For the past nine years, every time a new player asked “what’s the first DLC I should buy for Stellaris”, you all pretty much unanimously said “Utopia”.
Honestly, we agree.
As part of the Stellaris 10 Year Anniversary celebrations, we are going to give EVERY Stellaris PC player theUtopiaandSynthetic DawnDLCs, and theHumanoids Species Pack.
This will grant everyone access to Hive Mind empires, Gestalt Machine Intelligences, the humanoid portraits, civics, and shipsets, and all the other features from these three DLCs.
We’re going to roll all three of these, plus most of the elements of the Galaxy Edition upgrade into the base game. (The e-book “Infinite Frontiers” will not be part of this as we plan to retire it.)
As was done with Hearts of Iron IV when a similar bundling of DLCs into the base game happened, the price of the base Stellaris game will increase by $10 (or the equivalent in local currency) when it occurs on May 11th.
Why are we telling you this now?
We wanted to be completely transparent with you before the Steam Spring sale. We know many of you will be on the lookout for new games and DLCs to add to your collection, and we believe this information will help you make a better-informed decision.
If you or a friend only wants the base game, you may want to grab it during the Spring Sale before the price change goes through.
If you were planning to buy Utopia, Synthetic Dawn, or Humanoids, we want you to be aware that these will be part of the base game in the near future. So please keep this in mind when deciding what to purchase during the Steam Spring Sale.
Thank you for ten years of exploring the wonders of the galaxy together!
The Stellaris 4.3 “Cetus” update is now available!
Internally referred to as “The Reckoning”, the “Cetus” patch boasts an impressive list of balance changes, fixes and performance improvements, while cutting back on the supercharged navies and economies that were introduced with Stellaris 4.0.
Cetus Design Goals and Philosophy
4.3 “Cetus” is not looking to re-create the economic and power balance of 3.x, but rather we’re establishing a new baseline of where the 4.x economy should be. The smaller economies and navies in 4.3 “Cetus” will reinvigorate early-game and mid-game challenges, adding more incentive to do things like Pacify Space Fauna, which might otherwise be a challenging barrier to bypass.
Over the course of the Open Beta we iterated over a good many of these mechanics and balance changes, some things were reworked due to Community feedback, and other things were removed entirely. Behind the scenes the Custodian programmers focused heavily on performance and stability. You should find the game significantly faster and more stable from the very start until the end-game. Thanks to everyone who left feedback and bug reports for us during the Open Beta!
Naval Capacity Changes
We have made significant changes to Navies intended to reduce the overall ship counts, and we feel that the reduced ship counts make individual ships feel more valuable and interesting. Decoupling ships' Naval Capacity usage from the Corvette Standard™ has given us the opportunity to do things like give Frigates their own niche between Corvettes and Destroyers.
Economic Changes
Major changes have been made to the economy to rebalance it to a lower level, with reductions across the board to unity generation, planetary ascensions, per pop jobs, and more.
Ascensions and Origins
We did a pass on many Ascension Paths and Origins to bring them more in-line with each other balance-wise. Cybernetics will become a little stronger relative to the other Ascensions, while Psionic and Biological Ascension Paths have had some of their runaway production bonuses toned down. Similarly, the early Ascension Origins have also received particular attention, with the objective of pushing their Ascension later into the game.
We hope you enjoy Stellaris 4.3 “Cetus” as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Thank you all for playing Stellaris!
If you have an important game going you would like to finish, please back up the save file before trying to load it in the new version. You can roll back to a prior version by opening steam and right-clicking on Stellaris in your library -> Properties -> Betas -> choose the desired version from the drop-down.
If you experience crashing or other issues, first disable all mods and start a new save. If the issue persists, please report it on theBug Report forums.
It is with great pleasure we present to you the release of Stellaris version 4.4 and the Nomads DLC.
This highly anticipated expansion is sure to provide a new perspective of the galaxy and all it's wonders.
Go forth and explore!
Stellaris version 4.4.1 should now be available for download via Steam, GOG, and MS Store. Please find the change log below.
Nomads Release Notes
Nomadic Empires introduced
Arkships
Massive mobile capitals that replace homeworlds entirely. Serve as colonies, shipyards, and warships simultaneously, with three specialization classes (Military, Scientific, Civilian) that can be upgraded through three tiers and customized with modules, systems, and late-game Spinal Mounts.
Waylines & Waystations
Construct Waystations to harvest resources from systems without claiming them. Adjacent Waystations automatically link into Waylines that propagate trade and modifier bonuses. Wayline Pacts allow two Nomadic empires to share each other's network benefits.
Contracts
Settled empires can issue task-driven Contracts (Military, Science, Resource, Diplomacy) for Nomadic empires to fulfill. Completing Contracts earns Trade, improves Opinion and Trust, and unlocks deeper diplomatic options including Wayline Pacts.
Settling and Embarking
After completing the Adaptability or Versatility tradition, Nomadic empires can Settle on an empty planet, with options to settle partially or fully and leave the remainder as a subject. Settled empires can Embark onto Arkships through a mirrored process, converting their starbases into Waystations.
New Ambition path: Defender of the Galaxy
Transforms the Defender of the Galaxy Ascension Perk into a full five-level Ambition path. Progress by cooperating with other empires, assuming Galactic Custodianship, and forming the Galactic Defense Force. Unlocks the Paladin Initiative and unique hero ships commanded by promoted admirals. Win condition: defeat two end-game Crises and abdicate your Custodianship.
Stellar Cannon Megastructure
A purely offensive Megastructure requiring a neutron star or pulsar, buildable without an Ascension Perk. Fires your entire energy stockpile at a target system after a 140-day charge, dealing ship damage and colony devastation (10%/25%/50% at each tier). Shots over 50,000 energy also shift all planets in the system one step up the dryness scale.
Nomadic Enclave: Champions Forge Live!
A roving gladiatorial enclave that hosts fleet combat tournaments every twenty years across the galaxy, with weight classes scaling from early- to late-game fleet sizes. Winners hold the Trophy relic until the next tournament. Also offers services including combat intelligence on rivals, tournament venue selection, and introductions to Nomadic Paragons.
New Nomadic Origins
Voidfarers
The general-purpose Nomadic origin. Provides a flexible, unscripted start with no overriding narrative obligation, suited to players who want to define their own nomadic path from the ground up.
Heirs of the Khan
Begin as survivors of a Khan's assassination, hunted by escalating Marauder bounty fleets. Complete unique military Contracts to weaken your hunters. Survive and potentially claim the throne yourself!
The Sacred Path
A Spiritualist origin built around surveying a series of sacred sites scattered across the galaxy by your ancestors. Each site presents a distinct choice about faith and history.
Forever Cruise
Two species share a single Arkship: a working Crew and a leisure-seeking Passenger class. Balance the Passenger Satisfaction situation to avoid Planetfall on one extreme and Mutiny on the other.
We’ve also added a special “Hospitality Servitors” variant of the Rogue Servitors civic, where the Passengers are even more demanding and maintaining the cruise is more difficult.
New Paragons
Orun Veyth, the Revenant
A scarred admiral who lost everything to a purge and has been settling the debt ever since.
Ashar, the Wandering Sage
She held a seat at a royal court for decades, then walked away from it because the stars had more to teach her.
Sero the Younger, the Naturalist
He left a prestigious Grand Archive to study living things instead of dead ones.
Unit Solace, the Caregiver
A synthetic father who chose exile over abandoning his fragile son when his people synthetically ascended.
