Hi everyone and welcome to Stellaris Apocalypse
Everything you know about Stellaris is wrong now
That's basically Apocalypse and 2.0 update in a nutshell.
It changes in the game more drastically than Utopia did
And for the better, in my opinion. At least from what I played so far
However, I could sit here and talk about it for an hour
I think the best way to show all the changes is by actually playing the game
I already prepared the empire we are going to play us in honor of my most successful
Utopia admiral and probably the most successful admiral I ever had in Stellaris
Which means we are going to be the Ribblog Empire and since I never played as a spiritualist Empire
I decided to give it a shot this time. We are going to be egalitarian
militarist and
spiritualist which I figured it will be an interesting combo to play with and
We also got citizen service which will increase our naval capacity by 15% and cutthroat
politics, which will decrease the edict cost by 20%
Which also helps us as spiritualists because spiritualists get a special edict
which lasts 100 years and
Increases growth happiness and some other stuff on the planet, but it does cause 300 influence
We are also communal which will increase happiness
enduring which increases leader lifespan and
intelligent, which increases engineering physics and society output and our negatives are weak and
slow learners and
I think that covers it. we are oligarchic which means we will hold an election every 20 years to select a new ruler and
Our first ruler is Ribblog the Dragonslayer because who else!
We will be playing with a Savannah homeworld
which is a dry planet and the dry planets are more likely to generate physics research and energy and
Energy will be quite helpful
So let's get started now as you might or might not know in
Apocalypse the only form of FTL travel are hyper lanes
But if you're not a big fan of hyper lanes you can increase hyper lane intensity to as much as five times more
Hyperlanes, which will make like every system that is close to another system connected
We'll go with
1.25
same with abundant gateways and wormhole pairs
other than that, we'll play in a large galaxy
with 12 AI empires well maybe more
let's say 15 AI Empires. three advanced starts three Fallen Empires and
Two marauder empires. Marauder empires is one of the new mechanics in apocalypse
they are basically space Mongols and
I think that's it. Let's get started shall we
Looking forward to it, so here we are! the Ribblog empire! now before we actually start playing properly
Let's talk about one of the biggest mechanic changes in apocalypse
The star bases because the star bases are easily one of the most
Important mechanics in apocalypse as a whole and you will run into it immediately after starting the game
So each system has a single owner now
and that owner is based on the owner of the star base in that system star base is basically a
Multi-purpose frontier outpost it replaces the old outpost system
But it now serves many different functions it can be upgraded it can be specialized
And like I said it is one of the most important new mechanic changes in Apocalypse Now
Each time you construct a star base. It starts as an outpost which is level zero and
Does not count towards your maximum star base capacity, which you can see up here
We are right now at one out of three star base capacity, but this only counts upgraded star bases
because upgrading star bases can and will make them much more powerful and
generally speaking that means you will have a lot of level zero star bases, which will be used for system control and
A few highly upgraded ones which will be some of your most important assets in the game
and star bases
Do appear on the outliner, but just the upgraded ones, and they have modules and buildings
modules generally determine the actual role of the star base. we can see the view that you start the game with
you can get more as you research various technologies and so we have shipyard for example because now
The military ships are built on the actual star base with a shipyard module
You can have multiple shipyard module on a single Starbase, which means you could have a highly specialized
Starbase with multiple shipyard modules capable of constructing multiple military ships all at the same time. It's a possibility
But you cannot build military ships on the actual planet anymore spaceport is still a thing
But it's part of the colony now, and it can only construct civilian ships
so construction ship size shape and colony ship
Shipyard or a star base is what's used for your actual military ships now
Other than that we got anchorage
module which increases our naval capacity we got gun battery we got missile battery and
We got the trading hub
Which increases our energy generation
I think I'm going to build a trading hub right away because energy is I would say even more important early on now
because for example
recruiting leaders
Requires energy as opposed to influence now
Mostly because you need influence to build star bases, and so you are going to need influence pretty much constantly
So you're likely just wouldn't have enough to hire leaders
But that means if we want to build a second science ship right away, which is generally a good idea
We are going to need 200 energy to actually hire a scientist
