This is an archive of patch notes originally posted on 04 Dec 2025.

Stellaris

Stellaris 4.2.3 patch released (checksum f58a)

Posted by PDX_ladydzra on

by PDX-Loke

Hello everyone,

We hope this patch finds you well. It brings a great deal of fixes and tweaks to your Infernals playthroughs.

The latest and greatest 4.2.3 version of Stellaris is now released and available via Steam, MS, and GOG.

Please find the patch notes below (no change versus Tuesday's open beta).

STELLARIS 4.2.3 PATCH NOTES

Improvement

  • Thermophiles can pick the Ocean Paradise Origin

  • Thermophiles can pick the Aquatic Trait

  • Thermophiles can pick the Agrarian Trait

  • Thermophiles can pick the Agrarian Idyll Civic

  • Thermophiles can pick the Anglers Civic

  • Adds conditions to get alloys when you extort a Spiritualist Thermophile faction.

  • Pyromanic Instinct blocks "friendly" Civics and Origins

  • Rogue Servitor empires now receive an additional Alloys income when having an Infernal subspecies (instead of food)

Balance

  • Reduced Infernal Livestock output from base 1.5 down to 1 Alloy

  • Adjusted cost of the "Distribute Living Metal" decision from 500LM to 700LM

  • Adjusted "Thermal Engineer" councilor (replaced "Research Cost (Engineering) -1%" with "Research Station Output +4%")

  • Adjusted "Pyromanic Priest" councilor (Job Consumer Goods upkeep from -3% to -2%)

  • Adjusted "Galvanic Symbiosis" planetary refund modifier from 1 to 0.75

  • Crisis Path: Adjusted Entropy Conduit ship stats (+2000 Hull +1000 Armor +2000 Shield)

  • Crisis Path: Adjusted "Entropy Harnessing" edict (Energy Credits from Technicians from -1 to -2.5, Entropy from Technicians from 0.5 to 0.4)

  • Crisis Path: Terraforming with a “Volcanic Forge” now counts for the crisis objective “Create Volcanic Worlds”

  • Crisis Path: Colonies buffed by Entropy Conduits now produce more unity

  • Crisis Path: Upgrading Ember Ships does not require alloys anymore

  • Crisis Path: Stars stellarformed by Entropy Conduits now gain additional deposits

  • Crisis Path: Machine Intelligence can now pick the ascension perk

  • Crisis Path: The amount of required systems for the “Critical Mass” is now shown in the UI (current systems + needed systems)

  • Crisis Path: Cost of the "Life Seeding" decision changed from 1000 Energy to 2500 Entropy Crystals

  • Crisis Path: The UI now shows the current amount of owned systems for the “Critical Mass” perk

  • Crisis Path: Conduits now ignore systems with a Dyson Sphere/Swarm or Quantum Catapult

  • Adjusted alloy upkeep of Spawning Drones from 2.5 to 2

  • Adjusted Infernal Livestock output from 1 to 0.75 alloys

Bugfix

  • Fixed a typo in mercenary dividends relating to Galactic Risk Management

  • Fixed Regenerative Armor from Galvanic Synthesis civic not auto-upgrading in ship designer when better armor technologies are researched

  • Stop Quantum Catapult targeting graphics being shown in System view

  • Fixed Infernal upkeep not being affected by Clone Soldier and Necrophage origin species traits.

  • Subterranean Empires now have uncapped Mining Districts on Volcanic Worlds.

  • Fixed issues with psionic assimilation for gestalt empires and individualist machines.

  • Fixed Ruler clothing for Infernal portrait 5 (shoulder plate for the hedgehog)

  • Fixed the issue with Black Needle Base no longer being colonizable after assaulting it.

  • Fixed Augmentation Bazaars not having access to Loyalty Circuits in empire creation.

  • Fixed Broken Shackles starting with 2k more pops than they should

  • Migrating Forests modifiers and Special Projects are removed when the planet is terraformed to a Volcanic World.

  • Eager Explorers now require Scientific Method to unlock Thermotechnic Forums.

  • Stability from the Unbreakable Resolve trait gets properly applied even if the pop groups with Unbreakable Resolve were later additions to the planet in question

  • Pops under assimilation no longer have extra upkeep.

  • Planets with event purges should no longer continue purging after having been recolonized.

  • Fixed the tooltip for Syncretic Evolution mentioning the wrong number of pops.

  • Subterraneans can no longer build Industrial Mining Sites without any gameplay effect.