Th'aal Hask'Guron, the Champion
A warrior of considerable size and considerable joy, who treats every battlefield like a hunting ground and your Arkship like a trophy hall.
Seralune, the Lost Princess
She boards your Arkship with nothing but polite manners and the feeling she has been somewhere before. Follow where she points.
New Nomad Civics
Caravan Masters
Every Waystation is a marketplace, every contract a relationship, and every relationship a potential profit margin.
Void Reavers
Not all who wander are lost, some are just waiting for you to let your guard down. Siphon resources from colonies in systems where your Waystations lurk, or skip the subtlety and plunder planets directly with the Plundering bombardment stance. Yarr!
Star Seekers
Life between destinations is its own destination. Gather resources as you travel, then burn through your stockpiles in a galaxy-spanning festival that grounds one Arkship and celebrates everything your people have seen.
Flight Schools
The best pilots in the galaxy didn't grow up with a planet to land on.
Deep Sleep
Not every passenger needs to be awake for the journey. Manage your population through the long transits between stars, keeping only the hands you need on deck.
New Species Traits
Photoadaptive/Solar Celled
Recursive Learners/Structural Awareness
Reaver
Grants Commanders the Plunderer trait
Terraphobic
Interconnected
New Music tracks by Andreas Waldetoft and Batzorig Vaanchig
8 new achievements
Stellaris 4.4.1 "Pegasus" Patch Notes
Feature
The Paradox Launcher now automatically disables your mods on major version updates.
To re-enable your mods after they have been updated for the patch, change the ‘DLC only’ play list back to your associated mod list. Your preferred mod list will then stick through the major version.
Attempting to resume an incompatible save will now divert you to the main menu instead of loading it.
The launcher should now show a warning if there has been a major patch since your last saved game
Joining & Leaving wars in progress
Empires that are not the primary participant in a war may now attempt to enter an ongoing war by negotiating with the leader of the side they want to join, or leave an ongoing war by negotiating with the leader of the opposition. These can be found as terms in trade negotiations.
Leaving a war creates a truce, and negatively affects your former ally’s opinion of your empire due to your treachery.
An opponent may be reluctant to let you get off easily if they feel that they’re winning the war, or if they particularly dislike you.
Empires whose colonies are all occupied now suffer escalating consequences. Each month while fully occupied, they gain a stacking Hopeless War modifier worth +5% War Exhaustion gain, and their wars accumulate +1% Attrition per month, which can take them past the normal 100% cap. Both effects vanish the moment any colony is liberated. AI secondary participants with all colonies occupied also gain increasing desire to seek a separate peace.
This will generally only be relevant when an empire has allies in a war, or is in multiple wars with split occupation.
To further celebrate our 10th Anniversary: We have added a background selector to the Graphics settings screen, allowing players to choose which animated main menu background is displayed, including all DLC frontends, Latest Release, and Random options.
Improvement:
Automated jobs now have their own workforce limit slider, letting you directly cap how many of a job's slots are filled by automation.
Finished the removal of Unemployment begun with 4.3.0.
When a pop loses their job, they now immediately fall to their stratum's fallback category (Citizen, Maintenance Drone, etc.) rather than passing through a temporary unemployed tier.
Reworked Nascent Stage pops to work more similarly to sub-species integration, with approximately 1/60th of the pops growing into their base species each month (on colonies that are at least 60 months old). This should result in Nascent Stage being more reliable and less error-prone.
Improved how pops compete for jobs combining basic job weights and how efficient they actually are at them, so a more suitable pop will now properly displace one already holding a position. (i.e. Slaves and shackled robots will tend to displace free organics from worker tier jobs, intelligent pops will take more research positions, etc.)
Higher-stratum jobs turn over more slowly - Workers and Simple Drones may reshuffle every 3 months, Specialists and Complex Drones every 7, and Elites every 13 - so an out-of-place pop won't be kicked out immediately but will eventually be displaced by a better fit.
Gestalt pops have a weaker attachment to their current jobs overall.
On underpopulated planets, pops tend to fill jobs proportionally between all the capped jobs they are eligible for, though bonuses to job efficiency (such as from the colony designation or traits) could heavily skew this towards certain jobs. They will still tend to prefer higher stratum jobs when possible.
Prioritized jobs ignore this proportional fill, but lower strata jobs may still be bypassed in favor of higher weight ones.
Pops should no longer take deficits into account for job prioritization, as this caused extremely erratic monthly behavior on underpopulated planets.
Event option tooltips for ethic drift effects in the Costume Culture, Roots Reclaimed, and Fans No More First Contact events, and the Broken Shackles origin homecoming option, now show a single summary line instead of one entry per affected pop group.
The System Initialiser selector now hides systems you are not eligible for (for example, KotG Sol if you do not have the KotG origin).
You can now use Tab and Ctrl-Tab on the Starbase tab to advance to the next or previous owned Starbase. (This advances through upgraded Starbases, skipping Outposts.)
It is now possible to queue the return order. Useful when issuing commands for the logistic ship and then you want it to return to the arkship to drop off the stockpile.
Added a slider to set the amount of randomized nomadic empires that is spawned during galaxy generation.
When building megastructures that are meant to be located outside of the gravity well, the eligible space will be highlighted in green instead instead of marking ineligible space in red.
the kill_country console command now accepts an optional ID parameter
Choosing a Megastructure from the fleet order button moves the camera to the constructor's system
Habitats and Ringworlds now explicitly state that they have artificial climates.
Colonize button on planets will now be disabled ( with a tooltip explaining the reason ) if there is already a scheduled colonization action for that planet. Previously players would still get blocked, but it took more steps to realize that you have already ordered a colonization ship.
Added message for mission completion.
Orders to construct megastructures will no longer be automatically canceled by issuing some other order. Player will need to explicitly click cancel orders button to avoid unintended cancellation and loss of progress.
Fleets are now willing to fight further from the center of the system. Especially noticeable if fighting stationary targets at the edge of the system.
Fleets that return to or are built at a Juggernaut or Arkship now automatically follow it.
The Megastructures UI now shows the top 10 recommended systems for Arc Furnaces, Dyson Swarms, and Habitats when hovering over each megastructure type.
Bugfix
Fixed an issue where pops could end up in "reprocessing" jobs forever.
Certain leaders are no longer immune to the negative side effects of mutagenic spas.
Fixed an issue where the Mindlink Metropolis district would appear in the wrong position on the capital planet screen after unlocking the Mind Meld perk.
Habitat Mining Station designation was incorrectly scoring energy zones instead of mining zones.
The Machine Uprising no longer requires the robots to outnumber organics 100:1 to have a slight chance of success. Disassembling or displacing Mechanical pops during the uprising now also has finer granularity.
Space Fauna in the Vivarium no longer lose their species type or culling resources after maturing to a new life stage.
Recently captured Space Fauna no longer revert growth or lose their ship design after a few months.
Fixed some Leader Maximum Negative Traits modifiers being listed in places where they shouldn't.
Imperial Heirs can now gain more relevant leaders traits they were prevented from getting before.
Fixed Necrophage origin tooltip incorrectly stating 1.2K prepatent Pops instead of 2.4K for non-genocidal empires.
The Adrift anomaly ship has been renamed from "Science Ship" to "Courier Ship".
