Of course, it’s no good laying out your plans for conquest if loading times kill you first. Fortunately, the Necroids arrive alongside a free update that’s set to dramatically improve Stellaris’s load times.
Obviously inspired by Vin Diesel classic The Chronicles Of Riddick, the Necromongers Necroids are a new species archetype, complete with their own portraits, backdrops, names and ship designs. A nice batch of visuals and themes to help you lean into the role of the most ghoulish rascals in the galaxy, sure, but evil requires more than just a scary face. A new Origin, Necrophage, grants you one primary species that subsumes all it comes into contact with, with a number of civic options for ensnaring the masses in their tombs. Death Cults let you sacrifice populations to enable powerful edicts, while grand reanimated armies let you throw walls of zombies up against enemies without worrying too much over bodycount. All things considered, improving planetary stability by erecting monuments on tomb worlds actually sounds quite pleasant. As a simple species pack and not a full-blown expansion, that’s about it for the Necroids DLC. As a nice bonus, however, today also brings in the 2.8 “Butler” update. True to its name, the patch notes include a massive list of bug fixes, AI improvements, tweaks and changes. Most important of all, however, are “greatly improved startup and load times”. Considering I often give up on Stellaris after 5 minutes stuck in startup, I might even be convinced to give the game another shot. The Necroids Species Pack is out now on Steam, GOG and the Microsoft Store for £5.79/€7.99/$7.99.
