Fallen Empires: A comprehensive guide. (Portions may be out of date)

A player's guide to the Fallen Empires: What they have, what angers them, and, of course, how to take their stuff.

Potential spoilers inside.

What are Fallen Empires?

A fallen empire is an ancient empire which has fallen from the peak of their power and turn inward with their mighty fleet and advanced technology (even if they've forgotten how to recreate it and have stopped researching further), largely ignoring the fledgling empires around them unless they're disturbed.

Fallen empires have nearly all technologies unlocked, have a powerful fleet, occupy a moderate swath of space, and do not expand or interact with the other empire sunless angered. All fallen empires have the unique government type, "stagnant assembly", and there are no more than 3 per game. Fallen Empires are generated last, and if there's no room for them to spawn, they won't.

All fallen empires can be angered in different ways, and will act if their relation reaches below -75 with a given empire. Xenophope and Xenophile fallen empire will not react the empires they haven't yet established communications with. However, the Spiritualist and Materialist empires have events that warn uncontacted empires and demand you stop the angering action, if the distance between any of your systems is less than 200. The triggers are colonizing their holy worlds (here your distance would be less than 200 since holy worlds are nearby) and the techs for "sentient AI" or "synthetic workers", respectively.

Fallen empires, in addition to their advanced technology, also house other unique things as well, such as shield worlds and ringworld systems.

Types of Fallen Empires

Fallen empires come in four types, with each type having a single fanatic ethos:

• Militant Isolationist (Fanatic Xenophobe): "Get off my lawn. Responds very negatively to border friction."
  
  • Angered by: Proximity to other empires. Stay away or they'll make you stay away. Any colonies remotely near them will result in heavy relations penalties.
    
  • Special features:
    
    • Ringworlds: Isolationist Fallen Empires will almost always dwell entirely on their two intact ringworlds. However, sometimes they spawn without ringworlds and inhabit planets as normal.
      
    • Shield Worlds: Yes.
  • Embassy recommendation: High if nearby.
  
  
  
• Enigmatic Observers (Fanatic Xenophile): "Empires that use slaves, or purge populations may suffer the wrath of the Observers."
  
  • Angered by: Slavery and Purging (Especially genocide).
    
    • Shield Worlds**: Yes.
  • Embassy recommendation: Low. High if you purge a lot.
    
  • Note: Gets less upset than a normal empire would, but has much more power when they do.
  
  
  
  
• Holy Guardians (Fanatic Spiritualist): "This fallen empire dedicates itself to the preservation and defense of its holy sites. Colonizing systems that they consider sacred is likely to incur their ire."
  
  • Angered by: Colonizing their holy worlds.
    
  • Special features:
    • Holy Worlds: A multitude of uncolonized "Holy" Gaia worlds in and near their borders, which have 100% habitability for all preferences.
      
    • Shield Worlds: Yes.
  • Embassy Recommendation: Low. High if you colonize their holy worlds.
  
  
  
  
• Keepers of Knowledge (Fanatic Materialist): "The Fallen Empire dedicates itself to the hoarding of technologies that it believes should be kept out of the hands of young and irresponsible races. Pursuing dangerous lines of research will draw their ire."
  
  • Angered by: Researching dangerous technology, such as Sentient AI and Jump Drives
    
  • Special features:
    
    • Ringworlds: Yes.
      
    • Shield Worlds: Yes.
  • Embassy Recommendation: Low, unless you plan to start researching dangerous techs in the near future.

*Ringworlds (where fallen empires are concerned) are three ringworlds of varying intactness totaling as five 25 tile gaia worlds. See later in the guide for more details.
**Shield worlds are worlds encased in a strong shield, and can be found within the borders of a fallen empire. What's inside can vary, and they can be opened by special project. See later in the guide for more details.

Note: When angered, in addition to humiliating you, each fallen empire will also add specific wargoals. The Materialist FE forces you to ban AI research, while the Xenophile FE forces you to outlaw slavery and purging. The Xenophobe and Spiritualist FEs will force you to abandon worlds.

Technology of Fallen Empires.

Fallen empires have some of the most advanced technology in the game, and all fallen empires use the same technology and ships. While much of the most desirable technology can be salvaged by reverse engineering, that's only a small selection of all they have. In order to get the msot out of thier technology liberating one or their worlds (to vassalize, ideally--they usually accept after some embassy work) into a smaller empire is reccomended, which you can then form research agreements with.

