Category: Strategy Games

Stellaris, since its inception, has been updated quite often, and significant changes in game dynamics with update 2.0 leave many players long for older versions’ features.

Some claim Stellaris 1.9.1 Boulle was the peak version because its unrestricted FTL travel offered better opportunities for warfare with enemy empires than the newer versions. But 3.4 Cepheus is much more stable and introduces a novel, better way of FTL travel via Hyper Relays.

I got hooked by the game when the “Dick” update reigned, named after the influential Sci-Fi writer Philip K. Dick (i.e., Blade Runner). So to test and see which Stellaris version offers the best game experience, I dug out the famous Stellaris 1.9 and just tried it.

Was version 1.9 Stellaris’ peak?

A watershed moment for Stellaris was the update from 1.9.1 Boulle to 2.0.5 Cherryh when Stellaris space travel received a substantial overhaul. Unfortunately, many say this was a significant step in the wrong direction, claiming that with version 1.9, Stellaris has reached its prime and that the new game dynamics made the game drastically less enjoyable.

Until 1.9, FTL travel was unrestrained. The player could send his ships anywhere without restrictions – over the complete galaxy if necessary (but still jumping from system to system, as is the case in the modern game).

Does Stellaris have a Coop Mode?

All about Stellaris’ Multiplayer

Is Stellaris playable with DLC?

Is Stellaris still worth your time and money?

The game already had hyperlanes as an option in settings, but these weren’t mandatory.

Also, there were two other options for interstellar travel: Wormholes and Warp-Drives.

Stellaris 1.9 vs. 2.0

Stellaris 2.0.5 made hyperlanes the only FTL option. Hyperlanes define the connection between two systems, like a road determines the way between two houses. And you, the player, can only see these hyperlanes and hyperlane-crossings three systems ahead, as long as you have not traveled them.

Stellaris 1.9 generates Star Trek feeling

Many early players of Stellaris longingly look back to the days when space travel was unrestricted. Today you can not just send your science ship into deep space and see what they find:

And I must say, even though I joined to play the game much later than 1.9, I get the idea. So I partly understand those stuck on 1.9.

Frankly, playing the game in the 1.9.1 version feels different from the modern versions. I felt like a character in Star Trek “going boldly where no one has gone before.”

I freely ordered my science ships to cross the galaxy and explore deep space. It felt strangely exciting, different from the modern game’s more regulated approach.

On their voyage from system to system, I held my breath about what they might encounter so far away from home.

Honestly, to “boldly go where no one has gone before” was more exciting than the modern system of hyperlanes. At least in the beginning. It also has downsides. We will come to that later.

There are also other differences in gameplay between 1.9 and 2.0+. Much in 1.9 looked less evolved and less complicated. It honestly felt like visiting one of the game’s early ancestors.

The game had much fewer options and was missing any fleet management capabilities. Alloys weren’t invented yet, so I had difficulty finding the spaceports and shipyards. They were not listed in the Outlier. 1.9 also allowed for the modification of civilian ships in the Ship Designer.

Construction ships could build Outposts in any surveyed system, and the graphics of star systems seemed much nicer done, though I might be wrong here.

How warfare changed from Stellaris 1.9 to 2.0

The introduction of hyperlane-only FTL travel resulted in much higher predictability. It focuses military strategies on chokepoints: An attack on an enemy can only be performed via very few hyperlanes into his system. If the opponent defends these few central chokepoints skillfully, any invasion might be doomed before you can claim any planets.

In contrast, before Stellaris 2.0, space travel had no limitations, you could attack any empire from everywhere, and it was impossible to build strategic defenses.

So, with the introduction of hyperlanes FTL, it became highly predictable how the enemy must attack. Unfortunately, it seems this decision by Paradox created unhappiness among the players, changed warfare, and demands for implementation of the old FTL and Warp systems.

Why Paradox changed Stellaris’ FTL travel

The question remains, why Paradox Interactive chose to change the game so drastically. The developers of Stellaris answer this in their Dev Diary blog, Ep. #92:

• Better performance through caching and unified code (Wormhole FTL in particular is a massive resource hog in the late game)
• Warfare with a distinct sense of ‘theatres,’ advancing/retreating fronts and border skirmishes

So the multitude of FTL travel options (FTL, Warp, and Wormholes) created so many possibilities of attack and countermeasures that, on the one hand, for the average player, it becomes impossible to handle. On the other hand, all these options over time overburdened the gaming hardware, slowing down the game.

Paradox decided to simplify the game and give players the option to fortify their empires, having the opportunity to amass huge fleets at these choke points to either defend them or conquer them.

