AI War:AI Types

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The AI types you are fighting determine how the AI behaves and what ships and defenses it is able to use against you. Some types only give the AI access to extra units, while others radically alter its behavior. Some types are so defense-oriented they don't even launch regular waves, while others are extremely offense-oriented. The type you're up against can greatly influence how you play the game.

There are four broad categories: easy, moderate, hard, and red/technologist (very hard.) Note that while not all the red types are technologists, sometimes the wiki and game still refer to them all as "technologist."

If you give an AI a secondary type it almost always makes it more difficult, because where the two types would conflict with each other the AI always takes whatever would benefit it the most. For example, a Turtle/Mad Bomber will both send large waves and have heavy defenses on all planets.

AI Opponent Types by Expansion

Base Game AI Types

Zenith Remnant Added AI Types

Children of Neinzul Added AI Types

Light of the Spire Added AI Types

Ancient Shadows Added AI Types

Vengeance of the Machine Added AI Types

Destroyer of Worlds Added AI Types

AI Opponent Types by Difficulty

Note on AI wave sizes and reinforcements: AI wave sizes and reinforcement budgets are calculated based on AIP, which is then multiplied by a factor shown in the columns below.

Easier

AI Name	Wave & Reinforce Multipliers		Additional Spawns and Unlocks	Description
Bouncer (requires Vengeance of the Machine)	??	1.00	On all planets: All Wormhole Guard Posts replaced with normal Guard Posts	This AI uses normal guard posts instead of wormhole guard posts next to each of its wormholes. The result is that you generally take more losses the first time you attack a planet but you have a much easier time keeping it from reinforcing if you choose not to take it.
Chivalric (requires Vengeance of the Machine)	??	1.00	(none)	This AI refrains from targeting irreplaceable structures (like Advanced Factories, Fabricators, etc) other than your Home Command Station, and instead gets a bonus to the size of its Cross Planet Attacks. When present in an AI with a secondary AI type, this type's "do not target irreplaceable structures" characteristic is dominant despite being a disadvantage.
Cowardly (requires Destroyer of Worlds)	??	1.00	(none)	Prefers engagements where it significantly outnumbers human forces, and is much quicker to retreat in other cases.
Entrenched Homeworlder	1.00	1.00	On many planets: Captive Human Settlements	Planets are heavily defended, and they do moderate attacks on the players.
Fortress Baron	1.00	1.00	On many planets: Fortresses On some planets: SuperFortresses	Planets are mostly moderately defended, but the core planets are incredibly heavily defended, and they do moderate attacks on the players. Their planets are frequently guarded by Fortresses, and sometimes by SuperFortresses.
Grav Driller (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.25	0.9	On many planets: Gravity Drills	Aggressive AI with many gravity drill stations on its planets. Gravity Drills nullify teleporting units and majorly slow down all other units, but when captured provide free resources and energy.
Mine Enthusiast	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Mines, Area Mines, and/or EMP Mines	Planets are all moderately defended, but are heavily booby-trapped with various Mines.
Neinzul Viral Enthusiast (requires Children of Neinzul)	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Neinzul Viral Clusters	Has Neinzul Viral Clusters at every wormhole that spawns lots of Swarmers, making the use of lightning warheads and similar against them... dangerous.
Shield Ninny (requires Zenith Remnant)	(1.00)	1.00	On all planets: Planetary Armor Boosters or Planetary Armor Inhibitors	Planets are all heavily defended, often with special armor Boosters or Inhibitors, but this AI never launches waves at the players.
Sledge Hammer	2.00	1.00	(none)	Waves are half as frequent but twice as strong.
Support Corps (requires Children of Neinzul)	(1.00)	1.00	Spawns units to attack waves of the other AI and defense of planets. Consists of Engineers, Mobile Repair Stations, Munitions Boosters, Shield Bearers, Decloakers. With ZR, add Decoy Drones and Armor Boosters.	Launches no waves of its own, but supports the waves of its ally by adding in various specialized units. Also supports its own planets and its ally's plants with those sorts of units.
The Tank	1.25	0.9	Extra Unlocks: Space Tanks and Armor Ships	Planets are all lightly defended, and they do slightly heavier-than-average attacks on the players.
Train Master (requires the Astro Trains AI-plot to be enabled)	1.00	1.00	Extra Units: Double the normal number of astro trains.	Uses many, many Astrotrains.
Turtle	(1.00)	1.00	Extra reinforcements	Planets are all very-to-incredibly heavily defended, but they do no waves against the players (Cross Planet Attacks and border aggression still happen).
Vanilla (requires Light of the Spire)	1.00	1.00	(none)	Has absolutely no unusual powers. Just a plain old basic AI, with whatever unlocks happen to come with the map seed.

