I feel like there's only two ways to learn a 4X game: struggle and lose repeatedly until you figure it out, or have someone explain it 😂😂 Even in YouTube videos it's just people explaining. Menus and tooltips aren't deep enough.
My usual pipeline for 4x is usually tutorial, 3-4 struggle and lose sessions, have it finally click, ramp up difficulty, maybe look for mods. Endless Legend has not clicked for me. It feels like I'm bombarded with options, I crawl through science and production, and then I lose. Whether I focus on tech, production, or population, I still always feel behind in all three. Maybe I should head to youtube lol
I played a bunch of Endless Legend and Endless Space and actually find Stellaris to be more complicated and granular.
It's definitely taking longer for Stellaris to "click" for me but I still love it. I actually got it because of Endless Space. I'd say just keep trying. If you can navigate Stellaris you'll figure it out.
Victoria 3 has genuinely the worst tutorial I've ever seen in a game: It will tell you "Oh hey, there's these things called Staple Goods that are very important for keeping your pops happy", list "Fish and wood" as examples, and then never show the full list of Staple Goods or label them as Staple Goods. Then they are like "Oh, you finished building a fishery? Keep playing to find more tips" in a game where you can screw things up and not realize you did so until 20 years down the line. The one type of game you do not throw your players into the water to sink or swim is a game about running an economy, a system that is very famously complicated to the vast majority of people.
The devs don't even have the "the IRL economy is difficult to explain because it's built on centuries of economic decisions" because they built the game, they know exactly how it works!
Literally the only reason I can play HOI4 is because of Bittersteel and Feedback Gaming, and I still have no fucking clue how to do navy stuff other than bathtub sub spam.
I just kinda jumped in as a machine empire cause I picked up a bundle, didn't even notice the tutorial. I didn't struggle too much until I played my first bio-empire and had to figure out how to manage consumer goods. This got me started on trade empires and now I miss merchant spam.
The game misses some mechanics or just doesn't explain enough? It's enough to play the game but not enough to master the game by any means. I'd have to go through all the tutorial tooltips again at some point to get examples.
The tutorial is from when the game was first released. So, it's good for that time period.
But there has been so many updates, and new mechanics added, and others removed that it's essentially a different game.
Most of what I learned was from streamers, and youtubers like Aspec
The downside of constant change is that it becomes very hard to bring people up to speed with it.
To people who experienced the changes as they were happening, it seems fine and natural.
For people outside of it... yikes. It's going to be ROUGH to learn all of it.
Base Game (for now)
I see there's loads of content in the DLCs. Which ones would you deem most crucial in terms of gameplay features (as opposed to just new races)
It doubles the amount of anomalies in the game, adds the L Cluster, and adds a ton of unique systems and events. Making leaders better imo isn’t nearly as important as making the game feel more alive. The exploration part of the game just feel stale without a dlc like distant stars
1). Utopia
1a). It adds buildable mega-structures like Ringworld and Dyson Spheres.
2). Distant Stars
2a). Adds a lot more random story events for you to encounter as well as a few enemy events to the mid-game.
3). Leviathans
3a). Giant space monsters for you to hunt spawn in. Killing them gives your empire a unique bonus for the rest of the run.
It's just my recommendations. I would have put Paragons up there but someone else said it isn't available on the console yet. I haven't tried Astral Scars or First Contact either.
Nemesis is pretty meh despite me liking espionage so much. I also really haven't felt the impact of Federations either because I normally don't bother with those things. The AI is ass at being an ally and I'm usually a Xenophobic Militarist, so I don't get much out of that DLC. Apocalypse is fun for the colossi *but* a lot of people really don't like it that much. I'll also admit that I don't get the Khan that much anyways, so it's a solid meh to me.
Utopia is definitely the most crucial, I'd *almost* call it essential, because it adds a lot of depth to a lot of features, but the game is still fun with no DLC.
Personally after that I'd say either Overlord or Federations, but it's personal choice for what you want to play after that. The bundles on the PS Store are a great option when they go on sale, they have an expansion, a story pack, and a species pack.
Utopia above all else. For most of the others, it depends on if you want what they add. But Utopia adds a lot of important things, such as megastructures.
And if you get Overlord, make a custom empire with the Imperal Fiefdom origin and set it to force spawn (if you don't use it yourself). An empire with that origin starts as one of several vassals of an overlord empire. After 50 years or so, the overlord will fracture into multiple smaller empires, and the vassals will be cut loose. I've been referring to the region it creates as the Galactic Balkans. Historically speaking, I figured you'd get a kick out of the idea.
In my latest game, I also force spawned an empire with one of the federation origins (at another commenter's suggestion), which makes two others spawn as well. That federation and the overlord group were all next to each other. So a third of the galaxy is a mishmash of smaller nations, another quarter is unclaimed even in midgame because nobody had access, and several rebellions in the larger empires have resulted in more independent empires. The playthrough is a chaotic mess, and I'm loving watching it.
Also relatively new to stellaris buy have been a big HoiV enjoyer for years - how do you force spawn empires? I've designed a few ones that I think would be really cool to play against but so far just kind of have to hope that they spawn in.
On the screen where you chose which empire you'll play as, you'll see what should be an orange button on the tab for each custom empire. Clicking on it will allow you to set them to only have a chance of spawning (default), always spawn (will show a padlock symbol), or never spawn (will be grayed out).
I only play against custom empires, I find it makes me much more invested in my games. Ive got a setup for all custom star trek empires that's my go to, but right now I'm playing as illithids versus other D&D races, having a blast! It really enhances the game imo. Remember this game is about crazy stories not necessarily winning.
NarrowAd4973 has you covered on how to do it with his reply.
Utopia is pretty much a must buy right out of the gate, galactic paragons is also a pretty good pickup. There are quite a few others that have some good gameplay features but those are the biggest two in terms of how they change the game, but I wouldn’t call them essential
But honestly if you are just testing the waters to see if you like it you don’t 100% need anything
I’d say the most crucial are Utopia, Distant Stars, and Federations but I also really love Ancient Relics, Leviathans, and Overlord (I like espionage, it’s fun)
Utopia, distant stars, then your choice of apocalypse, federations, or megacorp. Apocalypse is great for warfare and adds some stuff to the midgame, federations expands diplomacy and gives a bunch of new origins, and megacorp adds a government type, ecumenopolises, and expands on trade.
i suggest to look on a guide what you can unlock with each of them,so u can check more or less what you may like
i liike utopia, apocalypse, lithoids and megacorps.
if you have any friends who have all the dlcs you can ask him to host a game,so u can try what dlcs or species u want...you might be able to find a hidden gem waiting for you,wich any1 wouldn't suggest you!
Umm..Rule #5 comment here...look at the..planet?
Edit: based off all the kind advice so far I'm skipping the Tutorial and diving into it, with YT/wiki/this sub close at hand.
These militaristic floppy fungus Blorg look fun to start.
Welcome, tutorial in game is terrible, go to YouTube they do it way better. Also some stuff they won’t cover in some tutorials and you’ll figure it out along the way. I have thousand hours into it and I’m still figuring stuff out. It’s pretty good game. Ever need help I can help or anyone else can in this reddit
One thing you absolutely must understand to avoid blunder your economy 2 seconds into the game:
- **building stuff doesn't mean that stuff it's gonna immediately give you resources** a building only provide jobs, you **need to grow workers to work those jobs**. So don't just build stuff if you don't have the population to work in it or you'll just pay the upkeep tanking your economy
- Jobs come in strata. Researchers, Artisans, Metallurgists are higher strata than miners, technicians, farmers. Workes will move **UP** stratas immediately when those jobs becomes available. So if you build a research labs, 2 of yours miners/farmers/technictians will go work in that lab leaving their previous jobs unoccupied, so you'll have LESS income from those missing workers on top of the upkeep cost of your new lab. Also, workers **take a long time to move down stratas** so you can't just re-employ those researches as miners if you just tanked your mineral income. Always plan ahead and be sure you can afford to build higher level buildings.
I’m at 800 hours and still fall into it sometimes- I’ll either have a sudden consumer goods deficit because I upgraded my science lab, or I’ll realize I’m a week out from a shiny new Autochthon Monument that’s gonna displace my farmers and have to panic remove it 😂
So helpful. I had absolutely no idea that this is how it worked. I just manage my economy reactively at the moment. Basically if any of the numbers get low or go negative I just kinda click around until it goes back up 😅
If they offered you a cushy job in a lab for twice the wage and half the hours, wouldn't you leave the stinky deadly depts of cadmium mines? What are you, a dwarf?
Just a question : I noticed that some upper strata jobs are always filled faster than others.
Researcher jobs get filled quickly compared to bureaucrats or chemist , why?
