update · September 5, 2024

Stellaris Update 3.13 Vela Brings Cosmic Storms and Colony Reworks

Stellaris patch 3.13 Vela prepares the game for the Cosmic Storms expansion by reworking planetary deposits, penal colonies, and thrall worlds. The update also standardizes war ally travel and includes numerous interface fixes.

Paradox Interactive is rolling out Stellaris update 3.13 Vela ahead of the Cosmic Storms expansion release on September 10. This update adjusts resource deposits, revises specialized world types, and resolves various user interface and synchronization bugs.

Economy and Specialized Worlds

Rare resource deposits that previously supported specific extraction buildings now increase mining districts and add resource production to miners once researched. Betharian Power Plants now boost energy output from Technician jobs. Penal colonies now lower empire-wide crime and provide prison industrial districts to employ worker pops for alloy and consumer good production. Thrall worlds feature battle thrall districts that grant starting experience to trained armies and increase army damage.

Quality of Life and Navigation

War allies can now utilize wormholes, hyper relays, and gateways within each other's territory regardless of closed borders. Gestalt empires can now set land appropriation policies without being forced to populate every planet. The Corvee system reduces resettlement costs for individualist machines by 15 percent, and xenophobe ethics now switch to pop assembly when appropriate.

Interface and Bug Fixes

Megastructure selection tooltips now display deposit sites for Arc Furnaces and orbital capacities for Habitat Central Complexes. The galactic-wide Space Storm from version 2.7 has been removed. Map mode buttons for players and trade routes now disable instead of hiding when unavailable, and starbase types now correctly explode when destroyed instead of blinking out of existence.

Why this patch matters

Update 3.13 Vela provides foundational mechanical updates and quality-of-life additions that clean up longstanding interface issues while paving the way for the upcoming expansion.