Stellaris Crime Only Challenge

Stellaris Crime Syndicate playthrough. Stellaris Crime Only Challenge will mean we have no researchers, no metallurgists, no miners, no technicians. Nothing except the most criminal of jobs, clerks...
We'll be playing as the Hutt Clan, a noble purveyor of snorty corpse dust led by the mighty Jabba!
Lets try and become supreme chancellor and open a branch office on the capital of every nation in Stellaris!
Sellaris Stories Playlist: • Stellaris Playthroughs
Stellaris Version 3.8
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Editor: linktr.ee/visualpizza
And please comment with any feedback, any ideas or if you disagree!

[@PyrrhicPax]

I always felt like criminal syndicate should get unique benifits for criminal jobs

[@ZanderPSN]

Ya I want to like it but it's current implementation is terrible. Criminal jobs should basically act as clerks and crime on your own worlds should boost your trade not negatively affect it. Basically there should be no reason not to have crime lord deal on all my worlds.

[@neilz.]

Should be able to access some type of black market, and have unique piracy options.

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

Discounted Galactic Market Except your volumes are a bit random. You might have to buy 1000 minerals or 70 at this discounted rate. And the ability to buy some unique modifiers 'acquired' from their neighbor and investment. So purchasable buffs with temporary effects. Like a Science Cache, a Unity entertainment package, half processed Consumer goods, or scrap alloys from somewhere. Granting +x% per turn of resources till 200-10,000 of the resource is produced from a stolen stockpile. So your economy may bounce around erratically based on what's on offer every 5-10 years.

[@JB-xl2jc]

It's kind of a weird situation because if a criminal syndicate was the undisputed leader of a world, they wouldn't really be a criminal syndicate any more. It doesn't make much sense for any political entity that has overt undisputed sovereignty over its own territory to also be a "criminal". It just means that what is illegal in some other regimes is legal in it (drugs or what have you). Because of this, the only way you can really implement it is via flavor, with the empire otherwise acting like a non-criminal empire. So, that's why this is such a difficult thing to do I imagine.

[@PyrrhicPax]

@@JB-xl2jc well, the way I see it, a criminal syndicate that takes over the world would still need to maintain the veneer of a legitimate government. So there would still be legitimate laws, and crimes would still be crimes, its just that syndicated government officials would never be held accountable. For example, the US government's current *[redacted]* *[redacted]* Crisis under Joe *[redacted]* , and the illegal activity around *[redacted]* , and the Hunter *[redacted]* Laptop, and the *[redacted]* Scandal. There's also the *[redacted]* Reide Scandal, the Nancy *[redacted]* Insider Trading Scandal, and *[redacted]* Island; and thats not even getting into all the corporate lawsuits regarding child labour and human trafficking! There's metric TONS of illegal activity that supposedly legitimate goverments are engaged in all the time, its just nobody ever gets prosecuted, or of they do, it's a slap on the wrist like with Hunter *[redacted]* . So I think that for a Criminal Syndicate, there should be high crime rates that provide trade or energy or other resources. Maybe make it so that there are unique versions of buildings for crime syndicates, like the Sacrificial Temple or Chamber of Elevation. Like....maybe Crime Syndicate get a...Black Market Building, or can build Pirate Safe Havens and Illegal Research Facilities on their worlds, things like that.

[@tinylegofiend8605]

Hutts come from a swamp world. They were very militaristic in the beginning then took a more passive role in crime leading into the prequels and OT movies. Afterwards they began amping up their military drastically. Fun fact there was even a Hutt Jedi

[@The_Lute777]

The hutt jedi He quickly became evil

[@giaxo1739]

Took him all of ten seconds to fall to the dark side, though...

[@TheArtofFugue]

@@giaxo1739exactly lmao

[@padmad3832]

Did the hutt jedi jump of the walls and do flips while fighting with his laser sword?

[@Jo-Heike]

Nal Hutta is a swamp world, known for being WET... Edit: Also, Hutts are noted as being quite strong and tough, as well as surprisingly agile for their size.

[@LibbyGrimm]

and prolific slavers, but that's like, 90% of SW universe, everyone is. Close enough honestly, just call em criminal enough to lie about their homeplanet and everything else and it's canon enough.

