Stellaris (video game)

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Stellaris is a real-time strategy game with 4X and grand strategy elements,^[3] taking place on a map of a procedurally generated galaxy^[2] with individual star systems acting as two-dimensional tiles similar to previous Paradox releases. Players take the role of a single FTL-capable civilization, referred to as an empire, with the goal of exploring and claiming systems, colonizing habitable planets, and expanding their economy to outcompete rival civilizations progressively encountered through first contact events. The relative power of empires is evaluated on three factors – military strength, technological progress, or economic power – allowing players to either specialize in a single area or maintain a balanced approach. The ultimate goal is to either ally with or defeat every other empire in the game while surviving a number of external "crises" threatening the entire galaxy. Star systems can only be traversed via a web of faster-than-light routes called hyperlanes, while habitable planets hold populations of an empire's citizens – represented by "pops" and pop groups – and can be built up with buildings and districts that produce resources or other passive effects as long as there are enough pops to fill the available jobs.

A large part of Stellaris's main gameplay is determined by the design of the player's empire, with templates dictating both visual and mechanical effects and the player being free to either select from developer-made pre-set empires or create their own. Players can customize the unique "traits" of their starting species, an "origin" representing the pre-FTL history of their civilization, the starting head of state, a selection of two to three "ethics" representing the core philosophy of their empire, and an "authority" and two "civics" representing the internal structure of their government and society. Ethics are chosen from a total of eight options along four mutually exclusive axes,^[a] allowing the player to either select moderate versions of three ethics or a fanatical version of one and a moderate version of another, while authorities in the base game consist of democratic, oligarchic, dictatorial, or imperial options representing the system of election for new rulers. The Utopia expansion would add a Gestalt Consciousness ethic, overriding other ethic choices and granting access to new authorities representing either a biological Hive Mind or an artificial intelligence network, as well as a large number of new civics and a megacorporation authority.

The game begins on January 1, 2200 AD, upon the player empire's discovery of the hyperlane network. The default campaign length is 300 in-game years, divided into 100-year earlygame, midgame, and endgame segments dictating certain events and modifiers. The economy of a player's empire throughout the game is primarily based on five main resources: energy credits, minerals, food, consumer goods, and alloys, each having a primary purpose to contribute to the player's economy. There are also Strategic resources that are used to make advanced buildings, weapons, defenses, and can also be used to endorse edicts. Edicts also can cost Unity which can be obtained by supporting factions within your empire or by constructing buildings that create Unity producing jobs. Advancement in Stellaris is achieved through technologies and traditions which progressively scale in cost for the player to achieve, but provide better features for the player as the game continues.^[4] Edicts are used to boost and passively upgrade empires, which can cost Strategic resources, energy, or Unity to maintain. There are also mid-game crises which can occur, such as a crusade by a marauder empire or an invasion by nanomachines from an extragalactic cluster. Later in the game, larger crisis events occur that have galaxy-wide implications—for example, an awakening of dormant sentient AI, another version of this which works more diplomatically, or an invasion by extra-dimensional or extra-galactic forces, these being either randomly chosen or selected by the player at the start of the game. Paradox hoped that this feature would address a common late-game problem in 4X style games; whereby one faction is so powerful that their eventual victory is inevitable, resulting in frustrating gameplay.^[5] Subsequent expansions have added multiple ways for empires to become a crisis faction themselves by researching dangerous technologies that imperil the entire galaxy: harvesting stars for energy, rewriting the laws of physics, genetically engineering enormous space monsters, or artificially turning every star in the galaxy into a red giant.

Expansions also offer empires the path to take one of several "ascension paths", which radically alter the inhabitants of a player's empire. These include advanced genetic engineering, cybernetic augmentation, psionic powers, or mind uploading; machine empires have their own ascension paths.

Some civics within the game radically change how to play the game. For example, "genocidal" civics may not initiate diplomacy and sometimes act like early-game crises, or the Feudal Society civic, which makes vassalization of other empires a priority.

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Stellaris was developed by Paradox Development Studios and published by Paradox Interactive.^[6] The game uses the same Clausewitz Engine that the studio has used since Europa Universalis III in 2007^[7] albeit with some modifications, such as the usage of physically based rendering (PBR).^[8] The game was presented at Gamescom in August 2015.^[9] Director Henrik Fahraeus describes his influences as "one third Star Control 2, one third Master of Orion 2 and one third Europa Universalis IV", to "create a strategy game with particular focus on exploration and expansion".^[10] The team also referenced Star Control II with several character concepts and personalities, including alien races who resemble birds, mushrooms, and gas clouds.^[11]

Stellaris was released to the public on May 9, 2016. After launch, the developers confirmed that there would be a number of expansion packs, as well as free updates to address bugs and introduce new gameplay features.^[12] The updates were named after famous science fiction writers,^[13] including Stanisław Lem,^[14] Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Iain Banks, Douglas Adams, Ray Bradbury, Karel Čapek, Pierre Boulle, C. J. Cherryh, Larry Niven, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Tanith Lee, and Mary Shelley, until 2022, when they began to take the names of constellations starting with 3.3, "Libra".

