As someone who owns all the DLC - please never show me the total cost of all the DLC put together ever again.

When I first saw Plantoid, I misread it as Planetoid. I was disappointed that I could not play as a race of sentient tiny planets.

I think Utopia should become a part of the base game for the new people coming into the game. And most likely distant stars as well.

I find it funny how Utopia is so unanimously well seen. Not just here, but in every other social platform, it is the most praised DLC and it truly makes me happy!

I just want to take a moment and appreciate how ASpec doesn't rate the DLC's by whether he thinks they are really good or really terrible. He rates them on the value they bring to the game itself and overall ratio of content.

Synthetic dawn seriously needs a shipset of its own.

I generally agree with the tiering, except for Federations and Megacorp. They're Must Haves for me, but I'm constantly angling toward diplomatic/economic victories in my games.

Sadly have to agree about Nemesis. The intel system, which i was so exited for when i read about it first, turned out to be somewhat unimpactful and shallow, and it was apparently designed to be thus so as not to punish the player with the AI punishing you with impactful intel situations. Some form of mechanic where you can sabotage ships in an enemy fleet or structures on enemy planets would have been great, and a fascet where you establish an internal intelligence network in your own empire for counter-intel purposes would have made it so much more interesting. After the last big update, i played a game and the AI seemed to be incredibly agressive and constantly hitting me with sabotage and negative intel situations, because my counter intel skill hadn't progressed very far. I barely noticed any of it, and it was just sad.

Me with all expansions and everything in this game: guess I’m too far into this already 🤣

For me, synthetic dawn is essential... I couldn't imagine a stellaris galaxy without machine empires.

I will always consider that Synthetic Dawn is a must have on equal footing with Utopia, because Machine Empires feel even more unique to play than Hiveminds, and they add a lot of flavour in any galaxy.

Finally, a video to tell me which of the DLC’s I’ve bought were a waste of money (trick question, they’re all worth it)

I would include megacorp in the must have list, because I cannot imagine running a standard empire without a single ecumonopolis.

This is just for me in my own opinion which only really matters to myself but, the species packs I would consider totally optional simply because if you main humans or other species you would not care about using them. But that is just me anything that adds to the gameplay late game is a major plus. Also have to say this good job on the video really enjoyed hearing your opinion on the dlc.

Plantoid, humanoid and lithoid really should just be optional, probably merge the sci-fi category.

I own all of the dlcs and I like all of them. Some added features are great in every playthought, but some can be put in the "what does the player feel that particular day" category. Personally I would love to see a rework on ground assaults/combat and the primitive planet system. I would love to seed a planet teeming with organic life using crystals. Watching and waiting for the native species to die out because of the radiated crystals then coming in to harvest the resource. Like the Scrinn, I want to play as the Scrinn using a tiberium like crystals, that are used both as a weapon and as a resource.

Leviathan is really cool now. The event that I got after the dimensional horror was very cool(with some extreme risk/rewards; I lost big at the end of the event) and some of the new bonuses are great to have.

I literally made a new species/empire half an hour before this video and was wondering if there was a tier list for the expansions! I have played a few games of Stellaris over two years, I'm not a fanatic, so this is very useful.

Nemesis is similar to Federations, actually. Just more about the Galactic Community and soft power with espionage. Shame about the espionage system not being that great, but it's usually a weak spot in these kinds of games. If they don't do a complete rework, they should at least double the amount of operations you can do and add a lot of situations that can happen mid-operation. I can think of a new operation on the spot: make a fleet go lost and return to base just as if it got retreated or blundered into closed borders area. If they do touch up on Synthetic Dawn, I want them to add this classic sci-fi trope: An organic society that is governed by a giant AI. Could build some robots in there too, but the point is that it's not a hive mind. The leader's capability would depend on how much tech you have. Depending on authority type there might be a cabal of High Programmers deciding what programs are run. Serve the Computer. The Computer is your friend.

Stellaris is the only game i'd be willing to buy all the dlc from, the devs deserve all the support it can get. It's such an underrated piece of art

I just bought distant stars, utopia, overlord, and the aquatics pack, and it really transformed my experience with the game. When I was doing my research on the DLC, I found most people recommend utopia and distant stars as must haves. So when I bought DLC I decided on those two, Overlord because it’s the newest expansion, and aquatics because I wanted some extra flavor (and it was on sale). So far I’m extremely satisfied with all of my purchases.

