A TERRIBLE 3.7 Stellaris Weapons Tier List

A TERRIBLE 3.7 Stellaris Weapons Tier List
How do Weapons compare to each other in Stellaris? This Stellaris Weapons Tier List video will answer your questions!
My Patreon: / strategiser
Edited by ‪@harinion‬, Main Channel ‪@Strategiser‬
0:00 Intro
0:57 Basic
3:53 Advanced
7:28 Missiles
10:07 Point Defenses
10:53 Event
14:15 Archeotech
#stellaris

[@Strategiser2]

This took ONE Month to make... Help me make more by Supporting me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/Strategiser

[@GulagFrienduwu]

4:40 is that music from frostpunk?

[@Strategiser2]

yes!

[@ruukinen]

So where can I read about the meta which informs these tier decisions? Assumptions about the fleet compositions are what make large slots weapons bad. I understand it's because of torpedoes that deal extra damage to them, but are torpedoes worth it to run against smaller ships or is this just a "if the opponent has intel on you/has the time to refit you are in for a world of hurt"?

[@Regunes]

@@ruukinen They're mostly up to strat, but he usually use peer advices and hang in very proficient discord. So yeah, if Strat stays it's good, it's at best a tier above/under, nothing major. -edit: he rated the bubble weapon too low tho, the Cordileptic drone civic makes it very strong.

[@ruukinen]

@@Regunes Sure, but I want to read about the meta around this tier list since I don't have the context to know why something was placed somewhere on the list. For obvious things like PDs being woefully undertuned and downright buggy, I understand that it's bad -> because it just is. But something that looks reasonable is at best C tier here and I want to understand why.

[@Rurumeto]

Imagine 1 year ago telling a chadcannon + neutron launcher player that they would be dethroned by torpedo + disruptor users.

[@kylevernon]

Exactly what just happened to me.

[@kainwittrig2180]

I’ll be honest I don’t like the Mets at all man it the disruptor torpedo cruisers I have don’t actually kill the ships they just force disengagement all the time which leads to tons of battle where I don’t kill a single ship but I win and it’s frustration but my artillery battleships tear apart fleets and cause war exhaustion I just have a hard time seeing this as Mets especially when no retreat exist

[@bastos95ful]

​@@kainwittrig2180If you play defensive end it is especially useful if you have a fallen empire, hive mind or advanced empire next to you.

[@caelestigladii]

People beware: this is mostly catered for mp. AI ships still use a lot of shields.

[@robguy8501]

This is true but also keep in mind that armor now provides more hit points than shields of the same size and tier so even AI ships will almost always have more armor than they have shields. So you'll still tend to get more value from anti-armor weapons than anti-shield.

[@perrytran9504]

@@robguy8501 I definitely see more shield slots than armor when used by AI. They even throw on shield capacitors almost all the time as their aux slots.

[@vgalis]

Yeah, my single player experience says that auto-cannons are broken OP compared to everything else. Then again, my ships are all significantly faster than the AI's. Maybe if I committed to not using any short range weapons and I tried kiting, I wouldn't have any and they wouldn't get to use theirs instead of the current situation where both sides shoot eachother point blank. Torpedoes are hot garbage because of their short range. The AI's will never reach my battleships, and me fielding some just means sacrificing whatever cruisers they're on.

[@perrytran9504]

@@vgalis I also find torps underperform against AI, mostly because they field so many small ships to an irrational degree. FEs which have bigger ships have way too much point defense for torps to get past either.

[@JoViljarHaugstulen]

​@@vgalis "Yeah, my single player experience says that auto-cannons are broken OP compared to everything else." They are also great for inflating your numbers to give you more diplo weight and making the AI more willing to become your subject and stay loyal

[@troller9838]

One way the devs could change Energy Siphon is to make them actually siphon energy and add it to your ships shields. If the ship that is siphoning is already at full shields then a nearby friendly ships shields will be refilled instead. This could combo well with a fleet build that only runs penetrating weapons like disruptors or torpedos etc. Basically becoming a vampire fleet build.

