Top 10 Intermediate Tips To Improve Your Stellaris Game

Max is back with our Top 10 Intermediate Stellaris Tips!
So you've played a few games of Stellaris, maybe met a "less than desirable" ending at the hands of the end game crisis, or maybe you've even come out on top! These are our Top 10 Intermediate-level tips to help you get your empire into a strong position for the impending Galactic Crisis.
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[@StellarisOfficial]

What would you consider your #1 "Expert-level" Stellaris Tip?

[@reflectivegaming9979]

Don’t go too far over your fleet capacity or it will crash your economy.

[@SidewalkTheory]

@@reflectivegaming9979 I'd reword it to 'Always go over your fleet capacity without crashing the economy.'

[@Solon1581]

Become a vassal(scholarium if you have overlord) and ask for maximum possible energy/mineral subsidies. Buy 100 minerals and sell 100 minerals on the markets and watch as your subsidies go up. Do it as many times as you can and use the insane amount of minerals to techrush while your overlords struggles to keep up.

[@TheRedKing]

Don't use autogenerated ship designs ;)

[@vpliskin3590]

Monthly trades. Market is probably the most used screen when you're min-maxing. You have to sell your excess resources and buy those you need, and with a monthly rate prices will go up and down slower.

[@TheNN]

I would say a very important thing, when it comes to your opponents: Watch where they are expanding (once you know their borders to do so). Because if they are generally expanding away from where you are, you can probably afford to take it easier when it comes to your own expansion, doubly so if you are friendly with the other empire. Otherwise if not, you should focus all your efforts on doing what you can to cut them off from further expansion. After all, even a single system could be used to deny them a whole star cluster, or specialty system useful for some sort of megastructure. Cuz if not, it means they might do the same thing to you.

[@cheeseslice6264]

thats why I always try to expand to the chokepoints and only then fill in the holes

[@Death2all546]

@@cheeseslice6264 don’t forget to either close borders or claim every system in the vicinity of the chokepoint system. I’ve had empires rush past the chokepoint to take a system right behind it.

[@AlexS-oj8qf]

I always try to create borders at bottlenecks

[@Citieskylines]

🤓

[@UnusualDeathCause]

Stellaris: "Every star system is unique" Also Stellaris: Has a grand total of 4 types and 99% of the time you fight in default systems xD

[@jacobp.2024]

This is what mods are for!

[@izayaorihara7059]

​@@jacobp.2024recommend some

[@lachlanp3365]

Hydroponics in every/most star bases it normally means you don't need to have farmers on planets.

[@user-if2tr4qu9o]

Tips level: "Press W to move forward"

[@bobbyflynn6352]

Truth

[@stevenhetzel6483]

Tips level: NPCs don't like it when you attack them!

[@DontWantAHandle]

Actually, it does not even work on an AZERTY keyboard… (given Stellaris had no real rebind capabilities, this is always a pleasure when returning to it)

[@FlavorsomeMusic]

some additional tips: Specialize your planets, you can change your planet's specialization in a dropbox on the right of your district/buildings view in the planet dialog, and you don't need to go to war with hostile neighbours, I've often changed things around with gifts and multiple improve relationship envoys. Having a defensive pact with another strong neighbour also really changes the deal for your hostile neighbour, and he might reconsider declaring war on you. I've also noticed getting many people into stellaris that it's not obvious that fortress worlds increase naval cap, so, make a world with lots of stronghold/fortresses if you need naval cap and have some pops to spare.

[@TheWorstshoe]

7:51 generally early game when every alloy matters I would recommend spending alloys to strengthen your fleet instead of spending part of your alloys on defensive starbase. situation can be different of course but in my experience just having the higher fleet as well as the flexibility of moving them is preferable

[@MaxTheCatfish]

Agreed! It really depends on the urgency of a defensive force. I find defense platforms to be your quickest, cheapest, best bang-for-buck defensive option **IF** you have a single defensible choke point between you and your aggressor. Especially because you often go to war in the early game against AI with only 20 naval capacity. For all other scenarios though, ships are the better option for sure. Just make sure you're defending chokepoints and any other entrances into your space - like wormholes.