Unless we want to use one of our researchers, which we probably do not
Anyway last, but not least star bases that are level 1 or higher
So that includes the one we start with
Can build defenses
And they generally speaking construct defense platforms around them to protect themselves and the system
I haven't seen Apocalypse mid-game or late-game just yet
But I do know that the idea is to have star base defenses scale for the entire game and not be completely
overpowered by a moderately powerful mid game fleet
so if you invest into a star base
It should be able to counter an entire fleet as long as that fleet isn't like super powerful
Compared to the star base
Again, I don't know how well that's going to work into the mid game and late-game, but that's the general idea
We don't really have enough minerals to build any defense platforms, but once you upgrade your star base
you can build defenses around it and
Now we can actually get started so that
Was a bit of a long-winded introduction, but like I said star bases are one of the most important mechanics
And you need to understand how they work, and what they do as soon as you really start playing apocalypse
Let's pick our initial research shall we I think we're going to grab the power plant II right away
For the society research
We could unlock the holotemple which produces unity
Good idea
and for engineering
Armor
engineering facility
Let's unlock engineering facility
And how's our starting system? we can get some extra physics research minerals and energy
All right, so let's get more minerals first
over here, that's going to cost us ninety and
We can go start surveying the systems now before we can actually build a star base in in your system
You need to fully survey the system you cannot build a star base in a system. You didn't fully survive
Here we are in the galaxy by the way
That's an interesting dead end over here
Okay
Anyway, let's start surveying the systems that are directly adjacent to
Our starting system. Oh wait. There's already a wormhole in here
Okay
Interesting let's survey this one then sounds good to me and we can actually unlock now I
Will probably make quite a few cuts to make the early game go a little bit faster
Because overall the game slowed down a little bit, which is not a bad thing
But it can make the early game a little slow, so I will be making some cuts to make up for it
Natural wormhole, we have detected what appears to be a naturally occurring subspace phenomenon on the edge of the Kiram system
What can we do about it? Not a whole lot
Depending on where the second wormhole is located
This could potentially allows ships to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other in a matter of days
However it's unstable
So right now. We can't actually do anything about it, but there it is it requires wormhole stabilization technology
But that might come in handy in the future depending on where exactly it leads all
Right
Let's survey shall we
We got a planet in here destruction complete
It's a tropical planet, so that's not super useful
Since we started on a dry planet, but alright
It is what it is
Right construction ship
Let's grab the physics research
every little bit of research helps initially
And as soon as we finish surveying the system we'll get an option to build a Starbase in turn
Which again will be as level 0 outpost which will not count towards our limit
And it will not appear on the outliner
The discovery of alien life
We may not be alone out there here. you think so?
16 Society research gained and in order to go into your
Starbase you can either click on the outliner or you can click this icon over here
So this will open the station management I can check the Starbase I can check the defenses
I can look at the shipyard
Because your initial Starbase will always have a shipyard module
But in the future. You'll actually have to build one yourself
You know I'm just saying. System survey complete. He's done it so now if we grab our construction ship, let's pause for a moment
Contact report simple forms of life
So now if I grab my construction ship, I'll have an option to build a Starbase
first let's actually finish the research station shall we
And we can go continue surveying
All right off you go then
Once we get 200 energy. I will probably build a second science ship
That's definitely a good idea
That's almost always a good idea especially
in a large galaxy if you know
Construction complete so there's the research station oh, and there are planets here Arid and Arctic ok Arid is nice
Hopefully that system will be good
So let's build our first Starbase shall we that will cost us 75 influence and 100 minerals and
This will extend our borders
So now there's always one and only one owner of
A disturbance in this system and also when you go to war
We go to order for specific systems you no longer go to war for like a blob
Which might or might not include several systems that are very close to it you
Take specific systems
And you can't push your borders
To get a system that we didn't have previously that's not a thing in apocalypse anymore. You can't like research
a tech that gives you bigger borders, and then grab several systems you didn't own previously
thanks to that tech. It just doesn't work that way in apocalypse anymore
Which is a good thing?
