I would barely have to explain to recommend this expansion to anyone its just that good.

so the main elements of this DLC
- new faction "the allayi"
- a 2 huge additions to any winter gameplay

the new faction is probaly the most intresting faction i have ever seen in a 4x game. they have this seasonal shifting mechanic which makes them defensive during summer and aggresive raiders during the winter.

the winter mechanic is based around the ability to choose the effect of each winter but every faction has some say in this so some diplomacy is required to be able to control the winter effect.

the second winter mechanicis an altar that you can use to buy new buildings and passive effects that greatly give benefits to your cities and even the ability to damage enemy armies inside your regions.

And similair to how the forgotten were better at spying and raiding in the shadows expansion, the allayi are better at winter gameplay than the other factions.

this is the expansion you really should buy because there is nothing wrong with it it just gives benefits that you have direct to semi-direct control over during the game and it makes the winters way more enjoyable.

I enjoy almost everything about Endless Legend. That said, Shifters puts the "almost" in that last sentence. It offers a new faction and little else. The Allayi faction, a building, a small handful of leader items and pearls, a maps worth of regenerating collectables for endless tedium. My heart already sinks when I research the tech that "allows" all previously searched ruins to be searched again. It's just not fun.

It's worth $5, not $10. The new "pearl" mechanic is more annoying than rewarding. There is more than enough ruin running in this game so that you don't need another "collect this" mechanic. It's not full on garbage collection like the shards in DA:I but it's boring and tedious nonetheless.

The new faction, the Allayi are cool; however their success depends on rampant pearl collection and therefore unsustainable in my EL universe. I'm pulling the plug on Shifters. The time has come for EL to grow into EL2. They've done all they can for this classic. It's time for a new engine and facelift.

I very much love this expansion. The extra survivability during winter with pearls is a great mechanic addition to the game. At first when the expansion was released it was super hard to get decent amounts of pearls for some reason, it's been fixed since and pearls are more plentiful making it easier to use it. It however means for anyone who can't get enough is utterly boned until next Winter as certain upgrades/districts can seriously make your empire better during winter. Effectively making Winter a flourishing joy than a disheartened sigh. It can make the Cultists a super powerhouse with their Holy City and getting those special districts to level 3. To which this certain District being the Winter Borough.

Seriously, save your pearls and unlock Winter Borough, build it in every city and try to upgrade it to at least 2. You won't be sorry.

The new Faction the Allayi is a very nice addition to which obviously gets the most out of the Pearls and Winter. But I like how Winter isn't a insta win for these guys because everyone else can get most of the same benefits later on. The Allayi Faction level upgrades has a nice array of defensive and offensive abilities, allowing you to run away like a coward without injuries and doing additional damage depending on how much damage the enemy has already received before. A Allayi hero amongst the Ardent Mages would be a nice combo. The added traits that came with this expansion also makes Customs more powerful; with the exception of the new biggest negative trait We Chosen Few (-20).

Is the expansion essential? Maybe not, but it certainly adds a lot more to the experience to make it more enjoyable during the seasons that wrecks everyone unless you had the Winter Shelters. I like this expansion a lot!

I've got about 6 games under my belt. 1 of them on impossible. Only 1 win so far. The Allayi are extremely overpowered during winter, especially Monks who cycle through 1, 2, then 3 simultaneous hits with a 20% attack boost each time. The problem is getting to the late game where each sucessive winter is longer. Allayi heros are NOT good governors but excel at fighting. You're somewhat stuck using only Allayi units, otherwise mixing units causes a severe slowdown in movement points in the winter. Pearls really cause you to explore the map which is nice. Since pearls spawn in the ocean you'll find yourself traversing the ocean more. The only thing that remains is an expansion or patch that implements fighting on water and this game will be complete. A race that creates islands on sea tiles to go with it would be perfect.

This DLC is great but what I really love is what it has done to winter. In all my playthroughs, winter was always extremely aggravating. It always took the fun out of exploring for me, not to mention the hit to my cities. Winter with the Allayi is so fun! As an Allayi, you get vision and movement bonuses during winter, plus your fighting specs go way up! And you are constantly encouraged to go out exploring so you can pick up the new pearls as they regenerate with each winter. That is a lot more fun than just sitting in your city until the winter blows over.

Even more fun is when I can sneak into other empire's borders with my invisible army (my compliments to the ghost force skill item creators) and steal everyone else's pearls, because you know... I'm evil ;)

The Allayi are a fantastic new addition. For you EL players who love the lore, if you were ever digging through the factions looking for the moral high-ground, this new faction has it.