[@hammyofdoom8355]

80% of the time, I don’t build a fleet. It’s unnecessary squeezing of resources. If I have a threat, I build a defensive starbase. Its been proven that EVERY single time a defensive platform fleet (properly designed) will outcompete any early game fleet anyone can send out. I only start building a fleet when I have my economy well and established, a good bit into the early game. Usually if there is a leviathan I have to kill.

[@folvenson]

There is always room to improve as a player, but I would also like to say that the developers have made the game a lot easier and convenient to play. There are defiantly still good things to micromanage for efficiency, but with the additions of automatic research in the late game, automatic surveying as a research option, and automatic construction Stellaris has become even more relaxing to play. Also after overlord the enjoyment of playing as a small, diplomatic, and powerful empire is even more fun. Work smarter, not harder having specialized vassals under your command or becoming a specialized vassal yourself.

[@funk8782]

WAIT IT WAS EVEN HARDER BEFORE?

[@whateverman111]

Automatic surveying no longer requires research, yay. Automatic construction is annoying - a construction ship from across the galaxy can claim building a station. But I agree with your sentiment :)

[@genericpinesol]

@@funk8782 honestly in my opinion it was way easier to stomp on other empires until they changed the meta a couple years back

[@tyrongkojy]

I never close my borders to "future rivals" because every time I think someone's going to be a rival they become my best friends, and that super friendly peaceful trader race? Oh yeah, total pain in the ass.

[@StellarisOfficial]

Haha, Stellaris truths right there!

[@hammyofdoom8355]

I’m 80% sure they have to have one hostile empire. I was friends with everyone, but like you said, a friendly trade empire declared rivalry on me. The only reason our opinions were negative, was because they rivaled me. Otherwise it would’ve been in the positives.

[@tyrongkojy]

@@hammyofdoom8355 And that just makes me want to have "friendly rivals" like when we, Canada, were "at war" with Denmark. Makes me want a mechanic for that. Sadly, I can see that being too abusable to have standard.

[@ericdias4199]

Amazing tips! TY

[@MrSsnowBalls]

Loved the video! Really wish there is another one in the future with Expert level tips.

[@StellarisOfficial]

Who knows? 😉

[@BiNumLi]

automation. this will help me play on Normal speed rather than slow with always pausing. thanks.

[@jonathangilbert7808]

Another great video, Max. In fact I knew all of these already! Does that mean I'm actually beyond intermediate? Hmmm. Next vid!

[@omgitsyoubaby]

Long one for just anyone who see its. Few tips I've picked up on my Stellaris journey which, whilst at almost 7000hrs in, would be more if I dont go thru stages of playing for months, stopping for months etc etc. Also this doesn't mean I'm any good at the game, and have never played multiplayer xD so, you can take what I say with a pinch of salt if you like :) Firstly, before starting, if, like me, you like to create nice choke points that you can stop other, neutral (for now!) npcs out of your way, consider playing on a spiral, 2 or 4 arm, with reduced hyperlanes. I play with 50% I think, on the slider? If you know, you know, I'm just not on my pc now to check proper names, sorry. 1) when the game starts, do not unpause. First, go to your ship creation and untick the box "Automatically generate new ships". The, go to the top most ship, clear design and save. Now, go to your 3- strong corvettes and "upgrade" them, ready for when we upause, to give you a couple hundred in Alloys back to help ease the first year or so, especially if you want to claim a few outposts early doors. 2) before unpausing, consider going into the trading screen for a moment too, to buy and sell a few extra things; I do as follows: Sell all 200 food right away, and sell all excess but 2 for now. Buy between 20 and 50 minerals per month, depends how much excess energy you'll have Buy between 2 and 4 of both Cons. Goods and Alloys fiddle around with these values if you like to micro manage hard the first couple months or so, until you have a net positive income on all resources, the highest of which you will need in the early months are minerals, alloys, and cons. goods to a lesser extent. The aim of all this is to give you a needed minerals boost without having to sacrifice your pops into becoming actual miners, so theyre then free to do more important jobs as your planet grows. 3) I always seem to take the Research(i think its called, not at my pc) branch of the unity tree, and take the One Vision perks first too. The 10% research from completing the research tree could be extended to 20% if you wish to take Technological Ascendancy, but taking the One Vision helps with unity production from the get go almost, and with unity being quite in demand if we compare older releases, I guess thats why I do it that way around. Probably a bunch of other tips that I just see as normal gameplay to myself, hehe. Good luck!

