Tips to surviving higher difficulties

[Kalemenos]

Now that I'm no longer entirely a new-bie, I'm finding difficulty level "ensign" much too easy. But I bumped it up to "captain," and I keep getting my rear end kicked by the AI especially early game. I can't imagine how some of you geniuses play Admiral or Grand Admiral. I know it's a very general question, but does anyone have any tips to offer?

[yuzhonglu]

Terravore/ Necrophage. Tech for blue lasers ASAP and start massing minerals, energy (you'll need it) and alloys in year 0.

You don't need colony ships since you start with two nearby primitive worlds that can be taken by a single transport.

You'll keep 80% of the pops that you conquer due to necrophage purge and since you're a lithoid they'll have good habitability everywhere.

For growth, grow the primitive world pops, which are hive mind and won't get the pop malus of your main species. Go bio ascension for even more pop growth.

Since you're a Swarm, all your ships get massive bonuses and no need to worry about the claim system.

[Mr.I]

Originally posted by Kalemenos:

I keep getting my rear end kicked by the AI especially early game

The pen is mightier than the sword. Sufficient amount of diplomatic effort can pacify most of AI empires even if they have opposing ethics.

Unless you want to play it like an old-school RTS (namely, being genocidal), diplomacy is always your best option against AI empires in early game especially in higher difficulty.

If you're surrounded by unfriendly AI empires and can't pacify all of them, then you need to at least prevent a multi-front war. Concentrate your resources (envoys and goods for bribery) to secure at least one side of your border while concentrating your military on the other side. If you can make one of them happy, then sign a non-aggressive pact immediately. Remember, even the Nazi Germany would like to sign a non-aggressive pact with the Soviet Union. Signing a non-aggressive pact to temporarily secure one side of your border is invaluable when you're surrounded by unfriendly AI empires. Early aggression must be under control, otherwise it will trigger your demise very quickly. And the best way to control it is diplomacy.

When you go on an attack, you must ensure that your neighbor won't backstab you. Again, prevent a multi-front war at all cost. If your "rear end" is not secured, then you need to be a little more conservative.

[HyperKnight]

I do not play genocidal (I play Megacorp) but as of late I win all early wars on Captain because I use mix of diplomacy and military build-up.

The key here is to separate potential allies/vassals from implacable enemies (purifiers, militarists) and easy pickings (xenophobes) and do a corvette rush on latter to capture their capitals.

Recipe for a corvette rush I use is simple - ramp up the early mineral and alloy production while doing some military research (blue lasers), not build low value outposts, colonize with private ships and build 2x20 corvette fleets with Supremacy tree, then beeline to the rival capital.

[Geoff]

Originally posted by Mr.I:

Unless you want to play it like an old-school RTS (namely, being genocidal), diplomacy is always your best option against AI empires in early game especially in higher difficulty.

I find myself kind of curious about that. Like the only distinction in the higher difficulty levels is that the AI gets production bonuses (though material advantage is clearly a big driver of AI choices). So if you ally with the AI, or vassalize it, the player gets those bonuses by proxy from the AI. So doesn't that actually negate the difficulty enhancement of the harder level? Or at least, significantly change the structure of it?

I don't really relate to the "purge all xenos" fandom but at least I get the challenge of it, since it's fairly straightforward. But as I've screwed around with enhanced crisis, I've been pondering that a bit too. When you scale up the production bonuses, don't you also diplomatically coopt them for yourself?

[Mr.I]

Originally posted by Geoff:

Originally posted by Mr.I:

Unless you want to play it like an old-school RTS (namely, being genocidal), diplomacy is always your best option against AI empires in early game especially in higher difficulty.

I find myself kind of curious about that. Like the only distinction in the higher difficulty levels is that the AI gets production bonuses (though material advantage is clearly a big driver of AI choices). So if you ally with the AI, or vassalize it, the player gets those bonuses by proxy from the AI. So doesn't that actually negate the difficulty enhancement of the harder level? Or at least, significantly change the structure of it?

I don't really relate to the "purge all xenos" fandom but at least I get the challenge of it, since it's fairly straightforward. But as I've screwed around with enhanced crisis, I've been pondering that a bit too. When you scale up the production bonuses, don't you also diplomatically coopt them for yourself?

To some degree, yes. AI's combat power scales with difficulty but their diplomacy does not. It's very exploitable as you've discovered.

[Malkuth]

Most people that can play higher difficulties like that are playing META and or min maxing.

The AI isn’t smarter on higher difficulty it just has more bonuses than you, so why you have to be as efficient as possible.. cause never going to beat them in resources.

Fleet composition is also key. AI doesn’t have better ships just more. Meaning your ships have to be a META build.

[Roadie]

Originally posted by Malkuth:

Most people that can play higher difficulties like that are playing META and or min maxing.

The AI isn’t smarter on higher difficulty it just has more bonuses than you, so why you have to be as efficient as possible.. cause never going to beat them in resources.

Fleet composition is also key. AI doesn’t have better ships just more. Meaning your ships have to be a META build.

Yeah roleplay isn't really viable on the higher difficulties, there just isn't breathing room for that kind of stuff.

Similarly, being a xenophobe genocidal empire is WAY harder on higher difficulties because you're always at a resource disadvantage for procuring fleets compared to AI. You HAVE to be at the top of your game in that case.

Also to OP, don't feel like you HAVE to play on higher difficulties. It may seem like every Stellaris player on the internet plays on Grand Admiral 25x crisis strength, but remember that the regular folk who play on Cadet/Ensign are the majority, they just don't have much reason to talk about it.

[Kalemenos]

I thank each of you who replied: great insights, I learned a ton. I hope others chime in too.

[Tex]

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