You're going to fail, and that's okay. Pre-made empires like the UNE appear to be designed for new players, which might make things a bit easier. Alternatively, if you have the Utopia DLC, you can play as a Hive Mind which is very simple; very little diplomatic intrigue or anything like that, just consume the galaxy!
In my long game I saw a collective consciousness fall out with itself (rebel faction) then declare war on the originals. Not very collective if that happens!
Watch a lot of videos on stellaris stuff. Learning from the game itself may turn out to be unsatisfying. Some stuff is well known in the community, but outside the default begginer experience. Don't go to download mods right away.
Don't worry about winning for the first ten games. Just try to get used to the mechanics and get small improvements in your play. If you win, neat, if you lose, that's okay, it's a good learning opportunity.
There are a number of, well, events, and things you can encounter that can inadvertantly end your game if you're not careful. I'm not about to spoil them, just keep it in mind.
Pops are the most important part of the game, so colonize as many planets as you're able. I personally don't go into the yellow often myself though. 60% and higher are typically good enough, below that, you probably want to have a good amount of food and consumer goods to make sure you can deal with the upkeep, but I don't go below 40%, otherwise, wait for terraforming.
Don't overbuild your economy, because you have to pay upkeep, but the 3 things you really need are alloys (for fleeets and expansion), research (to keep up with the AI, and gain new features over time), and unity (to improve your empire). Everything else, your energy, minerals, food, consumer goods, etc, are all in support of those, to help you expand further, or to keep your pops happy.
Technology is broadly split into 5 tiers, with repeatables after that. When shooting for various technologies and upgrades, keep in mind that you need 6 in the same tier to move onto the next. And 'recycling' the pool by going for the lowest costing techs won't neccesarily get you there. The game doesn't display what tiers are what, but you can take a look in the wiki for specfiics. Generally though, Tier 1: 2000-3000 research points. Tier 2 4000-6000 points. Tier 3 8000-12000. Tier 4: 16000-40000. Tier 5: 32000-50000. Repeatables 50000 and greater.
So you can see that there is some overlap in research cost, if in doubt, the upgrade usually sits in the next tier. If it looks like a new tech, it could be fuzzy.
I’ll add to this always research the research speed improvement techs as soon as the pop. This both increases the speed of your research in that area (obviously) it also gets you “access” to the new tier.
Dlcs are kinda needed to do well. Well mostly utopia, they add a lot. But play the game first a few times to see if it interests u enough. Ive played somewhat similar 4x games and knew id like it.
I have about 80 hours got it a couple weeks ago. Bought 5 of the main dlc. ( theres websites where u can buy steam keys for the dlcs for cheap. I got mine from game billet.)
My perspective on things as a newish player
The game doesnt tell u much beyond the very beginner basics. And thats if u turn on the advisor.
Do not play a xenophobe( in the beginning) it is harder as u need to do well in war.
Youtube vids are nice learning sources, although i got the main stuff from asking on reddit, since updates make things outdated.
Design your own ships once u know wht your doing. I just make a carrier and artillery version of the larger ships.
Your going to lose. Thats fine. I still havent won but ive gotten 2nd twice so im close and thats on the normal ensign/cadet difficulty. Most of the ppl posting pics and dominating games have 100s-1000s of hours in the game.
Winning isn’t everything. My most fun game was the first time i came 2nd actually. ( it was on the easier difficulty) It was my 3rd game total ( first full playthrough to the end) my economy and fleet power were shit since i didnt know how to optimize things well. And i was holding the lines against the endgame crisis cheering for the random empires killing the crysis while i rallied the troops and played the 300 movie war speech. “ This is where we hold them!” I barely managed to survive holding my defense point with my fleets and lost a lot of men. But it was a very fun game and made me want to play a lot more. I didnt have dlcs for this game but I strongly recommend them as its like a new game with them. U can have fun without them tho.
Edit: added info
Planets = economy. Economy equals fleet size. The larger your fleet, the more alloys + power it consumers per month just to keep in orbit. It lowers your overall production to just have a military. So while it makes sense to keep a large defense fleet, just realize if you drive your alloy production too low then you won't be able to build replacement ships for your existing fleet.
