| Symbiote |
|---|
| Power of symbiosis |
| Has twice as many ships |
|
| FFG |
|
| Wild You may retrieve a ship from the warp during every regroup phase, not just your own. |
| Super Discard this flare at the start of any regroup phase to rescue all of your ships you choose, even ones in the warp, captured, or removed from the game. Place up to eight rescued ships on each of your home planets, even if you no longer have a colony on one or more of your home planets. Your ships coexist with any ships already there, regardless of any other game effects. This flare may not be canceled through any means. |
Symbiote is an alien that has twice the normal number of ships. Using his power requires the player to use two different ship colors, and as such cannot be used if there is no unused set of ship.
In the original version of the Symbiote, his "extra" ship color did not count for establishing bases, so the player had to remember to use at least one of his "main" ships in each offensive challenge.
Strategy
The Symbiote grows stronger over time, compared with other aliens. As the game progresses, all aliens tend to lose ships at similar rates, making the Symbiote's ship advantage grow. For instance, if every alien has lost 10 ships to the Warp, then the Symbiote now has 30 ships remaining, as opposed to every other alien possessing only 10 ships. His competitors have to be careful about how many ships they send into a challenge at this point. He does not.
Also a [Cosmic Zap] is much less impressive against the Symbiote than other powers, because all it does is cancel out the "extra" (i.e., off-color) ships for a single challenge - typically no more than a 4-point edge.
Symbiote/Amoeba is a known extra-strong power combination.
