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Stellaris Dev Diary #199: Become the Crisis

Hello everyone!

Today we’re back with another exciting dev diary to talk about a new feature in the upcoming Nemesis expansion for Stellaris.


For far too long has the galaxy remained safe from player hands. In fact, more often than not, the player has needed to be the defender of said galaxy. No more! Finally has your time come to become the crisis!
Becoming the Crisis
Your first step towards becoming the biggest threat to the continued existence of the galaxy is to pick the associated ascension perk. You need to have 2 other Ascension Perks unlocked before you can select Become the Crisis. The Ascension Perk is available to most types of empires, but xenophiles, pacifists and rogue servitors are unable to have the color purple as their favorite.

There is no limit to the number of players that can pick it, but the AI will be less likely to do so if there is another empire that already has it.

1612458261643.png

Donning the purple, the Stellaris way.

Upon picking the Ascension Perk, your path of destruction has begun. You will forfeit other opportunities to focus on your newfound goals.

Becoming more menacing
As soon as you have chosen to Become the Crisis, you get access to a new UI tab where you can see your current crisis perks, and menace objectives.

1612458285034.png

Work in progress. Names or descriptions may not be final.

As you perform certain evil deeds, you’ll be rewarded with Menace. Some of these are rewarded upon reaching an objective, while others are rewarded over time while certain conditions are met (such as having a vassal).

To reach the next Crisis Level you will need a certain amount of Menace, and you will also need to finish a special project to take you to the next level. You will need to repeat the process of gaining more Menace and finishing a special project 4 times before you can reach the final Crisis Level.

1612458304746.png

Finishing the 1st special project, which takes you to Crisis Level 2.

Crisis Perks
Each Crisis Level unlocks certain Crisis Perks, which can unlock bonuses or new types of ships. As you become more menacing, you’ll also become more powerful through these perks.

1612458323896.png

A crisis needs to keep its options open.

1612458343466.png

Some of these ships cost minerals to build. Crazy concept, isn’t it?

You can unlock the following ships:
  • Menacing Corvette
  • Menacing Destroyer
  • Asteroid Cruiser
  • Star-Eater
The further you progress, the more interesting things start to become.

Existential Crisis
The final level for the crisis is no mere label, as you will be able to threaten the very existence of the galaxy.

1612458399163.png

As the final level is unlocked, an Aetherophasic Engine Frame appears in your capital system. The frame requires a lot of dark matter to upgrade, and upgrading is something that you definitely want to do. Other empires may be less happy about the outcome.

1612458421790.png

Getting such a large amount of dark matter is no easy task, so a special gathering device has to be used – let us present the Star-Eater. Star-Eaters do exactly what it sounds like – they eat stars.

1612458440792.png

Behold! A large dark matter deposit.

Your new goal as a crisis is now to gather as much dark matter as you can, so that you can upgrade your Aetherophasic Engine. The stars are now your fuel towards a different future.

Should you succeed, everyone else will lose.

The galactic community will also get their own tools to try to stop you, which is something we’ll dive deeper into next week.
 
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Same, same. Give me the power to do this and all your wishes shall be unfulfilled.
 
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View attachment 685322

Don't need no half-baked "become the Crisis" mechanics.
This perk serves as a reflection as to that state. Before, even though you outnumbered every nation put together you still needed to bother with silly little things like rules of war or diplomatic consequences. Now once you hit that point, you can simply don the purple and force everyone to bow to your will. There have been a number of games where I've gotten to that point and wished I could just do a "I'm at total war with everyone now" decision, and now that option exists.
 
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Since I signed up on the forums yesterday, I might as well add an idea here:

What instead of using purple, you pick the colour of the player's flag that is also used for their ships? So if I have a black/green flag, for example, the crisis UI would be green instead?
That might lead to it feeling more connected to the actual empire you are playing, instead of being railroaded into purple. :) So you can be the green, yellow, red, blue, whatever scourge upon the galaxy that you want to be.
 
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Since I signed up on the forums yesterday, I might as well add an idea here:

What instead of using purple, you pick the colour of the player's flag that is also used for their ships? So if I have a black/green flag, for example, the crisis UI would be green instead?
That might lead to it feeling more connected to the actual empire you are playing, instead of being railroaded into purple. :) So you can be the green, yellow, red, blue, whatever scourge upon the galaxy that you want to be.

Likewise, I would love it if the Imperium would inherit your empire colors (so for example, blue for a UNE-derived empire) rather than becoming automatically red.
 
