So yeah Stellaris 2.0 changed fundamentally how the game works from the ground up. I've played it for a few hours today (with Apocalypse) and it seems like OPS is going to have to be rethought and redesigned from the ground up as well. I've seen some colourful discussions on Reddit on the last few weeks about the future of Stellaris and with the changes to how Influence, Unity, and Science is used it seems going super tall is bad, but going to wide is also going to be bad. In my opinion we are going to see player empires take up quadrants of space, similar to that of stagnant Fallen Empires and then just sit and turtle for the entire game until the Mid/End game threats show up.

Is One Planet Strategy dead?

Currently it is not viable to do OPS anymore. Frontier outposts no longer capture chunks of star systems anymore and the scaling costs for science and unity are now strictly on the number of systems you own; not the number of colonies you owned.

How will this affect the guide?

I'll have to label this version of OPS as a legacy since everything has changed. I will playing some tall games and some wide games to see how best everything will fit; but really it comes down to numbers.

Any predictions for newer versions of OPS?

Yes. I whole heartedly believe that OPS is most likely become the One System Strategy using Habitats and dismantling outposts. I'm toying with the idea a bit, there are some factors at play and I just need time to flesh them out. Gaia World start is very interesting and screams exploitable. So I'm gonna abuse it and then crunch the numbers

Anyway, thats all for now. I hope you enjoyed OPS, or at least be content with it.
Remember, cheat the rules not the players.
Good luck and have fun in Apocalypse!

A time ago redditor u/CyberKey posted a screenshot of a science nexus he completed 73 years into a game. Skeptical, a few people asked him how he did it, explaining that he used only a single planet, Frontier outposts, Inward perfection, and Society research to rush Unity buildings for fast ascension points and research. I too was very skeptical, but after a week fo trial and error I can confirm that this strategy is entirely possible, and works on Very Hard difficulty, Normal* Aggressiveness, Spiral Armed galaxies. This guide is not a repeat of Cyberkey's thread, but an evolution of it, though the main crux of his strategy forms the basis for this one. I did however replace a few of the choices he recommended; simply because harder AI make more demanding decisions. This was to help prevent early war which lead to an immediate loss. If this particular one-planet play-style does not work for you, I recommend looking at CyberKey's original thread and try that out for yourself. Otherwise, read on and good luck.

*= this is my personal preference for AI aggressiveness

You will need Stellaris: Utopia DLC, and Leviathans to use this strategy.

I completed several playthroughs on 1.8.1 beta, and am currently on 1.8.2 game, which I will upload results when completed.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS FOR NON-COOP MULTIPLAYER.
(don't yell at me if a human player roflstomps you with 100 corvettes)

Additionally...

YOU MAY NEVER PLAY EARLY GAME STELLARIS THE SAME WAY AGAIN
(You have been warned)

The main goal of playing an incedibly tall one-planet build is simple: assert technological dominance. The reason for this is based on how research costs are calculated: every new colony increases the cost by 10%, and every pop over 10 increases the cost by an additional 1%. Stellaris is designed so that empires need to balance new planets with equal research points to make up the increase in cost or suffer falling behind the relavency curve. By not playing wide, we can maintain a high science yield through space stations (built by construction ships), a few buildings on our home planet, and eventually a Science Nexus.

This strategy is completely counter-intuitive to how a normal empire game is played; below I list the glaring differences between this and a standard wide game.

Advantages

• You will be Superior/Overwhelming in Technology compared to all other empires
  
• Everyone will want a research agreement with you, making your empire very likeable
  
• The entire tech tree will be unlocked before 100 years of play
  
• Ascension perks will unlock just as quickly as techs; usually 5 Ascension perks before 100 years
  
• No stupid sector AI to build Hydroponic Farms everywhere
  
• Loads of influence over time
  
• It's fun because it is different to the status quo

Disadvantages

• This strategy is hard to get right, and can be frustrating at times
  
• Balancing empire relationships is very important and requires constant vigilence
  
• An early war will lead to an immediate and frustrating defeat
  
• Non existant fleet strength, huge war target
  
• Low fleet construction rate for majority of game
  
• Low energy production/stockpile
  
• Requires some luck with Artisan Troupe and spawn location
  
• May require a few soft game resets, explained later
  
• Can feel a little cheesy since you will making it "easy" for yourself at first

By year 100 or so you will have a completed Science Nexus, every technology unlocked, and 4+ Ascension Perks in use. Comparitively, only very certain empires will be equivalent to your progress, and this obviously sets you up for an amazing late game since the you'll only be nailing repeatable techs from this point onward. Your fleet capacity will be around 300 due Galactic Force Projection AP and Naval Fleet research; but energy might be a problem if you do not have a tributory or vassal to mooch off of. See below for my current 1.8.2 game taken a few years after 100.



