Stellaris: How to Build Megastructures (2024)

Stellaris, the sci-fi grand strategy from Paradox Interactive, allows players to guide their chosen species from the discovery of faster-than-light travel into a galaxy-spanning Empire. There are hundreds of ways to expand, build, and customize an Empire in Stellaris, with the secrets of the cosmo, hostile aliens, and groundbreaking technologies to discover.

One of the crowning achievements of any successful Stellaris Empire is the construction of a Megastructure, particularly the multi-stage Megastructures that are only available towards the end of the game. These vast constructions can do everything from allowing surveillance of the entire galaxy to enclosing a sun and using it as a vast nuclear reactor. However, researching and building Megastructures is one of the most difficult paths that players can take in Stellaris, and will require decades of scientific advancement, resource stockpiling, and expensive construction.

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How to Research Megastructures in Stellaris

Before players can build any Megastructure in Stellaris, they'll first need to have unlocked the technology for that particular structure. The first Megastructure technology that players are likely to encounter is either Hyper Relays, if they have the Overlord DLC, or Orbital Habitats, which only requires the Starhold technology. Later, players will be able to research Orbital Rings, Mega-Engineering, and then the named techs for each of the major Megastructure projects:

• Hyper Relays - Requires the Overlord DLC and the Hyperlane Breach Points technology.
  • Accelerates travel when built in adjacent systems.
• Orbital Habitats - Requires the Starhold technology.
  • Artificial planets that have unique Districts based on the world they orbit.
• Orbital Rings - Requires the Overlord DLC and the Starhold, Galactic Administration, and Ceramo-Metal Infrastructure technologies.
  • Advanced Stations built around a planet that can significantly boost its output.
• Mega-Engineering - Requires the Citadel, Battleships, and Zero Point Power technologies.
  • Unlocks all advanced Megastructure technologies, grants the ability to restore ruined Megastructures, and allows restoration of a Quantum Catapult, which functions a little like a one-way Gateway.
• Gateway Construction - Requires the Gateway Activation and Mega-Engineering technologies.
  • Allow instant travel to any other system with a Gateway.
• Science Nexus - Requires the Utopia DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Produces huge amounts of Research.
• Sentry Array - Requires the Utopia DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Massively increases the range of the player's sensors and Intel.
• Quantum Catapult - Requires the Overlord DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Can send a fleet to a distant system, with decreasing accuracy based on the distance.
• Mega Shipyard - Requires the Federations DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Constructs up to 20 of Stellaris' military ships simultaneously.
• Strategic Coordination Center - Requires the MegaCorp DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Boosts Naval, Starbase, and Defense Platform capacity, increases Sublight speed of all ships.
• Interstellar Assembly - Requires the MegaCorp DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Increases Diplomatic Weight, Opinion of other Empires, and raises Envoy capacity.
• Mega Art Installation - Requires the MegaCorp DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Produces huge amounts of Unity and Amenities.
• Ring World - Requires the Galactic Wonders Ascension Perk, Utopia DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Creates up to 4 artificial planets with 100% Habitability and unique Districts.
• Dyson Sphere - Requires the Galactic Wonders Ascension Perk, Utopia DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Encloses a sun to produce vast amounts of Energy Credits.
• Matter Decompressor - Requires the Galactic Wonders Ascension Perk, MegaCorp DLC and Mega-Engineering technology.
  • Can be built next to a black hole in Stellaris to produce huge amounts of Minerals.

Like all technologies in Stellaris, players can increase their chances of encountering these techs by fulfilling hidden requirements. The most important requirements for the Megastructure techs are having a ruined Megastructure in the Empire's borders, which increases the chance of encountering Mega-Engineering by x20, or building a large number of Citadel Stations.

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How to Build Megastructures in Stellaris

Once players have researched the Megastructure they want to build, they'll next need to send a Construction Ship to begin the work, using the Megastructures tab in the ship's order menu. For simple Megastructures like Orbital Habitats or Hyper Relays, a single Construction Ship can build them entirely using Alloys, Influence, and other resources. However, with more complicated multi-stage Megastructures the Construction Ship will only construct the Site which will be the basis for the finished structure.

Once the Site has been constructed, normally at a large cost of Alloys and Influence, players can click on it to begin the next stage of construction. Most of the multi-stage Megastructures have between 3 and 5 stages of construction, with each new stage boosting the effects of the Megastructure while also costing more Alloys and taking up to 10 years to complete. Although there are no Stellaris Tradition trees focused on Megastructures, the construction time can be reduced with the Living Metal Mega-Construction Edict, the Architectural Renaissance Unity Ambition, or the Master Builders Ascension Perk. The Master Builders Perk will also allow players to work on more than one multi-stage Megastructure at a time, allowing very wealthy Empires to construct two galactic wonders simultaneously.

Stellaris is currently available on PC, macOS, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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