The alternative: Disperse your fleet over your whole empire – the enemy could appear out of nowhere anytime and conquer your Starbases and planets.

So I agree that the decision by Paradox to channel FTL travel by fixed hyperlanes creates a more balanced game with the option to experience massive fleet battles … just my thing!

Stellaris 3.4 Cepheus: Hyper Rays Technology

With the 3.4 Cepheus update, the dispute is settled once and for all. Introducing a new Hyper Relays technology that your construction ships can use to build “highways” to the stars.

This technology speeds up travel massively, and you will not want to go back.

Stellaris 1.9 Download

But in case you want to test for yourself if you like 1.9 better than the actual versions, here is how to do it:

• in your Steam library, right-click on Stellaris
• choose “Properties”
• choose “Betas”
• enter “oldstellaris” (without the “”) into the field under “Enter beta access code” and click on “Check Code”
• now you will be able to choose versions pre-2.0 in the drop-down menu above
• Steam will load that version, and you will see in your libraries list “Stellaris [1.9.1]
• Click on PLAY

I am looking forward to your verdict … is 1.9 really better? Does 3.4 Cepheus blow older versions out of the water… share below in the comments or on our Facebook page.

Stellaris is an excellent game for single-player aficionados. Though it does not come with a campaign mode, the plain vanilla game and the Story Pack DLCs make it a phenomenal game to play as a single-player.

Consider Stellaris not so much a game. Instead, see it as a story, a novel. A novel that you play. A story that you develop.

Space mystery lovers created Stellaris with me in mind. At the core of Stellaris is the vastness of space and the curiosity about what lies behind our borders.

This article will find out how we can make Stellaris even more attractive to the lone gamer. Frankly, playing on my own is how I prefer to play my games. And though I dig the single-player campaigns in all my games so far, I never missed this mode in Stellaris.

As we see later, there are options to improve the experience for single-players, especially if you are a depressing researcher like me.

Does Stellaris have a Single-Player campaign?

Stellaris does not contain a single-player campaign mode like many other video games. Therefore, you won’t find a particular campaign story to play as a single player. Instead, each round begins with your Star System, one science, and one construction vessel. The player develops the empire from here.

Stellaris is a complete campaign and story in itself – if you are the only biological player or share the galaxy with your friends.

Is playing Stellaris as Single-Player fun?

I played hundreds of hours of Stellaris in Single-Player mode, so I know for sure: Single-Player is honestly my favorite game mode. A game of Stellaris takes so much time to play that I like to save and pause the game anytime I feel too tired to continue. But, of course, that’s harder with a group of friends, who will have to leave at different times, rendering the game obsolete.

When playing on my own, I decide when I call it a day. Sure, it is nice to play with your friends over the internet, even if you live far apart and you should do that. But, I prefer to play quietly by myself after a tough day in the office.

Single-Player for the lost Scientist in you

Also, a game with friends is more about chatting with them while playing against them. Only if you play on your own do you have the time to dig into the deeply hidden stories of the gameplay and can focus on being the researcher. And honestly, that is what the game deserves because it is full of details. It is impossible to follow all the story threads playing out even as a single player.

For me, the thrill of the game is mostly the exploration, uncovering the secrets of an ancient universe. But I would say this depends on what you enjoy. As a kid, I always wanted to become a scientist. I missed that boat.

Now, I love a good war with my neighbors more than anything else (in Stellaris, I mean). Call me belligerent. And it is a lot of fun to send your fleets against your fungi-playing friend.

All good. But then the confrontation with your friends is the only focus of the game.

I more love the feeling of mystery that Stellaris entails. The excellent soundtrack also adds to the sense of adventure and mystery.

And you can even enhance this immersion with add-ons.

Stellaris DLC made for Single-Player

Since it seems I am rather alone playing Stellaris, why not build Stellaris into something I like. Something for the never-became scientist, the researcher, the Indiana Jones in me – mystery and adventure.

And for people like me, the single-player with affection for warfare, the programmers from time to time deliver special Story Packs as part of the release of DLCs (DownLoadable Content).

These story packs sweeten the in itself fabulous gameplay of Stellaris with even more stories and things to do and discover. They add suspense, a sense of adventure, space archeology, and mysteries.

Stellaris best Story Packs for Single-Player

One of these Story Packs I could not resist is Ancient Relics.

Ancient Relics adds the discovery of ancient races and artifacts and introduces archeology development “trees” to the game and mysterious precursor races and relics.

Something the nerd in me digs.

The other single-player Story Pack I have in mind is Distant Stars.

What are the best settings for Single Player?