Moderate

AI Name	Wave & Reinforce Multipliers		Additional Spawns and Unlocks	Description
Artillerist (requires Vengeance of the Machine)	??	??	Extra Units: all long-range ship-types. Lightning Torpedo Frigates, Sentinel Frigates, Snipers, Zenith Bombards, Zenith Electric Bombers, etc.	This AI is fascinated with bombardment and focuses on throwing lots of (preferably long-range) artillery units at you. Its defense leaves something to be desired, however.
Assassin	1.25	0.90	(none)	Planets are all moderately defended, and they harass the strongest player with prejudice.
Backdoor Hacker	1.00	1.00	Warp access: Has an Exo-Galaxy Wormhole on each player's home planet.	Planets are all moderately defended, and they have a permanent path into each player's home planet (so creating the usual defensive perimeters won't work). This means that wave attacks and Exo-galactic strike forces can spawn at the home planet.
Bully	1.25	0.90	(none)	Planets are all moderately defended, and they harass the weakest player with prejudice.
Camouflager (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.00	1.00	(none)	All of its mobile ships look like harmless pieces of junk when stationary and not firing, in a manner like Zenith Chameleons.
Counter Spy	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Counter-Spy	Planets are heavily defended, and advanced scouting is much more difficult because of the counter spy defenses on each planet, which insta-kills cloaked ships including perma-cloaked scouts.
Exotic (requires Vengeance of the Machine)	0.2	??	(none)	This AI does not send normal waves, and instead sends small "exogalactic attacks" (similar to those provoked by the Fallen Spire, Broken Golems - Hard, etc) with methods of composition and approach very different from normal waves. Note: this AI will send counter-attack waves the normal way.
Experimentalist (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.25	0.90	Extra Unlocks: All experimental ships - Decoy Drone, Experimental Engineer, MicroParasite, Speed Booster, Translocator.	Aggressive AI that uses a heavy mix of experimental ships along with its normal fleets.
Feeding Parasite	1.25	0.90	Extra Unlocks: All parasite ships - Neinzul Youngling Nanoswarm, Parasite, and Spire Teleporting Leech	Uses parasite raids almost exclusively (which can be highly damaging).
Kite Flier (requires Destroyer of Worlds)	??	??	(none)	All of its ships "auto kite", maneuvering to stay just barely in firing range of their target.
Mad Bomber	2.00	0.70	Extra Units: MOAR Bomber Starships	Non-core planets are all lightly defended, but does extremely brutal attacks on the players.
Neinzul Cluster-Bomber (requires Children of Neinzul)	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Neinzul Clusters and Neinzul_Bomber_Clusters. (to confirm) Extra unlocks of Neinzul ships? (to confirm)	Builds Neinzul Clusters on all of its planets.
