Stellaris is a grand strategy game developed by Paradox Interactive. They are also the creators of other popular games in the grand strategy genre such as the Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Victoria, and Hearts of Iron series. While all of those games took place in various recorded periods of history, Stellaris takes place in futuristic foreign worlds.
This grand strategy game has you managing an empire across several planets, making the conquest of a system seem even grander. Stellaris allows you to play as various races with their own strengths and weaknesses that blend in seamlessly with different worlds as per their specialty.
Many of these strengths and weaknesses are defined by traits, which are representations of species’ unique abilities and personalities. These traits can be chosen at the start of the game and will greatly influence how you develop your civilization. With so many traits to choose from, we have made it simpler for newer players by ranking the 10 best traits in the game.
10) Mass-Produced
Starting off with a couple of Machine empire traits, we have Mass-Produced. This trait simply increases the production speed of all Machine empire units by a flat 15 percent. A faster machine assembly line leads to increased output in the production of units ready for battle. In addition to this, your colonies will also grow and spread much faster than normal.
In Stellaris, population is arguably the most powerful resource. Having additional Machines over time when compared to your enemies ensures that your economy has a distinct advantage over them if they don’t have this growth speed increase.
While there are other powerful traits for the Machine empire, if you are still confused about what to pick, you can’t really go wrong with Mass-Produced. It only requires one trait point to research and will serve you well during your playthrough.
9) Emotion Emulators
The other Machine empire trait that is quite powerful in its own right is Emotion Emulators. This trait gives you a bonus to amenities. As a result, you require fewer maintenance drones in your empire. This is because drones are generally better used in other avenues, such as researching and producing alloys.
Giving your empire a flat 20 percent increase in amenities from jobs is an advantage most other empires do not possess. This also gives your empire higher stability, which in turn increases production values by quite a noticeable amount.
8) Intelligent
Now we head into the Hivemind sphere with the next two traits. Intelligence is a trait that serves the race just as much as it serves the player because it grants additional bonuses to the output from the researcher’s job. An increase of 10 percent, to be exact. Even though the difference in output might not seem like much at first, it definitely adds up when you compare it to your opponents.
This increase in efficiency then also enables your empire to tech up the ranks faster than the others. With how important it is to tech up regularly and quickly, the Intelligence trait is not only great for Hiveminds but also any race looking to speedrun through their technology tree. As such, this is a powerful trait that any race can use, even though it is stronger on the Hivemind.
Better tech also translates to faster economic growth via additional bonuses as well as having better weaponry to use in battle. This ensures both economic and military superiority as you are well on your way to becoming the most powerful empire in your games, although the early start might be a bit rough.
7) Charismatic
The other trait for the Hivemind basically enables better negotiation and is similar to the Emotional Emulators trait as well. The only difference here is that Charismatic is available to empires that are biological instead of machines. This is another trait that works well with other biological races too, but in the hands of the Hivemind, it truly thrives.
Basically, what Charismatic does for your empire is very similar to what Emotional Emulators does for the machines. The trait provides an additional 20 percent amenities from jobs, which means you will have fewer of your drones needing to provide amenities instead. They can instead be used to increase productivity and boost economic growth.
More amenities also lead to more happiness and stability around your empire, which gives you even more increased resource output from all of your jobs. Any additional drone usage is great for empires in general and Charismatic ensures that you can run your Hivemind better than empires that don’t use the trait.
6) Aquatic
The next couple of traits works best for most biological empires. First off, Aquatic is an interesting choice because it gives way too many bonuses in just a single trait. If that sounds broken to you, it was even worse in the past because Aquatic used to be a free species climate choice. At this point in time, you will need to spend one trait point in order to unlock it.
Let us break down what exactly Aquatic does for you as a biological race.
