The Riftborn/Gameplay

The Riftborn are sentient beings from another universe who naturally control the fourth dimension: time.

About
**Gameplay**
Traits
Ships
Strategy

The Riftborn for the most part operate within the normal game mechanics of ES2; they have several "twists" that make planetary choices (and food/approval management) very different, but they don't completely upend gameplay in the way that some other factions like the Vodyani or Umbral Choir would.

## Continuum Sculptors:

The Riftborn can build special "time bubbles", known as "Singularities". These typically cost 1 turn of construction, some strategic resources, and some dust. They come in 5 different types which can be unlocked as the game goes on, and their effects generally have to deal with slowing down or accelerating production (of all resources) on target systems, although there are a few of them with somewhat *stranger* effects.

## Constructed Population:

Although the Riftborn can grow almost any population type via food like any other faction, their primary population type, called "Riftborn" are instead built via an explicit industry-construction action on a system. The cost increases with the count of this population you have, but there's a flat minimum where no matter what, it will at least take a full turn to complete.

These specific "Riftborn" pop units can be drafted/etc, but cannot die to starvation. If they are the only pop units present on a system, the food value will simply be set to zero. Note that there's a rare mechanic (usually resulting from winning a colonization contest), where a system will be considered to have a full riftborn pop unit, and a *fraction* of another pop unit. If this is the case, the system will be allowed to grow this fraction of another pop unit into a full unit (i.e. the food+growth mechanic will turn back on).

## Biophobic:

The native Riftborn population finds the way that organic/biological materials can self-animate to be deeply unsettling, even horrifying, and are very uncomfortable living on any planets that exhibit these features of the endless universe. They're much more comfortable on planets with none of these sorts of behaviors. In-game, this is represented by a  bonus on sterile planets, and a malus on fertile planets. It's worth noting that this applies uniformly to all population units regardless of type; this doesn't just apply to those of the specific "Riftborn" race.

In-game, this is also represented by an absolute political unwillingness to terraform into more fertile planets; as a Riftborn player, you're actually allowed to terraform in the opposite direction - towards sterile planets, instead (this, as with most of their mechanics, is tied to the "Continuum Sculptors" trait, if you're building a custom faction).

Furthermore, through a few unique technologies and their trait, they can add multiple population slots to sterile planets (currently they uniquely get +4  to sterile, and -1  to fertile), cancelling out what ends up being one of the biggest downsides to sterile planets - their tiny pop capacity.

## Industry-driven Colonization:

The Riftborn have a twist on the usual colonization mechanics, where instead of being dependent on the food value of the target system, they depend on the industry value. They also don't send "supply ships". This is covered in detail in the colonization game mechanic wiki page.