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- Keep an eye on your neighbors. If one of them has an aggressive personality like "Fanatic Purifiers" you need to ensure your military strength is about equal to theirs in the diplomacy screen.
'''''Note:''' Due to ongoing changes to the game over time, some tips can become outdated. The current advice is accurate as of version 3.12, and [https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Beginner%27s_guide a maintained beginner's guide can be found on the official wiki.]''


- Vassalization is a really good way to boost your military power. Vassals create fleets that will follow your largest stack in wartime. At the least, they'll act as cannon fodder.
==Military & Warfare==


- The AI is kinda bad at managing planets right now, for your sectors and for other empires. When you use sectors, you might want to build planets up before turning them over.
* Always try to be as close to your maximum fleet capacity as possible. Not only is it a good idea militarily, but large fleets also generate bonus Influence which is the main resource for expanding and claiming systems.


- On sectors, there's not much benefit to having multiple. Put as many as you can into one mega-sector and give them a 5 star Governor. (Sector govs don't earn XP)
* Different weapon types are weaker or stronger against different types of defenses, so when using manual ship design and considering how to gear up your ships, it's best to focus on your opponents' weaknesses. For example kinetic weapons are strong against shields but weak against armor, so if you take a look at your neighbor's ships and see they're heavy on armor but low on shields, you probably want to avoid going hard on kinetic weapons for your own ships.


- Torpedoes seem to be pretty good.
* Use Starbases to block strategic chokepoints and to guard your borders. Especially in the early game, border Starbases should usually be fitted with extra firepower and preferably a Listening Post which allows you to track the other nation's nearby fleet movements. Otherwise the most common use for Starbases is to build Anchorages in them to increase your maximum fleet capacity, especially once fleets become too strong to be threatened by Starbases.


- Energy production is important, even if you have a good surplus throughout the game, a sizable late game fleet can put you in a pretty big deficit if you don't have a large production. The early game you'll probably be feeling more of a mineral squeeze but later on, you'll need energy more, probably, so when you feel like you always have more minerals than you know what to do with, it could be good to replace mining buildings with power plants.
* Don't forget to make claims on enemy systems if you plan on declaring a conquest war on them. Claim costs increase the further the claims are from you.


- Spaceports and spaceport upgrades boost naval capacity so you should consider building them even in sectors and upgrading them if you need more naval capacity.  
* Even basic Outposts can have some Defense Platforms built around them, handy if some small-scale nuisances like pirates keep up gunning for the same system. They are quite expensive and fragile without fleet support however.


- It can very hard with no espionage mechanics to know how to counter enemy fleets so having a much larger fleet that is more general is the safest bet.
==Expanding & Planet Management==


- Upgrading large fleets takes much less time if you split them up and send them to separate spaceports to be upgraded.
* Specialization of planets is important. Colonies (but not your capital) can be designated to be more efficient at producing a certain type of resource and should focus on producing that resource - for example a Tech World should be filled with Researchers, a Mining World with miners, and so forth. Colony designation is automatic by default, but it's best to choose them manually.


- Spaceport buildings with ship bonuses only affect ships built there so it can be a good idea to have all the +speed and +evade buildings on the same spaceport that also has corvette assembly yards so you can build tons of speedy dodgy corvettes quickly. Having them spread across multiple spaceports can dilute their effects and make it harder to keep track of which spaceports are good for what.
* A special case for planet designation exists between the alloy-focused Forge World and consumer good-focused Factory World: When switching to one of these designations, all industrial districts on the planet will immediately switch to producing only that resource instead of splitting their capacity between the two. This can be very useful if you face a shortage of one or the other.


- When colonizing, consider what systems you'll get in your influence more so than the planet itself. For instance, a nine space planet that'll get you control of some nice systems with strategic resources or whatever is better than a twenty space planet that won't get you anything new. Frontier outposts can be used to grab areas you'll want to build up later but you can only support so many of those at once. Once space fills up, you'll be able to colonize and develop the other worlds in your space, but establishing a larger zone will be good when all the space has been taken. Then you fill out your space.
* Empire Size will impose an increasing penalty on unlocking technologies and especially Traditions as you expand. This doesn't mean you should avoid expanding, but don't neglect research and unity producing colonies as you do.


- On that note, keep an eye on other species that you end up with control over and figure out who is good for what. A very strong species can be good for building armies, ones with different preferences are obviously great for filling out your space. There came a phase of my game where I could make a tally of all the ocean worlds, arid worlds, etc in my space and I would go to one world of ocean people that I had captured, make six colony ships, make a thing of synths so that I could build ships of synths to send to tomb worlds, etc. This brought me to a much higher power level and naval capacity without having to fight wars. Diversity helps. If you don't have other species, then genetic modification can help you get the right preferences.
* Prioritize grabbing systems with large colonizable planets, systems with high resource quantities, and systems that make good hyperlane chokepoints. High-quality but low-habitability planets can become useful later, either via terraforming or populating them with robots/more suitable species.