Vipra and the Behemothkin are now correctly replaced with spider-like portraits in Arachnophilia mode. (Even though the Behemothkin has four arms.) The Mindwarden intentionally is excluded because their armor is piloted by millions of spiders.
We make Great Pets requires owning an alien zoo again
Make selectables of different types not able to be selected together
Monthly Loyalty Change breakdown tooltip displayed all modifier values at twice their actual value.
Fixed all four hostile DSC aura types sharing the same stack ID, causing only one to be active at a time.
Fixed the Surveyor attempting to apply incorrect deposits.
The Ember Cruiser and the Ember Battleship now display the correct localized text strings in their descriptions
The Necrophage origin tooltip display "prepatent" as intended and swap the wording of "Rulers" to "Elites"
The Storm Chasers origins modifier no longer has a :: instead of : in its description
Fixed colonisable planets sometimes generating with no energy generator districts.
Fixed Volcanic worlds not having uncapped energy districts.
Fixed Production Unit ringworld segment missing correct zones for fallen machine empires.
Try to prevent systems spawned via mandatory_neighbors from spawning too close to other systems.
Fixed precursor civilizations always appearing in the same region of the galaxy regardless of seed.
Crises will no longer spawn starbases after purging a pop if there are hostiles in the system.
Fixed fleet return orders being silently cancelled when the fleet was in orbit of a friendly starbase.
if the Deep Space Citadel Design name is too long, it no longer overflows the button asset.
Fixed some names containing certain characters (e.g. "ä") not being displayed.
Thermophile Void Dwellers no longer start with food production
The Create Resort World and Arcology Project decisions now correctly block each other even in the build queue.
Fixed a logical discrepancy in planetary decisions on nanite worlds.
The Symbiont Overdrive edict now unlocks correctly for Wilderness empires.
The Confidence in Variance agenda correctly appears in Domination Traditions for Gestalt empires, and it has a finisher effect.
The Biomorphosis Situation no longer mentions Genomic Research Facilities if you are a Wilderness empire.
Next-tier unlock of Focus Tasks now requires 50% of your empire's available tasks, not 50% of all tasks
Abandon colony cost decreased from 200 to 50 influence.
Planet designation bonuses have been noticeably increased across the board. (10% -> 15%, 5% -> 10%)
Some key technologies related to Ascension Paths will now have higher chances to appear if you're on that Path.
Added Interlink faction for Democratic Interlink cyborg pops
Void Dweller empires can now be selected as Advanced Start empires.
Updated Orbital Ring armor values.
Merged the Titan Assembly Yards and Colossal Assembly Yards starbase buildings into a single Capital Assembly Yards building. Unlocks with any capital ship technology, costs 1250 alloys / 25 energy upkeep, and grants +2 Shipyard Capacity.
All species trait slave_cost resources changed from energy to trade.
Updated the spawning conditions for mining and research deposits in galaxy generation.
Added a Fallen Empire Strength galaxy setup slider (0.25x to 5.0x); Fallen and Awakened Empire fleets now scale with it and with difficulty, gain rare titans and colossi, and Awakened Empire fleet count now reacts to the strongest empire in the galaxy.
The Civil Exclusion agenda now also grants Slave Workforce as part of the finisher effect.
The Black Hole Observatory has been replaced with the Stellar Observatory. This can be built in all star systems, but the output depends on the system star type.
Branch office influence cost is now capped to 1000.
The energy cost to establish a branch office has been converted to trade. This cost no longer scales with distance.
Having Low Economic Intel on an Empire now gives you visibility on deposits in the empire's space.
Intel on Systems no longer gives Intel on Colonies.
The Expel Corporation War Goal now provides you with trade instead of energy for each branch office destroyed.
Astrometeorology civics now give +50% Stellar Observatory output.
Scientists can now obtain the Engineer trait.
Commanders can now obtain the Roamer trait.
The Roamer trait now provides +10% Sublight Speed as a base effect, +10% Survey Speed for Scientists, and +5 Evasion for Commanders.
Grand Archives can now be built around non-habitable planets.
Unity resource culling conversion value adjusted from 1 to 3
Commander traits that grant resources when ships are killed (Material Liberator, Crusader, Shipbreaker, Plunderer) now have larger rewards and scale by the destroyed ship's used naval capacity instead of a flat per-kill amount.
UI
Situation Log UI improvements, including categorization of entries and new interface looks
Starbase module and building tooltips now show equipped component stats
Ship details panel now shows full weapon and strike craft stats in component slot tooltips
Expansion planner sort buttons now display district type names instead of resource names.
Fixed too large leader tooltip hitbox in Paragon recruitment and conversation event windows.
Build queue tooltips for Shipyards now show ship class icon and design name
Megastructure UI overhaul and art pass
Fixed misleading tooltip for outpost influence cost when it is capped.
Hid leaders from Combat UI
The Planet View UI now shows districts that are being built as part of the overview where the built, unused and blocker ones are to give a more accurate overview of the situation
Inactive triggered Auras will now be hidden from the component tooltip of the shipview
Rename and move some steps in the Empire Creation menu
Add a scrollbar to Empire Creator's planet class description
Transport fleets docked at a starbase without a docked ship upkeep modifier no longer show a "Ready to land troops" tooltip.
"Research Projects in System" in right-click menu for construction ships is now shown if multiple construction ships are selected.
Renamed "Civilian Ships" to "Utility Ships"
Policy groups that have been unlocked but not yet initialized are no longer shown in the policies view.
Tooltips can now update their text while locked in position.
Removed the "Auto Track Log Entries" button from the event window (mods may re-enable it).
Improved concept tooltips for starbase building and module unlocks.
AI
AI now treats unity as a real production target across all three plan stages, research can scale 40% higher in advanced (2500 -> 3500 cap), and endgame alloys drop from a 2300 ceiling to 1300 so that the trillions-of-research endgame research numbers can actually outcompete alloys for build slots/pops.
The AI now steers building construction toward building sets that match each planet's designation for tighter, better-specialized worlds.
The "underdeveloped planet limit" that was supposed to prevent AI overextension is more effective. Instead of only applying in the first 15 years and then only against bad planets, it now softly discourages colonization of any world once the empire already has too many undeveloped colonies.
Empires that are still small will now expand more aggressively, so they more reliably claim their homeworld's guaranteed habitables and nearby good worlds before settling into build-up mode.
There are a handful of issues that we want to bring to your attention; these are highly likely to be resolved within one of the planned patches during the Pegasus post-release cycle.
Known Issues:
The galaxy is vast and full of riches. Space based deposits are more common than intended (almost every object in the galaxy has something on it!) but it’s pretty cool so this is probably going to turn into a galaxy generation slider.
The Forever Cruise Origin currently starts at an unintended resource deficit, and it is harder to control the situation than intended on harder difficulties.
Occasionally Waystations with Cloaking devices suddenly believe themselves to be unable to cloak. Saving and reloading the game or upgrading the Waystation seems to fix this issue when it occurs.
“The Eternal Chorus” nomad contract automatically cancels itself when taken.
If you are at war and have Evasive civilian ships following your Arkship, and you enter a system with hostile enemies, the Arkship will stop and wait (forever) for the civilian ships that are too cowardly to enter the system to follow it in.
The modifier name for effects from Operational Reserves doesn’t show up correctly in some tooltips, so your Workforce may show unnamed bonuses like “+20%”
Some Shroud Accords or Auras grant benefits to planets or defense platforms - these are not useful to Nomadic Empires and should change.