Also, the services themselves can have FTL inhibitors
Which is kind of like forts in EU4?
It's a little bit like forts in space basically
Once a fleet jumps in if you have an FTL inhibitor in that system. They will only be able to jump where they came from
So they will have to take care of that system if they want to continue on
also, it's worth mentioning that a Starbase cannot actually be destroyed at least not by conventional means so if you get attacked by pirates or
Something they will not be able to destroy your Starbase and force you to rebuild it from zero
Anyway, we found an anomaly and it has no fail risk. Yep. We will definitely check that out
no question about that and
Let's check our actual planet
Because 200 energy now
So before removing any blockers
How about we build a science lab. Yep, let's do that
And we'll grab a science ship, then we can hire another scientist
Okay, what's going on?
The head of the Ribblog empire's physics research department has gone missing
wait really?
Along with their privately funded highly experimental prototype science ship. oh come on now!
Well, that's slightly annoying, but okay
Now we have to hire a replacement
Which means we'll have to wait a little bit longer
that Is a bit annoying
I suppose we could just leave physics research without a scientist for now. It's just that we'll get a penalty
I Want to get started on more surveys and we got a scientist that will actually help with that as in available for hire
Right here, no not this one
Wait did they just change oh?
No, I was looking at this guy, right
That's our existing scientist into the science fair enough
Begins the wonder hold on pause
What's going on one of the species native to Yarak II has according to the ISS sailing sea bird
Orbiting the planet achieved a tentative mastery of the planet
science officer
Proposes that we should monitor their development closely
All right fair enough
There they are
Okay and the other one
begins the Wanderlust rogue scientist event chain. I don't remember that event chain, but okay, let's have a look so
Can we get him back? that would be nice because I don't really want to spend 200
We got three different
locations
likely locations searched zero out of three
Okay
There's nothing specific indicated in here I suppose. We just need to finish surveying that system
All right, that's fine
Let's build a science ship systems, and we'll hire a scientist for it
So next up up here I
I don't see any objectives in this system right now, but it's indicated as a likely location
It's fully surveyed already. We got full intel
Anyway we need 90 minerals to build a research station
Let's check this system right here, hopefully we'll find our scientist
Because otherwise, we'll have to spend 400 energy which I'm not overly excited about I can tell you as much
Construction complete
So there's our science ship
Let's grab a scientist right away. plus 25 years leader lifespan. yep
That's good enough, and we'll send him in the opposite direction
Off you go and that leaves us with 53 energy
Dead end okay then
Well he's not there do we just jump back or something?
Possibly well alright let's
Construction Complete
Come on give me my scientist back
And we can pick our first tradition
Okay, what do we want to go for?
I'm thinking maybe expansion
Will be able to increase our Starbase capacity with expansion
reduce influence cost for Starbase construction
Get extra unity and new colonies
will start with one additional population and the opener will give us plus 100 percent colony development speed and
Getting everything will increase our core sector systems by two
Yeah, I think we will start with expansion
Sounds good expansion it is then
Now about that scientist
Okay, we just had to jump into that system fair enough
Is he going to be in Yarak then?
Looks that way
anyway
science
Energy can wait we need more science
Because the first few techs will take a while to research. I'll put it that way
Also it's worth mentioning that military fleets have a command limit now, which you can increase for research
But you can no longer have one massive doom stack in a single fleet
Doesn't work that way in Apocalypse
Okay, we got it I think
What is the meaning of this?
Will he actually come back?
