Endless Legend 2 Tier List: Kin of Sheredyn vs Last Lords Faction Analysis

After spending time with Endless Legend 2, one thing becomes pretty obvious: picking a faction is about much more than choosing the one with the coolest units or the best-looking cities. Saiadha constantly forces you to adapt, and the factions that look amazing on paper can feel surprisingly awkward once you actually have to build an empire, manage resources, fight wars, and survive the planet’s changing conditions. That is exactly why the current rivalry between the Last Lords and the Kin of Sheredyn is so interesting.

Both factions have strong identities, but they approach the game from completely different directions. The Last Lords are basically an economic machine built around Dust, while the Kin of Sheredyn want to turn fortified territory into military and political power. Having played plenty of 4X strategy games where a faction’s early weaknesses can become strengths later, I normally hesitate before calling one side ‘bad.’ In this case, though, the gap is difficult to ignore. In the current meta, the Last Lords are comfortably ahead, while the Kin require considerably more work for a noticeably less reliable payoff.

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Last Lords vs Kin of Sheredyn: Two Completely Different Game Plans

The easiest way to understand this matchup is to forget about individual units for a moment and look at what each faction actually wants you to do. The Last Lords want you to build an economy that eventually makes normal economic rules feel optional. The Kin of Sheredyn, meanwhile, want you to establish fortified territory, expand carefully, and turn defensive infrastructure into additional advantages.

That sounds reasonably balanced until you start comparing the resources involved. Dust is incredibly flexible, while Influence is much more restrictive during the early stages of a campaign. A resource that can solve several different problems at once will almost always be more valuable in a strategy game than one that primarily exists to unlock faction-specific mechanics.

The Last Lords Are Basically Playing Their Own Economic Game

The Last Lords immediately stand out because they completely change how population works. Instead of relying on the traditional food-driven population model, they use Dust to purchase population. That sounds like a small mechanical difference, but in practice it changes the entire rhythm of development.

Every Last Lord citizen generates additional Dust while simultaneously creating an Approval problem. That negative Approval value is the price you pay for having an economy that can grow in such an unconventional way. At first, it can feel like you’re constantly balancing on the edge of an economic penalty, but once the faction’s infrastructure starts coming together, the problem becomes much easier to control.

This is one of those mechanics I really appreciate in a 4X game. The faction doesn’t simply give you free advantages; it asks you to accept one problem in exchange for a completely different economic engine. The important part is that the reward eventually becomes much more valuable than the drawback.

Why Dust Is So Powerful

Dust is one of those resources that can make a bad situation manageable almost instantly. Need another population unit? Buy it. Need to speed up development? Spend it. Need to recover from an unfortunate event or prepare your economy for war? Again, Dust can help.

That flexibility is particularly powerful on Saiadha, where unpredictable environmental changes can interfere with carefully planned expansion. Instead of spending turn after turn trying to recover through conventional production, the Last Lords can often throw money at the problem and keep moving.

The faction becomes even more impressive once its population bonuses start stacking. Higher population tiers improve Dust production and eventually provide additional multipliers, meaning that a successful early economy can snowball into something genuinely ridiculous. This is the classic 4X snowball, but the Last Lords have an unusually effective way of accelerating it.

Mineral Inquisition Makes the Late Game Even Better

The Last Lords don’t stop being useful once their economy is established. Their Mineral Inquisition mechanic gives them a powerful route into science, which is exactly what you want from a faction that can already generate huge amounts of economic value.

This is where the faction starts feeling a little unfair. Your Dust economy supports your population, your population improves the economy, and eventually you can redirect that strength into scientific development. In other words, the faction doesn’t have to choose between being rich and being technologically competitive for very long.

If you reach the later eras with a healthy Last Lords economy, I would much rather be the player controlling them than the opponent trying to stop them. Once the machine gets rolling, catching up becomes a serious problem.

