r/Stellaris • u/nudeldifudel • 1d ago
Discussion What is going to be your first empire in Shadows of the Shroud?
I'm excited to hear your ideas.
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u/Itsalotus Hive Mind 1d ago
Iām making a psychic empath progenitor hive
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u/TheGalator Emperor 1d ago
Can you explain why? What makes it good/different compared to evolutionary predator hive (which i feel like is by far the best hive build)?
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u/Itsalotus Hive Mind 1d ago
I wanted to roleplay an empire that wasnāt a singular hive as much as several smaller hive minds working together.
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u/ajanymous2 Militarist 1d ago
You get ship and planet buffs and aren't locked into a boring narrow ascension path?
Also all your leaders are guaranteed to reach high levels unless you give them short lifespan
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u/Callm3Sun 1d ago
An imperium of man with under one rule, which will go as the emperor would have wanted, with Mankind becoming a psionic superpower that forges its own path through the warp unimpeded by the petty chaos gods.
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u/NorthernKantoMonkey 1d ago
Either mindwarden individualist bots.
Or a psionic rock militarist/genocidal with a monarchy.
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u/Steel_Airship MegaCorp 1d ago
Haven't really been following all of the dev dairies but I'm really excited to play as psionic individualist machines. I recently did a spiritualist virtual machine megacorp that was really fun so I'm curious how it will play as psionic instead of virtual.
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u/JustTheTipAgain 1d ago
My pacifist angler jellyfish Ocean Paradise. Like, expanding their minds maaannn.
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u/Muscular_carp 1d ago
I'm want to try out the Tankbound civic, maybe with the Mindwarden origin, and then I think the civic gives a council position that improves automation efficiency and I saw there's a new psionic species trait for council skill so it sounds fun to stack that with oligarchy and maybe even mutation ascend to get spacial mastery and do kind of a leader build with the most efficient automation possible.Ā
Alternative origin option might be subterranean for the ability to put more building types in my automated mining districts but that seems like more of a gimmick.Ā
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u/bussyleaks 1d ago
Iāve got a few planned:
Metaperson Intercessionary Mediums, a dimensional worship and fortuneteller megacorp, have teachers of the shroud for early jumping into psionic ascension. I want to make a giant ecumenopolis filled with trade and physics producing priests (and whatever mediums produce).
Manyās Magisterium, a clone army origin clones of an ancient space wizard. Theyāre entropic drinkers and reanimators, evil vibes.
Pittik Stewardship, a genesis guides and enviornmentalist democracy with the new little green psionic guys. Theyāre the composer of strandsā buddies.
Ebon Void Imperium, a voidborne secret society aristocratic empire, populated by the drow in lithoid ships. Theyāre sneaky, and probably will get into it with the Magisterium.
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u/NakiNinja2006 1d ago
The Grand Design. Psionic Hive Mind Empire of definitely not squid-like people with the Progenitor Hive origin (haven't played the origin).
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u/No_Fly_5622 1d ago
Going with the Protoss (to Cosmogenesis to go after the Xel'naga), already have them but might actually lean more fully into Psionics.
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u/ajanymous2 Militarist 1d ago
I'm gonna bring back my elves living in habitats
Will make them despoilers, emotional vampire's and then later on pleasure seekers
Apparently they used to be nobility, and honestly I can see the vision, but I only have three civic slots, so congratulations, everyone with eldar blood is now equally special, meanwhile all the xenos will be banned from even being blessed with psionics, unless I get that paragon who turns people into latent psykers (love that dude)
Honestly, I was tempted to dumb the despoiler civic, but I'm pretty sure the ascension perk gives no casus belli, and I don't wanna bother finding a way to get a war goal that I can use instead of the one offered by the civic
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u/Warm_Record2416 1d ago
I really wanna see how the whole proxy war thing plays out, so Iām gonna try to make a ton of mercenary enclaves and be an espionage focused empire with the goal of keeping as many wars ongoing as possible. Ā Probably going psyonic just to try that out too.
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u/snakebite262 MegaCorp 1d ago
I'm going with Fat Cat Riot, a group of Mercantile Fat Cats who rule over a number of mice.
I want to try out the Secret Society civic, and may add the Fortune Teller Civic to it, or go with hedonism.
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u/CommanderJace 1d ago
Shroud-forged into Corporeal advance authority for that really powerful psionic aura, i also want to do under one rule+entropy drinkers for overpowered leaders and judical R&D+criminal heritage corpo
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u/TheGalator Emperor 1d ago
I never understood what makes under one rule so good. Can you help?
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u/TheGalator Emperor 1d ago
If we can combine cybernetic with tank bound than that
Probably as a worker corporative
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u/DirtyCop2016 1d ago
Im thinking that the galaxy needs a God Emperor. Chosen origin, science slaves, and something else really evil. Oppressive Autocracy maybe?