At this point you are free to play any way you wish. Here are some recommendations that could get you pointed in the right direction towards victory:

• Construct a Dyson Sphere
  
• Colonize all the planets in your territory
  
• Use your federation to cede as many planets as possible
  
• Integrate any vassals
  
• Prepare for Awakaened Empire / End Game Crisis

Victory screens

Federation victory, I accidentally forgot to snapshot the end game screen.

The following section will outline how you will be playing this one-planet style. It is a very different experience than playing wide, and even moderatly tall (4-5 planets). Keep in mind that not everything is set in absolute stone, so feel free to try out different things, and adapt to your game at hand.

The three rules of one-planet style (OPS)

Rule 1. Expand, Expand, Expand with Frontier Outposts
In addition to having all the usual resources like Energy and Fleet Capacity, OPS has another resource: Frontier Outpost Capacity. Anything over +0 Influence a month means you're not maximizing your resource input. Build frontier outposts everywhere possible to gain the most territory and to sieze juicy-looking planets that the AI might want. As a general rule of thumb you want to build an outpust every 3rd star away from an existing frontier output, and claim as many star systems around it as possible. You will be looking to have around 20 or frontier outposts to provide the economy for your empire to keep you relavent with everyone else.

Rule 2. Diplomacy and Opinions are important
This is critical on highler difficulty settings and more aggressive AI. You will want to keep everyone in moderately good opinion of you. Trade resources, share star charts, keep attention to their demands and watch that border-friction! Your immediate concern is the first 3-4 empires next to you. You want to have a Defensive pact with them so they can help defend you against any warmongers - that 20-30 fleet cap for first 50 years makes you an easy target without any friends. Later on you can easily turn the tide with your super-plasma-shield fleet vs their rocks and harsh language.

Rule 3. Play carefully and play smart
This rule further embraces of importance of the previous two rules. Pay close attention to how you are spending resources and where you are expanding to. You dont want to anger a Fanatic Xenophobe by accidently blocking his expansion path, and you dont want to get cornered by your neighbours stealing planets within your territory. If you accidentally get pulled into a war, defend as best as you can and settle for white peace even if it means losing an outpost or two. Don't expect to be a galactic contender whatsoever until you get your Science Nexus - focus on being the quiet scrooge in their own little corner of the galaxy, rapidly rushing techs and traditions until they can dominate late game.

A key part of OPS is to rush down the Tech-tree to get specific research cards that will boost the overall performance of your empire and get you to that end goal of an early Science Nexus. In terms of importance: Society > Engineering > Physics , since the key technologies are down those paths. I recommend keeping this tech tree guide[bipedalshark.gitlab.io] handy so you can ensure you focus these techs down ASAP.

Key technolgies

Automated Curation Algorithms
Gains access to the Auto-Curating Vault which will keep our empire relavent in terms of Unity output. Additonally, this path provides some good alternative research cards while we hunt for the relative cards.
Galactic Markets
Gains access to Galactic Stock Exchange to keep your empire's energy needs in check. Shares many techs with Automated Curation Algorithms and should be available around the same time.
The Collective Self
The completed path increases the max influence your factions can produce and allows more frontier outposts. Self explanatory.
Synthetics
The final tier of robots are important to keep our Unity production relavent through the use of a special trait they can receive with Robo-modding called Propaganda Machines which allow +15% Unity on top of their native +20% boost to all production.
Mega-Engineering
Allows you to pick the Galactic Wonder ascension perk, granting access to the Science Nexus. A bit of a pain to get since it requires three other complete tech trees, namely:
Battleships
Deep space installations (Fortress)
Zero Point Power

Unity works different to technology since the base cost increases as your complete more Tradition trees. Remember we are trying to unlock enough Ascension Perks required for Galactic Wonders. To do this we need to optomize our buildings and our pops. The pops for the most part are easy, they will be Synths with the Propaganda Machines trait, however the buildings are little trickier since some of them can only be received through the Artisan Troupe.

