Stellaris 11 Tips To Minmax Your Empire

My 11 Top Tips to help improve your Stellaris gameplay!
Lets dive in!
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:15 Use Explore
1:43 Use The Market
4:47 Specialise Your Worlds
7:45 Don't Overbuild
8:46 Reduce Job Priority
9:50 Strong Leadership
13:18 Change Your Policies
14:45 Activate Edicts
16:49 Don't Forget Starbases
18:08 Design Your Own Ships
18:40 Zero Ship Upkeep
Stellaris Version 3.6
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And please comment with any feedback, any ideas or if you disagree!

[@skullruss]

Hercules's lesser known cousin, Particles, is far too strong for the galaxy to deal with. I propose we declare this new-found threat as a crisis and mobilize the galactic fleet at once.

[@terraslayer6042]

As soon as I heard him say Particles, I paused the video and came to the comment section to see if anyone caught that. 🤣

[@d.n5287]

Ok that's cool and all, but how about we focus on the Tiyanki conservation act?

[@sov5257]

timestamp?

[@farhanullah7421]

@@terraslayer6042 I literally did this too. As soon as I heard Particlees, I almost choked.

[@nejckmetic1231]

@@sov5257 12:17

[@williamkrimson1312]

I definitely want to see a ship design video. Also if you could talk about fleet composition on top of design

[@esmeron6413]

Agreed, I ran a few test since Orion is out but still can't figure out all rounder fleet for mid and late game that feels great

[@ellipsis3522]

Doesn't he have a whole playlist dedicated to ship design?

[@esmeron6413]

@@ellipsis3522 3.6 completely reworked space fight so all previous videos are obselete

[@angelopueyygarcia43]

Agreed, my ship design ethos is choosing components that matches the theme of my empire e.g when I RP as space German Empire, I'll be building only Kinetic and Explosive weapons with only Armor. On the other hand when I play something like space elves I'll be running pure energy weapons and shields. Now as fun as this is for me, I'd really like to see the "meta" builds so to speak.

[@JohnWittle]

if you haven't seen it yet, montu has a great video about the new 3.6 combat meta, he goes over all the ship and fleet designs

[@sylvie_v2939]

17:54 - careful with this, it also increases rare resource upkeep from Starbase Buildings - the ones on orbital rings come to mind. Found out the hard way after building 5 refinery worlds rather than tearing down captured starbases

[@zaba275]

Yeah, it's important to be careful when capturing starbases, AI sometimes do weird things. But I think that by the time you really use the Orbital Rings to their full extent, you can have a strong enough Rare resources production

[@cmdrnishimura9856]

12:28 Note that Maniacal and Spark of Genius also have another effect: the first makes that scientist slightly more likely to discover dangerous technologies, and the second makes that researcher more likely to come across rare technologies. Having a spark of genius scientist on society can be a good idea if you're looking for something like psionic theory or clone armies, or on physics for the wormhole travel and gateway activation techs. It's also particularly good to have maniacal to look for jump drives, as well.

[@RobBCactive]

Interesting, the maniacs used to be the ones most likely to roll psionic theory, so they'd be swapped into sociology as research neared completion. It's a problem with Stellaris, having to unlearn stuff 😁

[@jasonkeenan4154]

Designing ships is the absolute funnest part of stellaris for me. I can't imagine leaving auto designer on. I understand it's a pain to have to keep fiddling as your tech advances, but still.

[@MrRenoNg]

same previously i didn't do that because it was such a hassle to learn (or so i thought), once i felt the game was stale, i started to design my own ships and the game was fun again

[@Aerynolae]

With the recent overhaul, we now need to learn new ship builds. And is it just me, or are the proton launchers have increased power usage?

[@koolguy751]

Newer players will most likely get overwhelmed at first (I know I did) with all the damage numbers and modifiers, and in casual settings who cares about how trash the AI designs ships?

[@JaySwag77]

I'm trying to design ship without being to anal about it right now. Having fun with the design, but not stressing if I've made the absolute optimal design.

[@commandoepsilon4664]

I just wish we could design our starbases, I can't even say how many time I've had starbases fall because they had all of the technically 'best' weapons.

