We Love It's Guide to…
Lead a newly spacefaring civilization, exploring a generated galaxy, building an empire, and navigating diplomacy and war.
Released 09 May 2016
Investigate Space Anomalies
Survey Uncharted Systems
Design Custom Warships
Explore a galaxy full of wonders in this sci-fi grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studios. Interact with diverse alien races, discover strange new worlds with unexpected events and expand the reach of your empire. Each new adventure holds almost limitless possibilities.
Developed by Paradox Development Studio · Published by Paradox Interactive
You lead a civilization that has just gained the means to travel between stars. Each campaign unfolds in a procedurally generated galaxy, where you encounter alien societies, unfamiliar worlds, and unexpected events.
Send science ships to survey star systems and investigate anomalies, while construction ships build stations. Expand by developing planets and managing your empire’s resources and population.
Shape your civilization through its traits and policies, then choose how to deal with other empires through diplomacy, alliances, or war. Research technologies and design fleets as your influence grows; the game runs in real time with pause.
Players who praise Stellaris often enjoy building a distinct spacefaring empire and seeing its history unfold through unpredictable encounters, diplomacy, and conflict. Reviews also value the variety between campaigns, role-playing possibilities, and mod support. Many longtime players in this sample still describe the core game as compelling, while criticizing recent changes, late-game performance, and the cost of additional content.
Get ready to explore, discover and interact with a multitude of species as you journey among the stars. Forge a galactic empire by sending out science ships to survey and explore, while construction ships build stations around newly discovered planets. Discover buried treasures and galactic wonders as you spin a direction for your society, creating limitations and evolutions for your explorers. Alliances will form and wars will be declared.
Like all our Grand Strategy games, the adventure evolves with time. Because free updates are a part of any active Paradox game, you can continue to grow and expand your empire with new technologies and capabilities. What will you find beyond the stars? Only you can answer that.
Stellaris now includes the base game, three expansion packs, and a collection of digital goods.
Stellaris: Chart a vast, procedurally generated galaxy where every star system holds a new mystery to uncover or an alien civilization to encounter. Forge a unique empire: from your first warp jump to galactic domination, you decide whether the universe remembers you as a benevolent pioneer or a relentless conqueror.
Utopia: Unlock the full potential of your empire with this expansion focused on the evolution of society. Whether you're building mega-structures or ascending to a higher plane of existence, Utopia helps you create a future that’s as bright as the stars themselves.
Synthetic Dawn Story Pack: Take command of a Machine Empire and reshape the galaxy in your own image. Will you lead your mechanical creations to peaceful coexistence, or will the rise of synthetic life spell the end for organics?
Humanoids Species Pack: the most-played phenotype now gains more variety with unique civics and a new origin. Along with their own unique ship class, new portraits, and more, there’s never been a better time to explore the future of humanity.
And on top of this, the Digital Collector’s Book, a Signed Wallpaper, a Unique Forum Avatar and Icon!
Every game begins with a civilization that has just discovered the means to travel between stars and is ready to explore the galaxy. Have your science ships survey and explore anomalies, leading you into a myriad of quests, introducing strange worlds with even stranger stories and discoveries that may completely change your outcome.
With characteristically complex unique planets and celestial bodies, you will enter a whirlwind of spectacles in a highly detailed universe.
Through customization and procedural generation, you will encounter infinitely varied races. Choose positive or negative traits, specific ideologies, limitations, evolutions or anything you can imagine. Interact with others through the advanced diplomacy system. Diplomacy is key in a proper grand strategy adventure. Adjust your strategy to your situation through negotiation and skill.
An eternal cycle of war, diplomacy, suspicions and alliances await you. Defend or attack with fully customizable war fleets, where adaptation is the key to victory. Choose from an array of complex technologies when designing and customizing your ships with the complex ship designer. You have a multitude of capabilities to choose from to meet the unknown quests that await.
Grow and expand your empire with thousands of randomly generated planet types, galaxies, quests and monsters lurking in space.
Customize your Empire! The characters you choose, be it a murderous mushroom society or an engineering reptile race, can be customized with traits like ethics, type of technology, form of preferred space travel, type of habitat, philosophies and more. The direction of the game is based on your choices.
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
|---|---|
| Achievements | 219 |
| Age ratings |
|
| Players | From 1 (maximum not specified) |
| Play modes |
|
| Other modes |
|
| Multiplayer | Stellaris supports both single-player and multiplayer. Steam lists Cross-Platform Multiplayer. Reviews describe online cooperative and competitive play, including players cooperating against AI, fighting each other, and a mode where multiple players manage one civilization. Reviews also state AI can continue controlling a player empire if someone stops participating, and DLC owned by the host is shared with the lobby. |
| Multiplayer & mods | Steam Workshop support is listed. Reviews confirm unmodded multiplayer and say mods can significantly change the experience, but the provided text does not state technical rules for mod synchronization or compatibility in multiplayer. |
| Controller required | No |
| DLC / extras | 32 listed on Steam |
| DRM / EULA |
|
| Content notices |
|
| AI disclosure | We employ generative AI technologies during the creation of some assets. Typically this involves the ideation of content and visual reference material. These elements represent a minor component of the overall development. AI has been used to generate voices for an AI antagonist and a player advisor. |
| AI disclosure categories |
|
| Metacritic | 78/100 View on Metacritic |
| Website | Official website |
