｢Stellaris｣ Fleet Design Guide - All Ship Builds!

[@daenithriuszanathos9306]

Finally! A guide to tell me how to build my ships. So far, I've only been slapping on weapons on my ships because I "think they're neat".

[@SansSentiments]

usually that works.

[@tyrannicalsaint]

Sooo many playthroughs I have done, "lets go all kinetic weapons! My space people have become masters at throwing rocks the best!"

[@BrownsheepBF]

@@tyrannicalsaint And then the unbidden come in with all their shields and melt before your kinetic might

[@Ichorizor]

Honestly, I just kept on doing that until the meta made it good. I've focused on Strike Craft for as long as I've been playing Stellaris, and now they are great!

[@tramachi7027]

So youre Marge. Ok tbh. Me too :D

[@francesco8000]

How I make my ships 1) sections "well i feel that having 2 cannons looks better than 3, it just feels more natural" 2) Weapons "so do i want to see flashy laser effects or bullets being shots in space?" yeah i ignore missiles very often just because they don't look as cool 3) Armor\shield\utility "click on auto-complete" Perfection.

[@Regunes]

Obviously you've never seen a Torpedoe rush build :>

[@bobmalone3726]

It is quite magnificent to see a wave of torpedoes closing in on an enemy.

[@tdofducksplays]

Us (players): BEHOLD TORPEDOES Enemy Captain: It’s so beautiful!

[@Ko_Kasumi]

I like a carrier fleet of battleships paired with a bunch of missile boats with swarm missiles and other missiles...did you say you had point defense? I say not enough!

[@tdofducksplays]

Ko Kasumi Yea I’m actually doing a mix fleet of carriers, missile boats and heavy Battleships. It works pretty good, unless you have an awakened fallen empire at your door and your A.I. federation is doing jackshit to help you not die

[@elseeight1673]

For anyone wondering this is still pretty relevant. Found out after translating the german down below.

[@carlosmiguelteixeiraott3643]

"Missiles aren't good" Not anymore they're not, I still remember the days of the macross missile massacre deathball, those days were fun, y'know if you were the one with the deathball.

[@ocadioan]

15:24 "You are going to be losing a lot of ships" You underestimate my Alpha strike, dear sir. I won't lose ships if the enemy never reach weapon range on my ships.

[@ravenknight4876]

Indeed. This is a win more option. If you bring superior forces to begin with, no retreat will utterly eviscerate enemy fleets.

[@ocadioan]

@@ravenknight4876 Not even just that. In most wars, you never really want to engage in fairly even slugging fests enough times for the recovered ships to matter in the overall war. You generally want to always have overwhelming local firepower to quickly maximize enemy losses and minimize your losses, especially if this is a war of attrition.

[@guardianofthetoasters2323]

Mine is more like the swarm and just bone rush the enemy and guns blazing

[@LCInfantry]

It’s absolutely dumb that both ships just fly into each other. Heavens forbid if you zoom out of the system and then zoom back in. Can we not select engagement ranges so that ships will stay at range.

[@Gustav_Kuriga]

@@LCInfantry That's what combat AI does.

[@leobastian_]

23:02 remember, juggernauts can Switch Layouts themselves, so the munitions plant is actually used sometimes in lategame against Bunker worlds, If you dont want to Go with a colossus for your ascension perk.

[@Stefan_Anon]

That's actually quite awesome.

[@GewalfofWivia]

wait, people actually go for colossus?

[@akatsukiawsome13]

John Lu primarily for multi where its easier to blow up planets than spend a stupid amount of time landing 5k armies

[@lesrek3938]

@@akatsukiawsome13 Also, getting access to Total War if not a genocidal is worth the ascension perk by itself.

[@apolloaerospace7773]

Why would you bombard planets ? Just land about 500 psionic entity armies, no production cost, no upkeep, no strongholds.

[@benharder7816]

15:39 I've never heard of the force disparity mechanic, thanks!

[@sephikong8323]

I managed to get a friend back in the game (last time he played was pre Utopia just to help understand the thing) and all of your recent guides have been VERY helpful to help him without making me lose my sanity. Now I can finally have an efficient way of helping him with ship design (which seems to be the part he struggles the most with, though I still told him about the destroyer + Tachyon Battleship, it still is a pretty hard task to teach ngl)

[@cheshire_skatkat9093]

I'm on console. Does this vid apply?

[@chubbysurprise4429]

@@cheshire_skatkat9093 this^

[@chill.8426]

@@cheshire_skatkat9093 kind of. It will for sure on may 12.

[@CapitalTeeth]

*_*Sees Warhammer 40k in the thumbnail*_* Yeah, this is going to be a good video.

[@guardianofthetoasters2323]

If it has ramming properties then it's instant s tier

[@marvelouschester4104]

Thanks. I’ve been looking for a all in one guide that actually explains why options are good and how the mechanics work.

[@dmytroshulga4578]

Perdition Beam on Titans and Stations doesn't have a weapon type and thus doesn't get repeatable bonus damage.

[@InterUse]

aren't they energy weapon type and get bonus from that one?

[@teutorixaleria918]

@@InterUse No, they have their own type.

[@N1ghthavvk]

Yes, but stations have their own damage increasing repeatable which will work for Ion Cannons (as well as every other kind of weapon you mount).

[@BrownsheepBF]

@@N1ghthavvk But it's far more efficient to just mount kinetic artillery or neutron launchers on stations and get all of the bonuses from kinetic/energy repeatables.

[@Kalenz1234]

@@BrownsheepBF Perdition Beams can one shot cruisers and have a small chance to one shot battleships at the start of engagement. Perdition Beams can also one shot titans if they are stationed in a system that negates shields. They are definitely worth it.

[@EveloGrave]

Im so terrible at making ships. Definitely needed this so I can finally experiment with military instead of always being peaceful.

[@jeaneljaylamputi2215]

Tbh, missile corvette spam easily takes over starbases, works perfectly with my hit n run tactics

[@HiddenOcelot]

I usually go with awesome stuff late game, and just tech until I get it, no use in fighting early game unless you have advantage, so I dont even get military tech pretty much for most of the game until I can get them in like a month lol, then I rush the stuff and crush people.