Key unity buildings

• Empire Capital-Complex - unlocked via Galactic Administration tech
  
• Auto-Curating Vault - unlocked via Automated Curation Algorithms tech
  
• Ministry of Benevolence - unlocked via Galactic Benevolence tech
  
• Art Monument - bought from Artisan Troupe
  
• Ministry of Culture - random event reward from Artisan Troupe. You get the event by subscribing to their newsletter, and being lucky.
  
• Cyto-Revitalization Center - unlocked via Cyto-Revitalization tech.
  
• Visitor Center - unlocked via Alien Tourism diplomacy tradition
  
• Energy Nexus - unlocked via Planetary Power Grid tech and The Pursuit of Profit prosperity tradition

Additonally, any other event unique buildings like Leviathan Trophies are a very welcome addition.

Traditions, just like technologies, form a key part of OPS. Since you will be getting traditions at a regular pace they will become an important part of building towards the Galaxtic Wonders ascension perk.

Key Traditions

In order:
• Discovery: To Boldly Go → Science Division → Planetary Survey Corps → Finish
  
• Expansion: Galactic Ambition → Finish
  
• Diplomacy: Alien Tourism → Finish
  
• Prosperity: The Pursuit of Profit → Finish
  
• ... etc

Key Ascension Perks

In order:
• Technological Ascendancy: Faster research, yay!
  
• The Flesh is Weak: Better leaders that wont die until much later (or become immortal), saves potential influence costs.
  
• Galactic Force Projection: From here you become less of target from warmongers since they see you as Superior.
  
• Galactic Wonders
  
• ... etc

Key Ethos

Democratic: The mandates are really amazing for providing a boost to your influence pool throughout the game. Once you start maxxing out on frontier outposts the mandates will keep your influence afloat for Edicts, War Demands, and building special buildings.
Fanatic Materialist: The two main reasons for being Fanatic Materialist are 1. the faction happiness are very easy to supply and maintain resulting in high influence gain, 2. access to robots~synths which will be our unity boost for the mid game.
Egalitarian: the +15% faction influence roughly translates to 2-3 or so extra frontier outposts and egalitarians are liked by other non-authoritarian empires for their migration treaties - resulting in high opinion and less war.

Starting civics

Cuttthroat Politics: The flat +1 influence throughout the game is useful during all stages, it's +1 Frontier outposts early and will help float influence later on.
Technocracy: Our very early game is entirely focussed on rushing key techs to setup for an amazing year 50+ unity boost; +1 research alternatives will greatly help us get what we want.

Reformed Civics

Once Galactic Administration has been researched we will be able swap out our starting governing ethics for 250 . This allows us to get rid of Tecnocracy after we finish getting our other key research out of the way in addition to another free civic. Our final civics should look like the following:
Cuttthroat Politics: Still good, keep it.
Beacon of Liberty: The bonus +15-30 this will provide will be worth it - allowing us to keep filling out late game traditions at a reasonable 30-40 months as opposed to 60+ months.
Parliamentary System: Absolutely amazing boost to your Frontier Outpost capacity, effectively doubling our empire size. Get this with the free +1 civic from Galactic Administration immediately.

Key Traits

Charismatic: Essential to keep your empire relationships good, the bonus opinion is an important buff to have.
Thrifty: The only output your single planet will be concerned with is Energy and Unity, so Thrifty helps proving an additional 15-30 energy once you have Powerplants V and other bonuses actrive.
Slow Breeders: Strange enough Slow Breeders is actually a benefit to your race since you want be mostly Synths because they are outright better with production lategame. Less organics: better, and slow breeders will allow you get an extra 1 or 2 robots early.

Bonus Traits to consider

Natural Sociologists: The only research buildings we will be worrying about will also have a bonus for Society research points, so this synergizes nicely with those few pops working these tiles. This also helps attract pops to the Materialist faction.
Weak: We wont be working minerals so this is a free point to spend. Additionally we wont be building organic armies early, so -20% army strength is not a problem.

Starting weapons

Your personal preference goes here. Missiles are really good early game against pirates since they dont miss, and defensive stations can take out a few corvettes with this, but this sets you up for a terrible mid game techs. I perfer lasers since it will set you up for Plasma.

Planet climate bias

I recommend a Dry climate like Desert since once you finish the 100 years you will want to colonize the planets near you and the bonus Energy yields are a nice additions for immediate bonuses; but the same can be said for Wet planets ala minerals. Pick anything you like here, but think about what immediate benefits you want late game.

