Stellaris Expansion / DLC Buyers Guide (2021 Edition) - Sales, Sales, Sales

so you've just picked up stellaris and you're thinking about yourself please sir can i have some more well i've got some good news and i got some bad news the good news is there is a ton of content for stellars to the point where you cannot see the force because of all the trees are being in the way but we're going to go over most of the big expansions today and you can get a good idea of what is out there and what may be up your alley it's always a good idea to look out for these whilst you're at looking at a sale and you're thinking by yourself hmm i would like some more of that please first of all there's the big five these are of course utopia apocalypse mega corp federations and nemesis these are the larger expansions that came out over the last few years and let's take a quick look at what they do and how they function do you like megastructures do you like the idea of hive minds do you want to put mind bullets in other species well utopia may be the choice for you probably the best expansion of all of them they are this particular one has a great focus on all the classic space opera tenants megastructures as i have already mentioned ascension paths origins all of that stuff is here you can build dyson spheres you can build ring worlds you can build habitats in space to build to live on you can play as a organic species that is essentially one person but they are a hive mind so they are controlling all these other things that are going on there plus the ascension paths you've got yourself psyonix you've got yourself biology you've got yourself cybernetics all of this stuff is available in utopia it is a great update and you're probably the first one that you pick up if you have the chance do you enjoy blowing up planets do you like building excessively large ships or defensive platforms with humongous cannons on it well apocalypse may be for you this is a expansion that is completely focused on combat and all the tenants that come with that the colossus project build a giant planet killer yeah that is part of apocalypse do you want to build a titan with a giant gun on it yeah that's part of apocalypse in addition to that there are marauders who are space pirates effectively there are three particular variants of them and they will demand stuff from you and if you uh wait too long then they will awaken and they will become their own empire and they are amid a game crisis and that's something you're going to need to deal with in addition to that you will have the ability to use something called nihilistic acquisition which basically means that you can steal other empires pops and put them to work on your worlds because clearly they're not getting any work done wherever they were finally there are the origins life-seeded and post-apocalyptic that are coming with this particular expansion basically you can start on a gaia world or a tomb world and all the fun that comes with that apocalypse is pretty good and especially if you're interested in combat as well as space materials when it comes to big explosions yeah this is the way they go for you do you think weyland yutani was right for trying to take the xenomorph in the alien franchise do you like the idea of getting vast amounts of money well megacorp is definitely up that alley basically in megacorp you have the ability to play as a giant corporation it's got its own physics it can use something called a branch offices which is pretty darn good and on top of that there is the crown of a planet called a ecumenopolis pave over your paradise and turn it into a arcology world filled with foundries as well as consumer goods factories and probably have some of the best output in the game in addition to that there is the care veneers floating is space organizations that will go around like traveling salesmen and try to sell you stuff so that is definitely something that is available in addition to that megastructures are also once again part of this the matter decompressor probably together with the dyson sphere from utopia one of the best structures in the game because it will give you infinite minerals the strategic coordination center as well as two others megacorp is could be a little bit lackluster at first glance but the ecumenopolis is definitely worth your while and the amount of the compressor strategic command center is incredibly powerful and you could probably go and pick that up but if you see this and you're not quite sure if you want to get this at full price pick it up on a sale megacorp is pretty fun once you get the hang of it you just want to play it very often on the megacorp side it you're mostly in it for the planets and the megastructures do you like soft power do you like building federations do you like making friends do you think all that stuff from apocalypse from earlier on is just nothing because who who cares about guns well federations is for you if you want to be the ultimate power when it comes to soft power making your way through the galactic community and influencing people left right and center well federations is the way to go new federation types for every single type that you can imagine do you want to have a scientific group working together that's possible do you want to have a merchant coalition yeah you can do that or just your classic setup as a dominion where you are the big boss and all the other little empires will have to work for you yeah that's there as well of course you can control all those little empires by sitting in your gigantic juggernaut which is a new class of ship that comes with this in addition there is the megastructure mega shipyard where you can just crank out ships like no tomorrow with federations in addition finally origins there's void dweller where you can start in space as a empire who lives only in habitats it recently got changed it has a little bit of additional fluff the shattered ring which for a long time was probably one of the stronger origins in the game because you start on the ring world which has everything you would ever need got a little bit of a nerf recently but it's still quite good and finally there is uh shoulders of giants as well as doomsday and doomsday is a challenge origin so it's more of an advanced thing federations