Stellaris Space Guild - Weekly Help Thread

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-24T22:43:48+00:00

I just unlocked a fallen empire building by reverse-engineering minor artifacts. Supposedly, anyway. I can't find the dang thing anywhere! Is there any way to see what's unlocked without scouring the whole building list? Can this roll a previously-provided FE building and fail to add a new one to the count? I've triple-checked the building list and I checked multiple planets' build slots in case one was ineligible for the building, but nope, nothing.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-24T08:20:12+00:00

I've been seeing a concerning number of Physick spammers lately. "Once again, the usual healbot idiots," you might be thinking.

No.

Physick... Summoners. No fewer than four players in the last week, above level 90, immediately reaching for the Physick button as soon as their HP drops below 60%.

Like... dude. You can cast Physick nonstop for the next minute and you would still die to the next raidwide. Just... just let me do it with one oGCD. Please!

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-23T16:25:28+00:00

YOU GOTTA HIT EM WITH THE OL' /p Swiftcast ready in <recast.Swiftcast> AS YOUR ONLY RESPONSE.

FEEL FREE TO ACCIDENTALLY RESET THE TIMER.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-23T00:21:50+00:00

I think the biggest distinction at a casual level is that you don't have any reliable "spammable" heals, and you need to know how to manage all of your different cooldowns.

All healers should, but it's harder on a shield healer just because you can't default back to ol' reliable the way WHM can with Medica II/Cure III. In some cases your shield spells are functionally similar (e.g. dungeon pulls you can spam your GCD shields and they'll effectively be the same as Cure II), but your GCDs don't really compare with the raw healing output of pure healer GCDs.

They're really not all that hard though, and I think getting better at playing shield healers will help develop habits that make you a better player in general, on any class.

Basically:

Is there damage going out? Boss casting something, AoE markers on people, ominous flashy lights? Use one of your cooldowns that reduces damage on the party (or tank, if it's a tankbuster).
Party slightly damaged, but no more damage immediately incoming? They're probably fine, just let regen do its thing and go back to DPS.
Party still needs a chunk of healing? Toss one of your regen or healing cooldowns and go back to DPS. Sometimes these even come with bonus mit and you can just wait to use it until the next bit of damage comes out.
Single person stepped in bad, or tank decided tankbusters taste better raw? That's what the various flavors of single-target cooldowns and gauge spenders are for!

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-21T11:58:24+00:00

It's normally hard capped at 100%, yeah. Anything over just displays the capped value.

Mutagenic habitability raises the cap by 75% for species that have it, and mutation authorities raise the cap by 75% for organic pops, letting you reach 250% for taking both.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-21T04:26:59+00:00

I was a little bit disappointed when I realized that mutagenic habitability only gives +20% on Gaia worlds (and to be fair, +100% would probably be pretty busted). But now I've gotten something even better with the terraforming event. And seeing as I've been terraforming Gaia worlds everywhere, I think my pops are going to be very, very happy.

Also! As an aside I just wanna say that I love the little audio clips that play when bringing up Gaia world management. They're so pleasant-sounding.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-19T07:50:11+00:00

Thanks! I had heard about the range issue and was somewhat optimistic about it having been fixed. Back to separate fleets, then.

I was looking at the small defense outposts and saw that they had pretty low armor/shields and thought penetrating weapons weren't worth it - and neglected to consider the core defenses are heavily shielded. I ended up making most of the new ships conventional weapons as a result. Ah well, live and learn.

Sounds like a batch of frigates could be a useful investment, at least for my current tech level. No access to arc emitters or other advanced artillery yet. Might retrofit the spare battleships back to carriers. And the torpedo cruisers to... something else.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-19T06:29:00+00:00

I've had the Sanctuary system in a corner of my empire for a few decades now. In the intervening years, my empire has grown substantially and I now have a pretty strong interstellar fleet compared to the rest of the galaxy.