FTL Method

Wormhole Travel is a nice pick here since you can spread your Wormhole Generators quite effectively alongside Frontier Outposts. When first trying out this strategy I recommend setting the only FTL in-game to be Wormhole Travel, since it allows you to get a feel for how to handle diplomacy, and not get instakilled by a random warmongering empire from far away.

NOT RECOMMENDED

The following points handle alternatives that seem good on paper, but either fall flat half-way through this strategy or just dont provide the boost you had hoped for. I tried alot of variations with this strategy and these choices will not make the game easier for you - but if you like a challenge then by all means go ahead.

Authoritarian: Being authoritarian may reduce opinion of you since slavery and and lack of miogration treaties make other empires think less of you. Generally speaking you want to be friends with everyone, and this is not the way to go about it, even if that +0.5/1 is very tempting!
Xenophobe:
Border range does indeed play a role in gaining as much territory from your size limited frontier outposts, but making everyone else hate you is not worth the trade off.
Gesalt Consciousness: Factions play a quintessential role in this strategy, there is no way to match the influence gain with hive-mind or robotic empires.
Mechanists: You will be flying through research without any problems as it is, and you dont need the super early Robots or 2 free techs this civic provides. The issue with Mechanist is that its a Unique civic, meaning you cant swap it out with Reform Civics later on.

HARD(er) MODE

Inwards Perfection: This is an alternative way to play this strategy, and the original way CyberKey managed to get rush a completed Science Nexus by year 73. The bonuses Inwards Perfection give are very good, but this make everyone want to war you since you cant be diplomatic.

Keep in mind, that this strategy performs optomally in the following settings and I will elaborate. This is the "cheesy" section I spoke of in the overview disadvantanges, my apologies if you feel scummy setting the game rules like this. Feel free to tweak the values but the experience may differ from what I've encountered.

• Galaxy Size → Huge: More space for Frontier outposts to go, and bigger gaps between empires.
  
• Galaxy Shape → Spiral 4-Arms: With Spiral arms we can locate our Frontier Outpost in the middle of the arm for maximum coverage.
  
• AI Empires → 14: A decent number that provides ample oppurtunity for friends and foes.
  
• Advanced AI Start → Off: I dont like this option in any of my games. Switch it on if you like.
  
• Primitive Civilizations → 5x: Better chance of having an Obersvation post for that sweet 8 Society bonus.
  
• Crisis Strength → 5x: Crises are meant to be game-ending (so I actually get sleep), your opinion and selection may differ.
  
• Habital Worlds → 0.25x: Let the peasants fight over planets and colonies, we only need our homeworld until we can build better worlds.
  
• AI Agressiveness → Low: I recommend you start with Low since very aggressive AI will see an Inferior naval cap foe a juicy target.
  
• Difficulty → Very Hard: Depends on your experience with Stellaris, feel free to lower if need.
  
• Allowed FTL Method → Wormhole: Makes it easier to control chunks of space quickly with Frontier Outposts and keeps you save from early rushes until better Wormhole Generators are researched.
  
• Advanced Neighbours → Off: Same as Advanced AI Starts
  
• Ironman Mode → On: Same as difficulty.

= very cheesy and I should feel bad. (I'm sorry)

During the hours of playing and testing the One Planet Strategy, I found a couple of scenarios which valued a game restart due to it becoming completely unwinnable or caused enough of a setback which counteracts the speed of performing this tactic, namely losing enough research, unity, or influence gain, to make continuing pointless.

The following is a list of stuff to look out for, and could value a restart: (and yes this is cheesy too )
• Spawning directly next to a Miltant Isolationist (Xenophobe Fallen Empire)
  
• Spawning directly next to a chaotic evil: Fanatic Purfiers, Devouring Swarm, Determined Exterminator, Driven Assimilator, Fanatic Xenophobe, Blood Court
  
• Not having enough room for at least 10 optimal Frontier Outposts
  
• Artisan Troupe dying before you get Ministry of Culture
  
• Events that causes a massive shift in governing ethics of your pops (like Horizon Event)
  
• Being rushed (War declared before Defense Stations tech)
  
• Not getting Mega-Engineering technology before 80 years
  
• Accidentally displeasing a Fallen Empire.
  