Apparently not
we can assign ships to escort you home
I have no interest in the returning home at present
But please as a token of my goodwill take these drones, a donation to the reblog Empire, okay
Well fine then. he disappeared
But they did leave a number of drones behind as promised the drones are armed and their weapons are powering up
wait really oh
Come on now
seriously
178
Great that's just fantastic
How about we get the heck out of here in that case
Yes, let's maybe do that
Invading heretics! well I suppose we need to hire another scientist now, which means we need 200 energy alright
That was a rather interesting start I have to say
Didn't quite expect that
So speaking of energy
Let's maybe get more energy shall we we are only getting +4 right now, which is certainly not great
How's our planet doing?
Yes, let's grab a power plant once we get the minerals
There we go power plant
Carry on
That was bit of an unlucky start I have to say 20% failure risk yeah, okay, I don't think I want to risk failing
That sounds like a really bad idea right about now
Just leave it be for now. I wouldn't want to all see it another scientist
It might not be super likely, but I'd rather just wait
We can check it out once he gets level 2
And normally that will be slightly safer. 40% failure risk! how about no?
Definitely not
Okay, so this is fully surveyed now. Let's move on then
and we can't build a starbase just yet need more minerals fair enough let's
Get the energy first shall we
We are going to need it
Still waiting for 200 energy credits
It will slow down our physics research a little bit, but oh well it's fine
Shouldn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things
Construction complete
Alright then so there's the power plant
We probably wants our next pop to work the power plant as much as I like research
Another planet
Tundra that's not super useful for us, you know we'll have to get rid of these drones if we want to colonize Yarak
That has a size 19 arid planet. We definitely wanted us to be our first colony
So that means we are going to need a few more ships
Let's have a look then
That's going to cost us 145 minerals
Well all right
Let's maybe grab another star base first
Although
Okay, we'll get a few Corvettes
Just to get rid of these guys we only need a few more Corvettes
Shouldn't be too expensive. system survey complete. almost 200 energy
More surveys are done
Okay, level 2 anomaly we are pretty close to level 2
let's get level 2 first and then we can check it out I
Don't want to risk losing another scientist
Construction complete, Oh size 16 Savannah planet, that's nice. We could colonize this first
157 probably still not quite enough you know what?
How about we colonize this system first? that seems like a good idea we can take care of the drones later
It's not like anybody is going to beat us to colonizing Yarak. that's clearly not going to happen
This is a pretty interesting
starting location right here I
Want to check out this dead-end, so we'll start moving in that general direction
200 okay let's grab a scientist shall we
Let's have a look plus 10% research speed yep spark of genius
Here you go and that will speed things up just a little bit
So next starbase. heretics encounter in Teytera, okay
Let's make contact right away, can we start that star base yet? Yes we can off you go then
And we'll colonize it ASAP we are going to need 300 minerals for a colony ship
Not cheap definitely not pause
80% failure riskier how about no. Heck no!
Let's go this way instead
Still waiting for Level 2 to check the anomalies
This guy has minus 25 percent anomaly failure risk too, but he's very close to level 2. we'll just wait for level 2
Definitely don't want to lose him
How's our company doing? and there's level 2, so let's pause for a moment
This guy we'll let him finish and then send him back to check the level one anomaly
That's only ten percent failure risk now
Much safer
Mind you, he could still fail. space amoebas okay then
We can begin at the event chain. that's fine
Situation log updated
Now I think we should save up 300 and colonize that system ASAP
Evading heretics
Okay great
Space amoebas in this system
Well alright, I guess we won't be surveying that
Lets go elsewhere
fine by me
This way
In before that's blocked too
Wouldn't surprise me too much to be honest our
Other scientist is on the way to check out the anomaly Construction complete
Now we gotta grab the minerals
before building the
colony ship
That's probably a good idea here
Let's start with this one. that's plus three
Plus thirteen is just a little bit too low
Getting three hundred minerals will take too long was this kind of mineral income
We still need to get rid of the drones, but it's kind of low priority at the moment and we got another tradition
Well, the first tradition in the tree. That's probably going to be "colonization fever" and
Then we can pick up "a new life". We should probably wait for a new life before we start our first colony.
