Stellaris Void Dwellers overwhelming build (2.7)

Do you want one of the strongest population growth in the game with strong tech? Do you want to take most out of potential of Void Dwellers and don't mind leaving your cozy habitats? Then this is the guide for you!

Preface

What to expect with this build

• One of the highest pop growths in the game (and as we know in current meta pop growth is still the king)
  
• Tech heavy build keeping your neighbours happy

Void dwellers have a big advantage in the beginning having population growth from not 1 starting location but 3! This advantage will be hindered by the fact that you are unable to colonize planets with your species early on. What if I said you could mitigate this problem early enough not to suffer from this at all? Yes you can! In this walk through I will tell you how. End results is the highest population growth in the game by far with top notch technological output. As we know in current meta population growth is number one priority therefore this results in a very strong build. In my recent run (Grand Admiral, default Galaxy Generation, No MODS) at year 2286 I was just behind fallen empires in scores.

From role playing perspective you can probably think it as a group of Void Dwellers dreaming of soaking their feet once more into raw organic soil as written in the ancient stories. Then this small idealistic group became a movement and the rest is history.

The main idea focuses on going around void dwellers inability to colonize planets and using diplomats to keep your neighbours happy using minimal resources on defense

• Find the closest neighbour and make them your friend as soon as possible. This is mostly achieved by Diplomatic Corps civic. When your 3 diplomats have done their job improving relations get a migration treaty as soon as possible. After that you get access to your neighbours species that can colonize nearby planets. Later on you will colonize planets with droids and eventually with everyone with the help of synthetic evolution.

• Keep your neighbours happy with your 3 diplomats from diplomatic corps civic saving a lot of resources to spend on population growth and tech

**This guide is not meant to be read if you do not know the basics of Stellaris. In order to get an idea about the basics first see a great guide 'Stellaris in a Nutshell' made by Stefan Anon or similar content 'How to play Stellaris 2.7' by Aspec.

**This guide does not (except very beginning) flow linearly exactly like stated here since there are several unexpected things that can happen. This build is mostly dependent on finding other species to resettle your planets. Even in the worst case this build is doable and gives a big advantage.

Empire setup

This build was tested:

• With Grand Admiral difficulty
  
• Default Galaxy Settings
  
• Without any MODS

Ethics

• Fanatic materialist (For the -20% robot upkeep and +10% research)
  
• Egalitarian (Specialized pop production +5%: You will be focusing on tech, alloys and consumer goods so this helps in everything important to you + Extra influence gain: Important in order to expand before your neighbours take the best systems and choke points)

Civics

• Technocracy (for the tech!)
  
• Diplomatic corps (3 envoys to keep your neighbours happy!)

Traits

• Negative: nonadaptive, unruly
  
• Positive: rapid breeders (+10% pop growth), intelligent (+10% research from jobs), natural engineers (+15% Engineering research from jobs. Engineering is the most important tech path especially since you are focusing on getting Synthetic Evolution ascension perk)
  
• For further info see 'Traits Tier List for Organics - Ultimate Tierlists' by Stefan Anon

Other possible versions of this build to try out

• Civics: Slaver guilds + Technocracy + Nihilistic acquisition ascension perk asap. Get a technologically advanced fleet early e.g. Cruisers with carriers and start abducting population from your neighbours
  
• Civics: Merchant guilds. Get the required energy and consumer goods for teching.
  
• Species: Lithoids. This enables you to colonize most of your nearby planets with 50% habitability which is great! Negative sides are low habitability giving penalties (pop amenities +50%, pop upkeep +50%, resources from jobs -25%, pop growth speed -25%), not having Rapid Breeders trait for +10% pop growth, having Lithoid species penalty -25% pop growth. Overall using Lithoids is still worth it. Would need more testing though.

Traditions / Ascension perks

Traditions and ascension perks listed below go in order (from top to down).

Traditions

1. Discovery (just to get map the stars edict and then to expansion tree)
   
2. Expansion (get +10% pop growth asap and then the rest of the expansion tree since you will be needing more jobs for your habitats which Voidborne ascension perk can fix temporarily)
   
3. Rest of the Discovery tree (Need to finish one tradition tree at this point to get Flesh is Weak ascension perk asap)
   
4. After this continue based on situation in the game

Ascension perks

1. Voidborne: Get more time to get droids and synthetics! (you will be running low on jobs in your habitats and voidborne offers +2 building slots on each habitat. Of course you can get way more jobs by upgrading your habitats but it just conflicts with the plan of getting species outside your empire to colonize planets near you)
   
2. Flesh is weak (Going towards Synthetic Evolution ascension perk)
   
3. Synthetic evolution (Your species become robots so you can finally colonize and resettle everywhere!)
   
4. Master builders (for mega structures!)
   
5. Galactic wonders (One of the best peaceful ways of becoming more powerful)

Tech

In general you want to aim for synthetic evolution ascension perk asap so always follow that path. Robots are the most efficient path to maximize pop growth. This means avoiding any tech path that does not lead to that (until you get there). As a rule of thumb a way to achieve this is to avoid techs with lock symbol (except the ones listed in a table below)




For further guides about technology you could watch Stefan Annon's video 'Essential TECH and RESEARCH Guide - How to get Techs!' about that topic.

