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Stellaris
Stellaris
4.3.6|May 11, 2026
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Stellaris 4.3.6 patch released (checksum 6ccb)

3/5 Moderate

Utopia, Synthetic Dawn, and Humanoids DLCs are now integrated into the base game alongside a new Portrait Substitution accessibility system.

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Key Changes

  • 1Utopia, Synthetic Dawn, and Humanoids Species Pack are now included in the base game
  • 2New Portrait Substitution system added with Arachnophobia and Arachnophilia modes
  • 3Fixed a bug where leaders could become immortal by exceeding their maximum age
  • 4Players can now override the default 90 FPS cap via settings.txt
  • 5Added Behemothkin portrait for Paradox Account users
  • 6Fixed multiple Out-of-Sync (OOS) errors in multiplayer
  • 7Updated 'very old age' logic for modders to a fixed point value

All Changes

🚀Expansion Content(5)

  • newUtopia: Utopia expansion content added to base game, including Megastructures, Habitats, Ascension Perks, Indoctrination, Advanced Slavery, Hive Mind empires, and Fanatic Purifiers.
  • newSynthetic Dawn: Synthetic Dawn Story Pack content added to base game, including Machine Intelligence empires, Machine Rebellions, Machine Fallen Empire, and 7 machine portraits.
  • newHumanoids Species Pack: Humanoids Species Pack content added to base game, including 10 portraits, Master Artificers, Pleasure Seekers, Pompous Purists civics, Clone Army origin, and the humanoid shipset.
  • newGalaxy Edition Upgrade: Most elements of the Galaxy Edition Upgrade have been rolled into the base game.
  • newBehemothkin: Added the Behemothkin portrait to Reptilians for players logged into a Paradox Account.

♿Accessibility(3)

  • newPortrait Substitution: Added a Portrait Substitution option in Accessibility settings to replace specific artwork on the client side.
  • newArachnophobia Mode: Added Arachnophobia Mode which replaces spider-like portraits with alternative artwork.
  • newArachnophilia Mode: Added Arachnophilia Mode which replaces non-spider portraits with spider-like artwork.

🎮Gameplay(1)

  • fixLeaders: Fixed a bug where leaders could become too old to die, effectively becoming immortal.

💻Performance & Stability(3)

  • changePerformance: Added ability to override the 90 FPS render cycle cap by adding refreshCap to settings.txt.
  • fixMultiplayer: Fixed an Out-of-Sync (OOS) error related to CS_SPECIES_COUNT and CS_SPECIES_INDEX when playing with nascent species.
  • fixMultiplayer: Fixed an Out-of-Sync (OOS) error related to CS_COUNTRY_RESOURCES.

🛠️Modding(2)

  • changeModding: Simplified 'very old age' code; the define is now a fixed point (1.2) making death more likely over 120% of species lifespan.
  • newModding: The Portrait Substitutions spinner now automatically loads all files in the substitutions folder at startup.

🔊Audio(1)

  • fixVipra the Vapor: Corrected the greeting audio for Vipra the Vapor.

Summary

The 4.3.6 'Cetus' update marks a major shift for Stellaris by rolling three significant expansions—Utopia, Synthetic Dawn, and the Humanoids Species Pack—directly into the base game for all players. This update also introduces a Portrait Substitution system to improve accessibility, specifically targeting arachnophobia, and resolves a long-standing bug where leaders could achieve unintended immortality through extreme age.

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