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How To Unlock Menace
How To Gain Menace And Increase Crisis Level
Menacing Ships
The Aetherophasic Engine
Star Eaters
Stellaris' Endgame Crises are some of the game's greatest challenges. If you've had your fill of fending off galactic invasions from the Contingency, the Unbidden, or the Prethoryn, the Nemesis DLC lets you try something different. By choosing the Become The Crisis Ascension Perk, you can start down the path to constructing a doomsday weapon and destroying the entire galaxy yourself.
Related: Stellaris: How To Defeat The Unbidden
Becoming the Crisis means the entire galaxy will turn against you. If you're up to the challenge, read on to learn how you can become an interstellar supervillain and the greatest menace in the galaxy.
How To Unlock Menace
Once you've completed three or more Tradition trees, an Ascension Perk will become available to Become The Crisis. This perk requires the Nemesis DLC, and your empire must be sufficiently malignant to even consider it.
Become The Crisis cannot be chosen if your empire has the Xenophile or Pacifist Ethics, or if you are the subject of another empire. You also cannot choose Become The Crisis if you are the Galactic Custodian or Emperor, though you can take it before being appointed to either title. Lastly, Rogue Servitors and Corporations can never choose to destroy the galaxy.
Once you've taken this Ascension Perk, you'll unlock a new resource called Menace. You can check your current Menace and its effects in the Crisis Tab of the Society Management window (the same one you use for Traditions and Relics). Menace represents the level of fear and despair you've created throughout the galaxy, a necessary step in building enough resonance with the Shroud to power the Aetherophasic Engine.
When your Menace reaches a specific threshold, and you've completed the required special project, your Crisis Level will increase. Each Crisis Level gives you powerful bonuses but inflicts a permanent Opinion penalty with every other empire in the game. Be sure to time your projects so that you're able to deal with more and more empires turning against you.
How To Gain Menace And Increase Crisis Level
Specific actions - typically aggressive and belligerent ones - will cause your empire to gain Menace. The exact amount gained depends on the number of empires in the galaxy at the start of the game. The more empires are present, the less Menace you'll gain overall. This means that a larger, more populated galaxy will be harder to destroy than a smaller one. The base Menace gain for each action is reduced by twenty percent for every six starting empires in the galaxy.
Sources Of Menace
Base Menace Gained | Awarded For |
|---|---|
15 |
|
50 |
|
250 |
|
500 |
|
750 |
|
The special project required to advance to the next Crisis Level is available even if you don't yet have the required Menace. Completing it ahead of time means that your Crisis Level will increase the moment you have enough Menace, whether you're ready or not. For this reason, it's best to save the project until you're ready to advance, especially for Crisis Level Five.
Crisis Levels
Crisis Level | Menace | Research Cost | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | N/A (unlocked when the Ascension Perk is taken) |
| |
2 | 1000 | 3000 Society |
|
3 | 2000 | 6000 Physics |
|
4 | 5000 | 12000 Society |
|
5 | 10000 | 20000 Engineering |
|
Related: Stellaris: How To Defeat The Contingency
Menacing Ships
Increasing your Crisis Level unlocks Menacing ship designs. While these ships aren't technically more powerful than their normal cousins (at first), they do have alternate patterns available that can allow them to punch above their usual weight.
Once you've attained a Crisis Level of three or higher, your Menacing ships will also gain powerful bonuses that effectively render non-Menacing ships obsolete. It's best to start converting your fleets as soon as each Menacing design becomes available.
Related: Stellaris: How Does Space Combat Work?
The Aetherophasic Engine
The ultimate goal of becoming the Crisis is to construct and activate the Aetherophasic Engine. This doomsday weapon is designed to merge reality with the Shroud, theoretically allowing your empire to ascend to a higher plane of existence at the cost of destroying the galaxy (and possibly the universe).
When you reach the fifth and final Crisis level, construction on the Aetherophasic Engine will begin in your capital system. If possible, it might be worth relocating your capital to the most defensible system in your empire before taking the final step. You'll also receive two free Star Eaters to help harvest the enormous quantity of Dark Matter you'll need to finish the superweapon.
The Aetherophasic Engine is constructed in five stages; each takes ten years to complete so destroying the galaxy will take an absolute minimum of fifty years from the point you reach the highest Crisis Level.
Multiple empires can Become The Crisis and there can be several Aetherophasic Engines under construction at the same time. Taking a rival system that contains an under-construction doomsday weapon allows you to harvest its Dark Matter for your own purposes!
If the system containing the Aetherophasic Engine is conquered, it will be ruined, and you'll need to fix it after retaking the system before you can continue construction.
Aetherophasic Engine Construction Stages
Stage | Dark Matter Cost | Effects (Non-Stacking) |
|---|---|---|
1 | 0 (automatically reached upon attaining Crisis Level 5) |
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2 | 20000 |
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3 | 30000 |
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4 | 40000 |
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5 | 50000 |
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Related: Stellaris: How To Defeat The Prethoryn Scourge
Star Eaters
Star Eaters are ships that can destroy stars the same way a Core Cracker destroys planets. Upon successfully destroying a star, the system will become uninhabitable, and you'll gain a large quantity of Dark Matter. Keeping your Star Eaters active and firing is essential for completing the Aetherophasic Engine.
Next: Stellaris: Psionic Ascension Guide
