Paradox Development has deployed Stellaris update 8.02 for the console versions, adding major content and features to the game. Check out everything new in the official Stellaris Console Edition November 21 patch notes!

Stellaris Update 8.02 Patch Notes | Stellaris Console Edition November 21 Patch Notes:

In the Toxoids Species Pack, let the ends justify the ruins as you gamble your Empire’s future for immediate gains. Embark on a Quest to find the mysterious Toxic God, or Damn the Consequences and go all-in on Genetically Overtuning your Species. Ruin your planets’ ecosystems as an Empire of Relentless Industrialists, boost your population growth with Mutagenic Pleasure Spas, or Scavenge the wrecks of your defeated enemies for resources.

Features:

• New Toxoid Empire Art:
  • Species portraits
  • City set
  • Ship set
  • Colossus
• New Origins:
  • Knights of the Toxic God – In the depths of your homeworld, rumors rumble of a true power buried under the toxic sludge. Do you dare to dredge up the secrets of your past – and potentially unleash them upon the galaxy?
  • Overtuned – Damn the Consequences and forge ahead with rampant genetic engineering, featuring powerful new species traits available only to Overtuned empires
• New Ascension perk: Detox
• New Traits
  • Exotic Metabolism
  • Noxious
  • Inorganic Breath
  • Incubator
• New Civics
  • Scavengers
  • Toxic Baths
  • Relentless Industrialists

Those are the major features included in today’s update, with Paradox also giving an update on when to expect the rest of Expansion Six DLC.

First Contact Story Pack (Late-2024): You are not alone! The galaxy is vast and full of wonders, but it’s also full of alien empires you’re going to encounter, whether you’re ready or not.

Features:

• New Origins
  • Broken Shackles: You didn’t take to the stars; you were taken to the stars as an alien captive! Now, you and your fellow prisoners have overtaken the ship and found yourselves banding together to survive and thrive as a diverse new community. Can you rise to greatness from this humble origin… and will your former captors take notice?
  • Payback: No one would have believed your world was being watched keenly by intelligences greater than your own — until they invaded. But you did not go quietly into the night! Your civilization has repelled a would-be conqueror from space, and with sudden access to their advanced technology, you’re about to discover just what else is out there beyond the stars!
  • Fear of the Dark: As you’ve explored your home system, you’ve always suspected you weren’t alone in the galaxy… especially when one of your planets suddenly suffered an “incident” a while back. A very large faction of your own people have long advocated against tempting fate out in the dark abyss of the unknown. What path will you choose as you find yourself needing room to grow?
• New Pre-FTL Interaction Options: What will your role be when the next member of the galactic community tells their origin story?
  • New mechanics allow for a broader range of interactions with pre-FTL civilizations, depending on their level of technology and their awareness of your presence. Will your arrival be celebrated, or met with violent panic?
• Cloaking Technology: Nobody saw this feature coming!
  • Equip your ships with cloaking devices to survey in secret or catch a foe unaware.
  • Keep subtle tabs on your pre-FTL neighbors with cloaked observation posts.
  • Just be sure your own scanners and intel are strong… you never know which of your neighbors might be lurking in the shadows!

Galactic Paragons First Contact Story Pack (Late-2024): Add Galactic Paragons to your empires and experience a new level of character and story as great leaders rise to positions of power and follow your lead to the stars. With exclusive additions to the all-new Council mechanic, leaders who you can shape to amplify the vision for your empire, new civics, and much more, Galactic Paragons will shape the future in ways the galaxy has never seen before.

Features:

• New Council Mechanics: Assign leaders to vital positions and set agendas to steer your empire as you see fit. In Galactic Paragons, find dozens of unique council roles based on your civics and government types, and unlock additional positions as your empire evolves!
• New Dynamic Leaders: Recruit, improve, and follow the leaders of your empire through the ages! You may shape them by picking their traits, selecting their veteran class, and guide them towards their destiny, up until they retire – or perish!
• Meet Galactic Heroes: Attract paragons of renown to your council: unique leaders with their own art, events, and stories may join your empire and bring their own benefits to your government. Or, discover four Legendary Paragons with intricate event chains and unique mechanics!
• New Traditions, Civics, and more: A new “Under One Rule” Origin that tells the tale of the leader who founded your empire. Eight new Civics focused on leadership, from immortalizing the personalities of leaders past in digital archives to heavily optimized council selection via corporate charter. 12 new Veteran Classes. Hundreds of new Leader Traits. Two new Tradition Trees, giving players new edicts and improved leaders. New ships, art, and story content

But wait, there’s more! Purchasers of Expansion Pass Six will gain access to use the C6 Portrait, the galaxy’s greatest space egg (and definitely not a fanatic purifier) to use in their games!