[@ScorpioneOrzion]

For tips 4 and 5, the automatic planet automation will help you. At least for the amount of jobs.

[@torstenkristoffersen5085]

i let the AI manage my pop balance, too.. its really great. no micro management any more, ever!

[@Darlf_Sevil]

@@torstenkristoffersen5085 is can be nice for fast game when you have very good pc or play on 400 stars, but more slow games start be boring, you literaly delete 30% your gameplay and 50% time you dont have anything to do, and i dont trust ai, for base standart game auto ai help work but when you play 100-200 and more games play this only best way is boring so you try play good but weird way and ai dont know how help and destroy your ekko.

[@omppusolttu5799]

@@Darlf_Sevil The current updated version of planetary automation is really solid and only needs a bit of help here and there. It also doesn't demolish or replace anything so any tweaks you make will not be wiped by an AI that doesn't understand your strategy.

[@Darlf_Sevil]

@@omppusolttu5799 i know but my weird games some time are have own rules or i want do somting faster and i still need micro jobs, i like have happy wordls have 100% bonus and ai not good at it, but i think new ai is pretty good if you have a lot of planets, i use 0,25 and 2 100% or 0,5 and 0 100% + pop grow normal and 50% more grow time per empire pops to my pc dont burn on end game, and micro 3-20 planets and most time 10 is kinda fun, on more yee i think si be amazing.

[@Darlf_Sevil]

@@omppusolttu5799 and true is i never test it after update bcs i just dont like so i see it only on yt

[@pHixiq]

NAHHHH 4:50 JUST CHANGED MY WHOLE WORLD😂😂. Idk how I've played for this long and did NOT know I could change the planet designations myself

[@coolnecromancer1]

Really looking forward to your ship design video! If possible, could you also talk about how to identify what build the enemy has - do you look at what the enemy ships are firing?

[@Nolanrooney17]

If you have enough intel on an empire you can inspect their ships by clicking on the fleet and then the magnifying glass icon beside the ship you want to see

[@TheRealWormbo]

Even without enough intel, you can still inspect the fleet combat statistics to see what your fleet is/was up against via the damage statistics.

[@09tomforeman]

@@TheRealWormbo imo its always better to spend the time getting intel on your enemies so you can build ships to hard counter theirs. Saves you having to fight pyrrhic battles against equivalent foes to find out, therefore saying you time and resources

[@MyRedHulk]

11:26 "Now, scientists do research." - Montu, 2022 Wow, I'm learning so much from this video, thanks Montu!

[@PracticeNine]

Love it! And I'm really looking forward to the new recommendations for ship designs

[@jonus28]

This is just the kind of content I was looking for after the recent update. There were 2 completely new tips for me and 2 that were further hints at concepts I already understood.

[@kiritacja7362]

Thank you for your work, I would really appreciate if you do a ship design video, after the last patch with such big changes.

[@kronrir]

Thank you, Montu, for the excellent tips, and excellent content which helps not only to learn to play Stellaris but also to learn English. And yes, I'm looking forward to the ship design video

[@felixrowan3740]

The market tip has worked incredibly well for me! Thank you!

[@RussReid]

Woa. I totally overlooked using the trade mechanics on such a way. Thank you

[@dsocervantes]

I actually never knew about/understood the edict fund. And some of these are hilarious, such as rearranging the ship building. Great video, thanks!

[@Gtreeko]

Amazing video, really helps a lot. Thanks! 😁

[@robmaule4025]

Is there a video which runs through a well setup early, mid and late game empire anywhere? Discussing build options, policy options, what planets do etc?

[@TheBrokenIce1]

getting back in, thanks for the vids as always montu!

[@borsk473]

for some reason, I thought retired fleet officers required completing supremacy traditions rather than a tech. Thanks for the tips

[@sylvie_v2939]

18:47 Yes please, updated ship design and fleet composition videos. Can you also include suggestions on research paths for components and general research to unlock first in relation to fleet combat?

[@mildcoco]

Thanks for the content Montu! I've benefited a lot from your videos in both fun and game knowledge!

