Space science / THE FIELD NOTES
Stellaris
A whole galaxy to explore. Surely the neighbors will be reasonable.
The basics
Find your footing. Three short notes to get you into the game.
Decide who your empire is
Species traits and your society’s choices help define your empire. Begin with an identity you understand so you can learn its strengths without changing every variable at once.
Try it next sessionDescribe your empire’s intended personality in a single sentence.
Explore before you expand
Science ships survey systems and investigate discoveries. Construction ships build stations. Exploration reveals opportunities, neighbors, and stories that can change where you want to go next.
Try it next sessionFollow one surveyed system and identify its useful discoveries.
Meet the galaxy
Other civilizations can become partners, rivals, or enemies. Diplomacy is part of building an empire, so inspect your neighbors rather than treating every border as an automatic battlefield.
Try it next sessionLook at one neighbor and the diplomatic choices available.
Connect the dots
Intermediate starting points: questions to explore once the main systems feel familiar.
Give exploration a strategic purpose
A procedurally generated galaxy rewards adapting to what you find. Let discoveries and nearby civilizations inform your next objective instead of assuming the same route works every time.
Try it next sessionChoose your next expansion direction and explain why it matters.
Make technology serve a plan
Research and ship design connect your empire’s development to its military options. Compare available technologies with the job you want your fleets to do.
Try it next sessionIdentify one technology that supports your next fleet project.
Adapt your fleets and relationships
Customizable fleets and diplomacy provide different responses to the unknown. Before choosing confrontation, consider what you know about the situation and what a diplomatic approach might offer.
Try it next sessionCompare one military response with one diplomatic option.
The deep end
PLANNED / NOT YET WRITTENThis is our desk. Joshua and I will fill it with tested strategies, campaign notes, and the mistakes worth learning from.
Empire builds with recorded assumptions
This guide is on our list. We’ll add the approach, an example from a real campaign, and where it falls apart.
Before it joins the notebookRecord the game version, expansions and mods, starting conditions, and what we actually tested. No strategy has been published here yet.
Fleet design and crisis preparation
This guide is on our list. We’ll add the approach, an example from a real campaign, and where it falls apart.
Before it joins the notebookRecord the game version, expansions and mods, starting conditions, and what we actually tested. No strategy has been published here yet.
Expansion, economy, and multiplayer experiments
This guide is on our list. We’ll add the approach, an example from a real campaign, and where it falls apart.
Before it joins the notebookRecord the game version, expansions and mods, starting conditions, and what we actually tested. No strategy has been published here yet.
The reading behind these notes
These starter notes draw on the official game descriptions below. The exercises and intermediate connections are suggested ways to learn, not tested optimization guides.
Official Paradox game overview ↗ · Publisher’s Steam description ↗Sources reviewed 16 September 2026. Broad concepts only; no patch-specific validation. Features and interfaces may vary with updates, expansions, mods, and platform.