At the conclusion of this Expansion Pass, Stellaris: Console Edition will be updated to the equivalent of 3.9 “Caelum” on PC. Here are some of the major features you can expect during the two free updates that will happen during Expansion Pass Six:

Major Update #1 – Available Now! – 3.5 “Fornax” on PC

• Re-added Culture workers – now provided by Monuments and the Ministry of Culture building, and have variable outputs based on Empire Ethics
• Relic Balance – Relics have been rebalanced, allowing them to scale better into the late-game
• “All Crisis” Galaxy Setting – causes endgame Crises to spawn consecutively, each 1.5x as strong as the last
• Environmentalist Civic now gets a Ranger Lodge building
• 8 New Prescripted Star Systems
• 2 New Archaeology Sites
• Ship Debris Empire Policy – Choose to either research debris or harvest resources from ships defeated in battle
• Lithoids now gain access to Crystallization and Radiotrophic traits (also requires Plantoids)
• Many other crash fixes, bug fixes and performance Improvements

Major Update #2 – Late 2024 – 3.9 “Orion” on PC – Currently Planned Changes

• Fleet Combat Rebalance – complete rebalance on ship behaviors in combat, weapon characteristics, new ship class (Frigate), added minimum range to weapons, strike craft no longer intercept missiles, added medium and large autocannons
• Ascension Path Rework – Empire Ascensions now require taking an Ascension Perk, and then completing a Tradition tree in order to complete Ascension. Split Synthetic Ascension into Synthetic and Cybernetic ascension (Requires Utopia or Synthetic Dawn)
• Ascensionists Civic – for regular empires, machines and hives, Ascensionists will get discounts on Planetary Ascension Cost, increased Ascension effects, and reduced Empire Size penalties (requires Utopia)
• New Galaxy Shapes!
• Cordyceptic Drones Civic – allows Hiveminds to reanimate organic space fauna (requires Necroids)
• Archaeotechnologies – powerful new ship components, buildings and starbase modules that require Minor Artifacts to build. You can discover these technologies by exploring Archaeology Sites or by completing the “Secrets of the” Precursor projects (requires Ancient Relics)
• Archaeoengineers Ascension Perk – make the most out of your Archaeotechnologies, increasing their effectiveness (requires Ancient Relics)
• Faculty of Archaeostudies building – generates monthly Minor Artifacts (requires Ancient Relics)
• Improvements to Pre-FTLs, including awareness, tech progression, diplomatic and espionage options
• Empire Council
  • a ruling council for your Empire, your Ruler, head of Research and Defense minister now provide bonuses to your Empire based on their leader level.
  • Hiveminds and Machine Intelligences will get a set of immortal nodes that gain traits and level up over time.
• Ruler Creator – design your ruler during Empire creation
• Renowned Leaders and Legendary Leaders – updated some existing base-game and DLC leaders to use the new Paragons leader system
• Ground Combat and Bombardment changes – Planets will be able to surrender to orbital bombardment if they have no defensive armies remaining, and would not be purged in the conquering empire. Ground combat now creates more devastation and collateral damage. Planetary Capitals now spawn defensive armies, and Bombardment will scale based on the number of pops, buildings and planet size. Small dense planets will sustain more damage than large sparsely populated worlds
• Reworked Habitats – habitats are now one-per-system, and can be expanded by constructing major and minor orbitals around planetary bodies in the system.
• Void Dwellers can now be taken by Hiveminds
• Hiring Leaders from Enclaves now always gives a leader, and those leaders are more powerful than before. Attacking an Enclave while you have a leader hired from that Enclave will cause that leader to leave your empire.
• Added Council Agendas to reduce RNG and give guaranteed tech options to allow you to complete your Ascensions

New Content for Existing DLC:

• Humanoids
  • Enmity Tradition tree – focuses on making and maintaining rivals
  • 3 new species traits for biological and Lithoid species
  • 2 new Portraits
• Lithoid Species Pack
  • Void Hive civic for hiveminds
  • Selective Kinship civic for regular empires
  • New Portrait
  • New Prescripted Empire
• Plantoids Species Pack
  • Fruitful Partnership Origin
  • Invasive Species trait for Plantoid and Fungoid species
  • New Portrait
  • New Prescripted Empire
  • Rebalanced Catalytic Processing and Idyllic Bloom Civics
• Megacorp
  • Worker Cooperative Civic
• Necroids
  • Mechromancy Ascension Perk for Machine Empires
• Nemesis
  • Kaleidoscope Mid Game Situation

Source: Paradox Plaza