[@MontuPlays]

Thanks for your support! It's great to hear when people are enjoying my videos (and learning too!)

[@Akitorbenov]

Agree, you are a gem to the community, thanks!

[@berlindude75]

Addendum: Shift-clicking the plus or minus buttons for jobs will disable or enable all slots at once.

[@fireonmytarget8937]

Your content is excellent and I have learned a ton.

[@jerredmccormick5361]

Thanks for all the info man. I've been binge watching your vids and after 4 years of playing this game i finally feel like i understand it.

[@rebelsj2159]

6:47 i love the little cut where u fixed the amenities was literally thinking that

[@MontuPlays]

It was bugging me, so I had to do something haha! Well spotted

[@tylerwarren2923]

Ship upkeep trick is brilliant, and something I'd never think of. Thanks for these vids. Ship design vid too plz!

[@MasterElements]

Also to note with the governor's as well as edicts in case of blockers, the speed does not go away when you switch/turn them off. That may have changed in 3.6 but in my experience the time on the UI that tells you how much time a building or blocker will take does not take change when the bonus' change.

[@andrewmaddox9786]

I haven’t played since apocalypse… this was VERY HELPFUL in getting me back up to speed. Thanks!

[@elcanaldelargan8575]

I usually design my own ships, but I recognize patch 3.6 changes have put me out of balance in that regard with the new combat system, a guide about it would feel great.

[@edwing72]

I’ve only played 2 games on Normal difficulty (the middle difficulty), but torpedo cruisers + hanger cruisers + hanger battleships are pretty good. Early game I just spam corvettes with disruptors and that destroys AI fleets pretty well.

[@alexkilgour1328]

@@edwing72 I was doing Corvettes with Distuptors, recently, and my fleet got eaten by an AI's Corvette fleet. It was ugly

[@edwing72]

@@alexkilgour1328 I use them early game, before 2300, and when you go disruptors DONT mix weapons, put disruptors on every slot. Otherwise you are wasting damage since you have one of the guns firing at shields. The point of disruptors is to destroy your opponents hulls before they get to yours. It could also just be your difficulty or ship fire rate. I use 2 shield 1 armor on my corvettes, just dont go into a pulsar system haha.

[@alexkilgour1328]

@@edwing72 that's the same build out I use for my Corvettes. And max out Evasion.

[@srdjan455]

Gotta love the edicts to increase energy production that also increase the energy upkeep of the pop that produces energy.

[@timothyhiggins8934]

i have found it more efficient to add districts and buildings when the available jobs count reaches a certain number. such as, if a planet has 3 jobs available, i would add 1 building or district. if 2 jobs are there, i add 2 buildings or districts. 1 or 0 available jobs, 3 or 4 buildings or districts, respectively. this seems to help balance out overbuilding. great video

[@DatsRandom]

Been playing for nearly a hundred hours. This video is information gold!

[@knightlygeorge6459]

I've just done the dragon exploit in my game, and while it is fun I hope they fix it as soon as possible. I am ready and waiting to see what you come up with in your combat video. Whatever it is will certainly be better than what I have now.

[@garyswift9347]

Think Montu, Think! Of course we would like a video about ship design. Thanks man.

[@0_Body]

Thanks for the summary I even feel validated for stuff I tried on my own first

[@MrFunkhouser]

HI MONTU!!! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO! Do you use other character portraits when playing Stellaris or do you always use the guy that you have there regardless of your species?

[@Davion197]

A tip from me: Find a fallen empire who likes you (i.e Patronizing), and sell them rare crystals/volatile motes/etc for loads of alloys. Easy deals. Also, putting unused scientists in science ships and having them "assist research" on a planet with lots of tech is great.

[@Akitorbenov]

It's a +14% easy peasy 😆

[@UstraMage]

Ive been playing this game on and off sense release and I have NO idea what im doing most games, but I have fun all the same. Having a little more info on stuff is helpful

[@alexshinra6722]

If you been playing since release and still have no clue which by the way is really weird to be..remmber tiles?.

[@Taooflu]

Didn’t know about Edict funds or rather I didn’t fully clue in that it didn’t touch actual Unity production. Thanks!!!