Neinzul Youngster (requires Children of Neinzul)	1.5	0.80	Extra Unlocks: All playable Neinzul ships - Neinzul Youngling Commando, Nanoswarm, Tiger, Vulture, and Weasel	Uses all Neinzul ship types. Its waves never have any ships other than Neinzul younglings, but its waves have only half the warning that normally is given. Its planets are comparably lightly defended, around the level of the Mad Bomber.
One-Way Doormaster (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Black Hole Machines	Employs Black Hole Machines on all of its planets, which makes each raid into its territory a one-way trip if the black hole machine is not destroyed.
Peacemaker (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Warhead Interceptor, Orbital Mass Driver, possibly additional Ion Cannons	Uses anti-golem, anti-starship, anti-warhead, (etc.) ships on all its planets.
Reservist (requires Vengeance of the Machine)	??	??	(none)	This AI gets a larger-than-usual strategic reserve and uses part of it to defend important planets that are normally not reinforced from the reserve.
Speed Racer (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.25	0.90	(none)	All of its mobile ships have been upgraded to move extremely fast - around speed 200 at Normal settings. To confirm: does this change with epic/blitz?
Spireling (requires Light of the Spire)	1.25	0.90	Extra Unlocks: All Spire fleet-ships - Spire Armor Rotter, Blade Spawner, Gravity Drain, Gravity Ripper, Maw, Mini Ram, Stealth Battleship, Teleport Leech, and Tractor Platform	Fairly aggressive AI that uses only Spire fleet ships.
Stealth Master	1.00	1.00	Extra Unlocks: All ships with cloaking - Autocannon Minipod, Etherjet, Eye Bot, Raptor, Space Plane, Spire Stealth Battleship, Vampire Claw, and Zenith Chameleon?	Uses stealth raids almost exclusively (which can be highly disconcerting).
Tag Teamer (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.00	1.00	(none)	A defensive AI whose guards are extra speedy and don't stay near their posts. This makes them more challenging to attack. Note: see Speed Racer above. Also, do they attack?
Teleporter Turtle	(1.00)	1.00	Extra Unlocks: All ships with teleportation - Spire Teleporting Leech, Teleport Battle Station and Teleport Raider	Planets are all very-to-incredibly heavily defended, but they do no waves against the players (Cross Planet Attacks and border aggression still happen). Specializes in teleporting ships, which are particularly powerful in defensive postures.
Thief (requires Light of the Spire)	1.25	0.90	Extra Ships: Etherjets, Spire Tractor Platforms, Parasites	Fairly aggressive AI that uses ships with tractor beams and leech capabilities. This can lead to a distinct disregard for player property rights.
Vicious Raider	1.50	0.80	Extra Unlocks: Raiders	Sends substantially larger waves, and somewhat smaller defensive reinforcements.
Zenith Descendant (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.25	0.90	Extra Unlocks: Zenith ships - Auto Bomb, Beam Frigate, Bombard, Chameleon, Electric Bomber, Mirror, Paralyzer, Polarizer, and Viral Shredder.	Aggressive AI that uses only Zenith fleet ships.

