What DLCs are mandatory?

[Thundah]

I'm looking at getting this game, but £200 for everything is a little steep. With the purchase of the base game, what DLCs are considered mandatory?

[Ohm is Futile]

Starter Bundle is good value imo. There's lots of youtube videos breaking this down for you.

Personally, I'd say Utopia is closest to mandatory. Rest is debatable and dependent on your own playstyle and tastes.

[HappySack]

Only Utopia, it goes for as low as $10 depending on where you get it.

[Elitewrecker PT]

10$ is the lowest on steam, it can go for like 5 outside.

[Fido]

Well, Galactic Paragons is a sh-show, but if you want the standard number of leaders while running vanilla (like, if you want to have achievements unlocked), you're forced to buy it or else go severely restricted on the leader front.

[mss73055]

Only synthetic dawn, to get mandatory pampering :D

[Nova Solarius]

Utopia is definitely up there.

[pete3great]

Because all of the "free patches" come along with new mechanics that disadvantage you if you don't buy the accompanying DLC, they're all mandatory in some sense. But without Utopia, you literally have no mid-game.

[Moita]

Well people used to live without Galactic paragon months ago, so i don't think its worth it. Also o fond it a bit overwhelming for someone who needs to learn the basics first.

Utopia is defenitively mandatory since you gonna need megastructures like Dyson Sphere to sustain a large fleet.

2° i would say Overlors, 3° Federations. Not for you necessary to use it, but because AI ends up joining federation or m Getting vassals and this changes the whole game (somentimes for worse)

[HappySack]

Originally posted by DANGER ☠ POSSUM:

Well, Galactic Paragons is a sh-show, but if you want the standard number of leaders while running vanilla (like, if you want to have achievements unlocked), you're forced to buy it or else go severely restricted on the leader front.

They're (supposedly) addressing it next patch, so you have that long to continue to complain about it.

[Hiro]

Have a look at this video, it will give you an idea of what DLC you can avoid to start with
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahrMhGR0Me8

[Seven Flames]

Utopia. But generally I would go with vanilla and play one match till the late game and then decide which areas you want to be expanded upon. Is it:

- Take your civilization to the next step -> Utopia
(You get access to the 3 or 4, not sure with all these patches over the years, ascension paths which are a must pick in every game and make you feel special; is also pretty fun.
Also Hive Minds which were created with almost no effort put into them and feel like more boring empires with less mechanics. Still not organic / zerg / tyranid mechanics and no organic shipset.
Ring Worlds and Dyson Spheres. The 1st come on way too late, since they were envisioned with the ancient tile system the game got rid off years ago where planets were filled much faster and the 2nd are just not fun anymore, since getting resources is already easy after 100 years and having 1000 energy via a mega structures ruins the game mechanic of expanding and exploiting)

- War -> Apocalypse
(what you are really looking for there are the titans, the biggest and strongest fighting ships and the colossus to keep purging this filthy xeno scum in style along with its planet. It also gives you the great khan sometimes via a new enclave where you are essentially just paying to make you life harder. But its fun, unless its just a minor annoyance)

- Diplomacy / Federations -> Federations
(adds new types and mechanics for it and the useless and underwhelming Juggernaut to build 2 fleets at a time in a weak but big spaceship - limited to 1 per empire)

- Fat planets / play as a small empire -> Megacorp
(adds Ecumenoplis planet upgrade which I use almost every game that is really cool and strong, maybe too strong; also adds Megacorps that I find extremely boring and never use)

- ♥♥♥♥♥♥ content / broken features -> Nemesis
(adds non functioning mechanics, poor design and salt with the community; also the ability to become the crisis, which gets old after the first time already and the galactic emperor via diplomacy, which is just a "Wait hours for a rebellion to happen (which never happened for me)" button to kinda win the game with one click)

- More boring text windows to get spammed by / free power shift to player-> Ancient Relics (I DON'T OWN IT, but it adds more events which are like the worst and most boring part of stellaris: reading the same text windows of varying quality over and over again, but you get shiny toys to click on to boost your empire and the AI probably wont)

- Machine Empires -> Synthetic Dawn (adds machine empires which are just boring version of regular empires with less mechanics and no unique shipset; you are also paying for more pain since synths can now revolt)

- Fancy rings / Dominate xeno scum rather than purge it -> Overlord (too expensive for what it adds, as most DLCs, but you get fancy orbital rings to get the most out of your planets, new subject types, but your subjects often are not strong enough to heavily profit from it imo, you also get Hyper Relays to build for faster travel)

- Origins -> Best to look them up on videos or so, since most of the DLCs add their own origins.

Overall I would say Utopia since it still adds most bang for your buck (with parts of it made free over the years) and you will use ascension paths every single time. I would chose it over every other DLC.
The others have like only 1 or 2 features you really want for frequent use: Ecumenopolis from Megacorp, Titans from Apocalypse.

This is just my best of list of these DLCs since they add more than I listed in some cases, but not worth mentioning it imo.
Generally the DLCs are NOT worth their full price, some not even half of it, so I strongly recommend getting the game (and DLCs) on website like MMOGA or other websites that sell keys.