Kin of Sheredyn: Fantastic Soldiers, Frustrating Economy

The Kin of Sheredyn are a much stranger proposition. I actually like their concept quite a bit because their faction fantasy is clear: build heavily fortified settlements, control territory, and use military discipline to compensate for economic limitations. Their armies can be extremely satisfying to use, particularly in the opening stages of a campaign.

The problem is that the faction’s strongest ideas are connected to Influence, and Influence is precisely where the Kin can struggle. You want to use your faction abilities, expand your territory, interact with political systems, and secure advantages on the map, but every decision competes for the same resource.

That creates a frustrating situation where your faction’s unique mechanics are technically powerful, yet using them too aggressively can actually make your empire weaker. I’ve run into this kind of design in strategy games before, and it is rarely fun when the optimal strategy is essentially ‘don’t use your coolest abilities until you can finally afford them.’

Fortifications Are Cool, But They Need More Payoff

The Kin’s fortification system is probably their most attractive feature. Their cities can become incredibly difficult targets, and their infrastructure allows defensive strength to contribute to production and other benefits. When everything lines up, the result is a faction that feels like it has built a fortress civilization in the middle of an unpredictable world.

The problem is opportunity cost. Building and maintaining those defensive structures takes investment, while other factions can put comparable resources directly into economic growth. A fortified city is fantastic when someone attacks it, but if your opponent is getting richer, researching faster, and producing a larger army somewhere else, having an impressive wall doesn’t necessarily solve the bigger problem.

That’s why the Kin can feel excellent during individual battles while still feeling mediocre when you look at the entire campaign.

Military Power: This Is Where the Kin Fight Back

If the comparison ended with economics, the Last Lords would win by a mile. Fortunately for Kin players, their military gives them a legitimate reason to stay aggressive during the opening turns.

Their Chosen units can be extremely effective early on. They bring strong combat statistics and armor to the table, allowing Kin armies to clear hostile camps and neutral threats without suffering the same level of attrition that weaker starting armies might experience.

This creates an interesting opportunity: instead of sitting inside your capital and waiting for your economy to improve, you can use the Kin’s early military strength to take control of the surrounding map. If you are good at identifying targets and don’t waste your army on unnecessary fights, the early Chosen units can create enough breathing room to compensate for some of the faction’s economic problems.

The Problem Appears Later

Unfortunately, early military dominance isn’t enough by itself. The Kin’s defensive identity doesn’t translate as cleanly into huge late-game wars, especially against factions that have stronger offensive scaling.

Their heroes and military bonuses can make an army tough to kill, but being difficult to kill isn’t always the same as being capable of ending a war. Eventually, you need tools that allow you to break enemy cities, destroy their armies efficiently, and convert military victories into permanent economic advantages.

That’s where I think the Kin of Sheredyn fall behind. They are very good at surviving, but they don’t always have an equally convincing answer for how they are supposed to finish the game.

Last Lords Military: Expensive, Strange, and Surprisingly Hard to Stop

The Last Lords have a completely different relationship with warfare. Their units don’t rely on normal passive regeneration, which initially sounds like a serious weakness. Instead, their economy allows them to compensate by spending Dust to restore damaged units and armies.

Once you understand this, the military system starts making much more sense. The Last Lords don’t necessarily need the most efficient army on paper because they can use their economy to maintain that army. A damaged force that would normally need several turns to recover can potentially return to fighting condition much faster.

That creates one of my favorite contrasts between these factions. The Kin protect their military with fortifications, while the Last Lords protect theirs with money. And when those two philosophies collide in the late game, the Dust-based solution usually scales better.

Strategic Resources Make the Last Lords Even Scarier

Another factor worth mentioning is the Last Lords’ interaction with high-tier strategic resources. Once their economic foundation is strong, resources such as Glassteel can help turn their already dangerous armies into something considerably more threatening.

This is why I would never judge the Last Lords solely by their first few turns. Their true strength becomes obvious when you look at the entire campaign. A faction that can generate economic value, convert that value into population and science, and then spend the same economy on military recovery has multiple ways to keep its momentum.