[@kamig2127]

Hutts like Jabba are not known for being agile. Hutt culture involves being so fat and decadent that you make everyone else do what you want for you. There is an example of a Hutt that doesn't do this and is actually terrifying (his name is Grakkus the Hutt). So while your statement of them being strong, tough, and agile might be true, most of the crime lord Hutts are too fat for that. They still have strength at least, though.

[@Jo-Heike]

@@kamig2127 I said surprisingly agile for their size.

[@kuhluhOG]

well, before they became crime lords they were a warrior empire and quite feared

[@nicholaspeterman9111]

@@kuhluhOG Indeed. That's basically how they became crime lords in the first place.

[@theaveragegamer7221]

The Hutts were actually very strong and could break bones with their arms alone.

[@CashFreedman]

What else do they have to break something? (Besides rolling over)

[@jacobsheehan5775]

​@CashFreedman The reason jabba needed to swap out protocol droids so frequently cause he was to lazy to invest in stress balls

[@panzerschliffehohenzollern4863]

​@@jacobsheehan5775He graciously do that to support local droid merchant! Remember to buy from local source people (That include drugs too!)

[@KopperNeoman]

They must be VERY vulnerable to being choked, otherwise Leia would havr just been dangled like a dolly and then probably eaten.

[@Kepora1]

@@KopperNeoman It's because Jabba was lazy and spoiled even compared to other Hutts

[@gameon9167]

Wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be a meta build 😂

[@id01_01]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Hutts turn into Meta Hutts

[@Ultima3755]

The not so secret ingredient is crime, perfectly balanced crime.

[@Ghaltouni]

As all crimes should be

[@kommo1]

Montu: gives the AI cheats also Montu: "Why do they have so much money?"

[@Ep3o]

No jobs being worked (and no corps) is also possible. It’s absurd

[@Saark]

Found the "trusty brain dead" robot (montu's words not mine)

[@jessebrown5247]

18:24

[@sethierot7067]

I love this friendly banter between my Stellaris KZbinr Collective

[@SirDriperHat]

Clerks are the future

[@SolazLive]

That build got massively nerfed in the last patch tho

[@sethierot7067]

I remember when you started to slowly emerge from the Youtubial Ooze, it fills me with joy to see you as one of the Pillars of this Games Community. That Species Picture is forever known as The Montu(-s) thats insane, really am happy 😊

[@PizzaMineKing]

"Clercs" - "merchants"? Well, someone needs to launder all that money...

[@Michael-nz2qg]

Why doesn't this have a heart. Great point dude 😂

[@jaredpearce4244]

Montu: "The Secret is crime." Also Montu: "Our homeworld has crime. Oh no!" That's my secret, Cap. I'm always doing crime.

[@beaglejack2023]

Thank you for opening the video with a real life image of what I look like ❤

[@MontuPlays]

Wait, which of the four 'creatures' are we talking about? 🤣

[@beaglejack2023]

@@MontuPlaysI’ve had a lot of different phases in my life

[@FuelDropforthewin]

The trick with golden rule is to trade with your "friends" and taking all their energy credits just before the challenge.

[@SharowbladyeGaymerPorate]

Montu doing a clerk run is peak character development

[@MontuPlays]

I have become the very thing I swore to destroy....

[@alphacentauri3069]

And now he’s telling everyone to use catelytic processing and to produce as much food as possible. It’s like we don’t even know him any more

[@atoth62]

And he says he loves clerks.

[@Maadhawk]

@@MontuPlays The next path in your evolution is, "Farming Clerks."

[@BittySHADOW]

You legit caught Jabba, watching him embezzle right in front of you! He did not care😂😂😂

[@Jo-Heike]

When fighting other megacorps you should use ideology war, I think, to make them an oligarchy.

[@SolazLive]

The hutt clan was definitely spiritualist they even had a holy world named Da Soocha, and it's not like being spiritualist blocks you from having robots

[@danymend5797]

robots uprsisings are not fun

[@jasonchen6840]

LOL space baltimore, as someone who works there that's a perfect fucking title

[@rudiruttger]

How do you counter the AI just building a few precincts and automatically deleting all your crime without issue? This outcome always happens to me in such playthroughs, conversely, crime never seems to leave your own planets when the AI is a crime faction, regardless of planet crime hovering at zero on said worlds.

[@MontuPlays]

That's the neat thing, you don't!