The game is accompanied by free patches, which may adjust existing mechanics or add new ones in the same theme as the expansions. The first major patch arrived on May 24, shortly after the game's release, featuring numerous improvements to the AI, as well as an additional playable race.^[15] The 2.0 patch (Cherryh), released in February 2018, revamps a significant amount of game mechanics, even for players who have not purchased the corresponding "Apocalypse" DLC. The 2.1 (Niven) update, released alongside the "Distant Stars" DLC in May, revamped the base game play loop and added more quality-of-life features. The 2.2 (Le Guin) update was released in December, along with the "Megacorp" DLC, and revamped how planets are organized. The 3.0 (Dick) update was released in April 2021, coinciding with the release of the "Nemesis" DLC.^[16] Minor releases have continued through 2022 with 3.5 being released September 2022.^[17]

There have been plenty of story packs and species packs that have been released, each adding a new in game events, origins, empire types, species, traits, civic, and ascension perks. Plantoids Species Pack dropped August 4, 2016 being the first, and the latest being Astral Planes,^[18] released November 16, 2023.^[19]

Paradox ported the game to consoles.^[20] The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Stellaris were released on February 26, 2019, as Stellaris: Console Edition. A version of the game optimized for Xbox Series X/S released on March 25, 2021.^[21]

Expansions and DLCs

DLC timeline

2016	Plantoids
	Leviathans
2017	Utopia
	Synthetic Dawn
	Humanoids
2018	Apocalypse
	Distant Stars
	MegaCorp
2019	Ancient Relics
	Lithoids
2020	Federations
	Necroids
2021	Nemesis
	Aquatics
2022	Overlord
	Toxoids
2023	First Contact
	Galactic Paragons
	Astral Planes
2024	The Machine Age
	Cosmic Storms
	Grand Archive
2025	BioGenesis
	Shadows of the Shroud
	Infernals

A number of DLCs have been released for the game. All are optional and may be applied to the base game in any combination. The largest DLCs come in the form of expansions, which significantly alter the mechanics and features of the game. There are also story packs (which add new events and minor mechanics) and species packs (which add new species, with accompanying audio, visuals and mechanics).

More information Name, Type ...

