Mods that improve performance, expand the game and work together. Mods are listed in the correct (I hope) loading order.


Any shape with 1000 size
10-15 Empires (higher amount for increased difficulty and lag)
3-5 advanced starts (higher amount for increased difficulty)
3-6 fallen empires
2-3 marauder empires (personal preference)
0.25x habitable worlds (rare, if struggling with lag)
2 habitable worlds guaranteed (less if you want to make the game harder)
Advanced neighbors on
Empire placement random
0.25-1x primitive civilizations (less for less lag)
1-5x Crisis Strength
Grand Admiral difficulty
Scaling difficulty (can be adjusted or switched on and off later in-game)
0.5x hyperlane density (personal preference, higher amount makes game harder)
0-1x Abandoned gateways (lower amount for less lag)
0-1x Wormhole pairs (same idea as gateways)
2300 for midgame crisis and 2400 endgame crisis (select any crisis you want, I usually just select ALL)
L-gates, caravaneers - whatever you want


4.0 - select "Gigas Experience" button in the middle, can also click on tailor your settings and set them to the ones on screenshots below:

Gigas Main page
Gigas Vanilla page
Gigas Kilo page
Gigas Giga page

Forgotten Empires Configuration - just press begin twice

Repeatable Ascension Technology - 36 (lower the number if you are using more mods that add more traditions)

Gigastructures - Check screenshots above for precise setting with least late game impact. I wouldn't recommend messing with the settings until you learn what every building does. Personally I just switch off the worst lag inducers (birch world, alderson disk, various types of ringworlds except vanilla one on the vanilla page), switch off all terraforming structures on the giga page, and limit everything else possible to 1 (more for habitats or ring worlds if you are playing an empire that uses them, obviously). Every option has a description when you hover over it, so use common sense but there's really no point in having more than one building of anything, but feel free to switch on or off whatever you want.


Start by lowering the amount of empires, then lower the amount of systems (note that not every event, leviathan and special system might spawn in galaxy with less than 1000-1250 stars, even with the ALL anomaly/system mods. If all else fails - install the Kasako's mods from the list below.

Optional mods I've tested and removed (but you can add them back):

ACOT Fun mod, but causes numbers bloat and adds too much game breaking stuff, very hard to balance and increases lag.

Assorted Precursor Adjustments - install this at the top of the list, below the unofficial patch, if you want ALL the precursor events to spawn inside your borders. Very unbalanced.

AI-Player Exclusive Archaeology & Astral Rifts - similarly install this below unofficial patch, if you want ALL of the archaeology events to spawn inside your borders, while AI will only get some generic/buff archaeology sites. Very unbalanced.

More primitives - might cause some issues with other mods, needs testing post 4.0

Kasaco's Infinite Stellaris Can improve performance late game, but disables a lot of mechanics, some events, trade routes, mercenaries etc. If you want to use it - you will need Dark Blue UI remake, Casako's Framework & Modmenu, Dark Blue UI Universal Patch and Better Performance & Utilities. Put all 4 at the end of the list, above Merger of Rules, in the same order as mentioned here. Disable Universal Resource Patch, Dynamic UI topbar, tiny outliner, SpeedDial, Mod Menu and Mod Menu button mods, since they are already included in Dark Blue UI. Refer to screenshots below for startup settings:

Kasacos mod 1
Kasacos mod 2
Kasacos mod 3

Click "start settings completed" twice and that's it. You can find kasakos mod menu button on the left, it has various useful settings, including buttons for any submods you might have, most of them got descriptions when you hover over them.

Mods that I've tested and they might have issues or need patches:

Guilli planet modifiers Fun mod, but significantly increases late game bloat because of the various extra colonizable planets.

Bug branch ethics - requires a bunch of compatibility patches that either do not exist or aren't updated.