[@PerfectAlibi1]

25 Battleships with Arc Emitters make citadel bastions no longer matter! XD

[@Regunes]

Actually given how much Hull Citadel uses, you're better off with a mix of mega C and tachyon Lance

[@PerfectAlibi1]

@@Regunes In my games, I play scaling grand admiral, AE are just OP against anything not stacking evasion.

[@notmareelnam7545]

Literally.

[@prisonerofthehighway1059]

I use devastator vette fleets to to sprint around enemy territory, knocking out stations while my main fleet pushes the capital.

[@PerfectAlibi1]

@@Kalenz1234 That''s a juggernaut, not a citadel

[@LordZonar]

Step 1: Add more Dakka Step B: If you think you have enough Dakka, you do not have enough Dakka

[@rowangallagher8605]

Step 1 Step B lmao

[@josefpicken]

Whats dakka

[@LordZonar]

@@josefpicken "More Dakka is the art of solving problems by unloading as many rounds of ammunition at them as possible." -TV tropes "It is the Ork onomatopoeia for machine gun firing, and their general term for rapid fire capacity." -also TV tropes

[@iCarus_A]

But what if we weaponize entire systems -- heck, galaxies even -- with our esoteric designs of stellar propellers... maybe then we'd finally have enough dakka

[@SingletonD]

arch emitters plus cloud lighting on mass battleship fleets is always a win. Wins against fallen empires all the time.

[@TheDrexxus]

For my battleships, I always slap the 1 hangar on there with 2 artillery segments for a combination of fighters and neutrons. Never had a problem winning with that.

[@EgnachHelton]

I think it's more optimal to mix alpha-strike and carrier battleships in 4:1 ratio. Or just simply use pure penetration battleships if you have cloud lightening. However in my experience cloud lightening is quite rare

[@TheDrexxus]

@@EgnachHelton I used to do that actually. I had dedicated carrier Bships and dedicated neutron Bships, but ultimately I just kind of got tired of having to build both and wanted to be lazier about it. The fighters shred the smaller stuff and destroy stations out of attack range while the neutrons deal with other bships and titans and whatnot. It has worked consistently well for me. :)

[@gabemerritt3139]

@@EgnachHelton almost always get cloud lighting, hard to remember its a random event.

[@stc2828]

@@EgnachHelton The only thing going for cloud lighting is that they are dirt cheap. However, being very cheap is quite strong.

[@HiddenOcelot]

@@gabemerritt3139 it's based off of fighting the clouds, study their stuff and you get the lighting stuff.

[@MistakenForDead1]

60 hours in and I finally understand how ship designs work. Thanks! Now I might be able to not be forced into subjugation wars within the first fifty years.

[@karniggl4539]

Great Video, the only thing that I feel could have used more detail are the combat-computers. You can do a lot of different fleet-setups with them, like having your small ships rush in to do damage with S and M weapons while your Large Ships "snipe" from the back, or have your whole fleet without large weapons at all(works suprisingly well). And having a Fleet only focused on Long-Range is just op, if you have good tech you can destroy half of an equally powerful fleets health before even getting a single hit. Many of my friends were confused about what to do with combat-computers when they started playing, and I feel like many beginners are as well. I think it would be interesting to have a Video with your thoughts on Fleet composition(Wich ship-designs to put together in a fleet, how many of each ship-type etc.) and more details on combat-computers.

[@Regunes]

You use Picket Computer whenever you can, Artillery with battleship.

[@karniggl4539]

@@Regunes You can do that, but it's by no means the best way

[@bullyellis1]

@@karniggl4539 For something like Neutron Launchers which have a range of 130 do I pick artillery or carrier tactics. Not sure if my missles will be able to hit ?

[@karniggl4539]

@@bullyellis1 keep in mind that you can increase weapon range :) Generally speaking, the carrier combat computer really keeps your ships far away from the battle, so you do lose some firepower. But using some Admiral traits and maybe the Juggernaut range-module should result in more than 150 range for neutron launchers and similar weapons. I still use artillery a lot because of the modifiers, but you can build a carrier-sniper battleship, and I think it would do ok against AI. Just add some smaller ships to deal with enemy corvets and destroyers to your fleet as well.

[@Da_Veast352]

I follow the principle of "more daka" when designing my ships, wich nis know as the art of solving problems by unloading as many rounds of ammunition as possible.

[@Regunes]

From my experience, the loss of hull HP in term of dps is neglectable compared to the saved alloys you gain by using cristal plating, making the ship cheaper and more likely to live another day through disengagement. the only downside is hull is not affected by repeatable and neutron launcher do hit hard on hull.

[@thewitepheonix3149]

The cheaper part is not a problem if you have too many alloys though, so if you need quality for curb-stomping some aliens, just go without

[@seanhilton765]

Honest to god learned so much from this vid. Didn’t know how evasion and tracking and reduced damage worked and so much more. Thank you!

[@Spoonhead1252]

I have 3000 hours on Stellaris, and I disagree with your views on No Retreat. I playtested it, two empires fighting with equally sized and equipped fleets, then repairing and fighting again until one is completely destroyed. One empire had No Retreat, the other had Hit and Run tactics, and the No Retreat won every time. The 33% fire rate bonus allows the No Retreat fleet to do far more damage to the other one, thereby decimating it before it could take any severe losses, and the Hit and Run always took more casualties because of that. In my opinion, it also depends on your playstyle. If you don't heal your fleets after every battle and instead opt to simply charge forwards and claim a victory as quickly as possible, then disengagement doesn't really matter: the disengaged ships will be dead anyways after a few battles. So, going for a full blitzkrieg means that you should probably go No Retreat. It is a bit of a risk though, as one battle can destroy your entire fleet, but as long as you avoid taking these risks, you should be okay.

[@SCComega]

From my experience, Arc emitter battleships with carrier cores remains a solid option for the later part of the game as a standby configuration, as the AI likes to throw a lot of smaller ships at me still, while the arc emitter does it's thing. As fights drag on, the strike craft remain effective at ignoring shields and getting through armor of tougher enemies, meaning the arc emitters aren't all they rely on. Plus they have the PD necessary to handle torpvette spam. Sure, they may lose to a dedicated giga-neutron battleship, but it tends to trounce everything else, and numbers can make up the difference against such ships. They're also strong counters vs both the contingency and the unbidden. So.. yeah.

