After so many DLC exclusively benefiting PVP players and ruthlessly punishing role players this DLC is a great change of pace.

I think the fact Gestalts get screwed here would hurt a _bit_ less if we finally were allowed to make non-Gestalt machine empires. Give me my fucking Decepticon imperium NOW

With the number of traditions/civics ever increasing it makes you wonder if we ever get more slots for them

Paragons be like: "Wait, it's all Horatio?" "Always has been."

For those wondering why it feels like Gestalts don’t get a lot of love, it’s how Paradox handles the DLCs. They generally try to avoid you having to buy DLC for your DLC since Gestalts came with Utopia and Machine Intelligences with Synthetic Dawn. They can obviously do more for them, or just make them a base feature but that’s their stance.

From what I've seen from official Stellaris multiplayer matches in 3.7, normal bio empires weren't picked almost at all. So I think this is a way to make them a bit more interesting.

We really need a dlc that allows us to explore more galaxies. Basically a dlc that would let us carry our empire to multiple playthroughs or actually be able to switch between multiple galaxies through charging times to not overload the game. A Distant Horizons dlc, really. Could also have a crisis dlc that pushes Stellaris into a near fantasy like theme with eldritch horrors, insanely powerful relics and more roleplay features when it comes to the crisis.

I have this wachky theory that, as this dlc undermines gestalts so much, the next one might probably be a big one for them. Maybe we will finally get our organic hives

As someone who consistently plays machine, this is finally what i need to try something else. (I REALLY hated the mandates system).

Will buy through your humble bundle! Great review

15 euros for this is insane i hoped that first contact was an exception, but if all of their dlcs are gonna be this expensive from now on, then ill just start cracking them instead

Thanks for the summary!

this def makes overtuned way less useful early game as u want leaders to not die early however overtuned cyborgs and cyborgs in general are gunna be pretty busted w these changes given the long long lifespan hell this is gunna make necroid leaders insane as well necroid cyborgs or psychics are probably insanely busted now leader wise

What I noticed is that unless you draw leaders with a bunch of negative traits, there's really no bad leaders anymore. All you have to do is wait to level up and you'll eventually get some of the good traits you've been waiting for.

I am somewhat sad that they didnt go for a mix between Bio and Hive functionality wise for the Progenitor Hive Origin

I haven't gotten to update & play with the new patch yet but overall I'm very excited about this new stuff. I don't generally play the empire types that are getting a bit left out in the cold here, though, so that probably helps lessen that particular sting. Honestly though, as excited as I am for things like the new leader stuff, new origins, etc etc - and I am excited for them - I think i am even *more* excited about the basic QoL stuff that's happening in the patch. Better science shop automation, better army automation & options, better ship builder and fleet manager options & UIs - all that is going to be so very very good to have.

I’m loving this DLC. Been playing it since I got home from work. It adds so much it’s almost like a different game. Love it

Yo Montu, just tried a progenitor hive as a test. If you get a couple of council members with +council XP You can get level 4 council members by year 9. This seems insanely good as I didn't need to employ any amenity generating drones or hunter seeker drones. The only reason why I had any of them was to make sure my unity stayed decent

Me watching all of Montu’s “should you buy” videos before buying all of the dlc regardless because I’m a sucker and I love Stellaris

Just arrived when the video is hot and ready to serve

Every time I watch one of your vids I realise I have so much more to learn a bout this game

I’d have liked for Gestalts to at least have differentiated nodes based on Civics picked. I think that would have solved the issue.

12:50 I was playing as a Rogue machine empire and got an immortal Renowned Governor named "Oracle" : An advanced AI specialized in optimizing colony output. She has a unique method, reducing individualism.

As someone who only really plays PVE, this is my favorite dlc in stellaris so far.

For the Emperor?

I am so excited to play this, this is such an improvement on the base game.

This looks like a huge balance patch within the dlc. I'm not particularly into competitive, but I seem to remember gestalt empires being the most popular choice for a long time. This has finally added a substantial downside to having such a streamlined game path as a gestalt empire.

This is pretty awesome!

what they could do for a DLC to overhaul gestalts is to combine tht with bio empire factions to create a theme of porperly distinguishing "we are one but they are many - the united and the fractured" so it would be the opposite of recent DLC with hive focus but regular empires would also receive a little something so it got a selling point for everyone rather doubtful though that we will reveice such overhauls as we hope for thinking about a recent debate of ground combat and siege ideas and wishes and what disappointment we were given instead but all these alone provide paradox with an excuse for 3 seperate DLCs to charge us for

I feel sad as a gestalt player :/ I feel like our leader at least could get a destiny trait (among other stuff I'd like to see) Oh well, have fun bios!