[@Strategiser2]

that's actually a really cool idea

[@Apple_Apporu]

It also makes it worth getting since energy siphons are pretty pointless

[@MagnorCriol]

That's the way I thought it was when I started playing. I was pretty disappointed when I realized it was basically worthless.

[@BravoMatthew]

Way, way back when I stared playing that's what they did based on description.

[@Thetechgeek2100]

When I first started playing Stellaris back in 2018, I thought that's how these weapons worked, and thus loved to use them thinking that way. Only to find out that it was very much not the case and stopped using them promptly. I mean, like, it's literally IN THE NAME, Energy "Siphon", if maybe they added an energy cost per ship tied to the reactor, making long term battles costlier for ships with less energy surplus, but instead the energy siphon (and other possibly new weapons they could add) would negate that, allowing you to run ships with just barely positive net energy. I think that'd be a cool idea for the future, similar to how supplies/oil works in HOI4 or energy in any other space game with ships like SPAZ.

[@justgoodvibes1500]

You forgot to mention how powerful disrupters and nano missile cloud launchers are against fallen empires. Also I am genuinely afraid of crisis empires now. They used to be just a meh level threat before I knew the minor artifact cost was 0 for menacing ships.

[@Strategiser2]

i mean crisis empires were strong before...now they're genuinely unstoppable if the galaxy doesn't work together lmao

[@VORASTRA]

​@@Strategiser2 or you can help them :)

[@silveredgamer6893]

​@@Strategiser2 had a devouring swarm become the crisis. Literally took the entire galaxy 20 years to stop them.

[@Dreagostini]

@@VORASTRA like "I don't need to win, I just need you (all) to loose!" energy.

[@VORASTRA]

@@Dreagostini when you have fallen empire with your ethic, it's not bad to help them win in war in heaven

[@DasIstJacob]

I was confused when weapons in stellaris got reworked, but after watching this video I am now even more confused than I was before.

[@Strategiser2]

LMAO

[@vpliskin3590]

Autocannons S Tier in psychological warfare It inflates your fleet power so much : with 15k alloys year 2230, I have 25k fleet power missiles/torpedoes, or 40k fleet power autocannons/plasma. Great for freaking out neighbors and getting free vassals.

[@Strategiser2]

that is true, but their combat power is questionable lol especially when armor got significantly buffed

[@topsnek1375]

​@@Strategiser2 Man, my dumbass was using autocannons just for the reason until I started getting crushed by weaker fleets and was wondering what the fuck was happening

[@Bluewolf128x]

For anyone reading this later on, note that the insane fleet power inflation Autocannons gave (x3 above intended) got fixed in patch 3.8.3!

[@Al-.-ex]

@@Bluewolf128x lol thanks!

[@shards7992]

A note. Silas proved that flak/pd have NO target prioritization. So if you are using my carrier design (hangar core rather than carrier, only carrier front) with 7 swarmer's and 2 strike craft per: you are almost guaranteed to negate pd damage to the missiles as each pd has to target randomly between 7 missiles and 16 strike craft. And that's only the first wave. Since they stick with the same target until it dies or leaves range, which advanced strike craft basically never will. Essentially strike craft eventually negate pd.

[@Strategiser2]

WHAT, no way... so they're actually worse than i thought lmao alrighty people that see this, please put down the PD/Flaks 1 Tier BELOW what was shown in the Video...

[@feron_ve]

I wish event weapons are more useable, it feels like most issues with event weapons are the same as the previous tier list.

[@Strategiser2]

yep, unfortunately they didn't get changed much or at all...

[@michaelwong426]

Consider: ESC Next

[@loafofbread9400]

1 day till mining drill and energy siphon will be S tier

[@RagnellAvalon]

"Thank you for coming to my ted talk on why Become the Crisis is banned"

[@CleverPolarBear]

20 minutes of listening to Spongebob talk about space weapons. A+

[@Astix213]

Nobody mentioning that fact that Cloud Lightning is a "space fauna" weapon so it could be buffed throu Cordyceptic Drones civic which makes it slightly better

[@mr.paperbag771]

Yeah just reading the stats, I couldn't see why it would be so inferior to matter disintegrators. But then again, I haven't played Stellaris in a year, so...