[@mainepants]

I'd love a guide like this specifically for Void Dwellers. I struggle with balancing economic growth with habitat building and star port expansion.

[@roryhebberd9766]

I wrote a guide on Reddit for it. Wanna see?

[@kinzie1569]

@@roryhebberd9766 i would like to see it

[@Ethan5I5]

I would like that as well

[@thedeadrer1]

@@roryhebberd9766 I would also like to see the guide

[@eiohnanananunu9871]

"Montu helped me maximize my slave population with thrall worlds and prioritize less farming, and more livestock, I highly reccomend him as an Advisor for any External Leader Position" - Lady Zorga, Empress of the Great Gordovian Principalities

[@Xandranxanda]

Really great stuff, thanks! About over-building, I'm curious if that applies to city districts as well. Am I wrong that having a lot of extra city districts increases planet size which increases pop speed? Thank you for your work educating us!

[@litchgath]

Looking forward to the ship design review video!

[@cosmictreason2242]

I had been leapfrogging survey ships, this helps speed things up. Sadly automatic trades haven’t worked in console edition for several updates

[@Alpha___00]

Was trying to do my first Grand Admiral playthrough as Machine empire. Not working out very well, so such video is quite timely.

[@TheEthanEdge]

The trick to grand admiral is efficiency and knowing how the AI works. You'll get there :)

[@user-wc9vy4oc5h]

Great video! Would love to see the ship construction guide

[@Akitorbenov]

Lol, it seems that you and Aspec read my mind or read my post. Thanks so much for the great tips

[@nnaauujjddaa]

For the early game I like to build like 5--6 science ships and let them explore everywhere.

[@syenno]

For tip 1, guaranteed habitables always spawn within 2 jumps from home system as far I know. This is why I personally always use my first science ship to explore all possible choke points and build an additional science ship to do the same or start surveying. Upon reaching acceptable choke points I park a corvette to keep a watch. Why? This allows science ships to explore other possible choke points, conserve influence and because, as far I know the AI explores 2 jumps away from owned territory it means the moment they enter a choke point, I can immediately send a construction ship to claim it. If the choke point is however connected on your empire side to multiple systems, contact rush is necessary as the AI will happily build over your choke point. MP wise I guess you get to cuck your neighbour from a potential advantage.

[@blusafe1]

Close borders

[@petersteenkamp]

Use your military fleet to find habitable planets and choke points.

[@StillRooneyStarcraft]

Great tips!

[@Stoic558]

ship upkeep tip was a good one I did not know. I've been playing for years too

[@molnarandrassandor3448]

Great video!

[@justincronkright5025]

(2:32) I made a post last year in the I.S.S. Discord where whenever you purchase a certain number of goods (many specific values), then your price will go up *even* if you're below that maximum. It seemed to hit Comrade & another guy who tried it, but they'd just suggest purchasing at 52 (I use 26 a lot). So I suspect - especially since 26 is a safe value to purchase basic resources at, that it is based around the calculations in the game that screw the market up (even if it's your own personal market). It's something similar to 55 H.P. maximum in AoE II, that if you have a unit at 55 H.P. in AoE II and change its job if it's a worker or grab a relic at 1 H.P. with Aztecs or even drop off some relic at 1 H.P., but with 55 Maximum. Then your unit will die, because it ends up rounding to an extra place (I believe) at this 1 singular value. And therefore turns an eventual fraction into 9.982... which is below 1 and kills the unit. Also yes I hate clarks, both in general and in this game... sorry Jeremy! But farmers, I really think there should be a potential benefit for biological civilisations at large or specific ones such as the World-Tree. Where extra food that you get from all of your extra farming districts ACTUALLY gets to do something for you rather than just be sold for pennies! World-Trees should OKAY yes take millenia to fully develop, but could still go through seedling, juvenile, young & maybe adapted stages where adapted just means adapted to the climate & individual biosphere of the planet, but wouldn't be the full Tree of Life for Millenia (beyond the game's scope)! There is a lot of potential for farmers especially, but even for clarks in this game... when combined with certain things such as philosopher king maybe to boost the civ-specialities that don't get a lot of use. Have clarks increase the rate of your leader exp/month by 'value-x' & your leader by 'value-y' where y = 2x or something.* Then hopefully finally - Diplomatic Stances and such should be sliders of sorts, which move over time based upon what direction you're going for. So you could be isolationist... which slowly moves to supremacist even AS/WHEN you're attacked, such that you don't get those bonuses right away. Instead you're at war for a few years and get towards supremacist later on in the war to still get the reduced claim costs amongst other benefits, but then lose out on the increased unity.