The ship components they use are:

• Armament Components:
  
  • Tachyon Lances (II) [Energy]
    
    • Large:
      
      • Damage: 85-232
        
      • Cooldown: 8.85
        
      • Accuracy: 90%
        
      • Range: 60
        
      • Average Damage: 16.11
        
      • Bonus: +100% Armor Penetration
  • Phase Disruptors (III) [Energy]
    
    • Medium:
      
      • Damage: 14-31
        
      • Cooldown: 3.6
        
      • Accuracy: 80%
        
      • Range: 30
        
      • Average Damage: 5
        
      • Bonus: +100% Shield Damage
  • Plasma Cannons (III) [Energy]
    
    • Medium:
      
      • Damage: 24-38
        
      • Cooldown: 4.35
        
      • Accuracy: 80%
        
      • Range: 30
        
      • Average Damage: 5.7
        
      • Bonus: +100% Armor Penetration
  • Guardian Point-Defense (III) [Point Defense]
    
    • Small:
      
      • Damage: 4-5
        
      • Cooldown: .90
        
      • Accuracy: 40%
        
      • Range: 8
        
      • Average Damage: 2
        
      • Bonus: None
  
  
• Utility Components:
  
  • Zero-point reactors (V)
    
  • Hyper Shields (V)
    
    • Medium / Large:
      
      • Shield Strength: 250 / 500
        
      • Shield Recharge Rate: 5.6 / 7.6
  • Neutronium Armor (V)
    
  • Shield Capacitors
    
    • Medium:
      
      • Sheild Recharge Rate: 10.0
  
  
• Core Components:
  
  • Jump Drives
    
  • Tachyon Sensors (IV)
    
  • Defensive Combat Computers (Advanced)
    
  • Impulse Thrusters (IV)
  
  
• Spaceport Modules:
  
  • Tachyon Lance Defense Module
    
  • Crew Quarters
    
  • Fleet Academy
    
  • Synchronized Defenses
    
  • Solar Panel Network
    
  • [Ringworlds] Pioneering Terminal
    
  • [Ringworlds] Orbital Mind Control Laser
  
  Mining Stations:
  
  • Small Matter Disintigrators. [Energy]

Battlecruisers (battleships):

Escorts (destroyers):

Fortresses (defensive platforms):

Outposts (defensive stations):

Mining Station:

Defeating a Fallen Empire

You will need a minimum of 75k in fleet strength, but it's better go use a larger force, closer to 100k. The Fallen Empires have 100-120k in fleet strength, plus limited defenses. if you're going in on the lighter side, your fleet should be designed to counter theirs (see the preceding technology section for their ship designs) and your should make sure your engagements are favorable. If you're defeated, you risk the Fallen Empire executing your leader (done via event).

Fallen empires ships respawn by event while at peace (in fleets of 8 Avatar-class and 12 Eclipse-class), but they won't reach their original strength, meaning that even if you lose you will usually do lasting damage to their strength (They don't rebuild fleets normally, to the point where their construction ships are even respawned by event). According to the event files, the thresholds are as follows:

• Owned planets > 2, Fleet Strength < 10,000
  
• Owned planets > 4, Fleet Strength < 20,000
  
• Owned planets > 6, Fleet Strength < 30,000
  
• Owned planets > 8, Fleet Strength < 40,000

To defeat a fallen empire, it's best to keep your fleets in supporting range of eachother so you can escalate your doomstack as needed. You should also leave a fleet by your capital and have it appropriately fortified, as they'll usually try to take it, especially if you're equivalent or worse. Once you start pushing into their systems, they'll generally fall back.

Fallen empire capital worlds will be guarded by four fortresses all orbiting in close proximity to the planet. The positioning of these fortresses ignores the 70 unit radius in which other defenses cannot usually be placed. However, it's important to remember that they lack area-of-effect maluses, meaning they're susbtantially less dangerous.

Should you be attacking a ringworld-based empire, the best strategy is to consolidate into a doomstack and charge the beacon of infinity. It will be enough warscore for them to capitulate.

