Stellaris Dev Diary #423: Arkship Population Rushing

Dev Diary #423 had a lot in it, but I think the biggest thing might not actually be the Stellar Cannon.

The Stellar Cannon is definitely flashy, certainly big, but it burns your entire energy stockpile and has a 140-day charge-up. Though on the other hand, it can cause up to 50% colony devastation and damages every ship in the target system. TBH though, I think it might end up being more useful against corvette swarms than anything else.

The part that stood out to me more was the Nomad civic potential, especially Deep Sleep and Star Seekers.

Deep Sleep seems like it could be huge for population rushing, since it creates additional pops on top of your starting Arkship population. Star Seekers also sounds way more important than it first looks, because getting a massive growth boost for six months could be hugeeee depending on the build

There are also a few other interesting pieces:

• Hired Guns seems solid, though probably depends on how strong mercenary/privateer play ends up being in the nomad meta.
• Reaver looks like a natural pick for Star Revears nomad raider builds.
• Nomads can settle, though it seems like there are tradeoffs.
• Settled empires can also Embark, which seems especially useful for bad situations like Doomsday starts, given it's been reworked for Nomads.

I made a video breaking down the diary and why I think Arkship Population Rushing might be one of the strongest early Nomad angles:
https://youtu.be/A6aZLAiRn8Q