[@ValosarX]

New cap on leaders makes exploring a pain in the ass again while simultaneously adding better automation to exploration.

[@hko2006]

2:44 maximum is now these, buy and sell Minerals / Food 42 64 Consumer Goods 21 32 Alloys 10 16 Strategic Resources (Crystals / Gas / Motes) 4 6 Living Metal / Zro 2 3

[@korzenpl]

Does galactic market influence these numbers?

[@starhalv2427]

My first moves are always: - Build stations in my system, starting with mineral one - Sell 100 food, buy 100 minerals - Get 3-4 science ships and scientists, to optimise space exploration and research bonuses - build research building on capital, followed immediatelly by removing slums blocker and building consumer goods building. Also, unless I play a trade megacorporation or subterranean lithoids, I don't plan a specific build. Instead, I look at planet traits, bonuses and deposits, and plan planet specialisation accordingly.

[@petersteenkamp]

Note that you can build science ships faster than you can accumulate Unity for scientists. What you can do is build the science ships first, move them into position, and then teleport in the scientists. Then the science ships can immediately start surveying.

[@starhalv2427]

@@petersteenkamp I wrote that before an update made them more expensive to get

[@TocsTheWanderer]

I find in single player games that it's more beneficial to focus on alloy production at the very start so that you can claim as many systems as possible peacefully. One big reason for this is that if you're lacking consumer goods for a colony ship or for researchers, they are much cheaper to buy in the market than alloys are.

[@yaroslavstarchenko4358]

I always thought about hydro bays as weak modules that only occupy precious starbase module space and it never occurred to me somehow that they are so damn efficient and require no precious pops. Thank you for opening my eyes on this one. Another tip that changed my early gameplay completely was the idea not to rush traditions to completion, but rather pick multiple lines at the same time to quickly get very important traits like +10 habitability and +1 pop on colonization.

[@talltroll7092]

You don't want to overdo the traditions open thing though. Some of the finisher effects are pretty good, and they include the ascencion perks, which are also generally quite powerful, both of which require you actually finish a tradition.

[@yaroslavstarchenko4358]

@@talltroll7092 so-so. The only finisher effect that really matters early is +10% research spead for Discovery. Same for ascension perks - yes, you want to have one relatively early, like the research one or edict fund, but not too early - edict find is a little use if you don't have all the subsidy edicts researched to activate. I don't dip Adaptability for 10% habitability anymore, but I always dip Unyielding for it's starter effect and right branch - having a 1.8k fleet power starbase in your first war for the cost of 2 corvettes(100 alloys to upgrade, 50+50 for gun modules) and extra slot for hydro bay is priceless in my opinion

[@talltroll7092]

@@yaroslavstarchenko4358 I'd argue that some of the finishers are better than "so-so" (although I'll concede that it sometimes depends what kind of empire you are running), and the same for the ascension perks. Some of them do also require specific DLC ("Galatic Wonders" only even shows up if you have the Utopia/Megacorp DLC, I think, but those megastructures are pretty great. Hydrocentric is pretty good for acquatic races, but requires the Acquatic Species Pack etc, etc). On the whole, I'd generally rather take some not so great traditions to get the finishers/perks too than have 4 or 5 open trees. 2, maybe even 3 in very specific circumstances, perhaps, but 3 mediocre bonuses can often do more for you overall than even the best single tradition from having lots of open trees

[@yaroslavstarchenko4358]

