Stellaris 4.3 "Cetus" Open Beta Updated (2026-02-19)

Hello Stellaris Community!

We have another open beta update for you this week. This update features a whole host of bug fixes, performance improvements and balance changes.

You can leave your feedback on the latest version of the open beta here: https://pdxint.at/4rN5fU1

Please see the patch notes below:

Feature

• When multiple End Game Crises are active in galaxy settings, End Game Crises are now allowed to spawn 25 years after another crisis has spawned instead of being blocked while there is an active crisis.

Balance

• Mercenary and Shroudwalker Enclaves now require 100 Naval Capacity in the fleet.

• The Crisis Beacon espionage operation now looks for larger fleets than before.

• Reduced Capital Productivity techs to +5% efficiency per tier from +10% per tier.

• Reduced the Faction Production bonus from Egalitarian ethics to +15% / +30%.

• Infernal Tankbounds now begin with three additional Generator districts. Other Tankbound empires will now convert one less Farm into a Generator.

• Removed the 30% automated workforce penalty that Tankbound started with. They no longer begin with insights on Assembly Patterns as it is no longer needed to negate this penalty. Assembly Patterns and Construction Templates now give Tankbound +10% Automation Efficiency.

• Aptitude Tradition Changes:

  • Aptitude Adoption effects are unchanged. (+1 Leader Trait option, Leadership Conditioning Agenda)

    • Leadership Conditioning agenda now grants 5% Leader XP when started, and 20% upon completion. (Was 10% / 10%.)

  • The Empire Needs You: Now -25% Leader Cost and +1 Recruitable Leaders per Class

  • Psychological Profiling: Now Leader Maximum Negative Traits -1 and +1 Leader Capacity for each class.

  • Healthcare Program: Now +10% Leader Lifespan and -25% Leader Upkeep.

  • Specialist Training: Now +10% Specialist (or Complex Drone) Job Efficiency.

  • Champions of the Empire: Now +1 Effective Leader Skill Level.

  • Aptitude Finisher is now +1 Leader Starting Traits. (Previously part of Champions of the Empire.)

• Slaves in the Slave Market now cost Trade rather than Energy.

• Cybernetic Creeds can now be Egalitarian.

• Cybernetic Creed Spiritualist Factions no longer care about robots.

• Rejecting Psionic Heresy allows Mindwardens access to the Shroud Inoculation living standard.

• The Appropriation tradition now also grants +25% Auto Resettlement Chance. (And has an appropriate flavor swap for Egalitarians)

• Distinguished Admiralty now grants +20% Command Limit instead of a flat amount.

• Reduced the (buffed in 4.3) Command Limit increase from Titans to match the actual size of Titans and so you end up with a nicer final number.

• Increased Naval Cap Repeatable tech to 20.

• Redesigned Mutagenic Spas to be less exploitable and to better match the theme of the civics.

  • Mutagenic Spas no longer scale with the number of districts and provide pop growth or assembly.

  • The civic now has all leaders (except for gestalt nodes) start with the Substance Abuser trait.

  • The building now provides -10% to both the Habitability Ceiling and Floor of the planet they are constructed on, provide 200 jobs and +3 effective leader level for the governor of the planet, if they are a substance abuser.

  • The jobs increase the job efficiency of ruler strata (or equivalent) and provide amenities.

  • Rogue Servitors gain a special variant of Mutagenic Spas for their Bio-Trophies instead of the normal Machine Lubrication Basins.

• Crisis Updates:

  • Adjusted End Game Crisis power relative to difficulty setting.

  • Tuned crisis strength scaling when allowing All end game crisis to spawn.

  • Reduced chances of Cetana spawning while another crisis is active.

  • The initial Unbidden fleet is now stronger to help them survive unfortunate spawn choices.

Bugfix

• Specialist Subject Relay Network effects now correctly only stack once for each type of subject like all other Specialist Perk benefits.

• Automated Job upkeep now appears correctly as "Automated Jobs" instead of showing up as "Other" or nothing at all in tooltips.

• Bio Shield techs now correctly inherit the Army Health modifiers from regular shield techs.

• Tankbound no longer get extra Production Overseers from volcanic generator or mining districts.

• Fixed lithoid and infernal Void Dwellers sometimes trying to create a mining station on their starting habitat.

• Fixed an issue with the Lesser Messenger ship name not being displayed when transferring it to another fleet.

• Fixed the tooltip of refinery worlds not properly displaying the gas refiner jobs.

• Fixed another issue in the Bloomed species trait tooltip.

• Fixed cases of Primal Calling starting the game with the wrong version of their unique building.

• Augmentor research output is now consistently split into society and engineering even before finishing the cybernetic ascension.

• Fixed calculation of mercenary enclaves

• Fixed required components selection in ship designer when using custom role

Stability & Performance

• Optimized resource lists in the Planet UI.

• Secured the execution around planet events to be evaluated in a place that is more OOS safe.

• Moved more trigger executions from Planet modifier calculation to daily pulse.

• Removed an unnecessary update of triggered modifiers on planets.

• Fixed crash in planet view economy tab when expanding jobs

The rest of the 4.3 changes can be found on the Paradox forums.

Thank you for playing Stellaris!