• Struggling to gain enough Physics research for Zero Point Power (i.e. only 10-20 by 50 years)

Below are a set of random optomizations I noted while playing the OPS. Keep in mind you might not always be able to achieve the same as I have, but these do add up over time and gain garner a significant advantage in the right circumstances. If you have any of your optimizations, feel free to comment them below and I'll add them here with credit.

Get a Statecraft scientist early

Since you will be gunning for mostly Statecraft-field research, it helps significantly to have a relavent expert fielding your Society research division. This has two immediate benefits:

1. The research is boosted by 15% due to relavent field
   
2. Upon any tech completion there is a 25% bonus chance that a Statecraft tech card will be available in the research alternatives.

Use the Curators

The Curators are useful if you stumble across them early. Try to get a research agreement with them for a nice +10% bonus to all research, and the eventual hiring of one of Curators as a scientist. Having a Curator fielding your Society research can help you get Ascension Theory as a research alternative, and the same for Physics and Mega-Engineering. Finally, asking about the mysteries of the universe can help land another late game bonus in the shape of a leviathan trophy.

Optomize your frontier outpost layout

The best place to put down frontier outposts is exactly in the middle of a spiral arm. Early in the game this will be the easiest way to maximize your border coverage and, in turn, allow you to generate the most potential income via space stations. See above, the green circles are ideal frontier outpost locations. Additionally be attentive with what regions you are claiming from a nearby empire, don't be afraid of spending additional influence to guarantee a planet denial if need be.

Defending your lone planet

Sometimes you might need to fight. Especially if your allies get dragged into war. Luckily all you need to do is focus on defending your home planet; the AI rarely, if ever, attacks frontier outposts unless you drag their fleet into them via a military station (do not do that!). Since you'll be a crippled old man in terms of fleet power, your best defense will be Fortresses. Design a few fortresses with different roles to defend your base. Build at least 2 Magnetic FTL stations at the furthest point away from your home planet. The AI will jump their main fleet into one, kill it and then bee-line directly for your planet. The second one will trap any reinforcements and transport ships, generating free warscore over time and preventing complete loss. Then all you need to do is juggle the enemy fleet with your own and reinforce with non-magnetic "distraction" military stations dotted around your home system. See above for an example of this tactic.

Make fiends, loads of friends

The easiest way to circumvent doom due to your low-to-no fleet strength is by using diplomacy to your advantage. Share star-charts, form non-aggression pacts, setup migration treaties, make a federation. Think of your nearby empires as your personal bodyguards and you the maniacal evil-genius plotting to rule the galaxy. Pay bribes, listen to demands, settle for white peace. Once you get that insane tech advantage and fleet size from Galactic Force Projection, then you can start swinging your weight around. If you're still struggling, consider picking up Defender of the Galaxy AP, just for the bonus opinion boost.

Dealing with Energy shortage

As you will find out: Energy becomes a big problem once you have Galactic Force Projection and you start rolling out fleet on top of all the other energy drains. Normally energy can dealt with easily via Dyson Sphere, but this can realistically only be built after your Science Nexus since it has more stages and does not have the immediate impact of the science per month. Here are three immediate solutions a energy problem:

• Trade: By the time you have a GFP you should have a few friends with whom you should be able to trade Minerals for Energy at nearly 1:1. Worst case scenario you could always trade with a Trading Enclave, but 2:1 is terrible since your mineral income wont by that amazing as it is.
  
• Vassals and Tributaries: Try and conquer a few equivalent sized empires and set them as Tributaries, you'd be surprised how much Energy the 25% of their total will improve your coffers.
  
• Disband non-essentials: As risky as it is, disbanding some Fortresses and other non-essentials is a valid way to afloat your debt. Get rid of small benefit space stations like lone +2 mining outposts since they drain 1 energy each. Pro tip: any mining station that provides is completely self sustaining, so it does not drain from your global credit income.

Once you're ready for some serious gains, here are some advanced tips to get even earlier production bonuses and goals. This section was sent to me via PM from a reddit user who started the one planet strategy a few months ago. This is some serious solid advice, but I'd recommend only trying it after you get the hang of the easier version first.