I actually agree with almost all of this. The main thing I would change is I would put Ancient Relics at the top because I find it to be a very important story-based expansion just like Distant Stars. For me, the story elements of Stellairs are the best part and I'm always hoping for more. Leviathans also had a decent story focus, although notably less so than Distant Stars and Ancient Relics. So I wouldn't say it's a must have, I think there's a place for it being in the great value category.

“Stuff is always on sale” *cries in console*

Perfect, a new ASpine video for my viewing pleasure

Nemesis is the only DLC I didn’t purchase immediately as it came out, it’s great flavor! But its a flavor that can only wow you once. Also loving the content as usually ASpec!

my personal favorites is a combo of Nemesis and Megacorp. My ideal civ would be the proud merchant empire that has a very strong influence on other empires like the Espionage feature. Like I look like a good guy but I'm stealing tech and sabatoging relationships so everyone assumes I'm the only good guy. I do wish Nemesis and the Criminal Heritage had more potential for stealth. A secret galaxy wide criminal organization trying to conquer the galaxy or destroy it? that sounds great.

I just bought them all. At once. Today. TrollDespair.

I just realized what I would love added. Event cinematic. In older total war games there would be a cinematic for doing actions such as assassination. I would love that in Stellaris for major events

As soneone who have all dlcs i realize i cant imagine what stellaris with no dlcs is.

I love the Necroid shipset, I think they knocked it out of the park with them and Aquatics. I quite like the Plantoid shipset too, but it's more on par with vanilla. Vanilla, my favorites are Avian and Fungoid.

Personally, Ancient Relics and Leviathans are also must haves. The game feels so empty without them, the stuff they add really helps fill out the core game. Before watching this I honestly had forgotten Ancient Relics WAS something I paid for, because it feels so integral to the game.

I have to disagree, Overlord is a must have. You get the vassal types, contract, holdings, introduction of Kilostructures, hyper relays, ringworlds. All those changes they game loop so much it belongs up there with utopia.

I think prior to the Custodians team updates, humanoids and plantoids were definitely in the optional category. But now they are considerably better.

I mean honestly until they updated the Humanoids and plantoids packs recently, I would have said humanoids and plantoids was *way* more optional than nemesis. though I do agree, Nemesis is pretty optional, I do thoroughly enjoy the espioinage system, though as you said it is something you need to actively invest into fully as an empire in order to fully exploit and enjoy. As a full disclosure I own all the packs, and I've bought my friends all the DLC when they were on sale, I personally enjoy the game with everything in place as it's so varied and just adds more to the experience, One thing I'd looove to see is something akin to a few mods out there on the steam workshop that add a larger variety of planet types. Tidally locked worlds, polanets from interstellar with frozen chlorine clouds, starting with a black hole as your sun, ect would be an amazing dlc.

I'm one of the idiots who owns all the DLC. Though I've always got them on sale. You think Stellaris is pure greed until you realize it would cost over $1000 for trash Sims 4 DLC.

I love the aquatic sci-fi trope so much that it’s basically a must have for me xD. But then again I have all the expansions so I have already delved too greedily and too deep xD

As someone who has everything and has played since release, its obvious that Utopia is the most important.

Oh boy, I sometimes forget that the features of Distant Stars, Levitahan and Utopia are not part of the base game. These are the holy trinity of Stellaris and without it pretty simple.

Just picked up Nemesis and Necroids on sale today - not sure how much I'll use the espionage mechanic in general, but should be fun to try out a few times at least!

Plantoids budding and fertile is an amazing pop growth, especially if you have overlord and take the Progenitor Hive origin. And the Aquatics Angler trade build is crazy.

The physical copies of the console editions come bundled with Utopia and Leviathans, and this is appreciated.

I love Necroids just for the portrait that fits perfectly for a cultish order type empire. Its the one that has the stone/bone mask with the back curved horns

I feel like nemisis was aimed more at the mp side of stellaris to give players something to do that isn’t kicking the teeth in of the ai

By God, A man who has ALL the right opinions. I never though that I would see the day.

My friends call Utopia the base game bc anything less is just a demo

It feels great to have experienced the release of all of these expantions.