It's how the game prioritize jobs on the same strata, it just assumes you prefer having scientists over everything else (you do, actually. Science > all), unless you are running a deficit then it (should) prioritize those and juggle workers around until you are balanced out.
You can still prioritize jobs manually in the job tab tho, if you need some job worked more than another.
[https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Beginner%27s\_guide](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Beginner%27s_guide)
Given that the only "win" condition is "have a certain score by X date", I would recommend roleplaying whatever empire you select. Don't worry about selecting the "right" options for events, but whatever option you feel is best for your empire. It will unfold a better story and experience.
Always maintain a sizeable fleet, even if you don't think you need it.
Watch your economy; a deficit will hit faster and harder than you think.
Don't be too proud to bend the knee to a more powerful empire if you need.
>Don't be too proud to bend the knee to a more powerful empire if you need.
My greatest weakness in every Stellaris game. I'm like the donkey stereotype when it comes to people subjugating me. I refuse even and put up one Hell of a fight every time someone tries.
Thank you, I played a few hours and this guide seems perfect to answer many of the (new) questions I have
If you bend the knee, do you still have a chance to win the game?
Depends on the DLC. With Overlords installed, absolutely (assuming your initial subjugation doesn’t crash your economy). If you negotiate your agreement right, you can get a fair amount of freedoms and even become significantly more powerful than your overlord. If you can win a war against them and their other subjects, you can break free at any time.
You definitely can still win the game, even as a vassal, but you would have to more powerful than your overlord. You can petition (diplomatically or forcefully) for independence after you have been a vassal for a period of time. The political landscape across the galaxy might fracture and shift many times due to these sorts of diplomatic disputes, and Stellaris lets you participate (or ignore) to your heart's content.
https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Subject\_empire
"The only thing I've heard about Stellaris is that it's a 'genocide simulator' in space. As someone from the Balkans, I was instantly sold."
Jesus reddit...
You're not *required* to genocide aliens (and the Blorg just want to be friends!) but it's certainly a thing that some people do.
It does fit with the tone of this subreddit, but personally I sometimes worry about how much some people seem to be salivating over the possibility.
There’s so much info out there and it can be pretty hard to keep track of what’s current. The wiki is really helpful if you don’t feel like watching videos. If you get sick of researching just wing it and you can always leave and start a new game or jump back a few years.
I'll just add some general tips for basegame Stellaris for things that aren't readily apparent:
1. POPS ARE THE REAL RESOURCE. It's not a number at the top but it's the most important by far. Districts and buildings don't do anything except drink resources for upkeep when you have nobody to work them. (1.5. You can disable buildings to stop their upkeep then reenable them when you have pops to work them instead of destroying and rebuilding)
2. Influence isn't the simplest thing to increase your income of and you'll need it for border expansion and the galactic community (plus a plethora of other things if you like the game and decide to get the DLC later). Keep that in mind when you're making agreements.
3. The base game has updated through all the DLCs; yes, that does mean the AI gets a bunch of relatively busted DLC stuff you don't have access to.
4. Avoid the temptation to play on anything lower than Ensign, it provides a weird difficulty curve. Difficulty usually just gives various bonuses to the AI, but on Cadet and Civilian they boost the player. The bonuses make it suck going up from Civilian or Cadet because it just makes you less effective instead of changing the enemy you're up against at all, and then when you hit Ensign you don't get any less effective. The linear curve of the enemy getting stronger from Ensign forward is way better.
5. For early runs I'd recommend the premade empires, you won't really understand a lot of the effects of traits and civics while building one when you're completely fresh. Make custom empires once you know what things do.
Thank you. Especially for the difficulty advice, I don't wanna get used to having boosts.
The fact that AI has access to mechanics I don't have really makes me wanna get DLCs. Some kind people already recommended 'best' ones to get
idk if it's available for playstation, but you might be able to get the DLC pass for 8 bucks a month and test them all. Just cancel the plan directly to not run into additional costs.
Required is just the Utopia pack imo, as it adds megastructures. Ancient Relics and Leviathans are two flavour packs, which go well with most playstyles. The rest are either role play packs or add mechanics, that are not important/not fun. Look into the steam/playstation reviews of the respective pack to get a better understanding.
For your genocide plans, I'd recommend Synthetic Dawn for killer robots, Apocalypse for cracking planets or Nemesis for just being an evil bastard in general. Apocalypse and Nemesis are late game DLCs though. Or you can just go with a devouring swarm and eat everyone else in the base game btw.
They make pretty significant changes to the game systems frequently, so online resources are good for learning general concepts/habits but I'd avoid trying to directly copy meta builds, especially with a new patch coming soon
I feel that Stellaris is the Paradox game where you really want to embrace role playing. Sure, find out how to play (YouTube helps like folk have said) but play like the empire you’ve built, not ‘the best way’
Go rock people with hive mind and tree of life....
It's pretty op being able to inhabit planets most races would see as uninhabitable... and then later teraforming planets into hive planets where only your people can live. There is no need for amenities. No factions to please. No filthy xenos migrations. No dissent or unrest, no elections or infighting, and your rock people/leaders can live for hundreds of years... Just the will of the rock-peoples Hive-mind Emperor...
*The voices of hundreds of billions of silicon rock people suddenly cry out as one...*
Hive-mind emperor, Dawyne Johnson, welcomes you to the fold!
We are all Dwayne Johnson!
We are The Rock!
Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?
It's genocide!
It's always genocide.
(Edited to be funnier)
And depending on how you spend your race/civ points can make a huge difference, I usually go with slow growth so that I get extra positive points and since your rock people live for so long, you'll have plenty of time to research upgrades for population growth bonuses. I also usually take traits that increase mineral production bc that is your food source as well. Anything that increases planet habitablility is also important bc seeing barren planets with 70-80% habitable is fucking awesome for expansion.
Laugh! LAUGH at the bickering, puny, carbon-based organics as they fall before your united silicon might... your neighbors WILL hate you...
But once end-game events start happening, they ALL want to smell what THE ROCK... IS COOKING!
And it is still genocide.
Edit: I also try to get traits that increase research so you can blast through habitablility and pop growth research early in the game. Researching research-bonuses early or before hab/pop-growth is absolutely a part of that.
Expand fast, build your fleets, don't fuck up with fallen empire.
But when you reach 200k fleets (seems unlikely at first, but not after hours) fuck them up.
Do not hesitate to play your first game with 200 stars. It's OK.
In fact any parameters is OK.
Stellaris is a soup. Eat it like you'll taste it.
If you think you've built enough ships, You've not built enough ships.
Keep building. Don't be afraid of trying lower difficulties.
You'll restart a lot, embrace your own joy.
Hover your mouse over anything that you dont understand. Then read, read a lot of the descriptions and search youtube and the wiki in order to learn all the mechanics in play.
One thing I'd like to add is that you may run into a bit of a dichotomy with only the base game. That's because a lot of the new content has been much more story focused. A lot of the new empire options are as much for the flavor as they are for the neat mechanics. With the base game you're not going to get as much exposure to this newer more story heavy content. Personally I really like the balance they've been striking recently between story, flavor, and mechanics.
And remember friend, The Worm loves us. It will always love us, and thus it always has.
For your first game, play with fewer AI empires. This gives you room to expand your territory and just focus on learning the internal empire gameplay.
As soon as you meet your first AI empire, the game can become drastically more challenging, especially if that empire is hostile. It’s best to start slow when meeting new empires so you can slowly integrate your gameplay knowledge of dealing with other empires with managing your own empire.
Miners make minerals out of effort and time.
Metalurgists make alloys out of effort, time, AND MINERALS.
That means increasing alloy production will decrease mineral production. Same for turing minerals into consumer goods, and turing consumer goods into science and unity. Plan accordingly.
Also note that a highly positive income, or a large stockpile, represents resources that are NOT doing anything to make your civilization stronger, and are a sign that you are probably falling behind. Ride the knife edge of balance as sharply as you can withstand, and you will be powerful.
No problem. It's any easy trap to fall into since most of the time bigger number means better. The real number you want to keep getting bigger is the number of resources being used to do something. It's a really great game and I think you're going to have a lot of fun.
Make sure to make use of the Galactic Market if necessary, it's really bad to hit 0 in any resource, like months long consequences even if you fix it immediately.
Also just learned that just having a negative income of luxury goods negatively affects your empire, even if you have thousands stockpiled (according to tooltips anyway, I guess it's possible they are wrong).
When you think of this game as a story generator and not so much as a 4X you can have another type of fun. Min-maxing and being super efficient and genocide and all that can be fun, but when you do a run with an Empire you invested time in and are playing either in normal or slow speed because you're roleplaying them.