Harder

AI Name	Wave & Reinforce Multipliers		Additional Spawns and Unlocks	Description
Alarmist (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.00	1.00	On most planets: Alarm Posts or Special Forces Alarm Posts	Uses Alarm Posts on all of their planets that releases defenders when an adjacent AI Command Station is destroyed. Makes for massive cross-planet attacks unless players carefully kill these alarms.
Attritioner	1.25	0.90	On all planets: Attritioner	Planets are all moderately defended, except that each one has an Attritioner, which slowly drains the health of any human ships in the system. Does heavy attacks on the players.
Everything (requires Light of the Spire)	1.00	1.00	Extra Unlocks: All fleet-ships and core ships.	Has absolutely every fleet ship and core ship type unlocked from the start.
Extreme Raider (requires Light of the Spire)	1.50	0.80	Extra Unlocks: Raider, Spire Stealth Battleship, Vorticular Cutlass, Vampire Claw, and Teleport Raider	Very nasty AI that uses raid-oriented fleet ships and really likes sending Raid Starships along with normal waves.
Fortress King (requires Ancient Shadows)	1.00	1.00	Extra Unlocks: Modular Fortress Command Station	Generally solid AI that has Modular Fortresses in place of most command stations. Expect grievous pain.
Golemite (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.00	1.00	On many planets: AI-Golems	Has fully-functioning golems on a great many of its planets. Note: It's not as bad as one might imagine - the AI's versions have 50% the health of player golems.
Mime (requires Destroyer of Worlds)	??	??	(none)	Normally when you lose units in AI territory the "salvage" is put towards a "reprisal" wave composed of normal AI units. The Mime will actually try to use the specific types of units you lost to create that salvage (even if that AI cannot normally put units of that type into a wave). If you use superweapons this can be... very painful.
Neinzul Nester (requires Children of Neinzul)	1.00	1.00	On most planets: Neinzul Nests	Builds Neinzul Nests on a huge number of its planets - similar in function to Raid Engines, but triggers when you control or destroy AI ships on adjacent planets.
Overreactive (requires Destroyer of Worlds)	??	1.00	(none)	Sends much larger Reprisal waves when it accumulates sufficient salvage from human ships dying on its planets.
Quadratic (requires Destroyer of Worlds)	??	1.00	(none)	With every normal wave it sends, it doubles the minimum strength of wave that it is willing to send. This tends to lead to waves that take much longer to "charge" (before being announced), but eventually leads to VERY large waves.
Radar Jammer (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Radar Jammers, mark-I or II.	Employs Radar Jammers on all of its planets, which halves the attack range of all of your ships (and sometimes the AI ships as well, depending on its mark level).
Retaliatory (requires Light of the Spire)	1.00	1.00	On most planets: Counterattack Guard Posts	Starts with Counterattack Guard Posts on most planets, and can actually have more than one on a planet (if that planet would have gotten one normally). This can lead to devastating counter attacks particularly when taking a mkIV planet.
Scorched Earth	1.00	1.00	(none)	Heavily defended planets. Whenever it loses control of a planet, it destroys that planet and all the resources there. Ships will survive. Note: This action counts as nuking the planet for a particular achievement.
Shadow Master	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Planetary Cloak Extra Unlocks: all ships with cloaking - Autocannon Minipod, Etherjet, Eye Bot, Raptor, Space Plane, Spire Stealth Battleship, Vampire Claw, and Zenith Chameleon?	Like the Stealth Master, except every planet is equipped with a powerful device that keeps all ships permanently cloaked, even when firing, even if they wouldn't normally have cloaking. The only sign of this enemy is the device itself, which can be difficult to reach what with all the invisible enemies firing at you from the nether.
Special Forces Captain	1.00	1.00	(special)	Only has Special Forces Guard Posts -- no regular guard posts. This makes for a tremendous number of ships patrolling around the map at any given time.
Spire Hammer (requires Light of the Spire)	1.00	1.00	Extra Ships in wave: Spire Frigates, Spire Destroyers and upwards.	Generally solid AI that adds capital ships from the Fallen Spire campaign to waves.
Starfleet Commander (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.25	0.90	Extra Ships in wave: Four times the normal number of Starships	Aggressive AI that uses 4x as many starships in each offensive wave as normal. Sends somewhat larger waves, and somewhat smaller defensive reinforcements.
Starship Fanatic (requires Destroyer of Worlds)	??	1.00	Heavily uses Starships	Goes far beyond the Starfleet Commander, and instead of just getting more starships it uses them instead of fleet ships or guardians for most purposes (waves, reinforcements, etc).
Vanguard (requires Destroyer of Worlds)	??	1.00	Heavily uses Guardians	Uses Guardians instead of fleet ships or starships for most purposes (waves, reinforcements, etc). And Guardians are nasty.
Vengeful (requires Vengeance of the Machine)	??	1.00	(none)	This AI retaliates with (relatively) small exogalactic attacks every time you destroy one of its guard posts, warp gates, command stations, data centers... it's kind of attached to a lot of things, actually. Doesn't take criticism well.
Vorpal (requires Vengeance of the Machine)	??	0.90	Extra Units: ??	This AI focuses on force-field-immune units and strong Cross Planet Attacks as a counter to fortified human positions.
Warp Jumper (requires Children of Neinzul)	1.00	1.00	Warp access: attack wave can launch anywhere, no Warp Gates	On the bright side, this AI type does not build any warp gates on its planets, which saves 5 AI Progress per plant and avoids the need to gate raid their planets. On the downside, however, this AI type is able to launch waves at any non-warp-jammed planet on the map at any time thanks to their warp drives on their individual ships.