[@gatness]

I used to do tip 1 all the time myself. Now, since the unity rework, I've stopped doing it unless i have one of my guaranteed habitable worlds visible right at the start so that I can build a colony ship asap. Otherwise ive noticed an increase in early game hostile random events like asteroids the splinter sect or the probes, and with unity being the limiting factor on getting early science ships out to explore rather than alloys, with the one exception of a near immediate colony ship my starting alloy production can usually keep up just fine.

[@thomaslacroix6011]

I can't remember the last game I've officially "won"

[@StellarisOfficial]

Do you remember one you've lost? :D

[@thomaslacroix6011]

@@StellarisOfficial Shamefully enough, I tend to quit when the game displeases me, so I don't see the defeat screen very often

[@Fightsome64]

@@thomaslacroix6011 A fellow rage quitter i see :D

[@Leviathan56]

Yep, I tend to stop playing when Ive done what I wanted or taken over the majority of the universe, I get bored trying to finish off whatever is remaining

[@zackari]

My planets keep revolting on me.

[@KrisT-1]

They could write a collection of Stellaris thasurisis with all there is to learn in this game!(i had no idea at all that different stars have different effects on fleets!) I've been watching so many Stellaris tip vids and i've never seen most of of what i found learned here!thank you for the priceless info!

[@StarBoundFables]

Thanks for the advice 😄 I'm playing my 1st custom empire these days, called the 'Shreenamu Alliance' & we're pacifist, spiritualists who excel in trade + diplomacy 🖖🏽🌌

[@AdmiralTails]

3:25 Also consider not equipping those armor-only defense platforms with weapons that are good against armor and hull, and not Null Void Beams like we see here, which are extremely bad against both of these and only do good damage against shields.

[@andydragtstra4707]

Finally, a guide that is not 20 hours long and doesn't start off with explaining how to move the camera.

[@Xonem1]

Great video, consider to add few quality life mods that are achievement compatible

[@itzjustkris7964]

As cool as customizing a ship is it’s so annoying to do every single time you get a new tech

[@hanskelsen89]

Best game ever.

[@StellarisOfficial]

Best Community Ever!

[@ZeNex74]

I really need to sit with someone for a few hours and really learn the game. Years on and only played a few before game over 😢

[@guardianangel7589]

Strategic resources: I could be wrong, but wouldn't bytharian power plants also be considered strategic since not every planet has them and they tend to produce a good amount of energy?

[@afalbarros]

my laptop speakers. Any suggestions on what to do to get my soft back? I recently updated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[@hippycrit5125]

Instructions unclear made my entire empire rebel across each planet

[@Illuminat-ve5ue]

You are supposed to build empires only in intermediate? I have been doing that from the beginning! Might have also been the reason i have lost almost all of my earlier games

[@SwordOfJustice2007]

Has anyone here *ever* gotten enough intelligence to see enemy ship designs without building an empire specialising in espionage? No? I never have. A typical mistake from Paradox: make a game system with all this complexity that is just not useful in practical. IMHO the espionage system would be more useful if getting intelligence on enemy fleets were easier. Have you ever tried sabotaging an enemy starbase? That is also insanely hard and the benefit is marginal.

[@xxW3rn3rxx]

The Sentry Array Megastructure lets you see all Fleets in full detail. but its still not really worth it to act upon that information. and it comes quite late in the game too.

[@Raposa234]

I always lose to the final crisis.

[@JamesMadisonsSpiritAnimal]

So cool they used community leaders to make these

[@freaky1382]

best game of 2022 ez

[@QueensLumination]

The best tip is to get all the parts of the fleet back as soon as you start. 최고의 팁은 시작하자마자 함대 부품 전부 다 때어내서 합금 돌려받기.

[@chillypsi-2318]

Hab ihr auch Tips für die Performence wenn man nicht auf Winzig spielt

[@hyperretroactivehyperretro5992]

I’m losing. I always play machine. I never get enough fire power in my fleet. I’m building my own ships but I never have enough fire power. I might be over expanding.