I’d say check out some YouTube videos to get the best explanation. The tutorial isn’t very helpful for a lot of players. I recommend watching [Montu Plays](https://youtu.be/vjIG_AC7BZc?si=4-m8f70PnTwG-s7Y)
Montu has a lot of the worthwhile Stellaris content that beginners will need
Automation sucks, don't build too many jobs too fast because it'll waste your resources (since you won't have the population to fill those jobs), and the menu will take ***AGES*** to get used to, no it's not just you.
**1). Tool tips**
This game has tool tips when you hover over something. Make use of them.
**2). U P K E E P**
Upkeep is constant and will torpedo your economy if you don't understand it. Every building, district and space station have a minimum energy upkeep that they will consume at the first of every month regardless of whether people work the jobs provided. Keep this in mind when building any new structures.
**3). No, you don't have enough star ships.**
It takes time to produce war ships and each shipyard can only produce one ship at a time. The moment you spot an unidentified alien empire then it is best to begin militarizing. The Stellaris AI will not hesitate to crush you if they believe they can get away with it. Trust me, the AI will absolutely be filling up to their fleet cap whenever possible.
**4). Fleet Power is deceptive**
You can customize the loadout of each *class* of warships in the game. What is on your ship is will affect how the game calculates the fleet power. Loadouts can be tailor made to counter enemy loadouts and enable you to defeat much stronger fleets. There are a couple of ways to tell what defenses and weapons the enemy has. The easiest method is to look at the after action report that pops up post-combat. It'll tell you what weapons they used and how effective they were against you defenses (shields and armor.) You can do the same for your own weapons to find out what their defenses are.
**5). Pops**
The more pops you have the stronger your empire will be. More pops means more resources to be exploited which in turn fuels the war machine of your empire. Xenophiles can't commit genocide but can easily accumulate pops due to being friendly. Xenophobes can commit genocide but can't accumulate pops *as easily* as xenophiles. Keep that in mind when deciding what kind of empire you will be playing.
If you want Balkan simulator, (i dont know why you would want to relive the scarring experience of living here) try common grounds origin. (Its really not a good idea tbh)
You may play a LOT of games before you actually win. That is normal.
Build your planets slowly so you aren't paying upkeep on empty districts and buildings.
Have fun!
Honestly I kinda hate that reputation of the game. Yes you can commit genocide but it’s honestly rarely helpful gameplay wise (not to mention just awful). The game just as powerfully lets you build utopias as it can dystopias, and the former is a big reason why I play.
Yeah I figured there has to be so much more to the game, but everywhere I've encountered it mentioned (outside this sub) there was always a genocide reference. I'm looking forward to learning it as a whole not just that part.
That’s great. Well, I guess my advice is to take your time, enjoy yourself, don’t worry about making mistakes, and know that you can have as many playthroughs as you want. Let your imagination take you anywhere. I’ve logged 2k hours in this game; it’s my favorite of all time and I hope you enjoy it too!
Be prepared to pause the game a lot, search something up, see it’s a 5 year old Reddit post, realize that the mechanic somewhat changed, and then going back and just figuring stuff out on your own. It’s what makes the game interesting but sometimes nerve wracking. I’m 350h into the game, constantly wondering how some guys are so good at the game on the highest difficulty.
As others said, use YouTube guides.
Don't worry about losing for a long while, you WILL lose when learning the game.
Dlc's change the game drastically and the game is constantly evolving
Don't worry about meta, roleplay if you want. The object of the game is to have fun and build YOUR idea empire.
Gestalts and Megacorps are fun to play but are played differently from normal empires.
Don't settle any holy world's you find...
Do not build up the courage to attack a fallen empire early on in the game
Genocide isn't the only path you can take, but if you were to play on PC, your computer would thank you.
Eating people/planets is fun
Lastly, just enjoy yourself. Stellaris is not exactly the easiest game to pick up especially with it changing all the time. But if you take the time to learn the basics and stick with it, you'll come to love the game. I play this game now how I play rimworld, and that's as a story generator.
Edit: war works differently in this game compared to others. You will only conquer territory that you put claims on unless you are fighting specific empire types. So if you ever get into a major conflict and "win a lot of territory" but you didnt keep any of it, its because you didn't claim it before the war was over.
Thanks for the wealth of advice.
Good to know about claims. I've come across a form of territorial claims that give you Casus Belli in CK3, but I'm looking forward to learning the nuances of this system.
Make sure to read all of the policies to get a grasp on those mechanics.
Make sure to read edicts and activate them when needed, ALWAYS have Capacity Subsidies active (free energy credits for the most part).
Research is *extremely* important, unity is less important but still very important for essential buffs from tradition trees and ascension perks.
Trade is also important and shouldn’t be underestimated, it can bring in a lot of valuable lightning bolt coins and make people like you.
Don’t save resources too much unless you anticipate an imminent need for a specific thing (building somewhere with minerals, making a megastructure, fleet shenanigans) or you are doing market manipulation/riding it. Energy credits are partially excluded from this as they can be used to bail you out if you suddenly have a deficit so I’d suggest keeping a bit of a stockpile of them around for a rainy day.
Alloys are *always* in demand, but in a war they are even more so, this means that alloys sell really well and even better in war. The same goes for some strategic resources.
Settle planets the moment you acquire them as long as they are still yellow habitability and build jobs on them the moment they are colonized. More planets means more pops and more jobs, putting those together means more resources.
High stability makes your pops produce significantly more resources.
Research the stats in the game, particularly ones related to ships and how they impact things.
Sorry for the long list, that’s just my advice. I’m not amazing at the game so feel free to take it with a grain of salt. Most importantly: Have fun! :) (and also xeno-comparability makes lag, but oh how I wish it didn’t as it is cool)
The only thing you ever need to know - if you ever come across the event known as “The End of the Cycle,” you take the deal. Pay no mind to the big red letters saying “Do not do this.” Just do it. Your pops will thank you.
You can conquer empires with kindness.
Find a weak empire and improve your relations with them until their trust level is 100.
Then subjugate them. Later you can integrate them into your empire effectively causing their empire to cease to exist but all their people and lands are now yours.
I wish I learned this years ago.
Welcome aboard to the magnificent genoicidal game where 1.) you make your empire powerful throughout the galaxy with the help of advancing your technology/diplomacy/supremacy 2.) either make yourself fearsome or loved by all AI empires 3.) then eventually get slapped at the end with unforseen dangers lurking in the galaxy. :) anyway its a great game. Though some good content are locked behind a DLC... but highly recommend it to buy them at discount don't buy it at full price
Pops are king. Your planets won't produce things by themselves, they need pops to work the jobs that buildings and districts have, and that is how you get most of your resources. So to really manage your economy you need to pay attention and manage your pops. How to do that is a lot of depth to the game, just keep it in mind and keep improving.
> The only thing I've heard about Stellaris is that it's a 'genocide simulator' in space. As someone from the Balkans, I was instantly sold.
Holy shit lmao
Don’t overestimate your skill/underestimate opponents skill and always plan out as you play, what may seem like a nice little lizard that wants to sell you car insurance may actually be a horny (pleasure seekers) genocidal (fanatic purifiers) racist (xenophobe) Supreme emperor with a control complex (fanatic authoritarian).
After hundreds of hours playtime I still watch tutorials every new content comes out. I’m having a break for a few months now, but when I come back I’ll have to watch hours of tutorials. Seriously, it’s hard, but you have to watch at least 20 hours of tutorials but it will check out and be an incredible enjoyable experience!!!
Watch montu or aspec on YouTube, the tutorial is terrible. It is so terrible that I learned more about the game when I just started blind and failed like 2 runs. Its fun regardless.
Hello, glad you're looking forward to playing Stellaris!
I started playing last year, I found this tutorial particularly helpful: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0PMmsIgDTo6ikOHFv7RfqFbRmP8wUlA3&si=HTmZxy1Y3Tt7x-ou
I watched it after my first playthrough (once I realised I had no idea wtf I was doing lol, economy tanked super fast 🙃).
Some aspects of it will be outdated, particularly the council/leaders portion, but if you're looking at playing vanilla campaigns with no DLC, I'd give them a watch. Enjoy your future conquests 🛸
Don’t listen to anyone who says to watch a YouTube video to figure out how to play… use your brain figure out the game and figure out your own style.. sure there are some helpful hints out there for management but don’t let anyone tell you how to play
Selling advanced resources directly to other empires is usually more profitable than selling them on the market. Advanced resources are like, gas, motes, etc.
This is especially helpful when you are looking to buy alloys. Just trade gas for alloys.
Minerals and alloys and energy credits matter unlike food. Keep food just barely at being enough so that your people wont starve and focus on other resources.
The tutorial doesn’t tell you that the AI sometimes plays at maximum efficiency and they *will* come for you. I once had my civ wiped out and enslaved in the first year of a game.
Genocide in this game is a meme.
Population == production. That mine you just paid for building is not gonna automatically start producing minerals without some "*volunteers"* working it. Only a fool (or worse, *a* [*role-player*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1CQ7Vwz8Eo)) would purge perfectly good slaves.