[@JimmyMFP]

In no other game that I’ve ever played has an ‘upgrade’ made my asset weaker. This is such a unique phenomenon to Stellaris 😂

[@mattjk5299]

Abilities in classic wow are similar. Yeah you get more damage but the mana cost makes them useless because as much as devs do try, sometimes they just don't anticipate what will actually happen in a real game.

[@airstorulthuan3702]

That Frostpunk OST Hits Hard.

[@losingluke]

never expected frostpunk ost and pvz ost to be in the same video

[@techpriestsalok8119]

Note: auto cannons are great if your enemy isn’t checking your ship designs as they make your fleet power insane. This is good vs ai or against players who can’t tell your bluffing. However if you are in pvp and don’t have great encryption they can be very disappointing.

[@vgalis]

They're also good against AI because the AI still uses shields. As long as you have something else to break through armor as you close to range, they're still great because of the absurd base damage and bonus hull damage.

[@antontribelgorn3641]

I stopped playing stellaris months ago but this is still epic content, I remember the olden days back when i could make some battleships with neutron launchers and vaporize the enemy in seconds edit: oh god the ships use actual strategy now?

[@zackyputrawahyudi2759]

Yes its rock paper scisor now

[@OneBiasedOpinion]

Yeah artillery death balls no longer work. They all actually obey the range requirements of their weapons and battle computers now, meaning that you have to actually plan around their movement patterns.

[@briannaherrington949]

If only schools taught lessons and did lectures in this style, hahaha. I love this sort of content, thanks! I'll refer to this video specifically if I need to rank my available weapons in a game

[@robinwoodack2236]

It’s hard to compare weapons that come at different stages of the game on different slots. Especially with the computer targeting priority rework. Disruptors or swarm missiles are S tier in the sense that they have a huge window of opportunity. But they can be crushed later pretty easily. The main issue is that counters are not in the same tech tiers mainly due to flak PD being inefficient. A massive buff to PD and a lower tier proton launcher would alleviate the need of BB artillery mid game.

[@lilstarjester3927]

Something I had just found out two days ago is that if you're a scholarium you can get the preythorion scourge strike craft from caches

[@Mr_Metro]

I haven’t played stellaris in a bit and I figured this could help me learn the new weapon meta I feel like a scared old man, fearful of new technology

[@superskrub4209]

Same, but I'm happy I can finally use something other than neutron BBs after a few years

[@brettsadzewicz1760]

@@superskrub4209 I never bought into the neutron BBs... I always stood firm by Tachyon, Kinetic + Plasma BB's, Kinetic + Plasma Cruisers, Half Kinetic+plasma destroyers & Half PD+antifrig destroyers, then Full PD/dogfighting frigate screens. In perfect mathematical ratios of 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers & 8 frigs per every BB. It hasn't failed me yet (granted I haven't played in this new update yet) Edit: I will also point out that this force structure is designed to do one very specific job- Kill all shields and as many of the enemy as possible through sheer kinetic dakka before the plasmas get into range to mitigate enemy force impact - then for the destroyers & frigs (mostly frigs) to be cannon fodder while plasma dakka is added to the mix to shred the enemy. Scouting is KEY for this tactic- as starting an engagement in close range is the death of your fleet.

[@OneBiasedOpinion]

Same. I kinda understand it because I learned about the damage boosts to various weapons vs different ship sizes beforehand, but it’s still intimidating. Like, Disruptors are now the pinnacle of weapon tech??? What??!

[@jonthomasmisevicz1833]

Was not expecting the Frostpunk music

[@dwaffles]

Strat, unironically this is a really useful breakdown of each weapon. Have not played Stellaris in over a year and this is quite a bit different from the previous "meta" and applications for weapons are different.

[@SlayXemnas]

Strat making a tier video. Stellaris devs: "And I took that personally."

[@Lothyde]

Really nice video, will you do one for other ship components as well?