again is all about the political side of the game it's a diplomacy side of the game if you're into that federations is for you of course apocalypse players you can look the other way in the meantime would you like to become galactic emperor would you like to be the one that ends all of existence would you like to be the one who does all the spying well nemesis has got all of that becoming a crisis is one of the big things one of the big tentpole features of nemesis where you become a empire in space that is a menace to society destroying planets left right and center killing pops all over the shop destroying stars turning them into black holes harvesting for their dark matter and then creating a machine that ends all of existence yes that is part of nemesis in addition to that you can become emperor and go even further than federations did and run the galaxy as the galactic imperial army and basically say look we are in control now and there is nothing you can do about it of course this comes with all sorts of cool little additions to the uh diplomacy system and is actually one of the more fleshed out systems within nemesis it's actually very very enjoyable to become the emperor and telling everybody what to do and if you're into that if you want to role play as you know emperor palpatine then this is definitely something that you can go and try out it is one of the newer ones it's probably going to be a little bit more expensive than the previous expansions but still it's still a fun little pickup if this is up your alley but of course it doesn't end at the big five no there is more stuff for solaris as well the story packs as well as the species packs so let's kick off with those story packs then slowly but steadily trickle into those species packs do you like monster movies do you enjoy kaiju well levithans is for you because leviathans adds mini bosses into the game where you basically have certain systems that are blocked off giant monsters roam the void of space and you will have to go in and take them down and take their loot away from them they are basically like your classic d and d boss where you are going to need to take them on at some point to make sure that you are strong enough to take on the big guys even later on leviathan's is one of the first expansions ever released and it does show some of the mechanics are a little bit older and a little bit out of date but doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to pick it up because it does add a slew of new content there's the enclaves which are special stations who can give you all sorts of bonuses in the directory of um science unity as well as selling you strategic resources then there's the war in heaven where the fallen empires wake up they will try to shake you around for a little bit and then go mano amano with each other and they'll try to drag you into it and it's a lot of fun it adds a lot of content to the end game and leviathans really takes that idea of an end game and really solidifies it with that war in heaven however that doesn't mean there's other ways to play as well do you like robots did you think that skynet was right well welcome to synthetic dawn because you can play as robots who've got their own traits they've got their own civics you can play as assimilators you can play as the destructive force of skynet you can play as servitors and make ever make sure that everybody is okay whilst making sure that they don't harm themselves by taking away all their good stuff yes synthetic dawn is very much focused on robots it can be a lot of fun although it is a little bit niche uh you're not gonna be playing as robots all the time because it's just something that is on the buffet synthetic dawn is fun it adds a lot of cool things like robotic uprisings as well as machine worlds which are worlds covered in machines they're only accessible to robots though so do keep an eye on that but synthetic dawn is a lot of fun if you want something else if you've explored all of stellaris already and you're thinking by yourself i would like some more please sir then synthetic don is something that you could probably pick up of course if it's on sale and it's cheap then go and pick it up as well if it is in your budget there is one expansion which is considered to be one of the best ones in the game and i'm not talking about utopia right now i'm talking about distant stars would you like to have a brand new mystery with a piece of space and the extra galactic area of the game yeah the l cluster is there would you like to have dozens of new anomalies available that you can explore and get new stuff out of some of which is incredibly good yeah distant stars has that would you like some unique systems with events like i don't know a gaia world which turns into a shroud world every 24 months oh yes it recycles everything it is pretty darn good um distant stars is great that's all i can really say it has new leviathans it has unique systems as i've already mentioned those anomalies i was talking about the l cluster it is just so good it's probably one of my favorite expansions and whilst i'm gushing all over it there is obviously a couple of things that are objectively good about it first of all it's a story pack which means it's cheap two it adds a lot of additional content to the base game that is just amazing because who does not want more mystery and discovery and that's exactly what distant stars brings it's one of my favorite packs and you should probably be picking it up with the base game if you can however there is a pack that you should probably not pick up with the base game and that is ancient relics ancient relics is one of those outliers where you're thinking by yourself you know indiana jones in space would be a really cool idea but then it turns like into a little bit of a lackluster experience where you're sending a scientist down a hallway and every five meters they're picking something up that is the relic system within ancient relics it is okay for what it is you can get the relic system as i've already mentioned and basically it adds a type of anomaly site where you can go from a b to c to d the thing is that the system itself is not particularly adaptable you don't really have all that much to do once you've already done all of these so there's