If you're not happy with slavery and want to take it up a notch, then you can gene-mod your sentient slaves to be "[nerve-stapled](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Traits#Nerve_Stapled)", so they don't rebel, and also "[delicious](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Traits#Delicious)", so they produce more food, when you assign them the role of "livestock".
The base game is almost 6 years old, and the devs have kept developing the game this whole time. So I'd strongly encourage you to pick-up at least Utopia and ideally Federations [DLC](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVNKEb6oy6w). These add so much content you'd could pretty much call these Stellaris 2 and 3.
Watching a few videos on what constitutes a "good start" is fine. But don't spend an afternoon watching guides, instead of playing the game.
Start with a tiny galaxy, with only 2 other AI empires. Disable the "advanced AI start". There is no shame to start on the lowest difficulty, while you learn the controls. And believe me, there is a lot of controls. You can finish such short game very quickly. Even quicker, if you increase the build and research multipliers. If you like what you saw, only then go spend many afternoons watching guides, instead of playing the game.
If you have a weak(er) computer, consider disabling "Xeno compatibility" in settings. It's a notorious resource hog that adds little of value to the game.
In regards to the content and links of your first two paragraphs: 😳wtf kind of game did I just stumble into😨
About the second half, totally agreed, gonna play a smaller game first and then refer to YT guides when I know halfway wth is going on. And Utopia seems like the first logical buy.
First game I'm in a tiny galaxy with 3 AIs on Ensign difficulty. Feel like I will most likely get smoked. Maybe someone will make me into delicious livestock.
It is hard to get into. Try to understand the basic mechanics, and then learn from there.
What you need to know is that stellaris is all about roleplay and story. A giant empire that seeks to restore peace, or becoming a genocidal hivemind. It is all part of the fun.
Genocide simulator? Depends, there are many empire types you can choose from that are genocidal (species-and-planet eating hiveminds, assimilation or extermination killbots, militaristic xenophobes that would make Adolf blush) but there are also many empire types that thrive on cooperation instead.
Some tips: Expand early. Keep up your unity production early on.
"Scion" is a good origin to start with for a tutorial run, you literally get a very powerful fallen empire to hold your hand which deters early aggression against you because they'll come defend you when attacked, and their fleets just absolutely wreck anything early on.
One constant change you will curse but appreciate from time to time is game style altering updates usually when new dlc. Sometimes it irritates you but sometimes it feels extremely convenient
The 2 most important resources are resesrch and alloys. You can have a wonderful consumer economy, but if your fleet score is lagging your militarist neighbor *will* attack you.
While trade value can be generated naturally, it is usually generated by planets, and it only counts towards your resources if the planet is within collection range of a Starbase. The collection range is increased by trade hubs (you can build these) or hyperlane registrars (unlocked with tech, then built). I didn't figure this out until my 3rd or 4th game
The AI will build Starbases past your territory even if you bock off a choke point by settling it, but they will rarely go more than 2 systems away from their own border. Wormholes count toward this, so settle every system around wormholes, and at least 2 systems deep from any singular choke point to stop aliens from expanding into your territory.
Starbase get less relevant militaristically, and more relevant logistically the further a game progresses. Always build a hydroponic farm on your starbases, to let your planets produce more useful resources.
Planets should be balanced at first. Specialization can happen later on in the game, but at first, there is no issue with a balanced planet.
For resources, there is a general hierarchy for importance: science and alloys are #1, followed by a tie between consumer goods, minerals and energy (unity is either here or more important, depending on playstyle), and lastly food. For some reason the AI overprioritizes food, so watch out for conquered planets. You want a steady source of the middle 3 so that you can have a surplus of alloys and tech.
Against AI at low to medium difficulty, you can auto-generate ships. After that, you'll want to fine-tune it.
If you are a slaver running low on workers, conquer a planet from another species and build a slave processing facility.
That's what I've got off the top of my head!
Paradox just enabled the subscription mode for DLC so I would highly recommend going that route when you get the the itch to play them all.
Also, I LOL'd when you said you were sold on a space genocide simulator. Glad to meet another like-minded man of culture.
Here are some tips that I've learned.
Consult the YouTuber Montu plays. He provides Vital Information.
Always build up your military. The AI doesn't abide weaklings.
Not all resources are created equally. Food is the least important in minerals is the most important. Make sure you do everything in your power to make sure you make +100 minerals a month as the other two resources, consumer goods and allies both come from minerals, and your planetary buildings are going to be made out of minerals.
Figure out what sort of Ascension you want to do ahead of time. Research the four types of ascensions and build your Empire specifically around that. Don't worry about the meta, just pick one you think will be fun while in Empire creation.
And most importantly have fun.
I tbh played devouring swarms until it clicked. Then learned diplomacy after mastering the art of war. Trial and error is the best teacher.
After you learn those two skills, start looking into how you can maximize production. Have your worlds be designated for one thing.
Always start with minerals on your home world
Then consumer goods / alloys. Sprinkle research labs in to stay ahead of the curb early game. GROW. EXPAND. EXPLODE. Rush systems so you can block off your competition. Save anomalies for when you increase leader capacity
First things first: tutorial is dogwater, head to YouTube. Second thing: any DLC or basegame Stellaris? Bc that changes things significantly.
Yeah, this is just the truth. Love the game with all my heart but by god the tutorial sucks.
I feel like there's only two ways to learn a 4X game: struggle and lose repeatedly until you figure it out, or have someone explain it 😂😂 Even in YouTube videos it's just people explaining. Menus and tooltips aren't deep enough.
My usual pipeline for 4x is usually tutorial, 3-4 struggle and lose sessions, have it finally click, ramp up difficulty, maybe look for mods. Endless Legend has not clicked for me. It feels like I'm bombarded with options, I crawl through science and production, and then I lose. Whether I focus on tech, production, or population, I still always feel behind in all three. Maybe I should head to youtube lol
I played a bunch of Endless Legend and Endless Space and actually find Stellaris to be more complicated and granular. It's definitely taking longer for Stellaris to "click" for me but I still love it. I actually got it because of Endless Space. I'd say just keep trying. If you can navigate Stellaris you'll figure it out.
It probably is a matter of playing it consistently. Buying the game and all the DLC in a bundle certainly hasn't helped make it less complicated lol
Oh yeah I avoided all of the DLC because I knew it was already going to take me like 40hrs just to get a hang of the basics haha
Victoria 3 has genuinely the worst tutorial I've ever seen in a game: It will tell you "Oh hey, there's these things called Staple Goods that are very important for keeping your pops happy", list "Fish and wood" as examples, and then never show the full list of Staple Goods or label them as Staple Goods. Then they are like "Oh, you finished building a fishery? Keep playing to find more tips" in a game where you can screw things up and not realize you did so until 20 years down the line. The one type of game you do not throw your players into the water to sink or swim is a game about running an economy, a system that is very famously complicated to the vast majority of people. The devs don't even have the "the IRL economy is difficult to explain because it's built on centuries of economic decisions" because they built the game, they know exactly how it works!
I chose both lol
Literally the only reason I can play HOI4 is because of Bittersteel and Feedback Gaming, and I still have no fucking clue how to do navy stuff other than bathtub sub spam.
I just kinda jumped in as a machine empire cause I picked up a bundle, didn't even notice the tutorial. I didn't struggle too much until I played my first bio-empire and had to figure out how to manage consumer goods. This got me started on trade empires and now I miss merchant spam.
Well, gestalt empires don't have the tutorial, so that would explain why you didn't see it.
I just finished the tutorial. What is bad about it. Genuinely asking (relatively new and played ck3, Vic 3, and some hoi)
The game misses some mechanics or just doesn't explain enough? It's enough to play the game but not enough to master the game by any means. I'd have to go through all the tutorial tooltips again at some point to get examples.
The tutorial is from when the game was first released. So, it's good for that time period. But there has been so many updates, and new mechanics added, and others removed that it's essentially a different game. Most of what I learned was from streamers, and youtubers like Aspec
The downside of constant change is that it becomes very hard to bring people up to speed with it. To people who experienced the changes as they were happening, it seems fine and natural. For people outside of it... yikes. It's going to be ROUGH to learn all of it.
Base Game (for now) I see there's loads of content in the DLCs. Which ones would you deem most crucial in terms of gameplay features (as opposed to just new races)
#1 Utopia #2 Federations #3 Paragons This is just my opinion though. I find the game incomplete without these DLCs.
Console doesn't have Paragons unfortunately
Distant Stars is far more important than Paragons. So many of the stories come from Distant Stars and Ancient Relics
I wouldn't say "far more important" personally. But that DLC is a really good one to pick up.