I mean we should definitely wait for that
Looking good so far.
I think we can work
the research lab instead of the power plant for now
Yep
How's our research?
Six months to finish power plant 2, and we are about to finish engineering facility one
Construction complete
There it is. Let's take a look
building build speed
Corvette build speed
Corvette hull points
guess we'll grab a Corvette hull points.
I would have preferred something slightly more useful
but alright,
I can live with that
Looks like this system is safe
Good good, so you guy?
Let's grab some energy first, maybe. we'll build a station here, that's a good one
We still need one in our home system, which is fine. It's not going anywhere and
We can't build them all at the same time
Towed asteroid
plus three
engineering output.
Oh, that's nice.
yeah, we need a Starbase here ASAP to get all that research,
I certainly wouldn't mind
And since we are already here. Let's go this way
Scientists gained trait
Oh seriously? paranoid. minus 5% research speed minus 10% anomaly research speed
Ok at least he didn't get increased failure risk or something annoying like that
There, we got the power plant
What's next? improved deflectors or fusion reactor yeah, let's unlock the fusion reactor
that's useful for a lot of things
I wonder how long we'll have to wait to get the wormhole tech. I'm curious to see where exactly it leads
I guess we'll find out
So let's grab that star base, I think unless we want to wait for 300 right now
Plus 19 let's get some more mining stations to increase our mineral income
We need to wait for our next tradition anyway to start with one additional population I
Anomaly found. 10% failure risk. that should be fine. We can survey that just don't fail Thanks
Now we should probably clear some of these blockers. That's 100 energy
System survey complete. Survey complete
Let's see so I can't go through here unfortunately
Let's just continue this way or hold on. Let's check out this system down here
That's directly adjacent to our home system, and we haven't even checked it out yet
Construction complete
ancient life pod
An abundant life pod was detected in the close orbit over the system
It is covered in scorch marks presumably from when the pods mother ship exploded
Okay
We managed to open the pod we got 62 Society research ok
I'll take that and we almost finished holotemple
2 energy upkeep but +6 unity that is pretty nice. system survey complete
And let's continue this way the spirits have granted us new wisdom there. It is, the holotemple and what's next for
The trading company so that improves one of the Starbase modules
the trading hub
Which we should probably get
We are going to need energy
We can get +4 naval capacity, but right now energy is going to be more important
What else can we research? hydroponics farm 2
Not a bad idea or plus 10% growth speed. Let's just get straight up growth speed
One more mine needed, let's wait for 300 minerals now. We should be getting the next tradition pretty soon
20 months okay sounds good. Level 2 leader
Decent start so far
We haven't made any contact with AI empires yet
Which probably mean we don't have any super close neighbors
That's probably a good thing
The research will take a while until we improve our research output
Almost there
Just need 300
We can probably get one more
Mining station since we need to wait for that tradition anyway
Obviously, we don't need to wait for it to colonize the planet, but it makes no sense not waiting for it at this point
15 months
Shame there is no planet in this one obviously. We'll still get our star base in there
And we can upgrade some of our buildings. I don't really want to spend too many minerals right now. Let's not do that
survey complete
This way
Off you go
Construction complete one more tick and we'll have 300
Come on there it is
Now we just wait
The timing should be just about right
Yeah, the timing should be perfect it will take a year to recruit this guy and
We need to wait just under a year to unlock the next tradition
Good timing
Now let's go get this star base shall we? we can start moving right away
We get 3 physics and 3 engineering. definitely wants that
Another Savannah planet. nice one! so there are quite a few colonizable planets nearby
Which is not always the case forty percent failure risk no
Definitely not absolutely not
We could send this guy since he has minus 25% anomaly failure risk what is he doing right now? He's busy down here
What would his failure is to be here?
