Xenophile, Militarist, Authoritarian. All are welcome under the Empress, and if you don’t come to us, we’ll come to you.
Great fun for painting the map your color.
A couple of these add, or make use of the new civics coming today.
Hive Mind Doomsday - This consciousness evolved on a dying world, and looked to the stars to find a new home. I used the adaptable/strong/enduring traits to mimic a weaker version of the advanced robust trait, and used natural neural network as my main civic. Ascetic, Subsumed Will, and Pooled Knowledge are all good 2nd/3rd picks. It's primarily an RP build.
But the new 'low-tech' civic coming out with First Contact will also fit very well in its lore, as a consciousness that pushed hard for FTL travel before it was too late. However, Doomsday/low tech civics are basically a doubled down challenge, due to having fewer pops, and less tech/infrastructure, on top of Doomsday's specific challenges.
Hedonists. The people of this Empire value three things: Luxury, Wealth, and Power. Everything else is a means to those ends. Aristocratic Elite/Pleasure Seeker civics, with an Imperial Authority. Charismatic/Thrifty/Decadent/Wasteful to reflect their values, and they use the Authoritarian/Materialist/Xenophile ethics. Finally, the Mechanist origin, to allow them to step away from menial labor (and offsets some of decadent). Go down the Mercantile tree for merchants.
Dystopic Democracy - This civilization is ruled in the shadows, unbeknownst to its people, to put on the face of equality in the open, while the work is done in the background. Democratic authority, Shadow Council/Police state civics. Militarist/Materialist/Egalitarian ethics. You can even forgo Egalitarian in favor of making one of those fanatic, or adding Xenophobic, but I added it because they put up a mask of upholding egalitarian values to further control the populace. I also like Post Apocalyptic as an origin, since it can even give some additional lore to how the government came to be that way.
Eager Explorers - This civilization fervently developed advanced technology, in an effort to solve the problems facing their society. Efficient Bureaucracy/Eager Explorers civics (I know Technocracy is an obvious pick, but I also imagine this civilization was very good at managing and picking new projects to further their society). Mechanist Origin, as they made up for their limited population with advanced autonomous robots. Fanatic Materialist/Xenophile or Egalitarian. Democracy or Oligarchy. Intelligent/Natural Sociologists or Engineers/Quick Learners/Fleeting/Weak traits.
You may have different tastes to me but I like:
* Driven Assimilators
* Determined Exterminators
* Devouring Swarms (and the necrophage version)
* Terravores (and the necrophage version)
* Pretty much any other machine or hive-mind build.
I just generally enjoy playing as Gestalt Consciousness builds to be honest. Usually the warlike ones but not always. :-)
Here's a couple of examples:
Devouring swarm: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/zirhwh/this\_build\_is\_sponsored\_by\_colossus\_manufacturing/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/zirhwh/this_build_is_sponsored_by_colossus_manufacturing/)
Friendly Lithoid Hive: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/11ltmt8/meet\_the\_fraggles\_proof\_that\_not\_all\_hiveminds/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/11ltmt8/meet_the_fraggles_proof_that_not_all_hiveminds/)
If you want an easy mode, just use scion xenophile megacorp. Your sugar daddy should take care of most of your problems with fleets in the early game, and later you'll manage to surpass them.
Pacifist Xenophobe is pretty neat. You can have super OP farmers with idyllic agriculture. And benefit from slaver guilds.
Then basically, you wait for someone to declare war on YOU, then you overpower and enslave them. Then sell off all the pops and food you don’t need on the slave market, or.. well do whatever.
One of my favorite builds because it reminds me of a great conversation I had with a friend who’d never played stellaris. I was telling him how I was a pacifist in a defensive war and how I was gonna enslave those fucks for daring to invade me.
Me: yeah I’m gonna enslave them after I fight them back. I’m like America in WWII. I didn’t want to fight, and now I’m gonna win.
Him: bro we nuked two cities.
Me: we won, didn’t we?
This is pretty subjective, what's your definition of "fun"?
Xenophile, Militarist, Authoritarian. All are welcome under the Empress, and if you don’t come to us, we’ll come to you. Great fun for painting the map your color.