Also you want to prioritize technology gain and pop growth at the same time!

In table below you can see the required techs in order to eventually activate Synthetic evolution ascension perk. The technologies have a hierarchical tiers per area e.g. in order to get tier 2 engineering techs you need to have researched at least 6 tier 1 engineering techs. In order to see full tech list check Stellaris tech tree[turanar.github.io]

	Tier 1	Tier 2 (6x Tier 1 done)	Tier 3 (6x Tier 2 done)	Tier 4 (6x Tier 3 done)
Engineering	Powered exoskeletons - Robotic workers	Droids - Flesh is weak ascension perk. Requires Colonial Centralization!		Synthetics - Synthetic personality matrix - Synthetic evolution ascension perk. Requires Galactic Administration and Positronic AI !
Society	Planetary unification	Colonial Centralization	Galactic administration
Physics	Administrative AI	Self-Evolving Logic		Positronic AI

Other early tech highlights

• Engineering: Carrier Operations + Starhold (If there is a need to build a defense then starbases with carriers is the way to go)
  
• Society: Gene Crops: Nutritional Plenitude edict (+10% pop growth! +5% happiness as well)
  
• Science: Global Energy Management: access to Energy Grid building (+15% energy from jobs! You will be lacking energy heavily!) + FTL inhibition (If there is a need to build defense this forces your enemy to destroy starbase before moving forward)

Later tech

• You want megastructures. Simply put if you get mega structures earlier than other empires you are have a huge advantage.
  
• To name a few: Science Nexus (for science!), Ring World (Best place for your population to be!), Matter Decompressor (A lot of minerals!), Dyson Sphere (A lot of energy!), Strategic Coordination Center (A lot of Naval Capacity!), Mega Shipyard (A must to rebuild your fleet fast)

Early build

Policy

• Diplomatic Stance: Keep the default Expansionist but change to Cooperative when you meet someone to keep your neighbours more happy
  
• Resettlement: Allowed
  
• Initial Border Status: Closed (You don't want neighbours to build starbases beyond your secured choke points)
  
• Trade Policy: Consumer benefits (You will need that for tech upkeep and energy is easier to get)
  
• Purge: Prohibited (to avoid some unpleasant problems when you get droids and start colonizing planets with them)

Start setup

• 1st habitat (with Research Districts): Unemploy enforcer (You just don't need it to waste your resources. Will get a job later from science district)
  
• 3rd habitat (with Generator Districts): Reduce Clerk jobs by 2 (to minimum that everyone is employed) (You will start to get need for food soon so better start early)
  
• Upgrade ships for alloys trick and sell 145 alloys to buy 500 minerals (=At ship designer, disable auto generate design, remove everything you can including engines, save the design and remove other designs, then upgrade your ships to get 145 alloys!)
  
• Construction ship builds mining stations on your home world
  
• 3rd habitat (with Generator Districts) (more important one due to energy production): Upgrade Habitat Central Control: Get it with the minerals you got from 'Upgrade ships for alloys trick' (you might want to wait for short while not to interrupt construction ship building mining stations)
  
• 2nd science ship
  
• 2nd habitat (with Astro-Mining Bay): Upgrade Habitat Central Control: Sell 500 food and 250 consumer goods for 500 minerals

Continue

1. Discovery Tree just to get map the stars edict (edict on as soon as you have 2nd science ship)
   
2. 3rd habitat: Add a Reactor District
   
3. 1st habitat: Sell 250 alloys to buy 500 minerals then build Research District
   
4. 3rd habitat: Replace Trade District to Reactor District (you really need the energy)
   
5. Get Robotic Workers tech asap!
   
6. Build Robot Assembly Plants on all habitats as soon as you can. Pop growth above all else!

Notes

• It is worth it to shuffle a bit with science leaders until you get an industrial expert. This can greatly speed up your essential techs such as droids and the synthetics tech path
  
• You don't want to be building any hydroponic farms for food, just get it from market
  
• Buildings: After having enough consumer goods for tech you want to build enough alloy foundries
  
• As soon as you find any relics sell them (Traditions & Relics - Relics tab - Sell to Private Collectors) for 500 energy a piece! You really need the energy.

Explore!