@@talltroll7092 man, Galactic Wonders are WAAAAY past the time when you choose between finishing traditions you've opened up already or pick a new one. Also I've revisited the Traditions page just for the sake of this conversation and my opinion that all non-ascension traditions except Discovery got a trash finisher early to mid game. Let's take Discovery itself for instance. You have to spend months accumulating unity to go through useless things like "−20% Researcher Upkeep" or "+25% Leader Experience Gain, +1 Leader Level Cap". So, researcher upkeep for instance. It is very helpful lategame when you have entire Ring Worlds with hundreds of researchers, yes. But I pick this tradition first when I have like 10 total researchers. These 20% savings are not gonna make up even for a single Artificer job. Imagine, 5 pops or so are working for months to save only one job. So unless you really know that you are working towards specific goal - like +100 edics fund tradition or research speed - it makes no sense to rush through garbage parts of traditions, this is gonna be just waisted unity. In the early game you need to snowball. Things like influence, reduced costs in influence, research alternatives, starbase capacity, even trade value and extra envoys - you often want to get as many of these as fast as possible. Things like empire size reduction, max level caps and upkeep reduction only start to matter when your empire is bigger and rushing through them aimlessly you may find your resources waisted.

[@hothgond]

Thanks!

[@amrikneifer1193]

Very useful!

[@matepesut]

What premade buildings should you replace and with what in your capital at the start of the game? I saw you replaced a trade hub with a holo theater? Great video btw ;)

[@Horesmi]

Another often overlooked aspect of trade is direct trade. Especially at higher difficulties AI empires will have much more efficient production, which you can often exploit. Trades like food for alloys can be especially effective early game. And late game AI empires are overflowing with energy, meaning it's often far more efficient to produce food and trade it for energy. It's not as straightforward as making food though, the exact surplus and deficit of different resources will depend on the empire. But food will be a valuable commodity, which makes farmer jobs far more useful than they seem. This makes federation origin especially powerful, and gives you incentive to allow your friends to grow in power, as they can provide you with both early game protection and cheap consumer goods to fuel your tech rush.

[@eqou]

Can you make a video about ship builds for 3.6?

[@jefferywoods1051]

The insane amount of micromanagement you can do is the most impressive thing about this game.

[@kmsedgy2115]

Finally! New upload

[@Artimecion1]

I would very much love an indepth , line by line breakdown of Ship Designer and Fleet Manager. The last time I tried to do this, any time I wanted to upgrade my fleets after researching a new tech, it outfits all of my ships from one design to another design entirely, not just the upgraded modules of the design I have. I have to be doing something wrong because it can't possibly require that much micro management!

[@alexshinra6722]

They need diffrent names. If each class have a diffrent name then it wont switch there loadouts to something completly diffrent.

[@0War0]

Just got a friend into stellaris. Gonna link him this!

[@AndICanTalk2]

@Montu Plays Do the numbers you list for the trade max buy/sell work once you have the Galactic Market? or do they no longer apply since you have to contend with too many outside forces?

[@SalvLav]

You should only use those numbers pre-Gal market. After that the AI will buy and dump resources and cause the prices to be volatile

[@nopenope5626]

Ship design for 3.6 would be great. A good mixed fleet and weapon sett up

[@augustduplessis5862]

With your first tip just get sol as your starting system and look for a trinary and binary system bc they always have your guaranteed worlds

[@korbendallas5318]

3:00 Good advice to use the market more effectively, but the values are diffeent on console. I was able to push buying consumer goods to 100, gas to 20, and selling motes and crystals to 25.

[@02091992able]

Also, the more districts you build the bigger the impact on your Empire Sprawl. If it goes over 100 too early, it will slowly cripple your ability to keep up with tech and makes tradition adoption more expensive. Finding those stratigic resources is also a good idea. Defendable systems which are chokepoints is also a good idea for defense.

[@BalimaarTheBassFish]

I would love to see an updated ship build video for the updates. I havent played for AGES and the recent changes in 3.7 threw me.

[@MontuPlays]

I have videos for corvettes and destroyers out! The playlist is on my page!

[@BalimaarTheBassFish]

@@MontuPlays oh my god, now I'm embarassed haha I swear I looked there. Thank you sir for your hard work :) I look forward to seeing more ship types being covered beyond the destroyers (unless the patch didnt shake anything bigger than a DD up too much?)

