Stellaris in 2025 - any good

bakes0310 · 20 Sep 2025 at 15:53

Thinking of getting the ultimate edition as I have next week off and I played the game on release and really enjoyed it the first month it came out.

I can get the ultimate edition at a good price and own all the DLC. Does anyone still play it and have seen it develop with all the DLC?

Noxia · 20 Sep 2025 at 16:31

I have and play it regularly. However I'd suggest just getting the base game when it's on offer and subscribing to the DLC for a month or two before pumping all that money in.
The only DLC I disable is cosmic storms because I just find it annoying.

bakes0310 · 20 Sep 2025 at 18:31

Thanks I'll take a look at the sub.

bakes0310 · 20 Sep 2025 at 18:52

Noxia said:
I have and play it regularly. However I'd suggest just getting the base game when it's on offer and subscribing to the DLC for a month or two before pumping all that money in.
The only DLC I disable is cosmic storms because I just find it annoying.

There is a sale on for all the DLC at £175 but I'm probably still better off with the sub, £16 for 3 months.

Any tips or advice on how to start off?

Noxia · 20 Sep 2025 at 19:14

bakes0310 said:
There is a sale on for all the DLC at £175 but I'm probably still better off with the sub, £16 for 3 months.

Any tips or advice on how to start off?

Umm the game changed a lot in 4.0 so any old tutorials are out of date really. Some suggest playing without any AI empires just to learn planet management, logistics etc but I just went in normally tbh. Question everything, sometimes something will happen and you won't be exactly sure why but there's very little hidden.
The tutorial is ok, but it's kind of a learn by doing game, also tomorrow is a new DLC and they are making some changes to the planet management UI which will be much better for new players.

Montu is the go to person for Stellaris, I don't watch any meta stuff, but this one might help you, although like I said, some of the UI will change (minor changes) but the mechanics are the same as this video was done for 4.0 release, this is a huge part of the game. There is a daily Q&A on Stellaris Reddit that is generally really helpful for any beginner questions (I still class myself as one).

Old Man · 21 Sep 2025 at 05:43

I play a lot and enjoy it very much and I have most of the dlc's as not all are worth having, but overall it is a good game.

If you do buy it, then it's best to play on medium maps and imo it's best to play a few short games and maybe watch a few clips to get a better idea how to play the game.

Good tutorial: Stellaris tutorial

bakes0310 · 21 Sep 2025 at 16:57

Played for an hour today with the subscription. Ended up on the biggest map and played the earth human faction.
Took a few planets, put my perks into improving my science and diplomacy. Met my first alien faction who seem possibly friendly.
Music is amazing and early days but the game doesn't seem as confusing to understand as crusader kings 3 which I love.

Old Man · 21 Sep 2025 at 22:50

bakes0310 said:
Played for an hour today with the subscription. Ended up on the biggest map and played the earth human faction.
Took a few planets, put my perks into improving my science and diplomacy. Met my first alien faction who seem possibly friendly.
Music is amazing and early days but the game doesn't seem as confusing to understand as crusader kings 3 which I love.

Ambitious!

I think that you'll find that playing on the largest map will be very taxing after awhile and if or when that time comes, try the medium size map as
it's much easier to deal with the game. Hope all goes well for you

bakes0310 · 22 Sep 2025 at 14:35

Old Man said:
Ambitious!

I think that you'll find that playing on the largest map will be very taxing after awhile and if or when that time comes, try the medium size map as
it's much easier to deal with the game. Hope all goes well for you

Oh really why's the biggest map taxing, no idea I went with the biggest as I figured space is quite big so went with that lol.

Old Man · 25 Sep 2025 at 00:34

bakes0310 said:
Oh really why's the biggest map taxing, no idea I went with the biggest as I figured space is quite big so went with that lol.

Hi

The game becomes somewhat painful later on because there's so much to do and it can get laggy, but it depends a lot on how many of the
dlc's you are playing with and just how much you wish to accomplish (ie complete the game). I do like the game and I play on the large map most
of the time, but it's down to how much time you're happy putting in after mid-late game; obviously, it depends on what kind of a player you are, so
this is just my opinion of this game.

Have fun!

All that matters really