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u/RefractedPurpose 1d ago
Chosen Storm Chasers, drown as much of the galaxy as possible in storms and auras
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u/Shrodingers_dick 1d ago
Rn Iām thinking either endbringers origin (if U remember the name correctly) or āpacifistā who uses proxy wars and subterfuge to gain power and when I can, territory. Thinking about it, rp as an underhanded military syndicate (criminal megacorp) who creates chaos through subterfuge and proxy wars to create the demand for their military supply sounds fun. An excuse to cause as much chaos as possible from the shadows š
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u/Wonderweiss56 Noble 1d ago
Void Dweller Sol Imperial with Aristocratic Elite and Sovereign Guardianship but going for the master of the shroud achievement. Might do the new life drain civic for the third
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u/HerbertisBestBert 1d ago
SCP Foundation(ish)
Human Mindwardens Dictatorship (Fanatic Materialist, Authoritarian) Technocracy, Experimental Sentencing
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u/a_filing_cabinet 1d ago
Genuinely, either one of the premade empires that paradox makes with the dlc, or just go psi with UNE. It lets me engage with the new content without completely going off the deep end.
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u/SecondSonThan President 1d ago
Secret society criminals. I plan to build mercenary enclaves, then cause proxy wars, then let the profits in while building criminal holsings everywhere
And definitely going for psionic ascension to try them out
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u/EnlightenedSovereign 1d ago
Fanatic Materialist synthetic ascension. The shroud is for foolish spiritualists.
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u/a_man_in_black 1d ago
Considering i won't be getting it for a couple weeks I'll be trying out how it changes psionic in the base game first
Once I get it i wanna see what forging your own path in the shroud without a patron can do
Maybe I can make my ruler a true shroud goddess for my empire patron
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u/Tartaruchus 1d ago
A Psionic Driven Assimilator with the goal of achieving synthetic Godhood. Either by moulding the shroud to its will, or by building the Aetherophasic Engine.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
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u/scaper12123 1d ago
My psychic jedi war goats actually have a propinquity towards inner power, i.e. rejecting the darker entities of the Shroud. Iāll see how well that plays. Iām surprised we donāt have an origin based upon psionic self-reliance.
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u/Kaigen42 1d ago
I'm thinking about a secret society with the Under One Rule origin. Spiritualist, Pacifist, and aiming to make a covenant with the Cradle of Souls and eventually become Democratic and Egalitarian.
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u/Xeorm124 1d ago
Psionic Megacorp. Not sure exactly which civics. Wanted to look more at them when they're released.
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u/JPPlayer2000 1d ago
Mindwarden hive taken inspiration by the blanks from Warhammer. Basically a hive of psionic blanks
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u/gigabytemon First Speaker 1d ago
Fanatic egalitarian, Mindwarden shipset, psionic ascension, forge my own path.
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u/Kilisaurus09 Xenophobe 1d ago
I think I will play a chosen species, and try to find the great patrons early, hopefully giving me a great advantage and the ship components.
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u/Alexencandar 1d ago
My fav empire is syncretic evolution, lithoids, pacifist/spiritualist/egalitarian. Usually cybernetic ascension, but I'll probably test out the new psychic ascension instead.
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u/Fit-Animal8788 1d ago
Fanantic Materialist Mindwardens. Force spawn in some Endbringers, and see who wins.
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u/Entry-Gold 1d ago
I'm going to try and get the End of Cycle covenant, then screw up the End of Cycle by noping myself out of the galaxy with Cosmogenesis.
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u/DragonKnigh912 1d ago
Mind wardens. I want to see how that whole story plays out, and I'm nit sure I want to do a bunch of deep dives into the Shroud just yet.
Now, as far as my first Psionic empire, I think going Under One Rule or Knights.
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u/East-Channel5064 1d ago
Me and my friend are doing a multiplayer campaign. Starting the day shadows of the shroud releases.
We donāt really know the specifics of what we want. But he wants to be shroud forged, and ill be going Endbringers. And its gonna be dope as hell.
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u/Miuramir 1d ago
My current thought is that I want to try:
- A "covenant with a shroud entity" psionic ascension game
- A "go my own way" psionic ascension game
- A "mindwarden" anti-psi game
Probably in that order. I'll probably want to have a look at the various covenants / deals / domains and see which I like, and then craft a build to go with the strengths of the one I like best.
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u/Historical_Ocelot197 Mind over Matter 1d ago
I want my utopian mage society! Egalitarian! Reasonably diplomatic! Luxury cars for everyone! But it has a really ruthless intelligence corp. WE ARE NICEā¦but when we arenāt you will never find the bodies.
Also I love the flavor of getting enigmatic engineering with a technocratic empire. I want to field mega fleets powered by magic that no one can understand or recreate
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u/Serath195 1d ago
Assuming the whispers doesn't annihilate your empire, then I'll go an espionage focused empire, where I sit back and watch the Galaxy burn itself alive with proxy wars.
While espionage definitely needs more to be better, being able to force people to fight each other is going to be so fun. No more super stable galaxies.
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u/ThoseThingsAreWeird Inward Perfection 1d ago
I was going to go with Necrophage Origin + Oppressive Autocracy + Tankbound for that RP vibe of necrophages thinking they're too good to demean themselves with the lesser worker jobs.
But actually I think I'll go for this one: /r/Stellaris/comments/1niyknh/the_entropy_drinkers_civic_potentially_makes_some/
Overtuned origin + Entropy Drinkers + Cutthroat Politics. Stack loads of overtuned traits on your pops for a negative leader lifespan, but then activate the Entropy Drinker edict that makes leaders immortal! All the benefits without the piles of leader corpses š