Advanced Empire setup

• Democracy always
• Ethos (1): Inwards Perfection ( Pacifist, Xenophobe, Materialist / Egalitarian ); OR
• Ethos (2): Nationalistic Zeal ( Militarist, Xenophobe, Materialist / Egalitarian )
• Traits: Charismatic / Enduring / Talented / Quick Learners / Non-Adaptive
• Civic #2: Cutthroat Politics / Mining Guilds / Beacon of Liberty
• Civic #3: Parliamentary System (strongest civic, only after Galactic Administration)
• FTL: Hyperlane

Game Start

• Always go with a science ship and the unity building
• Delete armies
• Send corvettes to explore one by one for artist enclave
• Build mineral stations

Traditions

• Discovery → just the starter
• Expansion → Courier Network → Galactic Ambition → Finish Discovery
• Harmony → Mind and Body → The Greater Good → Utopian Dream → Finish Harmony
• After this do what you need, but only finish Expansions if you need the AP

Ascensions Perks

• Technological Ascendancy
• Mind over Matter
• Galactic Force Projection
• Galactic Wonders
• Master Builders
• Transcendence
• Galactic Contender / Defender of the Galaxy
You can go with other ascension paths but psionic is the best for this build. The main benefits are:
• The leader bonuses
• The psi corps is a huge unity boost early game
• Psi shield from shroud

Tidbits

• Leviathans: You should race the AI for Leviathans. Always build outpost near the dragon and the mineral hives, the dragon also gives +15 unity building and the baby dragon who is awesome, dreadnought is some of the best tank in the game really scales with this build, fortress gives the best reward if you are lucky and get the power option you can use them with psi shield.
• Civilian ship: Usually 15 years in I have 10 ships exploring and 4 constructor building which also makes the map the stars edict super important, anomalies are key for this (advanced) build.
• Technolog: Tech is usually straight up, robots are not important to rush but there is not much else good anyway, enough to put them on the +10 unity buildings later in the game, rushing Biolabs can help with researching the Society goals as well.
• Diplomacy: Defensive Pacts are not worth as they eat up your influence, you only need non aggression pacts then they will guarantee your independence, also trading is super important but you don't need to build energy buildings since you can just trade your minerals for that, also use them for gifts.
• Weapons: I believe as a high tech empire Mega Cannon + Kinetic Artillery is the way to go, I never research lasers so this allows me to pull shield hp every turn, while going kinetic speed/dmg on engineering mostly after about 15 minerals.
• Subjects: Everyone with low naval capacity will be a tributary, everyone else is a vassal. 50% resources and 50% naval cap is important from the domination tree. Making vassals out of your planets is the best way to increase your naval capacity, fill the planet with the best possible unity production then make them vassal and they will likely pull force projection while keeping your high tech, you will get around +200 from their 400 naval cap for every single planet you make a vassal and a strong, loyal follower.
• Starting colonization: Maybe not for this guide but if you don't restrict yourself to 1 planet but rather use it as a power source for late game, once you get high tech and unity you can reach 3x production in every resource which will tip the unity and research malus to your side greatly, even small planets can hold up their cost. This is especially profitable once you finish the unity trees and don't need society anymore since repeating is not good here.

Author's note: (Thank you anonymous contributor for this great advice)

This section will showcase videos using the One Planet Strategy. I was planning on doing a Let's play on Twitch over the 2017 holidays but I got a little sidetracked with the holiday season. Apologies!

Thanks to everyone who submitted to videos; please support them on Youtube accordingly! If you have an awesome OPS to showcase, feel free to post it in the comments below or submit it to the Stellaris subreddit and tag me ( u/thelunararmy ) in the comments. If I like, it goes up :)

One Planet Strategy - Tutorial / Let's Play - Stellaris
• Made by FMRPlays / u/ephemereFMR

Check out the entire playlist

The follow section is dedicated to you, the readers. And the amazing results you've been achieving using the OPS. Most of these I have shamely taken from Reddit and linked the thread in the header. Please take the time to open the corresponding link, and vote for these amazing screenshots.

They see me rolling, they hatin'
• Redditor Crucrupha
"Haaving half galaxy as my tributaries with no fleet (insane, high agression, all ai advanced), just making others conquer for me."