Now you can finally made Dolores Muwanga be worthy of she's reputation

I wish there was some sort of space nomad playstyle. Id love to just have one or a few massive starships carrying my pop around like the quarians from mass effect or Eldar from 40k. Habs dont quite cut it!

Damn I really want to get this DLC but I have finals in 2 days so I’m going to keep myself from buying it until after I finish my finals

Hive Minds may not be as powerful trait-wise as the biologicals, but I do love thematically how your singular consciousness immortal leader is the one taking all the traits an keeping them forever. Thats cool. If it was me, i'd have given them a way to eat/brain rip legendary leaders to add the legendary traits to the collective but hey thats what mods are for right? I've never liked the idea of hive mind empires having leaders at all. The only one where it makes sense is the... Whats it called... Progenitors? Where some of them are more independent mined. Otherwise, it should be the immortal hive mind itself doing all the research and whatnot. I'd love an overhaul of hive mind empires altogether but meh, it is what it is. I'll be playing some sort of god emperor start and wanting to see what all I can get away with for megacorps. They're my favorite. :>

I finally got this DLC on sale today and started playing it. Very happy I picked it up. It seems like the stellaris game play is really flushing out to be quite a game.

The Gestalt nodes can gain veteran traits as soon as they get to level 4, gestalts also have the unique ability to purge all negative traits from their ruler/nodes at the cost of energy and you can take Destiny traits from finding paragons. Corrosive warship which use to give a level 3 admiral tied to a ship passed it's destiny trait to my Expansion node. That being said you're still very obviously receiving the shorter end of the stick and it isn't the only part for gestalts, machines in particular. They took the passive -20% empire sprawl from pops and slapped it in as their ruler councilor bonus with -3% per level instead of adding anything on top. Machine Overclocking is a civic that gives 10% xp gain and 1 leader cap which is on par or less than all xp traits. Static Research Analysis just gives 1 research alternatives, which is like one third of technocracy which now also gives empire wide researcher upkeep reduction. In general the machine fantasy of being some highly efficient and focused creation is lacking. The fact that machines are the worst at utilizing a planet strictly made by their own design sounds like a sin(this refers to habitats as machines have +50% empire sprawl from colonies)

Clerks might be viable now? Dear god!

Do you feel like with the amount of traditions that have been added an extra slot should be added? Think I counted 14 different ones. I only counted the psionic cybernetics and synthetics as 1. With 7 selections. When it used to be 7 selections with 9 options

Once I downloaded Galactic Paragons on my PC the game no longer accepts the mouse interface. EDIT/UPDATE: Alt + Tab while in the Stellaris menu fixes this mouse glitch.

I was having basic UI issues; like being unable to close a pop up by clicking on it. So broken, and so unnecessarily so.

With the new update you should make a co op tournament. I think it would be fun

This something I've been wanting and fearing at the same time.

They should expand this system for Machine Empires in the future. There are other game mechanics that imply there can be some variability, autonomy/learning, and self-upgrading by some machine individuals.

I'm not a fan of the leader cap. It seems kind of low. Maybe I was using too many scientists.

One of the "bugs" I ran into in my play through is that every time you click on your science ship's automation button, the automation settings menu ALWAYS pops out and makes you click the start button, or else it doesn't do anything, it's SUPER annoying. Someone please fix this feature. The last update's interface interaction for this feature was fine. Don't "fix" what wasn't broken.

I wonder if they will add a supercimputer or hivemind that upgrades the gestalts and gives them a story

Genetic overturn took a serious hit with this emphasis on leaders.

Dystopian Megacorp, here I come. Finally!

I'm sold!

3:00 Seems like trade is back on the menu!

Sad that Gestalt don’t get all the goodies, but I still like what we’ve seen here, and Gestalt will get some love in the future that hopefully will fill in the gaps that were left for them in this dlc. I generally play Gestalt, but I do occasionally play regular empires, and I might take this opportunity to revive my Holy Britannia Empire with the dlc and go full military focus 😁

Wishlist: mechanics to somewhat allow for a direct democracy. I can only really picture how it'd work for war at the moment, but some kinda popup saying "we're going to start a vote to engage in war, how do you want to convince the population to go along with it?", and then pick from a bunch of different arguments with varying effectiveness based on overall pop ethics.

How do -minimum negative traits for leaders work? I feel like I can stack as many of them as physically possible and my leaders still get hella red traits

When first hearing about this, I honestly felt disappointed that it was just going to be a glorified leader overhaul. But, as the details got released, I've found myself becoming more and more excited/ cautiously optimistic that it will end up being an upper tier DLC!

3:15 looks like we need a new video from Clerk3O

I feel like research speed is effected if you don’t buy the dlc. But I can’t tell, you’ll miss out on the councilor for it….unless that’s just because of my empire’s ethics.