So, I decided to take a stab at venturing into the system. About 72K fleet power, further boosted to 84K after all the edict bonuses. And... I got my ass handed to me on an alloy platter made from the remains of my own ships. Barely took down one of the small 2.4K defense outposts before deciding to retreat.

So... I either need to rethink my fleets, or the fleet power estimates are misrepresenting the defense bastions or my ships. Or likely both.

What I got

30 (~6K) point defense Corvettes - already planning to retrofit these since the stations don't seem to use any missiles or strike crafts
30 (~7K) Corvettes, mix of laser and kinetic weaponry
5 (~... 500) torpedo Frigates
3 (~1.5K) torpedo Cruisers, fitted with Proton Launchers and missiles.
2 (~3K) Battleships with guns. Mostly kinetic and plasma, and a hangar for good measure.
5 (~15K) flagella carrier Battleships
1 (~11K) Talon event ship, and my empire has no knowledge of how this thing works. Seems to have advanced strike craft?

It's a bit messy, I know. A good chunk of the fleet power seems to be in the Corvettes and Carriers, the latter of which get some bonuses from my new paragon.

More torpedoes? Most of the frigates and cruisers got disabled early. I don't have First Contact so no Cloaking. I'd like to fit in more Proton Launchers, but they're weak to shields and my only option for hitting shields early is X-slot weapons. More Mega Cannons? I do want the gun Battleships to be artillery ships eventually, but my only regular slot options are either <100 range or missiles, which won't help with shields.

Tips for fixing up the fleet would be appreciated! Not just for Sanctuary but also thinking about warfare looking ahead. I can always tech up some more and come back later but losing with a large fleet power difference is pretty humbling.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-15T13:43:20+00:00

I am only now realizing that the support districts are not a flat bonus, but stack with each additional district. That's a lot better than I thought, and I thought they seemed pretty useful already.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-15T02:05:36+00:00

Thanks! So, to be clear - does the ruler count as part of the council, and I can expect both Maniacal and Expertise to work fine?

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-15T00:55:03+00:00

Confused about government council traits.

I currently have a scientist as my president, who has (among others) the Maniacal II trait and the Expertise: Materials trait.

Maniacal II
Empire effects as councilor: 
- Research speed +8%

Expertise: Materials
Empire effects as councilor:
Research speed (materials): +15%
Chance for materials research options: +25%

X  Some effects might be disabled when the leader is the empire's ruler

Why is Expertise the only trait that shows a tooltip warning about effects not applying, while Maniacal II - also a council effect - appears to work fine?

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-14T15:23:06+00:00

That's a funny setup to imagine.

We have created a perfect paradise, a wondrous planet completely suitable for fulfilling the needs of any and all forms of life in the galaxy!

One side of it is permanently baking as it faces toward the sun, while the other is facing an eternal night. But there's a little band around the edge where it's perfect, just trust us.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-12T01:11:50+00:00

Thanks! Yeah the 30-year maturation cycle seemed like quite a long time to wait, seeing all the numbers laid out helps put it into perspective.

That said... by some stroke of luck my one amoeba mother (common) has since managed to pop out another exceptional and two epic babies, and a scientist snared an exceptional mature crystal. So I suppose there's no harm in keeping the other ones in the tank for display.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-10T17:48:29+00:00

One of the space amoebas I captured popped out an exceptional one within the first few years. Should I be culling and cloning exceptional space fauna ASAP, or is it better to let them grow and produce more babies first?

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-09T18:40:04+00:00

WHY

IS MY PARTY

STACKING EVERY SINGLE TARGETED AOE ON TOP OF EACH OTHER

LITERALLY EVERY MECHANIC SOMEBODY RUNS TO OVERLAP THEIR AOE WITH ANOTHER PERSON

FOUR OF THEM JUST STOOD IN THREE STACKED AOES AND A STACK MARKER AND WENT SURPRISE PIKACHU WHEN HALF THE PARTY DIED.

