Don't crack your planets. Cravers, when working toward endgame, want as many depleted planets as possible. Once you hit your population break point you get a damage bonus on ALL fleet projectile weapons equal to the number of depleted planets in your empire. It can be tempting to sandbag for rare luxury but since Cravers deplete planets you will get the most value out of common and uncommon modernization allowing you to unlock Autonomous Administration to expand your empire.

Once a system is fully depleted consider shipping Craver population to other locations and shipping in minor factions to keep key systems producing larger numbers. Senator Heros and one of the quest buildings (the name escapes me) will lock a system's approval at 100% and mitigate the Slave Driver approval penalty while still reaping the benefit if you can keep a single Craver per planet in system.

War is your biggest asset with Cravers. Via militarist laws, various modules that further boost gains and tactics cards like Take Trophies and Science from Scrap you can gain thousands of Dust, Science and Influence just from starting brawls with anything not controlled by you. Leverage that, demolishing buildings that start to get very expensive as the game goes on to keep yourself from going bankrupt should the need arise.

As for early to mid game it can be worth it to micro manage populations, segregating Craver populations away from undepleted planets and using minor populations to keep output as high as possible. Once you can begin expanding without restriction start spreading Cravers around to maximize depletion to take advantage of their firepower bonuses.

Lastly, and your mileage may vary, prioritize collecting as many titanium deposits as possible. Paired up with Craver depletion and the titanium weapons tech you will be head and shoulders above the military capacity of any other faction based on map size. The largest maps can give a Craver Fleet more power than another fleet with a hero attached and the extra accuracy of titanium missiles in mass can rapidly decimate targets at range while titanium slugs offer very respectable damage as well, plus protection from squadrons should the need arise.

Thanks for the advice!

I actually started over on a new map and had much more success once I actually had even a single neighbor to pillage. XD

I'm in the endgame now, finished the Academy quest, over halfway through the turn limit and I'm in the process of smushing my enemies with the 50 Craver pop bonus and swarms of basic ships with Titanium weapons.

It's mildly annoying that my foes keep re-settling planets that I've already ransacked into the ground, but I'm making good progress extinctifying my second enemy empire. I have 2 juggernauts (one more coming) that's making my fleets scary enough that my enemies often retreat rather than fight. :P

Originally posted by Aegix Drakan:

Thanks for the advice!

I actually started over on a new map and had much more success once I actually had even a single neighbor to pillage. XD

I'm in the endgame now, finished the Academy quest, over halfway through the turn limit and I'm in the process of smushing my enemies with the 50 Craver pop bonus and swarms of basic ships with Titanium weapons.

It's mildly annoying that my foes keep re-settling planets that I've already ransacked into the ground, but I'm making good progress extinctifying my second enemy empire. I have 2 juggernauts (one more coming) that's making my fleets scary enough that my enemies often retreat rather than fight. :P

Oh, don't feel disheartened if the AI keeps tossing colony ships at nearby systems. Those are often some of the best systems to pillage. Either raid them for resources or capture them or slap a quick modernization on and ship new slave populations to other systems for the extra pop growth and manpower before you evacuate the system. Never waste a good system that has a population of 10 or more. Ship them back to your depleted colonies to fuel the war efforts. Use your opponents, especially factions like Horatio or Riftborn, to skyrocket productions on key systems. Grow large enough and you can even start collecting their population bonuses and shrug off a portion of your own unsustainable nature.

One other bit of key advice I can offer is that once you hit a point you feel fairly unstoppable is to actually go to war with the Academy. Their fleet is often worth hundreds of thousands of dust, science and/or influence on it's own. Pair this with the fact you can take over their home system and force Isyander to spawn an additional fleet every turn or two in an attempt to reclaim the system and you will never need worry about the FIDSI you are farming him for, if you happen to build a proper fleet to counter him and heal up between waves.

Don't be afraid to let a faction or two beg you for a truce before your Faction Quest ends either. AI can sometimes offer you fantastic deals to stop punching them in the face, then turn around and declare war on you again anyway so your approval won't dip much in the grander scheme of things. Don't forget to keep pumping out those lovely, super cheap scout hulls either. Sprinkling them across your empire and into larger fleets with anti-cloaking modules will keep Craver worlds nice and safe as you will be able to see incoming fleets that slip past your front lines for counter attacks. I personally feel cloaking against AI to be rather worthless so an engine, probe of choice and anticloaker will give you more than enough map information to move your fleets around. Meat grinder raiding and attacks will often be your best play to keep a defensive stance, striking at fringe colonies till you want to aim for a win condition.