Naturally, that depends significantly on what you are looking for in this adventure.

Stellaris Single Player Settings for War Mood

If you want a lot of warfare, when setting up the game, you should set the AI Aggressiveness on “High,” and you will have a lot of war on your hands throughout the game.

Also, if you set “Advanced Neighbors” to “on”, you probably have an exciting time right from the beginning.

If you also set the Difficulty to “Admiral,” the AI empires will be a tough nut to crack. And if you finally set “Scaling Difficulty” to “ON”, the advantage the AIs have against you will only grow.

Stellaris Single Player Settings for Exploration Mood

But if you instead pamper your repressed inner researcher or want to act out on your zeal for all things Economy, well, do the opposite. Reduce the number of Empires, create a large universe, prohibit Advanced Neighbors, and insist on low AI Aggressiveness. Finally, move the “Victory Year” to “never” and postpone the End-Game start to 2600 AD, and you can surrender to your kink ad infinitum.

Stellaris Best Single Player Settings for Beginners

I remember my first games of Stellaris like yesterday. I was overwhelmed. And no setting can change that – there are just too many moving parts to the game.

But when you start your first game, you probably should choose the following settings:

• choose a small galaxy, so you get fast feedback
• prohibit Advanced Neighbors, so you have more time to learn the first thing
• choose low AI Aggressiveness
• play on Ensign or lower

Get the hang of Stellaris, learn the ropes – it won’t be long until you start asking for more – then you will turn up the heat – Enjoy!

When you first play Stellaris, you will feel completely overwhelmed, I mean, I absolutely remember my utter confusion when I tried to make sense of all the pieces and parts that make up a Stellaris game. There are all these options, menus, and alerts.

To bring order into chaos, and hope to the overwhelmed beginner, let us here look into all things “ships” in Stellaris. Let’s start with the civilian fleet.

Since this is a beginner’s guide, we will deal with the military ships up to the Cruiser.

Stellaris Ship sets

But before we start I need to mention that I play mostly – us. Humans from the United Nations of Earth. So the images you will see below are from the “ship set” of the Earth “origin (as the different species are also called).

There are many different ship sets (ship designs), and each origin has its design (the Aquatic DLC brings some beautiful new ship sets to the game). While the basic ship hierarchy (“Corvette – Destroyer – Cruiser – Battleship – Titan – Colossus) is the same for every species, the ship set’s designs will be different.

So no matter if you choose to play a psychopathic zealot origin, the tips below still apply to your species.

Stellaris Civilian Ship types

You can distinguish between civilian and military ships. While you have no or nearly no influence on the “performance” and design of the civilian ships, Stellaris gives you a lot of influence on the military ship’s design and performance.

Tip: When holding SHIFT while giving orders to your civilian ships, you can enter a list of orders, this helps a lot at the beginning of the game. Later. when your Technology department advances (left side under “Technology”) you can develop a technology that allows you to set your science ships on auto-exploration. Again that’s a huge relief.

The civilian ships are:

1. Science Ships

Before you need anything else, you will employ your science ship(s). When beginning, immediately send out your existing Science ship to explore your surroundings. Each star system first needs to be surveyed by your Science ship, before you can send in your Construction ship to build a Starbase and a mining or research station.

Tip: When you have enough resources available, immediately build more Science vessels, so you can explore faster.

Also, your Science ships will stumble upon many artifacts left by other species and empires. The more you order your Science ships’ captains to research these “anomalies”, the faster your empire gains knowledge and sometimes even technology.

But researching these anomalies, as Stellaris calls them, takes its toll on time. You will find that many of your Science ships are bound for Stellaris years fulfilling the tasked research job, but that part of the galaxy is not explored any further in the meantime.

So relying on more Science ships lets you explore faster. I believe that you need to move your borders out fast because all your opponents are also exploring their surroundings and expanding their empires.

The faster you survey the stars the faster your Construction ships can build Starbases for you, expanding your empire’s borders.

To boldly go where no one has gone before does not come without risks. When you send your fearless researchers into unexplored space, they will often encounter hostile new species.

Luckily the Science ships have a very high Evasion score, so they mostly can escape to an adjacent star system – IF you keep the “Fleet Stance” setting to “evasive.

I am not sure why you would order an unarmed vessel to attack any hostile close enough, but hey, who am I to judge.

It’s your empire.

Remember that Science ships can be destroyed or rendered useless.

I have never made my scientists die in the field of honor for me, at least not by ordering them to take point.

Set to “evasive” my Science ships luckily mostly got away… as they are designed to.