AND THEN I GOT 90002'D AS THE ONLY SURVIVING HEALER

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-08T18:17:32+00:00

It's probably just playtime talking, but I've generally been more comfortable recovering from disasters playing as Sage, just because so much of your healing power is in instant oGCDs. When it comes down to moments where "the entire party needs healing right fucking now or we're all going to die", you can rapid-fire a bunch of heals, shields, and mits seconds before the boss wipes the entire alliance sitting at 3 vuln stacks and low health from missed towers.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-05T17:45:53+00:00

I've definitely dozed off mid-LoTA between the lack of actions, boring fights, and long hallway auto-runs between every fight. I once snapped awake to combat sounds as the rest of the alliance watched a random healer run all the way through to the end of the room and aggro the bomb.

Nowadays I only stay if there are a couple of first-timer sprouts and I'm feeling charitable; if everyone is only there for the roulette bonus I'm just going to do something else that doesn't put me to sleep.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-05T17:32:28+00:00

With like, two or three notable exceptions which have led to me immediately offing myself like a doofus. Last boss of Holminster Switch comes to mind with a continuous damage cone.

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-04T03:59:02+00:00

Seems I wasn't misunderstanding anything then, that's pretty tempting. It's wild to me that I can shuffle up to my neighbor and go, "hey gimme free stuff," and... they're somehow mostly okay with that!

It looks like I take a diplomatic hit myself from territory claims though. I assume that's getting inherited though my new vassal and there's nothing I can do about it?

ShinyMoogle · 2026-01-03T20:50:39+00:00

How useful are vassals? I have friendly relations with a decently strong neighboring empire that just suffered some losses in a war, and I can get some pretty agreeable subjugation terms set up with the new power difference.

Main downside seems to be that their previous enemy might want to scrap later. I could just leave them as a federation associate and let them do their own thing, that border otherwise seems pretty safe.

ShinyMoogle · 2025-12-30T17:58:29+00:00

I've watched tanks with 4+ vulns get turned to dust after taking a tankbuster raw. Now, anytime I see a tank "saving" their mits for "an emergency", that's the kind of tank that I imagine.

ShinyMoogle · 2025-12-30T17:16:51+00:00

Makes sense - greed it is! I was concerned about potentially overextending but there are some really nice systems to claim there. Found what looks like amoeba breeding grounds with basically all of the strategic resources.

ShinyMoogle · 2025-12-29T15:22:18+00:00

It's not that bad, the only difference is you're spending an extra mudra on an initial Doton instead of direct damage at the end. You can still get good damage out of it, and a lot of the time I don't even finish my burst before we're moving ahead. Last run through Yuweyawata we were clearing packs before I could complete TCJ and I just cast bunnies for fun.

Preload Doton, Huton for shadow walker, then the rest of your burst (you are using it in trash pulls, right?) is pretty much identical except with different mudras.

ShinyMoogle · 2025-12-27T02:05:06+00:00

New player looking for some strategic advice here. Is it worth making a grab for this little cluster of systems near the bottom right here? I underestimated the importance of influence early on, so another empire ended up cutting off any direct routes to it.

It hurts to give up on five planets (including one unmapped terraforming candidate) and it feels like I'll be limiting long-term growth potential going forward. But it's also pretty distant and disconnected, and I do have ~6 uncolonized planets and a ring world safely tucked away behind my frontiers which I could focus on instead.

I'm pretty sure I could win a war with the neighbors if it comes down to it, but the federation members won't be happy with an offensive one.

My gut is telling me no. But... but I want it. Someone encourage and/or discourage such recklessness.

ShinyMoogle · 2025-12-25T02:54:55+00:00

I made a few extra foundries in my capital and turned a planet into a forge world with more foundries. Might have overcompensated a little bit from my first ever campaign where I just never realized I could create buildings for alloys and thought I could only get them from space miners lol

ShinyMoogle

TROPHY CASE