Oh yeah, anti-cloaking would have been handy lol. I ended up losing because of a Vaulter/Horatio Alliance, where the Vaulters managed to sneak the Argosy into the middle of my main cluster and Portaled a massive armada on one of the homeworlds I'd captured. XD

I could maybe have turned it around, but not in like 30 turns. :P I really hadn't quite moved fast enough in the mid-game, and also neglected Adamatium enough that it prevented me from getting upgrades I needed later on.

Still, Cravers were fun, thank you for your advice! Will save it for next time I give them a try!

Originally posted by Aegix Drakan:

Oh yeah, anti-cloaking would have been handy lol. I ended up losing because of a Vaulter/Horatio Alliance, where the Vaulters managed to sneak the Argosy into the middle of my main cluster and Portaled a massive armada on one of the homeworlds I'd captured. XD

I could maybe have turned it around, but not in like 30 turns. :P I really hadn't quite moved fast enough in the mid-game, and also neglected Adamatium enough that it prevented me from getting upgrades I needed later on.

Still, Cravers were fun, thank you for your advice! Will save it for next time I give them a try!

No problem. Vaulters will be one of the biggest thorns in your side, regardless of who you end up playing. They will often keep pace with you or exceed your growth in a few key ways and will often be the most militaristic faction you play against. When you notice them on the field try to make outright eliminating them a top priority while shifting into a slightly more defensive posture until you have enough fleets and anticloaking to deal with them. They wont just be invisible either as they can mask themselves as pirates so after a battle make sure to take a look at the bottom right of the after action report. If you get a message to the effect of Enemy Fleet Camouflage Failed it's a Vaulter fleet. Sadly I'll have to direct you to anyone else regarding Vaulter diplomacy as I tend to lean 'fanatical racism' against them. They are very likely to settle a single planet system directly next to your core production systems before declaring you are pushing them to the breaking point and starting hit and run tactics or outright war themselves. If the AI is going to be that stupid I tend to make it my mission to be the sole reason they go extinct in the following 40-80 turns.

Originally posted by Selegun:

If the AI is going to be that stupid I tend to make it my mission to be the sole reason they go extinct in the following 40-80 turns.

Honestly, in a 4X game? Valid response. XD

It's so weird seeing the Vaulters be so aggressive, when I myself played them super defensively. But it makes sense they can be, with so many sneaky attack options, allowing for a Deep Strike like that.

Originally posted by Aegix Drakan:

Originally posted by Selegun:

If the AI is going to be that stupid I tend to make it my mission to be the sole reason they go extinct in the following 40-80 turns.

Honestly, in a 4X game? Valid response. XD

It's so weird seeing the Vaulters be so aggressive, when I myself played them super defensively. But it makes sense they can be, with so many sneaky attack options, allowing for a Deep Strike like that.

Don't get me wrong, I've glassed enough of their planets to know the ins and outs of how their AI likes to do things. It's more I feel alittle disappointed I can reliably put money down on them being the most aggressive faction in any game they slip into. Cravers? Nope, AI will beg for dust then pout when you dont give them any. Hisshio? Nope, AI tends to huddle in a corner and mind it's own business more often than not. Vodyani and UE tend to be respectively aggressive but Vaulters take spite and stupidity to an extra level. As it stands Vaulters are the only faction I will go up against and intentionally divert research into unlocking one or more obliterator to scrub them from my game a smidge faster.

Originally posted by Selegun:

Originally posted by Aegix Drakan:

Honestly, in a 4X game? Valid response. XD

It's so weird seeing the Vaulters be so aggressive, when I myself played them super defensively. But it makes sense they can be, with so many sneaky attack options, allowing for a Deep Strike like that.

Don't get me wrong, I've glassed enough of their planets to know the ins and outs of how their AI likes to do things. It's more I feel alittle disappointed I can reliably put money down on them being the most aggressive faction in any game they slip into. Cravers? Nope, AI will beg for dust then pout when you dont give them any. Hisshio? Nope, AI tends to huddle in a corner and mind it's own business more often than not. Vodyani and UE tend to be respectively aggressive but Vaulters take spite and stupidity to an extra level. As it stands Vaulters are the only faction I will go up against and intentionally divert research into unlocking one or more obliterator to scrub them from my game a smidge faster.

Huh, I had a slightly different experience with the Hisso in my Vaulter Run. They expanded all over the place, and declared ceremonial wars on me like 5 times (twice when I was already busy with the Horatio who just wanted to murderize me for being not even that close to them. XD After the fourth time, I just tried my best to finish them off.