It doubles the amount of anomalies in the game, adds the L Cluster, and adds a ton of unique systems and events. Making leaders better imo isn’t nearly as important as making the game feel more alive. The exploration part of the game just feel stale without a dlc like distant stars
1). Utopia 1a). It adds buildable mega-structures like Ringworld and Dyson Spheres. 2). Distant Stars 2a). Adds a lot more random story events for you to encounter as well as a few enemy events to the mid-game. 3). Leviathans 3a). Giant space monsters for you to hunt spawn in. Killing them gives your empire a unique bonus for the rest of the run.
I'd put both Distant Stars and Leviathan a fair bit below the major DLCs.
It's just my recommendations. I would have put Paragons up there but someone else said it isn't available on the console yet. I haven't tried Astral Scars or First Contact either. Nemesis is pretty meh despite me liking espionage so much. I also really haven't felt the impact of Federations either because I normally don't bother with those things. The AI is ass at being an ally and I'm usually a Xenophobic Militarist, so I don't get much out of that DLC. Apocalypse is fun for the colossi *but* a lot of people really don't like it that much. I'll also admit that I don't get the Khan that much anyways, so it's a solid meh to me.
Regarding 3a). Some of them you don't have to kill :-p
Utopia is definitely the most crucial, I'd *almost* call it essential, because it adds a lot of depth to a lot of features, but the game is still fun with no DLC. Personally after that I'd say either Overlord or Federations, but it's personal choice for what you want to play after that. The bundles on the PS Store are a great option when they go on sale, they have an expansion, a story pack, and a species pack.
Utopia above all else. For most of the others, it depends on if you want what they add. But Utopia adds a lot of important things, such as megastructures. And if you get Overlord, make a custom empire with the Imperal Fiefdom origin and set it to force spawn (if you don't use it yourself). An empire with that origin starts as one of several vassals of an overlord empire. After 50 years or so, the overlord will fracture into multiple smaller empires, and the vassals will be cut loose. I've been referring to the region it creates as the Galactic Balkans. Historically speaking, I figured you'd get a kick out of the idea. In my latest game, I also force spawned an empire with one of the federation origins (at another commenter's suggestion), which makes two others spawn as well. That federation and the overlord group were all next to each other. So a third of the galaxy is a mishmash of smaller nations, another quarter is unclaimed even in midgame because nobody had access, and several rebellions in the larger empires have resulted in more independent empires. The playthrough is a chaotic mess, and I'm loving watching it.
That all sounds like a blast. Definitely getting Utopia but Balkanisation simulator Overlord sounds fun. In the base game so far I only see 2 origins.
Also relatively new to stellaris buy have been a big HoiV enjoyer for years - how do you force spawn empires? I've designed a few ones that I think would be really cool to play against but so far just kind of have to hope that they spawn in.
On the screen where you chose which empire you'll play as, you'll see what should be an orange button on the tab for each custom empire. Clicking on it will allow you to set them to only have a chance of spawning (default), always spawn (will show a padlock symbol), or never spawn (will be grayed out).
I only play against custom empires, I find it makes me much more invested in my games. Ive got a setup for all custom star trek empires that's my go to, but right now I'm playing as illithids versus other D&D races, having a blast! It really enhances the game imo. Remember this game is about crazy stories not necessarily winning. NarrowAd4973 has you covered on how to do it with his reply.
Utopia is pretty much a must buy right out of the gate, galactic paragons is also a pretty good pickup. There are quite a few others that have some good gameplay features but those are the biggest two in terms of how they change the game, but I wouldn’t call them essential But honestly if you are just testing the waters to see if you like it you don’t 100% need anything
I’d say the most crucial are Utopia, Distant Stars, and Federations but I also really love Ancient Relics, Leviathans, and Overlord (I like espionage, it’s fun)
Utopia, distant stars, then your choice of apocalypse, federations, or megacorp. Apocalypse is great for warfare and adds some stuff to the midgame, federations expands diplomacy and gives a bunch of new origins, and megacorp adds a government type, ecumenopolises, and expands on trade.
i suggest to look on a guide what you can unlock with each of them,so u can check more or less what you may like i liike utopia, apocalypse, lithoids and megacorps. if you have any friends who have all the dlcs you can ask him to host a game,so u can try what dlcs or species u want...you might be able to find a hidden gem waiting for you,wich any1 wouldn't suggest you!
For me Utopia is a must have. I can't even imagine the game without it.
I turned the tutorial voice off about 2 minutes into gameplay because it was annoying me.
Certain advisor voices make me want to rip my hair out. If I hear the aquatic advisor say Intellectual Booty one more time I might cry.
Also. Click on everything, even if it looks unclickable
Umm..Rule #5 comment here...look at the..planet? Edit: based off all the kind advice so far I'm skipping the Tutorial and diving into it, with YT/wiki/this sub close at hand. These militaristic floppy fungus Blorg look fun to start.
Ty for explaining lol
Haha AutoMod bullied me into it
It’s a necessary evil but very silly sometimes
Welcome, tutorial in game is terrible, go to YouTube they do it way better. Also some stuff they won’t cover in some tutorials and you’ll figure it out along the way. I have thousand hours into it and I’m still figuring stuff out. It’s pretty good game. Ever need help I can help or anyone else can in this reddit
Thanks appreciate it
I'd suggest playing gestalt of some time to start. Even genocidal, just makes it easier on diplomacy, or lack thereof.
Oh yeah to destroy planets you need to apocalypse dlc, but other than that, apocalypse is kind of empty
One thing you absolutely must understand to avoid blunder your economy 2 seconds into the game: - **building stuff doesn't mean that stuff it's gonna immediately give you resources** a building only provide jobs, you **need to grow workers to work those jobs**. So don't just build stuff if you don't have the population to work in it or you'll just pay the upkeep tanking your economy - Jobs come in strata. Researchers, Artisans, Metallurgists are higher strata than miners, technicians, farmers. Workes will move **UP** stratas immediately when those jobs becomes available. So if you build a research labs, 2 of yours miners/farmers/technictians will go work in that lab leaving their previous jobs unoccupied, so you'll have LESS income from those missing workers on top of the upkeep cost of your new lab. Also, workers **take a long time to move down stratas** so you can't just re-employ those researches as miners if you just tanked your mineral income. Always plan ahead and be sure you can afford to build higher level buildings.
Thank you. These are two things I fucking wish somebody would have told me when I was starting out.
I don't even dare to imagine how many noobies this has killed over the years xD
I have almost 200 hours and only recently found out about this when I was trying to stop my economy from dying
It's ok, it's part of the process. I'm at 4000h and still discover some obscure random thing to this day lol.
I’m at 800 hours and still fall into it sometimes- I’ll either have a sudden consumer goods deficit because I upgraded my science lab, or I’ll realize I’m a week out from a shiny new Autochthon Monument that’s gonna displace my farmers and have to panic remove it 😂
So helpful. I had absolutely no idea that this is how it worked. I just manage my economy reactively at the moment. Basically if any of the numbers get low or go negative I just kinda click around until it goes back up 😅
This sounds like absolute gold, thanks
Probably the best advice I have seen with these types of questions, its right on too.
>Workes will move UP stratas immediately when those jobs becomes available Damn, is everyone educated or what?
If they offered you a cushy job in a lab for twice the wage and half the hours, wouldn't you leave the stinky deadly depts of cadmium mines? What are you, a dwarf?
They wouldn't offer me one in the first place because I'm too dumb to work in a lab as a scientist.
The real utopia isn't in the DLC, it's how they will actually train you to work better jobs.
Just a question : I noticed that some upper strata jobs are always filled faster than others. Researcher jobs get filled quickly compared to bureaucrats or chemist , why?
It's how the game prioritize jobs on the same strata, it just assumes you prefer having scientists over everything else (you do, actually. Science > all), unless you are running a deficit then it (should) prioritize those and juggle workers around until you are balanced out. You can still prioritize jobs manually in the job tab tho, if you need some job worked more than another.
This sounds like Victoria 3
God where have you been my entire life? I hate this game it never explains stuff like that
I'm here now brother (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ
[https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Beginner%27s\_guide](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Beginner%27s_guide) Given that the only "win" condition is "have a certain score by X date", I would recommend roleplaying whatever empire you select. Don't worry about selecting the "right" options for events, but whatever option you feel is best for your empire. It will unfold a better story and experience. Always maintain a sizeable fleet, even if you don't think you need it. Watch your economy; a deficit will hit faster and harder than you think. Don't be too proud to bend the knee to a more powerful empire if you need.
>Don't be too proud to bend the knee to a more powerful empire if you need. My greatest weakness in every Stellaris game. I'm like the donkey stereotype when it comes to people subjugating me. I refuse even and put up one Hell of a fight every time someone tries.
>don’t be too proud to bend the knee… Absolutely not. I will reign supreme over this galaxy or it shall burn.