[@jamesespinosa690]

I really hope one day they do a starbase update. I would love it if all/most empire gained access to solar panels. I think hydroponics bays should be upgraded into modules so you could spec for food production or energy. And then perhaps add some kind of asteriod mining bay for minerals and boom. We have econ starbases for the interior of your empire! I'm sure there are loads of other great ideas out there too!

[@commandoepsilon4664]

They could also add customizable weapon loadouts for starbases as well!

[@pHixiq]

One mistaken I constantly made was not utilizing the ship designer more. There would be times where I'd put myself in a bad situation because my ships would cost WAY too much due to advancements in technology outpacing my economic power. Started down scaling a bit and it equaled out

[@vaniellys]

As much as I love Aspec, Montu's videos are easier to watch because of the impressive montage work behind.

[@walkir2662]

Looking forward to teh ship analyis indeed. Interesting how this doesn't fit my (solo only) playstyle at all, making sure there are no clerks aside and teh hydroponic bays, of course. (wasting unity for spare leaders? Haha, no. Hunting planets before that Habitable worlds thing happens? Not for me, especially as it keeps me from finding minerals to build mining stations on or nebula refineries.) One tip I'd say: If you find the crystal codex or the barracks that gives +military, exchange teh scientist for the one doing Society research before doing that special project, then switch back once that trait is gained. I think that Rubik's Cube gives an Engineering one, so same applies there.

[@barat7867]

Paused ships should occupy building slots, because now it's like an exploit. Troublesome (requires micromanagement) yet still :) Also - canceling should charge you something to not get 100% refund.

[@alphayangdelete]

This will definitely help me with my necroid run! Great tips!

[@MontuPlays]

Keep up the great content!

[@jacob6885]

Could you go over that Ascension upgrade button for planets. It seems way too expensive and implies a limited number of uses and I didn't notice any real difference when I used it. I feel like I'm missing something

[@davidkalisch7168]

I would love to see an in depth on ship design, it is the last part of the game that seems completely daunting.

[@harbinger707]

What I'm doing with my fleet designs , a mix from all , a mixed corvette fleet with missiles/flak/laser or kinetic ,same with destroyers and cruisers, battleships need protection from frigates

[@ulloa8521]

Hope oyu make a guide on how to design ships.

[@Esgaro]

The limiting jobs one is big, particularly if you are a gestalt consciousness. I know playing as rogue servitors, it is a ton of limiting unnecessary maintenance drones, hunter seeker drones, and artisan drones (from sanctuaries). It is actually kind of annoying how carefully you need to micro those jobs in order to get an early competitive advantage.

[@omppusolttu5799]

Planetary automation is absolutely amazing in those cases, just limit it's permissions.

[@babakim8510]

This game is for civil servants. The moment you play this game, you're not a gamer, you're a civil servant.

[@Pope4007]

12:18 this guy really said “Parti-cles” like some Greek mathematician

[@MontuPlays]

You're damn right I did!

[@Pope4007]

@@MontuPlays He owns it too, call this dude Pythaglorious

[@theflame5919]

@@MontuPlays I laughed to near tears. Comedy gold. Thank u 😁

[@yozabary]

i have a question. how do I see the ship role button on 18:08? when I open this menu I dont see it

[@evrypixelcounts]

I never get past midgame, and almost always get bodied by an AI doom-stack. As I watch my empire burn, I always think about what I could have done better in the early game. I will ruminate upon these tips while my next empire crumbles.

[@bruhman1845]

I remember having that issue too. Just keep trying and think about things that you could’ve done better with. Make sure you balance your economy with ur science so you can put ships up fast

[@JaySwag77]

I'm currently stuck in a time loop. I'll play four or five hours of a new Stellaris campaign, watch a few of your videos and learn some awesome new tips, and then restart my campaign so that I can take advantage of everything I just learned. I can't get past the early mid game!

[@g4m3professional]

12:30 Don't Maniacal and Genius give some bonuses for rolling dangerous and rare tech?

[@MontuPlays]

Yes they do give some specific bonuses, well just maniacal. Genius doesn't

[@g4m3professional]

@@MontuPlays I just checked the wiki, and it says that genius gives a rare tech boost. Has that changed in recent patches?

