Anomalous Cube

The Anomalous Cube is technically an archaeological site rather than a standard science-ship anomaly, found specifically on uninhabitable or non-dry planets. Investigating it delivers escalating Living Metal and Minor Artifacts output across its stages — or Engineering/Alloy output instead if you don’t own the Ancient Relics DLC.

The site itself is part of the base game, so it can show up without any story DLC installed — what Ancient Relics changes is the payout, converting the Minor Artifact stage rewards into Engineering and Alloy output instead. One precondition catches people off guard: the site only becomes available to an empire that has established communications with at least one Fallen Empire and isn’t at war with it, which is why the Cube tends to matter from the early mid-game onward rather than in your first survey wave.

What makes it distinctive

Partway through the site, the game designates a random Fallen Empire (one you’re not at war with) as the “Anomalous Cube Fallen Empire” — later stages can offer a large Unity payout and a substantial Opinion boost with that Fallen Empire, or alternatively progress toward the Living Metal technology and a discount on the Living Metal Mega-Construction edict. If you’re playing Evolutionary Predators, an earlier stage also grants progress toward the Adaptive Evolution situation.

How the excavation works

• The system has to be inside your borders, and you run the dig by assigning a scientist on a science ship to the site.
• Excavation runs in 90-day phases. At the end of each phase the game rolls a ten-sided die, adds your scientist’s archaeology skill and any accumulated clues, and subtracts the chapter’s difficulty — a total of 14 or better completes the chapter. Bad rolls (5 or below) can fire excavation events instead, some helpful (bonus clues) and some that injure your scientist.
• AI empires always take twice as long per phase, so a skilled human player can usually secure a contested Cube first — but you still can’t dig outside your borders, so claim the system early.
• If the system changes hands mid-dig, the new owner continues from the current chapter but can’t collect rewards from chapters you already completed. A fully excavated Cube can’t be re-excavated by anyone.
• You don’t have to micromanage the dig: science ships on automated behavior have an excavation option that will handle sites like this one on their own, which is handy once your borders are large and the Cube is low-priority.

Chapter rewards

The payouts escalate chapter by chapter:

• Early chapters: 6x monthly Living Metal output (100-1000) and 6x Minor Artifacts output (100-1000) — or 12x Engineering output (250-100000) without Ancient Relics. One of these early chapters is also where the Fallen Empire designation lands, and Evolutionary Predators empires pick up their Adaptive Evolution situation progress here.
• Middle chapters: the rewards step up to 12x Living Metal output (150-2000) and 12x Minor Artifacts output (150-2000) — or 18x Engineering (350-100000) without the DLC — and one chapter adds a +1 Living Metal deposit to the planet itself (or 12x Alloy output as the non-DLC substitute).
• Final chapter: you choose between two endings. The diplomatic option pays 18x Unity output (250-1000000) and +500 Opinion with the designated Fallen Empire — available only if you’re not at war with it, and the Opinion boost doesn’t apply if the designated empire is the Ancient Caretakers. The material option grants 25% progress toward the Living Metal technology plus a permanent empire modifier that halves the Living Metal Mega-Construction Edict cost.

How to get the most out of it

• Pick your ending before the final chapter arrives. The Unity-plus-Opinion branch is one of the largest single relationship swings in the game — enough to meaningfully reset a Fallen Empire relationship, which matters if you border a xenophobic isolationist or you’re fishing for Fallen Empire gifts. The material branch is the better long-term pick if you’re planning a megastructure-heavy late game: Living Metal is otherwise a slow rare tech to fish out of the draw, and the edict discount pays out every time you run it.
• Stay out of war with the designated empire if you want the diplomatic ending — being at war when the final chapter completes locks you into the other branch.
• Send a high-skill scientist. Archaeology skill directly cuts the number of 90-day phases per chapter, and the injury events on bad rolls are a reason not to send a scientist you can’t afford to lose.
• Evolutionary Predators should excavate early, since the Adaptive Evolution progress arrives in an early chapter rather than at the end.
• If you’re mapping out a full endgame around megastructure construction, the Living Metal path pairs naturally with everything in the Megastructures overview.

Investigation tips

Because rewards scale up across stages and the final choice affects either diplomacy (Fallen Empire opinion) or tech progress (Living Metal research), it’s worth deciding which payoff you actually want before you reach that choice point — the diplomatic option is only available if you’re not at war with the designated Fallen Empire, so keep that relationship in mind if you’re aiming for it.

FAQ

Is the Anomalous Cube a normal anomaly? No. It’s an archaeological site, so it runs on multi-chapter excavation with a stationed scientist rather than a one-shot anomaly investigation roll — and it doesn’t occupy an anomaly slot or get cleared by a single survey.

Do I need the Ancient Relics DLC for it? Not for the site itself — the Cube is a base-game dig. Without Ancient Relics, the Minor Artifact rewards simply convert into Engineering and Alloy output, so the site stays worth running.

What if I’m at war with the designated Fallen Empire? The diplomatic ending is locked out and you’re effectively choosing the Living Metal technology branch instead. If the opinion payoff is what you wanted, timing a peace before the final chapter completes matters.

Can another empire steal the site? Only by taking the system itself — and even then, they continue from whatever chapter you reached and permanently lose the chapter rewards you already banked.

Does the designated Fallen Empire know it’s been chosen? The designation itself doesn’t change their behavior — it simply names which empire the final chapter’s +500 Opinion reward applies to. The relationship shift happens when you complete the site, not before.