Hint: After some time your technology department will develop “Automatic Surveying”, allowing you to simply order your Science ships to survey every unsurveyed system automatically, freeing you up to tend to other more pressing matters.

2. Construction Ships

After you sent in the Science ships, you need to follow up with your Construction ships.

Construction ships built the Starbases, expanding your empire and also the resource mining stations, as well as research stations.

Whenever you build a new Starbase your borders expand and include this newly added star system.

Construction ships are pretty low maintenance, you do not need to recruit a new captain now and then.

Tip: When starting the game, you find one Science and one Construction ship in your fleet, ready to take orders. You should immediately send out these ships to explore the space around your system and build Starbases and mining and Research stations.

3. Colony ships

Colony ships are nothing you have to deal with. They are built and sent automatically whenever you decide to start a colony on one of the new habitable planets in your expanding empire.

All you need to have when deciding to build and send a Colonization ship is enough resources (amounts depending on the species you are letting colonize the planet).

4. Starbase

Without added weapons, defenses, and shipyards we could count the Starbase on this list of civilian ships. Though, this is not totally correct, as you see on the image above that even an unarmed space station yields military power, here 191 points.

A starbase – as military ships – has armor, hull, and shields and can be upgraded with weapons to become a stronghold. They cost monthly upkeep in energy units.

Starbases mark a star system as yours and allow you to build mining and research stations. I am still on the fence if I build a starbase in every system of my empire or only in the important ones (with resources or expanding my borders).

So talking about Starbases we already touch on the area of the military.

Stellaris Military Ship types

For this article, we look at the ship sets from the plain vanilla game, not any DLC. We will touch on that elsewhere.

Stellaris Ship Designer

After you earned your first stripes, you will start to look deeper under the hood of Stellaris. Don’t overlook the Ship Designer, since it allows you to improve your ships or create ship variations that are a better fit for the tactics of your enemy.

1. Ship type: Transport

You do not have to deal with building Transport ships, these come with building Armies and ordering them to another planet. That is also the only use you have for this type of ship. You will need these armies to conquer planets.

After recruiting an army, you find them on the right side close to the bottom of the Outliner (the right side menu) and can order them to go anywhere as you would with any other ship.

2. Ship type: Corvette

The Corvette is your first and – in a way – your last ship. Sounds confusing? Well, it is literally your first military ship in Stellaris.

But why should it also be your last, aren’t there any upgrades?

Yes, there are, but over time you can upgrade the Corvette ship type so much, that its speed and evasive power will stay the backbone of your fleets, despite all the fancy cruisers and battleships you develop.

Stellaris Ship Experience

As you can see on the left, my Corvette, the UNS Kazakov, is built upon the Ladybird class (see video above), exerts a military power of 53, has seen a lot of battle (“experienced”), granting it 10% more damage inflicted on the enemy, has taken some beating (“Hull Points 354/400”), with Armor down to 1/65. The Shields have already regenerated (“100/100”).

The UNS Kazakov costs me 2.76 units of energy and 0.62 units of alloys per month.

She has FTL (Faster than Light) capabilities (can jump from system to system).

The way the Ladybird class Corvette is auto-generated by my empire’s AI (I did not touch the design), the ship modifiers (the way the design is done) grant the ship:

• Ship Fire Rate of +13%
• +100 Hull Points
• +15% Weapon Damage to the enemy
• +10% Sublight Speed (within a system)

As discussed in the video above, the Corvette “blueprint” comes in three variations, each with a different strategic goal in mind.

The orange [S] in the weapons and utility slots stands for “small” – a Corvette can only carry small versions of these components.

In the Stellaris Ship designer, you can use the given Corvette template to build a

• Missile Boat – 1 Weapon Slot, 1 Guided Weapon Slot, 3 Utility Slots and 1 Auxiliary Slot
• Interceptor – 3 Weapon Slots, 3 Utility Slots and 1 Auxiliary Slot
• Picket Ship – 1 Point-Defence Slot, 2 Weapon Slots, 3 Utility and 1 Auxiliary Slot

Each version of a Corvette has its uses and experimenting with fleet compositions can prove to be very beneficial.

The Corvette type is very versatile and its ability to evade and hand out damage to a slower enemy will prove to be very useful to you in the future, not only at the beginning of the game.

The Ladybird class Corvette as designed by my Empire’s AI needs 60 days to be built, monthly 1.27 energy and 0.28 alloy units, and costs 143 alloys to build.