[@rudiruttger]

@@MontuPlays Ha... Anyway, your ethics are exactly the ones I chose for my own Hutt Cartel empire.

[@lucjanl1262]

If I recall correctly (please someone confirm) criminal branch offices can be only closed one per criminal megacorp empire PER GALAXY at a time, so if you spam a crappton of them all over galaxy, the chances of each individual one getting closed get very low.

[@MontuPlays]

@@lucjanl1262 This is also true. I think its one per 10 years (maybe 5)

[@lucjanl1262]

@@MontuPlays thanks for confirming, I'm also glad that my explanation was accualy comprehensible for a human brain.

[@phailupe2941]

Stellaris: the Chicago challenge

[@MrFreshap]

I love the way you role play these gameplays, and the way the clips are cut ! Great fun to watch

[@alphawagon3571]

6:11 "We are getting a little bit of crime on our (Crime centered) home world" Business is booming!

[@michaelg8719]

Yes !!! been waiting for something like this !!!! Thanks Montu ! Seriously best content out there with stellaris!

[@FarmerSlayerFromTheEdoPeriod]

Should have been space detroit

[@MontuPlays]

Not according to the stats I saw today! I also thought about Space Liverpool but didn't think that would translate well (or be accurate enough)

[@FarmerSlayerFromTheEdoPeriod]

​@@MontuPlaysBirmingham perhaps? From what i heard the place is a shithole

[@DovaDude]

The Hutts can actually be extremely physically strong and their early empire would have conquered the galaxy if not for getting their asses handed to them by the newly formed Republic.

[@jefferybrown6473]

Beneath 5 inches of fat is solid wormy muscle.

[@Griffo4]

@@jefferybrown6473 A lot more than five inches lol. At their adult stage they can weigh more than 1100 pounds lol.

[@LotharXjorn]

you did an amazing job Montu , I knew the new expansion was going to be the secret to making a Mafia Cosmos ! you have created and succeeded in the Universal Crime Syndicate , Well Done !

[@kylewelch552]

I use the same portrait for my criminal heritage empire! they're called The Shackle, and their empire bio is "Good morning, god has let me live another day. And I'm about to make it everyone's problem." I use the imperial fief origin so that I can put my first holding on my overlord's home world, since they start out with a ton of pops and you have more than one building slot to use right away.

[@russia1305]

Im gonna try this because it made me giggle

[@JamesColeman12]

i bought like 80% of the dlc a month ago right before the new patch came out, and everything was way too overwhelming for me to play so I kindda took a break right after because i had no idea what i was doing with all the new stuff from the patch and from all the new dlc i got. but watching this video on how you manage something so tricky and out there and making it look kindda easy, really help me feel more confident in getting back to it and play it again since i have't play basically any of the new stuff that i spent hundreds of dollars on lol. feels bad

[@j.vinton4039]

A trade Fed was the way to go for me when I did a syndicate play through. The Fed had enough fleet power and my own personal fleets to counter any Expropriation wars. And the trade build up was really sweet.

[@michaellopate4969]

You could probably justify xenophile, the hutts seem to like aliens, at least if Leia and her slave outfit tell us anything. You could also get enforcers, plenty of enforcers in criminal enterprises!

[@notleviathan855]

This has what my gameplay loop has been for the past little bit. Super tall empire that just abuses my wide vassals into giving me their resources, while using their resources to BOOST my power to always be above them. At this point when playing with my friends, they always have some sort of vendetta against me. As soon as they see I'm playing megacorp crimminal heritage I'm fighting like seven wars at once.

[@DetzkoGames]

The @Ep3o refference as a mindless robot had me rolling for a while

[@jesselynds5411]

i love everything about this game, the governments, civics, ethics, and origins probably my most favorite bit because it dramatically alters your playstyle and options. Stellaris 10/10

[@MGoogle3146]

I hope your friends and family appreciate how hilarious you are, I know I do. TY for video.

[@FairyRat]

Well that was fun, you got yourself a new sub!

[@pirauxjulian2364]

now this is one im gonna try ! ty !

[@ServantOfOdin]

I think the Hutts seeing themselves as the Defenders of the Galaxy is quite fitting. In their criminal minds, their every action is towards the common goal of the greater good for all. Now the definition of these "all" might vary from what us non-Hutts may be thinking, but to them, our success is their success, our victory is their victory, and thus, their defence is our defence.