Name	Type	Release date	Description
Plantoids	Species Pack	4 August 2016	Introduces new plant-based species for players and AI empires to choose from, including new artwork and animations for leaders, ships, and cityscapes.[22] As of version 3.1, the pack also includes additional species traits and civics available for plantoid and fungoid empires.[23]
Leviathans	Story Pack	20 October 2016	Introduces "Leviathans", powerful space creatures and entities which can be fought or investigated; independent enclaves; and new mechanics for Fallen Empires to awaken and either reconquer the Galaxy or fight one another in the "War in Heaven".[24]
Utopia	Expansion	6 April 2017	Adds megastructures including Ringworlds and Dyson spheres, space habitats, "Ascension Perks" allowing biological, synthetic, or psionic evolution, hive mind empires, as well as new slavery and native indoctrination options.[25]
Synthetic Dawn	Story Pack	21 September 2017	Allows playing as (and against) non-organic empires and features the ability to play as and encounter machine empires with unique event chains and mechanics while also adding synthetic uprisings and new synthetic portraits.[26]
Humanoids	Species Pack	7 December 2017	Adds new options for human-like player and AI empires, with new leader and ship appearance options, and additional music tracks and VIR voiceover sets.[27] As of version 3.1, the pack also includes two new civics and the clone army origin.[23]
Apocalypse	Expansion	22 February 2018	Focusing on warfare, this expansion adds several super weapons providing for the ability to destroy planets and eradicate or assimilate planetary populations, in addition to new "Titan" ship classes and defensive modules allowing for system-wide weapon attacks. Also includes nomadic "Marauder" civilizations, unity ambitions, and new civics.[28]
Distant Stars	Story Pack	22 May 2018	Introduces the ability to discover and unlock access to new hidden star clusters and encounter several new anomalies, events, space entities, and unique systems. Also adds a fictional "L-Cluster", a section of stars that spawned with regular galaxies.[29]
MegaCorp	Expansion	6 December 2018	Introduces new Corporate Authorities which can establish branch offices on foreign planets and dominate galactic trade. Also adds the ability to create an ecumenopolis, non-player nomadic "Caravaneer" civilizations, more megastructures, new ascension perks, and a galactic slave market.[30][31]
Ancient Relics	Story Pack	4 June 2019	Allows the player to uncover the ruins of long-dead civilizations, discover their histories and reinvent their ancient technologies.[32][33]
Lithoids	Species Pack	24 October 2019	Adds new rock-based species for players and AI, with unique mechanics, portraits and voices.[34]
Federations	Expansion	17 March 2020	Adds five new federation types, additional resolutions for the Galactic Community, new Origins for player empires, new mega-structures, and the Juggernaut, a new ship class.[35]
Necroids	Species Pack	29 October 2020	Adds necroids, an intelligent undead species, and the ability to form empires with them as the primary species.[36]
Nemesis	Expansion	15 April 2021	Introduces fog of war and expands the espionage/intelligence system. Allows players to become the crisis, with a crisis perk and new ships like Menacing Corvette, Asteroid Cruiser, Star-Eater and more.[37] The expansion also brought many changes to the economy and planet districts.[38]
Aquatics	Species Pack	22 November 2021	Adds new ocean-themed species portraits to choose from, including an optional aquatic species trait. Also includes a ship set, two new origins, the anglers civic, and an advisor voice.[39]
Overlord	Expansion	12 May 2022	Focusing on subject-ruler interactions, this expansion introduces new ways to control your vassals as well as new diplomatic options and civics to choose from.[40]
Toxoids	Species Pack	20 September 2022	Adds new toxic-themed species portraits to choose from, with accompanying traits, and adds civics centered around the poison and toxic theme. It also adds a new toxoid ship set, advisor, and cityscape.[41]
First Contact	Story Pack	14 March 2023	Adds new origins and pre-FTL mechanics along with cloaking technology.[42]
Galactic Paragons	Expansion	9 May 2023	Introduces a Council mechanic and adds new leaders, civics, tradition trees, and agendas.[43]
Astral Planes	Narrative Expansion	16 November 2023	Introduces Astral Rifts with widely branching storylines, which are explorable tears in reality that can only be accessed after researching a certain technology. This also has a chance to create a "Crystal Rift" within the player's home system, which leads to a star in the center of the galaxy with a large astral scar replacing the star, a new relic (if paired with Ancient Relics), a new paragon (if paired with Galactic Paragons) and a large colonizable world known as "azilash".[44]
The Machine Age	Expansion	7 May 2024	Introduces mechanics for individualistic non-gestalt machine empires and adds new reactive portraits, origins, civics, greatly expanded machine and cybernetic ascension paths, two new ship appearance sets and two new megastructures. The DLC also adds a fourth end-game crisis as well as a playable crisis that allows players to bend the rules of reality itself.[45]
Cosmic Storms	Mechanical Expansion	10 September 2024	Introduces cosmic storms and adds a new storm-chasing origin, two new civics, and two precursor narratives.[46]
Grand Archive	Story Pack	29 October 2024	Introduces new origins and civics, as well as the eponymous museum megastructure that plays host to a collection of xeno-geological artifacts, relics from forgotten civilizations, and allows you to tame space fauna as collectibles which can be culled for food or minerals, or clone them via a special technology to expand the player's navy.[47]
BioGenesis	Expansion	5 May 2025	The expansion focuses on biological organisms, and introduces new origins, civics, traits, events, and music. It also adds various bioengineering features, such as cloning, genetic mutation and genetic purity.[48]
Shadows of the Shroud	Mechanical Expansion	22 September 2025	This DLC overhauls the Psionic Ascension Path, introducing new Origins, Civics, events, and gameplay mechanics for interacting with the Shroud. Key features include an enhanced Psionic Ascension Situation, new Shroud Patrons and Covenants, and an overhauled End of the Cycle event.[49]
Infernals	Species Pack	25 November 2025	The expansion adds content centered on fire based organisms. It introduces new origins, civics, a new planet type, and a new crisis path.[50]

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Pre-release

In a preview of the game at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Adam Smith wrote that Stellaris "could be Paradox's finest hour, and a landmark in the development of both 4X and grand strategy design".^[62]

Critical response

Stellaris received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.^[51] A number of reviews emphasized the game's approachable interface and design, along with a highly immersive and almost RPG-like early game heavily influenced by the player's species design decisions, and also the novelty of the end-game crisis events.^{[51][who?][not specific enough to verify]} The more mixed reviews also noted that the mid-game could be less satisfying, thanks to an overly simple diplomatic system and a somewhat passive AI.^{[51][who?][not specific enough to verify]}

Sales

Less than 24 hours after release, Paradox Interactive announced that Stellaris had sold over 200,000 units, breaking the revenue record for any of Paradox Interactive's previous titles during the same time period. It almost matched the sales record currently held by Cities: Skylines. It became Paradox Development Studio's fastest selling game.^[63] On 21 June 2016, the game had sold over 500,000 units.^[64] On 12 May 2020, the publisher announced a new record for total players online, with the game's sales exceeding 3 million units.^[65]

In June 2023, a spin-off titled Stellaris: Nexus was announced. It is developed by Whatboy Games.^[66] During the early access period, the game dropped the Stellaris name and was retitled to Nexus 5X. The game is still set in the Stellaris universe.^[67]

Star Trek: Infinite was released on October 12, 2023 by Paradox. It was described as extremely similar to Stellaris.^[68][69][70]

• List of grand strategy video games
• List of Paradox Interactive games
• List of PC games