The Vaulters/Traits

Inquisitive and fearless, the Vaulters seek traces of their past and sources of knowledge across the galaxy.

About
Gameplay
**Traits**
Ships
Strategy

## Traits

 Sisters of Mercy  Citizens
 Involuntary Nomads
 Material Expertise
 Corsairs
 Black Thumb II
 Core Worlds
 Xenobiology
 Rare Earth Foams

## Population Traits

Vaulters start with one population type, and--depending on your actions--can unlock one of two additional possible populations at the very end of their campaign. Unlike the United Empire, these do not replace your empire citizens; rather, they're merely a small population present on one single distant world you discover.

Because of this, unless you managed an *extreme* beeline towards the end of the faction quest, these could largely be considered a storyline novelty rather than a core play strategy.

### Vaulters

 20 Vaulters Population
 50 Vaulters Population

### Foundlings

 20 Foundlings Population
 50 Foundlings Population

### Bereaved

 20 Bereaved Population
 50 Bereaved Population

## Political Traits

### Vaulters

 Anti-Ecologists
 Pragmatic

### Foundlings

 Anti-Religious
 Pragmatic

### Bereaved

 Anti-Pacifists
 Audacious

## Portal (System Improvement, Metafolding affinity)

* +10  Science
* Allows the teleportation of fleets between two systems containing this improvement. Note: Trade Routes and Trading Companies do not use Portal routes, they are military-only.
* 16  Upkeep

Cost: 160  Industry , 5x  Titanium, 5x Hyperium

*"The Vaulters extensive use of portals on Auriga, plus their advanced knowledge of Dust and Strategic Resources, allows them to teleport fleets between systems."*

## AI Personality Traits

**Restless:** This empire will explore more actively and patrol its territory.

**Innovative:** This empire will try to research a lot of technologies and unlock new stages of technology first.

## Potential Population Quest Rewards

These are the rewards for a quest **any** faction can receive simply for having >10 Vaulters population on at least two systems.

##### Quick Learners

* **Strat Recycler**: (Support Module) +1xHyperium, +1x  Titanium per destroyed CP on fleet. Cost: 50  Industry, 500  Dust(!).
> This has a brutal upfront  cost, but it does give you an entirely novel way to make precisely the strategic resources Vaulters need to accelerate colony settlement. The main draw here is it's income "above and beyond" the naturally available supply.
>
>
* **Deepspace Dust Scoop**: (Support Module) +5  Dust/Turn. Cost: 100  Industry, 3x  Antimatter.
> Yes, this just passively gives you money for having fleets sitting around doing nothing. A few of these will offset the upkeep cost of most fleets. 3  is a bit pricey, but it's basically trading strats for gold.
>
>

## Potential Unique Faction Quest Rewards

These are the unique rewards (as opposed to ones which are just randomly-chosen strategics/luxuries/one-time-FIDSI-boosts/etc) which only this faction has access to, earned by completing their faction quest. Rewards in different columns are mutually exclusive, only accessible on their branch of faction quest.

* 50 DPS, 15% Critical Hit chance, Salvo Health: 90
* Cost: 40  Industry, 1x Titanium
* 4  Movement Points, 5% Evasion
 2
* +300 , +100 deployment limit (def), -50% pop/building loss chance during invasions.
* Cost: 840 Industry, 16  Upkeep
* +20  Science per Strategic Deposit, +10%  Science on System.
 3.1
* 1100  Health, 160 Projectile Defense, +20%  Health, 10% Fleet  Health.
* Cost: 38 Industry

**Champion's Pod**: (Boarding Pod)
* 25  Crew killed per hit, 10  Crew DoT, 5 Duration of Boarding Engagement, 350 Boarding Pod Health.
* Cost: 75  Industry, 100  Manpower
* 2 XP/turn on Fleet.
 3.2
* +50%  Industry on System, +600  Manpower Capacity on System.
* Cost: 3510  Industry, 60x Adamantian, 60x Antimatter, 10x Quadrinix, 10x Orichalcix
Unique Starting Skills:
* +4 XP/turn on Fleet, and +1 Vision range on Fleet
 4.1
* +5  Science per defensive building on Empire.
* 21 damage, +25 against missiles/squadrons.
* 36 Industry, 2x Adamantian
**Foundlings Population**
**Bereaved Population**: (Population Units)

1. ↑ Compared to the "Improved Fusion Torpedos" you can get in the L3 tier of the tech screen, these are quite competitive in almost every way, except damage; the ones in the tech tree give 90 dps, these give 50. (However, they cost 3  per slot, and have only a 5% crit chance). The main attraction of these is that you can get them early without drilling into the military tree - if you nab a few other decent military items from searching curiosities, you can field a pretty decent military without the compounding costs of delving into that quadrant.
2. ↑ Compared to the standard  drive you get - it's stats are 4 move speed, 2% evasion, and it costs slightly more than the Tiryak Drive in  (50 rather than 40). The prime reason therefore to get the Tiryak Drive is to stack multiple instances (3, perhaps) on a ship so you can achieve 15% evasion rather than the hypothetical 6% you'd get from standard  drives. Note also that Vaulter T1 ships have an unusually high number of empty support slots; 4 and 5 respectively for the attacker and the protector.
3. ↑ This doesn't replace the primary defensive buildings; it just adds another one. Note also that the Vaulters have a slightly better 'unique replacement' for the Impervious Bunkers building, and that once you hit 50 pop (of the Vaulters type), Vaulters get bonus  for .
4. ↑ The benefit is mostly aesthetic. Securing 50 of these will give a free +2 move speed boost on all empire ships which doesn't require a law slot, but the work required to cultivate this is so prohibitive that this is more of a novelty than any real strategy.