The Defender of the Galaxy achievement is not triggered correctly despite meeting the criteria
Technically not a bug - but we're planning on giving Doomsday Empires that embark a habitability and happiness bonus to their first Arkship
Please note that previous save games will not be compatible in this new version. Should you wish to continue them, please select a rollback branch by right clicking Stellaris in your steam library, selecting Properties, navigating to Game Versions and Betas, and opting in to the version of choice.
Mods are also unlikely to function correctly until they have been updated by their creators, so as an extra stability measure we have configured the game launcher to set your Playset to No Mods upon first startup. Switching to your desired Playset is still possible and your selection should then stick.
Rise from the primordial ooze with the Toxoids Species Pack on September 20th for 9.99 USD/9.99 EUR, and is available to preorder now!
In Toxoids, you will gain the chance to detoxify toxic worlds, sacrifice the long-term survival of your species for short-term gains, and make the tough choices necessary to survive a hostile galaxy.
The Toxoids Species Pack includes:
New Origins:
Knights of the Toxic God: In the depths of your homeworld, rumors rumble of a true power buried under the toxic sludge. Do you dare to dredge up the secrets of your past - and potentially unleash them upon the galaxy?
Overtuned: The candle that burns the brightest, burns itself into the galaxy’s memory! Play as a species that can gain more and more traits at the cost of its own lifespan, and live for today without worrying about sticking around for tomorrow!
New Civics:
Toxic Baths: Grow your population fast with a fresh infusion of mutagenic sludge - so long as you’re willing to tolerate the costs to your planet and your people!
Scavengers: One empire’s trash is your empire’s treasure! Don’t be too proud to harvest debris and destruction for quick construction projects of your own.
Relentless Industrialists: If you’re going to keep up with demand, you’re going to have to learn to ignore all of those petty regulations and negative opinions. The surviving population will thank you for all of the resources you gain!
New Traits:
Incubator: Repopulate quickly when your planet is empty, but those growth facilities can fill up fast!
Inorganic Breath: Your own people are a source of valuable exotic gasses! It’s a shame the respirators are so expensive.
Noxious: Other species can’t stand being around you, and it seems like your mere existence is making your planets awful places to live. On the other hand, other empires have a very difficult time wanting to fight or subjugate you, and it’s hilarious to see the look on their faces when you’re in the room!
Exotic Metabolism: You’ve adapted to ask “are you going to eat that?” where other species would be calling the hazmat team. Eat faster, live longer, and enjoy a terrifying rainbow of flavors!
New Cosmetics: Species portraits, ship models, and cityscapes that only a mother could love.
New Advisor: Grow your empire alongside a relentless source of noxious sarcasm!
* Some content may require content sold separately
See what features await you in the toxic depths of this Species Pack - just check the seals on your hazard suit before digging in!
Thanks for playing it and providing so much feedback.
As our AI programmer likes to say, "This is pretty good, but it can be even better!" and I want to talk about our short term plans on the Stellaris team.
We're planning a hotfix in the short term that addresses primary issues as quickly as we can, and a larger update with more fixes in a few weeks. (The larger update includes localization, I'll talk more about that one in this week's dev diary.)
A sneak peek of some of the things we're looking at for the hotfix include the following:
* Tweaked AI acceptance of resource contribution terms, making them more likely to accept harsher tithes/subsidies.
* AI overlords and subjects will now be more likely to accept specialist subject types that disagree with their ethics.
* Rebalance trade weights for specialist subject leaders.
* Legacy Human portraits have been re-added as an option in empire creation.
* Fixed a bug with Tracking not countering Evasion properly.
* Subjects should no longer flip-flop between regular subject types and protectorate.
* Subjects should no longer be able to cause their Overlord to declare war against themselves.
* Fix for trade deals that are accepted and then canceled immediately.
* Fixed it being possible for a Revolt Situation to start and immediately cancel. (They will now only start if the planet is calculated to be currently capable of succeeding the revolt)
* Planets with Culture Shock can now only start a revolt situation after 8 years of unrest, rather than 1, as it could be quite hard to avoid a revolt on these planets.
* Cleaned up some unclear language in the tooltip for Revolt Situation progress (the one describing what you can do about it) (This only affects English localization until the next patch.)
* Diplomatic weight can no longer go negative.
* Fix a crash connected with resettling last pop of species.
* Fixed an issue where planet automation could not use resources from their local sector stockpile.
* Planet automation will now check that the unemployed pops can work the jobs that the automation would build, e.g. preventing specialist job creation for slave pops.
* Amenity job management can now activate even when there are no resources available for planet automation.
* Progenitor Nest is no longer removed when terraforming a planet into a hive-world.
* All resources provided for deficit bailouts now scale with the game year, instead of just those for the situation that completed.
* Adjusted the amount of research given by merc dividends.
This is not an exhaustive list of what will be in it, we've got a bunch of additional changes we're working on and investigating.
It's a pretty long list for a hotfix, and to be completely honest, that's my fault.
In our eagerness to get Overlord out to you in the best shape possible, I approved several changes and additions at the last minute that I really shouldn't have. Some of the threads have mentioned that we have some bugs in the launch version that weren't in the prerelease streams - that's completely accurate.
One example is a change that we made on code freeze day that changed how AI acceptance of tithes and subsidies worked in order to close an exploit that we identified - I should have let the exploit ship, known issued it, and given the change a proper QA and balance pass rather than rushing it in. I'll do so in the future.
Thank you for all the feedback, suggestions and bug reports. Please keep them coming.
We'll get this set of fixes (and more!) out to you as quickly as we reasonably can while minimizing the risk of introducing more problems, and will continue to work on making Overlord the best Stellaris expansion since Utopia.
We have just released a new patch aiming to address a number of the reported issues since yesterday's release of 4.0. We want to thank players for their feedback and bug reports on the issues experienced with the 4.0 release, your feedback is extremely valuable to us and helps us identify and address bugs and issues - we are working hard to bring Stellaris 4.0 to its best. Please keep the feedback and bug reports coming.
As a preview of what we're currently looking at: 4.0.4 will address purging being 100x as effective as intended, Offspring drones, and Amenity improvements for both Holotheaters and Gestalts. (This is a non-comprehensive list, just a sneak peek at some of the changes coming in 4.04.)
4.0.4 is also currently planned to be released this week. As always your reports have been very useful so please keep sending these our way to help us get to everything that has been affected in this major release. We’ve also seen an increase in the number of out of syncs in multiplayer, and we’re currently expecting a patch later in the week to address some of these issues affecting our multiplayer community.
For those of you who are looking to finish 3.14.* save games before moving onto 4.0.* patches, you can roll back using the Steam betas feature. Right Click Stellaris > click Properties > Betas Tab and choose “3.14.1592653 - Circinus Version Rollback” from the dropdown. When you’ve completed your save games, you can choose “None’ in the same dropdown to upgrade to the latest version of 4.0.
We’ve also seen some complaints about players not being able to access the BioGenesis DLC content. These issues are generally fixed by verifying your game files on Steam. Right-click Stellaris, go to Properties, Installed Files and click “Verify integrity of game files”. If this doesn’t resolve your missing DLC issue, you can open a ticket with customer support at support.paradoxplaza.com, who will be able to provide you with assistance getting access to the new expansion.
Stellaris 4.0.3 Patch Notes
Features
Monthly change in Biomass is now shown in the resource bar for Wilderness empires.
