update · November 20, 2025
Stellaris Update 4.2 Corvus and Infernals Species Pack Patch Notes
Stellaris update 4.2 'Corvus' arrives alongside the Infernals Species Pack on November 25. The update brings extensive balance adjustments, crisis paths, performance optimizations, and bug fixes.
The Stellaris 4.2.0 'Corvus' update and the Infernals Species Pack release on Tuesday, November 25. Alongside the new DLC content, the update overhauls empire origins, pop mechanics, and background performance.
Empire and Trait Balance
Clone Army pop upkeep increases by 25%, rising to 30% for ascended clones and dropping to 10% for fertile clones, while Clone Vats max pop assembly drops from 25 to 20 with added food upkeep. Knights of the Toxic God receives reduced quest progress from Knight Jobs, removes alloy upkeep negation for knights in favor of +1 Admiral Level, and lowers basic knight output. Overtuned traits now slightly reduce pop growth by 1.5% to 5%, and Pre-Planned growth adds a 15% resource upkeep. Subterranean cave-dweller pop growth penalty decreases from 20 to 10%, and all planets gain +2 max districts. Synthetic Fertility reduces Identity repository output by 25% and increases upkeep by 20%. Ecumenopolises no longer boost pop growth, whereas Gaia Worlds grant a +15% pop growth bonus.
Mechanics and Features
Augmentation Bazaars can now select cybernetic traits during empire creation. Life Seeded planets feature improved rare resource deposits. The Summon Dimensional Fleet Astral Action now summons Astral Cruisers and Astral Escorts equal to twice the number of rifts explored, backed by underlying performance optimizations to prevent freezes. The update also introduces new modifier node and thread pool systems tested in the open beta.
Bug Fixes and Stability
Genocidal empires no longer automatically attack enclaves and invalid country types. Branch Office buildings now produce correct amounts for Crime Syndicates, and modifying species no longer displays portraits instead of gestalt nodes. Fixes resolve desync issues tied to factions not recalculating approval on hotjoin and eliminate various event window overflows and tooltip errors.
Why this patch matters
Update 4.2 'Corvus' and the Infernals pack combine major economic rebalancing, feature additions, and out-of-sync stability fixes ahead of the November 25 release.