  • Volcanic World mineral extraction zones can now build Industrial Mining Sites for +2/+4/+6/+8 mineral districts unless they are already uncapped.

  • Added flag infernal_subspecies for Infernal subspecies (used for some civics/mods)

  • Fixed event "Star-Crossed Lovers" appearing for Scorched World Heralds

  • Fixed the "Arcology Project" decision not counting Volcanic World districts

  • Fixed Volcanic Worlds not having a click sound

  • Fixed "Spawning Pools" from "Permutation Pools" civic for Hive Mind using food as Infernals

  • Fixed "Seismic Carpetbombing" creating Volcanic craters on artificial planets

  • Fixed "Bombardment Stances" not killing the last pops of a planet

  • Fixed Infernal Livestock not counting for a Evolutionary Predator purge

  • Fixed Infernal Livestock counting as Specialists

  • Fixed the starbase building "Gravitational Centrifuge" (crisis path) not being buildable in crisis systems

  • Fixed Pre-FTL civilizations spawned by the Hyperthermia crisis not ascending into the space age

  • Pyromanic Instinct blocks other genocidal Civics

  • Tankbound now gains Overseers from rural districts (Geothermal, Melting) on Volcanic Worlds

  • AI Empires now build Thermotechnic Districts on Volcanic planets

  • Fixed the Military Academy adding research output and consumer goods upkeep to soldier and warrior drone jobs.

  • Military Academy bonus workforce is now empire-wide

  • Hard Reset is no longer a valid origin for AI empires (that's like the entire narrative!)

  • Fixed some edgecases when playing unplugged where you could end up with pops who had the old negative traits and never lost them.

  • Fixed the number of pops affected by the Zoonotic Plague, Enigmatic Fortress, and Numistic Order deals

  • Terraforming your Homeworld will no longer cause the Terraforming event talking about making a second homeworld to fire.

  • Re-enabled Devastation from Cosmic Storms at 0.01 per month.

  • Infernal AI empires colonize properly (even if they don't have any food)

  • Overclocking setting of the galactic crucible now also persists after loading a save game

  • You can no longer queue construction of districts while the Arcology Project is underway.

  • Cybernetic Imperial authorities now give additional noble jobs.

  • Purging infernal pops gives alloys

  • Fixed Fallen Empires being able to build "Starfire Cannons"

  • Fixed Volcanic Forges not being destroyed after terraforming a planet into a Hive/Machine World or Ecumenopolis

  • Crisis Path: Fixed Conduits damaging own colonies when playing as non-Infernal empire

  • Crisis Path: Fixed mining & research stations not working correctly when Conduits stellarform a star

  • FE outposts now rebuild in systems where they have unconquered planets.

  • Artillery combat computers will now prefer median range instead of max range, allowing Titans to use most of their weapons instead of only their Titan Weapon

  • Fixed erroneous tooltip for the Cave Dweller concept

  • Removed the surface quarry and the voltaic production yard from urban zones

  • the Justicial Complex FE building can now be built on Penal Colonies

  • Megastructures show correct value in upgrade tool tip for effects applied with the upgrade

  • Stars stellarformed by an entropy conduit no longer reroll the deposits of the star

  • Certain special deposits, such as those from the Life-Seeded origin, are now correctly kept upon terraforming into hive or machine worlds.

  • Fixed being able to issue some fleet orders to unreachable systems if the fleet has a jump drive.

  • Fixed missing newline for "not in range of Jump Drive" message in the tooltip for the build orbital station command.

  • Fixed efficiency being able to go negative, causing jobs to run in reverse. As bad as those slave riots or fire cult ruined planets are, Metallurgists shouldn’t disassemble alloys back into their original components.

Performance

  • Reduced memory allocations in topbar UI updates

Stability

  • Fixed Mac CTD happening in late game when calculating fleet auras

  • Fixed object lifetime issue from scope used by on_resolution_failed leading to undefined behavior.

  • Fixed crash in strike craft being damaged by non existing/dead fleet.

  • Fix an OOS on reconnect where Starbases where blocking fleets path on the server but not on the client

  • Removed dependency on SetThreadDescription to enable the game to run on ex Windows 10 LTSB 2016.

  • Fixed CTD that could happen when a special project was completed while no longer valid

  • Made Stellaris respond to OS events during loading gui types to avoid "freezing" the system at 5% loading for an unknown amount of time (only dx11 backend).

  • Fixed some more occurrences where file read/write is being blocked by the system and stellaris handling it by crashing.

Modding

  • Added a new system flag to the Entropy Conduit target script to exclude special stars

Enjoy!