Overview

This chapter discusses the Virtue system. Your nation builds Culture until it reaches certain thresholds; when that happens, you gain a new Virtue and must then build Culture to an even higher value before you're able to grab another one. This section explains how to specialize your colony using the Virtue system and how to get the most possible Virtues without sacrificing other aspects of your nation's development.

Culture is the key to getting Virtues. You can improve your colony's cultural output using domes and terrascapes (tile improvements), culture buildings (e.g., Old Earth relics and feedsite hubs), social development (a production option), or by looking for expedition sites and resource pods.

Larger societies require more Culture to advance to each stage of Virtue. The more Cities you acquire, the higher your Culture threshold becomes. That doesn't always mean that a small civilization is going to get more Virtues. Instead, it means that colonies must emphasize cultural development whether they're massive or tiny. Simply grabbing more Cities doesn't do much to help you advance in this system.

There are four branches of Virtues: Might, Prosperity, Knowledge, and Industry. All four of these are incredibly powerful, as they focus on core elements of gameplay. Though this chapter discusses each of them in detail, the short version is as follows: Might helps you conquer enemies and defend your territory, Prosperity aids in settling and expansion, Knowledge centers on the Culture and research of your nation, and Industry lets you acquire wealth and better infrastructure.

This system lets you devote Virtues from the top down in any category that you want. You must invest Virtues into higher areas before you're able to unlock access to items deeper within each branch. This lets you navigate from minor general bonuses to far more specific (and powerful) bonuses toward the end of each branch.

All branches are divided into three tiers of content. You start up top, eventually work your way to the middle, and then move to the lower tier of the branch. Players can mix and match to their hearts' content. If you want to put points into all four Virtue branches, you're free to do so. There are even rewards for spreading your points around. Heavy investment in a single branch unlocks branch-specific rewards. Distributed investment unlocks broad rewards that are based on investing points in a given tier.

These two types of rewards are called synergy bonuses. There are three synergy bonuses for each branch, and then six bonuses across the various tiers (three for Tier I, two for Tier II, and one for Tier III).

Tier Synergy Bonuses

Synergy bonuses within each branch are given every five Virtues. Thus, you get a reward for putting five Virtues into any single branch, then another reward after 10 Virtues, and then another after 15 selections. These bonuses are specific to the branches in question, and it's about time you learned about them!