Stellaris News

Stellaris - Shadows of The Shroud expansion releases September 22

Paradox Interactive just announced the Shadows of The Shroud expansion for Stellaris is now set for release on September 22nd.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/09/stellaris-shadows-of-the-shroud-expansion-releases-september-22/

Stellaris' Shadows of the Shroud DLC takes cues from Baldur's Gate 3's big bad

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so they say. Well, Stellaris' next big bad has some resemblance to the classic Dungeons & Dragons foe, and there's something about its Chthonic space energy that is eerily beautiful. As with all Stellaris DLC, this update promises to expand upon the known (and unknown) universe, this time with a psionic awakening as you'll attune to the mysterious Shroud. Developer Paradox Interactive has dropped some big hints about what to expect when the DLC releases via a new trailer, as well as letting players know exactly when they'll be able to get their hands on the new goodies.

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Stellaris Dev Diary #391 - Shadows of the Shroud

[h3]Pierce the Veil.[/h3][p]As was foretold, the Shadows of the Shroud expansion is coming to Stellaris alongside the 4.1 ‘Lyra’ update.

Our seers predict that this next great era begins on September 22nd.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h3]Delve into the Shroud.[/h3][p]Open your mind and encounter expanded Psionic content, including an Ascension Path situation, tradition tree overhaul, and new advanced governments.

Encounter strange new Patrons as you attune and delve.

Deeds and Callings lead to Accords and Covenants. Auras grow. These are the tools of those who attune.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]While pledging yourself to a Patron is one path to power, others chart their own course towards mastery of the unknown.[/p][p][/p][h3]Many Voices as One.[/h3][p]Gestalt empires - both hive minds and machine intelligences - will be able to pursue Psionic Ascension.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The Shroud can exert its influence in many ways. In the Shroud-Forged Origin, an “architect” of sorts has taken interest in some of your drones.[/p][p][/p][p]Cut off from the central Machine Intelligence, the demands of these units are ever-increasing.[/p][p][/p][p]* The gestalt Hive Mind authority requires either Utopia or BioGenesis. The gestalt Machine Intelligence authority requires either Synthetic Dawn or the Machine Age, though Shadows of the Shroud grants access to the Machine Intelligence authority if you are playing the Shroud-Forged Origin. (Synthetic Dawn or The Machine Age are still highly recommended for a more comprehensive machine experience.)[/p][p][/p][h3]END THE CYCLE...[/h3][p]Powers, knowledge, and wealth beyond measure are yours for the taking - and you already know the cost.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Endbringers are a Challenging Origin that can bargain to delay the inevitable and acquire even more benefits from this unfathomable pact.[/p][p][/p][p]*The End of the Cycle will remain available to players who own Utopia.[/p][p]Shadows of the Shroud will also grant access to this feature (in case you do not own Utopia) and exclusive new content that expands it.[/p][p][/p][p]TIME IS RUNNING OUT. THE END IS NEAR
[/p][h3]...OR FIGHT IT[/h3][p]Freedom is meaningless without sovereignty of thought. Shadows of the Shroud introduces the Mindwardens, available either as an established enclave sworn to combat and contain psionic threats, or as a Challenging Origin where you work to establish the first Mindwarden Order.[/p][p]The Shadows of the Shroud expansion includes:[/p]

[p]Psionic Ascension (also unlocked by Utopia)[/p]
[p]Three new Origins:[/p]
- [p]Endbringers[/p]
- [p]Mindwardens[/p]
- [p]Shroud-Forged[/p]
  - [p]Shroud-Forged grants access to the Gestalt Machine Intelligence authority while playing this Origin.[/p]
[p]Six new Civics[/p]
- [p]Chosen / Chosen Executives / Chosen Many / Apostle Network[/p]
- [p]Entropy Drinkers / Corporate Vampires / Parasitic Caste / Energy Extractors[/p]
- [p]Experimental Sentencing / Judicial R&D / Corrective Consciousness[/p]
- [p]Secret Societies / Influential Cartel[/p]
- [p]Superstitious Beliefs / Fortune Enterprise / Zodiac Nexus / Pattern Finders[/p]
- [p]Tankbound / Corporate Thinktank[/p]
[p]An enhanced Psionic Ascension Situation, culminating in advanced Psionic government forms[/p]
[p]A new system for delving into the Shroud itself, including Deeds, Accords, Callings, and Covenants[/p]
[p]Psionic Auras and Seals[/p]
[p]New Patrons and entities to encounter in the Shroud, and expanded content for old acquaintances[/p]
[p]EXPANDED END OF THE CYCLE[/p]
[p]New Psionic Species Traits[/p]
[p]Psionic Portraits that reflect the change within once their Psionic potential has been unleashed[/p]
[p]Two new shipsets[/p]
- [p]Mindwarden[/p]
- [p]Psionic[/p]
[p]Psionic Diplomatic Room, City Set, Advisor, Music Tracks, and more[/p]
[p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]Revelations Come Forth[/h3][p]This Thursday we will reveal more details about the Psionic Ascension situation, explore the new Shroud panel, discuss how to influence the relationships you have with the entities you may find, and show off the Superstitious Beliefs/Fortune Enterprise/Zodiac Nexus/Pattern Finder set of civics.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

SEE YOU THEN.

[p][/p][p]Shadows of the Shroud is included as part of Stellaris: Season 09.

