military and even destroy any of your unprotected civilian units.
* While red, aliens will actively invade your territory, destroy your improvements, attack your units and even besiege your cities. Outposts that succumb to alien attacks will be razed instantaneously. 
* While cyan, aliens will sometimes wander around your territory if their hive is inside its borders. They will not attack your military or civilians and are even tolerant of units approaching their nest (though keeping your units too close to it for too long will make them aggravated). Workers may need protection from heavy-duty units even in this state, as the aliens could go back to green at any time and will react aggressively if a Worker is near their nest. Additionally, with enough time, you may even receive all of the from the nest, eliminating the need to place a Xenomass Well over it.
Sometimes alien nests that have been destroyed by other players in your territory will eventually respawn, provided that the owning player is still on good terms with the aliens.
Players pursuing the Affinity are able to form a deeper bond with aliens, and eventually produce special units which mix humans with aliens. Also, the victory (Transcendence) involves your colony discovering and making contact with the underlying planet-wide alien consciousness, thus achieving a real state of harmony with the environment. Ironically, the construction of the Mind Flower will turn all aliens on the planet hostile (red), so players pursuing a victory need to be on their guard in the late game, especially if there are multiple alien nests in close proximity to their territory.
=== Alien Nests ===
== Biomes (Rising Tide) ==
In the Rising Tide expansion pack, the biome a player selects makes a difference both aesthetically and on alien behavior.
	Biome 	Affect on alien behavior 	Color scheme of aliens
	Arid 	Aliens are far fewer than normal, but have far more strength due to their adaptation to such a harsh environment. 	Dull green, grey, and beige.
	Frigid 	Aliens on these worlds rarely, if ever, attempt to leave the vicinity of their nests and are very aggressive when approached, leading to dense pockets filled with alien resistance. 	White to light blue and green.
	Fungal 	While the aliens themselves are exactly like their original counterparts in every way, the Miasma on these worlds is far thicker and therefore far more damaging to unadapted humans (as well as far more restorative to aliens and adapted humans).	Various shades of blue and purple.
	Lush 	Aliens behave exactly the same as the alien variants in the basic game, although there are far more of them than usual and they are statistically weaker due to how accommodating conditions are for life. 	Same as Base Game Beyond Earth (green), except for sea dragons.
	Primordial	Aliens are far more temperamental than average, swaying between outright hatred upon being approached to total acceptance within a few turns of having a nest within your borders. 	Brick red to dark brown color.
== Leash Alien (Rising Tide) ==
In Rising Tide, Leash Alien is an ability that Explorer units gain once you have researched Alien Lifeforms. Leashing takes control of the target Alien Unit. The Explorer will suffer moderate damage in the process. This move requires level 3 in . Leashing cannot be used on Colossal Alien Units until you have researched Alien Domestication.
== Strategy ==
There are two viable strategies for dealing with Aliens, and it is rather tied to your Affinity choice. You can take a very militant stance towards the aliens, but you need to be aware that they will become highly aggressive towards you. If you provoke them enough, you will have to deal with Siege Worms before you are able to handle them. The aliens actually behave much more as an independent faction, and as such attacking any alien makes them all more hostile towards you, but also the other factions. Due to this, some diplomatic issues will arise from killing aliens.
That being said the strategy can have huge benefits. Killing Aliens will provide your units with a treasure trove of experience, and once you have taken the Virtue Scavenging, you receive 100% of a defeated alien lifeform's strength as science points, and 60 science points from destroying an alien nest. It would be beneficial to pair this with the Purity affinity, as they have specific anti-alien bonuses. In addition all factions can, by researching Ecology, build the Ultrasonic fence building, which prevents aliens from moving within 2 tiles of any city. It also comes with a Quest Decision that appears after the first one is built, allowing you to protect your trade units from attacks.
Alien combat strength is fixed, i.e. they will be very dangerous in the early game, somewhat dangerous in the middle game, and not dangerous at all in the endgame. The two major units, the Siege Worm and the Kraken, will remain threats almost until the end for solitary units.
Another possibility is to be more harmonious with the aliens, killing them only when they're making trouble (for example by consistently raiding Trade routes), and only clearing out nests if it is absolutely imperative to expansion and resources acquisition. Another argument for being more passive is that, generally, the aliens will leave you alone if you don't kill them and do not move within 2 tiles of a nest. The big problem with this strategy is the aliens raiding your Trade routes - they seem to like doing that, even if you haven't attacked them for a long while. Fortunately, you can use the special quest for the Ultrasonic Fence, which will prevent aliens from attacking your trading units.
Additionally, allowing alien nests to persist while inside your borders without provocation will eventually lead to their icons going cyan, and the aliens will become friendly. This state of friendship will also link any resources the aliens have under their nests without the need to improve it. While directly opposed to the affinity, and players will essentially gain a passive defense force if they pursue this, and the player will get access to vital resources they otherwise wouldn't have. However, leaving the nests in place means that the resource can't be developed to boost your city's yield and pillaging a nest to remove it will have a negative impact on Alien opinion. There seems to be no way to tell how close you are to a change of state of Alien relations.
It's worth noting that Lifeform Sensor, the spacecraft option, has obvious synergy with all nest-based strategies.
Generally, players should pursue extermination, players should pursue co-existence, and players should do what suits their situation.
== Alien Species ==
== Videos ==
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== See also ==
* Aliens in other games
== External links ==
* Well of Souls detailed overview of the game
Category:Civilization: Beyond Earth
Category:Game concepts (CivBE)
Category:Aliens (CivBE)
Category:Units (CivBE)