[@shuntensatsu11]

Great vid! One thing to keep in mind with Titan auras is that if you have multiples of the same, they do not stack. Also good ones for your ships (e.g. the tracking and firing rate ones) only affect the ships in the Titan's fleet, not every ship you own in the system.

[@SebHaarfagre]

-Yeah just starting a Federation Fleet I use 6 Titans, each with a different modifier, in the same fleet.- -Doesn't even have to have much support by themselves, you can just use them as FTL-jump-support late game- Edit: Wait what are you serious? So 3 of them are useless if I do use it as FTL-jump-support 🤣🤣 Well whoops In my defense at least I did build a complete fleet around those 6

[@dingoatthecontroller2652]

Me: watches this video. Me: Playing Stellaris 3 hours later Me: How did I have to build my Battleships again? My brain: No idea, just slap a Mega Cannon on it, it'll be fine

[@philippobitz2592]

12:42 "Although, to be completely honest, Kinetic Artillery is being made obsolete by the existance of Neutron Launchers. These things are just so much better." Neutron Launchers are the new Tachyon Lance (pre-1.3/Heinlein days) confirmed! Which brings me to another topic: 19:47 I remember someone over in the Paradox forums saying that extra large weapons' charge-up time is significant enough that a BB's L-slot guns will already have fired by the time the X does and hence declared Battleships with four KA's to strip the enemy's shields in the opening salvo and one Tachyon for the bonus armor/hull damage the "ultimate/meta BB" (barring very late-game Cloud Lightning/Arc Emitter designs), in stark contrast to your proposed Giga Cannon + Neutron Launchers. Granted, that was long enough ago that I couldn't tell you exactly when that statement was made other than it was at some point after Megacorp/2.2 in one of those threads where people did isolated ship-class A vs. ship-class B testing scenarios ten times over and shared their results. My question is thus: Is Kinetic Artillery, or are BB's with KA + Tachyon still viable in 2.6.3 'Verne', if not in a straight up fight against their "mirror-design", then at least against any common types of Cruisers and whatnot? 14:12 Isn't the issue with Cruisers that they are neither as evasive as Corvettes (and potentially Destroyers), nor as durable as Battleships, and thus effectively do not benefit from their increased Disengagement Chance, because they get destroyed before it could even trigger? There's a whole 'nother thread about that (as of 2.2.7) over at Paradoxplaza titled "What's wrong with cruisers?" that deals with this issue and the apparent problem of them being near-useless once BB's get fielded, as opposed to Corvettes or Destroyers that remain(ed) relevant up until the late-game as Torpvettes and Point Defense DD's, although I suppose that last bit might have changed with Strike Craft being good at screening against SC/Torps now.

[@ev3867]

Kinetic/tachyon shares all the same matchups as giga/neutron, except it performs marginally worse across the board. The margin is pretty small though, so if you are not drawing the right research cards then going for kinetic/tachyon is perfectly acceptable, and against AI fleets you won't notice the difference.

[@azzor4134]

I've heard (read) about Lancers + Artirelly and runned it since. But as E V said, you won't notice a difference against AI. We need someone to do an actual test and share it to end these arguments tbh

[@thespider2471]

Pretty good guide but I wish you had talked more about all of the weapons(what weapons are ok/terrible/best and why)(For example why are misiles better than lasers, plasma throwers or gauss cannons) or the ai settings for ships( which setting is the best for what setup)

[@Regunes]

Things to keep in mind : -Neutron Launcher is god tier, and synergize well with megacanon -Only Torpedoes line matters for missile, unless huge tech lead -Auto Canon are your go to for short weapon. -Disruptor and Cloud lightning are very niche. -PD is Artillery early then the Laser one -Strike craft is your new PD, they're essentially a defensive tool against light fleet composition (since they trigger too much disengagement) - Laser,Gauss and plasma are to be used according to the amount of Autocanons you have in your light fleet composition and your current tier for each. becomes obsolete with neutron launcher. -Picket computer is god tier in the early game. -void beam, the tyanki weapon and the Crisis weaponry are quite bad...

[@RohanTej]

@@Regunes I don't understand, why Mega cannon? Don't they do damage to shield with is pointless in late game compared to Focus arc and neutron launchers?

[@TheAderwolf]

@@RohanTej yes and no. mega/giga cannons have higher range than neturon launchers. that way you can maximes your first volley on shield dmg instantly allowing neutron launchers to melt armor and by the second time u fire your mega cannons, armor is already down, which would allow the +%dmg from the mega cannon against hulls to factor in. it is in theory the least wasted dps at any given time. how well that holds up in practice is questionable. i still like to do it that way cuz it feels right and logical.

[@RohanTej]

@@TheAderwolf I am sorry it might be a bit naive to ask this again, but in that sense wouldn't focused arc emitter be better since it directly hits the hull ignore all late game bonuses for shield and armour? But I suppose here the argument is that Neutron Launchers are wasted since they can't contribute to hull damage since they themselves take the shields down? (Also does the late game bonuses apply to X weapons?)

[@TheAderwolf]

@@RohanTej the theoretical problem with arc emiters is that they dont synergise at all with neutron launchers. if the enemy has good shielding your neutron launchers will waste a big amount of their firepower trying to get those down before even getting to armor and then hull where they can finaly help out arc emiters. also arc emiters are very rng. u might get amazing results or complete garbage. i dont like that at all. yes all repeatables also apply to X weapons since they are still in the kinetic/energy categories.

[@MofuggerX]

The perfect video at the perfect time for a console peasant like myself.

[@robertalaverdov8147]

One thing to mention in regards to weapons is that you want to have a combo or variety of both kinetic, energy and explosive if possible. The each get their own bonuses with tech and decisions. And being Stellaris they stack. Meaning that if you have a ship that puts out 500 damage with all energy weapons, if you add just a single kinetic weapon to it, then suddenly it has 800-1000 damage. Its been tested on various forums and in combat a fleet with combo weapons always wins.

[@Regunes]

so you're implying a "+5% explosive" actually affect all weaponry if said ship has atleast one missiles?