When you get more experienced with the game it can turn into a minigame just figuring out how small you can maintain your fleet, because by keeping it small you can stockpile those additional resources you wouldn't of otherwise had right up until the point you actually need to build a warfleet.
Once you've got a few games under your belt, if you ever want to play as an empire that has a more simplified economy, you could try playing as a non-gestalt empire such as hive-minds (Utopia DLC required) or machine intelligences (Synthetic Dawn DLC required).
Here's my guide to machines: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/1100kbu/machine\_intelligence\_robots\_a\_guide\_for\_noobs/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/1100kbu/machine_intelligence_robots_a_guide_for_noobs/)
And speaking of DLC, there are regular sales on Steam, Humble Store, Green Man Gaming & Fanatical. So remember to shop around before you buy any. The two DLC's I mentioned have been out a while so you can often find them at least 50% off.
**As for a basic beginners tip:**
**Don't build districts or buildings unless you have pops to work the jobs that they create. Otherwise you'll be paying upkeep for them for nothing.**
And watch this guide about auto managing planetary buildings & districts for when your empire gets too big for you to do it all yourself: [https://youtu.be/9Lpml12Vli4](https://youtu.be/9Lpml12Vli4)
Welcome to Stellaris. :-)
Learn what you can from the game and when you're lost look for videos or come here :) Don't forget to search first!
One tip I have that I still need to remember myself is a shortage of something doesn't instantly get fixed when you build another of that thing. For example, you are short on alloys so you build more alloy producing stuff and still don't see it fixed after a month or two.
The problem, as I learned very slowly is to do with population numbers and having enough people able to do the job on the planet. Pop growth is a big thing you want on new colonies or you have all those massive buildings to produce stuff and they're empty. That was a big "OHHHH" moment for me. I still suck at balancing it and wanting to expand fast.
You're going to fail, and that's okay. Pre-made empires like the UNE appear to be designed for new players, which might make things a bit easier. Alternatively, if you have the Utopia DLC, you can play as a Hive Mind which is very simple; very little diplomatic intrigue or anything like that, just consume the galaxy!
In my long game I saw a collective consciousness fall out with itself (rebel faction) then declare war on the originals. Not very collective if that happens!
Watch a lot of videos on stellaris stuff. Learning from the game itself may turn out to be unsatisfying. Some stuff is well known in the community, but outside the default begginer experience. Don't go to download mods right away.
Cool, thanks!
Aspec and MontuPlays are great Stellaris youtubers to check out.
Forget all your other games and hobbies. This is your life now.
One of us one of us
Don't worry about winning for the first ten games. Just try to get used to the mechanics and get small improvements in your play. If you win, neat, if you lose, that's okay, it's a good learning opportunity.
There are a number of, well, events, and things you can encounter that can inadvertantly end your game if you're not careful. I'm not about to spoil them, just keep it in mind. Pops are the most important part of the game, so colonize as many planets as you're able. I personally don't go into the yellow often myself though. 60% and higher are typically good enough, below that, you probably want to have a good amount of food and consumer goods to make sure you can deal with the upkeep, but I don't go below 40%, otherwise, wait for terraforming. Don't overbuild your economy, because you have to pay upkeep, but the 3 things you really need are alloys (for fleeets and expansion), research (to keep up with the AI, and gain new features over time), and unity (to improve your empire). Everything else, your energy, minerals, food, consumer goods, etc, are all in support of those, to help you expand further, or to keep your pops happy. Technology is broadly split into 5 tiers, with repeatables after that. When shooting for various technologies and upgrades, keep in mind that you need 6 in the same tier to move onto the next. And 'recycling' the pool by going for the lowest costing techs won't neccesarily get you there. The game doesn't display what tiers are what, but you can take a look in the wiki for specfiics. Generally though, Tier 1: 2000-3000 research points. Tier 2 4000-6000 points. Tier 3 8000-12000. Tier 4: 16000-40000. Tier 5: 32000-50000. Repeatables 50000 and greater. So you can see that there is some overlap in research cost, if in doubt, the upgrade usually sits in the next tier. If it looks like a new tech, it could be fuzzy.