I totally agree with you in regards to Nemesis, in a play through I had, there's not much replay ability to it. I ended up doing a lot of the heavy lifting in stopping the threat and I actually found a game breaking error that prevented the game from ending the war after the enemy was technically defeated, so I ended up scrapping that game. I turned off the DLC afterwards.

Personally I would swap synthetic dawn and apocalypse. I find robotic empires bring a lot more variety to the table than apocalypse does

We need "Distant Stars 2" ...

what sucks with most paradox games, is that there is so many dlc's, that the game is worth the rest of my steam library + my brother's and still would need some money in the bank, if paradox after, idk, 5 years or something AT LEAST merged dlc packs, then I would honestly buy them, but their greed is so gigantic, that they don't even bother anymore, it is so sad to see... Also, about the hyper relays not being in the base game, may I remind, in 1.0, that was how stelaris worked, you did not need to cross the sistem to jump, so basicaly they chenged someting, to ad a mega structure, to make you pay for being able to jump across without needing to cross, very nice indeed.

If anyone is reading this in the summer of 2022 you really should invest now because the discounts are crazy

i feel like taking mods into account is something that's incredibly important since for a large majority of the playerbase that's the only way they play the game, so even if a dlc doesn't necessarily add much to the game it may add the framework needed for a lot of mods to use.

I think you should have switched the species packs into "more" and the monsters and robots into "tropes". The packs are literally giving you "more" and stuff like robots, monsters, and archeology are "tropes"

When you're buying DLC, not because you play the game often, and more because you already own all the other ones and it bugs you if you don't own all of them

I'm not wild about Overlord because I don't like how it makes every game play much more similarly than before. Cajoling people into joining/maintaining federations is hard and fun. Turning half the galaxy into vassals really isn't, and if you don't do it, someone else will.

A Culture playthrough with Rogue Servitors is actually pretty interesting.

Awesome Vid! Didn´t even considered all them Story Pack DLC´s

17:22 you almost make it sound like mega corporations aren't usually criminals

Thank you for this nice overview! I just got the starter bundle with stellaris + utopia + federations + distant stars + snythetic dawn on sale for 38€ and got leviathan and ancient relics for more exploration and story 5€ each on top. So I feel I got a rather good deal here and look forward to dive in :)

Perfectly timed post sale

me having paid 200+ euros at once when both stellaris and all the dlc at the time were on sale: oh this is so worth watching to me

I completely disagree on Nemesis. I never had a Stellaris game I didn't interracted with it one way or another. Someone always declares themselves the custodian. If not me the AI. I saw AI become the Imperium as well multiple times. And if galaxy is big enough someone with traits like exterminator, purifier or barbaric despoilers will take the become the crisis perk. Espionage is lackluster yes but I do use the claim assets spy action a lot in early game to get some more info on enemy empires I might go to war with.

In my opinion the Nemesis DLC should be in must have or at least great value because It adds a whole new end game

Out of the get go, I disagree, there's so much roleplaying in Crisis vs Custodian and Galactic Empire and so much fun to be had there that I'd put it in More Stellaris category.

I have to disagree on Nemesis being optional dude, if anything all of the species packs (save lithoids, necros and aquatics) are the optional ones

Great guide. This was very useful to me as someone who knows nothing about this game but is interested.

Humanoids also has the Pleasure Seekers civic, which allows for an authoritarian utopia for slavers or mechanists. Goes well with Syncretic Species origin especially.

really helpful how you ranked it. if you could show the name of the dlc you talk about in a corner it would be perfect.

playing stellairs without all dlc, is like watching discovery and saying its better than tng it works but it just isnt the same

It always cracks me up to see the steam page of distant stars and see a bunch of negative reviews by people that got rolled over by the grey tempest. Git gud, scrubs.

Played a match of vanilla and I really like the base game. I'm gonna go by this guide and buy Utopia + Distant stars thank you Aspec

You know what I would love to have is a mod that would allow me to access to build from all the ship packs, Stations and Habitats just I could really make stations and classes of ships look distinct from one another.

I was wondering about some of these things while playing. I just recently picked up the game, so as I'm watching people's videos, I'm wondering why they have more options or mechanics that I couldn't find and I realized it must be DLC, but I never really see that stated in the videos. So I was confused lol I'm still having a lot of fun and want to play more so thank you so much for this video! I have an idea of what I want to get next, now.