[@SirVakari]

Frostpunks OST does the work.

[@silveredgamer6893]

Thanks. Solid list, long-time player. it's still hard for me to believe that disruptors are actually good now.

[@bagelbob8219]

Gonna do a reverse psychology and fit all my ships with shields in multiplayer

[@ktoma36]

Dont forget you can get tier four auto cannons and flak batteries from defeating the scavenger bot, if you got one near your system early game you can skip the lower tier techs and jump strait to them. The system that the scavenger bot is in also provides a small trickle of nanites as well

[@BierBart12]

This man got a personal vendetta against Bubbles

[@evansarver2989]

Thanks for the video, super cool and informative! but me and my friends just play way to casually to min max all our ships. we still use psionic shields or the shield aux buffs. hell.. I often still just use rail guns and plasma.

[@rubrub3104]

Thought my playlist was still playing in the background,

[@JigAtTheFuneral]

I'l be honest: I didn't expect to get hit with The City Must Survive.

[@delivererofdarknessshoguno1133]

Glares have the same range as art so technically if you want your titans to actually use all their weapons, glares are actually pretty good. This is pretty much a choice between safer titans or more firepower.

[@Markusuk08]

Glad you're Back

[@pimpabootejettanut122]

You end the video very cool... also thank for weapon tier - looking to return to game for sometime now, so gonna need to relearn how to make a good ship... again.

[@Keandros]

Frostpunk OST "The City Must Survive" in the background?! He timed the most hyped part of the song perfectly with the SS tiered missles! Gigachad!

[@paulpriglinger4154]

I love how ancient macrobatteries are just straight up IoM macrobatteries.

[@user-dr6bc4jc8y]

My man out there quietly putting "The city must survive" as background thinking we wouldn't notice, well played

[@St4rTr3v1Ut10n]

16:22 This is unequivocally the funniest moment of the Home Alone series, thank you Strat, for including it. I love you.

[@incognito-px3dz]

The thing about the void beam is that its an energy weapon anti-shield. When all energy weapons are usually anti-armour, its not really relevant till super late game but if u r spamming energy weapon repeatables it might be useful

[@natsafualbs971]

I heard a while ago, that the disrupter is amazing, expect that it sucks. It does little damage even to the hull, and it's only strength comes from triggering disengagement. You end up losing more ships then the opponent even when they all are forced to disengagement. But the major counter to them is no-retreat, since you don't have the emergency ftl you'll outdps the opposing ships and end up killing almost all of them.

[@magicalchicken5667]

It doesn't matter much that it does "small" damage, that damage bypasses armor and shields entirely, removing a big chunk of hit-points that other weapons would have to get through before hitting the hull, in addition to hull damage in the game reducing fire rate just as a cherry on top.

[@MoeHasubandoAbsolver]

Arc emitter on carrier battleships is actually quite strong. Fighters count as bypass weapons too, yk.

[@user-vv2yz2ht4l]

6:58 you actually can make a battleship with 4 M slot disruptors in the middle and don't put the fighter if you didn't research it.

[@iech0526]

I like how the Frostpunk OST is just being played in the background

[@reclaimer7787]

Great vid, I love your sense of humor

[@DontKnow-hr5my]

Disruptors, Void Cloud Lightning and the Arc Emitter do scale with Energy Damage and fire speed aswell right? So eventually with enough repeatables these weapons become the strongest ones in the later stages of the rage, since Armor and Shields will also keep scaling up but hull will not.

[@MaxTheFlyingCat]

Could you make a video to combat computers? As i kinda dont really get when to use Artillery, line or Picket. There are also Questions like "Do all of my guns even fire if they have different range and i use the Artillery one" or "is there and impact on functionality if i use different computers in teh same fleet". Would be appreciated

[@msorin74]

After hearing you talk about the nano missile cloud i already want the sequel to stellaris in 2 minutes

[@ObiwanNekody]

If you pick up the scavenger civic you can also bypass minor artifact costs on ships.

