Stellaris: Best Astral Relics

Highlights

• The new Astral Rifts in Stellaris’ latest DLC provide players with new technologies and relics that offer various advantages for their empire’s leaders, resources, and defenses.
• Relics like the Time Crystal can extend the lifespan of leaders and grant them instant experience, while the Infinity Root generates a useful Scientist leader with beneficial traits.
• The Daedalus Seal can protect an empire from invasion by locking all bypasses within the player’s borders, and The Continuum provides passive economic advantages and a boost of resources when activated.

Within the new additions of Stellaris‘ latest exciting DLC, the Astral Planes, players can explore whole new narrative choices and gameplay in the form of new technologies, called Astral Rifts, and the relics that can be acquired from those explorable rifts, should they make the proper dialogue choices.

These relics can empower a player’s empire with many advantages, ranging from increases in technological resources to a relic that enables a galaxy to be locked from any outside access, isolating it from encroaching hostile threats such as a rival empire, or even the incoming death fleet of a Crisis. Here are the best relics players will find in the new Astral Rifts.

7 Time Crystal

Enrich An Empire’s Group Of Leaders

• +10 Years Leader Lifespan
• +800 Experience for each leader when activated

Thanks to the latest Stellaris patch, leaders have now become more important than before due to their specializations, granting them beneficial traits that the player can use to their advantage. As such, leaders are now a very important commodity to improve and maintain.

With the help of the Time Crystal relic, the player will be able to keep a hold of their leaders much longer with the increased lifespan effect, and when activated, will be able to almost instantly level up their leader with the +800 experience.

6 Infinity Root

Free Scientist Leader With Great Traits

• +10% Monthly Food
• Create a Scientist leader with the Adaptionist and Eagerness traits when activated

Although food is not a very reliable resource to focus on, especially in the early game, due to its limited usefulness and low price in the market, it is still crucial to stockpile to ensure the livelihood of an empire’s species, especially if the species are biological. With the help of the Infinity Root, an empire can divert its focus toward other resources.

Its active component is also quite beneficial, as it generates a Scientist leader with Adaptionist and Eagerness, making it a very good starter Scientist leader that is flexible for any specialization. Thus, a player will find themselves more than able to replace any aging or dead Scientist leader without too much effort.

5 Ever Spinning Top

Gain Both Economic And Technological Advantage

• +10% Monthly Energy Credits
• +33% Propulsion Research Speed when activated

Stellaris players, especially the veteran ones, will always prioritize two important elements in the game before anything else: the economy and technology. Victory will be the consequence of such focus as it will translate to better fleets, armies, and planets due to its sheer economic and technological advantages.

The unique Astral Relic, Ever Spinning Top, will help a player gain such an advantage as it can passively increase an empire’s monthly energy credit acquisition. Moreover, when activated, an empire will gain a +33% increase in propulsion technology research, making the empire able to quickly advance through the technological tree.

4 Daedalus Seal

A Strategic Seal For Both Defense And Offense

• +25% Dimensional Locks Duration
• +1 Astral Threads
• Places a lock on every bypass within borders for 5 years when activated

Sometimes, facing hostile alien empires requires a deeper look at tactics, as the newest AI of Stellaris will be able to outwit a returning veteran of the game if they are not vigilant enough to see their hostile fleets. With the help of the Daedalus Seal, a player can ward off any attempt of invasion and belligerent hit-and-run ships from rivals.

When activated, this relic will lock on to every bypass within the player’s borders for a set amount of time. This will bar any attempt by the hostile fleet to enter the player’s territory with harmful intentions. However, players will still need to look out for other means of travel that can bypass their borders, such as Jump Drives.

3 The Continuum

Passively Gain Economic Advantage With Time Shenanigans

• +5% Monthly Basic Resources
• +5% Monthly Advanced Resources
• +5% Research Speed
• Grants 12 months’ worth of Basic Resources, 12 months’ worth of Advanced Resources, and 12 months’ worth of Research when activated

Help can arrive from unexpected places, such as from another dimension, or even another timeline which, when meddled with further, could risk a galactic collapse. Such risk exists in the form of The Continuum, taken from an Astral Rift archaeological site, which will grant a passive increase in resources.

Although it can be seemingly small at first glance, the bonuses will accumulate and ultimately help any player who can obtain the Astral Relic. Furthermore, activation of the relic will grant 12 months’ worth of all resources, making it very desirable for any empire with aspirations of ruling the galaxy.

2 Plasmic Core

Enhance The General Populace With Plasmic Gifts

• +10% Pop Growth Speed if biological or +10% Leader Experience Gain if machine
• All Pops on a world gain the Plasmic trait if biological or A leader gains 3 positive traits if machine when activated

Populations are generally a precious resource in Stellaris – especially for players who try to populate their planets, and especially for unique and powerful planets – because they grant resources and technological advancements. However, increasing a population can be hard due to many restrictions, such as trait disadvantages.

With the help of the Plasmic Core, biological empires will be able to enhance their populace with the beneficial Plasmic trait, which increases habitability and population growth speed and reduces housing usage. Machine empires will instead be able to enhance their leader with the relic, gaining more advantage as well.

1 Celestial Tear

Gain Huge Amount Of Astral Threads In One Click

• +5% Habitability in orbit of class A, B, F or G stars
• +1250 Astral Threads when activated

With the addition of Astral Actions thanks to the Astral Planes DLC, Astral Threads become one of the most coveted resources in the game as they allow the player to gain various new benefits by using it. These Astral Threads are usually hard to obtain, as they depend on several random variables such as the outcome of Astral Rifts and gaining passive Astral Threads from mining a system.

With the help of Celestial Tear, players can obtain a huge amount of Astral Threads easily, without waiting for months or exploring Astral Rifts, with a single activation. The added passive bonus of habitability is also something to be considered, as it allows a species to settle on a planet that differs from its original planet.