Honestly I wouldn't get any expansion until you learn the ins and outs of the game then go for Utopia, distant stars, megacorps and federations The others are really good but those are the big game changers I

The espionage system is completely superfluous without Nemesis. The only mission you can do is gather intel.

Apocalypse deserves the top spot just due to how hard the trailer still goes

Oh riding the rock is mandatory Aspec, you taught us that, haha. Still the most epic role play I’ve seen in stellaris. So damn hilarious.

I found your commentary very helpful for understanding the flavor & content for each DLC. I’m a new player, so seeing which DLCs I should prioritize is very daunting. My one point of (hopefully) constructive criticism is this: the distinction between the categories “more stellaris” and “sci-fi tropes” to be kinda arbitrary. Like, why is synthetic dawn not in the sci-fi category since it’s just the machine empire pack? Akin to what the lithoids, plants, and aquatics pack.

As someone planning to get into the game, this video did help

I'm bit surprised that yer great value options seem to be more about "which ones have powerful gameplay options" rather than "which ones have lot of gameplay options" :'D

That intro was pure gold

I don't own MegaCorp DLC. But in one playthrough I encountered two Strategic Coordination Centers in my galaxy, built by awoken fallen empires. Never seen it again. Was it a glitch, do Fallen Empires have a DLC acces that I don't?

Necroids is still to this day a DLC I see no value in and doubt I’ll ever pick up. I think I have most everything else.

Nemesis brings the unarguably strongest ascension perk to the game which also brings a very unique type of gameplay with it. If you play this game for space combat its a must have otherwise I would put it in the more stellaris categorie.

I played vanilla stellaris when it first came out on console, and I had a blast, then utopia came out and it was like a whole new game, I still think for 8 bucks your not gonna find a better deal for a great 4x.

Im just glad this game is still epic without DLC, I can’t afford to buy any of it.

Looking at Steam reviews for Overlord, I really feel like Overlord should be on the lowest tier. It might add a lot, but that a lot looks like it was not balanced or tested whatsoever, which greatly reduces the value of the DLC.

Me watching the whole video while only missing Overlord in my list.

Distant Stars seems to have a fatal flaw where the computer players may open the L-Gates early to huge Grey Tempest fleets and ruin a savefile. For others wondering, there is a mod that can disable the Greys but I'm hesitant to recommend that DLC for everybody.

Question. Can you choose what DLCS are active in a new session of Stellaris or are they always active after you buy them?

I agree on Distant Stars, wish there were more. I haven't gotten Ancient Relics yet but I think it sounds like the same kind of thing and am planning to grab it.

I would add to the Stellaris Great Value category pushing the like button, subscribing and setting notifications to all.

at the minute only ones im missing are Plantoid and Lithoid. and sure wihle Nemesis only really does one thing that one thing is amazing. its so fun setting up an empire that is going to survive the total war thatll be coming its way once you hit that rank 5 menace. and its especially fun when the actual crisis is around at the time so you are basically competing against that as well as the whole galaxy.

Utopia is definitely the Utopian standard for Stellaris DLC. And honestly i dont think anything can top Utopia.

As a new player I have no idea why,but I really want the lithoids dlc (I don't have any dlc yet)

Nice one dude! Been enjoying the hell out of the Game but I skipped out on some of the species and Megacorp. Thing is though I’m really thinking about getting Megacorp in time haha. just to add more flavour to the game and have. Like you said it’s all preference though

I would put Overlord into the more stellaris category

I want to add new expansion Unlight as the real galaxy it have many asteroid and rogue planet hiding in shadow between system Feature 1 science ship will scout system same as current game play but after finish normal scout you can let science ship scout more in this system to search hiding object and you may found rogue planet , large asteroid , pirate base ; rogue planet and asteroid will stay in system for 5 - 20 year if not manipulate their orbit 2 on this rogue planet or asteroid you will able to build defend base on it and enemy will not see till they arrive system and get fired from this defend base 3 after research manipulation orbit you can send rogue planet to a stable orbit in system or make rogue planet be a cannon bullet to crash faraway planet

wish I’d saw this BEFORE I bought some DLC

Categories alone this is one of the best tier lists for dlc purchases, sharing this with some friends who really had a hard time figuring out what they wanted to buy.