One Planet to rule them all; One Sentry Array to find them; One Fleet to bring them all; And forever bind them
• Redditor Jyyaku
"Vassallized the entire galaxy with one planet, very fun challenge.
Game setup - no mods (besides "japanese prefectures flags") - Size: huge - AI empires: random - FE empires: random - Difficulty: normal - AI Aggressiveness: normal * Ironman: yes"

Science Nexus completed 10 months before 2300
• Redditor gallooo6442
"Used this guide on steam - not as fast as Cyberkey but I was still very proud of this"

10,000 power per Battleship
• Redditor ggmoyang
"Since I didn't have better things to do in my life, I played another one planet game. Luckily I found a ruined science nexus so I had 2 science nexuses in the end, with them I got repeatable techs like crazy.
Techs: Energy Weapon damage 43(+215%), Energy Weapon attack speed 41(+205%), Shield HP 1(+5%), Armor 14, Hull point 42(+210%)"

The single planet strategy has been... surprisingly easy
• Redditor kamilgregor
"Playing this on harder dificulty:
• Energy is a big issue. This depends on the galaxy really, but if you don't find energy rich systems it's very serious.
• Tributaries for the win! Having a few vassals in the begining also helps. I have a purifier nearby and I'm trying to keep them in check.
• Defensive pacts all the way!
• Trade like hell - you can keep buying energy from those that like you and go into negative income.
• The research trade treaty is gold-pressed latinum. The bonus you give your friends is important to make them strong against your enemies and it will never help them to overtake you in research with the malus they have so always trade research!"

2277 Repeatable Techs
• Steam user Zokar
"Followed the guide. Works. Had a couple/few false starts getting used to a new playstyle. It's 2277 in my playthrough. I've researched every single stupid tech except for sapient AI and jump drives ( i dont want to wake up cybrex /too/ early now, im still building my nexus ). im just 10k minerals shy of my first nexus addition. Really enjoyed this guide ( and access to a visible tech tree ) and learning more about the fundamentals of this game. Will never play the same again."

One planet play trough
• Redditor Kapitan_Czoko
"So I finished my Nexus by year 97. So I decided to share my experience. The whole strategy it's not mine, but it came from Legendary's guide. All credits for this dude. Make sure you'll check this out as there is few things I'm not mentioning (techs, buildings etc). I used in my game the harder way. Apparently. So let me first summarize few things and please check the link bellow for pictures. I hope this will be useful for few people ^ All the basic info you can find in Legendary post. Empire setting and galaxy setting you'll find bellow at the end of the text."

• Author's note: Kapitan_Czoko makes some really goods points, please take the time to look at his Reddit thread here and his image gallery here[imgur.com].

Yet another One Planet Strat screencap, but this time I named my empire SpaceX
• Redditor thesilentwizard
Because everyone likes SpaceX, right?

When 1 planet strat went too far....
• Redditor vulgarny
"Using Fallen Empires Expanded v1.5 to spawn 10 FE. After 2300 I awoke all of them using console command. They pretty much raped whole galaxy except me and my happy vassals. Now they finish last 2 of 12 League of Non-Aligned Systems Races. It was quite funny to watch how they proclaimed War in Heaven then all 8 start eating those poor NAS races. Im using faster/multiple crisis mod also waiting just now to 2350 in hope of something fun to watch. Poor crisis will land in galaxy full of 500-700k AE fleets :D I set crisis STR at 3,5x."

I didn't think it'd be possible to get so big with only one planet
• Redditor LordMackie
"I'm the Tau Empire (I just like the name, not really going for an RP game) playing the 1 planet strategy where you don't colonize another planet until you get a science nexus. Basically by getting 2 factions that are super happy and the tradition that makes frontier outposts half maintenance I have become the largest empire by size and resources. (My fleet is weak AF but luckily I have good relations with almost all my neighbors). I have about 12 frontier outposts currently and have enough influence to put down another 12 before I stop gaining influence. So if I had the room to expand I could almost double the size of my empire while having never built a colony ship. This is a bit ridiculous."

10/15/2017 - First published
10/16/2017 - Added advanced tips section; graciously given by an Anonymous badass
10/25/2017 - Added community archives to the guide.
10/28/2017 - Added a terrible R&M joke to the disclaimer.
11/23/2017 - Removed Timeline, going to replace it over the holiday
01/14/2018 - Added Video section.

• Thank you, the reader, for taking your time reading this guide. I do hope you find it useful. Please do share any thoughts, opinions, sugguestions, and screenshots in the comments below. I will strive to improve this strategy and review its performance in future versions of Stellaris.

• Big shoutout to the inspiration of this strategy, reddit user Cyberkey, who was the only source I used in trying this tactic. You're a god, fine sir. Hopefully I can get a year 73 completed Science Nexus some day.

• Cheese by Twitter[www.flaticon.com] licensed by Creative Commons BY CC 3.0 BY[creativecommons.org]

• Thanks to Paradox for making such an amazing game.

• Hi Wiz.