Alien Machine

Alien Machine is one of the more mechanically interesting asteroid anomalies — instead of a straightforward resource payout, one of its outcome options actually creates a wormhole connection to a random system, giving you a shortcut you didn’t have before.

The choice that matters

• Resources and research: a safe, predictable payout of 100-1,000 minerals plus a scaled Physics research bump.
• A wormhole to a random system: less predictable, but potentially very valuable if it opens up a shortcut to territory you’d otherwise need to reach the slow way. There’s no way to control which system you connect to, so treat this as a bonus rather than something to plan expansion around.

When to pick which

If you’re mid-expansion and need the resource boost now, take the safe option. If you’re in an exploration-heavy phase and enjoy the unpredictability, the wormhole option can occasionally hand you a genuinely useful strategic connection — just don’t rely on it as your primary expansion strategy.

(Editorial note: an earlier version of this site had a wiki entry for a fabricated anomaly called “Strange Wormhole.” This entry replaces it with a real, verified anomaly with the same general theme — see this project’s fact-check log for details.)