How to expand the empire in Stellaris? Stellaris guide, tips
Last update: 14 March 2019
This section of the Stellaris guide contains practical data regarding the growth of the empire and engaging in choices that can facilitate further gameplay.
Exploration
At the very beginning of the game, you should build, at least, two science ships, thanks to which you will be able to survey other systems and any anomalies. The surveying process is long and unknown systems often offer possibilities of special research. Remember that science ships cannot function without a commander, so set aside your resources at the beginning of the game, thanks to which you will be able to recruit one.
If you cannot reach those systems, you can be sure that one of the opposing factions will. This way, you can easily lose access to important data and technologies, or to resources. Remember that you can ask neutral empires for access to civilian ships, which will let you conduct research outside of neutral systems if you have already surveyed all of them. Research development is also important in the case of democratic empires, because a commander of high level can exercise power in the empire then.
Your science ships should be constantly surveying neighboring systems for new resources and planets that you will then be able to colonize. Learning about the structure of a system, at the beginning of the game, is more important than colonizing it.
In spite of what you might think, research is generated relatively fast, thanks to which you can keep developing your empire, when it comes new technologies and buildings. Your first research step should be unlock colony ships which will allow you actually expand the population of your empire without being limited to sectors of your mother planet.
Research is time-consuming, which is why your scientific budget will always replenish itself if you are currently out of resources. For each one of the fields, resources are generated separately and proportionately to resources you have. Remember to conduct internal research, which an make researching into a field faster.
Expansion
Expansion over to the next system is costly. This is why, before you do anything, it is a good idea to survey several neighboring systems and then make the decision which one of them you want in the first place.
In this case, two factors are of importance: deposits of resources and planets that an be colonized. At the beginning of the game, there is no point in expanding your empire over every system that you discover. It is important that you lay lasting foundations. This is why you should first focus on building initial structures for your mother planet and then seize a system that is rich in resources, and planets that can be colonized.
At the beginning of the game, you should already have the majority of resources that you need for the development of your mother planet. Do not leave its sectors littered over, upgrade the space port with new technologies and try to upgrade building on the mother planet to higher levels.
When the mother planet is settled in 100%, and all of the sectors are providing you with profit, you can start your expansion.
What is important is that, after you have surveyed neighboring systems, you pick the one that satisfies your needs and build a frontier outpost on its star. Opponents will be doing the same, so it is best if you mark the system as yours beforehand. If you do not do this, the nearby empires will build their buildings there and they will cut you off.
Constant development is important at the beginning of the game and waging a war over one sector can ruin you.
After you have built a frontier outpost, you can start building mining stations here. Seize the planet with all of its resources and then start colonization mission.
An important element of expansion is sociology research which will allow you to colonize planets that are, by default, unwelcoming to your population. When you pick research projects, you should consider ones that will allow you to colonize planets the directly neighbor the mother system.
For colonization, pick the sectors of planets where development of citizens will be paralleled by income that you receive and above all remember about those of the areas that will be able to sustain residents of the planet.
Exploitation
Mining for resources is the only available source of income. Since the very beginning of the game, you should secure the majority of your resources for building networks of mines and ensure development of buildings on the planet. Remember to build silos, thanks to which you will be able to store larger amounts of resources. Initial volume of the available storages is relatively low.
Priority resources to mine for are minerals and energy credits. If you have already exhausted all of the resources you discovered, you can spend your resources on mining for materials that are necessary for research.
An important source of materials are anomalies. After you research into them, you an often use materials that you discover this way, to replenish your supply. The same goes for special missions that keep appearing in new systems.
Remember that you can exert most influence on exploitation of resources by means of buildings erected in the specific sectors of the planet. Spend your funds on research that will allow you to upgrade the existing buildings, thanks to which income from each sector of the planet will rise.
Upgrading buildings is also connected with receiving more and more influence points. You use those points to recruit commanders, build frontier outposts and they allow you to exert influence over results of elections in democratic empires. Their resources and their resource inflow are low. It is important that you take decisions basing on how much of them you have If you are planning on colonizing a new planet and you need a frontier outpost, you have to withhold recruiting a commander for the third fleet in a row.
At the beginning of the game, spend a part of your resources on manning the second science ship and secure more resources for colonization. Also, you can exert influence on results of elections, if you find it necessary, but frontier outposts are your priority.
Extermination
You do not really have to focus on military development at the beginning of the game, but it is a good idea to expand the existing fleet by several units. It is best to have around 10 ships at the beginning of the game, divided into two units. You have to realize the enemy empires will be aggressive since the very beginning of the game and if you do not secure your buildings wit sufficiently strong fleet, you can fall victim to pirates very quickly.
At the beginning of the game, you will not find much use for assault units, at least until you decide you want to attack one of neutral and backwards planets.
Remember that building an army entails high costs an keep in mind how many units you are going to need. Increased costs of maintaining the army may significantly limit your chances on quick colonization of neighboring systems.
Deploy your units in two sectors: mother sector and the one that is the most important from the viewpoint of the expansion of your empire. Enemy units will avoid your mother system and will try to limit your area of influence by destroying your buildings outside of your mother system.
In each of the sectors that you seize, there has to be a small unit of soldiers that will stop invaders from destroying important buildings. Buildings themselves have little firepower and several ships will be capable of destroying them quickly. Your goal is to react to that as quickly as possible and fight them off, until main forces reach the attacked sector.
Remember to conduct research into technology, thanks to which you will be able to build ships basing on new technologies. Your priority here is improvement of ordinances and fortifications, that you will be able to place in individual systems.
Remember that the most effective are the units that have their own commander. If possible try to combine fleets into larger units, which limits the cost of recruiting new commanders.