The Unbidden — Stellaris Walkthrough

Master Stellaris empire creation! Learn about species appearance, names, traits, homeworlds, and empire settings like origins, ethics, and government types.

Hey there! So you're diving into Stellaris and want to make sure you start off right? Awesome! This guide is all about getting your empire set up perfectly from the get-go. We'll walk through all the choices you'll make during empire creation, from how your species looks to how your government runs.

Stellaris is a fantastic 4X game where you'll explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate your way across the galaxy. The very first thing you do is build your empire, picking everything from your civics and ethics to your government type. After that, the galaxy itself gets generated. It sounds like a lot, but don't worry, we'll break down all the empire creation settings so you can make informed choices.

Species

First up, let's talk about your species. These are the folks who will populate your empire and form your leaders.

Appearance

This is where you decide how your species looks. It affects how your Pops (that's your general population, the workers of your empire) and your leaders (like governors and research officers) appear. Keep in mind that some character portraits are exclusive to certain empire types. For example, you'll need the Machine Intelligence Authority to use the Machine portrait. The game's character creation panel is pretty helpful; it'll usually highlight in red if you've picked something that conflicts with your other choices.

(Image of Stellaris Machine Portrait)

Species Name

Here, you'll fill in the details for your species' name. You can set the singular name, the plural, and the adjective form (like 'Human', 'Humans', 'Human'). You can also write a biography for your species. This is purely for flavor and won't impact your gameplay at all, but it's fun to flesh out your empire's story!

Name Lists

The Name Lists section lets you choose from pre-set name pools for your Leaders, Planets, Ships, and Fleets. You can also pick a Ship Prefix, like 'ISS' for your fleet.

Traits

Traits are super important as they give your species unique characteristics. They can affect how well your Pops perform their jobs, how well they can live on different planet types (habitability), and even things like how much Housing and Amenities they use. If you're not sure what to pick, a solid starting combo is Rapid Breeders, Intelligent, and Natural Engineers. These are all positive traits. If you want to get more bang for your buck with Trait Points, consider picking some Negative Traits. My personal favorite is Unruly. It does affect your Empire Sprawl (which we'll cover later), but the impact is usually manageable, and those two extra trait points are incredibly valuable.

Homeworld

Now, let's customize your home planet.

Name & Class

You get to pick your starting Homeworld here. The type of planet you choose directly influences your species' habitability. For example, if you pick a 'Wet' type planet like 'Continental', your species will have 80% habitability on Continental worlds. Other 'Wet' types like Ocean and Tropical will have 60% habitability, while 'Dry' and 'Cold' types might only give you 20%. You can also choose your starting solar system. Picking the Sol System, for instance, means your planets will be named after our own solar system's planets.

City Appearance

This is purely cosmetic! You just pick the city style you like best for your planets.

Empire

Finally, let's set up the core of your empire.

Origin

Your empire's Origin provides a bit of background story and often comes with some nice bonuses. Many Origins have specific requirements. For example, the Mechanist Origin needs your empire to lean towards the Materialist ethos. There are also many DLC-specific Origins like Syncretic Evolution or Tree of Life. If you're looking for the widest variety of Origins, the Federations DLC is the way to go.

Government & Ethics

This is arguably one of the most crucial decisions you'll make during empire creation. Here, you'll define your empire's Ethics, Authority type, and Civics. These choices will dramatically shape how you play the game. For instance, a Fanatic Pacifist empire is restricted to only defensive wars; they can't initiate conflict. You get up to 3 Ethic Points, but you can't pick Ethics that directly oppose each other, like Xenophile and Xenophobe. You can choose three common ethics, or one fanatic ethic paired with a regular one. The option in the center, Gestalt Consciousness, uses all your Ethic Points and significantly limits your empire's development and how you interact with others. It has its strengths, but I'd steer clear of it for your first playthrough.

Next is your Authority. This affects how your ruler is elected and which Civics you can select. Note that the Machine Intelligence and Hive Mind Authorities can only be chosen if you're playing with the Gestalt Consciousness ethos.

Advisor Voice

The Advisor is your go-to for warnings about attacks, updates on research, and notifications about your building queues. By default, the game picks an Advisor based on your empire's ethics, but you're free to choose any voice you like.

Empire Name

This is where you name your empire and its adjective. You can click the little dice icon to randomize it if you're feeling lucky!

Flag

Your empire's Flag and colors are purely cosmetic, but they're also how your empire is represented on the galaxy map.

Ship Appearance

Another cosmetic choice here – pick how your ships look!

Ruler

In this section, you can customize the appearance of your starting ruler. You can also change their title and details about their heir.