[@user-gs6lg4gd3b]

I need a tip how to make multiplayer stop lagging. Me and my friends all bought a game to enjoy together but speed is so slow it becomes even slower then x1 after 20 in game years. Please do something

[@TheRedKing]

Lower pop growth settings is probably the way to go here

[@folvenson]

I heard that turning off L-gates helps a lot because it improves the AI path-finding.

[@EarliestGorgon]

It's based off the hosts computer strength. Network strength can also be an issue, mouse over the date in the top right to see what "day" each player is; if someone is lagging a day or two behind it's network is the limiting factor.

[@SacchieILU]

The host should go into the system map mode (but not a pulsar, black hole, or nebula) while idle because it greatly decreases processing speed. Also, try smaller maps. Ultimately the game moves as fast as the host allows. Your host should ideally be the one with the best computer

[@capacityseveneightseven26]

Turn off xeno compatibility

[@jayceegenocide4402]

I love this game on Series X

[@sebastiantrost6409]

Do I spy my favourite board game there? Forbidden stars rocks (As does stellaris which repeatedly makes a weekend vanish ^^)

[@MaxTheCatfish]

You do! Forbidden Stars is SO GOOD. I also just got my hands on Twilight Imperium 4th Ed. and love it. Space games are the best aren't they?

[@bobbyflynn6352]

These tips are more beginner level than intermediate.

[@neotower420]

what's crazy is you think you're learning how to be better at this game, then realize you've been selling things on the market and increasing the price yourself.. my forehead still kinda hurts from smacking it so hard.

[@CosmereInformant]

Did they change it? I thought Destroyers had the best anti-piracy

[@tstocleanyt6356]

I’m new but I’m not horrible one thing I don’t understand is empire sprawl how am I supposed to get big if I’m constantly over the sprawl

[@StellarisOfficial]

Sprawl is very much a soft cap, it just makes your empire less efficient the further over it you go.

[@NT-fq3bt]

Bro what is Stephen Kings son doing on KZbin

[@richbattaglia5350]

Let me stop you right there buddy. I’m not looking for meta. I’m looking at turning this strategy game into an RPG.

[@beaglebombergaming4117]

Same personally just roleplay it yk

[@tallaganda83]

It is a great game. At this point in 2023 how behind is the console version?

[@StellarisOfficial]

PC will update to version 3.8 tomorrow (May 9th), and console is on version 3.4, with more information about future releases coming in late summer/early fall.

[@cryptofacts4u]

It's fun to play video game where I'm basically using Bitcoin but with a different name lol

[@johnnydang8138]

I KNOW U I SEEN THIS GUY FROM ANOTHER VIDEO

[@sss-xj4ko]

this game is a pain in the ass

[@Kevin3dp]

These are tips for someone who never played the game. Not intermediate.

[@icefire5799]

thats not intermediate for but depending on the age requirement the game has it might still be valid

[@Nobody-pc7fq]

I recommend subjecting lots of weaker empires. It’s good for the economy and it’s less empires who have freedom that you have to worry about. Make their lives hell 😇

[@perikleshistory]

Step one debug_yesmen

[@reflectivegaming9979]

We have another 2 years until we have a possibility for getting mods on console don’t we?

[@whatever7240]

Are we just suppose to trust this self-proclaimed catfish?

[@MaxTheCatfish]

🧐🧐🧐 Yeaaahhh...who IS that guy?

[@quentinnoble6077]

Wait you need to be in ironman in order to get achievements?

[@valinra1289]

Add thumbnails please

[@konfuchie357]

These are beginner tips!

[@TrentLayell]

First comment for the algorithm! 😉

[@StellarisOfficial]

First reply for the algorithm! :D

[@HotSoupXeno]

Please make Lithoid trait removable for lithoids species.

[@salemgratina5638]

Tip 1: Read Reddit and find the meta empire build. ... Seriously? C'mon guys. Play the game yourself and don't listen to this drivel.