Same with the UE. They're almost always reliable allies to me (then again I never started next to them). Vodyani meanwhile just typically get bullied into obsolescence before the midgame most of the time I play.

...Maybe it's the AI tweaks mod I downloaded?

But I hear you on being really weirded how the Cravers aren't the most aggressive faction. Like, they really should be, no?

Originally posted by Aegix Drakan:

Originally posted by Selegun:

Don't get me wrong, I've glassed enough of their planets to know the ins and outs of how their AI likes to do things. It's more I feel alittle disappointed I can reliably put money down on them being the most aggressive faction in any game they slip into. Cravers? Nope, AI will beg for dust then pout when you dont give them any. Hisshio? Nope, AI tends to huddle in a corner and mind it's own business more often than not. Vodyani and UE tend to be respectively aggressive but Vaulters take spite and stupidity to an extra level. As it stands Vaulters are the only faction I will go up against and intentionally divert research into unlocking one or more obliterator to scrub them from my game a smidge faster.

Huh, I had a slightly different experience with the Hisso in my Vaulter Run. They expanded all over the place, and declared ceremonial wars on me like 5 times (twice when I was already busy with the Horatio who just wanted to murderize me for being not even that close to them. XD After the fourth time, I just tried my best to finish them off.

Same with the UE. They're almost always reliable allies to me (then again I never started next to them). Vodyani meanwhile just typically get bullied into obsolescence before the midgame most of the time I play.

...Maybe it's the AI tweaks mod I downloaded?

But I hear you on being really weirded how the Cravers aren't the most aggressive faction. Like, they really should be, no?

That could be. I don't like the idea of modding my games for any reason. With one notable exception all of my collection is vanilla content.

I imagine the Cravers are actually aggressive when it suits them. Getting spread thin between all the war they may or may not actually be involved with does tend to split the AI's focus alot since wider scale conflict is not usually viable until late mid-game at the earliest for a player that has a decent hold on the game but still learning the faction.

Originally posted by Aegix Drakan:

So I've decided to give the Cravers a spin for my third game of ES2.

One one hand, loving the lore and quests, it's terrifying (and I feel like I may have gone the wrong way by plugging in a certain early game thingy).

On the other hand, hooo boy are they different from how I usually play 4X games (big focus on diplomacy, cranking science and Econ to the max, then rapid targeted military actions between large bouts of peace). I'm at a bit of a loss in some respects.

I have a super isolated start, I'm at my planet limit and haven't seen more than a brief glimpse of a Vaulter ship. I also have very few luxuries, meaning my Craver population is exploding over my... Um..... "Snack" population.

So... What do I do when my worlds start getting depleted and I no longer have any Planetary Colonisation wiggle room? Do I just eat the approval penalty? Do I research planet crackers and blow up my own homeworld??

I agree with the points made above that having depleted planets can maximize your damage in war.

However, there is an economic way to play cravers that makes them supremely strong...but it has the downside of being more micro-intense ( they are the most micro-intensive civ in endless space 2).

You use your space port to continually move your cravers to newly conquered worlds. You play wide. This has three benefits:

1 - You are leaving behind mature worlds (max improvements) to move populations you want to them ( think haroshem for sterile worlds for example).

2 - You are always benefiting from the cravers bonus to slavery and undepleted worlds. This can really snowball your economy.

3 - You are not losing any worlds FIDSI bonus to depletion. This makes sure your economy does not collapse in the late game when you need everything to come together for your victory..especially if you are playing on a large map where a quick conquest is not an option.

For an example of how to play this way, I show it off in my largest galaxy playthrough of the Cravers -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCrAEpKJrlY

Originally posted by Warlord Mal:

Originally posted by Aegix Drakan:

So I've decided to give the Cravers a spin for my third game of ES2.

One one hand, loving the lore and quests, it's terrifying (and I feel like I may have gone the wrong way by plugging in a certain early game thingy).

On the other hand, hooo boy are they different from how I usually play 4X games (big focus on diplomacy, cranking science and Econ to the max, then rapid targeted military actions between large bouts of peace). I'm at a bit of a loss in some respects.

I have a super isolated start, I'm at my planet limit and haven't seen more than a brief glimpse of a Vaulter ship. I also have very few luxuries, meaning my Craver population is exploding over my... Um..... "Snack" population.

So... What do I do when my worlds start getting depleted and I no longer have any Planetary Colonisation wiggle room? Do I just eat the approval penalty? Do I research planet crackers and blow up my own homeworld??

