History Stellaris / TropesIToZ

** Having one endgame crisis start prevents any others from occurring, even after the crisis is dealt with. [[spoiler: In other words, if, say, the Prethoryn Scourge show up, you can play around with jump drives and synthetics to your heart's content without any fear of the Extradimensional Invaders or the Contingency.]] However, this only applies to the 'official' crisis events. The War In Heaven (which is often worse, especially if you went neutral) won't prevent any of them, nor will the [[GreyGoo Grey Tempest]]. If you want a challenge, it is also possible to set it at the start of the game so that ''all three'' Crises spawn.

* SpaceRomans: Patch 2.0 adds a Roman-themed name list.

*** [[spoiler: [[spoiler: Ancient enemies of the Prethoryn, The Hunters, are stated to be this. According to the Scourge, their goal is "scour the entire life". Considering what they likely did with Prethoryn's home galaxy, this can be truth.]]

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Given that any pop can become any type of army, it is entirely possible for your (mid- to late-game) empire to create AI soldiers with PsychicPowers who ride to war on giant custom-designed mutant war beasts, or robot-xenomorph hybrids supported by clouds of killer nanites, or any number of insane (but awesome) combinations of troops. The most potent are the Titanic War Beasts with Psy-Warriors, which boosts their already absurd Damage and Morale impact beyond any other unit in the game.

* RogueDrone: Gestalt Consciousnesses, such as Hive Minds and Machine Empires, need to expend a certain amount of effort on maintaining the connection between their drones. If stability falls enough, then the malfunctioning drones, unable to synchronize properly with the main collective, will start diverging and forming their own collectives, resulting in crime, revolts or piracy.

* SaveScumming:
** A viable tactic for some event chains. However, the most effective use of it is scanning new planets. The size of a planet is randomly generated during the scan. Got a good planet, but it's only size 14? Reload. It's 13 now? Reload. Maximum size of 25? How marvelous! Moons take it a step further, since in their case, even one more tile is a big difference.
** However, some things, like Guardian spawn points and the outcome of activating L-gates, are determined at the start of the game, explicitly to prevent this. Ironman Mode disables manual saves, greatly limiting the effectiveness of the tactic. It's also required to unlock achievements.

* SaveScumming: A viable tactic for some event chains. However, some things, like Guardian spawn points and the outcome of activating L-gates, are determined at the start of the game, explicitly to prevent this.
** Ironman Mode disables manual saves, greatly limiting the effectiveness of the tactic. It's also required to unlock achievements.

-->Specialized equipment and behavior protocols for all conceivable domestic needs. [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Full functionality guaranteed]].

* ShatteredWorld: There are a few of these scattered around the galaxy, usually orbiting black holes. The Holy Guardians' capital planet also has a shattered moon called [[NoodleIncident "The Mistake"]]. Functionally, these planets are identical to Barren Worlds and devoid of any life.

* ShinyLookingSpaceships: Avian and Molluscoid ships look like this.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers:
** On a meta-level, Stone Age primitive species are this in earlier patches. They cannot become {{Uplifted Animal}}s or receive {{Technology Uplift}}s. If your government does not have "unrestricted native interference" (option not available for xenophile or pacifist governments), you will not be able to colonize their home planet, which is pretty much the only way to interact with them. Justified by the fact that intellectual enlightenment would take much too long to be practical, they don't have a strong society to infiltrate, and they're just past the point where uplifting is relatively easy and unobtrusive. [[spoiler: That said, if you colonize a planet and allow them to roam free, there will sometimes be a random event that reveals that the primitives you're co-habituating with are the results of incomplete uplifting.]] Later versions would make them act like the other primitives and can thus be enlightened, though it's an arduous 83 year and 4 month process to do so. Or they can simply be invaded, which is arguably less painful, especially after Stellar Culture Shock was changed from a scaling modifier that would be more severe the more primitive the aliens were to a flat 33% job output penalty for a fixed ten years.
** In the livestream celebrating the release of ''Nemesis'', Paradox got a group of youtubers together to play as two empires, a galactic custodian and an OmnicidalManiac. These youtubers were [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_2sl-9BfzTA2Lby4hMG0_A Stefan Anon]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFkv_BAbjhbUoecdg4R01Lw Aspec]], both popular Stellaris youtubers, the [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqCsO-fb2_OzVxm7J9MslA Templin Institute]], which are not primarily a Stellaris channel, but have done Stellaris content in the past, and ''WebVideo/DoorMonster'', who makes comedy sketches, and whose only prior interaction with Stellaris was a sponsored video. For emphasis, Anon and Door monster are playing as the Xumans, a joke species from Door Monster's sketch that are universally reviled for being totally lame.

* OurSoulsAreDifferent: All organics have an immortal psionic presence in the Shroud that persists after their physical bodies die. Spiritualists do not believe BrainUploading to be compatible with it, which is why they tend to be horrified when they witness another empire go through the Synth ascension route, viewing it as mass suicide.

* SquareCubeLaw: Examined through the TechnologyTree. {{Justified}}, as your empire expands, demands for better technology likely to be counted for, but spreading [[TechnologyMarchesOn new technologies to every person on the planet is already time-consuming by themselves]].

