Playing modded Stellaris has its pros and cons. Pros are very simple: Modded Stellaris is fun, improved, and expanded. Cons are even simpler to explain, it takes time to install mods and mods can affect game performance negatively. That’s why you gotta think carefully before installing any mods. I myself only install necessary, quality of life mods so that I won’t experience any performance issue, especially in the late game. Now that we got over the basics, let’s get to the 2024 must have stellaris mods top 10.
All mods on this list improve gameplay quality. That’s why I call them quality of life mods. And don’t worry about lag or whatsoever. Mods listed below don’t impact performance negatively at all. I made sure of that.
STELLARIS MOST FUN AND UNIQUE BUILDS
If you own the game on Steam, you can easily get Stellaris mods from steam workshop. If you’re not, manual installation might be necessary. I recommend you try steam workshop downloader third party websites. Can find Stellaris mods on nexusmods web as well.
Best Stellaris mods:
1. UI Overhaul Dynamic
As I type these words, UI Overhaul Dynamic mod has over 1.100.000+ subscribes on Steam workshop. And it’s still growing in numbers too.
UI Overhaul Dynamic is simply a user interface (UI) modification mod that’s changing pretty much everything visible, in a more user-friendly way.
It’s specially tailored towards 1920 × 1080 and 2560 × 1440 resolutions. Anything below is not really compatible.
All in all, it’s the best quality of life Stellaris mod. To me, it’s a must have.
UI Overhaul Dynamic features:
- Adapted UI to resize itself depending on user resolution.
- Most windows have increased height and width, to increase space for relevant content.
- Increased the height of most list elements.
- Fixes and optimizes vanilla UI wherever possible.
- Bigger empire creation.
- New planet viewer.
- New ship designer that vastly increases the whole window space to allow for more ship sections, like new ship classes.
- New fleet manager that hopefully increases effectiveness.
- In-game usable tech tree.
- Added in keyboard icons from immersive keyboard icons.
2. Gigastructural Engineering
Let’s continue with one of my personal favorites, gigastructural engineering. To me, this mod is legendary.
Gigastructural Engineering adds +45 new megastructures with wide range of effects including weaponized planets, micro-wormhole generators, stellar lasers, system-spanning computers, and more! It’s absolutely amazing and mandatory for a true sci-fi experience.
Mod is totally unbalanced, but gigastructures are unbalanced in their nature. That’s why building megastructures is super fun.
You think it’s over? No, this mod introduces more than +45 new megastructures. It offers much more.
Gigastructural Engineering also introduces 4 new crises, a new megastructure menu with custom UI, new origins themed around ruined megastructures, unique systems, galactic core, and improved AI that uses the new megastructures.
It’s one and only mod in this list that can potentially effect game performance. But I say this mod is totally worth trying.
3. Arc Furnace System Locator
You know how arc furnaces work, it increases mining station output, and add minerals and alloys on every eligible celestial body in the system.
So, in order to get the best out of it, you need to find a system with minimum 10-15 celestial bodies. Finding a system like that manually takes a lot of zooming in and out. Simply waste of time.
Since Stellaris does not have an equivalent of colony planner for arc furnaces, modders decided to take matters into their hands.
This mods adds an ideal system locator decision to your capital planet. An event pop-up with best system options will appear right after taking the decision. Arc Furnace System Locator+ is the prime example of a quality of life mod.
4. Dyson Swarm System Tooltip
Dyson swarms increase energy production of stars by percentages. So, you’ll need to find the brightest stars for maximum amount of energy production from dyson swarms.
Finding the right star for a dyson swarm manually takes a lot of time, similar to finding a system for an arc furnace.
This mod will add the base production of a star to the system tooltip while you are on the galaxy map. All you need to do is moving your cursors on star systems. So, no more pointless zoom-in and zoom-outs. In short, Dyson Swarm locator saves your time so that you can truly enjoy the game.
5. Precursor Selection
Precursors are random in Stellaris. This absolutely sucks. Some precursors are horrible, and I find myself re-starting runs because of a bad precursor RNG.
Luckily, there is this mod called precursor selection. We can finally choose our favorite precursor event chains right at the star of the run.
It also works with custom precursor mods such as forgotten history, stellaris chronicles, more precursors, and precursor story pack.
Do check out my Stellaris precursor tier list before you install this mod. Some precursors are so much better than the rest.
6. Diplomatic Optimization: Vassals
The purpose of this mod is to strengthen the overlord’s control over its vassals. Basically, it’s a mod that fixes the vassal problem of Stellaris. It’s balanced too.
I believe this is one of the must have mods for those who enjoy playing tall. Tall empires benefit too much from vassals after all.
Diplomatic Optimization – Vassals features:
- New Celestial Overlord ascension perk. (Removes divided patronage and adds new empire bonuses.)
- Newly added laws to re-arrange vassal borders and exchange systems.
- New vassal clauses / terms.
7. Origins Extended
Origins are very few in vanilla Stellaris. I think Stellaris developers should add new origins to the game. And maybe an option to combine two different origins. That would be something!
Until then, we can enjoy ourselves with origins extended mod. This mod adds a lot of balanced lore-friendly origins to the Stellaris.
Mod features:
- 27+ brand new custom origins.
- Special event chains with archaeological sites, research projects, and in-depth lore and stories for many of the origins.
- Unique traits, events, and starting systems for new origins.
8. Tier Numbers: Buildings
Do you have problems distinguishing the levels of factories, foundries, research labs, and every other building in Stellaris? Well, struggle no more!
Tier Numbers: Buildings mod adds tier numbers to the lower right corner of building icons. So that you can know which building is what level.
Also check out the latest Stellaris building tier list. Some buildings are God tier in this patch and must be built on all available planets. Such as ancient refinery, astral siphon, psi corps, clone vats, and etc.
9. Tier Numbers: Tech
Tier Numbers: Tech is same as Tier Numbers: Buildings. Just modifies tech icons instead of building icons, adding tier number.
It’s very essential for figuring out which tech to choose. Generally, its best to research techs in a balanced manner.
I think it’s especially handy on figuring tier 4 engineering techs, because they’re required for mega-engineering technology which is the best.
10. Astronomical Objects Reborn
Final mod on our Stellaris must have mods list adds beauty to the dark-grim ugly galaxy of ours.
Livelier and more filled galaxy will make you fall in love with Stellaris again.
Since it’s simply a visual mod, you can get achievements playing with it. Mod is compatible with save games too.
Before you ask, let me tell you, you don’t need to worry about performance issues with this mod. Astronomical Objects Reborn is simple, basic, and gets the job done seamlessly.