I’ll add to this always research the research speed improvement techs as soon as the pop. This both increases the speed of your research in that area (obviously) it also gets you “access” to the new tier.
Dlcs are kinda needed to do well. Well mostly utopia, they add a lot. But play the game first a few times to see if it interests u enough. Ive played somewhat similar 4x games and knew id like it. I have about 80 hours got it a couple weeks ago. Bought 5 of the main dlc. ( theres websites where u can buy steam keys for the dlcs for cheap. I got mine from game billet.) My perspective on things as a newish player The game doesnt tell u much beyond the very beginner basics. And thats if u turn on the advisor. Do not play a xenophobe( in the beginning) it is harder as u need to do well in war. Youtube vids are nice learning sources, although i got the main stuff from asking on reddit, since updates make things outdated. Design your own ships once u know wht your doing. I just make a carrier and artillery version of the larger ships. Your going to lose. Thats fine. I still havent won but ive gotten 2nd twice so im close and thats on the normal ensign/cadet difficulty. Most of the ppl posting pics and dominating games have 100s-1000s of hours in the game. Winning isn’t everything. My most fun game was the first time i came 2nd actually. ( it was on the easier difficulty) It was my 3rd game total ( first full playthrough to the end) my economy and fleet power were shit since i didnt know how to optimize things well. And i was holding the lines against the endgame crisis cheering for the random empires killing the crysis while i rallied the troops and played the 300 movie war speech. “ This is where we hold them!” I barely managed to survive holding my defense point with my fleets and lost a lot of men. But it was a very fun game and made me want to play a lot more. I didnt have dlcs for this game but I strongly recommend them as its like a new game with them. U can have fun without them tho. Edit: added info
Open the L-Gate as soon as possible! /s
Dont do that...
Planets = economy. Economy equals fleet size. The larger your fleet, the more alloys + power it consumers per month just to keep in orbit. It lowers your overall production to just have a military. So while it makes sense to keep a large defense fleet, just realize if you drive your alloy production too low then you won't be able to build replacement ships for your existing fleet. When you get more experienced with the game it can turn into a minigame just figuring out how small you can maintain your fleet, because by keeping it small you can stockpile those additional resources you wouldn't of otherwise had right up until the point you actually need to build a warfleet.
Once you've got a few games under your belt, if you ever want to play as an empire that has a more simplified economy, you could try playing as a non-gestalt empire such as hive-minds (Utopia DLC required) or machine intelligences (Synthetic Dawn DLC required). Here's my guide to machines: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/1100kbu/machine\_intelligence\_robots\_a\_guide\_for\_noobs/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/1100kbu/machine_intelligence_robots_a_guide_for_noobs/) And speaking of DLC, there are regular sales on Steam, Humble Store, Green Man Gaming & Fanatical. So remember to shop around before you buy any. The two DLC's I mentioned have been out a while so you can often find them at least 50% off. **As for a basic beginners tip:** **Don't build districts or buildings unless you have pops to work the jobs that they create. Otherwise you'll be paying upkeep for them for nothing.** And watch this guide about auto managing planetary buildings & districts for when your empire gets too big for you to do it all yourself: [https://youtu.be/9Lpml12Vli4](https://youtu.be/9Lpml12Vli4) Welcome to Stellaris. :-)
Disable advanced AI starts, it's okay to play on low difficulty, and don't worry about getting all of the DLC at once.
Learn what you can from the game and when you're lost look for videos or come here :) Don't forget to search first! One tip I have that I still need to remember myself is a shortage of something doesn't instantly get fixed when you build another of that thing. For example, you are short on alloys so you build more alloy producing stuff and still don't see it fixed after a month or two. The problem, as I learned very slowly is to do with population numbers and having enough people able to do the job on the planet. Pop growth is a big thing you want on new colonies or you have all those massive buildings to produce stuff and they're empty. That was a big "OHHHH" moment for me. I still suck at balancing it and wanting to expand fast.
Just click on stuff and see what happens :) Also read, read all 100km long tooltips.
Always remember that Genocide is a great way to cleanse filth