The Hissho/Gameplay

Fierce and aggressive, Hissho are fearless in battle. Driven by a sense of honor and respect for tradition, they prefer war to peace.

About
**Gameplay**
Traits
Ships
Strategy

## Mechanics

The Hissho have several unique mechanics which make their gameplay considerably different from other factions.

#### Keii

They have a special resource called Keii (represented by an icon of a red feather ) which replaces per-system approval . The two major changes it has are that, first, it consolidates the notion of per-system and averaged-over-the-empire  into just a single empire-wide value. Secondly, it is gained and lost in a completely different manner than the  values used for all other factions - other factions generally boost approval with buildings, laws, and luxuries, and particularly have to be concerned about planet types when thinking about approval values. For the hissho, their Keii  represents less of a concept of personal happiness, and more of a concept of respect towards their authorities; Keii  is increased by prestigious/glorious/honorable actions (at least, according to their cultural values), and is decreased by either dishonorable actions, or by special boosts than can be performed with it which essentially represent a "calling due" of the duties of the citizenry/soldiery. Keii  is also consumed by colonizing new systems.

#### Observances

They practice periodic religious observances (covered in depth below); these involve sacrificing a population unit to receive a unique bonus.

#### Resource Recovery

All factions can use Behemoths, equipped with Mining Probes, to harvest luxury or strategic resources from unoccupied planets. The Hissho have a unique mechanic wherein they can also harvest raw  from planets as well, which is assigned to their home system. This is done via the exact same probe mechanic and modules as for other factions.

#### Expansion Limits

Tied to the "Resource Recovery" trait is a massive malus with two components to it - one of which is quite major, one is quite minor. The small malus is that you receive a -1 to the count of systems you're allowed to settle before receiving overcolonization penalties. The huge malus is that **for every system over the maximum colonization count, you receive a -5%  penalty to all systems.** This makes managing your system count extremely important for the Hissho, and makes seeking out the L4 system dev upgrade, and the associated Autonomous Adminstration upgrade (which boosts the overcolonization threshold by +1) more important than it is for most factions.

This is a replacement for the approval penalties other factions receive; the Hissho also have to consume an escalating cost of Keii  per system colonized, which does to some extent act as a form of empire-wide approval cost, but in practice, because Keii  can be recovered reasonably quickly with gameplay oriented towards doing so, it wasn't acting as an effective barrier towards exploding into a very wide empire - especially because the Hissho have significantly reduced Keii  penalties (in fact, often bonuses), if systems are *conquered* rather than settled. They're meant to be rewarded for conquest, but this had an unbounded snowball effect.

#### Behemoth Building Bonuses

The Hissho receive a few minor bonuses regarding behemoth creation; first, they're given one at the very start of the game, with a single mining probe and a single +10  module. This cannot be upgraded (or rebuilt if destroyed) until the "Behemoth Blueprints" technology is unlocked via the cooperative quest.

Secondly, they receive a one-off +1 to their behemoth construction cap.

Third, and more of a soft bonus; racially-hissho heroes have a skill that increases the construction cap, and like all races in the game, you are given a faction hero at the very beginning of the game, and also have a bias towards faction-oriented heroes from the academy. This gives them a moderate boost to how many Behemoths they can field.

#### Behemoth Keii Zones

Behemoths have a red ring around them; combat (space or ground) inside this ring has increased  rewards, and there are -costing actions which can be applied either to individual systems/fleets, or to a behemoth - if done to a behemoth, the action is only 4/5 as effective, but applies to everything inside the ring, which usually is far more preferable.

#### Sacred Tradition

Much like the Sophon's special trait where they can get a weak sense of the political situation at the destination of an unexplored starlane (sussing out minors, other factions, and pirates without needing to actually get vision over the node), the Hissho have one curious "special bonus" to vision: They can see the planned paths and destinations of enemy fleets, if they're at (hot, not cold) war with the faction in question.

#### Sterile Worlds

Because the Hissho use , a significant side-effect of this is that the biggest reason most factions have a distaste for sterile worlds (which is the significant  per malus they get) simply doesn't apply to the hissho. The Hissho can place pop units on sterile planets with little ill effect other than low  values.

They've actually doubled-down on this, though; the Hissho also receive 3 empire development techs which boost the  capacity of sterile worlds by a cumulative total of +3  compared to most factions.

#### Fealty Specializations

The Hissho have a special, unique specialization which only they can apply to a system. This specialization will automatically upgrade to better versions of itself for free, but costs -25  to initially apply to a planet. In return, it gives a staggering +1, +2, or +3  per  on that planet. These are not destroyed when another faction conquers a Hissho system.