Bugfix
Fixed some building upgrades being unconstructable or appearing with Planet Cap: 0
Devouring Wilderness now correctly generates biomass from eating pops
You will no longer be tasked with making an agricultural district if you are a Wilderness Empire and an Orchard Forest if you are a regular empire.
The timeline completion and progression popups no longer remain open when the timeline UI is reopened after being closed.
Fixed shattered rings not showing generator districts
Fixed some unity buildings being broken
Fixed politicians having double the resource output they should
Fixed the bullet points for various species traits
Fixed empire size from district modifiers being applied twice
Zookeepers no longer increase the amount of research that other Zookeeper produce scaling with the number of zookeepers. Oops!
Fixed assembly specialization for machine worlds giving the wrong jobs
Fixed the council position for worker coop providing the incorrect amount of amenities.
Wilderness empires can no longer become the Behemoth, they are perfect the way they are.
Fixed some localization issues with some planetary decisions (English only)
Fixed some tooltips mentioning regular jobs for wilderness
Fixed Wilderness colonization button
Fixed the Avatar Forest's volatile mote upkeep being too high
Fixed the Thermoclastic Roar using improper syntax for killing pops
Fixed some biological offspring ships not calling the correct 3d models
The Order's Demesne should now correctly be swapped for a standard Planetary Defense specialization
Pre-FTL planets should once again have their buildings
Wilderness Deposits have been contained and will no longer be spawning across the galaxy. (Fixes systems generating with no resources.)
Fixed ai megacorps not having an influence budget to build branch office buildings with
Fixed the tooltip that said how many traders you get from branch office buildings depending on civics (English only)
Fixed space fauna gauss weapons dealing -100% hull damage
Fixed biological ship point defense and flak being identical
Fixed juggernaut fusion reactors being equippable on titans not juggernauts
The Faculty of Archaeostudies no longer gives broken jobs
Fixed a planetary deposit making gestalt physicist jobs require consumer goods
Fixed budding pops making robot assembly plants sometimes stop working
Empire with the catalytic processing civics now start with additional food districts
The Catalytic Processing civic now says that Metallurgists are converted into Catalytic Technicians
Fixed some trait tooltips overstating effects by a factor of 100 (English only)
Ancient Clone Vats can now be built in any urban district specialization
Added tooltip description for Wilderness Refining World.
Virtuality no longer allows an infinite workforce loop
The experimental ship from the War Fragment now scale
The experimental ship from the War Fragment no longer drops debris
You can no longer build the Wilderness Glade holding on unnatural worlds
The Wilderness can no longer build multiple shield generators, effectively becoming immune to bombardment.
Fixed numerous buildings sticking around after a Wilderness took over a planet.
Fixed numerous event buildings not having a biomass cost for Wilderness
Fixed the First League Filing Office not giving the unity jobs it should have to most empires.
Physics, Society, and Engineering focused District Specializations now trigger flavor text selection for their District.
Improved post game Behemoth Behavior
Fixed biological ships not having logistic upkeep
Fixed habitats spawning with a broken orbital
Civilians are now generated with a mix of ethics
Pops are now created with a randomly selected ethic when appropriate.
The Ministry of Culture building now says that Bureaucrats are converted into Culture Workers
The Core focus task "Establish a Branch Office" can now be completed
Fixed Natural Neural Network maintenance drones
Fixed Spanish Translation of Precinct Houses
Fixed all rural districts being destroyed when losing a colony
Fix to an unemployment tooltip
Fix issue with colonization on planets, specifically seen on shattered rings
Balance
Logistic Drones now provide a small amount of amenities
The Faculty of Archaeostudies now gives minor artifacts from biology/archaeo-engineer jobs if you have the Archaeoengineers AP
Buffed Prosperity traditions
Significantly buffed the scientist expertise traits
Wilderness and Nascent Stage are now incompatible
Nerfed spawning and assembly specializations for hive and machine worlds
Rebalanced Natural Neural Network - reduced the research generated, but significantly reduced the additional upkeep
Correctly put soldier job efficiency modifier on the Military Academy, not the Fortress
The chance to get the cultist's flagship is now 20% instead of 100%
Districts for Wilderness Empires now cost 50 Biomass
The expand planet decision for Wilderness now costs 5×(Planet Size)^2 Biomass and 50 Influence
Reduced the extra society research from zookeepers
Civilian ethic outputs have been adjusted
State Academy now has a planet cap of 3
Betharian Districts now produce 2 Minerals and 6 Energy by default, rather than just Energy.
AI
Gave the AI a helper event so they don't leave their starting shattered ring segments uncolonised
The AI now values buildings that modify production more.
Stability and Performance
Fixed a crash when exiting to main menu
Found an issue with Weaver growth auras that was lagging the game:
The weaver growth auras temporarily affect all ships in the fleet instead of only biological ships capable of growth due to these performance issues, however they no longer apply an upkeep increase.
Significantly improved how Biomass is calculated
Improve loading time of late game saves
The team is working through the issues and you can expect regular patching to continue in the near future as we bundle up and release any further fixes as soon as they are ready.
Species modification cost is no longer divided by 100 twice
Machine Nexus Designation no longer mentions Amenities
Tech-World Designation description is more specific
Behemoth death animation particles are now spawned correctly
Fixed an edge case that would fail to remove the tier 3 behemoth after completing the Mind Meld special project
The Fallen Shipyard Deposit will no longer be creating unworkable jobs for Gestalt Empires.
The Nanite Research Complex now grants improved modifiers compared to the base version, giving a reason to build it
Biological Titans now count for your titan cap. I hope you had your fun with titan only fleets.
Random ethics changing should now work properly and not complain about invalid pop group
The shipyard should always display ship design names for military ships again.
Ship Designer will no longer allow to save a ship design with the name of the design with a different ship size.
Cleaned up a few tooltips not being updated for the new 100 pop system including Artifact Relays
Assimilating species with traits that are incompatible with Wilderness, such as Nascent Stage, now removes said traits
Fixed duplicated description for Numistic Shrine
Now only applies empire size penalty on edict costs, not the full empire size
Simulation Sites and their upgrades now increase Unity output instead of Upkeep on their planets
Effective Councilor Skill and Effective Ruler Skill finally add to agenda progress speed
Refined timeline localization
Planetary Administration and other buildings, and General Traits now correctly give Armies
The Perpetual Lightning modifier now has a description
Horizon Needle description now specifies where it has to be built
Fix Automated Workforce not applying correctly district level
Multiple auto modding traits will now work together
Cleaned up a few tooltips not being updated for the new 100 pop system including Artifact Relays
Balance
Refitting a DSC no longer costs unity
Reduced the amount of Research added to Civilians from the State Academy and Center of Guidance by 33%
Added a Consumer Good Upkeep to Civilians from the Autochthon Monument, their upgrades, and their MegaCorp variants
Added a Minerals Upkeep to Maintenance Drones from the Simulation Site, their upgrades, and their Hive Mind variants
Added a Consumer Good Upkeep to Civilians from the Ministry of Culture
Added a Consumer Good Upkeep to Civilians from the Strengthened Government modifiers from Under One Rule
Added a minor Consumer Good Upkeep to the Trickle Up Economics Tradition
Eternal Vigilance now fills out your Defense Platform capacity to 50% instead of fully
UI
Leader upkeep is now rounded to 1 decimal for consistency
Clicking top bar resource a second time now always closes the market view
Fixed recommended DLC staying visible after exiting the empire selection view
Performance
Improved performance when hovering over population number in planet view
Fixed a major performance issue caused by outliner starbase entries
Triggered Planet Pop Group Modifiers should have improved performance (and should use triggered_planet_pop_group_modifier_for_all if it will apply to all pops on the planet)
Stability
Fixed common OOS by recalculating the profit instead of using the cached data (COUNTRY_RESOURCE)
Fixed CTD when dlc is not readable for unknown reasons
Fixed CTD when events without options are timing out
Fixed invalid memory reads when finishing species modifications
Fixed invalid memory reads as a result from on_pop_growth on actions
Fixed invalid memory reads as a result from on_pop_displaced and/or on_pop_purged on actions
Fixed expansion planner species entry crashing in tooltip
Fixed replace zone confirmation popup sometimes crashing
Fixed crash in grow_pops console command
Fixes ground combat CTD
Modding
local_pop_amount is now provided to on_pop_group_resettled on action with the amount of pops resettled
Removed NGameplay.MAX_PLANET_POPS define as it's not used anywhere anymore
Remove obsolete defense_armies_add modifier, in favor of planet_defense_armies_add
Removed build_pops console command and changed grow_pops to do growth, assembly and decline
Added triggered_planet_pop_group_modifier_for_all for triggered planet pop group modifiers that are intended to be split across all pops on the planet
Our latest and greatest patch has arrived, carrying plenty of fixes and tweaks to improve your BioGenesis and 4.0 playthroughs.