I'll avoid too many spoilers, but it seems that the Endless are not the whole story surrounding Auriga. We've always known she had her own identity, and it turns out the Allayi are her chosen ones.

When an expansion for Endless Legends comes out, I'm like a sugar-starved child in front of a jar of cookies : I pick it up and munch on its content, no questions asked.
So please, do not consider this evil red thumb as a definite "avoid this content" sign, and I shall explain why.

The DLC can be broken down to two major additions : the new game mechanic (the Pearls) and the faction taking the most advantage of it, the Allayi.
Firstly, the pearls. New nodes of pearls appear after the beginning of each winter, awaiting to be gathered (if you steal pearls in another civilization's territory, as expected, they will really not like it- and in diplomatic exchanges, they value the pearls quite a bit too much. 1000 dust for ONE pearl ? No deal, man !).
Pearls have three functions :
1) Once you have constructed the Altar of Auriga, you can "pray" by spending pearls to choose one of three effects to be applied during the next winter. The choice with the most "prayers" will be active. A nice little tweak, possibly favouring yourselve and hampering the others !
2) You can unlock "blessings" by spending pearls- in other words, extra techs and buildings. On paper, more possibilities is neat. Ingame, what you can unlock probably won't make much of a difference. Accessories and armors made of pearls ? Quite weak, except maybe early game, and then only the Allayi shall gather enough pearls at this point in time. No vision penalty for buildings during winter ? Marginal bonus. The new towers providing "retalation effects" when ennemy armies attack on your territory ? Doesn't slow down a serious invasion. While they are on or two great innovations (like the building giving +10 industry on river tiles during winter), generally speaking, it doesn't motivate to pick pearls.
3) Linked to the blessings, some buildings and equipement need pearls to be made.

Now, for the Allayi. Quite a curious race, they are. For the bad part, they have 150% expansion disapproval and need 100% more food to go up a level in population. The catch ? Their units move normally during winter (when they shift form and are more combat-able) and possess high movement capability, they know exactly when winter begin and how long it will last, they know where pearls are on the map even without vision of them.
Plus, the very first part of their quest grant them the God of scouts : the skyfin. The skyfin has 8 moves, flies (no movement penalty due to land) and robs ruins of their content like it's nobody's business. Plus Allayi can find pearls in ruins !
Skyfins are fantastic, no doubt, allowing you to quickly map your surroundings and gather many goodies from ruins across Auriga.
Lastly, they have a special form of borough granting more bonuses, but needing pearls to be built, so, of course, they need loads of them.

Are they bad ? Nope. Even with said penalties, you can make them powerful, and in opposition to all other races, winter is the best time for them to go to war. I would even favor them over the Forgotten.
Now then, why the red thumb ? Well, as Redvolver said in his own review : " I feel it's absolutely optional ", a statement I agree with, but not to the same conclusion. Being optional is really not a problem. Being absolutely so is a bit sad.
Now, it's just my point of view (obviously) but I find that an expansion should bring something more substantial.
The problem is that the Pearl mechanic can be totally disregarded if you do not play as the Allayi. Its impact is just not significant enough.
" Well, sir, if you perceive it that way, just don't bother with it ! " you could say.
Yes, but, well, no. It's really bizarre for me to see that Amplitude made a brillant DLC (Guardians) adding several layers of depth to the game, and then see Shifters (with a higher price !) being so non consequential.

In fine, it is not a bad DLC per se, but I'm taken aback to see so many people writing that it's fairly priced. But I might be biased- I consider many DLC to be overpriced, and thankfully, Amplitude is not in that habit. Yes, I'm glaring at you, Paradox, Stardock...

Dont really ever review dlc but coming from Endless Legend which is always an automatic buy for me I know I wont be dissapointed. Like most of the others this one features some interesting new gameplay mechanics, more specifically for the included faction and while I did Enjoy Shadows a bit more, this one is still well worth it if you enjoy playing EL.

Great DLC, New faction, New resource, new buildings, new mechanics. This DLC has it all. Honestly the Allayi are one of my favorite factions now. They can change stances during summer and winter for different effects so they can fight different ways, they can ''take'' resources with their skyfin. Just when it is over top a resource. They added the Pearls. They can be used for buildings, weapons, armor, items, blessings, and prayers. The prayers make it where you can try to get the effects of winter changed which is really good. You can unlock the blessings to access the new buildings and equiptment it brings. But the items you make with pearls are not that good except early game in my opinion. Due to them mainly giving you increased movement and vision in winter and not really much stats in the late game.

Yet another great expansion.