## Observances

A unique mechanic available only to the Hissho are periodic religious cycles, during which a population can be sacrificed (similarly to usage of the Chain Gang Program), for benefits specific to that observance. The observances change each time an election cycle comes up, and they proceed (and repeat) in the order listed below.

Each observance will either give an immediate reward or cause an effect-over-time. Those which do an effect-over-time cannot be stacked (you can't re-perform them once they're providing their bonus to the system). The one which does provide an immediate reward (5 ) can be repeated every turn for another reward.

### Sun God's Ritual

    Also known as Kapak Rayumi, this offering to the primary god of the Hissho converts ordinary citizens into warriors.

###### Effects

Causes a system to convert +50% of its  into , for 10 turns (on normal speed).

###### Strategic Implications

This effect is something you'll rarely want to use, since the Hissho usually don't have problems with . However, in the event you are suffering a serious  shortage, a single use of this on a core world will give you a massive influx of  - because this scales with the  already produced on a system, the ideal place to use this is a core system where the system is already full of population.

### Blood Ritual

    Also known as the Ezukiza, it is a giant public sacrifice to the gods and ancestors. Citizens, criminals, and prisoners of war are often among those who sacrifice themselves voluntarily in return for prestige, family honor, gifts to their kin, and a brief moment of glory.

###### Strategic Implications

This is probably the most attractive observance for the Hissho, since  is very hard to come by, and the amount of  granted by this is relatively high. Because this gives a flat bonus that takes no account of how developed the system is (and because pop-sacrifice annuls any  production on a system for a full turn), this is ideally performed on undeveloped fringe planets with low population counts.

### Diligence Ritual

    Also known as Chawa Harkiz, this act of blood sacrifice is done by the Hissho to exhort the population to work harder and live more frugally.

###### Effects

Awards a bonus +50%  income on the system, for 10 turns (on normal speed).

###### Strategic Implications

Like the Sun God's Ritual, this is ideally best performed on a well-developed core system. Unlike the Sun God's Ritual, it's a relatively attractive proposition to use on a regular basis. It will tie up the system's production for 1 turn, but gives an extreme bonus to  income.

## Strategy

Hissho benefit from tall and aggressive play. Their preferred victory types are Supremacy and Science. They benefit from low player density, multi-armed galaxies and frequent quests.

### Colonization

Hissho have base colonization limit of 2. This is a serious bottleneck, because they get 5%  penalty for each system above the limit. Also, they have less ways to increase the limit than other civilizations. Namely, Hissho are limited to +1 bonus from Federation government and, in late game, Autonomous Administration system improvement.

This means that, ideally, they should sit on 2-4 systems most of the game. Consider taking systems in these cases:

* 1-2 systems near your capital, if they can be covered by one Behemoth
* Capitals, if you consider Supremacy victory
* 1 good system in central cluster for logistics (ideally annexed minors)

In other cases subdue and/or raze. If you annexed minor faction, send their pops to one system, sell improvements and vacate.

### Exploration

Retreats cost 10  . It is much more expensive than loss of exploration ship, so don't retreat. Build a few extra Glides in advance and equip them with best weapons available so they actually produce  before dying to pirates.

### Government

**Hatched at Home** law provides +25% , so it should be active all game.

You start in dictatorship. This means you can choose an  faction during first election to colonize planets in your second system without research. Eventually switch your government to Republic or Federation.

### War

    Ground combat is primary source of . Start by bullying pirates and minor factions first, then switch to your neighbors. Subjugate systems to get 10 , then raze them to get extra 5 .

Don't retreat unless you are at risk of losing an entire fleet.

#### Invasion:

Hissho replace the Pillage action in Ground Invasion Outcomes.

* Subdue (Hissho): Like Pillage except it also gives a big chunk of . No  penalty. Subduing the same place too quickly gives much less .

### Economy

Hissho are Resource Recoverers. That means that **each pop in capital system receives  bonus from every mining probe active in empire**. At some point it could lead to turn 33 Science victory; it isn't possible anymore, but probes are still a powerful economic asset in hands of Hissho.

The trick is to use multiple mining probes on mining behemoth. Their lifespan is added to each other; their cooldown is multiplied until reaching 1 turn. Behemoth with 3 Gouges of Tonatsi has 1 turn probe cooldown; each probe mines for 30 turns. When your home system is full, that equates to adding a fully populated planet to home system for 30 turns.

However, probes are fragile and will be removed by any hostile fleet moving in unguarded system. This includes: other empires' outposts, pirates, spawning pirate bases, hostile quest fleets of other empires. Ideally Hissho empire should have an entire arm of uninhabited planets just for probes.

## See also

Hissho Faction Quest

1. ↑ [Hissho turn 33 Science victory https://www.games2gether.com/amplitude-studios/endless-space-2/forums/66-game-design/threads/34387-hissho-resource-recoverer-is-too-much-over-powered]