Ringworlds

The Beacon of Infinity, the capital system of a fallen empire, and unarguably the most desirable system in the game.


Fallen empires can occasionally be based out of ringworlds. In this scenario, their colonies are exclusively their ringworld systems, created through millenia of labor, and can neither be recreated or repaired, the technology lost to the ages. Fallen Empires with ringworlds do not contain Shield worlds; with the two being mutually exclusive. There are three ring worlds whose sections are in varying degrees of intactness.
An intact section (left) and a destroyed section (right).


The intact ringworld sections are represented as 25 tile well-developed gaia worlds, listed below.

• Beacon of Infinity (Fully intact):
  
  • Palatial District (Capital):
    
  • Beacon of Infinity: Trade District:
    
  • Beacon of Infinity: Agrarian District:
    
  • Beacon of Infinity: Industrial District:
    
• Beacon of Stability (1 Section intact):
  
  • Eternal Bastion:
    
• Beacon of Perpetuity (Destroyed):
  
  • All sections are completely destroyed and uninhabitable

Shield Worlds. *Minor Spoilers*

Shielded worlds are a unique class of planet, found only on occasion within territory taken from fallen empires, and are guarded by a single Fortress orbiting them. Mutually exclusive with ringworld presence (presumably because it would require a fortress outside the ringworld system).

After surveying them, a special project to open the shield becomes available (there's an option to leave it be, if you want, but there's no reason to), the completion of which triggers one of four events. They are:

• Tech Vault: Logically should yield technologies, but doesn't have any effects as of v.1.0.2 (Reported this to paradox as a bug after some testing)
  
  
• Isolated Hut - Exiled Admiral: Gives a 5-star admiral whose species is from one of the galaxy's FEs, with the traits of "Gale Speed" and "Fleet Logistian". Or you can just seal him up again.
  
  
• Mothballed Fleet: Gives you a fallen empire fleet, with a strength of 7500. It contains 4 Avatar-class ships and 6 Eclipse-class.
  
  
• Old Ones: Unleashes four previously-imprisoned void clouds all named "Exiled One". Each ship has a strength of 178. They spawn more ships with each destroyed ship, and when they're done they'll move to the nearest gas giant.
  NB: They have no FTL drives so they're confined to the system, which may or may not be WaD. And considering you just mopped up a fallen empire to reach the shield world, there's no real danger from them. Unless you feed them corvette squads for a while they won't stand a chance, but even then the lack of FTL drives leaves them stuck (again, as of v.1.0.2).

Notes:

This guide can be considered accurate for version 1.0.3

If you found this guide helpful, consider giving a rating, and feedback is appreciated.

While Fallen Empires have remained mostly-unchanged through the initial patches, the sections, primarily those concerning defeating them, have details which may be obsolete due to mechanics changes.

This guide is more or less completely out of date.

[AnonymousKellog]

i like where your going with this guide but at some point you really need to update this

[Bailens]

Doesnt mention the preserver planets, or the fact that 3/4 of the tiles on ringworlds are usually collapsed cities, which the FE wont get rid of.

[Professional Pat]

Embassies were effectively improve relations. They changed it a good bit as time passed before replacing/removing it completely.

[Grei Shoutmon]

@Bawan, Back in the previous versons of Stellaris, you could talk to other Space Nations, and plop an Embassy into their planet capital, for better relations. All it did was help them like you more. Nothing much...

FE's would never let ou have an embassy with them..though one time I actually managed to have an embassy with the Enigmatic Observers soo...that was good.

[Lochlan]

What is a embassy?

[Professional Pat]

*shrugs* At least the pictures look nice.

[1011 1110 1110 1111]

Okay.

[Professional Pat]

Unfortunately, this guide is out of date so things like the number of fallen empires and many of their behaviors are no longer accurate, and I lack the time to update the information.

[1011 1110 1110 1111]

I encountered a materialitst fallen empire when I only have about 12 planets, a little over 100 pops and only 3000 to 5000 fleet power. The only reason that they sort of like me is becuase I am materialist as well... I am assuming that it would be good to stay out of conflict for, like until I get better ships.

[Falkenstein]

Actually there can be more then just 3 FE per game. It seem to depend on galaxy size, but at least with a 1000 Star gal, i wound up with 4 FEs in a multiplayer game