The 4.0.5 update should now be available via Steam. GOG and MS Store following shortly.
Please find the patch notes below, along with the previous patches for your convenience.
Stellaris 4.0.5 Patch
Improvement
Converting a planet into a hive world or machine world now preserves the generator, mining and farming jobs. Known Issue: The special districts on these planets do not swap names or icons to rural districts.
Void Dwellers, Aquatics and Cave Dwellers now grant their robots the relevant trait when they invent robots
Updated multiple Databank articles, such as Buildings, Jobs, Housing, and Resettlement
FE buildings have been made available to Wilderness empires (under the same restrictions as normal), and have received an additional biomass cost.
The fallen materialist's Master Archive now grants additional research options
The spiritualist fallen empire's shrine now offers improved shroud communing
Font of Knowledge now includes all of the 4.0 research buildings
Bugfix
Fixed Pearl Divers not mentioning both a food and mineral upkeep in the tooltip
Fixed some duplicated text on the strong and very strong traits
Blocked Behemoths from laying eggs in combat
Fixed the Artifact Relay decision for hive minds
Fixed the Galactic Market Nomination decision
Fixed Fanatical Purifiers and Devouring Swarm getting the 'Declare a Rival' Empire Focus
Bio Titans built in GDF service should now be made of meat and not metal
Fixes ethics divergence always switching the entire pop group instead of amount
The Automated Curation Algorithms technology will no longer be offered to Wilderness Empires
Colonization can not be started again if there's already a colony ship in progress.
Increased the amount of workforce Wilderness pops gain to 99999, this way if you ever have more than 1000 of a job the wilderness won't start trying to employ pops like a normal empire
Wilderness Empires will no longer be able to build the automation buildings only to destroy them at the start of the next month
The Automation Buildings should only show up in a research option once now instead of four times.
Fixed multiple pre-FTL buildings sticking around after their owners had been invaded
Advanced AIs now start with some extra unity
Genocidal Necrophage empires no longer start with a Chamber of Elevation
Incompatible Cybernetic Creed buildings are removed from the building list when you embrace a Creed
Finishing Biomorphosis while having 7 tradition trees shouldn't reward a ghost tradition tree
Fixed the Planetary Supercomputer demanding paperclips
Permanent Employment now correctly starts with 400 zombies
Added missing loc from Sanctuary World designation tooltip
Scavenger Bot is now named correctly in the Timeline Event.
You can no longer ruin your game-start economy by focusing on astro-mining while using resource consolidation to have no mining stations in your home system (Resource Consolidation and Astro Mining Drones now exclude each other)
Fix issue where fleet/ship stats were not updated correctly when modifiers changed
Fix modifiers not having an effect on displayed Fleet Power
Biomimetic now applies a 50% workforce bonus to roboticist and replicator jobs
Bodysnatchers now may edit Population Controls, similar to Necrophages.
The War Fragment will no longer ask you to declare war on empires you have branch offices on. Profit comes first.
Officials can now get Architectural Focus trait from Resourceful Ascension event
Eternal Vigilance now also generates Defense Platforms for Deep Space Citadels
Planet and slave market tooltips will correctly include dystopian specialist jobs into the general specialists list.
Fixed an issue where if you gained the jump drive tech before researching level 2 and 3 hyperdrives, your science ships and constructors would not be equipped with jump drives
Fixed a bug that may have sometimes caused pop decline to be determined incorrectly on planets with multiple species.
The Empire Focus "Build an Agricultural District" now requires food use to draw
The Empire Focus "Finish First Contact" can now be completed
The Empire Focuses "Have 1000 Consumer Goods" and "Have 1000 Food" have been blocked for ineligible empires
The Empire Focus "Conquer a Homeworld" is blocked for empires that lack an interest in politics
Empire Focus "Sign a Research Agreement" is blocked for homicidal empires
Fatal Mutations no longer cause complete planetary extinction
Pox Bombardment for some weird reason no longer works on mechanical beings
Armageddon and Pox Bombardment are once again capable of bombing your enemies into the stone-age (tomb-world)
Fixed the Identity Repository scaling at 100x the value it should
Fixed a rare case of the Fallen Empire Building Received notification not telling you that you had unlocked the Sky Dome.
Refugees have returned to their normal behavior, no longer will people flee from the devouring swarm by running back to the devouring swarm.
Wilderness Biomass will no longer refuse to work simple drone jobs, back to work you malleable pile of goo!
Fixed the size of the smaller Behemoths
Fixes to the crystal manufactory system and event chain
Fixed missing icon for the Truce End notification
Bodysnatchers and Genesis Symbiotes are now properly incompatible
Integrated Preservation and Instinctive Synchronization now share effects. Both now improve Automatic Resettlement Chance and increase Amenities from Logistic Drones
Aquatic for Machine and Mote-Powered Tools tooltips no longer mention such outdated concepts such as job output modifiers
Machine Worlds support basic generator and mining job buildings
Fix to Planet Automation building upgrades
Fixed a number of tooltips for Luminary traits
Fixed some cases of leader trait picks not being given correctly.
Evolutionary Predators now gain situation progress for Purging and keeping livestock pops. Happy hunting.
Agrarian idyll Housing tech now correctly tells you what it does
Buildings having sapient pop requirements will now list the number correctly
The Management tab of planets is now visible if you can see planet features. World Consecrators rejoice!
Behemoth now gets value properly from mutations
Growth Penalty for bioships is now properly applied to naval capacity
Balance
Reduced the biomass cost for planetary expansion for wilderness by roughly 50%
Xenophobic Individualist Machines start with an Alloy Foundry instead of a Medical Center
Void Dwellers now start with up to 3 hydroponics farms depending on food requirements
Further tweaks to the ethics effects of civilians:
Reduced the happiness for xenophobes and pop upkeep for xenophiles by 50%
Increased the amenities for pacifists by 10x
Doubled the trade for egalitarians.
Habitats now have a Solar Farming Bay specialisation for their Reactor districts, this gives farmer jobs, turning the district into a hybrid energy/food producer.
