Affinities (CivBE)

Civilization: Beyond Earth

Image seen when player levels up an Affinity

Affinities are a gameplay system in Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth designed to help you specialize your colony after the game begins. Strongly reminiscent of the philosophical viewpoints which shaped the factions in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the Affinities are answers to the question "We are beyond the limits of Earth-bound humanity; where do we go from here?"  Supremacy's answer is prosthetics, virtual reality, and uploading.  Purity's answer is to stay unchanged and facilitate solving Terran problems.  Harmony's answer is biological self-modification, eventually merging with the native lifeforms to create a hive mind. In Alpha Centauri, these correspond to the University of Planet, Lord's Believers, and Gaia's Stepdaughters factions, respectively; the other four factions are not represented. (The Rising Tide expansion pack adds hybrid Affinities, but none of these correspond to SMAC factions.)

What are Affinities?

Affinities are much like Ideologies in Civilization V: Brave New World in terms of direct game effects, but the way you develop them is substantially different. Ideologies were primarily set by the social development of a civilization and were therefore chosen rather than developing as an emergent consequence of other choices. Affinities are increased by technological advancement and side effects of quests, and making efficient use of certain resources which are present near your Capital requires advancing in particular Affinities: Floatstone needs  Purity, Xenomass needs  Harmony, and Firaxite needs  Supremacy. Consequently, Affinities develop primarily as a result of other choices whose principal benefits are unrelated.

There are also unlock systems which allow perks and upgrades for many types of buildings, unit, satellites, etc., based on your level in the Affinities. This means that Affinities have far-reaching implications shaping what strategies are viable for your civilization.

How do you develop Affinities?

There are two main ways to develop Affinities:

• Researching certain technologies. Many leaf technologies are associated with a given Affinity; when you research them, you devote your colony to the tech's respective Affinity. Note that Affinity progress is measured with Affinity points, which scale up as you advance in an Affinity - in other words, advancing from level 1 to level 2 of an Affinity takes fewer points than advancing from level 13 to level 14. Thus, technologies researched at different stages of the game will have different effects on your Affinity progress. An advanced technology researched early may give your colony two Affinity levels, while a basic technology researched late in the game may not give you enough points for even a single level (although the research order affects your overall progress - different technologies cost different amounts of Science).
• Choosing a certain Affinity-aligned goal during a quest. There are many quests in the game, and some of them will offer you a choice which will affect your Affinity progress.

Expeditions will sometimes award Affinity points, especially when they're done in Progenitor Ruins.

With sufficient Affinity points, players graduate to the next level of the given Affinity, unlocking benefits. There are no restrictions on how you develop your Affinities - you can choose to concentrate on a single one, or you may want to develop all three of them. However, the Affinity in which you have the most levels (starting at level 4) will always be considered the dominant one, and other players will react to it accordingly.

The AI players tend to choose an Affinity that's not chosen by their neighbors, but it is also clear that specific sponsors have no predetermined Affinity preference.

Affinity benefits

The advancement in Affinity levels brings your colony many benefits:

• Affinity special bonus. These are fixed bonuses which activate when you reach certain levels in an Affinity. The last bonus is always related to an Affinity victory condition, such as the ability to build the Mind Flower or Exodus Gate.
• Military unit upgrades. Each level in your primary Affinity will allow you to upgrade a unit type from your army. Starting from level 6, units get Affinity-specific looks and features which further deepen the story of the game and customization of your colony.
• Buildings accessible. Many buildings in the game can only be built if you reach a minimum level in a certain Affinity.
• Units accessible. As with buildings, there are Affinity-specific units which are unlocked after reaching the proper level in a certain Affinity.

Affinity victories

Finally, progressing enough in each Affinity (past level 13, or level 15 in Rising Tide) opens a new path to victory: Transcendence for  Harmony, Promised Land for  Purity, and Emancipation for  Supremacy. Achieving the minimum level in the selected Affinity doesn't automatically grant you the victory, however - there are some more things to be done afterwards.

Note that there are two other victory conditions - Contact and Domination - which don't require progression in any specific Affinity. Go for these victories if you don't feel strongly drawn to any of the Affinities and want to keep a broad approach to developing your colony.

Harmony

Main article: Harmony (CivBE)

Harmony Icon

Harmony is one of the three affinities in Civilization: Beyond Earth. Instead of changing an alien world to suit them, the followers of this Affinity alter their own DNA with various traits from the local wildlife in order to be able to survive there. Ultimately, most Harmony purists seek to build a biotechnological construct which will, through the use of specialized nanites, eventually link all organisms with brains on the planet into one massive compound intelligence on par with a god. They are able to have alien creatures as units and specialize in rapid movement and the use of the planet's terrain and natural features in their military affairs. Their chosen resource specialization is Xenomass.

Harmony bonuses (Rising Tide)

Points	Unlocks
2	Trade routes can be made through miasma.
5	Each improved Xenomass provides two more resources than normal.
8	Units take no damage from Miasma
12	+1 from Biowell improvements
15	Allows for Harmony to construct the Mind Flower and its Mind Stems in order to prepare for ascension.