[@robertalaverdov8147]

@@Regunes Yes it seems to work that way. And late game with bonuses to strike craft, kinetic, energy and explosive I've seen carrier battleships/torpedo+carrier cruisers with higher damage output than dreadnoughts.

[@Sorain1]

If it actually works that way, that _can not_ be intended behavior. Send TheSpiffingBrit that little fact, he'll have a grand old time of demonstrating the issue.

[@Stefan_Anon]

If that's the true way it works, it's certainly a bug and cannot be intentional. Something to keep in mind for an exploits vid however.

[@BlurbFish]

I'm calling bullshit on this.

[@nguyenphuocthanh8056]

I am learning Stellaris so thank youtube for recommend this video and the one who make it, I usually auto-create it....

[@modernkennnern]

I'm only 1:13 into this video, and I've learnt something fairly crucial. I've always just mega-stacked Hull Points because they are both cheaper and gives more 'effective hit points'. I didn't realize combat effectiveness scaled with % HP

[@syy1125]

Looks like I’ve been designing my capital ships suboptimally. I often add kinetic artillery to balance out the anti-shield vs anti-armor damage. Although I suppose suboptimal designs don’t matter that much if you have 10 times the enemy’s fleet strength and 10 times the enemy’s alloy production...

[@lesrek3938]

Honestly, there should be a bit of kinetic otherwise someone can stack shields and they will win the war of attrition.

[@Salt_Mage]

@@lesrek3938 Megacannons on XL slots and Autocannons on Corvettes should be plenty.

[@thecommuterzombie]

Before Megacannons it makes sense to mix Kinetic and Neutron Launchers but the Megacannon does enough to shields (and with a huge range) that you only need that on a Battleship for anti-shield tech. The exception would be if the end game crisis is the unbidden, then you want to stack Kinetic Artillery on Megacannons or go with Focused Arc Emitters and Cloud Lightning.

[@SebHaarfagre]

Early game and early late game though before stackables, Hull Points is usually the majority of HP while shields come second, from what I've seen from AI and other things - including my own designs. So up until late game I normally have maybe 25% shield damage capacity or slightly more - and preferably they will hit the enemy first, then followed by 25% or less anti armor then 50% hull which should hit last.

[@jaketaylor9969]

Thanks for making this - been waiting for an updated guide on this for ages!

[@happyreaper08]

Thanks for making this, been waiting for a fleet design guide!

[@thesun5112]

I generally design my ships with synergy in mind, i.e; I make ships good at dissolving shields and ships good at melting armour. Then I’d equip faster and smaller craft with hull tearing weapons. Most enemy fleets melt in seconds. I do also sometimes add ‘auxiliary’ weapons on some should their counterpart be destroyed so there is still some independence if you will. Edit: typo

[@dmitrixallo7072]

Lol I thought disengagement chance is bad all this time, great vid!

[@tomduke1297]

just fyi: carrier cruisers get killed by a same strength corvette swarm very easily, you do not want them as your backbone in the early game. they are still strong, just make sure to keep the enemy at range with other ships.

[@BlueViper8907]

I've only ever had the Auto-Generate box checked since the games release. Finally. FINALLY! A coherent, in depth guide to make my own ships

[@tomsandstrom338]

03:01 Nice

[@Arthutstut641]

He even says it slowly hahaha

[@op9000977]

noice

[@dennisk5054]

1) Don't use torpedoes on cruisers... ever. Torpedos for corvettes, rockets for cruisers. 2) Strike craft is OP when you have them in numbers; 3) You can replace all cruisers completely with battleships mid to late game, alpha strike from X mount is way more valuable; 4) Arc emitters for late game, after getting 20+ repeatable techs for energy weapons; 5) Focus on energy weapon after mid game or right after getting Null Beam weapon from event if happened; 6) Focus on shields not armor; 7) You don't need titans. But I still have them, they look awesome; 8) Rep techs for strike craft/shields/e weapon; 9) Ignore everything above if role playing, it's Stellaris))))

[@gatekeeper88]

Great vid thanks mate, but your audio is very bassy/muffled. I had to use the close captions just to understand you without turning it up very loud or filtering it. Just wanted to let you know but thank you for someone finally posting a ship build video! :)

[@senilevideoenjoyer]

Best ship guide on youtube tbh you earned a sub, and maybe for the next guide you could talk about buding counter fleets to major galactic threats like the crisis or the fallen empires or the horrors, dreadnought etc

[@Sorain1]

I think there's a solid video in 'Countering fixed threats' like the Khan, Fallen Empires, Grey Tempest and the Crisis fleets. Other empires will vary, but IIRC those always use fixed designs.

[@senilevideoenjoyer]

@@Sorain1 i know how to counter fleets I was just saying it could be a good idea to make an updated version with the current patch for new players, like how do you build and work to get a good crisis counter fleet to actively destroy an enemy 1.5 or 2 times your strength in the endgame

[@lofidante1778]

Great video, but could you do a part 2 that goes in depth on fleet compensation. Also how to spec your fleets to counter the games major threats, khan, grey tempest, each fallen/awakened empire and for each end game crisis.

[@maxterhex]

Always run in late game only fleets 1 titan 26 arc emitter battleships with 50/50 kinetic/neutron.

[@lautarospengler7472]

Amazing video, I've been following your channel for a while now, and today was the first time I got really late into the game, and wanted to design better ships, and this guide was the first result when I searched, was kinda impressed by my luck lol

[@zijkhal8356]

One more thing to consider when outfitting your fleet is that using energy weapons only allows you to focus on researching only energy weapons tech, which means more research effort for useful engineering techs like minerals, which will result in more research and alloys

[@Threeve703]

Zijkhal how much does this impact your ability to combat heavy shields (or armor if you go with ballistics)?