[@komet_13]

wow amazing video 😁 thanks

[@d4r1us58]

Goated KZbinr. I really enjoy your Video Style and Humor

[@Douglas-nt7jd]

I didn't know you could edit crisis ships

[@MrGoncalobraz]

That's my boi!

[@usernameunknown2823]

Could you do a video for ship designs against the AI? I’m not one for multiplayer as I like making my pops happy and role playing, so AI opponents are rampant for me

[@rsk-1337]

Just make disruptor corvettes they stomp everything except static defense For starbases/defense platforms just use naked carrier cruisers to take them out while your corvettes chill 1 system away Then work towards arc emitter bships to kill the FEs

[@TheGerudan]

Okay, thumbs up just for using the Frostpunk soundtrack.

[@homefront1999]

I to this day wish we can get a complete rework on how weapon slots work. So maybe instead of something like a Battleship only being able to have preset slots. Have it so a battleship has "2000" room on it. A large weapon would add something like '400' Giving you another 1600 room to add stuff. But if you wanted a Battleship that carries only S-Class weapons. Then you would have something like a '160' or '200' cost instead. But something like an X weapons slot would cost '600-800' pts. Then it would change per ship type. A Titan would be able to carry a lot more. Like 4000-6000, a Juggernaut around 8000. Corvettes would have something around 800 I imagine, Destroyers 1200, Cruisers 1600. Cause I really love the idea of a fleet of ships that can have specialties. Like if you wanted, you can make a Battleship equipped with nothing but missiles. I love the idea of specializing. Since Stellaris likes to follow a lot of Sci-Fi things. I can easily see a giant behemoth with nothing but the power of missiles as an actual ship in a fleet.

[@jinsu9004]

Finally a weapons guide in stellaris I can understand

[@kainwittrig2180]

Now I don’t normally like videos but this one will do

[@kazaaakplethkilik3229]

whats the music name on 0:24 ?

[@scifidino5022]

Wait what happened to shields? Last time I checked no one was putting armor on their ships?

[@wizard380]

What about the strikecraft that you get from the legendary paragon admiral the bird dude ??

[@Undeadsuccubus]

Thanks for the video. It would be nice to see update. As I get it this means mostly for multi-player purposes. What about single? Works the same?

[@Strategiser2]

yeah, basically the same thing applies for Singleplayer

[@callsigncarrot8742]

that frostpunk ost do hit different.

[@MyLifeIsAFrickingMess_MRPOLSKA]

Hearing THE CITY MUST SURVIVE while strat rambles on about nano missiles hits hard

[@lucasmarchezim881]

11:24 that hold up sound effect was so unexpected that i died laughing

[@Oroberus]

Is that the Kenshi OST in the background? Oo

[@LethalOwl]

Is this equally relevant in singleplayer? Hilarious video, well done.

[@Strategiser2]

yes, it is

[@LethalOwl]

@@Strategiser2 Wonderful :D

[@___.51]

They clowned neutron launchers HARD

[@fallensky7]

Hey one thing i never quite got when watching these various stellairs combat guides is: Is this meant to address human PvP play or representative of how the AI builds fleets. Like if i booted up the game now will the AI only be putting armor on their ships? Which meta is this discussing?

[@JimJamTheAdmin]

I always wonder that myself. Not that it matters, I use NSC with BSB and a few balance patches so these tierlists are always useless to me anyways.

[@magicalchicken5667]

It's focused on PvP, though a lot of stuff still applies. AI fleets are a lot more scattered/random and have builds that don't mesh well with each other. AI also likes shields a lot, so most of the top weapons get even better against them.

[@Illus1ongmr]

Thank you master strat, i will put this knowledge to good use

[@olivewooled1297]

I will not. :)

[@netoclips]

@strat does the AI follows this armor meta or is this just for multiplayer

[@Strategiser2]

AI is scuffed and it depends on their "Personality" look it up on the Wiki here: stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/AI_personalities it shows the AI Ship Composition depending on their "Type"

[@netoclips]

thanks! if possible do a ship formation tier list as for the period of the game is running (starter, early mid and late) would be a good help

[@unifiedhorizons2663]

my first question why ain't there point defend strike craft for carriers and bombers and fighters

[@lebronzium7306]

My man really using pvz theme song for the intro.