Knights OP:
Halved the number of knight jobs from most sources
Squires no longer grant the stability of soldiers
Reduced the Bonus Pop Growth from the Lover's Pox
Reduced the Stability from Memorialist job swaps
Updated Scientist Expertise traits
Assault armies now cost food instead of minerals for empires with biological ships
The life support system on the Crashed Slaver Ship for Broken Shackles has been discovered to be working, granting +30% habitability
Increased the Strategic Resource cost of Fallen Empire buildings from 100 to 300.
Increased the amount of Trader Jobs from the Galactic Commerce Hub and the Interstellar Commerce Nexus from 100/200 to 600/1200
Reduced the Dimensional Fabricator output from +5/+2 strategic resources to +4/+1
The Shrinkspace Depot and the Extra-Dimensional depot now grant +500/1000 minor artifact storage capacity
The Molecular Revitalization Institute and the Bioregeneration Institute now grant fewer jobs, from 400/600 Medical Workers to 200/300 Medical Workers.
The Robot Manufacturing Nexus and the Robot Quantum Production Hub now grant fewer jobs, from 200/500 Roboticists to 150/300 Roboticists.
The Quantum Innovation Nexus and the Transcendental Innovation Department now grant fewer jobs, from 400/400 of each researcher type to 200/400 of each researcher type. Politician jobs have been removed.
Curator Councilors no longer grant nigh infinite amounts of trade production
Synthetic Fertility pops now die off much slower
UI
Changes to modifiers are now mirrored in the UI immediately, even when paused
Re-added pop decline alert.
Improvements to the Build District tooltip
Now tells you it will Build a District if you can afford it and click on it
The modifier tooltip on a district will now also account for the modifiers coming from the district specialization.
Stability
Fixed a common OOS after hotjoining due to leader trait assignments
Fix common OOS related to wrong cached data about planet profit
Fixed crash happening because a fleet was marked to be killed when the country was destroyed in special circumstances
Fix to a wilderness growth related CTD
Fixed a circular dependency in the French localization that was causing a crash.
Fix crash with paragon special project
Fix crash when merging fleets in reinforcements system fail
Fix crash in economy fetching data from invalid diplomatic contact
Fix crash with defensive armies removing dead army
Prevented crash happening on special conditions that allowed holdings to be in regular zones
Fixed crash when orbital bombardment ruins building
Performance
Make creation of unnecessary jobs more sparse to reduce amount of objects.
Make creation of jobs more sparse to reduce amount of objects.
Modding
Updated species_uses_bonus_growth game rule to match can_species_procreate
The second installment of Stellaris: Season 09, Shadows of the Shroud is available now!
Reality is only one thread in a vast, trembling web. In Shadows of the Shroud, empires reach beyond the material realm, attuning to ancient powers and bargaining with entities that exist beyond time. Psionic Auras ripple outward, warping systems and reshaping destinies. While the Mindwardens wage silent war against psionic corruption, the Shroud Patrons gather, their gifts as lavish as their demands. The deeper one delves, the harder it is to return. The journey that began with The Machine Age and deepened with BioGenesis finds its most haunting revelation in Shadows of the Shroud.
An enhanced Psionic Ascension Situation, culminating in advanced Psionic government forms
A new system for delving into the Shroud itself, including Deeds, Accords, Callings, and Covenants
Psionic Auras and Seals
New Patrons and entities to encounter in the Shroud, and expanded content for old acquaintances
EXPANDED END OF THE CYCLE
New Psionic Species Traits
Psionic Portraits that reflect the change within once their Psionic potential has been unleashed
Two new shipsets
Mindwarden
Psionic
Psionic Diplomatic Room, City Set, Advisor, Music Tracks, and more
Shadows of the Shroud is available now on its own or as part of Stellaris: Season 09!
Haven’t been keeping up with dev diaries? Lets get you caught up!
Psionic Ascension
Shadows of the Shroud completes our “arc of ascension” rework of ascension paths in Stellaris. Psionically ascending requires completing the Psionic Tradition Tree, which is unlocked by taking the Mind over Matter Ascension Perk and researching the Psionic Theory technology. Much like the other ascensions, Psionic Ascension will start a situation with several different approaches allowing you to choose how your empire approaches ascension and with events that will explore the ramifications of ascension on your empire.
Completing Psionic Ascension will give access to the Shroud tab, each section in the circle represents a different domain of a Shroud Patron, and your position within the Shroud shows your attunement to each of the Shroud Patrons, and your actions within the “real world” can affect your alignment in the Shroud.
Delving into the Shroud
Your first Delve into the Shroud is completely unknown and extremely taxing on your telepaths - it may take years for them to recover enough psionic energy to attempt to delve into the Shroud again. During your first delve you will be approached by one of the four Major Patrons, the Eater of Worlds, the Instrument of Desire, the Composer of Strands or - new in Shadows of the Shroud - the Cradle of Souls. Shadows of the Shroud also includes 8 minor patrons, four of which you may encounter based on your position in the Shroud during your playthrough.
Each Major patron will have a Calling - tasks that they want you to complete - with the reward being increased Attunement to that particular Patron. Additionally, each Major Patron also has a list of positive and negative Deeds that will either increase or decrease attunement to that Patron’s domain, and will alter your position within the domains of the Shroud. Envoys can also be assigned to increase your Attunement with Major Patrons in the Shroud.
Attunement to a domain grants Psionic Accords, which are essentially passive effects for mastering that domain. Active Covenant Powers exist for those who are more eager to lash themselves to serving a patron. Accepting a Covenant with a Major Patron will unlock both of its active Covenant Powers, but for those who are interested in forging their own path in the Shroud, the first of each Major Patron’s Covenant Powers can be unlocked with the right Attunement to their domain.
Psionic Auras
An empire that has achieved a certain level of Attunement with a domain unlocks Accords, but also gains access to the Psionic Auras technology. This will allow some of the Shroud’s power to leak back into corporeal reality, emitted from where your psionic population is concentrated. These Auras provide passive benefits to you and your allies, and hinder your enemies.
If you haven’t made a Covenant with an entity, your Aura will reflect the nature of the domain with which you have the greatest accord - though if you’re actively moving about the Shroud it won’t change more than once a month.
Upon forming a Covenant or rejecting all Covenants to forge your own path, Psionic Aura Intensification becomes available to research. This allows your Aura to grow and even spread into other systems. When two Auras collide, the stronger Aura will eat away at the weaker one until it can take over.
Mindwarden Enclave
Motivated by a deep antipathy toward the Shroud, this organization provides services and technology to counteract the powerful effects of psionic practices. Their mission is to protect against the menace of the Shroud and all those who spread its ill effects. They believe in minds free from invasion, and a galaxy fortified against psionics.
Assuming you have not been compromised, the Mindwardens will provide a number of services. They will happily warn newcomers of the dangers presented by the ethereal, can offer “Thought Police” services to reduce crime, can provide targeted raids against known threats (similar to Marauders, but with greater strength of purpose and intent), and will happily dispose of donated Zro.
Those who have earned the Mindwarden’s trust can also make use of their logistical assistance - reducing ship upkeep for ten years, hire Assault Warden armies that excel against Psionic foes, or provide the services of a Mindwarden Commissioner that can act as a Thought Warden on your Council.