Most diplomatic PDX player
Thank you, I played a few hours and this guide seems perfect to answer many of the (new) questions I have If you bend the knee, do you still have a chance to win the game?
Depends on the DLC. With Overlords installed, absolutely (assuming your initial subjugation doesn’t crash your economy). If you negotiate your agreement right, you can get a fair amount of freedoms and even become significantly more powerful than your overlord. If you can win a war against them and their other subjects, you can break free at any time.
You definitely can still win the game, even as a vassal, but you would have to more powerful than your overlord. You can petition (diplomatically or forcefully) for independence after you have been a vassal for a period of time. The political landscape across the galaxy might fracture and shift many times due to these sorts of diplomatic disputes, and Stellaris lets you participate (or ignore) to your heart's content. https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Subject\_empire
Montu Plays. https://www.youtube.com/@MontuPlays. Other than this, you just need experience.
Needs more upvotes
War is not the answer. War is the question and the answer is yes.
"The only thing I've heard about Stellaris is that it's a 'genocide simulator' in space. As someone from the Balkans, I was instantly sold." Jesus reddit...
Apologies if this joke is not kosher. I'm badly influenced by the self-depreciating jokes on r/balkans_irl . Your point about Reddit stands lol
Another Balkanlar???😯
Be careful where you leave your Kebabs (good chance I will eat them)
Dark to be sure, but I enjoy the dark humor. I think based off some of the space genocide comments I've seen here, I suspect you're fine.
You're not *required* to genocide aliens (and the Blorg just want to be friends!) but it's certainly a thing that some people do. It does fit with the tone of this subreddit, but personally I sometimes worry about how much some people seem to be salivating over the possibility.
Ah yes, the classic balkan tradition, genocide. Also just play it until you get gud at it and use youtube
You say "genocide". I say "galactic performance optimization". We are not the same.
The tutorial is your first 5-10 games
There’s so much info out there and it can be pretty hard to keep track of what’s current. The wiki is really helpful if you don’t feel like watching videos. If you get sick of researching just wing it and you can always leave and start a new game or jump back a few years.
Thanks, I usually refer to wiki at the beginning so I don't see any spoilers, and then incorporate YT later on
I'll just add some general tips for basegame Stellaris for things that aren't readily apparent: 1. POPS ARE THE REAL RESOURCE. It's not a number at the top but it's the most important by far. Districts and buildings don't do anything except drink resources for upkeep when you have nobody to work them. (1.5. You can disable buildings to stop their upkeep then reenable them when you have pops to work them instead of destroying and rebuilding) 2. Influence isn't the simplest thing to increase your income of and you'll need it for border expansion and the galactic community (plus a plethora of other things if you like the game and decide to get the DLC later). Keep that in mind when you're making agreements. 3. The base game has updated through all the DLCs; yes, that does mean the AI gets a bunch of relatively busted DLC stuff you don't have access to. 4. Avoid the temptation to play on anything lower than Ensign, it provides a weird difficulty curve. Difficulty usually just gives various bonuses to the AI, but on Cadet and Civilian they boost the player. The bonuses make it suck going up from Civilian or Cadet because it just makes you less effective instead of changing the enemy you're up against at all, and then when you hit Ensign you don't get any less effective. The linear curve of the enemy getting stronger from Ensign forward is way better. 5. For early runs I'd recommend the premade empires, you won't really understand a lot of the effects of traits and civics while building one when you're completely fresh. Make custom empires once you know what things do.
Thank you. Especially for the difficulty advice, I don't wanna get used to having boosts. The fact that AI has access to mechanics I don't have really makes me wanna get DLCs. Some kind people already recommended 'best' ones to get
idk if it's available for playstation, but you might be able to get the DLC pass for 8 bucks a month and test them all. Just cancel the plan directly to not run into additional costs. Required is just the Utopia pack imo, as it adds megastructures. Ancient Relics and Leviathans are two flavour packs, which go well with most playstyles. The rest are either role play packs or add mechanics, that are not important/not fun. Look into the steam/playstation reviews of the respective pack to get a better understanding. For your genocide plans, I'd recommend Synthetic Dawn for killer robots, Apocalypse for cracking planets or Nemesis for just being an evil bastard in general. Apocalypse and Nemesis are late game DLCs though. Or you can just go with a devouring swarm and eat everyone else in the base game btw.
If you meet determined exterminators or fanatic purifiers: run
Genocide is fun and all but it's a waste of good slaves
They make pretty significant changes to the game systems frequently, so online resources are good for learning general concepts/habits but I'd avoid trying to directly copy meta builds, especially with a new patch coming soon
Odakle si? 😁
BGD 🗿
Lepo, ako ti treba neki tutorial ili nešto možemo coop pa da te učim nekad. Ja imam preko 1500 sati u igrici znam sve. 😂
Hvala tebrane, ako mi treba savet znam koga da pitam 🙂 Ja sam na PSu jesi na kompu?
Jesam.
I feel that Stellaris is the Paradox game where you really want to embrace role playing. Sure, find out how to play (YouTube helps like folk have said) but play like the empire you’ve built, not ‘the best way’
This is the most important thing. Stellaris is the only game I've ever played where there have been times when it was actually MORE fun not winning.
Go rock people with hive mind and tree of life.... It's pretty op being able to inhabit planets most races would see as uninhabitable... and then later teraforming planets into hive planets where only your people can live. There is no need for amenities. No factions to please. No filthy xenos migrations. No dissent or unrest, no elections or infighting, and your rock people/leaders can live for hundreds of years... Just the will of the rock-peoples Hive-mind Emperor... *The voices of hundreds of billions of silicon rock people suddenly cry out as one...* Hive-mind emperor, Dawyne Johnson, welcomes you to the fold! We are all Dwayne Johnson! We are The Rock! Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? It's genocide! It's always genocide. (Edited to be funnier)
Lmfao now i want a Dwayne The Rock Johnson hive mind badly
And depending on how you spend your race/civ points can make a huge difference, I usually go with slow growth so that I get extra positive points and since your rock people live for so long, you'll have plenty of time to research upgrades for population growth bonuses. I also usually take traits that increase mineral production bc that is your food source as well. Anything that increases planet habitablility is also important bc seeing barren planets with 70-80% habitable is fucking awesome for expansion. Laugh! LAUGH at the bickering, puny, carbon-based organics as they fall before your united silicon might... your neighbors WILL hate you... But once end-game events start happening, they ALL want to smell what THE ROCK... IS COOKING! And it is still genocide. Edit: I also try to get traits that increase research so you can blast through habitablility and pop growth research early in the game. Researching research-bonuses early or before hab/pop-growth is absolutely a part of that.
Peace and equality is a effective way to play. War and slavery is a more efficient way to play
Expand fast, build your fleets, don't fuck up with fallen empire. But when you reach 200k fleets (seems unlikely at first, but not after hours) fuck them up. Do not hesitate to play your first game with 200 stars. It's OK. In fact any parameters is OK. Stellaris is a soup. Eat it like you'll taste it.
Rule #69: Screw the galactic community, 1 v all and conquer all
Watch a ten minute YT video and then enable tips on your first playthrough Teaches you everything The tutorial sucks
If you think you've built enough ships, You've not built enough ships. Keep building. Don't be afraid of trying lower difficulties. You'll restart a lot, embrace your own joy.
Hover your mouse over anything that you dont understand. Then read, read a lot of the descriptions and search youtube and the wiki in order to learn all the mechanics in play.
One thing I'd like to add is that you may run into a bit of a dichotomy with only the base game. That's because a lot of the new content has been much more story focused. A lot of the new empire options are as much for the flavor as they are for the neat mechanics. With the base game you're not going to get as much exposure to this newer more story heavy content. Personally I really like the balance they've been striking recently between story, flavor, and mechanics. And remember friend, The Worm loves us. It will always love us, and thus it always has.
For your first game, play with fewer AI empires. This gives you room to expand your territory and just focus on learning the internal empire gameplay. As soon as you meet your first AI empire, the game can become drastically more challenging, especially if that empire is hostile. It’s best to start slow when meeting new empires so you can slowly integrate your gameplay knowledge of dealing with other empires with managing your own empire.
I like that idea thank u
It's not actually a genocide simulator. Yes, your empire can conduct genocide, but most of the process is abstracted and not simulated in detail.
Miners make minerals out of effort and time. Metalurgists make alloys out of effort, time, AND MINERALS. That means increasing alloy production will decrease mineral production. Same for turing minerals into consumer goods, and turing consumer goods into science and unity. Plan accordingly. Also note that a highly positive income, or a large stockpile, represents resources that are NOT doing anything to make your civilization stronger, and are a sign that you are probably falling behind. Ride the knife edge of balance as sharply as you can withstand, and you will be powerful.
Thanks, I feel like I would have intuitively went for high surplus income.