- 20 percent increase in ocean habitability
- 20 percent decrease in dry/frozen habitability
- 30 percent increase in housing usage on dry/frozen worlds
- 10 percent decrease in housing usage on ocean worlds
- 10 percent increase in worker output on ocean worlds
These bonuses affect you greatly on oceanic planets while they decrease your overall effectiveness on dry and frozen planets. The trait turns you into a powerhouse on oceanic worlds though and is the preferred option for biological races that want to thrive on these planets.
The trait also gives you a bonus to production as well, guaranteeing a great start on favorable worlds. This early advantage can turn the tide in most games, giving you a good advantage to snowball with much earlier and win the game. The cherry on top is the bonus to all resource outputs which just adds to the snowball playstyle derived from this trait.
5) Adaptive
The other preferred trait for biological empires. Just like humans in general, the Adaptive trait ensures a good start and decent progress in just about any world for the empire that chooses it. This trait increases your general habitability across all worlds by a flat 10 percent, making it so that surviving on any planet type becomes much simpler.
There is an upgrade to this trait called Extremely Adaptive, which further boosts habitability by an additional 10 percent, making it a 20 percent increase in habitability across all planets. Although this upgrade is quite expensive because players have to invest four trait points to unlock it for their empire.
This is a favorable trait for any biological empire because settling down in any environment can make your empire truly flexible. You should be able to work with any kind of strategy because you can make the most out of any given situation with this trait. This can lead to races thriving in locations they would not normally be able to and can lead to some interesting situations.
4) Budding
Going back to a Hivemind specialty trait, Budding is one of the best traits in the game for them. The trait gives you an increase to pop growth right when the game starts, steadily increasing over time till you become a total powerhouse. By the time you reach the late game, the bonuses are so massive that propagation across the map is inevitable.
The pop increase starts off at +0.02 but grows bigger depending on the pop size of your empire. The bigger that number gets, the more bonuses you will get from this trait. This in turn will increase your growth bonuses, further amplifying the eventual spread. The rapid increase cannot be overstated and the next time you decide to play, try choosing this trait and see for yourself.
3) Logic Engines
This trait brings back the Machine empire into play. Logic Engines increases the research rate from jobs by a flat 10 percent, making it so that tech-ups happen at a faster rate than normal. This trait is basically the equivalent of Intelligence but for the Machine empire. A boost rate to the processing power of your empire works wonders the longer the game goes on.
Logic Engines boosts overall brain drone output, making not only tech-ups faster but advancing your empire through the ranks faster than most other races can do. Even though the bonus aspect of it seems mild, any boosted rate of production pays dividends in the late game.
2) Rapid Breeders
Another powerful trait in the hands of the Hivemind, the Rapid Breeders trait increases growth rate by a flat 10 percent. This trait can also be used well by any other biological race too, making for a great choice for any civilization that wishes to pump out a massive population earlier in the game than most.
Even though it is quite similar to Budding, Rapid Breeding has the advantage of being a basic trait and not locked behind a paid DLC. This trait can be accessed early in the game by any race, further boosting its effectiveness across the board. If you’re just starting out in Stellaris and are not sure what to pick, this is one of the few traits you cannot go wrong with.
One final note here is that the bonus to population growth also stacks with technology and building bonuses, thereby enabling you to grow bigger and stronger than your enemies at an astonishing pace over time.
1) Thrifty
Our pick for the best trait in Stellaris goes to Thrifty. This powerhouse of a trait costs two points to unlock but is well worth the cost. It provides a boost to all trade value from any job by a flat 25 percent. This means that if you choose to go all out focusing on the trade value aspect, you should be rich in no time.
The boost to the economy works for any race and any type of economy you wish to boost. But his trait only works for races that have access to trade in general, which means that Hiveminds and Machine empires will not be able to use it. For the races that can use it, you are in for a good time.
As you might have noticed, every trait so far in the game that provides a flat increase in value grows stronger over time. Although it was mostly capped at 10 percent, this trait’s 25 percent increase just makes it even more of a powerhouse come the late game and there is nothing you will not be able to afford.