The way it is set up it has +8 excessive power (and by that handing out more damage and faster evasive maneuvers, the ship leaves the dock with 300 hull points (see above, the UNS Kazakov shows 400 – this may be due to experience, the Admiral’s experience or traits or the fleet it is part of) – 65 Armor and 170 shields. The Evasion percentage is 63.3%, speed 160, and Damage (delivered) per day 7.39.

Its “Special Values” are a Sensor Range of 2 (how far it can “see” what happens in other Star systems – in this case, 2 Star systems away) and a Piracy suppression of 10.

Stellaris Ship Components Corvette

The AI has equipped this Corvette class with the following components:

• 2 Red Lasers
• 1 Coilgun Gen II
• Auxiliary Fire Control
• 2 Small Shields Gen III
• 1 Ceramo-Metal armor Gen II
• Cold Fusion reactor Gen III
• Hyper Driver Gen II
• Chemical Thrusters Gen I
• Gravitic Sensors Gen II – sense the presence of a Starship sectors away
• Combat Computer (Swarm)

These ship components are kept under constant development, if you instruct your Research/Technology team to do so,

3. Ship type: Destroyer

After some time, you will be granted a new class of military ships, the Destroyer.

I am not so sure about the Destroyer class. So far I cannot really say if I have better effects with a Destroyer than with a Corvette. But there is still time, perhaps the Destroyer convinces me of its usefulness in the future.

Compared to the Corvette a Destroyer at least is much better equipped. While the Corvette can be developed into three different specifications (Picket Ship, Missile Boat, or Interceptor), each with its amount of weapons and utilities the ship would carry, the Destroyer offers 2 sections (bow and stern), which can be specialized, and many more gun and utility ports.

The Destroyer’s bow can be developed into a:

• Gunship Bow – 2 small and one Medium weapon Slot and 6 small Utility slots
• Picket Ship Bow – 1 Point-Defense slot, 2 Small weapon slots and 6 Utility slots
• Artillery Bow – 1 large weapon slot and 6 small Utility slots

And the stern section offers:

• Picket Ship Stern – 2 Point-Defense slot, 1 Auxiliary slot
• Interceptor Ship Stern – 2 small Weapon slots and one Auxiliary Utility slot
  and a
• Gunship Stern – 1 medium Weapon slot and 1 Auxiliary Utility slot

While it takes 60 days to build a Corvette, the Destroyer takes 120 days and has higher upkeep and building costs. On the bright side, it comes with a Hull strength of 800.

One of the most important disadvantages of the Destroyer is its lower Evasion percentage, so more of the enemy’s shots will find their target – our Destroyer, compared to the Corvette.

4. The Cruiser

With the Cruiser, you have a really big stick in your arsenal. From the dock, it ships with 2300 Hull Points and 180 speed.

In the Ship Designer you can customize its three-compartment:

a. Broadside Bow

For the bow you can choose:

• Artillery Bow – 1 Large Weapon slot, 4 Medium Utility slots
• Missile Bow – 2 Small Weapon slots, 1 Guided Weapon slot
• Broadside Bow – 2 Medium Weapon slots, 4 Medium Utility slots

b. Broadside Core

For the Core section you have the following four options:

• Hangar Core – 2 Point-Defense slots, 1 Hangar slot
• Artillery Core – 1 Medium Weapon, 1 Large Weapon, 4 Medium Utility slots
• Broadside Core – 3 Medium Weapons, 4 Medium Utilities

Missile Core – 2 Small Weapons, 2 Guided Weapons slots, 4 Medium Utility slots

The Hangar Core

A new component to the Cruiser is the Hangar Core. This Section turns your Cruiser basically into an Aircraft Carrier. You should really try adding a few of these to your fleet. Something my Empire’s AI never did for me…

c. Broadside Stern

The stern offers 2 specifications:

• Broadside Stern – 1 Medium Weapon slot, 2 Auxiliary Utility slots
• Gunship Stern – 2 Small Weapon slots, 2 Auxiliary Utility slots

The Cruiser is a powerful Ship class with many advantages and specifications, you should use it as soon as it becomes available for you. Especially developing it into an Aircraft Carrier with a fleet as a battlegroup is something you should experiment with.

What is Stellaris Ship Experience

When you lead your ships into battle, their Captains, Admiral, and the crew – if they survive – gain experience. With this experience also the Ship Rank rises, giving the ship several advantages.

Coming out of the Spacedock ships in Stellaris have zero (0) experience. The more and longer they partake in battles, the more they gain experience:
– +1 Experience per day in battle
– +0.1 Experience per day spent in suppression of Piracy

What is Ship Rank

The more Experience units a ship collects over time, the higher its rank:

So the more you lead your fleets into battle, the more experience they gain, and the better they perform in battle.