Red/Technologist

AI Name	Wave & Reinforce Multipliers		Additional Spawns and Unlocks	Description
Brutal (requires Destroyer of Worlds)	??	??	"Brutal" core guard posts	Gets an extra "Brutal" core guard post on each homeworld, and gets another such post on each MkIV planet (that isn't too close to the human homeworlds). Those non-homeworld posts are not protected by the core shield network (if any) but do protect their local command station.
Crafty Spire (requires Light of the Spire)	1.00	1.00	On all planets: Spirecraft.	Starts with various Spirecraft (which are generally bigger than starships and smaller than golems) on its planets.
Heroic (requires Ancient Shadows)	1.00	1.00	Champion Ships	Generally solid AI that can also add powerful Champion ships to each wave. Also periodically spawns a Champion ship on one of its own planets that joins the general AI forces threatening you. At higher tech levels it uses bigger Champion ships. Note that the in-game description uses singular, in reality it is one or more Champion ships based on AIP, both for adding Champions to waves as well as spawning them on its own worlds.
Raid Engine (requires Zenith Remnant)	1.00	1.00	On most planets: Raid Engines	Uses Raid Engines on a huge number of their planets. Makes for very frequent, short-term brutal waves in addition to the normal waves unless players carefully kill these engines.
Technologist Homeworlder	1.00	1.00	On most planets: Captive Human Settlements	Like the Entrenched Homeworlder, except the enemy units are two Marks higher then they would be otherwise (these are quite a formidable foe).
Technologist Parasite	1.25	0.90	Extra Unlocks: all reclaimers - Neinzul Youngling Nanoswarm, Parasite, and Spire Teleporting Leech	Like the Feeding Parasite, except the enemy units and planets are two Marks higher then they would be otherwise (these are quite a formidable foe).
Technologist Raider	1.5	0.80	Extra Unlocks: Raiders	Like the Vicious Raider, except the enemy units and planets are two Marks higher then they would be otherwise (these are quite a formidable foe).
Technologist Sledge	1.00	1.00	(none)	Like the Sledge Hammer, except the enemy units and planets are two Marks higher then they would be otherwise (these are quite a formidable foe).
Technologist Turtle	(1.00)	1.00	Extra reinforcements	Like the Turtle, except the enemy units and planets are two Marks higher then they would be otherwise (these are quite a formidable foe).
The Core	1.00	1.00	Replacements: all ships are mark-V.	Planets are all lightly defended in terms of the number of ships at each, but all ships of this AI are deadly Mark V/Core ships. (Note that system Marks are not boosted like Technologist AIs.)
Vicious Exotic	2.0	??	(none)	This AI does not send normal waves, and instead sends LARGE "exogalactic attacks" (similar to those provoked by the Fallen Spire, Broken Golems - Hard, etc) with methods of composition and approach very different from normal waves. Note: this AI will send counter-attack waves the normal way.

Randoms

Normally when you choose a random AI type you cannot see which type was actually chosen until the game ends. However, there is an AI Modifier in the lobby that allows you to make them visible from the start, but still chosen at random. You can also use the disabledaitypes.txt file to exclude specific AI types from being chosen (if you've already played them, say, and are trying to work your way at random through the whole list -- or if you simply don't like a specific type of AI).

Random Easier

Chooses one of the easier AI types at random.

Random Moderate

Chooses one of the moderate AI types at random.

Random Moderate/Easier

Chooses one of the easier or moderate AI types at random.

Random Harder

Chooses one of the harder AI types at random (technologist AI types are all considered harder, so this includes them).

Random Harder Non-Technologist

Chooses one of the harder AI types at random, but specifically excluding any of the technologist types.

Random All

Chooses one of AI types at random.

Random All Non-Technologist

Chooses one of AI types at random, but specifically excluding all of the Red AI Types.

Eye frequency

Keith has said the following about the spawning of Eyes according to AI type:

"AI types vary in how many eyes they get. Turtles, Teleporter Turtles, and Technologist Turtles all get a lot more than everyone else. Shield Ninnies, Grav Drillers, and Peacemakers get slightly less than the turtles (twice the normal).

On the other end, Mad Bombers, Neinzul Youngsters, Vicious Raiders, Extreme Raiders, Technologist Raiders, Scorched Earth, Attritioners, The Tanks, and The Cores all get half the normal amount.

From there, it's scaled by difficulty, so diff 10 gets 1.66~ as many as diff 6."

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AI War:AI War