Vanilla Factions Expanded - Insectoids 2 - Swarm Disaster

WARNING: If you're a Vanilla-Oriented player, or typically play below Losing is Fun difficulty, you may want to look elsewhere.

The Sky-Darkening swarm has arrived. At THEIR command, the Rim bears witness to but a fragment of that cruel, ancient war.

Supported languages: 简体中文, 繁體中文, English, Russian (Русский)

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Reminder: Make sure your mod environment provides combat power above vanilla levels (e.g. DMS). Otherwise, unless you're a veteran who routinely plays at 500% raid strength, the enhancements this mod provides will make fighting insectoids very, VERY difficult.

Spoiler

Testing has confirmed that closed killboxes (choke-point style) can withstand 500% threat raids even with Monarchs present. Currently, Sorne, Chelis, and Nuchadus can be consistently defeated, while other types may still require some luck. This proves that the mod is fully viable for a "Vanilla + All DLCs" playthrough—provided you are a high-skilled player

VFEI2 Enhancement comprehensively strengthens both vanilla and VFEI2 insectoids, turning them into powerful enemies with growth potential. You can also leverage this trait to cultivate your own insectoid army. Beyond increased difficulty, this mod also provides some QOL improvements to enhance the gameplay experience.

Quality of Life

Destroying insectoid outposts now grants goodwill with all factions and clears all connected creep terrain. Player-side insectoids can enter dormancy — a long-term sleep state that consumes almost no food and reduces performance overhead. They automatically awaken when danger is detected. Insect meat and chitin now have more uses — for example, insect meat can be converted into neutroamine at a drug lab.

Player-Side Buffs

Insect jelly can now be used to lay creep flooring, and all hive cocoon spawn timers are reduced by 1 day. Most production facilities are now relocatable, and the hive core can be built aboard gravships. Hivenode maintenance radius increased by 2 (now 9 tiles). Hive turrets are now stronger and can be manually force-targeted. Thornpod regrow cooldown reduced to 2 days. The Petroglypher can now convert regular hive walls. Hivestone walls are upgraded to 1000 HP, are no longer flammable, and have an increased self-heal rate The Petroglypher now produces 60 steel or 20 uranium every 2.5 days after conversion is complete, instead of chitin. Key feature: Boss-dropped pherocores can be used to grant an insectoid 1 evolution buff, giving it more powerful abilities — you can manually create a monster. Certain insectoids with production capabilities now produce more efficiently. A tamed Empress can produce royal-caste insectoids

Spoiler

In vanilla, the titantick produces chemfuel at 5/day, while the vanilla boomalope produces 11/day. Who designed these numbers?

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Insectoid Enhancements

Universal: Base stats increased; more units spawn per wave. Some insectoids gain higher pain resistance and reduced bleeding. Monarchs now have an extremely low chance to spawn naturally. Sorne: Higher-tier units appear more frequently. Chelis: Features smarter jump AI. Has a unique "hunting momentum" mechanic — gained on spawn and after using jump abilities. While active, greatly increases movement speed and melee capability. Taking hits or landing attacks reduces the duration. Nuchadus: Now have standard ranged attacks. Some units' ranged attacks reduce the target's heat armor. Kemian: Now have standard ranged attacks. Some units' ranged attacks reduce the target's armor and inflict toxic buildup. Xanides: Armor mechanic reworked to "linearly degrades on damage taken" — once the carapace is broken, they linearly gain speed and melee power. Greatly enhanced bleed resistance and effective stagger resistance.

Boss Enhancements

Aura Buffs: When a monarch is present on the map, all same-geneline insectoids receive stat bonuses. Escort Squads: When a monarch spawns, a fixed number of additional insectoids appear as an escort squad with enhanced stats. New Abilities: Some monarchs have gained new abilities — for example, the Empress can instantly force nearby swarmlings to cocoon and cause all existing cocoons to hatch immediately.

Global Evolution

Insectoids grow stronger the more you fight them. Kill-Based Evolution: As insectoid deaths accumulate, newly spawned insectoids gain random enhancement buffs. At 5,000 total kills, the system reaches maximum intensity — all insectoids will spawn with a guaranteed max-tier evolution hediff. Scaling Threat: Insectoid raids scale with your colony wealth — for example, once wealth exceeds 500,000, large-scale insectoid raids are guaranteed to include a monarch.

Spoiler

When any of the following mods are enabled — GlitterWorld Destroyer 5 / Mechanoid: Total War / Milira Faction Expansion: Milira Empire / United Heavy Industries — insectoid buffs are further strengthened for maximum carnage.

Swarm Intelligence

A configurable mod option that is off by default. It does not affect any stats — only certain insectoid behaviors. When enabled, the offensive capability of insectoids will multiply dramatically in certain scenarios.

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Q&A

Q: CE compatible? A: Yes — at least I haven't found any issues in testing. Q: Can I add this to an existing save? A: Yes, but your existing insectoids will be missing some hediffs — time to give them an upgrade. Q: The enemies are too strong, I can't win! A: Fight insectoids with insectoids, just like you'd fight mechanoids with mechanoids — they didn't patent the idea.

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