not a lot of replayability in ancient relics what you want to play ancient relics for however is capturing the relics themselves the relics themselves are basically items that show up in your menus you can capture them you can use them at your advantage do you want a knife that makes your ships go a lot faster yeah you can do that do you want a machine that generates a ton of alloys yeah you can do that but still ancient relics you don't play it for the relic system itself you will play it for either the relic worlds or the or the new precursors the baoul and the gironi they're actually quite good but the real question is if all of this combined is really worth the price of admission ancient relics pick it up when it's on sale if you want to complete your collection you want to add some additional rp some role playing to your game this would be a good one to pick up finally we get to the species packs now the species packs used to be aesthetic only until lithoids came around and then all of a sudden uh the the gloves came off and traits were being added to these packs so they had to go back and actually update humanoids and plantoids to add even more value to them which is pretty great but yeah do you want to play as plants it sounds like a little bit of a weird question but they're actually quite good and plantoys does exactly that you can get a whole bunch of new civics like i don't know catalytic processing where you can turn uh basically food into alloys which is not powerful at all of course because it completely sidesteps the whole mineral process and you can focus your economy a lot better as well as a whole bunch of traits like budding and phototrophic and radiotrophic which add a lot of additional uh role-playing mechanics to the gaming you could probably go ahead and try out plantoids humanoids lithoids and necroids are usually quite cheap so these packs are definitely worth your while to pick up in order to get more options when creating your species speaking of which if you're watching this you're probably a humanoid specifically a human and that's pretty much all you can say about the humanoid pack because it of course like plantoids adds a new chipset it also adds a origin as well as a bunch of civics become masterful crafters where you can basically make consumer goods so plentiful it's not even funny but also become pleasure seekers with some of the best settings in the game for keeping your population happy so yeah humanoid is actually pretty worthwhile and you should perhaps go ahead and pick that one up same thing with plantoids it recently got overhauled both of them are quite good then we get to rock people do you like rock people i like rock people i saw thor ragnarok it was a good movie we all had a lot of fun but did you know that you can play as them in solaris well lithoides has you covered not only does lithoids have the best looking ships in the game they also have some of the more interesting mechanics with lithoids who eat minerals rather than food this of course all combines into a completely unique playstyle that you can use but the thing with lithoids is similarly to synthetic dawn is that this is something you should pick up if you want more stellaris you've played a lot of the rest of the game you've messed around with the other expansions and now you're ready for something fresh and that's where lithoids comes in you can play as rock people because rock people they rock basically since at the time of recording this video we are on the cusp of october the spookiest month so therefore we should probably talk about the necroids necroids similar to uh the lithoids as well as the synths are yet another species that you can play once you want more solaris that's pretty much how it all works basically you can play as a species that can take other species and turn them into themselves it's very much goa old-ish in that sense it's a lot of fun however you kind of don't want to get started with necroids too early on sure you can have the ability to kill one of the leviathans in the game and then turn them into zombies sure you can do that that's totally possible but necroids is one of those packs that has a good chipset it's got good portraits it's got good mechanics behind it in terms of traits but you should probably wait on picking this one up until later down the line either when you're seeing a new good sale or if you want to play more stellars or if you're just really really really keen on creating a go old empire and that wraps up this overview of all the expansions that are currently available for stellars i hope that i've given you a good idea of what is available out there in terms of the larger expansions sure there is a bunch of other stuff as well you should probably not pick that stuff up because the ebook is terrible the soundtrack is actually quite excellent you should probably do that because it always gets updated now the thing with solaris is it is constantly in development and all of these expansions will get new content slowly over time as the custodians come in and basically polish up whatever has been left behind by the main team but still we're going to go ahead and wrap this up here did you enjoy this video did you like this if you want to see more solaris content if you're completely hooked make sure that you subscribe to the channel because that's all we talk about over here i got 180 000 people that are choking at the bit or chomping at the bit even to learn more about solaris and if you want to join into that party feel free to hit that subscribe and of course liking for the algorithm thank you my patrons as well for keeping this channel on track but we're gonna go and wrap this one up here thank you so much for watching and until next time take good care of yourselves and as always enjoy solaris it has a big galaxy ready to be explored

Channel: ASpec

Views: 46,245

Keywords: ASpec, A_Spec, Stellaris, Expansions, DLC, Expansion, Utopia, Apocalypse, MegaCorp, Federations, Nemesis, Leviathans, Synthetic Dawn, Distant Stars, Ancient Relics, Plantoids, Humanoids, Lithoids, Necroids, Overview, Guide, Buyers Guide, What to Buy, Sales, Cheap, Steam, Epic, Cost, Features, Mechanics, Interest

Id: pSYlOKLHs3g

Length: 19min 16sec (1156 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021