Dlcs What should i buy?

[ultracrazed8888]

So I have 16$ left over and I have all dlcs besides astral planes,machine age,cosmic storm and grand archive.What should I buy?

[Kufesska]

machine age is by far best of mentioned

[ultracrazed8888]

Why?

[Kufesska]

first of all, planes and storms have pretty mixed reviews(imo planes are better than storms)
grand archive maybe better a bit than previous ones
second - amount of content
machine age gives a lot of different stuff
buffs/reworks for cybernetic/synth/machine ascensions
fourth crisis
new cool "player crisis" ascension perk, that allows you to unlock fallen empire's techs and gives additional way to end the game(not destroy galaxy, but leave it if you want to, maybe damaging a bit in process) and it does not make all empires attack you together(though it would piss off FEs the more you progress in it)
3 new origins for cyborgs, synths and machines(synth and machines are kinda good imo)
2 new limited(3/5) kilostructures - arc furnace(nice amount minerals and alloys) and dyson swarm(some amount of energy/research(almost always physycs) or(rarely) different resource from the star
individualist machines empires - play like any individualist bio-empire(with normal civics and mechanics like council, trade...), but as robots with avalable machine ascension paths

and some stuff like multistage portraits for cyborgs and synths

[Doug Dimmadong]

Astral Planes and Cosmic Storm are absolute trash. Machine Age is by far the best of these. One of the best DLCs in the game in general.

[Kufesska]

Originally posted by Doug Dimmadong:

Astral Planes and Cosmic Storm are absolute trash. Machine Age is by far the best of these. One of the best DLCs in the game in general.

in the end i kinda enjoyed astral planes - +30 "digsites"for midgame content, few relics, midgame crisis. sometimes useful stuff with astral threads
edit: hard to talk about "worth its cost" though
but i've spared some money on school lunches so it was ok

[MeniliteZ]

Originally posted by Kufesska:

in the end i kinda enjoyed astral planes - +30 "digsites"for midgame content, few relics, sometimes useful stuff with astral threads

Sounds fun to me! I don't have that one yet either.

Why is "digsites" in quotes?

[Kufesska]

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Originally posted by Kufesska:

in the end i kinda enjoyed astral planes - +30 "digsites"for midgame content, few relics, sometimes useful stuff with astral threads

Sounds fun to me! I don't have that one yet either.

Why is "digsites" in quotes?

well, they are called Astral Rifts, spawn in space, have different icon, but mostly have same mechanic of completing as digsites
you can't stop exploring it though until it is completed and there are more chances to lose your scientist with low dice rolls(i prefer having special scientist with trait increasing astral rifts skill for that)

[Kufesska]

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Sounds fun to me! I don't have that one yet either.

heard a lot of "do not worth 20$ cost" on this forum, so i'd recommend you look for discount here at steam or at some third-party games shop website
there are sites like this https://gg.deals/dlc/stellaris-astral-planes/ i think, that show best offers for games, maybe people here will name more, i don't know much

[MeniliteZ]

Originally posted by Kufesska:

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Sounds fun to me! I don't have that one yet either.

Why is "digsites" in quotes?

well, they are called Astral Rifts, spawn in space, have different icon, but mostly have same mechanic of completing as digsites
you can't stop exploring it though until it is completed and there are more chances to lose your scientist with low dice rolls(i prefer having special scientist with trait increasing astral rifts skill for that)

Thanks!
And yeah, I'd wait for a Steam sale.

[Lasagna]

Machine Age has really important mega-structures(dyson swarms & Arc furnace) for everyone, but you get the most out of the dlc if you play robots (it allows you to play non-gestalt robots too and gives new ascension paths to robots). it also has cosmogenesis which is broken AF. i think it's not quite as amazing as the community thinks (a lot of people seem to think it is the 2nd most important dlc after utopia) but it's the most important out of the 4 you listed.

Astral Rifts is basically a worse version of the old ancient relics expansion but more expensive, it's fine if you want more digsites/events/reading, otherwise if you don't value that you can skip. IMO i think it's worth it on a 50% off sale.

Grand archive gives you a silly little museum that lets you collect bonuses from specimens you get from events and integrates well with ancient relics and astral rifts.

Cosmic storms is the only DLC that a lot of people who own it, turn it off. because storms are not fun, they are awful RNG death events that devastate your entire empire unless you grabbed the funny new building tech to protect yourself (more tech bloat, more rng techs that will prevent you from rolling the tech you actually want). some people defend it because in niche situations you can stack some nice positive modifiers but it's the lowest rated stellaris expansion for a reason.

[Two Thralls In a Trench Coat]

in my opinion, the order of priority of those should be
#1 Machine age
#2 Grand archive
#3 Astral planes
#4 Cosmic storms

[Fatty Slonker]

The one that interests you the most, with the most mechanics that you will use

[MeniliteZ]

Originally posted by Two Thralls In a Trench Coat:

in my opinion, the order of priority of those should be
#1 Machine age
#2 Grand archive
#3 Astral planes
#4 Cosmic storms

I'd personally want Astral Planes above Grand Archive because lore is my interest.
And I wouldn't even get Cosmic Storms.

Originally posted by Fatty Slonker:

The one that interests you the most, with the most mechanics that you will use

This is the best advice.

[Rage000]

For the complete game all the DLC imo. If you decide to try Mods (worth looking into) then Most Mods do not say DLC are required

[IrishMustang]

Not sure why so many are sour on Cosmic Storms.

I've had a few play through's with it now and It brings some interesting elements to the game. Its not the best DLC, but It can still be good if you put some time into it and read up how it actually works.

** Some things to keep in mind when getting 'Cosmic Storms' **
- Always start fresh with a brand new game.. OR disable the DLC if you've have old save files and campaigns before you got Cosmic Storms. These Storms can mess you up if you have zero experience and you're not ready for them. Throwing a Storm into a Mid or Late Game with zero exposure is risky.
- Keep the 'Storm Chance' Low when first starting out. When you create a new game, in settings: I recommend Keeping it Less than 2.5-3 Storm Chance. It takes practice to figure these Storms out
- Read. Read the weather map mode and understand how it works. It may seem a little clunky at first but it can be helpful. Remember to utilize Storm Relief Center, Storm Attraction Relay, and Storm Repulsion Relay accordingly. I expect that most ppl that are upset with Cosmic Storm DLC, don't have a lot of experience with these Buildings.