[@zijkhal8356]

@@Threeve703 naturally, it has quite an impact, however, if you are using something like Arc emitter + neutron launcher Battleships, then only researching energy weapons has no real downsides. The reason why I tend to ignore kinetic weapons, missiles and strike craft repeatables is the existence of armor and shield piercing weapons. I usually just focus on those, it's even better if I have arc emitter + cloud lightning on my ships, because they completely ignore the enemy's armor and shield repeatables. The main problem with the engineering repeatables is that there are 11 of them, if one tries to research all of them to the same level, they would fall way behind the physics repeatables for example, which has only five repeatables, so eventually, the energy weapons would do more dps against shields than the kinetics (though you would need to be pretty damn far into the repeatables for that to happen) You can also decide to focus on something else, but IMO the best weapons tech to focus on is the energy weapons thanks to the piercing weapons it has. But in the end, it is a trade-off which you will have to decide if it's worth it for you or not.

[@Mizzurani]

But isnt the lose of Giga Canons bad?

[@zijkhal8356]

@@Mizzurani you have to weigh the pros and cons

[@sanguineaurora8765]

Most cost effective, all-rounder, use against anything type of ship i have ever built was something that i call "Combat Cruiser" and "Huntervette" Basically, Both of them are pure Disruptor weaponry builds. Huntervettes are Fast corvettes that are as fast as possible with interceptor builds fitted with pure disruptors. Cruisers are the same, broadside configs outfitted purely with disruptors. For anyone who doesn't know, disruptor is the kind of weapon that bypasses both shields and armor and directly damages the hull. Damage is somewhat low but bypassing shields and armor completely makes up for low damage unless enemy outfits all of their ships with Hull points, in which case they are still viable, just not as broken. Also disruptors have %100 accuracy with very high tracking, making them very effective against fighters and corvettes.

[@Izmir_Stinger]

The "bow" (front) of a ship is pronounced as the "bow" in, "I bow before the king" not as in, "I nock an arrow in my bow"

[@mikewinterborn]

English pronuciation is completely freestyle D:

[@ComradeHellas]

Good to know

[@Chris.M]

Great comment

[@Nitrile7]

NOW,… if you can only line out the ppl who overpernounce the “L” in salmon

[@SebHaarfagre]

Yep it's from Norse/Norwegian/Scandinavian "Baug" It's still pronounced a bit weirdly in English but it's definitely closer to what you said compared to the origin - just a digression

[@kasyu1101]

strike craft actually have a very important use, which is dealing with torpedo corvettes that shred battleships while being nearly impossible to hit, due to their high evasion. due to the perfect tracking of strike craft, they effectively ignore evasion, meaning the low health of the corvettes is easily exploited by strike craft, while the torpedo corvettes can shred battleships lacking PD or flak. and cruisers can still carry torpedoes like corvettes, and since they disengage easily, that high alpha strike from the torpedoes will shred an undefended fleet. on top of that, a lot of enemies actually only use shields, making artillery, autocannons, and kinetic batteries really good compared to launchers. things like void clouds, extradimensional invaders, and avatars only use shields and hull.

[@evolgrinz3202]

I usually just end up running 100 corvettes with disruptors and torpedoes + 25 battleships with arc emitters and the other weapons depending on what the enemies are using.

[@alpacamybag9103]

Thanks Stefan. I'm on a crash course of all the details I skipped, like this and getting the most out of your pops, before I join my first SCM game :D

[@TheKingpool7]

16:21 start of builds

[@WhiskeyPatriot]

Thank you

[@Th3BlackLotus]

MVP

[@sqocks8254]

Never knew about the Force Disparity effect. Thank you ❤

[@GameDevNerd]

My advice to people struggling with ship designs is pretty simple: Focus on kinetic weapons (like railguns and cannons) and pack as many of the most powerful shield possible onto your ships ... it's pretty simple. Compose your fleets of a good mixture of Large, Medium and Small weapon components. Once you get the tech for it, I prefer to build mostly large ship classes like cruisers and battleships ... often times I will win an engagement without losing any ships, but corvettes and destroyers get taken out pretty easily ... I mainly only use them for "light work", such as distractions and bait for enemy forces. With a focus on kinetic weapons and shields tech, and favoring artillery-type platforms, I'm able to pretty easily defeat all my opponents. I've often smashed fleets with more ships and higher "military power" ratings like bugs ...

[@felings4u544]

I watched the whole thing, thank you. I now know how to design ships well.

[@SebHaarfagre]

9:20 The Neutron Launchers are good but they will *NOT* get to their target "immediately". They are actually quite slow projectiles, and energy weapons or other kinetic weapons can kill a ship before the Neutron balls hit their target, even if they're being fired after the Neutron Launchers. This can be used to your advantage, for instance having something that depletes shields even if it's slightly shorter range, depending on the speed of the ship and weapon type of course. This way your balls of Neutrons will reach their targets after their shield is gone, to optimize damage. Then, if you did everything perfectly, the shield-depleting weapon will have a new target before it fires again; a target with a shield; as the previous target was destroyed by the Neutron balls. End-game, in a Federation large-ship-only setup for instance, I have 50/50 Carriers/Battleships and 50/50 Carrier-Battleship/Titan ratio. Then spam Carrier/Battleships once Titans are maxed. X weapon is Gigacannon, L weapons are Neutron Launchers, and I could probably swap even 1 L per Battleship to be shield depleting or even Void Beam! The best way to learn is just to observe countless of battles and what happens. Corvettes and Destroyers are kind of obsolete late game but also not. They're fantastic fodder and cheap replacements, to soak up damage that MAY kill your large ships otherwise. I would NEVER run a large-ship only fleet without plenty of Strike Craft. Corvettes and Destroyers are more effective than Strike Craft against enemy small ships/same class ships. However Strike Craft do have the benefit of being a _weapon_ and based off of something that doesn't die. Large ships are without comparison the best to take out star bases and do bombardment.

[@isaacsteele7986]

the video no one else bothered to make properly. Learned alot!

[@stephenmcorby]

As a new player, all of your videos have been such a huge help. Thanks for your content!