[@MysticalShadowDragon]

wait, missiles now only go on small slots? wherent there like a special missile slot before?

[@braincell4536]

I mean the ancient web slingers do wonders when equipped on picket destroyers with 2 flak batteries

[@djohawkeyes4776]

In one of my game i switched all my weapons on my fleets to Archo cannon,,,, i did not see that they missed 50%, now i get why i lost most of my fleets

[@Threeve703]

When you talk about the "meta," are you referring to multiplayer, or what the AI tends to do in a single player game?

[@hko2006]

18:52 music name?

[@reabin9x]

What if I still wanna use shield?? They regenerate faster!! So the antishield weapons still good?

[@Preaplanes]

Only one question: what does the Cordyceptic Drones civic do to the tier of Amoeba Flagella, Swarm Strikers, and Scourge Missiles?

[@Strategiser2]

hmmmm, hard to say probably up by 1 tier since the damage is increased so significantly

[@Preaplanes]

@@Strategiser2 That's about what I was figuring. Gratzi.

[@smile-tl9in]

A bit late, but federation fleet and custodian fleet have no upkeep. Mercenaries are also a good way to skip on upkeep. Meaning you can field the nano-missiles on the cheap.

[@TheGXDivider]

I've read somewhere on reddit that hardening parts for shields and armor are broken and don't work. Is that true ?

[@tomatoheadfd]

This man's got a wacky voice and I love it.

[@CyroTheSpider]

Wait, shield suck now? I feel very confused in this update.

[@Strategiser2]

indeed, armor got buffed by a WHOPPING 50% if Pre-Rework the armor was 1000, After-Rework it's now 1500

[@Rybakov22]

@@Strategiser2 After 3.6 there is rule of thumb: armour module of a certain level gives around the same hp as shield module of the next level, with change. Small armour lvl1 gives exactly the same as small shield lvl2, but small armour lvl2 gives as much as small shield lvl3, plus 5 HP.

[@Strategiser2]

​@@Rybakov22 true, this is the more specific answer, but the whole "armor has +50% effect this patch" is easier for new players to understand, since Neutrons got nerfed they're a really good option now

[@TheGXDivider]

Nanite autocannons on corvette swarm just slap.

[@hexPixelStarships]

Question: the crisis corvettes does not have the artillery computer, only the medium range one. When you arm them with the ancient swarm missiles, can they still kite the enemy at the max range?

[@Strategiser2]

no they cannot sadly

[@Duarte_GB]

Does anyone know a good place to see the meta shipbuilds based on patch?

[@desryntelvanni3105]

But like what's the song at the end. I want to listen to it while I murder the galaxy again.

[@potato88872]

Oh boi, another video about neutron launcher

[@user-ls7ld5sm2b]

10:50 unexpected Factorio soundtrack. Wow.

[@ticduck3735]

9:37 what is that sene from?

[@SephirothRyu]

What, no collosus weaponry, or Nicol-Dyson beam?

[@dinonuggets7148]

I did mining laser corvettes and they did a pretty good job chewing up the scourge, not optimized but not half bad either

[@isuckatusernames4297]

speaking of archeoengineer. is it an ap from the first contact dlc ? because I've never seen it appear in any of my games

[@Strategiser2]

it's from the Ancient Relics DLC

[@isuckatusernames4297]

@@Strategiser2 damn, guess I somehow keep on missing it.

[@funkyfox7996]

holy shit, this is the first tier list from stellaris that makes sense to me. thank you

[@SrVain]

Amazing

[@sanlivia9203]

What about the Ancient Weapon damage Ascension Perk? Makes the weapons a better tier, or its not worth it? What are the other bonuses that it says it gives overall?

[@alexkatc59]

Yes.

[@christopherhall5361]

autocannons on corvettes with afterburners, they're gonna be close range anyway, so unless they have corvettes kiting nothing can get away

[@Omega5729]

Man I love this tier list