written by Iggy
Hello everyone, Iggy here with a surprise dev diary! I am a Content Designer who has worked as a Custodian for the past year or so, bringing you content like Permanent Employment and the Leviathan Parades.
I know Eladrin said no more diaries until after summer… But he is not around to stop me!
I couldn’t wait to present the initial relic balance changes and to give all of you lovely folks a chance to voice your feedback. Summer is historically a time of experimentation when it comes to Paradox, and why not experiment with how we gather feedback?
So let’s get started with some of my biggest bugbears regarding how the relics currently work, what I have done to address the issues, and why.
Crisis Relics
The relics you get from defeating the various crises in the game are pretty tame - compared to all other relics, they are actually quite balanced. That is not good enough. These are your final reward for defeating the most powerful foe in the galaxy! Let’s give you a bit of a victory lap and have some fun with this.
As you can see, you no longer will gain a measly 30 Society Research. Instead, a massive 50% modifier to all society techs is in your future.
Precursor Relics
Another issue that has plagued Stellaris for quite some time is the viability of your starting precursor. While we are not giving you the ability to choose which precursor you spawn with, I wanted to make each relic at least somewhat useful for most empires. Here, I also felt the need for some slight adjustments to the Cybrex and the Baol, as both are a bit too powerful in the early game, without removing their usefulness in the late game.
The Baol Decision now has an activation time, but you also gain hive Nu-Baol pops if you are a hivemind. If the 10% resource output wasn’t enough there is also a reason to keep using the relic on existing Gaia worlds to get a special form of Gaia Habitability on your organic pops.
The Cybrex War Forge might start out slower, but as the game progresses you’lll notice that it becomes more powerful than ever before, capable of processing additional minerals after each use.
What this rebalance also allows us to do is to make some relics slightly less annoying to use. At the top of my list, we have the Javorian Pox Sample — memed about being the worst relic in the game. Having to activate a relic and then go in and micro every fleet only for the bombardment stance to fall off a few years later made it a real frustrating relic to use as well.
Now we will always be ready to spread some plague.
Event Relics
Finally, we got some event relics that vary from powerful to forgettable. Here the main goal was to spice up the use of relics that might not have benefits for every playstyles. Blade of the Huntress is gaining diplomatic weight as your envoy swings it around the galactic community floor; the Omnicodex can now produce hivemind pops if you are one yourself.
You can find all currently planned changes below, these are of course subject to change:
Precursor Relics:
Javorian Pox:
Current:
- Passive: +20 Leader Lifespan
- Active: Javorian Pox Orbital Bombardment stance
Changed:
- Passive: Bombardment Stance and +20 Leader Lifespan
- Active: 50% increased biology research
The Last Baol:
Current:
- Active instantly creates a Gaia world
Changed:
- The active decision takes 5 years to create a Gaia world
- If the decision is activated on a Gaia World, all organic pops on the world get an empowered Gaia World Habitability preference granting them +5% resource output on Gaia Worlds.
- The Nu-Baol will be hivemind if you are a hivemind
Yuht Cryo Core:
Current:
- Passive: +1 pop on every new colony
Changed:
- Passive: +1 pop on every new colony, +20% energy weapon fire rate
Psionic Archive:
Current:
- Passive:
- -50% Shroud Cooldown
- Better Shroud odds
- Active:
- Event granting numerous boons, including a 500 experience boost which becomes quite lacking in the late game.
Changed:
- Passive:
- -50% Shroud Cooldown
- Better Shroud odds
- Unlocks an edict granting leader XP, longevity, and accident prevention for a zro upkeep.
- +5 Ruler Max Level
- Active: The knowledge option now always levels your ruler up a level instead of granting a flat xp bonus.
Cybrex Warforge:
Current:
- Passive: 5% More alloys, and allowing the building of the most powerful buildable army in the game.
- Active: Spend 10000 minerals and gain 5000 alloys.
Changed:
- Passive: Allows the building of the most powerful buildable army in the game.
- Active: Spend 2000 minerals and gain 1000 alloys. Effect Increases by 2000 minerals and 1000 alloys each time it’s activated up to a cap of 20,000 alloys.
Vultaum Reality Perforator:
Current:
- Active: Grants one of 4 random buffs lasting for 1 year.
Changed:
- Active: Grants one of 4 random buffs lasting for 1 - 5 years.
Event Relics:
Blade of the Huntress:
Current:
- Passive: +25% Army Morale +2 Planet Sensor Range
- Active: +25% Sublight Speed for 10 years
Changed:
- Passive: +25% Army Morale 20% more diplo weight
- Active: +25% Sublight Speed for 10 years
Omnicodex:
Current:
- Active: Adds 3 pops of a random species
Changed:
- Active: Adds 3 pops of a random species, if you are a hivemind they are also hive-minded.
Ether Drake Trophy:
Current:
- Active: 10% more happiness
Changed:
- Active: 10% more happiness and 10 stability to every planet.
The Surveyor:
Current:
- Active: Can grant 3-5 rare resources among other deposits.
Changed:
- Active: Can grant 1-3 rare resource deposits. Nothing else changed.
Note: The Surveyor has half the cooldown and only costs energy to activate. It’s still an excellent peacetime relic.
Crisis Relics:
Extradimensional Warlock:
Current:
- Passive: +15% Sublight Speed
- Active: +100% more jumpdrive range
Changed:
- Passive: +30% Sublight speed, +20% weapon range
- Active:
- +100% more jumpdrive range
- -50% jump cooldown reduction
- +75% more accuracy and range on your Quantum Catapult
Prethoryn Brood-Queen:
Current:
- Passive: +30 society research
- Active: Spawns a small fleet
Changed:
- Passive: +50% society research
- Active: Spawns a sizeable fleet
Isolated Contingency Core:
Current:
- Passive: +100% Pop Assembly Speed
Changed:
- Passive:
- +100% Pop Assembly Speed
- Allows the construction of 2 of each megastructure instead of 1.
Unchanged:
Khan's Throne
- Felt like it had a solid theme already with a solid bonus.
Head of Zarqlan
- Has both an early game and a late-game bonus as well as superb flavor.
Miniature Galaxy
- Research is always top tier and random should stay random.
The Defragmentor
- Allows you to convert unity into energy. The passive not having any benefit to a spiritualist empire does feel kinda bad. Might look into it.
Scales of the Worm
- There is no way we can ever make this relic comparable to the bonus you get for embracing the Worm. It would have to be the strongest relic on this list.
The Rubricator
- One of two ways to get a repeatable source of Minor Artifacts, very powerful.
The Galatron
- Is the Galatron
Now I want to hear from you! Are you terrified of what I did to the Yuht Cryo Core? Annoyed that I skipped the Miniature galaxy? Still not feeling like activating the Pox Sample? Please feel free to analyze and make tier lists. Hopefully, after this next patch, every relic will be a bit more attractive!