[@clashthegamer4873]

This actually helped out a lot, I finally understand all of the stats

[@aapee565]

One design you might want to add to your battleships repertoire is the good old 4-2-2 (tacyon + 2 kinetic artillery + 2 neutron launchers). I dismissed it myself initially after the latest weapons overhaul (2.0 was it?), as I figured that the giga cannon would be better due to the anti-shield weapon having the longest range, and thus striking first. However, I saw some fleet battle simulation discussions on the paradox forums, and they had tested and found out that the 4-2-2, on average, beat the giga cannon variant by a small margin. I have been using this design myself recently, and can say with confidence that it is just as powerful as the other variants, if not more powerful. I personally like it, because it allows me to get endgame weapons fast through physics research, which tends to be easier to get than engineering. Because of this, by the time giga cannons pop up on my reasearch options, I already have maxed out fleets up and running. Of course, I need to still find kinetic artillery, but that one tends to come by faster than the giga cannon. As for why exactly it is more powerful than the other designs, my best guess is the tachyon simply having a bit better %-bonuses or stats than the giga cannon.

[@Stefan_Anon]

The main advantage of using only neutron launchers is that you need less tech prerequisites and it is slightly more favorable to endgame repeatable (I would spam the energy repeatables in physics, but focus on minerals production for engineering)

[@nickmiller9599]

I generally use missiles and disruptors (and cloud lightning when possible). Enemy ships are dead pretty much immediately.

[@jelmer3075]

This is what i have been waiting for

[@sylance777]

This is a great video! I'm going to watch it again and take notes... so much good info.

[@joshi111222333]

Hello, I just have a question regarding the usability of strike crafts. I was using them in the late game against the crisis (x10) pretty successfully. Idea was that my psyonic shields get pushed to the max by teching +5% repeatable shield technology. Since my physics research was blocked I only had engineering for weapons and since I knew that kinetic sucks compared to energy I got my strikecrafts to the max. In the end my 250 size fleets of 1 titan and the rest battleships had a fleetpower of 800k and with 10 of them I was rolling over the crisis. Now I´m in the middle of my x25 crisis strenghts play through and a bit confused if my approach is optimal. I play at 0.75 tech cost so the repeatable techs can easily reach 50+ for shields and 30+ for the 2 weapon techs. The repeatable tech for strikecrafts gives a 10% bonus instead of the 5% bonus of weapon tech. I also thought that might add up. Anyone has an opinion on this setup?

[@vielleicht6023]

Omg I was looking for a video like this for a long time :))

[@bbacher95]

Thanks for this! FYI: "bow", the front of a ship, rhymes with cow or sow. It's not "bow" like a bow and arrow.

[@Araghos]

Except it's bow (on a ship) as in cow, but it's sow as in bow (and arrow) xD

[@bbacher95]

Or sew

[@Drllp]

3:00 nice

[@RobBCactive]

In 2.7: Only third tier Hangar craft prove on amoeba flagella. Also on Torpedoes vs Missiles, you have to check stats, the higher tier missiles nearly match torpedo dps but with decent evasion, longer range are swifter, delivered from short range many will evade all PD, opening opportunities for good hangar craft, which the AI rarely counters with FLAK. As the video states, hull damage reduces combat power. Personally I find most fleets fail in one hard counter area, so a mix which is then adjusted during a war is ideal. Don't worry about the exact weapons, you have 4 kinds, guided and anti shield/armour/hull. Later in game, fleets have great shield/armour so it's absolutely wrong to say disruptors, missiles and arc emitters are not effective (in fact later Stefan contradicts himself). They do do less dps but direct to hull, which reduces enemy offensive power with decent tracking, the variability of damage means enough hits guarantee a % of blown hulls with debris to scan. Losing battles against FE/AE are fine when they leave to repair and an escorted science ship can gain tech. Forcing repairs slows the enemy down, which means their doom stack cannot counter fast non capital ship secondary fleets which wage economic warfare. Arc emitters ARE anti-hull, the problem with disruptors is the purely the lack of an L version, later if you beat the Unbidden with emitter/disruptors you gain a weapon which obsoletes plasma and neutron launchers. This video fails to mention force disparity, which can give long range ships fire rate bonus before fleets engage, when a swarm of CTs a week or so behind arrive and with missiles send a volley of guided at a fleet with degraded PD. Again you want carriers to force fleet engagement at v. long range. Without the enemy can slip away reaching the hyperlane avoiding a lost battle. Hangar craft act as FLAK/PD too, the focus on battle ship with neutron launchers is misplaced. Titans, artillery ships (including DDs) are very effective against that type of ship and their long range weapons fail to counter that 2nd wave CT swarm. This Ultimate Guide is incomplete despite the authoritative delivery AND all info is subject to change. Quite often my Fed build fleets have proven themselves super deadly in game, despite being less balanced. They exploit more AI fleets lack of counters or reliance on lasers/kinetic.

[@owlthemolfar4690]

Thank you for the guide! Finally a video after which I do not need to restart the game!

[@papasmurf2266]

I've been thumbnail baited! Not that I'm complaining since I actually need this guide.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

And there was me thinking simply getting the tech and upgrading at shipyards was all I needed to do..........

[@siedzihector9938]

It's nice to fit L Could Lightning on Battleships with Focused Arc Emmiters.

[@alexanderormwiklund]

I have found a great use for the xeno, we clear all their memories and limit their free will basically turning them into servitors and then we integrate them in fighters so we can get organic/mechanic pilots without using our own population.

[@hoovertesla1442]

But then the pilots will be subpar and unable to purge more xenos. We just purge ALL of the xenos.

[@Albertosn3]

Hmmmm either having the best crew for ships by getting the best species in the galaxy to pilot them or have no qualms about throwing the lives of a crew away because their lives were worthless by the fact that they are xenos... Tough choice. Perhaps just get the flagship to be manned by good people and just have everything else be run by xenos.

[@hoovertesla1442]

@@Albertosn3 xeno lives are fine to waste, it's the alloys to build the ships that get expensive.