Harmony Soldier Progression

Purity

Main article: Purity (CivBE)

Purity Icon

Purity is one of the three affinities in Civilization: Beyond Earth. The Purity affinity desires to preserve and improve upon mankind as they are and seeks to convert the planet into a state similar to Old Earth before the Great Mistake, regardless of what happens to the local wildlife. The ultimate goal of a Purity purist is to eventually resettle much of the Earth's diaspora onto the planet and save that world from overpopulation and resource depletion. Purity military forces concentrate mostly on mechanical exoskeletons, energy weapons, and amphibious attacks, thanks to their armadas of LEV vehicles. Their chosen resource specialization is Floatstone.

Purity bonuses (Rising Tide)

Points	Unlocks
2	+20% Combat Strength and Ranged Strength when attacking or defending against aliens.
5	+1 Energy and +1 Culture from Floatstone
8	+2 Energy and +1 Health from Terrascapes
12	+1 Food from Dome improvements
15	Unlocks the secrets of Warp Gate construction, permitting progress toward the Promised Land victory.

Purity Soldier Progression

Supremacy

Main article: Supremacy (CivBE)

Supremacy Icon

Supremacy is one of the three affinities in Civilization: Beyond Earth. They focus on improving technology and improving themselves with cybernetics in order to be able to survive the harshest of environments on the new planet regardless of outside conditions. The ultimate goal of pure Supremacists is to eventually ascend into a massive digital consciousness and return to Earth in order to free the humans there from their organic bodies and bring about a new age of digital and mechanical immortality. Their resource specialization is Firaxite.

Supremacy bonuses (Rising Tide)

Points	Unlocks
2	Explorer Units can build an additional expedition
5	Orbital Coverage on and next to any tile with Firaxite
8	-25% maintenance to units
12	+1 Production to nodes
15	The secrets of Space-Time warping are unlocked, allowing for the construction of the Emancipation Gate and the eventual enlightening of all mankind.

Supremacy Soldier Progression

Hybrid Affinities

With the arrival of the Rising Tide expansion, it is now possible to blend two Affinities together to gain access to an entirely new set of units that contain a few of the basic strengths of both factions as well as some new traits of their own.

Rising Tide has no hybrid victory conditions; however, hybrid unit upgrades will always require lower Affinity levels than pure third-tier upgrades.

Harmony-Purity

Harmony-Purity icon

Obsessed with purity of form beyond even the most extreme Purity purists, Harmonal Purists use extremely complex genetic technology in order to not merely improve upon man, but to accelerate his evolution into something stronger, more intelligent, and far more capable than his current existence. Harmonal Purist units usually appear very anthropomorphic and "godlike" and are painted in gilded coloring across their entire bodies save for the telltale Purist stripe of red.

Harmony-Purity bonuses

Points	Unlocks
2 2	+1 Culture per level of  Harmony or  Purity
5 5	Unhealth from number of cities reduced by 25%
8 8	Damaged units heal at least 3 HP per turn
10 10	+25% Production towards military units

Harmony-Purity Soldier Progression

Purity-Supremacy

Purity-Supremacy Icon

Simply put, Puritanical Supremacists are dedicated to the complete and total separation of man from machine and the perfection of both to the highest degree, constructing enormous robotic war machines with AI of animal-level intelligence piloted by men clad in advanced (but not powered) armor. Their unit colors are usually pure white with bluish lighting effects.

Purity-Supremacy bonuses

Points	Unlocks
2 2	+2 Energy per level of  Purity or  Supremacy
5 5	Unhealth from global size of population reduced by 25%
8 8	+10% Energy and 1 Health for cities with a defending military unit on its tile
10 10	+10% Production and +10% Culture for cities in range of a friendly orbital unit

Purity Supremacy Soldier Progression

Supremacy-Harmony

Supremacy-Harmony Icon

Willing to sacrifice everything in order to ensure the survival of humankind, Harmonal Supremacists replace so much of their bodies with cybernetic grafts and vat-grown alien tissue that it is almost impossible to tell where the flesh ends, the machine begins, and if the unit was human at all to begin with. Their unit colors are metallic purple with dark indigo lighting and most of their land-based mechanical units resemble the alien species of the planet.

Supremacy-Harmony bonuses

Points	Unlocks
2 2	+1 Science per level of  Supremacy or  Harmony
5 5	+5 Health
8 8	+10% Growth in all Cities
10 10	+0.4 Health for every military unit under your command

Supremacy Harmony Soldier Progression

Hybrid Affinity Unit Name Table

Hybrid Affinity	Upgrade Prefix	Unique Units	Tier 4 Unit Names
			Soldier	Patrol Boat	Ranger	Combat Rover	Gunboat
Purity-Harmony	First	Immortal Architect Throne	Champion	Argo	Kodiak	Gladiator	Mako
Supremacy-Purity	Master	Drone Cage Autosled Golem	Eidolon	Baron	Virtuoso	Maestro	Countess
Harmony-Supremacy	Elder	Nanohive Geliopod Aquilon	Hellion	Vortex	Fury	Savage	Wrath

Videos

Beyond Earth Rising Tide - Hybrid Affinities