[@MaxTheCatfish]

Honestly though, you're right. There's a thousand ways to play the game. I wish I had added a little bit in there about leaning into roleplaying, or just experimenting and trying new stuff. But I don't think that's much of a tip. There are different types of players. Those that focus on roleplaying their empire, those who enjoy min-maxing different builds, those who want to challenge themselves with wacky and 'mismatched' starting designs. All of them are perfectly fun and valid ways to play - I've played them all. But Stellaris mechanics change pretty frequently compared to a lot of games in the genre (Remember when factions provided Influence? Or when planet building slots were based on population?) If you want to min-max an empire or compete in a cutthroat competitive multiplayer game, it helps to keep an eye on the meta and updates to game mechanics before building your empire. That's the gist of what I was getting at. Thanks for the feedback though!

[@furioni333]

my tip is, try being evil. The more evil, the better. Evil pays off. This is no joke btw. When I'm an evil xenophobe, things just turn out better for me.

[@AgainPsychoX]

You try to sell the espionage system, but we all know, you included, its currently not satisfying

[@jazzeroo8885]

if you follow meta's your wet

[@thebarkingsnail]

Where is the "my pc specs are almost triple recommended system requirements, but it stilll drags at a day a second in the late game I want my money back" link?

[@kosm866]

Dude is really trying to trick noobs into wasting their time on espionage hahaha

[@musicking1408]

Tip from me :step 1: Be a militarist and fanatic Xenophobe (racist) and get fanatic puifier and distinguised admirality step 2 : win

[@Dejavu-ht9eu]

"Top 10 basic game mechanics that everyone already knows" woww building an empire??? declaring war on neighbours?? thanks paradox!!

[@kimghanson]

Your intro kind of suggested that this game is tough. It's not. This is intermediate??? Sounds more like beginner stuff to me.

[@jacobhoover1654]

There are settings in the game for difficulty & RNG can give you bad neighbors sometimes.

[@Nathanfx2006]

The only game from a large publisher with no Wiki for the game lol

[@StellarisOfficial]

This might help you: stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/Stellaris_Wiki

[@frederickvondinkerberg7721]

I wanted to like Stellaris but it is just a glorified spreadsheet with some graphics... games are supposed to fun... spreadsheets are not fun

[@-Ion-]

these are all noob tips change my mind

[@Zenaveras44]

Rather disappointed, these aren't tips for intermediate players. This is a bunch of beginner tips, thumbs down.

[@MrJ0lly]

this was useless

[@moonlightblade1080]

Why this game is Terrible: it takes way to long to upgrade everything. Even on easy, cadet mode is extremely difficult even with settings set without big ai armies or contingency etc. You get attacked before you get a chance to build up. Your own population goes to war with you with like 40 thousand fleet power.

[@Mavrick775]

Skill issue.

[@uiuiuiseraph]

More like ... tips for total beginners. =/

[@coolminecrafthdminecraft1627]

a lot of these are pretty beginner level....

[@johnnyr2646]

Fix the friggin job system on console. It's such a mess, was hoping you guys weren't like every other awful developer ever and fixed/updated old stuff with the new stuff youre putting out and charging for but NOPE! Seem like the rest. The "priority" button straight up does not work, it does nothing. You can't favorite more than one job on a planet either and as soon as you unfavorite to try and shift them around everyone jumps to different jobs you don't want them too but then they won't go back without manualy disabling every single building and favoriting your sector jobs around. It's a huge mess. It's also a mess looking at 100 pops on a screen like there has to be a better way to organize pops and fleets. Put patrolling fleets in their own section or something. Stellaris = disorganized mess. The lag seems better than it was so you get credit there at least but jfc get this crap organized better before whatever DLC you pump out next plz. Buying this on console was a mistake and if I got it on Steam at least I could kf returned this headache and got something better. Don't buy console versions of games that should only be on PC. Best advice you'll find here.

[@malixcorvin777]

Lmao, you’re crazy. This game is amazing, it seems that you just need to get your skills up.

[@Scottagram]

ASSIST. RESEARCH. Your science ships have this function and it's so easy to forget. Never ever have an idle science ship. Use the Assist Research function on a planet. Even if the planet is producing no science, use Assist Research because it generates XP for the scientist. When one of your three lead scientists dies, you'll have a pool of experienced scientists to lead research instead of recruiting a Level 1 scientist on the spot.

[@StellarisOfficial]

Very good tip!

[@grsimbrosimbro6840]

I now know something new even with more than 1000 hour of playtime