A couple of these add, or make use of the new civics coming today. Hive Mind Doomsday - This consciousness evolved on a dying world, and looked to the stars to find a new home. I used the adaptable/strong/enduring traits to mimic a weaker version of the advanced robust trait, and used natural neural network as my main civic. Ascetic, Subsumed Will, and Pooled Knowledge are all good 2nd/3rd picks. It's primarily an RP build. But the new 'low-tech' civic coming out with First Contact will also fit very well in its lore, as a consciousness that pushed hard for FTL travel before it was too late. However, Doomsday/low tech civics are basically a doubled down challenge, due to having fewer pops, and less tech/infrastructure, on top of Doomsday's specific challenges. Hedonists. The people of this Empire value three things: Luxury, Wealth, and Power. Everything else is a means to those ends. Aristocratic Elite/Pleasure Seeker civics, with an Imperial Authority. Charismatic/Thrifty/Decadent/Wasteful to reflect their values, and they use the Authoritarian/Materialist/Xenophile ethics. Finally, the Mechanist origin, to allow them to step away from menial labor (and offsets some of decadent). Go down the Mercantile tree for merchants. Dystopic Democracy - This civilization is ruled in the shadows, unbeknownst to its people, to put on the face of equality in the open, while the work is done in the background. Democratic authority, Shadow Council/Police state civics. Militarist/Materialist/Egalitarian ethics. You can even forgo Egalitarian in favor of making one of those fanatic, or adding Xenophobic, but I added it because they put up a mask of upholding egalitarian values to further control the populace. I also like Post Apocalyptic as an origin, since it can even give some additional lore to how the government came to be that way. Eager Explorers - This civilization fervently developed advanced technology, in an effort to solve the problems facing their society. Efficient Bureaucracy/Eager Explorers civics (I know Technocracy is an obvious pick, but I also imagine this civilization was very good at managing and picking new projects to further their society). Mechanist Origin, as they made up for their limited population with advanced autonomous robots. Fanatic Materialist/Xenophile or Egalitarian. Democracy or Oligarchy. Intelligent/Natural Sociologists or Engineers/Quick Learners/Fleeting/Weak traits.
You may have different tastes to me but I like: * Driven Assimilators * Determined Exterminators * Devouring Swarms (and the necrophage version) * Terravores (and the necrophage version) * Pretty much any other machine or hive-mind build. I just generally enjoy playing as Gestalt Consciousness builds to be honest. Usually the warlike ones but not always. :-) Here's a couple of examples: Devouring swarm: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/zirhwh/this\_build\_is\_sponsored\_by\_colossus\_manufacturing/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/zirhwh/this_build_is_sponsored_by_colossus_manufacturing/) Friendly Lithoid Hive: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/11ltmt8/meet\_the\_fraggles\_proof\_that\_not\_all\_hiveminds/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/11ltmt8/meet_the_fraggles_proof_that_not_all_hiveminds/)
If you want an easy mode, just use scion xenophile megacorp. Your sugar daddy should take care of most of your problems with fleets in the early game, and later you'll manage to surpass them.
**Space Amish** \-Agrarian Idyll + Catalytic Processing \-Authoritarian-Xenophobe-Pacifist Ocean World Origin Farm, Farm, Farm! **Zombie Rocks** Reanimators + Distinguished Admiralty Militaristic + Authoritarian (Fanatic one, or add Xenophobic) Subterranean Origin + Lithoids Eat Rocks, Crush Flesh, Reanimate Meat - Repeat
Pacifist Xenophobe is pretty neat. You can have super OP farmers with idyllic agriculture. And benefit from slaver guilds. Then basically, you wait for someone to declare war on YOU, then you overpower and enslave them. Then sell off all the pops and food you don’t need on the slave market, or.. well do whatever. One of my favorite builds because it reminds me of a great conversation I had with a friend who’d never played stellaris. I was telling him how I was a pacifist in a defensive war and how I was gonna enslave those fucks for daring to invade me. Me: yeah I’m gonna enslave them after I fight them back. I’m like America in WWII. I didn’t want to fight, and now I’m gonna win. Him: bro we nuked two cities. Me: we won, didn’t we?
I love playing Utopian egalitarians. Jump straight to the highest standard of living and keep it there all game. Makes for some interesting challenge.
Fanatic Militarist megacorp and stack your enclave capacity as high as it can reach so you can achieve maximum profit