[@ferristhered1401]

I appreciate the little details. You could have called that home planet Sleheyron. You could even have called it Hutta. But no, it must be the Glorious Jewel.

[@RedScorpion92]

If anything I would say the Hutts were xenophile as well considering they surround themselves with different species to do their dirty work for them.

[@cheesuschrist4473]

Fun fact: Nal Hutta means Glorious Jewel in Huttese

[@pierrelindgren5727]

Common Ground is stupidly good just for the immediate Trade League. Played Fanatic Egalitarian for some Unity/Trade shenanigans, but still had serious trouble keeping up with the MegaCorp ally I started with. My 6000+ Trade Value worlds just made them that much stronger.

[@theinnkeeper1340]

If you legalize crime it's no longer a crime is it? You've ridden the galaxy of crime technically.

[@MontuPlays]

That's... That's a good point. Oh crap

[@qazixgames7920]

I finally decided to play along and noticed that your games settings are pretty different from the default. I was wondering why you made certain decisions and what even some of those settings do.

[@goodmusic4673]

Him not using Gene clinics just hurts my heart xD

[@starsidescav9487]

Honestly I think xenophile would have worked rather well, they do need alien friends to exploit after all.

[@Minimeister317]

"I will return them to monkey" Love that sentence

[@lordzendikar]

Crime Baby!

[@MontuPlays]

It pays!

[@mr-gunny]

Imagine you are a regular empire in this galaxy of two criminal syndicates => RAGEQUIT

[@plank5797]

What's a matter compressor? Oh, nothings the matter now that I've completed repairing the matter compressor!

[@jeffers9001]

@MontuPlays how’s the leader traits tier list coming? And isn’t nal hutta a swamp world. Great video as usual.

[@MontuPlays]

SoonTM

[@velho6298]

Those were some legit business dealings with some proper scientists

[@fuzzythoughts8020]

There should genuinely be a criminal empire path, I really like the concept and I've never heard of any 4x game doing something like that. It'd be remarkably fitting in this game, which seems hell bent on letting you roleplay whatever you want.

[@horiscopes5530]

i just saw this in my youtube recommended LMFAO SPACE BALTIMORE. subbed

[@brandonwoodrow-oh2cg]

Montu one thing I would have changed about your hutts is that if you look at some sources hutts we're surprisingly strong and a little militaristic but I would have also not put them as militaristic but changed weak to either strong or just normal

[@JimmyStiffFingers]

*ominous Jabba laughing*

[@LotharXjorn]

YOU ACCEPTED MY CHALLENGE !! AWESOME !!! Im going to watch this in ful detail and see how you did it

[@MWSin1]

"Crime doesn't pay. Well, maybe it pays a little." - Johnny Dangerously

[@badpiggies988]

“Warm day and my brain is boiling” Ah yes, a British person’s kryptonite

[@jeoff511]

surprised how strong this is, gonna try it myself.

[@SirJorb]

Everyone talking about how Hutta was a swampy world, but nobody mentioning that it's not even their original homeworld - Hutta used to be a planet called Evocar until the Hutts took it over. Their original homeworld that they abandoned was a planet called Varl. Basically, the Hutts had the Doomsday origin, and invaded a pre-FTL civilization for their new capital.

[@raginasiangaming910]

What I got from this video is that Montu now loves clerks...

[@invurret9533]

so basically, Montu became a mob boss.

[@ammonite1857]

A little tomfoolery and dillydallying has happened during this video

[@OzzyJackal72]

I've been messing around with "Dystopian" society builds. Broken Ring world start, push as many as you can into Merchant jobs for stability close to 100%, it's nuts

[@Comicsluvr]

I' so eager to try this!

[@zwinnytygrys9865]

You might love clerks in ,,under one rule'' origin. Speaking of Hutts. I think they are autoritarian and militarists. They are also for sure materialists

[@terras6418]

I didn't think Montu would love Clerks. What a weird would we live in.

[@BullsMahunny]

Honestly Crime gameplay should be fleshed out. I play as a megacorp mostly but as a megacorp I should be able to send either private armies or some kind of secret militant group onto other planets to basically kick off criminal syndicates to establish my own business. Likewise they should have some kind of ability to fight megacorps either to outright kick them off or to discredit the megacorps ability to get resources from the planet. It would add a new level of gameplay to megacorps/syndicates. It would be even better if the empire that has the syndicate on their planets can fight the syndicate off with ground armies or something.