[@TheLoneTerran]

I can never make myself play the 'meta' builds. I love mixed fleets. And after combat, looking at the combat log and seeing a couple hundred strikecraft and missiles destroyed by PD just feels good. Plus, a lot of the appeal of battle is the visual aspect, at least for me, so weapon mixing is a must. Gigantic 'fuck off' lasers, artillery pounding away while autocannons, plasma, and a mixture of XL Gigas, Lances, and Arcs make for a compelling light show. My only real wish change to combat is the Neutron Launcher. I'm not a huge fan of something doing that much damage with no travel time as it deprives us of an interesting light show. Either make it a super torpedo like the picture suggests it is, or change the animation. I'm in Stellaris for the huge 'woosh, crikey, kapow!' battles. Steamrolls can be fun, and ya gotta go meta for MP, but SP, all about the mixed fleets, just like IRL wet navies. =)

[@MEUAR]

Okay so this is gonna be heretic talk right here but GO FULL LASER. I've used a build I've refined from my first games on, it has never disappointed. Start with lasers S M L, rush neutron launchers and switch to that (the raw dmg, precision, range and immediacy of hits is what you're after), gradually build only L-equipped ships until you can get the battleships. Equip them with tachyon lances first, then switch to arc emitters asap. Do you best to acquire every possible source of range bonus, maximize accuracy (2 auxiliary fire-controls) and boost up tracking as much as you can. With everything (and a bit of luck) you'll reach 50+, enough to deal even with corvettes (titan buff, tachyon sensors, enigmatic decoder if RNGesus's on your side, etc.). Then, with a Juggernaut and its buff, you can snipe entire fleets and stations the moment you enter a system, but above all, before said fleet can even get in range to retaliate. Focus your tech on energy weapons firerate and you'll get more salvos in before the enemy can even engage. Keep up with energy damage too to get the most out of neutron launchers for these times when things go up close and personal, and to maximize the first arc emitters volleys' casualties. For your defense: only shield and hull, no armor. Headhunt for admirals that boost hull points (Unyielding) and/or range too (Cautious), with battleships you'll get the most out of these percentages. Corvettes won't do enough dmg to take you down, capital ships won't even be allowed to reach you. When you're nearing (very) late game, if your tech's solid, you can even switch to full bypassing L weaponry (cloud lightning). Since energy damage tech scales but hull doesn't, they'll get progressively more efficient than even neutron launchers. How much more so will depend on your research output. 1 titan each fleet for the buff, all battleships, 1 juggernaut that accompanies your main strike force, get on and steamroll.

[@andriyvasilchenko3783]

All this for the finish of the game. The guid for intragame decisions is required.

[@Arthutstut641]

There is also another cool design that I call the Void Emmiter. Battleships with only arc emmiters and void lightinings and a spice of rapid deployment war doctrine. Before 2.6 it was already very efficient, but then they added the juggernaut, that can give you more weapons range on these ships. Combining a titan to give more accuracy to the battleships and these things wreck fleets before they can even get close to you. The thing here is giving these weapons as much range and hit chance as possible.

[@Stefan_Anon]

It's a good, cheap build. Its only problem is that you require space alien tech and cloud lightning is not particularly good up until the endgame.

[@evolgrinz3202]

I always run no retreat, that 33% fire rate bonus is pretty great, even more so when stacked with other fire rate bonuses. My war philosophy is that you don't need to retreat from dead enemies :)

[@Stefan_Anon]

No retreat only works if you already have a massive FP advantage. It will backfire massively if your fleets would normally be weaker or about the same.

[@rhebelrhouser2813]

That’s my philosophy as well, no retreat no surrender.

[@GewalfofWivia]

Pesonally I spam strike craft cruisers/battleships and point defense destroyers and have been completely ignoring the guided and kinetic weapons research in all my runs lately, that is, not even researching the first tech in those trees. It works wonders. For weapons in the engineering tree, beelining for strike crafts is the most efficient use of engineering research imho; in the early game you can get basic strike crafts for 3000 research, improved for 6000 and advanced for 12000 with no other pre-requisites iirc. I also never have to run into the repetitive techs for guided weapons and kinetic weapons that I really wouldn't be able to want/afford to research anyway.

[@StephenSlavin1]

Great expansion to your original series. I've been running around with loads of strikecrafts in the late game and wondering why it's not working... now I know.

[@Sn3k_G4ming]

auto-cannon torpvettes are actually really useful because the torps destroy the armor while the auto cannon rips through the shields and when they are done they go straight for the hull since the armor is gone

[@mharmless2]

Hull modules are good on 90% evasion corvettes, it gives them enough health to actually be able to disengage frequently when they do get hit. Their possible shield and armor pools are so low that they wont let it take any more hits than a full hull setup, and without hull modules your corvette is likely to be killed outright before dropping under 50% hull once shields/armor are down.

[@partingofthecelery8504]

Great video m8! Thank you for the tips! Some parts were a bit difficult to follow, but I know you try to keep things brief. Also, just in case 5,000 people haven't already informed you, lol, your twitch link still has "anon" spelled as "annon". Cheers!

[@kaydens6964]

At the start I take two types of corvette 50/50 split one with flak and the other missiles upgrade to torpedoes as I feel strike craft is the main problem instead of missiles they have evasion mainly for that. Destroyers are primarily for pd Defense and intercept enemy corvettes for the backline. Cruiser is the primary missile ship with medium weapons, while battleships being artillery with one slot for strike craft. Each fleet gets ship ratio roughly based on the command point but more destroyers less corvettes (pure torpedo or swarm). With couple(based on how many main fleets I got) pure flak corvettes rapid deployment fleets that don’t reach command cap to deal with piracy and train up new admirals. So far it works great for me both on gameplay and role play.

[@andrewzmarlak8267]

Just an additional thing ive noticed about the weapon range buffs, once I hit endgame and fight the Prethoryn Scourge specifically I usually take my destroyers out and use only battleships with as much range as possible and some carriers and point defense corvettes set to stay with the battleships to protect them from the scourges op swarm strikers. With as many range buffs as I can get, I put my fleet at the very far end of a system opposite of where I think a scourge fleet will come from, this enables me to usually defeat a fleet three times my size with only moderate losses as the Prethoryn are some of the slowest enemies in game.

