If an empire owns more than one system with an L-Gate, one will be randomly selected as the target of the project. Additionally, the empire will have to own a system with an L-Gate so that a special project will be added to activate the L-Gate, taking 180 days for a science ship to open the gate. Once 7 L-Gate Insights have been collected, the L-Gate Activation technology will become available for research.

Once an empire acquires 5 L-Gate Insights, all other empires will be notified. Insights can be obtained by investigating certain anomalies, defeating certain enemies, researching the L-Gate Insight repeatable technology, asking the Curator Order for an insight every decade (at the cost of −5000 Energy) or, if Ancient Relics is enabled, spending 1000 Minor Artifacts to discover an L-Gate Insight with a cooldown of 10 years. Upon first encountering one, the L-Cluster entry will be added to the Situation Log, requiring the collection of 7 L-Gate Insights. Some Black Hole systems are home to L-Gates these heavily modified gateways cannot be activated with the Gateway Activation technology.

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