If you’ve ever spent 20 turns building up a border system only to lose it to a surprise Craver raid, you know how big a difference a single game-changing mechanic can make in Endless Space 2. I’ve put over 300 hours into the game across every faction, and I still get excited every time I unlock access to arks for my playthrough. Learning how to use the arks in Endless Space 2 isn’t just a nice-to-have trick for Lumeris or Vodyani players—it’s a core strategy that can turn a struggling run into a galaxy-conquering victory before turn 100. Most new players write arks off as overpriced, slow moving platforms, but when you use them correctly, they offer perks no other building or ship can match.
How to Use the Arks in Endless Space 2 for Early Game Expansion
Most new players only associate arks with the Vodyani faction, but almost every faction can unlock ark technology in the early society tech tree, usually around turn 30 on standard difficulty. That’s far earlier than most advanced colonization tech that lets you settle harsh or distant planets, which makes arks the perfect tool for fast, low-risk expansion. If you’re playing on higher difficulty levels, AI factions will rush to claim every viable system within the first 50 turns, so being able to skip the colony ship travel time gives you a massive leg up.
Arks can claim unoccupied star systems the second they enter the orbit, no need to wait for a colony module to build up population or clear local pirate threats first. You can also use arks to steal contested systems right out from under an AI's nose: if you see a rival faction sending a colony ship to a good system, send your ark on a direct route, and you’ll almost always get there first, even if the ark is slower. Just make sure you have a non-aggression pact with that faction first, or they’ll declare war on you for poaching their territory.
The only real downside to using arks for early expansion is their high initial production cost. You’ll want to prioritize building your first ark in your home system, where production is highest, instead of diverting resources from smaller, newer systems. I made the mistake of building my first ark in a brand new 1-pop system once, and it took 40 turns to finish, by which point every good system within 10 jumps was already claimed.
Using Arks as Mobile Fortresses for Border Defense
A lot of players only use arks for colonization, but they’re also one of the strongest defensive units in the game, and far more cost-effective than building dozens of defense platforms across all your border systems. You don’t have to leave them parked in a system permanently to get value out of their defensive perks either—you can move them between hot spots as conflicts pop up across your empire.
A fully upgraded ark has more health and firepower than three standard cruisers, plus it grants a 25% defense bonus to every friendly ship in the same system. That means even a small escort fleet paired with an ark can fend off a much larger attacking force without taking heavy losses. I used this trick last run when I was playing a Lumeris game next to a very aggressive Craver faction. I parked a fully upgraded ark on my border system, and the Cravers tried to raid it three separate times, each time losing half their fleet before they even got close to the system’s planets.
That saved me so much production I didn’t have to divert from building science and dust buildings in my core systems. Arks also provide a 15% production bonus to the system they’re parked in, so you can use that to crank out replacement ships even faster when a war breaks out. Just remember that if you move the ark away, you lose all those bonuses immediately, so you’ll want to have a small fleet of defense ships left behind if you need to redeploy the ark to another front.
Unlocking Hidden Ark Bonuses for Faction-Specific Playstyles
Each faction that has native access to arks gets unique, often overlooked perks that can completely change how you use these platforms. Even if you’re playing a custom faction, you can add the ark trait during creation to unlock these bonuses for any playstyle. The most impactful faction-specific ark perks include:
- Vodyani Arks: You can sacrifice 10 population from a nearby system to double the ark's production and movement speed for 10 turns, perfect for rushing to a contested system before a rival can claim it. You can also use this bonus to outrun pirate fleets if you send an ark unescorted by mistake.
- Lumeris Arks: You can set the ark to act as a floating trade hub, increasing dust income from all trade routes in a 3-jump radius by 40% without taking up a system building slot. This is especially useful if you have a cluster of small border systems that don’t have space for extra trade buildings.
- Horatio Arks: You can use the ark's cloning facilities to create a perfect population copy for any planet in the system, cutting down terraforming time by 70%. This lets you get barren or frozen planets up and running in just a few turns, instead of waiting 30+ for standard terraforming tech to kick in.
I see so many Horatio players waste this bonus by leaving their arks parked in their home system, when they could be jumping to newly colonized desert or tundra planets to get them producing resources far earlier. If you’re playing a custom faction, just note that the ark trait costs 10 faction points, so you’ll have to give up a minor bonus like extra starting dust or population to take it. It’s almost always worth the trade off, even if you don’t plan to use arks for expansion.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Arks
Even experienced players make these missteps that turn their ark from a massive asset into a resource sink that derails their entire run. The first and most common mistake is building too many arks too early. Each ark costs 500 production and 100 dust per turn to maintain, so building more than 3 per playthrough will drain your resources faster than a Craver occupation. I once tried to build 6 arks for a wide Lumeris playthrough, and I ended up going bankrupt by turn 60 because I couldn’t cover the maintenance costs. I had to scrap 4 of them just to get back to positive income, which set me back almost 30 turns of progress.
Another big mistake is sending arks into battle alone. Even the strongest, fully upgraded ark can be taken down by a fleet of 8 or more corvettes if it has no escort, and losing an ark sets you back at least 20 turns of progress. You don’t need a huge escort fleet—2 to 3 frigates with anti-ship weaponry are usually enough to fend off most small raids. If you’re moving an ark through territory with active pirate nests, add a couple of corvettes to the escort to take out pirate fighters fast.
Finally, don’t leave your ark parked in a system with low stability. If the system's stability drops below 30%, the ark's bonuses get cut in half, so you're wasting all the resources you put into building it. You can fix this by dropping a few entertainment buildings in the system first, or assigning a governor with the stability boost trait to run the system. It’s a small fix that makes a huge difference in how much value you get out of your ark.
At the end of the day, arks are one of the most flexible, underrated mechanics in Endless Space 2, and learning to use them well will make even your hardest playthroughs feel far more manageable. You don’t have to main Vodyani or Lumeris to get value out of them either—even a single ark used for border defense or fast expansion can be the difference between losing a war and conquering half the galaxy. Take these tips for a spin in your next run, and you'll be shocked at how much easier mastering how to use the arks in Endless Space 2 makes every step of your empire's journey.