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Hello everyone!

Today we’re back with another exciting dev diary to talk about a new feature in the upcoming Nemesis expansion for Stellaris.


For far too long has the galaxy remained safe from player hands. In fact, more often than not, the player has needed to be the defender of said galaxy. No more! Finally has your time come to become the crisis!
Becoming the Crisis
Your first step towards becoming the biggest threat to the continued existence of the galaxy is to pick the associated ascension perk. You need to have 2 other Ascension Perks unlocked before you can select Become the Crisis. The Ascension Perk is available to most types of empires, but xenophiles, pacifists and rogue servitors are unable to have the color purple as their favorite.

There is no limit to the number of players that can pick it, but the AI will be less likely to do so if there is another empire that already has it.

View attachment 677811
Donning the purple, the Stellaris way.

Upon picking the Ascension Perk, your path of destruction has begun. You will forfeit other opportunities to focus on your newfound goals.

Becoming more menacing
As soon as you have chosen to Become the Crisis, you get access to a new UI tab where you can see your current crisis perks, and menace objectives.

View attachment 677812
Work in progress. Names or descriptions may not be final.

As you perform certain evil deeds, you’ll be rewarded with Menace. Some of these are rewarded upon reaching an objective, while others are rewarded over time while certain conditions are met (such as having a vassal).

To reach the next Crisis Level you will need a certain amount of Menace, and you will also need to finish a special project to take you to the next level. You will need to repeat the process of gaining more Menace and finishing a special project 4 times before you can reach the final Crisis Level.

View attachment 677813
Finishing the 1st special project, which takes you to Crisis Level 2.

Crisis Perks
Each Crisis Level unlocks certain Crisis Perks, which can unlock bonuses or new types of ships. As you become more menacing, you’ll also become more powerful through these perks.

View attachment 677814
A crisis needs to keep its options open.

View attachment 677815
Some of these ships cost minerals to build. Crazy concept, isn’t it?

You can unlock the following ships:
  • Menacing Corvette
  • Menacing Destroyer
  • Asteroid Cruiser
  • Star-Eater
The further you progress, the more interesting things start to become.

Existential Crisis
The final level for the crisis is no mere label, as you will be able to threaten the very existence of the galaxy.

As the final level is unlocked, an Aetherophasic Engine Frame appears in your capital system. The frame requires a lot of dark matter to upgrade, and upgrading is something that you definitely want to do. Other empires may be less happy about the outcome.


Getting such a large amount of dark matter is no easy task, so a special gathering device has to be used – let us present the Star-Eater. Star-Eaters do exactly what it sounds like – they eat stars.

View attachment 677818
Behold! A large dark matter deposit.

Your new goal as a crisis is now to gather as much dark matter as you can, so that you can upgrade your Aetherophasic Engine. The stars are now your fuel towards a different future.

Should you succeed, everyone else will lose.

The galactic community will also get their own tools to try to stop you, which is something we’ll dive deeper into next week.
What about purge speed and empires who basicly wants to purge pops more slowly, like exterminators with that civic? That seems like a huge resource waste.
 
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What about purge speed and empires who basicly wants to purge pops more slowly, like exterminators with that civic? That seems like a huge resource waste.
Stacking hundreds of pops on a purge world to get tons of resources is almost an exploit. The increased speed is basically a soft fix to the fact that production from purged pops is exponential.
 
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Stacking hundreds of pops on a purge world to get tons of resources is almost an exploit. The increased speed is basically a soft fix to the fact that production from purged pops is exponential.
The problem now is that in an early game total war the entire population of a colony can be purged during the war.
 
Well, I mean, they are genocidal civilizations and have far superior technology to what the Nazis had in the real world, so they would be able to pursue their evil, hateful agenda all the more swiftly.
 
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Why does undertaker give pop purge speed? That's usually a nerf, as you want pops to purge as slowly as possible to squeeze the most resources out of them.
 
Stacking hundreds of pops on a purge world to get tons of resources is almost an exploit. The increased speed is basically a soft fix to the fact that production from purged pops is exponential.
It might be exploity, but it's still a game mechanic that it doesn't make sense for a crisis not to be able to use. Wouldn't a crisis that enslaves your pops and works them to death be scarier? It's pretty weird IMO that you'd get nerfed on that when you become a crisis.
 
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I believe soviets was more efficient at purging
Nah if you compare the number of people killed compared to relative population and number of years in power the Nazis win easily. I think the Khmer Rouge has the mbeat, though.