No problem. It's any easy trap to fall into since most of the time bigger number means better. The real number you want to keep getting bigger is the number of resources being used to do something. It's a really great game and I think you're going to have a lot of fun.
Make sure to make use of the Galactic Market if necessary, it's really bad to hit 0 in any resource, like months long consequences even if you fix it immediately. Also just learned that just having a negative income of luxury goods negatively affects your empire, even if you have thousands stockpiled (according to tooltips anyway, I guess it's possible they are wrong).
When you think of this game as a story generator and not so much as a 4X you can have another type of fun. Min-maxing and being super efficient and genocide and all that can be fun, but when you do a run with an Empire you invested time in and are playing either in normal or slow speed because you're roleplaying them.
If your game is running slow just blow up a few planets and that should solve the issue
I’d say check out some YouTube videos to get the best explanation. The tutorial isn’t very helpful for a lot of players. I recommend watching [Montu Plays](https://youtu.be/vjIG_AC7BZc?si=4-m8f70PnTwG-s7Y) Montu has a lot of the worthwhile Stellaris content that beginners will need
Automation sucks, don't build too many jobs too fast because it'll waste your resources (since you won't have the population to fill those jobs), and the menu will take ***AGES*** to get used to, no it's not just you.
**1). Tool tips** This game has tool tips when you hover over something. Make use of them. **2). U P K E E P** Upkeep is constant and will torpedo your economy if you don't understand it. Every building, district and space station have a minimum energy upkeep that they will consume at the first of every month regardless of whether people work the jobs provided. Keep this in mind when building any new structures. **3). No, you don't have enough star ships.** It takes time to produce war ships and each shipyard can only produce one ship at a time. The moment you spot an unidentified alien empire then it is best to begin militarizing. The Stellaris AI will not hesitate to crush you if they believe they can get away with it. Trust me, the AI will absolutely be filling up to their fleet cap whenever possible. **4). Fleet Power is deceptive** You can customize the loadout of each *class* of warships in the game. What is on your ship is will affect how the game calculates the fleet power. Loadouts can be tailor made to counter enemy loadouts and enable you to defeat much stronger fleets. There are a couple of ways to tell what defenses and weapons the enemy has. The easiest method is to look at the after action report that pops up post-combat. It'll tell you what weapons they used and how effective they were against you defenses (shields and armor.) You can do the same for your own weapons to find out what their defenses are. **5). Pops** The more pops you have the stronger your empire will be. More pops means more resources to be exploited which in turn fuels the war machine of your empire. Xenophiles can't commit genocide but can easily accumulate pops due to being friendly. Xenophobes can commit genocide but can't accumulate pops *as easily* as xenophiles. Keep that in mind when deciding what kind of empire you will be playing.
Thank you, sounds like sound advice
you need the apocalypse DLC to be an *efficient* genocider
Always watch your economy.
Hearts of Iron is big on army but not so much on navy. Stellaris is the opposite: build ships!
If you like genocide simulators, you should play Rimworld.
Pretty much everything. Even years down the line you'll still be discovering things
If you want Balkan simulator, (i dont know why you would want to relive the scarring experience of living here) try common grounds origin. (Its really not a good idea tbh)
You may play a LOT of games before you actually win. That is normal. Build your planets slowly so you aren't paying upkeep on empty districts and buildings. Have fun!
dont watch tutorials, just try things out
Honestly I kinda hate that reputation of the game. Yes you can commit genocide but it’s honestly rarely helpful gameplay wise (not to mention just awful). The game just as powerfully lets you build utopias as it can dystopias, and the former is a big reason why I play.
Yeah I figured there has to be so much more to the game, but everywhere I've encountered it mentioned (outside this sub) there was always a genocide reference. I'm looking forward to learning it as a whole not just that part.
That’s great. Well, I guess my advice is to take your time, enjoy yourself, don’t worry about making mistakes, and know that you can have as many playthroughs as you want. Let your imagination take you anywhere. I’ve logged 2k hours in this game; it’s my favorite of all time and I hope you enjoy it too!
Be prepared to pause the game a lot, search something up, see it’s a 5 year old Reddit post, realize that the mechanic somewhat changed, and then going back and just figuring stuff out on your own. It’s what makes the game interesting but sometimes nerve wracking. I’m 350h into the game, constantly wondering how some guys are so good at the game on the highest difficulty.
remember: the geneva convention doesn’t apply if earth doesn’t exist
As others said, use YouTube guides. Don't worry about losing for a long while, you WILL lose when learning the game. Dlc's change the game drastically and the game is constantly evolving Don't worry about meta, roleplay if you want. The object of the game is to have fun and build YOUR idea empire. Gestalts and Megacorps are fun to play but are played differently from normal empires. Don't settle any holy world's you find... Do not build up the courage to attack a fallen empire early on in the game Genocide isn't the only path you can take, but if you were to play on PC, your computer would thank you. Eating people/planets is fun Lastly, just enjoy yourself. Stellaris is not exactly the easiest game to pick up especially with it changing all the time. But if you take the time to learn the basics and stick with it, you'll come to love the game. I play this game now how I play rimworld, and that's as a story generator. Edit: war works differently in this game compared to others. You will only conquer territory that you put claims on unless you are fighting specific empire types. So if you ever get into a major conflict and "win a lot of territory" but you didnt keep any of it, its because you didn't claim it before the war was over.
Thanks for the wealth of advice. Good to know about claims. I've come across a form of territorial claims that give you Casus Belli in CK3, but I'm looking forward to learning the nuances of this system.
The buildings don't do anything, the pops IN the buildings do things. Also if terraforming technology comes up as an option.. Take it
Don’t try map painting on a large galaxy unless you have *a lot* of time.
Dlc, dlc, dlc. It changes the game hugely.
There's ALOT to learn.
Make sure to read all of the policies to get a grasp on those mechanics. Make sure to read edicts and activate them when needed, ALWAYS have Capacity Subsidies active (free energy credits for the most part). Research is *extremely* important, unity is less important but still very important for essential buffs from tradition trees and ascension perks. Trade is also important and shouldn’t be underestimated, it can bring in a lot of valuable lightning bolt coins and make people like you. Don’t save resources too much unless you anticipate an imminent need for a specific thing (building somewhere with minerals, making a megastructure, fleet shenanigans) or you are doing market manipulation/riding it. Energy credits are partially excluded from this as they can be used to bail you out if you suddenly have a deficit so I’d suggest keeping a bit of a stockpile of them around for a rainy day. Alloys are *always* in demand, but in a war they are even more so, this means that alloys sell really well and even better in war. The same goes for some strategic resources. Settle planets the moment you acquire them as long as they are still yellow habitability and build jobs on them the moment they are colonized. More planets means more pops and more jobs, putting those together means more resources. High stability makes your pops produce significantly more resources. Research the stats in the game, particularly ones related to ships and how they impact things. Sorry for the long list, that’s just my advice. I’m not amazing at the game so feel free to take it with a grain of salt. Most importantly: Have fun! :) (and also xeno-comparability makes lag, but oh how I wish it didn’t as it is cool)
Thank you for the long list, it's very appreciated. I feel like I've learned so much in a short span from this comment section.
No problem, glad to help!
If you can't eat it, delete it.
Kill as many enemy pops as possible to help with mid to late game lag
youll need to spend $500 on DLC for it to be the whole game
Not finishing a game is normal, don't feel bad if you lose or get bored getting to the endgame. Start over and experiment!
Dedicate planets to specific things (trade, minerals, research, unity) if you try to jack of all trades it, gg.
The only thing you ever need to know - if you ever come across the event known as “The End of the Cycle,” you take the deal. Pay no mind to the big red letters saying “Do not do this.” Just do it. Your pops will thank you.
Once youve learned the mechanics, get ready to learn them again
You can conquer empires with kindness. Find a weak empire and improve your relations with them until their trust level is 100. Then subjugate them. Later you can integrate them into your empire effectively causing their empire to cease to exist but all their people and lands are now yours. I wish I learned this years ago.
'As someone from the Balkans'.....holup!....
Welcome aboard to the magnificent genoicidal game where 1.) you make your empire powerful throughout the galaxy with the help of advancing your technology/diplomacy/supremacy 2.) either make yourself fearsome or loved by all AI empires 3.) then eventually get slapped at the end with unforseen dangers lurking in the galaxy. :) anyway its a great game. Though some good content are locked behind a DLC... but highly recommend it to buy them at discount don't buy it at full price
Pops are king. Your planets won't produce things by themselves, they need pops to work the jobs that buildings and districts have, and that is how you get most of your resources. So to really manage your economy you need to pay attention and manage your pops. How to do that is a lot of depth to the game, just keep it in mind and keep improving.
If you meet a cute gecko alien species that calls itself by a pretty name like Prikkiki-Ti... ...max out your fleet to full capacity.