40% now that's too high nevermind
That's just way too high system survey complete. Survey complete
Where do we send him
How about failure risk on this anomaly
20% that's probably acceptable
Famous last words. No. It should be fine unless we get really unlucky
and
I don't want to wait so long. It's only a level 2 anomaly
How hard can it be right?
Colony ship is almost done
System survey. and we can get started on the Starbase
So now we can pick up "a new life". here we go
And once we're done colonizing the second planet we should probably build a few more ships
Because pirates are also a thing and that could be a problem
Begins "the habitable worlds survey" event chain. yeah we will start that for sure
So now we need to
survey eight habitable worlds
Shouldn't be too hard with two science ships working on it
Still no sign of any AI empires
Not that I mind
There's the colony ship
Where do we want to pop the colony center?
In the corner? that doesn't make a whole lot of sense
Still that might be the best way
It's just that the adjacency bonuses will be kind of useless like that
And we'll miss out on some minerals we will however get the energy
Might not be a bad idea
Alright fine, let's start it the corner. of you go
Now we can work on some research stations and mining stations another anomaly 20%. I think that's acceptable
Okay sure, let's get that
If we lost a scientist we can always replace him we have enough energy
Not that I want to spend 200 right now
Don't get me wrong
We also need a few building upgrades
Prioritize energy first
Since we are losing 0.83 at the moment
Crystal codex. Issues a special project Crystal codex, okay?
There it is
We need skill level 3 or higher so we cannot do this right now, okay?
I guess we'll come back in the future
fine by me
This one should be done in just a moment as well. We are currently working on that. construction complete
Now research. well first let's get the energy, that's 4 energy for one mining station
And our colony ship is almost there. gigantic skeleton, so that's another special project
That requires, yep skill three or higher, which means we can't throw this one either
All right
We'll just come back in the future once we get level 3
Oh wow about we survey this one in the corner?
Yeah, let's go check it out, then we can continue this way. I don't want to leave it unsurveyed
Our colony ship there yet? we are spreading our faith to a new .. the first Riblogg colony!
16 engineering research gained
there it is our first glorious colony well still colonizing but
System survey complete survey complete and more engineering
Let's keep going this way
We can go like this make bit of a loop
I'm prioritizing systems that are closer to us
in order to find colonizable planets
If we don't find anything new this system will probably be next
Because that's a savanna planet so 80% habitability
But we might find something better. We'll see about that
How's the research coming along? one year that will give us plus 10% growth speed
Always nice
And we should probably start working on our fleet a little bit
You know at least to get rid of the probes Construction complete construction is complete
And we got a level up that's one of our scientists
Physics research is next
So how about that module? anomaly found
another anomaly! 10% yup, research
Let's get a trading hub! we are going to need the energy
Might as well do that
Ancient life pod 60 free society research, thanks
Almost done with growth speed
Ocean planet yeah, that's not super useful for us
When we started on a dry planet
But hey, technically it will be colonizable
Just not a super great idea to colonize it Construction complete at least not as a priority that's for sure
Anomaly found another anomaly yeah, 40 percent is a little bit so much. I'll pass on that
Let's finish
The mining station and what's our next research going to be? probably Gene Clinic
Plus 10% growth speed also some Society research and unity or we could unlock additional
edicts
Because these actually cost energy instead of influence and they can be quite nice
And we'll get plus five monthly unity yeah, I think that should be higher priority than the gene clinic for sure
Fusion reactor is almost done. We need some military techs like better weapons and things like that
Hopefully, we'll get an option to pick something the spirits have granted us new wisdom. Let's have a look
Energy grid
Plus 5% research speed. let's just go for research speed I suppose that's acceptable
Anyway that's going to be the end of the first episode. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed it
Let me know what you think about Stellaris apocalypse so far, and I'll see you next time. Bye Bye