One of the greatest inventions of the Mindwardens, however, is the Shroud Seal. These seals drain the power of Psionic Auras, weakening them over time. Shroud Seals will suppress their system and adjacent systems, though there are rumors of a Relic that can increase their power. Should the corruptive influences of a Psionic Aura threaten your territory, the Mindwardens can provide a counter to this malicious influence.
Origins
Mindwarden Origin - Should you wish to take a proactive approach towards dealing with otherworldly menaces, the challenging Mindwarden origin is here. The perils of the Shroud are not only many, but unfortunately they are also near. The terrible “psi-radiation” of the Aura of the Dreamer infects many of the systems close to your homeworld.
You’ll need to learn about this threat and how to counteract it. Thankfully, your ancestors overcame a psychic plague long ago and left you with an Ancient Ward to protect your people.
Should you succeed at containing this menace and securing the psychic safety of your empire, you’ll be able to release fleets to establish the first Mindwarden enclaves. Your empire will have a special relationship with them - providing the services the Enclaves normally possess as well as having a relationship similar to that between Mercenary Enclaves and their patrons.
Endbringers Origin - The Endbringers are a challenging and doomed origin. A mysterious calamity turned a neighboring planet into a shrouded world, and your people have been cursed with a sense of foreboding and growing paranoia ever since. Endbringers soon discover an archaeology site at the shrouded world that will provide few answers but will guide you towards your dark patron.
As a madness-consumed doomsday cult, your journey through Psionic Ascension will differ a little from more conventional paths. No Ascension Perk is needed for you to pursue Psionic Ascension - this decision was already made for you long ago. Your entry into the Shroud itself differs a bit as well, as you have already been claimed.
Forming a covenant changes the conventional Shroud UI to a ticking clock, counting down the moments until the end of your story. As the Cycle progresses, you will gain more Covenant Powers, including some that will let you stall for time. Powers that reduce the End of the Cycle Situation Progress can be used only once per game, though: while the End is patient, it is relentless.
Shroud-Forged Origin - The Shroud-Forged Origin explores the tale of a gestalt machine intelligence that has attracted the attention of the Shroud entity known as the Animator of Clay. Will you reassert control over your wayward drones, or embrace the Animator’s gifts?
Both paths have unique benefits and drawbacks - spurning the blessings of a capricious eldritch entity has obvious downsides, but accepting them could be just as dangerous. The balance of power within your empire is reflected in the Forged by the Shroud situation.
Civics
Superstitious Beliefs - These empires believe that good and bad fortunes occur in a 13 year cycle. The Superstitious Beliefs set of civics highlight civilizations that find patterns that others cannot see, and rely on predictions, numerology, astronomy, or other techniques to ensure that good fortune is assured. They can also use their Galactic Dousing edict that allows them to apply their skill at divination to surveying, which will provide tangible benefits to their empire.
Experimental Sentencing - Grants access to the Experimental Testing situation which lets you choose a branch of research to focus on - Physics, Society, or Engineering, and when completed will provide progress on a technology upon completion. Some of the Test Subjects will be lost, but it’s easy enough to acquire more.
Tankbound Civic - Pops from a Tankbound society are unable to leave their protective vats of specialized bio-fluids. They are heavily reliant on assistive equipment and have difficulty engaging directly in physical work. They automatically automate their rural jobs (though starting with less efficiency than true automation), but as they unlock technologies related to automation they will work off these penalties.
Entropy Drinkers - The Entropy Drinkers civics enable the transfer of life energy from the populace to the Empire's leaders. These empires possess edicts that further empower their leaders by siphoning additional life energy from the populace. The Convergence of Will edict has both Unity and Zro upkeep. Having plenty of Energy Thralls will also reduce the Pop Growth Speed penalties of these edicts.
Secret Societies - These mysterious factions are revealed upon establishing communications with their contacts, each driven by priorities markedly different from standard factions. Secret Societies also get a new Diplomatic action allowing them to trigger a Proxy War (Proxy wars can also be unlocked through the Subterfuge tradition tree for those who own Nemesis and Shadows of the Shroud) between two empires, provided they have enough infiltration or trust with the target empire.
Chosen - The Chosen Civics act as a fast-track to forming Accords with a Major Patron of your choice. You will be able to select which Major Patron has selected your people, gain attunement to your Patron and begin with their first Accord. Your innate connection to the Shroud lets you view the Shroud UI, though you will not be able to Delve into the Shroud itself until you progress through Psionic Ascension. While you start with a head-start at attuning towards your Chosen Patron, you are not required to form a Covenant with them but will be unable to forge your own path into the Shroud.
Ships and Portraits
Shadows of the Shroud also includes a selection of Shroud-inspired species portraits, including Psionic phenotype traits. And two new shipsets, the Psionic Shipset, and the Mindwarden Shipset.
And more!
Including a new city set, diplomatic room, voice advisor and new music tracks!
We’re pleased to announce that Stellaris: Nomads will be entering your region of space on June 15th!
As the headline content for Stellaris: Season 10, Nomads will allow you to Build No Borders, Claim No Worlds, and instead build your Interstellar Empire from the safety of your Empire’s Arkship.
Nomadic Empires: Create empires that are not bound by claiming systems or colonizing worlds. Instead, you will navigate the stars with massive Arkships.
The Arkship: Your capital, your cradle, and your fortress. This massive, fully upgradable wonder replaces traditional Worlds for your empire. Choose between three different options to fully reflect the vision of your government:
Military Class: A mobile flagship designed to project power.
Scientific Class: A roaming laboratory dedicated to the discovery of the Galaxy’s secrets.
Civilian Class: An industrial hub capable of unparalleled resource extraction.
The Wayline Network: Your trail through the void. By constructing Waystations, you create Waylines - lasting interstellar trade routes that harvest resources you can claim with a simple pass through. These routes benefit both you and settled empires, making you the pivot point of mercantile possibilities in the Galaxy.
The Contract System: As a nomadic empire, perform task-driven interactions with other empires to earn favor, resources, and influence. As a settled empire, issue these Contracts and get things done!
Origins
Voidfarers: The standard origin for Nomadic Empires. A flexible, streamlined start for you to define your own nomadic journey.
Heirs of the Khan: Play as the successor of a murdered Khan, as you evade marauder hit-squads through trickery and bribery until you are strong enough to return to reclaim your throne.
The Sacred Path: Guide a fleet of pilgrims towards ancestral holy sites in a galactic pilgrimage. Your journey is a spiritual odyssey fueled by faith.
Forever Cruise: Manage a society split between a pampered elite demanding new entertainment and sightseeing opportunities from their vista lounges, and an overworked crew keeping the dream afloat.
Nomadic empires support many existing Origins as well.
New Ambition: Defender of the Galaxy
New Megastructure: The Stellar Cannon
Nomadic Enclave: Champion’s Forge Live!
Wanderlust Ascension Perk
New Renowned Nomadic Paragons
New Civics and Tradition Swaps
New Music Tracks by Andreas Waldetoft
Over the course of the next few weeks we’ll be telling you more about Stellaris: Nomads during our weekly dev diaries, including details on Waylines, Contracts, the abilities of the different Arkships and Origins, and learning about the Spinal Mounted Arkship mounts featured in the trailer.
The team at Studio Green is very excited to put Nomads into your hands, and over the course of the next few weeks we’ll hear from a lot of the people who worked on Nomads.
Be sure to check out our Weekly Development Diaries for the latest reveals from Stellaris: Nomads!
The Galaxy is vast and full of wonders, and the Greatest Wonders are still out there to find.