I don't understand how to play now, with only 7 leaders? previously, we could only have 7 scientists. And the same number of governors and admirals. And now 7 leaders (even 9) for all.

Emperor Vitiate forever

Feudal society is nerfed into the ground for my intrests and playstyle. That upkeep for all leaders being reduced was a huge part of why i used it and now its only for governers

But does it fix Galactic Doorstep?

What about roleplay potential? Can paragons form any relationships like in Total War: Three Kingdoms?

I'm here early in the first time. I don't even plan to buy this dlc. I just wait for aquatic to discount

were vassals fixed? i.e. will the Ai's no longer vassalise to anyone?

Sad to see Paradox shutting down the Arctic Studios - short-sighted move. 😢

I play exclusively as a gestalt consciousness and exclusively in single player, so this is kind of a bummer for me. Having to split the nodes I would get feels restrictive on my playstyle. Hopefully the next dlc will have something for me.

can you make your ruler immortal with the Under One Rule origin start ?

I think I'll want to watch some gameplay with this before I add it to my game. ='[.]'=

Would love the next DLC be subterfuge focused. Would be cool if you can target assassinate certain leaders.

How will the lack of Paradox Arctic influence DLC's? Will they become more mundane or simple or such?

Does the legendary ruler is immortal in the origin "under one ruler"?

does this mean overtuned traits are nerfed because of the importance of leader lifespan?

After the update i can no longer click on anything in the game. Is there a fix for this

this DLC is way larger than I imagined lol

More tradition trees? I already don't have enough slots for tradition trees, more tradition slots would be nice.

That's a big But.

@Paradox: Please give us Fallen Empires as Player and Ground Combat visuals. (Even MOO2 had animated Ground Combat that even had animated Mechs!)

I am a main Hive Mind Player, that is really regretable... will buy it when they bput them on par with the bios.

I only have utopia and after 5years trying to actually learn the game. now im at mid game and learning.. dare i try this dlc?

Emperor Shaddam Corrino, The God Emperor of 40k and Superman from Injustice. A nice rosey collection of entities there 😂

Just setting up my "Space Alexander the Great" now

how much playtime for paragons do you have to make this call?

i need to make an entire race of Horatio

Great review, and I just want to say its very rare and awesome for a notable streamer to support the workers at gaming studio as human beings, and to be in their corner. Hats off you to Montu for being a good person. Also, unrelated, the people are desperately waiting for you to do a 3.8 traits video. You last gave us one forever ago. We need you.

Which DLC gives hive minds the most love?

I won't be surprised the next updates and dlcs will focus on society building, populations, and job reorganization.

Like for that Leto II mention.

I see we both thought of the God Emperor of Mankind for the "Under One Rule" Origin.

So not all of this is true - in fact also a gestalt consciousnes can get a paragon - for example via the oracle event as a machine empire. Instead of just integrating like previously, you know actually get a paragon governor. In addition, you can increase your trust cap with the curator enclave to 50 an get a powerful 15% science bonus. Plus, you already start with 5 council slots unlocked from the beginning, which is a huge buff compared to the three ones you have as a biological empire.

I find it a little odd that the "under one rule" origin cannot be imperial government type. Sure the text blurb sounds more like a strongman took power, but a strongman can make the jump to hereditary monarch and many have. And this one is of the "legendary" type.

I want the dev team to rework gestalts to be at or near parity with regulars, at least mechanically. Let players change the nodes, let the hive ruler unlock destiny traits. That’s pretty much it.

Necrophages are going to adore Oppressive Autocracy

Respect for the Leto II namedrop

Already curious how modders are gonna do this

I feel like being a Gestalt/Machine main basically boil down to buy the Synthetic DLC, maybe 1 or 2 others, and you're good to go. Don't know if I can complain...

Ill wait for a discount

As a gestalt main I do hope we get a new dlc focused on them since we’ve been getting the short shaft in the dlc department for a while now

Can you do a funny adventure for privateercorp ?)

Idk what to make out of this DLC. I can only speak from the view as a PVE player. I don't have this DLC and I have the new leader system in a very nerfed way. They have way less abilities, way less council slots and so on. But still the leader cap. And without the DLC it does feel like a nerf. I can't push my systems anymore or recruit admirals for every fleet without a huge drawback, cause they just stopp leveling the less they get exp. It kinda feels like they took something away from us, so you kinda need to buy the DLC to have the same or even a better experience than before 3.8. Or maybe I just play too dumb?

2027: The almost last Stellaris DLC to be released. This is DLC number 49... Will there be a Stellaris II ?

Sad... bec I love my Hives... But I still gone try it out