[@bigbaba1111]

I appreciate this great video. Just one small question after watching your Ascension path video. What is your opinion about going mercantile first to have a nice energy and consumer goods surplus? Btw: Looking forward to watching your ship design video!

[@tyrongkojy]

I prefer a "jack of all trades" fleet style, simply because often while fighting one guy someone else likes to declare war, and it's best if I'm prepared and don't need to build/refit a new fleet. Plus, that way to opponent can never really have an advantage. Takes out my shields? I have equal armour (Upgrades allowing). Yes, it can be a tad annoying getting through an enemy with dedicated shield/armour, but I can then melt through the opposite in comparison. This changes, of course, once the crisis comes in.

[@styrfry]

About #2 - although the market is good and should be what you use in the very early game, you should have also mentioned trading with the AI as well at least in passing, as certain personality types are more generous than others via the trade_willingness modifier in the AI personalities file. Migrating Flocks, who have the highest trade_willingness at 1.1 will give you the best deals possible - while Ruthless Capitalists, Peaceful Traders, and Exterminators (only with fellow machines!) operate at a trade_willingness at 1.0 with Federation Builders running up at .95 - unfortunately the Migratory Flocks personality type is *very* rare since they require the empire to be Pacifist, Xenophile, AND have either the Rapid Breeders, Nomadic or Fertile traits. Good luck getting that combo of ethics and traits reliably on a nearby friendly empire!

[@AaaaAaaa-mw2nq]

I was playing as the blorgs and I had the perfect economy. 10k production in energy credits and 2-5k production in the rest. I declared war on everyone and won. It was quite fun.

[@Amyante]

In all fairness, to get the snowball running i always grab Corporate Dominion as a starter, so i have colony ships for only 500 energy

[@khaeugriefshade6456]

Came back after a long time away and I'm struggling on ensign difficulty. I don't know how you guys do Grand Admiral.

[@noiresprit9386]

Really a shame how Paradox prices the game... Real barrier to entry imo. We could have a lot more genocidal maniacs playing the game along with us

[@georgeclueney4419]

At the very, very, very least. Only the host for mp games need to have all DLC, though sucks for players that want play singleplayer.

[@mirceazaharia2094]

Wait for sales. I got about 10 DLCs on the 29th of November last month for 71.26 euros instead of the full price of about 121 euros, because I found a sale and took advantage of it. Now I have the base game plus all DLCs except for Toxoids and Overlord (which were not on sale). But I'll get those as well eventually

[@ha2kon539]

If they charged less for the dlc, then we would either receive less content per dlc, or all the content in the update would be gated behind the dlc, forcing everyone to buy the dlc. The current system works so that the people who can't afford the dlc still receive new features.

[@LunatheLynxPoint]

Considering how often Stellaris and its DLC goes on sale, I don’t really see the price point being an issue unless you’re trying to buy everything at once. For people like myself who are new to the game or are a little slower in learning the game, the base game and a handful of packs can get us through until the next sale. Also, it’s important to mention how much work the Paradox team does for free. They don’t charge for updates and they are massively supportive of the modding community. I think that’s well worth the cost of content.

[@iceddragon767]

It's not that bad Imo. All DLC is shared in multiplayer so you only need one friend with the DLCs to enjoy the content

[@swardinc]

hm so with tep one have one science ship explore while another science ship behind it will survery?

[@elijahduce5323]

Just curious, and I'm not necessarily new to Stellaris but not hard-core about it, but is this a good build? I've tried a Necroid-Lithoid build for the +130 yr. leader life-span and focused traits/civics on ruler resource output so my rulers would almost be immortal and get to max level on them for sweet output. Is this actually a good (or even viable) strategy? I've tried the strategy on Ensign level so I don't know how good it'd be.

[@SalvLav]

A build using necrophage-lithoid can be really great in single player or PvP. Although the focus isn't really on buffing leader per se, more keep control of conquests through slavery. This video on Techno-Necro is still mostly relevent: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpuufp2bmLh2rdk&

[@elijahduce5323]

@@SalvLav Thanks! :)