Find nearest neighbour that has matching habitability to planets nearby you

The idea here is to use any other species than your own in order to colonize planets.

In the beginning just explore (yes, explore, don't survey) asap with your 3 first scientists to far away locations to look for neighbours. But avoid black holes since they have a high probability of containing something that gets your science ships destroyed immediately! Only after that focus on finding planets. The next 3 can then survey for primitives and planets.

Priority 1: Find neighbour with a matching habitability to planets close to you (with higher probability for planets matching your species default planet preference) to make a migration pact with (explore as far away locations as you can and skip alternative paths to same places)

• Plan A) Empires:
  
  • This is clearly the fastest way most of the time. If you get unlucky having only fanatic militarist / gestalt consciousness / fallen empire vassal origin etc. neighbours or neighbours not having good enough habitability preference to planets nearby you then go for plan B.
• Plan B) Primitives:
  
  • When you find primitive planets survey them asap
    
  • After building an observation post on their planet choose the Technological Enlightenment (later on you want to choose "Integrate subject" from diplomacy options). After that improve relations with them an form a migration pact
• Other options
  
  • There are other options to get species outside of your empire e.g. getting refugees but they are way too random and therefore you can't rely on them.

Priority 2: find planets (don't let this slow down priority 1 at all)

• Explore for planets first and survey them. When you only explore them after you move to another system information about system is lost. Therefore as stupid as it sounds it is good to write down what planet type you explored and where. Then you can compare which neighbour has the best habitability on planets nearby you.

Overall have around 6 science ships exploring and 1 assisting research at home. Get your science ships as soon as you can!

After you find your first neighbour send all of your envoys to improve relations to get a migration treaty asap to get pops that can colonize new planets!

Also after finding your first neighbour get a trade deal for communication which will reveal even more neighbours!

Colonization!

Deal with your neighbours

• After finding your neighbours rush to expand to choke points as close as possible to your neighbours if there are planets or other valuable resources to secure.
  
• Keeping your neighbours happy with envoys should be enough if there are no more than 3 neighbours (depending on how much they hate you then you might need to give some alloys to them via trade deal). It is although essential to check every now and then that your relations with your neighbours do not get too low

Colonizing

• After droid tech and/or pops from Migration Treaty, colonize every planet you can while being able to have enough resources (energy, consumer goods, gas) to max tech
  
  • In practice means heavy resettling away from mineral, energy, food production jobs towards research jobs
    
  • At same time need a lot alloys too! You want to have enough alloys to be able to expand towards systems with planets without much delay. And also be prepared to build defenses and / or fleet if needed
• It is especially important to get that one planet colonized as soon as possible because you will seriously start to lack space in your habitats quite soon. If you get lucky enough to find a relic world things become way easier!
  
  • Start food production on your first planet asap. After stabilizing food production get rid of useless hydroponic farms on your habitats for more important buildings (consumer goods, alloys, bureaucrats for admin can)
    
  • Next you will be lacking energy so be sure to focus on Generator Districts
    
  • Make it your first science planet if in any way feasible (because you have reached max science districts in your main science habitat by now)
    
  • Resettle all droids there asap (unless it's a relic world in which case you can resettle your own pops too)

Planet roles

• Science planets (About 1/3 of your planets)
  
  • Only research labs. Upgrade them non-stop and resettle pops from elsewhere.
    
  • 1x Holo-Theatres (amenities)
    
  • 1x Research Institute (Available at 40 pops. +15% research output)
• Alloy / Consumer Goods (Consumer goods only the minimum you need but alloys as much as you can produce) planets with mineral / energy production as well
  
• Planets with Administrative Offices and Advanced resource production (Volatile Motes, Exotic Gases, Rare Crystals) with mineral / energy production as well. Notice that Exotic Gases are needed earlier than other advanced resources in order to maintain upgraded research labs

Other points

• Whenever a pop of your species is born on a planet (including when you colonize it), that species has -60% pop growth. To fix this go to 'Species' and 'Apply Template' with species that doesn't have that -60% pop growth penalty. In practice you need to do this every now and then...
  
