Encountering the Stellar Devourer in Stellaris is always a cool surprise. The main issue, though, is that it’s hard to kill, depending on which phase of the game you’re in. The answer lies in the way in which you are designing your ship. The Stellar Devourer appears at random, on a unary star system. That system will, at first glance, be empty and devoid of any danger. Upon further exploration, the Stellar Devourer, a magnificent glowing space creature that eats stars for breakfast, will reveal itself. Be careful since if the Stellar Devourer doesn’t lose at least 1/3 of HP during your first engagement, it will attack your nearby system.
To defeat this space monster, we will analyze its weapons and defenses and act accordingly. Stellaris countering mechanics in combat are very useful to know when dealing with Endgame Crysis or similar entities, and that applies here as well. We will be focusing on making our ships anti-devourer and countering it with adequate weapons and defenses. Let’s have a quick look at what we can do to maximize our damage output and counter the Stellar Devourers.
Stellar Devourer Weapons And Defenses
Before we get to designing our ship, we need to see what Stellar Devourer is made of. The most important thing to realize is that it has 0 Armor, 0 Shields, 40% Evasion, and 200,000 Hull Points. This means that we will gear our weapons to be specifically anti-hull, above all else. Any weapon that is “balanced”, is practically a bad choice here.
With the defenses analyzed, let’s look at Stellar Devourers’ weapons and see how can we counter them with a good Armor-Shield-Hull ratio:
- Devouring Beam | +200% damage against Armor, +200% damage against Hull, –75% damage against Shields.
- Stellar Torpedo | Ignores Shields, +150% damage against Armor
- Stellar Plasma | -50% damage against Shields
- Stellar Laser | +200% damage against Armor, -50% damage against Shields
All in all, we see that 3 weapons are bad against shields and that only the Stellar Torpedo ignores them. This can be circumvented by having point-defense systems and long-range weapons. So in conclusion, shields and point defenses are a must. The main priority in countering the Stellar Devourer is to have anti-hull weapons and a lot of Shields for defense.
Recommended Ship Setup
While there are a lot of choices when designing your ship, you will need to focus on two main points, Shields and anti-hull weapons. The usual choice for anti-hull is Autocannons (low range, high DPS) and Plasma Cannons (good range, low DPS). Going for both options is reliable since both weapons are effective against Hull.
Furthermore, if you are gonna run a Spinal Mount Bow, Tachyon Lance is a must. It has a very good range, DPS, and a +50% hull modifier, all the things we are looking for. So to recap, Autocannons, Plasma Cannons, and Tachyon Lance are good choices.
When it comes to defenses, we recommend stacking up on Shields. Remember to sprinkle in Point Defenses when doing this, since the main issue is the Torpedos that the Stellar Devourer has. The main downsides of Torpedos are that they are slow, can be countered with Point Defenses, and have low range. If you manage to handle that, your Shields will be extremely effective against all the other weapons that the Stellar Devourer has.
We also recommend you maximize your fleet power in other areas like getting an Admiral with good modifiers, researching ascension perks that can have an impact on your fleet, and any other way you can get your fleet to max power.
Stellar Devourer Reward – Which One Is Better?
Once defeated, a prompt will come up (right picture) with the following options: Study The Corpse or Retrieve The Egg Sac. The Egg Sac gives you a very “edgy” espionage ability that can be used to extinguish an enemy star. It oftentimes doesn’t work, because the enemies get notified and diffuse the issue very quickly.
The more interesting one is the first option – Study The Corpse, which gives you the ability to research the corpse and, after 60 days, will give you another prompt (left picture) that will give you two options:
- Try to reignite the star – Changes the entire ecosystem. This means that all planets transform, making them more habitable and basically giving you more “free” habitable worlds. Note: It has a 30% chance of killing your science ship. The “reigniting” will still be researched though. Do note that if you killed the Stellar Devourer close to someone else’s system, it’s usually best to just get the egg sac, since you don’t want to give your enemies free habitable planets if they were to take over the system.
- Harvest the body’s energy deposits – gives you 10,000 Energy, 2000 Minerals, and 80 Influence.
There is a third option, which is prompted when you have a Xenophone and Militarist empire. You can get the Stellar Devourer Trophy that acts as a planetary feature on your capital. It gives you +8 Unity, 500 influence, and +5% Happiness. The Happiness modifier alone is very beneficial, and if you need extra influence, the trophy is a good choice.
The overall consensus is that you take what you need the most. As with everything in Stellaris, every reward has its benefits and scenarios in which it can be the optimal pick. Harvesting energy deposits will give you a lot of resources, and that can be very beneficial if you’re in a tight spot. Furthermore, if you think you need more habitable planets now, or in the future, reigniting the star is a better choice. The third option – Trophy, is also a good pick because of the Happiness modifier and the high Influence you get.