[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

Stellaris Dev Diary #390 - 4.0.23 Released, Visions of the Shroud

[p][/p][p][/p][p]by Eladrin[/p][p]Hi everyone!
[/p][p]The 4.0.23 update went live today with the following changes and improvements - thank you for your bug reports and feedback, which helped us generate most of this list of fixes:[/p][p][/p][h3]4.0.23 Release Notes[/h3][p]Balance[/p]

[p]Ion Cannon reactors now have more power output. Auto-designed ones should now be less likely to run out of power for the main armament.[/p]
[p]Auto-modding traits will now scale to 100% efficiency even if a pop group is assigned to multiple jobs.[/p]

[p]Bugfix[/p]

[p]Fixed an issue with job assignment not being able to fill all jobs on a planet properly. This was most visible for Virtuality[/p]
[p]Fixed Necrophage secondary species refusing to work any Worker jobs on game start[/p]
[p]Fixed necrophage purge sometimes does not generate pops.[/p]
[p]Fixed Agrarian Villages disappearing on wet worlds for non-angler empires[/p]
[p]Fix Planet view job types tooltips being wildly incorrect[/p]
[p]Jobs that require non-slaves should now actually enforce that limitation[/p]
[p]Several space fauna weapons are now correctly tagged as space fauna weapons[/p]
[p]Fixed being unable to fire the Devolution Beam[/p]
[p]Capturing Tiyanki in your Gravity Snare will no longer make the galactic community mad at you for hunting them. You are just putting them in a nice protected enclosure.[/p]
[p]Effects that create a pop group will now correctly generate a tooltip entry[/p]
[p]Completing the Clone Potential special project will no longer block Clone Army empires from undertaking non-Cloning ascension paths.[/p]
[p]Prethoryn Scourge now purges pops on planets they occupy[/p]
[p]Damn the Consequences now explains what it means to damn the consequences[/p]
[p]Fixed multiple broken text icons in non-English languages[/p]
[p]Head of Education can now correctly be filled by both Scientists and Officials[/p]
[p]Fixed an issue that caused the Distribute Luxury Resources decision cost to cap out very early.[/p]
[p]Fixes some country map colors being white upon loading of the savegame[/p]
[p]Fixed Corporate angler councilors being a tenth as powerful as they should have been.[/p]
[p]Fixed automation building not having upkeep, or being able to build two in a single district under some circumstances[/p]

[p]Stability[/p]

[p]Fix to a relatively common crash related to the toast notification manager[/p]

[p]We’re going to monitor stability over the weekend, and the Custodians of the core Stellaris team will continue focusing on improving the base game.[/p][p][/p][h3]Breaching the Shroud[/h3][p]Reality is only one thread in a vast, trembling web.[/p][p]In Shadows of the Shroud, empires reach beyond the material realm, attuning to ancient powers and bargaining with entities that exist beyond time. Psionic Auras ripple outward, warping systems and reshaping destinies. While the Mindwardens wage silent war against psionic corruption, the Shroud Patrons gather, their gifts as lavish as their demands. The deeper one delves, the harder it is to return.[/p][p]Shadows of the Shroud is a Major Expansion that completes our “Arc of Ascension” trilogy with a comprehensive remastering of Psionic Ascension.[/p][p]We tapped Abrakam for help with this one after their fantastic work on The Grand Archive and Astral Planes. They’ve been working hand-in-hand with us for over a year on this release. This kind of partnership lets us keep several development tracks running simultaneously, so while Abrakam brought their strengths to the new expansion, our internal teams could stay focused on updating the base game, addressing community feedback, and work on long-standing issues.[/p][p]When we first sat down to discuss the Shroud, we challenged Abrakam to broaden the horizons of Psionic Ascension and The End of the Cycle, reading deeper into the tea leaves already there and channeling whole new visions of thematic content. Their task was to open our third eye to fresh possibilities and project new mysteries into the minds of players willing to pierce the veil.[/p][p]Over the next few weeks we’ll reveal more about Shroud exploration, the new Ascension Situation, new paths through the Shroud, go over how you influence your relationships with Shroud entities, introduce some Minor Patrons, and see what’s in store for Gestalts in this expansion.[/p][p]At this time, we do not yet have a date to announce for Shadows of the Shroud and the 4.1 release.[/p][p][/p][p]A piece of Concept Art from each of the Two Shipsets[/p][h3]
All Will Be Revealed[/h3][p]We’ll be switching to twice a week dev diaries with the following planned schedule:[/p][p][/p]

[p]Dev Diary Schedule[/p]

[p]Sept 2[/p]

[p]Shadows of the Shroud[/p]

[p]Sept 4[/p]

[p]Psionic Ascension and Delving into the Shroud[/p]

[p]Sept 9[/p]

[p]Entities of the Shroud and Psionic Auras[/p]

[p]Sept 11[/p]

[p]Mindwardens and Machines[/p]

[p]Sept 16[/p]

[p]THE END IS NEAR[/p]

[p]Sept 18[/p]

[p]\[THE RECKONING HAS PREVENTED OUR TELEPATHS FROM DIVINING THE TOPIC OF THIS DEV DIARY][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]It has been foreseen: Our next dev diary will be next Tuesday, at 15:00 CEST.[/p]

Stellaris 4.0.23 Beta now available [checksum d17d]

[p][/p][p]by Eladrin[/p][p][/p][p]Hi everyone![/p][p][/p][p]We've updated the stellaris_test branch on Steam with a build that may fix some of the crashing issues that people are encountering, as well as a job assignment error that was breaking Virtuality and impacting Automatic Migration (and production in general).[/p][p][/p][p]This update is likely to go to the main live branches later on this week, probably Thursday.[/p][p][/p][p]To access this Open Beta branch until then, it’s available in Steam if you right click on Stellaris -> Properties -> Betas -> select "stellaris_test" branch in the Beta Participation dropdown. You may need to restart Steam to get it to appear.[/p]