Perfected Void Dweller Build for Stellaris
This build is about maximising the benefits of the Void Dwellers Origin in Stellaris.
Perfected Void Dweller Build Summary
- Origin: Void Dwellers
- Civics: Inward Perfection, Efficient Bureaucracy
- Ethics: Xenophobe, Pacifist, Spiritualist
- Species Traits: Void Dweller, Communal, Resilient, Enduring, Conservationist, Nonadaptive
Maxing the Void Dwellers
The Void Dwellers Origin grants day one orbital habitats and substantial habitability and productivity bonuses to our primary species on them. The big limiting factor for spamming habitats is the influence cost. A substantial 150 influence is needed for each one. This is in addition to the influence cost for the claiming the system they will sit in.
The Influence Bottleneck
Otherwise we could use influence to claim more systems, run espionage operations or sustain diplomatic pacts and treaties. This is what competes for our influence spend. The more habitats we build, the less we can do these other things. And vice a versa the more of these other things we do, the fewer habitats we can have.
To really double down on habitats we need a build that minimally needs these other uses for influence. There are really two paths to go down here, xenocidal and Inward Perfectionist. The xenocidal regimes, such as Determined Exterminators and Ravenous Swarm, need no influence for claiming systems in war and are extremely limited in how the can spend it in diplomacy.
Neither hive minds nor machine intelligences can have the Void Dweller origin however, so we would only have the option of Fanatical Purifiers for this strategy using a xenocidal regime. That might be a fun one to think about later but for this build I am going Inward Perfection.
[EDIT UPDATE: Gestallt Consciousness empires can now take Void Dwellers origin]
Inward Perfection
In this build we will aim for an empire that will have a near one to one ratio of systems to habitats. Or to put it another way, nearly every system we own will have a habitat.
We can put a habitat in almost any system and every system also costs some influence but the habitat is the larger cost. If we aim for maxing habitats we will tend not to have so very many systems.
The Inward Perfectionist civic locks us out of almost all diplomacy and even limits the espionage we can do. This limitation has the side benefit of freeing up our influence spend for claiming systems and building habitats. If we are going to avoid diplomatic entanglements then it will make sense to use a civic that has bonuses for being locked out of it.
Ethical Considerations
Inward Perfection requires us to have some level of xenophobe which grants a discount on claiming systems. We do not need too many systems however if we are maxing for habitats so there is no great case for being a fanatical xenophobe.
Likewise Inward Perfection requires us to be some level of pacifist but there is not a great case for going fanatic here either. The bonus to stability is of marginal value given we will not be doing any slavery. Neither is the discount on empire sprawl due to pops exceedingly valuable. Much of our empire sprawl will come from number of colonies, and not so much from pops or systems.
Being moderate in xenophobia and pacifism frees us up an ethic point in something else. Pacifism and xenophobia locks us out of militarism and xenophilia but still available are authoritarian, egalitarian, spiritualist and materialist.
Authoritarian is alright for the bonus to influence but stratified living standards are of no particular use for us since we will not be using slavery.
Egalitarian is alright for a bonus to specialists. Materialist is also fine for the boost to research. The discount to robot upkeep could be handy. We have no use for robots on our habitats but robot colonies could allow us make use of any planets we acquire. If we pick spiritualist we can consecrate three planets with the appropriate perk.
Efficient Bureaucracy
Probably the best civic to run alongside Inward Perfection will be Efficient Bureaucracy, which boosts unity output from priests and bureaucrats. Inward Perfection and spiritualist both deliver a multiplier boost to unity so it makes sense to have something to feed it.
Species Traits
Inward Perfection makes becoming a multi-species civilisation extremely difficult. We can not make migration pacts and can not conquer except defensively. Consequently we want traits that are generally useful in any job. I have gone for communal to get a bit more use out of housing, conservationist for cheaper pop upkeep across the board.
That could do on its own but since nonadaptive is a consequence free penalty for void dwellers we may as well take a couple more positives. Resilient makes our defence armies tougher and enduring gives our leaders a bit more life.
Strategy
In common with any Inward Perfection build we will want to pursue a Rapid Early Expansion strategy but with a few special tweaks to accommodate our habitat maxing.
We do want to use my patented star corraling technique to carve off future expansion potential, see the Rapid Early Expansion article for more detail on this gambit. However we do need to go too hard on system maxing, as habitats compete with outposts in both influence and alloy inputs.
Being able to put colonies in any system and having excellent habitability in those colonies also suggests a fast colony rush strategy. The key difference with a standard fast colony rush is that we do not need to find worlds since we can build them (habitats) in any system.
Habitat maxing is extremely demanding on alloys and alloys are also needed for defence assets like ships and platforms. Tilt your economy very extremely towards alloy production in order to keep up.
There we go the perfected void dweller habitat maxing build. Would you try it?
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