Stellaris News

Stellaris Alien Box - a quick guide

So, you want to know about the Stellaris Alien Box? This is a reference to the Orbital Speed Demon anomaly event chain. It typically appears in asteroids, and once completed it can add a permanent free trait to the main species of your empire. There are five possible stages of the event, some of which offer branching possibilities like opening the box straight away, or studying it first, or even selling it and ending the chain early.

If you keep it, you're granted a special project to open it, which then presents you with another choice involving several options. Depending on which option you pick, your main species will receive a new trait. This event has changed since its original incarnation, where the box would either upgrade a negative trait to a positive trait, or give you the 'best' version of an existing positive trait.

This was changed as part of the 2.2 update to the current version. A look at the event chain as it appears in-game is available on the official Paradox Wiki, but we've outlined a summary of each stage for you.

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Stellaris' free Lem update drops next month and adds new content to old DLC

While the Stellaris team may not be working on anything flashy like a new expansion, the sci-fi grand strategy game is still getting new content thanks to the custodians initiative announced back in June. This sub-team is wholly dedicated to free patches, with the goal of tackling a number of areas such as bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and even new content for existing Stellaris DLC.

The custodians team is currently working towards the next free update, codenamed Lem after Stanislaw Lem. According to this week's dev diary, the team is working towards a September release, and the Plantoids Species Pack is the first to showcase what new content is coming. Two new civics and three new species traits will be introduced for anyone that owns this add-on, one of which will let you create your own Gaia worlds.

The Idyllic Bloom civic lets you build Gaia Seeders, which have four upgrade phases. The final phase will trigger terraforming of the planet it's on into a Gaia world - one of the most coveted types of planet in the 4X game.

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Stellaris Dev Diary #218 - Plantoids Gameplay

Hello everyone!

I hope you have had a great summer thus far, and let’s hope we can enjoy the rest of August as well. The team is starting to return from their vacations and we’re eager to start finishing off the Lem Update so that we can ready it for release in September.

As mentioned in dev diary 214, we’re going to Buff the Backlog by adding some gameplay to existing DLC. Today we’re here to talk about an addition coming in the Lem Update, and more specifically what additions we are making to the Plantoids Species Pack.

We are adding 2 new Civics and 3 new Species Traits to the Plantoids Species Pack. Let’s start by taking a look at the new Traits.

New Traits

We have added 3 new traits that require the species to be either Plantoid or Fungoid.

New traits and their cost.

Phototrophic: Is mutually exclusive with Radiotrophic, and changes some of your food upkeep into energy upkeep. Requires your species to be Plantoid or Fungoid.

Instagram-friendly?

Radiotrophic: Is mutually exclusive with Phototrophic, and changes some of your food upkeep into energy upkeep. It also makes it more beneficial for your Pops to live on Tomb Worlds, as their energy upkeep is removed. Requires your species to be Plantoid or Fungoid.

Contrary to popular belief, this species does not sustain itself by consuming ancient communication equipment.

Budding: This trait allows you to produce some pop assembly. Multiple Species with this trait can help provide pop assembly on potentially another species. For example, two species with the Syncretic Evolution Origin can together assemble one of the two. This trait can probably be especially great for a Hive Mind species.

New Civics

Let’s continue taking a look at the Civics. Both of these new Civics are available to regular empires as well as Hive Minds. Only Idyllic Bloom requires you to be a Plantoid or Fungoid.

Catalytic Processing: This Civic lets you produce Alloys with Food instead of Minerals. Starting Districts have been adjusted to be balanced when using this Civic. Regular Empires and Hive Minds convert 9 Food into 3 Alloys. Machine Empires turn 12 Food into 4 Alloys.

Catalytic Processing is available to many types of empires, but not all of them.

Idyllic Bloom: This Civic lets you transform planets into Gaia Worlds by building Gaia Seeders and upgrading them. The Gaia Seeders have 4 phases, with the 4th and final phase triggering the terraformation of the planet to a Gaia World. Available to regular empires as well as Hive Minds.

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That’s all for this week folks! We’ll be back again next week, so until then, stay safe and be well.

Nemesis: Cold War Episodes Wednesdays and Sundays

Nemesis: Cold War was a multiplayer event held to celebrate the launch of the Stellaris: Nemesis Expansion on PC.

Watch episodes Wednesdays and Sundays on the Paradox Grand Strategy Channel on YouTube.

Watch it here: https://pdxint.at/coldwaryt

Cast
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Hosts: Fredrik Knudsen, SimasTV Game Master: DJTruthsayer

Players: A_Spec, Templin Institute as the Divine Imperium. Door Monster, Stefan Annon as the Xuman Overmind. MaxTheCatfish, Wintergaming as the Imperial Chocolat Covenant. BurkeBlack, Venalis, CrReaM, CletusBueford, GassyMexican, Classypax as the Antharian Republic of Beautification. SpiffingBrit, Bedgarsan, Bokoen, Alex the Rambler, Rimmy Downunder as The Refuge. D1rtyd3vil, Shurjoka as the Avarian Alliance.

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(PDXCON) Fanatic Xenophiles: Creating Characters for Stellaris

The galaxy is vast and full of creative new aliens! Join the Stellaris Artists and see how our worlds are populated with a growing array of fascinating creatures, from PDXCON 2021.

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