* That’sNoMoon:

* That'sNoMoon:

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The Shroud event chain begins with the empire in question gaining Psionic ascension. The empire can then be contacted by something called "The End of the Cycle" which, when you form a pact with it, greatly enhances the empire. Fifty years later, the Reckoning arrives [[spoiler:and the empire disappears. Its planets become uninhabitable and the leaders, ships and starbases destroyed. The Shroud's fleets gather in large numbers with nigh-unstoppable fleet power. If the empire is lucky, they gain a new home named 'Exile' from an uncolonized planet, but they have a -1000 diplomacy modifier with every other empire and are left for last as the Reckoning destroys everyone else in the galaxy.]] If you happen to be controlling the empire, the only option in the dialog box reads "What have we done?"
** Not that the game goes out of its way to warn you. The option for making an alliance with "The End of the Cycle" states 'do not do this', but this serves as SchmuckBait to curious players [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity lured by the promise of greatly enhancing their empire]]. The Shroud-Marker modifier for the planets under the control of empires that make deals with "The End of the Cycle" warns 'Something very bad is going to happen here'.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Governors with the Righteous trait are described as such. They reduce crime on planets in their sector by 25, and are unable to get the Corrupt trait.

* IOweYouMyLife: One anomaly on a toxic planet can reveal an ancient warship that the planet's atmosphere is slowly corroding away, starting a special project for a construction ship to repair it with new components must be done in a limited time frame. If successful, an onboard AI program will reawaken and relay that it had spent the past 4800-ish years stuck there and that it was only days away from being irrevocably degraded. Sensing that it has new parts from you, it will consider you its new makers and join your empire out of gratitude for rescuing it as a special Admiral leader along with its ship if you allow it.

* LeeroyJenkins: Part of the ''Horizon Signal'' questline can turn one of your Admirals into this, describing now that they've seen [[ForegoneConclusion the end of their life]], they're more willing to take risks and charge blindly into the fray. Mechanically, it gives said Admiral increased speed.

* MyGreatestFailure: An admiral who survives a defeat after failing to protect a planet may gain the Unyielding trait over their regrets.

** Leaders, governors, military commanders and scientists have different traits which have varying effects on the nation, diplomacy, the military and scientific research. They also level up as they gain experience in their fields (for scientists it is doing research or surveying planets, for generals and admirals engaging in combat).

* SealedGoodInACan: On the flipside, a fleet admiral can be sealed in one of the shield worlds, who will join your leader pool when the shield is lowered, which makes it questionable why the fallen empire has imprisoned him.

* ViolationOfCommonSense: The ''Horizon Signal'' quest chain. Overall, it's a ''very beneficial'' quest chain if you [[spoiler:happily and gleefully embrace your species' insane descent into accepting the Worm's wishes, falling into every typical CosmicHorrorStory trope as they embrace a disturbed sense of a looping existence]]. It's more shocking since progressing through the quest line has some very obvious (but mitigable) consequences and very ambiguous "benefits" (but all unique), with the LeeroyJenkins example being an amusingly simple one in gameplay mechanics but disturbing in story mechanics (you ''just'' have to kill a single puny, admiral-commanded ship that spawns in your home sector to get a free stat boost for your admiral! Nice!).

* TemporalParadox: Absolutely ''everything'' even remotely connected to the Worm-In-Waiting. The Worm entity itself is even implied to be a temporal paradox made manifest.

* IntellectuallySupportedTyranny: You can have a materialistic imperial government type, named Despotic Hegemony, with research speed bonus, and absolute disregard for political rights.

** In the livestream celebrating the release of ''Nemesis'', Paradox got a group of youtubers together to play as two empires, a galactic custodian and an OmnicidalManiac. These youtubers were [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_2sl-9BfzTA2Lby4hMG0_A Stefan Anon]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFkv_BAbjhbUoecdg4R01Lw Aspec]], both popular Stellaris youtubers, the [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqCsO-fb2_OzVxm7J9MslA Templin Institute]], which are not primarily a Stellaris channel, but have done Stellaris content in the past, and ''WebVideo/DoorMonster'', who makes comedy sketches, and who's only prior interaction with Stellaris was a sponsored video. For emphasis, Anon and Door monster are playing as the Xumans, a joke species from Door Monster's sketch that are universally reviled for being totally lame.

** Should you ever encounter the Habinte Unified Worlds as a Xenophobe or Militarist, [[SchmuckBait do not make the mistake of thinking you have six free Gaia worlds just because they're a Pacifist pre-FTL spoaceflight star nation]]. [[spoiler:They're the last remnants of a Type 6 civilization[[note]]For those at home who don't know their Kardashav scale, that means they're so advanced that they can create and modify the fundamental laws of ''entire universes''[[/note]] [[SpaceAmish who are trying to live simple lives]] InHarmonyWithNature. Declare war on them, and [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece they'll dust off a]] ''one million fleet power'' armada (as powerful as the avatar of the End of the Cycle!) and [[CurbStompBattle promptly use it to teach you a lesson]]. If that wasn't enough, they'll mess up your hyperlanes and ''teleport their planets around your empire'' - not even [[BonusBoss Fallen Empires]] can do this.]]

** To [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible modern art]]; if you find a ruined Mega Art Installation the description reads "you're not sure whether it's broken or not. But it's probably broken."