- If you purge an entire planet for whatever reason, leave one pop unpurged, resettle a pop of whoever you want on that planet, then purge the last native pop. Empty planets are just that, empty, and I had to build a new colony ship and actually lost a gaia world to an AI because they colonized the system before I showed up. Alternatively, Frontier outposts can be used to maintain control but plan for it.
* Food is 100% an empire-wide resource, meaning a planet can generate negative amounts of food and still grow normally if your empire is otherwise producing excess food. Excess food has the most limited use beyond selling it in the Galactic Market, so it tends to be the least important of the basic resources.


- Research is stored when your scientists are busy with special projects so don't be concerned about falling behind on tech due to projects.
==General Advice==


- Techs get much slower if you have a lot of pops so try and keep up with building and upgrading science labs.
* Energy production is important, a sizable late game fleet can put you in a pretty big deficit if you don't keep up with it. Keep your fleets docked in a Starbase with Crew Quarters built when they're not in use to reduce their maintenance.
 
* The general agenda of other empires can be deduced by their trait description. "Spiritualist Seekers" will like other spiritual empires, and "Fanatical Purifiers" will probably try to kill you at some point. Gifts and deliberately favorable trade deals are usually the only way at first to improve relations, until you can get a treaty which starts building trust.
 
* Look through the Ascension Perks tied to your traditions at the start of the game, and try to pick a few to go for. Some are locked behind tech, so it's helpful to decide which type of endgame you want to pursue so that you can pick the techs as they come up.


[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Games]]

Latest revision as of 12:56, 18 July 2024

Note: Due to ongoing changes to the game over time, some tips can become outdated. The current advice is accurate as of version 3.12, and a maintained beginner's guide can be found on the official wiki.

Military & Warfare

  • Always try to be as close to your maximum fleet capacity as possible. Not only is it a good idea militarily, but large fleets also generate bonus Influence which is the main resource for expanding and claiming systems.
  • Different weapon types are weaker or stronger against different types of defenses, so when using manual ship design and considering how to gear up your ships, it's best to focus on your opponents' weaknesses. For example kinetic weapons are strong against shields but weak against armor, so if you take a look at your neighbor's ships and see they're heavy on armor but low on shields, you probably want to avoid going hard on kinetic weapons for your own ships.
  • Use Starbases to block strategic chokepoints and to guard your borders. Especially in the early game, border Starbases should usually be fitted with extra firepower and preferably a Listening Post which allows you to track the other nation's nearby fleet movements. Otherwise the most common use for Starbases is to build Anchorages in them to increase your maximum fleet capacity, especially once fleets become too strong to be threatened by Starbases.
  • Don't forget to make claims on enemy systems if you plan on declaring a conquest war on them. Claim costs increase the further the claims are from you.
  • Even basic Outposts can have some Defense Platforms built around them, handy if some small-scale nuisances like pirates keep up gunning for the same system. They are quite expensive and fragile without fleet support however.

Expanding & Planet Management

  • Specialization of planets is important. Colonies (but not your capital) can be designated to be more efficient at producing a certain type of resource and should focus on producing that resource - for example a Tech World should be filled with Researchers, a Mining World with miners, and so forth. Colony designation is automatic by default, but it's best to choose them manually.
  • A special case for planet designation exists between the alloy-focused Forge World and consumer good-focused Factory World: When switching to one of these designations, all industrial districts on the planet will immediately switch to producing only that resource instead of splitting their capacity between the two. This can be very useful if you face a shortage of one or the other.
  • Empire Size will impose an increasing penalty on unlocking technologies and especially Traditions as you expand. This doesn't mean you should avoid expanding, but don't neglect research and unity producing colonies as you do.
  • Prioritize grabbing systems with large colonizable planets, systems with high resource quantities, and systems that make good hyperlane chokepoints. High-quality but low-habitability planets can become useful later, either via terraforming or populating them with robots/more suitable species.
  • Food is 100% an empire-wide resource, meaning a planet can generate negative amounts of food and still grow normally if your empire is otherwise producing excess food. Excess food has the most limited use beyond selling it in the Galactic Market, so it tends to be the least important of the basic resources.

General Advice

  • Energy production is important, a sizable late game fleet can put you in a pretty big deficit if you don't keep up with it. Keep your fleets docked in a Starbase with Crew Quarters built when they're not in use to reduce their maintenance.
  • The general agenda of other empires can be deduced by their trait description. "Spiritualist Seekers" will like other spiritual empires, and "Fanatical Purifiers" will probably try to kill you at some point. Gifts and deliberately favorable trade deals are usually the only way at first to improve relations, until you can get a treaty which starts building trust.
  • Look through the Ascension Perks tied to your traditions at the start of the game, and try to pick a few to go for. Some are locked behind tech, so it's helpful to decide which type of endgame you want to pursue so that you can pick the techs as they come up.