I agree with the points made above that having depleted planets can maximize your damage in war.

However, there is an economic way to play cravers that makes them supremely strong...but it has the downside of being more micro-intense ( they are the most micro-intensive civ in endless space 2).

You use your space port to continually move your cravers to newly conquered worlds. You play wide. This has three benefits:

1 - You are leaving behind mature worlds (max improvements) to move populations you want to them ( think haroshem for sterile worlds for example).

2 - You are always benefiting from the cravers bonus to slavery and undepleted worlds. This can really snowball your economy.

3 - You are not losing any worlds FIDSI bonus to depletion. This makes sure your economy does not collapse in the late game when you need everything to come together for your victory..especially if you are playing on a large map where a quick conquest is not an option.

For an example of how to play this way, I show it off in my largest galaxy playthrough of the Cravers -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCrAEpKJrlY

A solid video for sure.

Something to keep in mind is that you don't need to steal systems and push yourself past the cap. Raids and pillaging often gives you a ton of resources without the need to full on capture those systems. My last game with Cravers had very low resources, forcing me to raid nearby systems for luxury so I could even hope to utilize Autonomous Administration. Fortunately my starting constellation was chock full of minor civs to war with and by the time I was depleting systems I could shove the slaves around to bolster the systems that needed it most.

Originally posted by Selegun:

Originally posted by Warlord Mal:

I agree with the points made above that having depleted planets can maximize your damage in war.

However, there is an economic way to play cravers that makes them supremely strong...but it has the downside of being more micro-intense ( they are the most micro-intensive civ in endless space 2).

You use your space port to continually move your cravers to newly conquered worlds. You play wide. This has three benefits:

1 - You are leaving behind mature worlds (max improvements) to move populations you want to them ( think haroshem for sterile worlds for example).

2 - You are always benefiting from the cravers bonus to slavery and undepleted worlds. This can really snowball your economy.

3 - You are not losing any worlds FIDSI bonus to depletion. This makes sure your economy does not collapse in the late game when you need everything to come together for your victory..especially if you are playing on a large map where a quick conquest is not an option.

For an example of how to play this way, I show it off in my largest galaxy playthrough of the Cravers -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCrAEpKJrlY

A solid video for sure.

Something to keep in mind is that you don't need to steal systems and push yourself past the cap. Raids and pillaging often gives you a ton of resources without the need to full on capture those systems. My last game with Cravers had very low resources, forcing me to raid nearby systems for luxury so I could even hope to utilize Autonomous Administration. Fortunately my starting constellation was chock full of minor civs to war with and by the time I was depleting systems I could shove the slaves around to bolster the systems that needed it most.

Hey thanks man!

Yeah Autonomous Administration is always a beast to get rolling in the end game.

But your low-resource start with the Cravers definitely showcases the strength of that Civ. Well done on overcoming a hard start!

Originally posted by Warlord Mal:

Originally posted by Selegun:

A solid video for sure.

Something to keep in mind is that you don't need to steal systems and push yourself past the cap. Raids and pillaging often gives you a ton of resources without the need to full on capture those systems. My last game with Cravers had very low resources, forcing me to raid nearby systems for luxury so I could even hope to utilize Autonomous Administration. Fortunately my starting constellation was chock full of minor civs to war with and by the time I was depleting systems I could shove the slaves around to bolster the systems that needed it most.

Hey thanks man!

Yeah Autonomous Administration is always a beast to get rolling in the end game.

But your low-resource start with the Cravers definitely showcases the strength of that Civ. Well done on overcoming a hard start!

Thanks! I deeply enjoy running any chaos settings I can while also lowering available resources to test my flexibility. The start felt a bit easier due to having...I think it was 8 minor factions clogging up my constellation so I was never hurting for production or science. Food quickly became an issue requiring me to rush teraforming to convert planets before they depleted. Only having Transvine for luxury, 3 nodes of .5 a turn was kinda brutal so I had to rush scouts to see what else was farther away. To be honest I think I lucked out raiding a Vaulter colony as it let me pillage boat loads of luxury so I set a dedicated fleet in orbit to farm their ships that came to defend while waiting the cooldown to raid them again. Between using them to collect luxury and their innate titanium and hyperium generation I managed to scrape together some decent fleets that could farm the academy as that is my go to strat due to their spawn method. 1-2 high CP fleets attempting to retake their system every 2 turns keeps dust and science entirely off the to-do list and lets you focus on everything else.