How to colonize a system with no food production

endless-space

Endless Space generates some systems that have no food producing planets. How can I successfully colonize one of these systems?

System with three barren planets and one lava

Best Answer

There are a variety of ways you can get food in systems like this; generally combining as many as possible is the way to go, given how important food is in Endless Space.

  • Build food planetary exploitations on the planets
  • Bring a leveled-up administrator hero with the +food abilities (and ideally +production as well)
  • Focus on building (or buying) system improvements that will give you food on those planets
  • Buyout terraforms on the first planet you settle to get it to a food-producing type, so that it can support the rest of the system
  • Explore available moons & build the system improvement that gives +3 food per person on explored moons

The Colonial Base (that you get for free when colonizing a system) provides +2 food to start with so your initial colonists don't immediately starve. From a comment by Raven Dreamer