Hello everyone.
This is the second of two Developer Blogs covering strategy after the release of Distant Worlds 2: Return of the Shakturi. As most Distant Worlds players know, the Shakturi are an ancient and terrible threat which was responsible for the last cataclysmic galactic war, the scars and remains of which are visible throughout the current galaxy. The goal of these blogs will be to pull back the curtain a bit on the Shakturi crisis and help you figure out how to defeat these terrifying arch-enemies.
If you don’t want any spoilers regarding the story, you should stop here. If you’d rather try for one of the other two endings, either joining the Shakturi and helping them win or staying out of both the Shakturi Axis and the Freedom Alliance, we’ll mention those only briefly. Our focus will be on how to stop the Shakturi conquering the galaxy.

Genetic Engineering

We discussed the importance of the Genetic engineering research tree in Part 1 when it comes to countering Shakturi influence on the Rift Striders and other space creatures. However, there’s a second part to this tree which gives you the opportunity to make some notable improvements to your empire. You can improve your troops, your militia, your ship crews and marines, your leaders and your population growth. While these are less direct counters to the problems posed by the Shakturi, if time allows they can add up to a significant boost for your forces.

The Ancient Guardians

Soon after the Shakturi emerge from the rifts, you will detect some anomalous magnetic pulses. Investigating these will allow you to make contact with the only remaining fully functional Ancient Guardian artificial intelligence. The Ancient Guardians may even pre-date the previous war against the Shakturi and have been preserving information that is critical to your war efforts.
They will give you the location of a map which will lead you to three special vaults, the Vaults of Creation, Aggression and Concealment. Exploring and opening these vaults before others can will give a special boost in countering the Shakturi advantages. I recommend prioritizing these as soon as you have the opportunity.


The Ancient Guardians will be reluctant to reveal the location of their final vault until the Shakturi bring in their first reinforcement fleet with a Planet Destroyer. Note that the frequency of Shakturi reinforcement fleets depends on the number of beacons the Shakturi control, so the timing will vary from game to game and of course if you take out some of their beacons that will buy you some time.


Either way, once a Shakturi Planet Destroyer arrives in the galaxy, the Ancient Guardians will reveal to you their final most hidden and most dangerous vault – the Vault of the Shakturi Mind.


The sooner you can open this vault, the better. Contained within are two key areas of knowledge. The first is the knowledge to build Mega-Ships like Planet Destroyers. You will get access to two projects once you open the vault. The first is for the special Mega-Ship hull, the second for a special weapon or other component for the Mega-Ship. These will vary depending on the faction you are playing. These projects will start mostly researched thanks to the knowledge in the Vault.


Being able to field Mega-Ships and possibly Planet Destroyers of your own can prove to be a decisive leveler against the Shakturi. Planet Destroyers are the quickest way to take out the Shakturi Beacons, but you’ll need to use them carefully.
Mega-Ships are best used manually for best results, coordinating with your automated fleets to provide them cover and clear defenses before sending them in. Even if you don’t normally design your own ships, you may want to choose your own Mega-Ship design to make sure it has all the capabilities you want it to have. Once a Planet Destroyer arrives at a location with a target, it takes time to charge up its weapon and while these are huge and tough ships, they are not meant to take on entire fleets by themselves and do require some coordination and support. Some Mega-Ships, like those of the Zenox or Quameno, are not about destroying planets at all but give you other unique capabilities to help you hold the line.


The second and most terrible secret revealed in the final vault is the information required to engineer the Xaraktor Virus. This is the only virus known to be targeted at the Shakturi. When you first gain access to research it, understand that it starts out quite dangerous to all living beings. If you have time to develop it further before deploying it, you will find that the improved versions becomes less dangerous to all except the Shakturi. The improved Xaraktor viruses become so dangerous to the Shakturi that a single outbreak could wipe out most of their population if deployed to the right world.
The Xaraktor Virus and Planet Destroyers are both weapons of desperation for the Freedom Alliance, but if you see no other path to the defeat of the Shakturi, it’s better to have these last ditch options than to not have them.
If you fail to open the Vault of the Shakturi Mind, the Ancient Guardians will eventually distribute this information as the Shakturi continue to rampage through the galaxy, but years of time will be lost waiting for that to happen which you could have used to build those Mega-Ships, so don’t delay!


Alternate Paths
If you choose not to fight against the Shatkuri, there are two other options.
First, you could join with the Shakturi and try to become part of the Shaktur Axis. If you do this, you will have a very powerful ally indeed, but realize that you will never be seen by the Shakturi as an equal. Within the Shaktur Axis alliance, they get the only deciding vote. If you join them, they’ll share the knowledge of the cure for the Psionic Virus with you and the Rift Striders will not focus their attention on you. They’ll also eventually share the knowledge of Mega-Ships with you so you can build your own to help them.
For the Shakturi Axis, the simple goal is conquest of the galaxy. You just need to get your victory score high enough by having the most population, worlds and the largest economy in order to win.
Second, you may decide that your path is a neutral one. If you don’t join the Freedom Alliance or the Shaktur Axis, you will be looking to make sure neither of them win and they remain locked in a stalemate allowing your empire and other neutral empires to survive independently. In this case, the Ancient Guardians will eventually share the knowledge of Mega-Ships with you as well in order to fortify all non-Shakturi aligned factions, though you’ll get them later than the Freedom Alliance would get access to them unless you can find and open the Vault of the Shakturi Mind without help from the Ancient Guardians.
Your goal is to survive long enough while preventing both the Shaktur Axis and the Freedom Alliance winning before enough years have passed. Good luck, this can be quite tough to achieve!


I hope you enjoy your experiences with the Shakturi Crisis, whatever way you choose to play it.
Please stay tuned for more information in early 2025 about our plans for the next Distant Worlds 2 release!

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