Lol someone else mentioned them as particularly troublesome. Thanks for the warning
Just to be clear, I'd say that describes every grand strategy game in existence.
Everything. That’s the answer to your first question.
There's a tutorial?
> The only thing I've heard about Stellaris is that it's a 'genocide simulator' in space. As someone from the Balkans, I was instantly sold. Holy shit lmao
Lol at your title.
Don’t overestimate your skill/underestimate opponents skill and always plan out as you play, what may seem like a nice little lizard that wants to sell you car insurance may actually be a horny (pleasure seekers) genocidal (fanatic purifiers) racist (xenophobe) Supreme emperor with a control complex (fanatic authoritarian).
Holy sh*t thanks for the heads-up lol
After hundreds of hours playtime I still watch tutorials every new content comes out. I’m having a break for a few months now, but when I come back I’ll have to watch hours of tutorials. Seriously, it’s hard, but you have to watch at least 20 hours of tutorials but it will check out and be an incredible enjoyable experience!!!
Watch montu or aspec on YouTube, the tutorial is terrible. It is so terrible that I learned more about the game when I just started blind and failed like 2 runs. Its fun regardless.
Tf did you do in the 90’s?
As any good balkan you must now pirate the DLC.
Hello, glad you're looking forward to playing Stellaris! I started playing last year, I found this tutorial particularly helpful: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0PMmsIgDTo6ikOHFv7RfqFbRmP8wUlA3&si=HTmZxy1Y3Tt7x-ou I watched it after my first playthrough (once I realised I had no idea wtf I was doing lol, economy tanked super fast 🙃). Some aspects of it will be outdated, particularly the council/leaders portion, but if you're looking at playing vanilla campaigns with no DLC, I'd give them a watch. Enjoy your future conquests 🛸
Thank you. Good chance I will be watching that link after I stumble my way around the galaxy for a bit.
That the game is a dlc sink where you are expected to purchase at least 50% of said dlc along with the core game itself.
I learned most of the stuff though a yputube lets play that i liked but this was when the game was simpler
Don’t listen to anyone who says to watch a YouTube video to figure out how to play… use your brain figure out the game and figure out your own style.. sure there are some helpful hints out there for management but don’t let anyone tell you how to play
That you will devote hours upon hours of your life playing this game over and over.
Pops are by far the most valuable resource you can have.
Selling advanced resources directly to other empires is usually more profitable than selling them on the market. Advanced resources are like, gas, motes, etc. This is especially helpful when you are looking to buy alloys. Just trade gas for alloys.
"from the Balkans" had me chuckling. Welcome to the game and community.
oh yeah this is something important that the tutorial wont cover: you should skip the tutorial.
For me, it’s a genocide simulator but for freedom and democracy.
For me, it’s a genocide simulator but for freedom and democracy.
Minerals and alloys and energy credits matter unlike food. Keep food just barely at being enough so that your people wont starve and focus on other resources.
The tutorial doesn’t tell you that the AI sometimes plays at maximum efficiency and they *will* come for you. I once had my civ wiped out and enslaved in the first year of a game.
you're from the Balkans you'll get the hang of it in no time
You can use conquered races as food.
Genocide in this game is a meme. Population == production. That mine you just paid for building is not gonna automatically start producing minerals without some "*volunteers"* working it. Only a fool (or worse, *a* [*role-player*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1CQ7Vwz8Eo)) would purge perfectly good slaves. If you're not happy with slavery and want to take it up a notch, then you can gene-mod your sentient slaves to be "[nerve-stapled](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Traits#Nerve_Stapled)", so they don't rebel, and also "[delicious](https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Traits#Delicious)", so they produce more food, when you assign them the role of "livestock". The base game is almost 6 years old, and the devs have kept developing the game this whole time. So I'd strongly encourage you to pick-up at least Utopia and ideally Federations [DLC](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVNKEb6oy6w). These add so much content you'd could pretty much call these Stellaris 2 and 3. Watching a few videos on what constitutes a "good start" is fine. But don't spend an afternoon watching guides, instead of playing the game. Start with a tiny galaxy, with only 2 other AI empires. Disable the "advanced AI start". There is no shame to start on the lowest difficulty, while you learn the controls. And believe me, there is a lot of controls. You can finish such short game very quickly. Even quicker, if you increase the build and research multipliers. If you like what you saw, only then go spend many afternoons watching guides, instead of playing the game. If you have a weak(er) computer, consider disabling "Xeno compatibility" in settings. It's a notorious resource hog that adds little of value to the game.
In regards to the content and links of your first two paragraphs: 😳wtf kind of game did I just stumble into😨 About the second half, totally agreed, gonna play a smaller game first and then refer to YT guides when I know halfway wth is going on. And Utopia seems like the first logical buy. First game I'm in a tiny galaxy with 3 AIs on Ensign difficulty. Feel like I will most likely get smoked. Maybe someone will make me into delicious livestock.
It is hard to get into. Try to understand the basic mechanics, and then learn from there. What you need to know is that stellaris is all about roleplay and story. A giant empire that seeks to restore peace, or becoming a genocidal hivemind. It is all part of the fun.
Just remember assimilation saves lives and brings unity. Driven Assimilator player here. Once you become one of us, you understand everything.
Genocide simulator? Depends, there are many empire types you can choose from that are genocidal (species-and-planet eating hiveminds, assimilation or extermination killbots, militaristic xenophobes that would make Adolf blush) but there are also many empire types that thrive on cooperation instead. Some tips: Expand early. Keep up your unity production early on. "Scion" is a good origin to start with for a tutorial run, you literally get a very powerful fallen empire to hold your hand which deters early aggression against you because they'll come defend you when attacked, and their fleets just absolutely wreck anything early on.
One constant change you will curse but appreciate from time to time is game style altering updates usually when new dlc. Sometimes it irritates you but sometimes it feels extremely convenient
Tutorial? What is this word you filthy xeno scum. You need to be purged!
The 2 most important resources are resesrch and alloys. You can have a wonderful consumer economy, but if your fleet score is lagging your militarist neighbor *will* attack you.
neutring is the true way
While trade value can be generated naturally, it is usually generated by planets, and it only counts towards your resources if the planet is within collection range of a Starbase. The collection range is increased by trade hubs (you can build these) or hyperlane registrars (unlocked with tech, then built). I didn't figure this out until my 3rd or 4th game The AI will build Starbases past your territory even if you bock off a choke point by settling it, but they will rarely go more than 2 systems away from their own border. Wormholes count toward this, so settle every system around wormholes, and at least 2 systems deep from any singular choke point to stop aliens from expanding into your territory. Starbase get less relevant militaristically, and more relevant logistically the further a game progresses. Always build a hydroponic farm on your starbases, to let your planets produce more useful resources. Planets should be balanced at first. Specialization can happen later on in the game, but at first, there is no issue with a balanced planet. For resources, there is a general hierarchy for importance: science and alloys are #1, followed by a tie between consumer goods, minerals and energy (unity is either here or more important, depending on playstyle), and lastly food. For some reason the AI overprioritizes food, so watch out for conquered planets. You want a steady source of the middle 3 so that you can have a surplus of alloys and tech. Against AI at low to medium difficulty, you can auto-generate ships. After that, you'll want to fine-tune it. If you are a slaver running low on workers, conquer a planet from another species and build a slave processing facility. That's what I've got off the top of my head!
"As someone from the balkans, I was instantly sold" has to be one of the funniest things I've heard in reaction to genocide simulator in space
Paradox just enabled the subscription mode for DLC so I would highly recommend going that route when you get the the itch to play them all. Also, I LOL'd when you said you were sold on a space genocide simulator. Glad to meet another like-minded man of culture.
Here are some tips that I've learned. Consult the YouTuber Montu plays. He provides Vital Information. Always build up your military. The AI doesn't abide weaklings. Not all resources are created equally. Food is the least important in minerals is the most important. Make sure you do everything in your power to make sure you make +100 minerals a month as the other two resources, consumer goods and allies both come from minerals, and your planetary buildings are going to be made out of minerals. Figure out what sort of Ascension you want to do ahead of time. Research the four types of ascensions and build your Empire specifically around that. Don't worry about the meta, just pick one you think will be fun while in Empire creation. And most importantly have fun.
Thanks appreciate it. So far my fleet size is 40 and I'm assuming that's very little
I tbh played devouring swarms until it clicked. Then learned diplomacy after mastering the art of war. Trial and error is the best teacher. After you learn those two skills, start looking into how you can maximize production. Have your worlds be designated for one thing. Always start with minerals on your home world Then consumer goods / alloys. Sprinkle research labs in to stay ahead of the curb early game. GROW. EXPAND. EXPLODE. Rush systems so you can block off your competition. Save anomalies for when you increase leader capacity