[@1Maklak]

I make a few of my Battleships per fleet Carriers. They get a big weapon at the front, middle section with two Hangars and the tail section with two Medium weapons. This doesn't impact the power of my fleets much, while giving them much higher engagement range and more defence against smaller ships. These super-carriers have much better survival chance than Cruisers and cost about the same per Hangar. Their biggest downside is that after every jump, the entire system gets pulled into the fight, which is pretty bad for clearing mining drones, amoeba breeding grounds, etc. I like mixing anti-shield and anti-armour weapons on the same ship, just to chew through anything. I even put different X-gun on line battleships and carrier battleships. But your X-giga-cannon for first anti-shield hit and 4 Neutron Launchers sure looks good. Wow, putting a Neutron Launcher on a Destroyer is nuts and not really cost-effective. Destroyers tend to die faster than Corvettes in late midgame. As a regenerative hull tissue addict, I like to put repair system on the Titan, just to replace all the RHT on smaller ships with Thrusters or something. I prefer Gale Speed Admirals and Rapid Deployment doctrine. It's a pretty large galaxy and I want all the speed I can get. For a build that bypasses Shields and Armour, all the components should do just that, from X-weapons, through Strike Craft and Torpedoes to Disruptors. This is especially effective against Fallen Empires and Psionic Horrors.

[@vvbr2372]

Oh yea i know about ship designs *spam battleships with kinetic battery* its not much but its honest work (I know its a dumb way to make a ship but its pretty)

[@cyruslupercal9493]

Evasion doesn't subtract from accuracy. It sets a maximum accuracy cap (100- evasion%).

[@danielchoritz1903]

no test fights are prob the reason for his advice. 12 bc with trickster and 12 with no retreat and repeated engage until dead of one side. pretty sure no retreat wins. 33% is huge, because you lose ships before they are shooting back. and lose even faster ships after that.

[@123boy125]

and here I've been running no retreat on my exterminator campaigns, it's pretty fun role play wise atleast.

[@mysticdueler8979]

Question: do you have any insight into how the ships “decide” what to attack? I remember a few patches ago there was a problem with mixing different weapons. I think the example was battleship with a mix of kinetic and energy weapons; since they had different ranges, the targeting script would default to the longer range, which was usually kinetic back then. After the first volley, the enemy shields would be basically stripped, but rather than focusing down the same target it would re-target to the next ship with the highest amount of shields (since it was favoring the kinetic weapons). This essentially wasted the potential of the energy weapons, and with high enough engagement numbers, gave the shields enough time to recharge. Ever since then, I’ve split my ships to only have one weapon type, and build equal numbers for both. I.E. a corvette swarm with 50 ships would have 25 kinetic-only ships and 25 energy-only ships. I feel like this does more concentrated damage. Unfortunately, my computer has been out of action for almost a month (power issues), so I have no way of actually testing if this assumption still holds true. I would love to hear your input.

[@stoneodin2288]

I’ve been building different ships for different things mostly based on the combat roles.

[@CornBredCrusader]

Spamming only battleships with X and L class weapons means that if your enemy is smart and flood you with his evasion corvettes, your battleships will get overrun because they cant hit anything. In my experience, corvettes are scout/skirmishing craft, with their speed and evasion allowing them to pin enemy fleets. Destroyers are support craft, in that you can use them as dedicated picket craft. Cruisers are capital ships before battleships come into play, after which point they become "ships of the line" where you basically use them as carrier craft and as body blockers for you battleships. Battleships are capital ships. Titans are ultra capital ships meant to buff your fleet.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

@1:05 that's news to me actually, but meh Hull ships (tbf I like the self healing full Hull variety)

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Hmm. Interested in building a counter calculator now. Optimum counter to a ship type with suggestions. Possibly with a field for your current ship design.. plenty of ideas there.

[@Santisima_Trinidad]

@@ChaoticNeutralMatt so, say, if I designed a cruiser which focused on strike craft, and thus had a fair bit of point defense, had high shields and armor, but low hull, and let's say 2 shield capacitors for extra shields, the generator would come up with ships that used point defense, cloud lightning, and presumably focused on armor as strike craft ignore shields but deal less damage to armor.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

@@Santisima_Trinidad Something along those lines, wouldn't be amiss, yes.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Never did get around to it, although cost REALLY should be a factor.

[@dzejrid]

I'd love to see a similar guide for defence platforms for those of us that like to turtle.

[@Geesaroni]

The guide to defense platforms is pretty simple actually: Don't. No evasion and no disengagement means they'll die in droves with every fight. Your alloys are almost always better spent on ships.

[@deanthelis5578]

The bit at 03:25 or so is HUGE. You can lose entire battleship fleets to tiny groups of max-evasion corvettes. As in, a fleet of battleships against an equal number of corvettes at the same tech level will often lose because they can't hit more than 5% of the time. Worse than that, you can end up in a stalemate, where the corvettes can't overcome your battleships' shield regeneration, but also can't kill the corvettes, forcing you to emergency-FTL just to end the battle (or build your own corvettes with autocannons and send them in).

[@Cobaltate]

I would be partial to kinetic artillery/cannons getting extra hull damage in an update. Their only selling point is "not terrible against shields and some hull damage".

[@Stefan_Anon]

Yeah, lasers are nearly always better.

[@chrisolson1438]

No retreat with devastators will cause a high disengagement and weaken the enemy fleet quicker. There will be less benefit to repair as full shields and armour are intact. The added annoyance is a retreat will set you back to your home territory.

[@SebHaarfagre]

If you time it right and manage to get Void Beams pretty early, then mix those with Plasma weapons You will absolutely *MELT* anything and everything you meet - being "normal" AI enemies of course. Or a few select Leviathans. The Void Beams and Plasma weapons can also be great VS Fallen Empires as many of them will have even more Armor AND shield than actual Hull points. That, plus the Battlecruisers and Escorts aren't that good VS Corvettes, which you can outfit with these. Same goes for Grey Tempest of course. However, once AI starts spamming balanced fleets - meaning big AND small ships - then you should refit to something else or build your own balanced fleets while retaining some of these Corvettes/Destroyers/Weapons to deal with enemy small-medium craft. An occasional Void Beam is not too bad at any point in the game considering it has massive range for its weapon type and with a good setup it can act as the shield depleter if you need one and its accuracy is also fantastic and has quite good tracking. Once you have T3 Autocannons then they should stand for most of your picket ship output.

[@RusAres]

Really nice, thanks for the informative video. Although it would be nice to also mention the best fleet compositions.

[@EricLidiak]

On Auxiliary, I prefer regen over afterburners. Until I have titans or a juggernaut, it really helps my setup to avoid losing ships, or having to run home for repairs.