• Reform government: Add meritocracy (+10% specialist pop output)
  
• First extra alloys after heavy expanding should go to building fleet for starting rivalries to get more influence
  
• To increase unity production build 1 Leisure District in your 1st and 2nd habitat. For 3rd one you want just reactor districts. Also when you can get Tradition trait for +10% unity production from jobs
  
• To increase pop growth even further (not mandatory) get some first habitats asap and build Robot Assembly Plants there just for pop growth

Later game

Production / Tech

• Always worth it to invest to tier 3 buildings requiring advanced resources (Advanced resource buildings provide +1 job that results in 2 advanced resources being produced)
  
• Further increase your tech lead with Science Nexus
  
• Maximizing alloy production is critical for getting strong defense to your choke points and getting enough alloys for mega structures
  
• To maximize alloy production:
  
  • Policy - Trade - Militarized economy
    
  • Ascension perk: Arcology Project to make your science planets Ecumenopolis for high alloy production districs
• Increase mega structure build speed
  
  • Edict: Living Metal Mega-Construction (+50% mega structure build speed)
    
  • Ascension perk: Master builders (+50% mega structure build speed)
    
  • Ambition (edict): Architectural Renaissance (+50% mega structure build speed)

Managing your population

• Ring worlds will become your main targets for resettling your unemployed pops
  
• In Galactic community: Resolutions - Politics and culture - Greater Good - Greater than ourselves: This gives an Edicts that automatically resettles unemployed pops to planets that have jobs and housing within your empire. Of course first you want to create a lot of available jobs e.g. in ring worlds

Defense

• After getting extra alloys fortify your chokes with most advanced carrier based defense
  
• Later add a gateway to each of your fortified choke points
  
• Later build a mega shipyard for very fast reinforcements

Tips

• If you are next to driven assimilator or fanatic purifier add 2nd alloy foundry asap for enough defence. In this case starbase with defensive platform with strike crafts and FTL tech…otherwise you just die
  
• If you discover minor artifact sell them right away for extra energy. You need it early
  
• Avoid going to black holes early because that can get your science ships destroyed. After you have surveyed most of the areas hire low level scientist to explore them and have a high lvl science ships close buy to survey it if safe
  
• Research first contact right away: opinion boost & some influence & and you get to know where your neighbours are asap
  
• After first contact choose dialog option matching their ethic to stay friendly
  
• If your relations go below requirements of an agreement e.g. commercial pact a truce is forced - Don't give agreements too easily for neighboring empires!!

My latest playthrough

I got quite lucky with the starting location in a sense that my borders are protected by two fallen empires (Yaanari Shard and Connisthian Protector) and so far I only see one choke point (close to Foundation of Evari) that has to be secured soon.

Flesh is weak at year 2233. Important step towards the path for becoming synthetics. At this point I have already colonized a few planets with the help of migration treaty and after that with droids.

Time to start expanding heavily. All my effort goes to sustaining max tech production on 1/3 of my planets/habitats while colonizing as much planets as I can. While of course keeping my neighbour happy.

At year 2286 I'm clearly the strongest just behind Fallen empires on Grand Admiral. My population at this point was 566, research output 4k and I had 9 Planets and 2 new habitats.

[Noobwizard #FixTF2]

does this still work as of 3.0.2 and what are the optimal tech goals (i only have about +1k in 2250ish but am only on captain lol)

[Calibrated]

@futonrevolution no idea what any of that means but it sounds cool

[Fugitive Unknown]

I work something like this, but I switched over to Fanatic Egalitarian so I can run Shared Burdens.
Shared Burdens + Meritocracy = crazy bonuses for specialists and great influence bonuses from your factions.

Also (acknowledging this is dodgy), you can always just set habitability to .25 and just drop orbital habs everywhere.

[futonrevolution]

I'm trying Utopian Abundance and the Biological Ascendancy out, and it's been working quite well with Void Dwellers. Synth leaders (and a few Brain Slugs) to run the Research Labs, and the great unwashed masses of unemployed Nerve-Stapled biologicals with a huge Habitability bonus and no need for Happiness. Since the usual Utopian need for Martial Law is gone, the economy and pop growth is much stronger.

[Kodama]

@The Canadian Nematoad Or optionally you could just agree that this is the meta and only use strong origins and builds in multiplayer (which will limit options greatly)

[Kodama]

@The Canadian Nematoad To be fair Stellaris is not exactly the most balanced game. There are several approaches that are almost always better than others having similar skill level players in multiplayer.

Origins:
- Void Dwellers, Shattered Ring, Scion, Hegemon (when rushing your federation members early if it still works) (and maybe Doomsday for rush builds) are definitely more powerful than other origins. Therefore for balance you would probably not play any of these in multiplayer.

Others:
- Synthetic Evolution Ascension perk is just way stronger than other 2. And going for robotic workers is clearly the way to go for pop growth (which is the most important thing). Therefore you will always be handicapped by default if you don't do this.
- Also heavy focus on technology at some point is almost always mandatory.

[The Canadian Nematoad]

and builds like this are why the origin is banned in competitive and most casual MP games.

[Kodama]

@Ебаный рот этого казино That should be "nonadaptive". I fixed that in the guide. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Боря два брейсера]

I didn't get what is "unhabitable" negative trait?

[Kodama]

Great that so many people have found this guide useful! Yet I see some improvement based on the rating. I would be happy to get some more comments how to improve the guide. Thank you!