How I’d Rank Both Factions Right Now

If I were putting together a practical Endless Legend 2 faction tier list for higher difficulties, these two would land in very different categories. The Last Lords are one of the safest choices for players who understand how to build an economy and convert it into a victory condition.

The Kin of Sheredyn are more of a challenge pick. They aren’t completely useless, and a skilled player can absolutely make them work, but they demand much more precise decision-making. You have to exploit their early military strength, plan your territory carefully, and avoid spending Influence simply because the game gives you an opportunity to do so.

• Last Lords — S-Tier: Exceptional economic scaling, flexible Dust spending, strong population mechanics, powerful late-game science potential, and reliable military sustain.
• Kin of Sheredyn — D-Tier: Excellent early combat units and impressive fortifications, but heavy Influence demands and weaker late-game scaling hold them back.

I’d personally put the Last Lords firmly in the top tier for serious high-difficulty runs. The Kin, meanwhile, are the faction I’d choose when I wanted to make the game harder for myself rather than when I wanted the most efficient route to victory.

How to Play the Kin of Sheredyn Without Falling Behind

If you’re determined to prove the tier list wrong, the answer is to lean into what the faction does well instead of trying to imitate an economically stronger civilization. Early research should support your physical resources and military development, with options such as Strength of Garin, Materials Science, Common Rights, and Scavenging helping establish a stronger foundation.

Your Chosen units should be working from the beginning. Clear nearby threats, pressure valuable positions, and use your military advantage to secure territory before stronger economies have time to outscale you. The key is to make your early military power generate something permanent rather than simply collecting battles that don’t improve your strategic position.

Fortification placement also matters enormously. Building Keeps close enough to support your overall strategy can unlock more of the faction’s potential, while eventually reaching the population requirement for the Military Press gives you another way to address the Influence shortage. The Kin aren’t a faction you can play on autopilot; every early investment needs to have a reason.

How to Get the Most Out of the Last Lords

Last Lords players should approach the opening much more economically. Look for strong industry opportunities early, establish your basic infrastructure, and then start converting your empire into a Dust-generating machine. I wouldn’t waste valuable development on food-focused options when the entire point of the faction is to operate outside the normal food economy.

Minor factions should also be selected with the long-term plan in mind. Bonuses that increase Dust generation or reduce the cost of marketplace purchases can have far more impact on your campaign than generic food bonuses that benefit other civilizations more directly.

Once you reach the third technological era, start thinking seriously about how to turn your economic lead into a victory condition. Putting additional population into science-oriented tiles and activating the Mineral Inquisition engine can push the Last Lords from ‘comfortable’ to ‘completely out of control.’

Final Verdict: Last Lords Win the Meta, Kin Win the Style Battle

There is something genuinely appealing about the Kin of Sheredyn. Their heavily armored armies, fortified settlements, and disciplined identity make them one of those factions that I want to like even when the numbers tell me to pick someone else. They can produce some memorable early-game moments, especially when a small Kin army punches above its weight and clears a dangerous section of the map.

But if we’re talking strictly about the current Endless Legend 2 faction tier list, the Last Lords are the clear winner of this matchup. Their Dust economy gives them more flexibility, their population system creates powerful scaling, and their ability to convert economic strength into science and military sustain gives them answers to problems that can completely derail other factions.

The Kin of Sheredyn can still be fun, and I’d actually recommend trying them if you enjoy factions that reward aggressive tactical play and careful planning. Just don’t expect the same level of forgiveness. The Last Lords give you tools that become stronger as your economy grows; the Kin give you powerful tools and then make you work very hard to afford them.

My current verdict: Last Lords — S-Tier. Kin of Sheredyn — D-Tier. If Amplitude eventually improves the Kin’s Influence economy or gives their defensive infrastructure a stronger late-game payoff, I could see that ranking changing dramatically. For now, though, if winning efficiently is the goal, I’d take the Dust-fueled monsters every time.