[@crazytuffandco.]

0:44 You missed a joke here. "To prove that crime really does pay."

[@jessiebauer816]

Definitely materialist. They don’t commit crime for fun. Everyone is in it to get paid

[@piotrekb586]

me: so it's video abaout warcrimes, GLORIUS

[@BirchMonkey857]

It's understandable, provided you haven't gone through Clone Wars, to not know that Nal Hutta is a swamp world. Also fun fact: The Hutt Syndicate predates even the Old Republic, and is probably the most entrenched galactic power. They've waxed and waned, sure, but they've _endured._ They're still assholes, though. EDIT: I'm nitpicking here, but Tatooine isn't particularly close to Nal Hutta.

[@B3RyL]

You said "Crime" so many times it reminded me of Burnt Face Man: "Take that, crime, you shit! Of course that wasn't crime. That was just a box with the word 'crime' written on it."

[@OverlordMalarkey]

Well... i need to try this but as the Zann Consortium. (Empire at War reference) also are you gonna continue you revised ship design series?

[@Shukaldes]

Yea, Ive been wiped by a crime empire before. I won the war, but lost everything else.

[@linguotgr]

Throwing this out here… I think it’s possible clerks aren’t as bad as some people make them out to be. When you have either a trade league or whatever that spiritualist federation is called, clerks are actually pretty good.

[@user-db8tm2ex9j]

+ clerks with trade guilds are insanely top tier for trade non-corpo empire (for real), im upset that everyone in stel hate them so much in times when clerks are the only ones capable of well-produsing 3 important resourses with simple job creation...

[@spode2091]

Clerks are god in trade empires but otherwise technicians are better

[@SombraCheeks]

"Space Baltimore" XD I really hope he has a Space Detroit as well

[@boris1145]

Great Super Hans reference :)

[@jophillips467]

All my planets are 100% crime because of there branch offices and I can't get them off because they have the most powerful empire in a defensive pact

[@ThePenguinMejia]

We don't call it crime anymore, we call it... Trade

[@sebk7168]

Seems pretty fun

[@abrasavur1630]

it is a alternate universe so thy look just fine

[@Jokie155]

SWTOR has a big raid where the end boss is a Hutt in a giant mech, so... tech ascension works I guess?

[@Bobylein1337]

Last time I played a criminal syndicate the fallen empires just kept humilating me every 10-20 years once I got too many crime offices, as each causes an opinion malus...

[@asham868]

When you get a lump sum thats greater than your cap, i feel like it should slowly degrade down to your cap instead of just losing it all. Give you a chance to actually use/spend the resource.

[@sethierot7067]

The Shade thrown at those poor brainless Robots xD ah brilliant

[@dominicmanester8125]

Specifically organised crime and petty crime since war crimes are pretty normal in Stellaris.

[@1forge2rulethemall88]

The hutts wanting a trade federation... seems somewhat fitting

[@MatthewChenault]

“If the alloy prices on the market are not at maximum inflation value, then you haven’t bought enough alloys.” - Me, who buys absurd amounts of alloys on the galactic market

[@DerQuoi]

i usually go with necrophage on my criminal heritage gameplays, aswell as letters of marque for enough cloaking strength so i don't looe any sublight speed even on titans

[@J0krswy1d]

Love the robots!

[@ZeroDMs_]

Take a drink every time Montu says "crime."

[@ethanwillis7369]

Fun fact: hutts are incredibly strong

[@Nemo2342]

I though the Darksaber was supposed to be some kind of planet destroying laser, not a planet devolving laser.

[@arthinugami]

Listen we are running a business here and the planet dissolving laser was cheaper

[@hvymtal8566]

You turned Nal Hutta into Nar Shaddaa _Beautiful_

[@RagnellAvalon]

Luke was born in space, not on Tatooine.

[@vindiesel6695]

The Chicago Build

[@liampritchett1779]

Hutt species from Star Wars is actually very fast and strong

[@Miranda17137]

Honestly, the only canon Criminal Syndicate for me is Broken Shackles. The roleplay is impeccable

[@GrouchyMage]

I remember trying this. 12 other civs, 10 of which ended up also being Corps. The two that weren't, on the other side of the galaxy. I swear the game trolls you.